hypocrates

so i woke up this morning with the bitter taste of hypocrisy in my mouth after posting about high horses last night.

just because my post on organic food didn't really take into account people rights either.

maybe what i was really mad about was that in my own quest to eat more humanely produced food, i actually never acknowledged anything about fair trade or any other issues concerning the people producing the food.

my bad.

but at least now you know i care.

i do also want to acknowledge that these issues are really for people who are privileged (aka white) enough to afford these kinds of foods. actually that's another thing i was mad about. don't act like everybody can afford this shit.

respect for animals, apathy for people

this is pretty much a complete copy of a post from trisha's blog awhile back.

something must be said about this new fad coming into the food world, socially conscious meat.

i do think we should take more care of what we put into our bodies, but i seriously can't stand folks that preach that what they eat is organic, or all natural, or humanely raised, or grass fed, or whatever, and nobody preaches about how any of their shit is fair trade.

or even how any of their clothes aren't produced in a sweat shop.

now i'm not saying this because everything i consume is certified organical-humanely-fair trade-grass fed-whatever else you wanna add on, because it isn't. it's hard to make sure everything you buy is accountable, but at least i try. but shit i just can't stand people on their high horse, like they've solved the world's problems by finally recognizing something.

can't never come home again.

i feel stuck. at home. in a funk.

rich people don't become rich, they already are rich.

it was pretty silly of me to try and boil down how to get rich into a single bold-font sentence. i had once attended a meeting on personal finances, and pretty much that's what i remembered: save to be rich. but that doesn't really take anything into account. so many more factors play into "richness" than just saving what you don't spend to sustain yourself. luckily for me (and for all of you out there), wally spent one of his ultra-rare yearly comments on that post. so just enjoy. and let's get some more comments rolling!

rich people don't become rich, they already are rich.

it's not easy to work, save and become rich, especially if you don't start off with that much. if you're in a low paying job and are saddled with debt because you didn't have enough money to start out with, then you ain't gonna be rich anytime soon. sure, you can become rich, but only if you save a good percentage of your paycheck and agree to go without everything you want or need, which is incredibly hard to do if you are in a low paying job. even if you are disciplined enough to do this, it'll take years to become rich (assuming you don't lose your job and your wages don't deteriorate over time/they actually keep up with the cost of living).

those who become rich usually have a good paying job, which in most cases requires a good education. what kind of people have the resources to obtain a good education? rich people. or comfortable people at the very least. those people can provide their children and family members with the resources they need to obtain a good education and a good paying job.

when their children get this job, they probably don't have much to worry about other than themselves (i.e., they don't have to help out their family with finances and debt). and of course they can't spend all their money because they don't have unlimited wants and needs. even if they did, they probably already know better than to spend all of their paycheck because they were taught not to by their parents or in school (or they read books and websites about what to do with their money). because they probably don't have to worry about the present, they also probably have the luxury of thinking about the future. so, they put a good chunk of their money in savings accounts and investment vehicles to save for their first house, for retirement, and for rainy days.

so, i don't think you need to be a ceo, cfo, or coo to become rich. and i don't think you can become rich by just saving and investing. you already have to be rich, or have a good degree of economic security, or at the very least have access to education and incredible discipline.

and i think this is why making education affordable, accessible, and equitable at all levels is such a huge issue, because people realize that education has such a huge bearing on where you end up and how much you make.

this all said, i don't want to assume that most of us are automatically going to become rich because we graduated from a good school and will probably be getting good paying jobs (especially you, josh). there are lots of things that we have to worry about right now, like college debt or family issues. but 10-15 years down the road i think we'll all be in pretty good shape or position to be somewhat comfortable, if we make good choices with our money. and i don't think that it's a bad thing to save to become rich. it's what you do with those riches, privilege, and position that really matters.

i don't really know why i wrote all this?
-wally

ps. wally didn't really give me direct permission to use this, but he didn't say no when i asked him either.

measuring success

ok so i am morally obligated to put this down after i just posted about getting rich.

i've been thinking about it a lot lately, rich people i mean. i wonder if they're actually happy, or if it really is lonely at the top of the financial mountain. i, for the purpose of this post, am going to assume that it would be lonely, especially if you had to work pretty much all your life to get there. (this assumes a lot of other things, too, like whether or not you like your work, and what your actual job is, stuff like that.)

anyways, would you feel that your life had been successful if you were rich as hell but lonely as a mo'fo?

how would you, then, measure success? (that is if you hypothetically answered "no" to the previous question)

this is particularly what i've been thinking a lot about:
whether or not i become as rich as i dream of being, i'm going to measure my success in life by the people i touch and (hopefully) the positive differences i make in their lives.

check back in 17 years for a mid-life crisis update.

ps. by "touch" i mean in spiritual, intellectual, or other non-physically threatening sense, and not in that weird "Rannel" sense.

(sorry, Rannel, too easy)

working on your white people skillz

as rick would say "we can't be thinking of it like that"

i speak of, obviously, saving money to become rich. let me explain.

for most of my life, i had the idea in my head that i needed to go to school so that i could get a good job and become rich. that was the purpose of school, to become rich. and yet, i have finished school and am not rich, and even though most of the jobs that i'm currently hoping to get hired for will pay more than enough for me, rich they will not me make. however i have learned what will: saving and (later) investing.

that's right kids, unless you are the ceo, cfo, coo, or cto of a company, or just won the lottery, you need to save to become the rich person you have always dreamed of being.

i think it boils down to this:
rich people work to make money in order to save it, not so that they can spend it. it may sound simple, but i bet most of you got your first job so that you'd earn money you can instantly spend.

but i'm no real expert on this, i don't even have a job. yet.

"i have a wide stance when i take a shit"

i'm not gonna even bother providing a link to the new york democratic governor eliot spitzer, and his involvement in a prostitution ring. i think i've already read at least 20 articles about this particular story that ended up in my reader.

that's gotta be at least three times in the past year that a political figure has been caught cheating on his wife. notice all cheat on their wives, not the other way around.

so i'm not totally sure about some of their positions on homosexuality and marriage, but something that never gets mentioned when shit like this happens is this:

why do these political american figures publicly humiliate their own marriages and at the same time refuse to let couples of the same sex get married?

also, spitzer's wife, silda, was by his side for support at his public confession statement or whatever, and if you've seen pictures, you know she don't look that supportive. and why should she? this fool is spreading the embarrassment by showing everybody the wife that he cheated on. reading around some more articles, i'm told that a political couple does this to show strength and to make the politician "look" stronger, whatever that means. i mean, people can read her face, she's not a happy wife right now. folks can deduce that the spitzer's are just putting up a front to "look" together. what does that say about our politicians if they try so hard working on the way they "look"?

sorry laker fan's, but kobe made vanessa bryant do it too.
low blow i know.

i wonder if spitzer can buy silda off with a giant ring.

fUCKLA

i have already admitted (though not on this blog) that ucla has a pretty impressive basketball history.

but shit do you have to let them win all the time?!?!
i mean, damn, they already live in westwood, can you make anything else easier for them?

i've met a couple people from ucla, and many of them like to ask why people not from ucla hate ucla folk so much. although i've always thought this question was annoying, i never would mention about how stupid that question was.


until today.

one thing you should know before you go to a restaurant

is something that you absolutely have to order. all of my best experiences at restaurants came when i at least knew one thing that i must have. a dish that either i read about or heard about from somebody.

for example, at gypsy's everybody knows the godfather's favorite is the absolute shit.

although they'll prolly tell you the most expensive dish, asking the waiter is ok too.

once i get a job and am able to regularly go out to restaurants that i read about, i will start posting such must-have dishes for your convenience. you can also help by donating to my non-profit bank account.

this is probably only relevant to me

but i'm almost positive that alton brown copped most of his info, at least in his early years, from jaqcues pepin. i've watched all of his earlier good eats episodes, and just recently i received the pepin complete recipes and techniques series, and recognize too many similarities in the way they describe and present technique. what makes him a bigger asshole is that he frequently made fun of french chefs in his early years.

nowadays he's fatter and less of an asshole, but i will never forget. alton. you beezy.