Money Talks

How it all went down...

First I was all...



Then I was all;



Then I was;




But I just kept thinking;





But I just kept looking, and then;



Turns out, it's going to be;




YAY!!!

Slacktivism

One of the reasons why I’ve discontinued frequenting a few forums I used to enjoy was the onslaught of petition posters and bandwagon jumpers.
What a waste of time.
Seriously, I will never understand how people can put so much time and energy into creating and circulating a piece of cyber paper or an e-document when they could invest that time into actually trying to help fix whatever problem they think exists. The same goes for all the signers. Do they really think they are doing something worthy or tangible for any "cause" by E-signing?
All it really does is give them an emotional outlet for their anger or loathing of whatever they are protesting. I’m sure for that fleeting second of typing their name and aggressively hitting “enter”, they feel empowered. Justified. Necessary.

Now it’s starting on my FaceBook page. Ugh.

Look, Greg K… I realize in the fifth grade I was madly in love with you and even wore the flower ring until the plastic petals all fell off and the band turned my finger green…but I’m not signing your stupid anti-bailout petition. Instead of circulating a document asking for signatures that can never be verified (and many are fake anyhow) and will never reach the intended party anyway, why don’t you put your effort into contacting your representatives and express your displeasure with your vote? I know we actually held hands skating to Beth from the Destroyer album…but dude, I can’t… no, I *won’t* sign your e-petition. Nothing personal, but it’s not worth the pixels it took to create it.

You know what really gets mad props from your congressmen? Real letters from real voters who took the time to sit down with actual pen to actual paper are afforded much more respect than cyber whining. Sure it takes longer. But likewise is the potential for making a real difference.
So who is your representative?
Where do you find the contact information to write to them?
Who.
Where.
Anyhow, the E-petition is in the E-trash. Sorry.
Do you want the flower ring back?
Just sayin'.
~

Wonder what will happen?

Have you ever wished really hard for your luck to change about anything?
What if you did, and then you got a sign of some sort?
Like maybe in your change at the store you got this:

Resolutions

Calendars, mail, knick knacks and procrastination.

Every January first, it seems that people make promises to themselves that they can't keep. I'm guilty of it, too. A diet here, a less coffee there...
This year there are a few that I know I'll keep because for the most part I've been doing them for the last few weeks and a "resolution" will just make it all the more solid. I've resigned myself to never (if I can help it) going to bed with a sink full of dishes, never leaving laundry in the dryer overnight to wrinkle (except towels that might be spinning when I go to bed), and never leaving the bed unmade after forcing myself to crawl out of it. I've been a slacker with those things and a few others and they just make the daily grind of chores seem overwhelming.
Just in the last couple months of staying on top of it, everything else falls into place a little more easily. Seems like it, anyhow.

Now I've just got to stop procrastinating with opening mail, dusting my knick knacks and changing my perpetual calender.
Happy New Year's Day today. (And yes I changed it...after snapping a pic! :D)

Turns out...size DOES matter.

The first few years of stepping into internet land, I did so with a 17" monitor.
A couple of years back I went to 19", which I thought was overkill just for reading stuff and watching an occasional net video...or even popping in a DVD.
My current monitor decided to retire and left in a parade of wiggly colors and whistling noises.
Today a FedEx lady made me ever so much more happy when she brought me a new 22" monitor from Dell. The spousal unit (who wishes to be referred to now as the spousal command...yeah, we'll see...)took all the protective packaging off of it and hooked it up for me. SuhWEEEET!!
I lurve it.

'Tis the Season

When your birthday is in December, most of the time it’s hooked up with Christmas.
Poinsettia, Santa, snowmen, Christmas trees, garland…all a part of December birthday decorations.
Ever since I left home at 17, I’ve tried to disassociate my birthday with Christmas.
The spousal unit understood and we have an understanding that no holiday decorations go up until AFTER my birthday.
With the exception of snowmen. I love snowmen… I didn’t use to. I’ve learned to.
Somewhere along the way, someone got one for me as a gift and I remarked about how cute it was. That was the incident that sanctioned “Snowman Gifting” from thence forth. Each one has been given to me by people that I love who love me back.
I have so many, I must really be loved. :D
I have way more than my fair share.
But... even the snowmen have a rule…they do not come out of the storage closet until first snowfall.
Guess what happened this morning.
It didn’t stick, but we definitely had snow fall.
Out of the closet they came.


Something was definitely missing in the happy SnowFamily, though.
We went to my new favorite store today and in addition to the Blazers, Federal Champions, American Eagles, peanut brittle and picture frames I bought…
I found this little guy all alone in his area. He needed to come home with me.

Holster Adventures

~
A few years ago, I found a holster that I really liked a lot at High Noon.
I decided to switch my carry gun and found myself holster shopping.
I figured I was so happy with the first one from High Noon,
I'd probably be just as happy with getting the next one from there.

Not so much.
It wasn't anything like I expected, except for being black.
I decided I need to send it back and keep holster shopping.

Before that idea even grew roots, a really great thing happened...
Today at the gun show we went to, Jay reached into a bin of
holsters and dug out almost exactly what I was looking for.
*Almost*
It was brown and I wanted black. Just a personal preference,
because I think a glimpse of saddle brown yells "holster!" and
a glimpse of black says "PDA, cell phone, pager..."

Anyhow, Jay told me how to fix it, so I bought it and did!

Here's the way it looked originally:

Here it is about half way through:

This is what it currently looks like, but tomorrow I'll
do it up with some black wax based polish to
preserve the leather:

This is all I used... $2.50 from Wal-Mart.

By the way, if you are a vendor and you interrupt
or get pushy with Jay:
Once...you'll get a pass.
Twice...you'll get the evil eye.
Third time... you'll have your ass handed to you.
That was fun to watch. :-P

All’s Fair in Politics- UPDATED w/ HAT PIC

~
We decided to go to our county’s little fair tonight and walk around. I’m not really fond of big crowds and especially not fond of the bump and push of them. I’ll go further to say that I’m extremely not fond of the bump and push of big crowds that mostly look like they walked off a Jerry Springer stage. In fact, one woman was wearing a t-shirt that said in big bolded letters “White Trash”. And she kind of was…and not even the good kind of white trash like Brittney Spears. For me to say that, it’s really saying something.
In our little walk-about, we decided to visit the vendor tents. The spousal unit bought me a black cowgirl hat with a silver studded leather hat band. It’s very cool and some guy even made hungry eyes at me. Of course he was about 400 pounds and I was carrying a bag of cotton candy to give to MiniMe when she gets home from the football game, but that’s not the point. The point is that now I must be referred to as “The Hat”. Not unlike “The Donald”, but without the significant cash flow.
Anyhow, back to the events that took place in the vendor tents. I was getting quickly (easily) bored with seeing the same thing booth after booth, table after table and I was about to tell the spousal unit that whenever he was ready to leave, we could go. All of the sudden, like a gift from God a bright beacon of heavenly light shown down from above and angelically lit the democrat party’s campaign booth. I turned to the spousal unit and smiled wickedly and asked, “would you like to have some fun?” No, he would the hell not. Fine. *I* wanted to have fun, so I stepped up to the table and was approached by one of the four workers. What follows is the conversation near as I can recall. For lack of knowing their names, the two workers that ended up speaking with me for 15 or 20 minutes will be referred to as ObamaSupporterDood#1 and ObamaSupporterDood#2, because it’s past The Hat’s bedtime, but I want to blog it before I forget it and I’m not so creative past 10pm. I’m pushing really hard to get this all out before my cotton candy sugar rush burns out on me, so bear with me:
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Hi. Can I help you with anything? Need a bumper sticker or pin? Leaflet? Pencil?
Me: Actually, if you have a minute I have a couple questions.
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Great. I’ll do what I can to answer them.
Me: Well, first off, I’m not a republican but I’m not a democrat either. So my vote isn’t automatically owned by any party. I’m libertarian by general definition and I’d like you (if you could) to give me some information that could help me solidify my vote.
ObamaSupporterDood#1: OK, well we think Obama is what this country needs for change in the right direction.
Me: Do you think that he’s the right person because of his work in the senate?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: That’s right. He’s really working for this country to change it for the better.
Me: Better is always good. What is it so far that he’s done as a senator that has helped change things in a positive direction?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Well, Obama is for the people. He’s not in politics to be a politician so he’s really working to make things better for the common people and that’s what we need.
Me: Great. Like what things?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Well, like bringing community together. Obama is good at bridging gaps between all people and really giving them a sense of community to work together and that’s what our country needs especially with the war in Iraq and everything.
Me: So he’s bringing the community together in the senate?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Well, no. Community is just what he’s good at.
Me: Oh. I’m sorry, what was the part again about what he’s done in the senate?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: He’s working in the senate for us. The people. Because he really cares about community.
Me: Oh, thanks. My other question is about that circle symbol on your shirt with the mountain and blue arch… what exactly does that mean?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Oh, it’s um… It’s an “O” and it’s his symbol that he made.
Me: Does it mean something significant?
ObamaSupporterDood#1: (gesturing to Dood#2) Let me get him over here, I think he knows all this stuff better than me.
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Hi there. Got a question for me?
Me: (reiterated my non-party affiliation) … I was just asking your campaign partner here about that symbol that Obama uses. What does it mean?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: That is Obama’s symbol that he uses all over.
Me: Right. Does it have a meaning behind the picture? I mean, does it stand for something in particular?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Oh he has all sorts of symbols. He even has a special one that says “Women for Obama”. It’s really kind of neat.
Me: I see. Does this one mean something specific like that?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: You can go to his website and see all of them. He really has several. In fact all you have to do is probably get online and type in “Obama symbol” and you’ll probably see most of them on any websites it takes you to.
Me: Oh. Thanks. I was asking your co-campaigner about Obama’s time in the senate so far. Do you know much about what he’s voted for or against?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: I’d actually have to get online and go look.
Me: I was hoping maybe you could tell me where to find that. Every place I look really doesn’t have much by way of his voting record except voting “present”.
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Well, you’ll get that. A lot of websites are very slanted.
Me; Oh. I understand that some people are voting Obama because they think he’ll change America. I’ve actually gone to several places to read about both candidates. Most recently I went to Reason.com and read a piece called “the Libertarian case for Obama” and another called “the Libertarian case for McCain. Are you familiar with that magazine or website?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: No, I’m not.
Me: Oh. Can you give me a reason why you’re voting for him? Personally?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Oh, yes! I’m voting for him because he cares about the people. He really cares about middle class because Obama comes from middle class. He understands us. He doesn’t have seven houses. I don’t have seven houses. Nobody I work with has seven houses. It’s just like in the company I work for. The jobs aren’t there. They’ve been outsourced or cut completely. Obama doesn’t like all the jobs leaving America and us having to pay China so much money for cheap things and it’s not fair that the jobs over there aren’t even taxed.
Me: So he has a plan to fix that?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Yes.
Me: Obama has a plan to bring those jobs back?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Well, no but he thinks it’s not fair that they aren’t taxed.
Me: So he’s going to tax them?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: I think that’s the plan.
Me: China? He’s going to tax China?
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Well I don’t know. I don’t know if he can do that. Maybe not.
Me: …
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Another reason is that with the war and everything, people really need to work together and Obama is the person that can bring different people together.
ObamaSupporterDood#1: (jumping back into the conversation) Yes, that’s what I was saying. It would probably be a good idea to read what he has to say on his website.
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Yes, that’s what I’d do if I had questions. We really don’t have all the answers, but if you go there, I’m sure you’ll find what you need.
ObamaSupporterDood#1: Yes, there’s way more information there than we have but the reasons why we’re voting for him are all there.
ObamaSupporterDood#2: Really good information. Check it out.
Me: (feeling the bum's rush) Alrighty then. Thank you for your time, gentlemen.
ObamaSupporterDood#1&2: You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping.
I walked away from the table and headed towards the opponent’s booth to ask a few pointed questions about McCain’s campaign and stances. Specifically the Second Amendment. When we passed the table for the republican party, there wasn’t a soul to be found. I guess they felt pretty confident.

UPDATE:
Per reader request, I give you: The Hat

13 minutes

It's worth your time:
Part One

Part Two

Resolutions? Change? Improvement?

Are you going to make changes in '08? Maybe that diet/exercise thing? Maybe cutting back on TV, or the net? Kicking the smoking habit? Switching jobs? Learning a new language or trying a new hobby?

Whatever it is and whatever your "resolution" may be, it's totally worth your time to read the words of wisdom that I swiped from the elsewhere on the net:

"The process of personal change is almost always painful, frightening, and arduous. Sometimes the pace is slow, and there's only a very little bit of progress. Sometimes you can't even see the next step, and you have to wait for guidance or risk everything and step anyway. You just keep climbing the hill, hoping that you're actually getting somewhere, but not really sure of how to measure your progress. You wonder if the reward is worth it. Then every once in a great while, you get a glimpse of where you're headed. You've been so focused on one particular task, like quitting smoking or getting out of debt, that it has become an end unto itself -- as if that's the whole point. Then you see a break in the trees, or you crest a rise, and spread out before you is not the little hill you've been trying to climb, but the mighty mountain you're trying to become. Suddenly nothing else matters."