I have spent a good part of the summer feeling very much down with seeing people living better than me and feeling so tight with money. But the reality is I make good money and have chosen to live at the edge of what I can afford. I could be saving more in a smaller place or a less desirable neighborhood (although I'd be hard-pressed to own much cheaper than I do in NYC). I have cut down expenses this year by almost cutting all clothing purchases for myself and going for weeks where I take my own morning coffee. I also try to take my lunch at least twice a week. But then there is the ease of ordering pizza once a week with mac, or having weekend lunches out. I know I could be better at budgeting, but to make a big difference in my life I'd need to change where I live or get a partner.

plans to stage protests at funerals of victims of the 35W bridge collapse to state that God made the bridge fall because he hates America, and especially Minnesota, because of its tolerance of homosexuality.

I *wish* I was in MN right now, because I'd join right up with the Patriot Guard and make sure that jackass didn't get anywhere near anything. GAH.

Really it's calling everybody who doesn't make $10 mil in his area a "nobody" is what makes him come off as an asshole. He could have just said it makes him feel like a nobody to not make that much without implying that everyone who doesn't make that much is somehow less than a person. (not that I think that's probably what he meant but that's what it sounds like)

I, uh, don't know what gas prices are here now. I don't pay that much attention usually because bad with money, but now that I only fill up once a week or less I pay even less.

The NYT article made me break out the world's tiniest violin, but the different ways people are interpreting it here reminds me of a discussion I had with the roommate. I was telling her that spent the entire time watching Sideways shouting, "Shut up shut up SHUT UP you pretentious pieces of shit!" She didn't feel that way about the movie at all. She comes from a wealthy East coast background; I'm midwestern working lower middle class.

I don't know. Maybe growing up a little poor made me less tolerant of existential wangst.

it doesn't mean he doesn't know that that's a lot of money anywhere else. It's just not a lot where he lives.

Sure. But that's not the quote. The quote is "You’re nobody here at $10 million." Of course the reporter pulled that out of everything else this guy said, so it's hard to know whether he's got as little perspective as he seems to.

It just doesn't bother me the way it seems to bother other people, because I could see myself saying the same thing to the same reaction. At a different number. But there's a millionaire sitting ten feet away from me right now and he's a nobody. Because there are a half dozen richer people on this office floor. It's not a secret.

So as I read it when he says he's a nobody in Silicon Valley, it doesn't mean he doesn't know that that's a lot of money anywhere else. It's just not a lot where he lives.

But the thing that gets me is that he can't be that hardworking and intelligent and that dumb. Maybe not a lot in his division at work, in his neighborhood. But even in Silicon Valley there are neighborhoods where the grade school teachers, the janitors, the folks who pump your gas and bag your groceries and their families all live. They may all be crammed into East Palo Alto or some other grim city, but they're still in Silicon Valley and they're at least surviving on astronomically less than what he makes.

I mean, what does he think, it's all done by house elves?

But there's a millionaire sitting ten feet away from me right now and he's a nobody. Because there are a half dozen richer people on this office floor. It's not a secret.

Do you think he's a nobody? Or do you think the richer people do?

but what does he mean by a nobody? It's a weird subjective term. In terms of being known? - money doesn't = that.

In terms of what counts to him? In terms of value to the community/world?

Do you see him as dissatisfied, bon? Are you similarly dissatisfied? What I get from him on that front isn't anything I've ever gotten from you.

First question, I guess I thought he was half-joking, but one's reaction to his quote depends on whether or not he was serious. No, I'm not dissatisfied now, but if I owned a house or had kids, maybe I would be. And I will probably radically shift my earnings when Bob gets a faculty job. I may quit for awhile, I don't know.

ION, Fred Phelps Is Coming

Somebody is going to shoot that man, someday. And his moronic spawn will then call him a martyr. Hm, a downside.

t legal disclaimer: Of course, Connie does not advocate the cold-blooded murder of any sentient being. Any proof that Fred Phelps is/is not sentient can be sent to the profile address. Just saying