Final Destination: Black Friday

You would think after Black Friday 2012 with the one stampeding death, people would have developed the sense to be a little more cautious. Our shopping habits directly caused the death of one person.

Black Friday 2013's death toll exceeded the previous year by 700%. It's safe today that everyone who engages in Black Friday should think to themselves: "someone is going to die today and it very well could be me." Exercise a bit more caution that day. Make sure you're well rested and you have a proxy driver just in case. OR just don't engage - enjoy seconds of Thanksgiving dinner and take a nap.

Getting large amounts of people in stores creates more tension. Everyone present adds to someone else's feelings of panicked urgency that results in stampeding deaths. Recall, no single drop of rain blames itself for the flood.

One thing that gets on my nerves about the Black Friday frenzy is that it's coming to overshadow my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. A day that's about trying to acquire as much as you can for a good deal is overtaking a day that's about being thankful for what you have. That is messed up to say the least. Considering that seven people died this year, was it really that good of a deal?

Closet Monster: Obsession

While I have a lot of clothes, I don't necessarily wear them all with equal frequency. It's easy to skim though fashion and style blogs and see people in really pretty clothes, posing in a variety of places from roof tops to creek beds, obscure fields, bedrooms, and bathrooms; sitting, standing, leaning casually, attempting to lean casually. The only things I can capture well are ridiculousness and anger. I have a decent amount of energy and I spend the majority of my time on the move. I dance and while you can pose in anything, you cannot dance in just anything and I'll dress to accommodate the opportunity to bust a move anywhere. It is impractical to pose all day, unless it is your job, then it's mighty practical. Essentially, I have no reason to have so many clothes.

Maybe it's because I've been working from home for close to three months, the fact that my work attire consists of sweatpants or bed sheets seems to have changed my palette about clothes and the acquisition of clothes in general. At Anthropologie, I got kind of grossed out by how the marketing scheme would justify a price of $50 for a jersey shirt that really had no indicators of deserving that price. Wanting to play with clothes is a good mental exercise and I'm a supporter of the arts, but it is very mind boggling how some can get obsessed with constant wanting and acquisition followed by the need to showcase. People get impressed with that and then the cycle continues. That is gluttony and also such a vicious, detrimental cycle.

I enjoy buying art supplies. I don't really use them for artsy endeavors, but I like owning them and feel pretty bad about not using them.