Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange

A little OT, but I had a lunch conversati­on with my coworker last week. He explained that he didn't care that there weren't any WMD in Iraq. In his mind all of that was just secondary and he didn't care that they had to convince the country to go to war. He saw Saddam as an Arab, Muslim enemy, so, of course, he was a terrorist and collaborat­ing with Bin Laden...or would in the future, and no matter what facts or logic I used it didn't matter, he said: "We're bringing democracy to them. We should just stay and take it over, along with the rest of the Middle East."

That's when I realized I was dealing with an imperialis­t. Thankfully our meals came shortly thereafter and we were able to have a pleasant lunch even as I sat, utterly bewildered when just 10 minutes before he was talking about the "dumbing down" of America.

My point is that I think a lot of the war supporters are imperialis­ts just like my coworker..­.and that bodes ill for Mr. Assange and Wikileaks. The more the US's world stature and standard of living declines the more we'll show ourselves for the imperialis­ts that we (as a nation) are in our vain attempt to keep our status. Sadly, if we would just dive in head first with a green energy industrial revolution (a New Deal 2.0) we could keep it and most of this bad press would vanish.

About Most Popular
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Number Of Adult Americans Living With Their Parents Has Exploded (CHART)

I'm 34 and have been living at home for almost the last 2 years. I moved out when I went away to school, moved to MI and supported myself for 15 years without ever once asking for help, but then the Great Recession hit and I was one of the millions who lost their jobs.

For 10 months I couldn't find anything in Michigan, so I finally had to bite the bullet and move home to California where I was born and raised. Amazingly, I got a job in 3 weeks here (contracto­r, no benefits), but I put together a 2 year plan to pay off any debt and save money. I am now 15k in the green; 5k from my goal.

So, there are aspects of it that suck, but if you have the option it's not a terrible one. It's a lot better than homelessne­ss and after so many years away from my family in Michigan it's been good for me to come home and rebuild this relationsh­ip. I am fortunate, though that my family could take me in and are well-off enough that my expenses are extremely minimal. I absolutely couldn't do it without them and it was not cheap to move me home.

Still looking forward to hitting that goal and getting my own place again, though. It is a little scary when every job inquiry I get is short-term contract work, but I know that my family sticks together and I'm never alone.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Espionage Act: How the Government Can Engage in Serious Aggression Against the People of the United States

Regardless of whether or not you agree, interestin­g informatio­n on in the 1917 Espionage Act and Pres. Wilson I, personally­, didn't know.

DiFi is my senator. I'll add this to my list of reasons why I'll support a progressiv­e challenge against her.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Home Prices Falling Fast, Eroding American Wealth And Threatening Recovery

That should read: "With the unemployme­nt rate hovering near 10 percent, and with companies showing historic reluctance to hire Americans as full-time employees over outsourcin­g to cheap foreign labor, the housing drag poses a significan­t impediment to an economic recovery."

But they call Julian Assange, an Australian­, a traitor.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Whatever, dude.

"With the risk of sounding like a xenophobe, soccer is only the most popular because the majority of the globe does not have the resources to play American sports." - Thomas Alter

My Comment: It's not xenophobia; it's American exceptionalism at its finest...and, personally, I find it sad that so many of us can't see what the rest of the world does.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Woman Left On Plane SUES: Ginger McGuire Was Alone For Hours

Wow, what the heck happened to Geoffrey Fieger?!? He goes from representing Dr. Kevorkian to running for governor of Michigan to representing someone who is suing because she overslept?



Personally, if I was this person I would be too embarrassed to sue? Why can't we just laugh it off anymore? Sheesh...
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Malawi Gay Couple Separate After One Takes Up With A Woman

I was recently having a conversation with my older sister about the extra stressors that exist in same-sex relationships, which actively work against the relationship's success. This makes me sad, but I can't say that I'm surprised.



I'm glad they're out of prison and I hope they, at least, remain safe. May happiness find them in whatever they do and wherever they go. Peace.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

This is Why You Live At Home and Have No Savings

Sister J needs to hire another personal trainer. Anyone know of a good one in Riverside or OC?
About an hour ago via Facebook for iPhone

Personal trainer: $$$
iPhone (when the rest of the family is on Verizon): $$$

Try Organic

I know what you’re thinking: Oh, god: she’s on a health-food kick. True: I am really trying to choose healthier food as a way to have a better relationship with myself and reduce some of the nagging stressors in my life that constantly keep me down in the dumps. It’s my own brand of cognitive-therapy, which I did for years and years and highly encourage anyone to try. Without it, I wouldn’t have the skills to make the rational analysis that I can these days and that’s a big help for me. So, yes: I am on a “kick” so to speak, but I wanted to take a quick minute to share my thoughts on organic.

It’s been a week. I managed to have 5 DSP meals and about 2 that were semi-DSP. I think that’s pretty good. There was not one day where I just didn’t care. I haven’t yet gotten into any sort of habit of keeping a food journal, but I’ll work on that next week. So far, here’s what I don’t like about the program:

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Apple Cider Vinegear as dressing=yuck. I'll need to play around with this and find a dressing that I like (besides salsa) but sometimes I want a creamy dressing and so I add a dash of mayo. Oh well, I'm not seeking perfection here.
2. Too much water. There's this ridiculous notion that I have to drink half my body weight in ounces of water each day, on top of what I eat. Please. This is part of the problem: over-consumption of the world's most precious natural resource: fresh water. Every living thing on this plant is dependent on it. It's morally irresponsible to promote this just to look 25 when you're 35.

The truth is that if you are eating fruits and raw veggies each and every day, you only need three or four glasses of liquid beyond that, whether you get that from coffee, soda, juice, or water. If you get it from coffee and soda, you should add at least once glass of pure water each day to help flush out the additives, but that's the serious truth. No: it is not going to prevent aging, but aging is natural and no matter how much water you drink and products you buy, you are still going to age. It happens, so embrace it and don't waste water. Pee is not supposed to be clear and odor-free. Like poo, it's bodily waste, and guzzling water in an attempt to clear your body of toxins from polutants is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's short-sighted and selfish.
Instead of being part of the problem, be part of the solution and work to end the things that cause the pollutants that your body absorbs. /soapbox>
So far, that's it! And here's what I like:

1. Raw organic almond butter! Wow! I never would have tried this, but I really, really love it, especially with celery.
2. Spelt bread tastes like regular bread and makes great toast. Sprouted wheat tortillas make great sandwhich wraps that don't fall apart on you. Chewy and tasty. Wheat-free frozen waffles are better than Eggos!
3. Coconut oil not only works great, it smells great.
4. Nitrate-free turkey bacon is delicious and cooks superfast.
5. Organic produce is portioned better and tastes incredible.

#5 is what this post is about. I just finished eating a banana and it was the best banana I'd ever had, and that's been true for the tomatos and avocados and cucumbers I had this week. Organic fruits and veggies are just better. Try it: you won't be sorry.

Bio: Spoiled Little Brat Who Can't Empathize

This is why we are doomed as a species:

"So our '"brillant" [sic] state government banned plastic grocery bags today. Really?! In an economy where people have to choose between food or rent, they now want to charge us 5 cents for every paper bag? All for the sake of "going green"?! I'm so sick and tired of this trendy, save the planet crap! If some tree hugger [sic] wants to "go green", fine by me, just don't make me pay for it." - Sister J, Born 1982

6 years younger than me. Her golden years are under full-frontal assault (I shudder to think what the socio-economic landscape will be like in this country when she's 60), but she can't see it because she lives for the rapture. Yeah: pollute and rape God's creation until he has no choice but to come save your sorry ass. Green is just a pop-trend, like WWJD, for secular deviants. Word, sister--word. *sigh*

You can get a reusable bag for $0.99; cheaper than a coke. It only takes 2 or 3 for a whole grocery basket; cheaper than a Big Mac. The problem is you have to do it different. See? You have to change? *gasp* You have to mingle all your plastic-wrapped food and boxes and put the bread and eggs on top. *whew* I'm tired just thinking about it. /sarcasm>

Fact: Plastic bags are everywhere. Fact: They pollute everything. Fact: They are cheap. Fact: We will never stop doing bad things cheaply until we are forced to, usually by the barrel of a gun.

Shut up and buy a freakin' cloth bag, princess. Then be sure to exalt yourself on Facebook for it. Once you do it, it will be cool.

P.S. As a broadcasting professional with a $100k+ education, I would hope that you would know and care that the proper joining of tree-hugger is to use a hyphen or to completely join the two words i.e. treehugger...similar to, like, um...screenwriter. Just sayin'...Big-Gay-Sister is a bitch and she is not impressed.

Gaza Blockade: Israel Vows To Block Rachel Corrie, New Aid Ship

If there is God in heaven, Rachel Corrie is there. This is know. Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Raise or Check?

It's a time of expansion and growth. My software skill-set is better than average, but it's not money. Yet, I can't decide what to buy...or, rather, I know what I would like, but I can't decide if it's a wise investment right now.

Ultimately, I could throw down $1000.oo, but I'm not going to because I can't learn it all at once, right? *nod* So, do I go with the products like Microsoft Project 2k7 and Visio 2k7 that I already know pretty darn well but are not yet at the expert stage--products I will only be using to practice--or do I go with the big money purchase of Adobe Design Standard and have some fun with it?

Or, is that just insane and I should go for the basic Adobe Acrobat?

Blah, that's not going to happen. I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Office 2007 Ultimate. So, if I'm going to buy, I'm going to buy; but $800 is A LOT of money and that's a A LOT of product that I don't need. Or do I? No, because I'm not a professional graphic designer and there are other ways to publish e-Books.

I'm also kinda busy with my PMP studying.
I'm going to check.

Don't lose focus...
But it could be fun. I got ideas, baby.

Seeing Results

Weeks of walking on the treadmill got me nothing but caught up on Six Feet Under…like six years too late (I know!). Weeks of eating better (not perfect), but better still had no effect. So, I decided to take it outside onto the street—into the big bad real world. Dunt-dunt-dunt-dunnnnn!

It all started two weeks ago tomorrow when I found out that, once again, I'd been mislead about how long my contract really was for. This time I was pissed for that old adage: "Fool me once: shame on you; fool me twice: shame on me." C'est la vie—this isn't about that. It's about the fact that I took that opportunity to grab my cell phone, call my big sister, and vent for the next hour while I walked around the sub-division where I'm living. It was the same path I had been on many, many times in high school. It just came back like a repressed memory, and before I knew it I was pooped and feeling much better.
Two weeks later I've walked that path, usually on the phone with Sister K, 12 out of 14 days. I'm also slowly (very slowly) getting into the Diet Solution, some of which I'll never be able to fully adopt until I have my own place, but the walking I'm down with. I love it; it's pretty easy, but already this week I can see real results. I still have a long ways to go, even to get to the weight I was at when I moved here, but I am on the path. Get off the treadmill and walk outside: it's so much better!!!
Now, if only the same steady work I'm doing with my professional profiles and the professional courses I'm taking will do the same. Waiting for the phone to ring on a job application is like waiting for the scale to give the verdict.

Nuclear Option For Plugging Oil Well Gains Support, But U.S. Not On Board

No Nukes!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MM: Memorial Omelet

Here's a Meatless Monday (MM) recipe for a simple, fast, über-healthy and delicious breakfast I'm calling the Memorial Omelet. This meal is safe for people with blood-sugar conditions (like those who are diabetic and hypoglycemic) , and for those, like me, following the Diet Solution Program (DSP). Commentary will follow.

Ingredients (preferably organic and locally farmed):

• 2 whole free-range, veggie-fed eggs
  
• 1 whole tomato (small)
  
• ½ avocado
  
• ½ water
  
• Handful fresh spinach (uncooked)
  
• tsp cold-pressed organic coconut cooking oil*
  
• Pinch of sea-salt and pepper (to taste)
  

* You can get coconut oil in most any natural whole foods store. If you don't have it, use butter and always start with low heat to melt it, but I highly encourage you to give coconut oil a try. It only takes a very little and it has a low melting point, so things get crispy without the need for high heat. It also has a wonderful, subtle flavor that brings vitality and freshness to food. Finally, you'll find with coconut oil that it's really easy to turn your omelet and slide it onto your plate when you're finished. Try it—I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Directions:

• Start by boiling the water. ½ cup doesn't take long, so make sure you have your spinach prepared.
  
• To prepare the spinach, pull the leaves off the stems and give it a gentle rinse in cold water to crisp it up; you can throw the stems out. Once the water is boiling, place the leaves in the sauce pan and turn off the heat. We'll just let the leave stew in the hot water for a few minutes to soften up while we cook.
  
• Beat the eggs in a bowl.
  
• In a fry-pan of your choice, place a tsp of coconut oil. Add low-medium heat.
  
• That will only take a few seconds, so as soon as the coconut is melted and covering the pan, add the eggs. Note: This omelet will cook a little faster than you're used to if you're using coconut oil. The bottom-side will likely have a thin, golden brown layer that I find delicious, but if you like totally soft omelets, you'll need to turn it often and work fast.
  
• As the bottom is cooking, add salt and pepper to omelet inside to taste.
  
• Once you are ready to close the omelet, pull out the spinach leaves with a fork, letting them lightly but not completely drain. Add to the omelet and then fold it over to close it. Remove from heat and let the hot pan finish the work.
  
• Slice the whole tomato or half if you're using a large one. Note: Organic produce doesn't tend to be huge, though, and it's far more flavorful while only being slightly more perishable. Since the portions aren't as big, I find this a good trade off as I'm more apt to eat fruits and veggies because they actually taste good. No waste and less waist!
  
• Place the sliced tomato on a plate. Lay the omelet on top of the tomato.
  
• Slice the half of avocado. Add it to the top of the omelet to garnish with a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Note: I also add a sprinkle of hot pepper sauce (like Red Hot or Tabasco) instead of salt, but you can add some salsa and/or jalapeños if you like. Enjoy.
  

Food Diary: Next time I'll take a picture, but it looked so delicious I forgot and now all I have is an empty plate. Yum, and I feel satisfied but not full or lethargic. It only took 15 minutes! In my book, that makes this a 5 star meal.

If you want a heartier, more traditional American breakfast, add a link of no-antibiotic turkey sausage (not soy!) on the side and a piece of spelt toast with real butter or a serving of fresh organic fruit like an apple, peach, or some blueberries. You can have black coffee and tea, but not juice unless it is literally freshly squeezed in a juicer and no milk! If you have juice to drink, try to pass on the toast.

The important things we're trying to avoid here (besides toxins and pesticides) are sugars without nutritional value that raise blood sugar. High blood sugar signals our bodies to create insulin, which then makes our bodies store fat and then signals that we're hungry again, creating a vicious cycle that has left more than 50% of America overweight and me, personally, 70 pounds over my happy weight.
Wondering why there is an expidemic of diabeties? This is why: the constant production of insulin wears out the bodies ability to produce it naturally...and the reason we are constantly producing insulin now when we weren't 100, even 50 years ago, is because food is everywhere now. It's super easy to get and it's loaded with processed ingredients to make it cheaper, bigger, more attractive, and longer-lasting.
Sure, high fructose corn syrup is made from corn--it's an engineered process that starts with corn to create a syrup that is sweeter than sugar and, thus, far cheaper than using sugar. While I was cooking this meal I saw an advertisement for "getting the facts" on high-fructose corn syrup on the TV that my mother was watching. It's not about you, my friend; it's not about our health; it's not about the good of the country, even on memorial day. It's about money and that's why they call it the Almighty Dollar.
You know me: I've done my research. I've taken a Type II diabetes class and I've recently read about the nutritional process. It's a science, and my own body is all the proof I need. So, I'm not recommending that you start the Diet Solution. I'm just saying that the Diet Solution is the only program I've found that talks about typical results and also encourages a slow and steady transition. There's nothing to buy besides information...and that information mostly adds up with everything I've read. That makes sense to me: it's my time-table, my food, my decisions...and if it doesn't work, you'll read it here.
God Bless the Troops! Go Navy!

The President’s Challenge

A couple of months ago I stumbled onto the President's Challenge website for promoting active lifestyles. I had already resumed walking again, so I decided to start tracking my progress. I started a short story and feel off the wagon for a couple of weeks, but I'm back on it now. As summer approaches there's a lot more daylight, so I've gotten off the treadmill and out into the outdoors, which is a far better workout and more enjoyable, truthfully. It also presents almost a daily opportunity to talk to Sister K.

It's a little frustrating that I'm not seeing any results, yet, though. Tomorrow I'm starting on The Diet Solution, though, because I really think my blood sugar is sabotaging my efforts and keeping my body in a storing fat mode. So, I went to Henry's Market and spent good money on good, organic, raw food. I'm willing to give it my best effort for 2 weeks. If I'm still at 209.5 after that, I don't know what else to do except never quit quitting.

I feel very confident the diet is effective, especially considering what I do know about nutrition and insulin, but I'm not confident that I'll be able to keep it up as I'm worried it's going to require more time and resources that I have. It's not my house, not my fridge, and not my kitchen…and not cheap to be buy whole food.

Instant Gratification

This topic is heavy on my mind. Today I had the experience of sitting
between two attractive 40-somethings female friends, both of whom were more
interested in texting other people than participating in the conversation at
hand with 3 other women. Strange. Even stranger is that these ladies are older
than me by nearly 10 years.

I'm a Gen X'er. It's supposed to be my generation that's me-focused and socially detached by technology, right? Yet I find the whole texting phenomenon utterly crude, frankly. Sure: texting is very convenient and helpful in many situations, but why must I answer NOW just because I can without having to hear your voice? Surely I am not alone in finding this disconcerting.

But it's a pattern, isn't it? I think so. We have our phones; we have our water bottles: all these things just for us to provide instant gratification everywhere we go like mama's bosom. Me, me, me, NOW! But we're not suckling babies anymore. Why can't we wait? What happened to 'patience is a virtue'…and dare I ask: What happened to class? Surely I'm not alone in thinking that it's rude to text at the table…right? Hello?!?

It's a process to break a pattern. So this post is not about texting. It's about working on that relationship with myself…analyzing where I have a pattern of succumbing to selfish, instant gratification...becuase I do, it's just not with cell phones.

Talking with my dear Sister K this evening, the conversation turned to our mutual issue with balance. It's the thing I struggle with most: how to live a balanced life where it's not all or nothing; where it's not all about someone or something; where I don't lose myself and what I need to be me in order to gain love.

The only way to not fall into that trap is to love myself first…and show it.

From "The Wanting of You" by Melissa Etheridge

We make our choices,
Doing what we think is good.
We deny our own dreams
'Cuz we think we've been told we should--
We think we've been told we should!

Melissa Etheridge - Fearless Love?

I love that feature of Twitter that tells you about new things. Would you believe I never knew about Blip? I would. Anyway, thare be my channel, mateys! http://blip.fm/tracecook

My first blip? Melissa Etheridge's "Fearless Love"...even though, I have to admit, that I've been feeling down on M.E. since news broke of she and Tammy's break up. I've wanted to blog about it, but I also didn't because it's so not my business--tonight it struck me.


When I heard about the split, I literally couldn't believe it. Why? I don't know, but I couldn't imagine Tammy leaving "Honey" and after what M.E. went through with Julie, I couldn't imagine her walking away from that dreamy thing like the movies--"tank top, smooth skin, sunned lips, tan thighs." I mean "Secret Agent" alone, which I saw live before it ever came out on Lucky was enough to tell me that Missy was around the bend and never comin' back with the cows.

I immediately went to Tammy's blog. I've been following it steadily for a few years, not because she's married to a famous artist I like or because she was on TV, by the way--I'm not a groupie-type and I still don't watch TV--but because she's a poet/writer with actual talent whose point of view I understand as we're similar in age, prefer the mid-west, and think California is the moral/societal equivalent of Chernobyl.

Okay...that sounds incredulous, even if it's not. But it kind of is, too. Here's the whole truth: because my ex, Diane, (the one who feels like an ex because I can lament and miss her) is about Melissa's age and knows her from way back on the scene in Omaha; she also worked in the music industry. True. It was funny to us, Di and me, when they hooked up and got all that press--I guess we felt a little like kindered spirits from far away in Michigan, but that was already the second time around for us. As much as I loved her, and always will, truthfully, as least the parts that used to make me smile like mad money, I wasn't mature enough to understand the problems she had with depression as I had not had them myself to that degree. The first time we broke up was not my fault, but the second time was...so that's why I follow Tammy and why I care that they split and why I need to write a bout it...even though I recognize it's none of my business.

It's not them I'm writing about; it's me.

So, I shouldn't judge. I really like them both; I want them both to be happy...because, if they can be, then maybe I can be...somewhere my fearless love can't stop the wanting, either.

Congress Cracks Down On Anonymous Prepaid Cellphones

Buy your prepaid cell phones now, evil-doers! Congress is once again managing to the exception in the interest of "safety" by limiting freedom and invading privacy to create just another way for your personal information to be gathered and stored. And when those methods fail to stop some terrible event, it'll be because no one was paying attention to the information...because there's too much information.



Meanwhile, how many integrity breeches will there be with that data? How many worthless privacy statements will be mailed to your address which basically say the company is not liable for anything when your identity is stolen and then someone dies in a hotel room in Dubai or Shanghai?



I gather there are more harmless and even safety-oriented reasons why anonymous pre-paid cell phones are used than there are nefarious ones (think domestic violence/witness-protection), but fear always wins here. And legislating is quasi-action that obscures the truth that our government is bloated and inept when real crimes and real mass destruction is occurring--when real action is needed like in the Gulf of Mexico.



America: Home of the free and the brave...circa 9-10-2001.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Senate Armed Services Committee Votes To Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Ban On Openly Gay Soldiers

Die DADT, die!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bamboo Art - BP

Starting to get the hang of my Bamboo. I wanted to doodle something a little more meaningful but still easy and forgiving as I learn the tricks to pressure sensitivity and absolute reference--what better subject than a murky oil spill?!?

Damn--what an effin' nightmare this is... :-(

Female Priest Ordained In Italy By Rebel Catholics

I think this is awesome! Just last week I was writing a short story about an Irish female priest in Sicily. It was set in the future.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Fun with Animation - LOST

Made with Animator and Bamboo Dock. Fun!

Bamboo Art - LOST

I recently replaced my Tooya graphics tablet with a Bamboo Pen & Touch. Getting used to the differences is going to take some work, but I already love it; although, for the time being, I'm going to keep my Tooya around just in case I need something to work on something that doesn't use absolute positioning.

Anyway, tonight is the series finale of LOST. I've quietly followed this show faithfully since before the beginning of Season 2. It isn't my all-time favorite show, but it's been an interesting journey and a real trailblazer for new media. So, while I was fooling around with my new Bamboo and the twitpic application, I noticed that my doodling looked a little like the fictitious Oceanic Airlines symbol, so I set out to make it focused on something rather than just learning the different effects of the pressure-sensitive pen.

This is what I came up with. Voila!

iPod Art -- Perspective

Got Milk, Mother Fucker

Something has come to my attention that I can't process. It's so bad that I can't even write about it here. Sure, it could be worse, but I really hate that sort of reasoning: it can always be worse—an asteroid could be on a collision course with Earth; the zombie apocalypse could be tomorrow and I don't have a shotgun; Carrie could be planning her lesbian wedding with her daughters as her bride's maids (You PMS like a bitch; I would know).

Side note: I confess: I love Katy Perry's Hot N Cold. So?

I'll speak in metaphors and art. Prodigal Daughter, heal thyself…

The Best Laid Plans…

This post was supposed to be about emergency preparedness, a subject I've always cared about, and a project I've recently taken up. Instead, I was told today 15 minutes before 5:00 that my contract is ending 2.5 months early.

This throws a serious wrench in my plans. Now I have to decide, soon, what to do since I'll be out of a job in less than 3 months.

"The Plan"

I know, I know – I’m such a terrible blogger. I always have been, probably always will be. But, hey: never quit quitting right? *nod*

Basically, I just get tired of talking about the $#!T happening in the world (or in my life). I prefer to write fiction to escape; yet, strangely, since returning to California I haven’t been able to write one GD thing that is substantive. Not one. Clearly this place is just not my happy place—never has been, never will be.

I think I care too much about what I put here, too. I can’t say too much because…well…let’s just say I know some bad things about some apparently good people. I also have this automatic feeling (not sure I agree with it) that airing dirty laundry is lacking class.

So, after some thought, I’ve found a subject to write about: my projects or my plan (think "Six Feet Under"). Not at work, but in my life. Catching up, I’ve recently finished a 6+ month project to rebuild my computer from scratch after a serious hardware failure. I’ve always been technically inclined. I’m self-taught, and I figured this was my one opportunity to really take the time (and the money) it was going to take to build the system I really wanted—sparing no expense, basically. So, I got a little a time; I did my research; I went high-end where it was visible and solidly robust where it mattered. I’ll post the video I made soon.

My other project since then has been to quit smoking and get my hypertension under control. I’m happy to report that I am now 6 weeks smoke free and the last three weeks is without the medication I was taking (Chantix). I think I’ll try to sell the left over supply to some friends that still smoke. It really worked great except that it had the side-effect of making me depressed…more than I’m comfortable with, so even though it cost me $500+ to get it (I still don’t have health insurance), I had to stop taking it after 3 weeks. But, it served its purpose and if I could have written a $1000 check to a genie who would make me stop smoking I would have, so no loss if I can’t recoup any money. Most of the time I’m very charitable and will just give it away, but I’m going to try to sell it, first, even cheaply, just to try something new.

Also, my BP has significantly improved now that I am medicating that. I hate taking medication—I really do—but BP medication is just something that I have to have. Even when I was 19 and in perfect health my BP was elevated. Both my parents have hypertension. Fact: I have depression and hypertension. So, deal with it. I do not medicate my depression anymore because no amount of medication was going to work when it was, and always has been, my environment that was the cause. That is what I have to change, not my brain or my mood…because my mood changes when my environment changes. I can be happy and motivated, easily, in the right environment. That is what I have learned.

So, this blog is where I will discuss what I’m doing, step-by-step, little by little, to create an environment where I can flourish as a human being…and, in doing so, reduce my stress and the things that I often worry about. They are things that I feel I should do and have just put off...from my health to my career to my family to my finances. It’s all connected, right? *nod*

My next post will discuss what I’m working on right now.