Junk Mail

Despite my best intentions to try to reduce the amount of paper I'm using there are many people and organisations who seem intent on filling my postbox and recycle bin with stuff that I don't want and didn't ask for in the first place.

Here's a useful link for anyone (in Australia) who wants to reduce the unwanted advertising, junk mail and flyers they receive.

This Australia post site shows how to reduce the number of unaddressed letters you might get:
http://auspost.com.au/personal/managing-letterbox.html

And this link will take you to the Do Not Mail register of ADMA (Australian Direct Marketing Association).  Register here to stop recieving unwanted mail from all companies who are part of this program:
http://www.adma.com.au/consumer-help/do-not-mail/

It looks like I need to get an extra sticker for my postbox, in addition to the "no advertising material" sticker it currently has.  But as AusPost point out - not everyone will heed the stickers anyway.  I get plenty of flyers from local real estate agents who must think that leaflets promoting their services are perhaps educational.

Goodbye NRMA

The NRMA (a leading motoring organisation of Australia) provide a publication called Open Road.  Now, while it's good to have membership of NRMA for emergency fixes to my vehicle, its not so good to get this publication.

I've tried before without success to cancel this, but was emailing, and I didn't get a response.  Here's the correct method: call 13 11 22, select option to amend an existing membership etc, then ask not to recieve Open Road.  They'll switch this off for you, but warn that you may receive next copy due to printing lead times.

So this magazine has 76 pages (Sep/Oct 2010) printed double-sided and is published every two months, so I have reduced consumption by 228 pages (or nearly half a ream of paper), and six plastic bags.  That count doesn't include the additional brochure inserts (2 pages). That means my time is saved, and there is less clutter in the house.  It also means the energy used to print, distribute, collect recycling and recyle is also now not needed.  What a relief!

If you're wondering about whether or not to stick with this mag, here's a few stats.  This latest copy has a lot of advertising.  In fact, only 50% of the mag is articles - not very interesting articles in my view, but hey you might like them.   Approx figures below:

Approx. figures for content of Sep/Oct 2010 Open Road magazine

Interestingly, the direct advertising from this magazine, in 2009, provided NRMA with $5.9M of revenue, but their distrbution costs were $7.8M.

One of the 'travel' articles is about a cruise through the Northwest Passage - now possible due to diminished ice due to global warming  :0(

Hewlett Packard and the mysterious alignment sheets

I have a Hewlett Packard all-in-one printer. I wish I didn't. The print cartridges are expensive and every time I load a new cartridge the machine spits out an alignment sheet. I am then supposed to put the sheet on the scan bed, scan it, and this completes a magical alignment process which is supposed to make my print quality better. This also happens when I power up too. Page after page of wasted ink, wasted paper.

In my view this process makes no difference to the print quality, is irritating and time consuming, and is not helping me reduce my impact on resources.

I googled the problem and found a lot of others anguished about the same issue. I got onto the HP forum (you have to register to do this, another waste of time - I can't imagine why HP needs to know the identity of everyone raising questions about their products) and followed their advice...which is basically to keep aligning, try cleaning, maybe even try buying yet more cartridges to see if they work. But they didn't address the underlying problem - why can't I choose NOT to align.

I've raised that question.  Will wait to see what happens.

This raises a diffcult question for me - the kind of environmental paradox that has no clear answer.  Is it better for me to continue using this HP product while it  (deliberately? surely not) wastes cartridges, packing, paper ink and power, but I am not throwing away the product itself.  Or is it better for me to get rid of this product and find a greener alternative.  Hm, I think probably holding onto the printer has to be the best option...?

Certainly, if something untoward happened to the printer, like it died a natural death, or someone in a fit of rage put a hammer through it, I would not, under any circumstances, buy another HP printer.

Powerdown

Less power means less carbon pollution.

Today I started with an exterior light.  It has a motion sensor that flicks it on when you walk past at night.  It used to stay on for seconds, not long enough to walk to the end of the drive.  Far from ideal when guests were trying to leave.  I changed it a while back so it stayed on longer - but over-compensated, so it stayed on for a long, long time.  Today I trimmed back both the time and brightness.

I was going to leave it there for the day but figured that I could make another, bigger difference just by cranking down the boiler thermostat.  It was easy.  I walk past it every day.  I just had to stop, open the door, push in the thermostat and turn anti-clockwise.  I just went one notch.  Let's see how that goes, and maybe I will be able to crank down further.

I also switched off the second fridge. It has been used less and less.  The freezer used to be full, but now almost empty.  So everything was moved to the main fridge which is now much fuller, but not bursting at the seams.  If I leave it switched off I can save 1500-2000 Kilograms of carbon a year according to this energy/carbon cost calculator

Green Veggies

Well, the Aus election has not yet produced a result. But it did produce its first Green party representative, and double the number of Green senate seats. Let's see what the planet is looking like in three years or so when the next election comes along.

What did I do today to reduce, reduce, reduce?

I put out the hard rubbish. For those not in Aus who don't understand, we have 'clean ups' where you can throw out big stuff that you wouldn't or couldn't throw in the bin. Furniture, whitegoods, TVs sterios. We tend to put in a bit of stuff that you think is perfectly ok but you just don't need anymore. Pots, pans, vases...whatever. Its a national pastime. People drive round to see what they can see, see if they can pick it up, sell it, re-use it. I've put our stuff out a bit early this week, even though the council tell me this is an OFFENCE, so folk can pickup anything if they want it.

So that has reduced the level of unwanted stuff in my house, but has not really reduced my consumption. It is helping me to think differently though. I like the clear space and that is an incentive for me not to buy more stuff to fill the space. I also need to work on getting people to stop buying me stuff I don't want.

I fixed up the wheelbarrow. Punctured tyre, but needed to hack through a rusted bolt to remove the wheel. Will need to buy a new bolt. But I reparied rather than throwing it out with the rest of the hard rubbish. I also fixed up the irrigation system, using parts I had bought a while back, plus some clever cannibalisation of old parts.

I planted some old (2 year old) seeds and can now use the irrigation system to water them. What usually happens is I plant seeds and they sprout, illustrating the magic coding of DNA & new life in those gnarled, dried old seeds...and then I don't water them and they die. So hopefully the irrigation will help me reduce wasting my time. Not sure how viable 2 year old seeds are. The seeds are veggies. I've always liked growing veggies. It seems a basic skill we should all have. I don't have this skill, but I am going to try a bit harder this year. I've put in eggplant & watermelon in pots to see if I can get some seedlings going. I've put carrot, cos lettuce and spring onion in rows.

I don't have a lot of land to play with. It's not a small property but most of it is taken up by house, lawn and concrete. So not sure how big my food growing enterprise can get.

How, you might ask, is growing food in my own property reducing consumption. Well, I don't need to travel to buy it, it doesn't have packaging, it doesn't have the overhead of being distributed from farm to shop so less fuel used. Imagine if everyone in the street grew their own veggies. We could trade lemons for squash, and carrots for scallions. Awesome. As it is we hardly speak to our neighbours.

Oh, and I fixed up the compost bin. It's been doing nothing for ages, and I even (for the first time in years) stopped collecting compostable material in the kitchen. How low have I sunk?!? Oh well. In the midst of the pile there was some humus-like, earthy material which I was quite pleased with. The rest I have put back in the compost bin, in its repositioned site. I even went down to my own hard rubbish to rescue on old broken, plastic pipe. I cut it to size, drilled holes in it, and placed it in the middle of the pile. I think it will help aerate the compost pile.

Election Scorecard

Election day tomorrow.  Neither of the main options are offering any vision, any long term view, or any maturity.  They are clowning around - looking no further forward than three years.  I also read an article today about the green party, basically complaining that the greens weren't focussing totally on green issues, and spending some time on the issues the other parties are whining on about. Hell's teeth.

I don't know how long this link will be good - hopefully for a long time so we can see how whoever is elected matches up to their promises.  Hm.  But note that the two main parties aren't promising much.  Here is the election scorecard of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF):

WWF Election Scorecard

This week at work an email from the green initiative (it's good working for a company that considers green issues and has set a target to be carbon neutral) to announce Green Games.  It seems like a reasonable enough initiative.  It aims to get people thinking about how to change their behaviours to reduce carbon emissions.  It looks a bit cheesy :0(

A couple of people in our team are ok to get involved so maybe we will give it a try.

Greenhouse Games

Goodbye Amnesty International

Well not quite goodbye. Amnesty International are a top organisation, one of the best. If you don't know about them you should check them out here and donate some money.
Amnesty International

I am an Amnesty member and I donate monthly. But I've asked them today to stop sending me letters. I get lots of letters from them telling me about some pretty horrific things that are happening around the world, sometimes asking me for more money. Printed letters, with glossy printed leaflets, and return envelopes. I have on occasion donated extra money, but usually I hold onto the letters for a while, and then feel guilty about throwing the papers in the recycling.
If I think back from when I throw this paper in the bin there is a whole chain of waster power that has generated these letters that I don't want. The postie drove them to my postbox. Some machine probably packed the envelope. The leaflets were printed. The reply envelope was printed. The letter was printed. The paper was transported to the printers. The Ink was transported to the printers. The ink was manufactured. The paper was manufactured. The raw materials were transported to the manufacturers. Hell's teeth. The raw materials probably include some trees that were pulled out of a forest that had been capturing carbon. An endless cycle of energy use and waste for a letter that I didn't want that I threw in the recycling.
So, I've asked Amnesty not to send them. I hope they listen. I've also asked them to stop calling me too. The decision not to get letters goes with the decision that I will probably not donate more. That is a very hard decision. If I donate more to anyone it will probably be to WWF or someone who is doing something about climate change. Well, never say never. I still get emails from Amnesty...or did I unsubscribe??!

Goodbye Joseph Sin

This blog used to be about Joseph Sin, a fantasy/sci-fi/comedy manuscript I wrote.  I still think it is an ok book, and would still like to do something with it, but my efforts to date have been v slack.  i was working at home today, and meant to take out 15 minutes to make a call to a lit agent.  But did I? No, I didn't.  I think this is called avoidance.

So, the blog is effectively dead.  Like an old mobile phone in a drawer that you think... well, not sure what you migth think you're going to do with that old phone.  Certainly you're never going to use it again.  So like that old mobile phone I should dispose of it.  In the case of mobile phones, of course, we should recycle.  I learned recently that they contain some metal/chemical/substance that is found in the Congo and so mining of it threatens the habitat of gorillas.

And so, goodbye Joseph Sin, the blog, and hello Reduce, Reduce, Reduce.  Why?  My current reading matter suggests that the earth is irretrievably ruined already.  Climate change is too far gone. The greenhouse gases are high, have raised temperatures already, and started positive feedback loops that will make things worse.  Simultaneously I am watching the leaders of the two main parties in Australia, campaigning for an election at the end of the week, behaving with an astonishing lack of maturity and perspective.  Democracy will never fix climate chage because they see an horizon only 3-4 years away.  Business won't fix it either while their focus is on the next annual statement.

So it is up to us...to reduce, reduce, reduce.

Here's the book I'm reading should you care to have a flick through it.  I'm only up to chapter three so far.

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

Boy meets girl

My research tells me that a book synopsis should have an interesting first sentence. Something that will engage the reader.

The synopsis should answer questions the reader will have. What is the story about? Who are the chief characters? What do they want? Why do they want it? And, what stands in their way of getting it?

The synopsis should be written in the present tense. It should give a flavour of the manuscript.

So it’s got to be more than “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl transported to alternate world, boy tries to save girl, loses girl again…"

I’ve written the synopsis. It’s about 2 pages – within the recommended length of 2-3 pages. I found it difficult to write – there were a couple of areas where I just got stuck. It was a bit like writing a resume. It can be difficult to know what to include and what to omit.

I will leave it now for a day or two, then look at it afresh and edit again. Then, the next step, is to call that literary agent!

Graaargh!!

Graaargh!! That's the kind of sound I made when I realised I hadn't posted here since January!  Graaargh!!  That's not a  big deal in itself, but it means I haven't been doing much to get the book published either.  Well, even that's not strictly true, I have been working on things, but I feel like I'm in the same place I was five months ago.

So what have I been doing?  Editing.  A revision of the ms.  That meant taking words out, putting words in, tidying up, clarifying.

I waited a while to do this as I felt if I did it straight away I would not be able to see the words as fresh.  I was too close to it, and finishing that last page was too recent.  When I'm drawing it is sometimes good to leave the drawing for a while, or even to look at it in a mirror, that allows you to see it afresh, and see what needs changing.  That's what I needed to do with the ms.

Now that's complete, I'm back to thinking about the synopsis.  And that's where I was five months ago.  Graaargh!!

While I would have preferred this exercise not to take too long, I did find working through the ms valuable.  I rediscovered the story, and I still enjoyed it.  It still made me laugh, even though I feel I should not be laughing at my own jokes.  I still felt for the characters.

Now, back to this synopsis.

How frustrating...

Literary agents.  They are people whose job it is to present your manuscript to publishers, negotiate a fantastic deal for the author, and leave the author to their core business...which is writing.  Sounds great.  If I can get a literary agent, it means I can back to writing.

The only problem is that literary agents are about as difficult to engage as a publisher is.  The web-sites of publishers and literary agents are almost identical.  They exhort you not to waste their time, to follow their very clear rules for submission of manuscripts.  There are clear procedures to follow.  And the sub-text is - the author is not worthy. 

What is worse than this?  The manuscript isn't enough.  They all require me to complete another piece of work: a story outline, or synopsis.  There are clear rules to be found on what this should look like too.  It sounds like 'the pitch'.  A few pages outlining the story, the main characters and what motivates them, and revealing the entire plot up front.  The agent can use this guide to determine whether or not to read the manuscript.  How frustrating...What if I am ok at writing manuscripts, but very poor at writing synopses?

It is an obtacle I need to get over.  It's only a couple of pages, so what's the big deal?  At times I feel creating the synopsis could be almost fun.  It could be funny.  It's only writing after all.  Here's a mini-synopsis:  Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl transported to alternate world, boy tries to save girl, loses girl again...Hm, I will have to work harder on this.

When I was taking the dog for a walk this evening I was thinking about something I'd rather write.  When I was finishing the ms off I made a connection that I had not seen before.  A funny, quirky connection that I suggested, but left open.  There's another thirty pages that would start the sequel that I would love to write right now.

But if I don't get on with this synopsis soon, it will never get done.

Joseph Sin - the ms

While I was writing Joseph Sin I used the Trebuchet font, had single-line spacing, and had a line gap between paragraphs with no para indentation.  I was comfortable with that, and it helped me to write.

The first step to getting this ms (ms = abbreviation for manuscript) published is to change the format.  I've checked out a few sites with guidelines on how to prepare an ms for presentation to an agent or publisher.  I've had to give it a more basic font and increase the size of the font, give it double-line spacing, and indent the paragraphs.  I no longer recognise it.  It looks like some kind of 1970's mainframe print-out, the kind that came on green-striped paper.  I felt like I was betraying my child!

I'm usually pretty good at proof-reading, not professionally, but I can read a document and spot most typos and errors.  But with this new, super-sized font I can spot a few more errors.  This means I am going to have to go through the whole thing again to fix things up.  Seeing the writing in a different size and font is also making it a bit easier to see the thing with fresh eyes.  A bit like when you're drawing, and you look at the drawing in a mirror to see things you can no longer see looking directly.  Another reason to work through the book again and see what can be freshened up in the writing.

In its current format the ms has almost 131, 000 words, spread across 615 pages.

Joseph Sin - mind the gap.

I'm just reading Seth Godin's "The Gap".

He suggests that in many endeavours there is a "gap" when the going gets tough.  Whatever you are doing might be easy at first, but you may reach a point where it gets harder.  He argues that it is worthwhile pushing through the gap, because those that do will reap the rewards: they will be better at what they do, and so more likely to be successful at it.

If I apply this thinking to my writing, then I feel I have hit the gap now.  The writing isn't easy, but I do find it more enjoyable than the thought of trying to get the manuscript published.

I completed a test around a year ago which was aimed at identifying what kinds of skills I had, and which I enjoyed.  "Literary" skills were at the top of the list > 90%: classified not just as something I enjoyed, but as a need.  "Selling" was way down at the bottom of the list, something I was not great at, and didn't enjoy.  Clearly an area for improvement.

Selling this manuscript is my Joseph Sin gap.

Joseph Sin - the manuscript, the quest

Joseph Sin. Not my name, the name of my...well, what shall I call it. 

I can't call it a book, "a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers" (dictionary.com). It isn't bound yet.

I could call it a novel, "a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters " (dictionary.com). But that sounds a bit pretentious to me: surely it can't be called a novel until it's published.

So, it will have to be a manuscript, "the original text of an author's work, handwritten or now usually typed, that is submitted to a publisher" (dictionary.com).

I'd like to call it a book. I'd like to be able to point at a printed version of "Joseph Sin" and say, 'Look, this my book!' So, this blog is a record of my quest to have Joseph Sin published.