Archive for June, 2008

How to Run for Mayor

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Could I be Mayor of My Town?

Well, a 19 year old did it so you can too! Here is a guideline to get you started.

1. Obtain a copy of your town’s charter.

Your town charter will have the requirements for getting your name on the ballot.

2. Obtain a petition.

You usually need a petition with many hundreds or thousands of signatures in order to earn a place on the ballot.

3. Didn’t make the ballot?

That’s ok, consider a write-in campaign and provide voters with stickers that fit on a ballot with your write-in information.

4. Running for a particular party?

If so, you’ll need to attend the General Election to be nominated as the representative of your party.

5. Finance and run the campaign

Petition members of your community and other organizations for donations. Get a group of people and supporters together to help run your campaign. You can accomplish much more if you get a good group of supporters behind you!

6. Advertise!

Get help and donations for advertising with local vendors, store-owners, billboards, and perhaps going door to door. Attempt to get party officials endorsements. Give interviews to local newspapers and magazines.

Well, hopefully this gives you an outline to what you need to be thinking about to run for mayor. Remember, a 19 year old kid became mayor of a town in Oklahoma, so I have confidence you can become mayor of your town too! Who knows, you may just be the President of the United States some day. Somebody’s gotta be President, might as well be you!

Global Warming

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

What Can I Do About It?

We all know that global warming is going to be a huge issue for future generations. What can we do about it now? I plan on tackling environmental issues more in the future when I get more help and support from people like you, but for now here’s a few things you can do to help.

1. Recycle

Here’s the one thing everybody needs to do and have been told they need to do, yet a lot of people still aren’t doing. I only started recycling my plastics a few months ago! A friend of mine has a plastic chest of drawers that he divides his recycling into. I haven’t gotten as far as he has into the recycling, but try to start doing what I’m doing and recycle those orange juice, milk, and other plastic containers that you are just throwing into the earth right now.

2. Buy energy efficient appliances and vehicles

One passive way to help reduce your energy usage, if you can afford to of course, is to buy energy efficient appliances. I purchased an energy efficient washer and dryer and I’m using less energy and the units will pay for themselves after a few years. I also purchased a hybrid car and am getting about 45 miles/gallon right now which is pretty nice considering the cost of fuel. You’ll be helping the environment and saving money. That seems like a no-brainer to me.

3. Bring awareness to your family and friends

Here’s a tricky one. How do you get someone to change a habit without making them think that you think you are “holier than thou?” What I advise is that you don’t try to get them to change, just make them aware of what you’re doing to make the world a better place to live for future generations! If they see what you’re doing, and maybe you can slip in a mention of how easy it is, they will want to follow your lead. They will NEVER change because you tell them the way they’re doing it is wrong and they are killing the environment. Just nonchalantly mention some of the things you’re doing to help the environment and hopefully they will follow your lead or ask how they can help you some day.

That’s just three things you can do with little effort. If you have ideas of what I can do with this website in order to bring awareness or make changes, or if you would like to help in any capacity with this website or in making positive changes, please submit your ideas here.

Five Steps to Being More Productive

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

How to be More Productive

I apologize for not posting in a while! I’ve been very busy and as I’ve said before, some times you need to stop and smell the roses! Today is one of those days that I just don’t feel like putting forth effort or brain power. Have you ever had that feeling? You just want to lay in your recliner or on your couch and read a good book or just watch movies all day… I have those days often, but I usually try to do something productive anyway. What can you premeditate for yourself in order to curb your laziness or wipe it out all together? Well, I don’t recommend you wipe out your laziness all together, though many have, but you can use your power of foresight to at least be a little more productive. Here’s how:

1. Wake up and set goals. Not at 5 am, but in life in general. Open your eyes and look at your life objectively. What really matters to you? What do you want in life? Are you taking the steps needed in order to accomplish your goals? Do you have goals? If not, is it your goal to not have goals? If not having goals is your goal and your achieving that goal, you are ahead of most people when it comes to goal setting. Congrats!

2. Understand your emotion cycles. Have you noticed a pattern as to when you have ups and when you have downs? Are your cycles hourly? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Write that down. What makes you happy? What is a small thing that you enjoy doing that gives you simple pleasure? Maybe you like laying in your hammock or maybe you like taking a walk in the park, or going for a jog, or going to your favorite bar for a good beer. Whatever it is, think about what makes you happy, understand your ups and downs, and try to plan ups when you know you’ll be down! Simple, yet few people do this.

3. Random Acts of Kindness. Do something for someone when you know you’ll get nothing in return for your efforts. The main objective here is to make someone’s life better with no expectation of a return of favor. This is another thing that is simple, yet rarely done. I assure you if you do something nice for someone, when you know they can not do something nice for you in return, or you know you will never see them again, you will be rewarded at least 10 times in return. I’m a logical (cynical) person :-) , and I think most “mystical” rhetoric is hogwash, but I believe in energy. Believing in “energy” is very subjective so let me try to explain what I mean. I understand energy as electrons bouncing around protons and neutrons. And then of course you can look even closer and see quarks… but what makes up a quark? People talk of “karma,” “butterfly effect,” or “fake it til you make it,” but what they’re really talking about is the cause and effect reactions in the actions we take in our lives, be it physical or mental. If you perform random acts of kindness, you will be rewarded by this inverse reaction because of the laws of nature… it’s beautiful~ No need for us mere mortals to truly understand this.

4. Exercise. If you work at a desk job, you need to get up and walk briskly at least twice a day for 15 - 20 minutes at a time. If you stay active at your job, you should be fine, but you need to watch what you eat. Obvious stuff, you don’t have to be a genius to realize what’s good for you to eat and what’s bad. I could write an eating-healthy book in one page probably. It would go something like, “Don’t eat stuff that’s bad for you. Yes, you know what’s bad for you. If you’re eating something and you think to yourself, ‘I wonder if this is bad for me?’, it’s bad for you. Eat stuff that’s good for you.” The End.

5. Learn. Don’t give up on learning. Did you drop out of high school? SO WHAT… so did Walt Disney. But guess what? Walt also took night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Never stop learning. Learn a new language, learn about the galaxy you live in, learn about the universe you are a part of. Or start small. I’m no historian, in fact, that’s the only course I had to cheat for in order to get a “D” in the class. I don’t blame that entirely on my laziness…. I believe a professor needs to make the class interesting as well. I guess it was a group effort. Anyway, start small. It was told that GW Carter was sitting in a field, asking God what he could accomplish with his life and what is the meaning of life… god answered him and said, “I think the peanut is more your size,” and GWC came up with hundreds of uses for the peanut; including that butter everyone loves so much! I believe a lot of us give up on learning because we feel we know everything we need to know. I would urge you to understand that you could live 100 lives and not know a fraction of what there is to know and understand. Soak up any information you can get. Try to use that knowledge to lead a more fulfilling and happy life. And then of course, vote, and change the world!