Thanks for the Haircut!

It was time!
My ponytail is now on its way to being made into a wig for some kid, courtesy of my niece Taryn, who's now a professional haircutter (...or some fancier title...) and Locks of Love (or whatever similar charity she sends it to).
It took me less than two years to get my hair to the right length; I wrote about it last July. I enjoyed having a gradually changing appearance; it let me experiment with a variety of hair lengths and looks.
I think I'll keep my hair short for a few months, and then start growing another wig for charity. Why not? It's just about the easiest thing I've ever done!

10.2.10: One Nation Together Marches On Washington!

Join Us: One Nation Together!

"We are One Nation, born from many, determined to build a more united America – with jobs, justice and education for all.

We are young people, frustrated that society seems willing to spend more locking up our bodies than educating our minds, yet still we find ways to succeed and shine.

We are students and newly-returned veterans – persevering in the face of mounting debt – determined not to be the first generation to end up worse off than our parents.

We are baby boomers and seniors – who saw hope killed in 1968 and will not let the dream of a united America be taken from us again.

We are conservatives and moderates, progressives and liberals, non-believers and people of deep faith, united by escalating assaults on our reason, our environment, and our rights. 

We are workers of every age, faith, race, sex, nationality, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability – who have suffered discrimination but never stopped loving our neighbors, or our nation.

We are American Indians and Alaska Natives - citizens of Native nations – who maintain our cultures, protect our sovereignty, and strength America’s economy.

We are the new immigrants, raising our children in the torchlight of the Statue of Liberty, while confronting the shadows that are bigotry and mass deportations.

We are the native born.  We inherited the divided legacies of settlers and American Indians, black slaves and white and Asian indentured servants. And yet, in this moment of shared suffering, we rejoice in newfound friendships and new alliances.

We are people who got thrown out – thrown out of our jobs, schools, houses, farms and small businesses – while Wall Street's wrongdoers got bailed out. We are families who pray every day – for peace and prosperity; for deliverance from foreclosures; for good jobs to come back to urban and rural America.

We are unemployed workers – forced to watch hopes for bold action dashed – because some Senators threaten filibusters, and other would-be champions fold in fear.

And yet, we are the majority – fueled by hope, not hate. We have the pride, power and determination to keep ourselves – and our country – moving up and out of the valley greed created.

And most importantly – from ensuring women are treated fairly at work, to expanding health care coverage for millions– we have been victorious whenever we worked together. We have proven the only thing we need to succeed is each other.

And so, on 10-2-10, we come back together - to march!

WHY WE MARCH

We march for a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. We march for jobs, justice, and education. We march for an economy that works for all.  We march for a nation in which each person who wants to work can find a job that pays enough to support a family.

We march to create a million new jobs right away, because the national values that got us out of the Great Depression will get us out of the Great Recession.

We march to build a world-class public education system, from pre-school to community college and beyond - because our nation must start unleashing the greatness of every child today.

We march to end racial profiling and re-segregation– from Arizona to Atlanta. We march to defend the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.  We march to advance human rights, civil rights, equal protection, and dignity for all.

We march to fix the broken immigration system – because no child should live in fear that her parents will be deported.

We march to ensure every worker has a voice at work. We march for green jobs and safe workplaces, so no worker will have to choose between her livelihood and her life.

We march for a clean environment, so no child is ever forced to decide between drinking the water or breathing the air and staying healthy.

We march to move our nation beyond this moment when a handful of Senators can block urgently needed progress – skewing our national budget towards tax cuts for the wealthy, unjustified military spending and prisons.

We march to demand full equality for all women in all communities, indulging an end to wage discrimination.

We march for peace abroad and job creation at home. We march for energy independence, public safety, and public transportation because the nation we want to build most is our own.

We march to demand full equality for all women in all communities, indulging an end to wage discrimination.

And on 11-2-10, we will march again – into the voting booths. We will bring our families, our friends, and our neighbors. And once the ballots are counted, we will keep organizing, we will hold our leaders accountable, and we will keep making our dream real.

This movement will grow.  It will put America back to work, pull America back together, and keep us moving ever forward. 

Join us. We are One Nation Working Together: For Jobs, For Justice, For Education, For All."

MORE:
http://www.onenationworkingtogether.org

Free PDF Books

Another scrapnote for sources:
Places for getting free PDF books, chiefly works that have gone out of copyright. I started looking for these as I'd gotten my mom a Barnes & Noble "Nook".  It's a nice gadget and we'll buy some contemporary works, but can afford to get free where possible.

• Planet PDF: http://www.planetpdf.com/free_pdf_ebooks.asp. This one seems to work.
• http://www.ebooknetworking.com/. Requires registration and "purchase" of free books, but also seems to work and includes some more recent works
• I'm working through this article, http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books-part-ii/; many of the links don't seem useful

Of course, there's a lot of technical works and studies in PDFs all over the net; I'm looking mostly for entertainment, not work.

Tomato Seconds from Farmers' Market are First Class!

This Sunday we got a box of "Seconds" from a tomato farmer at the West Seattle Farmers' Market. What a deal!

First, these are "heirloom" tomatoes. That means they aren't bred to look pretty to survive being shipped 5,000 miles; they are tasty and nutritious. You just have to accept that they may have a funny shape or be easily bruised. That's a trade-off that makes sense!

Second, the "Seconds" are the ones that are too funny-shaped or otherwise odd every for heirloom buyers. By getting a whole box of them, we got them at about half price as compared to store-bought tomatoes!

Now, we have to process them quickly because a real tomato rots in the field, releasing its seeds to make the next crop. A few we gobbled in salad or with cheese. Some went into the pot right away, to be cooked down, then frozen for mid-winter dinners. The last batch we're experimenting with roasting in the oven. It turns out it is VERY EASY to split them, set on a cookie sheet, then slow-roast in the oven until they reduce into red tasty goodness, much like the "sun-dried tomatoes" that are many dollars a pound.

Who knew that health and saving money could go together so easily?

"Dude, You HAVE No Koran" Remix !!!

Background: Last week, some loser trying to burn a Koran in a public park was foiled by skateboarder Jacob Isom, who grabbed it and said, "Dude, you HAVE no Koran!"

This was a brief news item, but thanks to autotune, you can now dance to it. Once again, love and music beats hate and stupidity:

Let 911 be a day of healing, not hating.

There's not much more to this than the title.

You can choose to hate.

You can choose to heal.

Isn't it great to know YOU have the POWER: it's all up to you!

"Make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness, light,

Where there is sadness, joy."

Love: Rain Over Me

Rather than meet hate with hate, let us "Pray for Torrential Rain in Gainesville, Florida 9/11/10". I saw this idea on a creative and delightful Facebook page: "A group of souls of all persuasions praying for torrential rain to fall on the grounds of the lunatic Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday, September 11th, 2010, and that it may extinguish the sparks of ignorance and quench the flames of hatred. All are free to post prayers and devotional art!"

It's easy to be angry. I do it all the time. Something about the internet brings the opportunity for rage right to my desk, my phone, my face.

Maybe it's like being an alcoholic. Every day, you have to get up and say, "One Day At A Time. Today, I won't hate. I'll put it off until tomorrow."


Of course, music helps ...

Trucking in the Garden

The satisfaction you can get from raising some of your own food on your bit of earth is a little like sex. You really can't describe it in words; you can only urge people to find their own way to experience it.

You cannot measure its value in commercial terms. Often the preliminaries involve a little shopping, a little cash outlay, and a great deal of time spent finding the right location, experimenting with different approaches, facing rejection.

But the payoff: ah! The process of getting there is spiritually rewarding, and as physically challenging as you wish to make it. Some are in a hurry, and even seek chemical aids for more of a rush, but I think it's better to take it slow and easy.

It is a subject worthy of endless study. In youth, you think you know it all, and that's o.k.  There's years of practice with which to hone your technique.

Pay no mind to the bland,uniform perfections pitched to you on television, the products of science and artiface; the real thing bears the blemishes of being real, the imperfections of the soil and is all the sweeter for having been moved by your hand alone.

It's best with a partner, but you can do it alone.

I'm talking about a growing a salad. What were you thinking of?

Why I Quit Chase For a Credit Union

A few months ago, I got a postcard from Chase Bank, offering me $100 to open an account with them.

I should know that nothing is for free, but this seemed like a good deal. I've been with credit unions for years (decades really) but perhaps it was time to give a bank a chance. Chase is really big, so it must be really efficient and therefore it would be cheaper for me, the customer. Right?

Wrong.

I went to their nearest branch to open an account. It took about 20 minutes, at the end of which I got an inch-thick pile of paper describing what I was signing for. A key point is that if I didn't use the account, they'd charge me money.

This is pretty remarkable. Most things, you get charged if you use them. But this bank account: I was going to get charge for not using? That's completely irrational, and not what I'd expected at all.

When I asked the clerk, he said he'd waive the fee for the first few months, until I got into using it. I should have walked away at that point, but I had put in the time so I signed on the line.

Mistake! The time you've put into a transaction is gone forever. It is no reason to continue a bad transaction.

Time goes by. I don't use the account. They ding me for not using it. I realise that I have a choice: drop the credit union, which works fine as is and use Chase a lot more, or drop Chase, suffering whatever financial consequences ensue. It's not really much of a choice; the credit unions have never screwed me.

Today I went to Chase to close the account. The nice clerk says, "You know there's a $25 fee for closing an account early, right?"

I should have said, "No, I don't know that. Is it in that inch of paper?" but I just wanted to get it done. I didn't think they were going to concede anything. Maybe I should have negotiated or made a stink, but I had every confidence that they had every term spelt out in black-and-white, somewhere in the pile of paper.

The bastards dinged me $25 twice: once for checking, once for savings. I guess they count those as separate account for purposes of taking money from their customers.


Lessons

1. Never use a bank. They exist to take your money. 
2. Always use a credit union. They are owned by the depositors (which means you) so they don't rip you off. You can find one near you at http://moveyourmoney.info/
3. No matter how smart you are or think you are, bankers are professionals and very, very good at what they do. They are better at it than you are, and you're a fool if you think otherwise. (You may have noticed that I just called myself a fool. Well, who knows better ;-)
4. Always, always walk away from a transaction if someone springs something on you at the last minute, like the revelation they'll charge you if you don't use your account. If you are not ready to walk away, they have you.
5. Write down your lessons. I should have learned all this stuff decades ago, but I forgot.