Funemployment Outing: The Outdoor Rec Archive

KarenLeave a comment

I thought I’d posted about the Outdoor Recreation Archive (ORA) before but it looks like I just told everyone I knew about it in person instead. The ORA is “a historical collection of books, catalogs, periodicals, photographs, and manuscripts documenting the history of outdoor gear” and it’s housed at Utah State University.

I’d been following them on Instagram for a while now, just for a hit of nostalgia/some gear sewing inspo. I saw that they were bringing some actual materials to a bookstore in Salt Lake so we went to check it out. It was a vintage catalog WONDERLAND–my catnip.

The exhibit is at Books & Supply in downtown SLC through September 18th; you can just roll up during their open hours and go to the back of the store and spend hours going through everything. Highly recommend!

Embracing ALL The Change

KarenLeave a comment

Reader, we made a snap decision. Meet Mr. Wizard and Cheese:
A grinning woman on a bed with a gray cat and an orange cat on her lap

After we tried meeting a dog in June, I wasn’t going to even think about another animal until the winter. Then I got laid off and thought, “Yeah, that’s for the best, we don’t need another mouth to feed.” But THEN my brother sent me a bonded pair of kitties at the shelter because the orange one was named Cheese just like our childhood cat. We met them Friday, they both sat on my lap, and we took them home.

When I immediately wrote about getting laid off, I said I wasn’t panicking yet, but as it sunk it, I’d been starting to panic, literally–waking up and having my heart start to race, upset stomach, needing to do my breathing exercises. NOW I have two lap cats who wake up with me and need snacks and pets and have the best purr motors. Now I have two little guys to keep me company in the office as I send out applications.
A gray cat and an orange cat on a couch in the sun. The gray cat has his arms around the orange cat.

We think these two are pretty young. Mr. Wizard might be older but their fur texture and body type are so similar that they might be litter mates. I’ve never had a bonded pair of cats and they’re just a delight. Mr. Wizard makes sure little Cheese is OK; when Mr. Wizard is around, Cheese is so much braver.
A gray cat guarding an orange cat under a blanket fort.

They’re also good boys, settling in and letting us sleep through the night. I have had to move some houseplants around and buy two more scratching posts, but they’re pretty chill overall. An orange cat and a gray cat sitting on a wide window ledge, watching birds

Was it the most responsible thing to take on extra responsibility and expense without a steady income? Maybe not, but I don’t regret it. I guess part of me was ready to blow up everything about my old life. But I think the new life with the kitty boys will be pretty good.

Happy Labor Day, Comrades

KarenLeave a comment

As we celebrate the workers today, remember that people died for us to get where we are, and those in power are doing their damndest to take us even further backwards. Don’t let them! Educate yourself!

Here’s Hamilton Nolan’s newsletter today, reminding us that it’s capitalism against everyone else:

We are all mad at the billionaires and whatnot but let’s be very clear about the mechanism driving all of this: American companies are making more money than ever and they don’t have to share it because workers don’t have the power to claim their fair share, and because some of the money has been used to purchase political influence to prevent the government from stepping in, and so therefore the money accrues to the owners, which is to say, to the rich.

Friday Links

KarenLeave a comment

1. Some more Wendell Berry, from Life is a Miracle: “It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”

 

2. One week into unemployment and I’m not finding a job like this?? Screenshot of a tweet that says the only career path i'm interested in is one that leads me deep into the woods where I can curl up in the hollow of an ancient tree and slowly become one with the moss

 

3. Here’s Ordinary Abundance, an interactive appreciation of all the (good) things modern society has given us: “All the items in this room were once out of reach; some not yet invented, others too rare or costly for the vast majority of people. Today, most of us lucky enough to live with them walk past without a second thought.”

RIP, Wendell Berry

KarenLeave a comment

He died Monday at the age of 92. Looking back through the archives here, I’m surprised I never posted this one–arguably his most famous and very much up my alley.

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Funemployment Field Trip

KarenLeave a comment

Doc has Tuesdays off and I don’t have anything to do (yet–I do have some freelance starting next week, hooray!) so we went up to the Uintas yesterday. Nothing like some vast distances and being surprised by four deer bounding across the trail (not pictured) for some perspective.

Tuesday Project Roundup: New Jeans

KarenLeave a comment

I finished a pair of jeans last week–my first button fly and a wearable test of a pattern designed for selvedge denim.

I didn’t do any fitting on these and overall, they’re working OK–there’s a little room to get more swole but that just means they’ll fit longer than 6 months. Plus, my denim here is an 11 ounce weight; most selvedge denims are 13-15 oz so I think if I ever make these as intended, the heavier weight will help smooth these out just a little. (Of course, the nature of a straight side seam and long fly means it’s always going to wrinkle from wearing ease–thanks to The Crooked Hem for explaining that so well!)

Since these were just a test, I didn’t want to order (or shorten) a custom-length zipper, so I used the pattern option for a button fly. I’m a complete button fly convert now–you make the buttonholes first thing so they’re easy; you don’t have to worry about hitting the metal zipper at the bottom of your fly topstitching; and you can use your RIVET PRESS.

I also used up a label from my stash of patches and labels, because why not?

Rainy Projects

KarenLeave a comment

Now that I’m funemployed, the weekends are the same as the regular days and the key words are “stay busy” (followed by “save money”). So I tried making some cardamom buns–a food item I’ve always been curious about–and pulled out some twill and my patch collection to plan a project from the stash.

As the tiger patch reminds us, EVERYTHING’S FINE!

Twisted round cardamom buns on a baking sheet

A few patches on orange fabric. One includes a roaring tiger with EVERYTHING'S FINE and another has a duck holding a knife with the words BECOME UNGOVERNABLE

Friday Links

Karen

1. Mike Monteiro had an excellent newsletter this week about making art in bad times. Read about the town of Guernica, Picasso’s Guernica, and this incredible crop art from the Minnesota State Fair (by Jennifer Nelson):

 

2. Speaking of art, The Last Museum lets you explore a collection of museum catalogs by any subject you want and then links you to the artifact page.

 

3. Feeling this lately: A fanatasy unicorn illustration in pink and purple with the text, I have no prime. I will evolve until I die.

I Was Right (I Didn’t Want To Be Right Yet)

Karen

Well, my suspicion that my agency was going to cut jobs as they start rolling out mandatory AI was correct: I got laid off yesterday.

The last time I was laid off was during the 2008 Great Recession and wow, is there a difference between being 28, renting, not having anyone to rely on, and having no savings and being 46, having a house and a partner who’ll put me on his insurance , and having enough savings that I’m really not panicking (yet).

I also go this very kind text from my manager which, upon reading, made me shout, “I’m the John Henry of AI!!”
Screenshot of a text that says, I'm shocked truly because you were honestly faster and better than Al on all of my projects. I wish I had an opportunity to fight for you because you were our top performing writer.

I mean, I hope it works out better for me than it did for John Henry but by god, I’ll beat those any of those writin’ machines and I have the work to prove it.

 

But the bad boss come up laughing at John Henry,
said, “You full of vinegar now, but you ’bout through–
we’re gonna get a steam drill to do your share of drivin,
then what’s all them muscles gonna do, huh John Henry?
Gonna take a little bit of vinegar out of you.”

John Henry said to his captain, “A man ain’t nothin but a man,
but if you bring that steam drill round, I’ll beat it fair and honest.
I’ll die with my hammer in my hand, but I’ll be laughing
’cause you can’t replace a steel drivin’ man.”