Mishmash Musings

I always seem to have dark circles/bags under my eyes these days. I wonder what that’s from? I get plenty of rest and sleep, so the problem can’t be related to that. Whatever the cause, the result is just ugly and makes me look several years older than I actually am — which is why I need to start looking around for the best night creams to use on my skin. I wasn’t really expecting to have to use these types of products for another 5-10 years, but something clearly needs to be done now.

Funny, I never thought I’d care much about aging, but now that it’s actually happening to me, I hold a completely different view!

Ok, so I have a wedding to go to in May, and I’ve been trying to lose some weight to make sure I can fit into the one formal dress that I have. I’ve been really good about not pigging out, and I’ve been jogging and going to the gym regularly. And yet, I still cannot lose that last five pounds. Those have always been the hardest for me, and now that I’m in my mid-30s, I think the task has become darn near impossible.

So I was wondering if it would be cheating to wear a kymaro body shaper under my gown? I probably wouldn’t go with both pieces, but I could definitely use the girdle part. I’m convinced that this would not only make me look better, but allow me to actually zip up that dress I need to get into. Seriously, I’ve tried everything else, so why not this?

I don’t know about you, but I really cannot stand Craigslist Crusaders. This is the name I’ve given to the folks on Craigslist who constantly flag ads for removal in the freelance writing gigs section of the site. They go after ads that offer what they consider to be “insulting” pay rates, such as $3.50 for a 300-word content article. They whine that this isn’t minimum wage and no writers can “make a living” earning $3.50 per article. By flagging the ad, details are removed, and nobody else can contact the person who initially put the gig offer in place.

I’m sorry, but who are these folks to determine which wages are acceptable to others??? There are some people (like me) who don’t need to make a full-time living from these writing “gigs” (note that they’re gigs, not jobs), but would like very much to supplement their income in some way.

Personally, I have been writing content articles for four years now, and have made a great deal of money that way. I have never earned more than $5 per article. Granted, that’s not a lot of money on a per-piece basis, but it adds up. And what some people might not realize is these content places aren’t looking for great literature. You’re basically asked to simply write fluff pieces incorporating certain keywords a certain number of times. As long as the article makes sense, it’s accepted. There are no revisions or rewrites necessary, so it takes maybe 20 minutes tops to write one of these articles, especially at just 300 words each.

Even if I just do 2 per hour, that’s $7 for my time, which is more than what I would make working at McDonald’s or whatever. No, I wouldn’t be able to sustain that type of production for 8 hours a day, nor would I want to make a career out of this kind of writing. But to supplement my income? Sure, why not? As I said, I’ve done it for the past four years, and have made enough to pay tuition for completing my Bachelor’s degree and for one year of grad school (so far) without taking out a single student loan. Not bad for “slave wages”, huh?

I wish these Craigslist Crusaders would just mind their own business. They might be too proud to take these low-paying gigs for themselves, but they shouldn’t ruin it for others. The crusaders think that by removing these ads, they’re “forcing” people to pay better wages. Yeah, right. This has been going on for years and the rates have not changed one iota. Why don’t the snobs go write for the New Yorker or something and leave the other gigs for the rest of us!!!

I never go on winter vacations, but there are plenty of people who do. They generally fall into two classes: those that go someplace warm, and those that go someplace cold. When people vacation in a warm place, they come back and flaunt their perfect tans while everyone else in the office is pale and pasty. Those that go on ski vacations flaunt it by walking around with their lift tickets stuck on their jackets for far longer than they should.

This last part bugs me. How hard is it to rip that stupid lift ticket off? Seinfeld even did an episode about how annoying that is! Come on, people! We can usually tell from your raccoon face (tan lines around your goggles) that you went skiing, so enough with the stupid lift tickets already!!!

I’ve been jogging every day since early summer — so about six months now. Things were going well at first, but I seem to be regressing lately! I don’t know why, but for the past six weeks or so, my runs have been harder and harder to finish. I’m doing the same route and distance, so I can’t figure out what the problem is. Could the colder weather be having an effect on me? I wear Under Armour gear and make sure to warm my muscles up with a brisk one-mile walk before running, so that shouldn’t be affecting me too much.

In the summer, I got to the point where I could jog 2 miles at a fairly decent pace without getting too winded. But now jogging even one mile takes nearly everything I’ve got.

Anyone know what the deal could be?

Chicago Blackhawks starting goalie Cristobal Huet is teh suck. He lets in soft/bad goals all the time, and is a big reason the Hawks lost to Dallas yesterday. I usually don’t get this worked up about early-season losses, but I’m tired of seeing this guy let in bad goals that wipe out the efforts of everyone else. Please get rid of Huet before he ruins the whole season!!!

I was checking the local newspaper of one of the towns I used to live in, and started reading the Police Blotter because I was bored. That’s the page where they list all the arrests and incidents that have occurred during the week (it’s a weekly paper). Well, I couldn’t believe how many incidents there were! The list just went on and on and on. Seriously, there must have been at least 50 crimes — which I think is a lot, considering I’m talking about a wealthy suburb of Chicago.

Most of the crimes were petty thefts, such as stealing iPods out of parked cars. How stupid can people be to leave their iPods, cradles, docks, and accessories in plain sight when they park somewhere? Give me a break. Also, there were a couple reports of stolen iPhones. Same idea here… why leave the device in your car in the first place?

Another report indicated that 9 people went into a TGI Friday’s, ordered $137 worth of food and then left without paying. I’ve never heard of a dine-and-dash with such a large group before, but I could see how it would be easy to do in a busy place like Friday’s.

The strangest report, however, was about a guy who stole $675 worth of gasoline from an Amoco station. Apparently he did this by paying for $10 worth of gas, then prying the front panel off the pump (whatever that means) to steal a total of 225 gallons. Huh??? Where the hell did he put it all? Did he just have a line of vehicles come by so he could pump 25 gallons into each?? There’s no way he could have had containers for all that gas!

Boy, what a sorry state this world is in. People stealing crap left and right, assaulting each other, harassing each other… It’s just sad.

Wow, liberals must really feel threatened by Sarah Palin, because they just keep on going after her. The latest alleged “ethics violation” stems from the fact that Palin friends and supporters set up a fund to secure donations to help defray legal expenses incurred by Palin because of — you guessed it — frivolous ethics charges!

NONE of the 19 ethics complaints filed against Palin have EVER been substantiated, but because the Alaska governor’s office doesn’t have its own legal counsel, she has had to pay for lawyers on her own, to the tune of $500,000.

It’s utterly FUCKING RIDICULOUS that some nobody like “Eagle River resident Kim Chatman” can file an ethics complaint over some bullshit thing, and end up costing Palin and the TAX PAYERS tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

WTF is wrong with someone else setting up a private fund to get donations to pay off legal fees? The AP reported that both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry did the exact same thing. Remember how Hillary ran for president while cashing paychecks as a U.S. Senator, even though she basically abandoned her job to campaign? And remember how when she ultimately lost, even Barack Obama asked people to contribute to her so she wouldn’t be personally on the hook for the $14 million or so of debt that her campaign incurred?

I am so sick of hearing about these people constantly going after Palin. If it’s not one fucking thing, it’s something else. I mean, I absolutely love how liberals fawn all over single mothers, calling them “heroes” and crap — until someone like Bristol Palin becomes a single mother. Then she’s the object of ridicule and scorn. Real nice.

If Palin is a nobody and isn’t any kind of threat to Obama’s reelection, then why are libs still going after her? You’d think they’d just let her fade into obscurity like, oh, say, John Edwards or someone. Give it a fucking rest already.