about audacityDaily
“And the day came
when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”
moroccan poppy image by tomRmalcolm
That day, is today.
audacityDaily is the vehicle compelling us to make every day the day we celebrate who we are and risk the next small step toward freedom.
It’s for those with an acute awareness of life, colored by experience and a sense of our youth, we never lost.
a double entendre
The name audacityDaily, has a double meaning
-
- The first says it’s a periodic publication
- The second meaning is more salient, it talks to how we live our lives
The goal of audacityDaily is to inspire us to live unapologetically and audaciously, a genuine life defined by us in spite of the pressures to conform.
Our actions or lack of are significantly influenced by the people and things in our immediate environment, good and bad. When we look at all of it straight on and dare to challenge the status quo, testing our beliefs with an open mind we can’t help but deepen our perspective, realizing our own possibilities and finally learning how to live us.
The one common thread among us is we are all highly diversified in what makes us who we are. But sadly, we hide so much of ourselves like the proverbial iceberg. audacityDaily seeks to encourage you to flip your iceberg on its head putting your giant and beautiful ass high up in the air for all to see!
I’ll uncover and celebrate the boundary breaches by the heroes who persevere through the tribe’s oppressive nature. These stories will not only include the headline stories but also the deeper more individually relevant stories from the rest of us.
The more you see it done by others, the less incredible it all starts to look.
Then suddenly, you realize living your own life full-out is not only possible, but necessarily imminent.
Fair warning
This site is guaranteed to be blunt and daring while pursuing the edges of human diversity with open-minded inclusion. Much of it will be considered unusual, if not bizarre, and blunt and stark in it’s transparency and candor.
But then, it is what it is, real people being real.
If you’re easily offended or freaked out well, you know what to do.
an eclectic mix of subjects drives new perspectives
Exposure to all that is out there causes us to grow so…
…there will be sophisticated analysis, fast and sexy vehicles of all manner, sophomoric humor, deep dives into unexpected rabbit holes, the human form celebrated, psychological ponderings where I have no business going, opinionated rants, daring photography, music tailor made for psychedelic journeys, romantics and head-banging, awkward levels of transparency, conceptual theories of existence, consciousness defended and challenged, full-on gender diversity, off-color humor generating long periods of silence punctuated with crickets, multiverse analysis, subtle sensuality, unconventional health ideas, political commentary, rational conspiracy theories, blunt candor, bugs that make you say WTF?, love for the Earth and all of its inhabitants and hope and optimism and pissing and moaning, and slow motion rocket engine videos, and other stuff not. yet. even. considered…
…and the people behind all of it.
who is this site for
those seeking to embrace risk for the sake of personal freedom.
Ready? Ok, grab your crotch, let’s do this!
deeper details below
It’s my hope you’ll to get to know me and the audacityDaily philosophy, inasmuch as you can from reading an about page.
And then, maybe join me on this ever-expanding journey of personal human discovery.
This about page is comprehensive so you can go deep and find out the why and what of audacityDaily.
So use the links in the table of contents below to skip around if you want.
Table of Contents
1 the intimacy between fear and courage
2 what audacity is, and what it isn’t
3 the stories covered
4 my philosophy on making a living
5 my why, some thoughts and history and what this site means to me
1 the intimacy between fear and courage
The pain and burden to not live your life always exceeds any pain and burden when you do.
Still, it’s true what they say, living the real you full-out is easier said than done. The critics and haters are everywhere.
Yet what reasonable options are there?
None.
We’ve heard it before, when we’re on our deathbeds recounting our life, we will not regret what we did.
We will regret what we did not do, the shots we did not take, the life we did not lead.
Are we really going to die with our true self and our dreams locked away, but safe from ridicule and challenge?
The hard work involves embracing uncertainty,
dancing with fear and taking responsibility before it’s given to us.
– Seth Godin
We don’t do us because we believe we’ll get slammed for it by almost everyone from strangers to family. While some expressions of audacity directed at us are meant to encourage, many are vultures waiting for our crash and burn after our audacious actions.
Consequently, we feel it’s easier, safer to just suck it up and do as we are expected to do and not risk ridicule. But there’s a greater loss at play. When you don’t do the true you, the rest of us will never know your influence, your inspiration, your perspective. Our lives will never be enhanced and deepened by your impact and your take on the world.
If you allow internal and external pressures and fears to turn you into something as exciting as fat-free milk, we all lose.
this is an unadulterated tragedy
which things are worth the daily fight?
- Seeking your life long entrepreneurial dreams
- Deciding to come out, at 15 or 50 or 80
- Daring a career that you love even though a snowball in Hell stands a better chance
- and about a thousand other big things
Yet, sometimes we have to sneak up on these big things, one tiny conquest after another. Gathering momentum and familiarity with risk. Some of the most important things we can dare do are often the most common things day in and day out. They aren’t generally considered for the title audacious, yet they are the most important. All those “everyday” things we don’t do and don’t say and don’t even allow ourselves to feel or think about.
It’s there the magic of change lies.
Instead, we let the multitude of these little things become crushed or buried or we let our square idea get hammered into a round hole because we think, Eh, it’s just a little thing, it doesn’t matter.
But it does matter. Those square idea edges that just got hacked off? That is precisely where your flavor is, where your style shines. It’s paramount in fact because that’s how we get from here to someplace better. The bigger life changing audacious things happen as a consequence to living true to the little things all day, every day. It’s these small consistent victories that lead us to risking a bit bigger each time and moving us a little closer to the resolve to live our life full-out.
No one said it was going to be easy, but still so worth it.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe
To be your own person is a hard business
If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened
But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself
– Rudyard Kipling
Sometimes the only reward to living a genuine life under your own terms is that very knowledge itself, that you are living your own life under your own terms.
Often others just won’t get it, and that’s OK.
expectations
Society’s (family and friends included) expectations of how we should act and how and who we should be is an imposing influence. Those expectations impact our ability to feel safe while we try to live our genuine lives. This can turn into a runaway feedback loop of forever worrying about the expectations of others until we completely lose sight of our own expectations.
Fortunately, there are two interesting curiosities that occur when we start living our life and consequently angering, mortifying and embarrassing our longtime friends and family and society as a whole…
- We attract like-minds, we find each other, and it’s beautiful
- Often, the critics eventually accept our position, if not embrace it
All truth passes through three stages
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident– Arthur Schopenhauer
2 what is audacity, and what it isn’t
what is audacity
Definition
- au·dac·i·ty
- /ôˈdasədē/
- noun – the willingness to take bold risks.
This definition is about as concise as it can be, yet so profound as we decide how we choose to live our lives.
And make no mistake, it is a choice
audacity is an intimate and relative perspective
The usual reference point defining audaciousness is the status quo, yet one person’s audacious is another person’s normal. Since we all necessarily experience reality from our own intimate perspective, for one to call another audacious is altogether irrelevant. And is usually not meant to be an admiration, but an admonition.
The only assessment that matters is when your current actions as measured against your previous actions, can be called audacious by you.
Yet those labeled audacious are really just like the rest of us. I believe we are all audacious fucks with outrageous tendencies screaming to escape.
The only difference between us and the outwardly audacious is that they have already exposed themselves (pervs) and willingly opened themselves up for ridicule.
When we can say that’s true for us, then we have raised the bar in a meaningful way.
there’s something beautiful
about ignoring all realistic constraints
– Anne Wojcicki (23andMe)
the irony
There is great irony in being called audacious. Audacious is a term used by the not-so-audacious to describe someone who lives on the long tail of the bell curve of normalcy . You know normal , right?
- it’s smack square in the middle
- it’s that place you’re supposed to be
- it’s probably where you don’t belong
The irony is that the audacious actually aren’t, they are simply being themselves.
what audacity is not
- Reckless
- Recklessness does not equal brave or bold. Anyone can generate copious amounts of stupid. Being reckless is not an act of courage. The aftermath of, “Hey, holma beer n waashishh’ is usually not a good thing. Though often entertaining, the outcome is usually a big, Ok, so you’re a fucking idiot, so what?
- A Dick
- Speaking your mind by disrespecting others with name calling, excessive side-liner criticisms and flaming others from the safety of the other side of your monitor is not being audacious. it’s just being a dick and a coward. The people you are dissing are the ones actually in the ring and deserving of our respect for that reason alone, you asshole!
- Arbitrary out-there-ness
- Doing or saying something that is arbitrarily provocative and without sincerity or reason does not qualify.
choose your battles wisely
There will always be a cost-benefit-analysis to be considered in living audaciously and rightly so, this just makes sense. When a momentary irrational daydream creeps into our minds of blasting our neighbor’s yapping little dog into space toward the sun because Fifi won’t shut the fuck up, we don’t act on it because as quickly as the thought entered our minds, it was summarily dismissed because
- There will be significant legal consequence to taking this action
- Uhh, it’s wrong (get a grip!) It is assumed that your audacious actions will always be guided by a deep and overriding sense of respect for the Earth and all of its inhabitants. Symbiosis is paramount.
- Dude, it’s expensive and you don’t even own a rocket.
Fifi aside there are many, many more legitimate personally relevant things we don’t act on because of an expected response to the predicted blow-back. And you know that list is a long one. While only you can say when you’re ready to breach those internally and externally generated boundaries and face the critics, we want to encourage it sooner than later so in the end no one especially you, can say you led a life of disingenuous mediocrity.
our ability for self-containment and self-deception
Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own world view is our most powerful intellectual imperative.
The minds equivalent of feeding, fighting and fornicating.
People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions.
They’ll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant and spin it all into a tapestry of self deception
solely to justify an idea no matter how impoverished or self destructive.
Barry Eisler, from Extremis, a John Rain Novel
This quote from Barry Eisler s book Extremis so completely fits all of us at one time or another in our lives in the context of how we let ourselves be controlled and contained by ourselves, friends, family, even strangers and society and internally justify it. It makes me shiver.
seeds of possibility and risk, let’s get real
Success is the child of audacity
– former British Prime Minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli (1804 1881)
While audacityDaily seeks to entertain and thrill, to threaten and challenge, to inform and shock you into opening your eyes to the tidal wave of courageous things being done out there by the audacious, and while there is so much to see and learn from them not only in their accomplishments but in the way they go about life, full out, in a celebration of their true self, still there are some things to be considered
it’s not that easy
I don’t want to mislead by offering platitudes of warm and fuzzy bullshit. (fuzzy bullshit?) Spectacular failures along the way are a distinct possibility. “Be brave and risk big” is not some romantic concept that is inspiring to say and that as long as you go for it, you will necessarily be rewarded. You might well do a serious face-plant on cold wet concrete. (both literally and figuratively) It’s that distinct possibility that makes taking action so valuable and significant.
the rational lizard brain
Sometimes when we just start to feel emboldened, we let our rational lizard brain mind overtake our thrill and we start to shrink back and make all kinds of rationale as to why we shouldn’t. I struggle with this every day! Every fucking day! I’m thinking YES! I get it! I know! Let’s do this! But then my inner voice says some shit like, “Yea, but they’ll think you’re an idiot for doing that, and then what if it falls on its face and they go, see dumbass I told you that was a stupid idea.”
But all of that misses the bigger point. There is one entire fuck-ton (a valid unit of measure) more value in going for it and taking a shot and failing, than there is in not taking a shot. And then if it works out? Well damn, that’s just rich brown bacon gravy on top! So audacity’s promise is that you win whether that particular thing was a success or not.
it feels and tastes good
Every attempt successful or not builds your internal resolve to continue to take your next step, a step defined by you. Won’t it be great when you can deep down in your core know that you feel gooood about trying even when the haters remind you that you failed , again? Because you know that you have moved forward and up.
It feels good, no I mean really good.
How good? Well, it’s like, think of the single best flavor you have ever tasted. Where after you swallow you look around and exclaim, “Goddamn that’s delicious! And before anyone can even respond, you look back down at your plate to grab up the next bite. I mean it was sooo goood that you felt like at any second you could spontaneously break into an orgasm. The “I’ll have what she’s having” kind of good, yea that flavor.
Now imagine someone saying to you, Ehh, it’s not so good. WTF? You wouldn’t now question whether you like it or not, you know you do! It’s not up for debate! You would say, “Heh, I just had an orgasm, so yea it was really good!” Their opinion didn’t and couldn’t change your mind.
I want to consistently feel that level of confidence about my convictions not only in my own head but in the translation of those convictions into real life.
every day. Know what I’mean
take care not to be consumed by the battle
The battle of living audaciously. What I mean by that is sometimes we can get consumed in the ego rush of successfully pushing back on would be oppressors that we end up acting outside of social norms simply for the sake of acting outside of social norms. We end up looking for arbitrary opportunities to push back on just for the thrill of it.
If you fall into this trap, you then become a victim of your own newly discovered power to live on your own terms, actually having lost sight of your true goals.
Don’t let the thrill of battle, become the goal. As it’s so often said, choose your battles wisely.
3 the stories covered and how
an ocean of stuff (expand the whole curation argument here)
To say there is so very much out there, is spectacular understatement. Life has so much to look at, consider and experience it’s often overwhelming. In any given subject, I can spin around, throw a dart and hit a subject or an idea or a perspective that will capture the imagination and put me in awe of this existence. With so much out there, some kind of selection process has to be implemented. Curation is that process. The very same thing that has been done since forever ago in all mediums that distribute news and stories.
Combined with the scope and scale of the internet, the prolificness of so many amazing personalities in our world and my nature of finding many varied things interesting, this process of curation is not a straightforward task.
As I pour over the raging river of information that crosses my path every day, every once in awhile something or someone just jumps out from the noise, something intuitively distinct, controversial, interesting or simply entertaining. It’s those things I want to bring to you so we can share and talk and debate about it.
Many news, informational and entertainment sites use automated algorithms to scrape stories from the larger internet, defined by a predetermined audience, known as a persona. Dave Pell of NextDraft says, “I am the algorithm.” I like that, that’s what I do too. I find stories that appeal to me and the thread that binds them all together is the concept of audacity. Audacious behavior at all levels of human accomplishment.
Any story I include in aD is either authored by me, found at it’s origin or unearthed from a curation of a curation of curated stories. Or any place along that line. This a good thing because all of these particular curators have been vetted through my particular tastes allowing me to sort through a very cream of the crop bunch of stories that are finally chosen to make it into aD.
It’s all good with the anticipation of the process of discovery being wildly exciting.
what kind of stories?
Update The initial concept of aD did not include political commentary or much coverage. Given the recent developments in American politics, I now feel compelled and a responsibility to add my small measure of resistance to the cause. Because this is now just too fucked up and dangerous to ignore!
I seek out my discoveries in the first three main categories of seekingScience, earthKind and mindBody.
But the most interesting value I look for are in the sub-stories within these categories. There are so many unsung heroes out there doing spectacularly brave work that are rarely if ever, recognized.
the first three categories
Shown below is a limited list of examples of what’s covered in each
- seekingScience
- Spaceships, astronomy, materials science, machines, robotics and nanobots, 3D printing, quantum physics, AI, VR/AR
- earthKind
- all that is on Earth, including Mother Earth herself, humans, animals, climate change, weather, our place in the cosmos, how we are and are not being earth kind, the unmitigated richness of the diversity of life and beauty on this tiny, tiny island of possibilities
- mindBody
- microbiome, epigenetics, neurology, prosthetics, body suits, meditation, consciousness theories, sentience and apperception in AI
the fourth category
I love the internet, love it. And as a person with suspected Adult ADD, (or maybe I’m a suspected adult with ADD, depends on who you ask) the internet was made for people like me, rabbit hole addicts. I love internet rabbit holes, love them. It really is a challenge to stay on task.
enter the fourth category
As I head down these countless rabbit holes looking for cool stuff for the first three categories, I find many bizarre and interesting things that don’t necessarily fit the first three categories. So they fall into the rabbit hole category I’m calling randomRabbit.
And I mean random. From images of out of context body parts to how-to videos of how to garnet paper your brake rotors instead of turning them, music videos, TT races, powerful machines of all types, trip stories and photos, and all manner of other spontaneously discovered things. I have a fascination with conspiracy theories so expect those here as well. But ones that are rooted in defendable citation laden facts by those with fully discerning and rational intellects. (I don’t qualify) And in the interest of entertainment, other theories that are fun to consider but not backed up by credible data. And every other damn thing I find that satisfies my ADD. (at least for a minute)
profanity, humor and sensuality in audacityDaily
a penchant for profanity
It’s true, I have a potty mouth. But I don’t think it’s like gratuitous swearing. When I use it, it’s meaningful, creative and delivered with eloquent profundity. (yes, it iiiis!) Examples of other profane intelligences
- The Fuck Off Fund Monthly https://medium.com/fuck-off-fund-monthly
- by Paulette Perhach, she’s also at http://www.pauletteperhach.com/
- Without Bullshit https://withoutbullshit.com/
- by Josh Bernoff
humor
My humor can be subtle, crass, intelligent, flat out sophomoric and infrequently clever, you just never know what you’re gonna get so keep an open mind!
human sexuality
I respect and celebrate human sexuality in all its flavors. I feel to deny or denigrate this most natural and powerful sense is an unhealthy place to be. Here are a couple of stupid examples from unhealthy minds making the beautiful ugly
- Picasso paintings Picasso’s breasts
- Great Hall of the Department of Justice Spirit of Justice has breasts
Yes, people have differing ideas about what constitutes normal sexuality in activity, desires and artistic expression. I encourage that we seek out what constitutes our personal beliefs on the subject by working to strip away the prejudices we have absorbed over a lifetime of frequently hypocritical social influences.
We, as consenting adults get to choose what we like, what we do and with whom. So let’s embrace and experience the beautiful sensuality that exudes from our bodies and minds.
But don’t worry, you won’t find anything here remotely like, well you know, you’ve been there before. Yea, you remember, right?
That time(s) you went into incognito mode in Google with some lame research excuse or some shit, remember?
(yea I thought so, you sick fuck)
4 my philosophy on making a living
People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.
The goal isn’t to do business with everyone who needs what you have
The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.
Simon Sinek
my philosophy
the intent
The intent I have for aD is that it will inspire, inform and entertain. More simply put, I want it to add some measure of value to your life, every time you honor me with a visit. Subsequently and consequently, I want aD to be how I make my living, because I love doing it.
I can’t continue to run the site indefinitely if it never makes a profit, yet the goal is not to make a profit. Rather the goal is to make aD a place you and I love. If profits happen to result from that, it’s because those profits are a consequence of right actions that serve that goal.
I think it’s a beautiful way to perceive business. It’s a self-sustaining, self-checking model that serves us both, you and me.
the idea behind Means to An End or a hole as opposed to a drill
When I go buy a drill, it’s not the drill I want, it’s a hole I’m after. The drill is simply the means I’m using to obtain the thing I’m actually after, the hole. (yep, I’m just gonna let that one go)
In this case, I can take it further and say that the hole can be more accurately classified as a sub-means to an even deeper end. The end I’m really after is the overwhelming love and pride I will feel every time I walk by the family picture that I will hang on the screw that will occupy the hole that the drill made. That feeling is the true end I pursue.
All products and services offered on aD will be presented in a way that embraces the true end of what that product or service ultimately provides.
the products and services
All products and services offered are manifested passions from people and companies who are doing business right and producing things I feel can provide you emotional, utility or entertainment benefit.
a vested interest in doing it right
I am notoriously intolerant of crap products and shitty customer service. I only recommend means that have been vetted by me, to my own strict standards. Since aD is my passion and my livelihood, your trust in my assessment of the things I offer is categorically critical to my survival. Period.
the vetting criteria
universally desired in the things we purchase
- Quality of design and production
- These are experienced when you use it. It feels good both tactilely and emotionally and it does what it’s supposed to do with elegance.
- Respectfully presented
- There are no screaming, hypey ads or outrageous claims. No intrusive popups or auto-start sales pitch videos.
- Top Tier Customer Service
- This is of primary importance to me and is my favorite criteria. We expect things to go well. That the shipment occurs on time and the product works like we expect it to. But here’s the thing
- When an issue arises, and issues will arise even with the best of companies, how do they respond to your problem?
when something goes off the rails, here are a few things that must occur
- A human being must be able to be communicated with within a reasonable time frame, either by phone, email or chat.
- They own your issue with a smile through to resolution and exhibit true empathy and patience with your frustration as if you are their sole customer.
- And as far as you’re concerned in that moment, you are their sole customer and rightly so
- That you receive a refund, replacement, credit or whatever makes sense given the details of the transaction and product type.
- This must happen with zero pushback, hassle or attitude.
Every product or service in Means To An End meets these criteria.
Sell does not have to be a four letter word
Imagine this scenario (you’ve been there)
You discover a website that you think you like. It has interesting articles, you can get the latest news, learn about interesting things and maybe be entertained. But soon you see there’s a price to be paid to visit there. Up in your face are thrown ads of all manner.
It feels like the whole thing is simply a platform to shove some product in your face screaming, BUY ME! More to the point, there is no concern for what is being sold, as long as something is being sold. It feels disingenuous at best and being lied to at worst.
There is a major disconnect between what you expected when you decided to visit the site and what you are now experiencing.
Wow, seriously?
Here are my favorite intrusive ad types that are so annoying, it is hard to believe that any company would decide this was a good thing to do.
- Scenario 1
- You go to a website, the page begins to populate and you start to read. Suddenly a giant ad fills up the entire space above the article and pushes your article down the page. Now you scan around to find where you were, you find it, start reading again and again the page reformats. You look again for where you last were and before you can even find it, it reformats again, up this time. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? STOP IT!
- Scenario 2
- You go to a website, and you start reading your stuff. You notice that there are a lot of double underlined words or phrases on the page. But you’re wise now because you’ve seen these before and know that these are flyout popups . Just passing over these with your cursor causes an ad to instantly appear in your way. They take too long to disappear on their own and won’t disappear by clicking somewhere else in the page. You have to click the X in the tiny box. Ok, now you’re reading again and absent mindedly move the mouse to go somewhere else not taking care to navigate around all the ad minefields and GODDAMNIT, hit another one! And on it goes.
- Scenario 3
- This one is unbelievable, not only because of the tactic, which is bad enough. But it becomes beyond belief because of who did it. Ok, I’m reading a great article, about 1000 words, get to the bottom and an ad pops up bottom left to offer a subscription. I go to click the X in the box to delete it and, wait for it….the ad shrinks in size effectively moving the X away from my cursor. I’m not kidding. I try to click the X again and then it expands, moving the X again. With the cursor anywhere inside the ad where I can choose to accept the offer, the ad behaves. Want to guess who did this? Nope, not a porn site, it’s The New York Fucking Times. Wow.
- Scenario 4
- And of course, the infamous auto-start video ads. You simply arrive on a page and bam! Some loud and obnoxious video starts playing where sometimes you even have to search for it to turn it off. I’ve got two words for sites that use these tactics. FUCK. YOU. I’m outta here.
a conflict of interest
I hate being sold to this way. Not because I don’t necessarily want what’s being offered, maybe I do want it. But I can’t get past the feeling that I’m not being told the genuine story about that product. Most people have pretty good bullshit detectors and mine goes off constantly. I feel like I’m being psychologically manipulated if not flat-out lied to because often the real goal is to sell me the product whether or not I need or want it. I am not given an unbiased account or respectful presentation of the product because the salesperson’s goal is to sell anything with any means. Consequently, I can’t make an informed decision on my own without pressure, manipulation or expectation.
This is a win/lose and a conflict of interest between the salesperson and me.
a compliment of interest
That feels better. Rather than smacking you upside the back of your head to get your attention so I can scream a sales pitch at you, I would rather invite you to my site to share interesting stories, ideas and life perspectives. Once we understand each other and emotionally feel we are in the company of like minds, only then might you feel comfortable having a look at the Means To An End page. An important distinction in that last sentence is that you are making the decision to go there, when you’re ready, when you feel like it. Not because an annoying in-your-personal-space ad has nearly forced you to go look at something.
What kinds of things will be offered
I intentionally identify only three broad categories of products and services
- for life hacking
- for entertainment
- for entrepreneurs
There are only two criteria
- First, that I feel they can do one or more to
- Inform you
- Inspire you
- Entertain you
- Provide utility in your life
- Second that they pass my quality vetting criteria described above
monetization done better
How does this site make money so I can continue to have ramen? Here’s how I do it
- Offering products and services through the affiliate process
- Donations Via Patreon or Paypal, if you’re so compelled. You can contribute whatever amount you like, one time or recurring
the Affiliate Process, how does that work?
The affiliate process is an amazing win/win/win structure. You, me, and the product or service maker
here’s a typical scenario
- CompanyA has a thing they sell, it’s called ThingA.
- They sell it in their brick and mortar store and online on both their website and through representatives called affiliates, also online. For example, I’ll be AffiliateA.
- AffiliateA (me) thinks ThingA is an amazing product and meets my performance criteria (see above) and think that my audience might appreciate knowing about it.
- I place an informative article and link about ThingA on my site and through respectful and unobtrusive means, let you know it’s there.
- If AudienceA (you) decides to buy ThingA through that link on my site, CompanyA provides AffiliateA (me) a small commission.
Here are some very important considerations to be aware of
-
- The price AudienceA pays when purchased from a link on AffiliateA s site is never more than if you had purchased it from CompanyA directly. In fact, often CompanyA provides special discounts to give to AffiliateA to provide even further value and incentive to AffiliateA’s audience.
- Unfortunately, what happens on some sites is that AffiliateB selling CompanyB products doesn’t give fuck one about what they’re selling nor about the quality of ThingB they’re promoting. AffiliateB is also not worried about their reputation or relationship with AudienceB and only cares that they can make a commission if they can sell some ThingB’s.
5 my why, some thoughts and history and what this site means to me
Do we lead timid or courageous lives
Do we spread our souls upon the winds
or do we clip the wings
of our hearts and dreams
I choose to fly. tomRmalcolm
first and foremost
I’m a 62 year old husband to an amazing woman, Dad to three spectacular kids, two one dog (I miss you Taylor) and son to a magnificent Mother. (I miss you Mom)
it’s all good.
my credentials
Sorry, I got none! So many of the authors, site owners and entrepreneurs I read about are really smart people with massive degree(s) and experience and a lot of them are beautiful people too (WTF ! God you piss me off!) I on the other hand am the antithesis of that, a skinny, short, half-deaf, 62 year old who just managed to eek out an AS degree 40 years ago. But here’s what I bring to the table of aD, and you got it to bring too…
…persistence, determination and stubbornness with a keen understanding and appreciation of what I like. These are the great playing field levelers. They aren’t genetic, so you can just call them up at will, all day, every day. With these free things that we already have, we have to face the fact that all of our dreams, are ours to lose. No more bullshit excuses.
I’m lookin’ at you Malcolm!
be careful what you ask for
‘Cause you damn well might get it. I’ve been searching for answers all my life. Now, finally I feel I’ve uncovered a lot of answers and perspectives to some really important questions about life and myself and where I’m going and how I’m gonna get there. And then, a new dilemma.
Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act
-Albert Einstein
the new dilemma
Once you know, once you become aware, that condition of knowing brings with it an inherent responsibility to respond to that knowledge. And it’s hard. Because now I gotta do something goddammit. (Thanks Obama Einstein.) You know, it’s quite a bitter/sweet place to be. I want to be here, be all knowledgeable and self-aware and yet at some level I’m whining about it which is massively ridiculous, I know.
They say ignorance is bliss. Maybe, but it’s still ignorant. And in reality I know there is much greater potential for bliss to be had with knowledge than with ignorance. And right now I’m in that place of raising my bar and responding to that responsibility. And despite myself, it feels good.
I like to share
I have a tendency to want to share what I find with like minds, I think that’s a natural inclination. But when I try to share with those around me, they often just aren’t as interested as I would hope. Sometimes my enthusiasm actually becomes an annoyance to others. Like when I send an email with a link to a great article that I think is interesting and want to share it with people important in my life and later I ask if they read the article I sent, they say, “No, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet” (read I’m not interested enough in what you sent to bother right now.) And I’m like, “What, are my emails in the same “I’ll get to it when I can” category along with all the other nonsense that comes into your inbox?” I can’t help but feel a little offended.
Yet, after I settle my ego down I understand their response.
I get it, we’re all different
Our immediate circle of family and friends is relatively small so it is unlikely that most of the subjects we find interesting would be the same subjects that they find interesting. We forget they’re unique individuals, too. My interests are so eclectic and often esoteric that no one in my immediate world gets all those things, in the same way I get them. It’s frustrating but I have to remind myself that this is normal. We are all unique and appreciate different things to varying degrees of interest and at different times in our lives.
audacityDaily is my path to you, who have the same interests in life as me. Welcome!
gettin’ over it and moving on
As I look back, I realize I have not sufficiently honored my own desires and propensities, at least not to the degree that I feel I should have. This may have been driven by unfortunate circumstance. Some of my earliest and most vivid memories are of times when what I showed intense fascination with was either overlooked by some adult authority or viciously squashed by some fuckwad bully-type. (yea you know fuckwad , like asshole, douchebag, idiot, moron, fucktard, dickhead, douche, dick, dipshit, dumbass, loser, asshat, jerk, jackass, prick, tool, shithead) But, at least now though, I’m clearly over it.
I have often wondered if I had received interested encouragement, even mentorship in those things I showed an interest in, how different my life might have been.
conforming to nonconformity
When I was a teenager I was (and mostly still am) a hippie rebel, anti-establishment, anti-war type and many of the other things that baby-boomer generation espoused. Though some of my idealistic positions on those subjects are now modified by certain realities and perspectives that escaped me as a teenager.
I have always been a self-reflective type and one day it occurred to me that while I believed in those fundamentals, I had some gradations of belief different from my peers that I wasn’t honoring because I was busy conforming to the expected norm of those around me. I was conforming to their definition of nonconformity. Wow, really? Just a bit hypocritical to what was supposed to be my self-righteous position. Not good. I corrected that and promptly offended a few of those in my close circle. One of our mantras was tolerance, yet I wasn’t afforded that respect. They didn’t have to agree with me, but I did expect an open-minded kind of consideration, if not embrace of my position. Didn’t happen.
fast forward to today
aD promotes and supports tolerance and inclusion for us and them. You never know where your next “ooooohh, I didn’t consider it that way before” moment will come from. It can come from a place where 99% of the other side is not what you’re about, but if you’re mind is closed, you’ll never hear that golden 1%. (write this story and link to it – peeing on the sidewalk)
speaking of hearing
I am hard of hearing. I’ve been assessed as having profound hearing loss , the specific type is sensorineural hearing loss. This condition is an annoyance at best and dangerous at worst. Most of the time it’s just an exhausting pain in the ass. So much of our connection to the world is delivered to us by way of sound, and I miss a lot. The experience I miss the most is the ability to have spontaneous conversation with someone when that person is not directly in front of me. Like you can’t talk to me from across the room especially if you’re looking in the opposite direction from where I am and expect an appropriate response. What you’ll get is either nothing or I’ll ask you to repeat it or I’ll answer you with what I think I heard which can be off base to the point of being hilarious or embarrassing. Whispering to me is out of the question.
A vanity blow
I’ve been wearing hearing aids since I was 28 years old. That’s 34 plus years ago. It was way more of a stigma back then and I struggled with my vanity over it. I finally rationalized that wearing hearing aids was less conspicuous than not hearing a large percentage of conversations.
Today while better, the social acceptance level is bad enough. Which is a strange social hypocrisy. For example, hearing aids are far less visually obvious than say, securing a couple of glass disks to the front of your face held in position by a metal or plastic frame sitting on your nose! Really? Somehow that’s deemed ok, even fashionable. Oh and check it out, I get to wear those too.
don’t be an ass
Often normal hearing people are impatient, dismissive or flatout assholes (you know who you are) when they have to communicate with me. Let me assure you, your annoyance will never, ever even begin to approach the level of annoyance and embarrassment I experience so how ’bout you chill the fuck out!
it’s complicated
The mechanism of hearing is exponentially more complex to correct than sight is. A few of the constraints the hearing aid developers have to deal with is processing power, battery life and the desire of users to hide their hearing aids as much as possible. In other words users usually want them so small as to be practically invisible. Currently those constraints do not play well together.
I’ve always said just give me something that works (cause it ain’t there yet) even if it’s as big as a pair of stereo headphones. Seriously, to be continually behind the conversation curve is waaaay more exhausting and conspicuous than even a large pair of headphones. Manufacturers! Are you hearing me?
conspiracy theory warning
I think the industry is collectively dragging its engineering feet because there is money in keeping things as they are. The high end hearing aids of today, which still do not do well in many listening environments cost from $3000 $7000 for a pair and most health insurance does not cover the majority of that if any. Though in the last few years, some insurance plans have begun to participate.
I’m looking forward to a disruptive intervention by an audacious entrepreneur to blow the doors off this stymied industry bringing me and others closer to normal hearing in the next 5 years at reasonable cost.
We need a revolutionary change, not the evolutionary status quo.
Conspiracy theories aside, I’ve got no time for self pity. I just deal with it as best I can while waiting for technology to come to my rescue, which I believe it will. There is just too much going on in life to be wasting a single moment pissing and moaning when that brings you nothing. (Ok, I piss and moan a little, but not too much, right honey?)
where did the time go?
Come on, please? I just want to be your bitch!
This is how I feel at work, busting my ass for someone else’s dream.
Wow, what a way to live life.
An entrepreneurs spirit
I have the heart and soul of an entrepreneur. It has always galled me to leave my house and family every day for 8 or more hours, to go help build the dreams of SOMEONE ELSE! WTFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK???
If you’re even halfway paying attention, you realize that life is a raging torrent of wonderful and exhilarating experiences both physical and emotional. Full of thrills and beauty and sorrow and joy, of loss and gain. Yet, over my life I’ve squandered a giant pile of time in doubt and over-analysis and got wrapped up in doing life and did that classic fuckup, where you get on society’s squirrel cage while time races on by. I look back and I am amazed, no I mean it, amazed that I have been one of those people. I had such amazing plans and dreams, how could I have let that happen? I’m smarter than that!
I’ve made a number of attempts over the years at businesses in areas that were not passions for me and I think this lack of passion, contributed at least in part, to those failures. In between those business attempts, I have for too much of my live, lived my entrepreneurial dreams vicariously through other entrepreneurs.
That changes with aD, this is my all-in moment, right now.
Finally, I’ve developed some sort of a clue.
Better late than never. So onward.
a final word
This site is about honoring those I love and respect, the tiny percentage of the population
who have the courage to do their thing in life, on their terms.
Now it’s our turn, you and me, let’s do this.
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