LEFT SIDE! STRONG SIDE!

2020, true to form, rolls right along with a colossal shit-storm of an election.

As of this writing, the optics aren’t good. With each passing day, more and more statistical anomalies are discovered, the legalities of recent changes to state law are being called into question, sworn affidavits of election fraud are piling up, and videos of whistleblowers are raging across social media.

There have been reports that states have safeguards in place to identify and disregard illegitimate votes, and even if every unique situation isn’t covered, only time will tell if the alleged voter fraud would matter one way or the other. Unless you’re a journalist or actively engaged in the legal proceedings the only thing left to do is sit back, try to make sense of the firehose of information, take inventory on who you are and what you stand for, and remember that this country has survived way worse than 2020.  There’s zero reason to believe this time will be any different.

Who Are We?

Let’s start with who we aren’t.  This is neither a blog solely for Americans nor solely for males.  

During my original search for an editor, I came across an accomplished profile (she had interviewed famous athletes/actors) and invited her to apply for the job.  She was pretty expensive, so I wouldn’t have been able to afford her rate long-term, but I did want her to give a couple of posts the business anyways to see what she had to say.

She declined the job but did give me some frank (but not ill-tempered) feedback that despite being very interested in the topic she’d never read this blog.  Frequent references to male genitals and some of the phrasing made her feel like I wouldn’t want her as a reader.*

Let’s get this out there in the open:  I’m grateful for any reader that enjoy this blog.  With that being said, I’m writing at all of the 20-something guys out there in the only way I think anyone could have gotten through to me.  I’ve made some piss-poor decisions in life and if I had just pulled my fucking head out of my ass for a second to make some long term plans, I’d be a hell of a lot further along in life than I currently am.

Right now the readership of this blog is essentially zero (seriously, first person to comment that’s not porn or dick pills gets one non-transferable reach around, or a game of Overwatch (tank main, mostly Rein, Winston, or Zarya)), but I know there are tons of 20-something window-lickers out there and I will keep screaming into the void until I break through and reach some of you.  I will huff, I will puff, and I will cradle the balls of my SEO masters until first page rankings gush forth like the money shot I don’t want but desperately need.

Together we will form a community that will unfuck this world one knuckle-dragger (or knuckle-draggerette) at a time.  That, or we’ll fail to move the needle in any meaningful way, but at least we’ll all be chock-full of laughs as the world burns down around us.

What The Fuck Are We Doing Here?

We’re controlling what we can control and we’re laughing at what we can’t.

Want to know why Jordan Peterson, and so many other people like him, make suggestions like start with cleaning your room or making your bed?  Because it’s good advice and an intuitively logical starting point.

Before you can help any other window-lickers, you need to first and foremost help yourself. You want the recipe? Here it is:

1. Fix your mindset.
2. Own your environment.
3. Get control of your time.
4. Develop a long term financial gameplan.
5. Enjoy what you do.
6. Help someone else out. 

Boom! That’s it. That’s the fucking recipe.  But guess what?  It starts with you. Wherever you’re at in life, it starts right there.  Life favors the bold, get up and get after it. 

What’s This Blog About?

There’s no way to tell this with the current roster of posts but this is actually going to be a fitness blog, mostly about lifting weights.  There are zero iron-focused posts at this time, and that’s because we’re currently laying the foundation for the above-mentioned recipe.  Once the foundation has been laid the blog will move on to lifting weights being the primary focus.

We’ll never stop talking about the basics of time management or personal finance. But once you’ve achieved a good 80/20 posture (Pareto Principle, link at the end), then you have a lot more time and energy to pursue other interests and develop new skills. You still have to think ahead, but you become much more resilient and don’t have to constantly sacrifice the now for a future that never materializes.

Topics that will be covered in some capacity in no particular order:

• Time Management
• Personal Finance
• Lifting Weights
• Mindset
• Community Building
• Overwatch
• Recipes/Nutrition
  • Produce Olympics
    • Cucumber Sitting
• Philosophy
• History
• Self-help

There’s a lot on that list.  At some point the plan is to bring on another writer who has a background in barbell coaching or some other specialty in the fitness industry. That’s super long-term and there’s no timeline on that at this juncture.

Keep Aiming to Be Better

Hopefully, the rest of the world isn’t nearly as divided as the U.S. is right now. I’ve taken to asking my parents’ generation if this is the most divided they’ve seen the country in their lifetime. The sample size isn’t huge but the responses have unanimously been “yes”.

Live your best life and work towards a place where you can start giving back.  It won’t be easy, and there will be setbacks.  Sometimes those setbacks will be huge, but keep fighting.  No matter who you are or where you’re from the best way to counter the current trend of negative fuckery is to have your own house in order.  

Out of Many, One**

Regardless of whether your guy wins the election or not we have to move forward together.  We are one country, and what we’ve accomplished as a country, despite our many flaws, is unrivaled. Nothing, including the 2020 election, can break us.

Don’t delay, unfuck your room today.

See y’all next Monday,

Tag

*Quick note: My current editor, Samantha, is awesome. She makes the writing process about a million times more fun than it was without her. If you’ve ever considered blogging or writing for any kind of a publication, I’d highly recommend having her (or a friend that’s strong in spelling/grammar/voice, if that makes you more comfortable) give your posts the business.

Having an editor lets me focus a lot more on the substance and a lot less on whether everything is “technically correct.” As someone who has tried and failed multiples times to get past the first or second post on previous blogs, having that kind of support is priceless. Plus, she adds all sorts of little personal anecdotes/opinions here and there about her life that are entertaining and help me to better understand the all-important “why” she’s making or suggesting certain changes.

She also loves tildes (~).

Check her out on Upwork here: https://www.upwork.com/fl/samantharosseditor

(I receive no financial compensation from that link. This website is not monetized in any capacity right now. That being said, I do believer that writing is incredibly cathartic, the world could use more writers, and that the right editor can make all the difference in whether or not a new writer sticks with it.)

Note from the Editor: Hey there! Samantha here, saying hi and letting everyone know that I’m here in the background making sure all the words are in the right order.

If you’re sitting here thinking I’ll be “cleaning up” the language any… well that wouldn’t make me a good editor. My Google search history includes terms like “synonyms for penis” and so therefore I am an active contributor to the chaos.

The right editor varies for everyone and different editors specialize in different formats of writing. Ideally, you’re looking for someone who will let you use your voice and the words you want to use, and they’re just going to make sure that a. you’re using it correctly and/or b. you understand the implication of the words you’re using. If they’re editing out your voice, they’re not the editor for you; pick your support character wisely!

I appreciate Tag having me onboard to give him a hand with the word polishing, and I’m more than happy to lend my expertise and advice to others. You can always reach me from the link above, and I’ll be poking around here too, adding commas and fixing up noun phrases wherever they’re needed.

**E pluribus unum (out of many, one) is the original motto of the United States.  If you’re an American and didn’t know that then fucking smack yourself and read the top three sections of this wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pluribus_unum.  If you’re not an American but history tickles your fancy then read it anyways and put that little tidbit in your back pocket.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cradle%20the%20balls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle