Over the weekend we went to Rehobeth Beach with a friend who has a house there. We decided to watch the Minimalists documentary. It’s about downsizing and owning less and buying less “stuff” to simplify your life and make you happier.
We had a discussion afterward and here were my thoughts:
- The need to buy stuff I believe goes back to our caveman days when we used to hunt. We no longer hunt as a species since we go to work and come home. We no longer need to hunt or gather our food. Buying “stuff” and getting deals I think fuels that need that we still have to hunt… a need that’s built into us.
- Games like Pokemon Go may help with this need to hunt. Instead of hunting out good deals and obtaining “stuff”, we can hunt Pokemon through the game.
- Technology reduces our need for “stuff.” Look at e-readers and Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, etc. We have no need for a library full of books or a shelf full of DVDs. Our books, movies, and music are on our mobile devices and can be played anytime.
For years now I’ve felt like I have too much “stuff.” My Uncle George says the word “stuff” all the time referring to things we don’t need but we have anyway.
The documentary was good and worth a watch. However I think they missed the entire point. They identified the problem of not being happy and having “stuff” that makes you temporarily happy. Then that feeling goes away and items that used to make you happy no longer do their job.
The documentary goes through several people and their stories of how they minimized their lives by living in smaller spaces and letting go of a lot of their belongings… thus making their lives happier.
The problem with these stories is that they’ve all had a life changing event… they retired or chose to do something else. Most of these people quit their jobs, became minimalists, and wrote books about their minimalist lives. Notice anything? They quit their 40+ hour a week jobs to do something else.
They never mentioned the core issue here which is that unhappiness can come from us working way too much. They mentioned climbing the corporate ladder. When they stopped climbing and when they downsized and was able to have money to do what they really wanted to do, they were happier.
I’m pretty happy in my life but I know I could be a lot more happy if I were to quit my job or go part time. I’m looking forward to being “quazi-retired” and working part time so I’d have more time.
It’s a very well known fact that us Americans do not get enough time off. Every other industrialized country on Earth gets like 6 weeks paid vacation a year. What do they do? They go on trips. Since us Americans do not get time off, we buy stuff with our access money. Possessions to us Americans are the vacations to those in other countries.
Anyway, those are my thoughts.
Here’s some stuff I can alleviate from my life to live more simple:
- Do that 333 thing. 33 items of clothing for 3 months. Get rid of some of my hats and clothes I don’t wear.
- Get rid of the two TVs we don’t use. I have this old RCA TV from when I was a kid. It still works but I don’t use it.
- Get rid of a lot of my dad’s stuff that I kept. It just sits around. Someone else might get more use out of it than me. It doesn’t bring me joy; it’s just “stuff.”
I decided to go to Philly to protest the DNC and the horrible choice of Hillary Clinton. I’ve been putting my heart and soul into Bernie Sanders’ campaign since he announced. I donated time and money for over a year. I saw it through to the end when he conceded at the DNC in Philadelpia. I cannot possibly try to describe the once-in-a-lifetime feeling I had being there around people like me. Everyone was so awesome. Everyone talked. It’s like we were all friends. I even got to see and meet some of my progressive heroes like Lee Camp, Debbie the Sane Progressive, Greg Palast, and Jimmy Dore.
Pictures: http://yearscollage.com/user/niles38?set_id=41
Here is the diary of what my experiences were. If you ever get a chance to be a part of something bigger than yourself, please do it and see it all the way through. I need to keep harping on these feelings since I may never feel this way again. That’s how much this experience meant to me.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
- Woke up & finished packing; texted Heidi
- Went over Heidi’s house & helped decorate her car with Bernie writing
- On the way up to Philly we saw another Bernie car decorated; we honked & waved
- We also saw Black Men For Bernie bus; they later honked at us
- Got to the hotel in New Jersey and checked in
- Went to nearest PATCO station; Heidi & Ken got the Bernie Sanders banner; I got my Jill Stein quote sign
- There were other Berners on the platform; talked to them while waiting for the train
- Some guy accidently fell; when he got up, he said, “Hillary for prison!”
- Did an interview with a news station with Heidi & Ken on the platform
- Talked with other Berners on where to go; decided to go to the Climate Rally
- Started marching with the Climate Rally that ended at Independence National Historic Park
- Chilled at Independence National Historic Park; Ken got us lunch
- Decided to go to the March For Bernie at 3; saw Josh Fox speak as we were leaving; gave the rest of our lunch to a homeless man
- Went to Philly City Hall to start the March For Bernie
- Marched to FDR Park; fire hydrants were open so we took turns going through them to cool off; march was around 4-5 miles
- Chilled at FDR Park for a few minutes
- Decided to head over to the Fire early for Lee Camp
- Walked a few blocks since traffic was blocked off to get an Uber (only Uber we took the whole time)
- Chilled at The Fire; Heidi got pizza; drank until the show
- It was really hot in the room; Lee Camp and company were late coming out
- During the show Ken made a chair joke; there were a few chairs at the front; Ken said “one less chair today” referring to DWS; I was also the only one who “wooed” for agnostics
- Left the show early since it was so hot
- Got directions from fire fighters; caught the Philly subway (SEPTA) to PATCO
- Went back to the hotel
Monday, July 25, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast; they had waffles; took picture & sent it to Bri
- Got ready & left the room
- Had a problem finding parking; parked at a Bernie campaign headquarters a few blocks away
- Met more Berners on the platform waiting for the train
- Went to Philly City Hall for the Press Conference which turned out to be a rally
- It was a huge rally; got separated from Heidi & Ken several times
- Saw Nina Turner speak
- Met up with Mel & gang
- Heidi wanted to eat so we decided to do the 3:00 march instead of the 1:00 march
- Walked across the street to a ritzy place; had a crabcake sandwich & beer; talked to two college kids who were Berners
- Jimmy Dore walked in as we were leaving!
- Said hi to Jimmy Dore and that I was a huge fan while walking out… didn’t want to bother him while he was eating
- Ken left for home
- Marched to FDR Park
- Banged on wall & protested outside the wall
- Found a spot on the lawn for the Jill Stein Power To The People Rally
- Heard others & later Jill Stein speak
- Afterward banged on fence during the rain
- Hundreds of Berners seeked shelter under an overpass walking back; some of them wanted to block up traffic; tried to stop them since it wasn’t helping anything
- Headed back to the hotel; got a shower
- Went to Wegman’s for sushi & fruit
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast
- Ran into Hillary supporter at breakfast; asked me where I was going today; tried to tell me Bernie will be a huge part of Hillary’s campaign & platform moving forward; doubted it heavily
- Got to the train; went to Thomas Paine Plaza for the Bernie or Bust rally
- Debbie the Sane Progressive spoke; Lee Camp spoke; YahNe Ndgo spoke
- Heidi stalked Jimmy Dore & when he was free called me over to get my picture taken with him! I told him I had a crush on him & he kissed me!!!
- Jill Stein spoke
- Got on Philly metro (SEPTA) to take it to FDR Park
- Had to exit one stop before since we weren’t allowed at the last stop (since that was for the delegates); when we got off the train people were chanting “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie”; amazing moment
- Saw the DNC put up another wall to stop us; protested at the wall; yelled to Hillary delegate that she just voted to send her children to war; cried for my cousin and my friends who are in the military
- Watched a bit of the convention in FDR Park (they had a stage & huge screens)
- More protesting at the walls
- Headed back & ran into Jill Stein walking to FDR Park; I was like two feet away from her; she spoke briefly; people swarmed around her
- Headed back to the hotel & had a shower
- Went out to dinner and ran into some Berners; had dinner with them!
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast
- Ran into Bernie supporters on the platform; an older guy named Dan (who looked like Robert Reich) and his trip mate, Patricia; lots of Berners did carpools and traveled together even if they didn’t know each other
- Heidi & Dan did an interview with HBO
- Black Men For Bernie Rally; a few Hillary supporters showed up; someone took one of their signs & then gave it back (hey they did it to us inside the convention); we later all hugged the Hillary supporters
- Heidi got up on stage & spoke
- Ran into Mel who got up on stage & spoke later
- Kshama Sawant spoke
- Had milkshakes at McDonald’s; spoke to a woman who didn’t know who Bernie is; spoke to a Hispanic young guy who would have been deported thanks to the crime bill but he fought it
- Listened to Jill Stein speak again :)
- They took a picture of everybody
- Headed down to FDR Park
- Heidi met LBJ’s daughter on the train
- Got stuck on the hoity toity delegate train since we couldn’t get off; had to ride it back a stop
- Banged on wall
- Listened to delegates speak at the stage
- Greg Palast spoke
- Watched Greg Palast’s new movie
- Met him & got my picture with him!
- He sat on one of our posters for a bit while we all watched his movie
- Rumor started about Bernie so they stopped the movie to address it
- Did the death of the DNC march with candles & a coffin
- A helicopter started to fly really low since hundreds of us were protesting around the wall & they got scared we were going to do something crazy
- Peace and love thing started again
- A Bernie delegate was being interviewed; told stories about how the delegates were told to remove one sign, then another, then another; if they didn’t do so they’d be kicked out; if they got up to go to the bathroom or get a snack a Hillary supporter would take their place; the whole convention was staged to make it seem like the democratic party is united when IT IS NOT
- Headed back to hotel; had debate with Hillary supporter on the way back
Thursday, July 28, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast
- Packed up & checked out of the hotel
- Headed down to Philly; no Berners on the platform since we just missed the train
- Dance party at Thomas Paine Plaza
- Saw Debbie again
- Listened to various speakers; Hillary supporters there & they spoke & BM4B debated them
- One of the BM4B guys got an email from a Hillary supporter who worked for the Pennsylvania government; read the email; horrible horrible email
- Left for home
- Stopped at Burger King along the way for food
- Ran into traffic; didn’t get home until around 7
- Sad days ahead
Pictures I’m In
Searching through the internet, pictures of the DNC and protest around it; I’ll keep track of photos I find myself in here:
I posted on Monday that I have officially changed my party affiliation to Unaffiliated (Independent). I am through with the Democratic Party.
In fact I’m pretty much through with the whole concept of political parties. Why should we label ourselves and put ourselves into boxes? We all do not think alike.
That’s why I really don’t understand the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” movement that some democrats are trying to push. If that’s the case, why should the primaries matter at all? Why vote in them if all candidates representing the Democratic party are equal?
They are NOT equal. For example, Hillary and Bernie are WAYYYYYYYY different. They both have radically different views on a lot of issues. In fact, a lot of Hillary’s views don’t align with the Democratic party at all (ex. she favors trade deals, offshore drilling, fracking, taking money from big interests, war, government surveillance, etc; all of which and more go against who Democrats are supposed to be).
The Democratic party and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz have been completely unfair to Bernie throughout this entire primary. From limiting the number of debates, lining up Super Delegates before a single vote has been cast, sharing campaign offices, joint fundraisers, etc. Hillary has been given every advantage.
I will not just fall in line and vote for Hillary. My vote needs to be earned and she’s no where close to earning mine. In fact Trump is a lot closer. And from what it sounds like, she’s not interested in mine or any other Bernie supporters’ vote. She’s busy sucking up to Bush donors. Democrats compromise everything they stand for in support of Hillary. So many good progressives in the media have lost their credibility by trying to defend her. I don’t get it.
I’m happy that I’ve chosen to leave the DNC corruption. Democrats are in bed with corporations and with friends like that, who needs Republicans? The Democratic Party no longer represents me. I haven’t changed my views. As Reagan once said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Party left me.”
I never claimed to be a good writer but here it goes…
For the past week I have been flyering around one of the Montgomery County Maryland early voting centers. I did the one at the Silver Spring Civic Center. I was there all this week after work while early voting was happening.
The first day I did it, Monday, I met a really cool older woman who was flyering for Jamie Raskin. She was a very pro Bernie person as well. In fact, she had flyered for him earlier that day. After I was done flyering, I ran home to get my car (I had scootered to work that day). I then went to the Bernie Rockville office to pick up some swag and any materials they had since we were running low. That was a long day. I left for work around 7:30 AM and I didn’t get home until 8:30 PM.
David Throne, Jamie Raskin, Chris van Hollen always had a presence the days I was there. There was even a Trump guy on Wednesday but he didn’t stay very long and he said he was a Democrat. There was always a Hillary supporter there, too except for a few hours on Wednesday when there wasn’t.
Will Jawando’s wife was always there and she was always breaking the rules. They set up lines which us canvassers cannot cross. She was always crossing the line to talk to voters and no one called her out on it. She struck me as very disingenuous. I had met Will Jawando before at one of our MoCo for Bernie meetups. One of our members did his homework and it turned out Will Jawando is a huge Hillary supporter having even gotten money from Hillary. Our member called him out on it but he said he returned the money or some crap which turned out to be false. Anyway, the Jawando’s were bad. They were breaking the rules. His wife kept saying hi to me which was nice and she tried to sway me to vote for him but then I saw the Hillary sticker on her bag. I can’t vote in that election anyway since I’m in district 6.
Yesterday (Thursday) I tried to look up a phone number to call since a lot of the canvassers (including Jawando’s wife) was crossing the line big time but I couldn’t find a number to report it.
The worst day was Tuesday. The DNC guy that was there was very like toolish, if that makes sense. He was all calling me buddy one minute then asking me to do stuff the next minute. He was very pro Hillary. When a few supporters approached, I asked them if they needed any Bernie literature and they said they were very pro Hillary and started to yell at me their reasoning. I couldn’t rebut because the DNC guy was saying “that’s right, I agree, blah blah blah.” So I just had to walk away before I could say my rebuttle which was, “Bernie won’t sacrifice what we want and he won’t start out a compromise with a compromise like Obama does and Hillary will.” The DNC dude even made me take a picture with him, Jamie Raskin, a few other people and the Hillary supporter. Not cool. He was also there yesterday campaigning for Jamie Raskin. I tried to avoid him the best I could.
All week I ran into a good amount of Bernie supporters. I gave them buttons and bumper stickers. They loved them and I loved talking Bernie to the supporters who stopped to talk with me. There were even two people who wanted to volunteer. I gave them a flyer with volunteer information.
Probably my highlight was talking to a woman who told me to give me one good reason why she should vote for Bernie and I said, “he’s anti war, anti TPP, anti free trade, anti Keystone pipeline…” She stopped me there and said, “you had me at anti war.”
The whole week the people flyering around me were heavily Bernie supporters. It was really nice to know I was among like minded individuals.
I was quite nervous the first two days but then New York happened. I had contemplated not going anymore but I know Bernie still needs me and as long as he has a small chance, I’ll be there. On Wednesday and Thursday I got more aggressive and stepped up my game. I approached a lot more people and always smiled and always handed out Bernie info. I wish I was more like the one guy for Jamie Raskin on Tuesday. He would walk up to people, shake their hand, ask them how they were and launch into a whole speech about Jamie Raskin. He was also a Bernie supporter.
Yesterday (Thursday) I had a lot of help. There were like 5 other Bernie supporters there who were flyering with me. They even set up a table. It was very productive. There were a few at the Silver Spring metro, one on the corner, and three of us just walking around.
My favorite part of the day was swapping stories with Brian after we got home. He flyered around two early voting places this week as well.
After working all week doing my full time job and handing out flyers for 2-3 hours each day I’m exhausted. I honestly don’t know how people can have two jobs. But it’s so sad that people have to have two or three jobs just to survive. Another reason why I’m Bernie all the way.
I wanted to do a quick blog post about pizza delivery fees. As some of you know, I used to do pizza delivery for Domino’s back in college. Fun times. Lots of stories.
Anyway, pizza drivers are making less today than what I made when I did it due to delivery fees that pizza and other delivery places put onto the price of the order.
The summer I delivered pizza, it used to be $15.75 for the 555 deal from Domino’s. People would usually be nice and give the full $20 for tip; so we’d get $4.75 tip. I come into work one day, first order is a 555, go to the dude’s house and notice that it’s now $16.75… I thought he might have ordered an extra topping or something… Nope, it was the new $1 delivery fee. All of a sudden I was getting less money with the 555’s. Not only that, a lot of people stopped tipping as much since they were under the false assumption that the extra $1 went to the driver when it did not. It went to corporate profits.
The Huffington Post did a good article on it.
So just to set the record straight: a delivery fee DOES NOT go to the driver. Please tip these guys. It’s hard for them. It’s their wear and tear on their cars. They live off minimum wage and tips and whatever minuscule money they get per run (when I did it it was 85 cents a run).
I am really getting sick of people attacking Planned Parenthood. People seem to think all Planned Parenthood is out to do is destroy fetus’. They’re for family planning. They’re for helping people. Like 3% of what they do is abortions and yet that’s all they get flack for. They never get any good press. Get the facts.
If they do ANYTHING wrong, it’s like open season. They get flack from Congress, the Republicans, and basically anyone who is pro-life.
Planned Parenthood is one of the only places where women can go and get help and not be judged. (Besides by those idiot protesters who stand out front of the Planned Parenthood offices holding up stupid signs of dead babies; cause that’s effective.)
Women who are poor, women who are in college, any woman can go to Planned Parenthood and get their yearly examinations and mammograms for free; without insurance. It’s one of the only places that does this. They can even get birth control for free.
I know; I did it for years. I didn’t have health insurance for ten years of my life (through high school and college). Planned Parenthood was there for me.
I take offense to anyone who wants to smear them and tear them down. They’re doing good things. Why can’t people and the press see that? They’re helping people.
When I was in college my husband (then boyfriend) and I worked this minimum wage job up in western Maryland just so we could be together. We worked 30-40 hours a week so pretty much full time. We earned the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.
I remember getting my paycheck and it instantly going to food and rent and that was it. I didn’t have any left over. In fact I may have owed money.
Maryland is awesome and liberal so since then the minimum wage in our state has risen to $8.00 an hour (soon to be $8.25 July 1st 2015, $8.75 July 1st 2016, $9.25 July 1st 2017, and $10.10 July 1st 2018). I wrote my congressmen a lot of letters regarding the minimum wage in our state.
Using an inflation calculator, if I were a college student working minimum wage now, I’d be earning around $7 an hour in circa 2005 dollars. That could have afforded me a lot better life. I might have actually gotten by without borrowing money that summer.
Well that’s this blog post’s story. Vote Bernie Sanders and vote for a higher minimum wage!
Bri and I were talking the other night about the stuff we still have from college. I thought I’d blog about it since I’m a bit bored and would like to update my blog more. So here’s a list of stuff that I still have since college (and some before):
- Coffee table (acquired in college, was my Mom’s or her dad’s)
- Can opener (acquired in college, we actually took it from our apartment in Frostburg)
- Microwave (acquired in college, we bought it for $40 at Walmart)
- My bathroom tote (acquired in high school, Ricky and I were shopping for his college when I got it for my college for a year later)
- My pink laundry bag (acquired in high school)
- My TV (acquired when I was a kid, I’ve had this RCA 12 inch boom tube since I was born basically)
- size_t (acquired in college, he’s still good although he has diabetes… and yes he’s a pet not an inanimate object)
- Most our pots & pans (acquired throughout college, we still use the same forks, plates, spatculas, etc)
- My comforters (acquired in college, my Aunt Ruth bought them for me)
- Chair (acquired in high school from my mom, the only stable chair we have that we can stand on)
- Computer Chairs (acquired in college, both mine and Bri’s, we also acquired another one from Seth)
- Boxes & bins (acquired in college, still are used to store shit in)
- My messenger bag (acquired in high school, bought from Old Navy, used in high school & college, I’ll have it forever)
- Spare bed (acquired in college, for Bri and my first apartment in Frostburg)
- Junk bins (acquired in high school, storage for pens, tape, cords, etc)
- High school & college papers (acquired throughout high school & college, I saved all my papers & notes from classes I took)
- Stuffed animals (acquired throughout life)
- Computer monitor (acquired in high school, was my first, now is Bri’s second monitor for his PC)
This list doesn’t include DVDs and items of the sort. Maybe I’ll update this later if I can think of more stuff I’ve had since college. Pretty cool I still have the same stuff.
One of the happiest like moments I’ve experienced in the past few weeks was watching Real Time With Bill Maher. Maher had David Duchovny on. Duchovny has a new book called “Holy Cow” that he was talking about. Apparently it’s like a children’s book that brings up some very important questions. One of which is the way we raise our meat.
Duchovny said that he’s not a vegetarian but more a lazy vegetarian. Bill Maher questioned what that was and asked if it was when there’s nothing else on the menu, if he eats meat. Duchovny said it’s more like if he goes over someone’s house and if they were having meat, he wouldn’t turn it down since the animal has already been killed and you don’t want to waste it.
That has been my predicament all along. What do I do? Hearing that both Maher and Duchovny did consume meat when in certain situations, I felt a whole lot better about everything. It was probably one of the best moments of my life knowing that others face the same challenges with meat that I do. It was so relieving.
I cannot be called a “vegetarian” since I do eat meat occasionally (when it’s going to be wasted anyway) and since I eat shrimp, eggs, and fish.
According to one article I read, I’m more of a flexitarian where as I tend to not eat meat but don’t rule it out completely. But I’m also somewhat of a lacto-ovo vegetarian where I won’t eat meat but do eat dairy and eggs… then I also eat fish which makes me more of a pescatarian. But I guess if I had to pick title, I’d say “lazy vegetarian.”
It’s difficult to know what I am. I just hope what I’m doing makes a difference to the environment and saves innocent animals lives. It’s also been very good for me health wise. I used to get bad stomach aches at least once a week. Now it’s almost never.
If you’re thinking about becoming a vegetarian (or whatever word you’d choose to use), do it like I did… I did it slowly, over the course of like a year. Apparently this movement is gaining momentum. There are now 16 million vegetarians. That’s AMAZING to me.
But anyway… Thanks Bill Maher and David Duchovny for making me feel less alone!
The weekend before New Years we went over a friends house. We had some beers, had a nice fire, talked, etc. Then he brought out the moonshine… One shot and I was done. And that was all I had. The next day was pretty bad. I think I was useless for the entire day. Maybe that night I was good.
However the feeling kind of hung over until New Years where I couldn’t drink that much. It was a shame too. The party we went to had bourbon slushies and some nice tasting shots. They, too, also had good tasting moonshine. Unfortunately I took a sip and had to pass.
I’m staying away from moonshine. That’s all I have to say about that.
I’m going to make this quick but I am tired of feeling like I’m the only one who cares about climate change. The American people elected idiots the other day who plan to destroy the earth even more by limiting the EPA, pushing through the Keystone XL pipeline, etc.
I’ve changed my diet (I’ve been a vegetarian for like three years) because it’s better for the planet, I’ve recycled, I got solar put on my house, I put my life in danger to ride a fuel efficient scooter… I even researched what Halloween candy was more “earth friendly” and gave that out.
No one else seems to care. I have my husband on board for some of it but he wants me to tell him what to buy instead of looking for himself. He wants me to suggest meals. He doesn’t want to do any of the work.
I feel like I’m in this alone. None of my friends are vegetarians. They are all supportive and try to accommodate but it’s still hard.
My family is the same way. I go over there and all they have is meat. We go out to lunch and they all order meat; even my husband.
No one cares. Do people even know the earth is fricken dying? And people still don’t care and do and say anything to remain ignorant.
I don’t even have kids! I don’t have any legacy. You’d think people would give some sort of shit about it since it’s their children and their children’s children but they don’t. I don’t get it.
I’m tired of being the only one who cares. We only have one earth and this is my planet, too!
Candice “Candi” Cane Musselman, 18
Candi, of Rockville, Maryland, passed away on June 1, 2014, peacefully at her home next to her family.
Candi was born, presumably, around Glen Burnie, Maryland in the winter of 1996. She was a lost dog that was later found near a pawn shop in Glen Burnie by Ann Musselman. She immediately had a new home there with Ann and her two daughters, Janis and Stacy.
Candi mostly grew up in Pasadena, Maryland with her owner, Janis, her family, and a bunch of cats. She later lived in such places as Annapolis, Glen Burnie, Frostburg, Germantown, and finally settling down in Rockville, with her owners, Janis and Brian.
Candi enjoyed car rides, human food, walks, shedding, and, in general, being with people and her family.
Candi will be remembered by her broad smile, her ever happy attitude, the joy she brought into everybody’s life, and her saying, “I’m just a puppy.” Candi had a way of warming her way into everybody’s heart.
Survivors include her owners, Janis and Brian, her brothers, size_t and Wiki, and many others. Candi is preceded in death by Spooky, Tina, Lauren, and Rocky.
Feel free to share Candi stories in the comments below and on Facebook.
I’m not a big believer in valentines day. I let Bri off the hook and tell him not to do anything. It’s a silly holiday, in my opinion.
However this valentine’s day was very different. Bri wanted to surprise me, and that he did.
On Tuesday night Bri went to the store to get groceries. He came home, I unpacked the groceries. Bri then told me to go into Wiki’s room for a few minutes. When he was done, I walked out to find this:
The note reads:
My love,
I wanted to give you a little bit of the beauty you give me everyday.
Love you always
Bri Bri
I brought the flowers into work the next day. Everyone loved them, as usual. Bri gets me flowers about once every other month. My coworkers get jealous and Bri loves hearing stories about what my coworkers say about them.
I thought it was over from there, but I was wrong. The best was yet to come.
I had been experiencing vertigo for a few days where I’d get disoriented when I tilted my head. We finally went to the doctor about it. (It’s nothing, I should be fine.)
When we got out of the doctors, Bri got something from his trunk:
The note reads:
My Dearest Janny
You give me so much love, I can’t return it all myself. This guy is here to help me return some of the love you show me everyday.
Love
Bri Bri
We decided to go to Carrabbas since we hadn’t been there in a while for dinner. He got something out of his car when we got to the restaurant.
I ordered a drink for him and myself. He came to the table and asked me a question: “small, medium, or large”. I was hoping it wasn’t food since I’ve been on a diet for a little while now… I said “small”.
It wasn’t food, it was a hat:
In fact, it’s a headphone hat. A few days prior, we went for a walk and my ear buds kept falling out. Bri had gotten me a hat with headphones in it. (I had one before but our cat chewed the cord.)
The note inside the hat read:
My Dearest Janny
I hope this can keep you warm during the day because you keep me warm every night.
Love
Bri Bri
Once our main course arrived, Bri got out another surprise for me.
He got me what I had been wanting for a few weeks but was too afraid to buy. Some friends of ours have Up bracelets which tracks their sleep, their water, how much they’ve walked, etc. I’ve been wanting one for a few weeks but couldn’t find the right one. The reviews online were bad.
Bri had done his own research and got me one that had better reviews. It’s called Fitbit Flex:
It was one of the most amazing gifts. I can’t wait to use more of it. It should definitely help my progress in getting more in shape.
The last gift came after dinner:
Now anyone who knows me knows that I don’t like jewelry. I don’t wear rings or anything. Bri later said I had a look of horror on my face when he presented this jewelry box to me.
I was thinking, “Oh, great. Another piece of jewelry I’m going to have to pretend to like and never wear.” But I was wrong:
TESLA KEYS! He had them made!
When I bought the Tesla it only came with one key. We went to Tesla to get two more keys. They were able to make the keys but not cut them. It had been on my to do list for months to find a locksmith to get the keys cut since Tesla didn’t do it. (Model S keys aren’t keys; only Roadster keys are actual keys.)
The note inside read:
My Dearest Janny
You are the key to my happiness, so I hope these keys can return some of the happiness you give everydday.
Love
Bri Bri
I have the sweetest husband. I love him so much.
I’ve been niles38 everywhere since I was like 12. Recently I joined instagram and found out that niles38 was already taken. I know I was late in joining but I really wanted to be niles38 everywhere. There were always a few exceptions (ebay, aim).
I have decided that niles38 isn’t for me anymore. I still like it and I will still have my email as it but I want something new and something that’s free everywhere; hence why I’m writing this blog post.
I need ideas. In another month the domain niles38.com will be available again as I will not be re-registering it. I’m looking for something short and something that’s me. I think LLTM (longlivethemonkey) is long… but maybe I’ll check around to see if it’s available in other places… hey, I have the domain, right?
Anyway internet, what you got for me?
My husband, a loving Liberal, does not believe in the glass ceiling for women.
Reflecting on National Women’s Day, I think about how women have changed the work force. Although we have in major ways, I feel like it hasn’t been enough. The statistics simply do not show that women are making that much of an impact in breaking through the glass ceiling.
More women are now going to college and graduating than men. However, women still make less than their male colleagues in the same fields. Only 4% of Fortune 500 Company CEO’s are women. This year women hold only 97 (or 18.1%) of the 535 congressional seats (PDF – 663 KB) according to Center for American Women and Politics.
I think these kinds of barriers can be broken through confidence. I think that if we were to give girls at a young age the strength and confidence they can grow up to be as good (if not better) than their male colleagues. I feel this in my own life, for example, when I was applying for jobs. I wouldn’t dare apply for a job that I did not meet 100% of requirements. However, my husband has applied for jobs of which he’s had little experience.
I feel in order to break through this glass ceiling, women need to be given confidence at a young age. It would also help if we started to elect more women to congress and get more women in top positions, therefore providing more examples that we can do it.
Also to note I did a paper and presentation (PDF – 16 KB) about women in my own field (computer science) in college. The statistics and data haven’t changed much since then.
My Ravens, a team I’ve loved for years now, has won the Super Bowl. I’m still beyond shock. I’m still in disbelief. They’re a great team this year.
But I figured it out last night, I’m afraid to love them like I did another team.
Years ago I loved the Philadelphia Eagles. I loved them with all my heart and I was a fan through the tough losses. We had friends who were Eagles fans as well so it was perfect (besides when the Redskins played them). I was supersticious to no end with them. I cried when McNabb went down. I was there with the rookies. We even all wanted to buy tickets and go up there.
Then the most awful thing happened… they signed the dog killer, Michael Vick. That tore my heart out. I cried; I was angry. I threw all my Eagles stuff out, including stuff that really meant a lot to me; like the hat my boss gave me (I don’t get many presents from bosses), the ornament my aunt gave to me, the glasses my friend gave me, the many hats I bought… everything.
I loved that team so much but when they signed that monster, I could no longer.
I’m afraid to love another team like I did the Eagles. I’m afraid to open up my heart just to have it venerable again. The Ravens have won my heart, but not my whole heart.
But on a lighter note, I’m very proud and happy for my Ravens!
In order to discourage myself from eating meat and becoming more of a vegetarian, in the entire year of 2012 I kept track of all the meat I ate. Granted this list doesn’t include seafood in which vegetarians do not eat but I still eat… I’m more of a pescetarian.
A lot of this list contains meat of which I was “forced” to eat via going over family/friends houses where their main course was meat. Also it contains instances where I ate meat because it was going to be thrown out anyway. Here’s a key for the reasons why I ate it:
^ = went over someone’s house who served meat
* = ate meat because it was going to be thrown out anyway
# = chose to eat meat
| Date |
What I Ate |
Reason |
| 1/5/12 |
chicken & broccoli |
# |
| 1/8/12 |
1 piece bacon, turkey |
^ |
| 1/14/12 |
chicken & broccoli |
# |
| 1/15/12 |
chicken wings & sloppy joes |
^ |
| 2/4/12 |
half hot dog, chicken & broccoli |
^, # |
| 2/14/12 |
chicken teriyaki |
# |
| 2/17/12 |
bbq that ar wouldn’t have eaten |
* |
| 2/25/12 |
chicken & spare rib |
^ |
| 3/4/12 |
ham |
^ |
| 3/11/12 |
lasagna with meat |
^ |
| 3/22/12 |
chicken teriyaki |
# |
| 3/24/12 |
pepperoni pizza |
^ |
| 4/3/12 |
roast beef |
^ |
| 4/8/12 |
chicken, turkey, ham |
^ |
| 4/15/12 |
sausage |
^ |
| 5/6/12 |
chicken teriyaki |
# |
| 5/28/12 |
sausage, part of steak |
^ |
| 6/28/12 |
lasagna with meat |
^ |
| 7/1/12 |
fillet minion |
# |
| 7/22/12 |
chicken teriyaki |
# |
| 9/2/12 |
bbq sandwich |
^ |
| 9/27/12 |
hamburger |
# |
| 9/29/12 |
hamburger |
# |
| 9/30/12 |
meat in pasta from pizza hut |
#/* (I didn’t realize the pasta had meat in it when we ordered… damn Pizza Hut) |
| 11/3/12 |
piece of roast, little bacon |
^ |
| 11/22/12 |
turkey, ham |
# |
| 12/25/12 |
ham, little turkey bacon |
# |
| 12/28/12 |
little hot dogs |
* |
So I guess I didn’t do too bad for the year. I ate meat 28 times. I averaged eating meat once every two weeks. I only really chose to eat meat 13 times. I definitely cannot call myself a vegetarian after eating all of that meat though. I will do better in 2013 as I’m more familiar with meat substitutes (Morning Star Ribs, Veggie Chinese place, chik’n, etc).
I’ll continue to keep track and see how I do in 2013. I need to be more strict and refuse to eat meat when it’s served.
By the way, the main reason I became a quasi-vegetarian/pescetarian is to help save the planet. Eating meat is very hurtful to the environment.
After years of finding my personal documents on google, I finally got a win and got docstoc to remove my documents!
I’m a paranoid person and I like to keep tabs on my online presence so I started googling my name every month or so. About two years ago I noticed that some of my personal documents got onto this lame website, docstoc. One of the documents was my resume (outdated) and a paper I wrote in college.
If you googled my name, this website would come up where you could download the documents.
I tried emailing docstoc several times to get them removed but they refused. They said I needed copyright status or whatever. It’s like, it’s a college paper and a resume. It’s no secret that the resume was mine considering it had my name and my email on it (the same email I used to email them). And who gets their college papers copyrighted anyway?
I emailed them earlier this evening and again asked them to be removed. I cited the usernames who shared them. These were two usernames consisting of weird characters, obviously not real people. I also said that if they did not comply, I would be contacting a lawyer.
That seemed to do the trick. They wrote me back and removed the documents. I’m a happy and accomplished Janny tonight!
With this question about “are you better off than you were four years ago”, I thought I’d blog about how I am better off than I was four years ago.
Here’s a few examples of how my family is better off under Obama:
- Obama helped my Aunt Ruth by bailing out the automotive industry. Without that, my Aunt would have lost her health insurance.
- Obama extended unemployment benefits, which helped my mom.
- The Cash For Clunkers program helped Bri’s parents trade in their old van for a Honda Civic.
Note that this is just a list of what Obama has done that effects me personally. He’s also done a lot more that’s good for our country such as federal support for stem cell research, killing Osama bin Laden, overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, bills for veterans, signed START, overturning Bush’s deregulation for endangered species; the list goes on and on. Almost every area that you can think of, Obama has done something about.
I’ll probably blog again a little closer to the election with other stuff that matters.
I wanted to start out with something to say… well nothing really to say. I guess I’ll just talk about the weather. It’s been good. I’ve been scootering to work. I’m thinking about taking the Prius though since it seems almost every day I have a near death experience. Crazy people on the road.
Football is gearing up. I’ll be posting my picks of who will go to the playoffs in a few weeks. I can’t wait. However it’ll be sad to see Sundays go to nothing but football… Same every year. I say this sucks since that’s one of two free days we get a week… Then football ends and we’re like “What will we do with our Sundays?”. It’s kinda crappy that football will be on Thursday nights as well. We’ll have to get our fantasy line up for the next week in two days.
Bill Maher is also coming back. Just in time too for the craziness that is the 2012 elections.
Anyway since this blog post is lame, I’ll gear up for a new one soon.
