A couple of friends started to write their own lists and a couple even made it up to 100. Recently Pete Hindle, returned to his list of 50 things and updated it with comments as to what had been achieved and his current thoughts on his list. Pete almost died and so has a) a really good excuse for not finishing things on his list b) his life has changed drastically which definitely changed his opinion about some of his learning items. It will be interesting to see if the life changes I’ve gone through (finally meeting a good man, getting a job, getting another job, travelling away from Berlin a lot) have affected how I feel about items on my list.

100 Things I Want To Learn (More) About… Updated!

1. Botany
   Hmmm. I haven’t yet learnt to identify plants using a taxonomy. So. No.
2. A musical instrument: guitar or cello
   Let’s just say that 360 days ago I was given a beautiful guitar and can barely play 3 chords. So this learning task is active, but moving slowly. Actually taking lessons might be the next step.
3. Haircutting
   I can cut boys’ hair if they have some curl to hide the mistakes. The mistakes aren’t as often or severe as they used to be. But I haven’t learnt any fancy techniques (yet).
4. How to make a sponge cake
   Really, why would I make a sponge when there are so many other amazing cakes to bake out there? Not Yet.
5. How to maintain my bicycle
   In general I’m better at working with bikes thanks to a couple of sessions at Regenbogen Fabrik’s bike workshop. But my bike in Berlin is not currently maintained – sadly the type of maintenance I know won’t make it better, it will just keep it existing for longer.
6. How to make bagels
   Nope. One day, when I’m making brunch for people. I do finally have a recipe I want to use.
7. Throat Singing
   Hah. I find the idea of throat singing fascinating, but I don’t want to learn it that much. Let’s just say I may have still wanted to impress my ex at this point.
8. Bookbinding
   Not yet. I don’t have anything I want to bind at the moment, and it’s pretty easy to get amazing notebooks in Berlin.
9. Basic Arabic
   Nada. But my amazing new flatmate is doing Islamic studies and she can write essays in Arabic.  I know who I’m going to ask for help.
10. How to make better Karelian pies
    I’ve not made a Karelian pie for ages. I think that visiting friends in Finland and buying Karelian pies has to be higher priority than making my own… I’m getting really good at making Spinach pancakes, one of my other Finnish food desires.
11. How to seed save from fruits like tomatoes
    I have nowhere to grow the tomato seeds that I’d save. Maybe not in 2011, but hopefully by 2012 I’ll have access to some proper garden space suitable for tomatoes.
12. Permaculture
    As above. Though I do like the idea that permaculture design principles can be applied to non-garden systems. See Fo.am: Groworld
13. Sociology basics
    This was related to the Friendship component of the DIY Masters. Sadly, the Friendship project was the most interesting, but has been the hardest lot of learning to start. I’m hoping that a related course will pop-up within P2PU one of these days.
14. Crocheting
    I need to sit down with someone who can crochet… I get the basics but get lost when I try to follow a pattern. In the world of crafts Knitting or Crochet is a question along the lines of Cats or Dogs and Tea or Coffee. I’d really like to crochet a granny rug like the one Claire from Loobylu is working on, but before I can do that I need to crochet one or two squares successfully.
15. Japanese rope work
    Ahem. Yep. I know more about this. Let’s just say that it’s a lot of fun.
16. Drums
    Guitar has to take priority. I don’t know if I was planning to start a one-girl band or something. I don’t think you can go from primary school recorder skills to multi-instrumentalist without practicing even one instrument.
17. Punctuation
    I don’t suck at using punctuation, but I’m not sure if I’m using it correctly all the time.
18. English grammar and editing
    Slowly working on improving my knowledge of this.
19. Basic electronics
    I don’t have anything I need or want to make at the moment. And electronics is a fairly empty skill to have if you’re not actively using it. I can make a light flash on an Arduino. I’m not sure if that’s even basic electronics though.
20. More screenprinting skills (especially light sensitive emulsion)\
    Nope. No time. But I have made some cool stencils for Time’s Up Boating Association.
21. Multi-coloured linocuts
    I finally bought myself some linocutting equipment and used it once to make a stamp for a gift. I did do multi-colour stencils. Does that count?
22. How to layout designs for laser cutting
    Not yet. As with electronics you need to have a project to work towards for this kind of stuff. I do finally have an idea of something that would actually be useful to make using a laser cutter…
23. Basic woodworking and carpentry
    I helped build a goddamn boat. Yes.
24. How to change a washer on a tap (relearn)
    I haven’t needed to change a washer lately. But when I do I will learn how to do it.
25. Pattern drafting, better skirts, shirts and trousers
    I made a skirt. I can’t imagine when I’m going to have the time to sew anything for at least a year. Yikes. But I am better at knitting socks now.
26. Typographic theory
    Nope.
27. Better CSS skills
    Slowly slowly. Not that you’d see evidence of this on my personal site.
28. Another CMS apart from WordPress, Drupal and perhaps Moodle
    I learnt how to use Silverstripe for my last job. It was great. I’m not convinced of the ease of use of Drupal and I’ve been on the student-end of Moodle. It sucks.
29. More knowledge about OS educational packages
    I’ll be helping out at the P2PU techsprint and have been doing a bit of work on a Personal Learning Environment (PLE). I’m really excited to see how Big Blue Button works.
30. Basic Esperanto
    Ne.
31. How to cut dogs’ toenails / claws without feeling icky.
    I don’t have a dog (yet).
32. Fishing: how to catch and clean a fish
    Yes! At least the head bopping kill bit and the cleaning up part.
33. Butchery: how to kill & dress a chicken
    Nope.
34. Basic charcuterie
    I’m good at eating bacon, but haven’t made any yet.
35. How to do a headstand / handstand in yoga
    No. But yesterday I downloaded a podcast which will apparently help me to master inversions.
36. Unicycle
    I wrote this when I was 29. Maybe I felt that street performance skills and the risks of broken bones were still a valid life choice.
37. Better knife skills for cooking
    I bought a sharper knife. This made the cutting easier and meant that I had to keep my fingers out of the blade’s way.
38. How to make the ex-beau’s chilli.
    I can spell A.S.S.H.O.L.E. now. And I can read recipes. Let me amend that to How to make good chilli.
39. How to make Mum’s tomato pie
    I have the recipe! Now to make it.
40. How to make baklava
    I live in Kreuzberg and am surrounded by Turkish stores. Learning how to make baklava right now would be a waste of baklava eating time.
41. How to write grant applications
    I figure this road to hell will enter my life soon. I also think that we might be developing a learning resource as part of the Free Culture Incubator workshop series.
42. How to write residency applications
    Not an artist. Maybe one day.
43. How to train a dog
    Still needing a dog to do this. One day. Apparently after our first child is born.
44. More Linux / Terminal commands
    sudo makemeasandwich -cupoftea
    no seriously, i can use VI now without even thinking about it.
    
45. How to talk about what I want and need with a partner without ending up crying all the time
    I am so good at this that I’m now engaged to be married.
46. Better German
    
    Yes it is better, but I’m not confident about it and still need to find time to attend more classes.
47. How to look after my heart better (emotionally, but physically too)
    See 45. Also I do exercise a lot more regularly.
48. How to start a project and stick with it
    I built a boat and knitted socks amongst other things. I think part of the trick here is choosing a project you actually are interested in working on.
49. Better money confidence – eg. how to invoice and get paid what I’m worth.
    Slowly, slowly. I still feel sick when I think about writing invoices, but at least I do it now.
50. How to make really good coffee / latte art – even if I can’t drink it.
    Not only does my flatmate know Arabic she is also an amazing barista. I know who I’ll get to teach me.
51. How to home brew beer.
    I realised that beer makes me depressed. My fiance doesn’t drink it either. I do like to help other people do homebrew, but I no longer see the need in learning to make it.
52. How to sail
    Yes! And I love it!
53. Falconry
    Really? I wanted to learn falconry?
54. How to make a great Manhattan
    I’m hoping to never work in a cocktail bar again. So this is very low priority.
55. How to make a whiskey sour
    Despite 54. I still like to drink whiskey sours. May still learn how to make this.
56. How to make the amazing soup dumplings from Shanghai
    I want a recipe, but have not yet found one that seems right.
57. How to pack light and look great with only a few clothes
    Slowly getting better at this. I really need to update my wardrobe. The only new clothes I seem to get are free Mozilla and P2PU tshirts.
58. Basic car maintenance
    I haven’t driven for almost two years now! But once I get back to driving more frequently this will have to be learnt.
59. How to prune roses
    Did I mention that I really want a garden?
60. How to prune fruit trees
    No really. One with fruit trees and roses. Crazy huh?
61. How to tune a guitar
    Yes! An electric tuner makes this so much easier. Electric tuners do not make it easier to get motivated to practice though.
62. Origami page fastening – no staples or paper clips
    Using a computer requires no paper fasteners. I actually pick up paper clips from the ground when I see them and then reuse them. And when I have readings from Uni I end up having to staple or bind them as there are so many pages.
63. Audio recording and editing to the level required for good podcasting
    Not yet.
64. Video recording and editing to the level required for good vodcasting
    I did actually do some vodcasts. So yes.
    Yep… I do need to make more videos…
65. What key I can sing in naturally / most easily
    How can I learn this? It would make transposing guitar tab a more directed exercise.
66. The value of my time
    It is valuable, but now I need to manage that valuable time a lot more effectively.
67. Better massage skills
    This doesn’t guarantee that other people can massage you any better. Sad but true.
68. Yoga exercises for my back
    Yep. Also, a laptop stand and a keyboard can make your life much more comfortable.
69. How to make an Iyengar style yoga bolster
    €55 at the Iyengar shop. Problem solved. Buying materials to make a heavy enough bolster would have cost just as much.
70. Meditation
    Since I don’t have a garden (yet) and have nothing to mindlessly weed I really do need to work on the meditation thing. Are there any non-sucky guided meditation podcasts out there?
71. Better public speaking
    I seem to engage my audience. I’m looking forward to more opportunities to improve on this.
72. Better Kitchener bind offs while knitting
    My socks have beautifully finished toes.
73. Better Illustrator / Inkscape / vector drawing skills
    Low priority.
74. Manual SLR Photography
    I just need to take more photos full stop, regardless of my manual skills.
75. How to say No to things I don’t really want to do.
    I’m getting way better at this.
76. Curry pastes from scratch
    Not yet, but what a good idea.
77. Plant grafting
    This comes under the heading of “Requires a garden space”. I’m getting pretty good at propagating pot plants but it’s not really equivalent to grafting an apple tree.
78. How to make Kway Teow
    I’m not sure that I even like Kway Teow anymore. Will have to research and eat some when I’m back in Adelaide.
79. How to make good laksa
    My urge to make Malaysian food is reduced to due to fairly lousy inspiration and supplies in Berlin. Making rocking Laksa would be awesome though.
80. Pasta making
    Just haven’t had the time.
81. Whittling
    This would be fun, but I’d rather knit.
82. How to be happy even when the sun isn’t shining
    Friends, drinking enough water, exercise, candles and fleeing to Australia over winter are all good remedies for this.
83. Belly dancing
    Not yet. Getting back into poledancing would be more interesting, but Berlin doesn’t seem to have classes in the same way Australia did.
84. Tai chi
    Nope.
85. Time management / project management software
    This would be really useful, but I have an aversion to Microsoft Project on moral grounds. Not sure what I should look at learning instead. Ideas?
86. A martial art
    Nope. I reckon tai chi would count though.
87. The rules of cricket
    I’m fleeing to an Australian summer. I’m going to make a lazy Boxing Day’s attempt at this.
88. The rules of football / soccer
    The World Cup and another season of Australian Rules have passed me by. Let’s just say I’m not interested at all.
89. How to be more self-reliant in a relationship
    A year and a half of a long-distance relationship mean that this is not an option. Yes.
90. Basic letterpress printing

Would be nice, but I don’t have a press.

91. How to run a small business
    I guess I’m trying to do this as I’m now contracting my work as a freelancer. It is so hard learning this in a non-English context.
92. Basic upholstery
    I keep on finding neat chairs that would be better recovered but am not finding any fabric in Berlin that I’d like to use. Still quite a practical skill but low prioirity.
93. Repeating fabric designs
    I think I wanted to learn the vector skills (73) and screenprinting stuff (20) in order to achieve this. It’s still interesting and I did a little of it working with Sprout Design back in 2007. Now I think I’d rather just buy someone else’s nice fabric and sew with that.
94. CPR refresher course
    No. Please don’t hurt yourself near me as my First Aid Certificate is well out of date.
95. Forest / countryside gleaning
    Getting better at this in Austrian contexts. Berlin’s offerings are often dog and human pee laden.
96. Food canning / preserving
    I made jam last year! I’d love to do some more canning. This summer I was far too busy and barely at home.
97. That martial arts type thing where someone kinda rolls their body up to standing.
    Why? It would be cool, but I can’t imagine when I’d use this skill. Obviously I wanted to do this for a cool recovery when I’d fallen off a unicycle.
98. How to be content with what I’ve got
    I am so happy with my life. I guess I’ve learnt how to do this, but I’ve also learnt to look for opportunity too.
99. How to write at an academic level
    I got an HD for my last assignment, but I just want to be able to articulate ideas clearly.
100. Better research skills: databases, academic journals and articles, Google scholar etc.
     Slowly slowly. I must work on my boolean search skills.

Phew. I reckon updating this list took more time than writing it the first time around!

Autumn Cheer, originally uploaded by Fighting Tiger.

A couple of years ago I posted a step by step approach to dealing with bouts of anxiety or depression. It was some home brewed cognitive behavioural therapy that got me through some heartbreak. The bad times passed and then I deleted the post.

And even though I still followed some of my own advice, I’d forgotten how specific and useful a paper (or electronic) set of the reminders could be in times of the crazy sads.

A few months back an old housemate asked me where the post was and I couldn’t find it in either my archives or anywhere online. But yesterday I hit archive.org paydirt and found the text again. I twittered it and was told by a follower that she’d forwarded the link to a friend who’s going through some tough times – and that her friend had printed up two copies to keep by her side.

Which of course made me feel all happy, that maybe this list of actions might help more people than just me.

So… here is the In Case of Emergency list again. Please feel free to leave comments or further advice.

#2 On Friends and Mindapples from battlecat on Vimeo.

My latest vodcast – as recorded on May 29th, 2009.

I only just realised that I could have included links to bands, projects and friends using the amazing power of titles.

Oh well.

My friend Marc, is the writer behind http://www.un-understand.co.uk.
The Australian band I mentioned was Brillig http://www.brillig.com.au.
And my friend Andy Gibson http://sociability.org.uk is the founder of Mindapples http://mindapples.org!

As part of this learning I’ve started listening to a series of short lectures by  Mark Vernon, author of The Philosophy of Friendship, recounting and responding to Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship.

In Lecture 3, Vernon elaborates on Aristotle’s idea of 3 types of friendship: Useful,Pleasant and Good friends.  A lovely Australian friend, the zinestress extraordinaire  Maddy Phelan, describes these relationships as Situational (school / work), Activity (music, hobby) and Excellent (life long friends) friendships.  You meet most of your friends at work, school or in situations around your hobbies and passions, but not all of those friendships will last once those situations change. The friends who last despite life changes, are your Good or Excellent friends.

Before listening to these lectures, I’d already begun thinking of people I know as belonging to those categories. It prompts a series of questions: Why do some people stay friends while others drift away? Is this drifting something you can predict? How do you know when someone’s become an Excellent friend? Do you need a life change (new employment, travel) to really find out which friendships will survive? Do you need to share specific experiences / spend a certain amount of time with someone to strengthen and form a long-lasting friendship?

Mark Vernon describes Aristotle’s Good / Excellent friends as people you love for what they are or who they are in themselves. They’re the people you are friends with because of their “depth of character, goodness, passion or joie de vivre”.

As a personal exercise as part of 150 Things I asked myself to write a list of my most Excellent friends. I ended up with 7 people who I feel are my truest soul friends – people who I’ll continue to be friends with for the rest of my life, even if I only see them every few years. These are the friends I know intimately and who refresh my sense of self and personal energy whenever I see them.

I also made a list of about 15-20 people who might be in that Excellent friend category if I could have enough chances to spend time / communicate with them and develop a friendship further.  Luckily several of those people live here in Berlin. After only five months living in this town I feel very happy and lucky knowing that I have potential Excellent friends.

“The better these friends are as people, the better the quality of the friendship. This friendship is therefore also the rarest. And it takes time to grow: they must savour salt together, Aristotle says, and trust one another…

…What is quick to arrive is a wish for friendship – what is not quick to rise is friendship itself.”
Mark Vernon,

*To tangent away from friendship itself, I want to add that the social networking sites I feel most comfortable with and trust more as brands are those which are more honest about the type of connection / relationship that is being made: Do you want to follow person x? (Twitter) or Do you want to add this person as a Conact? Are they a Friend or Family member? (Flickr)

For me, the phrasing of the questions also encourages me to think more about the type of information I’ll share with members of those social networks. Facebook seems to encourages people to share far more information online by the use of the word ‘friend’ to describe contact: “of course I’ll share my home address with this person who I’ve met once – they’re my ‘friend’”.

let’s make a list so we can feel like we’re accomplishing something, so we can feel like we’re working together…

I’m a big fan of making lists, especially as a creativity and brainstorming technique. List-making also has a tendency to come out as part of my writing style and has been a method for one of my 150 Things About Friendship. I often wonder whether I get more or less things done as a result of list-writing, but the act of making them is somewhat satisfying and meditative.

Usually I just list my most immediate thoughts and ideas, rather than pushing through to a specific target amount. Recently, a friend added the article “Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100” to their delicious feed and it started me thinking about “extreme “listing. I’ve been meaning to write a Learning list for a while as part of the DIY Masters project, so I decided to attempt a list of 100 things I want to learn.

Day 092/366 - To Do List, by

I think my question was very general which resulted in a list of general learning rather than “100 Things I want to achieve with my DIY Masters Project”. Most of the 100 things are skills that I want rather than a body of knowledge. Looking over the list I can divide the list into skills I can learn as a result of the DIY Masters project (highlighted), some long-term general learning (botany, musical skills) and a lot of smaller life skills.

Since writing the list earlier this week I’ve found that there’s a local printing museum which runs bookbinding and letterpress tutorials in German. And I keep on coming up with even more things I want to learn, like 101. How to assemble a yurt. As I eventually want to build my own Mongolian style yurt / ger, I might just have to make a new list 100 Things I Want To Make.

But that is another list, for another day.
Anyway, here is the list of things I want to learn in the order they came out of my head:
100 Things I Want To Learn (More) About…

1. Botany
2. A musical instrument: guitar or cello
3. Haircutting
4. How to make a sponge cake
5. How to maintain my bicycle
6. How to make bagels
7. Throat Singing
8. Bookbinding
9. Basic Arabic
10. How to make better Karelian pies
11. How to seed save from fruits like tomatoes
12. Permaculture
13. Sociology basics
14. Crocheting
15. Japanese rope work
16. Drums
17. Punctuation
18. English grammar and editing
19. Basic electronics
20. More screenprinting skills (especially light sensitive emulsion)
21. Multi-coloured linocuts
22. How to layout designs for laser cutting
23. Basic woodworking and carpentry
24. How to change a washer on a tap (relearn)
25. Pattern drafting, better skirts, shirts and trousers
26. Typographic theory
27. Better CSS skills
28. Another CMS apart from WordPress, Drupal and perhaps Moodle
29. More knowledge about OS educational packages
30. Basic Esperanto
31. How to cut dogs’ toenails / claws without feeling icky.
32. Fishing: how to catch and clean a fish
33. Butchery: how to kill & dress a chicken
34. Basic charcuterie
35. How to do a headstand / handstand in yoga
36. Unicycle
37. Better knife skills for cooking
38. How to make the ex-beau’s chilli.
39. How to make Mum’s tomato pie
40. How to make baklava
41. How to write grant applications
42. How to write residency applications
43. How to train a dog
44. More Linux / Terminal commands
45. How to talk about what I want and need with a partner without ending up crying all the time
46. Better German
47. How to look after my heart better (emotionally, but physically too)
48. How to start a project and stick with it
49. Better money confidence – eg. how to invoice and get paid what I’m worth.
50. How to make really good coffee / latte art – even if I can’t drink it.
51. How to home brew beer.
52. How to sail
53. Falconry
54. How to make a great Manhattan
55. How to make a whiskey sour
56. How to make the amazing soup dumplings from Shanghai
57. How to pack light and look great with only a few clothes
58. Basic car maintenance
59. How to prune roses
60. How to prune fruit trees
61. How to tune a guitar
62. Origami page fastening – no staples or paper clips
63. Audio recording and editing to the level required for good podcasting
64. Video recording and editing to the level required for good vodcasting
65. What key I can sing in naturally / most easily
66. The value of my time
67. Better massage skills
68. Yoga exercises for my back
69. How to make an Iyengar style yoga bolster
70. Meditation
71. Better public speaking
72. Better Kitchener bind offs while knitting
73. Better Illustrator / Inkscape / vector drawing skills
74. Manual SLR Photography
75. How to say No to things I don’t really want to do.
76. Curry pastes from scratch
77. Plant grafting
78. How to make Kway Teow
79. How to make good laksa
80. Pasta making
81. Whittling
82. How to be happy even when the sun isn’t shining
83. Belly dancing
84. Tai chi
85. Time management / project management software
86. A martial art
87. The rules of cricket
88. The rules of football / soccer
89. How to be more self-reliant in a relationship
90. Basic letterpress printing
91. How to run a small business
92. Basic upholstery
93. Repeating fabric designs
94. CPR refresher course
95. Forest / countryside gleaning
96. Food canning / preserving
97. That martial arts type thing where someone kinda rolls their body up to standing.
98. How to be content with what I’ve got
99. How to write at an academic level
100. Better research skills: databases, academic journals and articles, Google scholar etc.

This week however, there’s something in the air which is prompting me to look over the list, refresh it and then work on it. Maybe it’s the slightest hint of the forthcoming spring, the return of my beau from 3 weeks abroad or the realisation that I’ve now spent more than 3 months in Berlin. Realistically I think a lot of this feeling has to do with the latter idea, specifically with the knowledge that I stop subletting and move into a permanent flat with a great flatmate this week.

For more than a year now I have been hopping from country to country and from temporary housing situation to temporary housing situation. The last year hasn’t been about travelling, and it hasn’t quite felt way I imagine a nomad’s lifestyle to be either. My experience has in some ways been exciting, but primarily it’s been exhausting and unsettling. While I wouldn’t say that my relatively privileged position of some saved funds and usefully flexible citizenship is anything like that of a refugee’s situation, I now have a greater understanding of the feeling of displacement.

So, this weekend I’ll finally have A Room Of My Own again. I’m not sure whether to panic and run away, or to celebrate and invest in very heavy objects that are difficult to move. Even though I’ve spent the grand sum of 9€ on an extremely portable desk lamp, I think that I’ll be commemorating this move with reviewing these lists and working out how I can move forward without having to move for at least 6 months.

So far, it feels that I’ve made very little progress with my DIYMasters work, as I seem to do more thinking about what I intend to do rather than actually sitting down to write, study or create.

Overthinking and never taking action is so much easier to do when you don’t have an opportunity to talk about your ideas.  When I have a chance to discuss a concept with someone else I am far more likely to move to a new level of understanding and be more likely to commit to an action. Which means I need to bring other people into my DIYMasters project.

I’m looking for people to become involved with my DIYMasters at several levels:

• Mentors
• Teachers
• Peers
• Task Masters
• Sponsors and Funding Angels

Mentors

I’m looking for two or more mentors to advise and guide me throughout this project.

The mentor(s) for the DIYMasters project should be interested in concepts surrounding community and the FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source) movement as well as the DIYMasters concept.  I’d particularly like to work with someone with publishing or editing experience.

I’d also like someone with experience as an artist or cultural producer to act as my mentor for the 150 Things About Friendship project.  A knowledge of conceptual and media art would be beneficial.

Unless potential mentors conveniently happen to reside in Berlin, I expect that the mentoring would primarily take place via email and chat, and take up no more than an hour of the mentors’ time per week for the next year.

Teachers

Currently, I have teachers for my current subjects of German and Electronics. I haven’t worked out what the next round of learning will be about, but I will be looking for teachers for future stages of DIYMasters.

Do you know of a teacher or teach something that I might be interested in learning? Please let me know!

Peers

Are you interested in learning more about representations of friendship, media art, physical computing and electronics, the German language or how to use Open Educational Resources? I’d love to meet people online or in the real world who are interested in talking about any of the topics related to the DIYMasters project.

Task Masters

I have 150 147 Things About Friendship left to complete and about 3 or 4 in progress.

Initially I’m looking for 5 people to set me 5 ‘Things’ to do as part of this project. At this stage, each action should take no more than a day to complete and be friendly to my budget.

Do you have an idea? Let me know!

Sponsors and Funding Angels

Budget! What budget?

Students at real universities get it so easy, what with their student loans, discount bus fares, cheap beer, and access to travel grants, scholarships, conferences and health care. Here at the Academy of DIY I have enough money to survive Berlin style (bike, coal heating and kebabs), but I’d love to be able to buy relevant books, art supplies, healthier food and to help pay for workshops and conferences I’m interested in attending.

If  you happen to know of any funding opportunities or residencies I may be eligible to apply for, please let me know.

And if you happen to be one of the few people with money to spare during these days of gloom and doom I’d like to point out my Amazon Wishlist and PayPal donation button which reside in the left sidebar.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in becoming involved with my DIYMasters at any level, please leave a comment below or send me an email.

***Update!***

So far responses to my call for participation has returned with:

• a peer / potential mentor to talk about DIY / Open Education with (Thanks Rose!)
• Another German language-learning peer (and more tutors).
• Information about hardware hacking workshops.
• My first sponsor! (This cash donation will help me buy a book about German grammar).
• A friend who’s interested in getting and sharing access to university library and article databases
• An invitation to talk at the first Berlin DIY Monday.

I’ve been thinking that in a community with a size of 150 (commonly cited as Dunbar’s Number), not all of those people will be friends.

Even though I have a Facebook friend list of over 450 people I wanted to see if I could quickly name 150 people who I wanted to actively maintain, create or repair friendships with. I gave myself a limit of about half an hour to make the list.

Some limits:

• I didn’t look at Facebook.
• Family members and “romantic” partners were eligible.
• I had to have met people ITRW.
• People on the list had to be alive.

At the end of half-an-hour I had 89 people on the list. Compared to my Facebook friends, that’s not that many people.

The vast majority of people were between the ages of 23 and 40. I felt a little sad that I don’t have that much interaction with much older or much younger people. In the future I want to return to this topic as I feel age range is an important element of community.

Only two people on the list were from Berlin and I’ve known them for longer than the two months I’ve been here. I think that’s a sign of how friendships evolve – there are some lovely people who I like in Berlin, but I’m still not sure if they’re going to become friends.

I intend to repeat this exercise in the future so that I can compare how people drift in and out of the list. I won’t compare the lists until I’ve done several.

For a few reasons I won’t reveal the list:

• Even though I’m consciously and publicly thinking about friends – they are still personal relationships.
• I feel weird about listing people’s names on the internet without their permission.
• I don’t want awareness of whether someone’s on the list or not to alter their behaviour and our friendship.
• Future Things may be dependent on the secrecy of the list.

Prompted by: the Love / Hate lists I wrote in diaries in primary school.

For a while I was feeling intimidated that I would have to set myself “assignments”, whether I had to create  an electronic friend “sensor”, a film or a sculpture made out of marshmallows and toothpicks.  Instead I’m giving myself permission to do small exploratory actions and reminding myself that anything, no matter how tiny it is contributes towards a body of work.

So I’m setting myself the rather grand task of recording 150 things that I create and do during this informal study of friendship.  I’ve chosen the number 150 because it is commonly cited as Dunbar’s Number, or the upper end of group sizes in which people maintain stable relationships with each other.  Of course how many of those people we count as true friends is probably much smaller, so it’ll be interesting to see how many of the 150 “things” are significant pieces of work.

So that I don’t start off with a feeling of being overwhelmed at doing the first Thing, I’m going to list my BarCampSheffield talk on friendship as the number one action.