Happy Chinese New Year! It is the Year of the Metal Ox, and today’s writing will be my personal notes on my horoscopes for the year of the Ox, which starts today on February 12th. 2021, and ends January 31st, 2021. I am a Metal Pig, and, the following are what the Chinese zodiac horoscopes hold in store for me that peaked my interest most, as read from the following top three Google search results with sign specific horoscopes written in decent English:
money
For How Much Would You Sell Your Instagram Handle?
Recently, I got an offer to buy one of the Instagram handles I have. I have a handful because they are themed on my different hobbies, with my obsession to keep my world organized, rather than having one Instagram with “everything” in it and no way to sort it. I don’t know if the offer was serious or not, but it led me to think about an interesting question. How much would I want for this Ode To Toy Instagram handle, given the history and attachment I have with it? Go through the consequences with me and think about your Instagram account, or if you had one, and see what answer you come up with for your situation!
Money, Happiness, and Psychotherapy
On today’s No Stupid Questions podcast, there was mention of a study on the value of psychotherapy where the study authors (not the podcasters), stated psychotherapy had no value, and arrogantly added, therefore, all the studies that showed psychotherapy had value were now in question. I’ll address that arrogance later, but in the meanwhile, I’ll address the problem with that study’s bias that the podcasters, economist Stephen Dubner and psychologist, Angela Duckworth, didn’t fully reconcile, to my surprise.
The Many Benefits of Buying Discounted Old Groceries
When I’m enter my local groceries store, the first place I head is the breads, fruits, and vegetables sections, where I look for items on 50% discount because they have to be consumed “soon”. I head there first because pending what is on discount for almost immediate consumption, that will influence what else I will or won’t be buying to a large extent. I might as well know what my new shopping parameters are rather than having to put things back later when I discover these discounted items and give them priority. It’s a system that has worked well for me, and for many reasons far beyond the obvious savings.
Donating some Shopping Savings as “Random” Acts of Kindness
In some places, you can find people asking for money outside of stores, including grocery stores. Halifax is one of them. I’m not a fan of giving them money, to be honest, because I am not sure where that money ends up being spent. Yes, that’s judgmental because I worry about not being approving of it if I knew. But I’ll firmly defend that with it’s my money and I’ll do with I want with it. I might note, though, that I am just as judgmental towards giving money to bigger charities that do things like hosts lavish celebration parties they reached their goals, or pay their CEOs exorbitant salaries in the eyes of most.
All that judgment doesn’t mean I don’t give to others. I just take a different approach than most, one that requires more work, to know or plan on how to spend that money in ways I approve of. I work hard for it and save it, and I’m not about to give it away so people can become reckless with it, possibly even harming themselves rather than helping that thwarts my good intentions in the first place. If good intentions were bricks on the road to Hell, then I’ll make sure I lay them, not have others lay them on my behalf, thank you very much!
Digital Citizen 