Living ~400lbs

… and believe me I am still alive

Money

  • Buy Nothing Day

    I am not a huge fan of Buy Nothing Day.  Not because I feel it’s important to shop today.  But because the campaign presupposes that everyone in the US who doesn’t subscribe to the “Buy Nothing Day” ideal WILL be buying things on Friday. Um…no. Some of us don’t have Friday off work. Some of… Continue reading

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  • Crowdfunding

    Crowdfunding can  help others improve their lives, like: Marissa Alexander defense fundraiser Contributing to help Michelle from The Fat Nutritionist become Registered Dietitian. It also creates neat things – some I’ve contributed to have created things like recording “Release The Cello” or (….and pretty much The Doublclicks’ next year.…) Another interesting campaign right now is Fattitude: A Body Positive… Continue reading

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  • I Read This And It Changed My Life

    Readers like to talk about books they’ve read.  And one thing you’ll hear about sometimes is “this book changed my life.”   Maybe it was a book that made you feel less alone, or changed how you see the world, or inspired you. But sometimes they’re more mundane than that. Dealing with my father’s finances reinforced… Continue reading

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  • Necessary, but not sufficient

    Money is not sufficient for happiness. Money is necessary to avoid certain forms of unhappiness. It’s really not that complicated. It only appears complicated to those who: A) have enough money; and B) don’t have enough happiness. The word they don’t understand there is “enough.” This is not entirely their fault, because much of our… Continue reading

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  • US: Where Your Taxes Go

    It’s tax season in the US.  It feels like it’s always tax season, since we’re always debating taxes, but now’s when we’re actually doing our own personal returns. Last year the White House put up a calculator to show the breakdown of where taxes go in the system.  It’s still up, even if it’s a… Continue reading

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  • Kickstarter, Storytelling, and A Kitten

    People are talking about Kickstarter a lot.  Indie musician Marian Call, who organizes some of the most organized shows I’ve helped with,  organized a very successful Kickstarter for her first-ever tour of Europe.  And did the tour, and has released the live album that the Kickstarter promised.  Oh…and blogged about it. A lot of it comes… Continue reading

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  • International Women’s Day

    Happy International Women’s Day.  You might want to check out the free album Talis Kimberley created for International Women’s Day: On Thursday I saw someone tweet that she’d like to celebrate International Women’s Day but she’ll be busy with “precarious part-time work”, housework, and child care. This started me thinking.  International Women’s Day isn’t all that big… Continue reading

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  • Quotes: Rich

    “The rich are always advising the poor, but the poor seldom return the compliment.” —Lord Chesterfield “The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.” —Gilbert K. Chesterton “When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?’” —Don Marquis… Continue reading

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  • Wealth Inequality

    You may have seen this chart on the actual, perceived, and ideal distributions of wealth in the US. Wealth inequality refers to this unequal distribution of financial assets among US residents.  It’s related to income inequality, but refers to what you keep as opposed to what you get.  Income inequality has also been increasing in the US.  If… Continue reading

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  • Series of quotes: Poor

    “Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.” – Herman Melville “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and… Continue reading

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  • Things to Read

    The first thing that makes me wonder about the supposed “skill gap” is that, when pressed for more evidence, roughly 10% of employers admit that the problem is really that the candidates they want won’t accept the positions at the wage level being offered. That’s not a skill shortage, it’s simply being unwilling to pay… Continue reading

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  • Five Things Makes a Post

    New job! I have a new job.  The place I was temping hired me in late December.  I’m not doing exactly the same job, which is both “new and scary” and “cool and interesting”.   It’s also been interesting to note that the things I was looking forward to ending with the contract (the commute,… Continue reading

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  • Thankful Thursday

    I think it’s time to do this again.  See, my job was eliminated.  Not fun, but I’m at the stage now where I’m thankful it happened, because: 1) Much less stress.  The old job was changing and had become a bad fit, and now it’s OVER. 2) I qualify for unemployment. 3) …also, we have… Continue reading

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  • Working Wardrobes

    During a phone interview today I ended up saying “No, this wouldn’t work” because their corporate dress code is Business Professional, defined as suits or suit-like combinations; ties for men; no athletic shoes allowed.   Refusing to dress up every day for work isn’t all that uncommon a stance for a software person to take… Continue reading

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  • Poverty’s Link to Diabetes

    [C]onventional wisdom about Type 2 diabetes would suggest that once obesity, lack of physical activity and other lifestyle risk factors were taken into account, diabetes incidence rates would even out between lower- and higher-income groups…. [A recent study found that] for men, being in the lowest-income category (earning less than $15,000 per year), doubles the… Continue reading

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  • As if the Biggest Loser wasn’t bad enough…

    Now VH1 is doing a version where you not only have to take off work during filming (if your employer allows it) and follow questionable weight-loss procedures but you also have to pay to $10,000 participate! Most people who have trouble losing weight suffer from a lack of motivation. Now twelve overweight teams enter a… Continue reading

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  • On Acceptance

    Fat acceptance is about accepting my body, even though it’s fat.  It doesn’t mean that everyone else is automatically OK with my body. I know a lot of people don’t accept my fat. Some of them are quite comfortable telling me that it’s not OK for me to be fat.   Sometimes that bothers me.  But… Continue reading

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About Me

Former software tester, now retired heart patient having fun and working on building endurance and strength. See also About page.

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