March 25th, 2021 at 19:55 pm » Comments (0)

25-Mar-2021 – Bottom line at the top
We need to stop fixating on the distractions and look at the REAL problems and figure out what we need to do to get things right.

Not that I trust these numbers (or any of the products purported to be immunizations…. ) and that includes the memes from both sides of the conversation – out of context annoys me quite frankly

Keeping in mind the folks making millions if not billions of US$ and other Currency are warning that getting the shot(s) does not mean you are now free to go about your life, stop wearing a mask or any other restriction already imposed… so anything they have to say does not really impress me.

“Reportedly” more than 450 million doses of the three products have been administered worldwide. For the sake of argument, let’s divide that number by 2 – given most have probably gotten the 2 shot products and I doubt the number of J&J one shots is even in the millions yet.

Again “reportedly” round up 4,000 have died and about 165,000 become ill after injections with these products. Let’s call it 170 Thousand to follow the example of the CDC etal and make it scarier than it needs to be.

Doing simple math, divide 170,000 by 225,000,000 and you get point 0007556 have had a recorded reaction or 7 out of every 1000 victims
Let’s compare that to the numbers for the US for Seasonal Flu Vaccine of around 45-60 million getting the shot. An average reaction of 8% means 8 of every 100

Feel free to check and correct my math – never my best subject. But it would seem you are 10 times more likely to have a problem with a seasonal flu shot than a covid-19 injection.

In my opinion, the difference is the seasonal injection seems to have somewhat of a success rate, and the other is a placebo.

As I said when I started, we need to stop wasting time on masks and vaccines and start working on (a) keeping a close eye on the reason for this distraction and (b) what in the name of all that is holy we can do about it.

Feel free to visit me on GAB to share your thoughts. Or anywhere else you find me wandering.

January 14th, 2020 at 10:19 am » Comments (0)

A bit back I asked on FaceBook how you defined Frugal and got quite an interesting variety of answers.

Frugal,to me, means taking the time to research the product with the best value ratio. That is not necessarily and in fact rarely is the least expensive.

If I heard it once I heard it a million times growing up that what is what worth having is (a) worth working for and (b) worth waiting for and of course the occasional “when you have job, you can waste your money that way if you want”? Tough love was often a staple in our home. My parent grew up during the depression so frugal living was embedded and I guess passed on.

There are many reasons for frugality – and at different times in my life, I have probably been motivated by any or all. For some, it is how you were raised. Others are frugal because they must be – whether by sudden change in circumstances or simply attempting to live within their means. Another common reason is to be mindful of how one spends so that one can afford other things (that worth working/waiting/saving for thing)

A frivolous frugal is my unwillingness to work with cheap yarns. If I am going to put that much of my time and energy into a project, then I want the best quality materials. so that means careful spending in other areas to afford the better yarns.
It also often means fewer projects, but frankly that is okay.

Sometimes it means eating a LOT of hamburger meals so for a special occasion that expensive roast or exotic dessert is “on the table”>

There are more, but these seem to be the often cited.

Notice I have not mentioned the words cheap or miserly because really they have nothing to do with Frugality. Besides I prefer to focus on the positive when possible. And, as a smart mentor once told (well more than once) Cheap Can Cost You Dear – so that is not frugal.

Over the last years (even back to the hey day of Compuserve and Yahoo groups) I have been reading and occassionally commenting in “lists” and groups that focus on living frugally or “sustainably” or even some survivalists = because you can learn somethings even if you do not agree with the reasoning.

Today, the due diligence is a whole lot easier because so much information (although sometimes with questionable accuracy) available on line the “job” is much easier and as often as not can also be over whelming.

One thing I do know “for sure” is that I very much value the “habits” taught by my parents and several wonderful women who taught me cooking, knit, crochet and sewing basics as neighbors and “long distance” – not too mention parents who also instilled the importance of taking care of what you have “so it lasts”… because without them, there have been times in my life where those lessons were invaluable.

I do NOT consider myself a paragon of virtue – there are far too many times in my life where I listened to my heart over my head and that usually does not end well. But I have been very fortunate in many ways and so give thanks to those who have taught and otherwise helped me over my lifetime.

The question is always where to begin.
for most I have often read it all starts with a need (whatever that might be) and a willingness to understand and determine “Need” vs “Want”

But there is no reason why one can’t learn the habits and how-tos before the emergency.

P.S. I have no idea where this line of thought is headed, but suspect there will be more – and of course I welcome your thoughts and experiences – because we can learn from each other.

updated to correct spelling etc. 1/26/2020

April 12th, 2016 at 06:57 am » Comments (0)

In my mind, thinking of craft and especially fiber work. There is a world of difference between

—- Wanting to be be Correct – thus, by necessity, a willingness to research, ask questions, especially dumb questions and sometimes question where you think you already know the answers, And most importantly of all – accept correction. And the often difficult to accept “tough love”

— Wanting to be Right simply means because I said so. Were my parents alive today, they would tell you that while I might comply – it was never an answer that taught me anything other than nominal obedience.

A reasonable person might think I had learned by now that most will choose easy or a version of correct that suits their needs personally or most often “business”. Yes I understand, but no I choose not to accept – because that is not the tradition I want to be a part of.

My personal goal is to leave what is “right” to the emotional and spiritual like “sex, religion and politics” because those often subjective. but when it comes to the craft, work on correct –

March 24th, 2016 at 08:16 am » Comments (0)

Lots of people do not understand the attraction of Donald Trump – and I have said it might be that maybe one has to have been politically active as a business (not politician) person in NY and the world to begin to understand his attraction.

In my 20’s I had the opportunity to be “in the room” and see him action. I am not a fan of him as a man , but do respect his ability as someone who seemed to find that balance in nearly every instance that is so necessary to a solid business deal –

There is no question that those deals usually had more benefit to the Trump organizations, so yes, the NY “It’s just business” enters the judgement equation.

Still those that closed were the ones where you do not necessarily get everything you want, but everyone gets enough to walk away accepting its terms.

Much is being said about his ability to work with Congress – well, isn’t that what the system of checks and balances is about? Until term limits exist for the members of Congress – The Executive branch should still be able to exercise it ability to contribute to the balance. The self interest of desiring re=election in a all access world means that a fair number of members of Congress will need to act in the something resembling the best interest of their constituents

I am opposed as an American to socialism. I am opposed to the callous disregard of the Clintons and the Obamas for what I perceive as the best interests of the citizens of the United States.

So that brings us to a choice between, at the moment of an obvious party hack – one most likely to continue the policies and practices of division in order to increase and retain personal power, , a caped crusader who may not be able bend in order to get anything done
and a business man with no political track record other than what we see in his life long long business practices (including the common practice of donating to all parties because that is “just business” )

The only thing I am now clear about is not that I want to make American great – I continue to believe the United States is already great –

What I want is President I can believe until proven otherwise that will put the interests of the USA and it citizens first.

November 24th, 2015 at 11:13 am » Comments (1)

A few days ago I mentioned being deeply disturbed by season finale of Scandal – because that 2 minutes made it so very clear how selfish so many have become – this was not about a victim of rape, or a danger to the life of the mother, or even “knowing” the child was going to face extreme challenges physically.
it was merely done because a promiscuous person felt it would interfere with her lifestyle and desire to change a living situation – in other words for totally selfish reasons.

This two minutes or less showed less concern and emotion than most women show during a routine pap smear. No matter the outburst that followed, that just bolsters my belief that such a choice has many consequences, but that she really only cared about how to avoid the responsibilities of the choices she had made was more than a little disgusting. And, yes, it really did make me vomit.

Every day we read of more “demands” by the self entitled and often concerned about the level of narcissism we have as parents, grand parents, teachers and others who act in locoparenti have not just allowed but encouraged to become acceptable.

I really fear for the future when a young man from a multi-millionaire family somehow thinks that the color of his skin entitles him to a free education. It is exactly this sort of hypocrisy that makes it even more difficult to help those who truly need a hand up in our society.

I wonder how we have become so anesthetized to real problems that we encourage and allow ourselves and our children to become so very selfish and worse, lazy. And then I watch any television program, including many “Children’s” shows and realize that it is just one of the many tools being used to destroy our children’s minds as well as their moral and ethical development

There are and always have been so many real issues – like how being fired for refusing to cooperate with the sexual advances of the general manager meant also not getting even meager unemployment benefits and how that firing made employment so difficult for many years thereafter.

There are many stories to tell, each of us has lived thru them. But yes, we have to find ways to communicate the real core of the issues.

I sincerely hope every father, brother, uncle, cousin, just really every real man will read this blog article
and perhaps begin to see their daughter, sister, aunt, just every female they know in a new light –

For those who do even see this problem, but think their maleness entitles them to behave egregiously – well, they aren’t much of man – now are they.

And will at least personally refuse to allow such behavior – because then maybe at least some small portion of respect for all life will once again become a part of everyday life.

That would truly be something to be thankful for – a gift to all the generations to come