I subscribe to 66 RSS feeds. Of course I don't have time to read them all every day. The ones I do take time to read without fail are the ones listed on the left side of these posts.
It's not unusual that I have that "slapped in the face" feeling when I read these – and I don't mean that in a negative way. A virtual slap in the face isn't so bad; and boy did I have a big one when I read Seth Godin's post today, Evolution of every medium. It's short, so I'm just going to share it with you here – but if you get a chance to read Seth, online or in print, you'll be better off for it.
Evolution of every medium
- Technicians who invented it, run it
- Technicians with taste, leverage it
- Artists take over from the technicians
- MBAs take over from the artists
- Bureaucrats drive the medium to banality
TV used to be driven by the guys who knew how to run cameras and transmitters. Then it got handed off to the Ernie Kovacs/Rod Serling types. Then the financial operators like ITT and Gulf + Western milked it. And finally it's just a job.
Same thing happened to oil painting and it'll happen to your favorite slice of the web as well.
The reason this hit me is because my day job is in the television industry. The very same day job that I dreaded returning to. The very same day job that I wish I didn't have to do every day. And yet – it's in television! That's freaking COOL. Isn't it? Wasn't it? I get to do really cool stuff and sometimes, if everything works right, I can go home at night and actually see things on TV that I worked on.
Damn it, why isn't that cool! Why isn't everyone I work with totally pumped to be doing such cool stuff! Oh. Right. Bureaucrats. Banality.
And finally it's just a job.
Frugal vs. Cheap – Part I
December 24th, 2009 Posted in Everything Else | No Comments Yet - Dont Be Shy! »
I have always thought there is a wide chasm between being cheap and being frugal. I grew up in a family of four on a teacher's salary. I was never keenly aware that we were poor. We lived in rural areas and had no exposure to shopping malls. Of course this was long before the internet was anything that kids were using. In those days being frugal and being cheap were nestled together, since life had fewer options. I'm grateful for being raised that way, and more grateful that I've been able to shed the cheapness and keep the frugality. I find distinct differences now between the two. For example:
- Cheap leaves a 10% tip for a great meal.
- Frugal leaves at least 20% and doesn't eat out as often.
- Cheap buys a new $20 shirt on sale for $10.
- Frugal buys a used $50 shirt for $10.
- Cheap cuts corners.
- Frugal rounds them.
There are so many reasons to be frugal and so many not to be cheap that this post has to be Part 1 of 1+x (math reference, see below). I'll never get to it all in a single post. Instead, I want to tell you about one of my favorite, repeatable frugal experiences.
I was in a thrift store doing holiday shopping (believe it or not, NEW gifts are frowned upon in my family – they simply do not support the production of new goods, a topic for another post). Because I regularly shop in thrift stores, I can attest to this happening at least once a month. I found THE PERFECT ITEM! It's always unexpected. You look down and THERE IT IS staring at you from a pile of … well, other people's trash.
This time it was a gift for my sister, the math whiz. She has a Master's Degree in Mathematics and she edits math textbooks for a living. Meanwhile, I can barely add and subtract. She tells me math jokes and I can do nothing but stare blankly at her while she's laughing her ass off. This is what she's getting for Christmas:
And can you believe this little gem is still in print? It cost me all of $1.99 but when it comes to having fun with my sister, it's priceless! Merry Christmas, sis!
I Should Be Drinking More
December 16th, 2009 Posted in Everything Else | No Comments Yet - Dont Be Shy! »
The last three weeks have been so frustrating I can hardly stand myself. A combination of really pissy things happened all in a row. One of my good friends was diagnosed with leukemia. Then I awkwardly tried to reconnect with another good friend. (Awkward on my part – I tried to be reserved about it and then unabashedly fell all over myself, from which I am still trying to recover). Then the asshats at my job started to get festive. Then I had lunch with my grandpa at his assisted-living center. All the while, I'm having these very surreal dreams that stick to my brain like duct tape during the day and I can hardly think of anything else. When I step back and try to figure out what is really going on with my precarious mental state, it seems like:
- I don't want to die.
- I don't even want to get really old.
- I don't want to work with asshats.
- I don't want to lose the few friends that I have.
What if the choices I've made are the ones that get me exactly what I don't want? Even though I would say I don't choose to die, I did choose to be a smoker for 20 years. On the other hand, that could be useful in terms of not getting really old.
Layering the dreams on top of this is really creepy because in the dream, I meet up with my (now awkwardly renewed) friend on a steep cliff and there are other people in my life milling around aimlessly, like they do in dreams. Then I experience something that has only happened to me once before, when I had to put my dog down a few years ago (I told you it was creepy). At the moment she died, I swear to you that I felt her soul pass through mine. It made me draw in a sharp breath and I thought I might have a heart attack right there and go with her. There's no good way to describe the feeling. It was intensely painful and intensely joyous at the same time. Well, in my dream the same thing happens when I meet up with my friend.
The first time I had the dream, I decided I should get back in touch – maybe there was something going on that I was supposed to help with. But things are going great with my friend and I'm still having that dream regularly. I try not to read too much into those things, but like I said, this one is really tough to shake off.
So I do what I am best at – pretending. I pretend everything is fine and I pretend to like my job and I pretend that I'm not terrified of getting old and I pretend to be the happy, successful woman that everyone likes. And when I wake up in the middle of the night feeling like my heart is going to jump right out of my throat, I pretend it doesn't mean anything.
