happy weekend!

i got unexpected flowers today from an old friend. i gave her a reference earlier this week and she got the job and i got the flowers. how cool is that?  what a way to start the weekend!

it will soon be time for G&Ts - happy weekend one and all!

gimme some stats stat

what's the first thing one does when embarking on a new venture?
one orders mini MOOs, of course!

i always find it amusing to look at the "stats" button here in blogger. i'm far less obsessive about it than i once was, but i do like to see which browser people are using, what they searched, how they found the blog. and i'm quite pleased to see, for example, that on the sustainable life blog, at this moment, only 14% of the readers are using the archaic internet explorer (isn't it so early noughties to use IE?) while 37% are using safari (yay mac people!) and 31% firefox (my own preference). it's telling that chrome is right behind IE at 13%.  here on MPC, firefox is beating IE by a nose (at this moment - it changes, all the time, you know).  i am a little concerned that the top referring URL for this blog at this time is some kind of sex site, but i suppose it was the ruin porn title last week that did it.

i'm spending time on this stats thing to avoid the photoshop elements window that's open in the background. i'm trying to put together a little html newsletter and all of the templates have a photoshop base. and i have to tell you, i find photoshop to be the least intuitive, most cumbersome program, ev-ah, and i've only got the elements version of it. maybe i'm just too old, but it simply doesn't work in a way that my mind can make sense of. (i know that's a dangling participle, but i just can't bring myself to write: "it simply doesn't work in a way of which my mind can make sense." can't you just feel the difference? did photoshop wander away yet?) masks, layers, vectors...i find it all very confusing.

i guess i'm generally going through a period of adjustment. although i love the idea of being independent and working at home, rather than going to an office, i sometimes struggle with the lack of structure it gives me. while i can easily sit all day at the computer and at times, even longer than i ever would if i was sitting in an office, i have discipline issues. the hours i can spend are looking at inspiring things other people are doing on flickr or in the blogosphere. and that doesn't make me very productive. tho' i have bursts of productivity, i'm really inconsistent.

so i procrastinate by looking at blog stats and sniveling about photoshop. i guess i really should just get down to work...this newsletter isn't going to put itself together.

if you have any tips for developing discipline for working at home, do let me know!

reason doesn't live here anymore

there will be an election in denmark sometime this year. and that's increasingly obvious from the heightened political rhetoric.  it's also obvious in the media coverage. our newspaper is, on a daily basis, turning up the heat on the sitting government coalition - investigating their policies - especially as they apply to immigrants. and the stories they've uncovered don't paint a pretty picture. they paint a picture of a government that increasingly kowtows to the conservative and foreigner-fearing dansk folkeparti.

a new law went into effect in january. it affects how foreigners in denmark are approved for both work permits and permanent residence.  it sets high standards for education (more points if you come from an arbitrary list of the world's top 20 universities) and work experience, as well as danish language skills (how you're supposed to learn passable danish outside of denmark, i'm not sure and they don't say anything about that).

when the law first passed, there was a calculator online and i put in my data and was relieved to see that i would qualify. however, i put in my husband's data and i'm afraid that he, as a native-born dane, didn't meet the point requirements. i have to wonder how many of the legislators enacting this system would qualify.

recently, information has covered several foreigners in denmark who were turned down for permanent residence:

~ one young man of afghan parentage, who is about to depart on his second mission to afghanistan as an interpreter with the danish military, was turned down because he didn't display "active citizenship." apparently serving denmark on what will now be a second dangerous mission in afghanistan isn't enough citizenship for the immigration office.

~ a young american who has been in denmark since 2003, completed a danish master's degree with top grades and is married to a dane and works in the social ministry was turned down because she didn't work enough while she completed her full-time education.

~ a young mexican woman, who has been in denmark in a full-time job for six years is denied permanent residence because her recent return to a full-time university education cancels out her six years of work experience and she has to start the qualification time over.

it makes me quite happy that i "got in" and gained permanent residence before all of this absurdity began. tho' i am increasingly worried about what kind of place i'm now a permanent resident of.  and it's not just on the immigration front - yesterday, it came out that the new media agreement that funds the state-owned danish radio - which has a fleet of channels on both television and radio - mandates that they are now to "give special weight to the christian cultural heritage." excuse me? but WTF? denmark is one of the most secular places i've ever seen. the people attend church only for the big events...birth, marriage, death and the odd christmas service. that the national television station has to have a christian bent is absurd beyond belief and cannot be what the people in this democracy actually want. it's nothing more than a thinly veiled stab at other religions, especially islam.  and it's worrying, to say the least.

but all over europe these conservative, we-must-keep-ourselves-to-ourselves parties are on the rise - whether it's geert wilders in the netherlands or the sweden democrats (i recently saw the head of that party flayed wide open on BBC's hardtalk). there are dictates about showing outward signs of religion - e.g. head scarves, tho' the sweden democrat leader fumbled around when it asked if that included not publicly wearing a necklace with a cross. because it turns out that it didn't. i won't go into the whole head scarf question here, as i've ranted on long enough, but if you're interested, poet has written a very excellent post on the implications of the whole debate around headscarves.

i'm not saying that i'm ready to move back to the US on the next boat, as it's even worse there (i recently found out my own aunt is a regular viewer of fox "news!"), but i think the trend is a very worrying one indeed.  where in the world will reason reside?

meditation on meditation

i tried to meditate today. i keep reading about that recent study that showed that your brain shows visible benefits (in the areas of memory, self-awareness, learning) when you meditate regularly.  so i read carefully how to go about it in the book i just finished - instructions to the cook by bernard glassman and rick fields. i arranged myself just as they suggested, took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind.

and i'll admit i gave up within about two minutes. i just couldn't do it. i couldn't calm my thoughts. i found it utterly impossible to think of nothing. all i could think about was what i wanted to do today. i tried to count as they suggested, but that reminded me too much of the obsessive counting i find myself doing when i'm stressed.  you know what i mean, suddenly finding yourself saying 78, 79, 80 in your head and wondering how you got all the way there without noticing? (i am not mental. i know you know what i mean.)

and then i proceeded to spend my morning making bread and vegetarian chili (to which i added some gorgeous chorizo at the last minute, thereby un-vegetarian-ing it) and spending the afternoon quilting two of the quilt tops i made during january.

the hum of the sewing machine, the concentration on even straight lines mesmerized me. i found that i thought of nothing else but the task at hand as i smoothed the cloth and fed it carefully through my trusty sewing machine. a meditative act if there ever was one.  mindfulness. being utterly in the moment there as i sewed.

and this evening i read this article and i felt a little better. i can always try again tomorrow. whether it's sitting quietly for a few minutes or sewing some more or chopping a few vegetables.

i can feel my brain growing already.

a good wind

hurricane force winds blew through last night.

they've settled down a bit,

but haven't yet died out completely.

and yet i feel peaceful.

a bit washed clean.

floaty even. 

there's something about a good wind.

it's cleansing.

and sweeps all the tension away.

mosaic monday: wintery tones

you know i love to take the temperature of my flickr faves occasionally and see the big picture of what's catching my eye. maybe because it's been so grey and foggy outside of late, grey tones have made their way into my normally very bright flickr faves. these are so lovely and peaceful, tho', i don't even mind the grey. 

a bit more color here, tho' still far more subdued than my usual. maybe i'm in a peaceful, soft period.

this is a little closer to my usual self, with touches of teal creeping in here and there.

i'm just adoring these softer, more washed out tones. we'll have to see how they manifest in my own surroundings.

and a few that aren't so much about the color as the subject matter...cocktails and iPhones and coffee...what more could a girl want on a monday?

as always, click on each picture to take you to my flickr stream, where you can click on through to the original photos and fave them yourself!

happy monday! if you're in the mood for healthy vegetarian fare today, check out this post. and please do suggest a name for our new tractor.  there's a handmade prize in it for the one who suggests the name we choose!

name that tractor

if you have a tractor, you really have a farm, right? and if your tractor has a big scoop thingie on the front, that's really good, right? and if you also got two barn kitties, then you're well on your way to living in the country. and if you gave the neighbor down the road permission to put his cows in your pasture this summer, then you can call yourself a farmer, right? can you see i need reassurance here? because it's quite an old tractor - a massey ferguson. it's a bit temperamental - husband had trouble starting it and then getting it in gear and he's normally pretty good at things like that. but now he's learned how (the previous owner had to come over twice this morning) and it's all good. the kitties, on the other hand, might not be so happy about their new digs, but they'll adjust, i'm sure.

now, s/he just needs a name...any suggestions?

husband did manage to get it running and pull it into the carport the other way, so that little chimney thingie wasn't in the way. and he also managed not to hit his head.

oh, and there will be a prize for whoever suggests the name we ultimately choose to call our new old tractor - the best name (as judged entirely subjectively by husband and sabin) will win. i don't yet know what, but undoubtedly something handmade. the cats, they came with names - tiger and woods, so we don't need names for them.  now if i could just remember which one is tiger and which one woods...