There are few things as old fashioned and traditional as a wedding. Even though couples add their own touches with poetry, sky diving and Halloween themes, a wedding is still something self indulgent which we do to celebrate a life change. It isn’t actually necessary, only signing the paperwork for the government is really necessary. But having a wedding is important to people and families. Mine was important to me.

Something new I’ve been hearing about is a green, environmentally thoughtful, wedding. I like the idea. When I planned my own wedding the environment was on my mind. I read about bird seed versus rice or flower petals. Which do you think has the least impact on the environment? It’s complicated. The birdseed might seem the best option but, it causes wild grass and such to grow in the area it is tossed. That will cause the use of more lawn chemicals. I forget why rice wasn’t a good option. Flower petals weren’t favoured either. In the end the article I was reading suggested the best alternative were soap bubbles. Though, I’m sure there is an argument against them too. How safe is soap after all? How important are the small things like throwing rice and wedding favours?

If you look there are services offering green weddings and advice for keeping all the parts of your wedding ecologically polite/ sound. I found one which lets you used recycled gold to create your own wedding bands. I found another which offers to arrange the whole ceremony for you. But, there is more than the day itself to consider. It’s adding a lot to the bride’s to-do list. You might consider how important it is to be environmentally good one day which is already stress packed, instead you could put more effort into every day and give yourself a break on the one day you set aside to get married.

I’m adding this quote cause it’s just so sweet! It came from a furniture site.

“I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance, A church filled with family and friends. I asked what kind of wedding he wished for, He said one that would make me his wife.”

– Author Unknown

As kids, my sister used to watch horror, along with my brother. They’d get up late at night and turn the TV on with the volume low so my Mother wouldn’t wake up and catch them. My sister would have nightmares afterwards. As an adult, after she was nearly killed by a man who raped her and pounded her head into a concrete floor over and over again she changed her mind about watching horror. Now she is paranoid and even years later is afraid and has given that fear of home invasion, strangers and bad men to her son and daughters. Her children have nightmares along with her now.

I’ve been participating in a discussion about issues regarding censorship and the use of torture from the TV show, 24. How far should TV and movies be allowed to go before someone tells them to stop, they’ve taken it too far? A lot of people are against censorship, just because it restricts their rights, not because they actually want to watch all that stuff themselves. But, rights is a double edged deal. The rights of someone to see and create violence for entertainment infringes on my right to feel safe. It can be argued that TV and movies and such do not make me unsafe. However, having violence, rape, murder, torture and horror presented as entertainment every day and night, seven days a week, 365 days a year does change how they are perceived. If seeing someone brutally killed in front of you doesn’t bother you at all cause you see it every time you watch 24…. what does bother you? Where do you stop?

If someone breaks into a house, kills the family living there but gets it all on film and sells that film to be shown on TV would you watch it? If it’s on TV isn’t it entertainment? CNN showed a kid being shot in the streets (I forget where now). There was a lot of protest about them showing that. The kid really was shot, it was a real kid - it was reality. However, I’m sure that day on TV there were plenty of people shot, stabbed, raped, etc in the name of entertainment. Why isn’t it all entertainment? So what if it was a real kid? If watching people be killed is entertaining what difference does it make that one was fiction and the other was reality? All that matters is that you had fun watching, right?

My Grandmother liked to make puppets. She would work with kids in her small town (in Ontario) and put on whole puppet shows. They built the stage, sets, costumes, wrote plays and of course they made masses of puppets. There were different kinds, not just sock puppets. Some you put your hand inside and the more elaborate puppets came with strings attached. If we got to look at the puppets she would go on and on about how careful we were when handling the puppets with strings.

My Mother and I liked to sew together, we still do, in between her snowbird trips to Florida. We make seasonal decorations, Halloween costumes for my sister’s kids and we made old fashioned rag dolls, like Raggedy Ann. I still have the very first Raggedy Ann she made for me when I was a kid. The doll has grey hair. She still regrets that but at the time she was being thrifty, using up extra yarn from some other crafty project.

I still like sewing. When I was married my Mother treated me to a good quality sewing machine. I did start using it but have not done much. I like the hand sewing best. I embroider, I crochet (though it’s not quite the same as sewing) and I like quilting. I would really like to spend a lot more time working out how to use that machine and working on sewing projects in general. It is such a great hobby. So nice to have something lovely or practical to show for your time at the end. Best of all was working together, sewing with family.

I’m going to see what local groups I can find now that I’m living in the big city and my Mother is snowbirding till at least May. I have tons of fabric and yarn stashed around here and there to use up. Maybe I will create my own version of the grey-haired Raggedy Ann doll.

I collect postcards. Not as much as I did when I wrote to a thousand or so pen pals around the world when I was a teen, but I still pick up the odd one here and there. I don’t get to travel much so it’s far more challenging to collect postcards when you are in one place.

Some people create their own or take it farther and create mail art. If you’ve never heard of mail art take a look at a few sites. It is an art which may seem retro or falling off now that email is so much easier and available without having to leave the house to buy a stamp, paper or anything else. But, losing things like mail art, letter writing and goofy little things like swapping friendship books and postcards is sad. I don’t like seeing old traditions die off but we are also losing the art of letter writing, keeping in touch with more than a one line email. When did you last write a real letter to anyone? I haven’t for a long time though I used to write to all my Grandparents regularly, until they were all gone.

Back to postcards though. I have seen a few really neat groups at Flickr for those who exchange or collect postcards. Exchanging means you do have to give out a mailing address of some kind. Consider renting a post box or just have them sent to where you work, attention to you, if you’re nervous about giving out your home address. Collecting is taking the exchange seriously and likely finding a way to store your postcards in a way they won’t yellow or get wet. The best thing about postcards from other people in other places is seeing something you couldn’t just walk to yourself. When I wrote pen pal letters we used to exchange other things along with postcards: newspaper clippings, local money, friendship books (kind of a girly thing), travel brochures, pretty much anything we could fit into an envelope without paying a fortune to mail.

I’ve had email from two insane people in a row today. One was through an online dating site and the other was a guy who invited feedback about his blog.

The first guy I met through a dating site and I had replied to him once and he sent a reply back. His reply had nothing for me to really build a conversation on so I left it for a time when I had something to chit chat about. I had planned to write some chatty emails when I had my other work done. It was personal, not an emergency and after all he didn’t come across as eager. Today he emails me calling me an asshole and saying how I’m pathetic and playing head games. Where the frick does this come from? I didn’t reply back the same day and I’m suddenly deserving of this? It’s insane! Thank God I didn’t ever arrange a date with this flipped out mess. Geez, he sounded like a psycho cause he hadn’t heard back from me after two whole days!!! Kind of scary.

The other one was a website I have read a few times, found through another blog but had not bookmarked or ever left a comment. This time I thought I would email a comment to the site owner. I didn’t say anything particularly inflammatory but the guy had a hissy fit. I had said I liked his blog but I thought he should move his content higher so it wasn’t buried under his spam/ ads. Well, it is good advice. No one can say they like digging down through spam to find content on a site. He called me a troll and a lot of stuff which was not called for. People, if you have a site and invite feedback don’t fly off the handle when you get it. Not everyone is going to think your site is great, some might even offer constructive criticism. I had actually said I liked his site and only offered feedback cause he had asked for feedback.

I know I will get comments now saying what a nasty bitch I am, how unrealistic or arrogant I am and so on and so on. Some people just seem to want to be negative and make sure to rub off on everyone they can. The new bloggers seem to be a lot more about spamming than blogging and people online are a lot angrier than I remember them being just a few years ago. I miss the blogging community, when it was about fun, free writing and exploring what was out here.