*poof!*

The Apprenticeship is moving along nicely. Things are good, even if it was slow for a few months after Xmas. Not a big surprise, since pretty much everything is slow around that time. For example, last pay I sold about $1200 worth of work. As of this morning, I had sold $2299.21 (I think). $2300 is the first amount where pay jumps by $1/hr. That number doesn't include the work I did today or the work I will do on Monday. It's not as crazy busy as it was when I first started, but back then, I still managed to have one pay of $12/hr with nothing but oil changes and tire mountings, before things went south and everything dropped off.

Because things were slow, I've picked up a second job. It's mine to the point of ghostly tangibility (I was in today after an audiology test* to sign my application form and make everything official). I'm expecting to hear from them "on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest." Even if work is picking up at the garage, the extra mony from this second job will mean I can pay down my debts way way way faster (yes. ALL of my debts. no snide comments needed, thanks.)

*I'm getting new hearing aids after 9+ years. The ones I'm currently wearing were prescribed by CHEO, and I'm 27 now, which means that at the absolute latest, they were prescribed when I was 18. I had not had my hearing tested since CHEO did it until last year around this time, which gave them a good base line for today's test... Does blasting music in the car count as studying for a hearing test? :P

The aids that have been prescribed for me this time are Siemens Intuis Dir BTE units (Dir = directional, BTE = Behind The Ear). They're pretty bare bones, but they're still better than what I've got now, and with the help from the government, and my finally having extended health insurance, the final cost should be something around $550-600. My only dislike about the aids is that they're grey, not "fleshtone"... Most people don't know I've got them until I point out the fact that I do, and then they often promptly forget. After 23 years of wearing the damn things, I've learned a few tricks to minimize their noticeability.

(Yes, I still have a giant issue with the fact that I need the damn things at all. The upside is that I'm a mutant. Seriously. I have awesome light sensitivity to make up for my crappy hearing.)

Innovation in Nature

I was browsing the Rubber Room, and there was a lonely post sitting all by itself, with the subject line reading simply, "Discuss this..." It contained a link to a 23:30 video from a conference of some sort (I didn't go much further than just watching the video). The video was a talk given by a woman named Janine Benyus, and the topic was "12 sustainable ideas in nature." Some of the things she touches on are truly remarkable, and that's only 12 ideas, inspired by 12 species. There are between 10 and 30 million species on the planet (possibly more!), and each one could possibly inspire just one idea to improve biosustainability in industry (also known as environmentally friendly practices).

Here's the video. I strongly suggest you watch it, and feel free to comment on it... I think it's just remarkable, even knowing the little bit I did about nature-inspired technology.