This Week
I've had a lot of thoughts bounce around in my head this week. I have to make a decision about an important topic and have other thoughts that are clicking around this empty head of mine.
Influencers
People that matter behind the scenes with me know I absolutely dislike this word with my name associated with it. When I started this journey back in 2008 as a fun hobby and then translated it to a business in 2010. I never considered myself as a person to influence others. I've always seen myself as a global educator of crochet. Of course, with sponsorship, we have bills to pay but my contracts are about teaching and showcasing ideas which are where my passion resides. So my pay isn't reflective of selling anything as I am just building content of resources which is what I love to do.
I was reading an article this past week where Influencers are being banned from certain venues as a result of selfishness and just plain being rude. Someone has a large following base and they want free stuff or services because they have a large following community that may buy into the notion. Some of these people project themselves as living a dream life and if they truly have a perfect life, good for them. Something in my heart of hearts tells me it's a lot of hokie pokies and that it's easy to project an image that doesn't really exist. How does one differentiate the truth from the persona of what is an illusion?
A question that is bouncing in my head lately. Will 'so-called influencers' one day be the shame of society and trust is breached because people have clued in that what they are seeing isn't reality? I wonder what others think of influencers?
In Kitty News
We've been watching a series on Netflix called Kitten Rescuers with host, Jo Brand. A delightful series of animal rescues with great editing and storytelling. It's a fun watch as I crochet. I find myself staring at the TV longer as I am captivated.
Puss Puss was involved this week in a scrap fight somewhere. Both of our cats are rescues. Puss Puss has already had a litter of babies and they both love to go outside as I talked about before. They clammer to get outside at first light in the morning and go run to the sand pile for their morning relief. We don't mind so much as it saves us buying litter. So Daniel is monitoring Puss Puss as she has a scratch behind her ear. Keeping the cats inside when they know what it's like outside would be super mean, even for their own protection. If I were to say they could laugh, they chase each other and have each other's back. They are comical to watch.
Metrics
This week, we are trying some new techniques for our website programming. Last week, we changed the website and I am closely monitoring the motions of the visitors to see where they are landing on the website. I am doing test trials of certain elements that I don't wish to reveal yet as I am unsure, metrically speaking if it's making a difference as it's only a week. I need a longer length of time to watch the graphs build.
With Thanksgiving for the Americans, it changes consumer behaviour erratically for two days. It's predictable with my forecasting but if you want to measure changes, you cannot have a blip of a holiday right in the way of the test trials.
Idiosyncrasies
While I am transparent in many ways, there's a topic that I don't like to discuss. If you guess Medical Talk, you are right.
Daniel and one of our friends get together. They are cross comparing medications and talking about issues. Meaning, I am singing songs in my head. They actually know the names of the medications they are taking. That's pretty awesome but hopefully, there's never a test for me to actually be listening. I don't mind talking in general terms but I tend not to ask leading questions as I find it's so personal.
I dislike taking medications of any sort. However, if I crack I will turn to him and ask him "Doctor Dan, what do you recommend?" He loves it when I do that even though he tells me to read the package on my own. We walk to the bathroom and look through what we have.
A Social Metric Boost
Recently, I heard something that really was food for thought. I am looking into fixing some social metrics issues and came across advice that really leaves me in a query in my head.
If I want social attention, I just have to misspell and the obvious word in which people will respond to correcting the person to give the person a lot of attention which alters the metrics of interest of the post.
That's pretty sneaky eh! Now, I have spelling issues. Recently, I misspelled Missouri as Massouri but I was spelling it the way it sounded in my head. I was trying to figure out the Postal Abbreviation for it. I was confused with MA was for Missouri, Maine or Massachusetts. However, it's honest to gawd mistake.
This call to intentionally misspell something leads me to wonder how many times someone is actually misspelling something in social media on purpose for social attention. It leads me to think they didn't proof their work, spell check didn't catch it or maybe the person is just trying to get attention. Things that make me go hmm. I would rather my work be the reason people click, not for me having to misspell something to boost my own social properties. It's a great topic for discussion.
What do you think about this topic? Honest mistake or attention needy?
Plastics and the Environment
One thing that I have never understood is how so much garbage is getting into the oceans. In our last Crochet Cruise, one of the excursions we were on a major river doing a tour that was downstream of a major city. The waterway was on the way to the ocean.
Totally disgusting was the water. I have never in my life seen trash like this ever in a river. Not just one or two bottles but 1000's including clothes, lawn furniture, toys, buckets and gawd knows what else. We are there to observe the natural beauty of the rain forest but in the water was endless float garbage passing by the boat. My seat partner, Rachel, and I were just disgusted. We thought to ourselves, how in the hell in 2019 is this even happening? Is there no catch nets to stop this catastrophe.
So over the past week, we have been watching documentaries on environmental considerations in relation to plastic. Now that we have seen this just one single river being a cesspool of filth heading to the ocean, where else are their rivers like this?
I saw an ad on YouTube about changing our habits in Nova Scotia about being more conscious about disposable cups. I know they cannot be recycled. Nova Scotia is asking its residents to consider the environmental impact of buying beverage containers at any restaurant or food service.
Garbage Day here, while I don't toss out my cups onto the ground, with our garbage pick up is every other week, I have a lot of cups to throw out. Daniel always complains about it. He's just as bad as I am but he does small cups and I use a large cup. So between the two of us, there is a minimum of ? (I'm too embarrassed to share the actual number) cups. Between the 2 of us, we can use ? in a year that is staggering for a beverage that lasts us about 30 minutes each time.
This isn't including any fast food restaurant joins we visit where there are cups too. People are recently doing a look back of 10 years. So I looked back on 10 years of cups we have used and thrown away. The number is jaw-dropping.
The day after the commercial, I went out and bought a reusable coffee cup. With using reusable cups at Tim Hortons, I save 10 cents per cup of tea, it will take a few months for the savings of the 10 cents to pay for the reusable cup. However, we don't have any more cups going into landfills.
Tim Hortons sells 2 Billion Cups of Coffee per year in Canada alone. Put that in perspective. The savings of what Daniel and I can prevent going to landfills are so insignificant. However, this week, I noticed there was more than just me with a refillable cup. Change happens when there's a movement to be the difference.
I have to admit, I had to get used to washing out my cup after usage and let it dry. Then when I go back for a cup of tea, it's ready to use. So I have to think ahead after I am done instead of just tossing the cup into the garbage and then going back for another cup.
When I really think about it, this is something many people can do if they are thinking ahead. There are initiatives to recycle coffee paper cups but wouldn't it be better that we didn't use them if we didn't need to?
With my 10 cent savings per cup, I can actually see the savings in my account.
It's just something to think about next time you go and get a cup. I should have been doing this years ago.
Plastic is going to be our epidemic in the future but there are things we can do today. While I'm not going to guilt anyone to do the switch, I think the decision has to be personal and meaningful.
One thing I did notice as I told my friends, some complained they think it's gross that people touch the tops of the cups. Meaning the servers to touch the tops of the reusable cups. Here is what I solved for myself:
- Take the top of the cup off and keep in your hands and just hand them the cup.
- To prevent contamination, I noticed they are opening up a plastic straw to stir my tea. Such craziness as I am trying to do my impact on the environment by not using a single-serve plastic item. So I am giving instructions NOT TO STIR my tea.
- When I get my cup back that is full, it's not right to the brim. I put back on the lid. I swish the cup in circles to be the motion of stirring. Problem solved.
So these are just a few things bouncing in my head this week. My issues are minimal in comparison to others but still occupy my mind. I hope you had a great week.
I want to hear from you about the issues I opened up about. What're your thoughts? Leave them here in the blog for me to read.
Pansy says
I love your misspelled word discussion. I have been using that line for years. I used to edit a couple of newsletters for schools. I have to mention, no matter how carefully one attempts to proofread, something will slip by. My response when this happened was, "I did it on purpose to see who was actually reading the newsletter." I really didn't, but it soothed the irate complainer and did let me know my efforts weren't in vain. Someone was reading the thing. 😀 As for today and social media . . . Who knows? Could go either way. For me, I tend to be in hurry and don't always proofread as carefully as I should. Mostly, folks understand the hurry and overlook the mistake. They are busy too. But there are the 'trolls' who have to make an issue of anything and/or everything. As for doing it on purpose, maybe. Or like me and my newsletters, it is an excuse for making a mistake in the first place.
I do enjoy these chats with you. I like getting to know the authors of the blogs I enjoy. Thank you.
I love that you have gotten a personal cup. I have used one for years. I also do not use paper plates at home and I use reusable bags at the market. I have been concerned about landfills since I lived next to one back in the 80's. The mountains of trash is unreal. Anymore, drinking from a styrofoam cup is . . . *shudders* Awful. I don't like the flavor. My reusable cup is porcelain too. I don't like plastic, or paper, anything. My preference.
Cats outside. Okay if one has a barn for them to live in. But, I was raised on a farm where all animals had jobs. Cats were mousers in the barn. When I moved to the city, cats became house animals for me, if I had one at all. The one I let out was killed by the pit from across the street, in our yard no less. I was livid they let their dogs out to run wild. He wasn't a nice bit like my daughter has now. People don't always consider neighbors when they let their animals roam. My kids were devastated to loose the cat. Yes, it was reported to appropriate authorities. So, I guess it depends as much on where one lives. In the country, okay. The city, not so much.
Vickie Coles says
All valid points....the one I respond to at this time is the cups. I applaud your decision to switch gears. Those people who say ...”they are touching your cap”......they touch the cap even if you use the throw away cup. Ever watch them put a cap on? Touched all over. As a former waitress, we were taught to NEVER serve a drink with our hands hovering over the top. Always serve it with hands holding it like you would if you were drinking it...on the side. Rant over, now I will endeavor to use my reusable cup when I get my Starbucks tea, thank you for leading the way.
Lee Clark says
These are deep thoughts. I always try and use cups and also dish towels instead of paper towels to reduce. the impact. We need to think about these things. We humans impact this earth so much more than the animals we are supposed to take care of. I just enjoy you and Dans thoughts. We are all responsible. I don't drink coffee so don't use much paper. It's good you are thinking about these things and raising awareness. You have a HUGE following and can really make a difference. Take care and give yourself sometime to relax and don't worry about what others think. Do what you think is right for you.