Happy New Year!

The year is over. It took long enough. So it's time for New Year's resolutions. I don't usually make them, cuz they usually just get broken two weeks into the year. But I'm going for it this year.

Here's my list:


1) Donate to charity.


I may not have a penny, but I have a ha'penny. With the economy as bad as it is, non profits really need help. I'm constantly receiving emails asking for donations. Of course I want to donate to them all, and it's actually stressful when I can't donate to every request. So this year I'm approaching it differently. If I can spend $20 a month on Netflix, then I should be able to spend $20 a month on donations. Every two weeks I'll pick a charity and donate $10. It's not much, but it gives me a chance to find several different charities that I like and hopefully narrow those down to one where I can volunteer.

2) Keep getting good grades. Duh.

3) Budget.

I'm tired of just paying tuition and bills and buying human and dog groceries, then more tuition and bills. Now that I'm in a cheaper place I'm going to set aside money for other things. Like working on my car and buying a laptop for school.

4) Keep the apartment clean and organized.

In Sense and Sensibility, the Dashwood women lose their house because of inheritance laws that ensure only a son inherits property. They are rendered penniless, especially in the eyes of male suitors, and relocate from the deceased Mr. Dashwood's estate to a cottage. Here they exist on 500 pounds a year, yet they still have a maid. Jane Austen herself lived in a similar straitened situation, especially after her father died. She eventually became able to provide income for her entirely female household (her mother, her sister Cassandra and sometimes a family friend, Marsha), but it definitely did not make her well off. The household still had a maid. The only way it would be possible is that the maids were paid some pitiful amount that is probably shocking. I did a little research, and found that servants were commonplace, worked incredibly long hours, and often slept in the attic. They were paid next to nothing, and if a maid was still considered an apprentice she was often paid nothing at all.

So I'm naming my "foundation" the Jane Austen Maids Foundation. Now if I win the lottery I already have a name, and I'll already have a list of charities.

I still don't have a maid though.

And Last

Only a few become master dragonologists. Such are reflected in the mystical dragon's eye. Their task is to conserve and protect those few dragons that remain, for who knows how many shall last another century, with the human population growing at such an exponential rate? And with them, how many more of Earth's creatures will become extinct until people start to say that they never existed at all, except in our imaginations?

Ernest Drake

From Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons
Candlewick Press

Christmas is here

I have one more Christmas song for you. As a child, I listened to the Muppet Christmas tape til it wore out. My mother must have been so sick of the Muppets. Of course, since we had no television, it's only now as I've been hunting for this song on youtube that I realize it was actually a TV special w/ John Denver. What a flashback watching him in these clips.

Christmas is coming
the goose is getting fat
please to put a penny
in the old man's hat
if you haven't got a penny
a ha'penny will do
if you haven't got a ha'penny
then God bless you

Way back when, even before Jane Austen's day but she would have dealt with this system also, the English monetary system was incredibly confusing. There were sovereigns and crowns and pounds and pennies and ha'pennies (half pennies, though what the point of cutting a penny in half is I have absolutely no idea) and all of them were a different monetary value. This song demonstrates the poverty of the time for certain people, as you are requested to put a penny in an old man's (presumably a beggar) hat, and if you don't even have that, then bless you.

This is the Muppets' version. God bless Miss Piggy.

Happy Holidays!

In Ms. Austen's book Emma, the main character is a young, rich, slightly
spoiled young woman. She continually is attempting to matchmake among
the few single people in her small town. Clueless is a modern remake of
the book. Emma is mainly trying to set up her friend Harriet with the
local curate (like a pastor) Mr. Elton only to have Mr. Elton propose to
her instead. In one part of the book, she and Harriet take company and
food to a poor, sick family, and in another part of the book Emma is
taken to task for her behavior to the poor spinster Mrs. Bates. In
these scenes Jane is demonstrating the importance of giving to those
less fortunate.

This holiday season, if you're still looking for some last minute
giving, may I suggest the following amazing charities. You don't even
have to worry if you're giving a green gift, since money can always be
repurposed.

I received a Happy Holidays email the other day from Joinmyvillage.com,
a site which I've mentioned before. It is an initiative sponsored by CARE, a
wonderful nonprofit which helps women and girls around the world.
General Mills cereal has agreed to match donations to joinmyvillage.com
to assist women in 75 African towns to start and keep small businesses.
In the email, I noticed that there is a lot of money unlocked, but not a
lot of actual donations. I found 10.00 somewhere today to donate.
Hint.

If you knit or crochet, you can make an afghan square (just use your
scrap yarn) and mail it to Warm up America, who stitches together
squares from everywhere to make blankets for the homeless. Website
Warmupamerica.org.

The winners of Rachael Ray's Mutt Madness were announced on her show
today (though there were no actual losers). The two charities were
Angel's Gate Hospice (http://www.angelsgate.org/)and Last Chance Ranch (http://lastchanceranch.org/). Angel's Gate works like a human hospice, by taking in sick and handicapped animals and making sure they live comfortably for however long they have left. Last Chance Ranch takes in abused and neglected animals, and rehabilitates them so they can be adopted. These are incredible places and well worth the giving.

Please please adopt if you're getting a new pet. This is very important, as both of the animal charities have animals pictured who have spent their entire lives in cages being bred again and again. Please adopt, but if you're going to purchase, make sure that you meet both parents preferably and see the living conditions. This will stop any purchases of puppies bred at the infamous puppy mills.

And for now you can adopt Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey, who helps Santa every year since the reindeer can't navigate the hills of Italy. Happy holidays!

Hippo for Christmas.

Here is one of my favorite Christmas songs. It is sung by an 11 year old girl named Gayla Peevey, recorded back in 1953. Jane Austen would never have heard this song, obviously. I can't even try to tie it in with her. Though there's not much mention of Christmas in her books, now that I think of it. Now I'm going to have to go back and read them all over again just to see. Shucks.

Silly Nonsense Story, Part 3

Leila the Dragon entered Diedrich the Unicorn’s Flower Shoppe and set her purse down on the flower strewn counter.

"Diedrich, what has happened in here?” Leila asked.

Diedrich the Unicorn sighed. “I’m in the middle of moving the shop,” he replied. “It’s very stressful. Look, my horn is shedding.”

“Oh dear,” said Leila, edging her purse away. “Moving where?”

“The shop two doors down became vacant. It has far more space and I can expand the stock. I’m almost done, thank goodness. It’s looking beautiful, but I’m exhausted.”

“I can’t wait to see it,” said Leila.

“I’m planning a re-grand opening for next week,” said Diedrich the Unicorn. “Make sure you’re there! What can I get you today?”

“Princess Charming is coming for dinner,” said Leila.

“I have just the thing. She loves out of the ordinary arrangements, in offbeat colors,” Diedrich said. “What color is your table scheme?"

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1783

Petition for polar bears!


http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1783