We recently started using a self-mulching lawn mower and WOW! I would highly recommend this to anyone who's kinda lazy but wants to have a nice looking, environmentally friendly lawn.
Hi Solly, just checking if you ever managed to figure out how to fix this dvd player. My situation is virtually identical to yours... I've had no problem with the USB port though, and the .avi files i have on dvds and cds have worked fine... it's just this weird picking and choosing of which Region 1 discs it will read that is the only headache.
Maybe we shouldn't buy cheap electronics at supermarkets anymore. Hope you've had some luck, if i find anything, i'll post.
Simply this - stick with plants that are native to your area. For example, native plants of Florida will survive the heat and the droughts, whereas other plants will need constant care just to keep them alive.
And, know your plants needs and plant accordingly. Does the plant thrive in sun or shade? Is the plant always thirsty for water?
Go with the flow, or the harmony, of the characteristics of the land, the climate, and the plant, and nature will run it's course in your favor.
My best lawn tip is to use no chemicals on our lawn. It is just too risky for our children, pets and the environment. I've recently started a plan to use compost as fertilizer and to aerate the yard. Great Giveaway
But speaking of communication basics, I know a lot of people who have couple email addresses as in jackandjill @ whatever.com -- which may be like having a family phone number but can be detrimental for job searching. That reminds me of a couple of more general tips: the voice message on your phone should be professional and, unless you are posting for an internal job, leave out the work phone number and email address on your resume.
I think many people don't consider the impact smoking and drinking has on their finances. That is probably the difference in more cases than not (not considering medical problems) between getting by and not getting by. I bet many people feel those things are off-limits to discussion due to the lack of addressing them here or anywhere else I've seen. I think there is a double standard. I get bad-mouthed because I have plenty because I don't do those two things, but someone who does do those things feel they have all the right to gripe about their situation.
We missed on a few of your points, but overall, I think we pretty much did reverse engineer our lives.
Living in the Adirondaks, being a forty-sixer, and canoeing the Chain of Lakes, were original priorities, second to going back to live on the Vineyard. Both were out of our financial range, so we settled on Florida, and that worked out great.
Some of our choices were subconscious, like avoiding schedules and standing in line for anything at all.
But, yes... summer up north, winter in Florida allows for year round outside. Living on a lake, both places... Not expensive living, but lakes and boats, and "outside".
Volunteering on a personal level. Not part of a formal team, but one on one help... Teaching - personal and on-line.
Staying in intellectually stimulating environment. (didn't make the college-town ideal, but close enough).
Successfully avoided the unpleasant parts of the working life, like commutes into Chicago, hop-scotching the US by air, and anything that remotely resembles vertical loading.
We've already had 20 years of happy retirement on a tight budget, and have no plans to change very much about our lives.
It wasn't automatic, though... deciding to give up a growing business was not a simple decision. Always wonder what life might have been like.
Perspective- Friends and colleagues from the working world chose to stay in the game, and waited to age 65 (7 years ago) to retire. To each his own. Their world travel, expensive cars and homes are satisfying to them, and I applaud their determination and hard work. Our extra 13 years of freedom from work and opportunity to pursue out interests was our sense of fulfillment and I suppose success.
We didn't have a plan, per se, but worked to get as much as we could of what we liked, and equally to avoid that part of what we didn't like.
In a way, I wish we had started earlier... picking the parts of life that make happy. Might have saved more money, changed to more rewarding jobs... but all in all, even without a early plan, we built our lives so that we have no regrets. Life is good.
These are all good approaches, and I have done them all at one time or another. I would add another catch-all category of webpreneur, or something like that related to actually owning website properties that create income.
This can be selling your own products or services, affiliate products, or using advertising schemes to monetize the sites.
The idea once again is to be location independent using technology to build one or multiple virtual businesses.
I only wish that life brings all of you who are currently opposing unemployment benefits, or you think they are "to generous", in a situation where you desperately need it and have to depend on it, so you can see for yourself how great they are, or even better, not qualify for it, so you finally get WTF you're wishing others!
There's truth to everything you say, but I think you're overly pessimistic. Settling for "tolerable" work is a perfectly reasonable thing to do for weeks or even months at a time. But to settle for tolerable work for years at a time, or a whole career--that's really sad.
While it's true that some great jobs don't pay well, others do. (And, of course, sucky jobs cover the whole range from low pay to high pay as well.)
One central message that I keep coming back to is that frugality leads to freedom. If you spend a lot of money, then you need to earn a lot of money--meaning that you have to find a job with a high salary whether it's work worth doing or not. As you find that you can get by on less money, the universe of possible jobs begins to open up.
Anyway, don't confuse work and job. Although you really want to have your job involve doing work that's worth doing (because you spend so much time and effort doing it), it's possible to do work that's not part of your job--work that's worth doing.
That, by the way, is the way to develope the skills and connections that lead to those great jobs that are otherwise closed off--start doing the work informally, on your own (or as a volunteer) in your free time. Once you've got a track record of success doing the work, you're in a position to start asking people to pay you for it. I've got a post called Pre-career advice that goes into it in some depth from the perspective of students, but it's a strategy that's available to anybody.
I'm pretty sure that mushrooms grow from spores, not the root. There's no good reason to take the part that's underground, really, because it's not as edible as the part above-ground, but leaving the roots won't help it grow back - it's not a banyan tree. You can yank out the roots without fear of destroying next year's crop.
I've seen lots of mushroom-growing kits, but they never involve morels. I'm pretty sure that morels don't grown on wood like wood ears. Shiitake have become easily cultivated, but very few other mushrooms like to grow on command - I think morels are the uncultivatable kind, because otherwise people would be growing them like crazy.
True, I didn't mean to be snarky - lots of people simply don't have the experience of online job searching and hiring. My mom for instance, is a fount of common sense, but probably wouldn't have much of an idea how to go about applying to, say, a volunteering job online. She's smart, but just not as net-crazed as the rest of her family.
What makes work worth doing is the perception of the person doing the work. The more excited and passionate they are about the work the more it's "worth it."
Finding "work worth doing" is nowhere near as easy as most writers or career pundits make it out to be. I suspect that it's nearly impossible for most people to find this kind of work. The best that we can hope for is "tolerable work." Work that you may never be passionate about but will at least let you live a decent lifestyle and not stress you out every day.
Here's a few possible reasons for that phenomenon:
No connection between your education and the kind of job it prepares you for. You may pursue a subject at school because you love it and then you seek out a career in it because you loved your course work. Only catch is that the careers available combine something like 1% of the knowledge you learned with long hours of menial robotic work.
Few jobs available. Some careers just don't have many jobs available. And you don't have a chance of getting into the jobs that are available unless you were either an elite student and/or have connections.
Jobs you would actually like to do don't pay.
Jobs are otherwise ruined by outside factors. Any job can be destroyed by a bad boss or toxic co-workers.
Mostly good information, but there are two big errors in the post:
1. Use your fingernails or a knife to cut the morel stem above the ground. Pulling the portion of the stem below ground is widely thought to damage the mycelium it's attached to. If you're pulling dirt with your morel, you're pulling too much.
2. Never never use a plastic grocery sack while hunting--always use a mesh bag of some sort. I've used onion sacks in the past, though last year I purchased a nice re-washable mesh bag. The mesh allows spores to fall from the head of the morel to re-invigorate the patch and/or create new patches.
It's a blast to hunt morels and even more enjoyable to eat them, but please be responsible and respect 'em!
I forgot the most important thing I wanted to mention -- NEVER EAT THEM RAW!!! Morels are dangerous to consume when raw. Cooking gets rid of the toxins, and then they're quite safe.
Never thought to put them on a pizza, Linsey...that's a great idea.
Having put out an ad, I can vouch for the lack of common sense. Others have common sense, but are new to the online ad scene. (Not everyone has been emailing for 10 years -- like retired people or those who for some reason or another have never answered an ad this way.) I appreciate you tips, Andrea! I know a few people in my life who are n00bs and this email ad stuff is entirely new. I'll pass these on!
Ah, Will! Of course I had to write about my hunting experience this week. But the chicken, tomato, onion, and morel mushroom pizza I made last night was ALL mine. :)
We recently started using a self-mulching lawn mower and WOW! I would highly recommend this to anyone who's kinda lazy but wants to have a nice looking, environmentally friendly lawn.
Hi Solly, just checking if you ever managed to figure out how to fix this dvd player. My situation is virtually identical to yours... I've had no problem with the USB port though, and the .avi files i have on dvds and cds have worked fine... it's just this weird picking and choosing of which Region 1 discs it will read that is the only headache.
Maybe we shouldn't buy cheap electronics at supermarkets anymore. Hope you've had some luck, if i find anything, i'll post.
Simply this - stick with plants that are native to your area. For example, native plants of Florida will survive the heat and the droughts, whereas other plants will need constant care just to keep them alive.
And, know your plants needs and plant accordingly. Does the plant thrive in sun or shade? Is the plant always thirsty for water?
Go with the flow, or the harmony, of the characteristics of the land, the climate, and the plant, and nature will run it's course in your favor.
My best green tip is to use vinegar to kills weeds that crop up in your driveway or sidewalks.
Thanks!
Rebecca
My best lawn tip is to use no chemicals on our lawn. It is just too risky for our children, pets and the environment. I've recently started a plan to use compost as fertilizer and to aerate the yard. Great Giveaway
I especially liked #8 -- showing enthusiasm.
But speaking of communication basics, I know a lot of people who have couple email addresses as in jackandjill @ whatever.com -- which may be like having a family phone number but can be detrimental for job searching. That reminds me of a couple of more general tips: the voice message on your phone should be professional and, unless you are posting for an internal job, leave out the work phone number and email address on your resume.
I think many people don't consider the impact smoking and drinking has on their finances. That is probably the difference in more cases than not (not considering medical problems) between getting by and not getting by. I bet many people feel those things are off-limits to discussion due to the lack of addressing them here or anywhere else I've seen. I think there is a double standard. I get bad-mouthed because I have plenty because I don't do those two things, but someone who does do those things feel they have all the right to gripe about their situation.
We missed on a few of your points, but overall, I think we pretty much did reverse engineer our lives.
Living in the Adirondaks, being a forty-sixer, and canoeing the Chain of Lakes, were original priorities, second to going back to live on the Vineyard. Both were out of our financial range, so we settled on Florida, and that worked out great.
Some of our choices were subconscious, like avoiding schedules and standing in line for anything at all.
But, yes... summer up north, winter in Florida allows for year round outside. Living on a lake, both places... Not expensive living, but lakes and boats, and "outside".
Volunteering on a personal level. Not part of a formal team, but one on one help... Teaching - personal and on-line.
Staying in intellectually stimulating environment. (didn't make the college-town ideal, but close enough).
Successfully avoided the unpleasant parts of the working life, like commutes into Chicago, hop-scotching the US by air, and anything that remotely resembles vertical loading.
We've already had 20 years of happy retirement on a tight budget, and have no plans to change very much about our lives.
It wasn't automatic, though... deciding to give up a growing business was not a simple decision. Always wonder what life might have been like.
Perspective- Friends and colleagues from the working world chose to stay in the game, and waited to age 65 (7 years ago) to retire. To each his own. Their world travel, expensive cars and homes are satisfying to them, and I applaud their determination and hard work. Our extra 13 years of freedom from work and opportunity to pursue out interests was our sense of fulfillment and I suppose success.
We didn't have a plan, per se, but worked to get as much as we could of what we liked, and equally to avoid that part of what we didn't like.
In a way, I wish we had started earlier... picking the parts of life that make happy. Might have saved more money, changed to more rewarding jobs... but all in all, even without a early plan, we built our lives so that we have no regrets. Life is good.
my opinion only
These are all good approaches, and I have done them all at one time or another. I would add another catch-all category of webpreneur, or something like that related to actually owning website properties that create income.
This can be selling your own products or services, affiliate products, or using advertising schemes to monetize the sites.
The idea once again is to be location independent using technology to build one or multiple virtual businesses.
I only wish that life brings all of you who are currently opposing unemployment benefits, or you think they are "to generous", in a situation where you desperately need it and have to depend on it, so you can see for yourself how great they are, or even better, not qualify for it, so you finally get WTF you're wishing others!
That is a very interesting article. Thank you for sharing.
@SaveBuyLive:
There's truth to everything you say, but I think you're overly pessimistic. Settling for "tolerable" work is a perfectly reasonable thing to do for weeks or even months at a time. But to settle for tolerable work for years at a time, or a whole career--that's really sad.
While it's true that some great jobs don't pay well, others do. (And, of course, sucky jobs cover the whole range from low pay to high pay as well.)
One central message that I keep coming back to is that frugality leads to freedom. If you spend a lot of money, then you need to earn a lot of money--meaning that you have to find a job with a high salary whether it's work worth doing or not. As you find that you can get by on less money, the universe of possible jobs begins to open up.
Anyway, don't confuse work and job. Although you really want to have your job involve doing work that's worth doing (because you spend so much time and effort doing it), it's possible to do work that's not part of your job--work that's worth doing.
That, by the way, is the way to develope the skills and connections that lead to those great jobs that are otherwise closed off--start doing the work informally, on your own (or as a volunteer) in your free time. Once you've got a track record of success doing the work, you're in a position to start asking people to pay you for it. I've got a post called Pre-career advice that goes into it in some depth from the perspective of students, but it's a strategy that's available to anybody.
I'm pretty sure that mushrooms grow from spores, not the root. There's no good reason to take the part that's underground, really, because it's not as edible as the part above-ground, but leaving the roots won't help it grow back - it's not a banyan tree. You can yank out the roots without fear of destroying next year's crop.
I've seen lots of mushroom-growing kits, but they never involve morels. I'm pretty sure that morels don't grown on wood like wood ears. Shiitake have become easily cultivated, but very few other mushrooms like to grow on command - I think morels are the uncultivatable kind, because otherwise people would be growing them like crazy.
True, I didn't mean to be snarky - lots of people simply don't have the experience of online job searching and hiring. My mom for instance, is a fount of common sense, but probably wouldn't have much of an idea how to go about applying to, say, a volunteering job online. She's smart, but just not as net-crazed as the rest of her family.
will this work on big dents... like maybe 16 inches(ish) across? or if it wont.. any other suggestions?
What makes work worth doing is the perception of the person doing the work. The more excited and passionate they are about the work the more it's "worth it."
Finding "work worth doing" is nowhere near as easy as most writers or career pundits make it out to be. I suspect that it's nearly impossible for most people to find this kind of work. The best that we can hope for is "tolerable work." Work that you may never be passionate about but will at least let you live a decent lifestyle and not stress you out every day.
Here's a few possible reasons for that phenomenon:
No connection between your education and the kind of job it prepares you for. You may pursue a subject at school because you love it and then you seek out a career in it because you loved your course work. Only catch is that the careers available combine something like 1% of the knowledge you learned with long hours of menial robotic work.
Few jobs available. Some careers just don't have many jobs available. And you don't have a chance of getting into the jobs that are available unless you were either an elite student and/or have connections.
Jobs you would actually like to do don't pay.
Jobs are otherwise ruined by outside factors. Any job can be destroyed by a bad boss or toxic co-workers.
I've never had much success with Craigslist, but hopefully this will help me!
What are the other "two blogs" you sourced this from? It looks like an almost exact copy of http://www.cringely.com/2009/03/parrot-secrets/ - possible copyright infringement material.
Mostly good information, but there are two big errors in the post:
1. Use your fingernails or a knife to cut the morel stem above the ground. Pulling the portion of the stem below ground is widely thought to damage the mycelium it's attached to. If you're pulling dirt with your morel, you're pulling too much.
2. Never never use a plastic grocery sack while hunting--always use a mesh bag of some sort. I've used onion sacks in the past, though last year I purchased a nice re-washable mesh bag. The mesh allows spores to fall from the head of the morel to re-invigorate the patch and/or create new patches.
It's a blast to hunt morels and even more enjoyable to eat them, but please be responsible and respect 'em!
What is best to remove spilled cooked meat stains and mechanic grease stain from upholstery in vehicle! Thanks!
I forgot the most important thing I wanted to mention -- NEVER EAT THEM RAW!!! Morels are dangerous to consume when raw. Cooking gets rid of the toxins, and then they're quite safe.
Never thought to put them on a pizza, Linsey...that's a great idea.
Having put out an ad, I can vouch for the lack of common sense. Others have common sense, but are new to the online ad scene. (Not everyone has been emailing for 10 years -- like retired people or those who for some reason or another have never answered an ad this way.) I appreciate you tips, Andrea! I know a few people in my life who are n00bs and this email ad stuff is entirely new. I'll pass these on!
Linsey Knerl
Good post, very thought provoking :) Thanks to the poster
It is common sense - the problem is that 90% of the people who are looking for gigs on craigslist don't seem to have any.
Ah, Will! Of course I had to write about my hunting experience this week. But the chicken, tomato, onion, and morel mushroom pizza I made last night was ALL mine. :)
Linsey Knerl