Stuff! Everybody likes stuff!!

So, i was thinking the other day (i know, weird) and my mind stumbled upon things. I know could i be more ambiguous? Things. Materials. Possessions. Why do we need them?! I am as guilty as many, and perhaps the key is just awareness, so i dubbed it worthy to go into my 'things to consider' blog.

We as a society are so concerned with owning things. The best cars, the best phones, the latest technology, the nicest clothes. We are trying to outdo our neighbors! We want more more more. But do we NEED more more more? Let me help ya out, the answer is no. The United States economy is in a world of hurt right now. I refuse to go into politics and play the blame game, but what would make this situation better? If our own personal debt was under control. Of course the market thrives on spending money and consumerism but, we could improve our situations. Affluenza as I have heard it called is our obsession with the need for things, which leads many to falsely correlate this to status and power.

"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women." - Scarface


I'm not talking about women here, just perceived power.

Don't cars for the most part all serve the same purpose? I mean yeah you've got 2 door, 4 door, hatchback, sedan blah blah blah. They get you places you need to go right? What baffles my mind is why you would want to buy a truck if you don't work construction, don't go off roading, don't hunt, don't tow boats or toys etc.. Why? They are terrible for the environment, they suck up gas, they aren't efficient.. What is their purpose? Sports cars. When will you be alone in a high speed chase that you will need that incredible acceleration power? If you are climbing mountains aka Lambs Canyon, you may want something a little more powerful, but I'm pretty sure my little Honda- 4 cylinders front wheel drive can make it up that mountain with slight deceleration with four people in the car. I suppose it all depends on where you hold your priorities, in being showy and out thousands more dollars, or being efficient. Just saying.

Phones are pretty convenient, not gonna lie. Member when you could only call people? Crazy because it was only about 4 years ago that texting began to explode and now it completely dictates most of our lives! I'm quite the guilty party so i will not deny that! But now you can do anything! ANYTHING on your phone, Internet, shop, check facebook, twitter, myspace, friendster there are games on there, ways to find music, the list is exhausting! But do we need all of that? It seems to me that we are in trouble if we can not just disconnect from our phones when we want to. If you don't want to answer your phone, don't! If you don't want to text back, don't! One should not feel bad if they set their phone on silent or simply turn it off. We don't need to be in touch all the time. Of course it can be convenient, or course if you don't mind being bombarded with a zillion texts from everyone, that is your preference.




There are so many side roads i feel that need to be explored, but if I were to do so, i would be here until next year. We honestly don't need half of the things we think we do. The simple life seems the best option. As I mentioned above, no doubt they are convenient! Of course i love the fact that i could pull out my ipod and listen to my entire collection of music. That is ideal!

If you believe in an afterlife, a heaven of sorts, which i do, then maybe it helps to put into perspective that we can not take anything with us. We don't even get to take our bodies! So what is the use of having a flash car, some designer clothes, the newest ipod etc.? You know what seems important to have at that point? Relationships. People. Experiences. What do you have if you don't have them? If you have extra money why buy a luxury car when you can go on a stalwart whirlwind adventure?!

Of course the purpose of this is to 'consider' what was said and perhaps simplify our lives. Beware of Affluenza, and be aware of your habits and perhaps eliminate fluff and nonsense in life.

That is all :)

It's only awkward if you make it awkward.

We hear people say stuff like this all the time. It's only awkward if you make it awkward.
OH REALLY. I have a few things to say about about that, so trust me. I'mma drop some knowledge about awkward.

First item of business. It is completely mindblowing how applicable awkwardness is in any situation. Strange enough, the situation could permit little to no opportunity for awkwardness to poke its freakin weird looking self in, but it will find a way.

Instance one. You are at a party or social gathering, whatever, and the person you are with is the primary invitee if you will. Holy cow. In instances like this it's like you are standing in a Barcelonian street clad in brilliant shades of red during a bull run. The bulls being the awkward, stay with me. It looks as though the results could be disasterous. BUT. There are of course opportunities to combat the bulls. You have a choice here. You can either decide to be uber awkward,crash and burn and just pray that your friend introduces you and doesn't go off randomly leaving you to fend for yourself in this room full of bloodthristy leeches OR. you can choose to introduce yourself to whomever your friend is talking to, in a suave supa cool way. It's all in confidence. That is obstacle one. Your next obstacle of course, is how you are recieved. Hopefully your friend is awesome and has other cool people beside you that they hang with, because if you make a wise crack or try to be witty and the friend doesn't dig it you are slipping down that slope with record speed. Once again a recovery is possible. Get to a point where what this persons' negative reaction is, will not phase you. Find another person. Now you can usually pick these people out. They will look awkward. All by themselves. Probably abandoned, possibly like yourself. Try to strike up conversation if that crashes and burns let them know it was nice to meet them and you are outta there, and on to the next one. Now. You've found someone and you've had a fairly decent convo. you get to a lull. ASK THEM ABOUT THEMSELVES. it never fails. People LOVE to talk about themselves. promise. Ask things you really want to know. be interested.
Awkward situation avoided. You just roundhouse kicked awkward in the crotch :)



Alright. Instance two. You are held hostage on public transit or in class. Now this really isn't all that bad. All you have to do is talk to the person next to you. Not intrusively, especially if you can tell they are a closed or more conservative person. If they aren't responding, or pretending that you don't exisit you can always be a smart alec and make some passive aggressive comment about being too cool to talk to people. Which makes them feel like a mega tard and it is not on you anymore. You of course can always be open, if you are hard headed.

Instance three. Ever noticed looks you may recieve? Perhaps because you are wearing a witty shirt or bright colored shirt or have an awesome outrageous color in your hair. I've decided not nice people don't like color. The way to make this hardly awkward situation better is to just smile or look at them with a sort of anticipation like,' did you have something to say?' in a non threating way of course.

Those were situational potential awkwardness avoiders. Naturally we are faced with things like this on a daily basis and the awkward level is hopefully low. Would one not think that its particularly enjoyable to be placed in situations like this right? Well we also have control to an extent of awkward. If you know there is going to be a high likelyhood of awkward would you not just avoid that situation? Perhaps you KNOW if you go to a party that your ex will be at after he gets off work or something and you know you will not be able to handle it, wouldn't you avoid it at all costs? THEN DO IT. If you don't care or think it is humorous, like many fellow smart alecs agree then go!

That being said, i still have to get a few more things out of the way. Have you ever been in a situation that isn't necessarily awkward but is teetering toward it and someone else says, 'wow that was awkward!'? Far out people that is one of the sentences in the english language that should not be used. It's close to the sentence 'oh i thought you were pregnant, you know you sure look it.' really?! Really? Ted. Come on.

And my last grievance with awkward is how it is spelled. AWKWARDLY. kinda like the word abbreviation if ya know what i mean. Far out.

Anyway. The common theme appears to be, to avoid being awkward, DON'T BE AWKWARD. Just talk to people! Be confident, be brave and hard headed. That is the trick.