Do you ever wonder if entertainment as we know it may become extinct in the future? The thought struck me once while watching Star Wars. In that movie, the only entertainment the characters seem to consume is live music at the cantina with some dancing here and there. And, yes, I understand the irony of pondering entertainment while watching the movie – let’s set that fact aside.

The "used future"? Get used to it.

I guess what I wonder more about is all the copyright laws and paranoia that goes along with them. Since everyone has access to everything, there is no localized or regional productions so to speak. If I write a story and I live in New Mexico and somebody else writes a similar story and they live in Wisconsin, and we both post it online, who is copying whom? Is it not so unlikely that two people, if not more, may have the same or very similar ideas? We all want to protect our intellectual property but with so many people…

Also, there’s the issue of payment. As things get more and more free-of-charge, there’s less money to fund those creations. Will we figure at some time in the future that it’s not worth creating (at least as our primary job) because there’s truly no money in it?

I’m just thinking out loud. I’m guessing there are more than a few of you who have thought the same. And none of us have been paid for that thought either.

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I am an OK cook. By “OK” I mean I can make many types of burritos. When it comes to the more complex not-wrapping-everything-in-a-tortilla fare, I have some learning to do.

It may not surprise you to know that I am currently living a single guy’s life. By “currently” I mean – as the Facebook folks might say – it’s complicated.

Nevertheless, let’s move on to culinary creations. Before I go any further, let me just say that I cannot bring myself to eat fast food out of convenience. If I get fast food, it is for fun – like Chic-fil-A before going to a movie. That’s good stuff, especially since it has that all-too-tasty novelty flavor to it. So what I’m about to show you is not because for lack of fast food joints but because at the moment of it’s creation I was A) Too cheap to purchase any ready-made food, and B) two glasses of red wine into that particular evening.

OK. So without further ado, allow me to present the only meal my brains + ingredients at hand produced:

Tasty? Yes. Good or Bad Tasty? That's up to the taster.

What you see here can only be described as “Hot Dog Tostadas on Hamburger Bun.” Here’s the recipe (in case you want to make them yourself, which you probably don’t want to):

Ingredients:
1 Hamburger bun (butterflied)
1 Jumbo sized Hebrew National hot dog (I stick to Kosher dogs)
Sauerkraut (also Hebrew National and Kosher) and mustard to taste

Sides:
Tostada Chips
Sadie’s Salsa (Not as Hot, the best salsa in the world)
One MAD Magazine aged at least 15 years

Preparation:
Put everything together and eat. Note: Do not eat magazine.

This meal is by far the most depressing single guy meal since my hot dog quesadilla creation back in the early college years.

So what’s a guy to do? I’ve purchased cook books in the past but they have strange and singular nomenclature that stumps me. And I refuse to purchase overpriced already-made-and-bad-for-me meals.

I’m thinking I need to take a cooking class. That would be fun. Read more Tim Ferriss blogs? Perhaps. I welcome suggestions. I also welcome homemade meals where I don’t have to clean up afterwards.

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It's funny because it's trite.

It’s tough to produce when you’re feeling down. Very few jobs are conducive to a depressed spirit. And no one really likes being around a downer. But we all get down from time to time. And the workday doesn’t stop because those happy feelings are distant.

I looked up some numbers on depression but they were too depressing to reprint here. Seriously. We Americans are truly in a sad state of affairs (pun intended).

So what do you do if your work calls for you to be cheery and upbeat when you feel like dog poop? Well, there’s a few schools of thought on the remedy:

1. Just start smiling and fake your way to happiness
2. Don’t fake it but take a sick day to get over it
3. Go into work and bring everybody down

I like Option #1, though I’ll concede that it’s the hardest of the three. By default most folks will choose Option #3 which is easiest and also the worst. Unfortunately, Option #2 assumes that there are sick days to be taken. If no sick days are left, watch out coworkers. I’m going down and bringing you all down with me!

Yet sometimes the work has to get done regardless. This is especially true for self-employed people and freelance workers. There’s no clocking in and just sitting there stewing. If the work doesn’t get done, the client doesn’t pay. So usually Option #2 and #3 are not really options.

It would be great if all employees thought of themselves as self-employed. And, really, it’s true. We’re all free to move to and from income sources if we want to and advance through hard work (office politics notwithstanding). That kinda lifts things up a little, don’t it?

Another thing that helps is to look forward to something like a vacation or a date. No vacation or date? Plan one. It doesn’t take a lot of money for either. (I’ve been guilty of passing on both because I’m cheap and I’ve suffered because of it. My good friend Charlotte has opened my eyes to stepping away from work to recharge my batteries.)

Probably the best thing to bring you up is to have a dream and a goal to reach it. Say you want to visit Italy, start planning it. It may be as small as making a beautiful picture of that region your monitor’s wallpaper but it’s a start. Every time you look at it you’ll think to yourself, “I’m going there someday!” (Just don’t let it depress you that “someday” is not “today.”)

What’s that? It’s all a bunch of mumbo-jumbo? We’ll if you’re one of the people who thinks that way, sorry. Keep thinking that way and bringing yourself down. And keep far away from me. I’m done with surrounding myself with negative people. I’m going to the Land of the Positives.

Want to come with? After all, you did say you needed a vacation…

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