Quotes from Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project

If I had thought of creating a Misery Project, and consciously worked to make myself miserable, I would be a trememndous success.

When one quotes from a law school graduate's book, one must be conscientious about attribution, and copyright. So please note that these quotes are from The Happiness Project, copyrighted 2009 by Gretchen Rubin, published by HarperCollins. The questions start on page 295 of the hardcover edition.

Answer the following questions:
What makes you feel good? What activities do you find fun, satisfying  or energizing?
What makes you feel bad? (Blogger's addition: are you addicted to what makes you feel bad?) What are sources of anger, irritation, boredom, frustration, or anxiety in your life?
Is there any way in which you don't feel right about your life? Do you wish you could change your job, city, family situation or other circumstances?
Do you have sources of an atmosphere of growth? In what elements of your life do you (blogger note: or did you, if you are truly miserable) find progress, learning, challenge, improvement, and increased mastery?

Sheldon Kopp: All God's Children Are Lost, But Only a Few Can Play the Piano

Kopp, Sheldon. All God's Children are Lost, but Only a Few Can Play the Piano. New York, NY: Prentice Hall, 1991.
1. No matter how well our lives are going, there will be times when we ask ourselves, "Is that all there is?"
2. When  you think the meaning of life has been lost, what you need to find is yourself.
3. Everyone feels lost and alone at times.
4. The fulfillment we need lies buried deep inside us.
5.  Where are you in your life?
6. Why aren't you more like yourself?
7. If we endure the holy insecurities, we can find the higher power within us
8. No one else can find your higher power for you.
9. When you follow your heart, you will find your way hoome to your true self and the people you love
10. The traveling and the sense of arrival are inseparable
11. To live your own life, you have to create your own story.
12. If you withdraw from others for a while, you can discover who you are that they aren't.
13. Making an inner journey is a risky business--it can transform your life.
14. The solitary path to the depth of our souls leads us to the edge of oru aloneness and back to a place among others that is truly our own.
15. Every soul has its own shadow side.
16. In the dark night of our souls, we can begin to see the sparks from the higher power within.
17. Trying to will ourselves to be different won't work.
18. The only victory lies in surrender to oneself.
19. All of you is worth something, if you will only own it.
20. Accepting our weaknesses frees our strengths.
21. We all experience predicaments that make us feel upset and unprepared.
22. Every crisis presents a crossroads, and paths open up we may never have seen otherwise.
23. Whether or not life is fair is irrelevant.
24. Asking "why me?" is useless. The only question that counts is, "Where do I go from here?"
25. What if God doesn't want us to be caged in our lusts, but to be free in them?
26. Then whatever goes on in our imaginations is nobody else's business.
27. We want so much to seem normal and nice, we're tempted to hide the very things that make us singular.
28. The false images we create to conceal our real selves from others may fool ourselves as well.
29. Until we realize that the monster of others' expectations is jst a paper tiger, we remain threatened by their concepts of who we ought to be.
30. When we honour our peculiarities, we can make the most of all the unique things we are.
31. We must know what we feel, say what we mean, and do what we say.
32. Why would God make us all so different and then allow only one way to serve Him?
33. When we act in accord with both our heads and our hearts, everything we do becomes a form of prayer.
34. Whatever we are undertaking at the moment is the most important thing we can do.
35. True hope is possible only after we experience true despair, facing all the little deaths in life and the great death that awaits us thereafter.
36. Feeling fully alive doesn't depend on what we believe in, but on how we experience each great and small moment in our lives.
37. God dwells wherever people let Hiim in.
38. We can let Him in only where we really stand, where we live a life that is truly our own.

What to Read in 2012

Memoir from Antproof Case - Mark Helprin
Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner
Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood
Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder - Lawrence Weschler
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
The Long Loneliness - Dorothy Day
Dick Davis Dividend - Dick Davis
Confessions - St. Augustine
Story of Philosophy - Will Durant
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

It is embarrassing that I have not read these. At my age.

links for a happy new year

http://yogaeatrun.com/home/2011/12/30/grocery-shopping-101.html jenae frick shows you how to reduce time and cost at yonder supermarket

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/a-plan-for-2012-that-youll-actually-follow/ Carl Richards shows you a Plan for 2012 you will actually follow

http://lifehacker.com/5872627/the-best-time-to-buy-anything-in-2012 The best time to buy anything in 2012

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/are-you-ready-for-a-really-good-year/ Willie Jolley asks if you're ready for a really good year.

http://bestculinaryrecipes.com/news/a-recipe-for-simplifying-life-ditch-all-the-recipes.htm Wow, this is brave. Ditch all the Recipes to Simplify life.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2016829657_hoarderpersonalhealth22.html Robin Zasio says it's time to say goodbye to all that.


 http://www.wisebread.com/25-small-new-year-s-resolutions-you-can-start-today 25 Small New Year’s Resolutions You Can Start Today, Mikey Rox for wisebread.com

30 Things to Stop Doing to Myself

From Ken Ashford's "Seventh Sense" Weblog.
Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth. And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.  
Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on. No, it won’t be easy. There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them. We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made. In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall. Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time. This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself. Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves. Read The Road Less Traveled.
Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.  
Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you likeeveryone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.  
Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.  
Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.  
Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. Read Stumbling on Happiness.  
Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.  
Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely. It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company. There’s no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you. But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.
Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records every day. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.
Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Ask yourself this: “What’s something I have that everyone wants?” Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. So smile! Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.
Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate. Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.” It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.” Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself! And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too. If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.
Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.
Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done. Read Getting Things Done. Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don’t take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.  
Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out. But making one person smile CAN change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus.
Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.
Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.
Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

a goodie from Henri JM Nouwen

Imagine yourself as deeply convinced that your kindness to your friends and your generosity to the poor are little mustard seeds that will become strong trees in which many birds will build their nests. Imagine that, in the centre of your heart, your smiles and handshakes, your embraces and your kisses are only the early signs of a worldwide community of love and peace!Imagine that your trusting that every little movement of love you make will ripple out into ever new and wider circles -- just as a little stone thrown into a small pond. Imagine, imagine! Could you ever be depressed, angry, resentful or vengeful? Could you ever destroy, hate or kill? Could you ever despair of the meaning of your short earthly existence? -- Life of the Beloved, pp. 123-4.

November definitely a time for a change

The more I read from pro-challenger and pro-incumbent blog posters and commentators, the more I am convinced things cannot change. No one yet made any predictions. I won't name names but here's my prediction action plan: Look for a frickin' job that can cover private school or moving expenses to Shoreline, Bellingham, or a small city in BC. # of Seattle School Board seats up for re-election: four two will be replaced with vote spreads over 5% one race will take days to certify, and a lead will erode by 3% one will be a major disappointment It just takes one or two new faces on the Board (probably two) to make a change. I want all of them in, but for that to happen 52% of the Seattle citizens filling out ballots for School Board directors have to agree with me. if all four incumbents get back in I am leaving SPS. Maybe even the city. If three incumbents get in I am homeschooling People have had umpteen opportunities to give reasons for supporting the incumbents beyond "they're my friends" and "they have experience." When he was interim King County Executive the Seattle Times endorsed the no-experience candidate Susan Hutchinson. Yet four people, three with corporate management experience, show few signs of understanding or performing their duties as elected officials and they're endorsed because they have experience. Others' rationales are "I don't have to explain why I am voting for them." Isn't that convincing? My son has a right to a decent public education. I may have to spend a lot of money I don't have to either spruce up the house to sell it, or to put him in private school, or to buy a car to drive him to another school district. Systemic and managerial failure account for the ills plaguing our school district. I don't see how privatizing public education will help, but I obviously don't think like an American.

Useful educational websites

I am indebted for reasons public and private to the Save Seattle Schools blog for cluing this Seattle Public Schools parent into resources and portals for building on my child's skills and education. This post from Seattle Schools' Information Technology in the Classroom blog shares some online links for math facts practice: http://it.seattleschools.org/blog/2008/04/learning-math-facts/ http://www.aaamath.com/index.html The child also likes Subtangent and IXL I am digging Khan Academy for its wide range of subjects and their levels of mastery. Also, in a selection of most-commonly understood languages among the Seattle Schools community, grade-appropriate toolkits for families to use in their responsible participation of helping their children achieve core common standards and passable proficiency in Reading and other subjects.

Loading up on education for the next school year

Testing the new blogger.com interface. I borrowed three education-related books: Math Coach, Winning the Math Wars and School Reform. Math adoption is important to me. Although my son has done fine in math, he is in a minority of third-graders who met the Measurement of Student Progress standards. I don't blame the teachers, nor the students: I blame the curriculum. It is Everyday Math and it did not serve my son's class. Out of 31 third-graders, fifteen passed (how many of these were in the Advanced Learning Opportunities group), sixteen did not meet standards, and of the failing sixteen, ten performed miserably. How many of those ten are English Language Learners, or economically disadvantaged? School Reform is an Opposing Viewpoints® Series book. It's meant for a young adult audience but it was the simplest and most straight-forward pros & cons offering about school reform. Winning the Math Wars I don't know much about yet, except the back jacket states "The authors focus on four principles for improving math teaching and learning: fidelity to reform efforts by all involved; an emphasis on instruction and instructional tools; the critical nature of mathematical knowledge; and the need for transformational change." So maybe it is pro-reform. I will read it anyway to learn. I don't yet know why "fuzzy math" is needed. I don't like the term "fuzzy" applied to academics, and particularly not to mathematics. It makes me think of derivatives, collateralized mortgage obligation securities, credit default swaps and other fuzzy financial math crapstunts that Enron and mortgage bankers liked to pull. In America, entrepreneurs push to have an education reform that results in bigger profits for them. Their ideas of reform are not about improving education to make American students globally competitive.

it never rains but it pours

T's new glasses, fresh problems with the car, $100 to tide us until Friday.
what happened in the interim: soccer for C, chess for C, radio station donations, donation to RWF's Attorney General run, Visa payment, HELOC, library restitution, silver purchase. It goes fast.

I have some meat in the freezer, so that's good. And lots of vegetables, with some lentils and buckwheat. I can get some eggs, sardine and flank steak and voila! Kasha!
I'll probably have a lot of vegetable soups between now and Friday. I'm not so freaked out.

Listening to Heaven 17 podcast. Two members, Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware, have excellent taste in 1980s and 2010s music. Just heard Lykke Li, and now Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" is playing.

Sunburned after a bus trip down to Terminal 25 in South-of-the-Dome-That-No-Longer-Exists, to see the naval ships as part of our town's annual Seafair. The Canadian Forces craft "Whitehorse" was not giving tours when we were available, but the US Marine Corps took us onto the USS Bonhomme Richard, where we saw some Zulu, Osprey and CH-53 aircraft. We explored them, walked onto the flight deck, got a great deal of sun. We walked for miles, literally, so our feet are beat. C was looking forward to asking the "Whitehorse" crew to take him up to CFB Esquimalt on Vancouver Island.

Gold is up at $1690 USD, not bad. I should just use my account for everyday expenses and stock up on precious metals.

When I post my moments of financial weakness, understand that I have an emergency fund, bonds, Certificates of Deposit, money market account, stocks and precious metals. But my short-term $$ is leaking out fast. When I borrow from my emergency fund for things like roofs, escrow accounts, car repairs, it takes me a long time to replenish it. I'll probably just live on my credit card.

I am still doing the Temporal Tap, and the Three Thumps. I need to select just one affirmation for the right side of the brain. The left one is easy: "I am no longer broke." Right one: a set salary? Infinite riches flow freely into my life? I joyfully receive abundance? I would like to earn more money than my spouse.

I feel a breakthrough

I read through most of don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements book this weekend. Almost immediately I felt a shift in consciousness, a marked improvement in attitude and dare I type it, a return to joy.
I hope I can keep it. Spiritual renewal is a gift of grace, and it's been a long time coming for me. I had been praying almost every night, but someone else prayed on Saturday, and the good orderly direction found me.

Tuesday I went to our neighbourhood Block Watch Night Out, made a fine chicken salad that was perhaps too much for people (there is always a lot of food at potlucks, yet the food banks have low number of rations). Several families in our community need food: my neighbour's on crutches and is living on TV dinners, so I'll make some food now that we have funds.

Yesterday was book club summer social, and I made some Capilano Chocolate Bars. I drove up on the scooter. Other women brought fruit and booze, and I had only the fruit and bars as I do not drink at all when I ride the scooter. I brought kombucha which only one person tried. I choose not to take this personally.

I had a terrific time at the coffee house, as I met a woman who was eager to discuss her breakthroughs and spiritual path/renewal from reading The Four Agreements. I also did some Energy Medicine: in addition to tracing meridians, I have been performing the Temporal Tap and Three Thumps throughout the day. How is it that I was unaware tapping the K-27 points would bring energy to the eyes?

escape from despair is always legitimate.

I am horrified at the death and cruelty one man delivered in Oslo, Norway. If you can't persuade with logic and reason people to understand and adopt your political views then open fire.

We are on very limited means right now, until the 29th of July. I blame myself of course, having initiated a refinance that required a cashier's cheque of the amount equal to three weeks' living expenses. I liquidated two silver coins and did some creative rearrangement of funds, shopped at a very low-cost grocery for vegetables, and started pulling food from our garden. We're also using two-for-one coupons and searching for money in the house. Again, this is only for another week, but it's $20/day. It'd be a lot worse if we didn't have a full freezer, and had to take the car out everyday.

We'll see how far $27 takes me. I imagine there'll be many lentil and bean, soba and udon dishes this week. On the plus side, we won't have a mortgage payment until September 1 at the earliest, and an escrow refund cheque by September 15.

I've read The Pope's War by Matthew Fox, and recognized several names on the "Wall" appendix, theologians, clerics and women religious who have been silenced or deemed dissident. Contrarian/perverse that I am, I am interested to read the works of the dissenters. All I need is a stamp and the will to walk to the post office to send a postcard to an eighty-three-year-old professor emeritus telling him how lately I came across his writings: he is one of the dissidents. I am always a dissident of counter-reformation and corrupt hierarchy. How out and proud I am about being a dissident, well, obviously not much. I can't say that the current antics of the Vatican, nor learning that while Jesus was interested only in reforming the spirituality and rules of his Jewish faith and appointed twelve MARRIED JEWISH MEN, to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, the Catholic Church decided two of those three qualifications had to go a thousand years after Jesus abandoned preaching exclusively to Judea and started traveling and introducing Gentiles to the Word of God. But not all three of them. As the original Gospels get translated and reinterpreted to suit church powers, a New Testament reader can't be at all certain what was originally meant. And if the qualifications for preachers and Eucharistic ministers changed, who's to say that no books now apocrypha were included in earlier versions of the New Testament?

Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear by Srinivasan S. Pillay

The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principles for Living Abundantly in the 21st Century (Compass) by Laurence G. Boldt

I am reading Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut. Fascinating. Vonnegut and Murakami are almost always out of the libraries I frequent.

Five minutes later edit OH YEAH I am now on Google+.

why read the classics

Why Read the Classics
Italo Calvino

The classics are the books of which we usually hear people say, "I am rereading . . . " and never "I am reading . . . "

We use the words "classics" for books that are treasured by those who have read and loved them; but they are treasured no less by those who have the luck to read them for the first time in the best conditions to enjoy them

The classics are books that exert a peculiar influence, both when they refuse to be eradicated from the mind and when they conceal themselves in the folds of memory, camouflaging themselves as the collective or individual unconscious.

Every rereading of a classic is as much a voyage of discovery as the first reading.

Every reading of a classic is in fact a rereading.

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.

The classics are the books that come down to us bearing the traces of readings previous to ours, and bringing in their wake the traces they themselves have left on the culture or cultures they have passed through (or, more simply, on language and customs).

A classic does not necessarily teach us anything we did not know before. In a classic we sometimes discover something we have always known (or thought we knew), but without knowing that this author said it first, or at least is associated with it in a special way. And this, too, is a surprise that gives much pleasure, such as we always gain from the discovery of an origin, a relationship, an affinity.

The classics are books which, upon reading, we find even fresher, more unexpected, and more marvelous than we had thought from hearing about them.

We use the word "classic" of a book that takes the form of an equivalent to the universe, on a level with the ancient talismans. With this definition we are approaching the idea of the "total book," as Mallarmé conceived of it.

Your classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you to define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him.

A classic is a book that comes before other classics; but anyone who has read the others first, and then reads this one, instantly recognizes its place in the family tree.

A classic is something that tends to relegate the concerns of the moment to the status of background noise, but at the same time this background noise is something we cannot do without.

A classic is something that persists as a background noise even when the most incompatible momentary concerns are in control of the situation.

Nonsense: Style definition

I had an interesting dream: I was told that FEAR was my biggest enemy and drawback.
The dream ended with me in some cold, clammy rocky beach area, by a weather-beaten cottage on an elevated wooden platform, above the tide. I arrived with a huge armload of books, smiling and saying "don't worry about me, I'll be dead in a week."

Then again, maybe I should call the Cenacle Sisters and see if their retreat in Bowen Island still has some openings.

What I am now:
Bittersweet
Complex
Cerebralxx
intimate
refined/mannered
reflective
sensual---
sophisticated---
stylishxx
earnest
gentle
literate
organic

What I would like to be:
Boisterous
Exuberant
Freewheeling
Literate
Playful
Quirky
Reflective
Trippy
Whimsical
Witty
Confident
Energetic

Crash JP Morgan Buy Silver

An editorial staff member at local entertainment weekly The Stranger reported her three cards from two "giant, terrible banks" have been compromised. I'd like to know who's still using a "giant, terrible bank" (i.e., JP Morgan Chase or Bank of America) so I can buy one ounce of silver for them.

Max Keiser explains the why of buying silver and how it could crash JP Morgan.

"Here's how the campaign works: wealth tied to a fiat currency is easily overwhelmed by wealth tied to silver and gold. And the world is waking up to the fact that they have the ability, without government assistance or other interference, to create a new precious metals-based backed currency system by simply converting their fiat paper into real money."

April 1 s star star t

This 10% paycut has not helped our finances. Sure, we're up since December 3, but we're also -$300 in the VISA. When I factor in the debt payoff, the savings seems huge, like 15%, or the 5% prior to the debt payoff.

I've tried to be very good about the food budgeting. French press filter, my stupid adrenal vitamins, car repair, heating bill, dinners at Setsuna, breakfast at Toulouse Petit and Dahlia Lounge, utility bills. Pokemon, gas for Pokemon tournament, coffees. I tried to do the $200/week for cash. I bought silver. We gave for Lent, for coffee&donuts at church, a pass for the 520. It seems all like frittering. And here my tax bill looms. The gods look down and laugh.

Because debt group isn't meeting this month

I calculated our taxes payable to the Internal Revenue Service. The amount is in the four digit range, and that's to the LEFT of the decimal point. I have the money, but coping with a temporary reduction in income is challenging enough.

How I choose to manage this problem: I can budget what is spent on household bills and miscellanea in a given payperiod. At the beginning of the payperiod, I will apportion $50 to home equity line of credit, $50 to money market account, and $50 to investment in equities I have researched enough to trust they'll return over 4% in value. The HELOC is 3%, so I'll make a 3% return paying that, the Money market account returns 0.50%, and my chosen investments are Procter & Gamble, silver, GoldCorp (NYSE: GG), and Central Fund of Canada (NYSE: CEF). That way I might be out two thousand dollars come April 15, but I will have $250 less debt, $10 profit, and $12.50 of accrued interest in the money market account. Isn't it a shame that is the best I can do.

muddy cleats against my bloody face

So-and-so received a temporary salary decrease, and didn't tell me, but rather waited for me to find out for myself. I am putting my newly acquired stressor analysis skills to work: active-based and passive-based coping. What is controllable? What is not controllable?

Controllable: budget decisions.
Uncontrollable: the budget decrease.

Active: rethinking, recalculating expenses.
Passive: ???

Oil Pulling, Liver Cancer, Adrenal Fatigue

1. I have tried daily oil pulling with coconut oil for a week. Three days into it my lymph nodes swelled, perhaps from flushing toxins and bad bacteria out of my system, or the salivary glands performing excess saliva secretion. Yesterday I had my semiannual dental visit, and the hygienist remarked that the ample production of saliva had resulted in relatively low tartar collection on my teeth, and that my gums were healthy.

However, my night sweats/insomnia have resurfaced. I must be more mindful of the sugars I ingest, stop using the computer by 8 pm, and/or exercise.

2. I was told in a dream to eat as if I had liver cancer. Here are some links to liver cancer diet suggestions:

suggestion #1
suggestion #2

I don't have any risk factors for liver cancer. I believe that if I properly flush out my liver and heal it, it will help my body recuperate from adrenal fatigue.

Deleveraging cycle

The US is in a deleveraging cycle. Consumers, aided probably without solicitation by banks -- "we've rescinded or reduced your line of credit. Also, we're raising your APR six percentage points, even though you pay your bill on time every time" -- are scaling back.

I used to have a finance blog. I took it down because I lost interest: anonymous commentators would fail to read for comprehension and context, other blogs bland and valueless would proliferate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18FOB-wwln-t.html?scp=1&sq=mortgage%20pay%20off&st=cse

I'll join with the deleveraging. I have retirement, education and home repairs to take care of. Our equity is almost 60%. I'd like to help people save more money and stick it to banking institutions by paying loans on time or paying in cash or consider bartering. I tried to cut down on my energy usage to save money but my city utility increased rates 45 so I just pay more for less. Life sucks.