Favorite YouTube Channels: The Sociology Edition

I love YouTube.  I learn so many things watching people's videos (we've saved a ton of money on household and car repairs by simply watching how-to videos on YouTube), of course there are the random time-suck videos and the doom scrolling videos, but my favorite kind of videos are sociology-related.  These are the kind of videos that give you a glimpse into people's lives that are way different than the average person's everyday life.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Soft White Underbelly.  The host interviews all kinds of people on his channel.  The homeless, sex workers, drug addicts, mafia hitmen...pretty much anyone who lives on the fringes of society.
• Special Books By Special Kids.  The host interviews disabled kids and adults to learn what it is like to have special needs/take care of a kid with special needs.  His interview style is so sweet and kind!
• Matt Cullin.  Matt interviews people in the LGBT community in such a kind and compassionate way.
• The Epoch of Friar Tuck.  The host gives a lot of good insight into living a homeless lifestyle.
• Kirsten Dirksen:  Kirsten interviews people who live in unconventional ways and in unconventional places.  The people she interviews are sooo fascinating!
• Exploring Alternatives: Ditto
• Peter Santenello:  Peter goes all over the world interviewing people of all kinds--gang members, Native Americans who live on reservations, people who live in isolated corners of the world, etc.
• Max Fosh:  This guy does crazy stuff that the average person wouldn't dare try.  He's hilarious!
• Midwest Magic Cleaning:  The host cleans hoarder houses...for free.  His videos are part eeekkk and part wow!

Paid Off!

We paid off our house today!  And unlike the other houses we paid off in the past there is no way we will have the mindset we had back then, namely, as soon as we paid off a house we would immediately start looking for our next bigger and better house (which meant bigger house payments).  These days, if we can't pay cash for something, we don't buy it and that includes cars and houses.  So for now, we are happy with our newly paid off house and when we do decide to downsize, or buy a single-level house, it will be a cash-only transaction.  

The nice lady at the mortgage company, as soon as she took our last payment, asked if we would be looking at getting a new mortgage soon but before she could finish her sentence, I said "noooo we're debt freee".  And we intend to stay that way!

On an unrelated note, the full moon tonight (see photo above) is the Beaver Moon, the last super moon of the year, and there will also be a meteor shower this weekend!

Happy (Belated) Veteran's Day

I meant to post yesterday but totally forgot! 

Happy Veteran's Day to all of you who have served! Yesterday hubby and I went around and he collected several freebies for veterans.  We skipped the Southpoint buffet because the line was wrapped halfway around the casino and we didn't want to wait in line for two hours just for a free buffet.  Instead he got meals at Wenday, Little Caesars, In and Out Burger, Famous Dave's, and a free haircut (today he is eating much healthier!).

Since when is hamburger so flippin expensive?

Our sunsets are still beautiful...

And it's sad to see Big Lots going out of business...

10 Things from This Week

It's been a busy week!

1. We are a few weeks out from Thanksgiving but many of our neighbors have already decorated for Christmas (see photo above).
2. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day.  While there are many "freebies" available for veterans, hubby and I usually only go to the free Veteran's buffet at the Southpoint Casino.  We also like following a couple we know on Facebook, who are both veterans, get as many freebies as possible--they start in the early morning and post each stop they make clear up until evening...it's fun to see their progress on their annual freebie quest!
3. My meeting last week went great!  I was a bit worried because my boss said "we need to talk" after the meeting and I had no idea what he wanted to talk about (I get literally zero feedback or even an email/call from him for a month or longer so I just do my thing and figure if the Board doesn't like what I am doing, someone will tell me).  He started with "you are doing an amazing job" and ended with asking if I would pick up a multi-year project that may become a model for the entire state.  Of course I said yes because I like big challenges...now I am researching as quickly as possible so I will have some baseline of knowledge when I ramp up work on this.
4. My No Spend November challenge is going great.  I've never had a credit card balance so low, a third of the way through the month.  I think I've spent less than $20 on random things so far this week, and while I always pay if hubby and I go out to lunch or hit up Costco, he is very supportive of my challenge and has picked up everything so far this month.  So far we have skipped major shopping at Costco or Sam's Club, and for the couple of times we have go out to lunch this month, we have opted for the least inexpensive places we know of.
5. If you live in a place prone to natural or other disasters and take your preparedness seriously, here is a good video on preparedness mistakes a YouTuber made when it came to surviving Hurricane Helene.  I learned quite a few things from her video!
6. Our Thanksgiving celebration this year will be our usual low-key holiday dinner with just the hubby and I and maybe his cousin if she doesn't go out of town.  We have bought nearly everything for our meal, then a day or so before Thanksgiving, we go to the deli at the grocery store and get a few thick slices of roast turkey which is much less expensive (and much more manageable) than buying and roasting a whole turkey since there is only the two of us.
7. Mom cat now shows up every morning for breakfast.  I have no idea where she went more than a month.  Very odd.  Now hubby is spoiling her with bacon or some other type of meat which is why she probably keeps coming back!
8. Find more cut cat videos and pictures here, here, and here.  Also here.
9. Here is a good end-of-the-year financial checklist.
10. Finally, some cool, non-cat, pictures.

Moving On...

The last couple of months have been a political nightmare.  This morning was the first time in ages that my text message alert wasn't going off dozens of times a day with political messages, that the YouTube algorithm wasn't filling my feed with doom and gloom political garbage geared towards divisiveness and hate, and that every talk show/FB post/news feed wasn't hammering away on the opposing political candidate.  This morning it seemed like everyone finally took a breath and hopefully(!) we can move forward.  Some positive things today...

• our lemon tree is just about ready to be harvested
• my first meeting went off without a hitch (I'm crossing my fingers for my afternoon meeting which is giving me unsettling vibes for some reason)
• my YouTube feed was showing such an array of non-political stuff today from subscriptions that haven't shown on the feed in ages that it was quite nice, including this nice post from Barry's Analog Insights
• the sun is very bright today (although the temps are in the mid 50s which is very winter-ish weather for us desert dwellers).  Our mountains even got some snow overnight.
• I was able to cancel the fancy anniversary dinner with our friends without any hurt feelings (she helps a lot of families out and she was telling me about sending money to a few families that were having financial problems which is when I segued into saying that we would really prefer that she helps other people during the holiday season and that we would be happier to hit up a local diner to celebrate our anniversary which she agreed with so all is well now)
• the parts to my blender showed up and worked perfectly.  I had no idea you could buy repair parts for something as simple as a blender (we usually just toss small appliances that don't work).  The blender should have several more years of life left now.

Now...onward!

10 Things I am NOT Doing Tomorrow

This is my "not" to do list tomorrow...

1. I will not vote (I already voted by mail a couple weeks ago then checked to make sure my ballot had been received) so I'm done with that.
2. I will not watch the minute-by-minute election news all day tomorrow (mainstream news is so utterly biased, I barely pay attention to it now; considering that six companies own nearly ALL of the news sources in the US, it's no wonder bias and manipulation are the name of the (news) game these days).
3. I will not shop.  I have spent less than $10 so far this month due to my low/no spend challenge.  It's getting difficult, however, as early Black Friday sales are now starting to show up in my feeds!
4. I will not argue Harris policy vs Trump policy with random strangers on the internet (people seem to get cranky when I point out facts--like the fact that the current administration has sent nearly $20 billion to Israel so they could kill 42,000 people in Gaza--instead of, maybe, spending that money on homeless Americans but I digress...).
5. I will not bake anything. I've been baking a lot lately (including the above banana bread that I baked this morning) so we definitely don't need any more baked goods for a while.
6. I will not eat out tomorrow.  Hubby and I have agreed to cut back on eating out this month as part of my "no spend" challenge.  Hubby is being very supportive but I am pretty sure he will get tired of my home cooking before the month is out!
7. I will not drive anywhere tomorrow.  Besides having some work projects to finish up, I try not to go anywhere at least a couple days each week and just stay home (plus the drivers here are absolute lunatics so every time we leave the house it's like jumping into a game of Frogger.  Applicable reddit post on the topic here).
8. I will not hold my breath for a meeting I scheduled Wednesday (I've got some prep work to do tomorrow but it may not be needed).  People have already started to cancel because their jobs will be on high alert after the election (primarily law enforcement, and disaster-related workers).  eeekkk
9. I will not doomscroll.  I have been trying lately to read e-books when I feel like being online instead of scrolling through massively long feeds of nothing but doom and gloom and anger-inducing posts and articles.
10. I will not grumble about how early it gets light now and grumble about how early it gets dark now.  Changing back to daylight standard time takes a bit of getting used to; I popped out of bed at 6am today because of the hour earlier than usual sunshine coming through our windows.

Beautiful Skies

Our evening and morning skies have been so beautiful recently!  p.s. Happy Halloween!

A sunset a few days ago looked like this...

And this morning I had to be up extra early for a meeting and when I looked out the window our sunrise looked like this...