It looks like the BIG sale week has arrived, and everyone is trying to get "pre-sales" to get ahead of the crowds. :-) I heard one commercial that said the big sale items will be available online, so no need to struggle with crowds. It is sure changing the holiday shopping atmosphere. I don't have much money to spend, and I mostly need socks and other things like that, but it is nice to find bargains at big sales I haven't been able to access in the past. I hope to have more money each year. :-)
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My new table arrived today, so I was able to set it up, along with my second small bookcase. It is beginning to look more organized in here ( my workspace ), but there is still a ways to go. In small rooms, it is ESSENTIAL to find a specific place for everything... it helps to keep it working. I end up forgetting where I put things because I move them around too much. It looks like I may have a photo-making space soon, so that will help with my listing duties. I am down to four items for sale at Etsy, and one (crowd-funding) GIFT gig at Fiverr... none at eBay... and none possible for Amazon for some time. My sales activities have no where to go but UP! :-) That will be good.
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My personal challenge to live on the food I have stored up is really a hard one. I have always felt for the international relief efforts when food is given out. They seem to live on one thing, like rice. I tried that once, but this time it's different. I have dried items left... lentils, split green peas, bulgur, couscous, and beans like chickpeas, black-eyed peas, mung beans. I haven't thought ahead far enough to make meals out of all this... with some kind of flavor. :-) I guess I forgot about sprouting (mung beans) and split pea soup. I have been thinking about making hummus with the chickpeas. And wanted to make some salad-like meals with the bulgur and couscous, but haven't anything to add to it. I think I will have to get some kind of food resources to compliment these dry goods. It is helping me lose a little bit of weight... that's good. :-) I am still looking for better ideas of how to make an emergency food supply... and will be focusing on full meals with all their supplies.
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Well, my blog goals are changing... but all the work I did to create an ongoing writing habit are now hard to break! By 2016 I hope to have that worked out... maybe Monday and Thursday... maybe once a week... maybe I will change to newsletters. It is all being thought about.
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Lots of things in the midst of being changed... including my location, and income efforts, and health issues, and work, and goals, and so much more. It's hard to know how much to write about, but I am learning about that, too.
Talk to you next time... Deb
Thursday, 19 NOV 2015 :: my shelves arrived - see you next week !
I finally received most of the items I ordered online...only two more to go!
I put together one of the shelves I ordered... the simple metal one. :-) It should work out well for what I wanted it to do. We'll find out....
The other two shelving units are a bit heavier... and will need major time to put together. I hear that this is a common issue with furniture these days... having to put it together yourself and having problems in the process. :-) This will be fun.
My most important purchase, a special pan with a handle that allows you to pour out the contents like a pitcher, is really wonderful. I can't wait to try it out.
As I go about my room changes, I will be looking for things to sell on eBay, and maybe on Etsy as vintage items. Hopefully, I will be able to generate some income ... finally.
I don't want to share any more about my day, so I will let you go now... but I may add some posts through the weekend. I am seeing that I need to lessen my blog time, but haven't decided how to do that yet. There is a lot more I would like to share, but it all takes time... I haven't found that time yet.
Enjoy your days...
I put together one of the shelves I ordered... the simple metal one. :-) It should work out well for what I wanted it to do. We'll find out....
The other two shelving units are a bit heavier... and will need major time to put together. I hear that this is a common issue with furniture these days... having to put it together yourself and having problems in the process. :-) This will be fun.
My most important purchase, a special pan with a handle that allows you to pour out the contents like a pitcher, is really wonderful. I can't wait to try it out.
As I go about my room changes, I will be looking for things to sell on eBay, and maybe on Etsy as vintage items. Hopefully, I will be able to generate some income ... finally.
I don't want to share any more about my day, so I will let you go now... but I may add some posts through the weekend. I am seeing that I need to lessen my blog time, but haven't decided how to do that yet. There is a lot more I would like to share, but it all takes time... I haven't found that time yet.
Enjoy your days...
Wednesday, 18 NOV 2015 :: Over-reacting to violence
Today I was listening to several news programs talk about Paris and the aftermath, of authorities trying to capture the terrorists, and about the need for surveillance to overcome the violence of those who kill for media attention... to control their victims... to gain power over good people, countries, and the world. Technology is overcoming our ability to protect ourselves, to live independently, to have privacy. The government is wanting to have full access to everyone's lives... it won't be long before they are able to do that.
This need of government to intrude into our lives is helped along with events like this. Any crime with a gun is attached to gun control, mental illness, and terrorism, depending on who is doing the reporting. We are now arresting people before they have committed a crime, because we believe they have been recruited by a terror organization, and they try to leave the country. I don't like the idea of anyone helping the bad guys, but when did it become a crime to leave the country? It has set a precedence... and I think I read at least two articles about different people it happened to.
Immigration is in the conversation now -- because a passport was found near a dead body, because it might have been used by one of the terrorists to enter the country, because the person may have come into the country through an immigrant program using that passport, and because that access allowed them to participate in a terrorist act. Now all immigrants are dangerous because at least one MAY have been among the hundreds of thousands that have been fleeing Syria.
We do this all the time... lump one bad person with every person like them in some way... all migrants are criminals, all black people are gang members, all Mexicans are drug dealers, all Russians are communists, all Christians are stupid, all religions are coercive, all homeless people are addicts, all women are prostitutes in disguise, all children are looking for a pedophile, all rich people get there by stealing, all politicians are liars... and the list goes on and on and on.
In my listening to the news today, I saw how easy it is to make a bomb that will destroy an airliner filled with people... and there is little to prevent them when one of their followers works in baggage.
It may have been last night that the segment of a father and son was aired at a flower memorial. This young father, under pressure of TV stardom, lied to his young and trusting son. He told his son that flowers (at memorials) would protect us from the guns of the bad guys.
We should never lie to our children about important things like that... children need to know they can trust you to tell them what is real and what is not. When they find out you lied, they may never trust you again. Flowers help us show how much we care about the tragedy, but they don't stop violence.
Some time ago I realized that violence is a tool that subdues people... especially good people. It is used by those on the wrong side of living to make sure they feel more important than they are. The threat toward a major American city, and our responses to these threats (easily seen on any media), are all tools of violence. The enemy wins.
I don't know if Mankind will ever find a solution to the need of some people to use violence to control others. We have created armies to overcome them... armies that are forced into their own form of violence to survive... and still they exist.
Losing our own rights to protect against the acts of terrorists is not the answer. Being afraid of every shadow is not the answer. Becoming like the enemy is not the answer.
In my experience with prison systems, I have decided that the only opportunity we have to change the lives of people who end up there is to do something positive while they are in prison. Instead, they end up worse than they were when they went in.
Terrorists are really gangs, and the people who join them don't wake up one morning and decide to become a terrorist. Something very deep and very hurtful has pushed them into that direction. We need to figure out what that is so we can stop growing people who want to join gangs, especially gangs of terrorists.
This need of government to intrude into our lives is helped along with events like this. Any crime with a gun is attached to gun control, mental illness, and terrorism, depending on who is doing the reporting. We are now arresting people before they have committed a crime, because we believe they have been recruited by a terror organization, and they try to leave the country. I don't like the idea of anyone helping the bad guys, but when did it become a crime to leave the country? It has set a precedence... and I think I read at least two articles about different people it happened to.
Immigration is in the conversation now -- because a passport was found near a dead body, because it might have been used by one of the terrorists to enter the country, because the person may have come into the country through an immigrant program using that passport, and because that access allowed them to participate in a terrorist act. Now all immigrants are dangerous because at least one MAY have been among the hundreds of thousands that have been fleeing Syria.
We do this all the time... lump one bad person with every person like them in some way... all migrants are criminals, all black people are gang members, all Mexicans are drug dealers, all Russians are communists, all Christians are stupid, all religions are coercive, all homeless people are addicts, all women are prostitutes in disguise, all children are looking for a pedophile, all rich people get there by stealing, all politicians are liars... and the list goes on and on and on.
In my listening to the news today, I saw how easy it is to make a bomb that will destroy an airliner filled with people... and there is little to prevent them when one of their followers works in baggage.
It may have been last night that the segment of a father and son was aired at a flower memorial. This young father, under pressure of TV stardom, lied to his young and trusting son. He told his son that flowers (at memorials) would protect us from the guns of the bad guys.
We should never lie to our children about important things like that... children need to know they can trust you to tell them what is real and what is not. When they find out you lied, they may never trust you again. Flowers help us show how much we care about the tragedy, but they don't stop violence.
Some time ago I realized that violence is a tool that subdues people... especially good people. It is used by those on the wrong side of living to make sure they feel more important than they are. The threat toward a major American city, and our responses to these threats (easily seen on any media), are all tools of violence. The enemy wins.
I don't know if Mankind will ever find a solution to the need of some people to use violence to control others. We have created armies to overcome them... armies that are forced into their own form of violence to survive... and still they exist.
Losing our own rights to protect against the acts of terrorists is not the answer. Being afraid of every shadow is not the answer. Becoming like the enemy is not the answer.
In my experience with prison systems, I have decided that the only opportunity we have to change the lives of people who end up there is to do something positive while they are in prison. Instead, they end up worse than they were when they went in.
Terrorists are really gangs, and the people who join them don't wake up one morning and decide to become a terrorist. Something very deep and very hurtful has pushed them into that direction. We need to figure out what that is so we can stop growing people who want to join gangs, especially gangs of terrorists.
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