You know what...I'm poor. I'll fucking admit it.

I've been laid off from no less than four different teaching jobs in the past four years. Every year I've picked up odd jobs over the summer and have been able to find a new job (not a better job just a new job). Consequently, I've had to shave things off of my budget:

>>I've stopped eating out almost altogether (I still splurge for a $5 footlong every now and again but it's few and far between.

>>I got rid of my cable.

>>I cut my grocery budget in half (while still trying to buy semi-healthy things)

>>I haven't purchased anything for my aging computer in more than a year and a half (I'm a nerd so this IS a sacrifice believe it or not)

>>I stopped going to the bar except for special occasions (bachelor party for a friend most recently) and even then the first words out of my mouth are "What are your drink specials?" I've even stopped buying booze altogether really. Only worth mentioning because lord knows I could use a neat glass of gin now and then for the nerves caused by my finances.

>>Oh and my videosift charter membership =P
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There are countless other things I haven't the space to mention and some other things I can do to shave my budget down if needed; but making ends meet is getting harder and harder to do. At the moment my budget is stretched so thin I can't take some kind of tax hike.

And to suggest that Bill Gates can't take a tax hike but I can is ludicrous. Raise his taxes and he can't buy a new Rembrandt. Raise mine and I can't buy milk.

... they're all crouched over in a backalley, sharing a taser gun,... working odd jobs at a farm to steal time with the cattle prods...
>> ^GDGD:

gate
way
drug

Absolutely fantastic, and, also, brilliant marketing. She released her latest album 3 days ago... coinkidink? I think not.

Does not change the fact that this woman can write a fine song and has an awesome voice. This skit is brilliant because it's a way of reminding us how big her first album was, and how much those songs are just 'in there'... well, I was singing along with them all in the skit, I remember listening to the album while I did odd jobs for extra cash while I was at uni... so it takes me back to exact moments (I can remember one exact garden I was working on while listening to it for example)... great stuff.

im in junior high with a b plus grade,
at the end of the day i don't hit the arcade,
I walk from school to my moms apartment,
I got to tell the sucaks everyday "don't start it",
cause where I'm at if your soft your lost,
to say on course means to roll with force,
a boy named Rob is chillin in a Benz,
in front of my building with the rest of his friends,
I give him a pound, oh i mean i shake his hand,
he's the neighborhood drug dealer, my man,
i go upstair and hug my mother,
kiss my sister, and punch my brother,
i sit down on my bed to watch some tv,
(machine gun fire) do my ears decieve me,
Nope, thats the fourth time this week,
another fast brother shot dead in the street,
the very next day while im off to class,
my moms goes to work cold busting her ass,
my sisters cute but she got no gear,
i got three pairs of pants and with my brother i share,
see there in school see i'm made a fool,
with one and a half pair of pant you aint cool,
but there's no dollars for nothing else,
i got beans, rice, and bread on my shelf,
every day i see my mother struggling,
now its time i've got to do something,
i look for work i get dissed like a jerk,
i do odd jobs and come home like a slob,
so here comes Rob hes cold and shivery,
he gives me two hundred for a quick delivery,
i do it once, i do it twice,
now theres steak with the beans and rice,
my mother's nervous but she knows the deal,
my sister's gear now has sex appeal,
my brothers my partner and we're getting paper,
three months later we run our own caper,
my family's happy everything is new,
now tell me what the fuck am i supposed to do,

money's flowing, everything is fine,
got myself an uzi and my brother a nine,
buisness is boomin' everything is cool,
i pull about a g a week fuck school,
a year goes by and i begin to grow,
not in height but juice and cash flow,
i pick up my feet and begin to watch tv,
cause now i got other people working for me,
i got a 55 inch television you know,
and every once in awhile i hear just say no,
or the other commercial i love,
is when they say, this is your brain on drugs,
i pick up my remote control and just turn,
cause with that bullshit im not concerned,
see me and my brother jump in the BM,
driving around our territory again,
i stop at the light like a superstar,
and automatic weapons cold sprayed my car,
i hit the accelerater scared as fuck,
and drove one block to find my brother was hit,
he wasn't dead but the blood was pouring,
and all i could think about was war and,
later i found that it was Rob and his crew,
now tell me what the fuck am i supposed to do,

my brothers out of it, but i'm still in it,
on top of that im in it to win it,
i can't believe that Rob would diss me,
that faggot, that punk, he's soft a sissy,
i'm driving around now with three of my guys,
the war is on and i'm on the rise,
we rolled right up to his favorite hang out,
said hello and then the bullets rang out,
some fired back so we took cover,
and all i could think about was my brother,
Rob jumped up and began to run,
busting shots hoping to hit someone,
so I just stopped, and let off three shots,
two hit him and one hit a cop,
I threw the gun down and began to shout,
come on I got him it's time to break out,
but as we ran there were the boys in blue,
pointing their guns at my four man crew,
they shot down one, they shot down two,
now tell me what the fuck am i supposed to do,

(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna getyou),
(loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)
ya know a lot of people believe that that word Love is real soft,but when
you use it in your vocabulary like your addicted to it it sneaksright up
and takes you right out. out. out. out. out.
So, for future reference remember it's alright to like or want amaterial
item, but when you fall in love with it and you start schemingand carrying
on for it, just remember, it's gonna get'cha

It's impossible to tell because Dems seem to glorify Obama and the government as if they are the saviors of the free world. My stepfather was just laid off after 20+ years from a company that shut its doors. However, we share the same ideology that work is always available to those who are willing and able. He is mowing yards and doing other odd jobs to make ends meet and it puts food on the table and keeps them in their house until he is able to find something a little more stable. People who choose not to be victims are not victims and I'm sick of our country shaping people to be exactly that. I believe that we should help the disabled, and that government assistance should be necessary, but when irresponsibility as a whole is enabled, the lines of those who were once willing to be responsible become blurred.

My siblings and I were raised by a single mom who worked overtime every week to support us. We would spend many evenings at her office, while she tried to get work done. And we pulled together and did it so I'm not a Republican snob who has or comes from money. Those who scrub floors to make ends meet are special people who typically pass on amazing work ethic. I don't want someone else supporting me if I lose my job. I want and need to support myself and my family, and I'm willing to do that because I choose not to be a victim. The more we require of the government, the more the government requires of us. Too many people have enslaved themselves to their governments, with dramatic results.

My real name doesn't matter, but my nick is a play on it. I live in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, working for the Government of Canada as a Research Analyst. It's not really reflective of what I do - but that's not all that clear either.

I grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where I completed a Commerce degree with a minor in Political Science. I have worked odd jobs as a graphic designer, brokerage assistant, bus boy, movie usher, filing clerk, web developer and printing press apprentice.

After University I lived in Hong Kong for 2 years where I was an Operations Manager for a local magazine and website, producing the monthly magazine (graphic design and layout) and the website (using Open Source software and tweaking the PHP code). I also taught orphans for a year (age 3 to 6) - I had 60 students I taught twice per week. My 2 years in Hong Kong was facilitated by VideoSift's constant stream of interesting videos from around the world of things worldly and beyond. I didn't need my 2 channels of chinese TV, but I did keep my Chinese movies. I can speak Chinese and read quite a bit too.

When I came back to Canada, I moved to the Nation's capital to work in the Public Service, and I am completing my Masters in Public Admin. I refuse to pay for cable television, but I do have a penchant for movies. My TV doesn't even get TV service (but is connected to a VCR and DVD player); VideoSift has essentially replaced my Television as my source of video information. I enjoy how it makes me an active participant in choosing the sources of video and information that I watch (rather than passively with the commercials on regular TV) and I have learned alot and been exposed to a lot that has expanded my mind.

I'm working on something I'm not yet ready to write about and that is not interesting enough yet to warrant the time.
My avatar is of me taped by my roommates to a formerly-abandoned cross outside our apartment during a Hallowe'en party I hosted in 2003. More photos here. (I was later carried down the street 2 blocks and propped up against a Café where other costumed onlookers shared in the reveling. I later carried the cross back to the apartment while being whipped by a skeleton Halloween decoration by my Judaism-supporting roommate.)

Change the title of this post. It should be in top15. It's got over a million youtube views.

And now... for the rest of the story...

Sydney, AU

Serial hugger Juan Mann describes the free hugs he hands out in Pitt Street Mall as fast-food emotion.

His cuddling campaign received an international dose of publicity today, after a clip showing his public displays of affection won a coveted front page spot on the video sharing website.

An American television audience of millions also watched him at work, when the video was broadcast on the prime-time breakfast program Good Morning America yesterday.

....

Juan Mann (pronounced one man) is a play on words, but the hugger insisted his rules included no names, no phone numbers, no relationships and no dates.

The hit video came about after a meeting - and a hug - more than a year ago with the lead singer of the Sick Puppies, a Sydney band made up of three former Mosman High School students.

The singer, Shimon Moore, was working odd jobs by day and playing gigs by night.

"I was one of those guys in Pitt Street Mall with a sandwich board advertising a shoe sale," Moore told smh.com.au today.

The two became mates, and Moore borrowed his father's video camera to shoot footage of the hug man at work.

But his efforts to spread the love became a little too popular for some people's liking, according to a blurb on the YouTube video, which said: "As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED."

Undeterred, Mann collected more than 10,000 signatures on a petition he presented to the City of Sydney council. Demands for a halt to the hugs petered out shortly after, and the end of the clip shows Mann hugging an official.

Speaking by phone from Los Angeles, where the Sick Puppies moved a year ago, the lead singer said he mixed the video with their song All The Same as a gift for his friend, to lift his spirits after his grandmother died.