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Not Your Usual Sort of Princess
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| (no subject) |
[May. 8th, 2012|08:42 pm] |
I am really doing a lousy job. Meh.
Things were very dark and dreary. Unemployment did not suit me at all, and I developed a nasty eye twitch and started having nightmares every night. Then I got to temping again, and the eye twitch went away. Then my sister showed up and I got a job offer on the same day. An offer for a good job, doing things I like to do and making nearly as much as my old salary. Given the cost of living in London, that's really a step backwards, but I will take it.
Things are ok here, but I hate knowing that we may never have a little house with a backyard. We'll see. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 27th, 2011|03:32 pm] |
I'm going to be brave here, and leave this public. Who knows what kind of spam will appear! I spent some time today looking at videos of the Occupy Wall Street protests. It's interesting to contrast the kinds of people who appear in videos from various media sources.
The protesters all have videos of mean police arresting people. I find these a bit hard. I wasn't there, so I don't know that I can always say who was right and who was wrong. I have the benefit of being related to a few police, and having known many more from my days in the army/navy store. So, you know, lots of police are fine and really just want to get through the day with a minimum amount of paperwork, which is what we all want, really.
I see people being arrested and/or maced when they do not seem to be doing anything, but I'm not there. I don't know what happened ten minutes before, I can't hear the exchanges between the police and the protesters, and I don't know what's going on around the corner. I can't make heads or tails of it. I know some police are jerks, and I know some protesters are jerks. Maybe it's just always bad news when the jerks manage to find each other.
In one video, the crowd started chanting, "let her go," as young lady was cuffed against a car. I reached a personal best in the shallowness category because all I could think of was, "Donna Martin Graduates!"
Then there are the videos from mainstream media outlets. How do they always manage to find the biggest weirdos to interview? "Hey, that kid hasn't showered in four days, let's get him!" It's so consistent that it has to be intentional. I do not think that they are trying to discredit the protests necessarily, but I think they know that interviewing a kid with blue hair and tattoos will keep eyes on the screen longer than interviewing the nice mom from Brooklyn. I can remember so many anti-war demos in DC that were peopled by regular middle class folk but turned up on the news as a montage of smelly black block kids.
So the best video I saw was from RT News. Not to say that they do not have an agenda, but I feel like they at least get more comments from different kinds of people who are participating. You can still disagree wildly, but you can no longer disagree because it's just some "hippie weirdo." They do not interview police (probably can't), but they took the trouble to provide more background and information.
By and large, it's hard to know what to think about everything. It's a big terrible mess, but I can't say that I have a solution for it. And I'm happily middle class now, so I have a bigger stake in the status quo. I like our nice TV and staying in fancy hotels. I don't want the revolutionaries to take it from me, and I don't want the bankers to squeeze me out of it.
But I'm probably kidding myself. In the long run, it's just not sustainable. Best to just enjoy it as long as I can. |
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[Aug. 3rd, 2011|09:54 pm] |
I know I am not the first person to say this, but the idea that "LiveJournal is now the main communications resource of civil society in Russia,” Tomsk political activist Victor Korb wrote on his blog. “For all of LiveJournal’s many software weaknesses, it is far and beyond other social networks in its accessibility and its serious and active community. LiveJournal is the main organizer of those rare and modest local victories of civil society over the stultifying regime of ‘stability.’” kind of blows my mind. You mean to say that people in other countries have bigger problems than boys being mean to them? Freaky!
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/web-will-win-in-cyber-war/441377.html |
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[Apr. 6th, 2011|09:06 pm] |
This here is my moment to be a jerk. I just heard someone on the radio saying that she never imagined she would trapped with her giant adjustable rate mortgage for the actual life of the loan.
On the on hand, yes, yes, and yes. When I was house shopping in that golden era, the mortgage lady tried to convince me all kinds of things. That I should borrow $50K more than I did, that I should get an ARM, that I shouldn't worry so much because I could always just re-fi in a few years. It was a hella sales pitch, and I had no clue.
But when you have no clue, you go back to basics, right? What did my parents do? They got a 30 year fixed mortgage and they bought a house they could afford. It was only by the skin of their teeth of course, but they knew they could make the actual payments. They did not then borrow more money so they could have the house all fixed up. Nope, we lived with the giant brown 1972 fridge for an awful long time. My dad did put in ceiling fans though, because that meant he could put off running the AC even longer. They've probably only had the house the way they wanted it for about the past six years or so, and now their putting on the final touches so they can sell it and let someone else start all over.
When I was buying, I made a spreadsheet. Here is my take home pay. Here is how much goes to student loans, groceries, gas, Netflix, beer, etc. This is how much I can afford for a mortgage payment after all that. If I lose my job, the worst cut in pay I expect is X and if I give up the Netflix and beer, and switch to generic brands, can I still afford that same payment? I found my number, I gave it to the mortgage lady and I said, "no matter what you tell me, I know this is what I can afford all in with taxes, insurance, and everything."
My final payment still came out a little higher, but not bad.
I do not have cable and it's only been three years since I gave up the pay as you go cell phone. I did buy a new fridge, because the old one broke. I did rehab the bathroom, because tiles were coming off the wall. I would love, love, love new furniture, a flat screen and a dishwasher, but I could not afford these things.
When KOJ came along I gave up pedicures, salon hair coloring, and a mess of other junk to be able to buy plane tickets in cash... OK, not cash, to be able to pay off plane tickets within a month or two.
So this lady is on the radio saying that she didn't understand. She is struggling not to lose a house into which she has invested a lot of time and cash so I feel bad for her, I do.
Then again, I listened to this while I was washing dishes, and she probably has a dishwasher which makes it pretty hard not to be annoyed. By the sound of her, I'm no smarter than this lady, but somehow I knew all those wacky mortgage products were a bad idea. I guess the main difference is that I have more fear than she.
I do believe in taking care of people. I don't want anyone to be homeless, I don't want anyone to have do without medical care, and I don't want anyone to go hungry. I'll support schools and college education and public parks and rec leagues. However, I will not happily subsidize your roof top deck and your Sub-Zero Fridge, because the one I bought from the Sear's Scratch and Dent store with actual cash works just fine.
Eh. Whatever. I do count myself lucky -- being born cheap and paranoid about cash has turned out to be a lucky thing. While I am underwater in my house, I just was cautious enough that this fact is wildly inconvenient, but it's not going to ruin my life. And I guess that's the difference. I don't want this lady's life to be ruined. However, maybe if she does get a bail out, I should get her dishwasher so that I won't have to hear about it on the radio while I washing up? |
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[Apr. 4th, 2011|10:07 pm] |
I spent a silly amount of time beating people up in Wii Boxing. It's good to find things like that and remember that I do actually live up to my personal mythology. I like fighting games, and I like play fighting with the fellas. It's nice to be able to bring the physical part and the game part together. And nice to have a fresh reminder that all the talking I do isn't just nonsense, but that I don't completely conform to the social norms of a 39 year old woman. Yay me!
I was thinking about this subject as I heard a story on NPR about some blatantly sexist advert Ikea has going in the UK. Apparently it's all about who's messier, men or women. I really long for the day when discussions like that are considered to be as cringe worthy as discussions about whether or not white people are messier than black. Or Jews messier than Muslims. Stupid.
My sex is no greater predictor of neatness, political orientation, or video game selection than my race, religion, or socio-economic background. I would like to be judged for the content of my character and not for the content of my pants.
I think Feminism is kind of an unfortunate label. Like if we called the Civil Rights movement the Black Rights movement. The old line "none of us are free until all of us are free" holds up in the discussion of sexism as well.
My relationship with KOJ has really highlighted that. He is unafraid to do things considered "womanish" and therefore bad here. He doesn't mind going to a musical or touring around the Jane Austen museum in Bath. None of that makes him less of a Liverpool fan or changes the color of his underpants.
I feel like American men miss out on a lot because they've been trained to roll their eyes and groan at so much. At least as a woman, I can get some cool points for liking comic books and video games, even if it does mean putting up with some nonsense along the way. It seems like men stand to get a lot more grief if they try out something traditionally relegated to women. ah, if only the average man knew just how many extra points he'd get for donning breeches at a Contre Dance (I don't know if I could get KOJ to do that either).
Certainly there are plenty of American men who don't put up with those kinds of artificial boundaries, but I had a hard time finding one. I'm glad I'm in a relationship where we're both open to checking out things the other likes. We can have a nice day on a Jane Austen tour, or a nice day at the bar watching sports and eating wings. |
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[Feb. 19th, 2011|03:31 pm] |
It was warm in Baltimore yesterday, warm enough that I could smell the spring and I felt a little sad wondering if London spring would smell as good. Of course, that Baltimore smell turns ugly fast as ninety degree days descend.
The other day someone asked me if were maximizing my time with friends and family. Of course I'm not. Whenever one of those, "this is the last time that..." moments comes into my head, I run away from that precipice as soon as I can. If did anything besides pretend that everything was completely normal, I'd go mad. I think this is why I'm delaying on talking to realtors and wedding dress shopping. I can take piles to Goodwill and get the house ready to sell all the while pretending that I'm just cleaning up.
I want to leave. I will be happy living in London and I will be very glad to be with Kristjan everyday. However... well, best not to think about that. Stupid old Baltimore!
Sometimes I think the residents of this town are like battered wives. We love it, we hate it, it's very bad for us, but we just love it.
Time to retell my favorite Baltimore joke. How many Baltimore City Residents does it take to change a light bulb? The entire city. One to change it, and the rest of the town to bellyache about how much better the old light bulb was. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 15th, 2010|08:10 pm] |
So, I hear from this Facebook email news that conventional email is too slow for the young people?
I am officially outdated, old, and busted.
The thing is though, I feel like Facebook is AOL. It's mom and kid friendly, it's introduced an entirely new experience to the American family. It's hinky as all get out, and it will be completely obsolete and lame in ten years or so.
Despite the fact that my fiancee cam from Facebook, I'm really looking forward to its demise. |
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[Jun. 19th, 2010|02:23 pm] |
Since I want my cold to go away faster, I told myself I would see how long I could make it without smoking today. I was really fine until one, but it's been painful since then.
I just don't like the way everything seems to be vibrating, or the way I feel trapped in this hideous rubber meat suit. Unpleasant is a word for it. I'm holding on until three.
I do feel better though. I'm also going to UK end of next week, so it'd be nice to cut back so as not to feel like I'm be tortured on the flight. However, I think the best approach to quitting smoking would be a week of medically induced coma to get past the physical symptoms, and then six months of isolation. That should also help with the weight gain issue. I'm telling you, I just ate a big lunch and can barely tell that there is food in my stomach, when I know that I should be feeling extra full and sleepy. That's unnerving. |
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messy_hair_girl's journal