Long-delayed meme response to akire_yta
Elaborating on the subjects given.
1) gardening
I can only say that my approach to this is haphazard and scattershot. I wanted to grow things to eat. I wanted to grow things that weren't fit to buy. I wanted to help save money on my grocery bill. In the end I've more or less given up on that last one, if only due to the hard evidence of my spending at various hardware stores and on eBay. I have found that this has grown into a full-scale hobby, with pleasing effects on my winding-down-from-work meditation and my physical fitness (barring mulching accidents). And being able to pick the occasional ripe strawberry and raspberry is a magical thing. I wish I had more success with my gardening; I'm certainly never going to be as good at making it deliver as mandragora2003 is. I have the sneaking suspicion it'd take a lot more effort and time than I have available to make it truly successful.
2) corsetry
I lovelovelove corsetry. I love how it looks, how it feels, and what it does for my figure and my presentation. And its salutary effects on posture and lower back support are wonderful too. I love how it's become easier to obtain and more acceptable as outerwear. What don't I love about it? How much the word has been co-opted by budget makers of lingerie to refer to flimsy torso-baring bodices that aren't even in spitting distance of the concept of boning. How corsetry's new status as acceptable clubwear means that any idiot thinks they can fling one on, and as long as it doesn't actually fall off, that they're wearing it well. (Too-big, too-small and even upside down corsets to be seen regularly at Sin, I can vouch.) And I dearly wish that I had access to a custom corsetiere right now. My usual ones have either vanished up their own bottoms, or have left the industry. Siiiigh..
3) ordinary people
Ordinary people break my heart. So much wasted potential. I look at the crowds of people out there, living by stimulus-response and working for the weekend. How few people question the world, the status quo or their own actions? How few people appreciate or care about what they have and what they are? How many people out there, blithely insensate and callous, just pass by and hamhandedly hurt those around them? So much love and loss behind leather walls. And yet each one is a Person with dreams and a heart, whether they have ever learned or been taught to use either.
Sometimes I have a love-hate relationship with Humanity.
4) travel
I love travelling. I even love the getting there as well as the destination. I got my first passport at two - the expression in the photos hasn't changed much, I can assure you; still grumpy - and haven't looked back since. It's only in the last ten years or so that I've been able to travel on my own finances as opposed to those of my family, and it's made it all the sweeter. I have my documents, my travel sedatives, and my plans for Paris and London. Bring it on!
5) shift work
It's hard. It's really hard. I've done this for five years now and it never really gets easier. You just get used to it. Losing your sense of the week, living by rhythms of workflow. Having to make appointments a minimum of a fortnight in advance, and just accepting that you won't be able to make it to that party/opening/screening/catchup coffee. Part of the lifestyle in the industry. You think of time differently. It's something to mark where you are and will be, not the reverse. You are slave to the needs of work, not to the schedules of society. Makes it hard to intersect your vectors with those of others. Which in some cases means they assume your invisibility ('Let's not bother inviting her; she can never make it.') or truly appreciate the moments when you make time to see them (you know who you are, Blessed ones.). In a way it helps winnow one's friends. But like any filtering system you get the lonelies more.
1) gardening
I can only say that my approach to this is haphazard and scattershot. I wanted to grow things to eat. I wanted to grow things that weren't fit to buy. I wanted to help save money on my grocery bill. In the end I've more or less given up on that last one, if only due to the hard evidence of my spending at various hardware stores and on eBay. I have found that this has grown into a full-scale hobby, with pleasing effects on my winding-down-from-work meditation and my physical fitness (barring mulching accidents). And being able to pick the occasional ripe strawberry and raspberry is a magical thing. I wish I had more success with my gardening; I'm certainly never going to be as good at making it deliver as mandragora2003 is. I have the sneaking suspicion it'd take a lot more effort and time than I have available to make it truly successful.
2) corsetry
I lovelovelove corsetry. I love how it looks, how it feels, and what it does for my figure and my presentation. And its salutary effects on posture and lower back support are wonderful too. I love how it's become easier to obtain and more acceptable as outerwear. What don't I love about it? How much the word has been co-opted by budget makers of lingerie to refer to flimsy torso-baring bodices that aren't even in spitting distance of the concept of boning. How corsetry's new status as acceptable clubwear means that any idiot thinks they can fling one on, and as long as it doesn't actually fall off, that they're wearing it well. (Too-big, too-small and even upside down corsets to be seen regularly at Sin, I can vouch.) And I dearly wish that I had access to a custom corsetiere right now. My usual ones have either vanished up their own bottoms, or have left the industry. Siiiigh..
3) ordinary people
Ordinary people break my heart. So much wasted potential. I look at the crowds of people out there, living by stimulus-response and working for the weekend. How few people question the world, the status quo or their own actions? How few people appreciate or care about what they have and what they are? How many people out there, blithely insensate and callous, just pass by and hamhandedly hurt those around them? So much love and loss behind leather walls. And yet each one is a Person with dreams and a heart, whether they have ever learned or been taught to use either.
Sometimes I have a love-hate relationship with Humanity.
4) travel
I love travelling. I even love the getting there as well as the destination. I got my first passport at two - the expression in the photos hasn't changed much, I can assure you; still grumpy - and haven't looked back since. It's only in the last ten years or so that I've been able to travel on my own finances as opposed to those of my family, and it's made it all the sweeter. I have my documents, my travel sedatives, and my plans for Paris and London. Bring it on!
5) shift work
It's hard. It's really hard. I've done this for five years now and it never really gets easier. You just get used to it. Losing your sense of the week, living by rhythms of workflow. Having to make appointments a minimum of a fortnight in advance, and just accepting that you won't be able to make it to that party/opening/screening/catchup coffee. Part of the lifestyle in the industry. You think of time differently. It's something to mark where you are and will be, not the reverse. You are slave to the needs of work, not to the schedules of society. Makes it hard to intersect your vectors with those of others. Which in some cases means they assume your invisibility ('Let's not bother inviting her; she can never make it.') or truly appreciate the moments when you make time to see them (you know who you are, Blessed ones.). In a way it helps winnow one's friends. But like any filtering system you get the lonelies more.