Eco-Socialites Make Cleaning Green a Priority

I clicked because I thought it said Eco-Socialists, but no matter, still of interest. What most of you don't know is that at any given time, I generally have about 5 New York Times articles sitting in my inbox that I emailed myself, most of them expired. I don't want to post anything that you would need to log in to view, as you do after a certain number of days at the NYT website. I have been preoccupied with its Most Popular page as of late.

Is Justin Timberlake a Product of Cumulative Advantage?

Best title ever. Good article, too. Thank you, NYT. It's creepy to think that people like certain songs or movies because others like them, and the popularity of the item perpetuates itself.


All of the people around me seem to be latching onto the Facebook. I'm intrigued, but not enough to join, yet. I'm wary about what info I put online, due to my having a rough idea about just how much stuff Google caches. Also, I'm not so much interested in finding the people I went to high school with - cripes, most of them probably still live in the city. I am interested in finding people from several programs and exchanges I've taken part in, with whom it was much harder to maintain contact.

Human Jukebox

I started piano lessons when I was in Grade 4, and continued until the end of Grade 12, at which point I was spending more time doing homework (or avoiding it) and hanging out with boyfriend (now fiancé) than practicing. I finished my exams, completing both my Grade 8 Practical (playing) and writing my Grade 2 Rudiments (theory), which gave standing in Grade 8 Practical. Big deal, right?

I'm proud of those achievements, but when I'm at a party with a piano and people find out I play, they don't want to hear chromatic scales. They don't want to hear Sonatinas in X Major or Beethoven's nth Symphony. And really, I don't want them to show me that they know how to play Heart and Soul, for the zillionth time in my life.

They want to hear November Rain, or some other inane hit. I don't know it. I can pull out the first 30 seconds of the Peanuts theme, which is usually enjoyable. I only know it because I had a copy of the music, an easy version in C. It's actually in A-flat, so I was able to transpose a little. People want to hear something they recognize and possibly love. For example, my sister's friend can play many of the major themes from Mario and Zelda and other games, and he was a giant hit at that party we had last summer.

I just noticed that Wiki lists well-known music in A-flat, and probably all the other keys too. This is incredible to me, because I don't have a great ear for figuring out chords (like the rest of the world, judging by the popularity of tablature webpages). By fiddling around the keyboard I can usually figure out the melody, but I get a little muddled around chords. I also have terrible rhythm, a notorious problem with amature players, but that's a story for another day.

To conclude, in part due to my willingness to impress at parties, in part due to my attempt to tone down my miserly nature, and in part because I figured out the melody to the Final Countdown but I still want the chording, I was at Long & McQuade last night and I went for it. This book has Word Up by Cameo. CAMEO.

Now I'm a little miffed after some research at finding out I could have saved $15 by buying it online at Amazon. I don't even want to buy books at stores anymore. Anyway, I plan to get a lot of enjoyment out of the book. Much more so than the Hilary Duff songbook we pulled out of L&M's dumpster last summer, along with a pile of guitar magazines and the Trouble at the Henhouse musicbook.

They get you with the ink

Interesting article - H.P. Tries to Create Printers That Love the Web.

Vyomesh I. Joshi, the senior vice president in charge of Hewlett-Packard’s printing division, bounded up to the stage to congratulate his employees on their performance

... He followed that up with a less-heartening tale. He said one of his daughters, a college student, had told him, “I don’t need a printer.” Like many people of her generation, she lives online and finds it unnecessary or too difficult to put bits onto paper.

... Now he wants H.P. to figure out a way to get people to print more Web pages.

I can understand how a company that makes printers would be nervous by the trends that most of us have cut way down on our printing. I have mixed feelings about this. First of all, I think it's great that people are printing less. They're using less paper, and spending less money on ink and paper.

...Which brings Mr. Joshi back to his concern about his daughter. It isn’t her fault that she finds printing annoying. It is difficult to print the content on many Web sites, whether they are blogs, MySpace pages, lists from comparison shopping sites or even directions from Google Maps. Printouts often look haphazard, with large bands of white space or images chopped in two.

I would appreciate if a few sites were a little easier to print out, like Google Maps. But generally, on the rare occasion I need to print something, I can find a way to print it properly if it's worth the effort - like using print-screen, or copying into Word.

In order to make those sites printable, I doubt H.P. would work with sites individually to make the change. Maybe they could work with some of the major players, like Google Maps, and that would be great. But what are the odds they'll work with Winnipeg Transit so that my Navigo options can fit on one page?

No, I'm guessing H.P. would probably create a program that you have to install on your computer and run in order to print. This makes me wary, because the last H.P. program I installed on my previous computer wouldn't get out of my system tray and kept popping up and wanting to get updates and to tell me tips, like some kind of annoying friend/enemy.

In short, maybe H.P. needs to re-think what they do, instead of just coming up with ways to get people to print more - especially if they don't necessarily need to print at all. Biodegradable, organic ink? Carbon-neutral, solar-powered printing? Who knows.

To sum up... print on one-side good paper or double-side when you did print, kids.

Ms Spent Money

I read one more financial book and vaguely scanned another, so I thought I'd document that experience.

The Ms. Spent Money Guide - I am not joking about the title. This book had some really good, general advice, like Gail's book that I mentioned before, but in less detail.

The guide emphasized the difference between "conscious" and "unconscious" spending - basically, "conscious" spending means minimizing the money you spend on things you enjoy less, to free up money for what you enjoy more.

I found the visualizing exercises at the beginning of each section a little hokey. Some people might benefit from creating an image of what their money flow looks like, "using the analogy of a waterfall", but I skimmed over those parts. The sections of the book, divided into the areas where you spend money, are based partially on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - you spend more money on food, shelter, etc. at the bottom of the pyramid than vacations and toys and extras at the top.

The most useful item I got out of the book was the advice that splurging on something expensive, but well-made, would be more satisfying and a better buy in the end, over scrimping on multiple items that are less useful and that you don't like as much.


Surprise! You're Wealthy - Every Woman's Guide to Financial Independence - I started reading this book but found the info either didn't apply to me, or I had already read it elsewhere. The entire second chapter is about running your own business, the third about high-powered, managerial jobs, and the fifth about insurance settlements, inheritances, and lottery winnings.

I only vaguely aspire to start my own business on the sole basis of claiming home office supplies on my tax returns, management is really far removed from my current career plan at the moment, and I don't anticipate inheritances or lottery winnings to stumble onto my front porch any time soon. The appendices of the book did have some useful info and worksheets, such as how to calculate your net worth and how to select a financial advisor.