If there is one thing I learned about being on social media, it’s that people are smug. They will show their smugness out in the open. They will also hide it behind cutesy words. This was especially prevalent when the Biden Administration announced plans to forgive student loans for 20 million Americans last week
Of course, I was happy for those who still have them even though I never had student loans. Some, like me, who have never had student loans or have paid them off, think this is a bad idea because “if I could do it, so can they. It was the attitude I was seeing as I was scrolling through Twitter on the day of the announcement.
With high education costs in this country, I see not having student loans or paying them off as a privilege. I recognize that, and I’m using it to tell those struggling to pay them off that I’m happy for you.
Of course, the other part of the announcement is the cap on interest rates at 5%. The unlimited interest rates plus the predatory lending are why many people owe more than they borrowed.
As I mentioned earlier, people who gained an upper hand in any situation love to feel smug about the less fortunate. They feel that because they could do this and that with ease, everyone else should do the same. And it’s not just those who no longer paying student loans before the announcement came, but also I see this with MLM huns, billionaires, multimillionaires, bankers, politicians, and CEOs, and some of them didn’t actually work hard to get to the top.
Speaking of politicians… I’ll leave this here:
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.https://t.co/4FoCymt8TB
A thread from the official White House Twitter account where they dunk politicians who had their PPP loans forgiven for bitching and moaning about students having their student loans forgiven
All I’m saying is this… even if you’re like me and are not affected by the announcement, at least have empathy for those who are. Empathy goes a long way and you and others will be better off for it.
It all started one day in 2004 after Ronald Reagan’s death that I just wanted to see what was happening. But I quickly wanted more out of it. I knew there was more of CNN than I was seeing, given that I’m living in the United States and did a bit of digging on the internet or how global the channel is. Enter CNN International.
I started watching because I wanted to know what was going on around the world. I love learning about countries, so I’m always down for Eurovision and the Olympics (and the World Cup).
I ended up tuning in to CNN International religiously (even when we got hit with 4 hurricanes that year) because of the news happening all over the world, but also because the anchors and reporters were top-notch (I’m one of those people lol).
I stopped watching in 2005 and didn’t get back to it until one day in 2009 when I was flipping through the channel at the end of my day in college and I saw that my local cable provider had added it in three days earlier. So, again, I started watching religiously.
During that time, greed took over on their part. The management (and the ones that came after) started gutting the journalists I got to know and love and replaced them with the ones that keep making headlines themselves despite the old adage that journalists should never be part of the news. I stopped watching in 2016
My last run with it went from 2019 to early 2022. It had carried me through the pandemic, but I also saw that the most meaningful shows only came on in the middle of the night, morning hours, and afternoon my time. The US primetime lineup is exactly the same as the main CNN primetime lineup (they had this for 10 years now), and I just couldn’t do it anymore. Plus, it’s hard to find the channel when you cut the cord.
So why am I bringing this up? One, I wanted to be a journalist. I love writing, but at the time, I didn’t feel like I would want to pursue the career. I always admired them, sometimes much more than most people. Two, I was in college pursuing a degree in Accounting, and this was a way for me to unwind from the coursework. Three, I got to meet other CNNI fans all over the world at the height of it between 2009 and 2011 and I felt like I have a solid network (and I still follow them on social media to this day, even if we’ve gone on to other things).
I will say this, despite the troubles… the journalists at CNN are real and credible and nothing in this world will convince me otherwise. However, the greed from both management and some of the anchors had taken over and while the new boss is trying to clean up the act, I don’t think it’ll be enough to get this longtime fan to come back. So, in short, I have moved on to getting news mainly from local sources and some independent news outlets (and no, don’t take anything at face value, no matter who is saying it).
Let me know your thoughts on the news industry as a whole.
The reason why I ask this is because I have been following a subreddit called the Herman Cain Awards for the past year, and to be honest, I like their mission. The subreddit was created as a cautionary tale of people who think COVID isn’t real, or it’s hoax, or it’s some bioweapon or something, refuse to get vaccinated, and then ended up either dead or disabled from it. We can go on about COVID measures all day, but this is about reacting to those featured in the subreddit
If you must ask, yes, I am vaxxed and boosted. I haven’t caught COVID yet, however, I had a standard cold mid-May. But enough about me, it had me thinking if we should feel a bit of schadenfreude over those refusing to get vaccinated and die or should we feel sorry? I’m in a mixture of both. I’m the type of person who feel sorry for strangers, even if the rest of the world decides that they didn’t need pity. I’m also feeling schadenfreude when the person who dies of COVID is a combination of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and so on.
It’s a really crazy thing that has came up during the pandemic, but it’s also relaxing, in a way. For one, I’ve learned that there are crazier people out there than I had originally thought. My mom always told me growing up that to not trust anyone because, in her words, “there’s some crazy loonies out there”, and she’s right. If they weren’t crazy before, they are now.
So, this is a short post I’m making after my long one about my pandemic pasttime so let me know your thoughts. Make sure you keep it within reason, okay.
And it felt like I got a new hobby to play with, even though I don’t have a niche.
But I did spent some time last week before and after work searching on Google, Reddit, WordPress itself, and other sites for tips on being successful while blogging. I have gotten some valuable tips along the way, and I will like to share what I have learned and experienced
You don’t really need a niche: Most bloggers have a niche and are using that to make money for their knowledge, but if you don’t have a specific niche, that’s fine too. I personally don’t have a specific niche and have a variety of topics to write about. Considering my blog is a week old, I’m actually okay with it. Even if you want to make money off your blog, you might not need a niche to do it. I would say, just be knowledgeable on the various topics you want to write about. So far, I have already written about Eurovison, anti-MLM, Rocketbook, and Bingo… all vastly different topics, and that’s not even scratching the surface
SEO: I’m still learning Search Engine Optimization, but what it does is that you can create backlinks for your site, curate relevant keywords to your topic at hand, and gain more visibility to Google and other search engines. I was told this is important for marketing, so I will be focusing on this behind the scenes a little bit more.
Theme: If you haven’t read my blog post So I’m New To WordPress, I’ll leave a link. On that post, I wrote about my struggles to get the theme I wanted plus the color scheme that not only I like, but it also doesn’t strain the readers’ eyes. I went through three themes before I decided on the one you’re seeing now, mainly because I wanted to use excerpts on the front page. If you are someone still strugging with a theme, I can tell you this… find the one that you like, but also one that helps the reader see your posts clearly.
Keyword Researching is definitely a thing: So I had to look this up because I wasn’t really sure where they were going with this, but I did find a website where you type in your keyword and it’ll show you how it would perform as well as other keywords you could use. That’s what I did with my Bingo Blitz post. This is also part of the SEO, but basically, the best thing to do is to use the low frequent tags to gain traffic, and then you can move up from there.
Sharing your posts also help: I have mine set to share automatically on Twitter and LinkedIn, but you can also plug your blog on other social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Now I haven’t shared on Instagram yet, but then again, I don’t really use social media a lot. I also found out that you can share your blog on Quora and Pinterest and you may get more traffic, so I will be trying that out too, since I have accounts on both.
Posting as often as you possibly can: This was a big one for me because I thought initally that you have to post, let’s say, 5 times a day, but fellow WP blogger Mac’s Opinion gave me a great recommendation — post daily. Some bloggers can get by with posting 2 to 3 times a week, sometimes 4, but I feel like, because I’m starting out, I want to post daily. Of course, because of my job, I can’t physically post daily, so instead, I use the schedule option so that each post I make, I set it to 12pm EDT every day to keep up with my posting schedule. If you want to try that, make a post, and then after you’re done, when you click Publish, go to the arrow on the ‘Publish’ tab (just below visibility) and you can schedule your post there. This is also great for drafting purposes when you can make changes to your posts before it goes live.
Finally, just be yourself: With all these tips in mind, and life in general, it’s always important to be yourself. You don’t have to copy every single thing a successful blogger does, but you can always put yourself out there for other bloggers to read your posts. I have struggled to be myself nearly all my life, but I can tell you, it’s rewarding once you let go of things that are holding you back. Blogging is a great avenue to share tips, tricks, and your opinions on various topics, and you might find an audience for it.
These are all the tips I was able to get from my research last week. Do you know any others? Drop them below in the comments section. If you’ve been coming back to this blog or if you are a new visitor, thank you so much for reading.
Exercising is also a must, as anyone working in the health industry would tell you, but this post is only about my diet journey
I switched up my diet 6 months ago from eating meat 24/7 to eating only meat at dinner time and eating plant-based versions of my favorite food items for breakfast and lunch. My mother switched up her diet due to her lactose intolerance and introduced me to a “plant-based” diet. So far, I have lost 25 pounds and I’m actually feeling great.
So why did I decide to change my diet? First off, I was close to 300 pounds. 296.4 pounds, to be exact. My height of 5’10” might have dwarfed that, but to me, it’s an indication that I needed to change. Another reason was how the meat industry process the meat coming into their butcher shops, and it’s more gruesome than you think. I won’t go into details, so I’ll leave you at that.
Note: I am not a dietician nor a nutritionist or a personal trainer. If you’re looking for a specific plan, go to someone who has these credentials. What you’re about to read should not be taken as absolute advice, I’m only telling you what has helped me in making the switch.
Back to my diet, my biggest change came at breakfast time. Before I changed my diet, whatever I ate before 10am was breakfast. Last night’s pasta, a chicken patty, donuts, it didn’t matter. Now, I grew fond of cooking breakfast. I used to cook breakfast all the time when I was little, but for high school and college and even into adulthood, I would only cook breakfast maybe twice a year, but now I do it several times a week. Some days I would eat a waffle, other days it’s toast with scrambled eggs. This morning, I had a Just Egg patty with a vegan sausage sandwiched by two pieces of buttered toast. The bread gets buttered before I put them in the toaster. 10/10 would totally recommend. Now, of course, you don’t have to cook breakfast every morning — a bowl of cereal is sufficient.
For lunch, I usually go to a vegan version of my favorite snacks and meals… among them, tuna fish sandwiches, Gardein hamburgers and fish fillets, and Morning Star veggie pizza rolls, vegan corn dogs, vegan hot dogs, vegan patties, and vegan chicken strips. On some days, I would heat up last night’s dinner and call it a meal. Dinner is always a toss-up for me and remains my only unchanged meal.
I have also switched up my snacking habits. I still snack at night, but one thing I did not have was a cut-off period. Before, I would eat a bit a time before midnight. Now, my cut-off is 9pm. Any snack would do — chips, cookies, ice cream, donuts, you name it. Just have a cut-off period a few hours before bedtime.
And, no, you don’t have to completely give up the soda, but I started drinking more water than usual and only have soda on the weekends. The myth that you have to drink 8 gallons a day is just that… a myth. So is the “drinking half your weight in water” myth.
Eating plant-based food during the day has led me to a discovery — a lot of the foods I have eaten were considered “plant-based”. One example is Macaroni Salad. I LOVE macaroni salad. My mother makes the best macaroni salad. Between the noodles, mixed vegetables, and mayo… it’s just perfect. Another “plant-based” meal is rice and beans. I am Puerto Rican, Haitian, and American, and rice is prominent in both Puerto Rican and Haitian culture. I cannot cook rice the regular way for the life of me (because too many steps lol) so instead, I do 5-minute instant rice. I usually pair it up with red beans, but pink beans, butter beans, black beans, and chickpeas are also great options.
So, this has been my plant-based journey so far. However, I’m not going all vegan, but it has helped me in a way to moderate my food intake. Whether or not you’re all vegan, let me know your thoughts on dieting (if you ask me, dieting is 🤮 because of how people market it and overall, it just creates more harm than good).
That doesn’t mean I can’t talk about how useful the product is tho
Note: This is a general review of the two notebooks I currently have and therefore, not doing a specific review of each product. I might do that once I get my hands on the Multi-Subject Notebook
I currently own 2 Rocketbooks: Rocketbook Core (formerly Everlast) and Rocketbook Fusion. I got my Rocketbook Core Notebook back in 2018 from my mom who bought it from Amazon a year earlier just to try it out. She liked it at first, but then she gave it to me along with the Pilot Frixion pens that came with it.
This notebook was, at the time, one at a kind because you can write down your notes and then upload them to a cloud via a special Rocketbook app where you can send them to your email, your Google Drive, or your Microsoft OneDrive, or wherever it’s supported using the symbols at the bottom of each page via a QR code.
I immediately fell in love with it because I used to buy regular college-ruled notebooks like crazy and Rocketbook Core, and later Rocketbook Fusion, serve such a purpose that I don’t need to waste paper. There’s also the obligatory “this also saves the environment” tag, which I’m on board with.
Then in 2019, I found out about Rocketbook Fusion, which came with 7 different page styles. Among them are a task list, weekly and monthly calendars, a goal template, an ideas list, the usual dot-grid pages that came with the Rocketbook Core and Rocketbook Wave, and lined pages. The lined pages were the selling point for me. By the beginning of 2020, I received my second Rocketbook. I also bought new pens and a microfiber cloth that you can erase the pages with. I didn’t buy the spray bottles, so I used my empty perfume bottle to spray water onto the pages to wipe the pages clean.
Rocketbook Fusion is still my favorite notebook in this series, but now, 2 years later, my eyes are set on other Rocketbook items. The storefront on Amazon, as well as on their own website, has a variety of products, like Orbit, Flip, Matrix, Mini, Multi-Subject, Academic Planner, Panda Planner, Teacher Planner, Cloud Cards, beacons for your whiteboard, and filler paper. You can also buy Pilot Frixion pens and dry erase markers, spray bottles, and ink refills. I am planning to buy the Multi-Subject Notebook later this year. It comes with dividers so you can place them however you wish, but I don’t think I will be using them since I’m not in school (however, I write down things, so this is a plus)
In the past 8 years, Rocketbook went from an idea of two guys — Joe Lemay and Jake Epstein — at a pub to a multi-million dollar storefront. From the two notebooks that I own, I can say that it has helped me with the clutter, like I mentioned earlier, wasting paper is a thing of the past. I will absolutely recommend it to my readers here, as well as students who want to plan their school schedules and people who want to jot down notes, draw from their imaginations, or even those who want to declutter and go paperless. I will tell you that you will never go back once you start using it.
In addition to the two links below, the Rocketbook App is available on the App Store and on Google Play. Once you download the app, create your profile, set up your destinations, and you’re ready to upload the pages. Have fun.
And I wanted to start a blog here to share my views as well as a focusing mechanism, if you will, because for the last 20 years, since middle school, I have had a hard time focusing on even the basic stuff. I would not plan my days accordingly and therefore, go hours and even days without doing what I was supposed to do.
In other words, I was winging it.
But even though it’s a problem that is never fully going away, I wanted to find ways to mitigate it. I usually use Google Keep, One Note, and my Rocketbook notebooks (I have two and planning on buying a third) to keep me company while I sort out my days.
I know it’s not as exciting as actually planning the day the night before, but for me, it helps. I will share those apps in a later post.
For now, I will drop this equation here, and I’ll show you the steps to get the answer at the end of this post: -3(5x+9)=18
For this post, I spent the day fixing the template. I had a vastly different template when I started this blog Sunday night and I spent all of Monday fixing it and playing with it. I ended up hating my first template and switched to the second. The second one was alright — I was able to customize it — but I was still missing something. I had three posts (this is my 4th), and they weren’t showing up the way that I liked. I wanted to show just the excerpts of these posts, but the whole posts were being shown, so I really searched for a free WordPress template that shows excerpts and it’s easy to read while showing off my favorite color scheme.
Enter the one you’re looking at now.
So, yeah, it’s trial and error. If you’re new to WordPress like me, just play around with the templates, create your posts, and see where it goes from there. I was able to add the sidebar widgets that came with it, so I have an about me, a search function, categories, and tags on the right-hand side of this blog. I’m even trying out the in-house ad function because eventually, I want to make money off this. Right now, it’s a hobby of mine. I know I said in my first post that I am a math wiz, but I also like to write, so this is a perfect outlet for me to be creative (and be more creative than I really am).
Despite my forgetfulness, I was able to get by alright in my job. I can learn things academically without a problem, but when it comes to real-life stuff, my brain goes kaput. If you’re having the same issue, welcome. I am not a professional doctor, so I urge you to go to one if it’s part of a bigger health problem you might be dealing with. If you are reading this, thank you for stopping by.
And now, let’s revisit the equation I dropped earlier: -3(5x+9)=18. We are looking at an equation that requires distribution and solving for x
First — distribute the -3 to the inside parenthesis. Remember that multiplying a positive by a negative (and vice versa) will give you a negative: -15x-27=18
Second — add 27 to both sides. The + and – 27 will cancel out and you’ll be left with -15x=45
Finally — divide both sides by -15. Just like multiplication, the positive/negative signage applies to division. Dividing a positive by a negative (and vice versa) will give you a negative: x=-3
And if you want to check to make sure it’s correct, just plug in the -3 and solve. Remember the PEMDAS rule
Yep, you read that right (and judging by my bio), I am a very inconsistent person. Most people may or may not admit it, but I can admit to being an inconsistent person in real life. Why do I mean by that? Well, for starters, I don’t go through life normally. In fact, I am on a spectrum and remembering to do and say things have been really tough. Also, I am tone-deaf on a LOT of things. I don’t know if there is anyone else out there that feels the same way, but if there are… I got you.
In this blog, I will share my tips on focusing on even the most mundane of things using my favorite apps, as well as sharing my thoughts on my favorite things in the world. I love watching Eurovision (even as an American. I will get to that later), playing Pokemon and Bingo games (specifically Bingo Blitz and Bingo Pop), watching anti-MLM and general scams videos, YouTube Poops (think of them as pop culture on steroids), laughing at memes (not necessarily making them tho), watching the news just for news anchors, and being a lurker. By day tho, I am a freelance tutor. I mostly tutor math. In fact, I am planning to include a random math problem in nearly every post by posting a question at the beginning and then solving it at the end.
My blog is targeted to people over 18 who have trouble focusing on even the basic things in life, and those who also need an outlet to say what’s on their minds without people swarming them (within reason, of course). I actually started this on Google Blogspot, but I can tell you… let’s not do that. So I moved here to WordPress.
If you managed to find this blog, thank you for reading this. Follow me on Twitter @dezbee2008 or my backup @m_inconsistent for more updates
The Most Inconsistent Person in the World 