I'd be much more onboard with that idea if I produced practical consumer goods rather than something ephemeral that people only seem to have money for when the economy is doing well.

I'm one to talk. I joked with my graduate school friends back when that we could walk the streets with signs that said "I will do literature reviews for food."

Although I probably could help someone set up a wifi network - that is probably a skill I do have that I could charge people for.

I'd have to learn to do practical things and things that your average person values (as opposed to being a niche resource in a knowledgeable area, where I still have to spend time educating the oddest people).

I'd be much more onboard with that idea if I produced practical consumer goods rather than something ephemeral that people only seem to have money for when the economy is doing well.

Oh, man, yes. The only things I have to barter with are fiction about interstellar explorers (or classic children's novel protagonists), or baked goods. And if the zombie apocalypse happens, I don't think we'll have enough sugar to bake with anymore.

...although I suppose my climbing skills could come in handy: I could climb onto buildings to help shoot at the zombies from a distance.

In other news, because I am a complete weenie w/rt confrontation, I sent a carefully-worded apology this morning regarding the spat I had with My Nemesis yesterday. I apologized for losing my temper, but not for having insulted her, since I only said the truth.

I am now aglow in the righteous light of the moral high ground. We'll see how long it lasts. Perhaps I need a donut to continue glowing.

The argument seems to be that since s/he'd be sleeping for a number of those hours, they shouldn't count. Also, she's a single mother and this is all she can afford. There are so many issues here, and I honestly sympathize, but none of it adds up to $5/hour being okay.

Yeah, I can honestly see all of it, but COME ON. What the rest of you people already said.

ION, I am currently working on a JavaScript file called packaged.js. Package.js deals a lot with the DOM (Document Object Model).

Slashing various include files makes my job more interesting.

wrt the babysitter, this is why people move near family members/support systems. Also why being part of a community (church/cultural group/tightknit neighborhood)is such a HUGE thing.

Right -- you can ask your friend to sleep at your house and not pay much, but an employee? No.

I don't get why people think they can effectively cheat a child care worker out of a living wage. I think it's ok to negotiate to what you can afford, but that shit is just criminal.

I had a pair of sisters (10 and 12) babysit for Owen and Olivia on a trial run for a few hours and when I took them home, I had to stop and get cash from an ATM to pay them. They looked shocked, "You mean you're going to PAY us?" Yes. $7/hour each.

re: bride's horse. I bet they thought that draft horse would be calm.

Clearly it wasn't used to crowds and yelling.

I have been thinking lately that I wish we (in American, at least in the non-coastal areas) could go back to having neighborhoods. In Rochester, no one lives near where they work. And then there are really very few stores in the city. Plus, there really aren't any new people here, so after the white flight to the suburbs, neighborhood building seems to just move the same people around. And there are still no grocery stores in many parts of the city. It seems like if there were more, smaller, stores that people could get to, there would be more jobs. But I think they might have to be subsidized for awhile to work.

Of course, there are some places where businesses exist- there is one sort of chi-chi neighborhood (that is just emptying out the other one...) that has a small grocery store, coffee shops, bars, clothing stores, etc. And one of the more run down sections of town has a corner store AND a liquor store every few blocks. But there are just large parts of the city with nothing, and no affordable part that I can find that has an easy bus or walking to a grocery store, a bank, a pharmacy, a liquor store and a restaurant.