Life Skills 101 part 2
Yesterday you saw a discourse on sewing. Can save you upwards of $20 per garment and is only “not worth it” if you let the body corporate tell you that you should follow fashion.
Today, I cover cooking.
Cooking is an essential life skill and will save shittons of money if you’re used to eating out of the drive-through.
Yes, I know some places charge more for fresh produce. I have two words for that: Farmer’s Market. Or three more words: Grow Your Own. The latter is lesson 3.
There are three basics to cooking: Boil, Bake, or Fry.
You boil it in water, you bake it in the oven, or you fry it. Simple. Everything else is just fancy dressing of those three.
Poaching? Lower-heated version of ‘boil’.
Sautee? Frying in butter, usually. Mostly with onions.
Roast? You put it in the oven, you bake it.
Reserve the fancy stuff for when you can handle it. Likewise, the kitchen gadgets. What you need is some form of oven, some form of cooktop or hotplate, a big pot, a medium-sized pot and a little pot, and a frying pan. For stirring, you can use kitchen utensils, but sooner or later, you *WILL* need a spatula and a ladle. Big spoons are optional.
There are recipes absolutely fucking everywhere.
Most of them will contain an ingredient or two you disagree with. Or that disagrees with you. Or that you just plain can’t afford. That’s okay. You can leave them out. Or pick another recipe.
After a while, you get a sort of feel for cooking. Especially when you eat the results of your experiments. You may not produce cordon bleu, but you’ll make something that is all the more satisfying for being homemade.
Cooking can be a bonding experience, between parent and child, between couples, between families. Sharing meals where the secret ingredient is care can be amazing.
Try some. It’s delicious.
Independence from Corporations: Life Skills 101
It occurred to me that I know a lot more about coping without corporate-made items than a lot of the folks who don’t know how to protest the corporations.
I know you. You feel like you’re stuck. You’re scared of losing your job/home/car/significant other/whatever if you stand up with the shouting throng. I know a few people in the media got fired for siding with OWS… they won’t be the last.
There are things you can do, as well as sending shingles back to the banks with their crappy credit card offers (High praise to that man, I love you!).
Learn how to sew.
You do not need a machine. Needles and threads are freely available, and not just in branded hobby shops. You can find adequate sewing kits practically anywhere, even in a dollar shop or 99cent store. The thread they supply may be crap, and the scissors are guaranteed to suck, but you get some needles. You can’t skimp with them.
Yes, it takes some trial and error. Practice on some old clothing you were planning on throwing out. Look up instructions online. Practice sewing on buttons. Stitching up hems and, yes, patching up tears.
Every shirt bought at a big box mart - especially the fancier kind - costs upwards of $20. Twenty cents gets to the kid in the sweatshop in Eastern Craplackistan(Note: This is not an actual country. It is a made-up country name to prevent lawsuit-happy corporations from landing on me with a legal ton of bricks) where it’s actually made. The rest of the money goes to advertising and executive pay.
Every cheap-arse sewing kit I’ve ever seen sells for less than a dollar. A good packet of needles, spool of thread and a pair of scissors can cost up to $15, depending on where you shop. Even then, you’re still $5 ahead. More so with every clothing repair you do.
Smarter folks than I may note that fabric and sewing patterns cost less than some shirts you can make. If you’re very good at it, then I would advise saving up for a sewing machine. Do not buy one and expect it to make you a clothing genius.
Yes, your first few garments will be swimming in fail. Nobody has ever just looked at the instructions and produced haute couture overnight.
Yes, your first efforts will be frustrating and take up some otherwise free time. Sew during the advertising they run during your favourite shows. It’s not like you were planning on buying any of that stuff, anyway.
Yes, most of the patterns available for cheap are from a few years ago. Pretend you’re a hipster or otherwise setting a trend.
If anyone snarks at you, say, “At least I’m keeping my money in this country, instead of sending it overseas.”
At least you will have clothing that fits, that suits you, and is made from material you like. And, as an extra bonus, doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars per wardrobe-refreshening.
And you’re not paying for anyone’s executive bonus for building the most polluting sweatshops in countries that really can’t afford it.
An App We All Need
I honestly don’t know how feasible this is, but it’s an app I know I need. And all the folks who quietly support the Occupy movement need.
I’m tentatively calling it “How Evil Is That?”.
It’s a smart app, able to recognise products and logos from a photograph or an image it takes, much like a code-square scanner. Once it recognises the product [or logo] it searches a database or databases of crowd-sourced information on the following: What company actually owns the company that made it, How much evil has it done in the last 6 months(carbon footprint, acres polluted, thousands laid off, sweatshops built, senators paid off, etc.), Has it done anything to ameliorate that in the same time, How much % pay raise did the corporate execs get in the same time, and How much actual tax have they paid ($taxed minus $refunds).
The resultant figures come back in an easy-to-read graphic so the consumer can choose how much corporate evil they’re willing to pay for.
Would be interesting to make it, if only to see how fast that sucker gets banned :)
If Corporations Are People, Why Don’t They Pay Tax?
Or get stood on when they disregard the law?
Just a thought.
Dear 53%
I understand your right to stand up for what you believe in. I’m all for it.
However, I believe you are labouring under some false ideas masquerading as good intentions.
If you believe that an individual has the right to freedom of speech…
If you believe that an individual has the right to peacefully assemble when they believe things are going wrong…
If you believe that an individual has the right to find work where they want to work…
If you don’t want your hard-earned employment/money/hope to be shipped overseas to the lowest bidder…
If you want the education for your children to mean something and be worth something in the future…
If you want your savings to support you in your old age…
If you think the police should not open fire or gas unarmed civilians…
If even one of the above statements is true…
Then you are part of the 99%
Your taxes are currently funding corporate fat cats so they can bribe congressmen to enact laws that steal your property, that encourage your employer to put your job overseas, that rob you of your investments, that cancel your plans or dreams for a better tomorrow.
Stop objecting to the Occupy movement and realise that we are also fighting for you.
Join us, and otherwise commingle.
Stay Peaceful, OWS
Honestly, it is in your best interests. I’ve read people saying that it’s time to take up arms like the Tea Party, etc.
No.
Just plain no.
The best way to outline the violence is to remain peaceful. Carry nothing more harmful than a placard. Beat nothing but drums or your own chest. Throw nothing but invective.
Let the people see that you are unarmed. That you are not harming anyone.
Be prepared for the idea that yes, this is going to hurt. Yes, they will hit you. Yes, they will strike you down.
The point is that yes, you can stand up again.
And again. And again.
And if you can’t stand up, like that poor soul who was illegally shot in the head with a “less than lethal” round (One inch in the wrong direction and he would be a fatality), then more people will stand up for you.
Do not, I beg you, get violent.
Violence only justifies the actions of fascists.
Stand when they attempt to put you down. Speak when they attempt to silence you. Take the money they crave and put it into things that will support you and not the corporate hegemony. This is how to hurt them.
They can only try to arrest all of you.
That can only mean that more will come to stand with others who feel the same way.
OccupyNashville has been given 24hrs to disband or be evicted by the Police. Let the following people know that you support the occupation. We are the 99%!
Mayor of Nashville (Karl Dean) (615) 862-6000 mayor@nashville.gov
TN Govenor (Bill Haslam) 615-741-2001 bill.haslam@tn.gov
Chief of Police (Steve Anderson) 615-862-7301 chief@police.nashville.org
Director of Metro Council (John Cooper) 615-862-6780
Reblog to help out these guys. Awareness is needed.
(Source: yallhio)
On Oakland
So, last night I found out fascism was alive and well and living in the Oakland PD.
As a concerned cogniscent being, I went searching for news. Livestreams, anything that was happening that wasn’t being blocked, DOS'ed, or removed.
My 10YO son came shoulder-surfing and asked what was going on.
I had to explain what was happening in America right that moment. I showed him swarms of police decked out in riot gear for a couple of guys singing and playing guitar and a bunch of unarmed folks standing around with signs. It was the only live footage I could find (it was of OccupySF) at the time.
I showed him the injuries of people who had been shot by rubber bullets.
I showed him the recorded footage of the flashbangs going off in the clouds of teargas in Oakland.
I showed him the proof that the Oakland PD had also been firing beanbag rounds. Those suckers are not as harmless as the word “beanbag” would lead you to believe.
Until that night, America had been a fantastic place for him. A place that had all the cool toys and all the advantages. He dreamed of being able to go there one day.
So thanks a bunch, Oakland PD. You’ve shattered the hopes and dreams of a little boy, while at the same time treading on the face of liberty and justice for all.
I also explained that there were good cops - obviously not in Oakland - who heard the criminal orders to open fire on unarmed, peaceful civilians exercising their rights to freedom of speech and public assembly… and told those giving the orders to screw off. In no uncertain terms.
He was stunned that a land allegedly based on freedom could do this to its people.
And he’s probably going to tell his friends and teachers about this.
Nobody can silence the Occupy movement. Nobody can pretend it isn’t happening the way it is happening.
Anyone who attempts to mock it is only mocking themselves.
Occupy is everywhere. It has gone viral.
The revolution has not been televised. It has been blogged and reblogged, tweeted and retweeted. It is passed from hand to hand and mouth to mouth and it is resuscitating the spirit of social justice in us all.
It is too late to stop it.
Something must break. The broken system must change.
Wake up and join us.