(no subject)

[minervasolo]

::pouts:: I missed the jbbs signups. I'm now dithering over yuletide.

I had a bit of a costume angst this morning. Cultist would have been fun, but almost too easy to do. Better saved for nother occasion, maybe a writing social. My only other obvious option was pirate lass, which felt too generic.

So I had an idea, and went shopping. And then came back and retriweved my bank card, which was still in Toast's wallet from last night. And returned to town to find I'd been too eager, and the shops I wanted to visit wouldn't open til ten.

Anyway, I was tenth time lucky. Not the best record, but I was so much more pleased than I'd have been if I'd got it first go. After learning such thing as my boobs are too small and too big, my shoulders are too broad, my hips are too wide, my calves are too fat... I came very close to getting horribly, horribly stuck at one point. I did discover that I actually quite like my belly. It's soft, and if I kick the half stone I put on at the end of summer, it won't be flabby. I don't think i'd want a toned stomach.

I'm being vague about the costume, because after dithering so much and going through so many variations on the same cultist costume, I'd quite like this to be a surprise. At some point there'll be photos.

I also had a terrifying, never-sleep-again angst about climate change last night. We're all going to die and life is going to suck and everything's going to change and we're all going to die... This is not unusual for me, to be honest. I just... I hate it. I hate that there's nothing I can do to stop it. It's going to happen, it's going to happen soon, and it's going to affect all of us. No more taking anything for granted. Walking through M&S, I was thinking "well, cotton will go, and wool will be rarer because there'll be less for sheep to eat, same for leather, silk'll go almost entirely..." And we'll run out of oil too, right in the middle of it all. Reading Utopia earlier this term, one of the notes talks of a mini iceage Britain went through for sevralhundred years. And I thought "well, that's how it'll be, and we survived before". Yes, with a much smaller population, and a much, much lower quality of life. Could the UK support itself, even now? Could we produce enough food to feed everyone in the British Isles? Let alone when the Gulf Stream moves and the temperature drops. Too wet and cold for much to grow well. And nothing's designed to last now, so all the MDF furniture and cheap polyester clothing will fall apart, just when we can't replace it.

You can see why I had trouble sleeping. I just wish I could believe I was being pessimistic. I have a suspicion it's been this that's been subconsciously stressing me out recently, blowing other thigns out of proportion. Eventually, last night, I got up, and found everyone else was doing the washing up, so I joined in with that. It helped.

Anyway,Ii have to go and get the bandage taken off my finger soon, and go and do some reading for latin. Ah, Romans. You'll save me from myself.

(it's easy to chewer myself up again now, thanks to my ability to look right, and see my pretty outfit. Squee!)

Comments

[nocturnalhippy.livejournal.com]

We probably could feed ourselves you know, if the government back the hell off and stop driving farmers to leaving the country/suicide. But the system is messed up and the people in power won't listen to the people that know what they're doing *rassin frassin*. Russia by itself could feed the world and then some if it's farms were operating as well as they could (and I don't mean horrible battery jobs just proper land use and all that). I suppose it's a good thing more British Farmers are going there. Sorry about that I went off on a bit of a tangeant there.

As for oil well we really should be thinking about bio-diesel and all that, rapeseed isn't hard to grow. Sheep will be alright they're adapted to live in hilly areas so they'll always be about and shouldn't take away from arable land too much. Things can be done, I just wish people would start before it needs to be done. If it comes to that I guess we'll have to adapt, there'll be less people about and we'll be living like Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall which can't be all bad. I hope that makes you feel a little better.

[(Anonymous)]

One of the big problems with climate change is that we can only guess whether what we're doing is making a difference. Of course, it is morally wrong to be sceptical of the human effect on climate change, because everyone knows we're doing it because scientists tell us we are, and they can't be wrong, even with a relatively new science based on statistics that people don't understand. Bjorn Lomborg has interesting ideas on this, such as "we can't have any effect, good or bad on the environment, so instead of flushing billions of dollars down the pan, why not spend it on getting the rest of the world out of poverty?". 3rd world poverty doesn't effect us though, so it's not as big a human caused evil as climate change.

This is besides the point™. When the mind has troubles, it doesn't think rationally, and it finds things to worry about. This frustrates me a lot, as there's often nothing I can say to make someone like this feel better (and of course, when I'm like this I bet I frustrate others!), and just have to stick with it until rationality returns.

In which case, glad to see you cheered up again :)

(sorry, end rant, I'll shut up now...)

[hara-hetta.livejournal.com]

And, it helps to log in after having my computer re-installed...

[rhube.livejournal.com]

I'm actually feeling more positive about the climate change issue now. I mean, my mind still boggles with overpowering irritation when I see people on telling arguing that we should do nothing because the UK is only 2% of carbon emmissions and its not going to make a difference, but the fact is that pressure to be more enviromentally conscious is everywhere now. The media, BBC news, and most the newspapers have finally got behind a massive drive to raise public awareness and more and more manufacturers and supermarkets are being put under pressure to opperate sensibly because buying habbits are changing and they have to respond to what people want.

This is not to say that I think it's all shiny. A lot of damage has been done already, and the massive lack of concern shown by a lot (although certainly not all) of Americans, led by their leaders, is very disturbing. But I think we might get somewhere. In the 90s it seemed hopeless to try to get other people to wake up to the damage we were doing, but now I'm beginning to feel that we're going to look back on the naughties as a turning point and a decade of change. Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I am seeing changes all around me now, and I see more and more every week, and I feel good that (being a part of YouGov) I'm having an opportunity to make my habbits, preferences, and beliefs in the matter clear.