'Centless

Welcome to my blog!

I hope you enjoyed my Web 1.0 salutation.  If not, don't worry, as I just exhausted my tech vocabulary.

I'm both excited and apprehensive to start a blog for the same reasons most people are.  I'm excited because I believe it's a great outlet to share what's on my mind while communicating in a way much less formal than a work email, but much more in depth than personal text message.  I'm apprehensive because I don't know who my audience is, or should be, and while I'm not the most unique person ever, my interests, friends, and feelings vary greatly, and I fear that I can't keep a voice that fully captures all of who I am.  However, I'm fresh off a conversation with my sister who encouraged me to take the plunge, which just so happened to follow a great exchange with a friend +Ashley Hazelwood about taking action, the truest enemy of mediocrity.  Here begins my assault on the status quo, of sorts, as I realize that I joined an army of millions.

I love words, music, and colors.  Whenever I write in my journal or record any of my personal videos, I always start with something from each category such as words learned or used interestingly, songs on my mind, colors representing my mood at the moment, or any other random story or connection.  No need to deviate.


Word: Acerbic - harsh or severe, as of temper or expression: acerbic criticism.
Song: "I Gave You Power" by Nas
Color: Smoky Gray - I'm in a hazy state of mind where some important areas of my life are cloudier than I would like, but smoke always clears and I'm not worried about seeing past this.



Spoiler Alert! Most of the words, songs, and colors don't relate to the entry's main topic.  This is especially true today because the aforementioned WSC gives a sense of brooding contemplation, and I'm not about that life right now.  Trust me, deep thoughts and emotions are always brewing, and I watch too many TED talks and read too many news articles to go long before pouring those out to you.  Until then...


'Centless!  I'm both without much money and my favorite cologne, Amber by Prada.  We all know the powerful impact of scent - studies tying smell as the strongest sense to memory and kids being made fun of for stinking up the classroom on a hot day - so I don't need to convince you of the cognitive and social benefits of good hygiene.  This is personal.  Although compliments are always welcomed and appreciated, I straight up just love the way it smells on me.  As someone who is almost eerily concerned that I consistently might smell a little less than fresh (probably because I sweat a lot), I try hard to find the right deodorants, body washes, and the rest to keep me on point throughout the day.  I have plenty of other options beyond Amber, and they're cool, but that's my Bottom Bottle, feel me???  No? Well, sometimes I peruse bookstores and libraries and buy/borrow books if the title catches my attention.  I'm currently listening to an audiobook called Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim.  You might ask, "But why, Que? You're nice and you went to college?" To that I reply, "Quit your yappin' and finish readin' this blog, fool!"  Well, my curiosity was piqued after a cursory glance of the overview which began with, "A blueprint. A bible. What Sun Tzu's Art of War was to ancient China, Pimp is to the streets."  C'mon, son!  How could you not at least want to know what's inside, even if only for a second.  Plus, it was at the library, so turning down free was hard to do.  Anyway, I'm learning all types of antiquated pimp vernacular that I'll never use in daily language, so subtly incorporating it into this blog is the only way to go, baby.  Back to Amber, it's far from the most expensive cologne on the market, running about $80 at Macy's (less on Amazon, but reviews of its integrity there are dicey).  My nonprofit budget and Suze Orman sensibility deny me of indulging at the moment, but it makes me wonder, how much austerity is much is too much when living within your means is a goal directly at odds with enjoying your youth to the fullest?


I don't have the answer, and I'm sure that there's too much to unpack for a simple and universally acceptable one.  However, my guess is that most people would say there's some type of balance to strike, but when I think of balance, I think even.  And when I think of even, I think 50/50, which doesn't make sense to me concerning time and finances as a man in his late 20's.  I'm a firm believer in preparing for tomorrow because it usually comes for most people.  I don't have a loaded retirement fund and years worth of canned goods in a bunker, so I'm not living too conservatively, but making decisions like holding off on one type of cologne when other priorities need attention makes sense to me; it's more about the behavior than any particular purchase or incident.  But I still wonder how many of those actions coming that thinking are needed.  Recently, I listed to a Ted talk (reference came sooner than expected) which touched partly on how the health benefits of running at certain speeds diminish as it increases.  I don't remember specifics, but perhaps running at 9mph doesn't do more for your body than running at 7.5mph, and the increase could potentially cause harm.  Can't this thinking apply to how we spend or save?  Too often we're either suckered into spending all of our dollars on useless things and unremarkable experiences or chastised for not doing enough to prepare for the future.  We all have a pretty good idea of the type of individuals we are.  If we're honest, we probably can get closer to that elusive balance than we think, but I also believe we need more older and experienced people on our team to give us insight, not just instructions.  All I know is that YOLO is an incomplete thought and tomorrow isn't today.

That's all for now.  This blog surely was lengthy, right?  Well, we don't need the introduction going forward, and I'll get better at distinguishing what makes the final cut, so more brevity really soon. 

Stick with me, I'm going places :-)