4/514 Good Things

Today's Good News

The proposal to increase rhino hunting in Africa was rejected overwhelmingly. This is good news to current and hopefully many future rhinos. Hunt rhinos? Hell no!

3/514 Good Things

Love Wins Out

Today's good thing, is this report out of Modesto, California. A straight-pride parade draws a whopping 20 joiners, while the counter protest drew over 200 people! It's good to see that love and acceptance for others has a 10/1 ratio over people who choose hate and fear. Let us hope that as the other straight pride parades move forward, they are met with at least that same ratio, if not more, of people trying to drown out hate with love!

2/514

Today's good news...

Barbie fans, doll collectors, feminists, civil rights activists, and science enthusiasts all have reason to rejoice as the news came out today that Mattel will be putting out Rosa Parks and Sally Ride dolls. I don't know about you, but I think they look beautiful!

I think I need to collect all of these!

1/514

According to the internet, there are actually a few more days until the 2021 Inauguration, so the count is actually 514. Normally I will try to find actual news pieces to share, and I did find some that I've bookmarked for another time, but for today I thought I'd write up a list I've been working on all day. I would love more ideas for this list, so if it inspires you and you think of any others, let me know! I'd love to expand the list.

Life is rough, there are a lot of expectations we have on ourselves as adults. There are a lot of no-nos that we impose on ourselves and each other. This is a list of things that I am hereby giving us all permission to partake of in life. If it helps you get through the day and feel better about yourself or life, go for it! The only thing we're not allowed to do, is judge ourselves or each other for doing anything on this list. Here they are, in no particular order:

*Read books geared towards children, tweens, or teens. Seeing the latest craze and feeling left out? Give it a try!
*Reread your favorite books you read as a child or young person. Break out those Baby-Sitters Club books I know you have stashed away in your attic and read them again.
*Watch the Disney Channel/Nickelodeon/the Cartoon Network. There's a lot of fun stuff on these channels.
*Enjoy sappy Hallmark movies. And not just the holiday ones. Because, why not?
*Not have an opinion on an issue that doesn't interest you or that you don't know enough about. No, seriously, it's ok.
*Color in children's coloring books. With crayons.
*Make friendship bracelets. Remember those? Let's bring them back.
*Turn off the news and social media when it's too much. This doesn't make you a bad person.
*And never turned it on again, ever, if you need that. Looking out for your own mental health needs is never bad or selfish.
*Not worry about calories. Enjoy the heck out of that doughnut you're contemplating and feeling guilty about wanting.
*Not know the answer to something. We never stop learning in life, it's ok to not know something.
*Take delight in silly, small things. This can make the difference between an unbearable day and a day that you know you'll at least get through.
*Read comic books. DC, Marvel, Elfquest, Archie, whatever you want. They're fun, and why would you deny yourself fun?
*Go to the zoo/aquarium/Disneyland, even if you don't have kids. A lot of adults avoid these types of places if they don't have children because they aren't made to feel welcome there. But let me tell you, sometimes these places are MORE fun without children...!!
*For women-It's ok to love the color pink. You are not betraying your feminist beliefs by loving pink, I promise you.
*Not be perfect. Let's all give ourselves and each other a break, ok?
*Eat S'mores. Next time you're at a campfire and the kids break out the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows, make sure to join in.
*Do word-find puzzles. Sure suduko and crossword puzzles are considered more "intellectual" or a better use of time, but sometimes it's just too much. You have my permission to do word-find puzzles with impunity.
*Rewatch favorite childhood shows and movies. You know you want to. Go ahead and break out those Full House dvds or rewatch Labyrinth or The Neverending Story. It's never a bad thing to watch these!

So, there you go. This is a small list of things I am now declaring ok for people of all ages to do, free of judgement or fear of being discovered for enjoying. There's a lot of garbage in the world, and allowing people to find happy and healthy ways to temporarily or permanently escape from that garbage is important. We can lift each other up by extending the common courtesy of not putting others down for doing these things. I hope you all enjoy finding little ways to take care of yourselves during this time. We all need it!

510 Days Left

1460 Days

I wrote the above blog post on January 1, 2017, and by my calculations, 950 days have passed since then. That leaves 510 days left until Inauguration Day, 2021 when the next presidency will begin. 

After a discussion with my cousin last night, I realized that I hadn't been doing this blog or this project, pretty much since I set out to do it. I had given in to the fear, anger, and despair. Granted, there's been a lot to have fear, anger, and despair for, but I have come to the conclusion that I just can't live in that and sustain any sort of healthy life. 

I can't ignore the bad things in this world, or not fight them, but at the same time, I can't ignore the good things, or not embrace them, either. I have been out of balance for too long, and it's time I fixed that. As I said in my original post, if I have to spend the rest of this presidency playing the Glad Game, then so be it. 

I realized something this past summer as I did my annual viewing of the classic Disney film, Pollyanna. The Glad Game isn't some saccharine, cutesy game played by somebody who had a lot to be glad about, it's actually a defense mechanism that Pollyanna and her father used to get through life. It was a conscious choice, their way of saying "I will not let the horrors of the world define me or control my emotions. I choose joy, because how else can I get through life if I am not positive? I will not let those horrors win. I choose happiness."

So, I am going to embrace the Glad Game too. I will continue to talk about the things we need to fight for or against, but I will also try to balance it out with at least one positive post a day. A respite from all the awfulness that seems to be cascading upon this planet with a swiftness we could not imagine with this presidency began. 

 

For too long, I let this presidency bring nothing but anger out of me, and it took my voice away. I haven't blogged in a long time, and even the novel I'm trying to write is a daily struggle. I've let this awful person have too much of my energy, and it's time I take it back. I will not live in fear of what might happen in the world, not when I can still speak out against it. It's not much, but sometimes it's all we can do.

Are any of you also feeling out of balance right now? Like the world is overwhelming and just too much? I highly recommend that you find ways to limit what you consume in the news and on social media. There are some very simple ways to wrest back control of those two issues that seem to be consuming us, instead of the other way around. And for the sake of your own mental health, take breaks from the horrors every once in a while. Even if it means you miss something entirely. The fight will still be there when you get back. None of us is any good if we're drained, hollow shells of our former selves. And with as much energy as you spend on the bad things in the world, I encourage you to spend an equal amount on the good things in the world. And if you can't find good things, then become the good thing yourself. 

 

Some days it might be really difficult to find something good to focus on, but I am determined to seek it out and share it with you all. I have 510 days left until the next presidency, I can choose to see that as 510 days of horror to endure or 510 days of opportunities to find good and be good. I know which one I want to choose. How about you?

1460 Days

Today is Inauguration Day. For many of us, it's a day of mourning, action, worrying, or a combination of all three. We don't know what the future holds, we don't particularly care for the person who is now in the White House, and we feel unable to do anything about any of it.

After the election, people started a countdown of sorts, "Days until the 2020 election," as a way of putting this time period into a set amount of time we can count on to end at some point. But I decided that this was the wrong time, because the current president is still in power until the next inauguration day. So, for me, I am setting the time from today to Inauguration Day of 2020. Four years, or 1460 days.

I was partly inspired by this song:

(Fun Hint: Hamilton fans might recognize one of the female singers in this!)

How do we measure time? Four years is the length of a high school education, or a traditional college education. It's the length between the Olympics. The time between leap years. It equates to 1460 days. It sounds like an eternity right now, but it's really our choice how we look at the time and what we do with it.

For those of us who don't like the current president, we have to decide if we look at this as simply time that must be endured, one excruciating day at a time, or if we will look at this as 1460 opportunities. Opportunities to do good and be good and make changes in our country and the world. I am choosing to look at it as 1460 chances to put good into the world. I have composed a list of suggestions we can all partake in over the next four years. Some of them are for the country, some are for our state or city, and some are personal. If each of us does just a few things on this list, we'll see a big change in this country. This list is far from complete, feel free to send me suggestions to add to it!

We have 1460 opportunities to:

*Help one another
*Be kind to each other
*Do better, be better than we were yesterday
*Forgive ourselves when we mess up
*Give of ourselves
*Act like the person we'd like to see the president be
*Clean up our planet
*Get engaged in our local government
*Contact our local and national representatives
*Research issues fully
*Feed the hungry
*Help the homeless
*Read more books
*Listen to the stories of our elders
*Choose hope
*Choose to love
*Choose to forgive
*Listen to people you disagree with
*Open our minds
*Treat others the way we would like to be treated
*Rise above hate
*Talk to our neighbors
*Turn off the tv, phone, and social media sometimes
*Volunteer time/money to organizations that need it
*Plant a garden
*Learn a new skill
*Learn a new language
*Get healthy
*Go back to school
*Save money
*Go on vacation
*Find your dream job
*Write a book
*Break bad habits
*Form good habits
*Find a new hobby
*Make new friends
*Become obsessed with the latest book or movie craze

*Contemplate your place in the world
*Contemplate your higher power of choice

So, who else is with me? And look at this way: Whichever way you choose to look at this time, by the time you read this, you will have finished Day One. Congratulations, we've come one day closer to forever change.

2016 Year in Review-The Good Stuff

I wanted to do this yesterday or on New Year's Eve, but I couldn't find the list I'd been working on until this morning. I know 2016 was a tough year. Many major celebrity deaths, right up until the very end, falling down the political rabbit hole into Wonderland. Nothing feels right anymore, does it? But there were good things that happened and I don't want to lose sight of them. So, here is a list, in no particular order, of the good things that happened in my life last year:

*Amazing movies that I saw last year:
-Captain America: Civil War
-Moana
-The Jungle Book
-Zootopia
-Star Wars: The Force Awakens(I realize this came out in 2015, but I saw it New Year's Day, so I placed it here.)
-Star Trek: Beyond
-Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
-Pete's Dragon
-My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
(It was a really great year for Disney movies!)

*TV shows I watched or started watching:
-Bull
-Timeless
-The Good Place
-Northern Exposure
-Twin Peaks

*Genealogy advances:
-My parents took DNA tests and I found out what percentage of what I actually am.
-Confirmed that my mom's side of the family does in fact African connections.
-Contacted Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. who helped me find possible connections to my Driggers line to the original Driggers, Emmanuel, a slave from the 1600's. And he dropped the bombshell reveal that based on the amount of DNA vs. the timeline for this line, I have at least 2-3 African ancestors, not just 1. I have made strides to find these other ancestors, but nothing conclusive. Hopefully 2017 will give me time to do so!

*Blogging:
-Started a new food project based on holidays.
-Started this very blog.
-Tried several new kinds of food based on the food blog.
-Explored new cultures I haven't experienced before through the food blog.

*Work:
-Found out about moving to a new building in Northgate. This will allow me to continue working there indefinitely.
-Took on several new work duties that increased my value to the company.
-Had a really great 6 month review.
-Continued to come together as a cohesive group with my ever-expanding department.

*Miscellaneous:
-Had an awesome trip to Portland and Disneyland. My aunt and cousin joined us and it was epic.
-Watching my mother and aunt become Star Wars fans right before my eyes.
-Friday nights with my family still going strong. Some of the shows we watched last year include: Psych and Once Upon a Time
-Seeing the results of the popular vote during the election and knowing that we, as a nation, are at a time and place where we can elect a woman for president.
-Hamilton!
-A new, faster internet connection
-Another year at my apartment
-An uneventful year, for the most part, with health issues for me or my family. No major family deaths.
-Star Trek's 50th anniversary and going to see the exhibit at the EMP
-Buying all Star Trek: TOS and TNG seasons on dvd
-Elena of Avalor

I think this is a good list! I'm happy with this list!