Equality

Last night I participated in a Meet the Candidate forum and a reporter from the online newspaper, Patch, was there. This morning I went online to see if there was anything about the session.  There was not, but I did find an article that was of interest which talked about the 10 most LGBT Employment-friendly states.  They are (in order): California (naturally), Connecticut, Iowa (really?), Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.  Now, you might wonder why I, a straight woman, would care about this.

I do care about it and I think everyone should.  America has always touted themselves as the home of the free and we are not free until everyone one of us as the same rights as everyone else.  In Pennsylvania, it is still legal to fire someone because they are gay.  HB300 is a bill that would change all that but it has been languishing in committee and with this current administration probably won't come out this session. If you don't think that is more important than the economy or the environment, you are wrong.  Having an employment friendly state affects our bottom line.  People will come here for jobs.  People will come here to live, and they will spend their money here.  Our economy will be stronger because of it.

Additionally, Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers.  One of the fundamental practices of that religion is acceptance and it is unthinkable that we should not have a commonwealth were acceptance is the norm.  Yes, that was a long time ago, but the standards should remain the same.  If we as a Commonwealth begin to practice the same acceptance, it will benefit us all.

Living off the Grid

I have recently become aware of the term "prepper".  It is the name for anyone who is preparing for the apocalypse, or at least a change in life as we know it.  They know how to grow their own food, build their own shelter, and basically live very simply. I recently read an article about a man who left the world as we know it and live without modern day conveniences.  In this article he talks about how he survived and what he did to substitute certain things that we all have come to depend on.

I am not sure that I would totally go this route, but it does make sense to learn how to fend for yourself without the conveniences of just in case something should happen.  For example I don't totally eschew electricity, but I do try to use as little as possible simply for cost cutting measures.  We have done well, my husband and I, because recently I found out how much our neighbor's electricity bill was and we were at least a third less and that is taking into account that we have only two people to their five people living in the house.

The article was very interesting and goes to show the inventiveness that people can employ when they get into a situation where they need to handle something unfamiliar.  But I think that everyone should know certain things so that they can survive if a calamity should occur.  It may not mean living off the grid, but it could save your life.

Messing Up

I have never really been a person who has a great aptitude for attention to detail and sometimes it really gets me in trouble.  I recently made a mistake that was kind of really bad.  It didn't alter the universe but it could lead to some confusion and I felt really bad about it.  I had depended on another person to proof the work before it went out, but that person also did not catch it. I really caught heck for it.

Some people are born with attention to detail; I was not.  Everyone has a certain set of talents and sometimes one has to go a whole lifetime to discover them.  Grandma Moses only started painting in her seventies and there are other stories of how people "suddenly" acquire a new talent that shocks the world.  I do look at life as a series of discoveries about oneself as we are always emerging, always growing. Furthermore, it is never to late to make corrections in your life.  Attention to detail though has always been my albatross.

I looked up ways to improve my attention to detail. I thought it is never to learn something new to help me get better.  I came across a site called Lumosity which promises to exercise your brain. They say you can increase your skills by just play a few games online each day.  It is a fun way to spend a few minutes, no doubt, but I don't know if it will make a difference, but I will try.  Of course to "get the full potential" you have to pay for the premium package. For now, I will stick to the free program and see what happens.