Rita Arens's Blog, page 52
January 19, 2012
Spendy, Spendy on Your iPhone
Hi y'all -- I know, three posts in one day! But I want to send out this poll and it has to live somewhere, so here it is! I'm working on a post about electronics depreciation and would love to know how you think about gadgets and money. I myself am a wait-until-it-has-dropped-at-least-$100-and-then-try-to-buy-it-with-gift-cards stingy-ass person. How about you?
Online Surveys - Zoomerang.com
January 18, 2012
What the Hell is SOPA?
As a writer and blogger, I should be against piracy and copyright violation, right? One would think ... but there's a lot more going on with SOPA than appears on the surface.
And if you think it's no big deal because you didn't see it on TV this morning, think again:
SOPA would give both the government and major corporations the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement with neither a trial nor a traditional court hearing. The legislation is aggressively backed...
January 17, 2012
Home Improvement: Seeing It a New Way
*Editor's Note: This editor has been too lazy to take photos, so that'll be a different post.*
Our continued efforts in the Transformation of Chateau Travolta rise and fall seasonally. In the summer, we become obsessed with the yard and flowers and the roof and the paint and the blah blah blah. In the chill of winter, when we're stuck inside all weekend long? OMG, the ceiling in the living room is so depressing. It's like hobbits live here or something.
(The ceiling has rough-hewn beams...
January 16, 2012
January 13, 2012
How the Politicians Do It
Honestly, I don't know how politicians do it. They slam each other for every mistake they've ever made in their lives, as though we don't learn from our mistakes.
They argue over big government versus small government, as though corruption isn't caused by individuals in any organization or company putting money and personal comfort above the common good.
They claim to be uninfluenced by campaign money when they promise us tax breaks if only we'll vote for them.
They say they want America...
January 12, 2012
Letters About Love and Life
My sister wrote an open letter to my daughter on her blog today. My favorite sentence in it is this:
We may see phantoms that aren't really there, but we also see a kaleidoscope of colors where others may only see shades of gray.
Read the rest at her blog. It was such a beautiful letter that it took my words away -- on a day on which I'm in huge suspense over my own creativity and whether or not others will agree it exists.
January 11, 2012
The Confusing Past of Handbags
Beloved cleaned out under the bed this week and pulled out my seething mass of forgotten purses. I will go ahead and admit that some of them date back to college. And still have stuff in them from college. Like my gold University of Iowa card with my Social Security number printed on it, because we totally all used to use our Social Security numbers as our student IDs and driver's license numbers, back when the world was new. There was my Mike's Liquors video store card (I know, I know). He...
January 9, 2012
Welcome, Simon
On a strange whim, I bought the little angel a betta fish last week. His name is Simon. His stomach is the size of his eyeball, so she is only to feed him three pellets every other day.
I bought him a little plastic tank with a light and a small filter so that she (read: we) only has to clean the tank once a month.
She wanted a puppy. I bought her a fish.
This is the sort of parent I am.
I did, however, buy her the fish quite unexpectedly, which in the world of kid-dom makes it the coolest...
January 6, 2012
Parenthood: Go Away, No Come Back
Those last few days of Christmas break, all I wanted was to be alone.
Then she went back to school, and I missed her dreadfully.
January 4, 2012
Kicking Up a Fuss Over Marital Term Limits
Because I enjoy a little healthy debate (and also because I've been thinking about it a while), I posted yesterday on BlogHer about marital term limits. I actually don't care for that terminology, because it sounds like you're required to stop being married at some point, which was not what I was arguing for. If you want to be married, you wouldn't have to stop -- you just re-up. I actually like Mexico City's proposal (though two years seems a bit short):
The minimum marriage contract would...
