Spring is here!

Hello again.

I just wanted to share with you my Sunflower plant. I got some free seeds from the flower farm and a free pot from the owner and now can grow sunflower seeds.

Good thing they're edible cause this being unemployed thing makes me hungry. And with my sunflower seeds maybe I can find sunflower recipes and post them on the recipe site.

In U.S. Navy news, I was supposed to leave for OCS this weekend, but I've been delayed until August. Hopefully the U.S. Census Bureau will hire me to be an enumerator and walk about ym neighborhood counting the citizens.

Nice job if you can get it: serving the country, getting some exercise, and making some extra income (or just income at all).

I hope to upload photos of the plant as it continues to grow.

Thanks for reading and best regards,

Alya

More List Making

I was recently asked what things I would spend excess income on if I had any, and I've come up with a few things:

1. A series of antique maps of East and Central Africa from the 1600-1800s.

2. Zoe Keating's CDs. All of them. Yesss quantum cello.

3. New clothes, because I have lost a lot of weight and now I'm wearing my sister's clothes and I want my own clothes, kthanks.

4. Stock in Apple. Because everyone should own stock in Apple.

I think that's it. Nothing outrageous. Nothing extravagant like a wii or a car or anything.

And now I just need to the income to pay my Sallie Mae and rent so I can have the aforementioned items. Still waiting to hear from the Navy. I don't know what is taking to long. Maybe they actually read the essays...

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Serious Post

This is a new serious post because I did not want the first thing people read when they come to my website to be about... well.. the next post's topic. SO, what could be more serious than the goals I set for myself? (Answer= the goals my employers set for me! yay I'm so funny and would make such a great employee!) ((wow I am such a loser!))

ANYWAY, in my spare time this month I now have three goals:

#1. Finish learning how to drive.

Even though I don't like it and inviting death into my life is a stupid plan... I would do this for a good job.

#2. Finish at least three of the books I have started.

I have started... *drumroll* 17 books. And I got bored of every last one of them, usually within the first 3 chapters. This is because I am intelligent and therefore hypothesize about where these books are going and don't read to the end! Also, because I then spent my time quilting or writing my own book instead, because I am creative.

#3. PAY SALLIE MAE

HAHA noooo that's not it. I'm not gonna pay her until someone pays ME.

#3. (the real one) Find a good time to sell my DRYS shares so I can have "liquid" money to pay Sallie Mae. Current value of those holdings is about $1800, SO ANYTIME NOW. :) Then when I have liquid money I can MOVE to some place where someone will hire me!

And that's all I have as far as lists go. Maybe I'll have more hopes and dreams in future months. OR you can all tell me YOUR hopes and dreams and this can be a fancy interactive blog again!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

A Bra? For ME!

This post has been removed because I'm tired of people commenting about it.

Penny Lane

I was watching the West Wing this morning while I was preparing for my PFT this afternoon, and they had the episode about abolishing the Penny. You know... THE PENNY. With the Lincoln and the copper and the pling pling in the piggy bank.

I love pennies. I REALLY DO. I'm not being facetious. Pennies make the economy of this country work. For example: You want to go get, say, a cheetah print Snuggie at Wal*Mart and you don't want to pay more than $20? Good thing it's only $19.99!! <3 the Penny.

In the U.S. we revere the penny. We have sayings about the penny, like "A Penny saved is a Penny earned." or "It's gonna cost you a pretty penny" or "Penny for your thoughts!" "that boy's a bad penny!" AND "those bad pennies always turn up when you don't want them to..."

So why abolish the Penny when it's so much a part of our Americana culture? WELL as the West Wing makes clear, the Penny is almost entirely out of circulation.

TERRY: The dollar has the buying power today that the quarter had 30 years ago. The penny's buying power shrunk to nothing.

SAM: Well, that's not true. You can get yourself a gumball.

TERRY: No, you can't. They cost a nickel.

Actually NOW they cost a quarter. This episode was made a few year ago and what with inflation and all... *sigh* to be in the gumball biz...

To tie this all back to Copenhagen and my apparent Theme of the Month "The Environment", it is also explained that mining the millions of tons of copper and zinc that go into making pennies is bad for the environment. 2/3rds of all pennies are out of circulation, they are in jars or couches or and not in "take a penny leave a penny" containers at the grocery store. That many pennies roaming free is also pretty bad for the environment since they are seen as garbage. How may times have you seen pennies on the street? What a sad fate for Lincoln, srsly.

Which brings me to my favorite quote of the episode:

Sam: The Mint gets letters with pennies taped to notebook paper. Letters
from citizens who found the pennies on the street and mailed them back to the Treasury to help pay down the debt.

I think this plan COULD and SHOULD be enacted on a grand scale! Here's the plan: Save your pennies and mail them back to the Treasury Dept. in those U.S. Postal boxes... you know, the "one price no matter what the weight is" boxes... all we need is... 9,000,000,000,000,000 pennies!

Alright, forget it. Abolish the penny. That dinky shiny coin is basically worthless.

And maybe in the grand scheme of things, this is a non-issue. The West Wing knows that, and makes fun of that fact within the episode:

LEO: What do you need?

SAM: No, if you're in the middle of something, I can come back.

ADAMLEY: We're eliminating genocide. What are you doing?

SAM: Eliminating the penny. So I'll come back.

But STILL, I kinda wish we could address the small things with as much vigor as we address the bigger issues.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

*photographer's note: that photo of pennies does include one dime, but that dime is so BUSTED it's probably only worth a penny.*