Does anyone else absolutely love Freecycle? I must admit to having furnished practically the entirety of my current flat with Free-cyclage. Our bed, bedside tables, sleeper sofa, butler's trolley, toaster, coffee machine, scanner, gawd, a number of things. Of course, I've fed back into the system, especially when I left the States last year and gave away my entire house, practically. Of course, every Freecycle has its own character, which I find amusing, to a certain extent. Reston Freecycle was well-organized and remarkably reliable. Only occasionally would you find the odd individual who didn't follow up with promises to appear or deliver. Oxford Freecycle is remarkably contentious- there's always people kicking up a public fuss (blatantly ignoring the discussion boards) and calling each other names because they don't agree whether animals should be free-cycled.
What's really irksome about Oxford is that people never tell you where they are located when they post... it's such a big group geographically that it really does matter when trying to decide if it's worth the schlep for that old pair of ice skates or whether it's actually feasible for someone without their own mode of transport.
My primary reasons for bringing up the topic of Freecycle, however, is a recent post on Freecycle Oxford that just needs to be publicized:
[OxfordFreecycle] Offered half dead child's bmx!!!
isisunicorngirl to OxfordFreecycle
What on earth does that mean? Is there a half dead child somewhere and they're giving away the poor thing's bike?
Somewhat related to the fact that all my furniture comes from Freecycle is that fact that I'm doing some freelancing for Oxfam Publications to bulk up my bank account (thanks be to Katie for getting me the initial gig...). This freelance work comes in the form of putting together Resources sections for books that Oxfam is publishing. The first one was Cities. It couldn't seem to figure out if it was meant to be academically informative or a rant. Alas. Next one up is a book on campaigning which will be a bit more research on my part familiarising myself with the field. Cities was a bit more straightforward since I'm still up on the literature.
Also occupying my time and sucking the hours from my weekend are events like the four hour berimbau workshop that I attended yesterday. My pinky is killing me. For those not in my capoeira world (what? is there a world outside capoeira?!?!) a berimbau is the main instrument in the roda (I'll explain the roda another time). It looks like a big bow with a gourd attached. You play it by hitting a wire with a stick and change notes by adjusting the tension on the wire by pressing it with a stone (or coin or whatever generally appropriate object is within arm's reach). It's not excessively complicated but you hold the whole instrument up with your pinky finger. Whose idea that was, I'm not sure, but I think there's probably another thirty folks 'round Oxford today nursing an aching pinky finger...
Related Links:
Freecycle
Oxfam Publishing
Berimbaus
What do you call a "pinky finger"?
