Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Fungus

This has happened to me before.

So I opened my vermicomposting bin today to put in some grapes and was surprised by a soft layer of fungus.
My reaction was naturally "euuurgh!". I wasn't completely caught off guard since peat is a extremely nutrient rich and in a moist environment attracts many members of the animal kingdom. After my initial emotions I realized that fungus and earthworms coexist in naturally in many places around the world and there were earthworm tunnels near the sides of the bin. Besides, even as I watched the fungus faded from being exposed to sunlight.
For those not familiar with creating ecosystems this simply meant there were enough excess resources for some outside source to utilize.
This led me to wonder if there was a fungus relatively harmless to humans which could compost quicker and more efficiently. I realize that most people's reactions to this would also be "euuurgh", but remember what cheese is etc. Just don't breathe too deeply around the thing and you'd be fine.
I actually don't use that much organic material in my house. I generally finish what I eat and haven't used a single paper towel since I bought my Trader Joe's cloths. Cardboard and plastic are recycled as necessary. I'm wary of putting cardboard in the bin before the colony of worms is fully established since there definitely would be excess resources for other kingdoms to use. I'm even going to buy a Diva Cup(women only, it's about PERIODS). I've heard many women state that they are very pleased with theirs, so I'm going to try the product myself.

*--------*

I attempt to desexualize myself because I wish to be viewed for who I am, a person who is fairly androgynous and does not wish to have feminine generalizations applied to her. How many desexualized male icons are there vrs the amout of desexualized female icons? It's not fair, as some of us do not find sexualization empowering or what we wish to be known for. I attempt not to do this since it is silly, but I have sometimes ended up suppressing feminine aspects of my personality in order to disassociate myself.
And really, every time a negative stereotype of behavior is encouraged by a member of the same sex I get angry. Men "are programmed to sow their oats" and grunt and posture at each other; women having an outburst at any time of the month blaming it on PMS.
We all know the saying about one white crow. So don't blame shortcomings or personality traits on gender and accept them for what they are. If you want to start a sentence with "most women are encultured in our society..." that is a different matter. For example, most women in our society are encultured to worry an excessive amount about their bodies.

3 comments:

KG said...

This was a particularly interesting entry to which I have no particularly interesting response.

However I have to admit I do not know the saying about the white crow.

SchizotypalVamp said...

Aw, thanks Alex.

Come online more! :)

"All you need to do to disprove the notion that all crows are black is to find one white crow" , or something similarly worded.

'Cita said...

In Russia there are beautiful gray crows with black heads that are crested.