Blogaround

1. Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $1 billion over his Sandy Hook lies. Will he? (October 14) 

2. ‘God’s perfect timing’? Evangelists cancel Florida event after hurricane (October 11) "But instead of acknowledging the error on their end, and instead of admitting that God’s 'perfect plan' wasn’t so perfect after all, and instead of apologizing for saying the event would not be cancelled, the two evangelists are just moving forward as if they never made the earlier announcement."

I have feelings about this because I definitely was in situations, back when I was evangelical, where people made these big grandiose statements about how this or that was going to happen because God wanted it to, and it was going to be AMAZING, and then the thing didn't happen and nobody ever mentioned it again. There was no "when we said X would happen because God willed it, we were wrong, let's think about what that means- why were we wrong, and how should we change our behavior going forward so we don't make these big bold proclamations that turn out to be wrong?"

I guess looking at the situation honestly and realistically like that would be "lack of faith" or something.

3. Pastor who gave kids ‘I ❤️ hot youth pastors’ stickers placed on leave (October 9) "NOPE NOPE NOPE. What church is this? They must be publicly shamed to oblivion."

4. Reading Elementary as a Nonromantic Love Story (October 12) "Sherlock Holmes is characterized as someone who only very infrequently dates people, who is generally suspicious of romance, and who frequently has sex that’s got nothing to do with romance. Joan Watson is characterized as someone who makes an effort to go on dates but ultimately realizes that romantic scripts are distasteful to her. In contrast to their scattered, short-lived romantic entanglements, the show centers on the relationship between the two of them, which grows into a committed partnership while remaining nonromantic."

5. Micro-Dosing Nostalgia With China’s Miniature Modelers (October 13) "Hundreds of millions of people who grew up in traditional village homes left for cities, or moved into modern houses and high -rises in redeveloped villages. Often, their original homes have been demolished, victims of China’s relentless rural development."

6. Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid in ‘Harry Potter’ films, dead at 72 (October 14)

7. Top Dinner Suggestions According to a Three-Year-Old’s Eating Habits (2019) "Around the edges of a cheeseburger without ever actually biting into the meat"

8. Is it normal to think of money in different "contexts"? (2012) "Say I'm going on a date - depending on the place, I've got a rough idea of how much it's going to cost. Say $100 for the two of us. But if we get an extra glass of wine, or a different main course, or whatever, it could be $120 or even $150. This to me is kind of irrelevant. I wouldn't want to buy the most expensive bottle of wine and end up spending $500, but $100, $120, $130? - it's all the same. Now consider that I had to take a long subway ride to get there, and wanted to bring the magazine I was reading, but I didn't want to hold that or put it on the table during the meal. It cost about $5, and I could have just thrown it away and bought another copy later. That $5 should be inconsequential, right? Especially when I really don't care either way if I spend $100 or $140 on the date."

I think about this A LOT. It feels like, psychologically, the things that people focus on in terms of where it is or isn't a good idea to spend money aren't actually the things that, looking at the big picture logically, make an actual difference.

For example, maybe I'm excited because I got 1% cash back from my credit card company, oooh they are depositing $25 in my bank account, hooray! Wow, 25 dollars! Awesome! That's 25 dollars I didn't have before! Yes! But uh, I got this $25 because I spent $2500 with the credit card- perhaps I could look through those purchases and find ways to reduce them such that I spend $25 less. But somehow, that doesn't feel as exciting as getting $25 back from the credit card company. (And a big part of this is that that's how the credit card company wants you to feel- they benefit when you see it as a good thing to spend enough money to get a good-sized "cash back.")

Personally- and this is because I am from a really privileged background, and I always heard about how important it is to save money and not spend on things you don't need, like going out to dinner, but there was never any actual risk that we wouldn't have enough money for our basic needs- when I spend money on something that I feel is "too expensive", I kind of feel vaguely guilty about it, but then nothing bad actually happens. Or, I get in the habit of eating out at restaurants- which, over the course of 1 month, adds up to a lot, but since it's just a little bit every day I don't really pay attention to it- but then if I buy some little thing like for example cookie cutters, thinking that I'm totally going to bake cookies, and then I don't bake cookies, and see the cookie cutters sitting there, never used, I will feel bad about "wasting money" on them, even though every week I spend money here and there without being careful about it, that adds up to more than the cost of the cookie cutters.

A good way to view one's budget, I think, is: there are long term things where we need to set aside x amount of dollars each month, and the rest of our income we use for whatever normal daily expenses we have. I don't subdivide the "everyday" expenses into further categories, because then you start playing ridiculous games about "I shouldn't spend money on a taxi because we don't have enough money in the 'transportation' budget- even though getting a taxi would benefit me A LOT more than that snack I bought yesterday with the 'food' budget, which cost more than the taxi would cost" and just causing yourself a lot of anxiety over things that don't actually matter.

9. Biden wants to let gig workers be employees. Here’s why it matters. (October 17)