I figured out the problem.

Apparently, I'm jaded. Yea, you probably know this already. But I've decided that lately I've been jaded about this blog, mostly cuz, every time I show up, that's an hour I'm taking away from the other things I do. The other things I do that are special and unique that no one else can do the way I do, and sure- that could probably be said for here. But blogs are a dime a dozen, and this certainly isn't my career path.

I'm not a hypocrite. I don't continually badger you to do better just so I can rest on my laurels.

So with that being said, I'll show up here when I have something legit to say, but it certainly won't be daily.

Be brave, kids... and follow through, for fuck's sake.

See you when I see you :)

Just Another Manic Monday

Hope everyone had a stellar weekend.

So, last week was rough. I'm imagining that everyone was mostly on the same page, with that whole douchebags blowing people up in Boston thing. I got to end my week with a random flood of half our apartment, so that was swell... the joys of living on the first floor.

I really had planned to come back today for serious business, but I've been staring at this blank post page for 45 minutes, and frankly, if I'm not going to be inspired today, I have other things I could be doing.

I have had a lot on my mind lately, so it's not really any surprise that I'm not just flooding with ideas. Actually, that's not entirely accurate - I have a whole list of things I plan to write about here, but for whatever reason I'm still just not feeling it.

I'm not making excuses. I just do things on my own schedule, and yea, I'm not gonna apologize for that.

At least I'm showing up, right? Half credit.

If you're interested in helping, do something stupid that I can mock you about in roughly 500 words, thanks.

Hot Mess

It's a good thing I'm already slacking this week, cuz I get to clean up a flood now.

Me, Myself & I

I really try not to use this blog to talk about myself, but overall I'm just not feeling it this week, so frankly, I'll do whatever the fuck I want on here, since ya know - it's mine.

It's funny cuz it's not like I have writer's block. I'm forever plagued by writer's block. This isn't one of those times. Which is exceptionally weird for me, but really my biggest issue with writing lately is my extremely uncomfortable computer chair. And for me, that's saying a lot.

So why have I basically dodged doing any kind of actual content here this week? Mostly cuz I've been working on other projects. Substantial projects, the kind that give you actually interesting things and in more than bite sized pieces. I suppose also for the most part, I haven't seen many of you doing exceptionally stupid things this week. Sure, there's other stuff I plan to write about here, but none of it is currently resonating with me.

I'm breaking my own rule here, writing about nothing for the sake of showing up here and putting my fingers to the keyboard. Mostly cuz I want you to know, whatever- it's a bad week. That's not an indication of anything except that I'm female and feeling a bit moody and a touch uninspired. I've quit before, and just so we're clear, that's not what this is.

I'd get a bit more into it and explain why my other projects are draining the creative out before I ever get around to conceptualizing something valid for here, but that will be revealed in due time. I'm not talking about it cuz I have a tendency to jinx myself when I get something going on the kind of hot streak I'm on with it right now, so in the interest of finishing what I start... I'll let you know when I'm ready.

Hope you're having a good week.

Quality > Quantity

So I have this thing where I refuse to get in the habit where I think it's okay to just slap together some bullshit content just to say I posted here everyday. I don't feel like it today, so I'm not gonna. I'm killing my to do list, and I'm not gonna stop while I'm on a roll. Never break your own streaks. See you tomorrow, kids.

Tragedy

Out of respect for the victims, friends and families of those hurt or killed in yesterday's bombings at the Boston Marathon, I'll be observing a moment of silence today. We'll discuss some other day how you guys can't even manage to do disaster right.

Linkapolooza

Happy Monday, friends & frenemies!

First things first, if you're paying attention, you'd see that my favorite site to get music mp3crank.com is not updating... at least it looks like that, anyway. But if you go to their twitter, you'll see links still being posted. Suggestion: grab the new Fall Out Boy album, cuz I'm obsessed.

And in other news, since I'm in a link sharing mood, here's a few of my favorite sites for never paying full price for anything:

Brads Deals : Really great for new stuff everyday and super low prices, they post stuff from all over the web. This is also my go to site when Black Friday rolls around cuz they always have all the ads extra early.

1saleaday : Daily deals site. So much awesome. Especially great on jewelry and electronics.

Raining Hot Coupons : Great site. All sorts of fabulous. They also post links for free stuff, and who doesn't like free? I've gotten 2 free magazine subscriptions from filing out a 2 minute survey thanks to them.

And just cuz I'm in a good mood, my favorite/most useful website of all time:

Moreofit : Post url to your fave websites. It'll return results more for a bunch just like it. Especially excellent for shopping.

Enjoy your day / retail therapy! I'll see you tomorrow for more serious business.

A Lesson in Absurdity

Believe it or not, there's some REALLY stupid laws in this country. Not regular stupid, but like super extra special stupid. STILL ON THE BOOKS.

Illegal to have Christmas decorations up after January 14th. (Maine)
Illegal for a man to buy drinks for more than 3 people at a time. (Nevada)
Once convicted of drunk driving, you can never have personalized plates. (New Jersey)
A pickle is not officially a pickle unless it bounces. (Connecticut)
You must be 18 years old to play a pinball machine. (South Carolina)
There is a $500 fine for asking a pizza delivery driver to deliver a pizza to a friend unknowingly. (Louisiana)
Illegal to own more than 2 dildos. (Arizona)
Illegal for fire trucks to go over 25 mph, at any time. (Parts of Connecticut)
Illegal to gossip or talk behind someone's back. (Indiana)
Illegal to play the fiddle. (Boston, Massachusetts)
You can be sued by a robber who is injured while in your house. (Michigan)
Illegal to frown at a policeman. (New Jersey)
Illegal to sing off-key. (North Carolina)
Illegal to wear shoes to bed. (North Dakota)
Must have a permit to wear makeup. (Morrisville, Pennsylvannia)
Illegal for a woman to wear "body hugging clothes" on the street. (New York)
Illegal for idiots or lunatics to get married. (Rhode Island)
Illegal to possess the Encyclopedia Brittanica. (Texas)
Drinking and dancing cannot be held in the same place. (Lynden, Washington)
Illegal to worry a squirrel. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Masks may not be worn in public. (Alabama)
Doors of all public buildings must open outwards. (Florida)
Adultery is still illegal. (New York)
Against the law for a man to knit during the fishing season. (New Jersey)
Illegal to tap your feet, nod your head or otherwise keep time to music in any restaurant, tavern or cafe. (New Hampshire)
Criminals must give their victims 24 hour notice, orally or in writing, and explain the nature of the crime to be committed. (Texas)
You may only have one alcoholic drink in front of you at a time. (Hawaii)
Women may not wear pants. (Tucson, Arizona)
All sex toys are illegal. (Georgia)
Illegal to talk to someone on an elevator. (New York)
Illegal to change clothes in your car. (Delaware)
Illegal to ride a merry-go-round on a Sunday. (Idaho)
If two trains meet on the same track, neither shall proceed until the other has passed. (Kansas)

I could keep going. There are literally thousands of these. Most of which aren't helping anyone from being hurt, and some of them actually hurt people. So considering the ways your rights are absurdly infringed without any possible good coming from it, does it really seem so ridiculous to ask you to pass a background check before buying a gun? Yea, not so much.

How To Improve Your Life This Week

I'm pretty sure we all know by now that I love to tell you what you're doing wrong, so today we're gonna talk about things you could easily start doing to generally do better.

1) Take your vitamins - It sounds obvious, right? So are you making it a point to do that? Maybe not. But once you start, you'll realize your mood, productivity and health improve. Also, if you're like me and in love with energy drinks, you'll realize you don't need those quite as much as you might have thought.

2) Exercise, somehow - This is as much for me as you guys, cuz I absolutely HATE exercise (the perils of having been naturally skinny for the majority of my life). Exercise creates endorphins, which make you happier and the whole exercise thing will make you healthier. If you're extra lazy and opposed, come up with a workout plan that's designed to work like a drinking game during your favorite TV show. Every time someone says their trademark line, do 20 pushups, or whatever. Adjust it to your desired level of activity.

3) Talk to someone you miss - We all get busy and sometimes that means friendships slip through the cracks. And this can go on for years, just forgetting to call someone you legitimately care about because you were busy organizing your fridge or whatever. Make some time for someone you haven't in a while and would like to, and you'll feel better almost immediately.

4) Apologize to someone that deserves it - You probably acted like an asshole to someone in your lifetime, we all have. If you regularly think about it, just suck up your pride and say you're sorry already. Karma will thank you.

5) Get the hardest item off your To Do list - If you consistently make it a habit to get the more difficult stuff out of the way earlier, the rest of your projects will go easier. Check out my post on making a To Do list to help you decide what's the task demon you should be vanquishing.

6) Do something good for your brain - Read a book. Start learning the language you've always wanted to. Even if you just open the dictionary and learn a new word everyday, you're enriching your brain. And it's fact that if you don't use it, you'll lose it - and that's not a cliche, that's scientific evidence referring to your brain cells.

7) Relax and think - spend some time doing absolutely nothing but relaxing and marinating on your thoughts. You can meditate, if you're into that sort of thing, or just watch the sunset everyday and ponder. Alone time is good for your soul. Our brains also work out problems for us when given a chance to not be doing 20 things at once.

8) Drink less - Here's a challenge for you borderline alcoholics that like to claim you're just social drinkers : go stone cold sober for the week. Give your liver a break, seriously.

9) Spend less time on social networking - You don't really need to know what everyone you're vaguely associated with is up to. Especially if you're just lurking to compare your life to other peoples. Worry about yourself.

10) Take some time to make sure you're doing something you like to do - Maybe you love the beach, but never make time to go. Or you just wanna sit and listen to music instead of it only being background noise. Whatever it is, make it a point to indulge yourself a little. You deserve it.

11) Get a good night's sleep, at least once - Take melatonin or something if you have to, but get a solid 8 uninterrupted hours to refresh and catch up on any missed sleep. Your body will thank you.

12) Make a budget - If you don't already have a budget in place, set one up so you can keep track of where your money goes. It'll take you no more than an hour and help you plan for years to come.

13) Keep track of where your time goes - Clock everything you do for a couple days. Figure out where you're wasting time, and cut that down to a more reasonable level. Do something fun or productive with your extra time as a reward.

14) Drink the appropriate amount of water - I couldn't tell you what the actually ounces are, since I hugely fail on this... but Google it and start doing it. Ideally, set up times for yourself where you are supposed to drink however much to keep you on schedule. Most people are perpetually dehydrated, which is never good for you. Even if you refuse to cut out your coffee-soda-energy trifecta, at least you're balancing it out for a change.

Doctor B prescribes you take 2 of these tips a day for the next week, and you'll be feeling much better. Oh, and probably eat an apple or something too.

World Wide WTF

So when I was 12 or so, this pretty cool thing happened. I created my first screen name, and sat and listened to the computer dial the internet for 45 minutes, and then there was AOL. I didn't really get it so much at the time, exactly how big and powerful the internet was, and it was still kind of a baby back then. I just thought it was cool I could talk to my friends in text, especially since I was one of the most awkward middle schoolers of all time.

Fast forward 16 years later, I'm an internet junkie. Most of us are these days. Even the rare few who abstain from being completely immersed in social media are still carrying a smart phone and Googling things. But with great power, comes great responsibility. And frankly guys, you're kinda failing on the responsibility.

Anything you could possibly ever want to know is on the web. Every possible variety of question about anything, you can find an answer to. So you might see why I find it completely insane that so many people are using this really awesome thing we take for granted to say, sift through 1000's of disgruntled cat pictures and watch YouTube videos of people falling down. Sure, we all have our assorted guilty pleasure entertainment - really fake reality TV, trash semi porn novels (I'm talking to you, 50 Shades Of Overrated fans), pretty much any daytime TV, truly ignorant hip hop, etc. But here's the thing, those kind of guilty pleasures are supposed to be between you and your couch. Not you and your entire friends list.

Everyday, the ratio on my newsfeed is pretty much 20 asinine meme's to 1 well thought out, intelligent post. News sharing is practically nonexistent. It's gotten to the point where I almost miss MySpace cuz all that dumb shit was mostly confined to your profile instead of flooding everyone with it constantly. I'm not saying you should give up these guilty pleasure habits, but holy hell- just once in a while, can you read something that even borders on enriching your brain? Can you share something that isn't totally mind numbingly designed for instant gratification? If I wanted to see every someecard ever created, I'd go to the website.

The other aspect of how you're failing on the internet responsibility, the kids growing up now are dealing with something kids my age never did - internet bullying. Make all the excuses you want, this is just bad parenting. You should be raising your kids to understand that whether or not it's said to someone's face or done in person, bullying is bullying and is unacceptable, period. You should also be raising them to know better than to bully someone that's already a victim (i.e. the Steubenville Rapes or the Nova Scotia teen who committed suicide last week), but that's already a whole separate variety of bad parenting.

So, if you must, keep your really horrible brain cell killing internet habits. But at least train your kids to know that there is actually useful information, if you bother to look. Even if you can't be bothered to do better, you can at least do the one thing required of us as parents - do your job and make them smarter than you are.

Action!

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." ~ Benjamin Franklin

I'll be doing the latter today.

Tough Love

Good morning, lads and lasses! I'm in an exceptionally good mood so far today, so I thought now might be a good time to discuss that I don't hate everything. I know it might legitimately seem that way, since I'm forever calling you idiots and lecturing you, but it's much more complicated than that. For the most part, I love people. They're forever different from one another and interesting in a unique way. I just don't like when people act like idiots.

So here's the thing, sure, I call you stupid. But mostly because, you have friends to coddle you and tell you how you're making all the right decisions and blah blah. But we all need some tough love and a reminder to be better than we are. Some people aren't lucky enough to have a friend that knows the appropriate time to for either support or skepticism. (Shoutout - ALA!<3) So mostly, I like to think the best thing I can do for you as a psuedo friend is offer the support of reminding you that you're not nearly as omnipresent as you think.

I want the best for all of you, really truly. But in my assorted watching, I see some of you making mistakes that are kinda obvious to me. Maybe no one is telling you it's a mistake. Someone needs to be. And if that means I have to play the villain, well, I'm kinda used to that.

Don't take it personally that I belabor the point that you're probably doing it wrong. Maybe marinate on your decisions a little longer so you have the piece of mind that what I'm saying no longer applies to you. But if you're under the impression that at some point I'm going to simply babble vapid encouragement, you're out of your fucking mind. Just because I'm a touch jaded doesn't mean I'm not totally right.

Besides, most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, so you can probably learn from me, regardless. A solid half of my decisions are a guideline on What Not To Do, and I'm okay with that. I'd rather make a mistake than a regret, and all in all that's been going pretty okay for me. Either way, the point is that I know you're all good people, and maybe a little lost. And if I can be even vaguely a compass for someone struggling, that's all I can really ask for.

So yea, I don't hate you guys, in case you were wondering. Nothing but love, always.

XO<3B

Practice What You Preach

In the interest of not being a hypocrite, I'm mostly keeping MBTP posts here to a Monday through Friday status. If you guys decide to act like idiots on the weekend, I reserve the right to make an exception- but other than that... I have a To Do list that demands my attention.

See you Monday, kids!
XO<3B

Ten Years & What The Hell Are Your Plans?

Ten years seems like so much time, right? It's really not. I won't go off on the side note of explaining how your time is not infinite, cuz I'm pretty sure we've covered that already. Hopefully, you did your homework and know where you wanna be in ten years. I'm here to explain how you can actually get there.

First of all, if you said something along the lines of, "I wanna be a millionaire and have 7 homes and 12 cars and blah blah blah."- start over. Seriously. You can plan for success, but attempting to put a dollar amount on your success is absurd. Moving on, the trick to this is breaking it down. Make a list of the 10 year older version of yourself and assess the differences. If any of those have a standard dictated time frame, note that. If they require money in a pretty obvious denomination, note that too. Now work your way backwards. Continue to work backwards, breaking everything down into individual tasks, until you get to now.

You'll probably end up realizing that there's a bunch of things you're supposed to be doing now that you aren't. Adjust your behavior. But remember, a 10 year plan is just a plan. Plans change. Things change. You may want different things down the line. Generally, I suggest then making a separate 5 year and 1 year plan, and seeing exactly where the crossovers are, because that's generally the things you really care about that made the list. Don't plan the obvious shit like babies and so on, because that all happens when it's supposed to happen, and unless you're reproductively challenged it shouldn't be a consideration.

If you're sitting there thinking, "Why the hell should I bother? That sounds like too much work. Ain't nobody got time for that."- I have a reminder for you. When you're old as fuck and too tired to walk to your car, don't whine that your bucket list looks exactly the same as it did when you were 20. You can thank me later :)

A To Do For You

In lieu of lecturing/educating you today, I'm giving you a homework assignment:
Decide where you wanna be in ten years. What you want to be doing, where you'll be living, how your life is.
Dream big.
Tomorrow, we'll discuss.

Distractions & Haters

There are people that want you to fail. There are people that will do anything to distract you, to influence you, to keep you from making it where you want to go. And that's okay. As the honorable Mr. Katt Williams would say, "YOU NEED HATERS". It's all really a question of how you take it. You can very easily get distracted by the shit talking and get deviated from your game plan. You can analyze the aspects of the situation to try and figure out why, OR you can take it as inspiration. Don't give them the satisfaction of throwing you off, cuz that's what they're hoping for. Take a deep breath, do your best not to engage in the middle school behavior, and keep it moving with what you know needs to happen.

Of course, this is easier said than done, because haters come in surprising packaging. Sometimes they're wrapped up like friends, or frenemies, or even people that are supposed to love you, or at least used to. Depending on how prepared you are for them to be hating and distracting, it might originally throw you for a loop. You probably don't expect people to be wishing the worst for you. You probably don't expect people to want you to fail. But guess what? You can't please everybody, and even the people that consistently support you are gonna have criticism for what you're doing. If you believe in your plan, don't worry about it. You know what's best for you.

Haters aren't solely responsible for distractions, but they're a good chunk of it. Especially because when you aren't living up to your potential, most likely your biggest hater is yourself. Maybe you're second guessing yourself or your ability to follow through. Maybe you're wondering if it's really all worth it. Quit hating on yourself, man. You have enough people doing that for you. You must always, first and foremost, believe in your dreams. Anyone else that jumps on board is extra, and you should never expect anyone to be watching your back. Anyone that's deliberately distracting you doesn't deserve the satisfaction of seeing you slip. Keep your head in the game, and remember that at least they're paying attention. You have the audience. It's a question of what you do with that power.

Don't let the haters get you down. Remember, it's a thin line between love and hate. Your biggest haters can become your biggest fans, if you work at it and don't let them distract you. Spin the hate into motivation.

"If there are any haters in here right now that don't have anybody to hate on, feel free to hate on me." Cuz I can always use a bit of extra inspiration ;)

Thanks, dick.

To that one special person who opted to report that I was linking music downloads.... Idk wtf your problem is, but trust - YOU WILL NOT SHUT ME UP.

Work Smart

Here's the thing, humans can't truly multitask. We can take in information about up to 4 things at once, but we can't do 2 things at once. You can be reading but still aware of the score of the game on TV, but your attention is devoted to one task at a time. It's just how we're wired. But there are ways to make it seem like you're multitasking everything, even if your brain isn't cool enough to do it on its own.

Generally, tasks have active time and passive time. The trick is to multitask the passive time.

Let's try an example:
Every morning, when I first wake up, I have 3 immediate tasks: make coffee, cook waffles for Jack, and change the date on the whiteboard on the fridge. Now, I could concentrate on one task at a time. But there's lots of passive time up for grabs here. The coffee takes time to brew. The waffles take time to cook. I choose not to do one task at a time. It goes something like this: Get the coffee working. While that's brewing, drop the waffles into the toaster. At some point in this, I need 3 things out of the fridge, 1 for my coffee and 2 for the waffles. WORK SMART says get all 3 at once, which sounds like it should be common sense, but if you're only focused on making one of those, you can very easily wind up making 2 trips into the fridge, which wastes your time and also energy. I pull all 3, and then change the date while the coffee finishes. The coffee is too hot to initially drink, so I add my flavorings and set it aside to cool slightly. Slather the waffles with butter and syrup and serve. Then my coffee is ready.

This is a basic example. Your time is valuable - you know this by now. But how many times have you impatiently sat there and watched something render or load? Does the water boil faster if you're watching? Nope.

WORK SMART with your motions as well. Say you have a box you wanna put in your attic. It's in your way now, so you have two choices: you can move it out of your way, perhaps closer to it's destination, or you can put it where you know eventually you will have to. Say it takes you a minute to cross your house to the garage with the box. Sure, you could set it down and come back later and put it the rest of the way into the attic. But then you just burned 2 minutes of your life for no reason walking back to do it later, rather than just doing it when you moved it in the first place.

If you've been paying attention, you should have a really awesome To Do list with the time allotted for each task. The update on your phone is gonna take 15 minutes, and you could passively stare at it willing it to finish updating, or you can pick a 15 minute task and maximize your passive time. If you're not accustomed to trying to WORK SMART, it can take a while to get used to. You'll have to remind yourself constantly. But it applies to every aspect of your day, in one way or another. And a minute saved is a minute earned. Time is the most valuable thing we have, try not to waste yours watching a timer tick down.

How To Properly Make A To Do List

Since I like to endlessly emphasize the importance of staying organized and having a To Do list, I thought I'd show you exactly how I make mine.

Supplies: Paper, Pen, & Highlighters. Also, probably stuff you need to do.

Title your list. Ideally, with a rough idea of the due date you intend. Next, add categories. I used Money, Family, Career, and Groundwork. Feel free to change these according to your personal needs. Assign a color for each, and create a key in the corner. I use Groundwork for things that are impeding me from completing another item on the To Do list in another category.

Make your list. Try to be as specific as possible. If necessary, break down one item into steps, probably on a new sheet of paper.

Color code your list according to your categories. If one doesn't fit into any of the categories, no biggie, we'll deal with those next.

Those ones that didn't fit anywhere get a new category: Extra. Assign a color. These are Extra because most likely, it doesn't matter if you get around to these anytime soon.

Estimate the amount of time each task will take. For shorter projects, guess as accurately as you can. Longer projects never estimate over 2 hours, just add a plus sign. This is indicative of projects you should be working on periodically without getting discouraged by it saying 12 hours or some ridiculousness next to it, even though it could totally take that long. Pro tip: If you have kids, add extra time in for distractions and interruptions.

And now you have a fully functioning, really organized To Do list. Generally, I get the Family stuff outta the way first, cuz those are the ones that will have other people bugging you if they don't get done. Money should always be next if possible. Sometimes Groundwork has to come next. Prioritize the categories how you see fit. Try and complete a whole category before you move onto another one. This is also useful if you have a chunk of time and aren't exactly sure what you should start. Pick a project you can finish in the time allotted, even if that means jumping out of order. The more you get done the more accomplished you'll feel, thus making it more likely you'll keep being productive.

Now get to work!

And More New Music

Alkaline Trio - My Shame Is True (Album)
Get It Here

Rilo Kiley - Rkives (Album)
Get It Here

Password is: mp3crank.com

I really can't wait the 3 minutes until this new Rilo Kiley is done downloading... might be the only thing to get me off my Tegan & Sara - Heartthrob kick.

Marriage Equality

I'm going to take a moment to touch on this while my child is occupied watching youtube videos, since it's everywhere right now.

Here's the thing, one of the biggest arguments against same sex marriage is defending the institution of marriage. But when you consider the facts - that they have a lower divorce rate than the 50% of traditional marriages, isn't that just improving the sanctity of marriage? I barely even believe in marriage to begin with, but we really gotta stop trying to tell other people how to live their lives. If straight couples can go to Vegas and get married by fake Elvis to someone they've known for an hour, it's kinda insane to act like marriage is some sacred thing that everyone takes so, so seriously. Marriage is supposed to be about love, and the nerve of people to tell you who you can and cannot love is simply barbaric. Live your own life, stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, and let them do whatever they want if they aren't hurting anyone.

Liberty for all, remember?
Oh, plus that whole separation of church and state thing, for those of you religiously opposed. (Tip: Remember that whole 'he without sin cast the first stone', thing? Maybe when your church officials aren't child molesters we'll take your opinions a bit more seriously.)

Anyone that gets married has pretty decent odds to contend with that they'll wind up getting divorced. So let's just stop acting like marriage is one of the 7 Wonders of the World and gays are trying to piss on the museum of life experiences by wanting to throw a party, sign a piece of paper and get some sparkly new jewelry.

Mostly though, stop being a bigot. It's not cute.

Family > Free Time

Spring break is so not a break once you have kids. Kinda the opposite, really.

And then life gets in the way...

It's been a hectic few days. I'm trying to get over here, but when I'm busy I'm not exactly being inspired. Here's the thing, if you're anything like me, trying to complete multiple projects at once requires a certain degree of organization. Personally, I find that everything functions better when you know where everything is that you need, and then you don't waste time hunting.

So on that note, here's a few tips for your multi media mogul status to keep you productive:

1) You must have a to do list. It should be saved in the cloud and also ideally a paper version, if you get that self satisfied feeling from crossing things off like I do. Plus no worries if say, the internet goes down while you're working. Bonus points if you sort the to do list by priority.
2) Your computer files should be organized. Ridiculously, if you're me. Folders within folders and sorted and so on until you don't even have to think to find what you need.
3) Everything should have a home. Projects should not migrate from room to room. You should have an organized work space, preferably as far away from a TV or other distractions as possible.
4) Speaking of home, get your house organized. Eliminate superfluous prep time for everything non-workish that sucks time out of whatever you'd like to be working on. Closets especially, I like to keep mine sorted by item in color order. You should also not have piles of papers anywhere. If you're old enough to have bills, you're old enough to keep all that stuff organized so you can find it when you need it. There should be no, "where the hell is my social security card? I need it in an hour."
5) Anything you're not interested in losing should be backed up somewhere. Imagine your house is on fire. What are you going to lose that's irreplaceable? Make sure these things are safely saved on the internet somewhere.

And that's pretty much the idea - list/prioritize, organize, backup. It'll make your life a whole lot easier when you can seamlessly move from task to task without the "what the hell am I doing?" hesitation. I can't help you keep track of the remote, though.

Just a Reminder

It was a late night. But the one thing that I always take away from seeing bands live...

You have some kind of dream. Some real passion that moves you and motivates you. Maybe you decided at some point to work in the field without going completely after what you know you love. Laying the groundwork, you might have said. I'm here today to say - fuck that. The time is always now. You have the choice to be a supporting character in someone else's dream or the lead in your own. Stop pretending you'll get there eventually. Later is for pussies. Get to work.

Dueces for the day.

MIAMI!

Never Settle and other accurate cliches

Every day I see people doing the one thing I hate the most - settling. I can almost picture them saying to themselves, "it's not perfect. but it's okay, and it's something." Well guess what? That's not good enough. The biggest problem is that our whole lives we're conditioned to expect disappointment. Souls grow weary and desperate for anything bordering on fulfilling. The solutions are never easy, but first things first - adjust your expectations. Let's say you want something out of your reach, is your go to reaction to take the closest version of what you want that's attainable? That's settling. You know you deserve better. You know you could have better if you wait. So why downgrade your desires? No one ever reaches satisfaction by deciding that something is okay enough to substitute for what you really want.

There are two words you need to acquaint yourself with heavily if you expect to get exactly what you deserve - patience and persistence. Nothing good ever comes easy, you must stick with it, plan, and get your shit together enough that when the time comes you're ready. I understand that patience is hard for people, we especially live in a generation where we expect instant gratification. Again, adjust your expectations. There's a good chance that now is not the right time for what you want. Are you going to make life long decisions assuming you'll never have it? Not if you ever want to get what you want. You'll do the smart thing, and get your ducks in a row, and choose not to take what's good right now over what could be infinitely better.

If you find yourself settling, you need to stop and think about what it is that you really want. The ONLY time it's okay to downgrade is when you realize you've been fantasizing over something unattainable. Example: your whole life you've wanted a Lambo. While it's okay to plan for that, and try to make it happen, at some point you may have to crunch the numbers and realize that it's never going to happen. Guess what? Time to get a new dream. Some dreams like that are unavoidably just not realistic. Maybe you made mistakes along the way, but we all do. Don't waste your time on something you'll never have. And that choice is not settling, it's called growing up.

Music As Therapy

I still don't wanna talk. I'm going to anyway. I have this tendency to get lost in my head, and it never helps, only makes the situation worse.

Over time, I learned a trick that helps me days like today. My first instinct is always to pick music appropriate to what I'm feeling, I'm great at that. But the problem with that is, it ends up digging you further into your mood than you should go. The real challenge comes with listening to the exact opposite of what you're feeling. It seems obvious, right? You're in a bad mood, put on some happy music, and you'll snap out of it. All those sad those are great and sometimes completely on point, and wallowing can help -- to a degree.

When you realize that wallowing is no longer facilitating your recovery from what-the-fuck-ever your issue is, you have to switch things up. Try a new method. Create a bubble to exist in for a moment. I suggest having a playlist on standby for this occasion. Songs that you have loved for years, ideally with only good memories attached, so when you need the attitude adjustment it's there waiting for you. Keep the beats per minute up. Avoid songs you have associated with specific instances of anything less than perfect. If you are in a pinch, get the Moodagent app. It'll create a playlist from your music collection based on sliding mood scales you can adjust until you find the magic combination that strikes you as soothing.

Hopefully it helps. Sometimes it won't, because life is messy and people tend to suck. But it's better than replaying sad songs all day and feeling sorry for yourself.

I'm taking the day off.

I was gonna explain today that I don't actually hate everything or everyone, but things happen and I'm not an optimist today. I'll be keeping myself busy and spending extra time with my cute offspring today. See you tomorrow, friends.

I'm not Irish, nor am I going to pretend to be.

I hate St. Patty's day. Really, I hate all holidays based on virtually nothing except somebody died, which if you consider, is almost all of them. St. Patty's day is especially stupid. Let's consider the man in question. Personally, if a country enslaved me for almost a decade, I wouldn't be in a big rush to head back there once I was freed, and yet Patrick did. He was really into shamrocks, and was basically a glorified missionary. I'm not sure why that warrants a holiday. I get that most Americans will take any day as an excuse to drink (frankly, there's better reasons to get trashed than this dude) and I don't begrudge you that. But maybe we should have some holidays that aren't totally morbid.

Let's check out some of the widely accepted holidays:

New Years Day - Okay, so obviously New Years gets a pass. Celebrating a new year is obvious.
MLK Day - MLK day, while he was great and all, still celebrating a dead dude - half credit for being a productive member of society.
Groundhog Day - Really, I shouldn't have to explain why this is a completely stupid holiday.
Ash Wednesday -  The ashes for Ash Wednesday are considered a reminder of human mortality - totally morbid.
Valentine's Day - St. Valentine was executed this day for being pro marriage, yet another dead guy. I only don't totally hate on this because I'll reluctantly embrace anything that's a celebration of pink.
Presidents' Day - I'm okay with patriotic holidays, even though 95% of these guys are also dead.
Palm Sunday - considered the celebration of Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem. Last time I checked, that trip didn't turn out so well for him...
Good Friday - cuz yea, then he died.
Easter Sunday - Too cool for death. Half credit. How bunnies & eggs got involved, I don't even care enough to Google.
Arbor Day - Yay trees! Too bad nobody particularly bothers to celebrate this totally legit, not about death holiday.
Cinco De Mayo - THIS IS NOT MEXICAN INDEPENDANCE DAY. Mexico won an unlikely battle against the French. Good idea in theory, but minus points because people care more about drinking than even knowing what the holiday is about.
Memorial Day - All the dead military folks day.
Flag Day - Cool, we picked a flag. Pass. Even though we also created the army that day, and ya know, that obviously helped facilitate some dying.
4th of July - For the record, our forefathers decided to declare independence from Britian 2 days prior. They just finished writing down why they felt that was okay on the 4th. Also, 3 presidents died that day. Plus the whole war thing involved with that.
Labor Day - Everybody works. Holiday win.
Columbus Day - Dude, he didn't even discover the country. Fail.
Halloween - Festival of the Dead.
Veterans' Day - I'm okay with this. Thanks for serving, guys & gals.
Thanksgiving - White people slaughter indians. Cool, more death.
Christmas - One of the only days we celebrate someone being born, instead of when they kicked.

So here's the thing, maybe the next time we make a holiday, it can be for something positive instead of being like, Oh - that guy was pretty cool, sometimes... when did he die? Okay, that's a great holiday. Maybe we could celebrate more of the birthdays of these people instead. Because really, holidays in general are about celebrating and enjoying life, so it seems awfully ass backwards to have these parties because somebody died. It's like a series of century plus long wakes, just totally doing it wrong. Sure, when I die, I'd rather everybody party instead of mourn - but if you're really trying to celebrate someone's life, maybe try not to fixate on when it ended. Or enjoy your green beer and mild racism and pretend it doesn't matter, your choice.

 

I'm gonna give all my secrets away...

Fine, maybe not all of them, but I'll go ahead and blow up my spot on how I always have the freshest music as soon as it leaks.

My personal favorite site for fetching new music is mp3crank.com. They exclusively drop albums, which I've grown to prefer over dealing with accumulating music track by track and hoping you have the mastered version and there aren't tags all over it. They drop mixtapes and ep's too, so it's usually a good first stop for most of everything you'd want.

Another good one is blog.audioloot.com , also mostly albums, but sometimes they have things the first does not. They ad the shit outta their download links, so if you aren't well versed in getting around those, proceed with caution.

Newmusicpop.com puts up everything once it hits itunes, so those are all gonna be m4a, which is useful as long as you don't wanna do anything that itunes cockblocks outta use.

My fave for new hip hop etc is hear-that-first.com, updated almost daily with new tracks, and they warn you when they're dj tagged and so on. Just don't fall in love with any and expect them to be on the album, cuz many are future bsides and buzz singles.

Enjoy, kids. I'll, of course, let you know when something super awesome drops, as soon as I'm done overplaying this Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob album and actually bother to listen to anything else.

XO<3B

Productivity & Such

I'm a procrastinator and a perfectionist. This is about the most limiting and absurd combination of traits to have when it comes to everything I do, but these things are ingrained in my nature by now, so it is what it is. I have a hard time following through on what I start, mostly because I either get behind the 8 ball of overwhelming to do's or because I can't get something just right to the iota and get frustrated and give up. I'm persistent though, so I always end up coming back to the same thing, the same projects, and eventually, I find the balance.

As some of you may or may not know, I recently bought an iPad. (Yay tax return!) I did this with the sole intention of using it majorly to have a convenient way to process all of my follow through. I disregarded the bulk of the social apps, and use it as the home base for making myself get busy with all the things I'd like to be doing. Which is easier said than done, of course, but yet here we are so obviously I'm doing something right. (That could be entirely related to how much I miss writing, but I digress.)

I've posted on this before, the finding ways to accomplish what you want to do with your life. You need a plan, you need to stick to what you planned, and you need to hold yourself accountable when you don't follow your own plan. I'm good at most of this, most of the time. As much as I'd like to claim that I woke up today and knew I had to kick myself in the ass and get back to business, that's not exactly what happened. Really, I went and checked my to do list and saw the self assigned due dates passing me by and I can't live with that anymore. I have so much to say, and writer's block be damned, I will find a way.

And this way is mostly thanks to the App Store, for having such thoroughly enticing apps designed to help those of us who struggle with the follow through. Awesome Note, for example, houses my to do lists and everything else under the sun I need to complete the endless lists of tasks I make for myself. Evernote still holds its own, allowing me to save things for later, so when I have a bright idea in the less internetly enabled areas of my life, it's not lost forever. Unstuck is quickly becoming a favorite, cuz well, I have a habit of getting stuck.

I could thank the fellows over at Apple, or the people who continuously inspire me (I'm sure you know who you are) or even the people that doubt me. But I choose to thank myself. I'm out here, doing my thing, moving forward no matter what, whether or not I bother to get it all done, I know I'm trying.

And that, friends, is the point for today. If you aren't trying, the only person you have to blame is yourself. If you are trying, give yourself a pat on the back and maybe some well deserved playtime, if you feel inclined. But mostly just remember that today is today, and you are in charge of what you get done today.

No excuses, inaction is deadly.

Cuz We Need A Little Controversy....

GUESS WHO'S BACK?

Why yes, my little pretties, that would be me. Slow and steady, at least to begin.

First, I wanna clarify that the new music portion of this site is indefinitely removed, thanks to a DMCA complaint I'm obeying. You know you're doing something right when you get that cease and desist, though. I will however provide some links at a later date to provide you with all the new music you can handle.

Frankly, I don't even really know what this blog is about anymore. I know I miss doing it, but I can't handle all the structure I tried to thrust upon myself in the original/reboot. I hate guidelines, Ima do whatever the fuck I want, because well, I can. If you know me in real life, none of this should surprise you. To those that don't, let's keep it rolling.

With that in mind, yes, I will try and create some kind of content for you daily. I make no promises. I have a life, and my life is not entirely comprised of the internet.

But again, if you know me at all, you know it'll be worth the wait.