My means

November 23, 2008 in 1/4 getting there, 1/4 response to stimuli | Tags: , , , , | by Erin | 8 comments

Ok, so I’ve been on this new kick of trying to live within my means.  What does this actually mean?  Well the way I think of it, it means that I am trying to live in a way that doesn’t force me to shuffle money around like transferring money from my savings to my checking to cover those shoes I absolutely needed!  It means trying to look into the future and not just the present.  Usually I just buy what I want (never anything too extravagent), because I deserve it!  But we’ve had layoffs at my work and at other places within the same industry as mine and I fear for my job.  And I know that if I get pulled into HR the reasons like, “I have a mortgage” or “I have to pay for school” won’t matter to their bottom line.  So I’m on my own and ideally I should be able to survive without an income for a couple of months and I am far from that goal.  And this whole scenario is part of becoming a “grown-up.”  I need to be able to manage my finances, budget, and save.  But it is a hard lesson to learn because I’ve been able to live like this so far, so why not continue?  I think because now I have a lot more to lose.  I think that is what it takes for a wake up call, when I think that I could lose my house because I wanted a new cell phone (Blackberry Storm!), and those new shoes, and that nice new jacket, and on and on.  All those little “necessities” add up and there has got to be some point where I stop and reconsider what is truly important.

This doesn’t mean that I give up all my shopping or stop my cable, I think it just means being more aware of my purchases and how I want to live in the future.  I think buying a house makes you really reevaluate everything!  To me, it was a bigger decision than getting married.  So where do I go from here?  Fight the urge to spend frivolously (which I absolutely adore) and be aware of what I have and what I need, because to me the future and the family I want should mean more to me than that nice new gadget or sweet new dress that is on sale.

I think what this recent economic crisis has shown me and a lot of other Americans is that we can’t always buy now and pay later because later comes sooner than expected.  I don’t want to be that American family with the 2 cars in the driveway and the repo man at the back door.  I want to be proud of what I have because it is what I earned and not be so caught up in keeping up with the Jones’ because statistically, the Jones’ are probably up to their ears in debt.  Its been a complete reevaluating of what makes me happy and what I value.  And while it would be nice to have a lot of nice new things, I think I’d rather sleep well at night.

Has the world’s economic state of affairs made anyone else reevaluate?  Am I being overly sensitive/cautious?

i dont need you to tell me who i am

November 20, 2008 in 1/4 rants and whines | Tags: , | by cindy | 6 comments

i touched on this sort of kind of in another post previously. but it was a much more personal one. this post is mainly inspired and written for a loyal QCP reader who brought this topic up to me in the first place.

correct me if i’m wrong, but when it came to the showdown between mccain and obama, the question and subject of race was not as prevalent or heated as when it was obama versus clinton.

nevertheless, race was still brought up. it always struck me that… pollsters had to break down the the vote of races. who were the hispanics in line with? were the blacks backing up obama? what about those asians? were native americans even mentioned?

when one looks at barack obama, how is he identified? black male. yet immediately following that, there were outcries of, he is not all that black. so what does that phrase mean exactly? does it bother people that something like that had been said about him?

it bothers me. back in august when i talked about identifying with my chinese roots, cultural heritage, identity, i wondered if race was the only factor in producing my identity? it shouldn’t be. but when someone looks at me, they immediately think chinese, not american. look, i’m not particularly good at math, i drive just fine, but yes i love having rice for dinner and i happen to know how to play the piano AND the violin. do any of those above mentioned things make me more or less chinese? apparently it does depending on who is talking to me.

barack obama went to an ivy league law school, is in fact biracial, well spoken, highly intelligent, and doesn’t live in the projects. for some, those factors automatically make him less black (and implicitly, more white?). less black than who exactly? someone who is poorly educated, had two black parents, spoke in ebonics, unintelligent, and does live in the projects?  i would like to question those who have a need to question how authentic a black man barack obama is. identifying with your race, as much as it is an in-your-face-obvious-for-anyone-to-see should not be something that is challenged by anyone. excuse me, but it seems to me that someone is out there claiming that they are blacker than obama by saying he is not black enough. so what are the qualifying factors?

how much further do we want to push stereotypes? and who gets to decide?

i think what president elect obama proved by winning this presidential election, among many other great things of course, is that race (we won’t even get into gender) actually isn’t the sole identifying factor for a person’s, well, identity. in my perfect world, i would not be labeled as automatically chinese the minute someone meets me. and what i do, where i live, what i’m good at or bad at, shouldn’t be racial identifiers. perhaps the same could be said for him. the true substance of who i am, what i stand for, and what i believe can and will shine through by the multitude of other attributes that i show to outside world.

at the end of the day, we who truly know who we are, simply do. no one else can challenge that. no one else can dare take that away from us.

change, and aging

November 10, 2008 in 1/4 getting there, 1/4 group therapy, 1/4 response to stimuli | by theshrew | 4 comments

This is probably one of the best things to happen to our country in a quarter-century-er’s lifetime.  That made me start thinking about our age group, and what this election says about our politics and our lives.  I think it’s telling that only the oldest demographic went for McCain…although it worries me that as we age we’ll become fuddy-duddies and fiscal conservatives (fiscal conservatives…like Sarah Palin! : P) and anti-abortionists etc etc as well.  Just how much of that GOP-leaning political view is a generational thing?  I know we chalk a lot of it up to the common experience of a particular war or cultural direction, but is it perhaps destined to be part of the common experience of aging?  Will I, some day, become a born-again Christian who is scared of people from other countries and wants to build a wall on our southern border and votes for obvious hypocrites because they look like me?  That thought scares me to death.

How does one avoid becoming what one used to hate?  Looking back on life, I know that I was once things I now detest (i.e. middle-schoolers!); how can I ensure that the opposite doesn’t happen?  I was watching a MASH rerun last night in which Major Houlihan had a close friend point out to her that she had become one of the dried-up humorless old nurses they used to make fun of.  I don’t want that to be me!  And yet I’m not sure how to keep it from happening.

Any ideas?  And in the meantime, I’ll be happy with the Change we have!

it’s (pretty much) official

November 4, 2008 in 1/4 response to stimuli | by cindy | 1 comment

barack obama will be our 44th president!!!

it really has been a long road here, but the thing is… it didn’t and never felt that way to me. it’s been exciting and fun and passionate every step of the way.

election 2008 will go down in history. i am honored to have been a part of it, following the campaigns and then voting. now i hope for a woman president to be elected as president in my lifetime, a woman that respects and champions all the rights and choices of women.

now it’s time to turn my attention to local politics- we also have a lot at stake going on in washington state.

meanwhile… hurrah for president elect obama and vice president elect joe biden! you know? both the presidents that have followed the bush presidencies have been pretty awesome people.

november 4, 2008!

November 4, 2008 in 1/4 getting there | Tags: , , , , | by cindy | 1 comment

hi everyone!

today is election day!! not only are we voting for a brand spanking new president of the united states, we’re also voting for a lot of other things in the state ballots such as proposition 1000 and governor (washington). i hope everyone managed to get their ballots in whether by absentee or a good old fashioned visit to the voting booth.

i’m feeling really excited today because i tend to be on election days. how can you not be? everyone’s casting a ballot to express their opinions, the tv/radio is full of interesting goings on and you watch states turn blue or red throughout the day, polls are going crazy, all the news people are scurrying to analyze faster, better, more. as a quarter century-er, i bet we all remember election 2000 very distinctly. i was 19 at the time (yes, i’m old) and it was the very first presidential election i participated in. i stayed up long into that night, getting angrier and angrier as we watched the electoral votes turn from gore’s camp over to bush’s thanks to the greatest voting debacle this country has ever experienced. election 2004, even fresher in my mind, felt very much the same except we shifted from florida to ohio for dubious and questionable voting results though it wasnt quite as close as 2000.

or am i just feeling a bit too passionate about all this right now? the only good thing that came out of election 2000 and 2004, if you want to be positive today, is the call and action for voting reform. i’m hoping that today we will see the positive results of that. and no huge controversies will erupt that will have me up late into yet another night, fuming and cursing at the television.

please vote today if you haven’t already done so. and please share your experiences, feelings, and any other antecdotes from today or election 2000 or 2004. i am definitely looking forward to hearing from you.

and definitely looking forward to president barack obama taking over (fair and square) the helm at the white house.

worried?

November 4, 2008 in 1/4 getting there, 1/4 group therapy, 1/4 response to stimuli | by theshrew | 2 comments

you’re not alone.  if you have concerns about what might happen today, tomorrow, or in the Supreme Court a month from now (ala 2000), here are a couple things to do:

first, go to stealbackyourvote.org and print the handy-dandy pamphlet on how to keep your vote.

second, go to videothevote.org and learn what you can do to help document results today, at your local polling place.

and then, go out there and vote with pride, knowing that whatever our problems are, at least no one broke into your house last night and roughed you up and told you if you didn’t vote for a certain candidate (probably mccain) you’d never see your kids again…I hope.

and so it begins…

November 3, 2008 in 1/4 response to stimuli | Tags: , , , | by Erin | 4 comments

Ok, so I’m writing this on Nov. 3rd, the day before the big day.  I’m sick of the commercials and all the election talk, I just want to know who is going to be our next president.  But I don’t think it will end with a tally of votes or the electoral college.  In this last week more than hearing “I’m so-and-so, and I approved this message,” I’ve heard so much controversy over the actual voting.  Voting machines not being calibrated correctly or incorrectly recording votes, absentee voters not getting their ballots.  Which means I don’t think we will have a smooth post vote count.  I think both sides will have some issue with the machines or the processes invovled.  I don’t know how others feel, but I see this as an extremely pivotal election and I really worry about the direction our country.  As I said in a previous post, I tend to want to bury my head in the sand, and usually I’m pretty good at it, but it’s been pretty difficult when signs, commericals, commetaries, articles are EVERYWHERE - I definitely can’t hide.

No matter what the polls say, this whole thing is far from over.

the wishy washy-ness continues

October 29, 2008 in 1/4 group therapy, 1/4 rants and whines | by cindy | 4 comments

five years out of undergrad and the prospect of grad school excites very little in me. there’s the romantic notion of being at an institute of higher learning- you know, flowing black robes, ivy covered brick walls, musty grand libraries, but that is a very unrealistic view of what grad school is actually about or like, for that matter. i think i’ve been studying for the GREs for close to a year now if not longer. do i have a test date yet? nope. my friends and family have probably given up somewhat on asking me how that aspect of my life is going. my start-stop-start-stop approach makes it difficult to take me very seriously.

in fact, i don’t think i’m taking myself very seriously either. that in and of itself seems pretty clear, clearer than anything else in my life.

i continue to be my own worse critic, chastising myself time and time again for lacking the focus, ambition, determination and all those key words that self-made billionaires or important successful people of the world like to use in their memoirs.

at this moment in our country and world, when the economy is in disarray, i am feeling lucky to still be employed and bringing home a paycheck. previous notions of unsatisfaction over my job has been replaced with a docile complacency over my current position. taking out massive loans and not having financial freedom which will invariably accompany my grad school experience just doesn’t strengthen the desire to go back to school. sometimes i have trouble distinguishing between my excuses and my practicalities.

i know i must draw outside myself, recognize that i may not be defined by what i do, but simply by who i am. there is pride to be taken from that, certainly.

p.s. for you writers and want-to-be writers out there, i have a pitch for you. november is national novel writing month, or more fondly, nanowrimo. it’s a challenge to write a novel of at least 50,000 words on whatever fiction you please during the month of november. i did it last year and made it. i’m rip, ready, and roaring to go for another round this year along with a few buddies. if you’re interested, get more info nd sign up here. you won’t regret it. whether you make it to 50,000 or not, the fact that you tackled the monumental task of writing a novel

the big 3

October 27, 2008 in 1/4 response to stimuli | by theshrew | 1 comment

It’s begun.  The big corporations simply cannot sit idly by and watch everyone else (insurance, home mortgages, banking) get handouts.  Now the “Big 3″ auto manufacturers have officially requested a piece of the pie.  They say it will be impossible to navigate the credit crisis without government-backed loans.

I say, let ‘em go broke.

If their market share is lower than it used to be, well, that’s because they banked on soccer moms buying SUVs, and forgot that when we war on oil-producing areas, the price of gas goes up!  They say if just one of “the 3″ goes under, it will affect not only their factories, but those of parts suppliers, costing millions of jobs from here to Asia.  I doubt it.  Those suppliers will change over to making parts for Honda, or Toyota, or another company that started making fuel-efficient vehicles years ago and is currently weathering the global economic havoc.

And the last thing anyone wants right now is another car.  While that’s partly true for the crunch (and I’m sure that auto repair facilities will see their sales skyrocket as we all try to squeeze another 1,000 miles out of the old beater!), I believe it’s also true for the long haul.  Eventually cars will become obsolete, and long before that they’ll become more fuel-efficient and longer lasting, leading to lower turnover.  This means the market is ripe for at least one (if not more) of the existing manufacturers to exit.

How does it make any economic sense for us to continue to keep companies in business when all we’re doing is prolonging something we have no need for?  I would say the same of the airlines - if the American populace does the belt-tightening we should have done a decade ago, we will be flying less, and some airlines should merge or go bankrupt.  Sounds callous I know, but it goes hand in hand with the overpopulation that we’re also going to have to face up to one of these days.  Less people on the planet, less jobs, no more “growth.”  
Growth is not the answer.  Recession is not the devil.  Let it begin with the car manufacturers.

Proposition 8, a guest post by Brinstar

October 23, 2008 in 1/4 getting there | Tags: , , , , | by qcpguestblogger | 2 comments

today we’re lucky to have a piece by yet another guest blogger, who is a regular reader and commenter going by the alias Brinstar. the issue that this post champions is one that i firmly and passionately believe in. as election season is overshadowed by the presidential race, it’s not only important but imperative to look at all the other issues going on that mean something to you and remember there are lots of matters on the state level at stake. so i want to thank Brinstar for bringing this one to our attention and thank her for writing this post. please vote NO on prop. 8 if you are a registered voter in the state of california as you cast your ballot and if you don’t vote in california, then i entreat you to make a donation to help defeat this unfair proposition. –cindy

This November, Californians have the opportunity to vote on Prop. 8, a measure that, if passed, will eliminate the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry.

In the United States, the struggle for equality has been one of expanding rights to marginalised groups who did not previously have them. White men were able to vote first. Later, black men had the right to vote. After another long period of time, women got the right to vote. Equality is never about taking rights away.

Last May, the California State Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to bar same-sex couple from marrying. The judiciary, which has the function of interpreting the law, ruled that it was discriminatory to deny certain people some rights, yet allow another set of people those same rights. Justice was served by giving people the same basic rights that they should have had in the first place.

Although same-sex couples in the State of California can enter into a Domestic Partnership and have access to the same rights as married people, using different language for a distinct group of people is discriminatory, which is why the California Supreme Court made the decision it did in May.

Why is language and terminology important? Because “separate but equal” is fundamentally not equal. It is discriminatory for two groups of people to have the same rights under law, but have their relationships referred to with different terminology. Those relationships being fundamentally the same, so the law should treat them the same. It also has far-reaching cultural ramifications. If we use different legal terminology for same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples, how will gay people ever be seen as equal by everyone in our society?

For example, when segregation was still in place in the United States, black people and white people had to use separate restrooms. They both had the right to use restrooms, but by forcing this separation, it continued to reinforce the racist cultural perception that black people and white people were fundamentally different types of human beings. This sort of separation allowed people in society to practice racial discrimination in daily life, and in some cases, under law.

Passing Proposition 8 would explicitly write discrimination against one group of people into the California State Constitution. If Californians allow discrimination under the law against one group of people, what’s to say that other groups may not also face the same threat? Allowing civil rights to be taken away from others threatens your own civil rights. If people allow civil rights to be eroded, it’s much more difficult to get them back.

If Proposition 8 passes, it will take rights away, it will break families apart, and it will prevent new families from forming.

Public opinion is now shifting in favour of Proposition 8 because its supporters have raised massive amounts of money on advertisements to spread their lies, bigotry, and homophobia throughout the state.

If you’re registered to vote in California, please vote “NO” on Proposition 8. Talk to your friends about it and let them know why voting “Yes” on Prop 8 is wrong. If you don’t live in California, please consider donating to a group that supports marriage equality.

subscribe to the QCP

 subscribe in a reader

subscribe via email

 

December 2008
M T W T F S S
« Nov    
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Recent Comments

a

Email

contact@ thequartercenturyproject.com

Blog Stats

  • 6,372 hits
Add to Technorati Favorites