Blue Mondays, Peace Pilgrims, and three day resolutions

I wanted to cover this yesterday, given that it was actually Blue Monday. But since it was Inauguration Day and even a national holiday, I decided to save it for Self-Help Tuesday, today.

Apparently Blue Monday is the most depressing day of the year. Actually, until last week, I’d never heard of it.  Someone I was talking to mentioned the term and when I asked her what “Blue Monday” was she said, “It’s the day when most people bail on their New Year’s resolutions.” Continue reading

Vox populi

“The Voice” on NBC; American entertainment at its best.

Tee Vee is a strange phenomenon.  Some say what we watch as Americans speaks to something deep and disturbing about us as a people. Or possibly, it’s just a reflection of what entertainment has become in these latter days.

Our Tee Vee watching is Balkanized like just about everything else—how we gather news and information; how we select and listen to music. Everything is just one big personalized smorgasbord, part and parcel of our vapid 21st century lives. Continue reading

Moonlighting on Cyber Monday

When consumers call, someone must pick up on the other end.

We live in an age of transitions; at least that’s what we’re being sold. Gone are the glory days of union-wage jobs and pension funds. “Bring on the free agents” cry the 21st century prophets (or perhaps, profiteers) that tell us that all we need is a better, or more diverse tool set to succeed in the new economy.

Moonlighting—that age-old tradition of holding a 2nd job in addition to your primary wage-earning position—is something that more than 8 million Americans are engaged in. I’m one of those, juggling multiple paying gigs, all adding up to one mess of 1099s and a coming tax-paying train wreck of an employment situation. Continue reading