A key component of frugal living is: Live within your means. One way to do that is to shed that which you do not need and consciously simplify your surroundings.
Frugal Living: Rightsizing Your Life
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Mercury Retrograde: May 2009 edition
Mercury went retrograde on May 7th. What has that meant for me? Sleep deprivation and interruption.
A New Joy: Lover of Strife
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.
Weekly Silliness: Why English Teachers Quit
I’m sure this is making the rounds on email, but I found it too endearing, and frightening, not to share with y’all.
Equal Pay Day
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
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.)
Weekly Silliness: #1 song on my birthday
I am *so* uncool . . . — or my parents are/were.
The #1 song when I was born was “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry. In 1964 it would have been “The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals, in 1965 it was “Help!” by The Beatles. In 1969 it was “Honky Tonk Women” by The Rolling Stones.
from: http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInhistory/09/0903.htm
Weekly Silliness: How Long Would I Last on a Gay Pirate Ship
(ok, I am the wrong gender, but. . . )
Living Frugal: A Chicken in the Pot Equals Three Meals
A whole chicken is a marvelous way to produce three (or more) meals inexpensively and with little time on your part. Here’s how we do it.
I’m not sure what to call this post . . .
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.