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Blast from the Past: Book Review – Red Sorghum by Mo Yan
As I mentioned yesterday, I have almost 3,000 posts still up online from various blogs. I thought it might be fun to share some of those. My very fist LiveJournal post was really just – hey look, I have an LJ now. But my second post (big surprise here) was a book review. Originally posted May 10, 2005 on LiveJournal. Edited May 17, 2016. Last time I was in need of a new book to read, I decided that instead of going through multiple boxes to find one of the science fiction/fantasy books I have not read yet, I would try one of the many books C and I still…
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My Writing History
Earlier today, on a facebook group dedicated to bloggers, we were asked to post our favorite thing we have ever written, whether it was relevant to the general theme of the group or not. I did not post a link. I posted a 50 word piece of micro-fiction I wrote back when I was hosting a micro-fiction contest. But here is the thing, that question made me realize how long I have been doing this, how much I have written. I started on LiveJournal 11 years ago, and my first blog around 6 years ago. Between LJ and the blogs I still have access to, that is almost 3,000 posts.…
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You Are NOT Paying 35% in Federal Taxes
On April 15, 2015, a guy named Mitch Wade posted a series of pictures on Facebook regarding taxes, and how much the government steals from the ordinary person. I did not see it in 2015, but it has made its way around my wall this tax season. And let me be honest, it is a TERRIBLE infographic. It just is. Mostly because it is misleading enough that it might as well be lies. I used to write a personal finance blog. Financial literacy is something that is incredibly important to me. I honestly believe that as a country, we would be in infinitely better shape if we got rid of…
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Reminder: Next Year, Skip Mothers’ Day
Mothers’ Day sucks at our house. This is something that simply is. Nothing can be done to fix it. In fact, attempts to fix it just make it worse. We knew to skip the first Mothers’ Day Pop Tart was with us. She had been placed with us on April 30. She came to us from a disrupted placement – meaning it was supposed to have been an adoptive home, but then things went sideways. She called the parents in that home “Dad” and “Mom”. So, we knew. When I sent a note to family and friends to tell them of the placement, I also specifically asked them NOT to…
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In Praise of the Routine
Two weeks ago, I woke up on Monday morning in a condo at the beach. I do not remember exactly what time, though it was not that late, as we got up in time to go swimming in the indoor pool and take a soak in the hot tub before making a few more s’mores over the gas grill, packing up, and heading out to the beach. A week ago, I woke up on Monday morning in a four star hotel, about an hour later than I usually do. I watched some TV as I took my time getting dressed and then went downstairs to partake of a free breakfast,…
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What the World Owes You
If you have seen this going around Facebook or other social media, you might reasonably have thought that the world owes you a legal pad and a pen, but nothing else. The problem is, when most people see a meme like this, they are thinking of a spoiled 22 year old who thinks he should be given an A for simply showing up to his college courses. But as a foster parent, I see the world differently. I do not see adults (spoiled or otherwise), I see children. And guess what, as a society, as the world, we do, in fact, owe our children many things. So here is my…
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Goodbye Miss Stella
This past Thursday morning, it finally happened. We had known it was imminent. For a while now, C and I had been talking days, but the days had gone into two weeks, and we had hoped, just a little bit. But we still knew. And so every morning, I still checked. This past Thursday morning, I found Stella, one of Pop Tart’s rats, dead in her cage. I had been checking every morning, for the last few weeks, before Pop Tart woke up, specifically for this purpose, so that I would be the one to find her, to remove her from the cage. Because Pop Tart was going to take…
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Instead of College, Can We Talk About Daycare?
Let me say that I appreciate that Sanders has pushed the conversation to the left. No matter who the eventual Democratic nominee for the President is, the conversation has been better because he has been part of it. At the same time, I realized the other day that I am mad at him. Not for being in the race, but for pushing the conversation toward universal college education, and forcing Clinton to respond specifically to that. As I have said before, I am not against universal college education. In fact, as a parent of a 6th grader, I am likely to benefit from it. But what if the conversation had…
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Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The first time we read American Gods, C said to me “This is why I can never write a book, because I could never be this good.” The truth is, there are very few people who are as talented at writing as Neil Gaiman, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane continues his tradition of authorial excellence. I cannot truly give a summary of the plot without giving too much away. I think it is best to say this is a book about memory, childhood, and the way how we view the world changes as we grow older. It is also a book about friendship and sacrifice, and…
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Why Our Daughter Does Not Have a College Fund
For a lot of parents, the second they find out they are pregnant, they start thinking about saving for college for their little one. And it makes sense. College is expensive, and if we can help our kids start off their adult life with as little debt as possible, that would be great. Because the truth is, while student loan debt is often considered “good” debt, kind of like a mortgage, in that you are getting something for it, it has its negatives, too – especially if the student needs more than the federally guaranteed loans and gets some from private lenders. After all, if our kids get in major…
