People joke about the lack of customer service in the UK, and I don't see how it will ever change except for the import of Americans where they themselves will be continually frustrated by the lack of customer service and yet at work will still believe that as the face of X company we can make up for the lackluster performance of our peers and somehow it will spread like an infectious disease. But here's the real scoop, normal everyday people are generally more hospitable so it balances it out. For example, we paid 10 pounds to get on a ferry that goes about 200 yards to a dinky island with a very quiet mysterious man who pretty much only said, get on/get off/give me the money over here. However we got a free ride back into town from a ferry that was 2 miles from town by some stranger that lived in town. I don't believe hitchhiking really exists much in the US but what we have in distrust of others we make up in the constant push of customer service to the detriment of the employee.
Where the UK lacks complete lack of integrity in terms of providing services and not giving a single shit if something didn't go your way, they make it up in the general public not being overly religious and not only offering you their food but also a deep sense of camaraderie of struggling to live happily against an overly bureaucratic system. Thank goodness for that.
New vocabulary:
Commonly understood definition of a "cunt" here: someone who is oblivious to the stereotype that they are perpetuating
My suggestions for replacements
Twat: A person not so great in casual settings that you hope will learn how to have lower expectations.
Cunt: A person who does injustice to the idea of the 'simple' life that you hope will choose obscurity over fame sometime in the near future.
Laziest recipe I've ever created:
Ingredients
A jar of any sauce you think won't taste like bad licorice
Whatever meat is on sale at whatever grocery store you pass on the way home
Leftover rice
Whatever vegetables you have that don't require peeling
Step 1, cook the meat in a pan until you can't see the pink, cover and add a bit of water to cook the insides
Step 2, when the water is gone add more oil then top with vegetables and sauce, put lid back on to simmer
Step 3, wait until there's 5 minutes left of cooking the sauce until it stops being in the shape of the can/jar and looks like a liquid again to add rice on top of all of that then cover again and go back to surfing the internet.
Step 4, replace the cover with an upside down plate, flip the whole pan and hope that nothing spills off the edges. Eat 1/4 of it and leave the rest as leftovers for the week.
My life and my art practice:
My worst days always involve some form of not planning enough time and being inflexible.
My best days always involve some form of friends and not thinking or planning anything in particular.
Worst things I learned about myself after doing an art show about making art:
1. I like doing the minimum amount of research but in varying amounts of time, possibly due to being both stubborn and impatient.
2. I am a idealistic pessimist, so somehow I imagine everyone is doing everything all wrong, but there is a single way that everyone could do everything right.
3. I can force myself to do anything, while having the flu for a full day, I still managed to drag myself to invite plenty of people to my art show, finish 4 out of 5 unfinished works and puke my guts out all night while trying to figure out inDesign. It's like some kind of red bad of courage about being an example of what not to do in ones art practice.
4. Writing blogs is how I know whether or not I'm happy, having a conversation with another human being however somehow is not.
5. I still care about what other people are doing more than creating my own gauge of success.
6. I know what I don't want to do, but that won't stop me from still doing it. Plus I never know what I'm actually up to, I just hope that I'm putting enough energy out there that something will come back to me when I least expect it.
7. I trust that my artwork will speak for itself, but I don't trust that the work is ever really finished.
8. I love shortcuts more than I love context.
9. I'm obsessed with documenting because I'm also obsessed with knowing how much I forget.
10. I may have got the right map, but I keep taking ridiculous paths. Which means I seem to believe that the ends will justify the means.
Best things about my art practice that I think I’ve known for a while:
1. I’m in a state of constantly searching and absorbing as much as I can.
2. I question almost everything but also my own assumptions of what I think I know.
I consider myself always in a state of learning, change and reflection.
I consider myself always in a state of learning, change and reflection.
3. I tend to trust the right people and see opportunities for what they are when offered by other people, in general I take opportunities seriously.
4. I give a lot back in my practice, and it propels move forward. At the least I’m considerate and other times I am downright generous.
5. I rarely compromise my high standards and expectations for something that I want to see happen, the bare minimum of what I achieve is usually very interesting in its own right
6. I don’t have a problem producing ideas or making work, I find myself in an interesting position of creating work that other people enjoy and even offer to buy. I know how to do hard work even when I am unable to meet my high expectations. Also, I learn quite a lot through building something.
7. I am very resourceful and create work based on whatever I see as my limits of asking of others and myself. The world feels bountiful of resources and content.
8. I always make good friends along the way and find moments to enjoy myself and even surprise myself at some point.
9. I automatically seek and work towards a sense of community, which ironically means that I end up having a lot of different friends in different circles.
10. My work rewards the curious
10. My work rewards the curious
11. I have achieved quite a bit of personal success in my life and although I don’t know if I could ever keep outdoing myself, I have thought about that if I died tomorrow, I will have lived a fulfilling life.
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