Why Are People Such Assholes?!

One of the most notable earthquakes in the history of Baltimore hit today! It was the result of a 5.8 quake that originated in VA and WOW! There's a first time for everything right!? In my 30 years, I can not remember EVER feeling anything like it or even hearing about it. I also spoke with persons older than myself and they too say they've never experienced anything like it.

Sometime in June or July of last year there was apparently an earthquake overnight that some MD residents said woke them from their slumber but this bitch hit during the day, during work hours, mall shopping and nap time! 

My personal experience? I was lying in the bed preparing for my afternoon nap and I felt the bed rumble! I honestly thought I was experiencing some sort of paranormal activity because I mean... we don't get earthquakes in Baltimore right!? I ignored it as I often do when I think I'm experiencing paranormal activity but then the bed shook more and more and I literally rolled out of the bed onto the floor! I walked to the hallway and remembered something stupid about going in your bathroom during an earthquake and come to think of it, I think that was for tornadoes. Well, on my way to the bathroom, the floor was literally shaking so hard that it threw me into my parents bedroom. I climbed on the bed and said, "I'll just stay here for now."

I was experiencing the perfect mix of fear and exhilaration because I'd never felt a quake before! So after it was all said and done, I ran outside to chat with the neighbors, the conversation was very basic and along the lines of "WHAT THE FUCK?!" So I immediately took to social networking to report on my experience and to see what everyone else experienced. Almost immediately on Twitter there were comments like, "Chill out east coast, it wasn't that big of a deal" or "Are these people serious? 5.9 is nothing, shut up." At that moment I instantly knew how people from California felt when they saw there first snow and how we would quietly snicker about them like, "seriously? it's only snow." 

Instead of people showing the least amount interest or saying something kindly stupid like "glad you had your first quake, join the club and hope everything is ok!" We were greeted with sarcasm and dismissive comments. It kinda irritated me actually and I figured I'd bitch about it here. 

How was your earthquake experience? 

What's So Wrong With Being Alone?

I must be the only person I know that's kinda okay with being single. Sure, sometimes I get a little lonely, I see most of my friends moving on in "faux relationships" pretending to be happy and that they've "found the love of their life" and I'm okay with that.

I guess the problem is that most people don't have "something else." And that something else could be anything from a hobby or friends, or just random things to do on their spare time. I personally love reading about what's going on in the world and our country in particular. I love listening to music. Watching movies and my major television shows, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, finding random places to have lunch dates with my friends, spending blood pressure-rising time with my family, increasing my knowledge in certain areas and just... listening to people. Trying to get a better understanding of why people are the way they are is like, my newest favorite thing to do.

I love to write stories! Stories that I'd never share with most of you (or any) but I like to keep my creative juices flowing. I like people watching, I like telling my friends about my people watching. I like to think about where my life will be in 10 years or 5 years. I like to think about new ideas for a small business... most never pan out but it doesn't stop me from thinking of new ones! Most people won't admit this one but... I love sleeping! I love everything about it: the coziness of my bed, the cool breeze from the ceiling fan. I love to dream. I love where my mind takes me when I'm not consciously in control. There's nothing better than an active imagination.

Now, most of this might now sound not exciting to you but guess what... you're probably thinking about who you're going to spend the rest of you life or why the guy or girl from the bar hasn't called you back yet. Or why that person that you slept with on the first night is now ignoring your calls. You're probably saying "is it Friday yet?" because you hate your job. You're probably wondering and stressing about all of this stuff that makes your life completely un-enjoyable, like being single. I'm sorry but... I'm not concerned about that.

We've got one life people. There's no after-life. There's no "meeting on the other side" so please, start making the most out of this life. Stop worrying about falling in love. And... is it really "falling in love" if it's a manufactured love? Is constantly being on the prowl for your "life-mate" falling in love? No, it's manufacturing a situation where you can try to make somebody like you enough so they never leave you.

That seems a bit creepy to me...

-G

Spotify!

Ok, if you haven't gotten on the Spotify bandwagon yet, I just wanna know WHY!? Let me explain a little bit about what Spotify is:

Spotify is basically the best of iTunes and Pandora all rolled up in one. If you're familiar with iTunes then you're aware that you have to purchase content and there's a pretty decent sized library to do so. Pandora is basically a "music-matching" service that matches the types of music that you like based on genre, artist or song choice. You have no control over which songs Pandora will choose but 9 times out of 10, you're generally pretty satisfied with the selection.

Spotify, combines these two otherwise awesome services all into one application. If you decide that you would like to listen to 'Cinderella Man' by Eminem, you type it in and Spotify streams the song to your PC via their desktop based application. If you decide, "wow, that was a good song", you can just as easily type in 'Recovery' by Eminem and listen to the entire album! You can listen as much as you'd like to the same song or album but with such a VAST library of content, I'm not sure why you'd want to.

To date, the only album that I've requested and is not available is '21' by Adele and I'm not quite sure why it's not available but it's driving me absolutely insane!

Anyway, if you have a smartphone, namely iOS, Android or Blackberry device, you can carry your content with you on the go! BUT, you have to pay a fee of $9.99/month to do so. Now, I purchase at least 1 new album per month so the monthly charge is waaaaay worth it to me. But don't forget, it's 100% free to continue listening on your computer.

The only downside (if you wanna call it that) with paying the $9.99/month is the moment that you stop subscribing, the content is no longer available via your smart phone device to stream. However, as soon as your re-subscribe, all of your previous content becomes available almost immediately so technically you never lose anything.

The other cool thing about using your smartphone is that you can choose your favorite songs or albums for "offline listening." Basically, what that means is Spotify makes the content available for you to listen to via your smartphone without using any of your monthly data. How awesome is that?! It's pretty frickin' cool.

Anyway, Spotify is only available via invitation for the time being, so if you're interested in checking it out, let me know and I'll shoot you an invite.

-G