Where have all the writers gone?
Dow at lowest levels in 11 years.Since the election, I've been pretty quiet here at Mayor Sam's, only penning one article. That article proudly declared that I had returned from my self-imposed isolation after the recent election. Well, unfortunately I didn't actually return and frankly, I've been feeling guilty about it. Then I viewed our current front page. I don't know how he does it, but every article was written by our founder Michael Higby himself. Guilt evaporated!
This site has since its inception provided a creative and influential outlet for writers and political activists, and now with none but special elections remaining, many of us have found ourselves either disinterested (not me) or just juggling and struggling to survive in our everyday lives (definitely me and a few others). That got me to thinking: we've all had to make sacrifices in one form or another during these economic hard times, regardless of where we are on the ladder, so specifically what hobbies and leisure activities have people been forced to give up and why?
Maybe you had to give up golf because it was too expensive? Maybe you find yourself forced to give up your weekends to make ends meet? I just recently read that it's becoming more typical for people to work 7-day weeks. I've even seen a story about a 70-something man who had his retirement account wiped out and is working as a greeter at Wal-Mart to survive. Yikes! No rest for the weary I guess.
So what's your story? This is my gift to you: a thread on which to commiserate. How has this recession/depression affected you? What have you had to sacrifice? How did you get through it? Do you have any tips/tricks for saving money for the rest of us? Maybe, like me, you want to sound off against the bailout and the stimulus (which I will do when I next get the time)? Take this thread and run with it boys and girls, and remember that you're not in this alone!
In my case I haven't been blogging because I can't find a lot of time and don't make a lot of money (and yes, they most certainly are the same thing). I honestly never really know when I will be able to sit long enough to write one of my normally verbose and occasionally convoluted dissertations. Since I'm not well-versed in my L.A. politics and am also completely disinterested in the contrived and seemingly endless, cyclic OC soap opera, I'll probably write an occasional serious piece covering state or national issues sandwiched between conversation posts like this one and short commentaries and media clips on notable topics.
We're all economizing. Remember, time is money. I'm trying to save, so what's changed for you?
SMS
Labels: recession
Posted by Sarah Michelle Spinosa @ 2/25/2009 03:00:00 AM
15 Comments:
To save money I quit drinking at bars which sell $6.00-$8.00 barcardi and coke cocktails, now I go to low end (dive bars) where I can buy drinks for $3.50-$4.00.
I was contemplating an attempt at going without after work drinks, but I would probably have become very depressed or commited suicide, so it's cheap dive bars for me.
"...this site has since its inception provided a creative and influential outlet for we writers and political activists..."
"provided an outlet for WE?"
If you are going to call yourself a writer, please learn how to write correctly.
"provided an outlet for US writers...." would be correct in this instance.
8:12 I have a nice freeway for you to play on.
Christ almighty. Your life must be really empty.
higby, you are the creepiest guy.
how many years are you short of hitting the big 5-0, and yet your postings in defense of this nitwit girl come across, how shall we say, like those of a creepy uncle.
812 is exactly right. if this young girl continues to present herself as a blogger, yet doesn't know how bad she screws up the language, she has to be able to handle it on her own, without creepy white boy higby being, well, CREEPY!
Mary your sickness continues. Your doctor should tell you to stop blogging.
Apparently you're confusing Sarah with Maia. Sarah's not old but I think she's past the young girl stage.
Calm down.
At some point you'll disagree with the ideas in posts rather than calling the writers names. Your sickness is a very tragic thing.
In noting the time the writing was posted, it appears that somebody is will to write and create through the wee hours of the morning.
Ms. Spinosa, if she feels the need to write, should just write. It shouldn't matter who many folks read or even appreciate her writing, but like many other creative types, writers write because they simply have to.
I know I don't write very well on any of my six blogs, but there are folks in power and who have influence that read my writings on two of my blogs.
I actually don't much care if many of my blogs are read by many because they are specialized and territorial.
www.pontevista.blogspot.com and www.sanpedroissuestoponder.blogspot.com are very long and contain a great amount of information and details.
I welcome comment with the understanding that I am not now a real writer and I have no training in the craft/art of writing.
But if folks feel the need to express themselves through writing as opposed to painting, music, sports, or other forms of expression, all of those things meet the needs of many people who must express themselves for whatever reason.
We write because it is somewhere in our brains that we feel the need to write, so we do.
If others read what we write, that may be a good thing.
If what we write is only read by ourselves, then at least one person will read what is written.
So, go ahead and write Sarah. If your creations are read, that is fine. If they are enjoyed, that is better, and if you receive positive feedback, that may be the best.
Everything else should come out in the wash......as long as we can afford to do the wash.
Shout @ the Cuckoo Hater, The Old Mattress, The Nutty Furry who persists in personally attacking Higby, Zuma, Maia and Sarah and who attacked Debbie and Mailander before they left the blog.
Get an effin life bitch.
It's good to see you contributing to MS again, Sarah Michelle Spinosa. I for one am impressed at how you stick to your strong Libertarian principles even in hard time. That takes guts. Please keep posting and ignore the Hater.
Wow! Welcome back Sarah!
8:12 & 9:47: It's 'We the people,' not 'us the people.' If my writing style goes over your head, please check out perezhilton.com. Thanks!
As far as my age, I recently turned 30, so Higby is right on: not young, not old. But again, thanks for playing.
To those who spoke up in my defense, thank you. I'm glad you read my material. If some of the other commenters don't like it, then they don't have to read it... but they always do don't they? ;)
So again I ask a very serious question: what cutbacks have people had to make in this recession? If this was a question asked on the CNN website, many of you would comment, so let's not play 'Keep-away' with the important material and actually try to have a productive dialogue without all that misogynistic territorial pissing, shall we?
SMS
Sarah Michelle whatever:
It's We the People but not when We the People would be the OBJECT of the sentence. We the People love to write but the site would not be an outlet for We the People. It would be an outlet for US the people.
Please. Do not argue 7th grade grammar if you don't know it well enough.
Your "writing style" goes "over my head?" You wish it could. Actually your "writing style" is just bad.
And Higby - "...a nice freeway on which to play."
Since you dragged it out of me, my son's birthday party. He wanted it at the bowling alley. There's just no way we could do it. We're having it at home. I feel terrible telling it, as there are so many worse off than we are. Still, it's tough to deny your kids something like a party that they want so badly.
It was necessaru for me to cut back on election donations and most of all charities. I saw Zuma Dogg on my way to City Hall, where I work. He needed money for food and a new pair of pants to continue his advocacy for WE THE PEOPLE. I gave him what I could, but it was very little. Far less than he deserved.
HELLO ETHICS. COME AND GET ME LIKE THE HATER OF SARAH AND ZUMA SAYS. I GAVE ZUMA DOGG MONEY TO BUY PANTS.
I'm the worst one of all so far. I haven't cut one single thing. I'm just living the same life that I used to have and running up credit cards. You've shocked me into reality here and now I feel guilty and stupid.
However, I did learn a lesson and a valuable one at that.
4:46 - I still contend it was a stylistic choice, but if it makes you feel better, I have removed the word entirely. Whatever.
Now with that out of the way, when are you going to stop heckling and just answer the question? Would it really kill you to contribute?! Besides, didn't your momma ever tell you what not to do when you have nothing nice to say?
SMS
I've cut back on everything. No more going out for much of anything, pizza or Del Taco $3 meal deals is about as good as a dinner out gets now. No more trips to the shooting range, no more orange juice, Sunny D for me, cable not movies, coupons, coupons, coupons, and only drive where I have to, no more sightseeing trips. At least my truck will be paid off next month so there's some bright spot in the future, but then it needs some repairs I've put off too. (figures, just when the payments run out)
Plus like you, I’ve cut way back on blogging. No time, no motivation, since the idiots are running the asylum now. I hate the current political and economic climate, both of which seem to be totally clueless and in most cases leaderless, other than the national devotion to the new messianic O. (did they pass out lithium to all of them or what?) Between cap & trade, the enormous new debt load, higher taxes on day to day goods and services, the small bone thrown to us by the feds in tax code, then offset by the idiots in Sacramento, we have everything to fear for the future.
Let’s cut back on political staff’s and their other perks, that should be the first place “we” cut back. Make them work for their money, maybe even read what they sign before they sign it. That might actually make a bigger difference in all out lives than anything else we could cut back on.
Good to see you back to writing, it's therapeutic if nothing else!
Grog
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