New Year, New Me

As the New Year approaches, I find that I have not been handed any of the cards I so desperately desired, assuming these things were what I needed to start off the New Year on the Right Foot. Apparently the higher powers have a better idea for whats good for me, becuase I was fired from my job three days before christmas, and all I'm doing now is eating pizza, and smoking cigarettes.

Having this time off has caused me to really reflect upon what I want out of myself, and my career. I find that I have been, in one form or another, brutally tied into the rstauraunt industry as a barnacle on some delapidated old ship, as though I have no intention of letting go. All I have been told since I was a child is that I can do anything, and I suppose I can, only not when I am waiting tables, or tending bar. Apparently everything else I decide to do either doesn't pay enough, or is out of my class.

Well thank god my spineless boss, who couldn't even tell me himself, decided I no longer was an asset to their operation, and let me float on down this river. Ahh, I feel like I'm free falling, and I totally forgot to pack a chute. Life is pressuring me to force some magical answer out of my ass where I can still live my life, and pay my rent. I love it. The only change I see in my near future now, is switching from pizza to Ramen.

A StumbleUpon Capture

Land of the Free

So I have finally, after years of hoping for the opportunity, achieved the ability to snowboard. And I must say, it was by far, the best time I have had in years. As titled in one of my other posts on snowboard.com, She is a Bitch of a mistress, but a bitch you love.

The pain in my bones is by far the most fulfilling pain I have ever experienced The rush of the wind flowing around my body, and the pain of a forward face plant! Unbelievable. If you ski, try snowboarding, if you snowbard, keep doing it. If you can't or havent done either, start! You will hate yourself later.

Even though I don't have the ability to travel out to the west, the experience I had at the Devil's Head Resort in Wisconsin was a good time. Although I think McDonald's has better food, and gives me less heartburn, the atmosphere was light hearted the whole time, and the hills were well tended. It wasn't super crowded considering the decent snowfall, and closeness to the holiday season. I suggest the resort for anyone who is willing for a 2 1/2 hour drive north of Chicago. For the rest of you, happy season, and good luck!

Welcome to December

I must say I am enjoying to see the countries reaction to all of the winter weather we have been recieving over the past few weeks. As we are only a couple weeks into December, and our winter weather is already worlds apart from what we received last year, and the year before. I am a huge fan of Al Gore, and the passions he has taken for the Global Warming front, and I find much humor, and ignorance, in people that refute his, and others, hard evidence.

Although the effects can be seen in daily life, the drastic differences in our weather patterns will be the tell tale signs of just how much of an effect we have been making, and how much more of an effect we can expect from our ecological footprint. All I can say is, thank god I don't own a car.

Falling Through the Net

This fabulous new web page, called StumbleUpon.com, has got to be one of the most addictive browser plug-ins I have ever had the pleasure of using.

Essentially what you are doing is joining the stumble upon community, and marking what areas of the Web you are interested in. After setting your specifications, you download the StumbleUpon tool-bar for your browser. Once installed, all you have to do is click the button that says 'Stumble!', and your off.

Pulling from a rated database of sites from its current users, you travel through some of the coolest, and most fulfilling web pages you probably would have never found otherwise.

I got so addicted so fast that I stumbled for approximately 3 hours straight. Just surfing through new content, and none of it was something I had come accross before. Like I mentioned before, there is a rating system for displaying what you think of the page you are viewing, thumbs up, or thumbs down.

Riddled with options, and features you would expect from a community based site, I suggest everyone should install this bar for your bored time when you stare at your homepage for five minutes wonder where you want to go today, use StumbleUpon to find yourself something new!

To Give Thanks

I am one of those loner people who doesn't have much family around, and even if they were, there wouldn't be much of a Thanksgiving. Besides, ever since my father passed away, and I have been living on my own, I appreciate the ability to sit in my living room, on my laptop, and cook dinner for myself. Then I just relax, enjoy a bottle of wine, and reflect on life.

But what does inspire me, is the adamant nature of everyone surrounding me in this life that are so thoughtful to always invite me to thanksgiving dinner. These holiday times bring the best out of people. Everyone from my best friends, to my co-workers, to others are just associates, and all of them so adamant to keep me from being alone this Thanksgiving.

It is so inspiring, and refreshing to see such a generous attitude from these people, and replenishes that strung out feeling that humanity is an all consuming organism, and that no one really cares. Then these times don't necessarily fight against the consumption point, but does remind me that most people are pure hearted souls who genuinely give a damn about all those people near them.

So I suppose that in the end, I am giving thanks to all those out there who went out of their way to give a lost soul a family home this holiday. Thank you for reaching out to a less fortunate, and being what we all know we can be.

To Blog, or Not to Blog

As a new convert to the blogging revolution, I am having some fun adjusting to this online culture of people who love nothing more than having their thoughts, feelings, and judgements posted online for, potentially, the worl to see. It's a fascinating world of people spreading the seed of knowledge. The question still remains, how many people are actually interested in all of these mindless babbling's that travel through the digital ethers of the Internet.

I would say that the responsibility is on the blogger to be offering content that people may actually find valuable. Whether it is the way you write, the sources you cite, or the place you do it, I would suggest to formulate at least two of those three options. I unfortunately rarely have the patience for citations, so I assume I can rely on the other two options. I would only change my perspective when enough feedback forces me to adapt.

Although my time on the blogoshpere is short at best, I am learning a lot of valuable ways to get that extra exposure that is needed to become a valuable resource for some people.

For those of you out there looking for some practice in article writing, you should definitely look into a web site called Helium.com. Its free to join, they have a great interface, and the articles you post have the possibility to be published for profit. A great learning tool for anyone. For the rest of you, I hope you find blogs useful, rather than just signs pointing at the fact that most people don't care about spelling and grammar.

Online Community Sites and You

Social networking sites have enabled so many in the world to be able to connect with people in ways we have never dreamed of before. The space between you and your social life gets smaller by the second. With all of the options available from more sites than just Myspace and Facebook, you can now become submersed in a world of your interests, your friends(online and off) and connect with so many people at once, it nearly boggles the mind.

Of course Myspace & Facebook are the moguls of the social networking world, but with so many other huge companies trying their hands at this growing fad, the possibilities are going to become endless as far as how we communicate with each other from across the world. I am particularly fond with this new site with a large European community is Virb.com. Virb.com is a smoothed out, and more graphically enhanced version of Myspace. Same general functionality, and same premise. Unfortunately they still have a couple of navigation issues to smoothed out, I really enjoy their interface, and general look of the site. Still, their functionality seems to be a bit more smoothed out than the rest, yet not straying too far from the original formula.

Another great new site by an online mega-site is Yahoo's 360 beta. They are really trying to bring their usefulness to a new level, and tie in everything with info, messenger, blog, video, pictures, everything. They still have a few wrinkles to iron out, but the whole site is creative, fun to use, and great for the yahoo enthusiasts out there. I do find that, in the traditional Yahoo manner, that they are trying to maybe cram too much into too small of a space, but it is in the beta phase, so its nothing a little feedback cant change.

The third and final community site I will talk about is a fairly new organization that is starting a Television and online community, is Current.com. This free interactive website is a community of people discussing and working with current events ranging from alternative arts, to international politics, to sports. Its take on the new, and current events is just the most innovative I have ever experienced. Every hour you get an update on the most popular video searches and google searches on the web, and you can submit your own videos to be aired on TV. Aside from all this it is also a community styled web page, with tons to talk about, people to meet, and groups to follow. If you dont have the Current Channel on TV, you can watch all the shows on your PC. I really enjoy this site, and everything these people have to stand for. the bar has just been raised.

The fact still remains, that Myspace and Facebook have the largest number of people that you will probably either already know, or did know on the web right now. Yet if you want to take a stab at meeting some new people, having different outlets for your creative passions, and broadening that social network, try some of these new options, and spread the love.

Can I Go Home Yet?

One of the worst feelings in thew world for me, are those few moments before I have to actually get up, and get ready for work. And then, the whole time I am there, I am waiting to go home. I cannot be at peace at my job. It just is not a reality.

I see all these other folks who work two jobs, never stop moving, and work 14 hour days. Here I am on my 6 hour day going,'Man I'm tired, is it time to go home yet?'

What can I say, I have never had a strong work ethic when it comes to a restaurant. I have tried. I've been a manager before. I've worked my two jobs before. I think now I am just burnt out. At this point in my life, I would rather sit here all day, and write, than go into the vortex of energy, and sit there while I feel my livelyhood stolen away from me every second I spend standing behind that god-forsaken bar.