LOCAL INTRODUCTIONS w/ JEREMY @ 95EH.CA + MOUN.TOWN
Hello 👋… and welcome to the first edition of a collaborative community Q&A series brought to life thru "Mutually Beneficial Employment" between HI54+95EH and The Kimberley Chamber of Commerce!
The intent here is to help introduce local businesses, projects, and/or organizations to the local community in a neighbourly way that also creates a piece of “pr” for said local business/project/organization that can live on the internet for SEO benefits & future discoveries long after the social media post has been buried under the stream of never ending algorithm'd content/distraction that is our social feeds (so get in touch with ‘hey@95eh.ca’ or Kimberley Chamber if you’d be interested in participating yourself).
But, since getting someone to do the first Q&A in a new blog series is always the trickiest part (mostly because there is not an example to help visualize how things look / how others have answered, even if this Q&A series is inspired from a long-running HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q&A series), we figured that maybe we could kick this ‘LOCAL INTRODUCTIONS’ series off by making me (Jeremy) run through the same gauntlet of introspective questions that anyone else doing this Q&A will be asked to answer… and on that note:
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Q1: Hello… who are you?
My name is Jeremy and I'm an elder millennial work-from-home uncle that was born in Alberta (oh boo yourself), who was last living in Nottingham (yes, the robin hood Nottingham) before relocating to the highway 95/a area with my Danish missus Charlie all the way back in the summer of 2016.
I'm a fan of what internet & tech makes possible for a more balanced/connected life, individually and collectively (even while constantly being bummed out by how things keep playing out with all this unprecedented internet & tech access), which is an area of interest I've often pursued through the financially misguided pursuit of being a diy "blogger" (which started as a 'Not a Record Label, Not Not a Record Label', morphed into a “music blog” / online radio, branched into a local community offshoot site, and now… I appear to be doing a Q&A with myself of my own design on the current online iteration of all those things) 🙃
But I also like to unplug and read, go for walks, have conversations over coffee/beer, turn compost at a community garden, meditate, stretch, write, procrastinate writing, and a whole bunch of other normal human stuff that involves making time for actively participating in the present moment and appreciating being alive while still alive (because I hear everything is impermanent).
Q2: Nice to meet you! Not sure if you knew this, but we also live in the Kimberley/Cranbrook area (small world, eh) and one thing we know is that it is always nice to hear everybody else's relatable reasons for why they either chose to move to this area OR chose to never move away (or to EVENTUALLY move back) — so what's high up on your list of "The Reason/s I Love to Live Around Here"?
For us, we were looking to move back to Canada after living in Europe for a handful of years, and we just knew that we wanted to try and create a life in the kind of place where people feel blessed to get to spend a weekend away once a year (‘find the place, figure out the rest’… that was the plan, a plan we’re still figuring tbh). And since we wanted to stay 'still close enough to drive' to see family in Alberta (a big reason for moving back from Europe), while also not wanting to actually live in Alberta (oh boo yourself), we narrowed our window down to the East Kootenays and fell for Kimberley's slogan appropriate "a good place to be" pretty quick.
And even though the secret about Kimberley being one of the best small towns in British Columbia is very well out (because technically Kimberley is officially THE "Best Small Town in BC", thx cbc), a lot of the reasons that won us over back in 2015 (when we first attempted to move to Kimberley) are still very much present today (even if house prices are nowhere near the same).
The amazing nature access (and the endless ways that nature can be enjoyed whenever one can make time) is still here. Good vibes still seem to fill the air on most days (when it’s not smokey). And there’s still a strong local & independent spirit here (in the profit and non-profit world), with a regional sense of wanting to stand up for what's right (even if everyone doesn't always agree on what’s "right").
Throw in the fact that the hope for the future world I'd like to live in feels easier to hold onto when surrounded by all those things I just mentioned & more (which comes with living amongst other people that are also drawn to those same things)… I think the highway 95/a area is still very much a pretty dang good place to be™!
Q3: But enough friendly chit chat, there's only 5 questions in this Q&A and we still haven't got to the part where you get to talk to us about the main reason you're metaphorically sitting down with us on the internet today — SO — please tell us EVERYTHING we should know about that special thing that you specifically do / are doing in the community that you'd love for more people to find out about!
I have a few 95EH.CA / MOUN.TOWN things that I’d love to either introduce or reintroduce to the local community (or at least whoever happens to check this Q&A out), and those things are:
#1 - The 95EH Events Calendar is up & running again, and once again it is a local events calendar for any Kimberley AND Cranbrook area events to live all in one place (because no matter which town you live in, like me, you’re probably interested in what’s going on in either town, especially since we’re close enough to be connected by a paved bike path). So I just wanted to let everyone know that it is FREE to get any local area event added, all you have to do is create a public Facebook event (or there’s also a ‘Submit Event’ button on the calendar itself). It’d be great to get as many Kimberley/Cranbrook events listed in the calendar as possible, so if you are putting on Kimberley/Cranbrook events (or know someone else who is), please remember that if you create a public Facebook event, not only does your event get all the different exposure opportunities that come with existing within the Facebook network, BUT, I will also be able to add your event to The 95EH Events Calendar without you doing anything else (which is some real ‘2 birds, 1 stone’ level efficiency).
#2 - And to try and create a foundation of support for all the interconnected human-work that goes into running a local events calendar, this time around I'm hoping to try out an idea I'm calling "Mutually Beneficial Employment" (which you can read more about here, but, in a nutshell: 'MBE' is either $95/month or $95/quarter to become an acknowledged supporter of the interconnected work that goes into running a Kimberley/Cranbrook events calendar + that also comes with me working directly with the supporting business/organization for 2 HOURS each month/quarter on work we agree to). Holler at ‘hey@95eh.ca’ if interested in chatting more!
#3 - Related to all that, I’ve also started a local newsletter called ‘THE WEEKLY EH?!’ that is FREE to sign-up to and gets sent out to subscribed inboxes EVERY Tuesday with a highlight of 5 things happening around the Kimberley/Cranbrook area for the current week + 4 other things of some locals’ interests. And if anyone was looking for a non ‘mutually beneficial employment’ option for helping support the human work that goes into all of this ‘95eh / Moun.Town’ stuff, besides checking out this ‘tip jar’ page, there are options for becoming a paid monthly ($5.40/month) or paid yearly ($95/year) supporter through this FREE to anyone newsletter.
And if you’d ever prefer to just listen to a bunch of subjectively good music that another human has curated (a human who has successfully run an unsuccessful music blog for over a decade), there is also MOUN.TOWN/FM and MOUN.TOWN/RADIO and FM/TV that can be checked out whenever you get those urges.
Q4: While we recommend that everyone go check out your main links so that they can follow & further interact with what you bring to the local scene below:
CHECK OUT-> WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER
Can you please share a piece of advice that you have learned for yourself through the experience of trying to do what you do in the modern world (maybe something you wish someone would have told you sooner or something you think someone else might find useful to hear now)?
Something I always find myself thinking/saying is:
"What's the best version of my so-called ‘good idea’ that actually happens now? Start there.”
Because you're going to need to figure out most of the stuff by actually doing anyways (and a lot of the stuff you’ll figure out can’t be figured out until you actually begin), so you’ve just got to start with whatever version of your idea doesn't come pre-loaded with excuses for why you can't start working on things right now with whatever you know how to do and whatever you’re realistically able to make time for (while trying to not compromise the core of the idea in order to try and make things happen faster/easier).
For example, literally none of the stuff I do (95eh.ca, hi54.blog, moun.town/events, moun.town/fm, et.cetera) would exist if I didn’t just start with the version of these ideas that could ‘actually happen’ without me requiring some form of outside validation before proceeding. Success, however one defines it, is never guaranteed, no matter how hard you try (you only have control over your actions, not the fruits of your actions) — but you first need to see how your idea evolves once it’s living somewhere other than just inside your head (where the fantasy of how brilliant your idea seems to you never has to brush up with the reality of sharing it with other humans who have their own ideas that they wish more people would marvel at too).
Of course, if one were to look at my bank account and compare those amounts with the amount of time I’ve invested into this theory of “just start with working on the best version of your idea that actually happens”… one might be wise to take my advice with a healthy grain of salt ; )
Q5: Finally… please give one completely unaided personal life recommendation that you think more people should consider doing / using / realizing / quitting / reading / watching / listening to / eating / etc-ing in order help make their lives a little bit more better & bearable?
I find it helpful to always come back to: the goal in life is to find & maintain contentment (because the truly rich person is the one who is satisfied with what they already have).
The catch to this important reminder is that we’ve created a society around feeling that we should never feel content (because you can never have enough or be enough in a consumption/status driven worldview), while we also systemically keep a large portion of society forever anxious over meeting their basic needs (and there can be no lasting contentment if meeting basic needs is a constant struggle for people).
And yet, once one’s basic needs are met (food, shelter, community, security, purpose), especially if working/living amongst other community members whose basic needs are also being met, and when surrounded by the kind of natural beauty that reminds one (through moments of awe) that getting to be alive, even if stuck in a weird human body, actually comes with so many ways to contentedly experience the present moment (and since the past is memory and the future is imagination, the present moment is all there is to directly experience)… it doesn’t become that hard to imagine what a life built towards achieving/maintaining contentment might look like for you/me/us, individually AND collectively (hence why I find it helpful to always remind myself what the main goal is) ✊
OK, that is more or less how these LOCAL INTRODUCTION Q&As will work — except, obviously, everyone who participates will answer differently than me & in their own ways, which is what should make this a fun way for more local people to find out about what more local people are getting up to in the local area. And that feels like a positive thing.
So, if you’re a local area human who has a local area business / organization / project that you would like to introduce to other local area humans via the art of taking the time to thoughtfully fill out a Q&A about you and your local area “thing”… please reach out to Jeremy at ‘hey@95eh.ca’ or get in touch with Katherine at the Kimberley Chamber of Commerce (because we would both love to see your answers and we feel like we’re not the only locals that feel that way) 👍
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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI
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