Category Archives: Queer

WWOOFing

Cuban, Environment, Food, Gay, How-To, Lesbian, Organic Farming, Queer, , , , , , ,

wwoofing
I think having a goal, and a relatively fabulous goal at that, is an important motivating force in achieving the ever elusive “success” I desire. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week. The goal not only has to be fabulous but also realistic, which is more complicated than you may think. My goal when starting Mushpa y Mensa was solely to be able to live and work for myself on some gorgeous beach. While this is an amazing goal to have, there are no specific steps to take besides achieving success. I need more than that to motivate me. I need a “road map” to get there. What I mean is I need smaller goals to get to the big one. Then it hit me yesterday, WWOOFing!

Let me explain. I have been wanting to go WWOOFing for the last few months. Mensa had mentioned us going awhile ago and when I was younger my friend Tatia and I used to dream of living this way right after we graduated college. It never happen then, but now I know it will.

Some of you may not know what WWOOFing is so let me break it down…

WWOOF (Working Weekends on Organic Farms, as it stood for then) was born in 1971, when Sue Coppard organised a trial weekend for herself and three other Londoners on an organic farm in East Sussex. Sue arranged a deal with the farmer: they would help out with work that needed doing on the land in exchange for food and accommodation. The weekend was so successful that it became a regular trip, every third weekend.

News gradually spread of ‘Sue Coppard’s Land Army’, and other organic farms got in touch, all keen to offer their hospitality in exchange for help from willing volunteers.

Today, WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms: a truly global phenomenon with over 6,000 hosts in 100 countries.

WWOOF UK became a charity in 2008.  With well over 560 hosts in the UK and membership rising sharply year on year, it can’t be long before the verb ‘to wwoof’ makes it into the Oxford English Dictionary. [source]

First part of goal done, thinking of a goal, WWOOFing. Next where to WWOOF; a pretty obvious choice, the Mediterranean, Spain, France, Italy, Greece. Next, what do we have to do to get ourselves onto an organic farm? The answer, we must contact the host farmers off of a list you have access to online once you become a member of each country’s WWOOFing chapter. What I realized is if we are going in a year we need to start to get everything set up now. It is like 30 Euros for us to dual register and like I said they are all separate, yearly memberships. That actually works perfect as if we are really going in a year we will have to contact the farmers ourselves a few months in advance and we won’t want to have to pay $160 again to get the latest list off their sites. Next, how long will we WWOOF for? I thought 2 months, Mensa said 6. The site says people usually only do it for 2 weeks. I think once we get the membership and reach out to the farmers we will have a better idea of how long we will go. I am sure there are multiple farms in the Mediterranean region of Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. I guess we could do 2 weeks at 3 farms per region. :] Ah, I forgot to mention there is no money involve, so you need to save money for fun and necessary products. Once, we find out where we are going and what is really included (room and food), we should be able to come up with our budget and then save this year. There is also insurance the hosts have for you, but remember it is only if something happens to you on the farm. If you are injured off the farm it’s on you, so you may want to have additional insurance if you don’t already.
Mediterranean
On Spain’s WWOOFing site they give this advice,

Insurance for wwofers registered at WWOOF ESPAÑA just covers accidents or illness (and death) direct consequence of an accident while helping in the farm. But for example you are not insured while outside the farm or even in the case of an appendicitis (because it´s not resulting from an accident). The amount insured is small: between 3000 and 6000 euros as maximum compensation). If you get injured, just contact us, you don´t need to do anything special, because you are already registered with us in our insurance policy.

Unfortunately in 2008 we had a sad incident in which a wwoofer died while taking a bath, outside the farm. We all got shocked by the sad accident of Adrian, but upon all the grief, we sadly confirmed the insurance did not cover that case and the expenses of reparation were very high. We never think about these fatalities, but they do happen. Please be responsible.

As a wwoofer I highly recommend you look at www.oveuropa.com. In their special insurance for wwoofers, they have additional clauses and it´s very convenient for the price, this could be on top of your own insurance. [source]

This is an attainable dream and seeing it here in front of me I know it is not only possible, but not that complicated. I want to travel, I want to learn more about organic farming, meet new people, escape a desk job and really just live the way I want to and I’ve found a way to do it, so why wouldn’t I?

-Mushpa

Happy Birthday Michelangelo!

Art, Lesbian, Queer, Review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today I went to the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, and in  honor of the museum’s thirtieth anniversary they held an exhibit titled Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, Masterpiece Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti.

My whole family went, including a crew of three kids under the age of 9 (I’m sure the museum staff loved us with our loud selves, and our “find the heads in the painting!” games).

The exhibit was a collection of twenty-five Michelangelo drawings. Many of them were sketches of architectural designs, including a plan for the Pichola Libreria of the Laurentian Library and a plan for the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome.

Other drawings included the iconic Madonna and Child. Like many of his renderings, the female figures are as toned as can be, most likely because many of the times he used male models to draw from life.

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“The Christ Child is as robustly muscled and smoothly polished as a piece of sculputre, the artist’s hand made invisible by infinitesimal overlapping touches. The sculptural quality of the Child recalls the perfect beauty of cassical statuary and the Child’s divinity, which is contrasted with the Madonna’s unfinished form.”

What made me the most curious about this drawing was how the paper through out had changed tones to a light brown, but the Child’s highlights were still brilliant and intact. The highlights, after 500 years were still highlighting where the light was coming from and were brighter than the paper itself!

My favorite out of all the drawings, which automatically were narrowed down to a handful mainly because buildings and architecture do not move me at all (unless they have human figures sculpted on them!), was the drawing of Cleopatra given as a gift for Tommaso de’Cavalieri, a young nobleman. A couple of reasons why she was my favorite piece in the exhibition…

Michelangelo,_Cleopatra

First of all she is beautiful. Plain and simple. You could feel those curls curling up and twisting behind her head. You could see her gaze looking down, and the skin in her forehead pushed up making her seem like she is just in anguish, like she knows what her fate is and the snake around her breasts and shoulders only confirms it.

The amazing thing about this drawing is that it wasn’t until twenty-five years ago that after being studied and closely observed, scholars discovered that there was a paper backing that covered the back of the drawing. This revealed a second drawing! This one was of the same Cleopatra yet this time, her look and her facial expression was a more clear reflection of how Michelangelo maybe really wanted to portray anguish and desperation. I wonder what made him change his mind? And I wonder why he covered it with another piece of paper instead of using a new one, and still gave it as a gift?! What was his tricky mind up to?…

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Regardless, it was a great exhibition. The best part of it though was when my little soon-to-be-nine-year-old sister says to me “Hey Memi, did you know it was Michelangelo’s birthday today?!?” What? No I did not!

Coincidence? Probably not : )

Happy Birthday Michelangelo!

-Mensa

A Little Bit of Self Promotion Never Hurt Anyone

Art, crafts, Cuban, DIY, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Gay, Homemade, Jewelry, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, Stuffed Animal, Twitter, Woman Owned Business, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mushpa y Mensa

We write a bunch of blog entries about this and that, but I want to focus a bit on our baby Mushpa y Mensa today. I am going to send out fantastically positive energy to everyone to want what we have to offer.

Listen, I want to make it, not just for us realize, but for all the other artists, inventors and nerds who desire their freedom from a job they’ve never really loved. For all those who want to believe that it is possible to be happy in what you do. I want us to be that example where people say, “See anyone can make it if they do the work and believe.” Seriously, that is all anyone needs to do and we will prove it!

Here is my shameless self promotion below.

Mushpa y Mensa Etsy Store –  http://www.etsy.com/shop/MushpaYMensa
Mushpa y Mensa Blog – http://mushpamensa.wordpress.com/
Mushpa y Mensa Twitter – https://twitter.com/mushpamensa
Mushpa y Mensa Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/musphamensa/mushpa-y-mensa-we-are-two-crafty-chics/

Go check out our sites and buy one thing, maybe an amazing tablet case, or plush sweet pigs who think they are elephants and aliens who have no name, and there is even a gorgeous handmade, clay necklace!!!

Please, do us a solid and send an email to all your friends, family, enemies we don’t care who, just do it. It will take two seconds and you will be helping two people who in turn will help millions. You help us and the Universe will help you. I promise!!!!

Until next time…

-Mushpa

The Case of the Tablet – Part 2

accessories, Art, craft, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Gay, Green, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, Woman Owned Business, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Asus Glamorous

Mensa asked me the other day why what is inside our new tablet case is the best choice currently on the market. She also wanted to know if there was any ethical consciousness involved in my selection, which of course there was!!! :]

Here’s the breakdown on why my new Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 is the best out there! Firstly, it has an android system, open source love, the best screen and processor, and it is lighter than an iPad. It’s also fast as lightning and reasonably priced.

Next, the company is Taiwan-based. Free China. Taiwan is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development. I’m just saying. :]

Also the environment is another factor for me,

Asus even developed a special proprietary chip, the EPU (Energy Processing Unit), in order to coordinate and manage power usage in all of a computer’s major components. In fact, all Asus notebook computers are designed to be Energy-Star compliant. Furthermore, when it comes to the materials used to make Asus products, Asus has made a special effort to be green. There is a company directive that restricts the use of certain known hazardous materials in Asus products, and the list is actually more restrictive than that imposed on manufacturing by the European Union. In recent years, Asus has been developing hardware that can be more easily recycled, as well as offering its own take-back and recycling programs. (source: http://www.roc-taiwan-hn.com/asus.php)

The best part though is how cute it looks its new, glittery case!

Thank you Mensa!

<3

– Mushpa

The Case of the Tablet – Part 1

accessories, Art, craft, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Gay, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is our most recent creation. A tablet case. Wooden buttons, hemp string and felt made from recycled plastic bottles! Perfect… Except for the tablet that could potentially goes inside…image(1)

I will let Mushpa (aka IT Phenomenon) take over on what makes tablets and other technological goodies a choice of ethical consciousness.

I have been guilty of buying into the Apple craze, but my iPod did not come from the best of the environments, and the workers that made my little music player work, have not been treated too well either…

So Mushpa, do you mind filling us in on why it is that inside this new case there should be, according to current research, the best choice of tablet currently in the market?

image

Meanwhile, check out our new product at our Etsy store,  and remember, we can always custom make you case with your colors of choice!

-Mensa

The American Dream

Art, crafts, Cuban, Etsy, Gay, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, Woman Owned Business, , , , , , , , , , ,

The American Dream

Let’s start like this, I made a commitment to write one entry a day, everyday in the Mushpa y Mensa blog. It isn’t that hard. It doesn’t really have to be about anything specific, just vaguely related to Mushpa y Mensa’s philosophy, ideology or really just the general vibe, so why is it that days have gone by and I have not done one entry? This lead me to the question, what is it that holds people back from being successful? More specifically, what is holding me back from being successful? Am I really stopping myself from what I want to do to go to an arbitrary 9-5 job? What is the point? What am I trying to prove? Why is it for others I can go above and beyond? Why can I make other people successful, rich, enlightened, but not for myself? I have better ideas, I will do better things for humanity, I have the skills and ability to do anything, and I am charming, so what gives? Is it the fact that for the formative years of my life I went to school and was brainwashed into believing that success is based on not only my career choice, but on my monetary value? Is it really so simple in its complexity?

I was saying to Mensa last night, what if we couldn’t get a job working for anyone? What if we had to work for ourselves to make money to survive? If this was our only option to have food, shelter, and comfort, well then I know Mushpa y Mensa would already be on Forbes 50 Most Innovative (and profitable) Companies’ list! Question is, why does it seem that I can’t make it successful without the fear of starvation and homelessness?

When we are children we are told and believe that we can do anything we want, that we can become anything we want. Then as we mature we are made to believe that this is a dangerous way of thinking. The funny thing is it is not dangerous for us to believe, it is dangerous for those wanting to make and control the majority of wealth in the world. Greedy children who never learned how to share. I want the American Dream I was promised. I want what I deserve and the only way I am going to get it is to believe not only in myself, but that if I do the work, if I do the right thing and have faith in this universe, I will attain this…happiness…success…serenity. I want to live my life, not just survive it. I don’t want to get to the end of the road and think, “Is that all there is?”, so today guess what?

I did my blog entry. :]

Much love,

Muspha