Today is the last day of the United States of America as you and I know it. Cherish these memories, and do not forget the great nation that once was. Tell your children the stories of how, for one brief shining moment in history, people of good conscience tried to make the world a better place for everyone, against a deteriorating system that punishes conscience and rewards sociopathy.

If this next POTUS is to be the end of all of us, we can at least take solace in the fact that we will all go together when we go.

When taking a video on your cellphone, hold it sideways. Nobody likes to watch videos with a vertical aspect ratio on a horizontal screen. And it looks ridiculous on the front page of the New York Times when somebody’s cell phone video has gigantic black bars on either side of it, making it completely tiny and unwatchable.

Sincerely,

Film Production M.F.A.

P.S. Do this for still images, too.

I’m good at managing my finances. I wanted to know how much time I spent on it, so over the last year I’ve tracked every minute working on finances: scanning receipts, entering transactions, reconciling accounts, budgeting, tracking tax-related things.

It turns out that during 2016 I spent 65 hours, 56 minutes, and 2 seconds related to financial matters.

So there you have it. There’s nothing special to getting good at money. You just have to spend a lot of time actually doing it.

Whenever I reconcile my accounts to the penny after not doing it for a while…

As mentioned in The DSA, the rest of the media are now starting to catch up with the idea that our next Presidente may be our last. I wish I were hyperbolizing, but my perception remains that American society as a whole is on the decline. We have devalued intelligence, education, and compassion for too long and now we are starting to see the results.

Hate and fear now rule supreme, fueled by our mind-numbing and complacency-inducing opiates (both literal and figurative), race to the bottom, and general idea that the American People are stupid, ignorant, arrogant, selfish, and greedy. People will become what you expect of them and the bottom line ($$) expects this of its consumers.

Let me tell ya something: it doesn’t matter if our next Executive branch believes in anthropogenic climate change. The next head of the EPA can burn all the methane that he personally emits for all it will matter. We’re way beyond thinking that anything we do now will stop these effects within our lifetimes, or those of our children or grandchildren. What we need to be doing now is preparing for the world that we have inherited from the consequences of our collective and individual action and inaction.

I was intrigued to see if Comcast had Gigabit Pro fiber Internet service in my area, so I called to enquire about it. The CSR opened an inquiry ticket for me and someone called me back within two days and indicated that yes, they did have fiber in my area. The cost would be $300/month + $20/month equipment rental with a 2-year contract, a $500 install fee, and a $500 activation fee. For that I would get 2 Gbps symmetric Internet access! But they would need to do a “walk survey” to verify that my location was suitable for installation. I said go ahead. At this point I was getting excited and starting to plan for all of the great usage I would get out of this awesome bandwidth.

Welcome to the DSA, which, on January 20, 2017, will become the world’s newest budding Autocracy. Current similar regimes (see: Russia) eagerly await its arrival, while the dissimilar nation states (our current allies) anticipate with dread. The new Supreme Leader will consolidate power as quickly as he can. He will move to stifle his critics in the media, punish those who oppose him, and start making good on what he’s been saying he’d do. Do not hold out hope, or “normalize,” as this will only harm your chances in the long run. If you are in a group that he is targeting, you should seriously consider your strategy. You know that scenario you run in your head, “What would I have done as a German in 1933?” Well now’s your chance to see if you can learn from history. The quicker you accept this and start to strategize your life, the better off you will be.