Archive for the ‘Aside’ Category:
Another nifty little source of pocket change
Well, a certain search engine’s ad program has started revving up for me oh so slightly. And I mean slightly, I’m about 1/20th away from them cutting me a check. But considering I need to update this blog more often than I do, and work harder at commenting on other people’s blogs as well (and not just when I’m outraged about something, ha ha), I guess I’m doing pretty well on that as things stand now.
I’ve earned little bits here and there otherwise, but I’m always looking for more sources, just because life would be easier for me if I had more money coming in. Wouldn’t anyone’s?
Someone had a link to InBoxDollars on their blog, so I clicked on it. Easy five bucks just for signing up to read a couple of email ads a day. As far as I can tell, each email read (you have to click on a link to acknowledge) pays two cents. They have the occasional free offer that pays a dollar or more, and they have occasional surveys that pay fifty cents each. They also have several free-trial offers which, if I cancel in the time allotted, are also easy money, but I have to double-check and make sure I would still get paid even if I canceled during the free trial. I also have to make sure it is easy to cancel the trial without someone trying to hook me into staying a customer for longer.
But, if you’re curious and want to try it, here you go:
Bear in mind you have to have a $30 balance before you can request payout, so clicking on the banner without the intent to follow through won’t do you much good. Have fun.
On the other hand…
My little girl’s dad, who by the way tried to solve the damn thing, says it is probably not the guy who draws XKCD. Says he thinks that guy is in Massachusetts. But wouldn’t it be hilarious…?
Fun with BzzAgent
I recently joined BzzAgent for some reason I don’t recall, and it looks like fun. Right now I am not rated very highly yet, but I have access to their FrogPond feature where they ask you to visit websites and give your opinion of them.
Well, I ran across this nutrition website. Seeing a link for new diabetics, I investigated. I was not very impressed. My summary of the site back at FrogPond:
Honestly, I would rather use the USDA nutritional database than this site; the only way they could improve it is if they would make it more user-friendly. This site buys into the same old stuff about fat being bad for you, weight loss being about calories in versus calories out (generally untrue–depending on my diet composition, as a 226-pound, 5′6″ tall woman, I can eat as much as 2900 calories a day and lose weight, without exercising), and calories being more important than carbohydrates for diabetes control. The latter is particularly egregious since there is scads of good research out there indicating that cutting grains, starchy vegetables, and sugars to the bare minimum in a diabetic diet and upping fat intake is key to good blood sugar control without drugs, particularly in early diabetes. These folks have access to even more research studies than I do, and there is no excuse.
It’s a pretty site, but I need substance as well–good, honest substance that doesn’t buy into hype. People’s lives literally depend on it, with this particular subject matter.
I mean, why do experts do that? When they have access to good information and they completely ignore it even though that means people will die badly, how do you justify that?
Note about yesterday’s post
I have a real problem with writing in that I am quite verbose and will ramble on forever if somebody doesn’t shut me up. I drove my professor nuts in English Comp in college, let’s put it that way (although he also gave me As). So the previous post is waaayyyy longer than I wanted it to be. I keep forgetting I’m blogging, and blogging seems to work better for readers with shorter attention spans. No offense and you know I love ya–I’m the same way. “Ooh shiny! *click*”
So it’s been set to private and I’m going to work on chopping it up into smaller pieces and maybe going slightly more in-depth on the different parts.
Meanwhile I’m looking at my spending from last month again and am contemplating another post, or maybe a series of them, going through where I think I spent too much and where I can do better. So stay tuned for that.
You know, it’s funny–this isn’t a personal finance blog! I’m just reeeally focused on money right now because until I get that part of my life straightened out, doing most other things I need to do in my life’s going to be difficult at best.
Having a little trouble
I’m feeling really blocked lately and I’m not sure if it’s a psychological symptom of something physical also being blocked in some way (I’m late and no, I don’t have to worry about that), or just me being cranky and extra-introverted with the hormones, or what. I did skip one day on my vitamins Saturday, but that’s all right, I did really well before that and I took them Sunday.
I need to catch up with my money-tracking, which has fallen behind a bit and if it falls behind any farther I’ll be in trouble. Then I need to post up the numbers to keep things above-table. (Or something like that. I’m horrible with clichés.) Then… yeah… I don’t know.
Re: the previous post…
I let a commenter through on the previous post just to be fair to her, as she was the immediate impetus for my writing the post. However, I did not link to her in the first place because I didn’t want to pick on her; she’s not the only one going around spouting this Law of Attraction stuff, whether or not she gives the concept that particular name, and there’s no reason she should have taken my pitiful pinpoint spotlight for even one second while the rest of the LoA folks were let off the hook.
It doesn’t matter what book you read or even if you read any book at all on the subject; the concept is pervasive enough in certain segments of the culture now that it’s easy to encounter. Simply identifying as a cultural creative, even if you don’t run in New Age circles, means the LoA idea is almost impossible to escape.
And I guess I should also admit at this point to those of you who aren’t familiar with my political beliefs that I identify as a feminist, and it always raises my hackles when I see a woman stating explicitly or implicitly that she blames herself for a man raping her*. These monsters must be laughing themselves silly somewhere to realize that not only did they get away with the physical attack but their victims/survivors continue the brutalization by turning it inward on themselves. I do not blame the rape survivors. It is really, really hard to escape the cultural messages that say a woman somehow “asks” to be raped or that trust of other human beings is never justified. Some women who have been through the hell of sexual assault go through enough of a growth process while healing from the assault that they can realize they weren’t to blame. Some can’t, and some aren’t ready yet.
I have no idea what’s going on with this particular lady, I just know what I read in the language she used, and I’m not going to pry further than I already have. But there is a certain amount of history in the New Age, “alternative spirituality,” and personal development/growth movements of charismatic individuals getting too big for their britches and using others for their own kicks, and I see this use of the “Law of Attraction” concept to blame rape and tsunami and hurricane and poverty victims as just another manifestation of that, and I think this woman is part of the collateral damage.
And it angers me. Dear Noo Wage Personal Development Goo-Roos: If your particular process of “enlightenment” does not closely resemble the process of growing up, you’re doing something wrong. And if you haven’t moved beyond kicking people when they are down or excusing away abuse and intolerance, you have a looooong way to grow.
—–
*As opposed to “blames herself for being raped.” There is a political message implicit in the use of passive language to indicate that a crime has been committed; if a woman has merely “been raped,” it just randomly happened and no one except possibly the woman is responsible. If on the other hand a man rapes a woman, the man’s obviously responsible. As an intellectual exercise, flip through a few dozen media accounts of sexual assault and count how many times you read rape discussed in passive terms or, worse, as the attacker “having sex with” the victim. It’ll curl your hair.
Update
Wow, I haven’t written anything here since Saturday! Oops! Well, I’ve also caused myself sleep deprivation, have been keeping up with the dishes, and now the weather is nice so we tend to go out as often as not. There’s a playground now literally walking distance from here, which was not there last year (as far as I remember). So.
I have also been taking my vitamins daily but Joe’s Goals is down so I can’t keep track. Boo!
I went through a glitch for a few days where I wanted to give up on this thing and re-organize how I blog and about what, but I think Aunt Flo must be on her way here because from time to time I get into that headspace where I want to just clear everything out and start over, and then my hormone levels change or something and it wears off. I’m so weird.
Hopefully I’ll write more later today. No promises though.
Hooray for paid bills!
I’m just a little over two weeks into the month and I have three big fat zeros in my Liabilities list on GnuCash! Yay! One of the Children’s Hospital bills is paid off, the old leftovers of my daughter’s dentist bill are gone, and the late part of my Internet service provider bill is gone too. And the current part of it is now paid as well, so no more late ISP bill next month. 
I have a hundred bucks left and I might throw another half of it at my cell phone bill just to make sure that is out of the way. Actually… hm… I could do that online now. I forgot! Neato!
Yeah, I know. I get too excited about stupid stuff. But… To see the liabilities column going down instead of up… That’s a wonderful thing. Even if it’s just in dribs and drabs right now.
*happydance*
Followup to previous post…
Woohoo, I’m getting $236 back. It would have been much better had I worked more than a month and a half that year, but that’s OK. My minimum balance requirement for Kemba so that I don’t have to pay a monthly banking fee is $250. This is $14 away from that benchmark. So, if the refund isn’t eaten up by my student loan (and if it is, no biggie, I guess), it’ll go to my savings account and then I can save that extra little bit every month as well.
I should do my state return also, if the 2004 version is online, or find out how to get a copy. I’m not used to doing state taxes; Tennessee doesn’t have a state income tax, and I’ve spent a good little bit of my adult life either living there or claiming it as my home state (when I was in the military). Ah well.
Quick update
1. I have started using a little widget called Joe’s Goals. It’s over there in the far-right sidebar. At the moment I am only tracking whether I take my vitamins every day. Every little bit helps.
2. I have signed up with PayPerPost. I have no idea what sorts of assignments I’ll be doing but they’ll always be as clearly marked as I’m allowed to mark ‘em so you’ll know I’m being paid to write them. Nobody gets to tell me what to put on this blog otherwise, so if the ad-type blog posts bother you, just skip over them.
3. Thea’s speech therapy appointment time has changed to 3:30 every Tuesday. We have the car again today, however. (I’m up late, not up early.)
4. I’ve redone my NetWorthIQ widget, which is also in the far-right sidebar. Hopefully this is the last time I have to restart it. I think I’ve covered every debt now. *sigh*
5. I have been picking at my finances and trying to figure out a sensible repayment plan on my debts as well as a monthly budget. And I’m annoyed at myself because I had gotten up to $40 in the savings account this month and now a good chunk of it’s been spent out again. If I can’t even manage to get $500 into the stupid thing and not touch it then how am I going to tackle the rest of my money issues? Part of the problem, I feel, is that my little girl’s dad frequently runs out of money before he’s halfway through his pay period (which is two weeks), so guess who picks up the slack from the already small amount of pocket change I have. It’s ridiculous; as I said to him during an unrelated conversation, I really despise seeing someone better off than me resource-wise who chooses to squander it all. Sheesh, if you don’t want it, send it my way!
Erm, but meanwhile, yeah. Working on it still. Going to be a nice interesting uphill climb.
Other stuff on me old mind but I’m sleepy.
