Eredien's Journal

Remember that sestina I finished in January? Well, it's going to be published by a new magazine! More details forthcoming. 

So, I already sent an email out to those whose emails are in the contact list of my currently accessible gmail account, but for those whose emails are on my other, currently inaccessible, personal gmail account, and for general knowledge:

I am probably moving back in with my family. It remains to be seen if they are amenable to this, or if there is some other kind of plan, but I suspect that's where I will be in a month or so (I technically am paid through Nov. 30th, but obviously hope things resolve much sooner than that).

It is theoretically possible I might get a job, or something, which would make all this moot, but I doubt it's going to happen in this economy. So, I'm planning to move, and if that doesn't happen and I get a job or somebody decides to hire me as their personal chef, or I win the lottery or suddenly find a Picasso, well then, it will be a pleasant surprise.

I am unhappy about this decision for reasons amply detailed in this journal and IRL to most if not all of you, but my landlord, who is generally awesome, agrees with me that one cannot pay the rent in self-knowledge and increased care for oneself, however much one might like to.

If you'd like to talk to me about this, please leave a comment, or email me at my "official" gmail, or Skype or tweet me. Please don't call--my phone isn't working.

Thanks for your love and understanding.

I have now created a "memories" category, called "Vegan Food Review," to collect all my upcoming Vegan Food Reviews in one convenient place! Yay. This seems super-popular with people!

The recipe for Tropic Sunset Peach Bread Pudding is up.

The rest of this post consists of three questions, two of which are for Boston-area or potential Boston-area people, and one of which is about clothing. Boston-area questions first:

- Does anybody have a space where they could take in a cat for a month or two? I'm hoping to get at least a part-time job soon, and have had an interview lined up for two weeks now which I am really hopeful about, but due to crazy circumstances that interview has been rescheduled twice--instead of knowing if I'm going to get this job, I've been on tenterhooks. I don't know when I'm going to be able to get an apartment of my own, and the current situation with Oolong is temporary. I'd pay for food, litter, any vet bills, etc, and come by to see her every other week or so. I'd hoped to have an apartment by now, and I've been in talks with realtors and job people, but it's been slow going. There's no lack of non-paying volunteer opportunities, and there's no lack of administrative positions, but I know I'm no good at doing that particular task-set and need something else to be happy; I'm not really willing to compromise my job-related happiness at this point since it looks like my job is going to be the biggest part of my life for a good while, and it's important for me to get this right, and as soon as possible.

- Is anyone in the Boston area (or anyone interested in moving to the Boston area) interested in splitting an apartment with me? I don't drink at all right now but am generally a fan of liquor, don't smoke but don't care if you smoke outside, and am looking for a place where I can have my cat and a lizard. I'm not interested in living with dogs or other csts, and Oolong is probably not a safe bet for birds, but other pets would probably be fine. I am thinking maybe I would like to live in the Teele Sq area or up near Alewife, or maybe real close to the Camberville border in Arlington. I don't have a car and don't plan on getting one. I plan on setting up a mini artstudio space for making and selling my artwork, wherever I end up. I'm LGTBQ, poly, and generally alternative-lifestyle-friendly. I am interested in cooking and gardening and would be happy with a farmshare or actually growing some food outside or inside. I'm vegan. Another vegan or vegetarian roommate would be ideal, but I'm happy to live with meat-eaters. I'm hoping to find a kind of quiet place to relax most of the time, but the occasional loud and noisy party is great. I kind of hope to host a big friendly dinner/movie night once a week or maybe once a month, and enjoy actually knowing and liking my roommates instead of just kind of passing each other in the hallway.Video gaming, RPGing, anime, music, artistic creation, writing, cooking, general nerdliness, graduate school, etc. are also neat.

If interested, or have questions, please email me, call or text, or private message me on lj. Or you can just leave a comment here and I will get in touch with you.

- For genderqueer, queer, transgender, gender-head people, people who aren't satisfied with what "men's clothing" and "women's clothing" is, and other kinds of people who were interested in the clothing marketplace idea that I posted about a while back--it looks like the Genderplayful Marketplace is raising itself up by its black and purple pleather boostraps. I'd like to sell clothing and accessories there. I already have some ideas for shirts, pants, etc, maybe some accessories. I'd like to do a dress with a built-in tie/vest top, for instance. Does anybody have any suggestions of anything they'd really like to see in that space? I'd love to actually, you know, create what you want and what I want, and market it to you.

I was reading this Scientific American blog post on how much it would cost to save "the world's remaining 3,500 wild tigers." The article is titled "Cost to save the world's tigers: $10,000 each per year (or just pennies a day!)" I read the article to find out two things:

- how much money was needed to save the tigers
- how I could contribute that money

I saw these numbers:
42% more than is already spent
$35 million/year
$10,000/cat
$47 million/year
$82 million/year
$10 k per cat
$20,000 or more for an illegal tiger skin
$50,000 or more for a poached tiger carcass
$35 million a year

I read these sentiments:
"The price tag to save one of the planet's great iconic species is not a high one," said Alan Rabinowitz, president and CEO of the wild-cat conservation organization Panthera[...]

a drop in the bucket

a fraction of the profits generated by Apple's OS X Tiger operating system

I like tigers. And I don't have much money. I assume that most people are in this boat. When someone who likes tigers and doesn't have that much money reads an article like this, they find out only how overwhelming the job is, and don't get any idea of how they personally could contribute to that $35 million dollars/year. In this article, there is not a header saying "how can I help?" There is not a "donate to save the tigers" button.

There are five different organizations mentioned--Panthera, the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the IUCN, and the World Bank.

The names of these organizations are hotlinked above, with links to their tiger-conservation efforts in particular when there is one, in order to enable you to find out more about the organizations' tiger-related efforts and donate, but they are not even hotlinked in the Scientific American blog post. What's hotlinked in the article? A prepared media statement.

People come to read this article prepared to find out how to give money to save tigers.
They are informed about the massive scope of the problem, but not how to solve it. So people close the tab and play Farmville again--because we have placed easily-findable buttons everywhere that make it easy to play Farmville all the time even if that's not what you want to do, but we have placed no easily-findable buttons anywhere that make it easy to donate to tigers all the time.

Even if that's what you want to do, you'll find it too complex and give up:
Anyone who wanted to help had to overcome both psychological hurdles (how much it was going to cost! How little my monies would help!) and technological ones (Typing "panthera" into Google, then finding the big cat donation page three layers deep into the site, then typing in info, then clicking send, was the easiest and most straightforward procedure).

This happens a lot, I think, in popular science reporting.

How could articles like this actually help tigers (3,500 left), or the Bois Dentelle tree (2 (yes two) left), or the Psathyrella cystidiosa mushroom, which is only found in a few places in Minnesota?

What could be changed? These articles could say something like this:
$35 million a year is needed to save these tigers. That's $95,890.42/day. But if 350,400 people give $99.95 right now, we will raise more than we need to save all the tigers. Donate now!

Why doesn't all science journalism [clarification: popular science journalism, not information in a scientific journal] do this already, after (of course) appropriate ethical vetting to reduce conflicts of interest? Does anyone know? Why is there a "tweet this article to your friends" button on each post, but no "donate" button on any post?

And seriously, it's only 27 cents a day for a year.