The sky in winter is usually more somber and subtle than the flaming sort of shows we get in summer, but every once in a while it does its best to thrill in the face of all the grey, especially when there are clouds with which to paint and play. I caught Andy looking wistfully out the window at the winter scene the other day; he loves summer best of all, when his back can be eased by a daily dip in the pool, or a bloom from a climbing rose can be clipped for his side table. I miss summer too. The good news is that we are almost halfway through the winter season. Days are elongating, and daylight lasts a few minutes more as we gradually gain speed to spring. The lion’s entrance of March is but a few weeks away…

“Sometimes I think, were I just a little rougher made, I would go altogether to the woods—to my work entirely, and solitude, a few friends, books, my dogs, all things peaceful, ready for meditation and industry—if for no other reason than to escape the heart-jamming damages and discouragements of the worlds mean spirits. But, no use. Even the most solitudinous of us is communal by habit, and indeed by commitment to the bravest of our dreams, which is to make a moral world. The whirlwind of human behavior is not to be set aside.”
― Mary Oliver, Winter Hours 

Very rarely does one of those impossibly-hyped life-changing hacks you see online ever pan out into something that actually improves, or even changes, one’s life. This time, it’s different. And if you’ve ever been in the situation where you have received one of those all-purpose gift cards from Mastercard or Visa, but don’t know how to use it in tandem with your regular credit card online, this may help you out.

These general cards differ from the gift cards to specific stores in that they function more like credit cards, with strict limits. As such, they have to be used as the main credit card for online purchases, and most sites don’t allow you to split credit cards for a purchase as you would usually be able to do in person by asking the cashier to type in a specific dollar amount. If your purchase happens to go over the value of the gift card, it will be declined, even if you were planning to pay the difference with another card. That makes things difficult, particularly if you want to use the average gift card towards the purchase of something grander (which is often my case, because Tom Ford Private Blends require that little extra something to make their exorbitant cost more reasonable).

For that reason, I’ve always had problems with making the most out of these general gift cards. Often I would end up giving Andy the card and asking him to buy me something in exchange because it got to be too complicated to use them. This semi-quick fix allows you to use a general gift card in addition to whatever other online payment you wish to supplement your purchase.

The first step is to go to whatever site you want to buy from. If they offer gift cards for purchase, buy one in the exact amount of your general gift card, and then use that to pay for it. If it’s going right to you, you should receive an e-mail with the new card info in it. After that, simply add to your cart and when you’re ready to purchase, enter the store’s gift card in, and whatever supplemental method of payment you want to use. Normally there is no limit to however many store gift cards you can use. It’s a neat way to combine those general credit cards when you’re shopping online.

We are definitely living in a toxic internet land. Once upon a time one could make an innocuous shirtless post about Adam Levine and have a few of his fans write something fun and nice and everyone would call it a day. Those who didn’t find Mr. Levine their cup of tea moved on without comment, because why would they even bother with something that didn’t interest them? Not so anymore. This post about Adam Levine performing at the Super Bowl, and this subsequent post about his shirtless appearance at said bowl, garnered some of the most polarizing views on any of my posts. (Let it be said that these were superficial shirtless posts – that’s sort of the point of the ‘Shirtless Male Celebrities‘ category. It’s not that deep.)

It did, however, bring up a more serious consideration in light of Mr. Levine baring both his nipples in his shirtless portion of the program.

A number of years ago, Janet Jackson was basically stoned for baring one half-second of a single nipple at the Super Bowl halftime show with Justin Timberlake. I posted the comment that it was a bit of a double standard, hashtagging the whole #FreeTheNipple movement. (Look it up – I’m not here to educate or enlighten – I’m here to entertain myself. Emphasis on myself.) Again, just my commentary on the fact that Ms. Jackson, or any female for that matter, would not be able to get away with showing their nipples during the Super Bowl. Rather than acknowledging this or engaging in a civil conversation, people immediately went into whether they loved it or hated it, whether they adored Adam or abhorred Adam, and suddenly a post on a shirtless Adam Levine was as divisive as political commentary. What the actual fuck?

Now, I’m not saying there isn’t time or space for serious discussion and contemplation here. But on a shirtless Super Bowl shot? If that riles you up so much, and if you have so much anger and annoyance that you simply must comment and piss other people off, then this really isn’t the place for you. Please, stop reading, unfollow and unfriend, block and push off, because I’m not here for that. Calm the fuck down and channel your energy into something better.

Like a mood-killer-filler blog post such as this.