salaryman’s Neighborhood

We visited the Berkshires this weekend, it was lovely. We grabbed some lattes, looked for hiking clothes and ate at a small-town pub after.  The region is more mountainous and forested than our region, the Valley.

We drove past an incredible home. It was white with silver shutters, and it was traditional yet semi-modern. I wish I knew the name of house styles so I could have identified it.  

We have a creative artist neighbor who does sidewalk chalk art every day. One guy calls it "The Gallery" because we all see her fabulous drawings when we walk to the breakfast place on weekends. I'm looking forward to having more artistic space on our new property.

People in the Berkshires live a much more cozy lifestyle, the forests are right outside their windows, along with the rushing river and mountains. Fireplaces and faux-fur hiking boots in mudrooms are the norm.

I found a cool example of a modern home, south-facing windows, in Natural-Home Magazine. It's a Zen Ranch Colorado Straw Bale Home. I'd love a place like this!

We shopped for hiking boots this weekend, I overheard the funniest conversation. A woman and her mom were trying on some clothes, lamented that the sizes were all wrong.

"These clothes aren't made for American women. (Looks at label) See? 'Made in India'. Women over there are made differently. That's why all our jobs are gone, because the were all sent over there".

I had to laugh. Haven't we gotten a grip on a global economy yet? When will we get with the program? Other countries have a prospering population, universal health care. Other nations are united to solve climate change issues. Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands allow gay marriage.

There's an exceptional article in the Boston Globe this week called "Why Fundamentalism will fail.

In Christianity, the fastest-growing wing of the church is the Pentecostal/Charismatic wave...accounting for one in every four Christians. One writer has called them “main street mystics.” Among Muslims, it is the gentle but ecstatic Sufi version that is growing fastest, not the suicide bomber cults. All these movements...represent a fatal threat to fundamentalism.

Surveys have shown that the rapid growth of evangelical Protestantism in Latin America has not produced a replication of the American religious right, but rather a moderate leftward tilt. A majority of Brazilian evangelicals, for example, voted for President Lula, who ran as a Workers Party candidate.

As we all know, real change takes time. News reports are saying today that the single-payer health care plan is off the table. The real news is, it's a very hot topic. It has energy. Thousands of grassroots organizations and nurses are supporting the idea.

Bernie Sanders is introductiong S703 to Healh Care Reform.

Please write to the White House and support Universal Health Care for the 37 to 47 million Americans without insurance. It will save us money! And tell them we want the bill delayed if it doesn't have one.

Pets were few inside the hidden cities, but many people kept caterpillars, and helped nuture them from worm, to

chrysalis, to butterfly. The process of transformation gave the people of the hidden cities a sense of promise and hope.

So many animals, and people, had been lost to the change, that a catepillar represented the chance for emergence from the situation. While the change was happening, some species of caterpillars threatened environments and people when the never ending rains, extended from the period of change to longer seasons, created habitats where the creatures thrived. Some over-thrived.

In Liberia, mass breeding of caterpillars, in an exceptionally wet climate, pushed people out of their own homes. The masses of caterpillars devoured plants and food for other wildlife became scarce. Normally, the caterpillars would not all fully develop, but in the extreme damp conditions the creature's multipled, nearly all growing to full adulthood. It became known as the caterpillar crisis of climate change in Liberia, and consideration was given to spraying the country with chemical pesticides to defeat the munching worms. The threat of poisoning the environment made the authorities decide against any pesticide use, and so the people moved away from the caterpillar infested areas, taking shelter in refugee camps.

While Liberia hated the caterpillars, other parts of the world were marveling at the growth of the species, and the

season of the butterfly, which they welcomed. Millions of butterflies would appear in late summer in parts of the world where the caterpillars thrived, and people would travel from far away places to witness the explosion of colour that took place. Butterflies were like the new spring flowers, and unlike the hairy, black and brown beasts that haunted Liberia, other parts of the world saw the Monarch caterpillar increasing in population and bringing beauty to the landscape.

Many people who lived in the hidden cities remembered the seasons of the butterflies with joy, and desired to keep the Monarch caterpillar as pets in their living areas. These pets were hand-fed leaves and grass, and given safe, dark places to build their chrysalis, and time to allow the transformation. When the caterpillar began to break out of its chrysalis, people gathered to watch the butterfly emerge.

When the birght coloured creature spread its wings and flew into the air, the people clapped at the performance.

 

Welcome to Haiはい。my transmedia journey,
-Lisa

*Flickr photos by:

Caterpillar - Brenda Anderson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouskiwi/

Chrysalis - MsEli: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mseli/

Butterfly - dwain77: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwain77/

• 20:58 Am watching X Factor half an hour behind so I can fast forward through the crap bits. Will catch up v. quickly no doubt. #
• 14:43 Time for a bit of george and ewan. #

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• 17:30 Good Bye Lenin! is on BBC 4 tonight. It's a fab film, you should watch it. #
• 20:58 Am watching X Factor half an hour behind so I can fast forward through the crap bits. Will catch up v. quickly no doubt. #
• 14:43 Time for a bit of george and ewan. #

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I hate the Korean. I hate him with a passion, he makes me want to throw up, he makes my skin crawl, I can't STAND him, and I want him to disappear.

He is disgusting.

I wish sleeping was like recharging your batteries. Like it's 9:24pm right now, and I'm planning on being asleep by 9:30pm, and hopefully sleeping for nine beautiful hours. How awesome would it be if that meant I didn't have to sleep the next day? But life doesn't work like that.

I've cleaned my room, but haven't done the laundry yet. That will have to wait until Tuesday.

Goodnight, y'all.

Slightly disturbed by what appears to be Prince Harry and also Daniel Radcliffe included among these. Do you think there is something subliminal going on which makes certain faces stand out the most? Mine was Jake Gyllenhaal.

• 22:06 Blubbed all the way through Bright Star. Walked past Edgar Wright on way to Leicester Square. #
• 22:10 @adders Hope you got to Guildford OK and had a nice dinner. #
• 22:43 Off to bed. Exhausted by all the excitement #
• 08:44 Right, Bright Star blog post written, pancakes for breakfast I think. #
• 17:30 Good Bye Lenin! is on BBC 4 tonight. It's a fab film, you should watch it. #

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Woke up this morning to bright blue skies so I just had to make the most of it. I've been meaning to try and take some nice Autumnal shots so I walked up to Green Park to see what there was by way of subject matter.
Just a few of my favourites the rest are on Flickr