Nina vs The World

In case the subtle pictures above didn't get the point across.. I am celebrating my three year blogging anniversary!! Yay! That's right. My blog has now been alive and kicking longer than most celebrity marriages. It has survived Hurricane Sandy, the Faux Rapture , The End of the World,  the controversial "death" of Osama the death of Gaddhafi, a couple bad haircuts, and even the Government Shutdown. So I guess I'm here to stay. Until I am kicked off the internet or come down with a new strand of swine flu. For the last time, GET THAT FLU SHOT AWAY FROM ME! Anywho. I guess its the time of year to get reflective on the past and prance on the soapbox about how my life has been a voyage and how much I've grown, and blah blah blah.. But really I don't want to do that this year. I just want to say THANKS . I don't make money from this little blog here, but I get a lot of great feedback from friends and strangers. As an extrovert that places high ...

I'm going to start off this post by saying to my dear friends, I'm okay. Maybe even good. I know a few of you worried after yesterday's atypical somber post. But sometimes you have write through the rut you're in to come out to the sunlight on the other side. After a tough day, or week, or month.. it's nice to have a little respite and feel optimistic again. Granted, it may not be sunshine yet, but it's not rain. It's funny because my situation yesterday and my situation today are at face value, exactly the same. I haven't had some quintessential revelation or hit the lottery. (Not that I would ever want to deal with all that unasked for limelight) Yet today I have a better outlook. I don't know. Maybe it's because I got a good night's sleep. And all the support and love from friends helped to save the day, too. In any case, I am ready to get over myself and get back to mocking other people and things. (You knew it wouldn't be much lo...

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...

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...

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...

This post is going to sound slightly cruel. In fact, it  may make me seem heartless. Well, I'm not. But after having the opportunity to learn more about Hemingway and his life- I've come to the sound conclusion: I don't like the man. Not one bit more than I like wisdom tooth extraction.  Trust me, I know . It's not that I hate Hemingway. Nevermind his lack of imagery, or his constant offenses towards God and religion. I can understand his being fed up with hipocrisy.  Its the hateful bitterness and spine-less attitude that characterized him as a person that makes him irritably intolerable in my eyes. He lived a life of blame, finding the culprit for his own failures in the women he married for money, used and then divorced.  Granted, he was smitten over an older nurse that moved on to fry bigger fish. I get it. Heartbreak hurts. But why don't you grow some character ? Build a bridge, make it golden if you like, and walk over it. You can't continue dwelling in...