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Usually when people are involved in an election, they must first choose to be in an election. But for whatever reason, I’m in Round Two of an election that I never chose to participate in. I won Round One with 72.6% of the votes. Now, in Round Two, I’m leading with 62.2% of the votes. Okay, I’ll be a good sport and play along. I have no idea what the prize is. Do I get to rule the Blogger Land if I win? VOTE FOR ME and I will bring peace, love, and an end to world hunger.
To fully appreciate how funny this commercial is, you have to know the background. In 1984, Apple aired a Superbowl ad to introduce their new Macintosh computer. It was a pivotal moment in Apple’s history. Well, an anonymous group of Barack Obama supporters have put together an anti-Hillary version of the ad. No matter who you support, I think this ad is an awesome idea either way! Please take it for the humor that’s intended: Oh, and you really should see Apple’s version to get how innovative this was.
Have you ever noticed that it doesn’t matter how old you are, there is still a subconscious fear of disapproval from your parents? Telling my parents about my career move has made me nervous for a long time. I expected the worst from them, I really did. They have a very old-school belief that you must “work for the man” and there are no exceptions. They believe that you should always do what your boss says, no matter what. They believe you should keep your mouth shut and your head down. Don’t stir up trouble, don’t go against the norm. Just go to work, do your job, and be thankful for your paycheck. Well, that’s never been me. I detest authority and I’ve never called someone my “boss” because I am nobody’s property. I believe that I am an equal. I refuse to feel inferior. I say what I think and what I feel. I give others respect and demand the same respect in return. Needless to say, being an employee has never been a good fit for me. But I was very fortunate to work with some wonderful people at my last job. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Okay, so moving along… I finally told my Mom today. There was a dead silence on the phone, followed by a lot of sighing. I could feel the shit storm stirring. She was about to go off on me. But I cut her off and kept talking. I told her that she and Dad have always believed in me. They always thought that I was talented and good with people, and always said I’d go far. I have countless letters, cards, and e-mails from them professing their love and faith that I can be anything I want to be. I explained how lucky and fortunate I am to be loved so much by my parents. I could still feel the doubt in her tone, but she was definitely smiling. When I’m going on and on about how supportive they are, it’s pretty hard to yell at me. She told me she’s happy for me and glad it’s worked out. No shit storm. No criticizing me for quitting a job. She did throw in a remark about giving up group insurance, and I quickly corrected her by saying “So I should give up all my opportunities so someone else will give me insurance?” My Dad can be very blunt and critical at times. I think I dreaded his disapproval just as much. Tonight, I received an e-mail overflowing with love and support from him. He told me that he knew that I could do it, and he was very happy for me. Not an ounce of negativity. That means Mom turned around and told him good things, not bad. I had 2 options: expect the very worst from my parents, and that’s exactly what I would receive… or expect the very best, and that’s exactly what I got.
Petey and I have our regular routine of walking down the street on the sidewalk, past all the houses of the subdivision. I know just about everyone on the block and we all smile and say “hello”. But today… crazy attacked! Her named is Marlene. We’ve met before, in fact I know her whole family. She’s a bit of a talker, but I’m always able to come up with some reason to move along quickly. But today, I got sucked in. She started by telling me about her new $5,000 water system. She told me all about how the water isn’t safe to drink and we’re all going to die from it. Poison, I tell ya. POISON! She told me her whole family was deathly ill, vomiting every day, etc. That’s odd, because we live 3 houses down and aren’t sick at all. She was going on and on about this system, and finally got around to the sell. She has to get 4 other people to sign-up for it and she gets a free prize. I told her flat out “Thanks, but I’m not interested in buying that.” Then she moved on to telling me about how the whole neighborhood was ganging up on her. One woman tampered with her brakes and tried to kill her. Then some teenagers tried to break into her house every night, and were jumping her fence. Then 2 other families were in on it too. Watch out! They are all evil. They are all out to getcha. Hmmm… wouldn’t it seem odd that every family in the neighborhood was trying to kill her? What is she doing to them? Somehow she started babbling about how the end of the world is coming. We’re the last generation of people. Terrorists are going to wipe out the entire United States and kill us all. (Ummm… how is that the end of the world? Wouldn’t that just be the end of the U.S.?) I tried my best to keep a straight face, but finally just laughed and said “I don’t believe all that.” She politely ignored my comment and carried on babbling. So finally, she wrapped up and said “I’ve just been talking your ear off!” I flashed her a gorgeous smile and said “Yep.” So I It’s going to be iPod and a pair of sunglasses from now on. That bitch is craaaaazy.
Now that I’m on my own, I wanted to roll over my 401k from work into an IRA. I’m so glad I did because I’m actually really excited about it. Personal finance is very complicated and overwhelming. In fact, several financial specialists I’ve talked with seemed impressed that I’m 25 and already planning for retirement. But hey, that money isn’t going to save itself. Compound interest is your friend. It’s better to start with a small amount at a young age because it will add up quite a bit and I can add to it every month. I also hear a lot about diversifying your portfolio. That phrase sounds so funny to me, because as a designer, I refer to my portfolio as a collection of my work. And it’s diverse because I have a wide variety of client types. Hence, a diversified portfolio. Har! But seriously, I guess it’s really important so I did it. I still don’t completely understand what I’m doing, but I now have stocks and bonds and all that good stuff. I feel ultra-cool. I also think I found a wonderful financial specialist at Edward Jones. Obviously the guy handling your money makes all the difference. So if you haven’t started saving yet… why aren’t you? Go in for a free consultation. I think you’ll be shocked at how much you lose if you put it off.
When it comes to vegetarian substitutes for meat, I’ve had very mixed results in the past. Some of it was okay, some of it was really bad. None of it was good enough to make part of my regular diet [in my opinion]. So yesterday, my friend Cindy told me I had to try Morningstar Farms’ version of bacon strips. I was open to giving them a shot. Afterall, I do love bacon but I always feel bad eating it because it’s really unhealthy for your heart. Let’s start with how they look. Well, awful. They don’t really look like bacon at all. If you focus on how they look, you will not eat them. But let’s talk about flavor. OMFG! These things are excellent. They seriously taste just like bacon. There is absolutely no grease and they are 100% vegetarian. I have to give Cindy kudos because I will probably never buy real bacon again. Let’s also talk about health. Morningstar claims these have 44% less fat than bacon. So I did a side by side comparison with the regular bacon we were buying from Oscar Mayer. Believe it or not, they actually had about the same amount of calories, fat, and sodium. There was no strong evidence that the veggies were any healthier. However, when it came to cholesterol, there was a HUGE difference! Morning Star has 0mg, while Oscar Mayer has 15mg! So if you’re eating veggie bacon to be healthier, you’re only cutting back on cholesterol — but that’s still a good thing. When it comes to Fat, I’m sure it varies quite a bit among brands. There probably is a brand out there with 44% more fat. All in all, I still have to give Morningstar a huge thumbs up. Any time you can substitute fatty, greasy meat with vegetables, it’s a good thing. I’m sure some pig appreciated it. Plus, I just can’t get over the flavor. If all veggie meat tasted this authentic, I would be hooked!
This is my second full week of being self employed. I know, 2 weeks is no big deal. But these are my thoughts so far… - I’m happy, but I’m not as excited as I thought I’d be. I guess that’s because I was doing so much work on the side, I had already developed the habit of working from home. I just happened to also spend 8 hours in an office and 90 minutes commuting each day. - I eat A LOT. I went through this last time I was self employed. It’s really difficult to cut yourself off from snacking when you work at home. Luckily my home office is upstairs so I just do my best to stay there during the day. - I sleep for at least 8 hours every night. The benefits have been amazing. I am much more alert, my memory is sharper, and I’m more productive. - I don’t have nearly the amount of free time I thought I’d have. That’s one of the top myths about being self employed. I thought I’d be lounging on the couch more, but no such luck. If anything, I work more. But the work is more targeted, and more rewarding because I reap the benefits. - I clean the house often. No idea why. I guess I do have some free time. Everything’s going my way, so I’m pretty happy. I think I’d recommend being self employed to anyone. It does require a certain amount of ambition and motivation. But I believe that everyone is really good at something. You should focus on what that is and make it your career. There is also this saying about money. I don’t remember the exact quote. But if you do what you truly love, what you are really passionate about, money will follow every time. I think money is the biggest stigma when people decide to work for themselves. But believe me, you find ways to make it happen.
Today was a really nice day. Rodney and I took Petey to the park to enjoy the weather. Petey has never been to a park before, so he was very excited. In fact, he peed all over the place. 3 times. We even got to see a real-life homosexual in his natural habitat, parked in his car, cruising for sex. I didn’t know that homosexuals came out in the daylight. I thought they were like vampires, and only came out at night. But anyway…
[Above] Petey and I strike a pose… okay, well I did. Petey was busy.
[Above] I can fly higher than an eagle. You are the wind beneath…
[Above] Hello, camera
I have a love/hate relationship with OSX’s Mail program. I mostly use Thunderbird, but I do have one e-mail account that I keep in Mail, and use daily. Anyone who uses Mail over an extended period of time will probably notice how painfully slow the program becomes. Have you noticed it? Come on, I know you have… You launch the program and it takes years for the thing to get itself in check. Once it does, everything is fine. Well I read this article with a really quick fix to speed up Mail. It’s very easy and Mail was noticeably faster as soon as I did this. Just FYI.
Today, my interview with Best Gay Blogs was featured on their site. You may recall that last week, I was giving them a hard time for featuring posts from my blog so often, but never interviewing me. When you do an interview with Best Gay Blogs, you have to understand that they are like a secret society. They pick you up at an airport, then drive you out to an undisclosed location in the desert… blindfolded. Once you’re there, they take you through an underground tunnel so that the “common people” won’t be alerted. They all wear black suits and sunglasses. I was expecting Will Smith to jump out and erase my memory, like in Men in Black, but he never did… or at least I don’t remember him. Hmmm…. I’m not sure what happened next. But I do know my ear hole was very sore the next day. A few days after that, I received an e-mail from “Ryan” informing me that the interview had been “collected” and “passed on” to someone else. I’m not sure who this mystery person was, but 48 hours later, it was live on the site. Maybe they are fearful that the internet will expose their true identity. So Ryan is like the guard and instead of e-mailing the interview, he uses morse code to transmit the text. Obviously it takes a long time to transmit an entire interview. So I appreciate the effort. I’m not really sure who you are, Best Gay Blogs. But thank you for the interview. It was fun!
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