It's ok to not like things...

   I have to admit that I have, on several occasions, spewed out hate on the internet. I shamelessly took on the easiest targets too, Twilight, One Direction and Katy Perry to name a few. I like to think that I've grown out of that and learned to respect other people's opinions and tastes.
 
    I haven't.

    I still tend to be very judgmental of people on the internet (shock). But I have learned to control my abusive and unnecessary comments. A little exercise I started doing was to think about what I had to say in an outternet situation. Would I go up to anybody in a bookstore and laugh at them openly for buying 50 Shades of Grey? No? Then I won't do it online either. I waste a whole two seconds of my life making that decision, but I like to think I come out of the other end a better person for it.
 
   I will get very defensive and offended when I see people comment hateful things on videos, pictures, songs I like. Yet I didn't think twice about doing it to somebody else. I didn't do it to make me feel better about my life or the fact that Justin Bieber has made more money in a year than I will my whole life, I just literally had nothing better to do. I thought his music was shitty and I had to tell the innocent uploader of that YouTube video that I thought so. Therefore, although I will continue to dislike many things, I will do so silently. I pledge to not be a troll. It's ok to not like things, but don't be a dick about it.

Paperman - Full Animated Short Film

From the video description:
Introducing a groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques, first-time director John Kahrs takes the art of animation in a bold new direction with the Oscar®-nominated short, "Paperman." Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him. Created by a small, innovative team working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, "Paperman" pushes the animation medium in an exciting new direction.

Needless to say, I love it.

M.

What do goal-oriented people do when they find themselves goal-less?

   I was reading this amazing post by one of my favorite bloggers, Bryarly Bishop, who is not only a very good writer but is also going thru some of the same stuff I am going thru at the moment and she sometimes puts it so perfectly that I am compelled to re-evaluate my entire life.

   

   I graduated college a little over a year ago, and I am the proud owner of a bachelor's degree in Political Science. I also now work at a bookstore in the mall for minimum wage 6 days a week. Needless to say, I am not living the life.

    Problem is, I don't know what kind of life to I want to lead, as Bryarly puts it in her post while young goals are very easily spelled out for us, once you graduate they become too broad and we're not left with many instructions on how to do it.  So now, you have this human who is really good at planning and preparing for something, yet there is nothing to prepare for. Or too much of it. Either way I am stuck doing nothing.

   Another thing, for some reason it is socially acceptable for people to ask recent graduates what their plans are after college and to offer them advice. Now don't get me wrong, I could use all the help I can get, but it is exhausting and discouraging to have people ask me everyday what my plans are, and time after time I have to sigh and say "I don't know" and they proceed to tell me what I should do without a single consideration about what I want to do. It feels like the emotional equivalent of strangers going up to pregnant women and rubbing their bellies. My hopes and dreams for the future are my own and if I am not willingly sharing them with you, maybe its because I have nothing to share. Also, if you're a stranger don't touch me.

   2013 has been good to me, and although a little lost and stumbling a little bit, its the first time in my life I felt free enough to invest in projects that have been looming in the back of my head for some time. It feels like shooting at all directions in the hopes that I'll hit something, but at the same time it feels like releasing all this pent up energy, all this frustration of not knowing where to go or what to do. Hopefully I am making up some room for something that will work out, something for which I will fall in love, like in a movie, where time will stop and I'll just know that is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

M. 

    

 

Full-time traveler for hire

I hate to use this blog as a channel for my complaints, but this is just something I can't help but voicing.

 Why is it so damn hard to find a job nowadays?

I'm not asking for tons of money or anything too hard, I just want to make enough so I can support my traveling habits, a couple of thousand here and there would suffice nicely since I do consider to be quite the money savvy kind of backpacker.

I don't see myself as particularly inept to many jobs, yet the places I apply to don't even have the courtesy to reply back saying they are not interested, instead I'm just left here to wonder that maybe in a couple of weeks they'll ask for an interview or some writing sample.

I guess I do make it more difficult by only applying for optimal jobs that require lots of traveling and a ton of talent (which I seem to be sorely lacking). But come on, somebody might want me to fetch them coffee, no?

I have seen several of the other blogs I follow touch on this subject so I'm positive I am not alone, most of the ones who seem to be talking about it are close to my own age and going through the same process, but as reassuring as it is to know this is normal and happens to everybody else, it is also terrifying to see these very talented and driven people who seem to be much more qualified than myself go for the same kind of jobs and not get them either, so I am forced to ask, who is?

Ok, so maybe I'm not actually a full time traveler... yet! But here are my qualifications and why somebody should just pay me to do all this awesome stuff.

2013 is going to be the best year of my life

Unbelievable. Not even a month in, and already amazing, thank you Ze

Planting Good Things

   I am a big believer in symbolism. I like to have symbolic things into which I can concentrate my energy for real life things. In that spirit today I planted a little packet of seeds that I got with a couple of friends at the beach where we were spending New Years.
   Although I know they won't plant them, I made each of them get a packet as well (after all they were free) because my plant is now connected to them. And since I am leaving soon I want to have that  physical thing to remind me of them.
   To stretch the cheesiness a little further, I planted it in my "good things" mug, that I got as a surprise from my cousin, so there is another meaningful person in my life that is connected to this plant.

   I think the new year is a time where we are allowed to make silly things like that, where I can plant something and believe it is more than just a plant. Its a promise for the future, it is me nurturing something for this year, but it is just a plant. I like being able to store my hopes and expectations on this tiny project, sometimes there isn't enough room inside myself and I like to spread things around other vessels. Call it my horcruxes if you will.

   So what else do people do for new years? Anybody has a project they like to work on? Something they like to store themselves in?