A job somewhere like this would be the dream.
Meanwhile… I’ll go back to doing some not so exciting homework to get me closer.
I have decided lately that web-design might just be avenue of design to chase, unless of course I somehow can fluke myself into being paid to write my pretty little head out.
Oh yes, and tomorrow I am 22.
I’m currently finding quirky narrative songs quite hilarious. So in the vein of Kate Nash and the lovely naive sounding stuff from the Juno soundtrack… have some Soko (accoustic version) – it’s actually quite a bitter song and probably that’s an understatement… but still hilarious and she’s French so we’ll overlook it.
It took me three and a half hours to get home tonight. It usually takes an hour.
Melbourne has been subject to some angry winds and a dirty brown sky due to the very tail end of a cyclone coming from the west and some Port Phillip Bay winds. Such bad winds that they canceled uni classes (I was in for all of half an hour). Truly it was more dangerous at Glenferrie than Prahran where I am but hey. My train was late (power issues) slightly expected, then the other train finished it’s trip far too early due to trees down – I grabbed a bus in quite good time only to have it arrive at the secondary stop to find the door of the bus was stuck. They finally opened it, but made us change busses (again I succeeded onto getting on quite an early one). This bus took me to the station before mine which meant yet another bus – also thankfully right there and with working doors.
I went inside for about two minutes and then drove back in towards the city to pick up Geoff who would’ve been even more stuck than me. So after leaving uni at 2:00pm, I officially ‘got home’ at 7:00pm. By then the power was out. So we went to the supermarket (the nearby one was closed due to no electricity). Just as we pulled in the drive, the street lights came on. We cheered.
So my day was all up pretty sucky (which is why you’re getting a whingy ‘this is what happened’ post) except that I met three new people at uni, caught up with a girl I know a little bit from last year and became reaquainted with another two.
Today I like people but not trains, busses or wind. And I’d really prefer it in future if the sky stayed a normal colour.
“Because truly responsive care goes far beyond providing a basic means of survival. If we treat every crisis as it were a survival situation, then we end up only designing for someone to live from day to day. But if we treat it as if it’s about renewal and rebirth, then we’re focused on creating and generating life. This is where design should play an incredibly important role. Our sole purpose is to provide a better environment for all, whether it be for someone from the Upper East Side or from East Africa. Using design to introduce the opportunity of rebirth into somebody’s life, whether it is something that may seem frivolous or a product or structure that would help a family grow, is just as important as having each other. So the idea of a soccer ball is extremely important because in any part of the world, if you drop a soccer ball on the ground, forth kids are suddenly talking.” – Cameron Sinclar (Interview: design like you give a damn)
This caught both Geoff and my attention (he was reading over my shoulder on the train home) and in a small way captured something really exciting. Something exciting in design but perhaps even more so in following Jesus. I love it when there is this magnificent overlap, even if it is small.
I must also exclaim over part of an interview I saw last night on the ABC – Julian Burnside is a barrister who works with asylum seekers along with all kinds of other pro-bono work. There is a short quote on the top of his website by James Thurber (…which reminds me, I never did finish the Thurber Carnival, I wonder where it went?)
“All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why. – James Thurber
It kind throws a pointer at that Vocare stuff again. And then read this (from the interview with the ABC last night),
“PETER THOMPSON: For both you and your wife Kate, your work with refugees goes beyond the courtroom.
JULIAN BURNSIDE: Yes, yes, it does. Kate set up spare rooms for refugees partly as a symbolic response and partly as a practical measure, because people who come out of detention centres need somewhere to live. Kate had the simple practical idea that many Australian houses have got a spare room, so that’s a neat way of solving a housing problem.
PETER THOMPSON: You’ve opened your own spare room?
JULIAN BURNSIDE: Absolutely. You can’t encourage people to do that and not do it yourself. So, we’ve had refugees living here since early 2002…”
He does it! He lives what he preaches. I am inspired.
And this pushes on illustrating sharing life, and diatribo (props to Kim Hammond for the word). It is inspiring, it is difficult, but when we participate then we are His hands and feet.
