American Experience: Walt Disney

Watched PBS on the Roku about Walt Disney up to the strike. I will see part two when I can, but I can feel a bit of empathy for his side. I'm not a bigot, afterall, so I see why the strike occurred. It was a bit extreme from the looks of it, but Disney made something from nothing and drove it to where it seemed unlimited when everyone else was uneasy about his pushing animation beyond slapstick comics. It was his name on the Studio, but he needed labor to achieve his goal. Hmmm... what is fair in such circumstances isn't fair to everyone.
The whole argument about the haves and have-nots all boiling down to 1% vs 99% types is bs if the 1% reached heights by the means Disney endured. Almost defeats point of striving for improvement if end result benefits everyone more than the one who risked everything.

Baltimore settles with family of Freddie Gray

I don't know exactly what happened, whether it was self-inflicted or police abuse, but Freddie Gray, either way, died while in police custody.
I read a while ago that he and his siblings were living off a settlement from lead paint being in their childhood home and their being disabled from it. The awarded settlement was cut as monthly checks to last for something like 30 years. Freddie got scammed by a company that buys such awarded funds, and he got his friends and family to sell their settlement money for pennies on the dollar.
I hate to think of what negative outcomes could happen now that the city is giving Freddie Gray's family millions of dollars. They should have a reality TV show to follow them and document how this windfall changes their lives.
Nothing against the Freddie Gray family, but they have a bad history with settlement money and you always hear about lotto winners going nuts and spending all their money and being worse off.
Is there a show following winners of lotteries?

Talk about marriage licenses confuses me

Being from Ohio, I know nothing about marriage laws in Kentucky, but when I got married back in '01 my wedding was in Montgomery County.

I was a permanent resident of Belmont County. J was a permanent resident of Greene County.

Guess where we got our marriage license? That's right, Portage County.

Confused? Don't be.

J and I were in grad school, so getting our license down the road from our apartments was simpler than going to our hometowns and future wedding site which were each 2+ hours drive away.

Though our driver licenses weren't local, we had brought with us mail delivered to our apartments to show us being residents of Portage County. Not sure if the clerk actually looked at the envelops, but our marriage license was issued without questions beyond our being sober and not related.

Marriage shouldn't be a quick decision, and same sex marriages cannot be shotgun weddings, so the people being denied marriage licenses when there's no reason to be denied seem lazy if they keep going to the same clerk's office to do so.

Thankful for Birthday Wishes

Those that know me well, probably know birthdays aren't a big deal. Effort put forth by others makes me feel indebted to return the favor. My birthday is an open secret due to Facebook. My current FB page is sparce due to the fact it was a work account and I unfriended students associated from that job but kept colleagues. I eventually added friends from college and people I have had contact with this century. I added more but retracted when I got tagged in photos. Family were added if they requested but mostly those on my mom's side since I never got to know them and they mean a lot to her. I added more after my dad passed, but that window closed. I have friends associated with my current work, but I just assume not. I don't care to have the worlds collide. People think they know me and make assumptions without knowing whole context. Off topic, did you know Warhol used to tell lies to various people to track media leaks?
I have a dozen blogs it seems, but value my privacy to not directly share. Probably ironic on some level, but what does it matter?
 Anyways, thanks to all for the pm, dm, tweets, and such. I will try to return the favor, but on my terms.

dreary end of year recap

I'm turning a day older to the point a new year will be here shortly. I find it a time to reflect and to assess what I want to do with myself in respect to what is worthwhile and reasonable. I'm a flawed person with lack of hope most days, but I do have a will to wait out stuff in hopes of it passing.
I'm not going to commit to goals that I'll break. I'm not going to lie to myself that I can be independently wealthy by starting a blog.
I'm not likeable for some reason it seems. Once I solve that flaw I should feel better about my situation.