a farewell to some myths
Jun. 3rd, 2008 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonSad to say, The Journal of Mythic Arts is closing up shop (though the archives will stay online), but for the best of reasons -- the founders want to move on to doing more of their own art. If you haven't run across it before, it really is worth a read. Good folks.
On a different kind of creative note, this morning I had 5 tons of pea gravel delivered to make a small drainage bed for the couple of outdoor showers I'm putting in next week, and the delivery fee (from a local quarry about 15 min down the road) was just as much as the gravel itself cost. Fuel surcharges are making everything much more expensive, and if this keeps up, the "UPS Economy" is going to unravel, as delivery costs make long-distance shipping (especially for heavier items) a luxury only the rich can afford.
I have mixed feelings about this. I won't miss Walmart or their labor practices, and having that many less petro-burning, carbon-spewing trucks and planes bringing in mountains of cheap stuff manufactured by indentured labor in China is probably a net gain from a number of perspectives. But living in a rural area, even being dedicated to locally-produced food and goods, I've become used to the easy convenience of buying anything I can't easily find locally from online sources, so the tradeoff will likely be having to spend more to buy less, and having to get more creative about how to make more of what I need instead of buying it. It's probably a good time to start thinking about picking up a decent welding rig and an old railroad forge, and relearn those now-rusty skills (my late magickal Brother and blacksmith/knifemaker extraordinaire Kirby would surely approve).
On a different kind of creative note, this morning I had 5 tons of pea gravel delivered to make a small drainage bed for the couple of outdoor showers I'm putting in next week, and the delivery fee (from a local quarry about 15 min down the road) was just as much as the gravel itself cost. Fuel surcharges are making everything much more expensive, and if this keeps up, the "UPS Economy" is going to unravel, as delivery costs make long-distance shipping (especially for heavier items) a luxury only the rich can afford.
I have mixed feelings about this. I won't miss Walmart or their labor practices, and having that many less petro-burning, carbon-spewing trucks and planes bringing in mountains of cheap stuff manufactured by indentured labor in China is probably a net gain from a number of perspectives. But living in a rural area, even being dedicated to locally-produced food and goods, I've become used to the easy convenience of buying anything I can't easily find locally from online sources, so the tradeoff will likely be having to spend more to buy less, and having to get more creative about how to make more of what I need instead of buying it. It's probably a good time to start thinking about picking up a decent welding rig and an old railroad forge, and relearn those now-rusty skills (my late magickal Brother and blacksmith/knifemaker extraordinaire Kirby would surely approve).
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 04:50 pm (UTC)I've been wondering about things like computers... the plastic that makes up a lot of them and their parts is made form oil... the production process, I assume, uses oil, the transport of the computers, again, oil. I'm wondering if this particular luxury is one that will become less common as things change.
Perhaps these processes, and the methods of transport, will change significantly in a way that we can keep using them - I somehow doubt that alternatives will be ignored for long when the transport industry is suffering and is the cornerstone (it seems to me) of our Western economy. Petrol prices in Britain are rising by about a penny per litre a day in some places, and the transport companies are struggling. (Especially with the continued taxes and proposed increases...) I don't have a problem with people using less oil, it sounds like a good thing, but finding alternatives should be the priority, not just stopping doing what we're doing.