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Here’s how much it costs to be a wedding guest
As delighted as you are to hear wedding bells, you know big costs are coming. You skimp and save. You budget — splurge — and maybe alter expectations.
And that’s just to be a wedding guest.
The average guest last year spent $888 per wedding, according to a study from the Knot. For those in the wedding party, the price of being a stand-up friend was over $1,000.
“I did not spend that much!” you may be saying. And that may be true. Costs of attending a wedding are different depending on where the wedding is held.
But chances are, once you pull together all the related wedding expenses — wedding clothes, transportation, hotel, gifts — you may be spending a lot more than you think.
During those seasons in your life when every weekend seems to have some wedding-related event, be sure to adjust your budget accordingly, says Tyler Dolan, certified financial planner at Society of Grownups.
“If I say 10% of my budget is entertainment,” says Dolan. “Then a big wedding season comes along and suddenly it’s at 30%, that can be a big problem.”
A new pair of shoes may feel like a dire need, but that’s not what an emergency fund is for. Here are some ways to avoid going in debt, while still being a great guest.
Average cost of wedding attire: $81
More than half of wedding guests buy something new, according to the study. But take a page from the bride’s playbook: look to something old instead of something new and explore the options of something borrowed. (You can even make it blue, too.)
There are plenty of options for rentable formal-wear at places like Rent the Runway, Le Tote or Menguin.
wedding spendingBut clothes aren’t library books and not everyone wants to borrow. For lower-cost buys, go to a site like Dress For the Wedding, which culls options for wedding guests in all price ranges, searchable by style or color.
Members of the wedding party face more costs, $207 per wedding, and less control. The final call on clothing choices are the couple’s, of course. But early on in the planning process, you might recommend the wedding party rent bridesmaids’ dresses from a site like Vow to be Chic or Rent the Runway. The bride could have the women standing up for her in sparkling $750 Badgley Mischka dresses for $35 each.
Average cost of wedding travel: transportation $321, accommodation $322
A quarter of couples get married in a place other than where they live. And you love them. So, off you go to places your vacation fund has zero interest in.
One of the hardest things about returning an RSVP is committing to the travel costs. But looking at the costs as soon as you get the invitation will give you the most flexibility with flight and hotel options.
Set up a flight alert on a site like AirFareWatchdog or SkyScanner to track prices for a while. Then make a move when the price dips.
Often a couple will set aside a block of rooms at a hotel at a discounted rate for guests. But that probably isn’t the lowest price you can find. And it may not even be the cheapest room you can get in that hotel. Check for your own deal at that hotel or others in the area. Or, team up with other wedding guests to go in on a VRBO or AirBnB property for the weekend.
Average cost of a wedding gift: $118
Here’s where the cash counts. In some regions of the country money is an expected gift.
But many couples also set up a registry with requested gifts at various prices. Get to that registry early to snag the gifts in your price range, especially if the couple has invited a lot of friends also looking to support them without diving into debt.
If you want to gift a bigger ticket item, go in with as many other people as it takes to cover it and everyone can contribute as they are able.
If you know the couple quite well, you might opt for a more personal gift. A framed photo. A donation in their name to a cause or organization they cherish. A set of mixing bowls and a homemade book of your favorite recipes.
One of the simplest, classiest and lowest cost gifts you can give is their wedding invitation matted and framed. It’s a way to mark the occasion that you know will be in their taste — they designed the invitation, after all. If you get a pre-matted frame it could cost you $10 or you could get it professionally framed and it would likely still come in under the average.
Sorry. I have to decline. My neighbor just relapsed.
Hello there one and all,
I’ve finally taken the big step into MGTOW after breaking free of one of the most toxic relationships I have ever been in.
But I think before I go into that I best start with how I came about MGTOW… funny enough I found it though a youtuber by the name of Armoured Sceptic, after watching his take on it I felt he was cherry picking easy targets, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s done so. As I always do I went nosing around, I wanted to see what you guys where all about.
At the time I got what the group was about but I never really got it… if that makes sense, I guess I was just a blue pill with his ear against the fence hearing how the other half live. I’ve done so with many other groups, from SJWs, freemen, feminism, flat Earthers and so on, but usually I have a chuckle at them and quickly move on.
Oddly though the MGTOW idea lingered around, I kept watching more and more videos on the topic, I’m not normally that nosey, but here I was wanting to learn more and more.
At the start of this year I ended my relationship with the girl I was dating, it was all on my terms and in the end I was brutal, I had to be as she wasn’t going to accept the nice guy break up. But more on that later….
Out of the many women I dated/known there are 3 that stand out to me, in my eyes they helped me break free of my blue pill white knight ways… and I’ll list and talk about them right now… oh yeah this is going to be a long ass post, there’s a lot of s~~~ to talk about. Feel free to go grab a beer, tea or whatever 🙂
>The Crazy One: I met this girl via Facebook, friend of a friend basically, at the time it was mostly just friendly banter between us. We where both kinda nerdy so we bounced off one another wonderfully.
Then she invited me over hers… and it got weird very fast. I think she had the wrong idea about where we stood, anyways I quickly found out she was a crazy cat lady that smoked pot, was on benefits, had some light mental issues (ADHD I think) and loved mystic stuff like fairies. So yeah the kinda girl I would never want to show to my parents or anyone else to be frank…
But still I was cool with her being a friend so I stuck around for the day, as we chilled and played video games she kept making odd advancements, sometimes flirty sometimes touchy feely. For example she ‘pwned’ me in a game and she grabbed my leg and laughed “I got you!”
I decided at that point I would just get the day over with and distance myself a little, it was clear she going at a far different speed to me. A few days later I sent her a nice long clear message about how I saw her more as a friend than a girlfriend, she was oddly cool about it… until it she wasn’t.
A month or so later I moved on to a new relationship and she flipped her s~~~, she had it in her mind that we where just taking it slow. She caused a massive s~~~ storm, she talked crap behind my back sent me countless messages and at the end of the day I had to block her and hope she didn’t get malleolus.
Luckily she didn’t and from what my friend of a friend told me she found someone else and within a few months got pregnant with his kid… I dodged the biggest bullet of my life X-D
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>The Goals One: I met this girl though a college course we where both sitting, at the time I was trying to join the army. She was all over me from day one, giving me the pet name “Action Man” …For the longest while we where just friends, but near the end of the course things got serious between us.
After college I started to work for my Dad earning money and then spending it on days out with the girl… big waste of money looking back… but things with the army just weren’t playing out. I wished to be a mechanic and at the time they where pushing for infantry, so I was stuck in the system waiting for a opening.
She always had my back on it saying she couldn’t wait to see me in uniform, but then all that “I got your back” started to drain away. She was never mean or harsh about it but she had goals… army wife goals…
One day she invited me out for a drink, I thought it would be just another nice day out for us, but she was there with her sister (the back up) and just dumped me on the spot, saying she would rather be just friends… I guess I was fine about it at the time but that all changed when a week later she started dating a old friend of hers that was a infantry man. At that time I knew why she started to support me less and less, she was seeing him behind my back, edging her bets.
I confronted her and she got all upset, she told me she didn’t want me to become like her other bitter ex’s and that she wanted me to be there for her… like f~~~ I would do that. I quickly burned all ties with her and in turn almost half of the friends I made in college, apparently most ended up siding with her. A year later I found out she got married to the guy and was expecting his child soon, she wore that Army Wife banner with so much pride, it was sickening when you looked at the bigger picture. After that I took a 5 year break from dating to just work on me… in that time I also quit trying to join the army and moved onto something more productive than just waiting around.
————————————————————————–
>The Controlling One: This girl is the one I mentioned at the start of this thread, the one that finally triggered change in me, not only in embracing MGTOW but also looking at myself deeply.
We met in a online dating site (I know… I know) and we where getting along rather well, we both shared a lot in common, from the community’s we gravitate around and the hobbies we liked. We both where scorned by bad ex’s so decided to just be friends for the time being, however after a few “friend dates” things got serious, we quickly became an item and at the time I was thrilled by it… but I think after a month or so things started to change.
She, much like myself, also had quiet a troubled past and she made it quite clear she didn’t like hearing about set topics… and at the time I was white knighting like mad, I was fully supportive of her and censored myself to degree to make her feel better about things. I would double check movies and videos to ensure they where ok for her to watch and even cut down on my well known dark humour as it “effected her”
I think I must have been wearing the thickest rose tinted glasses ever made as I just kept accepting and enabling her victim complex. I think a few weeks into the relationship the habit of her spending the weekends over mine became a thing, this habit would become a main stay in the relationship, every weekend she would come over mine until the day I broke it off. If ever I tried to get out of it to try to see friends and family she would get upset and depressed about it, she would say she felt unstable and that she may harm herself, she would guilt trip me into dropping my plans every time so she could spend more time around me.
The one and only time I managed to get a break away from her for a weekend was when I went shopping with my brother and his partner, she was oddly cool about it all, she said she wanted me to have my own life too. However the day after when I went to see her she had fresh cuts all the way up both her arms and some on her leg… it was like a horror movie, that point on I was too scared to leave her to her own devices for a weekend. Looking back I see now it was all part of her plans
This lack of freedom started to destroy my cycles, I barely talked to friends and my family where getting worried about how little time I spent with them… I’m usually a massive family man, blood always came first in my eyes… but she was starting to change that. My world was slowly becoming all about her, her needs and her feelings.
I started to fall into her mindset too, I started to play the victim, things in my past that didn’t bother me before now brought me so much anger and sadness. She was always there to listen to me, the worst thing is I loved her for it, I felt like she was the only person who got me for who I really was. This downwards slope would go on for months, I started to gain weight, hate my work, hate my life, hate myself and see her as the only good thing in my life.
This would all come to ahead during the early half of January 2016… My mum saw the writing on the wall, we have always been very close and she knew I wasn’t being myself, she knew what this woman was doing to me and set about making her own plans. Oh yes… you read right, it was a woman that helped free me, the greatest woman I know, I owe her so much for saving me from that s~~~ hole of a relationship.
She convinced me to join the family to celebrate my brothers birthday, under the ruse of “it would save your brother on train tickets if you drove him up instead and he would love it if you where there” I fell for it hook and line…
Anyways for the whole time I was up there she applied pressure on me, nothing I would pick up on, but enough to drag on me… it also didn’t help my exs wasn’t dealing too well with me being away. So I had a lot of stress coming from both sides I wasn’t doing so well, this at the end would result in a melt down, after snapping at all my loved ones I just broke down in tears, possibly the lowest I have ever been in my life. My mum took me away from the family and just sat down with me and talked it all out for hours. She helped me take off the rose tinted glasses and see my ex for who she truly was, what she was doing to me and what I was turning into.
Once I returned to the family I was a changed man, I went around all of them being as sorry as I could ever be about what I had done… then I looked at my phone to see it was packed with missed calls and messages. My dad told me the phone was non-stop when I went away to talk with mum. It was all mostly the same old victim talk and how “weak” she felt, when I finally got back in touch I told her why I suddenly stopped messaging and suddenly all her issues went away and it was all about me again. I think she knew what had happened and what was about to happen.
After the family get together I would return home, as I drove home I decided to give it a week, allow me time to settle down, get my s~~~ together and figure out how I was going to let her down as softly as I could. She sadly wouldn’t let that happen, the moment my car was in the drive way she was there, she gave me little to no choice. I was still very unhinged at the time, the moment we sat down on my sofa I just told her it was over, we must have sat there for over 2 hours just talking about it, a lot of emotions came from both of us. In that time she tried throwing herself on me, forcing kisses and even begged me to keep it going until valentines day to see where it went. I knew if I did keep the relationship going I wouldn’t have the b~~~~ to do this s~~~ again, next time she wouldn’t be on the back foot and would have a plan to stop me from breaking up with her.
Unfortunately after all was said and done I found out she had been popping pain killers all day and she was clearly white in the face, I rushed her home only to then take her and her mom to the local A+E. I decided to do the right thing and be there to help her as a friend, I stayed there till the early hours of the morning ensuring she was going to be looked after. In that time she used all the tricks in her little book, victimhood, crying, what ifs and everything in-between. As the sun came up I would leave her with her mom, I still had work the following day.
Now you would have thought that was the end of it… no… I was a idiot… I was still White Knighting. I made it clear to her we could still be friends and I wanted to support her as a friend, I just wasn’t in the right place for anything more at the time. This was when the victimhood went to the next level, all her posts on FB where suddenly very morbid and suggestive about killing herself, she was very passive aggressive towards me. She made it clear to me she wasn’t going to accept anything less than being in a relationship.
I knew what had to come next and it wasn’t going to be easy, I wrote her one last long message, I used her own passive aggressive points against her and told her maybe it was better off if I left her alone now. At that point she took it all back, saying it was all in anger and stuff, she was more than happy being friends and maybe meeting up from time to time as friends. I wasn’t buying it, this was just another change in tactics for her. I never replied back and super blocked her… every online platform we where connected on I blocked her, I then took a whole week off work and hid over my parents house to stop her being able to get me at the door step.
This sadly didn’t stop her, when I came home I found a letter posted through my door, from her, simply put she said if someone as kind and caring as me didn’t love her who would. Then she said at the end of the month she would end it all. This f~~~ed with me big time, I knew I had to stick to my guns but there was that fear in the back of my head, what if she went though with it? The month passed and luckily for me it seemed like it was just a ruse, my ghost accounts were able to still pick up activity from her online profiles. She just wanted to buckle me into submitting, but here comes the cherry on the cake.
Shopping at the local supermarket after work one day I crossed paths with her, she didn’t spot me but I spotted her and nearly shat myself… that was until I noticed the lad she had in tow. I quickly gathered what I needed and slipped away unseen, that night I used my ghost account once more and nosed on her Facebook page. This lad was apparently her new boyfriend, after all the mind f~~~ing she put me through that month she had not only met someone new but quickly got into a relationship with them… it still makes me wonder how much I really did know her.
————————————————————————–That was the final nail in the coffin for me, I spent the last few months just pulling myself together, rebuilding myself from the rubble that was left. I’m still far away from where I want to be but I know I’m going to get there, I have found the drive I thought I lost years ago. Luckily for me most of my friends and family where there in the aftermath, after all the distancing I done almost all of them where there for me, helping me as I picked up the pieces, without them I know I would have buckled and ended up back in her grip. I feel so blessed to have such great people around me.
Just recently I got back into watching MGTOW stuff and it all finally snapped into place for me, I finally got it, I got what the movement was and why I wanted to be a part of it. I was no longer that curious Blue Pill hearing how the other half lived, I have jumped the fence and took a nice big hand full of Red Pills. My days as a blue pill white knighting fool are over, its time to work for myself and stop being everyone’s hero… Its just me, my close family and those who have earned it that will see my generous caring side.
I am tired of ending up with such horrible toxic people, I know not all women are bad, some are really stand up people… but do I really want to risk building a life with someone who could easily just be putting on an act? just be using me for there own ends? I don’t intend to buckle to anyone ever again. I will walk my own path, if I happen to meet someone willing to follow me in my path and who wont try to push me off course that’s fine, but I’m not holding out on it. From now on I’m ensuring I come first, I am the master of my own fate, I will prove not every strong man needs a woman behind them.
So yeah this is my story and reasons behind becoming MGTOW, I know its been a long read but I’m glad you’ve taken time out of your day to read it. I hope this will inspire over men who have been though or are going through what I have been though. It’s been hard to write all of this down but I feel this is the perfect platform to dump these thoughts onto. I hope someone out there will find this useful 🙂
I look forward to what the future holds and the bright road ahead of me…
I also look forward to getting to know more of you on this great website 😀Peace,
Geeky Grant"Listen Morty, I hate to break it to you, but what people call love is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. It hits hard, Morty, then it slowly fades; leaving you stranded in a failing marriage. I did it, your parents are gonna do it, break the cycle, Morty, rise above! Focus on science" ~Rick Sanchez, Rick and Morty (TV Show)
Hi All,
Before finding this site, which I found after watching The Red Pill, I was genuinely concerned there was something wrong with me and had strongly considered seeking professional help.
After splitting up with the soon-to-be ex-wife, I was encouraged by friends and family to “get back on the horse” and start dating. After a couple of disastrous dates and an equally terrible short-term fling with a very needy and clingy nutter, I realised that I had no interest in any sort of relationship, even casual. It was at this point I began to worry that there was something wrong and that perhaps I needed counselling or something similar. I was very much on a downward spiral. No longer.
Anyway, here’s my story:
I’m a 46 year-old Brit and was married for 12 years.
Prior to meeting my ex, I had, I suppose, been MGTOW for about three years after a series of unfulfilling relationships and was not actively seeking anything new when I was introduced to my wife-to-be through friends, who thought I needed someone (I nearly said no).
I do not (and will never) regret meeting her as my daughter would not have been born, and being a Dad has been and is a wonderful thing.
When we met, I was a Senior Executive – very well paid and regularly travelling the world. She was eight years younger than me, with a great arse and seemed to be able to engage in coherent conversation.
We married about a year after meeting, and I didn’t think twice about paying off her debts and buying her a new car. Within a year my daughter was born (planned) and soon after I decided to leave my job and become a consultant, working from home (which I still do) to be able to be there for my daughter growing up. In retrospect, this didn’t get the positive support I expected. Perhaps she preferred it when I was away a lot.
In the years that followed I began to suspect that she had been having affairs but had no concrete proof and accepted her explanations that I was just being paranoid and it was a misunderstanding.
A few years later I sold my shares in the company I was with, and again paid off all her debts and bought her a new car, and for a time it seemed that all was well.
Sex was very infrequent and was often refused for reasons such as “being tired”, “having a water infection” or a “headache”, and was she was not particularly enthusiastic, and it was never (in the entire time I knew her) initiated by her.
Last year I discovered, quite by accident, that she was having an affair with a senior manager in the company she was working for, and I immediately kicked her out. I don’t want to go into the gory details but I don’t think sending pictures of various parts of your anatomy by text using a phone on a family account is the most discreet way to have an affair. Perhaps she did it deliberately. To be honest, I don’t really care; although the initial shock was considerable.
She pushed for a quick divorce, even though I was somewhat undecided, and I began divorce proceedings.
She admitted adultery to the courts. Nonetheless, she will get 50% of the equity in the my house, which I had before we were married, and she had paid nothing towards. Indeed, I paid for all bills and most of her expenditure for our entire marriage. I will also have to pay child maintenance, which I don’t really object to, but is still a significant amount.
Apparently, it is my fault that she had an affair as I did not trust her (which is true) and didn’t allow her freedom to socialise (which is not true).
As an aside, which I am not sure if it is funny or abominable, she is suing the company where she
used to work for constructive dismissal, as she resigned shortly after the manager she was having an affair with was fired (she says the timing was coincidental) and for sexual discrimination as she says that her bosses threatened to tell me of the affair if she did not comply with their instructions.The affair with the manager lasted about three months following the discovery of the affair and subsequent separation.
As mentioned previously, I unsuccessfully attempted online dating (or successfully depending on how you look at it) and a few months ago realised I had no interest in any further relationships and have been trying to regain my motivation for doing stuff that I enjoy without worrying about anyone else (other than my daughter). Until I watched The Red Pill and discovered MGTOW, I went from being positive that I was free to do what I want to being quite depressed that there was something wrong with me in not wanting to share it with anyone and having no interest in women. To be frank, I began to have suicidal thoughts as I could not see any worth in myself as I was of no real use to anyone since I had already procreated and did not want to support any more women. I don’t think I would ever have gone through with it but the thoughts were there.
I cannot express how relieved I am to discover that I am not alone in wanting to do my own things and to not conform to the notion that I must be in a relationship to be happy; and it has been truly life-changing.
One of the ideas that struck a chord with me from The Red Pill was that if women can be perceived as sex-objects then men can be seen as success-objects. In reviewing my past I can now see that perspective in most (if not all) of the women I have had relationships with.
My story is not nearly as harrowing as many I have read and learned about since my eyes were opened, but I am here for you Brothers, and if my story helps in any way then I am glad.
A final aside – my username MoreSky is a reminder to myself to get out and see more sky and not be constrained by work or a culturally-induced sense of duty to be selfless.
MS
"...reinvent your life because you must; it is your life and its history and the present belong only to you.” It is Your Life, Charles Bukowski.
Okay people, I am not a lawyer, however, I will advise what I did under advice of counsel from a divorce lawyer and estate/elder law lawyer prior to my marriage. This is to hopefully help others from avoiding a financial pitfall incase you do divorce.
When my ex-wife was hinting and pushing hard for marriage, I finally relented and said fine. I got her a ring off ebay, and gave it to her. I recall when I did, she was coming out of the shower and I said her you go. We’re now engaged. Congrats. LOL. I discussed a pre-nup, but she went nuts and refused to sign one. She said, if we were to divorce, I will get something.. It’s fair. That was my first mistake. However, I had rose-colored glasses on and continued with the engagement. I met with a legal team in NY and we circumvented her pre-nup refusal. Again, always prepare for the worst and have a backup plan. I was at least smart enough to do that. I moved all assets, business interests, house, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, inheritance, etc. into an irrevocable trust a year prior to marriage. I made my nephews the beneficiaries as well. I worked for my company as an “employee” and no longer the “owner”. Therefore, the business was unable to become a marital asset. In addition, in New York, an irrevocable trust can be broken by the grantor (me) with the approval for any reason of the trustees. Anyway, the marriage went south in about 2 years, and I initiated my divorce filing. Her POS lawyer attempted to go after the assets, but disclosed the irrevocable trust, which she of course claimed she knew nothing about, and her claim to my assets was quickly put to rest.
All in all, I was only responsible for my own legal fees (20k) and keeping her on my medical insurance til the end of the year (5k). She became greedy, and wanted to extend the medical insurance (cause her employer’s sucks) through all of 2017, but I refused on that and she backed down very fast. She also took some furniture, all wedding gifts and some wedding cash. Approx. an additional 5k. 4 year marriage which cost around 20k for the ceremony (she paid about half), cost 30k to dissolve. However, it could had been much much worse.
If you are going to stupidly go down this path, at least PROTECT YOUR ASSETS. I cannot stress this enough. If I had to start over financially @ 40, I’d be in pretty bad shape. She, at 43 had too, and it’s bitter sweet in a way. She expected to get cash & prizes and was denied by both attorneys (her attorney would not pursue after disclosing the trust docs). Also, this will protect yourself if you chose to co-habitate with a female cum dumpster as well as protect your assets from excessive child support (those assets, not your income. check with a lawyer in your jurisdiction).
Just some general advice from my own experience, not at all to be considered legal advice. I swear, it’s like prepping for war…
And i dont think it is a train.
I started my MGTOW journey about 6-8 months ago. Roll led me here in a roundabout fashion. Many of you have read my ongoing story through my posts here.
Yesterday my wife finally left. An incident this past week brought to light planned infidelity and schemes behind my back, and I called her on it. After telling her we were separating, the excuses and lies continued, up until she was about to leave, when the truth started to hit her.
I am still losing, as I will have to support this for now, but my house was quiet and peaceful last night.
I am hopeful this is the end of the tunnel approaching, as I believe I can see a future now.
Now, to go start my first full day alone!
No longer can we walk away, we must run. Remove the motive power.
Topic: Smart Phone Obsession
I admit it: I don’t have a smart phone. I know nothing about them and all the great features they have—so I think I must be missing out on a lot of cool stuff. If I had one, I’d probably enjoy having the internet at my fingertips all the time. I have a cheap cell phone. I use it to make phone calls and to get text/voice messages. If I try to connect to the internet, it will just crash. I make a phone call once a week. Sometimes I don’t make any calls for two weeks. Yeah, I don’t have an exciting life at all.
When I see people staring at their smart phones, I wonder what all the fuss is about. Sometimes I walk by and try to peek at the screens. Most of what I’ve seen was: text conversations and video games.
I rode the bus to work today. When I got on the bus, I said hi to the bus driver—who was looking at her smart phone. She didn’t look up or say hi back to me. It was like I was invisible. Then I told her I was making my payment. No response. She just kept tapping her finger on the smart phone screen. So I swiped my bus pass and sat down. I wonder if I could’ve ridden the bus for free since she wasn’t paying attention. As I sat in my seat, I stared at a girl on the bus who was in the same smart phone trance. She was texting someone. This alternate reality makes the real world magically disappear.
I’ll probably buy a smart phone in a couple of years. Maybe I’ll turn into a zombie when I finally get one. I’m not a cell phone hater, I just don’t understand why so many people are in a never-ending trance. You know, there was a time when people would spend a certain part of the day collecting their thoughts and running errands without always needing to be entertained or connected to family & friends.
I work in a retail store, and I try to talk to customers while they have a cell phone on their ears—it’s very frustrating. Some of them will be so deep into a conversation that they’ll leave their merchandise, wallets, purses, and credit cards at the check stand, and walk toward the exit. I get tired of chasing after them. Personally, I would just leave the phone in the car while I’m shopping and have my personal conversation later. I’m not the kind of person that wants strangers to hear my phone conversations in the first place.
I just can’t see myself having a 24 hour/7 day obsession with an electronic device. I love my laptop computer, but I don’t take it with me to the movie theater. I go to the movie theater to watch a movie. I’ve seen people who have missed half of the movie because they were staring at their smart phones. Like, why did they pay for a movie ticket? I doubt that I’d ever be so obsessed with my future smart phone that I’d fall into a manhole or a fountain while texting. When I’m outside, I like to look around and observe my environment. The everyday things are interesting to me: grass, trees, cats, dogs, birds, bugs, people, cars, houses, buildings, and airplanes in the sky.
"I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win-and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was ‘No.’" (Atlas Shrugged)









