I spent the past handful of days doing nothing extraordinary.  I did start doing something that I should have done a long time ago. I started doing a lot more reading.  Throughout my time in school all we did was read.  The extent of my reading habits has turned to a couple of different websites.  I like the Huffington Post's weird news section, Livescience, and then of course I go back to my roots and read "The Lombardian".  The news media outlets, for the most part, are depressing. I'll never figure out why negative/bad stories equate to ratings.

While I do like to stay informed I don't like to be discouraged or depressed and the news, for the most part, never has anything too positive.  I had a couple friends suggest I start reading livescience since thats not only educational but you can find some really cool stuff out there and learn about all kinds of different things. It's not like normal news, where we are exposed to politicians who are screwing us over, celeb's who are popping out babys or popping pills, and of course the countless stories of murder/rape/crime.

I read the Lombardian for other reasons. It's a very simplistic paper.  Plus I have a guilty pleasure for their "Speak out" section.  For those of you who don't know, this section is a section for people of the town to call and say virtually whatever they want (within reason of course) The paper does claim that they have the right to modify calls for content. These calls are either addressing local issues(those ones are always the best) and then sometimes there's people who bitch about national issues.  Additionally-- Reading the police blotter is always interesting to me.  The crime in Lombard falls into a couple categories.  1) DUI's 2) minor theft and 3)  "suspicious circumstances". The suspicious circumstances is my personal favorite because its usually weirdo people exposing themselves or panhandlers.

I've lived in a half dozen areas and with that it gives me perspective.  When I break it down, Lombard is comparatively not the best town but when you look at its competition (i.e. Wheaton, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn,..) its just not as good as the rest but its still reasonably safe, and it meshes in well with the rest of suburbia.  DuPage County is statistically a very well off area to begin with so when one drives thru Lombard's dismal downtown area and compare it to the other neighboring downtowns it can be a downer.  I spent a handful of days blaming the town, blaming the economy, and blaming things other than myself.  I was always curious as to how people would pay the high rent that comes with living in the Chicago area.  I guess somewhere out there, there are jobs that can handout the scratch needed to hang in that area but I still don't know the code.

There may be a lot more peers out there who live either rent free or who split rent with people and make it affordable that way.  With the changes I've had to make in my life, everything has suddenly become a bit more affordable.

I've read more news about economic growth and I can't say I know either way how the economy is doing.  Back when the housing crisis came about and people were losing jobs I didn't know what all the fuss was about.  I've always lived at what would be considered the poverty level.  Hell I wouldn't know what the hell to do if I even cleared 30 grand a year.  Most people bitch whine and moan over 30 grand a year. I wouldn't know what to do with 30 grand a year. That there should speak volumes to people.

As a culture consumed with instant gratification its imperative for us to examine whats a want and what is a need.  I live without cable, internet, and smart phone.  I get by just fine.  I live without going on vacations, and thats okay.  Not to say that those who can afford nice things shouldn't but at the same time lets not try and throw around money we don't have.  Here's a nickle's worth of advice for people. If people would simply live within their means the crisis we hear about and the bad economy may not be as bad as the news media wants it to be.

That's just my outlook on life.  Maybe someday I'll earn the money that I never thought I would need to live on. Until then I'll continue to live on what I make.  Speaking of making money, I heard a story that I thought would be useful to share here.  While I was working at 7-Eleven(for my 2nd tour of duty for most of 2012).  There were 2 men who I worked with that made Beavis and Butt-head look smart.  These 2 guys are both in their 30s and they live with 1 of the guys mothers.  This 7-eleven is their life. 1 of the guys was smart enough to even become manager and accept a horribly low salary.  The sad part is he thought he was on the winning end of that deal because he was a salaried employee.

So I found out last week that 1 of these 2 guys got his jeans in a bunch when he was passed over for a promotion at the 7-eleven.  He got so mad that he came to the store, swore up a storm and dropped off his shirt.  I can't even begin to comprehend why anyone would take that job that seriously.  It's 7-Eleven, its retail. No one gives a shit about you and your job is mind-numblingly boring.  I'll admit I'd get pissed off a lot working that job. My reasons weren't because I was passed up for some stupid promotion at that dead end job-- no no my reasons were because I'd have to see the same damn people, who would buy the same damn thing every damn day.  I'd have people who had no business purchasing lotto tix and cigarettes making these wasteful purchases. I watched as people would waddle in purchase 30 dollars of shit junk food on their foodstamps card and then whip out cash to buy cigs.  That was enough of a reason for me to get mad.

Now one may say "Steve its not your job or business to decide how a person spends their money"  Oh but it is my business its my business and everyone elses business as to how people who are living on the state's dime spends their money.  Because you see, yes there are some people who are in need, but a majority of the people living on state aid are learning how to cheat the system.  This is a huge story that the news probably will never cover.