Category Archives: Mundania

A New Joy: Lover of Strife

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I’m not much of one for celebrating a new source of reading — at least not here — but I have to rave about a new blog I just stumbled upon. Evnissyen, Lover of Strife is  A character from the epic Mabinogion, whose tendency to bash heads first and ask questions later leads to a terrible war between Britain and Ireland. Also, a modern-day, kind of high-maintenance, very male Witch from Houston, Texas. He can often be found not keeping his mouth shut and taking creative liberties with What Really Happened.

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Equal Pay Day

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Today is Equal Pay Day — the day in 2009 that marks how long women had to work this year before catching up to what a man in the same position, with the same qualifications, earned in 2008. I’m not slamming my job in particular, I have an enlightened employer who pays well for talent and I daresay I make more than men in my same role do elsewhere.

But I am a rarity in the working world, even in traditionally female-dominated HR.

Most women earn $0.78 for every $1 a man makes. Over a 40-50 year working career that adds up to a great deal of money. Let’s do some math: A man starts out at 20 yrs old with a college degree earning $30,000/yr. We’ll be generous and presume his earnings increase 5%/yr, by the time he retires (at 60) he’ll be earning about $201k/year. A woman with the same background starts at $23,400. Presuming she also earns a 5% increase each year (and that is a BIG presumtion) will retire at 60 earning just under $157k — $44,000 a year less than her counterpart. Over their lifetime, he will have earned $1,856,192 and she will have earned $1,447,829 all because of gender.

Paying women less hurts more than just them — it hurts their families. It hurts the economy. It hurts our society. Isn’t it time we got past gender discrimination and started taking care of our own?

Things I’ve read recently

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Today I learned a new phrase: public access service dominatrix. Which pretty much sums itself up.

Also, Trent over at The Simple Dollar wrote a perfectly wonderful essay about apologizing. It captures the essence of what a good (which today means: real) apology consists of and why it is so important to do meaningfully. I recommend you read it. (His blog is daily reading for me, btw.)

I’m not sure what to call this post . . .

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Jason over at The Wild Hunt called my attention to the fact that AJ Drew has seemingly called it quits as far as being a public figure. The website pagannation.com is up for sale, packaged along with witchesball.com, and therealwitchesball.com, for $10,000. I’m not sure why that figure was picked, but it is likely very far out of the reach of most pagans, and the current economy doesn’t make it any more palatable. Moreover, a quick WHOIS search reveals that PN will be up for renewal in April 2010, TRWB in July of this year, and WB isn’t even owned by AJ — which raises a lot of questions about  what exactly is for sale, and why anyone would want to spend so much money for a few months’ ownership.

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Jet-Lagged

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We flew out on Friday afternoon, and returned this (Monday) afternoon. Three hours time difference. I thought I was doing OK, but by the gentle shake in my hands and lack of focus — oh, and did I mention the tendency to babble whateverthought is going through my brain at any given moment? — seem to indicate that I am not fully functioning.

Blog posts on hold till I recover — but as a tease, my first one will be:

“Guns, A Wedding, and Rock n Roll: My Weekend in Ohio”

Living Frugal: Greening Our Home — Future Plans

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We are planning to make a major upgrade/remodel in the master bath. This is primarily because our current tub is barely four feet long and I want one we can really soak in.  (Yes, the impetus is purely aesthetic and absolutely not necessary.) When we do this, we’ll be working with a design/builder who is comfortable with using recycled and sustainable materials, as well as incorporating ‘green’ principles into the design.

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Letters to my Government: the proposed ‘Special Tax’

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I sent this to Representative Smith and Senators Cantwell and Murray:

 

I am writing to urge you to not support any measure which imposes a special tax on those companies that have received government ‘bailout’ monies.

Like many others, I am very angry that these companies made poor financial decisions based on greed and have gotten themselves into such a mess that the taxpayers need to bail them out. I’m even angrier that the executives have chosen to accept their bloated bonuses and fat paychecks despite their demonstrated incompetence.

However, for government to step into the financial arena via this proposed ‘special tax’ is a very bad precedent. these companies need financial support and oversight, and perhaps those executives accepting these bonuses should have their salaries reduced to minimum wage for a year (or two), but a special tax is a poor legal decision when there are contracts to be upheld. (Reducing their salaries is a perfectly acceptable measure for the companies to take, and if the executives don’t want to accept that, then company gets cleaned out of the deadwood, naturally.)

I realize I am likely a lone voice in all of the anger, but I don’t think government involved in this matter.

Thank you for your attention to my opinion.

Maybe I’m crazy, but this is not the business I want my government in. As an HR person, I particularly feel that interfering in how a company manages its employees via salaries and bonuses is just a very bad idea. I’m angry enough, however, to strongly recommend that they be penalized with reduced salaries — if they choose to leave, then so be it. Hopefully they’ll never find a job again.

EDIT: The bill was passed by “an overwhelming majority.” Details here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/aig_outrage

*sigh*