Tag Archives: Miscellaneous

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Weekend Wrap Up

Mondays are the start of the new “work” week. Over the weekend, this blog sits stagnant, and by Mondays I usually like to have at least an idea of what is going to be discussed here. No such luck, but I’ll anger people with my opinions on some current events and whatever else I feel like discussing of events and topics from the weekend until today. Once again, a random Monday rant.

  • My next book release: Finally, I think I’ve completed the writing and editing portion of my next release. There’s still one short story and poem I haven’t decided if I want to add in or pass off until next time. All that’s left is figuring out what I should have for my cover. I thought the editing process would be more difficult than this part, but it is because I’m picky and I have a certain vibe I want. I say want in hopes to convey how fickle I am being about this, because I take care with these projects like I would my own babies and would settle for nothing less than my ideal for the cover. It’s important. Hopefully, I can convey this idea easier to my photographer on the clock that I barter photos for dinner. By that I mean, I cook his supper every night because the quickest way to my husband’s good side is a nice place of something spicy and bad for him with a side of pepperoncinis.
  • Government and their place: This category goes in two parts. First of all, does the government have any right to check your phone records and emails and the such? Well I would say since the Patriot Act, they gave themselves that right and what could possibly go wrong. Nobody liked that idea before, but we allowed it because the government told us it was in our best interest. Fine, I don’t have anything to hide so have fun. Now, all of a sudden we’re in a riot because the government is looking into our phone and interweb records. Ok, so the only thing that changed is that the government didn’t admit to it? So, let’s see if I follow this: Patriot Act gives the government the right to do this whenever they want essentially, we accept it with reservations but suddenly 10 years later, we decide “whoa back up guys, this is serious business because a corrupt politician has the right to check our stuff and not tell us because it’s in the interest of national security”. Who didn’t see that coming? Next argument up for debate: Should the government tell you what you can buy with the money they give you for groceries? When I was on WIC, the checks they gave me specifically listed out what I could buy, and I bought what was on those checks. It wasn’t “my” money, though since I worked and paid taxes I suppose it was still essentially “my” money, so I didn’t really complain. They were helping me out. It’s like if I ask my Mom for gas money and I bought myself shoes with it instead and need to ask her for more gas money. She’d probably be pissed that she gave me money under the pretense that I was getting that money for something, and ended up with something entirely different and didn’t get what I needed. I think that the government has every right what to tell you to do with their money. If you don’t like that you can’t buy cigarettes with it and need to buy your child Cheerios, then maybe you should make your own money or get another job to buy yourself whatever you want with the money. Maybe all the welfare should be distributed like WIC, with each check having its own shopping list so nothing gets misused. That would be an interesting idea for a first step in welfare reform. That, and go back to requiring people to at least pretend to try to get a job or volunteer for community service to earn it. Yeah, maybe that makes me a terrible person for saying it but I stand by it 100%
  • Game of Thrones: (Spoilers ahead, including book spoilers.)Anyone who knows me know that I’m a huge fan. Now, I’d like to vent about something. The Red Wedding was awesome, and I was squealing like a little school girl over it. Last night’s episode started off strong, and I admit I am a sucker for that sadistic Ramsay Snow. I didn’t like Jaime appearing before his son’s wedding After Jon ending up at the Night’s Watch post after getting shot up by his lady love, I was excited for the final scene. What were they going to do?! Then I see Dany, and I’m hoping now is when she gets mad about being betrayed and sending people away. Before I know it, I think I’m watching some alternative rock concert and a person stage diving. I stared blankly at the screen with a “WTF” face. Now, I’m still wondering why they did that and why it just fell flat. It reminded me of how mad I get when watching a movie, and after a great movie they just give up and half-ass an ending. (Looking at you “Stand-Up Guys”.)

Hope you enjoyed my summary of the weekend on-goings.

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Yes I Graduated High School… Wait…

I remember skating through high school, doing barely enough to get by mostly to just get out of there. I had grand dreams that real life had to be better than that shallow existence we lived out inside those oppressively painted brick walls. I believed that in the real world, merits and hard work would get you far and having a decent enough personality to not be a sociopath was enough. I thought that people stopped judging you for silly things and fitting in would be so much easier. I told myself that being an individual and your own person wouldn’t matter; people didn’t want cookie cutter people in the real world. That was all high school worries that I didn’t need to concern myself with now. Soon, I realized how incredibly wrong and naive I was…

In my job, I worked hard and excelled. I was on good terms with the owners and the General Manager of the hotel, and I was well-liked by them. I always went above and beyond what was asked of me in hopes that I would climb up this ladder into a better position with better pay. I worked up from being a waitress to the front desk, which was a big leap for that establishment. After being promised my first promotion into head of the banquet wait staff, I was excited. I pulled extra hours doing my job while training for the promotion. Until I ended up not getting the promotion suspiciously around the same time I ended up finding out I was pregnant. Fear not, I was assured. Work hard, and you’ll work your way up in no time. Then the reality hit. It wasn’t how hard I worked, it was how friendly I was with the new Banquet head. And by “friendly”, I mean willing to be “more than friends”. I had witnessed the popular “pretty” girls flirt their way up, getting more hours and better pay. I realized that, much like in high school, who you associate with will benefit you.

When I went to college, I again hoped that college was different from high school. Again, I realized that since I didn’t have a fancy car or trust-fund or that I was there to actually learn something and get a degree, I was a little bit of a loner. Having a child meant I didn’t do the “party in the dorm” scene or that I wanted to be to class on-time with work done was something worthy of being laughed at. I found it to be karma though, I remember laughing and mocking those people too. Hard work didn’t pay off too much there, but I did get my degree and I was damned proud of myself. Screw you, high school. I’ve won.

Only, I haven’t won. Even as a stay at home mom, I still have to deal with these “high school” politics. The various parents cluster together, choosing their children’s friends based on how interesting the parents seem. I stood at the bus stop waiting for my son, as a circle of the “other” neighborhood moms sat around talking and laughing. At baseball practice, you see various “clusters” of the parents. You have the bullies sitting on the bleachers. The coaches’ wives sitting together laughing and talking. You have the one parent that floats around to all the groups to try to fit in someplace. I, like in high school, stayed on my own side of the world until approached. Luckily, my son is well liked by nearly everyone on the team, so some of the mom’s gravitate to me because my child is an “ideal choice” for their child’s friend.

There’s not much I can say other than high school really does prepare you for real life. The real world has the same social politics as the ones in high school. The cliques are the same, and if you don’t fit into a mold, you’re going to end up running around in circles. Whether you work, or stay at home, you’re still stuck in this world of popularity rules all. It’s dealing with it, and realizing that you’re grown up now that’s the hard part. And trying to get by, since there’s no summer school in the real world.

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Stuck

Since I was little, all I’ve ever wanted to be was a writer. I read all the time and when I wasn’t reading, I was writing. When I wasn’t writing, I was sketching or sculpting. I’m a creative person and I find when I’m unable to focus on something that revolves around accessing this creativity, I become anxious and irritable. It’s been a need more than a want almost as if I was an addict for it. A slow and downward spiral occurs the longer I go in between projects or finishing a project. Then I lose a groove I started on a project and I sit staring at it wondering what I was thinking when I started that project. (Hence, the name of my short story and poetry collection will be named “Wondering What I Was Thinking”.) Then I have to go back and piece everything together making projects take double the time I intend. (Also, hence why I’ve promised a new published piece and haven’t quite gotten it done.) Finally, I think I’m there with it. I just need a cover, an interesting one my amazingly talented with a camera husband will get for me. Hopefully.

I’m stuck though. I wonder when I’ll know if I’ve officially failed my dreams of writing. I wonder when I’ll know when to throw the towel in and call it a day. I wonder when I’ll know what failure really is. I wonder if people even take it as seriously as I do. I doubt it though, I wonder if people just find it silly that I even bothered to try. I wonder if I should just give up now, even though I know I haven’t given it a real honest attempt. Or have I? I’ve blogged for nearly 2 years now, a Hubpage for 2 months, and only have published one novella. It’s been a minor success, I’ve sold 3 stories and my Hub has been featured 13 out of 16 times which seems to me to be a big deal. Maybe these are signs that I should re-shift my focus and go full force, hell or high water. I’m sure giving up my mere 3 hours of sleep a night for hard work and dreams might do the trick. I do better sleep deprived and in less than sound mind anyways.

When we’re stuck in a crossroads, Frost asked us which path do we take. I always figured that the beaten path seemed like a boring place to be, but I hate not knowing what’s going to happen. Don’t we all though? Some people when people say when they are expecting that they don’t want to find the gender because life has so few surprises as it is. That’s a lie, life is full of surprises. We’ll see what road I eventually take, and I hope it brings me peace and happiness. For now, I’ll venture down this “road less traveled” and hope for the best.

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Let’s Rock This Joint

I hate benefit concerts. I want to watch, I really do, because it’s usually done for a great cause that needs help. But I can’t do it. I’d feel guilty about changing the channel off the acts that I find horrible just to see the maybe two or three bands that would interest me. Sometimes I DVR them and fast forward, sometimes I forget to even watch them after I DVR them because it’s not worth the effort of fast-forwarding through 5 and 1/2 hours of footage to watch maybe an hour of it. I like have the choice to do this. And it saddens me the on benefit I probably would’ve suffered through because “it’s my peeps”, didn’t give me the choice to.

I’m not the only one in Massachusetts wondering why they didn’t nationally televise the event. I’m not the only one in Massachusetts upset over it. I’m probably also not the only one in Massachusetts wondering what they were thinking with the promotion or anything else that was a huge “CF” as I would call it. (Adult language, if you don’t get it I won’t explain it. I’ll give you a hint: the “C” stands for “Cluster”.) I specifically mention Massachusetts and not New England because I wonder if anyone outside of Massachusetts even knew the event was going on. Great job raising $1 million, and awesome job not acknowledging a lot more would’ve been made to benefit the victims if it were nationally shown or at least regionally. How many people actually enjoy watching live streams on their computers?

Then you hear that Dane Cook blacked out his segment entirely to make sure his creative property was preserved for his next concert tour. There’s a joke in here about “what about the creative property he may or may not have stolen from other comedians?” but I won’t. But I do wonder if I knew he was still relevant. I don’t think I did, and I certainly was reminded that at least I wasn’t missing much when I did hear some jokes from the concert last night. Maybe he wasn’t so concerned about people seeing his routine before the concert as he was people realizing before they spent money  on his tour that he wasn’t really worth anything more than “free admission”. Maybe I’m bitter because I think that was in poor taste on his behalf, at least he admitted on Twitter he was being an ass. Maybe I’m just upset that the idea of the whole concert being a big secret may have affected how much money that might have been raised had it been more publicized.

I admit, I even forgot the concert was happening which I suppose just furthers the point of this being a poorly executed benefit. I wasn’t harmed by not seeing the concert, but imagine the help that people and businesses could have received from the benefit to rebuild their lives and property to get back to the everyday grind. They are the victims here, and that’s a horrible to say since that statement can be interpreted to say that they were victims twice in this. Maybe making a controversial comment like that could help light a fire under someone’s butt to get answers or something to remedy it. Maybe there needs to be a universal outrage to figure it out.

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The Praises and the Woes

Monday was Memorial Day, the day that was meant to celebrate the troops for everything they do for us. Some have sacrificed their lives, and I felt that doing a blog post on that day would be a disservice, mostly because no words can truly be said for these men and women who are selflessly protecting America and their ideals even when it seems America doesn’t do enough to thank them. Remember every time you complain about “what a poop-hole America has become” because they allow you that freedom by fighting for us. Complain less, and thank more people. And don’t forget about the families that sit around worrying about their loved ones who are defending America, they will always remember their fallen more than we will and that’s absolutely horrible.

I didn’t intend for this post to be entirely dedicated to Memorial Day, especially considering it was 2 days ago. The nature of the beast while writing though, at least for me, is to go with what I feel like writing about. As I read that last sentence of that last paragraph, I felt compelled to continue anyways. We don’t have a death toll up that tells us how many people have died in Afghanistan and Iraq like we have the debt toll clock. Why would that be more important to us? There are people dying for us, and we should be reminded daily of it because they deserve not to be forgotten. The sad truth is I was right with the statement about how easily we forget. My friend’s brother died in Iraq, and while I know about it, it only pops in my head a few times a year when I sit and think about people who have fought for our country. My friend probably thinks about it more than once or twice a day. That makes me feel horrible to admit, but it doesn’t take away the truth of that statement.

They deserve better. I don’t know how many times I can say that, but it needs to be repeated often. Our troops lose pieces of themselves, physically and mentally, because they wanted to be a part of a bigger plan in life. They lose limbs, families, their lives, and in a lot of cases, their minds. And we support them once a year with an hour-long parade of high school bands that sound terrible and hideous floats and ditzy blonde local beauty pageant winners.  That doesn’t seem like a fair trade-off to me. I’ve had family serve our country, and thankfully returned safely. There are a lot of people who aren’t as lucky. They deserve better.

My son always salutes a person he sees in uniform. He said it shows them respect and that we are thankful to them. That’s what they need. They need us to show gratitude when we can, not because of a holiday people get off of work. They don’t get the day off to have BBQ with their families or to get insanely drunk with friends. Maybe more people need to be like my son and show them respect whenever they see them or help the ones that are home that need our help since they dedicated so much to help us. Remember that next time you complain about paying taxes or how terrible things are going with the government. We have troops that are fighting for our right to complain and to be free. /endsoapboxrant

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The Generation of Apathy

The Generation of Apathy, those are the now twenty-somethings and increasingly getting older. We’re the ones who don’t believe in our politicians or political process enough to vote, and the ones that believe that the only real news reporters on television are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. We’re the generation in between the ones that believe in partisanship… wait, I meant bi-partisanship. Now people are growing into a world where different news channels only focus on whatever political agenda they want, completely disregarding that so many people are fed up with being told what to think that they don’t trust anyone in politics or news.

All I ever hear are talking points. During the election, all I had to hear was how Ronald Reagan was the greatest president who had ever lived, and Romney was going to be our nation’s next Ronald Reagan. I don’t dispute whether or not he was a great president, though I believe he was as good as presidents can be. What I wonder is, if he was so great how come he wasn’t mentioned at all during the previous administrations during their crises. I didn’t hear about how he was Clinton’s moral opposite, or how he would’ve handled the start of the downfall of the economy at the end of Bush’s terms when bailouts started happening. I didn’t even hear about how awesome he was during Obama’s first term, until the election time came and it was “Reagan Time”. I wonder how many of those Hollywood Communists he nabbed we actually Communists. Do I mean this? Not really sure I don’t have the proper information on the validity of this point.

Now, it’s all about Nixon. Richard Nixon was a horrible person with scandals up the wazoo and Obama is the new Nixon. Every time they bring up any of the scandals, all you hear is Nixon. It’s now “Nixon Time”. Nixon was a smart man, but a corrupt and paranoid one. He is the Republican Obama. Or is Obama the Democratic Nixon? I don’t quite think they have that part of it worked out, but I’ll be sure to pay attention to see.  Obama is almost as bad as Nixon, they say. Worse then, Nixon never let people die. Nixon… Reagan… Nixon. They need to slow down, the way that people don’t know the difference between Chenya and the Czech Republic, I’d be concerned they’d mix up the two.

My point is I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being told what to think, and there should be more people upset by this. It isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue, it’s an American one. We need to actually be informed by our journalists, not made a part of a grand agenda saying one party is more corrupt than another. We need to be able to trust our politicians to do what’s right for us, their constituents, the ones who voted for them not filled their pockets with an obscene amount of money to push through whatever the highest bidder wants. They are the reason the Apathy Generation exists.

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Son, Can You Play Me A Memory

Like many people my age, I grew up with an appreciation of classic rock. Even today, The Beatles are one of my favorite bands. To me, that music is essential in life because they made music that allowed for many of the musicians that I enjoy the musicians that they are today. Even when I’m writing, I need at least a tune in my head if I can’t listen to my iPod or I sit staring at a screen with nothing coming out. Music is essential to me and everything I enjoy. I always sing to my boys, and I always encourage them to sing even though the baby just claps along. My oldest son has a guitar he enjoys trying to play, and has the same fondness for music as I do. And yes, I borrowed the title from “Piano Man”.

A few months ago, a friend on Facebook said something like “I feel bad for our generation’s kids, because we don’t have any real classic music to pass along to them”. As my husband and I were driving around during errands, my husband posed a question “what real ‘epic’ bands do we have in our generation?” An “epic” band to him is a band that has a staying power, where they stay relevant and touring for many decades. Bands like our parents had, like Aerosmith, The Who, The Rolling Stones, that still perform for decades later and continue to be well-known.

I had to think about this. Our legacy is going to end up being the Beastie Boys or Nirvana. But are they “epic” bands? What bands do we have to share? The only one my husband could think of that would fit would be The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In this age of reality talent shows, what do we really have to add into the pool of “epic” music? Kelly Clarkson made herself a big hit, but how many of you knew that Ruben Studdard made 4 other albums after the American Idol paid for one? At this rate I’m becoming terrified that the legacy of music we’re going to pass onto our children is Poison or Guns ‘n Roses, or god forbid… I can’t even stand to stay it… Metallica.

My money is on Muse, though my husband has a point with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Our legacy to our kids will be crappy and forgettable music with trillions of dollars of debt, and a government so partisan nothing will ever get done. I agree with my friend, I do feel bad that we can’t pass on any “epic” bands to our next generation. I’d be interested to hear what other people have to say on this topic.

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Friday Has Come

Sometimes I struggle with what to write about at the end of the week. By Friday, I feel like I address whatever needs to be addressed. I don’t get a case of the “Mondays”, I get a case of the “Fridays”. The week drains me, and by Friday I do want to toss aside my writing to take a day off. Most Fridays I have simply run out of things to write about, so I don’t bother. I want to break myself of this habit. I do consider my writing as a job, one that pays poorly, but is that different from many other people out there?

The only thing newsworthy today is the hearings on the IRS. Shocker: a government agency filled with corruption and biased politics. I’ll remember to be surprised. It is a filthy day in the world when the already most hated agency in America because one of the most illegally corrupt ones. Well done, IRS, for showing us the hated can become more hated. It proves to you with hope and bad intentions, anything is possible. Also, I learned there are way too many people sitting there “trying” the IRS officials and they spend too much time talking about random and useless things that don’t really seem to matter or help find out what’s wrong. Maybe cut the committee actually asking the questions in half, and make them actually ask questions would help. Or at least make things less boring and move them along quicker.

My Hubpage is doing well, I think anyways. I don’t know if being featured on there is impressive or not, but it does help my ego and inspire me to work harder in all my writing. The idea of someone moderating my work and decided if it’s worthy or not helps my self-esteem by marking their approval on my writing. I hope this continues and helps me continue on my creative streak. You should check out my Hubpage by using the sidebar link. It’s dedicated solely to parenting, and for those who love my Dylan stories, there’s a nice one about him and his Relay for Life walk.  Also, check out my Kindle Author Page to buy my novella since you’re already looking at the sidebar.

I hope everyone has a nice Friday, and I hope you have a great weekend.

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The Women in the News

Sometimes watching the news can absolutely sicken me. I often say that sometimes watching the news, I can’t help but to imitate my dogs in their confusion. How can people be so stupid, I sometimes say. How can something like that happen? I get a lot of mixed feelings about things I read. I can’t help it, no one can see everything in black and white. Well, most people can’t. Today, I dedicate this post to the women in the news and a female related issue, and as always, I acknowledge I’ll probably offend people or upset people.

I’ll start with the most recent article of news. Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy and is regarded as a hero. She is also in the process of removing her ovaries to also prevent getting cancer. Sure, she did a brave thing undergoing surgery to prevent a couple of types of cancer she has a gene mutation for. But how many of the “everywoman” can get tested for a gene to see if they’ll get a cancer? Then how many of them can also undergo an optional surgery for “just in case” measures? Not many. I don’t feel this need to congratulate her, and I’m probably the only one. She’s rich, she can do that sort of thing without worrying about how to pay for things and how much insurance covers. The normal, everyday woman can’t. They get cancer and have to deal with it. To me, those are the brave ones. These things don’t guarantee you’ll never get cancer, just that you’ll never get “those” types of cancer. She could end up with terminal brain cancer, or stomach cancer. I don’t disregard what she did; any type of surgery requires a great deal of strength. But I don’t think I would pin her up as more of a hero than a person who fights for their life because they aren’t fortunate enough to have the same hand dealt to them.

My next point involves Ariel Castro. I was reading an article where the attorney stated that “women unfairly judge my client as a monster”. I don’t think I’m being unfair in thinking a guy who so callously and aggressively abuses women in the manner he has. I don’t think a man who even slightly abuses a woman should even be considered a man nor should be deserving any of my time. A man like this is a monster. Chaining up women, assaulting them and torturing them in every way possible. Abuse so bad that the women miscarried the children that were created by his sexual assaulting them. Yeah, if that’s not a monster I don’t know what is. I don’t see how they can spin this to make it any more ridiculous than Jodi Arias stabbed her boyfriend nearly 30 times and slit his throat and shot him could consider it “self-defense”.  I can’t wait to see the defense on this, because I’m sure it’ll be comedic how creative they’ll need to be to make this man seem like anything less than a cruel beast. It must take a real “man” to beat up a woman, let alone 3 16-year-old girls chained up for 10 years.

My final note involves the idea of men in the military that watch over sexual assault cases. An Army sergeant, whose job is to oversee sexual assault crimes in the Army, is now being accused of…. you guessed it… sex crimes. Prostitution, to be specific. I know when I think of people I’d feel comfort watching over sexual assault cases, I want someone with ties to a prostitution ring in which he may or may not have sexually abused his prostitutes. I wish I was making any of this up, but I’m not. In fact, I don’t even know what I can say about this because it really says everything without me adding to it. Shame.

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No Taxation Without.. Wait, What?

I tried to do my research before writing this post, but I’m not going to lie and say that reading financial laws and tax-exemption laws are interesting enough to make me want to know what I’m talking about. Then I figured, if news organizations can get away with rattling off misinformation under a guise of a mass amount of research, why can’t a blogger who admits not knowing what I’m talking about get away with it. I’m sure I have less of a following than the media does, and I get the bonus of honesty before spouting out opinions that may or may not be backed with actual facts.

The average person has to pay taxes, it’s how we pay our teachers and public service employees. Even celebrities get slammed for not paying taxes, and get hunted down for it. There are 2 certainties in the world: Death and Taxes. Without taxes, services we enjoy go away. I don’t mind paying a bit more in taxes if my children get a better education or I feel safer on the streets due to better trained police officers. I’ll even pay more for better and safer parks for my children to play at. Taxes are why we get these luxuries. I won’t get into a belief about wasted money on people taking advantage of a system meant to help people who are in need, this isn’t about that. This is about people paying taxes like people should pay.

The whole time I’m listening about the IRS breaking laws and discriminating against Conservative groups, I only had one thought in my mind: Why are they even qualified for tax exemption? I didn’t understand what made an organization tax exempt. I knew the Catholic Church was tax exempt, but I also knew the Catholic Church bought a Crystal Cathedral for nearly $60 million. It’s okay though, they saved up from not paying taxes. I wonder if the Catholic Church, which one could argue is probably one of the wealthiest organizations in the world. With food pantries and homeless shelters, I’m sure that $60 million they spent on the cathedral that they didn’t have to pay taxes on could surely actually help the poor. What type of overhead do they really have, I thought priests and nuns took a vow of poverty or humility. Upon further reading, I actually shocked myself by seeing the some professional sports agencies are also tax exempt. I wonder if I could apply for tax exemptions on the grounds that I just don’t want to pay taxes if these organizations don’t have to.

I get it, I’m a silly girl who knows nothing about economics and tax law. Understand, I don’t care what the laws are but I don’t need to know them to understand how screwed up entire system is. I don’t think political groups should be tax exempt. I don’t think a religious organization that is richer than most celebrities should be tax exempt. In fact, I’m not sure of many people I don’t believe should be taxed. If you make money, why shouldn’t you pay your share of taxes on it?