A week's supply of fresh vegetables, grown by local farmers, delivered each week. Sounds amazing, doesn't it? Two years ago, I read about an innovative program in place in California, where urban households paid in advance to receive weekly bundles of veggies from nearby Californian farmers. At first glance, this saves both time and money, since you've paid up front and get a certain share of whatever is grown - and you are also spared some time at the supermarkets, since you know you will be getting the veggies each week.
Yet there are some caveats to the program as well. What if bad weather results in a low crop yield? What if it is a better year for some vegetables than others, so you receive a bumper crop of parsnips but are low on staples like lettuce and tomatoes? Where do you pick up the veggies, and can you take it on good faith that they will arrive as promised?
Furthermore, could such a program work in Winnipeg, where the growing season is so much shorter than in California?
There's a sense of adventure in wondering what random veggies will turn up at your door on Sunday, and what kind of tasty recipes you might discover either in old cookbooks or on the internet to teach an old vegetable new tricks. Having your own personal farmers' market delivered once a week, I think, would have just as many advantages as drawbacks, if not more.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Budweiser and buses
First off, I'd like to comment on the Superbowl ad Budweiser rolled out. Cute flight attendants in short skirts pulling odd stunts like kicking hams and pointing at mannequins wearing pith helmets. OK, fine, boobs sell beer. However, I happen to be a girl who enjoys the occasional beer. And I know a lot of other beer-drinking girls. Budweiser, do you honestly not care about the female market at all? Because you've largely dropped off of our radars, but seeing some shirtless pilots drinking some nice cold Buds might change my mind. Maybe. At least, it would make you appear...what's that trendy word...diverse.
Secondly, public consultations regarding diamond lanes are happening next week. Did you know? If you're like many Winnipeggers, that might come as a surprise to you. Want to find out if your area is affected, or where and when meetings are? All I can recommend at this point is to call your councilor or 311. But do check it out - particularly if you're around Assiniboine.
Secondly, public consultations regarding diamond lanes are happening next week. Did you know? If you're like many Winnipeggers, that might come as a surprise to you. Want to find out if your area is affected, or where and when meetings are? All I can recommend at this point is to call your councilor or 311. But do check it out - particularly if you're around Assiniboine.
Friday, January 15, 2010
New View vs. Old View: In the Chamber 2010 (Word Count: 805)
Faint overhead lighting, in the shape of a window silhouette, illuminates a stage populated only by essential bedroom furniture: a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a small table. Muted birdsong is overtaken by tempestuous music as two barely-seen figures appear to struggle in the bed. After one departs, the other remains to be spotlit and lectured in philosophy by a bodiless voice calling itself 'Zarathustra.'
This is not what Gordon Tanner’s Last Man in Universe Alpha-II, the first of two 50-minute one-man plays put on by Theatre Projects Manitoba, is about.
As viewers discover once 'daylight' makes its way onstage, the play is about a disgruntled former employee of a large agricultural corporation. This employee came to a profoundly disturbing realization while investigating a facility fire at one of the corporation's massive hog barns, and committed a terrible crime after coming to said realization. When we meet him, he is in a hotel room, fearful that the authorities will come to apprehend him, and making a video confession to the owner of the corporation.
In this harried, often-sidetracked confession, our unlikely hero emphasizes the plight of the pigs, the heinous way in which they lived and the horrible way in which they died. He also points to a 'new view' in society, which neither mourns the pigs nor assigns any blame to those who might be responsible for their deaths. This 'new view' simply calls the incinerator that the hog barn became a "systemic accident"; under the old view, such an 'accident' would have cost someone their job, if not the company its licenses.
As the stage lights fade on the final scene, the emotionally exhausted man has completed his confession, and sees little hope in his future, or the future of a society that could callously shrug off such horrors as the deaths of 15,000 hogs.
After a 15-minute intermission, the lights come up on a chic restaurant scene, setting of Steven Ratzlaff's one-man Last Man in Puntarenas. Tables for two or four people surround a table of six, where a single gentleman is in the process of a thank-you speech to the five balloons representing his fellow dinner guests.
It becomes clear that this man is either quitting or retiring from a position he's held for a number of years, and his colleagues are present to pay their respects - which quickly turn to rejection as our main character becomes increasingly inebriated and prone to increasingly crass comments about medical tourism, the Health Sciences Centre's handling of paediatric cardiac surgery debacles in the 1990s, and pregnancy. One by one, his guests leave, until he is left alone to examine his son's premature death, the subsequent breakup of his marriage, and the malpractice suit that left his ex-wife grasping at a straw labelled "Your son didn't have to die."
The kind-hearted waiter (Gordon Tanner) then joins our main character and invites him to finish his speech. Confused and flattered, he tries to do so, but he has lost his stride, and is now filled only with emptiness and questions.
While both "Last Man" plays (the titles seem to evoke T.S. Eliot's "Hollow Men") feature minimal props and, at most, a cast of two, this allows the social commentary to stand out more clearly. Tanner has a bone to pick with big business and its ability to deflect blame onto a faceless 'system' that makes humans its victims and is outside of anyone's control. Ratzlaff's target is a medical system guilty of similar offenses. People die, their livelihoods are lost, they are rendered penniless, empty, and grieving while corporations continue to hire armies of lawyers and make lots of money at their expenses - this is the underlying message of the two main characters, standing alone amidst the wreckage of their lives.
After being wowed by Tanner's intense diatribe against big agribusiness, viewers wander back into the auditorium completely unsure of what will hit them next. Yet Ratzlaff's script does not build gradually into a revelation of the central problem and then a cliff-hanger anticlimax, the way that Tanner's did. Instead, Ratzlaff succeeds in alienating the audience as well as his character succeeded in alienating his. Perhaps this is intentional. Ratzlaff could want to emphasize that his antihero, unlikeable as he is, was once a family man with a loving spouse, who lost everything to an uncaring system - everything including the personality traits that made him likeable. But this protagonist lacks the endearing traits that Tanner's had: stumbling over words, tense and exaggerative in a comical fashion, with an almost manic energy. That energy is missing from the second half of the evening - and beginning late at just after 9:30 p.m., that second half feels twice as long as the first.
Last Man in Universe Alpha-II: ****
Last Man in Puntarenas: **
This is not what Gordon Tanner’s Last Man in Universe Alpha-II, the first of two 50-minute one-man plays put on by Theatre Projects Manitoba, is about.
As viewers discover once 'daylight' makes its way onstage, the play is about a disgruntled former employee of a large agricultural corporation. This employee came to a profoundly disturbing realization while investigating a facility fire at one of the corporation's massive hog barns, and committed a terrible crime after coming to said realization. When we meet him, he is in a hotel room, fearful that the authorities will come to apprehend him, and making a video confession to the owner of the corporation.
In this harried, often-sidetracked confession, our unlikely hero emphasizes the plight of the pigs, the heinous way in which they lived and the horrible way in which they died. He also points to a 'new view' in society, which neither mourns the pigs nor assigns any blame to those who might be responsible for their deaths. This 'new view' simply calls the incinerator that the hog barn became a "systemic accident"; under the old view, such an 'accident' would have cost someone their job, if not the company its licenses.
As the stage lights fade on the final scene, the emotionally exhausted man has completed his confession, and sees little hope in his future, or the future of a society that could callously shrug off such horrors as the deaths of 15,000 hogs.
After a 15-minute intermission, the lights come up on a chic restaurant scene, setting of Steven Ratzlaff's one-man Last Man in Puntarenas. Tables for two or four people surround a table of six, where a single gentleman is in the process of a thank-you speech to the five balloons representing his fellow dinner guests.
It becomes clear that this man is either quitting or retiring from a position he's held for a number of years, and his colleagues are present to pay their respects - which quickly turn to rejection as our main character becomes increasingly inebriated and prone to increasingly crass comments about medical tourism, the Health Sciences Centre's handling of paediatric cardiac surgery debacles in the 1990s, and pregnancy. One by one, his guests leave, until he is left alone to examine his son's premature death, the subsequent breakup of his marriage, and the malpractice suit that left his ex-wife grasping at a straw labelled "Your son didn't have to die."
The kind-hearted waiter (Gordon Tanner) then joins our main character and invites him to finish his speech. Confused and flattered, he tries to do so, but he has lost his stride, and is now filled only with emptiness and questions.
While both "Last Man" plays (the titles seem to evoke T.S. Eliot's "Hollow Men") feature minimal props and, at most, a cast of two, this allows the social commentary to stand out more clearly. Tanner has a bone to pick with big business and its ability to deflect blame onto a faceless 'system' that makes humans its victims and is outside of anyone's control. Ratzlaff's target is a medical system guilty of similar offenses. People die, their livelihoods are lost, they are rendered penniless, empty, and grieving while corporations continue to hire armies of lawyers and make lots of money at their expenses - this is the underlying message of the two main characters, standing alone amidst the wreckage of their lives.
After being wowed by Tanner's intense diatribe against big agribusiness, viewers wander back into the auditorium completely unsure of what will hit them next. Yet Ratzlaff's script does not build gradually into a revelation of the central problem and then a cliff-hanger anticlimax, the way that Tanner's did. Instead, Ratzlaff succeeds in alienating the audience as well as his character succeeded in alienating his. Perhaps this is intentional. Ratzlaff could want to emphasize that his antihero, unlikeable as he is, was once a family man with a loving spouse, who lost everything to an uncaring system - everything including the personality traits that made him likeable. But this protagonist lacks the endearing traits that Tanner's had: stumbling over words, tense and exaggerative in a comical fashion, with an almost manic energy. That energy is missing from the second half of the evening - and beginning late at just after 9:30 p.m., that second half feels twice as long as the first.
Last Man in Universe Alpha-II: ****
Last Man in Puntarenas: **
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thanks, Kanye!
The 2009 Much Video Music Awards have gone down in history for one reason and one reason only: Kanye West's in-character outburst during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for best music video. Forget Lady Gaga's covered-in-blood onstage performance. Forget who else won what other awards. Kanye generated attention for himself, Swift, Beyonce, and the VMAs. All in two minutes.
Discussion of Kanye's tirade hit critical mass instantly. I'm certain that after checking their Twitter, Facebook and even their cellphones, hundreds if not thousands of people who weren't watching the VMAs tuned in to see what all the fuss was about, and to find out how the situation would be resolved. Anyone who wasn't familiar with Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Beyonce or their respective music videos would have hit Google in a minute, to find out more about Kanye or to compare Swift's video to Beyonce's and decide for themselves. If they liked what they heard, albums would have been downloaded or purchased online, creating new fans for the artists involved. And don't forget about Much - they got the ratings they needed on an otherwise lackluster TV evening.
Beyonce got to clear her own name by bringing Swift up onstage again to share the limelight and have her moment. Swift got to be the innocent artists wronged by a bad character, which certainly didn't do anything to tarnish her image. And Kanye? He's already famous for a lot of other outbursts. Fans who stuck with him through rants about how much HE deserved others' awards might actually see this as an improvement, since his outburst was on behalf of someone else this time. In the long run, this move was completely effective because everyone involved was helped, and no one was seriously harmed.
Discussion of Kanye's tirade hit critical mass instantly. I'm certain that after checking their Twitter, Facebook and even their cellphones, hundreds if not thousands of people who weren't watching the VMAs tuned in to see what all the fuss was about, and to find out how the situation would be resolved. Anyone who wasn't familiar with Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Beyonce or their respective music videos would have hit Google in a minute, to find out more about Kanye or to compare Swift's video to Beyonce's and decide for themselves. If they liked what they heard, albums would have been downloaded or purchased online, creating new fans for the artists involved. And don't forget about Much - they got the ratings they needed on an otherwise lackluster TV evening.
Beyonce got to clear her own name by bringing Swift up onstage again to share the limelight and have her moment. Swift got to be the innocent artists wronged by a bad character, which certainly didn't do anything to tarnish her image. And Kanye? He's already famous for a lot of other outbursts. Fans who stuck with him through rants about how much HE deserved others' awards might actually see this as an improvement, since his outburst was on behalf of someone else this time. In the long run, this move was completely effective because everyone involved was helped, and no one was seriously harmed.
The Coupon Question
This morning, a few classmates and I were discussing coupons.
"Jordan gave me a whole bunch of free cookie coupons [from Subway]," said one. "I thought, 'Don't you want these?'"
Just as inflation can end up decreasing the value of money (was it Argentina where this happened a few years ago, and $1000 bills were worthless?), so an overabundance of coupons lead us to feel that they are of no value. Those DOMO coupons that everyone gets about 10 of in the mail every week come in handy, but what do you do with those Domino's Pizza coupons, or drycleaning coupons? Sure, a coupon is nice to have when you're already a loyal customer and were intending to pay full price anyway, but does the coupon really convince you to buy something you weren't interested in otherwise?
For myself, the answer is often "no." Especially where the 'clip & save' flyers that arrive on Saturday mornings are concerned. Saving $1 off the price of salad dressing means nothing to me when I can't remember what the current price of salad dressing is. If that makes the salad dressing bottle cost $9 instead of $10, I'm still going to look for the $5 bottle. Forget the coupon.
Or better yet, I'll trade it to you for one of those cookie coupons.
"Jordan gave me a whole bunch of free cookie coupons [from Subway]," said one. "I thought, 'Don't you want these?'"
Just as inflation can end up decreasing the value of money (was it Argentina where this happened a few years ago, and $1000 bills were worthless?), so an overabundance of coupons lead us to feel that they are of no value. Those DOMO coupons that everyone gets about 10 of in the mail every week come in handy, but what do you do with those Domino's Pizza coupons, or drycleaning coupons? Sure, a coupon is nice to have when you're already a loyal customer and were intending to pay full price anyway, but does the coupon really convince you to buy something you weren't interested in otherwise?
For myself, the answer is often "no." Especially where the 'clip & save' flyers that arrive on Saturday mornings are concerned. Saving $1 off the price of salad dressing means nothing to me when I can't remember what the current price of salad dressing is. If that makes the salad dressing bottle cost $9 instead of $10, I'm still going to look for the $5 bottle. Forget the coupon.
Or better yet, I'll trade it to you for one of those cookie coupons.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Some stats (off topic)
In the new year - ketchup, baking soda, salt, and so much more! What CAN you use potatoes for? Stay tuned!
At the beginning of September, this blog was an assignment. Then it became an obligation. Now it has faded into a comfortable routine. "Oh, it's a new week! Time for a new blog!" If you read this blog, I encourage you to post a comment just to say hello. :)
This blog assignment came with a mandate of post lengths, which I'm pleased to say I fulfilled without conscious thought. Here are the final stats:
5 posts 50-200 words long:
1. Intro - 126
2. Save locally! - 191
3. Avon Bubble Bath - 90
4. Save - 50% off all clothing! - 95
5. Tweet! Tweet! Tweet! - 159
5 posts 200-500 words long:
1. DRANO? Why?! - 243
2. Tip Blitz! - 448
3. Thrifty Living with Bart Philips - 356
4. Thanks Mom! (And Dad, and Grandma...) - 284
5. Readers Respond - PLUS a bonus website! - 230
6. Attitude (OFF TOPIC) - 488
7. TEXTBOOK COMFORT INDEX - 483
8. Student Bottomless Passes!!! - 255
9. Mother Nature Saves City Lots of Money - 247
10. Cheap ways to de-stress! - 406
5 posts 500+ words long:
1. Stain Removal! - 794
2. Ink on Suede; Salt - 597
3. It's Clothes that Make the Professional? (OFF TOPIC) - 606
4. Buyer Beware - of Flimsy Coffee Tumblers! - 615
5. My (So-Far) Adventures in a Blogging Wonderland - 936
6. The Great "Used" Debate - 818
I won't count this post, or future posts, but expect this to remain a 'scrapbook' of the information I find pertinent to savings! Feel free to contribute your own tips!
And thank you for sharing the opening scenes of this adventure with me. :)
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Great 'Used' Debate (795 words)
Well, so much for wanting to get an amazing steal of a deal on a laptop. Instead, for $971.00, I got a free case, a laptop with independent graphics processing, and a 2-year warranty that covers acts of God (i.e.: fires and floods, etc.) as well as my own negligence. I actually do think it was money well spent. I guess I'll just have to be extra-thrifty elsewhere. Like used books, perhaps.
I've always been into used bookstores. One of my favourite stops on Hwy 10 up to Riding Mountain National Park is a store that used to be called Poor Michael's Bookshop in the little town of Onanole (I don't know if it still is, but that's how I refer to it). It's evolved over the years and now has a sort of arts/crafts angle as well as a cafe, but it still stocks a mighty selection of second-hand books and magazines, and my family has stopped there to browse and buy for almost two decades. More recently, I discovered the many used bookstores in Winnipeg and throughout my university years I was a faithful fixture in most of them, both to sell and to buy.
Now, though, I find myself largely on the buying end of things unless I'm looking for a specific out-of-print edition or volume. I've found there's something special about being the first person to own a glossy new book. And as an aspiring author myself, I can appreciate that if I buy a book I enjoy very much, the hard-working author has not gotten a cent out of my enjoyment - something to which they're probably entitled as a result of having worked so hard to produce, then market to publishing houses, then revise said book. It's not an easy process! Surely the creator deserves some reward for having taken so much time out of his/her life to create.
The same, then, holds true for music. Songwriters and performers spend long hours each day on their crafts. If I buy a CD second-hand (something I did more frequently before realizing that the quality is often suspect) or download music from the Internet (I think I can count on one hand the times I have actually done this, since music files take up too much space on my drives and I don't own an iPod), the creator doesn't get anything for my enjoyment of his/her work. Yes, the record companies might have ridiculously unfair contracts which limit said artists to make but pittances off of their own creations, but if I don't purchase the music, the artist doesn't even get that pittance. For the record, I don't know that I'm entitled to comment, since I have never seen a recording contract first-hand. But it still stands that if I'm not paying, they're not receiving.
I think there's less of an argument for second-hand clothing cutting off the creator. I'm pretty sure that for your generic Old Navy or Suzy Shier or what have you, the garment designers are in-house and getting paid like graphic designers do. Besides that, the garments are made en-masse, not by the designers but by sewing machine operators, mostly in countries far from the company's retail outlets and making far less than the minimum wage in the company's client locales. Unlike the writing of a book or the composing of an album, the making of your average pair of jeans or t-shirt is very far removed from an art. It's a process, unless we are talking about one-of-a-kind designer items - and even here I find it hard to justify a $4,000.00 purse. I think if the designer has been paid the $4,000.00 once for that purse, that also pays in full for the other 40 people who may subsequently (and hopefully all legally) acquire said purse in the future - and for $4,000.00 it should last through the next 40 owners!!! (The pricey Bally keychain in the photograph, found by fellow blogger Rachel for a price of $2.00, actually retails for more than $2,000.00!)
And those are just the three things that I most often buy second-hand. There's a whole second-hand world out there - appliances, cars, furniture, dishes, pet toys (eugh...)... I think these are the three most important things to remember about second-hand stuff:
1) It does save the environment some stress - if there was no way to acquire cast-offs that previous owners didn't want, everything would just go to landfills!
2) It saves your pocket - if someone else has already used it, it's not in the pristine condition for which someone paid full price, therefore of course it's cheaper in order to compensate for that.
And 3) Sometimes (as in when I bought a disappointingly beyond-repair copy of Metallica's recording with the San Francisco Symphony, or a shockingly unravel-ly sweater from a second-hand clothing store) you really do get what you pay for.
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