Thursday, November 23, 2006

The Art of Consuming

As a hardcore-non-mainstream-reduce-reuse-recycle-rather-than-consume-raw materials advocate I should be posting on here about all of the Buy Nothing Day activities planned for the day after Tofurky day. However, this year I have to say that I'm taking a different approach. Rather than not consuming on that one day of the year, I suggest you reduce your consumption on all other days of the year and on that one day, known as Black Friday (to consumer advocates), known as Buy Nothing Day (in the anarchist/enviro/voluntary simplicity movement) and Fur Free Friday (in the animal rights/animal welfare world) consume the majority of your products.

Why would I actually suggest people ever consume, much less on that particular day? Because if you are savvy about how you spend your hard earned money you can get some mighty fantastic deals this time of year and therefore stretch the power of your spending dollar much further than at other times of the year.

For example, this past week I broke down and purchased a cell phone. I finally had to accept that they have their advantages and that it isn't cell phones themselves breaking down the moral fabric of our society, it is the users of those cell phones. I scoured the web for weeks to find what I considered to be a deal worthy of my purchase and finally settled on a $14.99 phone (that previously retailed for $49.99) with free shipping and a $5.00 buy-up worth $20.00 of airtime. The phone was delivered Thursday night and I'm super happy with the look, the feel, etc. It is a great basic phone with excellent volume and sound and Virgin Mobile is ratest the highest in customer satisfaction for pre-paid plans (and don't even get me started about the ridiculousness of signing a contract for any technology based items).

The other purchase I made with my frankly not-so-hard-earned money (all of these purchases were made from eBay profits of peddling Goodwill purchased toys and collectibles) is a laptop. My poor home PC needs to be retired and I will probably eventually get a Mac Mini to use at home but I really wanted a laptop being that Ptown is very soon going to have free WI-FI city wide and within days will have free WI-FI downtown and close in on the East side. What this means is rather than battle with the ridiculous firewalls of my work internet I can surf willy nilly on my laptop during my lunch and while waiting for the bus. The deal I found on laptops that I couldn't resist was with Dell. They have a bare bones basic notebook with CD burner that I purchased for $499 with free shipping, a free (and probably crappy but free nonetheless) printer and six months of free internet (that alone will drop the price another $60 for me because I'll be able to cancel my current dial up). My home computer is a Dell and while they don't rock in the consumer assistance mode like they once did, they do sell quality products. I was gonna provide the link to the laptop I purchased but after just looking at their site realize that the deal is no longer available. Sorry, you snooze, you lose.

My next purchase is gonna be a camera. I pretty much already know what I'm getting and how much it'll cost me and let me tell you that I found the same camera at twenty different places with the prices ranging over $125 difference for the very same product! Research using Google and save yourself some dough. It took me a month to raise enough money to buy a laptop and cell phone with eBay. I figure if I get these Lego blocks listed, some model horses, some Raggedy Ann dolls, more Fisher Price Little People, etc. I should be posting high resolution pictures here in no time.

Happy shopping.

Friday, November 17, 2006

23 Crafting Days Left to My Party!

December 10th is my 2nd Annual Handmade Holiday Gift Exchange, are you ready? Don't let procrastination stop you...start crafting and make something to put under the tree and unwrap something someone else made!

Don't have a crafty bone in your body? Just too darn busy to make something but want to join in on the fun? Buy something handmade from someone else. My suggestion? Visit this local sale on Sunday! http://www.pdxetsy.com/


My guide to your weekend

Tonight I am going to a new all vegan Portland restaurant, The Pirates Tavern http://www.piratestavern.com/ . The busty wenches on their website drive me nuts but the vegans gotta support the vegans and it is for a special dinner with Howard Lyman who is speaking tomorrow at the Vegan Holiday Festival http://www.veganholidayfestival.com/that I am volunteering at. Howard used to be a cattle rancher and you just haven't giggled until you have seen him walk into a room with his cowboy hat and big 'ol silver belt buckle and say, "I'm a vegan." Cracks me up everytime.

The new diagnosis

I went to the neurologist this morning. He says I have a seizure disorder and that all of those weirdo little "visions" I was having once a month or so for about a year were mini seizures and that my fainting spells are what those have turned into. So now I await a brain scan and EEG (within the next month). Then I meet with the neurologist again to decide if I want to go on anti-seizure meds again(I was on them about five years ago for the chronic back pain I was having). I'm having some vision issues too which he feels are only connected to the seizures if I have a mass in my brain that is effecting my vision and also consequently creating the seizures. Fun stuff. I'm not thrilled about going on meds again (the side effects suck...one of them being that the meds caused me to gain forty pounds last time and I have just spent the last year losing 25 so putting them back on is anything but appealing). He has recommended that I don't drive, which is also very unappealing. I spent many, many years of my life without a car, and even spent a year and a half not driving the beater car that I have now but I'm more interested in buying a new Toyota Yaris than I am spending another damn minute on the bus or starting up the life of a bike commuter again. I ride the bus to work and back already so it will only effect my personal life but it is that personal life that wants the car. For the next few weeks (until the tests are done and I have decided whether or not to go on the drugs) I'm still driving, but undoubtedly much less than before (not that I drive that much anyhow). I'll keep you posted.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Everyday is NOT like Sunday


Don't have much to say but feel I should post something. I'm in a blue mood. Don't know why. The approaching holiday season perhaps? The stress of work? The overwhelming process of trying to organize my house (it's been a project filled weekend and way too many were started with none being completed so now my house is trashed)? I don't think it's the rain.

I've been dreaming a lot. Various topics. Past animals have been coming up quite often, my subconscious really pointing out my need to grieve the loss of all the precious little critters I've said goodbye to over the past few years. I'll admit I don't really want to go there. Frankly I just don't have the energy but I guess sooner or later not dealing with stuff ends up kicking us in the ass, doesn't it? You can run but you can't hide. I also think this is triggered by the cat I see when I walk to and from the bus stop. I think it has been abandoned. I know of two people who feed it but don't know where it lives. It seems like it is always outside. Breaks my heart. I know some people don't get this but cats without homes is just one of the saddest things ever in my mind. They are domestic creatures and should be curled up in bed with a person, purring and feeling content. So to explain to you how my mind works, when I find a cat (like this one up the street) that appears to need a person to help it, I get really, really sad. I feel guilty for not helping it, even though I daily care for three kitties already and certainly can't take care of every homeless cat. But as is probably obvious to most of you, I take the importance of being responsible for my actions really seriously. Therefore, if there is a cat in need I feel like I'm turning my back on it for not doing anything. It's the reason I'm vegan, it's the reason I recycle, it's the reason I do most of the stuff I do. I have this overwhelming (and exhausting) obligation to do the right thing. Sometimes it just gets too hard to deal with. I'd like to just not give a shit but that just isn't me. I'm the bleeding heart liberal that conservatives laugh about.

To try and offset this sadness I started walking again. As of yesterday. Awhile ago I managed going about a year walking religiously nearly an hour a day five days a week. But for nearly a year now I have hardly walked at all. I have to start it again. It made a huge change in my life, more than any medication ever did. Exercise is just one of those things...once you can get into the habit it becomes easier to continue doing but get out of the habit and you have to start all over again. I did the 5K First Run/Walk at midnight on New Year's Eve two years ago and found it to be one of the best ways to start a new year and want to do it again this year if anybody wants to walk with me (and Twinky if they allow dogs this year).

Thursday, November 09, 2006

A recommendation and a non.

I just started reading a new book and I already love it. It is titled Hobo. It is an autobiographical collection of travel stories written by Eddy Joe Cotton. As the back of the book says "Eddy Joe Cotton has ridden the rails for more than a decade. A writer and artist in his late twenties, he is also the leader of a San Francisco-based hobo jug band and vaudeville sideshow called the Yard Dogs Road Show, which travels across the country." I recommend it.

My friend Amy and I went to see a movie last night. The Queen. When it was over Amy said, "What was the point of that movie?" I said that I was shocked when it was over because nothing had happened yet. The best part for me was at the very end when they were playing the credits and Queen Elizabeth was walking through her yard with Tony Blair and one of the royal corgis peed on a royal bush in the garden.

Second Time Around

Heya. Sorry about the abrupt departure from my other blog. I am having some security issues and have abandoned it until it quits appearing when you Google my name (most of the links don't work anymore but one still does). If any of you savvy internet gurus have some advice on how Google got my name to index with my blog I'd love to know.

These past few days have been a little tense. On Tuesday I was googling (I guess you don't have to capitalize it when using it as a verb, huh?) my name, as I suggest folks do once in awhile. I immediately saw my full address displayed and when I clicked on the link I saw a rejection letter I had received from Metro (for those out of state that is a regional government agency in Ptown) from a job application I submitted back in 2004 for a stupid recycling puppeteer job. I shouldn't have to point out what a shock that was. The link contained all of the rejection letters sent out for that position along with the full address for each person. I have spent a lot of energy trying to keep my home address secret due to that dreaded radical past where I made more than my share of enemies. The timing couldn't have been worse either because of the ALF/ELF trial nearing where I have been mentioned in the discovery and because I am the local support person of one of the defendants. Needless to say there are many a fur farmer and or a Schumacher who would have great fun knowing where I live.

I immediately called the Human Resource department of Metro and let them know of their error. The secretary seemed horrified but I didn't get the impression she got just how not okay this scenario was. When I hadn't heard back from anyone in a few hours I called the woman who is the coordinator of the position that I had applied for (and who had drafted the rejection letter). She got how not okay it was and promised she would look into it immediately. I was on the fence about whether or not to get the media involved in order to get results but didn't necessarily want to draw attention to the fact that my address was on the net.

It was at this same time I noticed that my blog was accessible with the Google search of my name (when I had worked really hard to keep my name unattached to it). I don't mind random people reading my blog but I do mind just anyone from my life being able to look me up on the internet and know what's going on in my life at the moment. Most of all I didn't want my co-workers to see it (and at this point I had already freaked out about what Metro had done so I had most of my department googling their names) because my last blog post had been about my upcoming promotion at work (and the person who I will be eventually replacing--if I don't get fired for blabbing about it on the internet first--doesn't know it yet). Needless to say I was a bit stressed.

Wednesday I heard back from Metro that their IT department had made a mistake (misfiled the document with the wrong security settings), had corrected it on their part but that it still appeared because Google had it archived. I didn't hear whether or not someone got fired over misfiling the confidential documents of a public agency but frankly I think they should have been. I was told Metro was going to contact Google to see about getting it removed and by early this morning it had been.

So now if I can just get that damn link to my first blog to go away all will be well again. In the meantime you might just want to Google your name and see what's posted about you.