Mastodawn

A silly poll! 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

The old world is limping into retirement and the new one is struggling to get its shoes on, and in all of the faff a bunch of jobs have ceased to exist, including yours. Taking a brief break from the the potential existential horror implications of that, you’re sitting in a nice anarchist run centre for available work, and a nice lady has fanned a bunch of charmingly shoddy brochures in front of you. “What would you like to give a whirl at, love?”
Carefully, you ponder.

Birch bark backpack weaver

16.5%

Cat ladder structural engineer

28.6%

Sleepy time books out loud reader

32.1%

Toothpaste flavour consultant

1.3%

Wildflower seed pod picker

21.4%

Poll ended at Mar 10 at 10:02am.

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

Birch bark backpacks are a thing. I'm sure they've existed elsewhere also, but if you want to see the Finnish kind, just look up "tuohikontti" - people used to make them to carry pretty much anything, they're cute.

Weil Averdui Mar 9

@sinituulia oh, yeah, this is a thing here as well. And while my job might be reshaped (but I think an anarchist community would support a person who helps kids to study one on one in a much more fair and honest way than what happens now) i am willing to give it a go, my various craft skills will probably translate well enough.

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@weilaverdui It's a pretty available material where birches grow!
And yeah, I imagine there would be changes even if the needs remained the same

Weil Averdui Mar 9

@sinituulia tbh, the one in one lessons would probably move into something that community provides if a child needs some, instead of parents themselves looking and paying for service. Which honestly would be neat.

Andy Gates Mar 9

@sinituulia @weilaverdui Kind of like willow withy baskets down here in the damp mild UK!

LIΞBΔCH Mar 9

@sinituulia I expected something looking more birch bark'ish and improvised. They look really nice. Don't they dry out and get brittle over time?

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@liebach They're sort of a little bendy but quite rigid and tough? There used to be one at the old farm that got used to carry firewood. Firewood! That's not very delicate. They could last for decades, I vaguely recall hearing.

They even used to make shoes out of birch bark, and bowls and baskets of course.

Sue Archer Mar 9

I picked that before I looked them up, and I have no regrets.

Alfred Chow - Maker of Things Mar 9

@suearcher @sinituulia
I went for cat ladders.
I figured I could spend time load testing with dogs, and if it was fine for dogs, cats should be no problem.

Sue Archer Mar 9

@Maker_of_Things @sinituulia

Well, it makes sense for us to develop different skills. We can't both be making cat ladders.

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@suearcher @Maker_of_Things 😂

Layne 🌱Mar 9

@sinituulia I doubt librarian is a job that's ever going to go out of fashion, but sleepy time books out loud reader isn't that far away from what working at a public library is like, so I'd choose that lol

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@glittercleric The hours might be a little bit different, but many similarities otherwise!

@sinituulia While I would probably enjoy weaving birchbark baskets, I have OPINIONS about toothpaste! Like why is all of them fucking mint that makes my mouth burn?!

We need more options!

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@Gulleko I've tried a couple of ones for children, and while the banana and whatever are not as strong, they're still quite artificial. 🤔

@sinituulia I managed to find an unflavoured and non-foamy one (TePe Pure Toothpaste) that I could order from an online pharmacy, and for the first time in my life brushing my teeth isn't actively unpleasant.

Berg am Laimerin (v2)Mar 9

@sinituulia
As a parent, I already can show references as "sleepy time books out loud reader".

But some of the other jobs might be lovely too, so I might arrange some job sharing...

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@muenchnerin References are good though not required, gumption and good will would already get you far! It's perfectly allowed to try out a couple, too

@sinituulia @muenchnerin Designing structurally sound cat ladders and especially having them tested by prospective users would be my thing! ᓚᘏᗢ

fritzoids Mar 9

I'm going to both pick wildflower seed pods and read sleepy time books out loud (*with* voices).

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@fritzoids Sagely nodding, you could probably do both on the same day without issue

@sinituulia I've had a lot of compliments on my voice recently, so maybe I can read for sleepytimes 😊

Karen E. Lund 💙💛Mar 9

@sinituulia Wildflower seed pod picker. I have a little experience in that, although it's not among the current volunteer opportunities because that happens in Autumn.

Registered for two beach grass prep activities next week. The Native Plant Center is a very cool place!

https://www.nycgovparks.org/reg/stewardship

@sinituulia I’ve experience in all of these. No one ever thought to pay me so far though. Reckon I’d be a shoe in for any of these. Haven’t made a backpack but know the theory and have made birch bark boxes. Posted a cat ladder we built yesterday. Raised kids, expert sleepy book reader. Toothpaste consultant is my weak link, but currently have three flavors in rotation inc. fennel so maybe not. And I collect wildflower seeds on the regular. Even collected amaryllis seeds on Sat.!

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@IcooIey I'm somewhat not words at the moment (I used up brain for a little bit figuring out video editing again and require more tea before brains again) but I just wanted to let you know that reading all of that was absolutely delightful and I'm sure you'd do well with toothpaste flavour testing as well

@sinituulia my life has giving me a lot of opportunities to try unusual things. Everyone’s should!

Pent Up Games 🔞Mar 9

@sinituulia Oh no. All our toothpaste is gonna taste like crap.

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@pentup There's a couple of dedicated people working on it, still!

@sinituulia I believe sleepy time book out loud reader is amongst the jobs that are going out, so weaver it is. Or assistant to the cat ladder engineer(who handles the cats obv)

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@Xiba There's still much value in it being done in person by one person, as opposed to a recording (or a false image of a recording as may be these days) that can't be replaced by anything!

Outi 🦊🌱🌍🌈Mar 9

@sinituulia Birch bark. Considering I've enjoyed making himmelis and am actually interested in some day trying to make something out of birch bark it seems like a natural choice.

Sini Tuulia Mar 9

@OiskaE It's a neat material. Mostly I've used it to make fire, but it's quite lovely to handle

Granny Art (Shrimp) (Joni)Mar 9

@sinituulia I'm going to pick backpack weaver because it's the closest thing to bag maker.

Steve Gisselbrecht Mar 9

I've done a bunch of reading aloud (volunteering for an organization then called Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic) and I find it very soothing to do.

@sinituulia
I have the voice.

Comrade Weez Mar 10

@sinituulia I already know that I am a complete failure at 'Sleepy time books out loud reader' because I kept nodding off