Bloggers and Brunch

I have never made it to a brunch with bloggers, except for a couple of times with a handful of ESIs, but that doesn't count. I'm not against the idea of bloggers brunching. My fellow bloggers have reported that everyone has a delightful time, and that it is fun to meet the "real" personas behind the blogging personas. That sounds cool. My problem is not with meeting bloggers. My problem is with BRUNCH. I hate brunch. I hate eggs benedict and other stomach-achy food that I associate with brunch. I am allergic to eggs which are, in fact, the staple of brunch foods. I know, plenty of other bloggers are delicate flowers and have diet restrictions and manage to show up at these brunches. I hate the word "brunch". I hate it just as I hate the word Brangelina, and the whole concept of combining meals and words.

I like breakfast as an unique entity. I like lunch as a unique entity. Don't make me like brunch! Another obstacle is I hate the hour of brunches. They tend to occur on weekends around 11-ish, sometimes earlier. That is not a good time to meet people you want to impress who are only familiar with your blog persona. I would need to shower and groom myself which means I have to get up EARLY on a weekend morning. I want to be hanging out, reading the paper, sleeping in, and doing other things in an unstructured, unscheduled and discheveled manner.

If the bloggers did something on a weeknight that involved drinking, I'd be all over that. If the bloggers wanted to hold a "business meeting" during work hours, I'd be all over that, too. If the bloggers wanted to have 2-day meditation, yoga and drinking retreat, I might even be open to attending that.

An excellent idea from Bandobras

Audrey's posts have had me thinking about saving money, but I just can't do it. Fortunately Bandobras at Retired and Tired has a plan I can get behind:

Daylight savings time starts this weekend and if we all save as much as we can maybe there will be enough to go around next winter.

If it is dark and dreary again the government may make us save daylight all year round. It's up to you to do your part. If we all just save a little each day, through the miracle of compound interest I'm sure we can have enough to get through next winter.

He makes a good point that if we don't start saving daylight voluntarily the government may force us to do it anyway.

Coping with The Economic Downturn, Part 3

Another instalment from Audrey's timely survey

What You Shouldn’t Scrimp On

When I was in fourth-year university and had no money, I spent my emergency cash on perfume. My parents were shocked but I insisted that I was in an emergency situation - without perfume, I was feeling like a boy! All of us have things that we spend money on that seem like extravagances, but which are important to us. Don’t deny yourself these little luxuries. Sometimes the smart choice is to make that purchase, even in an economic downturn, because of the sheer pleasure that that purchase can bring to us.

We undeniably live in a society where our image is very important. Like it or not, we are judged on our appearance. Even in a downturn we should be careful to update our work wardrobe and to get regular haircuts. Go to clothing swaps. Ask friends where to buy bargains. One of my friends suggested that I buy tops at RW & Co. (in the Rideau Centre) and I was so happy with the selection that I bought three of them for work.

Give more modest gifts but don’t stop giving gifts. This year for Christmas, my boyfriend and I baked quiches and shortbread cookies for family members. It was fun to get the phone calls long after Christmas to hear that a salmon quiche had been the main dish at a luncheon or dinner.

We always must remember those less fortunate than ourselves. One friend told me that, at restaurants and bars, we can try to “tip a little more generously because the servers probably need the money” during these difficult times.

Everyone needs a vacation. We all need time to recharge. Don’t deny yourself a vacation but do search the web for good deals. I like the “flight deals” for passage out of Montreal on Air Transat's website.

We workers in Ottawa are very fortunate compared with those in other Canadian communities. Public Service jobs and the high-tech sector bring great stability to the local economy. However, even those of us who manage to keep our jobs and income intact should be vigilant about our finances. One recommendation for all workers is that they review their bank accounts, insurance policies and pension plans. There are many steps that can be taken today to improve one’s income in the future, including taking advantage of opportunities to buy back past Public Service time and consolidating debts.

Do readers have any tips for reducing expenditures that they wish to share?

Image: Audrey and her boyfriend's home baking creation, a humungously delicious apple pie

Part IV: Audrey’s 20 Tips for Reducing Expenditures

Unfit to print...?

We coyotes like news papers. Probably due to puppyhood training, about which the less said in polite company, the better. So when the vivacious Jo S. began a thread on the health of the media, many, including your faithful/unreliable reporter/narrator, had things to say. I had a lot. You may safely surmise that I have not finished sucking my paws and, ummm, pawndering. And I'm not the only one. Just the only coyote...

Current world economic woes are not themselves killing newspapers and legacy electronic media. They've exposed pre-existing rot. Newspapers were a disruptive technology for their time, an artifact of (mostly) the 19th century, freshened for the 20th by the advent of giant, costly, high-speed presses. These allowed papers to meet radio, then TV, pretty much head-on, even as pundits forecast the end of hard copy.

But papers' attempts to compete with later media on their (newer) terms have lost subtle ground with each new disruption, and the Net changes the game totally. In developed societies, it's faster, more accessible and scalable than its ancestors, and cheaper for content makers. The computers we pay for download many of their distribution costs - legacy media need printing presses, delivery trucks, transmitters - right onto our desks.

And the Net's tuned to the ADD nanosecond. Why write, edit, publish and distribute articles about Paris' latest deep thinkage or Britney's wardrobe malfunctions when they can be fully, ummm, exposed in 140-character Tweets? The Craigslists and Kijijis efficiently nabbed the papers' classified lifeblood from under publishers' noses. Topping it all, media outlets began more than a decade ago to throw up content on the Net - often badly, always for free - hoping to somehow gain beachheads there until they somehow figured out how to make a buck from it. They never really did.

Newspaper presses used to pretty much print money for their owners. The Thomsons, Blacks and Aspers of Canada, and the Hearsts and Knights and Murdochs of the world, got into the business because profits were so amazingly fat. But rather than improving the product when faced with competition or adversity, they too often acted to protect profit margins with chiselling economies that made newspapers less enjoyable and more irrelevant. And unhealthy.

Oh, the Petfinder's former editor in chief tried to regain hip cred by hanging major news stories on movie and comic book leads - complete with movie publicity stills instead of, like, actual news photos. Maybe he could have thought the other way around, instead of trivializing his content. Now the paper's latest owner, Canwest-Global, tries to economize by half-gutting local newsrooms to centralize its newspaper chain's content, inappropriately like the network feed for its TV stations.

These band aids and others do not play to the strength of a good paper, which is to reflect and record local thoughts and events and people. Placing them well within in their larger regional, national and global contexts, yes, but with the aim of really good local coverage. People trying to understand themselves, and their place in the world, are constant. I think.

I'm not saying that that newspapers need to be all serious. There's plenty of room for playful print. But there should be room for context and analysis too. And maybe they could back off a little from brain-dead takes on LiLo and Amy W. That's what the Net is for.

Coping with The Economic Downturn, Part 2

More from Audrey's groundbreaking survey...

Opinions of Those Who Have Not Changed Their Spending

Not all of my friends have changed their spending as a result of the economic downturn. Several wrote to tell me that the downturn has, thus far, had little or no effect on their purchases.

One friend said, “Actually, I’ve changed little my spending habits since the downturn was evident (for supporting documentation, please see my financial statements...which seen in order look remarkably like the drop of a rollercoaster at Wonderland). Most days I bring food for breakfast and/or lunch, which has been a staple for me for years. I regularly walk to/from work, and to destinations within a few miles of home. And my entertainment dollars are being spent as frugally as ever. I admittedly splurge on food and drink (splurge being a relative term - I don't cheat myself on items I know my friends will enjoy). The only real change I see is a result of reading media stories about how to find savings in daily purchases. If I see something that I'd like to try, then I'll adjust my approach that way. Otherwise, I try not to run up unnecessary or frivolous debt. Basically, I've had no real reason to have to change my spending habits.”

Another friend told me that he has kept his expenses pared to the bone for many years. He gave some useful insight into ways to live within one’s means, writing: “Personal economic change can be a surprisingly long process. For the first two or three years, every time you think you've cut expenses so far that you can't possibly take out any more - wait a couple of months to allow your perceptions to adapt, then recheck your budget for fat. Each time, strangely, you'll always find more to cut, while still leaving "enough". It's like peeling an onion - most of us have many, many layers of "luxury-we've-habitually-come-to-regard-as-necessity" that we can safely - and sometimes advantageously - remove before we reach the essential core of things.”

Image: Squawkfox.com Where frugal living is sexy, delicious and fun

Part III will look at what you shouldn't scrimp on.