I Don't Want to be a Millionaire

It's true, I don't want to be a Millionaire, a Billionaire, or even just filthy rich. I know living in a western capitalist society that it sounds strange, or even unheard of, but it's absolutely true. I don't want to be rich. I urge to be comfortable, and have some money in the bank, but I don't want the hassle of being rich. I never have, and I suspect that I never will. I honestly hope that is a trait I can pass onto my children as well.

Why don't I want to be rich? I guess that's the complicated part. I don't want the hassle, and I do not see any reason for it. I see celebrities showered in free gifts, and given millions of dollars for absolutely no reason. I don't see a reason why, in a world where there are people starving to death, why 1 person should be making millions and billions of dollars; I find that absolutely appalling.

I'm no saint by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have morals. I don't understand why people who can absolutely afford anything should be given anything free of charge, just to get a brand out there. It blows my mind, and simultaneously pisses me off to no end. Why go through the trouble of ensuring that a celebrity gets a free pair of shoes, but millions of children in our own country have trouble obtaining a decent pair.

That's just some of it. I don't understand how we live in a "tough economic climate" and yet there are record profits being made, and unemployment is out of control. I just don't understand it. We have trillions of dollars in debt, and yet we made 128 new billionaires this year alone. The original Forbes list can be found Here. It blows my mind.

I understand that hard work pays off. I have been a hard worker most of my life, and I still struggle, but I also have the insane notion that also defines me. I honestly do hope that one day my hard work does add up, and I do land a great job with great pay with great people. But I don't want to be rich in the process. I want to live comfortably. That is my goal in life, to work for myself from home, and be able to be comfortable doing so. I don't even want to be well off with no worries in life, I just want to be comfortable. That doesn't seem like an outlandish dream, it actually sounds mundane in comparison to some of the fiscal goals I've discussed with others.

I do know this, if I did have millions of dollars, there would be a lot of happy charities. I'd still make my kids get jobs, and they would work them. Sure, I would help them out here or there, but they would honestly grow to understand the value of a dollar and how much it means to make that dollar.

I don't want to be remembered for the amount of money I had while alive. I want to be remembered for the legacy I left behind. Currency cannot be taken with us when we pass, but the value of what we left behind can be felt for generations.

Photo taken by: Hoboton and hosted at stock.xchng.

Time is not on my side

I don't know what it is. I just never seen to have enough time. Never enough time to do everything it is that I want to accomplish throughout the day. Sure I accomplish a lot, and I'm perpetually busy, and It seems like I live on the bleeding edge, but there is so much more I would like to get done.

I don't have that typical western attitude of "time is money." There is just so much I want to get done in this life. I want to leave a legacy for my children. I want them to be able to look up at me and have the ability to tell people that their father worked hard, and got things done. I want to leave a mark behind, some kind of accomplishment that I can be proud of; something that I can say "yeah, I did that."

I've spent my whole life working hard. I don't ever see me retiring, it's just not in me. Even my own father, who is seriously disabled, and very ill, still maintains a job. I look up at that with a sign of respect. He doesn't need to hold a job, hell, he's earned himself a break in my eyes, but that's just not how we operate.

It's like the harder you work, the bigger the load gets, and less time to accomplish it in. The more you chase after it, the faster it slips away. People keep telling me I need to slow down, and like I tell them "I'm just getting started."

Close friends

I've always been the type of person to have few friends. I've always had many associates, but only a few friends. I don't count how popular I am with the amount of friends I possess, but on the quality of friends that I possess.
For me, life isn't about being famous or rich. I don't wish for either, and never have. When you pass, those qualities won't mean anything wherever it is you go. No, I prefer to live my life to the best of my ability. I don't surround myself with superficial people whom I share no interests with, but people I can count on and who can count on me. 
All of my life I have retained few friends, but those friends I imagine I will have until one of us leave this planet. And for that, I remain humbled and grateful by my association with them. They are truly amazing individuals, and each with a personality of their own.
As the sun goes down this evening, I take a moment and think of these individuals, and thank them for all that they have done for me, and hopefully I've done just as much for them. I thank them for coming into my life, usually at times when it seemed like fate, and helping me to become the man that I am today.

Two such individuals have begun blogs for themselves, and you can meet them for yourself. I can personally vouch for both of these men, and hopefully you can take something away yourself when you've been informally introduced through their words.
Eros Helios can be found at View From the Sun and Bear can be found at Bear's Den.
I encourage you to check them both out.

Transition Complete

Well, I've finally removed all of the old media from this site. Most of it is up at [D]Motivated, and what isn't up so far, should be shortly. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves thus far, and continue to be humored. If you haven't had a chance to check out the new site, be sure to do so. It's a community driven site, and we continue to gain more visitors every month. There is a little bit for everyone to be found there.
You may be wondering why I've removed all of the old media? A lot of it has to do with accomplishing a goal, and setting new ones. It's hard to progress when you're preoccupied with the past. My goal of completing a community humor site has been accomplished and now it's time to move on with my other goals. I'm sure in time I will update the style of this blog as well, and update a few features. My first post was about 4 years ago, and a lot of things about the web, and myself, have matured since then; and for the better.
So, as we move forward into the future, remember that it's okay to let go of past. What's been done is done and you can't go back. There's only looking forward into tomorrow. 

What is [D]Motivated?

I started this blog as a way to share demotivational posters from around the web that I found humorous. I wanted a site that was exclusively demotivational posters, and a great user community that also enjoyed them as well. Most of the demotivational sites that I have found around the web are mostly blog rolls, and while you find things here and there, i wanted to give users the ability to look at groups of them at the same time, and only be forced into looking at the ones that they wanted to, not all of them in a continuous stream.
I didn't really have any real web experience at the time, and didn't really know where to start. The blog was a way for me to get started while I taught myself the ins and outs of web development. It eventually tapered off while I progressed with my experience, and the closer I became to publishing the format I truly dreamed of, the less I posted here. I finally published [D]Motivated.com on Halloween night 2011; it seemed fitting.
Everything from the blog, as far as media and jokes were migrated off to [D]Motivated.com, and I expected this blog to eventually die off; at which point I would just take it down. To my surprise, that didn't happen, the dying off part anyway. I still get several thousand visitors here a month. I think I may just use this blog as a blog is intended for, a live journal, a series of posts relating to the same thing. Maybe i'll find it therapeutic in a way. I figure if we're still getting traffic, I might as well entertain the masses.
I will be posting musings from time to time, things that I observe in the world around me, and things that piss me off with the world, and give people a chance to chime in their opinions as well. I'll probably be posting images from [D]Motivated as well, my favorites, as I am still a fan of the poster/saying layout. Until then, Casper out.