Detach your interests from the ways of the past,
and recreate yourself.


Sun 1.22.12


The Chinese new year starts at midnight, and it is the year of the Dragon, a propitious time ahead for me as I am a Dragon, but also for the world, as the Dragon is a powerful symbol, especially this year as it is the year of the Water Dragon, which only appears every 60 years. Big changes coming, politically, monetarily, environmentally.

It's income tax time and I'm taking the monetary part seriously, have been doing it for a while. I was able to cut my monthly credit card payment in half by simply making a fuss about it. I did the same with the cell phone people. I've changed banks to one that does not charge monthly fees, and next I'm going after my credit card processing company. These people are like the banks, there's a gateway fee, a statement fee, a monthly minimum fee, a transaction fee, with card present, or not present, address verification fee, future fees adjustment, there's no end to their fees. Oh and I forgot, there's the yearly compliance fee of $139. That one? They ask you 5 questions, every year the same 5 questions to verify that you are being responsible with the credit card information you collect. It quickly got boring for them so they have us fill out a form on the internet now. All told, the fees come out to about 25%; that's usurers' fees.

I've never been very good at paying attention to this sort of thing. I remember years ago being in Mexico and realizing I was being cheated, blatantly. The guys at the gas pump were charging me more than the amount registered at the pump; this happened more than once. I never had to check that back home. Then once after a meal, the waitress gave me the check, and I couldn't quite figure out the Mexican money and I just open my hands full of money to her. She looked at me with utter contempt, a na•ve girl who deserved to be cheated; I had no respect for money.

Thanks to Occupy Wall St., the 1% are being forced to bargain these days if one is willing to face down their empty threats. Millions have lost their homes, millions are defaulting on their student loans, millions are going bankrupt. Credit ratings don't mean a hell of a lot at such a time, even most western countries have bad credit ratings.

I read on the internet how people are finding ways to economize by refusing to buy products or services of the 1%, so as not to feed them. I would add, not buying products that are disposable, or have a short life span to that list. A Bic lighter has a short utility life, but its plastic lives forever polluting our environment. A Zippo lighter, if taken care of will outlast you, and it's elegant. The same holds true with clothing, better to save up for a classic, elegant garment than something that will look tacky in a few years.

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Current favorite this past month has been Wake Up II