#he doesnt get the point of (fragile) beauty.. what is a garden. really. with the absence of buzzing bees? birds and nighttime moths?

[hand-stuck-in-shredder]

So while I think maybe Gortash wouldn't exactly have a natural garden (at least one he's actually enthused about keeping/is interested in himself, I think he'd have one in the sense of being able to say he does-- Like "I'm Balduran nobility, of course I have people tending to a garden." re: keeping up appearances) I DO think he'd instead have a "garden" made of metal and the like, somewhere. Why spend so much time, so much hard work on something that can be so easily ruined by weather out of one's control? Something that will wilt, that you cannot truly control and might not even fit your vision? It needs so much time to just keep things orderly, time which he doesn't really have to be spending on hobbies. So, over the course of many years, an hour spent here cutting and molding petals, an hour there making vines, eventually a picturesque work of art manifests.

A small field of delicately and intricately made metal flowers, thin and sharp blades of silvery grass, and like some sort of fucked up bonsai project the centerpiece of the garden would be a massive work-in-progress tree with twisted together metal to mimic the look of bark. You don't have to obsess over a disease plaguing plants, insects marring once-perfect leaves or other maintenance of the like, because everything is perfectly in place as it should be. Anything that changes in the garden is because Gortash made it so, it's like playing God on a budget. It's perfect for this control freak. He makes it thrive. He's solely responsible for all this beauty.

[pbandjesse]

I am very sleepy. I didnt sleep great again last night and while I was able to hold it together all day, I seem to just fall apart at night. It sucks. Im trying my best but it is hard. I just want to get the most out of my days you know?

I did have an alright morning though. I woke up a little before 8 and laid in bed for a long time. I got up and washed and dressed and felt alright. James had made me breakfast. He decided not to sign up for any teaching shifts so he could do chores here. So he was doing some laundry this morning. I sat in the livingroom and had my breakfast sandwich and watched some videos. 

What I really wanted to do was some art. I got a sock loom in the mail last night so I started to attack that idea. At first I was not doing it right. Its slightly different then the circle loom. And I thought I was using the wrong yarn for it but eventually after I watched a few minutes of video I got the hang of it. And my goal is to finish my first pair of socks by the end of the week. I really hope I can figure it out. I would actually spend most of today working on that. Mostly the kids were in class or otherwise preoccupied. So I could just have my little hand work project going and it was all good. 

So I spent my morning doing that. I tried really hard not to have leaving early anxiety. Its hard. When I got over to the site I would have a conversation about it with my manager and she said she doesnt think she can make the 1pm shift change, but 2 days a week we could work with with eventually moving me to a noon start time. So well see how that goes. Im a little more confident. Honestly even just starting at 1130 might help me. I dont know. Well see. It felt good to have the chat about it though. 

The actual work day was honestly pretty excellent. We had two new kids and the one was a complete sweetheart. He's 6 but we have a lot in common. Well more I was aware of more internet things that he liked. And at one point he told me that he had never met someone that like the same things as him. And when he got back on his class he told his teacher he made a friend and I honestly could have cried. Both of the new boys, they are brothers, were a little fragile and quick to big emotions. But I got them. And it was nice to be a good force and a positive adult for this little guy. 

He kept saying I was his bff and I helped him make a bracelet with his name on it, and he said it was beautiful because I made it. And he said I looked like the daughter from Hotel Transylvania and I was like yes but a little chubby and he got all serious and said "No. You're perfect." So he's my best pal now. 

There was a lot of art happening today. I think the kids like the art table a lot. I have like 3 or 4 projects for them to try and they just do their thing. And We played in the gym for a bit too. At the end of the day we watched a movie about a super powered squirrel and that was fun. I got a lot of my sock done then. Its honestly just about done and I will figure out how to finish it tomorrow and get started on the second. Im pretty excited about this new skill. I hope to make everyone socks for christmas this year. So at least Ill have a lot of time to work on them.

At the end of the day it felt like we had a lot of kids. We brought them back to the gym to run out some energy. Ended up having some neighborhood kids join us. James was waiting for me in the parking lot so I was like. Itching to leave. But I tried to be present by talking to one little girl about the dragon fanfiction she's writing and helping her edit her first chapter. Which honestly, is pretty good already. I hope she lets me read the whole thing. 

Once the kids were gone I got my stuff and met James outside. I was hungry but we had plans to go buy some gardening thigs. So off we went to the rite aid. 

We got potting soil and some pots for the plans that have gotten to big. And some little snacks for the house. And then it was home for dinner. 

We had a frozen pizza for dinner. I kept working on my sock. It was a good time.But it was also really cold in here. So we had a space heater going and I started having an upset belly. I think its cause I have a little bit of a headache. So now that it is late and this is done, I am going to take a shower and get in bed. And I hope that I can just sleep easy. 

Tomorrow I hope to have a productive morning. Wish me luck because its hard for me still. I hope you all have a great day though. Take care of yourselves. Goodnight! 

[vitalmindandbody]

How down-at-heel Lisbon became the new capital of cool

Four years ago, Portugals capital felt like a city on its knees. Now it is being touted as hip, cheap and innovative. But is the socialist government failing Lisbons poor in its rush to revitalise?

In Lisbon people keep telling me about the surfing. Its great. The beaches are 20 minutes from the beautiful, historic and lively centre of Lisbon. You get the best of everything: Bondi meets old Europe. I hear this from Patrick, a Kentuckian whose digital marketing business was formerly based in Costa Rica and at another time in Bali; from Matthieu, a French life coach; and from Tariq, a British property specialist. I hear it from the Yorkshire-raised, London-based Rohan Silva, whom the British press likes to describe as a tech scenester or techpreneur, and from Joo Vasconcelos, Portugals suave secretary of state for industry.

Until recently, most of the news coming out of Portugal was of what Vasconcelos calls the worst crisis in 100 years, with stories of professionals sleeping in their cars because theyd been evicted from their homes. On my last visit, for the architecture triennale in 2013, an event full of ingenious low-cost ideas for reviving empty spaces and struggling businesses, Lisbon felt like a city on its knees. Now, according to one of the 2013 triennales organisers, Mariana Pestana, theres a psychological improvement. People are starting to dream again, theyre starting to consume again. Economic change is no longer something that happens to us. There is some control. There are also early outbreaks of the complaints that come with urban success, rising property prices and loss of character.

Lisbon is becoming an outstanding example of what might be called Monocle urbanism, after the magazine that combines trendspotting and lifestyle advice with social and political commentary, and which recently devoted many pages to the Portuguese capital. For the sophisticated nomads that Silva calls the global creative class, Lisbons attractions are powerful. According to Vasconcelos, the big cosmopolitan cities of the world are more like each other, such that central London and central Lisbon are closer to each other than London is to the Brexit-voting regions of Britain. (Theorists of the liberal metropolitan elite will take note.) For the first time since the 1940s, when Lisbon was a refuge from the war, says Pestana, the city is really cosmopolitan.

Take Patrick Tigue of Downtown Ecommerce, the American who was formerly in Costa Rica. He has clients all over the world, from the US to Australia, some of whom he doesnt meet for years, if ever. Our business started to grow, and we had a problem scaling up, so we opened up a map and wrote down a bunch of cities. They had business criteria access to English speakers, low cost of living, low wages, a convenient time zone and personal preferences: surfing, good weather. Berlin and Barcelona were good from the workforce perspective, but the lifestyle in Lisbon did it.

In Lisbon, he goes on, the people are incredible. There is always some type of music, style, arts going on. The food is incredible, the architecture Its a big little city. The real estate you feel its coming up. It was quite a gamble. I came here last year for a vacation but it turned into an extended stay and then into moving here permanently. Id like to stay here for the long term, to have kids here. I am that convinced.

Manifestations of the new Lisbon include reincarnations of locations first created to serve tech businesses in London. One is Village Underground, part creative community, part arts venue, which aims to combine affordable workspaces with art, music and performance. In London its distinguished by four recycled Tube carriages perched in the air. In Lisbon it consists of a pile of shipping containers and repurposed double-decker buses, on a dramatic location next to the citys suspension bridge.

Patrick Tigue of Downtown Ecommerce in his Lisbon office: The lifestyle in Lisbon did it.

Another is Second Home, a shared workspace created by Silva and his business partner, Sam Aldenton, an enclave where industrious tech businesses can get in touch with their inner lotus-eater. In Lisbon, as in London, the Spanish architects Selgas Cano have been commissioned to design an internal garden of delights, with abundant foliage, subtly clashing colours and playful details, only less frenetic in the recently-opened Portuguese version: the main space is a single greenhouse-like room, with the territories of different companies defined by plants.

A programme of cultural, social and sensual events a wine-tasting, a literary salon, an introduction to hydroponics is designed to engage and delight the members. A cafe painted deep blue serves both them and any of the general public who want to venture in.

Second Home opens off Time Out Market, in the historic Mercado da Ribeira, that describes itself as an original concept that creates food and cultural experiences based on editorial curation. The idea is to translate into physical space the knowledge of the journalists of the eponymous listings magazine, to house the best restaurants and artists the best of the city under one roof. It opened in 2014, now attracts 2 million visitors a year, and has inspired another Time Out Market, planned for London later this year.

Lisbon also has Vhils, a young street artist described to me as a cross between Banksy and Damien Hirst, already embraced by government-backed art projects and corporations like the electricity giant EDP. (Which, it must be said, seems to go against the bottom-up ethos that is supposed to be the point of street art.)

These high-concept and somewhat Anglophile initiatives are laid upon a city of old-fashioned dignity, of arcades and ocean breezes, of the yellow, timber-lined streetcars that get into the tourist pictures, of classical facades maintaining their equilibrium over steep slopes, of delectable cake shops and family-owned seafood restaurants.

Lisbon is also a city that responded to economic crisis with resourcefulness and imagination. Behind an anonymous and battered door, for example, can be found a Cozinha Popular (peoples kitchen) founded by a food writer called Adriana Freire. It is a serene space in the district of Mouraria. where people who had fallen on hard times make exceptional meals for the enjoyment and benefit of the local community. Out of it has spun Muita Fruta, a project to transform Lisbon into a big farm. It started with mapping the citys existing fruit trees, helping their owners to get the best out of them, harvesting their fruit and making jam. The plan is to expand the project by planting new fruit trees, in collaboration with the city government, wherever space can be found.

Tech businesses commune with their inner lotus-eater at Second Home, a shared workspace created in Lisbon by Rohan Silva and Sam Aldenton. Photograph: Iwan Baan

Contemporary Lisbon, then, combines the blessings of history and nature with the entrepreneurial actions of both locals and outsiders. It is still cheap. Charlie Orford, British co-founder of flight-booking website Low Cost Hero, took a quick look at London and immediately put it in the bin. His Lisbon space costs less than 12th of its equivalent in London. For reasons like this, combined now with Brexit, Lisbon is particularly attractive to young, creative exiles from the British capital.

Vasconcelos lists other assets: it is one of the safest cities in the world, even during the crisis. It is liberal and open: we look like southern Europe, yes, but we are not the stereotype of southern Europe conservative, Catholic thats completely wrong. In many things we are more like the UK than Spain. Gay marriage, gay adoption, theres not a discussion we are one of the countries receiving more refugees. Again, theres not a discussion.

Portugal is also, he says, a common-sense society, very respectful. If you think Latin blood is very aggressive, you are wrong.

Its a simple enough idea if you can locate yourself pretty much anywhere, why not in a really nice place that is also affordable and welcoming? but it doesnt happen purely by chance. Even more exotically, as Silva puts it, theres a socialist government thats very popular but pro-enterprise. Lisbons new identity has been willed into being by government, especially by Antnio Costa, formerly mayor of the city and now prime minister of Portugal.

Costa came to power promising economic growth combined with relief from the worst pains of austerity. You can have several types of austerity, says his minister, Vasconcelos. It can impact on the most fragile or on the most strong, on companies or workers, old or young. What were trying to prove is that you can be serious and can achieve a good public deficit as we are now, our best ever while at the same time fostering entrepreneurship and science.

Food writer Adriana Freire, left, sells jam made from the citys fruit trees via her Muita Fruta project.

As mayor, Costa swept aside bureaucratic obstacles, encouraged creative and tech entrepreneurs and boosted tourism. He made it easier to open businesses or hotels in historic buildings. He set up programmes for teaching schoolchildren and the unemployed how to code. He created Startup Lisboa in the then moribund centre of the city, a place where fledgling businesses could find their feet, run by now-minister Vasconcelos. He was helped by the dynamic Graa Fonseca, now secretary of state for modernisation, then in charge of a department of entrepreneurship.

Mariana Duarte Silva, the woman who brought Village Underground to Lisbon, says that Costa is a little bit of an annoying optimist, but I think that helps.

Lisbons revival has also been helped by some not-especially-socialist incentives, such as the Golden Visa, which gives rights of residency to anyone buying property worth more than 500,000. Many are attracted by its tax regime, especially the highly-taxed French. It has also welcomed the not-especially-socialist Airbnb and Uber. The taxi drivers protested for a day, says Vasconcelos a touch dismissively, but that was all.

If the energy and vitality of the new Lisbon are genuine, the Costa renaissance is not without doubters. Ana Jara and Lucinda Correia, of the architects Arteria, are engaged in the sort of low-cost ingenious interventions that were seen at the 2013 Triennial: making new and good-looking signs to draw attention to long-established businesses, and devising a strategy for making beneficial use out of the underused rooftops of Lisbon apartment buildings. Initially they were pleased by the revival of the city but now they see residents and businesses being pushed out by rising prices.

People are playing the game of Monopoly. they say. You buy houses and you build hotels.

Banksy meets Damien Hirst in street art by the Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, known by the tag name Vhils. Photograph: Alamy

The Golden Visa is the worst thing. It makes it possible for someone to buy a huge property but it causes social exclusion. It says, if I have the money I have the right to be here. This is not managing the city in a smart way. In the medium-to-long-run, you lose identity, people will not be making or producing any more.

They say that a bastardised form of Portuguese cuisine is being sold to tourists, and that Costas relaxing of planning rules is leading to faadism, whereby only the shells of historic buildings are retained.

A short film, Youll Soon Be Here, has been made to chronicle the effects of tourism on Mouraria, the marginal, multicultural and poor downtown area where, among other things, Freires Cozinha Popular is located. A campaign has been set up, Morar Em Lisboa (To live in Lisbon) to oppose displacement. Even a Costa enthusiast like Mariana Duarte Silva of Village Underground says: People are being chucked out of their homes and traditional shops are being closed. But the prime minister is very conscious of it.

It would also be a loss if the identity of Lisbon, a city rich in things subtle, graceful and well made from food to artefacts to buildings is swamped in a flood of branded, curated, confected, marketed experiences, if the stuff that is good and already there is repackaged and resold.

Lisbon has an aptitude for mimicking other cities. Its suspension bridge is much like the Golden Gate in San Francisco, and it has a statue of Christ reminiscent of Rios. Many of the latest interventions are London-inspired. Its breathier boosters now say it could generate a countercultural energy like the one that San Francisco converted into the wealth of Silicon Valley. Northern Europeans like to retire here too, which would make it a sort of Miami.

Now it resembles a speeded-up east London, moving rapidly through the gears of dereliction, artistic renewal, entrepreneurial action, rising prices and gentrification.

Its a cause for celebration that a great old city, down on its luck, should find a new life, but the really smart thing for Lisbon and its government would be to do better than cities that have gone this way before: to achieve vitality while also nurturing the things that make the city so appealing in the first place.

See this: landmarks of the new Lisbon

The Time Out Market, in the historic Mercado da Ribeira, offers food and cultural experiences based on editorial curation. Photograph: Alamy

MAATThe sweeping new riverside gallery designed by Amanda Levete for the art foundation of the electricity giant EDP.

EDP HQ EDP has also commissioned architecturally ambitious headquarters by the Portuguese practice Aires Mateus, designed to welcome the public at least some of the way into its complex.

Cozinha Popular da Mouraria A popular kitchen created in response to the economic crisis.

Time Out Market An ensemble of food shops and restaurants, a place for street food that should have a Michelin star.

LeopoldA restaurant where a menu of many highly-crafted courses is served on small, square blocks of wood.

LX factory The former premises of a thread and fabrics company that now houses studios, bars, galleries and venue spaces, a stage for a diverse set of happenings.

Shared workspaces Local incarnations of the shared London workspaces Second Home and Village Underground, which in different ways combine high levels of architectural invention with cultural programmes to delight the creative and tech companies they house.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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