Nina vs The World

2011- a year of deaths, more Apple products, Android playing catch up, the birth of Google Plus and a wave of protests. Incredibly so, these last twelve months have broken many records in regard to weather and have included everything from gripping court cases to celebrity deaths. January started off the year with the Loughner shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Jared Lee Loughner raised a pistol to Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequently fired on other people present. Five people died either at the scene or later on. Giffords, however, survived and went through months of physical therapy. Talented Amy Winehouse died at age 27 from a drug overdose. Protests in Egypt, Libya and the US created ripples. The truth is it was quite the unexpected year. Midyear, Google jumped on the social networking scene with formidable rival to Facebook, Google Plus. A real life sharing fun and business altogether network. Steve Jobs died, briefly after the release of iPhone 4S- his la...

Many of you are still broke and recuperating from Black Friday's ridiculous sales and are fearing the upcoming season of gifting. If you were smart and selfless, much of what you bought on Black Friday will be gifted to your friends, family and lesser-than-friendly co-workers. But we all know you bought that shiny new notebook and that sweet new 52" TV for none other than yourself. So where are you going to buy all these other people gifts? I'm an online shopper for many reasons- I hate long lines, being shoved around a store by crazy people, and hearing multiple wailing kids while their distracted mom decides between purple or lavender bath towels. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to wasting gas, and I refuse to pay 34.99 for a shirt that cost .75 cents to make. This is why I'm going to let you in on a little secret.. There's a fairy tale place online where you pay a fraction of what department stores charge you. Where no matter how much you purchase, your...

S ince we have cognitive abilities and are learning right from wrong, we are taught to work hard, to work effectively, and to always be diligent in our tasks. Why? Because the hardworkers always come out on top, receive the best rewards, and have an increased and well founded self worth. Truly it paints a wonderful picture. But an accurate one? Not so much. There's at least one industry I'm fully aware of, I'd say perhaps one of the most important pillars of a nation like the one we live in, that aims to pulverize every ideal we had about our work. Granted, it may be not be life or death that you helped some elderly lady find the right color cardigan, but it's a job worth doing right, and feeling honorable for it. So why do retail giants squeeze the life out of their employees? Here's why they're still NOT getting it. 1) They believe praise is poisonous and noneffective. You know, sometimes associates are not asking for a whopping $.50 added to every hour w...

Sure, you can jump in the water without knowing how to swim. But you can't jump into the same water knowing there are hungry sharks competing to get some skin off your bones without knowing how to be a pro swimmer. Interpretation? Google should not have launched individual pages if they knew business pages were a long ways off. Did Facebook do it? Yes, but Facebook is allowed the "pioneer permission", meaning, they were first to become a huge social networking place, so inevitably, had to make some trial and error shots along the way. Google, knowing this information, and playing the very in tune spectator, felt they wanted a piece of the networking pie. Orkut and Buzz weren't good enough. So they created a brain child merging aspects of Twitter and Facebook into Google Plus. And the crowds cheered, that finally there was a place online that would be the hub of all things social. That you could check your email, read your favorite blogs, update your calendar, p...

Who sez we lack in ejucation?

When did everybody become the best philosopher? Where did all these cheesy one-liner life maxims and blocks of texts that direct you on how to live come from? I can't even sit down and eat an unhealthy plate of Chinese food without reading a quote that says something like, "Stop looking back, the future is forward" or some golden treasure like that. And honestly, not only is it annoying and intrusive, but also contradictory. How many times have you heard, "Live life to the fullest!" and then, "Always save a little spontaneity for tomorrow." Or, "Follow your heart!" and then, "Your mind full of creativity and problem solving should govern the path you walk." "Plant goals and reach them!" and then, "Make life flexible enough to change your destination at will!" Quite honestly, it's an overload of self-help I wasn't really asking for in the beginning. Granted, we all may have one or two truths we hold de...

There's a recurring theme in my classwork this semester that covers ground of whom we look up to, or down upon, for that matter, and whom takes up that middle chunk of not being wholly good or entirely bad, either. Heroes - the selfless amazing individuals that are loving, self sacrificing, humble and also non existent. Villains - the bad but irresistibly cool wardrobed person with bad habits and bad company. Vigilante - the dude who thinks it's okay to kill 1,000 people, as long as you save that one bratty child with the dopey looking eyes. Ahem.. so here's my $0.02. The vision people have of heroes have become so warped and the title used so liberally that everyone from Lady Gaga to your Mailman is in some form, a hero. And hey, we all want to aspire to be good people with good rapport, yes- I'm with you there. But where do we draw the line, people?! If we keep this up, in five years the President and Congress will be considered heroes! I'm going to focus ...

I know, I know, before you go klonking me on the head with the 5 Freedoms, I'm fully aware that the government allows the right to Assembly in a nonviolent manner. But you know what bucky? It also states this fun little right called the Overused and Abused "Freedom of Speech", so put a sock in it. Here's my protest against protesters : After hundreds and hundreds of pointless marches and walks down avenues holding catchy rhyming signs.. doesn't the purpose get lost in translation? And what objective does protesting have anyway, besides creating fantastic traffic blockage and making driving a horrible nuisance? Pardon my rain on your parade, but there's gotta be a better way to stick it to the man. Let's take this past weekend's protest on the Manhattan bridge. Did this protest impact me? Sure it did, as a commuting vehicle, the bridge was blocked the moment we were about to go on. Was it a positive impact? No, it was misery to drive in heavy traf...

Exactly a year ago, my passion for writing spilled over into blogging, and I (somewhat) formally began to organize ideas, rants and opinions into articles and posts. I was a lot more constant then than I was now, and for fear of churning out mediocre or repetitive posts, my sequence of blogging has constantly changed. But after a year of tries and fails, I finally have 37 likes on facebook! I started a year ago at zero, then five months later at 13, and then stagnant at 21 for some time, and finally now inching close to 40. What Have I Learned?  You have to want to blog for the right reasons. And what are the right reasons? Well that depends on your values. For some, it's entertainment, a writing exercise, or simply to make extra cash. For me, it's to practice writing, have an outlet to the ideas that sometimes become constipated in my mind, and to entertain my readers. If you don't have the right reasons to motivate your writing, you'll be out of gas soon. What...

There's not much that hasn't already been said about that dreadful Tuesday. Although the attack that changed history physically affected one city, the ripple effects are still tangible internationally. When going through heightened security measures, or seeing signs on public transport about suspicious activity, our mind immediately reels back to that Tuesday of September 11, 2001. Some Things Will Never Be The Same No matter how deep the wound, human beings strive to move on, to keep going forward despite the suffering inside. But sometimes the scars left behind redirect our lives in a way that will never be the same. Some people fell into a depression that they were never able to come out of, while others dramatically reshaped their lives for the positive. But every time we hear "Ground Zero" or drive by New York city, it's hard to pass up that void the twin towers left behind. Lessons Learned "It doesn't affect me" "It's not my lif...

Given the set up for this next post by spilling my guts out in the past one, I'd like to continue the train of thought by explaining what my following steps will be. In the past, (the last 8 months) I wanted to sell shirts and merchandise related to my doodles, and maybe in the future, I will. But now my career is taking a more serious turn in life. That's right- starting a business. I think I knew from a young age I was bound to be an entrepreneur at some point. My brother and I have always kicked back ideas of the best start-up business we could think of. My dad, whom ran his own successful window installation business for quite some time before moving to this country, always has it in him to see the business in every project. For me it began simple. In first grade, I was drawing watches on notebook paper with catchy designs and colorful straps. I would then cut out these paper watches, and sold them for a penny a pop. Not much profit, to say the least, but for a 7 year o...

It was three months ago as I sat preparing marketing content, researching the oil industry and finding innovative new ways to convince people natural gas is better, that I came along a quantum revelation . Of the personal kind. And in my life, which has proven to be anti-climactic since day one, quantum revelations don't come along as often as they should. But I finally realized what it takes other people years to find out: What I wanted to do as a career. Yes, I've always had a knack for writing, and I'm very people-oriented. It's the reason why ( all modesty aside ) the Design Print Ship center I worked at for Office Depot was number one in the district for customer service time and again. I helped customers who were stumped create attractive, yet simple business cards. I learn a thing or two about Photoshop. I even learned how to put up with prissy people that only wanted someone to argue with. And with those life lessons in my pocket, I feel inclined to say, I s...

As if people didn't believe the UN was capable of keeping peace, and if as if relations weren't already tender between the UN and Haiti, a floating video on the internet is now creating another ripple of scandals and humiliation for the so-called peacekeepers. Haiti already had reason to be upset at the UN, taken that thanks to their blue helmets, a deadly cholera outbreak killed nearly 6,000 and infected 300,000 earlier this year.  You can read about it here. So a viral video of several UN officers attempting to rape a young Haitian man as a "joke" was enough to make the water boil again. Apparently, the young man was taken into the barracks, pinned down on a mattress and embarrassed publicly as they made him a laughingstock before several officers while it was also being recorded into a cellphone. The video was then taken from a cellphone of an officer by two Haitian kids who then sold it to the News Press. It is unclear whether the 19 year old man was raped or ...

Nowadays we are bombarded by a plethora of advice on how to live our careers, our lives, our relationships. No one welcomes the idea of being a failure in any of these three aspects. But although you may hear a multitude of often controversial how to be "awesome" advice, you may not always hear the fastest road to failure. That is why I am going to spell it out for you, in five different varieties. Compare and Contrast. No matter how much you've heard this before, comparing yourself to someone else as a ruler to measure up to will send you flying to the finish line of the loser race. You are not the other person/company/business. You will have different abilities, values, outlooks and perspectives. What works for you may not work them, and vice versa. Instead of looking to someone as a pattern to follow, try learning their style and then staying on the opposite lane of it. After all, customers don't want two identical places to shop, they want variety. So offer it...

Its been nearly a year since I started this blog, which I began as a writing exercise that transmuted into extra income. That idea was shot smoothly and swiftly by the cannon of Google's reality when I realized google ads are not exactly your local Fort Knox. After inventing and reinventing my blog, reading and sighing, and rewriting, I have to say, I'm on a different path now than when I started. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just how life goes, typically. Yet I've realized it's time for a change . A different direction, or course of action. No, I'm not going to start watching reality TV or dying my hair blonde. But before I elaborate on that, let me take you behind the scenes to the place where the wheels churn in the general direction of forward and occasionally take me somewhere amazing. Once upon a blue moon, we come across that person in life we wish we could emulate. For artists, its big-name painters, like Picasso and Monet. For aspirin...

I usually don't follow the media- but this little gold nugget of randomness was just too good to pass by.  So apparently, "Locked Up" Lohan is suing Pitbull because of his "derogatory defamatory' reference to her in his hit song "Give Me Everything" which he states the following:  “Hustlers move aside, so I’m tiptoein’, to keep flowin’ / I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan.”   So, I'm not a Pitbull fan , in case you guys hadn't noticed, and I really could not care less for Lohan- her Disney days are over and now she's just a nuisance. In fact, there's talk about her being the next Winehouse  and joining the Down Under Botanical Gardens  pretty soon, if you catch my drift. But it just trips me up that she even got a lawyer to make it this big illusion that she's hurt over Pitbull slandering her name.  Seriously? Why don't you just cut to the chase? You're a has-been that is super broke because of her uncontrollable al...

Hurricane Irene, category 3, massive tropical storm beast, is expected to make landfall on us, the Northeast US this very weekend. As a seasoned Floridian, who has seen her share of crazy hurricanes, from Wilma to Charlie and Ivan, this is routine. But for the rest of you New Englanders that have never felt quakes and are foreign to heavy rain and lightning, I promise, this is not the end of the world. Yet. Out of my endless abyss of selflessness, I scooped up some tips that will keep you safe and hopefully entertained during the seemingly endless power less days. Granted, it will be misery that you may not have power to read my ingenuity, but there is more to life than the internet.. I think. Spin em out! Gather water, the precious liquid o f life.  An active individual needs a minimum of two quarts of drinking water per day (FCS9 195); thus, a family of four needs at least eight quarts (2 gallons) of drinking water per day.  How do I purify water?  You can ...

Have you guys checked this out yet?  I finally discovered Twitter's usefulness.  I cracked up when I watched this video by Jim Carrey, a love devotional soul baring moment when he confesses to Emma Stone how he's so madly in love with her. And now they're calling him creepy and borderline pedo.. Isn't Emma Stone like 20 something? If she's old enough to play "Easy A" which is NOT an academics tutoring movie, she's not a little kid. And besides, its Jim Carrey, the guy who's role in life was to be the neurotic, slightly creepy oddball that makes us laugh with roles like the Count on A Series of Unfortunate Events and Ace Ventura, and even the Cable Guy. His creepy factor makes him a comedian.. remember Fire Marshall Bill? Then again, it all goes back to how the media loves to make a big deal out of everything. The fact that Carrey is, however, 49 already, shatters my entire universe. That means he must be seeing his urologist pretty often and fi...

So, this weekend I had the joy of running into one of my regular blog readers and had a bittersweet chat with him. Why? Because he looks at me, and out of the blue, with smug tranquility, and in a moment of reverse peristalsis, quips the following: "Hey Nina. I just always wanted to tell you how I think its cool that although no one likes the stuff you write , you keep writing it!" For once, I was speechless, in an effort to understand idiot.. and that's saying a lot when I'm constantly surrounded by them. I looked at him from my lemonade, slanted my eyes, and quickly analyzed the five most effective ways to kill someone with a styrofoam cup. Before I could execute my action, however,  someone else piped up saying, "Basically what he means is, You're horrible at writing, I don't even know why you try, but I still read it." Immediately fellow #1 tried to rephrase his statement, but it was too late. What kind of response was he expecting? ...

You know what makes spoofs awesome? The fact that they make fun of something halfway silly, but with at least some substantial content . That's why Spaceballs is hilarity times ten. But when you get a downright stupid film to begin with- its not even worth mustering up the comedic muse to try to mock it. I mean really. I'm not exactly a box-office fanatic- it will take pretty much something brand spankin' awesome, like Transformers, to get me to fork over $10 of hard earned pesos in exchange for an hour and a half of visual merit. But there's not enough mushrooms in the world that would make me , Nina McAwesomeSauce, to watch even 2.5 seconds of.. Cowboys vs Aliens.  I mean, if you survived past that ridonkulous title, you can see clearly that the wonderful ingenuity behind the direction/production of such success in the making can single-handedly spoof itself. Cowboys? First you want me to mentally portray cowboys as some fruit cakes with skinny jeans that like to...

I was raised the first 5113.4 days of my life in a desolate, isolated town.. In fact, its known as "America's Sweetest Town!" because they have a huge sugar factory that produces(d)? 80% of America's sugar. I always thought it was the bomb diggity to live there, but when I moved away to a beach town almost two hours away that was very suburban, I realized how different country life really is. This past weekend I went to a town near the finger lakes, upstate NY, and felt like I was travelling back in time. Houses separated by miles and miles, cows, hay rolls, silos and barns.. and a calm air of tranquility. I almost couldn't believe I was in the same state as the Empire Building and Times Squizzir. Cons: I don't mind the country atmosphere.. but not being remotely close to a mall is like breathing on  one lung composed of tissue paper. And wifi.. seriously PEOPLE. It's Century 21, and its time we all accepted the irrevocable flow of the internet. Lov...

Dear Ladies Without A Man.. Oh how quickly life passes by us, eh? It seems like just yesterday your skin was tight and fresh and you turned down every Peter Puberty that asked you to the high school dance. Fast forward twenty odd years and now you'd kill to date that very Peter, face boils and all. Yet here we are in the year 2011 and not even Larry the fat grocer with more hair on his stomach than his head will give you a second look. And he's partially blind. So for some odd reason you think promoting yourself like you would a facebook fan page or a Nobel prize will get you recognition- which may lead to-ultimately, a male species. Well I'm here to tell you that ain't how it goes. Besides looking like utter fools, you'll only gain the disrespect and disgust of others that watch you selling yourself with disdain.. (and to no availl.) Let's face it, desperate girls are about as attractive as rotting fruit in the clearance aisle. Yeah, you'll get attent...

Who says Americans are lazy? 

I ts not that Americans don't care anymore. But when you've got every village idiot running for office, its almost inevitable that at some point, people stop taking things seriously. How so? (Play close attention. The main ideas are in bold .) Politicians seem to make it a rite of passage to have some moral scandal implode midway in their careers. I mean really Shwarz? You couldn't have done any better? You picked that woman to be your mistress? She looks like the woman that ate your mistress. There's not enough beer in the world that can make her look as if she's worth losing a family and a rep, Governator. It's not that Americans don't really care for politics, it's just the wrong people are involved. In fact, I bet if Larry the cable guy, Will Ferrell, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Carrel and both Flight of the Chonchords guys ran for office, all of a sudden you'd have America voting. Its all about giving the people what they like, right? In fact, po...

I cracked the code. There's only one easy way to become a millionaire. Normally you'd need to brainwash your way to the top, or step on toes and do everyone favors. But not if you're smart. There's a shortcut to unlimited money from exploiting the brainless. How? Invent a holiday . Now, stay with me. How much money do you think retail stores profit every time they wag a flyer around or broadcast a commercial saying it's Father's Day sale or Memorial Day sale, or even Flag Day sale? Apparently, holiday=coughing up dough. And if you want a piece of the pie, you should start making up a holiday to profit from. You know what mine will be? National Mocking Day! T Shirts, sales, mugs, coolers, foam hats, beads.. Wait. I'm confusing that with Mardi Gras. Anyway. Make up a ridiculous reason to have a holiday, get a half day off from work, and spend all the money you really need on junk you don't. Still think it wouldn't fly? Okay, Greeting Cards. The e...

It's either half-empty, or half-full. No need for a five page dissertation, Confucius.

What is that makes the life of spies so alluring that the entertainment world always promotes it? Is it the fact that death escapades make up their daily bread? The fact they have subsequent lives, parallel lives, alter egos, aliases, and a whole set of nine lives? Of course, I am just basing my accurate notions on reading "The Athena Project" and watching The Tourist. But for mostly everyone, it must be riveting to lead a seemingly shadow less life and be "off the radar." Now let's be real. How many real spies do you know in person? What's that you say? That would defeat the purpose? That's no excuse. If you want a bunch of hoodlums after you for no apparent reason, you can just set up camp in New Haven. No need to go to the government for that. What knocks me off my rocker, (yes, I really did just use that expression and I can feel my popularity plummeting) is that in every spy movie, the main character doesn't die, the "bad" guys do,...

People, we finally made it. We passed the 5,000 mark! But.. but why are so many other bloggers more successful? Why do old ladies with boring stories from the past have more than 600 followers? Why is every other blog a blog on parenting with a cheesy name like, "Keeping up with the Kooklas!" Or "Raising Tommy, Whammy, and Flammy!" Why am I still frozen in time at 9 followers and only 21 LIKES?! I'm dedicated! I'm smart-ish, and once in a while, I'm ridiculously funny! There are certain conundrums I will never figure out. Think about it. It's a difficult world for women! (Yes.. another feminist rampage.) Especially the young and childless. You can't succeed by pity, or by exploiting your nonexistant kids. In this world, imaginary children are just not that important to anyone. Nonsense! You may respond. But listen here, buddy. How long did it take women to reach top notch paying yobs eh? And I don't mean extensive street social work.. if ...

Several things on this planet may feel insulting. A whack in the face. A contemptuous attempt at our dignity. But nothing can reduce your self esteem faster than being set up. You all know what I'm talking about. You're hanging out with friends, they start talking about other friends, all of a sudden you find someone saying they remind you so much of someone they know. Next thing they know, they're promising the best relationship you never had if you give this guy a chance. "He's so much like you!" "He's such a visionary!" "You guys would get along great." "You have the same sense of humor!" So here you are, trekking vineyards of roses, forming clouds in your coffee, getting your hopes higher than the bum on dope. And then, when the awaited moment happens, every fiber of your ego comes crashing down into an explosive mess that will neither leave remains nor ruins. It will just completely evaporate your self worth. The ...

Everyone can have a subaru.

That's right, it's gripe hour. The price at the pump today is even more painful than your average Miley Cyrus performance. Two years ago we were scared witless when the price hit $4.11. Now $4.11 is a great price to stumble upon, if you can find it. I guess its come to that time when we have to get our lazy butts off the comfortable car seat and unto the narrow rubber triangle of a bike seat. China's been doing it since the wheel was invented! And look at their economy! Are they hurting? No. They practically sit their comfortable narrow butts on the comfort of the narrow bike seat and scoff at fat lazy Americans who can't go from their house to the mailbox without getting in their car. So apparently all these years the formula for a good economy is one we missed. The secret is not in the complicated language they use, or their space saving lifestyle. Not even their ridiculously easy way of making crappy bootleg technology that lasts a full week without dying. I have...