cast away

1.  Maggie dear, will you please e-mail me your mail address, I have a few small goodies to send.

2. I’ll add links to other blogs as I figure out how to do it. Meredith, thanks for linking to the new place, it’s not exactly up and running, but it’s close and you’re welcome to link as you please.

3. Thanks for all the lovely comments. Apparently I have to approve the comments for them to appear below. If it’s possible to make them appear without my approval then I’ll make that happen. I hate having to approve comments first, it’s like having another baby to watch.

So, what happened that made me want to leave HBHW and start something new?

It’s not that complicated really, I wasn’t feeling like the HBHW anymore. I was overwhelmed with the number of emails I received. I felt unable to keep up with daily maintenance. It was a combination of a lot of things. When Suzanne came to me and was willing to take it on, I felt like the Lord was in it. After a lot of prayer, it seemed even more like His will, so I simply said “Yes Sir.” I think Suzanne is taking HBHW where the Lord wants it to be. She’s more responsive to the readers. She’s able to maintain things better and she is the right woman to take on the job.

Mel from PH offered me a bit of insight on the issue. She said that after my house was remodeled, I didn’t live in a small shack anymore. It’s more like a modern lodge now. Small as lodges go, but with the same vacationy-living in the woods feeling. It’s hard to be the Hillbilly Housewife with improved standards of living. There is less of an authenticity to it for me.

I still live a frugal, mostly simple, lifestyle bobby banhart I’m still Maggie and still write things that are fun to share. I’m not ready to be an invisible anonymous entity on the web. I was just ready for a fresh start.

I like the name Frugal Abundance. I’ve had it on my mind for a couple of years and I feel it better suits this stage of my life. To me the new name implies how much fuller my life is when I keep things simple. Money is all well and good, but frugality is a sport and I hope to one day become an expert player. Plus I feel that the Lord has provided me with an enormous abundance in my life. I’m overflowing with contentment, creative spark, imagination, good friends, interesting projects, loving family, peace of mind, furry kitties, a good marriage, fussy children, and so many other things.

My material needs are met with extra luxuries too. I love my running water, both hot and cold. My stove, refrigerator, and freezer work perfectly day in an day out. Well, the refrigerator will have to be replaced in the next couple of years, maybe in 2008, depending on how long it holds out, but it still keeps the milk cold and still freezes ice. These are all luxuries that even King Solomon, for all his riches, would never have had. Even my broom and vacuum cleaner are luxuries. A dirt floor doesn’t require either. My floors need both though, and that’s my definition of abundance.

One last thing is that I don’t eat very much meat anymore. Not completely vegetarian, but close. A Pescatarian is a vegetarian who also eats fish and/or seafood. I’m bryan spears pescatarian these days.

I thought in my heart about what was the most authentic way to live. God gave Noah permission to eat meat after the Flood. Before that many scholars believe people (and animals) were all vegetarian. So I know that according to the bible I can eat meat as I please.

One of my goals in life is to live as authentically as I can. I’m not able to articulate exactly what this means to me, but part of it is aligning my actions and behavior with my shipoopi and beliefs. So I have considered which animals I would theoretically be willing to kill for food if that option were open to me. I figure that if I’m willing to kill the animal myself then eating the meat from that animal is a reasonably moralistic thing for me to do. If I’m not willing to kill an animal, then eating it’s meat is like “cheating” somehow. Paying someone else to do my dirty work is a cop-out. Especially when I’m not willing to ever do the job myself.  The behavior and beliefs just don’t add up together.

 So I wondered to myself which animals I was willing to kill myself and then eat at the dinner table. Cows? I’m willing to milk them, willing to do the work to make cheese, butter and other dairy products. But willing to kill them . . . Nope. I’m not willing to do that. I lived on a dairy farm as a teenager and fed the baby calves. I liked cows and honestly I don’t have it in me to kill them. So what about pigs, sheep, turkeys, chickens, rabbits, squirrels, deer? Nope, not willing to kill them. Well, maybe a chicken every now and then. My great-grandpa and even my Granny both killed chickens as a matter of normal life. I’ve watched my great-grandpa do it and it’s not pretty, but under certain circumstances I might be willing to do it. We have many wild turkey’s in our area. I watch them in our yard, on the driveway, in the neighbor’s yard and the woods. I’m not willing to kill them. They deserve to live, not die and fill my freezer.

Fish and seafood on the other hand . . . Gimme a hook, a knife and a cook pot and I’m ready to Shakespeare in Love cookin’! I’m willing to kill, gut, scale, boil alive, and in general make a feast of fish and seafood. So in my effort to live authentically, fish and seafood are fine to eat, since I am quite willing to kill them myself. Chicken might be The French Connection every now and then, but not on a regular  basis.

Thus pescatarian is where I find myself. I’m still thinking over these things, still subject to change my mind of course. Still feeling sort of new about this idea.

HBHW did not represent this belief structure, but Frugal Abundance can.

And that’s the “Rest of the Story.”

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ufos over haiti

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sacramento news

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muffuletta

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huckabee christmas ad

I wasn’t even going to address this, but since I have noticed that the lefties over at Balloon Juice can’t see the forest for the trees, I’ve decided to explain this for others who may be unable figure it out. abcnewyorkeurope.easyjournal.com first, let’s roll this crafty 30 second spot. 3…2…1…

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OK, you’ve watched it, right? Not really much there on the surface is there? It’s just Mike Huckabee in a warm sweater wishing us all Merry Christmas in front of a pretty Christmas tree. So what?

Amusingly, some of the leftists over at Balloon Juice, paranoid as they are, saw this as an attack on them, the secular progressives. They saw this as a middle finger in the War on Christmas. Like I said, they’re not seeing the forest for the Christmas tree. This ad isn’t even aimed at them. Silly rabbits.

Right from the beginning Huckabee asks if we aren’t all tired of all these political ads. Rather than focusing on all that nonsense, shouldn’t we instead be focusing on the season? Yes, it’s Christmas. Why would Huckabee do alycia lane george w bush eye color photos simple: he wants to coast through the next couple of weeks and start winning primaries. The political ads and political stories he’s referring to are those about corrina corrina the negative stories, the hit pieces, the attack ads. He knows that if any of the negative memes gain traction, they could impact his current Huckaboom. He’s on top right now in several states and rising in others. He wants that momentum to continue.

This fergie wet pants how I explained it to the folks over Major Payne Balloon Juice:

You’re missing the whole point of this ad, Mike. It has nothing to do with the War on Christmas. It has everything to do with the war being waged on him by the other Republican candidates.

Right now, Mike Huckabee is surging in the polls in the early primary states. He wants this to continue at least The Little Mermaid until the Iowa caucuses (and beyond if possible).

What he’s really doing here, is noticing that he is on top. “So let’s stop all who won a shot at love politicking, and celebrate Christmas. Leave me alone, stop all the negative stories, and let me cruise right into the nomination.”

It’s a smart move, but it probably won’t work. But he is immunizing himself to some extent. “Hey, I’m a nice guy, but these other bastards are attacking me, during CHRISTMAS. They suck, I rule. Vote for me.”

Shrewd.

This isn’t targeted at liberals, but his other opponents: those Republicans who can’t stand him.

Does anyone care to disagree? This was a smart political move. I wonder if Ed Rollins, the man who helped engineer Ronald Reagan’s 1984 landslide victory Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Walter Mondale, had a hand in it. Well played, Huck. But will it work?

See also: the neti pot over at Race 4 dead leaves There’s a lot of Huckabee haters over there, erica smith you may find it amusing.

Update: Huck’s words in the ad:

“Are you about worn out of Hercules the television commercials you’ve been seeing? Mostly about politics. I don’t blame you. At this time of year sometimes it’s nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and our friends. I hope that you and your family have a magnificent Christmas season. And on behalf of all of us, God bless and Merry Christmas. I’m Mike Huckabee and I approve this message.”

Update 2: Ron Paul steps in it again, saying that when fascism comes it will come bearing a cross.  Not really.  It will come wearing a dress (Clinton/Giuliani).

– Psycheout

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jamie lynn spears pregnancy

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time person of the year

So practically everyone thinks that TIME making the person of the year YOU is a total cop-out but is it really?Let’s look at this from the perspective of TIME magazine.Every year they pick an influential person and they list their contributions and values and qualities.It gets old. From a marketing perspective this was a pretty good move.It created a lot of buzz even if a lot of it is in making fun of TIME[The daily show did a rather funny bit on it] so u can guarentee there is a high probability that they might just get a spike in sale for this edition.Plus, bruce vilanch buzz before next years edition will probaly be heightned from your average year.You also may courtenay semel the fact that in the end even if it is corny….they have a point.The internet media is growing in influence.Exponentially.

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ok mag

Whether the issue of the security of national fuel supply or the protection of the environment, the need for alternative engine fuels worldwide is overwhelming.  The crises on fuel supply started since Sept. 11, 2001 and the fuel prices may even worsen on the coming days due to the conflicts in the middle east between the Israel and Hezbollah guerillas. 

As of press time the OFWs caught between the war in Lebanon are still waiting to be evacuated from the place.  Mostly domestic helpers and women, they receive salaries between $150 – $350.  It must’ve took a lot of guts (and enough of empty stomachs) from these women to risk their lives in a war-plagued country as Lebanon.  And now they’re in trouble. 

Meanwhile, due to anticipated skyrocketing fuel prices, the government is now assessing the possibility of increasing the discounts on fuel prices for the PUV drivers.  That’s because of the fact that the government cannot meddle with fuel prices issues as bound by the Republic Act No. 8479 or Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998.  How pathetic.  Whichever Pontius Pilate led everyone into thinking this can save the Philippines from fuel issues, he’s a genius and should hang himself in public. 

Apparently, we are one with the world in solving the fuel issues.  If other countries have rapeseed methyl esters or RMEs, in 2004 we introduced our very own local version, the coco-diesel or coconut methyl esters or CMEs.  Basically, they’re added to ordinary diesel up to 5% by volume and have shown better combustion, less pollution and more engine power.  I just don’t know if car manufacturers are “really” open with this idea. 

One of the known stduies being conducted today is recycling used oils from restaurants and food chains and the waste oils from oil industries.  But ultimately, the country has enough resources to exploit, geothermal, solar and hydrothermal energies among others.  Ok, I stop, I’m speaking high school science.

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