>_< Rich not Beautiful

A few minutes ago a co-worker said something intriguing to me. Out of nowhere, in the midst of all our samples and instrumentation she said, "Man if we were only born rich, and not beautiful we wouldn't have to work so hard." Of course I agreed, because right off the bat who wouldn't want to be rich? Not incredibly rich, but more well off than the average higher than middle class family. I know that sentence involved a lot of hierarchical thought, but bear with me. I don't consider myself nor my family rich, but we certainly are well to do. I grew up with the right values and morals in mind when it came to money. I knew what we could and could not afford so in turn I knew what I could and could not have. Snacks from the super market? Sure. New video game every year? No problem! (Keep in mind I did say YEAR). New TV, gadgets, car, electronics? No way. Not in short intervals of time anyway. I believe I was a good kid, asking when I felt I deserved something as a reward, didn't whine too much if I couldn't get what I wanted. So I guess you could say I lived in a really sugar coated upper middle class life style. Nowadays I'm pretty stingy with my money since I'm trying to grow out of my parents wallet. I work hard for the money I earn. All tangents aside, let's get back to real reason why this post is going up. What WOULD happen if I were born rich, and not beautiful? Let's get started.

Let me start off by saying I know the second half of the phrase is just a way to positively reinforce something we don't have. Acknowledging the fact that we don't have money doesn't seem so bad since we deem ourselves beautiful. Really you can just put any positive adjective there and it would be ok. All this phrase really comes down to is "If we were born rich..." So what if? I believe that I hold a lot of my better morals, the ones that run deep, because I wasn't rich. A good handful might agree that we appreciate the little things more than those who are born into money. For me, that's all that it really comes down to. I have this notion, whether it be true or not, that those who are born into a huge mound of cash are just... unappreciative of what they have. It really isn't their fault either. For one reason or another, they were blessed with a lavish lifestyle, and the freedom to make and implement their own choices without thinking about the repercussions. Consequently, they don't really understand what its like to earn your own money. Imagine if you will a small child getting handed a crisp twenty dollar bill for spending the week doing hard labor. If he/she used that money later on to buy a doll/action figure, you could bet that he/she would give their life to make sure it stays clean and do what he/she can to make sure that toy lasts forever. I feel kind of the same about some things of my own. Someone who has the money may not. The difference here is what that object means to the owner. The hard worker sees the hard work reflected upon the object, where as the rich kid just sees an object. It doens't have to be a child either. An adult whose worked for years paying off a car or a house may appreciate it more than someone who just... bought one.

With a decrease in appreciation on certain things, certain morals become skewed. Ideals of sharing and caring won't become what they should. This is all saying with bias of course. I was never really introduced to a snobby rich kid like you see in childrens television. There could be those with a heart of gold, but to me I feel that living that kind of lifestyle doesn't expose you to what is actually going on in the world, and so the world that they live in becomes so enclosed to negativity that all their morals/ideals are beased off of how much money is left in their bank account.

I felt like I was going to wrtie so much more about this topic. Also, I was going to really dive in deep in trying to see things the other way... perhaps if you weren't born rich... just beautiful? Maybe another time.

ta ta kids

>_< Moving In or Moving On?

If there is one thing I haven't done in thig blog yet, its some relationship advice. To be fair, I haven't read the posts on love and jealousy in a little while so I'm not entirely sure on the previous statement. I know I'm definately not one to give relationship advice... or maybe I am and I just don't have a lot of confidence in the matter. I've had my fair share of terrible relationships, and theres always been some split decisions when it comes to a couple decides to move in together. I've heard stories of those who never lived together until they were married, and recently a story of moving on together after 2 days. That couple, by the way, was married for 15 years... but are now divorced. So take that how you will. Guess I'm lucky that I found two pennies in my pocket. Guess I'll throw them in...

It's going to be around that time (give or take 3-5 years) when I finally decide to move in with an SO. To me, I believe that moving in together is actually the step before an engagement. Some might think you don't have to, although I believe that you have to have an idea of what the person you may potentially be spending the rest of your life with is like when you two are living in the same room. Wanna spice it up even more? Get a pet. I had the opportunity to live with 2 friend-girls of mine my sophomore year in college. They were great people, and fun to be around. What's the worse that could happen? OHMYGODITWASONEOFTHEWORSTEXPERIENCESINMYLIFE. You're wondering why I excluded spaces. Humour me and say that whole mumbo gumbo without the spaces. That's how I said it. You're welcome, but moving on... (see what I did there?) I started to see a side of them I hadn't seen before. One was extremely bossy, and the other somewhat of a complete slob, and kind of lazy. The summer prioir it seemed like it would be ok, but as the year went on it started to get atrocious. Don't get me wrong, the way the girls ran the apartment wasn't generally offputting. It just didn't mesh well with the typical college man life style. I don't want to be assigned to clean something. I'll clean it when its dirty, and if it bothers me. I won't wash your dishes. Wash your own. To avoid cluttler in the fridge, we can split necessities: milk, eggs, etc. I guess. I feel like those are pretty general rules to live by, and of course always negotiable. That was one of the main problems in the house, nothing was ever negotiated, it was just told. If I wanted t oget told what to do, I wouldn't have decided to dorm.

I'm getting a little off topic/irate here so let's just continue to analyze the whole moving in part. As stated earlier (and you're wlecome to disagree), moving in with your SO is a crucial step in building a relationship. You ARE eventually going to be living with them so moving in, I feel, is the best way to get to know your SO on a different level. You could be in a relationship for years, but when you move in with someone you might as well cut that number in half. When it comes right down to it, when you two are under the same roof for a prolonged amount of time... with responsibilities like bills, groceries, cooking, etc. to take care of... you might see the worst in each other. That's the best thing about it though, assuming that all parties are super happy together, seeing this side of them is probably the best thing... it's just another thing you'll eventually learn to love. Buff out all the rest of the kinks, fix your remaining problems and really take the whole moving in thing seriously. Even still, if you find that its something you can't handle, then you may want to rethink the relationship. Like I said though, by the time you even decide you want to move in together, I assume that you've already seen the best and worse of each other and can work through an endless amount of hard times. For example, follow the four options whenever styles conflict: my way, your way, our way, or both ways. Need a sample situation? Suppose your impoverished childhood taught you to reuse aluminum foil, while your mate's family just threw it away. If you and your partner are pinching pennies, you may decide that reusing is a fabulous idea (your way). If you become prosperous, you may decide to pitch your used foil (his way). If this feels wasteful, you could adopt a new custom by recycling (our way). Or you can simply agree to disagree, giving him permission to toss used bits of foil while you treasure them like the Dead Sea Scrolls (both ways). Remember that a relationship is always growing. Good luck to all of you!

Of course every rule has its exceptions. You may not ever live with each other before getting married. Let's face it though, you can't raise a family under two different rooves. You're GOING to live with each other eventually, get some practice in. On the other spectrum, you can meet and know someone for a week and ndecide to move in. Different for everybody. Those who are fated for these kinds of things should consider themselves lucky. So what is a good timeframe to make this decision? My opinion? Finish your education first, maintain a full time job, then be in a stable relationship for 2-5 years. 5 years might really be pushing it though, but I would want to cover a lot of special cases. Also, I listed the things prior to the suggested date becasue you could've started going out in 6th grade... don't move in with him/her when you're junior in high school, even if it's been 5 years.

Lastly, you have to remember these are just suggestions. If you have the feeling in your gut that it could work, by all means make the leap. If you don't find it necessary to see what living together is like, then skip it. If you do decide to move in, it sure as hell is gonna be a lot of fun for the first couple months. Be prepared when things start to settle down and get monotontous. Becasue it's a lot of working moving out and fighting about it. What do you do then? U-HAUL ass. (OMG best pun evar).

ta ta kids

>_< Something to Type About (6)

Well now, I believe that we've already gone and solved out problems from now on about this whole title thing. Why didn't I figure out the solution sooner? All for the sake of trying to make puns? What a shame. Either way, I was hoping t oget another topic going up on here but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything I felt I could ramble about for a good amount of time, so nothing became of it. But it's Friday now, and that means I'm kind of forced into typing something, whether it's interesting or not. I think it's a good thing. Refreshing. Keeps the work day... aggressive (and I've stated that once before). Even as I type I don't feel anything good coming on, so it might be a few hours before I need to come back.

(7:49AM) I lied. So as I was finished that sentence, I tried to figure out if anything remotely interesting happened in the news. So recently Dick Clark passed away. Now, I could've spent a whole blog writing about this, but it would've been an awkward mess of sorts. He didn't have much influence in my life... and I only grew up with him on his own New Years show he does, and maybe I might have seen on hosting a few gameshows here and there. There isn't really much to share about his passing except that I had heard (at least all the media has been reporting) that he was a remarkable man who changed the music industry or rock 'n roll for the generation. SO for that, Dick, I guess I'd have to thank you. If i didn't get to experience your contributions firsthand, then I certaintly feel that perhaps some of my music interests may have not happened were not for your influence. Other than that, thanks for ringing up my new year for... as long as I've lived in America. I wish you well in the afterlife, and hope your closest friends and family the best.

(11:08AM) Struck up a good conversation with a coworker today. He had gone to the Devils/Panthers game last night and he hada good time. Devils took it 4-0. Good for them I guess. I had previously gone to a Devils/Sharks game earlier this year, and I also had a good time becasue Sharks took it at a shootout 4-3... or 3-2. Anyway, what we both ended up agreein on is how terrible Devils fans are. Or maybe this could go for the slect few of sports fans out there too. It wasn't a huge problem for be because my team won, and they were just complaing about it the whole trip out of the arena, and even on the train. In the end they couldn't say anything becasue they lost. My coworker, however, had it a lot worse becasue since the Devils actually won, their fans shot up to a new level of terror. I find it worse because all they would do is heckle all the Panthers fans, or anyone not wearing Devils swag. If theres anything worse than sore losers, its sore winners. My coworker described this one fan who had thrown a hotdog or something at a guys head for wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt. First of all, he was only there to meet some friends in the area. Second of all, what hate do you have for the guy wearing a RED SOX jersey. I get maybe the whole yankees/sox thing, but remember that you're in a HOCKEY game, and wearing a Red Sox jersey is no way supporting one team or another. I wish bad things upon that Devils fan.

(3:21PM) It's worth mentioning that today is 4/20. Everyone regards this as the day for pot. Mary J? Marijuana? I always thought that it got its name from the police code for marijuana posession... but I think it might actually come from a bunch of kids from some high school meeting up at this certain time (4:20PM not 4/20) to go smoke pot behind their school or something of that nature. Either way my views on pot have gone from negative to positive and now they're just kind of even. Of course when I was younger, the D.A.R.E graduate I was, I thought that any and all drugs were pretty bad. Just like my thoughts on tatoos, my thoughts on marijuana changed as I got through college. In fact, I promised myself that I would try it when I absolutely knew I was going to graduate college. When I did, I completed that promise, and I did try it. I don't want to influence anyone into trying things like these, but you try them off your own accord. I may or may not celebrate 4/20 this year, but I know I'm certainly not addicted to it. I actually don't really know where I'm going with this anymore... point is it's 4/20. That is all.

I was pretty tired today at work. Don't exactly know why but I'm glad I got some substance in this post. That whole weed rant was pretty... disorganized. I'm pretty sure I was trying to list some positves and negatives for it and how ultimately you decide to choose whether or not you try it. You have control, espcially after the first time... you either fall in deeper or maintain that control and enjoy it when you can. As I said though, I'm not going to tell you to smoke a joint. Do some research first, and see for yourself.

ta ta kids

>_< Something to 5 About

Now it's not even making sense. Theres nothing worse than titles that don't make sense! And sentances that don't end the way you expect them octopus. That's right. Sentence fragments are comedy now. So let's just slowly deal with all this new stuff we've learned and do what we came here to do. I type about random things to get the work day flowing more aggressively. And whoever wants to read... by all means go ahead. It's going to be a little hectic at works today, but I'm sure I can still squeeze a few topics in. Starting with...

(9:03AM) A dilemma had occured between a group of people and their co-workers. Apparently 2 of them were going to have a wedding that took place on the same day. An employee of less than a year had given the "save the dates" for her wedding earlier than an employee of 3 years. The problem here is that the group of people can't decide on which wedding to attend. Should they go to the less than a year employee because she sent her "save the dates" out first? Or should they attend the 3 year employee out of his seniority with the company? They went through some suggestions and the only logical one that came up was one that stated that they draw the persons name of whose wedding they're going to out of a hat. Half will go to one, and half will go to the other at random. I believe that's fair... the most fair without me thinking of any ideas. To further their discussion, they wanted the two to concinve them to go to their own respective weddings by stating what food and entertainment they were going to have. What was a little disappointing was that they were leaning towards the 3 year employee because he had seemingly better food and entertainment. It's disappointing to me because right off that bat if I had to make a quick choice I would go to the less than a year employee because she sent out her invitations first. Her wedding was not only made to look boring, a majority of her coworkers were praising the other wedding just a little too much, and I felt some remorse for her. Their co-workers are terrible people for even trying to get the two to compete for better weddings. If they were your true friends, the first solution would be the best solution, no further discussion. Listening to the co-workers bickering about how one was going to be better than the other really put a thorn on my side because you could tell that the recent employee was getting her feelings hurt. It's a shame really.

(11:54AM) Before I head over to lunch, I want to make a note that the past few days of work have been pretty exhausting. It's good and bad in a way, although I'd much rather perfer work on a simmer as opposed to boiling. Cooking analogies. Swing and a miss. If I could see any positives in all this mayhem, it would have to be in the fact that even through all this work related stress, I can overcome. Remember to prioritize and organize. Take things one step at a time becasue - especially in the professional setting - trying to do everything at once can lead to costly errors. It's really stomach churning when you find out that 3 hours into an experiement something went wrong and you have to start the WHOLE THING OVER. Not a good feel bro.

(3:13pm) As stated earlier, a pretty busy day. It should mellow out the next week though since all this sample prep is done for now. Anyway I came across a topic, and we'll strip the politics away from this because I absolutely hate politics. Now we all know that being a mother can be a full time job, especially with 3 or more kids (I feel). What I came across is a mother of 5, and someone expressing their opinion about how she never worked a day of her life becasue she married a wealthy politician. She defends herself by stating that being a mother of 5 is a full time job, with that someone saying that being wealthy takes a lot of weight of raising children as some reports indicate the family hiring nanny's and maids to do their bidding. So that's where the issue lies. I believe it does become less of a hassle raising 5 children when you are well to do. Compare raising 5 children in the "ghetto" to raising 5 children with money and other luxuries... especially with nannies and maids. A lot of the hardships of being a mother (not that I would know but I hear my own mother complaining about it) is the cooking and the cleaning. Take that away then all that's left is to watch the kids as they explore and experience the world around them. Now I don't know what the ages on her children are, but the main point I'm trying to make here is that she's got it a WHOLE lot easier than most mothers in the US do. So I think she should get a job or something. Goldigger.

Phew, I can't believe I even had time to rant about a couple of things. Hopefully I'll get more time in the future, becasue I feel like I have a lot on my mind, but I can't express them and it just gets wasted...

ta ta kids

>_< The Perfect Man

I've mentioned countless times about how I listen to the local morning show during my commute to work. Although I find all of them very annoying, the topics they bring up can sometimes set my emotions for a wild ride. There are just so many things I think about and want to say over the air, but I know I'd never get through, and the way they are I'm sure they'd find a way to make me look like an idiot or a bad guy, unless of course they completely agree with me. But I digress... So basically the one of the topics today was a recent article surveying 2,000 women about "the perfect man." Now already I'm dying to hear what they come up with, and as a human I find myself competing against this list to see if I fit these standards. Let's go over the some of the basic non-threatening ones, or at least the ones I remember.

The perfect man is, on average, 6 feet tall. That's pretty much all the ones that are non-threatening. Although I still have a problem with it. What this show fails to do on numerous occasions is see the opinions in a completely different light. In fact, for all the males that listen to that show, and I assume many do, this list creates the exact issue women face throughout their entire lives. It's an issue of self-confidence. It's been going on for years: beautiful women portrayed on the big screen, in magazines, on the runway, eetc. It opens countless doors to depression and illnesses to young women who seek to become "one of them." Now society has caught onto this idea and finally boarded quickly enough to cash in on a "you're beautiful just the way you are" campaign to increase product sales for certain companies. I understand that the world, and especially America, is getting fat. You don't need to keep changing the standards of beauty everytime McDonalds releases a new sandwich. All we need is a little self-humility. Understand the condition you're in and work hard to change it, or learn to accept it. I'm veering off into a direction I don't really want to go to so let's get back on track.

This "perfect man" list is going to do the same for men everywhere, allowing them to manipulate their lifestyle in order to suit the opinions of 2,000 random women. Everyone is different, everyone falls in love differently. Maintain who you want to be and seek those who appreciate just that. Some of the things on this list is ridiculous. The perfect man should watch football whe watching a sport. The perfect man should watch reality TV. The perfect man must be clean shaven, make at least $76K a year, must call their mom once a week... and the list goes on. The list is incredibly shallow and fails to mention anything about personality or emotional attraction. It shines a light on the outside and fails to get to know the man on the inside. I believe what really got me steamed were the women calling in on their own ideas of the perfect man.

This "catch" explained that the perfect man should know how to make a drink. Hard drinks. She states that "if it ain't hard it ain't gonna be a good night." Absolutely terrible. I wish many miscarriages on this woman. Next on the list was your stereotypical black woman stating "my man ain't gonna be no momma's boy, he gotta have his own house, and a J-O-B." Also I assume there was a Z-snap in there somewhere. I also assumed she actually knew that she spelled "job." I stopped listening after that. Point is, you're creating a whole new batch of unconfident, self-concious males out there who probably have a lot to offer, but won't be able to try because of the new standard you've given us.

How do I compare to that list? What does it matter? We should be able to establish a connection without knowing the details, and then maybe I'll go up against the list after a few nights out. If I fail and you decide you want out, then you should apologize for wasting my time and for being so incredibly shallow. I am getting a little fired up, so in order to cool down (and not be so hypocritical) let's just shine that light on the other side to see what's going on.

Everyone is free to choose a partner by their own standards. This lists' purpose may not exactly be to provide a standard, but to just give a good idea on what some guys need to do in order to get some help finding a mate. Some things, like height, can't be helped... but knowing that some things apply to them may actually boost a male's confidence rather than hinder it. I guess you take this list with a grain of salt. As previously stated, we all need some self-humility. Accept your imperfections and learn to make what's really great about yourself stand out to the ones you care about.

But also, let's not all be so shallow.

ta ta kids