Caffeinated Memories

Yeah baby, let the good times roll cause Big Mama is now making money!  That's right.  Big Mama is making money...at her leisure too.  Drinks all around, it's on me.

There's power in making money, even if it's pocket change, but what's pocket change here is a small fortune to someone in a poor country so you won't see me scoffing at what little I earn.

I have just started using Mechanical Turk to awaken my brain.  For a housewife like me, it's invigorating to be earning something, and refreshing to be reminded of the person that I am before I was swallowed up in the titles of Mrs. and Mother.

Women face challenges that men don't.  Women, traditionally, give up their identities in marriage and in motherhood. There is such a great struggle for women to want to earn money and then to also be near their children that it's cruel.

Almost all of the housewives that I know, who have chosen to be a homemaker, wish for opportunities to earn something, to contribute financially in some way, to be a part of the tangible part of the world that society judge as something worthy of value.

There is value in mothering and homemaking, but sometimes it's hard to feel the value in the midst of repetitive chores, work that builds no resume worthiness, and no paycheck.

So far I am averaging 4 cents for short writings that take less than a couple minutes to write, but it's interesting right now to be able to do short, quick work when I want to.  It feels great to do something other than write entertaining  stories that seem to have no purpose.

Eventually, the cents do add up, but more importantly I feel like I am doing something to flex my brain again.  Yahoo!

My second day on the J-O-B and I am loving it.  For the two hours that I spent fiddling around on Mechanical Turk to familiarize myself with the contents, work offers, and getting used to the computer, I managed to submit one dollar's worth of work.  That's a cool one dollar that's unaccounted for in our household budget.

A dollar a day seems so little, but it's really not.  Ever suffered through NPR's or PBS's pledge drive weeks?  It is excruciating to have to listen to intelligent, noble, distinguished people beg for money - excruciating enough to make my ears bleed.  The  "dollar a day" pleas seem so easy and  trivial, but the actual commitment to write a check for the whole $352 is another matter.  I cringe during pledge week because I find it so annoying and degrading.  Should I become a millionaire, my first solemn promise is to give one day's  worth of pledge goals ahead of time so everyone can get at least a day's reprieve during pledge week.  I would pick a day in the middle of pledge week so my ears can get a break from the constant reminders of why NPR and PBS are so important and valuable.  NPR and PBS are important and valuable, and they should not have to beg for their valuable services.

A "dollar a day" will be my aim, for myself and charity.  I am determined to make  a dollar a day and investing my money into Kiva.org, an organization that was introduced to me through a generous gift.  My dollar a day doesn't go very far in the US but there are parts of the world that the dollar will stretch much further.  As a person who understands the frustration of not earning money for vain glory, I can only imagine the agony of not being able to earn money to feed one's family or not having money to bankroll a small business venture that could provide the means out of poverty.  It's not the huge sums that Americans are use to, it's the small micro-loans, but it's the lifeline for so many others.