The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: ZiziPB on March 07, 2017, 01:48:39 PM
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I'm sure I'm not the only one depressed and stressed out by the constant barrage of negative news, the stories of wars and fights, etc. I am considering instituting a complete news blackout for myself for some time because of how it's making me feel.
The problem is finding something else to fill the void (I'm a single person living alone so I don't have anyone to interact with in person in the mornings or evenings). My alarm radio and car radio are set to NPR and I can't stand local commercial radio stations. So that usually makes for a depressing start to the day. I have no cable TV, so my TV viewing options are limited to public TV and a couple of local TV stations that I can get over an antenna. I often listen to books on CD in the car but I would like to listen to the radio from time to time. And sometimes I just want to watch some mindless TV while I'm knitting :-)
Anyone else struggling with this? Any suggestions?
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Do you have any kind of streaming options? DH and I have an AppleTV and I've been watching things on the PBS app.
I'd also suggest books on CD from your local library, or see if they offer downloadable audiobooks. And, Pandora and Spotify are free with some minimal ads so you could just listen to music.
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I do have Netflix. I'm not on Facebook. I do use Pandora for music but sometimes is good to hear a human voice too :-)
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Audiobooks and DVDs from the library would be a great option. :)
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Driving - Audiobooks on CD or streamed.
Home - Pandora for background music, Netflix for shows, TV off for activities.
My wife is really into talking politics, but I checked out a few months ago. It was just tiring me out thinking about all of the nonsense that is completely out of my control. Now, I am purposely avoiding anything political. Even if the wife wants to chat about something, I tell her I'm not interested, and she's understanding & catching on.
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Great British Baking on Netflix!!! Even if you don't like baking. It is unlike American reality competitions in that the people are lovely and like one another.
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Also, you could look for non-political podcasts.
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Yes, I second podcasts. I particularly like the NPR ones because the audio quality is very high (some of the more DIY ones are recorded in people's homes or offices and the sound is not as good). They have a number of non-political ones.But there are podcasts for every topic under the sun--cooking, books, gardening, etc.
In the mornings, I actually like to watch TV (streaming, not live). I am not a morning person and am not up for challenging reading or anything like that. An episode of something while I drink my coffee gives me a chance to wake up slowly.
In the title of your post you mention reading material, and I actually think blogs are great. Supposedly the blog is dead as a medium (I think they mean money-making medium) but there still seem to be plenty out there. The key is to get a blog reader like Feedly (a program that compiles feeds from lots of different blogs in one place. ) I have found a lot of great, positive content out there--one I often recommend is the content from Mental Floss magazine.
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Yes, I second podcasts. I particularly like the NPR ones because the audio quality is very high (some of the more DIY ones are recorded in people's homes or offices and the sound is not as good). They have a number of non-political ones.But there are podcasts for every topic under the sun--cooking, books, gardening, etc.
In the mornings, I actually like to watch TV (streaming, not live). I am not a morning person and am not up for challenging reading or anything like that. An episode of something while I drink my coffee gives me a chance to wake up slowly.
In the title of your post you mention reading material, and I actually think blogs are great. Supposedly the blog is dead as a medium (I think they mean money-making medium) but there still seem to be plenty out there. The key is to get a blog reader like Feedly (a program that compiles feeds from lots of different blogs in one place. ) I have found a lot of great, positive content out there--one I often recommend is the content from Mental Floss magazine.
Completely agree on the Podcasts, blog reading, and app steaming. There's a lot of great material out there for any interest. If there's not much for what you're interested in, then it may be an opportunity to engage and start something of your own. I'm probably way too skewed to personal finance and FI right now, but I find the Dave Ramsey streaming/playback app fun to listen to (even though it gets a big formulaic). I also like the podcasts from MadFientist, Radical Personal Finance, and DoughRoller to be interesting and informative. Once I reach FI, I expect that my obsession with FI material will lessen some and I'll branch out more. NPR app is awesome for podcasts (Marketplace, Science Friday, RadioLab, etc.) Even though politics is consuming a huge and disproportionate amount of the media space these days, there's still a ton of apolitical stuff out there.
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Not always cheerful, and definitely getting more political by need, but helps to restore faith in humanity a bit: https://www.upworthy.com/ (https://www.upworthy.com/)
Always cheerful and uplifting: http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ (http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/)
Pretty much anything Jonathan Fields does (books, podcasts, camp, community) http://www.goodlifeproject.com (http://www.goodlifeproject.com)
if I want some uplifting, energizing background music (Yep I dance around my kitchen or house doing chores, it takes longer but is more fun) I have been enjoying Electro Swing mixes on Youtube, it's super hard not to want to dance and be happy :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFh9ebba2BI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFh9ebba2BI)
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Great suggestions, everyone! I especially like swick's links, so if anyone else has suggestions along those lines, please post them.
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Challenge accepted! I love sharing good stuff...
Mental Floss: http://mentalfloss.com/ (http://mentalfloss.com/)
Beautiful or interesting things to look at:
Colossal: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/ (http://www.thisiscolossal.com/)
Daily Overview: http://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/ (http://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/)
Miniature Calendar: http://miniature-calendar.com/ (http://miniature-calendar.com/)
Frugality:
The Frugal Girl: http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/ (http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/)
Fun to Read:
The Mid-Century Menu (author tests out recipes from the 1950s and 1960s on her husband...the more outrageous, the better): http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/ (http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/)
Smart B******, Trashy Books http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ (http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/) Technically this is a romance novel site, but still worth a try if you don't read that genre...they also do a lot of women's history and write about female-centered books and media, (for instance the movie Hidden Figures), and also silly things like making fun of ridiculous romance novel covers.
There are also some great blogs which are not posting new content now, but are still fun to read as archives. Will do a separate post later as I need to get to work.
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Here are a few that don't post anymore or very frequently, but have great content:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/ (http://www.lettersofnote.com/)
http://pinterestfail.com/ (http://pinterestfail.com/)
http://www.rootsandgrubs.com/ (http://www.rootsandgrubs.com/)
And here are a few history-themed blogs I like:
http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/ (http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/)
https://historymyths.wordpress.com/ (https://historymyths.wordpress.com/)
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault.html (http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault.html)
http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/ (http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/)
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Awesome, loving all these suggestions!
Forgot one: Daily Good : http://www.dailygood.org/ (http://www.dailygood.org/)
Ohh and Kindspring: http://www.kindspring.org/ (http://www.kindspring.org/)
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LOVE those NPR related podcasts:
Freakonomics podcast. http://freakonomics.com/archive/ (http://freakonomics.com/archive/)
TED talks podcast http://blog.ted.com/audio_podcasts/ (http://blog.ted.com/audio_podcasts/)
The Moth podcast https://themoth.org/podcast (https://themoth.org/podcast)
Radiolab podcast www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/ (http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/)
(I listen to all the above via the iPhone Stitcher App)
Read JLCollin's book "The Simple Path to Wealth" - a great read http://jlcollinsnh.com/category/the-book-the-simple-path-to-wealth/ (http://jlcollinsnh.com/category/the-book-the-simple-path-to-wealth/)
Listen to FREE (mostly older) audiobooks on LibriVox.org (listen, download... whatever)
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I'm a big fan of podcasts.
Get yourself an Amazon Fire TV Stick and load Kodi on it (youtube for tutorial)