Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Money Can't Buy Happiness, But it Can Keep You Alive



So I sit here looking at my week ahead and I come to the harsh and yet totally normal reality that despite everything I find myself working almost every single day this week. Today is coaching. Thursday, Friday, Saturday is Urban Outfitters. And I can pretty much guarantee you that I will be working again on Sunday. And what is it all for? For the minimum wage pay that barely covers rent and food not to mention the gas getting from place to place, the utility bills to pay, being forced to eat out several times a week because I have a break from work and need food. So if money can’t buy you happiness, then why is it so damn important to live?

I decided, for laughs, to sit down and figure out how much I actually work a week when you factor in travel time and divide that by how much I make before taxes. I work approximate 37 hours a week if you factor in travel time. I get paid, however, monthly and so if you figure that we are looking at more like 148 hours of work/driving a month. And so, all in all, once it is all factored up I make approximately $7.80 an hour working.

For some out there, that might seem like a good amount of money especially if you live in a state where a living wage is $7 an hour because the cost of living is so cheap. I live in California, however, where the cost of living is so high that in our major cities we have a required $10 an hour minimum wage for within city limits to make up for the fact that rent to live there is so damn expensive. It would only figure to make sense then that in a city with such high rent and thus high wage that all other expenses, from groceries to gas, would be so highly inflated.


So why do I work so much in a city like Santa Cruz where everything is insanely expensive and nothing is free only to find money slipping out of my hands faster than I can bring it in? What’s the point? The point is that money, in life, is everything. Our entire society is built on the idea that you have to have money in some amount in order to live. Even the homeless, living on the streets, need to beg for enough money to buy food because without cash there would be no meal and without meals they were eventually die. And so while it may be said that money can’t buy happiness, it sure as hell will at least keep you alive.

I'm Out!


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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Future Part Two: Election Recap


So last night I was standing in Urban Outfitters sweating my life out as the country around me was waiting in anticipation for the election results to come. It was easily one of the most stressful nights of my life. Every now and then I would get a break, run to the break room and get online as quickly as possible to see how things were progressing. Not gonna lie I was worried. Especially since for the first half of the results Romeny was in the lead. The whole store had a cloud over it. (surprise: Urban Outfitters employees are liberal democrats). It wasn’t until Obama pulled ahead that I was finally able to relax. Then the momentum kept building. And building. And building.

And then it was over.

And we won.

And while I am excited and proud that we were able to get our heads out of our butts and voted for the right person what cannot be ignored are the other propositions that were passed. So, here we go.

California:

Education tax increase (Prop 30): So here is one that I was really not sure if it would pass but it did (53.9%). This is what we are looking at: This is a tax increase to place sales tax 0.25% higher and increase taxes on those making more than $250,000. Where does this money go? Education. This just makes good sense. Putting money into bettering education is to invest in the future of California. The children of this state are the future. Why would anyone argue this?

Payroll deduction political contributions (Prop 32): This one here did not pass (43.9%) and it just doesn’t make sense. What we have here is a measure saying that businesses AND unions cannot take money out of their payroll to donate to political campaigns. What would this stop? This would prohibit things like Chick-Fil-A using payroll money to fund campaigns that are harmful to queer individuals. So sad.

Three Strikes Law Revision (Prop 36): This passed? Thank GOD! (68.6%) This now changes the Three Strikes law that if the third offense is “non-serious and non-violent” then the defendant will not be automatically given life in prison. It made no sense to me as to why this was here in the first place. If someone is a career criminal then so not lock him/her away forever, HELP THEM! Give them training to get a job, assist them in finding housing, supply mental health services. Revive the community, don’t put them behind bars.

Other ideals we care about:

Legalize Same-Sex Marriage: As of right now we have two states that have passed the legalization of same-sex marriage in this election (Maine and Maryland). So if those two states get added to what I like to call The Union of the Gay States of America, then the total membership goes to eight. There is a third state (Washington) that also voted on this and even though it is saying right now that based on votes it has passed with 100% of precincts reporting for whatever reason the state has not called it yet. Get it together.

Same-Sex Marriage Ban: Minnesota has never legalized gay marriage but the state tried to do what so many other states have succeeded in by banning gay marriage for good there. And it lost! Thank God. So while gay marriage is not legal there (yet) the effort to thwart any future efforts has itself been thwarted. Props to you Minnesota. Now go make some syrup.

Legalization of Marijuana: You heard me right. LEGALIZATION of marijuana. Not medical marijuana. Marijuana. Colorado is now officially the first state that has passed a proposition (similar to the one California did not pass in 2010) that has legalized the recreational use of weed. I wonder how many people are moving to Boulder? Santa Cruz is going to empty out. Oregon voted on a similar measure and it did not pass. Once again I feel like there is a connection here to those who profit on the illegal weed trade whose business would be foiled by the passing of a law like this.

What can we take from this election? The nation is changing and growing. It is heading in a direction that, while it may scare some, is a fairer and safer place. God bless the United States of America.
Goodbye loves

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Sources:
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/Measures/2012/
www.wikipedia.com
http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-10adc7257e051cb3fbc8cc5066ff2d02
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A New Lease on Life

How do I begin to explain what I have been up to for the last couple months? Let's start with the most important part.

I have been seeing someone who has changed my life. Garrett has been my rock. His absolute craziness has made my life exciting again (and not in a bad way like before). His intelligence has kept me on my toes and his humor has kept me laughing. I finally feel like I can breath again and relax in knowing that at the end of the day there is someone at home who will love and support me. Cheesy cheesy cheesy. Deal with it.

School has started up again and let's just say: My life SUCKS. Too much. Much too much. Much much too much. Why do I do this t myself? I always feel liee I can take on the entire world and then realize, "Wait, no, stop the world! I want to get off!" (Get it?). I need to assign points to different things I do in my life and a limit of how many points I can do at once. Once I reach that limit I have to quit something. Suggestions?

Work has been insane (per usual). Working at Urban Outfitters has given me two things: Money and a discount with which to spend it. I may have fabulous new clothes but I am BROKE. To supplement this spending habit I have a job at Homestead High School teaching colorguard finally doing what I really want to do and making the money I want to make.

I know I am not that interesting today but feel free to comment and leave your opinion. I will have more for you tomorrow, promise.

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Goodbye loves.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Success is a State of Mind

Ok so I will be the first to admit that I have been pretty terrible at posting on this these days. I’m gonna be frank with you all when I say that my life has been crazy these past couple of days. It is entirely true that I had the time to post on my blog. It had nothing to do with a lack of time. What it had to do with was a complete lack of brain energy to go toward it. I post when I can really just sit and type and zen out and I haven’t had a lot of zen lately.

Which brings me into today’s topic: Taking time for your own damn self. Why is it that our society measures an individual’s success on how impressive their successes are? Because a person is born with opportunity and therefore has the capability to achieve great things means they are more successful than maybe a person who works full time, goes to school, and still manages to maintain some semblance of a social life? I don’t think so. I don’t think so at all.

As my life progresses and I find myself entering new and different phases of my experience I find myself confronted time and time again with individuals who, even though they may not considered the most successful people, inspire me everyday. The people whose lives I look at and can say, “Damn, they have really made it. They were able to work hard and support themselves.” And that is success to me. It is not someone who has a big fancy house, lots of cars, 2.5 kids. It is the person who sees their surroundings and decides then and there to do whatever it takes to make a change.

And I salute you.

Question of the day: Who inspires you? Who in your life do you think is successful?

I also have been hearing some great things from some of you and I would love for you to post our comments below. You don’t have to answer the question of the day. Just tell me what you think.

Ok back to figuring out this DAMN website.

Peace out shitfaces.

Friday, May 11, 2012

I Am Fucking Pissed Off, Part Two

Ok welcome to part two. Following the post yesterday I took it upon myself to start researching what people think and the arguments that they have against gay marriage so as to better come back with a structured argument. I failed. Not because the points they were making were credible but because everything I found was completely insane. So instead, I decided to take one of the worst examples and show the world exactly what ignorance can do.

Today, on the Huffington Post, a particularly heinous video was posted of a Nebraskan woman, Jane Skrovota, who took it upon herself to give a “scientific” examination on gay culture. What resulted was a five minute hate rant that made no logical sense at all. It is my duty as an online blogger to take this insane video and break it down for you. This will get graphic. Be prepared. Let’s begin.

1. Gays are sadistic: So she has a few things in this one. My all-time favorite has to be that by inserting a p-e-n-i-s into an anus causes the intestines to burst, killing the person who is being penetrated. I mean seriously? In what deranged world does this make any sense? She uses this “fact” to say that gay men enjoying having sex with men so they can watch them die in the process. If this were true, about half of my male friends would be dead. Just sayin’.

2. Gays cause genocide in hospitals: This one is pretty awesome because she doesn’t actually say anything as to why she believes this. Instead, she just goes ahead and says it. I would really like to hear why she thinks this cause honestly it doesn’t even make sense for a crazy person.

3. An individual found dead without clothes was “a gay” who was killed by their partner: Skrovota’s logic behind this one is an attack on our dear Whitney Houston. She says that Houston was found naked and dead in a bathtub and that she was obviously gay. Therefore, the only logical reason for her death was that some deranged lesbian killed her while trying to have sex with her. Anyone can say this is total bullshit so I won’t dwell on this one for too long.

4. “Anus licking causes sepsis”: Ok so Skrovota is saying here that going ass to mouth causes sepsis which, if left untreated, kills a person within thirty minutes. Human Centipede aside, I doubt that anyone was killed by a rimjob. Just didn’t happen. Where did she even get this statistic? She is already starting to piss me off more.

5. Gay men molest boys because they “don’t have AIDS yet”: Ok this is really where her strange ramblings go into full blown insanity. He logic is that gay men, afraid of getting AIDS, rape small children so that they can dodge the bullet. First, just because a man is gay DOES NOT mean that he is going to go around raping children and just because a man is a child molester does not mean that he is gay. This is solid fact. Any person who has read a newspaper in the last couple decades could tell you this. The fact that she is saying this on television makes me sad.

6. College students need single rooms to avoid “going gay”: This one is a gem among gems. Having same sex roommates makes you gay. Right? Wrong. Seeing how my roommate freshman year kicked me out regularly in order to bring his girlfriend back to the room I would say that having a homo as a roommate does not mean that you will join the lifestyle. Seeing how most of my readers are college students I would say that you can agree with me.

7. College women are seduced with roofies to “go gay”: Her example for this one is that Hilary Clinton’s lesbian roommate of four years made her gay by slipping her roofies because otherwise she would find it "abhorrent". One: Hilary Clinton is not gay. I mean, she stayed with Bill even after the Monica Lewinski thing. Two: No one I know has ever slipped anyone roofies to convince them to be gay and I know A LOT of queers. That is just ignorance.

8. AIDS is a candida fungus disease: Her logic here is about the same as a math equation. AIDS can kill people. Corpses grow fungus. Therefore AIDS is caused by a fungus. Under the same logic since doing laundry makes the room warm and hot room can lead to dehydration and dehydration can kill. Therefore, NO ONE DO LAUNDRY. It will kill you.

9. Everyone who committed treason by the year 2000 were gays: Not even going to go there. Go on Wikipedia.

10. “A gay” is a behavior, not an identity: Ahh, the good old being gay is a phase argument. Being gay is not a disease. It is not a condition. It is not a behavior. Being gay is something that is caused by genetics. It is something that cannot be changed. Anyone who believes otherwise needs to seriously be talked to.

11. Gays cause children to become, well, basically crazed: Oh sweet Jesus. This lady found something somewhere which says that all children from San Francisco are failing every single class in school and constantly rape each other because they are constantly surrounded by gay people making out. As someone from da bay who is attending a UC I would beg to differ. Where my bay kids at?

12. Bisexuals always become insane: Do I even need to? I mean really? I know plenty of bisexuals living happy healthy bisexual lives and even though some of them can be annoying, as some people often are, none of them are insane. None.

13. Judas was a homo who sabotaged Jesus’s "kind ideas": This is when her religion really came out in full force. Judas, the man who turned in Jesus, was apparently a giant homo and turned Jesus in just for the hell of it. Was it because he was sadistic? Maybe it was because of the sepsis. Either way whatever version of the bible this woman owns really needs a new translation.

Ok so I would like to start off by saying sorry this one is so long. I just didn’t have a choice in the matter. There was too much here. Bear in mind, this was a five minute video. I hope something here resonated in you. Please do not let this kind of ignorance continue. If you know someone who believes any one of these things, do the world a favor and educate them. Sit them down, listen to what they have to say and then calmly present them the facts. It will do everyone a massive favor.

Question of the day: So the question of the day involves you watching the real video (link below) and then responding to it. What was your favorite part? What made you the angriest? How long did it take before you started only watching the guy behind her? Let me know.

Ok, time to get this thing up and go to class.

Peace out shitfaces.

Link to the video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/11/nebraska-woman-homophobia-rant-video_n_1509580.html?ref=fb&src=sp&mimi=1&comm_ref=false

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Diaries of an Insomniac

Ahh insomnia. The condition that turns upstanding citizens into full fledged zombies. I sit here in my living room contemplating why it is that I am awake at 4 a.m. and I realize that there is extremely little I can do to change my ways of living. I just spent the last hour or so lying in bed listening to my roommate snore and attempting to fall asleep with obviously no luck. I just continued to lie there, tossing and turning under my huge blanket my amazing mom made for me that I now use as my college comforter. I want so fucking desperately to sleep.

There are obviously different schools of thought when it comes to why people suffer from insomnia. The one that I get most of the time is that there is simply too much going on in my head to allow my body to relax and fall into a state of sleep. Now this may actually be true. My love life changes daily, I haven't seen my family in forever and the fact that I don't have a car anymore means that I am fucking trapped on this hill like a slave stuck in a wooden dungeon. My world, which was once expansive has been shrunk to the size of a football field, unable to go anywhere outside of roughly a mile radius from my apartment.

So then, what does this bitch need to do to remedy my ailment? The obvious answer would be to reclaim my independence and mobility by regaining access to my car. Unfortunately that is simply impossible. One does not simple go against someone to whom they are indebted $1,000 because of a handful of unpaid and extremely expired parking tickets. I would need to fully repay my mom as quickly as possible in order to return my car to my possession. However, let's be real, where the hell am I going to come up with a THOUSAND dollars when I have a total of $12 to last me until May 5th? It simply is not going to happen.

So this brings us to the question of the day: What ailment do you suffer from that you wish you could find an easy fix to? What is stopping you from fixing it? Is there someone in your life who could help you but you fear reaching out and asking for that help? Comment below with your answer and I may feature you in an upcoming entry.

I love you all for taking your time to read this. Even the ten or so page views I am getting a day so far really brighten up my life. Please subscribe to my blog to get daily entries.

Peace out shitfaces.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Ten Things Straight Girls Say to Gay Guys


So last time I mentioned that I was sorry for having such heavy subjects lately so I decided to lighten this shit up. It is with that that I present my newest list “10 Things Straight Girls Say to Gay Guys”. Enjoy.

1.“If you weren’t gay, we would totally date.” – No. Just no.

2.“You must totally love Lady Gaga.” – This pisses me off like you would not believe. I do enjoy Lady Gaga’s music, yes. However, this fucked up assumption that I do simply because I am gay is almost just mean. It is to suggest that we gay men do not have our own minds and have to do what is trendy and hip. There are those of us who actually have our own thoughts. Surprise.

3.“Why won’t you cuddle with me?” – It’s not that I want to cuddle with you because you are a girl. I don’t want to cuddle with you because we aren’t fucking. Straight girls have this concept in their heads of gay men being asexual. They see us as giant queer teddy bears they can collect and play with. The minute they accept the fact that we have anal sex they shut up real quick. Fellas, if your hag keeps saying this just go into detail about the last time you got buttfucked and I can guarantee you they will shut up really quickly.

4.“Let’s do shots!” – Do I drink? You bet your ass I do. Do I drink shot because I am gay? Hell fucking no. I drink shots because I am 19 and in college. I have found though that apparently there is some myth out there that gay men drink more shots than straight men because everywhere I go to party girls are asking to take shots with me. I’m flattered you want to get shitfaced with me but can I just have a cold beer? Thanks…

5.“If you haven’t been with a girl, how do you know you won’t like it?” – I could say the same to you bitch. Half of the time I turn this around on the girl who brings it up to me they say something along the lines of “Ew oh god no” and I want to wring their neck. What makes you think that I would like fucking a girl if I tried it and you wouldn’t? It’s just insulting. Stop being ignorant.

6.“When did you know you were ‘different’?” – When did saying this become ok? Everyone is fucking different. No two people are the same. Me being gay doesn’t make me some new special breed of different that you get to single out as being especially different. Honestly, I believe that girls are often just too fucking scared to say the word gay. Get over yourselves.

7.“I have this other gay friend. You two should totally meet. You’d be so cute together.” – In what way does this make any sense? I don’t go around giving every straight guy I meet your number. It makes no logical sense at all to do this. Just because I am a guy who likes guys and so is he does not mean that we will fall in love, settle down, and have 2.5 gaybies. It takes more than that to have a relationship. Do you want to fuck every single person who identifies in the gender you prefer? Didn’t think so.

8.“Hey girl!” – Biggest pet peeve ever. If I wished to be called “girl” I would identify as a woman. However, I am a male bodied individual who identifies as a man. In what way does any of that sound like I want to be called “girl”? Do yourselves a favor and please call me by my name before I take your “Hey girl” and shove it up your ass. Bitches.

9.“How do drag queens tuck?” – Go fucking look it up. Do you honestly think that I go around in my free-time asking my friends who do drag how they make it look like they have a vagina when they actually have a dick? Here is a surprise: I have no fucking clue. If you actually cared and wanted to know and didn’t just ask for the sake of asking, go find someone who does drag and ask them. Or if, like most straight girls, you are actually terrified of drag queens, just go back to not knowing and not caring.

10.“Let’s go shopping!” – So let’s just get right into this. I understand fully that there are gay men out there who do love shopping but let’s get one thing straight: Not all of us do and please stop assuming that just because I like dudes it means that I want to go spend seven hours with you at H&M. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So now is when I pose my question of the day: What is your least favorite stereotype? What kinds of assumptions do people make about you?

Aiight, back to paying attention in class.

Peace out shitfaces.

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