Here and here are a couple of sites that reflect some of my own thought of late.  We don't take any of the premium channels on cable (HBO, Showtime, etc) because we have found so very little of interest to justify the extra cost.  We haven't been to the movies since 'Return of the King' came out, partly from lack of interest and partly from cost.  The pleasure derived is simply not equal to the cost.  We don't go out to eat very much any more for the same reasons.  I think we actually eat better at home.  When we do eat out we usually bring half of it home because the portions are so large.  I also prefer a good book (i.e., a good read) to much of the visual entertainment on tv generally.  We generally divide that into three categories: seen it and liked it enough to buy the dvd; saw it once and it isn't worth a second viewing (if we even got through the first); and don't want to see it even once.  At one time I could not go into a fabric, craft, or book store without coming out with something new.   Now, more often than not I leave empty handed.  I recently bought a couple of books and wished, after reading them, I had not.  Though enjoyable they were not keepers.  I could have done without them. I buy only what I need to finish craft projects but most comes from my stash.  

Has anyone else had a sense of deja vu with the media reports coming out of Iraq?  How often have we heard this administration announce a new turning point in this disaster?  It reminds me of the old saying that there are 'lies, damned lies, and statistics;' or as my Dad used to say 'Figures don't lie, but liars do figure.'  We have been told that the surge is working but no one points out that al Sadr has maintained a cease fire during this surge.  Tom Englehardt points out that the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr city seems to be quieting down but then we have fired some 200+ missiles into the area.  Given the experts we have heard over the last six years and how wrong they have been, I find it amazing that anyone believes any of them on anything.

I found this interesting little story by way of Newsfire from the BBC.  Every now and then I have thought about getting a little manual typewriter.  The urge gets a bit stronger whenever we have a brown- or black-out which makes my computer useless.  I feel a kinship with the woman who said that all she wants her machine to do is type.  I say something similar when I see the ads for the new smart phones.  I don't really want a phone that does much more than transmit my voice to whomever I want to speak and their voice back to me.  We don't think very often about the technology we are urged to buy.  Sometimes it is all to easy to be seduced into thinking about the problems it will supposedly solve and not about the problems it might cause or whether it fits well into our lives.  Over the years I have bought three different PDAs only to have them all end up in a drawer somewhere.  I found it faster and easier to use pen and paper than using the PDAs.  I also didn't have to worry about losing the information if batteries died or the machine otherwise malfunctioned.  A blogger I frequently read (but which one I can't remember at the moment) recently wrote that she had experienced a 'catastrophic' computer crash which had a paradoxical effect.  After the first panic and exasperation at what she had lost, she discovered a sense of freedom in that she had also lost a lot of 'junk' she didn't really need.  How much 'junk' do we keep on our computers simply because it is there?  Of course, I also have to remind myself of all the paper 'junk' that I had typed, printed, copied or otherwise accumulated during a long stint in academia.

I found this article after I had posted my last bit, from the International Herald Tribune, which says 'voluntary simplicity' has reemerged.  Several other papers have also carried the article. Evidently a new generation is finding the truth behind the saying that 'what you own owns you.'  A couple of years ago I saw numerous sites on line dealing with this topic.  Maybe the time has come again.  Today I found this by way of Lattes and Life which got me to thinking about the following question: what do we really mean by 'frugal?'  Do we mean that we don't spend a lot of money?  Or do we question ourselves about what we spend our money on; whether we really need it, or if we get good value for our money?  When I worked in a party goods store I saw customers come in and grab lots of stuff with no idea of how much the items cost or how much they needed.  Often they came back trying to return the excess.  A little frugal thought would have saved them time and gas.  Some years ago I learned the hard way that Wal-Mart was not the place to buy fabric.  It did cost half what the cloth at a JoAnn's or the local quilt shop cost; but it was less than a quarter the quality.  Since I want the quilts I make to last, the frugal choice is not Wal-Mart.  Surely frugality isn't simply another money bottom line thing.

I have spent most of my adult life in the academic world (college/university) and over the last decade or so have become increasingly unhappy with it.  Twenty years ago I thought I would pursue a PhD in history and teach college or university classes.  I love research, writing and, at the time, teaching.  This article from Atlantic Monthly by way of Eric Alterman and his Altercation blog reflects so much of my experience and thinking on the subject of higher education.  Over the years I have had similar experiences with students who are either ill prepared for advanced study or have no interest beyond checking off another requirement in their march toward that so necessary degree.  At the same time I have looked at the listing of job ads and their requirements and wondered just what the degree really had to do with the job advertised.  I have seen relatives who are very well qualified by their work experience or who are exceptionally well certified in their fields forced to pursue degrees in order to keep or advance in their fields.  Those degrees did not help them do their work better.  It has merely drained their finances.  A college degree has become a part of the so-called American Dream along with the house in the suburbs, the spouse, the dog, the 2.1 (or however many) children.  We don't really question it and we should.  

The Caffeinated Librarian notes on one of her bullet points today (5/20, in case I don't get this posted today) that she is fed up with plastic bags.  I know how she feels because Mom and I have been talking for sometime about using the large stack of canvas bags I have acquired over the last three decades.  I started acquiring the bags when I was in Colorado and there was a big push along the front range to stop using paper and plastic bags.  My ex-husband and I used them for the very brief time we shopped at Aldis markets in Missouri because the Aldis charged for new bags.  He loved the low prices and I hated the quality.  In the end I did the shopping so I won and we got our groceries from other stores and I occasionally remembered to take in the canvas bags.  Here in our part of Indiana we get a lot of the Chicago news.  Evidently there is a move there to outlaw plastic bags.  It hasn't passed yet but the chances are good and often what goes in Chicago comes around to us.  We are becoming more environmentally conscious and will make the switch when we have to.  Why not sooner?  Well, we use the plastic grocery bags to line our small trash cans in the bathrooms and  we have three cats whose box MUST be sifted out every day.  We say our cats are full of s**t and what we get out of the box proves it.  Because we reuse the grocery bags we haven't had to buy new plastic trash bags which we think is a good thing overall.

I remember a similar situation to this one about twenty years ago.  It involved cuts in bus service. This time it is the airlines.  I saw numerous news stories on both the national and local news casts featuring small town residents without cars who depended on the bus service and were facing near total isolation.  Some could not even shop for groceries because the bus was their only means of transportation.  Just out of curiosity I wondered about what kind of bus service my town has now and found that it has none.  We cannot go to any of the surrounding towns or to major cities by ground transportation unless we have a car.  Surprisingly our small county airport lists flights to a wide variety of destinations.  We may be luckier than the towns mentioned in the article.