#this isn’t aimed at any specific end of year photo dump

[yesterdayiwrote]

Look, I’m just going to say it, in at least 90% of cases, if the photo wasn’t interesting enough to post when you took it, it’s definitely not interesting enough to post in a dump 6+ months later…

[thewhitefluffyhat]

No, Alina Isn’t Crazy

Let me explain...

When Alina was first introduced, I thought she was the character that made the least sense as an actual person rather than as a trope-y “mad artist” archetype.  But after the reveal of her backstory, I find her personality and motivations do make sense, especially when you consider the events of Alina’s Magical Girl Story from her perspective.  

Indeed, since that story’s release on JP, she’s quickly risen to become my favorite new character from Magia Record.  Hence why I’m posting this today - it’s another semi-Magia Rapport related post, haha.  Alina is definitely my favorite of the Forest element characters, and perhaps this essay will show a little of why that is.

Provocative title and Magia Rapport aside, though, what’s actually below the "Keep reading” is a close read analysis essay, specifically focused on Alina’s MGS.  (A lot of Holy Alina’s MGS serves to confirm and reinforce little points scattered throughout this too, but this post was long enough without it!)

Introduction

The theme of Alina’s own art might be “Alina’s beauty” and “life, death, and emotion/decay.”  But I would argue that the theme of her MGS as a when taken as a short story is “voyeurism and objectification at the cost of self-identity.”  Specifically, how Alina’s actions and personality are the logical conclusion to that concept taken to an extreme.

There’s one important truth to Alina’s world, and that is the idea that Alina’s art IS Alina.  We see it at the start – when she says her art is what she enjoys and what she grasps with her own hands.  We see it at the end – with her realization that her art’s theme is “Alina’s beauty.”

And at the end of the day, what MGS Alina most seems to want is to be left alone to do art, to be herself.  But who is Alina?

Alina the Teen Prodigy

Unfortunately for Alina, her fame gets in the way of figuring that out.  Such is the life of a teen prodigy.  As perhaps can be expected, constantly parading children under a spotlight is a great recipe for turning out extremely high-strung kids with very warped self-esteem.

(See also: Nemu, but especially Touka.)

The exchange regarding the award here is a good illustration of that mindset.  It might initially seem contradictory for Alina to work desperately hard to win an award that she later doesn’t want and claims she wasn’t aiming to win.  But once being “gifted” becomes central to your identity, winning an award doesn’t feel good anymore.  It feels more like running in place, just the bare minimum expected of you to maintain your identity as a genius.  And Alina’s perfectionism means she can’t not hold herself to that standard.

Indeed, Alina is already showing signs that she’s struggling under the pressure and overexposure.  Normally, Alina seems to love talking about art and her own works (as long as it isn’t about herself, anyway).  Arguing with her teacher and running away are far more of a bother and interfere with her ability to get back to painting far more than a quick meeting would have been.  Yet she curses at her teacher, bolts, and skips school rather than have to deal with the consequences of her fame again.

She’s irrationally lashing out, asserting her boundaries in whatever way she can. And with the way the characters react, this doesn’t even seem like the first time it’s happened, either...

Which suggests Alina’s problems with her fame also aren’t new.  When we first meet her, Alina is already a lot closer to a breakdown than she appears on the surface.

Having natural talent from an early age, Alina probably hasn’t learned how to deal with failure without spiraling into a full blown identity crisis.  As a perfectionist, she’s also hypersensitive to even the slightest mistake.  And given that she’s been famous for a few years at this point, her acting out is practically expected.

Just given the setting that she’s a well-known child prodigy, it’s not surprising that Alina has all these traits.

Alina’s Adults Are Useless

What is a bit disturbing, though, is that adults around Alina aren’t any help in protecting her from her fame.

Indeed, from what we see, the pattern is the opposite - over and over, the supposedly “responsible” adults in Alina’s life say her visibility matters more than her consent.  Her teacher pressures her into competitions she dislikes and then gets on her case when she pushes back.  Her parents put up her whole life story, including photos of her as a kid, without Alina’s approval or even permission. 

Jumping ahead, I think it’s rather telling that Alina manages to destroy all her art, commit suicide, and get rescued by a third party – and none of these adults even visit her.  A popular theory is that Alina’s parents are travelling in a different country.  But - did no one tell them?  Did they not care?  As it is, anything Alina does – even blatant red flags like destroying a classroom and her own art – is treated as just another work of artistic genius, to be advertised and exhibited.  

(Because apparently nothing says High Art like creep shots of a teenage girl having a mental breakdown.)

Of course, Alina isn’t being neglected or abused like Sana or Yuma.  Not even close.  But she’s not in a great situation either.  She doesn’t really have anyone she can turn to in a crisis.  The adults in her life mostly use her for their own ends, reinforcing that her worth is in her fame as an artist, not her value as a person.

Alina’s Peers Aren’t Much Better

Then, on a more subtle level, there are Alina’s peers.  Whenever she’s mentioned by people her own age, she’s either the subject of scary rumors or glowing admiration.  Other kids know her as a celebrity name to be idolized or feared, not a person.  

Before becoming a magical girl, the only person who actually makes an effort to befriend Alina is Karin.  But even she is initially caught up in the aura of Alina’s fame and contributes to the swirl of gossip around her.

The result is a situation where everyone around Alina has their own opinion on who she is.  No one seems to care or leave space for who Alina wants herself to be.  And Alina, not having a social life to fall back on, is increasingly left with “genius artist” as the only means she has to interact with the world.  It’s a self-reinforcing spiral.

The Critic’s Letter

First, what it’s not: this isn’t about Alina getting a bad review and not being able to handle criticism of her work.  She’s already won the competition.  And Alina is perfectionistic to unhealthy levels - she’s already her own worst critic.

Rather, the letter’s insinuations are both subtler and crueler.  As Alina says, the critic isn’t concerned with her artwork - he’s commenting on Alina as a person.   Thus, the critic’s words are the same pattern as before, now crystallized into its sharpest and purest form.

Alina’s internal sense of identity is precariously fragile.  Meanwhile, Alina’s external identity is being used as a canvas for other people’s desires.  Even though all Alina really wants is to create art for her own sake, other people obsess over and dump their own meaning (or lack of meaning) onto her works.

Once again, Alina’s art is conflated with Alina herself.  The person is being evaluated as a piece of art.

As if that wasn’t enough, the letter’s final insinuation that Alina is losing her brilliance is a triple threat.  If she can’t create great art, Alina loses the activity she enjoys most. She also loses the one thing she knows other people value her for.  And worst of all, she loses the only touchpoint she has for her sense of self.

Cue existential crisis.  Alina’s life is Alina’s art.  Alina’s art is Alina life.   Without one, she doesn’t have any concept of the other.  

And in the light of all this, her suicide makes perfect sense. 

Alina’s Suicide

Welcome to the literal and figurative objectification of Alina.  Literal, in that she’s turning into a corpse.  Figurative in that by putting her body up for display, she’s allowing people to voyeuristically consume it –  an idea further reinforced by the “Kusouzu / Nine Phases” reference in the title implying a tinge of sexual objectification as well. 

Now that she’s destroyed all of her previous works, the only thing Alina leaves her audience to look at is Alina herself.  Filming her body as it turns from a person into a dead object was simply the logical conclusion to a life of being displayed, objectified, and overwritten by others’ perceptions.  

But how does Alina feel about this ending?

The day of her suicide, Alina rushes around in a kind of manic euphoria.  This isn’t especially odd.  After all, it’s not uncommon for a suicidal person to outwardly appear happier before they make an attempt, as finally having a concrete plan of action can feel like a huge relief.  

Dying means a solution to Alina’s worries about her talent fading.  Dying also means an end to all the pressure, all the constant struggle of performing to ever-heightening expectations.  Alina can simply abandon the cases and tools once she’s done with them - no need to stress about the future when she won’t have one.

Alina’s farewell, though, betrays darker emotions.  It’s simultaneously deeply spiteful - “this is what you all wanted from me, are you happy now?” - yet also an admission of utter defeat.  Alina is giving up her very humanity and selfhood to be evaluated as whatever her audience wants.

Throughout the story, everyone keeps telling Alina that her art is intoxicating, pulling the viewer into it… but the reality is the exact opposite.  Alina’s art was just something Alina made for herself, and any intoxicating meaning was something the viewer injected into it.  

And thus, Alina’s revelation.  Alina’s theme is “Alina’s beauty” – both a rejection and an embrace of that objectification.  Now, Alina has declared that her art loudly and unabashedly about herself, viewer projection be damned.  And yet, at the same time, since “Alina” is what viewers are obsessed with seeing, then Alina will give them exactly what they want…

An Artistic Failure?

So then why does Alina consider her final art to be a failure?  It fits well within the theme of “Alina’s beauty.”   Indeed, her later works like “Humanity’s Implicit Reward” and even her swimsuit are arguably just softer variations of the “Alina’s body as forbidden yet alluring object for the viewer to consume” idea that is present here.

This suicide also seems to fit into the “life and death” motifs she has.  It’s a twisted kind of resurrection - effectively, she’s killing herself as a human in order to live on eternally as a memorable piece of art.

Alina plans her final work directly because she thinks she’s dying as a creator.  Rather than face her brilliance fading, she chooses to defy it by going out in a blaze of glory.  And when put that way, it’s an exciting and fitting conclusion.  

There’s just one little problem with that narrative...

While drifting between life and death, Alina realizes the critic was wrong.  She had a theme all along.  Alina’s brilliance wasn’t fading.

And thus, since she wasn’t a “dying artist,” her “going out in a blaze of glory” no longer holds any profound meaning.  She’s just a silly teenager who got too worked up over a harsh letter.

The overall concept behind Alina’s last work wasn’t the issue.  The failure was in the timing and execution, killing herself before such a thing had meaning and in a way such that her body would be found.

And so, I don’t think Alina has learned her lesson here.  I don’t think Karin’s words have gotten through to her yet.  If she concludes at a later point that her talent is truly is fading or that she’s lost her theme, I’d fully expect her to pull another suicidal stunt again.

Conclusion

So the good news: Alina lived!  She’ll have plenty more chances to create art and figure herself out!

But the bad news: Alina’s revelation implies she’s now even more reliant on her identity as a genius artist.  

And thus, like so many other characters, the end to Alina’s MGS isn’t really an ending. She hasn’t solved the problem at the heart of the crisis that led to her wish.  Becoming a magical girl and discovering witches does nothing to stop Alina from falling into another identity spiral, nor has she left her suicidal tendencies behind.

Alina found her theme, but she still hasn’t found herself.

Misc Details

Some other neat miscellaneous details that fit with this interpretation:

I’m glad the English translation keeps at least a little of the quirky way Alina refers to herself.  (That being said, in Japanese, it’s even more exaggerated - she doesn’t use normal first person pronouns at all, only using “Alina.” )

Because on the one hand, this is an obvious hint at her extreme narcissism: Alina’s sentences frequently emphasize her name.

On the other hand, it’s a great subtle detail to return to the theme of objectification.  To put it another way, Alina refers to herself in third-person.  That is, even when Alina is speaking about herself, she reflexively frames it from the point of view of another person.  Because Alina is constantly having other people’s perspectives forced onto her!

Also, it turns out the pattern of others projecting onto Alina is present in her witch as well!  “Old Dorothy” is a historical figure whose diaries have been analyzed by multiple different researchers.  Some of them came to the conclusion that Dorothy was definitely a witch, others came to the conclusion she was definitely a normal, upstanding member of her community.  The researchers got completely opposite results from the same exact diaries.  So therefore - did they truly care about learning what Dorothy was really like?  Or were they just out to prove their own theories?

(Two years in, Old Dorothy is even more fitting of a name.  Doroinu basically predicted the entire fan response to Alina.  Some people see her as an evil (w)itch, some people see her as a sympathetic figure - all from looking at the same text.

We’re even starting to see the “two sides” of Alina come up in the Main Story, with Karin’s subplot in Arc 2.)

Meanwhile, Old Dorothy’s form - a “paint tube” - carries both this “paint over with your perceptions” meaning while also suggesting the same story as Alina’s final piece in miniature.  

Unlike Izabel, Alina’s witch form isn’t that of an artist.  Because when Alina hits her lowest point of despair, she no longer considers herself to be an artist.  She believes the only value she has left is to become literal materials to create art.  

In other words, Old Dorothy is Alina turning herself into art again.  It’s just rainbow paint this time instead of red.

Last but not least: yes, I am absolutely aware of the irony of this essay.   Here I am rambling about how Alina’s story is all about her struggle to be herself while everyone seems determined to erase her in favor of their own projections – and yet  a good chunk of this interpretation is probably my projecting on her.   Whoops!

Still, even if you disagree with it, I hope this essay was interesting and maybe made you question some of your assumptions about Alina.  

Thanks for reading!

[earthconstructs]

Blog

I started a blog in July 2017, paid for a domain, did it up using Squarespace, made it super pretty. In 2017 I started focusing on improving my writing, and in my goal for 2018 was to become a better writer. 

In November 2018, I finished working at the Water Corporation after I had documented the “Kep Project”. My manager was acting in another manager’s role, and so an acting manager ended up signing off on my final report. I put a lot of effort into that report, I spent many evenings alone in the office trying to figure out if it was laid out well, clear to people who may be coming across the topic for the first time. I wonder if anyone will actually read it, or has, in the last two years.

The acting manager who was reviewing my report was known to be a stickler for detail, call out bad quality work, and be quite picky. She read my report, signed it off, and gave me feedback that it was written really well. And that was it for me - I had achieved my goal of being a being a better writer / writing better reports.

It’s funny how I needed the paid domain and blog back when I was working full time, and had a lot going on in my life, to motivate me to write. if I didn’t, then it would be like I was wasting the money I’d spent on it. 

But now it’s a huge expense. So I’m closing the blog, and keeping this free brain dump version of a blog. Where I just brain dump, without being strict on myself, and reading every post over and over and over again for fear of being judged by my friends - the only people who read it anyway. 

Finishing here with a copy-paste-dump of the 4 blog posts I wrote from July 2017 to April 2018. 

30 July 2017 - I am an engineer

I am an engineer trying to figure out my place in helping to make the world a better place for everyone to live in. I became a mechanical engineer because I liked understanding how stuff works. But recently, I've realised that a big part of the stuff I am interested in is how people and the world work to create this life that I am living. I am always learning, so this blog is my attempt to capture some of it, so that I can refer back to it later, and to hopefully share something new with you as well.

 30 July 2017 - My first visit to Kalgoorlie as a guest speaker

WASM Wall by Jason Dimer

OK, I’ll admit it, when I saw a request come through EWB* channels for a female engineer to present at the GEMIA* Girls and Guys Exploring Mining Forum, in Kalgoorlie, I jumped at the opportunity!

There were a couple of reasons why:

As a female engineer and EWB volunteer, I am passionate about inspiring students, especially female students, to pursue careers in STEM* fields as I believe these fields nurture the critical thinking so needed in our current world, and that increasing the number of females with careers STEM fields is one of our quickest paths towards gender equality

I had heard a lot about Kalgoorlie, but had never been there myself. I believe that the best way to learn about a place is by visiting, experiencing, immersing and talking to the locals (spoiler alert, I spent a lot of time doing this in my one and a half days there)

Everything we do at Engineers Without Borders links to one of the Aims from our 2020 Strategy. Speaking at events such as this Mining Forum for Year 9-11 high school students in Kalgoorlie fits into our aim to redefine engineering, specifically: “We will redefine engineering as a community centred profession that provides leadership in the creation of a more sustainable and inclusive world”.

And that is what I had at the front of my mind as I was putting together a presentation covering my career in engineering to date, my work as an Engineers Without Borders volunteer, and the concept of humanitarian engineering - with the aim to engage and inspire teenagers!

I wanted to share some examples of humanitarian engineering with the students, and luckily Sheena Ong, our ex EWB WA President and creator of the documentary “The Humanitarian Engineer", allowed me to include video clips of snippets from the documentary. I chose three examples that I thought conveyed the message of humanitarian engineering and appropriate technology concisely:

Rob Hughes, EWB field engineer, on developing biodigesters in Tonle Sap, Cambodia

The installation of Playpumps in Africa

Darren Lomman, Dreamfit founder discussing examples of equipment design or modification to make them accessible for people with disabilities

For each of the above examples that I showed the school group, I asked them three questions:

Did it address disadvantage?

Did it use science or technology?

Did it consider the community or persons’s needs in the design process?

After running through the second definition of humanitarian engineering covered in the documentary - humanitarian engineering is engineering that puts human well-being at the centre - I asked the students if I was a humanitarian engineer.

The questions I asked were answered by the students with a combination of murmurs of yes, and cocked heads. When I queried the teachers about this later, they said it was because this was not a topic that they had heard of before. I hope that I helped them to think about what engineering is, and that it can be related to more than the gold mining happening just up the road from Kalgoorlie town centre.

I like to think that I succeeded; later in the day one of the students asked me:

If I could be any kind of engineer, what would it be?

EWB = Engineers Without Borders GEMIA = Goldfield Education Mining Industry Alliance TEM = Science, technology, engineering and maths

Lemon Scented Gum at the Mt Charlotte walk trail and waterwise garden

Mulla mulla overlooking the superpit

Amok Island - 58 Egan St Kalgoorlie

21 August 2017 - Diversity and Inclusion

I had a really good weekend. I had back to back appointments and catch ups from Friday to Sunday night, and like the good extrovert that I am, it left it me feeling happy, stimulated and productive.

Which brings me to Monday night. I’m writing this during my first free moment, after my first day back at work since getting home from two weeks leave (while half watching the latest episode of Rick and Morty with my domestic partner). Anyway, I'm here to write about the Engineers Without Borders Humanitarian Day Gala, which I attended last Friday night.

On this night we heard from three speakers - Pete Baynard-Smith (Engineers Without Borders CEO), Suzanne Brown (Water Corporation Drainage and Liveable Communities Manager), and Fadzi Whande, social justice advocate and inclusion and diversity adviser.

And while I loved hearing about Pete and Suzanne's experience and work, I'll admit that I learnt the most from Fadzi, from a diversity perspective. I do not know many (any?) women from Africa, or much about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, other than it is important.

There are two points that Fadzi shared which have stuck with me. The first is the analogy she used about diversity and inclusion:

Diversity is being invited to a party, inclusion is being invited to dance.

The second is - The are six steps towards diversity and inclusion in our life and in the workplace are:

1.      You

2.     You

3.     You

4.     You

5.     You

6.     You

What a great way to emphasise that, as with pretty much everything in life, the most important thing I can do is to focus on myself, and what I myself can do or change.

By saying this, I understand that Fadzi means that to work towards diversity and inclusion, we need to start by changing our own circle, recognise that we are mainly surrounded by people that we are used to, and that a way to change this is by changing our own circle, and getting out of our comfort zone.

Hearing this motivates me, as I partly feel that I am on track because I already do this - by going to events I haven't been to before, where there is an opportunity to learn something new or that are attended by people outside my usual circle.

However, I appreciate my circle a lot. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many smart and admirable friends.

People who:

value logic and data*

are open minded

who have  taught and helped  me see so much of what I understand today

who recognise that we can't assume that we know someone's whole story

(and people who can explain to me what unconscious bias is because they are studying a Masters of Psychology - hopefully you'll get a guest post from that friend soon!)

Thank you Fadzi, Pete and Suzanne for sharing your words and experiences at EWB WA’s Humanitarian Day Gala, and to the special, like-minded people who I got to spend time with on Friday night. You all keep me inspired.

*On Data - I need to figure out my thoughts around data, perception, and community development. On one hand I believe, as Fadzi said on the night - data doesn't lie - and on the other hand, I believe in human centred design - that a community knows what they need, and what the statistics show may not always be what the community needs. I want to figure out which thought applies in what contexts If you have any ideas or information about this, please let me know!!!

9 September 2017 - Chasing Coral

Well, you know they've done a good job with a film when they can make you cry about coral.

CORAL BLEACHING FEBRUARY 2016 AT HERON ISLAND, PHOTO COURTESY THE OCEAN AGENCY / XL CATLIN SEAVIEW SURVEY

But films like this leave me feeling like I'm not doing enough about the ocean's temperature rise. That being vegan isn't enough; I'm still driving an internal combustion car, I don't have solar panels, I'm not putting enough pressure on our Australian government, and not having enough conversations about this with my peers.

I haven't been keeping up with the news much since I got back from a 2 week holiday to WA's North West. Today on triple j's 3pm news, I heard that the Nationals are having a federal conference where NSW and Queensland will present motions to phase out renewable energy subsidies and support the development of the coal industry.

They will also move to resist the determination of environmental groups "to disrupt and impede the progress of this important industry".

I'm just in disbelief. How can they not understand that this is going backwards? How can they not care about the damage that has already been done?

Maybe I need to find myself an opinion piece written by a member of The National party, so that I can try to understand where they are coming from.

Coal is the most polluting way to produce electricity. There are other options. We need to implement them. It seems so simple, what am I missing?

I'm going to The Great Barrier Reef in November. I hope that I won't be too saddened by what I see, and that I get to have some conversations with locals. As I've mentioned in a previous post - learning by immersion.

I'll end this depressing post with an infographic made by the Chasing Coral team, and the fact that I need to stock up a reef-friendly, oxybenzone-free sunscreen, now that summer is one season closer!

2 October 2017 - Experts (I am not one)

I’m writing this as I am watching the sun go over a hill in the distance at Roelands Village, just outside of Bunbury. The hill is known to Les, the director of Woolkabunning Kiakaand his ex-Roelands mission peers as “Bunbury Hill”. It might also be the hill where he pointed out their traditional-spear-watchmen-shaped tree out to us earlier today. Anyway, it’s f*cking blissful as you can see in the photo below, which does it no justice.

I’m here at the ex-Roelands mission for the annual Engineers Without Borders strategy retreat. This year I agreed/volunteered to feed all 20 attendees over the two day weekend. I wasn’t really looking forward to it – but saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself! As well as cooking in the kitchen, I got to take part in the sessions put on by the president, vice president and some other long time volunteers. In one of the sessions, we defined inspiration, which is actually really hard to do!

I was talking to a good friend of mine in the car as we were driving down. I think it was actually the same trip 3 years ago where we first began our deeper conversations about feminism, people, psychology and ethics. This year marks our 10 years of friendship, which for some reason I find a pretty crazy fact (the 10 years part, not the friendship itself). One of the many topics we covered in the two hour drive was - blogging about topics which we are not an expert in. I concluded that for me, this blog is my way of collating and sharing topics and solutions that I come across and am learning about, but is not me speaking as an expert. I hope that by my sharing information and resources, I am supporting the good work that is being carried out by others. There is so much happening around the world; something in place to address nearly every single issue that exists. I just want to keep track of, and share them all! I also hope that this becomes a way for me to hear about interesting work that I might not already know about.

So, you know how I mentioned that I wanted to find a marine friendly sunscreen, after watching Chasing Coral and realising that corals are actually very delicate creatures, and that chemicals in sunscreen are harming them? Well, I did a bit of research and found a couple of brands. One of them is Stream2sea, but as they are an American company, I was on the hunt for something a bit more local. It wasn’t too hard to find – Surf Lifesaving Australia sell a sunscreen where proceeds from sales supports surf lifesaving training and development programs around Australia. They even listed that this sunscreen was in a recyclable aluminium can instead of plastic and I thought, “Even better, it's plastic free - at least when aluminium gets recycled it doesn’t become a lower grade product like in the case of plastic.”

But then when it arrived, in a standard post plastic bag, it was further packaged like this.

How ironic, an item marketed as being marine friendly, wrapped in an item that is widely known as causing enormous damage to the environment, especially marine environments.

When I complained about this in the Zero Waste + Plastic Free Living Perth, WA group on Facebook, Darren Lomman told me that almost all items in the health and beauty aisle in supermarkets comes transported like this. Why? I don’t know enough about wholesaling and packaging to be able to answer that. But it just looks like such as juxtaposition to me:

Marine friendly                                                                                  

                                                                                                                            Plastic

So now that I am done complaining, I need to write a letter Surf Livesaving Sunscreen, to ask them about the irony of this situation. I’m unsure if this will change anything, but at least I will have tried. I suppose the other approach is to accept that it needs to be packed like that for a reason (which I hope I find out when they reply), or do something about the packaging that has already been used and is here to stay in our environment now.

Enter Greenbatch. (Remember how I spoke about interesting projects above?)

Greenbatch is Western Australia’s first PET plastic reprocessing facility. It is founded by a guy called Darren Lomman, who studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Australia (like me!). Darren recently handed over the reigns of Dreamfit, an organisation he founded that designs equipment for people with disabilities). He is now using his engineering and entrepreneurial background to establish a plastic processing facility, with the aim of reprocessing 100 million bottles by 2025, preventing them going into landfills, oceans and waste incinerators. Plastic processed through Greenbatch will be turned into 3D printing filament for schools to build and create with.

You can support this amazing social enterprise by:

-          Telling your friends about Greenbatch

-          Giving them a donation

-          Getting your local school involved

They are also holding a free community event at Perth City Farm on Wednesday 18 October. This event will give us the opportunity to learn from experts in the fields of sustainability, education, marine conservation and plastics recycling.

The experts will share what WA is doing about waste and recycling and ways that it can be improved, and talk about initiatives currently underway solving waste problems and how you can get on board and be a part of this sustainable change.

For more info, or to register your spot at this event click here.

I hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, stay tuned for a summary of the event here on my blog :)

13 April 2019 - Work, Life and Balance

Well, it's been 6 months since my last post. I can remember the last 6 months so clearly, though it feels like they passed in a blur. I have felt so much anticipation in the lead up to big events that I had been excited about for months or years; 18 months of anticipation before getting married, 7 months of awaiting Kep's arrival in Perth, and two and a half years of looking forward to moving to Europe.

Kep's arrival... I'll give some background before I continue.

Kep is Water Corporation's leak detection dog. She's the world's first dog to be trained solely to detect underground water leaks, using only the scent of treated water alone, as a cost effective way of leak detection in areas where it is difficult and costly to perform leak detection via the usual methods.

In August last year, after I lead a successful trial with two experienced detection dogs, I learnt that I would be the project manager of a project to acquire Water Corporation's first leak detection dog. I worked together with the dog trainer, Steve Austin, to select a working English Springer Spaniel puppy, who we named Kep*. She began training with Steve in Sydney, and her delivery date to Western Australia depended on her physical and mental maturity. On her arrival in Perth, I would also complete training to become her primary handler.

From August to November, as well as working on water source planning projects as part of my substantive role, I spent a lot of time detailing options for the implementation of a detection dog into Water Corporation's business, including all required logistics  for the transport and care of the working dog.

After getting married in Perth and honeymooning to the Great Barrier Reef at the end of November, December passed in the usual holiday-period way - fast. In January, I spent every spare moment during the weekends doing the things I love - camping, hiking, scuba diving, going to the beach, seeing friends, teaching piano and learning new things (surfing!!!). February was spent preparing for Kep's arrival, and I also fit in a trip to Melbourne where I presented at the Australian Water Association Young Professionals conference, and caught up with dear friends (some human, some furry).

And then, it was the end of February and the end of summer! I spent 3 weeks being a new dog mum and handler, before I handed Kep over to her other handler so that I could fly off for a 4 week trip to Europe,, where I have been since the end of March.

I had never been so excited for a holiday before; usually I would feel excited about going to explore new places and eating new food. This time, I just needed a break badly.

For the first time in my working life, I had felt...stressed.

In the lead up to, and in the 3 weeks after Kep's arrival, I had been featured in workplace internal communications, been on TV multiple times, and presented at an Engineers Australia Young Innovative engineers presentation.

I felt like everyone within Water Corporation, and a lot of members of the public, knew about my project, and I was very aware of the two most common attitudes of people when they heard about my project:

- You have the best job ever, how did you get it?!

- Will it really work, is it really that effective?

Both attitudes make me feel slightly guilty about how much I love my job at the moment, and how good I have it, in different ways.

It wasn't until both the dog trainer's program manager and my CEO's personal assistant had asked me - "How are you going with all the pressure?" - that I realised that it was normal to be feeling how I was. Once they asked, it made sense - I was experiencing what I was because my project was in the public eye.

Through my experiences in the last few months, I've learnt a lot more about myself and become better at dealing with pressure. By this I mean I am better at controlling how I feel internally, as apparently it doesn't show on the outside. What I also now know, is how it feels to be excited and invested in my work every day. The last 6 months have made me realise how much I enjoy working on new, exciting, and never-been-done-before projects.

The answer I gave to a student's question in Kalgoorlie has also stuck with me. I still think about working on plastic reprocessing, and ocean clean ups. And my next career goal is to have a bigger impact on issues that I care about. As my time away from Australia is wrapping up, for now, I'm starting to think about how I want to spend my time when I am back in Perth. As well as the busy project schedule awaiting me for the implementation of Water Corporation's leak detection dog into the business, there are still many issues that I want to delve into and learn about in more detail. And I'd like to get better at balancing work, exercise, diet and reading/learning.

For me, this post reflects on and captures a certain point in my life - the feeling of wired-excitedness for what will come next in my life and career.

*Kep

Kep was named after the Noongar word for water, which was selected in consultation with Noongar elders and the Water Corporation's Aboriginal Affairs team, and was the winning name in a Facebook poll with the Western Australian community where 7 000 people voted.

You can view more about Kep here:

Kep's Water Corporation page

Kep on Channel 9 News

Kep on GWN News