Where was this advice when we needed it?

Today would be a good day to be a wedding planner in China.  The BBC reports there is a wedding boom in China today because "4 January 2013" in Mandarin sounds similar to "I'll love you all my life."  

I think it might be advisable for anyone planning marriage to research which date sounds like "I'm gonna make your life a living hell!" and plan accordingly. 

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Heard on Duck Dynasty:  "It's OK to be creepy if you're old."

Finally.  I've waited my whole life for this!

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"Meggings".  Really?  Why?

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First our gubment outlawed further manufacture of old fashioned incandescent light bulbs, mandating compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) instead because they're more energy efficient. Now we learn that these CFL bulbs are dangerous, possibly causing skin cancer.  It seems they emit ultraviolet rays so strong they can burn skin and skin cells.

In every bulb scientists tested they found the protective coating around the light creating "phosphor" was cracked, allowing dangerous ultraviolet rays to escape.  They're advising us to stay at least two feet away from the bulbs when they're in use.  

Sheesh!  I go outside and I get skin cancer.  Now I stay inside and still get skin cancer.  I can't buy a break!

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I was sure that Speaker of the House John Boehner, aka "Boner" would not be re-elected to that post by the new House sworn in yesterday, but DOH!....he was, with just 5 votes to spare. This tepid support makes him pretty "toothless".  He's being likened to a cemetery superintendent....he has a lot of people under him, but no one is listening.  

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The December unemployment report is out and it showed 155,000 jobs were created last month.  Interestingly, the most active hiring sectors of the economy were in manufacturing and construction, two of the hardest hit by the recession.  Maybe the "Buy American" initiative is catching on.

It's Friday.  Out.  ;)

S

The glitch in my "Buy American" plan

I don't buy many things sight unseen.  I do buy a lot of things online, but I'll usually go to a store first, see / feel  the product, then go online to price-shop and buy.  (If it turns out my local retailer has a reasonably competative price, I'll just buy it there and be done with it.)  This is compounding the difficulty of my "Buy American" plan.  It doesn't do me much good to get a list of products made in America if I can't see / feel it at a retailer in my area.


Yesterday I went by REI Co-op, an outdoor products supplier.  I perused sleeping bags for K (I've had a good quality down one for years) and found that every single one they had was made in China.  Then I looked at vests they had on sale.  (I figured if everyone thought a vest was enough to keep them warm, maybe they knew something I didn't.  It just seems like half a coat to me.)  Again, none were made in America.  Their REI house brand, Patagonia, North Face, Marmot, Sierra Design....none made here.  A few were made in Vietnam, Bangladesh, or Indonesia, the rest from China.  The same with bicycles.  My one ray of hope was in kayaks.  I found one I like very much that was made in North Carolina.  It made my short list.  Actually it's a list of one.  It was a rather depressing trip.

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I have to work this afternoon and again next Sunday afternoon, but after that, the weekends are all mine.  Unfortunately, my weekdays will be all mine, too.  I haven't heard back yet from the doctor who I bid recently.  I do know they visited Friday with a banker I referred them to, so things are moving, just at a snails pace.  But after I get the current home I'm working on finished in a couple of weeks (photos forthcoming), and until I get a firm contract signed to start another, I'll be effectively unemployed.  It isn't as bad as it sounds as there will still be a nice income stream from the recently completed home.  Trouble is, I don't like to rock.  Or whittle.  :(

S

A different kind of "New Year's resolution"

I've never been big on making New Year's resolutions, mainly because mine never seemed to last past about February.  I think most people fall off their resolution wagon long before they meet their goal, so why bother?  Yet here we are starting a new year....again, and all over the blogosphere I see people proclaiming their resolutions for 2012. OK, I'll make one, too.


Well, actually, mine isn't so much a "resolution" but a pledge, as it isn't a black-and-white issue where you either win or fail.  *drum roll*  I pledge to do everything I reasonably can to buy products made in America, and to avoid as much as possible buying products made in China.  Understand, if you want an iPhone, it's going to be made in China.  If you want the latest, greatest child's toy, it's probably going be made in China.  You just can't escape it entirely, but I think in many instances we DO have a choice, and I'm gonna go out of my way to look for those products made in the USA, and I'm willing to pay a little more for them, too.


I think it's time we face the fact that saving a few bucks on a cheap imported product actually costs us more in the long run than we save.  Yes, as you walk out of the store you may feel like you saved $5 or $10 or whatever, but stop and think how many Americans are NOT working because their jobs were "outsourced" so the company could hire cheap foreign labor and make a little higher profit margin. (The stockholders demand it, they say.)  Whatever you saved is indirectly eaten up in welfare/unemployment benefits (your tax dollars).   At this rate, pretty soon we'll all be either cutting each other's hair or flipping burgers.  I say "enough"!


Anyone care to join me?


S