If you spend your time comparing your lot in life with someone else, you probably will end up driving yourself crazy. But you can have a strategy for dealing with this stuff.

Strategies. You don't like Curious Labs, Daz, Corel, TurboSquid, or Walmart. Don't shop at them.

Teach your family better manners than to eat before dinner.

Support small business by buying from them. Recommend small businesses to other.

Ignore the Hot 20. Who cares? On the list of things that don't matter, Hot 20 is at the top of my list (or bottom, depending on your perspective).

Don't like the gallery here? Start your own website. Show them how it should be done.

Remember that fashion is a temporary infliction created by people who want you to buy something new and expensive every year. No one needs a new warerobe every season (except Vicky, of course). Just hold on to the stuff you love, and don't fall into the trap of having to keep up with the 19 year olds whose parents were dumb enough to give them credit cards.

Focus on doing the best you can, and support the people whose work you respect.

Model the behavior you want other to have. Respect their right not to care what you think.

I've allowed other people to raise my blood pressure most of my life. I'm working on changing my focus. I can't change them. I can change my approach. Not saying I don't get mad (everyone here knows I've got a short fuse), but I'm working on it day by day.

And I think if someone comes up with a really cool idea, the competition will rise again, and push the status quo. We've been predicting the death of imagination, creativity and inventiveness for years, but people who don't know they can't do it still manage to rise to the surface and do it despite the naysayers and doomsters.

Don't give your power away to other people. You have choices you can make. Don't make them on the basis of what everyone else is doing, but what you need to to do for yourself, your family, your friends, your causes near to your heart and soul.

And that's about all one can do.

And don't complain if you don't participate. I'm tired of non-voters whining. If you don't care enough to get involved, don't come to me or anyone else, and complain that something didn't get done.

And that's it for me.

Soap box dismantled.

Walking off to build my bomb shelter with the pieces.

Message edited on: 04/19/2005 11:16