Coffee - cheaper than food and an appetite surpressant.
Good news to the hungry and broke among me. Will I survive until dinner on one cup alone?
Showing posts with label consumption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumption. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, October 05, 2009
Friday, October 02, 2009
I'm all about the rock luxe look that's around at the moment. It's just like the shops have read my mind & decided to stock the kinds of things I like. So, in celebration I'm going to blow some hard-earned on deconstructed jumper dresses and pleater this weeked.
It's so long since I shopped, I'm pretty fucking excited.
How lame.
It's so long since I shopped, I'm pretty fucking excited.
How lame.
Friday, August 21, 2009
DIY: snip snip
I have these ludicrous knee high gladiator sandals. I imported them from the USA, they were the only ones I could find in PU at the time and they came from a fancy dress supplier! They're rad, but I've had them for over a year, and have only worn them under trousers in that time. Despite my preconceived ideas of how I could rock the epic knee high sandals, I haven't. I don't think I can, they're bonkers.
I like 'em with trousers though.
Thing is, they have this tendancy to rotate around my leg, and they're a bit hot & not exactly easy to wear under (skinny leg) trousers.
Today I was thinking 'I could do with some non-knee high versions of these'.
So I think I'm going to cut the tops off.
Save money, save time, save resources. Win win win.
I like 'em with trousers though.
Thing is, they have this tendancy to rotate around my leg, and they're a bit hot & not exactly easy to wear under (skinny leg) trousers.
Today I was thinking 'I could do with some non-knee high versions of these'.
So I think I'm going to cut the tops off.
Save money, save time, save resources. Win win win.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Stick to the list
So, I've been ticking things off my recent wish list.
Bat for lashes album:
I like it. A reviewer for the Guardian Weekend Guide said it would only appeal to 'people who watch the Culture Show. Scumbags basically' That's me told, then.
The jeans:
I got them, with a discount code (yay!). But - they sucked. What a weird fit. Huge and too small at the same time. Kudos though to Howies who exchanged them for the mens version, all the while honouring the original discount. The mens ones are 100% better.
Strawberry hair:
Hello highlights and lowlights. My hair is stripey like a raspberry ripple ice cream. Love.
Pet pied wagtail:
My friend bought me a little pied wagtail RSPB pin. Adorable, and less mess than a pet bird. Thanks Gareth!
Still working on:
Dartmoor
On the back burner:
new Au Revoir Simone album
Bat for lashes album:
I like it. A reviewer for the Guardian Weekend Guide said it would only appeal to 'people who watch the Culture Show. Scumbags basically' That's me told, then.
The jeans:
I got them, with a discount code (yay!). But - they sucked. What a weird fit. Huge and too small at the same time. Kudos though to Howies who exchanged them for the mens version, all the while honouring the original discount. The mens ones are 100% better.
Strawberry hair:
Hello highlights and lowlights. My hair is stripey like a raspberry ripple ice cream. Love.
Pet pied wagtail:
My friend bought me a little pied wagtail RSPB pin. Adorable, and less mess than a pet bird. Thanks Gareth!
Still working on:
Dartmoor
On the back burner:
new Au Revoir Simone album
Monday, June 08, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Those annoying Iggy Pop adverts
Who thought it was a good idea to put ageing rocker Iggy Pop in a series of adverts for car insurance? What audience is this speaking to? Are they trying to target ironic uber trendy types, who love a bit of nostalgic rock? Are they trying to target the older gent who used to be an Iggy fan?
Are they trying to piss me off, placing this arrogant rocker as a guide to finance? If they are trying to piss me off, it's working. GOD DAMN those adverts suck.
Are they trying to piss me off, placing this arrogant rocker as a guide to finance? If they are trying to piss me off, it's working. GOD DAMN those adverts suck.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Holy camera goodness batman
Digital "polaroid" camera.
Wow.
I bet it's incredibly expensive to buy & run.
But it'd be nice to have one.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Stamp collecting
Women of Distinction stamps, image from the Guardian.If there was ever a time to collect stamps today is it, the Royal Mail are launching its first ever set of stamps dedicated to women who led important social (and feminist) change in the UK. Go Royal Mail!
Claudia Jones, was a journalist, socialist and campaigner for black rights.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who became president of the National Women's Suffrage Societies.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first British woman to qualify as a doctor.
Eleanor Rathbone, a politician and campaigner for social reform who was a major player in the introduction of family allowances (now known as child benefit).
Barbara Castle, the former cabinet minister and the fourth woman to enter cabinet.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who became president of the National Women's Suffrage Societies.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first British woman to qualify as a doctor.
Eleanor Rathbone, a politician and campaigner for social reform who was a major player in the introduction of family allowances (now known as child benefit).
Barbara Castle, the former cabinet minister and the fourth woman to enter cabinet.
Marie Stopes, author of the first cheap book to inform women in plain language about family planning, and founder of the first free family planning clinic in 1921.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Time to focus
The tv broke last night. It's been warped for almost as long as we've had it, the screen squeezed in the centre, like an hourglass. Last night one side decided to slide back out again, and the image went with it, followed by white noise, a burning smell and some disconcerting beeping.
Hopefully the death of the tv will make me more productive. I have a 'to do' list a mile long - just for home working jobs, one of the downsides to running a 'business' outside of working hours. None of them are remotely fun; accounting, processing wholesale orders, sorting spreadsheets out. As you can imagine, this will bring me a level of joy hardly experienced before. It's no small wonder I've decided to tidy the front bedroom, and write a blog post.
I was reading Colouring outside the lines #2 earlier, a zine I picked up at Manchester zine fest last Saturday. It's a great issue full of interviews with amazing (female) artists, including some comic creators who's work is super inspiring and is reigniting my love of graphic novels. Check out the Colouring outside the lines myspace for more info.
An interview with Cristy Road about communicating about punk and alternative culture struck a chord with me - she talks about sharing her punk roots because her experiences there made her who she is today. I guess this was relevant to me because I've drifted so far from the punk aesthetic that I used to be so into.
I want to reclaim this as, punk is still fundamental to my belief system - through punk I got into feminism, vegetarianism, environmentalism and anti-animal testing. Plus despite my forays into folk, pop and dance it's still punk music that makes my heart beat faster.
When I was in my teens I looked at the old folks at gigs and thought they were drab, boring and no fun at all. When I was moshing, getting a busted lip, they would stand around at the back - arms folded listening without much get up or go. It's all to easy to let that happen, let the pressures and the stifling roles assumed of adulthood push our bright, wild, creative selves into submission so we can fit in at the office. I guess punk is about rejecting the conformity encouraged of us all, the conformity we're goaded into if we're going to achieve what society tells us is success.
But success is about how close you get to the things in life that make you truly happy - it can't be measured in monetary terms or by the number of possessions someone has. 'Wealth' and 'stuff' do not a happy chappy make, don't believe everything capitalism tells you.
Embracing the dumb things that make you happy is a much better measure of success, imho. Dye your hair a stupid colour your boss will hate, listen to music so loud your neighbours will be able to hear the words and then give them all flowers for putting up with you. Pursue a dream you have, and if you get jaded because of the pursuit it's ok to take time out, isn't it. Ultimately the only person you have to satisfy is yourself.
Hopefully the death of the tv will make me more productive. I have a 'to do' list a mile long - just for home working jobs, one of the downsides to running a 'business' outside of working hours. None of them are remotely fun; accounting, processing wholesale orders, sorting spreadsheets out. As you can imagine, this will bring me a level of joy hardly experienced before. It's no small wonder I've decided to tidy the front bedroom, and write a blog post.
I was reading Colouring outside the lines #2 earlier, a zine I picked up at Manchester zine fest last Saturday. It's a great issue full of interviews with amazing (female) artists, including some comic creators who's work is super inspiring and is reigniting my love of graphic novels. Check out the Colouring outside the lines myspace for more info.
An interview with Cristy Road about communicating about punk and alternative culture struck a chord with me - she talks about sharing her punk roots because her experiences there made her who she is today. I guess this was relevant to me because I've drifted so far from the punk aesthetic that I used to be so into.
I want to reclaim this as, punk is still fundamental to my belief system - through punk I got into feminism, vegetarianism, environmentalism and anti-animal testing. Plus despite my forays into folk, pop and dance it's still punk music that makes my heart beat faster.
When I was in my teens I looked at the old folks at gigs and thought they were drab, boring and no fun at all. When I was moshing, getting a busted lip, they would stand around at the back - arms folded listening without much get up or go. It's all to easy to let that happen, let the pressures and the stifling roles assumed of adulthood push our bright, wild, creative selves into submission so we can fit in at the office. I guess punk is about rejecting the conformity encouraged of us all, the conformity we're goaded into if we're going to achieve what society tells us is success.
But success is about how close you get to the things in life that make you truly happy - it can't be measured in monetary terms or by the number of possessions someone has. 'Wealth' and 'stuff' do not a happy chappy make, don't believe everything capitalism tells you.
Embracing the dumb things that make you happy is a much better measure of success, imho. Dye your hair a stupid colour your boss will hate, listen to music so loud your neighbours will be able to hear the words and then give them all flowers for putting up with you. Pursue a dream you have, and if you get jaded because of the pursuit it's ok to take time out, isn't it. Ultimately the only person you have to satisfy is yourself.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Let me eat that cake
You know when you've found your perfect man when he brings chocolate cake, made by his own fair hands containing courgettes from his garden, into the office and it is perfectly gooey and supremly delicious.
Tis a shame then that he is about 10 years too old, married and into cricket.
Tis a shame then that he is about 10 years too old, married and into cricket.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Get thyself in line Gurinad
Normally I quite like the schizophrenic editorial lines of the Guardian, voicing conflicting arguments and encouraging discussion are good things. Read the paper one day and someone's reporting on surveys that show the public's attitude to working women is turning sour, the next day someone else is slagging off said research as ho-bunkem. But today's cheap-chic autumn wardrobe feature is a step too far into the hypocritical.
After just recently launching their new online ethical clothing finder, today's number 1 'life and style' feature is about getting your hands on fleeting catwalk trends while struggling under the hefty weight of the 'credit crunch'. Primark and Matalan, holders of the coveted award for worst child labour practices on the highstreet, are among their list.
Encouraging debate is one thing, but encouraging conspicuous consumption of useless tat that's been directly linked to the exploitation of workers - that's not something anyone, never mind a liberal paper should be doing.
After just recently launching their new online ethical clothing finder, today's number 1 'life and style' feature is about getting your hands on fleeting catwalk trends while struggling under the hefty weight of the 'credit crunch'. Primark and Matalan, holders of the coveted award for worst child labour practices on the highstreet, are among their list.
Encouraging debate is one thing, but encouraging conspicuous consumption of useless tat that's been directly linked to the exploitation of workers - that's not something anyone, never mind a liberal paper should be doing.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
More reasons
I keep finding ever more reasons to go completely vegan (I don't have milk or yoghurt but have recently started eating eggs, and icecream again - as wll as chocolate and cheese*).
After eating an egg salad sarnie for lunch I came back into the office to read this Guardian article about activists saving 'spent' egg producing chickens from the chopping block when the 72 weeks of their useful egg laying life come to an end.
The free range chickens mentioned in the article start producing eggs, which are gathered up for human consumption, at just 18-22 weeks. The chickens are killed around a year later because they are no longer economically viable.
An egg laying chicken's 'useful life' amounts to about an year and a half. A living thing classified as uneconomic. That really turns my stomach, the lingering taste of egg in my mouth is turning really sour.
If that wasn't enough to put you off animal products, a friend recently told me that something like 25% of a carton of milk is puss. That sounds pretty implausible, right? But some amount of puss, coming from infected udders of over milked cows, that's a whole lot more plausible.
This 'fact' has stayed with me, and today I decided to verify its accuracy. Google Answers to the rescue. In summary - milk has a measured amount of puss in it, some puss, but too much and it's not saleable.
The worst thing about this is the thought that cows can (and are) overmilked to the point of infections in their udders. I kind of feel that if you could still sell infected milk some dairy farmers would, and the cow would have to suffer for it.
Ultimately, selling live animals, flesh or animal products must exploit animals - by the very nature of the relationship. I've heard this described as speciesism, or the hierarchy of powerful over vulnerable. It's the type of power relationship that underpins capitalism and is replicated across human behaviour too; rich:poor, male:female, young:old.
* I buy organic says the little voice that feels bad about eating animals products. Is that the liberal curse? If you can't make yourself do it, at least make yourself feel bad about it instead.
After eating an egg salad sarnie for lunch I came back into the office to read this Guardian article about activists saving 'spent' egg producing chickens from the chopping block when the 72 weeks of their useful egg laying life come to an end.
The free range chickens mentioned in the article start producing eggs, which are gathered up for human consumption, at just 18-22 weeks. The chickens are killed around a year later because they are no longer economically viable.
An egg laying chicken's 'useful life' amounts to about an year and a half. A living thing classified as uneconomic. That really turns my stomach, the lingering taste of egg in my mouth is turning really sour.
If that wasn't enough to put you off animal products, a friend recently told me that something like 25% of a carton of milk is puss. That sounds pretty implausible, right? But some amount of puss, coming from infected udders of over milked cows, that's a whole lot more plausible.
This 'fact' has stayed with me, and today I decided to verify its accuracy. Google Answers to the rescue. In summary - milk has a measured amount of puss in it, some puss, but too much and it's not saleable.
The worst thing about this is the thought that cows can (and are) overmilked to the point of infections in their udders. I kind of feel that if you could still sell infected milk some dairy farmers would, and the cow would have to suffer for it.
Ultimately, selling live animals, flesh or animal products must exploit animals - by the very nature of the relationship. I've heard this described as speciesism, or the hierarchy of powerful over vulnerable. It's the type of power relationship that underpins capitalism and is replicated across human behaviour too; rich:poor, male:female, young:old.
* I buy organic says the little voice that feels bad about eating animals products. Is that the liberal curse? If you can't make yourself do it, at least make yourself feel bad about it instead.
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