You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Uncategorized' category.
I have a question, for anyone who might stumble upon this page and for my friends who haven’t yet given up hope on the resurrection of this blog.
How do you figure out/calculate how much your time, labour and effort is worth in charging someone for whom you’ve done some work? How do you know what a fair salary or compensation looks like? How does the idea of profit fit into these calculations and decisions?
I ask because aside from working out how to much to charge based on the cost of physical materials, I’ve always wondered how people put a price tag on their service to others. I guess factors such as supply and demand, competition and government intervention help provide a guide to start you off, or else set very strict limits in some cases. If it is possible to momentarily sideline those external influences, do you have some sort of internal feeling for what your ability, time and effort is worth?
More than justifying it to others, what I wonder is how do people justify it to themselves? How do they satisfy their own sense of fairness?
This question is open to everyone: whether you feel you’re justly paid or not; and whether you receive a fixed salary, are self-employed or are some form of consultant. I sincerely thank whoever does decide to give answering the question a shot, my naivete in this matter is very, very persistent.
[And yes, "a question" in actuality meant a set of questions revolving around a main idea 
One day I will learn how to ask "a" question. It will come!]
Warm tea in the belly
The smell of rain in the air and coming off the damp ground combined with the smell of pine forest
The smell of a new guitar in your arms
Much kudos to Yann Tiersen of course – your music fits well inside me.
I love the sound on this guitar. And I love that there are so many musicians out there just doing their thing, learning and giving through their learning.
(Glad I can be touchy-feely here with impunity )
Walking down pretty suburban streets in anticipation of getting to the ramp that takes you down to the sea…… and discovering it is not blue at all, but endless silver. The sheer surprise of it, combined with the reminder that the sea has different moods and days too.
Even its textures and movements were unusual and unusually varied yesterday evening. There was the trembling, agitated vibration of the thinnest film of water – something I’d never seen before. The slow rolling and folding over of the shallow waves soon to reach shore. The messy blips pushing each other along further out, making their way up along the coast without a second thought for stopping to check out sand or the tentative feet of beachgoers. The broad singular face of the sea – perfectly calm and preoccupied.
Surprises are pleasurable.
the most intelligent summary of the day’s events you can provide is: “People suxorz.”
Bopping to ukelele music
Number one sign that Susan is completely focused on composing emails to potential employers:
* ………….. shhhh splish! splish! ssslop *
Uh-oh. Oh shit. No, that can’t be the running bath overflowing?! No no shit shit . . . Ohhhhhhhhh damnit.
It’s a spillage of 20-30 towel magnitude. In the midst of my embarrassment and contrition for being so negligent, I still manage to take note of how the lapping low waters reflect the light so that it dances on the bottom of the bathroom door. “Oh how lovely ” thinks she-doofus.
No respectable mop in sight, I begin the hero’s journey of ridding the bathroom floor of its floodwaters using a plastic bag and my cupped scooper hand. (Hands are really the most ingenious invention ever. This occurs to me at least once a month.) As I’m there squatting on a poor soggy towel, scooping water into a plastic bag to be tipped out into the shower, a question suddenly occurs to me. “Should I stay here and continue to scoop water until it’s sufficiently cleared, which will take an unknown but certainly extremely long amount of time; or should I go back and finish that email I was working on first? I mean, I’m almost finished and I was just getting into the groove of sounding intelligent. Hmmmmm……..”
I’m telling you, all bathrooms should have a slanting floor. I mean nature knows that slopes and water go together.
In this post I briefly mentioned a conversation I had with one American guy on my travels; a nice, smart and well-spoken guy who was taking a short holiday in Europe in-between military training activities. A friend reading the post picked up on the casual mention of this conversation and asked me the following question in the comments:
Hey Susi, why don’t (or didn’t) you believe in a human’s inherent right to life? Just curious.
When I started this reply I was going to put it as a comment following his, but then it got longer and longer and I realised that perhaps it should be a post of its own. I was reluctant to make it one because there are a ton of other “real” posts I have been intending on completing, and because this is a highly personal topic. I’m very opinionated but at the same time I don’t want it to seem as if I’m trying to convert others to my point of view. You can take it or leave it or turn it into a paper crane to hang up from your ceiling. To be honest it does bother me that I could hurt someone’s feelings by saying what I say, what I hope is that this is only short-lived and can be put into perspective. Of course if anyone finds what I have said off-base or cruel or stupid, you can tell me personally or in the comments.
Why did I make it a post if I was really so worried it would be offensive? Well mainly because I did want to leave it in the comments section as a public answer to his question, yet at the same time I was suspicious of my desire to leave it there in this old post that people who usually read my blog probably wouldn’t see again. It indicated to me that I cared enough about this question to want to deal with it openly, yet also felt like I needed to hide it by burying it somewhere where people who know me wouldn’t find it. Totally disingenuous. Read the rest of this entry »
