“No one but YOU knows how hard you work, how many hours you put in behind the scenes, so rely on YOURSELF for approval, not the outside world.” Anon
“You have to work very hard behind the scenes, to make a message clear enough for a lot of people to understand.” Stefano Gabbana
![6863_20121027_124018_400308_297303653707079_1332581554_n[1]](https://ruderecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/6863_20121027_124018_400308_297303653707079_1332581554_n1.jpg)
Above graphic: RUDE Girl may know the faults but she is not big on judgement, preferring people to be authentic. She rarely cries behind closed doors these days, as a simple life affords her peace. She does fight battles that nobody knows about. And if people do find out about the battles she fights, she knows by experience that most of the time she will not be supported by them because oftentimes they just want to fit in to the mainstream. And that’s okay for them but it’s not RUDE Girl’s way.
There seems to be some revealing of late, by bloggers that I follow, about what goes on in the life of a blogger behind closed doors, or in other words behind the scenes. To RUDE Girl’s thinking this is a good thing. Therefore it’s my turn to share what I do, to bring our followers YOU, a weekly Friday WordPress blog post, an occasional tweet at Rude Record and a daily Facebook page post at Rude Record.
But before I do that, I want to share that behind closed doors, and away from my WordPress blog, I have my sticky little fingers glued to the keyboard [wearing off the printed letters on the keys – yes true] in some other forums.
I administrate one of the largest Marching Girls’ groups in the world on Facebook. It is about to reach 1,100 members shortly, and it is a very active and vocal group. It fits well with the RUDE philosophy of recycle, in that it is reuniting people with a sport, that was lost to many of them after their teenage years departed. This group has an annual meet up in Melbourne, Australia. Individual members have been known to also meet up with each other as agreed.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/quickmarch/
Photo above: Graphic of three New Zealand marching girls.
I also administrate a small closed group on Facebook of passionate recyclers at Bowerbirds Journal. This group is capped at 45 members to keep it focussed and intimate. It’s sort of like attending a face to face group where it is safe to share diverse comment and opinion. And some of us do meet up face to face.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tipjunkies/
Photo above: Crocheted bowerbird by group member Maretta is the cover photo of Bowerbirds Journal.
RUDE [Danny and I] are regular contributors to a local forum, that allows us to get up on The Soapbox, and have our say about posted local issues. It’s a great forum for us to express our concerns about local waste management and recycling issues. At the moment there is a vast amount of timber and textiles being dumped into our local landfill which is facing an expansion submission. We have been advocating for hardwood timber to be free to the community if it is going to be dumped.
https://www.facebook.com/soapboxmelton?fref=ts
Photo above: Cover page graphic for City of Melton Soapbox
We have been instrumental in getting the free textiles happening but as yet timber is not forthcoming. Until we see it on offer to the community, we can only assume it continues to be dumped into landfill and/or chipped for landscaping. This is very concerning when beautiful hardwood timbers are a limited natural resource. Local upcyclers working with wood are prevented from sourcing recycled timbers, which in RUDE’S opinion is a travesty.
Photo above: RUDE has advocated for free stuff and now it is available at our local Tip Shop.
Working and non-working flat screen TVs were also being dumped on the ground at our local recycling transfer station. RUDE made a video to expose the apathy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k3CwctRF5Ps
Thanks to lobbying by RUDE it would appear this is no longer going to happen. The flyer below has recently been displayed at our local Tip Shop.
In regards to this blog Rude Record, it usually takes a few hours, sometimes more to get it published. It depends on numerous factors, including what I want to add to the post such as photos and videos. If I make a video, of course that involves more time on top. So, it would not be unreasonable to say, a blog post takes a working day to publish.
I love writing and sharing my thoughts. RUDE as a couple loves sharing its unique lifestyle with interested like-minded souls. We have found that it is best to write for and share with our followers. And we too get so much inspiration back from you.
Photo above: RUDE [Reusers of Unloved Discarded Excess] is couple Karen and Danny.
Therefore, rather than go out and volunteer for a charity, we give our time to share globally on-line via these forums I have mentioned. We hope our efforts [and my writings] in some small way inspire collaboration, networking, recycling, frugal living, reuse and repair to name a few things.
We know that writing about living off landfill is a niche topic. We are unique in our activities of daily living. This is no doubt why you follow us, and we are dedicated to delivering something very different.
Our unusual lifestyle aka scavenger style is 24/7 and 365 days of the year for 6 years, has a tendency to get us looks like in the photo below. But we also get some amazing constructive and positive feedback via our numerous forums.
It was always the intention of The Man to keep us in our homes in suburbia, not sharing anything, so that we would all consume more. It was orchestrated 1950s marketing that worked a treat, and suckered the masses.
At Home with Mend It Aussie 