...but became sick of looking at all the cool stuff I don't have...observing as an outsider....so I spent almost $50 of the $72 (10%) I was originally planning on giving back to God as The Bible says to do. The problem was compounded by a lack of knowing what the hell "10%" is...I'm pretty sure either the 10% thingy doesn't apply to me OR 10% of my $ is actually $81, b/c the CASH I receive (rent, utilities etc. etc. and beyond) is $732, but I also receive a monthly $83 in food stamps. Yeah, food stamps are not money, but try telling all the retailers that accept food stamps. The # of retailers that let "lazy freeloadin'" welfare recipients "take" from their store has done nothing but increase over the past 10 years. Why? It's because the gov't pays them cash in exchange for the consumers' food purchases. Yes, it's not "real" money in the sense that I can do whatever dumb frivolous thing I want with it. But anybody in their right mind is either going to need food or going to want food. People often criticize the system saying you can't eat healthy food on food stamps. That is total bull. Sure, you can't stockpile on steak or hamburger, but you can eat 3 meals a day and still be healthy. You can buy whole grain bread, veggies, beans, eggs....the only thing I can see people having a problem with is the small qtys a person would be limited to if they didn't have any additional income. I generally spend $130-$150 on groceries in a month and half of that is wasted on my destructively insatiable appetite. $80 or so is covered w/ food stamps.
So, in short, to dismiss that $80 as part of my monetary possession is to basically act as an ungrateful snot. It'd be one thing if there was something I really really wanted and needed to buy it. But that is simply not the case. The closest thing to something I really really want that would require me to forgo the 10% offering to God would be a home theater or stereo system of some kind. But that could very well be problematic, given the fact that my house does not isolate or keep in sound very well (I sometimes fear the neighbors can hear it when me and my mother argue).
But anyway; as I was saying -- ugh. I do have a CD arriving from Japan that I had been thinking about buying for the past 2+ years and continually hemming & hawing about buying...the brand new ones are usually at least $30, more often than not $35+, and, I don't know how long this has been the case, but lately there's been a crop of used ones popping up, hovering between the $25 mark + S&H, but most of them are being sold by sellers with a less than stellar reputation and not even claiming the item to be in "like new" condition, which is troublesome, given that the OBI, a high selling point for collectors, should I ever need or want to re-sell it, is probably not present from what I've read online about Japanese CDs...Another thing that makes it a tough sell is the songs are basically just remixed versions of songs I've already heard a million times. The remixing does enhance the songs, I know this b/c I've heard this album on a site that I no longer go to b/c I kept getting "site unsafe" notifications when using the Chrome browser. The CD is available domestically, but only as part of a $100+ boxed set.
Actually, first I bought a gift card for Amazon.com at Dollar General, valued at $39, then I had to spend it on Amazon despite how much I wished I could take it back for a refund. ABC Gift Cards and Cardpool etc., don't offer very much for Amazon gift cards for some crazy reason. And I do shop @ Amazon pretty regularly even though my total amount spent there each month is usually less than $20...I mean, sometimes I'll spend $40 or $50, but end up getting $20 or more of that refunded b/c some lazy opportunist seller is offering a CD I want and grading it like "very good" or "like new" when the case and/or cover-art are in horrendous shape. I realize it's not uncommon for people to treat their stuff like it's trash and it's not important bla bla bla, but if you can't keep your stuff in VERY good condition, then it shouldn't be described as such. "Good" aka "good enough" is exactly what it sounds like "It looks like trash, but it's good enough!" Surprisingly, a lot of people get panicked when they hear that a DVD or CD has scratches on it. I always go "why???" A CD or DVD is not going to have playback problems just b/c it has a scratch or two on it. I've seen CDs that look like they've been brushed with sandpaper and they still played w/o a hitch on my CD and/or DVD player(s) that I was using at that time(s). People who are offering a CD that has no cover-art offer their stuff as "Like new". Yeah, it plays w/o problems. Why wouldn't it? A lot of playback glitches will become apparent if you take a used/abused CD and start using it on a different CD or DVD player. That I understand. But most CDs that have 2 or 3 marks do not end up effected by this unless you're using a really high grade CD player. Most people aren't.
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