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Showing posts from April, 2018

Avicii: Why we should all be talking about his death

Love him, hate him...just don't ignore him. Especially now. Avicii, real name Timothy Bergling, was around my age at the time of his death, give or take about six months. Poor bastard never made it to age 30. Some loved him. I know a lot of people, myself included, jammed the fuck out to "Levels" in college. We played the music video ad nauseum for each other in dorm rooms bathed in the violet glow of blacklights while sipping Miller High Life and shrieking the lyrics in gleeful falsettos, harmonizing with joy in intoxicated dissonance. Some hated him. I suppose there are a lot of people who disliked his music, citing "Levels" as the "only good song." I myself never followed his music after that one hit. I do know, however, that up to his death, he was playing sold-out shows all over the world. He'd been doing that since he was a teenager. Then, he started canceling shows to go into emergency surgery. This article by "Psycho

5 expert cooking tips for your broke ass

Approx. 8 minute read Heads up: picture of fake cooking injury towards end of article, avoid if sensitive to blood Your broke ass needs to learn how to cook. I started cooking in the summer of 2012. I was living on my own for the first time, working two jobs, supporting myself. I had two goals I hoped to meet by doing this: I wanted to save money by eating mostly food I cooked from scratch, and I wanted to lose weight. I wasn't overweight or anything, I was just on the threshold of where I wanted to be in terms of fitness. I succeeded at both. The picture above is of a bowl of homemade congee I made for myself. It tasted better than a Chipotle burrito and cost me about $0.35 in ingredients just for that bowl. You too can harness such power! Cooking is intimidating, I get that. So is getting into shape, getting your driver's license, learning how to swim, and lots of other things that are worth having. Like all those things, it's just a matter of starting small

Why freelancing is becoming the new norm

If you've been struggling to find full-time work, especially if you're young and don't have a ton of experience - it's probably because you're looking for full-time positions.  Of which, especially to the "entry level" market, there is a scarce amount. Those who aren't in the "entry-level" bracket often make the false assumption that when people complain about how rough the job market is for college grads, they're reacting to the same considerable obstacles that they  had to deal with. In some cases, this might not be untrue. They may also point out that unemployment is currently super low. It's sitting comfortably at 4.1% , a huge change from 2008, when the recession began and that number was sitting at a depressing (recessing? Sorry) 10%. Skeptics may cry "doomsaying" when addressing the complaints of younger professionals, especially (do I really have to say it?) millennials, but there is significant evidence that

Having been both rich and poor, I can say with certainty that being either is like living in a completely different universe

When the civilization you live in runs on commerce and capitalism, money touches every aspect of your life. Thus, the more (or less) of it you have, the more (or less) agency you have. I've had the experience of living in either of the two extremes. On one hand, living comfortably in a suburb with a well-off family. On the other, sharing a home with one or more professional-aged people and still just barely making rent, let alone having enough left over at the end of the month to put away. I've spent a lot of time around both types of people: people who grew up rich, and people who grew up poor. I've seen how being in both situations shapes your expectations for how much life can give, and how much it can take away. From the very first moment that my brain was capable of forming long-term memories, I remember people telling me money can't buy happiness. "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles has a nice, wholesome message - having someone genuinely love