Getting to No Debt

After my divorce, I was broke. Like, “checking under couch cushions for gas money” broke. I didn’t know what I’d do, and stress became my full-time side hustle.

My marriage had its comforts—or at least I thought it did. The love was real, but most of it was aimed at our child instead of each other. Still, marriage gave me chances I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I got to see life outside of Texas, and during the early years of my ex’s career, I was the one cheering her on as she traveled for work.

The trade-off? I handled the bills, mostly with credit cards. I never told her just how bad it got—I figured I could carry it alone. Spoiler: I couldn’t. Things fell apart: house, cars, relationship. And still, I thought overspending made me look strong. Instead, it just made me broke and single.

Then came the rebound. I met someone new, thought she was “the one,” and fell hard. She struggled with mental illness, and I wanted to build a life with her, but deep down I knew it wasn’t possible. I even got a vasectomy to stop myself from making reckless choices. I poured everything into us—time, money, trips, gifts. And when it ended, so did my finances.

I dated more. More debt. Then the pandemic hit—and oddly, that was my reset button. I met someone amazing, and together we learned to make dinner out of whatever was left in the pantry. She didn’t just improvise—she improved me. Within a year, I closed my Discover card with a zero balance and brought my debt down to something manageable.

The moral? Debt feels impossible until it isn’t. I was $30,000 under, and five years later, I dug out. My advice: call your credit card companies, cut up your cards, be honest with your partner, and above all, stay hopeful. If I can do it, anyone can.

Anthony Green

 

English realist painter and printmaker Anthony Green RA was best known for the narrative paintings that portray domestic life in compound perspectives and polygonal forms. 

Green was born on September 30, 1939 in Luton, Bedfordshire. He was taught by Welsh landscape painter Kyffin Williams and the Slade School of Art. 

In a seminar series in 2013, he mentioned the struggle to fit in as a "European artist" at the Slade School, "...I'm a half-French. I cut my teeth not in English art, which I thought was a kind of off-shore paled shadow of continental art, but in fact the proper art was found in Paris. As a school boy, I knew the Louvre better than the National Gallery... when I came home from my relatives in France, I was into French art. I considered to be a good European artist."

After spending some time in the United States, Green was elected a full Member of the Royal Academy in 1971. Green was sought out for exhibitions internationally. His pictorial sculpture titled Resurrection toured UK cathedrals in 2000. 

Resurrection (2000)

Springtime in Lissenden Gardens, London (1939)

The Chinese Lantern (1974)

Source: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/anthony-green-ra

Sylvia Kristel

 

I use to wait up for my parents to get home from date night. It was scary at first but then it became a routine I looked forward to. 

I was in my teens and my parents had upgraded their cable service to include the movie channels, HBO and Skin-a-Max -- I mean, Cinemax.

My parents had date nights on Fridays, and that was okay with me. My dad would take me to the video store and let me pick out two movies. I would typically get a comedy and a Disney movie. 

At the time, the house wasn't that big. It was shaped like an L with the entertainment room being in the center.

Before my parents would leave, pizza was typically order from Pizza Hut or Dominos. I had my pizza and movies ready and playing. 

By 10:30 pm, I had finished the two rental movies and ready to turn on Cinemax. 

Right on the dot. An after hours movie would begin. 

Emmanuelle.

The amazingly gorgeous 5'9" Dutch actress and model Sylvia Kristel caught my attention and I quickly fell in love with her character Emmanuelle. 

Sylvia Kristel was born on September 28, 1952 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She is best remembered for playing Emmanuelle and eventually typecast to other similar roles that capitalized on her sexual provocative image. 

She began modeling at the age of 17. She won the Miss TV Europe contest in 1973, before starring in the role of Emmanuelle.  

In the 80s, Kristel starred in Lady Chatterley's Lover, Mata Hari, Private Lessons, and The Nude Bomb. 

In 2006, Kristel received an award at the Tribeca Film Festival for directing Topor et Moi, a short animated documentary film.  

On October 17, 2012, Kristel passed away from esophageal and lung cancer.

via Wikipedia

via rannygallery

Source: Wikipedia

Matt Harding

Where in the Hell is Matt? Better yet, who in the hell is Matt? 

Matt Harding is a video-game developer who, in 2006, decided to quit his job and travel the world. He became a YouTube celebrity after videos of him dancing in different parts of the world went viral. 

Born on September 27, 1976 and originally from Westport, Connecticut, Matt worked in the video game industry before becoming an internet celebrity.

He's credited in developing eight video games, such as Destroy All Humans! and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow.

Want to smile today, check out his YouTube channel HERE and his website HERE. 

Nintendo Koppai

 

On September 23, 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi opened Nintendo Koppai, a shop that produced and sold hand-crafted flower cards known as hanafuda. During this time, the Japanese government had outlawed gambling cards except for Yamauchi's hanafuda. Demand for the cards increased, which led Yamauchi to mass-produce the hanafuda cards as well as offer lower-quality cards known as Tengu. 

In the 1900s, Yamauchi entered into an agreement with Nihon Senbai, a nationalized tobacco company, to market its cards at various cigarette stores throughout Japan. 

In the 1930, Sekiryo (Kaneda) Yamauchi established the company as a general partnership titled Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. Ltd. 

In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company Marufuku Co. Ltd. A few years later, his successor grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, changed the name of the company to Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. and changed the name of Marufuku Company to Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd.

In the late 1950s, Nintendo contracted with Walt Disney to incorporate the Disney characters onto the playing cards. A few years later, Nintendo became a public company and changed its name to Nintendo Co., Ltd.

The company released its first video game console, the Color TV-Game in 1977. Donkey Kong was then released in 1981, followed by the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console was released in 1985. 

Source: Wikipedia

Maria Lassnig

Born on September 8, 1919, Maria Lassnig was an Austrian artist known for her self-portraits and theory of "body awareness."

Raised by her grandmother, Maria attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In the 50s, she was part of the Hundsgruppe, a group of artists known for abstract expressionism and action painting; however, she later became known for her self-portraits.

In the 60s, she began to focus more on self-portraits exploring the human body and psyche. 

She became the first female professor of painting at the Vienna University of Applied Arts in the 1980s.

"Selbstporträt expressiv" (Expressive Self-Portrait), 1945

"Adam and Eve and a Mirror," 2001

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Lassnig
http://upliketoast.blogspot.com/2014/05/rip-maria-lassnig.html
http://art-mirrors-art.tumblr.com/post/96636359299/maria-lassnig-adam-and-eve-and-a-mirror-2001
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/contemporary/2017/03/5-things-to-know-about-maria-lassnig.html

Testing Positive for COVID-19

Recently, I was tested for COVID-19. Well, let me back up a little and give some background to this story.

I work for an organization. Not just an ordinary organization--one with a lot of kids. Anyways, I coordinated for the public health authority to come to our institution and test our staff. Of course, this was all voluntary. 

Only 16% of our staff came to get the PCR test. Sixteen percent. Dieciséis por ciento. Let that sink in a bit. Not even a quarter of a population.

Any way, although I coordinated the event and I didn't have any symptoms what so ever, I volunteered. I chose to take the swab to the back of the lining of my brain. Not fun. It felt like a stick rubbing and turning inside your face while it scratches the back of what could possibly be the furtherest anything can ever go. I tested positive.

Yup. I tested positive for the coronavirus. The results weren't instant. Nope. It took the health authority three days to provide the results. 

Thursday night my coworker and I were receiving results of the test. It was pouring in slowly. At 10 or so we decided to call it a night and check on the results the following morning.

That morning--early morning--I received a call from my coworker that I couldn't come to work. She instructed me that I shall quarantine at my home until September 20th. 

This caught me by surprise, to say the least. How could this have happened? Who gave me the virus? Was it my friend? Was it Vegas? Was it my girlfriend? The gym? Who? 

I was in denial. I took it as a joke. But then reality hit. I had to respond and think of those I was in contact with during the past week. I called my girlfriend--she was upset. I texted my ex-wife--she was concerned about our child. I told my kid, she couldn't go to school until she took an antigen test. I texted my best friend who I traveled to Vegas with because he was scheduled to pick up his daughter that evening.

I told my coworker all the people that could have been close contacts. I expressed my concerns about one of my coworkers who is a cancer survivor and asked that they list her as a possible close contact. 

Everything was flooding into my brain and I was feeling exhausted. 

My kid tested negative twice. So did my girlfriend. My best friend tested negative in the PCR test. This wasn't Vegas. It was at home, I thought. It kept me up for hours one night as I tried to remember who wasn't wearing masks. 

Living in Texas you have two breeds of the same kind. You have those who don't wear a mask, period, for political reasons. And you have those who wear a mask, period, for political reasons. Unfortunately, a piece of cloth became a political divide. 

I am here to say that I wore a mask not for political reasons. In fact, I have to admit, I chose not to wear a mask at the gym. Why, should I? I was socially distant, I argued my defense to my epidemiologist girlfriend. 

Well. The thing is, we need to wear a mask not for us or our freedom or whatever. We need to wear a mask for others. Period.

This is a new virus. We don't know much about it--we are getting there, but not yet. Our scientists and doctors are playing catch-up because we aren't allowing them time to evaluate a variant long enough to solve it. 

To put it into perspective: I was one of 16% of our staff who tested positive. Statistically, that would mean 6 out of 100 of our employees are carrying the virus and spreading it without even showing signs. 

Considering that only about 70% adults are fully vaccinated, that would mean 2 of those 6 carrying the virus would feel the effects of COVID-19. 

The one thing that is helping slow the spread is the face mask. I wear mine at work. The only time I don't at work is when I'm alone in my office. Big mistake. 

Outside of work, I wear it everywhere, except the gym. Big mistake.

I implore all of you to just consider masking and testing. Both will slow the spread of the virus. Stop with the politics. It's not you against me. It's not me against you. No one has the upper hand.

The virus doesn't care about politics. It doesn't care if you are Republican or Democrat. It doesn't care if you are a Trumper or a Bidenist. It feeds on our ignorance, period. Full Stop.