Blogging questions from Fake Plastic Fish

I tend to read a lot of blogs and recently Crunchy Chicken announced that she's taking a break to focus on her family. When I read this announcement I have to confess that my immediate thought was very selfish; "nooooo, I love reading your blog". Having said this I understand and support her decision, but at the same time I was really excited to see her post today. Judging by the number of reader comments regarding her announcement that she was taking a break, I am not the only person who felt this way.

Later I read another one of my favorite blogs, Beth Terry's Fake Plastic Fish. Beth had originally one topic in mind for a post, however with Crunchy's post another one took shape. If I am reading her correctly Crunchy's decision to take a break from blogging in combination with the process and pressures of blogging prompted her to ask a number of questions. I started to reply to Beth's questions on her site and then realized that it would take me a long time to respond to her (what I believe to be) important and thought provoking questions.



1. Do you feel pressured to write a minimum number of posts per week?


I do feel pressured to write a minimum number of posts, but I do not write as many as I would like.


2. If so, where does the pressure come from? If not why the heck not? What's your secret?


For me the pressure is self imposed. I started my blog partly in an attempt to document and learn how to reduce my carbon footprint. Given that I work full time and have a number of other activities, the pressure I place on myself is limited by the other good pressures in my life,like my family and friends. As not many people read this blog, I do not feel that I am disappointing them.


3. How do you manage your computer time in general? Is it easy for you to get on, do what you have to do and get off? Or do you get sucked in for hours and lose track of time?


In general, my computer time is managed for me, but when I do get on the computer I can stay on for a very long time. Because I tend to lose track of time when I get on the computer I make sure that I have other commitments that require me to leave cyberland. These other commitments are usually with people (live ones) and as I do not wish to disappoint them, I make sure that I am where I say I am going to be.



4. Do you have significant others who resent the time you spend on line? How do you negotiate computer time vs. personal real-life time?

As far as I know none of my family resents the time I spend on the computer, however I live alone and when I am with people I am not generally on the computer. As I mentioned, to make sure I do not spend too much time on the computer I schedule myself.


5. Do you ever find yourself walking down the street in the real world and realize that your head is still totally stuck in the Blogosphere?

Not yet, but I have only started blogging.

6. Has your body suffered in any way from spending too much time sitting and staring at a computer screen rather than exercising? Has your diet suffered?

In addition to using the computer for fun, I also use one for work. I spend a lot of time in front of a computer and it has negatively impacted my food choices and my activity level. Slowly I have been working to make positive changes.


7. Have you resorted to alcohol or other chemicals to wind down and take your mind off of cyberland? If so, is that a problem for you?

I do not resort to alcohol or other chemicals to relax or take my mind off of cyberland. In some ways cyberland is my form of relaxation.

8. How do you manage your e-mail?

I do not find it difficult to manage my e-mail. At work I prefer it to the telephone (so I find many people e-mail now rather than phone me) and at home I only give a limited number of people my home e-mail.


9. Does blogging ever make you feel lonely? It is, after all, a solitary act while you're composing your posts. I suppose it's no different from being any other kind of writer in that regard.

Sometimes I feel lonely when I blog, but when a friend of mine connected with me via the blog I no longer felt the isolation. Knowing that someone was actually reading my thoughts made the difference for me.


10. What kind of support can we, as bloggers and blog readers, give to each other besides nice comments on the blogs? Is there a way that we can work together and give each other a break? Sure, we could create a Forum to vent our frustrations and give each other feedback. But that would just add another task to our online "to do" lists?

For me, it is the comments and knowing that someone else is reading provides a great deal of support. I suspect that if a number of people read my blog and some people left not so nice comments, I might feel less than appreciated or possibly attacked even and would need to focus on the positive things that people say and feel about me.


11. How do you read blogs? Do you subscribe in a reader and if so, how many blogs are you subscribed to? How many feeds do you read each day? Do you feel pressured to keep up with your blog reading in addition to your blog writing?

I am a bit of a computer wimp, so I have my fave blogs listed in my favorites and check them daily or weekly depending upon how often the writer blogs.

Rhubarb is in the market

Right now I am deep into rhubarb season. I have to admit that this is a vegetable that I have not normally eaten, other than in the occasional pie. However, in my quest to eat as locally as possible, it is now something that I am working to further incorporate into my diet, because let's face it, there are only so many pies that I can eat.
There are other foods that are in season such as potatoes, radishes and white turnips, and like rhubarb I am trying to learn recipes that incorporate locally available, in season foods. For me this means the Internet, library, and my local farmer for recipes and hints. Most of the recipes that I have tried and continue to use, come from cookbooks that I have either bought or usually borrowed from the library.
Right now I am desperately trying to figure out if it is possible to can rhubarb or if I should just freeze some; if I do freeze some, what preparations should I do first. I have found some recipes for conserves, chutney and jam, but I would like to save some rhubarb for a crumble in the winter or possibly a sauce for turkey or something. Also the recipes that I have found contain a number of ingredients that are not even close to local for me (pineapple does not even approach being local for me), and I would like to try and keep as many of the ingredients as local as possible. The whole preserving thing for me has been and continues to be quite the learning process. For now it is off to other sites for further information about rhubarb and other food.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day.



Today is Mother's Day and later when I am much more likely to reach her on the telephone, I will get a chance to talk to her. I have a lot of wonderful memories of the both of us. Throughout my life she has sacrificed a lot, so that I might have a better life. As a child we went camping, not because my mother enjoys camping, but because I love to camp, and I think my brother also enjoyed the activity. I have to admit that my mother's version of roughing it is a hotel room without 24 hour room service, the concept of a tent and a small fire to keep warm by is completely unimaginable to her now. This is but one example of her love and sacrifice.



She also tried to teach me a lot of things. I say tried, only because I was (and am) a stubborn individual who usually has to learn things on her own. At various points in my life she taught me a number of skills, such as canning and sewing, however as I got older these skills faded or in some cases completely disappeared. Nowadays, as I further develop my canning, sewing and other skills, I am reminded that these are the same things she did. At the time her main purpose was to save money, not to reduce her carbon foot print. Regardless of her primary motivation, she was 'being green' long before anyone I knew did that kind of thing. As I get older I appreciate everything she managed to teach me and continues to teach me today.



Happy Mother's Day. I love you and I thank you for everything.

wishing for better public transit

Today is Sunday, yesterday I managed to get a bunch of my running around completed. Something that I very much appreciate a recently I had to get my car repaired.

On Monday after work I stopped off at the library to pick up and return a few books. When I returned to my car, all I got was rrrrrrrrhhhhhh, rrrrrrhhhhh. You know that feeling...not now, I've got too much, I cannot afford this, argh. And then the begging begins...please, please start, just one more time. Finally there is resignation. When I finally reached the resignation, I walked home, taking me over 90 minutes. This is not exactly my idea of a great time given that not only was I walking but I was also carrying a number of heavy bags (my purse - light, my work bag- heavy because I had brought a number of things home to review, and my bag of books from the library- heavy because, well it was filled with books).

Thankfully I have absolutely wonderful friends, until I was able to get my car fixed, my friends brought me to and from work, to my book club meeting and finally to rescue and fix my car. Being car less, I noticed the absolutely dreadful state of public transit where I live. I have no issues with taking public transit and when I lived in Vancouver, that and walking were my preferred methods. However, even though I live downtown in my community, there really is no public transit. If I wish to take the bus to work, in addition to having to walk a very considerable distance from the nearest bus stop, the earliest the bus stops at this stop is 8:30am. Which is at least a half an hour before I am supposed to be at my desk working away. No way around it, I'd be late for work.

Even if I were to rely upon a work mate who works the same hours as me for a ride to and from work, I found I was still faced with how I was going to get where I needed to go. I belong to a book club. Once a month we meet to discuss the book. These meetings take place at each of the members' houses. I found that none of the bus routes came even close to my book club members' houses. This past month I lucked out as one of the members graciously picked me up and drove me home after the meeting. Unfortunately I cannot always rely upon this.

I guess all of this ranting is to say that I wish my local government would take a greater interest in public transit and improve the service. I have always maintained that I would give up my car if I could at least rely upon public transit for the majority of my activities. In the past 6 months I have greatly curtailed my use of the car, but I have found that as much as I wish it were different, for now at least I am tied to the car.