Stuff I’ve been saving up … Thomas Jefferson’s bible. I used to have a copy of that. Might still be in the bookcase of my ex-Significant Sweetie. Mmmmm. Pickled carrots. Another of my favorite things, but usually too expensive to buy at a store. Must try that recipe. A so-far neglected discussion thread started by Rarick over at The Mental Militia forums has some definitely odd links “for the bored prepper.” Or non prepper. Definitely for gearheads. This one is supposed to repel dogs. But I think at least one of mine would think it was a dandy playtoy. And…
Category: Practical Freedom
A broad category of things we can do, or things others are doing, to increase personal freedom
I’ve been working on a followup to last November’s blog “Defending Boundaries” (or, as I originally typoed it, “Definding Boundaries”). Will try to have that later in the week. But today I’ve accepted an invitation from a friend to go to the Big City. Not just the local Big City with the Wal-Mart (population 10,000 or so), but a real big city. Where I get to do something I’ve never done before — visit an Ikea store. Since I’ve always loved Scandinavian furniture, this could be dangerous — even aside from what friends assure me are the many other addictive…
… courtesy of a local Freecycler. And her horse, of course. Not to mention several hours of shoveling and hauling and borrowing of trucks. AND it came with an invitation to come back any time for more. The neglected soil next to my garage will appreciate that. The truck belongs to a cop from a nearby town and was acquired for this job by My Friend the Cop’s Mom, who shared in the bounty. On the way from my house to hers, a different cop pulled us over for — of all things — a faded license plate. First words…
So. Do you make New Years resolutions? Or are you among the vast, world-weary crowd that considers them useless at best and possibly even an act of self-defeating folly? (“If I write down my intention to lose 20 pounds, I’ll hate myself and maybe even commit seppuku the first time I give in to a Krispy Kreme!”) And if you do ponder and put pen (or electrons) to resolutions … what are the chances of you making progress toward keeping them? I don’t say, “What are the chances of you keeping them?” because I suspect it really is self-defeating folly…
Merry Post-Christmas! Happy Pre-New Year! I hope your holidays are being wonderful. Mine are — in large part thanks to you. So in the belated Christmas cheer department … Serious side: Teenager Jeremy Marks, one of the most cosmically abused victims of the “don’t you dare photograph police, you scrofulous peasants” scam, was bailed out by a good Samaritan in time to spend Christmas with his family. The generous Google engineer who got him out of jail also contributed some extra money toward a Merry Christmas. Silly side: Here’s the most ghastly Christmas special of all time. I doubt there’s…
Does anybody have any idea what to do with several hundred pounds of stove pellets that have lost their integrity? The people who sold me my house left about two dozen 40-pound bags of pellets — some stored marginally but still usable, some stored very badly. Like on muddy ground. In a leaky shed. With mice nibbling at the corners of the bags. While this stuff is still vaguely pellety and mostly not damp to the touch, it’s gunky enough to clog the auger. Don’t ask me how I know that, about clogging the auger. Don’t even mention that subject…
Just going through the motions. Even more moronic than we thought. (Tip o’ hat to Joel and Jim B.) But they sure do seem to enjoy their jobs. Man lets house go into foreclosure over $25 fee. Cutting off face to spite nose? Or method to his madness? Me, I think it’s clear he’s not doing it over the fee, but for the principle of the thing: because the bank did him wrong and now won’t even acknowledge him as a human being and a customer. Companion piece: Just when you thought you understood mortgage securitization. A few months ago,…
Via Wendy McElroy, quoting John Pugsley: 15 non-political strategies for increasing freedom. While there’s nothing new here for long-time freedomistas, there are some great reminders. And Pugsley puts ’em strongly.
Last week in the comments section, CS posted a good bit on community and the need for it in our uncertain future. He asked me for a response & I’ve been thinking on it. In fact, I think the subject is going to become the topic of a future article or articles. Meantime, I’ve touched on it in past blog posts and articles, including this one, which first appeared in the print edition of BHM. Just one additional observation at the moment. Obviously, community-building is hard for individualists (herding cats and all that). Well, really it’s hard for anybody. The…