Fun... in the (mostly) sun

And finally, I'm getting around to posting again...
After making peanut brittle, writing Christmas cards, tidying, I needed another outlet for procrastination.
First, some links!
http://www.electric-stitch.com/archives/7
That's my first "hungry vegan" article. For the next, I've been challenged to review "Harry's Grill House"... should be fun- hope they grill me some succulent mushrooms or something.
http://xmedia.ex.ac.uk/tv/
That's for student tv... I'm in "Exeter Uncovered-2" and edited my little segment as well (2 hours tearing my hair out over the complexities of editing software for those precious 40 seconds). I'll of course broadcast the word when THE WOODEN SPOON (my cooking show) hits the air- should be soon since the first episode is all finished at last.
Fun things I've done lately
- performance work in which 18 cell phone alarms went off at the same time in the student cafe and the 18 of us were instructed to act totally oblivious and let our alarms run their course.
- host a potluck for those of us going to Amsterdam this weekend- much fun, and curry, was had by all and a guitar was played which always makes times merrier
- giant carol singing last night- over 500 people singing away and eating free minced pies
- walk around in my new red "wellies"
- take part in a collaborative painting inspired by The Eden Project in Cornwall (where I went- also a fun thing I did lately)
- improv. at a cabaret at school with 3 boys who are undoubtedly "funnier" than me- but every routine needs a straight (wo)man right? More guitars, more merriment (in the cabaret)
- couples pictionary tournament- the ladies triumphed, naturally
- admire our locally-farmed- turban squash- and eat lots of it
- a paper on facilitating effective risk-taking through improv... fun in it's own way (who doesn't love pouring over humanistic psychology?) and a response to folks who ask me "but what are you doing in school?" Actually, I do lots- including mobile phone "happenings", collaborative art, singalongs... but paper-writing is indeed involved, as you'll note from the above. I love my program and my supervisor is AMAZING- the cherry on my sundae of arts education (haha- had to say that because her name is Cherry and we all know I love word play).
Andrew is still taking Devon by renewable energy storm and enjoying it.
We love you all, we miss you all, and we hope you'll come visit us soon. I may be dressing up as a giant banana for "Fair Trade Fortnight"- tempted, yet?

Stephanie made lots of gingerbread for Christmas!
















Her vegan version of Royal Icing is cement-like (in structural properties, not taste). Just like non-vegan Royal Icing!















Kevin came to visit, and he wore the Nixon mask. We watched Highlander.

I am not a hippie!

We went to a 60s themed party. Stephanie was Twiggy. Guess who I was.














"Fear is the primary weapon of a Communist."














A little stairway runway.














America appreciates your efforts, son.

The Wizard and Poor Sir Waste-a-lot

You know you love my socks. My green soc. socks. We're behind the epic "ideas tree" on which people posted green ideas, pledges etc.
Just to clarify- when I say "we" did green puppetry, I mean me and the good folks of Easy Green. Andrew is too busy converting the county to renewable energy to have time for such frivolity.

Wizard Photovoltaic

We did some more green puppetry yesterday at the uni.'s Green Fair. At right is me with my beloved Wizard Photovoltaic. He's hiding his eyes with his bush beard... a little photo-shy perhaps...

The Blogster is Back

Hello from Stepheter.
I've been neglecting the blog a bit- though all blog readers have remained unneglected in my heart and mind. As you can see by the photos, Halloween was spooktacular (personally, I find looking at some of the non-posted photos of me later Halloween night pretty darn frightful...). I danced around a club on rollerblades (you haven't lived til you've done this- trust me- I never want to go dancing without them now) and thankfully had some supportive friends (and a photographer- every disaster needs one of those, right Sita? Haha) to hold me up as I tried to make it down a cobblestone hill afterwards... quite the challenge!
That one photo of me standing with drinks is taken at a big folk dance we went to last Friday.
There was some fast spinning that even my hours of interpretive dance at school had not prepared me for. It was definite community bonding.
Saturday was my green puppetry- must bug one of my fellow puppeteers for pics. Our play followed the adventures of Sir Wastealot (voiced by me) and Sir Recyclad as they become more Enviro-conscious through encounters with the wize wizard photovoltaic etc. I scripted it which was so much fun. I love junk like that.
Tonight, we're having an impromptu celebration of Andrew's new job! Dessert eating at Herbies Veg restaurant where Devon is always in heaven and vegan sweets are a plenty.
Upcoming mayhem-
Amsterdam Trip in early December with a big group of Green Soc. ers etc.
Possible appearance at an open stage with the group I do improv. with. (the next second city- don't you know it)
Making recycled Christmas decorations (and selling ones we've made)
Issue-based drama workshop
Hopefully customizing more of my stuff. I ran a t-shirt customizing stall at a club night last night (Canadian band Pony Up played- if that means anything to anyone) and am hooked.
Ta ta for now, folks, and please keep keeping in touch!
xo

KABLLAMMMMOOOOOO!

I just got a job working with DARE (Devon Association for Renewable Energy). There is no better job for me! I wanted it so bad, and I got it! I'm going to be doing renewable energy consulting, so when people say, "I wonder how many kilowatts of renewable power I can get for this property/structure?" they get me to come over and give them an idea of what's realistic. And then get to I know all about renewable power and totally stop global warming and solve the fossil fuel finitude problem. I can't wait! I start on Wednesday.

The people at DARE said that they are in a massive growth phase, so not only will I do the consulting, I will also develop projects for them to expand and take on new ways to conserve or generate power in a sustainable way.

They ALSO sit on a number of boards and government bodies through which they influence energy POLICY! This kicks so much ass, it's like a combiner Transformers made out of other combiners! (To clarify; it would be like if Devastator, Superion, Defensor, Menasor, and Bruticus combined into one much bigger Transformer that was way stronger than Unicron or anybody else and was totally not evil. No Computron.).

Andrew visited a self-sustaining woodland community yesterday while Steph did Green Puppetry in Crediton (photos to come!). It was field trip day, clearly. Here, one of the resident children was developing his farming skills.















This is an interior shot of one of the roofs. Awesome!















To save space most of the houses have loft beds. Why don't I have a loft bed?















This are was in the process of being turned into a culinary herb garden.














They had a nice pathway leading to the property.

The compost toilet

This structure houses the compost toilet.















It's not that complicated. If you follow these instructions, it helps with the compost toilet mission. That mission is to provide compost for the permaculture products.















You have to remove the stump and then put the seat over the hole.















In England, "Wee" is often used as a world for pee.















This stuff is collected for one year (you put saw dust in after you go), then the container is switched and you leave it for 2 years. Then the containers are emptied onto fields of comfrey. The comfrey takes the pathogens out as it grows. Then you compost the comfrey and spread it on the fields. It's a miraculously effective compost. Steph wants to emphasize that you are looking at sawdust. Andrew is not *that* graphic a photographer.

The Stuart Urinal

They had a permaculture urinal.















Your pee fertilizes plants and prepares an area for agriculture.















The shape pointed to (near the word "bed") is the shape of the urinal, if you are looking at it from the sky.















They really did a good job of depicting a stream of pee hitting the ground.














This is the keyhole bed.

Andrew's Trip to the Woodland Community

Stuart (or maybe Stewart) Woodland Community is a woodland community that grows its own food using permaculture techniques, generates its own power using renewable sources, and aims for sustainable living. There are 4 families there, each with their own house (not conventional houses), and there are other structures as well, which I will show in other pictures. They have iron cookware and get all of their heat from wood fueled fires.















This is a part of the food tent, where they do communal cooking and eating. Many of their structures include "benders" as structural members. Benders are flexible pieces of wood (from hazel, willow, or other naturally flexible types of trees). Almost all the structures include tarp like that shown here. This kind of tarp is a good insulator (for a tarp). It contains a layer of aluminum foil.















They have dogs. The dogs are cute and friendly.















This is one of the community structures. They make their buildings out of old forklift palettes, living trees, used plywood and other cheap but useful "used" material. They even take a page from the HDT and use used windows.















Here we see some rigid plastic sheets sticking out from under the tarp. This plastic is another common material used in their structures, usually as part of the roof.

Stephanie has always wanted to skank with the Phantom.














Boogie Nightmares Jack Horner won't stop at strangling just himself with videotape. But he's also not very coordinated.















Sita and Stephanie, ready to take on the world - on skates.















This guy was Deadpool. I was so jealous. I'm going to recruit him for the Stan Lee funeral trip.

Hallowe'en

Left to right: A drag queen, "Boogie Nightmares Rollergirl", an Angel, "Boogie Nightmares Jack Horner", and a Spider themed monster woman.







At the Club "Timepiece."















Rollergirl (without wig and makeup) serves drinks at an Amnesty Caleidh.















Now we can see how the "Boogie Nightmares" characters died. Rollergirl ODed on coke (as one would expect) and Jack Horner strangled himself with videotape. Also pictured is Hannah as a vampire.















Jack Horner gets down.

From a distance, this thing looked like a spider, but it was actually a Louise Bourgeois sculpture at the Tate modern. We swung by London on the way to...















The Nettlebed region- home of most vegan-friendly pub this side of the Thames and former home of SML. We were taken for a ride on a river in this punt.















Our hearty crew of rowers on the river led by Laura, our gracious host and future CEO of "The Nettlebed Experience Co."















While in Nettlebed, we saw some guys dissing the Fawkester, so Stephanie burned them at the stake. Vengeance was served, and Stephanie was kept warm. Some would say this was merely an early Nov. 5th bonfire party- but you know better...

We made banners for the Greensoc's Green Week















I painted "Green Week" in the font of "Green Lantern."















Other Greensoccers were involved.















Stephanie did most of this one. I did the "This Green Week" part, and the mushroom to the left of "Connect." Our friend Hannah did the flowers at top. Stephanie did everything else. She's awesome! She also did the design on paper for this banner and the Green Lantern font one so we'd know what to paint.


















Here's Stephanie right after the Gulu walk. She raised over $50, so she got a shirt. The colour of her tongue indicates her health and was meant to contrast the sad state of public health in Northern Uganda. She had it stuck out for the whole walk. Photo- Sita Loi, capturer of raised eyebrows extrordinaire...

Pubs, plays, and plans

Saturday night and...
we're home. Weirdly, there tends to be more on on weeknights for us lately. BUT today's Gulu walk made for a full day... There were a nice jolly group of folks- and dogs- walking 5 miles to raise money for kids in Uganda- we took a side route, an extended Gulu walk if you will, and visited an amazing riverside pub with the head of the Global Centre. Then we reconvened with the group at another pub (all about the pubs...) for some drumming- Andrew got really into the drum circle.
We're going to Amsterdam! But not anytime soon. A group of 12 of us are going at the beginning of December and I am excited. Our hostel provides free ice skates and we plan on trying a different veg. restaurant every night. And going skating wearing our Halloween costumes!
A response to Mel's question- Stand Up Speak Out is actually an international event- ppl standing up against poverty to show world leaders that we care and that they really need to get on these Millennium Development Goals! It happens like a Mexican wave across the world... anyway, I was just in a drama sketch about clean water. A comedy with a dark edge.
Next week promises some Green Soc. promoting, Halloween costume prep (Boogie Nightmares- that's right), "Poetry in Performance", and talking up Fair Trade.
Some people have mentioned that I don't mention my academic life on here. Wednesday morning's class was some gruelling but exciting swing dancing. I spend most hours at school in the drama studio. My current reading is "creativity and mental growth" and we're all still trying to answer the question of What is Art? I'm enjoying it and beginning to feel less guilty for having such a "fun" masters. I know swing dancing doesn't change the world but...
Andrew, meanwhile, is selling smelly soapy things at Lush very part time while seeking bigger and better things. My baths are about to hit a whole new level. He's also got a really cool internship (unpaid) at the Global Centre involving research and compilation of socially/politically progressive comic books from around the world and has been in contact with a Ugandan graphic artist this week.
Hope you enjoy the photo posts- all those scenic shots are from a rollerblade adventure near our house.
Ta ta!

This is s whole new post, so I thought I'd be less lazy and turn the picture right side up.

This dude was from Germany, and he thought that maybe he had bought his shirt in Spain, but he didn't know that he was wearing a Tiger-cat logo, or that it was an out dated one. He had never even heard of the CFL.















This is the river Exe, the river that's just behind our house.














Even though Stephanie's rollerblading and clearly not watching where she's going, she's not afraid of falling and biting her tongue off.
















More river Exe.