HUHO (since I am too uncreative to think up a better name): This compilation of how-tos, written by you and me, aims to help people with little in the way of resources and expertise get through unfortunate situations relating to money, finances, and bureaucracy.
It will be an open-source document, likely a Word doc wiki?, that can be edited and added to as the contributors see fit. Not only do I want it to include our stories, but I want it to include details, specifics, the steps in the process, what one can expect, what hurdles one may come against, and suggestions for how to get around them. This should be a pragmatic resource that takes a person in need through all the steps and details of the situation at hand. If you know of websites or other resources that include excellent step-by-step instructions, send them along as well. There may be a place for them. The tools for self-betterment are in the details.
Things I have brainstormed include:
- how to get financial aid (think traditional and non-traditional students here)
- how to scrape up money quickly when you’re in a bind
- how to get your money’s worth when your $800 car breaks down
- hell, how to fix X, Y, and Z on your car
- what to expect when you find yourself in a custody battle
- how to find a lawyer, and how to find a good lawyer
- what to bring and what to expect when you sign up for HUD housing or any other sort of public assistance
- how to find healthcare when you don’t have insurance
- how to get a small business off of the ground
- tested, effective home remedies
- cheap (and I mean cheap) recipes that still taste good
- tips for thrift store shopping
- things you can do with your kids that don’t cost anything
- how to get a loan
- how to get a wheelchair for free
- how to budget your money
- how to leave an abusive relationship
- how to entertain some friends without breaking the bank
- how to save on your utility bills
- how to start a babysitting co-op
There are a ton of things I’m sure everyone can contribute — skills you’ve picked up to save money, something you did that saved your ass when you were down and out. Professionals, please share the tricks of your trade.
Secondly, I hope to keep this project growing by hosting a carnival on the first of the month every month. (This date is not a mistake.) I will need volunteers to help arrange these carnivals, so if you’re interested in hosting please drop a line. Blog posts and letters submitted to the carnival will also be arranged and dropped into the documentation for later distribution, attributed by date, author, and website if necessary. Non-bloggers are welcome to send their contributions to me and I will include them in the carnival and documentation.
This thought came to me while reading through the comments on my posts bitching about my lack of insurance and inability to deal with student loans. People were all too willing to share advice that I have actually put into motion. I’m a person with few monetary resources, but women I barely know approach me to ask about legal custody issues and sexual health issues all the time — and I love to share. Wouldn’t it be great if we could offer this kind of help to one another, and to people outside of the blogosphere? I’m tired of hearing advice that amounts to “suck it up and figure it out.” Feminism requires that we take responsibility for class difference — and if not, we are not a movement of parity.
CALL FOR POSTS: by Tuesday 11/27/06
Put out the word. Trackback your posts to this blog or pop me an email.
All ideas, for the project content and the project itself, welcome in the comments. I’m half afraid I’m planning a party and no one will show up.
UPDATE: According to the comments a wiki is a better idea. Can anyone point me to a good resource for building a wiki?
This is a great idea. My copy of the “Hip Mama Survival Guide”, which I think is sadly out-of-print now, should be helpful.
Have you thought about doing this as a wiki? A word doc could get pretty unwieldy, and navigation will become an issue as the project grows. The carnival contents could be dumped into the wiki monthly, perhaps, in order to preserve the positive community energy that goes into a monthly round-up?
Just a thought.
Krista, I thought of that but I have no experience building a wiki. Any tips?
Also, I was hoping to have something that could be printed off as a resource for people without internet experience and/or computer access. I know a word doc isn’t the best thing but I’m open to suggestions.
Am I allowed?
Yes, I think a wiki is perfect for this. No, I don’t have any experience implementing one. I don’t think it could be much harder than setting up a wordpress blog, though.
Hey Lauren,
I think a wiki is a much more sustainable idea. And from that I’m sure that printed off resources could be made for those who need them, when they need them. I’m really not sure how to start a wiki but I think that I know some people who could help.
e.
Dear Lauren,
I think you are fabulous.
This site will let you build a free wiki: http://pbwiki.com/
This is the wiki for the wiki site: http://yummy.pbwiki.com/
They have templates, an easy-read help page, and discussion forums. I’m sure there are others, but this is the most easy-use one I’ve seen.
Hope this helps.
Oh, and there is a function called ‘Portfolio’, which will let you export set pages to a Word document - if preset, this might solve the quick printing problem.
I can help with financial aid tips and tricks - let me know what you decide on, format-wise, and I will start pulling some information for you. I work in a university that serves both traditional and non-traditional students, and have good ties with the financial aid office. I’d start on it tonight, but I have a dissertation proposal to finish and a house to clean before 6 am tomorrow. I’ll get you some information together as soon as I can if that’s OK…
One idea that would be helpful to a lot of us who are not-at-all computer savvy - how to build a website.
This is a fabulous idea, by the way, and I if I can think of a skill I have that is marginally useful I will post it.
I think it’s a great idea, and I’ll help wherever I can, which isn’t much.
Not that I can give any advice here, but I think one important issue to give advice on is how to deal with job discrimination, and with sexual harassment at work or on the street. A more ambitious project could even include advice on unionizing.
Damn, Lauren, every time I think you’ve hit peak fabulosity I’m always wrong. This is an excellent idea.
Can you (or others) give me a rough estimate on cost per person guidelines for cheap food? I’m hampered, in a sense, by never having to feed more than a couple people at a time, so I may be spending a little more than a family of four could on the ingredients. I do have some larger recipes I make in bulk that might qualify, though. Soups and stews are my BFFs.
Hey Lauren, I’d love to help with this, since I was blindsided by my own custody sitch and all. And poverty in general. I will keep my eyes open, and start thinking and writing. Thanks for this.
This sounds like a wonderful idea. If I may make a suggestion — something along the lines of “how to graduate from a major university in four years” would be fantastic, since practically everybody I talk to says it’s taken them at least an extra quarter beyond their fourth years, and I’m looking at an entire fifth.
The other day, because I’m looking at wikis for another reason, I just googled WIKI and came up with a good free wiki - also the pbWiki mentioned elsewhere - I don’t think it would be any worse than learning to use Blogger.
Fabulous idea, Lauren.
“How to graduate from a major university in four years”: do not, under any circumstances, get a kidney infection. Knowing how common UTIs are, when you have sex for the first time, and something about how to prevent them, might have helped me in avoiding that extra quarter. I suppose the other lesson might be that if you really, really want to be sure to graduate in four years, you might want to aim to have the credits covered in a little less than four years, to allow for the unexpected. But in moderation, because if you max out on units each quarter, especially if you’re trying to hold a student job, you only wind up dropping one or another of your classes anyway.
Actually, though, I’m not sure what topic I’d have particularly good advice on, but I’d at least be willing to do one of the monthly round ups of other people’s ideas.
I feel like I should weigh in on the “how to graduate in 4 years” question, because I did, with room to spare. I was able to go abroad for a semester and to take fun electives, and the only reason I didn’t finish with a minor as well was because the professor and I had irresolvable differences in the very last class I needed for it, and I decided it wasn’t worth the stress. But for all that, I don’t feel like I have much advice, because I’m not sure how it is that people don’t finish in four, unless they’re double-majoring, or change their minds many times. I don’t mean that to be insulting, mind, I just don’t have a frame of reference. If someone could say what specific issues they encountered, maybe I could reply with what I did that avoided those? A couple of general things would be taking advantage of any advising system that might be in place, drafting a four-year plan (and revising it each semester), and reading up on the requirements for any majors you’re considering as soon as you start considering them.
Free stuff to do with your kids - I don’t have any yet, but I’ve babysat enough to have come up with a few creative things. Making musical instruments from everyday objects - no construction required, just ingenuity, collecting leaves, flowers, etc, and pressing them, bird-watching, *people* watching - and making up stories about the things you see, aloud or written… stuff like that. That kind of thing what you’re looking for?
my only real talent is retaining the knowledge of how to do a triple time step from my tap dancing lessons 14 years ago. sadly, this is not a moneymaker (for most).
no, faux real tho :-) , i will think on it and send some stuff along. should we just post finished written-out products here in comments, or email them to you, or what?
I’m thinking, but it seems like a lot of the useful knowledge I have is geographically specific. I could write an article all about public transportation in the DC area, though.
“my only real talent is retaining the knowledge of how to do a triple time step from my tap dancing lessons 14 years ago.”
Well, I survived getting audited by the IRS. Does that count as a talent? :-)
An incredible idea, Lauren.
Maybe a section on good tips for health self-care for those without insurance or without the money to use it? If I hadn’t learned some tricks involving what seems an entirely unfortunate misuse of household food products, I would have paid too much for OTC or prescription drugs for common lady-parts conditions. I wish that we didn’t have to do this, but truthfully there’s something satisfying about taking control of your own health and sharing the information. The more of it we have, the better.
And ditto on soups, stews, and chilis. I’m working my way through a big-ass pot of borscht right now. Beets are cheap and tasty, people!
I know how to eat on the cheap–Burritos!
hello! Here by way of Feministe.
AWESOME project!
Sarah no H, I suspect that what might work best for your topic is a guide to planning one’s post-secondary education for grownups rather than the silly things the colleges give out that assume that everyone’s parents are paying and that nobody ever has to work two part-time jobs in order to supplement their student loans enough so that they can go to school and eat.
College is still set up for students for whom going to school is the primary occupation, and for a lot of people that’s increasingly not the case. So until the requirements for a degree change or the way college is set up changes, we may need to consider that college will take longer, and plan accordingly.
I know that if people hadn’t fed me a bunch of BS about how a degree would be my ticket to a job in my field (when I really needed a bunch of professional courses, after obtaining my BA), I’d have been able to plan my final couple of years at university and my post-university job-training a lot more sensibly.
I can certainly contribute recipes and shopping tips, apartment-hunting tips, and tips for how to negotiate salaries and freelance rates. Also I know about publishing.
very cool. I don’t know much about wiki, but I’ll keep following along and contribute when/how I can.
On a less immediately practical/individual, more policy note, I’d also like to seriously exchanging ideas and resources for more activism wrt overhauling the “health care” system we’ve got here in the You Ess Ay; really talking about the systemic problems in general. The wage gap. The declining standard of living. What we take for granted, as individuals, as a culture (does everyone know how high the top tax bracket was in the 1950’s? does everyone know the history of labor, trust-busting, women in the workforce? i sure don’t. not nearly enough, anyway…)
and stuff like: well, what would we -want-, ideally, and what do we -need?- I keep going back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Black Amazon’s recent post on “cover the basics” is relevant, (http://guyaneseterror.blogspot.com/2006/11/cover-basics.html), as is “give us bread, but also give us roses.” How do we realistically look at the whole economic picture without going into either despair or hairshirt mode? What does it mean to “live well?” What would it take for each and all of us to get there?
oh, and, I’m always interested in making new connections with invididuals and groups from outside the U.S. Maybe we don’t always have to re-invent the wheel; maybe there are some places where they’ve already found something that works (or doesn’t work, so we don’t have to go down that particular road…)
Awesome, I’m in. Look for a “how to start over after a divorce” post, which may or may not be helpful.
More back on track: Lauren, you and someone were also talking about maybe a book swap of some sort?
What a great idea! I’d love to help out in any way, the only thing I know is how to deal with the MNCare (state health care in MN) system. Definetly not a fun thing to learn either. What kind of format were you looking for submissions to be in for the carnival?
Fantastic idea, Lauren!
I know I (and many others here, I suspect) could contribute to a section on surviving your first year of grad school.
How to do thrifting is a great idea — I’d like to expand on that. How to find/make/scavenge awesome clothes when you are a broke, fat woman. *grin* Finding plus-sized clothes can be a trial when you HAVE money in the bank to spend in the overpriced mall stores. When you’re broke, it’s a near impossibility to feel good about your clothes.
Always worth checking out and talking to in general, is brownfemipower, but wrt eating on the cheap and healthy, she had a few posts:
http://brownfemipower.com/?cat=17
also might want to check out these sites:
“Living on Less:” http://livingonless.journalspace.com/
“Class Matters:” http://classmatters.org/
and of course kactus had a good roundup of posts related to class and feminism for the 20th Carnival:
http://superbabymama.blogspot.com/2006/08/carnival-of-feminists.html
…kactus of course is definitely someone who’s well worth reading/talking to on this general subject…not to make her the “go-to” person, but in case anyone’s not familiar with her writing yet:
http://superbabymama.blogspot.com/
This is lovely Lauren I like the way you think. I have an AD in social work and believe a woman should have access to every resource she is eligible for and most of us are eligible for more than we realize. I’ve been self-advocating all my life, and live on SS psychiatric disability, which they don’t hand out without a fight to near death.
It comes down to bulldogging your way through the bureaucracy with support and self-pampering all the way, because the obstacles are in place to obstruct access, and it’s hard, but I know how to do this.
I’ve had experience online helping others find housing, food stamps, crises intervention, free counseling, Medicare, disability, legal counsel, advance directives for psychiatric care, jail diversion, and power of attorney; there is a process for every need, in every state. I’m a true believer in the safety net, and anyone can become familiar with their state system. It’s all recorded in the legislature and the statutes are accessible.
It’s a journey, finding services you need to take care of your needs, a healing process in itself, but we usually give up before success because it’s frustrating and because you’re treated like garbage. And there is a process for dealing with disrespect, government agencies have guidelines they are to adhere to in relating to the needy and when they violate their procedures you can use their own documents to call them on it. This is fun. Doing the work with someone in your corner can make self-advocacy easier, and I want to say I’m here as a resource for anyone who doesn’t mind occasional mental instability.
Also (and maybe this is what you mean by “how to get the most for your money when your $800 car breaks down”): how to haggle when purchasing a car (used or new) at a dealership. How to make sure you don’t get screwed when purchasing a used car. How to figure out what are dealbreakers/red flags when purchasing a used car (from a dealership or an individual).
Ooh, and can there also be a “How to navigate health insurance if you’re lucky enough to have it” tutorial?
This is a wonderful idea. I’ll rummage around and see what I can contribute–I know a few household tips, some energy-saving stuff, and some metal-salvage stuff, and after a really awful experience buying a used car, I can probably come up with a list of things to watch out for.
I’ve also got a bunch of self-defense, street medicine, and street-awareness stuff, if it’s wanted.
That, and I’ve got a lot of practical knowledge toward do-it-yourself occultism, but I don’t know how useful that’d be for everyone.
Ohh, this is highly exciting. I can contribute mucho stuff on surviving-social-services-without-bombing-the-place-even-though you’re-tempted.
I could also contribute on how to get a free ride to college and then fuck it up cuz you broke up with your first girlfriend and you spent your third year getting high, crying and listening to Joni Mitchell.
Not that that would be helpful, of course.
I will try to compile some of my good, cheap recipes from my student days.
I’ll also try to write down my “budgeting when you’re living hand to mouth” system. (Helpful hint: Do NOT lose $30 playing nickel-ante poker.)
Ooh–ooh–and scrounging. I forgot that champion of money-saving techniques, other people’s garbage. I’ll brainstorm.
Great idea!
I dunno that i have any neato-keen articles to add, but i can help with technical issues for the site or wiki (i don’t actually recommend pbWiki, i think you’d be better off with either jotSpot once Google restarts signups in a week or so or with setting up your own MediaWiki), including setup, troubleshooting, etc. I can also help with design and HTML if you’re in need of that.
–Adrienne Travis
What help do you need for that? If you’re talking about choosing classes in such a way that you can graduate in four years, I can probably help.
I’m not sure how to trackback properly, but here is my contribution.
http://labradorite.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/how-freecycle-saved-the-world-a-post-for-lauren/
This is awesome and I will totally try to contribute any way I can.
I would like for you to go and check out Katrina Cottages–an interesting idea come to fruition after Hurricane Katrina as alternative housing. It is permanent, can be built on to or is an ideal solution to affordable housing.
Can be used as mother-in-law quarters or a beach house. There is more.
Excellent idea!
Just last week I asked my friends for “cheap, healthy, convenient and yummy” food ideas, and realized that everyone had tips the others could benefit from. Now if only there were a central location where everyone could post their ideas and learn from others’ experiences…
I can offer budgeting pointers, and ideas on how to keep yourself motivated to do research in grad school.
Having linked from feministe, I -love- this idea and would gladly contribute (as soon as you said cheap recipes, I pulled up Notepad and started writing down my favorites). Fabulous idea.
Thanks so much, everybody.
People who worry about geographical differences, go ahead and write what you know. There are enough similarities between state and local laws to have some consistency and if you are aware, be sure to mention that instances a, b, c, are particular to your area. If you aren’t sure, the laws are on the books.
Non-bloggers go ahead and email your stuff to me. Bloggers try to trackback this post. All I need is a reminder to include it into the carnival.
i know some things about health care, but i have an old house and i could use some advice about how to prevent basement floods. i love the wiki idea. good luck with that.
I could offer my experience in special education issues.
I’m not sure what I could contribute, but I’ll surely tout this to my tens of readers. It’s a wonderful idea.
One quick question: do you plan to have the wiki open to all comers, or to use regular blog carnivals to generate content for the wiki? I think I’d suggest the latter: you could have volunteers (hey, there’s something I can do) use the blog posts as source material, which could be easily reformatted into wiki pages or used to update existing pages. That leaves the wiki less vulnerable to spam/edit wars/etc.
There’s actually something out there called wikihow that works a lot like what you seem to be imagining, though I can see why you might want to segregate your own stuff into its own progressive space. Anyway, you might want to check it out when deciding how to put this together.
Hello, I will try to put something together to email you. I used to buy and sell cars, I am a builder and run a small business. I have gone through the school thing, raised three kids both while working and a stint on welfare, dealt with housing assistance, been divorced and dealt with custody issues, dealt with counselors, child therapists, dealt with being harrassed by child protective services, harrassed by bosses and other males a women must deal with in order to survive.
And I got some food tips, thrift shop tips, dealing with the landlord tips.
Oh yeah, I got some stuff for you. Finally, all that I’ve learned might be useful to someone! I am enthralled!
I’m with Sara. Why not use an already existing site that is trying to accomplish the very same task—plus more? I think this would create a better and more thorough web site that could actually succeed in what you are doing. A wiki works with more exposure.
But if you’re wanting to go down in the annals of the Internet, by all means start a project by yourself.
The downside to making it a wiki is that it is open to editing by anyone. At least, that’s how it is by default — it may be possible to close it down to a few select editors, which may be what you’re planning already. I’m thinking of how hard it will be to keep up with the antifeminist crowd’s vandalism the first time this site gets linked to on a Little Green Footballs comment thread.
I’m with Sara and NotNot on looking into wikiHow, which I’ve searched and already has several of the How-Tos you’ve brainstormed already started. It’s an existing Wiki with high popularity, which you could sign up for a name and add to existing articles with your knowledge or start additional pages, etc. You could also set up another Category for more specific things you’re looking for, say, Survival or some-such.
For example, I searched for ‘babysitting co-op’ and there are articles in place regarding babysitting and starting a co-op in general, you could just add an article specifically for how to ’start a babysitting co-op’.
I suggest this because it would be like wanting to start a wiki dedicated to amassing information on various topics, when Wikipedia exists and has quite a name for itself so you’re already guaranteed a wide audience of potential helpers.
The reason I avoid Wiki-How is not that isn’t a great resources. I’m looking for a way to put our expertise to use while avoiding articles like “How To Always Look like a Model” and “How to Handle a Surprise Bowel Movement in Public.”
But if you’re wanting to go down in the annals of the Internet, by all means start a project by yourself.
Wow. The only two times you’ve commented on my blog you’ve done so to tell me how stupid I am. Does this officially make you a troll?
Wikihow seems like a reasonable plan. Kudos for all!
I could desperately use some ideas for cheap dental work without insurance. An implant is $3000.00, which is completely out of the question, (and I think bridges just put holes in the remaining good teeth,) but I can’t eat in company with the dental appliance I have now. Going on 3 years with no social life…
Hasn’t Lauren already gone down in the annals of the internets?
And wouldn’t “How to Avoid A Surprise Bowel Movement in Public” be a more useful article?
Then for avoiding pointless articles, you’d have to set up something yourself with a select group of moderators.
I was mostly concerned with starting something from the ground-up when there’s frameworks in place.
Of course, some feminists like to look like models, don’t they? ;)
If you’re going to do this, make it your own. MediaWiki’s pretty good, it takes maybe an hour to set up. You’re using Wordpress, so you’re already used to pointing stuff to an SQL database, same thing here.
That other commenter has a point about your legion of trolls, though, so you might want to consider something with a little more security, or at least moderation, built-in. Drupal is free and, at first glance, seems to have some unbearably sexy features.
Lauren,
I have absolutely no suggestions on the wiki debate, but, when it all comes together, I would like to write about what to bring when applying for public assistance and I think I have at least two good, cheap recipes.
I can write a nice article on how to avoid getting UTIs, and what helps me when I do get them.
Also, basic knitting, crochet, sewing info/recommendations about which books are the best.
[[makes note to self that she has made another committment to fill in the next week or so....]]
Here’s my contribution:
http://www.parentsconnect.com/home/profile/blog.jhtml?q=/node/1448
It’s about how to avoid getting your car repoed. Other than, you know, paying the bill, which works, too. ;)
Lauren,
Figured i’d give the whole thing a little shove: I’ve created a ’sandbox’ MediaWiki installation for you to play with. It’s at http://www.helpus.eidolongroup.com ; however, you’ll have to EMAIL me for the password.
My email address is (altravis) (at) (eidolongroup dot com)
I left EVERYTHING at the default settings (except user permissions, but including the TRULY AWFUL default theme), so you can play around. Feel free to drop me a line anytime with questions, comments, etc., but really the best thing to do is just goof off in it.
User permissions are configured so that anyone can register to be a “user” of the site, but users cannot edit pages (unlike most wikis). Only users whom YOU define to be ’sysops’ (read editors) can actually create and edit pages at the moment. You can decide to fix that if you want, but i’d rather not have a pile of abusive wiki usage going on on my host. :)
MediaWiki’s database-driven, so you can actually start to SET UP the site, if you want, and you’ll just be able to move the whole shebang, articles and all, to a hosting provider of your own when you choose to.
Again, email me at the above address for the password.
I agree that a wiki is probably more helpful than a blog carnival, because most people who will benefit from it won’t know that they need it until they suddenly do.
Here’s a good site for looking at what benefits you might be eligible for. http://www.earnbenefits.org/home/
It’s area specific, and only in 4 cities so far, but the info on needed documents (eg. if you don’t have a driver’s license, what can you use to prove your identity) is probably relevant in other places:
http://newyork.earnbenefits.org/needed_documents/
Hi, Lauren,
Laurie Edison and I have blogged this entry as an especially important piece in the 27th Carnival of Feminists, now up at Body Impolitic
I want to come back here and work on the wiki as soon as I have a free moment. What a great idea!
So, would the first “howto” be about how to make a wiki?
I like the idea, but wonder about the focus - it would seem that it would be mostly the US - am I right? Or are articles about other countries of interest as well?
Got here from Pandagon.
My tip: Unless you push the issue, your doctor will perscribe the latest drugs that have been marketed to him. Be extra sure to remind him if you’re living on a fixed income or have no health insurance that you cannot afford name brands and must get something that has a generic. Very nice doctors will “sample” you from their office, and very smart docs will rewrite the scrip for an older drug. Came to this realization after my bf got perscribed an $80 antibiotic that did the same thing as penicillin, and I got put on Celebrex which is the exact same thing as an anti-inflamatory dose of ibuprophin, only not as safe.
I could use info on what do to when you know a former employer is blacklisting you.
Godless Heathen: Celebrex is not equivalent to ibuprofen; it significantly reduces the risk of peptic ulceration and other gastric side effects. On the other hand, if you’re not having stomach issues with ibuprofen, there’s not really a point to taking Celebrex instead. (Also, some of the newer COX-2 inhibitors like Celebrex (specifically Vioxx and Bextra) were judged to have unacceptable risks of side effects like heart attacks and strokes.)
As for my own cheap outing, I like to go to the local chain bookstore and read in their cafe area. They have more graphic novels than the local library does, and I’ve yet to be hassled about never actually buying anything.
grendelkhan -
I used to work for a B&N and there was no policy telling us to kick people out for reading UNLESS: 1) You spill coffee on it and you buy it or 2) you tear, destroy, pee on, barf on it, you buy it. Just reading, even if you break the spine on a paperback, wont send them out after you.
There are 2 pages on my website which address the 2 questions other grad students ask me with the most frequency which I would consider my contribution:
1) How to get a job in international aid and development: Click Here (Mostly for Canadians as I’m Canadian)
2) A list of resources for students who want to write a paper on education in Afghanistan. Click Here
And that pretty much summarises my talents in a nutshell. Unless anyone wants to know how to grow a herb garden, bake a cake, or make herbed vinegar.
Ok, sorry, I didn’t think about the fact that people have issues with ibuprophin. I’ll add then that my problem means I don’t need to take an anti-inflamatory daily, that the pain frequently wasn’t severe enough to warrant a perscription, and yet I was put on a perscription I didn’t need and couldn’t afford. It became my experience that the doctor I was seeing wouldn’t conscider non-perscription or non-drug remedies unless I spilled all the really gory and embarrassing details of being too poor to afford it every single visit. So it’s just my experience that unless you make a stink about it, the doc is going to remember his last visit from the drug rep and reach for the expensive new drugs.
Celebrex:
“FDA ALERT-[4/7/2005]: Celebrex has been linked to an increased risk of serious cardiovascular (CV) events (such as heart attack or stroke) which appears to be a risk shared by all medicines called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (excluding aspirin). FDA has requested that the package insert (labeling) for all NSAIDs, including Celebrex, be revised to include a “boxed” or serious warning to highlight the potential increased risk of CV events, and the
**well known risk of serious, and potentially life-threatening, stomach bleeding. **
etc.
grendelkhan do you have a cite saying that Celebrex (your statement) significantly reduces the risk of peptic ulceration and other gastric side effects. Compared to ibuprofen, I assume you mean, because if it’s just compared to placebo …
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/celebrex/celebrex-ptsk.htm
leftistlooneylunch.blogspot. com/2006/11/getting-out-of-depression-some-personal.html (dead link, remove spaces)
My contribution to this thread… I don’t know if this what you are looking for, I just know too many feminists who get depressed. People are welcome to add their experiences to the thread, I would be happy to re-compile the list once people add more items on.
I’m a bit late, but I’ve linked with two topics that I hope help.
I followed the link from Feministe and this sounds like a wonderful project. I’ve got some things I’d like to share on career-related things (how to function at a business meal, particularly during a job interview, and resume/c.v./interview advice) as well as a few things on navigating government bureaucracy.
And hey, to the person above who mentioned herb gardening, that’d be great! Maybe then I could figure out why my herbs all died when I moved them inside for the winter.
I post a day by day primer on how to survive stage IV cancer when you have no health insurance but don’t qualify for any kind of aid. Well, not so much a how to, as evidence that it’s not easy, it’s justifiably everybody’s worst nightmare, but maybe it can be done. Sort of an ongoing paean at the Temple of the Royally Screwed. Might come in handy as inspiration to somebody.
Sir/Mam
My name is Raju frm India i was a business man (realestate)i had a big lose in my business i lose ny house ,office and what all i had ,I feel sorry to ask help like this ,when I was in good stage i also had charitible trust i helped lot of poor &needy people .now i dont have anything with me ,i want start business ,can u pls help me for that, a small amount will give a life for a family sir pls think sir .in my profit 35 % i am ready to give to people who need. .sir pls help 5000 usd and give me & my family a life pls.
Awaiting for your reply
Thanking you
Raju
Nb: Treat my mail as a charity and help me and my family . I hope your kindness will help us.Thanking you.
Sorry to be a Dawnie-come-lately to the party, but I wouldn’t mind hosting in the New Year. (I’ve just had a series of life tragedies and am having a few more.) I would also be interested in trying to come up with some how-tos on the stock market. I’ve never invested a penny (as I usually only HAVE a penny to my name) but I’m well-versed in it. I’ve got to be the only financial editor on the planet who can’t get a credit card. ;)
This sounds like an awesome idea! I try to be the go-to girl for birth control, sex, relationships and finances for my friends (especially those who are still in high school), so I can think of a few things to contribute. Keep posting, and we can make this a reality! :)
What about “How to Survive a Class 5 Zombie Outbreak?”
Once again, someone has shown a preference for focusing on the mundane day-to-day rather than face the inconvenient truth about zombies.
In all seriousness, I think this is a great idea.
Oh yeah, and I might add a “How to masturbate.” I don’t mean to be cheeky, but I remember being astounded at how many people either did not know how to do this or how to do it well. If you’d prefer to keep this wiki non-sexual, you might want to consider links to the resources. I think that this knowledge can be remarkably beneficial, particularly for younger women.