Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
There is always another choice.
Welcome dear reader to the Dreamworx Project.
What is "The Dreamworx Project" all about? With everything that's been happening lately in the economic/political front, people seem to be looking for "something to do". I say you're going about this all wrong. It's not about doing more, it's about doing less. Less of the harmful, thoughtless, time wasting, energy sucking, money grubbing things that got us into the mess in the first place. We have been doing too much and need to do a great deal less.
How do we do that? Well, I have come across some well written, very articulate articles online as of late, that do a great job of outlining how we can all work towards doing less.
The first and perhaps the best one (IMHO) is "10 Ways to Screw Over the Corporate Jackals Who've Been Screwing You" by Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted December 19, 2009.
He lists some of the very things that I have "not" been doing over the last decade or more.
First - got rid of my car. I live in Toronto, where public transit is reliable for the most part and priced for the average working person.
"But what about if you want to go out of town, road trip or vacation?" you ask? That's what rental car companies are for. Let's say that the cost, including gas for this road trip costs $500 for a week, that's all it is costing me. Come the end of my trip, I return the car to the rental company and I go on with life. No worries, no stress, no insurance, no mortgage, no problems.
A number of years ago, the big cable company (Rogers) did something that tipped the scales for me. It wasn't bad enough that there was nothing worth watching on TV, they decided to strive for title of "greediest corporation in Canada" with their "opt out" pricing. What this meant was that they would automatically upgrade your cable bill with the new packages, and if you didn't want it, YOU had to call them up to cancel it, or "opt out". Well, that was it for me, I swore on that day that they would not get another penny out of me. Cancelled my cable and haven't had it since. I have a television, a small one, and rabbit ears. I get 5-9 channels depending on the weather and how I fine tune the set, but that gets me all the news, weather and general info I want. No cost, no fuss, no muss. For the shows that I can't get that way, well, that 's what DVDs, and the internet are for.
A again, a few years ago, I found myself spending way too much time checking 3 different telephone voice messages. My work landline, my cell and my home landline. Well, that had to stop. So, I got rid of the landline. I don't pay for my work phone, so that's fine, and besides, when I have to make some personal call that requires me to be on "ignore" for any length of time, don't want to spend precious cell minutes doing it. Also, I have opted for the "pay as you go" option and that way I don't have huge cell bills at the end of the month. I am in control of my phone, not the other way around.
Credit cards are the devil. I don't say this lightly, I have way too much personal experience with these little devils. Give them back, you don't need them. I have opted for a charge card. Besides, why should I be forced to use Visa or Mastercard or whatever? If a merchant wants my money, they better be ready to accept cash, in person, or I walk. That's right! I have the power, not them. They want to do business, they do it my way. If for my own reasons I choose to use a paying instrument like Visa, I buy a prepaid card. I am spending my money, not theirs. So, no interest or headaches with theft and stuff. Again, my way or no way.
Avoid CDs and DVDs. Done!! In Canada we have paid for the right to trade music, videos, entertainment because a decade or so ago the industry pressured Ottawa to tax blank CDs, DVDs and tapes and give the money to the corporate buggers. Well, Ottawa went one better, "sure, we'll tax the people but in return they are paying and therefore entitled to trade them not for profit". The short-sighted, money-grubbing, little tweerps went for it. Now they are crying "fowl" we want more!! Ottawa's response? Too bad, you can't have your cake, eat it and take the person's next to you. HA!!!
Stop newspapers, magazines and anything else that fills your head with negative, hate filled, stress-inducing nonsense designed solely for the purpose of scaring you into buying crap you don't need "or the terrorists win". OMG!! I can't believe what some people are able to utter with a straight face!
Stop buying bottled water. I don't know about the quality of the tap water where you live, but in Toronto, it's better tested then bottled water. For the whole picture, here's a great illustration. Online education.
"Garbage in, garbage out". Stop watching and listening to whining, corporate shells telling you why you should be afraid of your neighbour and how shopping at the mall will "defeat the terrorists". You know who they are, Rush, Lou, you know them. Luckily we don't have nearly the same overwhelming diatribe here in Canada, eh? ;)
It's not sticking your head in the sand to use your brain to do some critical thinking about what you are being told. You know crap when you hear it from your 5 year old, so why put up with it from pundits who are paid to keep you in fright and occupied with the non-sense so you don't have the time and capacity to scrutinize what the polical and economic animals are really doing to us.
Well, there are some others mentioned that don't apply to us in Canada, like the two party system. My solution to that is, I have never registered to vote. Not locally, or nationally. I say, give me a real choice between candidates and I will vote. But asking me to pick betweent the liar, the cheat and the womanizer, is pointless.
If you are looking for more reasons to "screw them over" here is a great article by Les Leopold Wall Street's lies.
Don't forget the power of one. We might be nothing individually, but enough of us band together, we CAN and SHALL change things for the better.
What is "The Dreamworx Project" all about? With everything that's been happening lately in the economic/political front, people seem to be looking for "something to do". I say you're going about this all wrong. It's not about doing more, it's about doing less. Less of the harmful, thoughtless, time wasting, energy sucking, money grubbing things that got us into the mess in the first place. We have been doing too much and need to do a great deal less.
How do we do that? Well, I have come across some well written, very articulate articles online as of late, that do a great job of outlining how we can all work towards doing less.
The first and perhaps the best one (IMHO) is "10 Ways to Screw Over the Corporate Jackals Who've Been Screwing You" by Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted December 19, 2009.
He lists some of the very things that I have "not" been doing over the last decade or more.
First - got rid of my car. I live in Toronto, where public transit is reliable for the most part and priced for the average working person.
"But what about if you want to go out of town, road trip or vacation?" you ask? That's what rental car companies are for. Let's say that the cost, including gas for this road trip costs $500 for a week, that's all it is costing me. Come the end of my trip, I return the car to the rental company and I go on with life. No worries, no stress, no insurance, no mortgage, no problems.
A number of years ago, the big cable company (Rogers) did something that tipped the scales for me. It wasn't bad enough that there was nothing worth watching on TV, they decided to strive for title of "greediest corporation in Canada" with their "opt out" pricing. What this meant was that they would automatically upgrade your cable bill with the new packages, and if you didn't want it, YOU had to call them up to cancel it, or "opt out". Well, that was it for me, I swore on that day that they would not get another penny out of me. Cancelled my cable and haven't had it since. I have a television, a small one, and rabbit ears. I get 5-9 channels depending on the weather and how I fine tune the set, but that gets me all the news, weather and general info I want. No cost, no fuss, no muss. For the shows that I can't get that way, well, that 's what DVDs, and the internet are for.
A again, a few years ago, I found myself spending way too much time checking 3 different telephone voice messages. My work landline, my cell and my home landline. Well, that had to stop. So, I got rid of the landline. I don't pay for my work phone, so that's fine, and besides, when I have to make some personal call that requires me to be on "ignore" for any length of time, don't want to spend precious cell minutes doing it. Also, I have opted for the "pay as you go" option and that way I don't have huge cell bills at the end of the month. I am in control of my phone, not the other way around.
Credit cards are the devil. I don't say this lightly, I have way too much personal experience with these little devils. Give them back, you don't need them. I have opted for a charge card. Besides, why should I be forced to use Visa or Mastercard or whatever? If a merchant wants my money, they better be ready to accept cash, in person, or I walk. That's right! I have the power, not them. They want to do business, they do it my way. If for my own reasons I choose to use a paying instrument like Visa, I buy a prepaid card. I am spending my money, not theirs. So, no interest or headaches with theft and stuff. Again, my way or no way.
Avoid CDs and DVDs. Done!! In Canada we have paid for the right to trade music, videos, entertainment because a decade or so ago the industry pressured Ottawa to tax blank CDs, DVDs and tapes and give the money to the corporate buggers. Well, Ottawa went one better, "sure, we'll tax the people but in return they are paying and therefore entitled to trade them not for profit". The short-sighted, money-grubbing, little tweerps went for it. Now they are crying "fowl" we want more!! Ottawa's response? Too bad, you can't have your cake, eat it and take the person's next to you. HA!!!
Stop newspapers, magazines and anything else that fills your head with negative, hate filled, stress-inducing nonsense designed solely for the purpose of scaring you into buying crap you don't need "or the terrorists win". OMG!! I can't believe what some people are able to utter with a straight face!
Stop buying bottled water. I don't know about the quality of the tap water where you live, but in Toronto, it's better tested then bottled water. For the whole picture, here's a great illustration. Online education.
"Garbage in, garbage out". Stop watching and listening to whining, corporate shells telling you why you should be afraid of your neighbour and how shopping at the mall will "defeat the terrorists". You know who they are, Rush, Lou, you know them. Luckily we don't have nearly the same overwhelming diatribe here in Canada, eh? ;)
It's not sticking your head in the sand to use your brain to do some critical thinking about what you are being told. You know crap when you hear it from your 5 year old, so why put up with it from pundits who are paid to keep you in fright and occupied with the non-sense so you don't have the time and capacity to scrutinize what the polical and economic animals are really doing to us.
Well, there are some others mentioned that don't apply to us in Canada, like the two party system. My solution to that is, I have never registered to vote. Not locally, or nationally. I say, give me a real choice between candidates and I will vote. But asking me to pick betweent the liar, the cheat and the womanizer, is pointless.
If you are looking for more reasons to "screw them over" here is a great article by Les Leopold Wall Street's lies.
Don't forget the power of one. We might be nothing individually, but enough of us band together, we CAN and SHALL change things for the better.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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