Postcards from the Funny Farm

The first time I ever listened to BlogTalkRadio was when I heard an interview with Matt Mullenwegg, co-creator of WordPress. Since then, when I hear an interesting voice of our times is being featured on there, I click back over and put my headphones on to enjoy a great show.

I’m writing here about a new show being featured on BlogTalkRadio, it’s called Your Mental Health Radio Talk Show. Some readers will assume immediately that mental health is neither interesting nor does it have anything to do with them: bare with me, I beg to differ, it does. Other readers’ ears perk up because they know mental illness. Whether schizophrenia has touched an aunt or bipolar has ravaged a brother, mental illness (and/or health) is too close to home for many many people in the world. The next time you are walking through a swarmed crowd, remember that one in three people are affected by mental illness. It could be a million dollar movie star you adore or an unseen immigrant in the back of a restaurant quietly cleaning dishes in sinks.

An upcoming show will feature Dr. Raymond Moody, MD author of the world-reknown book Life After Life and his new book Life After Loss takes up where Life After Life left off. The esteemed host and more information about this talk radio channel can be cound here: www.authorsden.com/jacquelinesforeman

That’s what is so great about this new Blog Talk Radio service. I’ll be tuning in regularly because psychology has played a huge role in my personal development. Not only have I read Peck’s treatise but many many others. Incidentally, another amazing one is the classic, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. Books and other media like these can transform your life from simple survival to truly enjoying life. It can be like the sun shining through the clouds of your life. A regular internet radio show like this can be a great tool for your mental health and that of your friends and loved ones.

Don’t you agree the time for such an internet medium has come?

To raise your awareness of mental health issues or just to be entertained, I wholeheartedly endorse listening to Your Mental Health Talk Radio at blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at 6 PM EST.

When boats aim at a destination, they need a rudder to correct their course again and again to reach the goal. This starts at the departure and continues to the end of the journey. Since I started writing articles in this blog, my goal has always been to reach people with my writing. Connecting with people has been a passion of mine through writing, music, teaching, and relationships as long as I can remember. I study people like Walt Disney and M. Scott Peck who are experts at doing this and I try to get better each day. Through teaching I make my living and believe me, that job is 100% about connecting with people. I’ve made a minimal amount of money with my music and of course relationships don’t need to earn you monetary rewards. Writing has made me some money but not as much as the music. I am determined in 2008 to merge my passion for connection with making money online.

So what does this mean Damien? Are we going to see a bunch of ads and pay per posts on this blog now?

Some, but I’m writing them all to this blog audience. I promise that any pay per posts will be directed at the stuff that affects my demographic of readers: intelligent, entertainment lovers, family people, cyberculture folks … just to name a few attributes. For example, right now I am hosting an ad for “Fandango” in my sidebar. If you are going to movies and you buy your tickets through clicking that ad, I get a few cents of the purchase. And Fandango is a cool way to pre-buy you tickets. Sarah and I always use it.

There is another benefit to my mmol (making money online) course with this blog: I’m very transparent about what is going on with earnings. This will enable YOU to learn what works out there and what is a scam so you can monetize your online writing. I’m a 38 year old with a Master’s Degree in Writing and certainly not new to the online writing scene. What is new is my course correction toward making money online. Up to now, that has never been a priority. Remember that a blog is only one way to make money at writing online. Helium, for example, is writing website that gives you topics to write on and they can make $20-$200 per assignment. And then of course there are online magazines which I intend to explore this year as well. I’ve been practicing by publishing on BlogCritics since last July.

Not all my posts will be pay for hire. In fact, expect to see only about 3/10 posts that way. The rest will be anecdotes about my teaching, family, music, and life as I see it. There will be the occasionally heavily researched article with sources linked and then there will be the intermittent “quote” or “link” with nothing more than a few words in the spirit of a true tumblelog. If you’re new to my blog, check out my sitemap and read some posts of the past year in the various categories. I hope you will subscribe so we can make a connection in the coming year. I am very loyal to my frequent commenters and I pay back any way I can. The fact is, the more readers I have and the more people link to this site, the better I look to prospective clients and that helps me make more money. This in turn encourages me to take more time developing powerful posts with great links that will impact my readers even more.

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I just read this article this morning on how Britney Spears’ lawyers are quitting her case. Her story has gone from bad to worse and I guess there is further down to go. First, she got married overnight in Vegas, then divorced. Next, she had kids and married Keniv Federline, then divorced. After that she was filmed with her baby on her lap while driving down the street. Soon after all that, a separation from Federline precipitated her shaving of all her hair on camera in a local salon … no need to email me, I am sure I missed something. What the hell is wrong with this woman? I think I might know.

Imagine a young child, say six or seven years old sitting in a playroom with 20 or 30 toys. Now watch that child play for a while. Next take another child and put them in a similar room with 2 or 3 toys. Give them a few hours. Watch how fast the first child gets bored. I’ve seen it happen and its uncanny. When we have everything we want and more, we tend to have a tough tie making choices on what to do (and/or in the case of the child “play with”). Brit (as she is called in the press) is like the first child. She has more money than she could ever spend and access to anything money can buy. What’s missing? The ability to know what to pick. If she would have had someone holding back her giant payroll when she was younger, she might have better discernment today.

Rich people who fall into scandal such as Britney are victims of “freedom anxiety,” a syndrome where the high number of choices and possibilities actually causes stress and anxiety. Those of us in the middle class who have to get up and work to pay our monthly bills often become jealous of rich entertainers like Britney Spears. This is foolish. Often times, they are jealous of us.

Brittany’s kids are now in the custody of their father and she is gallivanting around with her new beau. I read yesterday that Brit was down in Dana Point last weekend where I grew up. How much of it did she enjoy I wonder? For example, walking down Del Mar street taking in the sights and sounds while shopping and buying snacks is the best part of Dana Point for me but Brit couldn’t do that, not without a disguise anyway. To me, the tension of hoping I get in enough overtime hours to buy the new “fill-in-the-blank” is a happy trade off for being able to be myself and know myself and be comfortable in or out of public with myself.

Here’s the original article that spurred this post:

-Britney Spears Arrives to Give Deposition in Cust...

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For Jessica the Rock Chick