Plans for Dark Rose
May 30th, 2009
Hey, guys. I’m sure you’ve probably noticed, but Dark Rose is pretty much inactive as hell right now. I haven’t uploaded new art in months, I take forever to post blogs (and when I do they are about nothing), and I haven’t given this place a new layout since… November? This has been going on for a long time, and I haven’t had any inspiration for this place until recently. Obviously, the way I am handling things right now aren’t working out, so I’m going to switch things up so I can actually maintain this place as a hobby like I once did, to my immense satisfaction. Right now it seems like more of a chore, and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. This was meant to be fun.
So, to fix that, things will change over the course of the next couple of weeks:
- Dark Rose will no longer feature a personal blog. There will be updates, but it will be more like “HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT I MADE LOL” instead of “Now let us discuss the undermined importance of the grasshopper to our society” or whatever. The blogging has been my largest issue for the longest time because I already have a private journal where I write about my personal life in much more detail, and I am not interested in sharing that stuff on a public blog regardless of how much I am trying to open myself up. Also, most of the topics I would write about have already been done to death and covered from every angle. Yes, even the squid angle. So updates will be more or less of a different variety, to take the pressure off of myself to write it and to take it off of you to actually read the crap I write.
- Now, even though the blog will no longer be totally opinionated rambles on whatever passes my fancy at the time, this site will remain personal. Things I like will still be on here and I can promise that those things will be updated frequently. I will also link to my profiles on networking sites like last.fm and Goodreads for the rare person interested in that sort of thing.
- The ask me a question thing is staying. Period.
- I actually do finally have inspiration for a new layout, so we’ll definitely be seeing one of those soon.
This in mind, my orientation begins August 30th (the same damn day I was supposed to go see Jeff Dunham with a certain someone, AGHHHH). The site will reflect these features by then, but they might not be as updated as frequently as they will be over the summer. And to my fellow Quilting Bee members who are waiting for a response from me regarding trades and activities - I am not ignoring you, I’ve just been a little busy, and I will totally reply to you tonight after I get home from work. ♥
Fundraisers in the Workplace
April 28th, 2009
Nowadays many stores are participating in raising money for various charities and organizations; whether or not this due to generosity or a facade depends on the store. Regardless, if you head to checkout in a store, there is a good chance you’ll be asked for a donation to benefit cause X, Y or Z. The store I work for hosts various fundraisers year round, and since I’m now working 30+ hours a week, you can bet your ass I’ve asked the washed out “would you like to donate a dollar to…?” question so many times I think about it in my sleep. Yeah, it’s that bad.
So, first of all, a couple of observations I’ve made while asking for donations:
- The reaction to the question of donating is always interesting. Some customers are very happy to donate two or three dollars at a time and others only need me to get to the word “donate” before they interrupt me to ask what their total is. The responses I receive the most are “not today” and “I already have,” although I’ve also received the rare “the government already takes away enough of my money, and now you want some too?” statement.
- When I ask, I make sure I ask everybody. I don’t skip someone because they’re paying with food stamps; actually, you’d be surprised how many of them would be happy to donate to so and so organization even when they themselves are receiving a little help from the government. And for those customers that seem 100% sure to turn me down just from the look of them… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been secretly surprised by the generosity of the customers. Even the most intimidating looking person is willing to help out others.
It’s great that even in economic hardship, there are people who are willing to help out a cause. However, it all depends on the cashier, too. Some cashiers don’t care enough, are lazy, or just don’t remember to ask when they are ringing up orders. People are generous enough to donate, but how are they going to know that a donation drive is happening if the cashier doesn’t ask?
If you have never worked as a cashier at a store that does donation drives, then you may not know that companies try to provide incentive to get them out there and asking so that an optimal amount of money can be raised. Popping the question isn’t exactly an altruistic thing; the vast majority of us have an ulterior motive because of it and the donation drive becomes a competition. Look at mine. The person who gets the most donations per hour (number of donations divided by hours worked during the drive) wins an iPod and a $25 gift card for iTunes. The store also offers other prizes and posts the list of prizes on a poster by the clock so everyone is aware.
And while it’s great that the store is trying to generate an interest in the drive, I don’t think this is the right way to do it. No, I don’t have a better suggestion, yes, I know that the best way to get someone to do something for others is to offer a personal incentive for them. But it’s not right. This is for a charity and it should not be made into a competition for some material possessions. Just the other day, mom went into K-Mart, and you know what the cashier said to her? “Please donate, these two other girls are beating me!!” Yeah, that’ll get me to part with my money. I’m more likely to donate out of the goodness of my heart, or even the pressure of feeling guilty if I don’t, than I am because of a petty competition behind the scenes. It belittles the purpose of the drive and it discourages me from even thinking of donating there again, even if I believe in the cause.
Rewarding people for raking in donations is all well and good, but why not make the prizes a secret thing that you don’t even know about until you’ve done enough to earn them? This way, the right people are rewarded and the spirit of the charity is kept intact. The problem is, just how many people would participate with this method? Unfortunately, I don’t think there would be many.
I know it’s not especially right of me to be speaking out against this; hell, to be completely honest, I just received prizes the other day for my own drive. Not to sound holier than thou, but, despite what my coworkers think, I don’t especially care about the prizes. I ask because it comes with my job, it’s nice to help out, and it’s uplifting to see that there are generous strangers out there, breaking all preconceived notions and molds they were originally thought to fit into. There is so much potential in everyone, coworkers and customers alike, to make the donation drives successful, and that is exactly why it’s so horrible to see the integrity of the charity destroyed before it even touches the customer.
Meant To Be
March 27th, 2009
“Everything happens for a reason.”
I hear this statement everywhere these days, especially in the form of “this was meant to be.” As a consistent agnostic, leaning toward atheist individual… I disagree. Admitting that an outside force is out there controlling what happens to us to any extent is the same as confirming the existence of a higher power, unless you like to make the joke that everything happens for a reason even if it’s “just because.”
A lot of things do happen for a reason. Girls get pregnant because they’ve been inseminated, people decide to go to college because they think it’s a good investment - hell, I ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch this morning because I felt like it. But these are things that happened based on conscious decision. For whatever reason, they were made to happen because someone wanted them to. But it wasn’t God, and it wasn’t an outside force either, not unless peer pressure was involved. I am of the opinion that if God exists, he/she/it is way too busy doing Godly stuff to watch every human being simultaneously, but I’ll get into that rant at another time.
The problem I have with someone declaring that an event was meant to happen is that it is essentially a romanticized view of the world based on ideals rather than realism. So you meet someone that you really hit it off with at the same place at the same time; there is another word for this, and it is called coincidence (unless of course you or that person purposely set things up so you could meet). And while I agree that a string of coincidences seems highly unlikely, well… what percent of the world believes in Darwin’s evolution theory again? Adaption itself is not a coincidence in theory, but what I am pointing at here in particular is the evolution of life itself. Life started with bacteria and tiny molecules, right? (That’s the theory I’m sticking with, anyway.) Now, how long do you think it took its development to actually take place, and while we’re on that train of thought, how many times do you think it failed before things worked together sufficiently? The amount of times it took is coincidence, as is the success of the adaption in question. Trial and error.
I mean, let’s say I’m walking and I trip and fall, causing me to earn yet another scar for my leg. Was that meant to be? No, that was me being very clumsy and not watching what I was doing carefully enough. Let’s adjust it. Let’s say I’m walking behind someone, trip, fall, and land on them. We then introduce ourselves, get talking, become friends, get married, have children and are eventually buried next to each other. Was that meant to be? In a way, yes, it was. Meeting them was a complete accident, but the communication afterward opened more doors to possible futures.
Do you see what I’m getting at? Your life is what you do with it, your relationships are built upon the actions between you and the other person, your talents are yours and formed by the amount of practice you have at them, and ultimately, your future is only created based on what you have or have not done to achieve it. It is a disservice to the amount of effort you deposit into your life to lay it all down on God’s table. Stand up and take a bow; this success is yours, with maybe a bit of blame on luck. 
P.S. I know this isn’t the best blog post I’ve ever written, but I knew that if I didn’t publish it today it would never get done. I’ll revisit it later with a hopefully more tied in approach to (my) life with less vague examples, I just needed to get this out there.
