I called my parents during the whole Terry Schiavo thing and reminded them that if I'm brain dead they should pull the plug. My mom's response was basically, "well, duh."
MBNA is an evil evil company. I was laid off several years ago. Afterwards I worked at a much lower-paying job for 3 months, then finally found a new job that paid less than 2/3rds of the old job. I moved to a cheaper apartment, I cancelled cable, I cut corners every way I could, but I had large balances on my 2 credit cards and I could not make my minimum payments.
The Citibank people were nice. I said I could send $50 a month. They said, that's fine. Send what you can. I told the MBNA people I could send $50 a month. They said, that's fine, you owe $200 more than that. I begged to work out a payment plan. They would not accept anything less than my minimum due. I decided if they wouldn't accept less, what was the point of paying anything? And they kept calling to collect the balance, and I kept begging to send less, and they kept refusing to accept it. Eventually my account went into collection. Their collection agency called me at work. They said they would garnish my wages, they were sending attorneys to my office to serve me, they were calling my boss. All lies, and all, I learned later, illegal. I would sit in my office and cry when they called. What are you going to do, I would ask them, take away my $2800 used 8 year old Chevy Malibu and the $40 in my checking account? It was a horrible time in my life and was exponentially more horrible thanks to MBNA. They are pure evil. They are predators. Their management deserves to have horrible things happen to them. Never do business with them.
I have cousins who were home schooled. The oldest (now 25) can barely string together a coherent sentence. Fortunately she's a stay-at-home mom and seems pretty happy with that, but I doubt her younger brothers will have much luck getting into college (if they want to go, which is doubtful at this point since education has been a pretty low priority for their family). I'm not saying all home-schooled kids turn out that way, but it is a danger. I think some government oversight is in order to ensure kids get a decent education.
VonSkippy, Kansas isn't that bad! That stupid evolution / creationism debate was embarassing for us, but please don't assume my home state only produces brain-washed, mind-numblingly stupid kids. I'm a 4th generation Kansas who went to public school in a tiny town of 4,000 and I managed to get into a top-rated private university and do well in it. Most of my friends consider me pretty smart and open-minded. I'm even enlightened enough to read such websites as Neatorama.
Steohawk, you frighten me. Take your child-love and sign up for that one-way trip to Mars.
DB, I'm a strong feminist and I felt the same way you did at 19. I said I'd never get married and never have kids. I was determined that I did not need a man to make me happy, that I could be single the rest of my life. I hated the media shoving couplehood down my throat (I still do).
I realized about 10 years ago I did want kids, and moreover, I wanted a partner in raising them. Still, I wasn't going to settle. I decided I'd rather be alone than with the wrong guy. And I decided that not being with the wrong guy meant being with the perfect guy. And that's the problem. As you mentioned, much of the problem is the too-high standards for a perfect life. There is no perfect mate, so in that sense, we all will have to settle. The trick is (and I sure haven't mastered it) is figuring out how much settling to do. I think the author is making a very valid point that IF you want a partner, you will have to do a lot more settling later in life than you will earlier in life.
As a 39-year old single woman who'd like to have kids, I found the article very interesting. I know that not all women want kids and a family, but among my 30-something single girlfriends who do, this article pretty much hits the same topics we address with each other. I go on a lot of dates and my friends (and even strangers) consider me a catch, but the pool of elgible men I meet now is far smaller (and shallower) than the pool I fished in during my 20s and even early 30s. I'm well aware that many men who want children immediately rule me out based on my age (just take a look at the 30-something and even 40-something men's age preferences on any dating site). And I still get carded, so it's not because I look 39, it's because my ovaries are 39.
And like the author, I get so fed up with my married friends complaining about their husbands and how hard it is to be married and how lucky I am to be single. Occasionally I'll call them on it, and ask them why they're still married if it's so terrible, and they will grudgingly admit that it beats the alternative.
@vako - most small towns and rural areas don't have cabs. From the looks of the woman's house and garage, she lives on a farm or at the least a rural area.
I'm not defending her driving drunk, I'm just saying, don't assume everyone in the U.S. has access to cab service.
I keep hearing about this 2 cents per DVD, but I haven't seen any info on where the other money is going. My guess is this is split into many pieces. It's not like the studios are getting every dime, though they are getting the most (I assume).
I keep seeing writers quoting the internet ad dollars. What they either don't know or fail to mention is that number is all internet advertising. Not online video advertising. Big difference. What they also fail to mention is that they may continue to get paid the same salary plus their residuals for their TV writing, but TV ad sales revenues continue to decline as advertisers pull dollars and put them into online. And not into online video necessarily. In fact online video is a small piece of the internet advertising pie.
Also I was surprised by the figure about 48% of writers being unemployed at any time. You know what I do when I'm unemployed? I get a job. My old jobs don't pay me to sit around and wait until I get another job. If I can't find a job in my field, I find one in another field. I've changed careers 3 times in my 15 years in the workforce. I've been laid off. I've been stuck in low-paying industries. I survived by getting new jobs.
Ellen's cry-fest on her show was ridiculous. It's a dog! I'd like to see someone get that worked up over children in foster care or the homeless instead of pets and their adoption agencies.
I didn't get the sense these students were complaining about college interfering with their web surfing or cell phone time - I think they were just illustrating the results of their survey, showing how much time is spent on different things in their life. I thought the video was very interesting.
The Citibank people were nice. I said I could send $50 a month. They said, that's fine. Send what you can. I told the MBNA people I could send $50 a month. They said, that's fine, you owe $200 more than that. I begged to work out a payment plan. They would not accept anything less than my minimum due. I decided if they wouldn't accept less, what was the point of paying anything? And they kept calling to collect the balance, and I kept begging to send less, and they kept refusing to accept it. Eventually my account went into collection. Their collection agency called me at work. They said they would garnish my wages, they were sending attorneys to my office to serve me, they were calling my boss. All lies, and all, I learned later, illegal. I would sit in my office and cry when they called. What are you going to do, I would ask them, take away my $2800 used 8 year old Chevy Malibu and the $40 in my checking account? It was a horrible time in my life and was exponentially more horrible thanks to MBNA. They are pure evil. They are predators. Their management deserves to have horrible things happen to them. Never do business with them.
VonSkippy, Kansas isn't that bad! That stupid evolution / creationism debate was embarassing for us, but please don't assume my home state only produces brain-washed, mind-numblingly stupid kids. I'm a 4th generation Kansas who went to public school in a tiny town of 4,000 and I managed to get into a top-rated private university and do well in it. Most of my friends consider me pretty smart and open-minded. I'm even enlightened enough to read such websites as Neatorama.
Steohawk, you frighten me. Take your child-love and sign up for that one-way trip to Mars.
I realized about 10 years ago I did want kids, and moreover, I wanted a partner in raising them. Still, I wasn't going to settle. I decided I'd rather be alone than with the wrong guy. And I decided that not being with the wrong guy meant being with the perfect guy. And that's the problem. As you mentioned, much of the problem is the too-high standards for a perfect life. There is no perfect mate, so in that sense, we all will have to settle. The trick is (and I sure haven't mastered it) is figuring out how much settling to do. I think the author is making a very valid point that IF you want a partner, you will have to do a lot more settling later in life than you will earlier in life.
And like the author, I get so fed up with my married friends complaining about their husbands and how hard it is to be married and how lucky I am to be single. Occasionally I'll call them on it, and ask them why they're still married if it's so terrible, and they will grudgingly admit that it beats the alternative.
I'm not defending her driving drunk, I'm just saying, don't assume everyone in the U.S. has access to cab service.
I keep seeing writers quoting the internet ad dollars. What they either don't know or fail to mention is that number is all internet advertising. Not online video advertising. Big difference. What they also fail to mention is that they may continue to get paid the same salary plus their residuals for their TV writing, but TV ad sales revenues continue to decline as advertisers pull dollars and put them into online. And not into online video necessarily. In fact online video is a small piece of the internet advertising pie.
Also I was surprised by the figure about 48% of writers being unemployed at any time. You know what I do when I'm unemployed? I get a job. My old jobs don't pay me to sit around and wait until I get another job. If I can't find a job in my field, I find one in another field. I've changed careers 3 times in my 15 years in the workforce. I've been laid off. I've been stuck in low-paying industries. I survived by getting new jobs.
At least they seem to be conscientious pet owners though.