Song of the Day - Black Eyed Peas - Pump It

Though this is not my absolute favorite Blacke Eyed Peas song, I love the video! Cool special effects! Enjoy and Happy Friday!

March 17, 2011 - Beautiful Day n' stuff...

If yesterday was beautiful, today was absolutely gorgeous! From morning until even now, the temperatures around these parts are warm enough for even late spring. The sun was shining all day and it felt good to be outside. As an added bonus, i had that conference today, so i not only got to sleep in a couple of extra hours, but I also was home around the time I’m usually finished with work. It’s one of the things I like about the four seasons: going through a rough winter makes you appreciate the spring and summer even more.

Insurance Windfall

Once upon a time I sold insurance for Prudential. It was right after I left Citibank and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life. Though the job only lasted six months, I did learn a lot about the insurance business and I’m still baffled by it.

You see, in October I bought a new car from my buddy Jorge. He had decided to return to live in his country (he’s from Chile) and the only thing holding him back was selling his car, a beautiful 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse. To make a long story short, he ended up selling it to me at a great price. I ended up having to carry insurance on two cars for almost four months and when I finally sold my Sentra, I thought I’d be saving more on my insurance, which renews next Monday.


My Eclipse

I had planned on shopping around just to see what other companies were offering. I’ve been with Progressive for many years, but my premiums have been steadily rising with each six-month renewal. After shopping at only two other companies, which were both cheaper than what I’m now paying, I found that Geico was a little more than half of what I was paying. That’s more than $50 a month cheaper! Yahoo! Maybe my luck’s starting to change…

Fit to Print….Nah!



A long time ago I used to do a series on AC called “News That’s Fit to Print.” The idea stemmed from my very first article, a synopsis of my thesis called Modern Day Mass Media: How the Few Decide for the Whole. The whole point of that paper was the fact that there are a select group of people who decide what becomes news and thereby control the collective mindset of the country. It’s a long one, but well worth the read.

Anyway, the series I did was of newspaper articles I had read that I believed deserved some attention. They were usually stories about local heroes or issues that I feel strongly about, like drunk and reckless driving. In fact, some of them were pretty controversial and got some pretty heated comments. A few months ago I cancelled my newspaper delivery for both monetary reasons and the fact that I had so little time to read it. This afternoon I bought today’s edition of Newsday, our local paper, and I remembered why I stopped taking interest in the news. Here were some of the stories covered today:

- “Nuclear ground zero,” about the potential nuclear disaster awaiting Japan.

- A local hate crime murder of a gay man.

- Big time layoffs in Nassau County due to fiscal woes.

These were just a couple of the bad news items that got major coverage in today’s news. Like they say, ignorance is bliss! I’m so tired of hearing nothing but bad news every single day. For once I’d like to see headlines like:

“Stock Market reaches all time high”

“Gas prices dropping”

“Peace in the Middle East”

“Rejoicing in the streets: recession’s over”

Ah, to dream! Then, maybe I’ll start reading the news again.

Keys to Life



What the heck do I know about the keys to a wonderful life? Actually, probably more than I would admit, only I don’t really seem to follow them enough to change my own for a happier, healthier one! Anyway, I just published the latest in my series of “Keys to Life” articles. They’re adapted from an essay by gay essayist Michael Thomas Ford, and I think that they all make for some really sound advice. The one I published tonight was the fourth one, “Make a Difference,” and I’ve got six more to go. Here are the links to the pieces so far:

#1 – Live in the Present

#2 – Age Gracefully

#3 – Cultivate Friendships

#4 – Make a Difference

Stay tuned for more on the way…

Well it’s late and I need to get some shut eye. I wish it was Friday already…I need to dance! Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Song of the Day - Valerie by Amy Winehouse

I miss Amy Winehouse! That is, it's been way too long since she's given us anything new. Her last album, "Back to Black" was absolutely awesome and many of those songs made it to my "most played" list on my iPod. About a year ago, I decided to check out the iTunes store to see if there were any old Amy songs that I hadn't had and I came across two sets of music: "Back to Black: The B-Sides" and "Frank."

It was as if she'd made a whole new album as there were plenty of new songs for me to learn between the two of them. There were two songs in particular that I came to absolutely love, a jazzy, sexy song called "Amy, Amy, Amy" and this one.

"Valerie" is such a great song! I don't think it was ever a big hit anywhere, but in my travels I've discovered that many people know it. I have no idea what exactly the song is about, but it's just so melodic and singable! Here's a video of fake Amys lip synching it live in a club. It's not as well rounded as the original recording, but it's pretty good. Check it out:



...and here's the original version from YouTube:

March 16, 2011 - Rangers 6 Islanders 3 John 0

Spring is definitely in the air today. After a dreary and rainy start to the day, the clouds broke sometime this afternoon and the temperatures went up. It feels good, especially with the longer days, even though you wouldn’t guess it from my entries today…

Rangers 6 Islanders 3 John 0



I feel terrible right now. A short while ago my mom called to say hi and see how I was doing and I kind of blew up at her. Well, not kind of, I did blow up at her. For this one, I have to go back to Christmas time. You see, every year my Christmas gift to my family is that I buy everyone a ticket to a NY Rangers hockey game. My whole family is very big into the Rangers, including me, and they look forward to it every year.

Without saying too much and getting myself into unnecessary trouble, I decided to buy one less ticket this year for someone who’s on the fringes of the family. Though I’ve bought a ticket for this person every year, I decided to forego it this year for financial and other reasons. When my plan was found out, I was talked into changing who was getting the tickets a couple of times until I ended up being the only one without a ticket. At the time I had just been dumped by you know who and I didn’t give a crap, really. The game was last night, March 15th.

The tickets were extra special this year because it was for a Ranger/Islander game at the Garden, which we’ve all always wanted to see. The whole thing hasn’t bothered me all this time, until yesterday. It was on my mind on and off all day yesterday. My sister kept posting notices on FB saying how excited she was about the game. She even thanked me publicly for it, which only made me more perturbed. Secretly, I kept an eye on the game via the Internet, hoping for a Ranger loss (Ranger Gods forgive me!), but they won the game 6-3, a high scoring, probably exciting game.

So mom called tonight to see how I was doing and to say how much they missed me last night. I don’t know what came over me, but that was when I suddenly exploded at her. She had a big part in the changing of the tickets in the first place, and I reminded her of all of it. I wasn’t expecting to blow up, but her call just brought it out of me. In fact, I purposely avoided calling her because of it.

I apologized to her as I yelled every other sentence, and she actually didn’t get angry at me. She said she understood, probably as she should have. It’s my own fault anyway…I relented, which I didn’t have to. Like I said in my interview with Pattie the other night, I’m too kind oftentimes to my own detriment. I just don’t know any other way and I can’t help but hate people sometimes who don’t always take kindly to kindness. WTF????

The Quest returns to my head

The weather was so nice today that I decided to take advantage and be outside. I got a head start and worked in my yard, which has plenty of trees and thus plenty of leaves. Off I was with my rake, some leaf bags, and of course my iPod and Beyonce. It felt good to be out there, though working in the yard brought me back to my decision. Should I even bother with the yard? Historically this has always been one of my favorite times of the year and I love working in the gardens. But should I be spending any money on any part of the house, especially if I’m going to end up short-selling it? The whole thing led to more trepidation and worry.

It’s almost the end of March and little has been happening for me in my quest. I know that I’ve switched priorities and that job search is #1, but of course with my luck schools seem to be laying teachers off instead of hiring them, at least for now it seems. So that’s pretty much a dead end at this point, though I keep looking.

And then there’s the house. A move into the city or not, I’ve got to find a way out of it, but how? My mortgage payment is absolutely killing me, and the fact that I am paying it has actually been a detriment to me because I’m not in trouble on paper…yet! I can see it coming, though. I heard someone say yesterday that there are only 12 weeks of school left and I’m in a shitload of trouble if I don’t do something quick. What to do, what to do????

Facebook Surprise

Most of the time I don’t even notice it, but every once in awhile I check out the “suggested friends” link at the top of my Facebook page. Just a little while ago, I glanced up at that section of the page and I saw his face up there. I’m talking about Fuzzy, the stalker. Incredible! Thank goodness, two clicks of the mouse and he’s a blocked man!

Well, I guess from these snippets of my day that you’d say I had a bad one. I really didn’t. Yeah, I’m still quite messed up over a lot of things, but the weather today helped a lot and I have a conference day tomorrow, so I get to sleep later and come home earlier, so I’m really not in that bad of a way, hehe. But just to make me feel a little better, I’m gonna add a video of Cee Lo’s “Fuck You” here and dedicate it to all those people who’ve pissed me off lately. I mean no harm by it, just a little venting to make myself feel better! Now sing a long…

“See you’re driving round town with the girl I love, and I’m like, F**k you…”