{"id":47283,"date":"2025-07-25T08:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T12:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/?p=47283"},"modified":"2025-07-25T08:43:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T12:43:34","slug":"buy-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/2025\/07\/25\/buy-nothing.html","title":{"rendered":"Buy Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I joined a hyper-local “Buy Nothing” group for Astoria. I knew going in, when I saw mention of “strict rules” and such talk that I would probably find the experience annoying. I kinda do but kinda don’t. I knew I was being naive in thinking this might be a way to meet people and make new friends in the neighborhood. That seems to be rule #1 for what should not happen. I’ve given away a few things, nothing epic, but the transactions were so quick that I don’t think I would even recognize the recipient of my gift if I ever saw them again. People are just like gimme the thing and get going<\/em>. It wasn’t always like this. I’ve given stuff away through Craigslist and other routes, and there was virtually always some quantity of pleasantries or discussion. I don’t know if it’s just the people I interacted with so far but there seems to be no chance of making any connections this way. There are interesting-seeming people, too. An opera singer for one, and a film photographer. But so far I’m just giving stuff away and getting nothing in return. Oh, I did manage to score a set of CLEER brand headphones. They’re not bad at all, list price over $100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor making it difficult to make connections in the neighborhood is that many of the people giving stuff away are moving out. The person who gifted me the headphones was literally in the process of moving her stuff into moving vans when I came by and found the box, using her treasure-hunt like instructions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seemed like a lot of people wanted the headphones that I ended up with but here’s another thing I’ve come clear on: people are unreliable. There seems to be no end of ghosting and people just not showing up at the agreed-upon time and place. I’ve never understood that behavior. I have a metaphorical allergy to being late but some people it’s just a part of their pride. Being late expands their center of attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can be a little skeptical of the giveaways, too. Someone offered a used  deodorant package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been away from this workplace for 5 days. I did a lot of walking, reaching the 20,000 steps plateau and nearly reaching it a ssecond time. Some people get 35k and more steps in on a regular day. I guess they just never stop or elsse they walk at a far more rapid clip than I. I walked the newly repurposed Ed Koch\/Queensboro pedestrian path again. Still no phones, still no trash cans. A very spacious trek, though, and the ability to study the view from that side of the b ridge is far more interesting than the view from the other side. It could be a scary place after dark, though. I also went out to Brooklyn to check on the Jay Street\/Metrotech payphone\/TTY. And an impromptu midtown stramble through my old stomping ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at work after 5 days and there is nothing going on here. Nada. No bosses present. Nothing happening. I am actively looking for more work, not to quit this place, just to pick up some extra work to raise my income to a passable living wage. I’m in debt for the first time in over 20 years and not happy about it. Until now even carrying a bar tab made me nervous. I think about the crowd funding outlets and how likely it is that people who’ve followed me for years and years would be willing to show some financial support in my time of need. But I’d be too afraid of failure. Goals not met. I’m looking at a job opening at New York Public Radio. It sounds like me they’re after but didn’t they just lose a big chunk of their funding? I’ve also heard the workplace around public radio in NYC is toxic AF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I joined a hyper-local “Buy Nothing” group for Astoria. I knew going in, when I saw mention of “strict rules” and such talk that I would probably find the experience annoying. I kinda do but kinda don’t. I knew I was being naive in thinking this might be a way to meet people and make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paumAn-ciD","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47284,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47283\/revisions\/47284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}