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Thursday, June 11, 2015

Could You Survive The Hunger Games? Here's A Simulation!

You know how sometimes you come across a website on the Internet that looks interesting by the description that you read on Google?  And once you click on it, you instantly become so addicted to it that you find yourself spending a couple of hours on it?

Well, I'm not afraid to admit it, but I found that website.

And surprisingly enough, it's not Netflix.  Though I have to admit, I do love my Netflix.

No, it's a website that can be found HERE.  Go on, click it!

Here on www.brantsteele.net, you can find a lot of things to do.  In particular, you can play a simulated version of "Survivor", "Big Brother" or "The Hunger Games"! 

Seriously, this guy is a total genius.  He has done so much research in all of these seasons of Survivor and Big Brother, and has likely read or watched all of the Hunger Games books and films, and created simulations with ALL of the characters of each season.

You can even insert past contestants from past reality shows, or you can play along yourself if you like.  And it got me thinking...



...could I survive the Hunger Games? 

Now, having just watched the first film (yeah, I've been living under a rock the last two or three years), and reading the books, I know that I would likely be the first one to die.  But because this is a simulation, I think I would be interested in finding out just how far I would go.



So, I took my profile pic from my Twitter account, and inserted it into the place of one of the unnamed contestants from the first Hunger Games film.  So, for the sake of argument, I'm a part of District 3.  You can tell which one I am, as the photo looks nothing like the others!

Ready?  Let's see if I survive the bloodbath.



Whew.  Well, so far so good.  I seem to have a bit of teamwork going on with Districts 8 and 9, not to mention Cato.  Teamwork is very good.  Means that you'll less likely die.

Or, it means that you'll get stabbed in the back with a sickle. 

So now that I've survived the initial melee, let's see what my future holds.



Well, I seem to now be making pals with District 10, but I'm doing not so nice things like raiding people's camps for supplies.  I hope this doesn't come back to haunt me later on.

Now, at the end of each day, those who are familiar with the Hunger Games know that a cannonball is shot every time a tribute loses his/her life.  In this simulator, every time a tribute dies, their image is greyed out.



Notice how Katniss Everdeen ended up being killed off during my simulator?  While we know Katniss goes on to become the ultimate heroine of the Hunger Games, the simulator can be such that it becomes impossible to predict who will live and who will die.

As for me, I've survived my first day.  Let's see what night brings.



Sweet!  I was given a fresh water supply by a sponsor!  Apparently during the Hunger Games, people can send tributes gifts ranging from weapons and armor to fresh food and water.  After all, the goal of the Hunger Games is to survive as long as possible.  Thanks to my fresh water supply, I may just stand a chance.  Let's see if I can last another day.



And, I do...though I'm a little concerned about that Cato fellow.  I wonder what will happen to me?

Well, the good news is that nobody died on Day #2.  Let's move on to the night.



Um, yeah, we'll just chalk this up to delirium.  Yeah, that's it.  And while we're at it, Glimmer's fate?  Yikes.  This is precisely why the simulation is designed so that only people over the age of 13 can play.



And, hey!  It looks like I found a cave!  That could make a neat hiding spot in the future!



And look!  I just received some medical supplies from a sponsor!  I'm on a freakin' roll!  Nothing can stop me now!



Uh-oh!  As we proceed into Night #5, one of my allies apparently tries to kill me!  Thankfully that bond I made with the District #9 male saved my bacon.  This time.



Yikes!  Sometimes you have an arena event happen periodically such as the border rapidly contracting, or a volcano erupting in the arena, or a tsunami approaching.  In this case, we have a swarm of tracker jackers - a souped up version of a killer bee.  This does not bode well.



Whew.  Made it.



But sadly, it looks like my journey has come to an end.  Apparently I was too weak-willed to continue on, and I formed a suicide pact with three other tributes.  Too bad too...I was well on my way to winning.

Oh, well.  Congratulations, District 7 Female.



But, I didn't do too badly.  6th place out of 24 tributes?  I'll take it...even though I died. 

So, that was my fate in The Hunger Games.  I almost made it to the end, but in the end, they broke me.  Now, let's see how you do!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Songs That Remind You Of Television Shows

All right!  It's time to bring back the pop culture to this blog!

It was nice to take a few months off to get a little more personal in this blog.  It helped me sort out a few lingering feelings about life, it made me realize that my life hasn't been all that bad, and it's certainly made me feel a lot better about things.

It also gave me a bit of an opportunity to come up with brand new ideas for the rest of the year.  In fact, if you look at the right hand side of the blog, you'll see that I have a new poll up.  You can choose which of the four classic cartoons you want me to review.  Yes, your votes will cause me to sit through a maximum of 65 episodes, and I will have to watch and comment on EVERY SINGLE ONE.  Your choices are "The Care Bears Family", "Inspector Gadget", "Jem and the Holograms", and "The New Archies".  Please make your vote heard before July 1.  I'll have the first entry posted sometime during the week of July 2-8, 2015.

Oh, in case of a tie, I'll be doing two shows at once.  So, if you want to torture me, vote for the show you think I will hate the most.  Or, if you have a favourite show, make your voice heard too.  Remember, I'll be reviewing each episode of each show with sarcasm and acerbic wit.  You'll love it.  At least, I hope you will.

In the meantime, I want to discuss a pop culture topic that surprisingly came out of nowhere.  I guess you could say that I was inspired to write this post from a song that played on my iPod while it was on shuffle.



I often take my iPod to work with me to listen to on my lunch hour.  It kills the time in between eating, and it drowns out all the workplace gossip.  Win-win in my book.

Anyway, one of the songs that I have on my iPod happens to be this particular one.



Now, the song is by a girl by the name of Loreta, and the song is 1999's "Trouble With Boys".  I don't think it charted in Canada, but in the United States, it was a minor dance hit.

But I couldn't stop but think...where have I heard that song before?  I know there was a reason I downloaded it onto my iPod, but I couldn't figure out why.

But then I remembered.  I heard it being played in an episode of "Friends" a long time ago, fell in love with the song, and immediately downloaded it. 

You remember that episode, right?  The one where Ross and Monica attend a taping of the dance party scenes for Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve show and they perform the routine?  Here's a little clip to refresh your memory.



So, it got me thinking.  What other songs out there remind me of a particular television series?  Well, I composed a small list as well as finding episodes that use the song as a part of the episode's plot.  See how many you can remember.



Like, take this dance single released by Stacey Q back in the spring of 1988.  The track is "Don't Make A Fool Of Yourself", and it appears on her album "Hard Machine".  Although not as successful as Stacey's previous album, "Better Than Heaven", the song did make an impact on the dance charts.

Yet for some reason, I keep having a "Full House" flashback whenever I hear this song.  I wonder...



Oh, yes.  It was the episode in which D.J. Tanner and Kimmy Gibbler ditched school to head down to the record store to get Stacey Q's autograph...only to be caught by Joey and dragged home by a leash.  Considering that Stacey Q hasn't had a hit on the charts since 1989, I wonder if the effort was really worth it.

You know, "Full House" wasn't the only sitcom that Stacey Q appeared on during the 1980s.  She also appeared on another one where she sang a couple of other songs.  But she wasn't the only one to appear on "The Facts of Life". 



How many of you remember this song by DeBarge?

Well, okay, maybe you're more familar with the single "Rhythm of the Night", which was released in 1985.  But for some reason, I seem to remember the song above being used in an episode of "The Facts of Life".



Oh, yes...I remember it well.  Blair, Natalie, Jo, and Tootie dancing along with the music.  Probably why I don't really watch that episode much anymore.  Too traumatic.

Say, this is kind of fun.  What else do I have in my arsenal?



Oooh...The Pointer Sisters!  They were all the rage in the mid-1980s.  And, I seem to remember the song "I'm So Excited" playing on the radio all the time.  But sometime around 1990, the song took on a whole new meaning.  I think most of you know where I'm going with this one.



SHE'S SO EXCITED!  SHE'S SO EXCITED!  SHE'S SO...SCARED!!!

I'm sure Ruth, June, and Anita Pointer never expected that their song would be linked to one of the most ridiculous scenes ever shown on the series "Saved By The Bell".  To this day, I admit that I can't listen to the song without picturing Elizabeth Berkley half-screaming, half-singing in my face.

Okay, so we have a few examples from the 1980s here.  Let's try some more modern pieces.



I said MODERN!  Come on!  Baba O'Riley was released in the early 1970s!  That was over forty years ago!  Though it is one of my favourite songs by The Who. 

And it happens to have been used in one of my favourite shows that aired during the 2000s.



Yes, CSI: NY used this theme for the duration of its time on CBS.  Come to think of it, all CSI shows used The Who songs for their theme songs from "Who Are You?" to "Won't Get Fooled Again" for CSI and CSI: Miami respectively.

Okay, let's do one more.



So here's a song by Cathy Dennis.  The song is "Touch Me (All Night Long)" and it was a #2 hit in May 1991.  It was also a song that was played on an episode of "Beverly Hills 90210".




Remember when Donna Martin got drunk at the senior prom and she was almost expelled from graduation - which spawned the "DONNA MARTIN GRADUATE" chant?  That song played in the background.

So whenever I hear Cathy Dennis singing, I think of a drunken Tori Spelling...sigh.

So, what other examples of songs spawning memories of television shows can you remember?

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

June 9, 1981

This Tuesday Timeline entry is brought to you by the letter T, and by the number 9.

Wait.  Note to self.  Don't watch old Sesame Street videos while typing out this blog.

But I can tell you that like last week's entry, today's Tuesday Timeline spot will be game show themed.  That's all that I'll say for now at the moment.

In the meantime, we have some other business to take care of.  Like, why don't we have a look at some of the historical events that took place in the world on this date years ago.  Beginning with...

53 - Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia

68 - Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide (unsure if the marriage had anything to do with it)

1534 - Jacques Cartier becomes the first European explorer to discover the St. Lawrence River

1772 - The British schooner Gaspee is burned off the shores of Rhode Island

1873 - After being only open for sixteen days, London's Alexandra Palace burns to the ground

1900 - Birsa Munda - an important figure in the Indian Independence Movement - dies under unusual circumstances in a British prison

1930 - Jake Lingle, a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, is killed by Leo Vincent Brothers over an alleged $100,000 debt owed to Al Capone

1934 - Donald Duck makes his official debut in "The Wise Little Hen"

1944 - In one of the darkest moments of World War II, ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German forces in Tulle, France in response to maquisards attacks

1957 - Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Hermann Buhl, and Kurt Diemberger become the first climbers to ascend Broad Peak

1968 - Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy

1972 - 238 people lose their lives after heavy rains cause a dam in the Black Hills of South Dakota to breach

1973 - Secretariat wins the United States Triple Crown

1978 - The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints opens its priesthood to "all worthy men", which eliminates the colour lines that were drawn 148 years prior

1979 - Seven people lose their lives when a fire erupts on the Ghost Train Ride in Australia's Luna Park amusement park

1999 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty, which would lead to the conclusion of the Kosovo War two days later

2007 - "The Real World: San Diego" cast member Frankie Abernathy dies of cystic fibrosis at the age of 25

2014 - British comedian and actor Rik Mayall dies at the age of 56

And we also have to wish the following people a very happy birthday; Tony Britton, Joe Santos, Jackie Mason, Dick Vitale, Charles Webb, David Troughton, Paul Chapman, Gregory Maguire, Elizabeth May, George Perez, Patricia Cornwell, Steve Paiken, Michael J. Fox, Aaron Sorkin, Johnny Depp, David Koepp, Gloria Reuben, Nick Kiriakis, Iain Lee, Michaela Conlin, Shandi Finnessey, Hayden Schlossberg, Brian Patrick Wade, Natalie Portman, Thomas Aldridge, Adamo Ruggiero, Mae Whitman, Andrew Walker, and Danielle Chuchran.

So, what date are we going to go back in time to this week?



Well, we're going back in time thirty-four years ago to June 9, 1981.  And, I wish I could tell you that I remember it...but I was only three weeks old at the time.

But what I can tell you is that this date unfortunately signals the end of one man's life.  A man who practically dedicated most of his life to hosting a plethora of game shows between 1959 and 1980.

But who could it be?

Well, we can eliminate Bob Barker.  He's still alive.  We can also eliminate Bill Cullen.  He died in 1990.  Nor is it "Match Game" host Gene Rayburn.  He died in 1999.

Hmmm...maybe I need some help here.  Maybe what I need is a password.  Something like "Allen" or "Ludden" or "Betty White" or something like that.

Hmmm...Allen Ludden.  That name sounds really familiar.



Oh, yes, of course.  That's why.  He's the subject of today's Tuesday Timeline entry.  And sadly, Allen Ludden passed away on this date thirty-four years ago at the relatively young age of 63.

But in those sixty-three years, he definitely managed to do a lot with his life.

He was born in Mineral Point, Wisconsin on October 5, 1917 with the birth name of Allen Packard Ellsworth.  His father died when Allen was just a year old from the Spanish flu (an epidemic took place in the United States of the illness during the winter of 1918-1919), and his mother remarried a man named Homer Ludden Jr.  This explains how Allen ended up with the surname of Ludden.  Though, he did keep his birth name of Ellsworth as a middle name to honour his late father.

Ludden's family would eventually settle in Texas, and after graduating high school, Ludden majored in English and Dramatic Arts at the University of Texas and graduated with a Master of Arts in English in 1941.  Shortly after that, Ludden enlisted in the United States Army where he received a Bronze Star for his service.  He was discharged with the rank of Captain in 1946.

But it wouldn't be until the year 1959 that his broadcasting career would take off, and over the next twenty-one years he would serve as host of several game shows from "To Tell The Truth" and "The Joker's Wild" to "Liar's Club" and "Stumpers!".  He even served as a special guest panelist in such shows as "What's My Line?" and "Match Game".

However, if one could name one game show that would be easily considered Allen Ludden's signature show, it would be this one.



Yes, "Password".  The game that Allen hosted off and on between 1961 and 1975, and again from 1979-1980. 

Now, "Password" is a game that is easy to play.  There are teams of two - one celebrity guest and one contestant.  One of them is given a clue by the host, and the person who has the clue must get the other person to guess what the word is without actually saying the word.  If the person guesses the word correctly, they earn a point.

Now, there were lots of celebrity guests who played the game of "Password" to help the contestants win lots of cash and prizes, but one you probably saw a lot of back in those days was "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" star and future Golden Girl Betty White.



There's a reason for that.  Betty White was Ludden's second wife, having married him in June 1963 (Ludden's first wife passed away in 1961, shortly before their 18th wedding anniversary).

Interestingly enough, Ludden himself would pass away just a few days before he celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary with White. 

But even though Allen Ludden has been gone for thirty-four years now, his legacy isn't forgotten.  Aside from the fact that "Password" reruns can occasionally be found on the Game Show Network, he has a walkway named after him at the Los Angeles Zoo, an artificial lake named after him in his hometown of Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and several artifacts from Ludden's own collection was donated to the Free Public Library in Mineral Point, courtesy of his widow, Betty White.

As for Betty herself, she was quoted as saying about her late husband after he died "once you've had the best, who needs the rest?"

And true to Betty White's word, she hasn't remarried since.

Monday, June 08, 2015

Thirty-Four - The Future Is Now

And so we've come to the end of the story...well, at least, the story so far.



And while this entry is meant to signify year thirty-four...I cannot finish it.  At least not yet.

You see...34 is not over yet.  My thirty-fourth birthday was just a couple of weeks ago.  And I have no idea how this chapter of my book of life is going to end.

So, I've decided to go a different route for this entry.  Don't look at this as a conclusion...instead, look at it as a new beginning of sorts.

The year that things start to make sense.

The year in which I realize that I've lived a fairly good life...even though there were times in which it didn't seem that way!

Of course, we have a little bit of business to take care of first.

Let's see a mugshot here.  Why don't I just use my current profile pic on Facebook.



Ah, now there's a reason why I chose this one.  Earlier this year, I had an article published in "The Digest Enthusiast" and this was the photo I used...well, one of them anyway.

I need a better headshot.

No news on what the hottest shows on television are because the 2015/2016 television season hasn't started yet.  But I do have information on the hottest song and movie!



#1 SONG THE WEEK OF 5/18/2015
"See You Again" - WIZ KHALIFA f. CHARLIE PUTH

According to some research, this song is still at the top of the charts, though Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" overthrew it briefly before it took its spot back.  The song appears on the "Furious 7" soundtrack, and is a tribute to the late Paul Walker, who was killed in a car accident in November 2013.



#1 AT THE BOX OFFICE THE WEEK OF 5/18/2015
"Pitch Perfect 2"

Although it wasn't as well loved as the original "Pitch Perfect", the movie still did quite well in theatres and many people speak highly of it.  Though, I'm not quite sure how Rebel Wilson being 35 instead of 29 really makes much of a difference.

Okay, so this is the finale of the month (and a bit) long look back at this retrospective.  And, well...I figure that I'd start by summarizing all the lessons that I learned over the last 34 years based on what I lived through.

Lesson #00 - You can't always predict time.  Go at your own pace, even if it means you achieve a goal three weeks later.
Lesson #01 - Never look a gift horse in the mouth.  Especially if that gift horse has chicken pox.
Lesson #02 - Always put a smile on your face.  Especially in front of a camera.
Lesson #03 - If you hear something that you don't like, ignore it or turn it off.
Lesson #04 - You are never too young to learn new things.
Lesson #05 - Sometimes, you can't always go home again.
Lesson #06 - Fictional characters can sometimes make good company.
Lesson #07 - No matter what age you are, hospitals can still be scary places.
Lesson #08 - We are born.  We sometimes get married.  We die.  Make the most of everything in between.
Lesson #09 - Love and respect your parents.  You only get two.
Lesson #10 - Too much of anything is bad for you.
Lesson #11 - If talking about problems is difficult for you, write it out.
Lesson #12 - Be true to yourself and ignore the haters.  Listen to your own life soundtrack and put everyone else on mute.
Lesson #13 - Sometimes you have to experiment before you find something you're good at.
Lesson #14 - You can always find the bright side on the most terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.
Lesson #15 - Physical scars heal.
Lesson #16 - Emotional scars are forever.
Lesson #17 - Sometimes breaking away from the pack can make you have a most excellent adventure - as long as you don't hold up the tour bus.
Lesson #18 - Life is so much better than high school.
Lesson #19 - Surrounding yourself with great people makes one instantly happy.
Lesson #20 - Don't make a commitment without thinking it through.  It'll save you stress.  Not to mention fourteen thousand dollars.
Lesson #21 - Everyone deserves at least some time to find themselves, be it a week, a month, or even a year.
Lesson #22 - The best knowledge comes from the mouths of babes - or, five-year-olds.
Lesson #23 - To find stability, one must survive instability.
Lesson #24 - Everyone has to start at the bottom to appreciate things even more.
Lesson #25 - Sometimes you have to escape reality and play make-believe, no matter what age you are.
Lesson #26 - True friendship never dies...even long after you lose them.
Lesson #27 - Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step in a lot of cases.
Lesson #28 - Sometimes the best motivator is a huge support system.
Lesson #29 - If you feel that something is wrong, get it checked out.  Otherwise you risk losing an organ and a half to save your life!
Lesson #30 - It's never too late to start a project.
Lesson #31 - Don't stand out in the hot sun too long.
Lesson #32 - Sometimes, charity begins at home.
Lesson #33 - Poison kills...and that includes poisonous people.

And as for Lesson #34?  I won't know what that is until next May...when I turn three and a half decades old.  But I do know one thing.  Whatever lesson I take from year 34, it will be just as important as the lessons that I have learned over my whole life. 

Seriously, here's an exercise for all of you.  I want you to come up with one lesson that you learned from each and every year of your life, and write it out like I have, video log it, or just think about it and keep it inside yourself.  It's amazing how cathartic it is.

Only time will tell what this year will bring.  I do know that now that this blog has been around for four years, and I've completed this look back on life so far, I think I feel comfortable enough to ease back into the pop culture and life lessons we can learn from it.  I kind of deviated from the original concept of this blog over the years, and I'd like to steer my way back to that by the time we reach the fifth anniversary of the blog.

(In fact, have a look at the poll next to the blog, and please vote on it!  The poll closes on July 1 at 12:01am!  And yes, I did type 12:01.  I like to be different.)

But one thing is for sure.  No matter what my future holds, I know that I'll get there by being me.  Just as I have gotten through the past thirty-four years before that.

Maybe my life hasn't gone the way that I wanted it to go...but I don't regret a single thing about it (well, except maybe the period spanning 20-21).  I've shared thirty-four years of lessons and stories, and I look back on it fondly.  Sure, there were hard times.  And yes, things could have been a lot easier.  But this is who I was.  This is who I am.  And this is who I'm going to be.

This chapter may be closed for now.  But it continues to be added to each day...



...to a life well lived.  So far.

Sunday, June 07, 2015

Thirty-Three - Out With The Bad Air, In With The Good

Well, this is it.  After today, there's only one more piece left to write in this retrospective piece.  And you know, on one hand I am feeling bummed because this mini project has almost come to an end.  But on the other hand, I'm happy that the conclusion is almost here because I've had time to come up with some fantastic ideas for the rest of June (and possibly the rest of summer as well), and I can't wait to show you what I have planned.

Let's just say that it'll feel like we went back in time to 2011...well, a little bit anyway.

For now, we have another year to look at.



Oh look.  Another palindrome year.  Thirty-three!  I remember it well.

Mainly because it happened just last year.

And what a year it was at that.  It was a year filled with highs (such as finally becoming one hundred per cent debt free) to a year filled with lows (such as losing my last remaining grandparent in January 2015, and having to deal with my mom getting very sick at the end of 2014 - thankfully she got better).  But it was also a year in which I learned exactly what the value of friendship really was.  And in order to learn that lesson, I had to make some really tough choices.

I'll get to that story in a moment.  For now, let's see what was hot a year ago in pop culture.

Of course, we have to kick things off with a recent picture of me.  Have a look!



Don't I look dashing?  This photo was taken at a wedding that I attended in October 2014.  It's incredibly rare that you see me dressed up like this, but now that I know how good I look, I really should do it more often.  If only I had more chances to do exactly that.

Maybe in another year or two.



#1 SONG THE WEEK OF 5/18/2014
"All Of Me" - JOHN LEGEND

I suppose you might consider John Legend a bit of a giant slayer.  The song he dethroned was Pharrell Williams' "Happy" which topped the charts for practically the whole first part of 2014!  It's a nice song though.  I like it.



#1 AT THE BOX OFFICE THE WEEK OF 5/18/2014
"Godzilla"

No surprise here.  This movie was one of the most hyped of the summer blockbuster season.  Unfortunately, it didn't quite hit the mark.  Although it was kind of funny to see Bryan Cranston's over the top acting post "Breaking Bad".



#1 TELEVISION SHOW FOR THE 2014/2015 SEASON
"NBC Sunday Night Football"

Though I have to say that "Dancing With The Stars" and "The Big Bang Theory" were trying to dethrone the football players.

Okay, so before I begin with this entry, I want to direct your attention to this video posted by "The Jimmy Kimmel Show".  Let's just say that this video is linked to the point of this post.



So, we're still a few months away from "National Unfriend Day".  That day falls on November 17, and was invented by Kimmel as an excuse to unfriend annoying people on social media. 

At first I laughed off the idea.  Who would celebrate the ending of a friendship?  I've had friends who have come and gone, and I know the hurt that can come from ending a friendship.  It hurts, and you feel as though there is a huge void after walking away from a friendship that has gone bust.  Making someone feel that way is not something that I really want to do.  And besides, I like seeing Throwback Thursday posts and finding out which Frozen character I am!



I'm this guy, by the way.

But if the friendship is one-sided, it's not a friendship.  It's someone taking advantage of someone else.  And if you're at the receiving end of the one-sided friendship where you put forth all the effort, and they take and take, it's not worth keeping.

Nor is having a friendship where the person verbally harasses you or plays mind games with you to make you feel inferior to them.  Those are not friendships either.  No friendship ever thrives on emotional or physical abuse.



And don't even get me started on fair-weather friendships.  You know, the people who only come out when you have something they want, and disappear into the night?  That's a problem that began when I was in grade school where kids were only nice to me for me to help them do their schoolwork, and then at recess they were the ones pushing me on the ground and shoving snow or sand in my face - depending on the season.

Unfortunately, by the time I was 33, I had formed "friendships" with quite a few people who were exactly like this.  Friendships where I was doing all the work trying to keep them together.  Friendships where I was being manipulated or abused.  Friendships that were only convenient when the other person was interested.

I don't do friendships like that.

I take friendships seriously.  Probably more seriously than most other people.  I don't tolerate people who attack me.  I especially don't tolerate people who attack my real friends.  And when I say real friends, I mean people who I will have their back and they will have mine.

And yet somehow I had let some people slip through the cracks, both in my professional life and my social media life.

Do you have any idea how annoying it is to post something on Facebook that you worked really hard on (like say a blog post, or a photography project), and you share it for all of your friends, only to have those friends make fun of the project or say comments like "I feel like I'm a psychiatrist and you're my 10:30 appointment".  They might think it to be the wittiest thing they've ever typed out, but it really causes a lot of unnecessary hurt to the recepient. 

So, people like that were given the old heave-ho on National Unfriend Day last year.  I didn't want to do it, but if I'm going to move ahead with life, I can't have people bringing me down.

I also unfriended a couple of people who only responded to my statuses just to make snarky comments, or to make me feel bad about choices I've made.  If all they're going to be is counter-productive, why would I keep them around?

Another type of person to watch out for is the one who calls you out on something that they deem irritating, and then they go ahead and do the exact same thing that they themselves called you out on.  I am not a huge fan of hypocrisy in any form.  Thankfully, I have no such people in my social media contacts list.  At least, not anymore I don't.

Ah, but here's the tricky part.  It's easy to cut ties with toxic people on sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.  All you have to do is unfriend them (and block them if they're really poisonous personalities).  In real life, it gets a little more complicated, especially if you're in a situation where you have to see them each day.

But you know, in a way, I've kind of put that theory into practice in those kind of places.



You see, ever since National Unfriend Day, I've started bringing my iPod to work with me.  And, the reason I do this is threefold.  First, it allows me to listen to music I actually want to listen to and not an endless loop of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album. 



(Seriously, I swear that's all my workplace plays over the loudspeaker.)

Secondly, it allows me to block out all of the gossip and rumours that can be prevalent inside of any given workplace.  As someone who has been the victim of workplace gossip in the past, it was a lesson that I learned the hard way.  Now I don't involve myself in it at all.  And frankly, I'm a lot happier because of it.

And finally, it allows me to distance myself from any toxic people at work - the ones who get pleasure in making other people miserable, or the ones who couldn't be bothered to say two words to you unless they deem you worthy (not a good attitude to have, in my opinion), or the ones who leech onto you like a parasite to get you to spill your guts, only to have your entire life story be the topic of conversation at the coffee club table of co-dependence.  Again.  Lesson learned the hard way. 

Seriously, I'm a fun-loving guy who loves to laugh and who loves to tell jokes and who wants to make his life better.  Surrounding myself with people who love me and who I love will help me get there.

I guess if there's one thing that I am sad about, it's that it took me 33 years for me to realize that toxic people have no place in my life.  Not back then.  Not now.  Not in my future.

Of course, some people are tougher to figure out than others.  Thanks to my past experiences, I have a pretty good instinct on who I can and can't trust.  But there are some people who are like anti-freeze.  They might give off the appearance that they are really sweet and lovely, but if you get too close, they'll try to poison you from the inside out. 

Best stay away from the anti-freeze and go with some genuine candy hearts instead - preferably those coated with natural sugar.  Not that artificial stuff.

So, there's only one more year to go.  And like that Natasha Bedingfield song goes...it's still unwritten...