Month: July 2025

Posted in The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 19 “Golden Ticket”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! Do you ever have those weeks where you look back and it feels like it was busy with a lot going on, but you keep coming up empty on what it was? I think with work there was some big topics coming up between a project I am working on relating to donation deductions and then a union strike that had been in place for a couple of weeks. Altogether these ended up being pretty mentally draining, mainly because I often build certain projects up in my head because I am trying to prepare for the worse case scenario. I took yesterday off and that ended up being a pretty good day. Got to sleep in which I do not get to do very often, ran some errands with my husband as we picked up various items for his salon space that is incredibly close to completion. And now here today I’m going in optimistic that although I have a couple of projects to complete, it will be a good day and I can get into the weekend. Now for my readers who are fellow Dungeons and Dragons players, I think you’ll understand the stress I incurred from our most recent session where my character was killed, brought back as a zombie, killed again before I could act as a zombie, resurrected back as a person, killed before I could do anything, and then brought back once more where I used my actions to simply try to heal to keep from dying all over again. Please know that the Eve of Vecna campaign is pretty serious. I will admit to feeling pretty upset throughout the whole interaction, which I believe most people would be, but am trying to not let it sour my enjoyment of the game.

With that recap out there, let us jump into the official Breakdown.

We started the day with some peak Michael Scott material all tied to him trying to be funny. He was eager to tell Pam a joke, so eager that he was bothering her during a phone call with a client. She was trying to provide contact info to the client in order to fax over some paperwork and Michael starts saying random numbers and talking over everything that Pam was really struggling. She pointed out how that made us look unprofessional but Michael assured her it was fine because they had no reason to know it was him who was doing that. I don’t know who needs to hear this but if someone is on the phone, at work or otherwise, do not bother them unless it is a life-and-death situation. Having a hilarious joke to tell is not a good reason. The breakroom is is on fire, now that would be an appropriate excuse to interrupt them. Michael’s killer joke?

Knock-knock. Who’s there?
Buddha. Buddha who?
Buddha this bread for me. (Michael has a slice of bread and stick of butter in his hands that he then puts on the desk).

Not the joke of century so I would be pretty annoyed and disappointed that the joke wasn’t even that good. To join in the fun, Dwight interjects with his own joke.

Knock-knock. Who’s there?
KGB. KG-?
(Slaps Michael) We will ask the questions!

Now this joke I like, I feel those questions that interrupt the usual structure of the joke are extra funny but in this case you should be careful of who you are slapping. Michael was so annoyed he actually called for an end to all knock-knock jokes, until Jim throws out a ding-dong (like a doorbell) to retell the KGB joke. Neither of them are falling for it but Jim is able to slap Dwight while declaring “The KGB will wait for no one.” Again, this joke is pretty solid but I would argue it is not one that you can do with just anyone.

The big event of the day was surrounding the anticipation of Michael’s most recent initiative called the “Golden Ticket Promotion.” Enthralled that he was the first one to come up with this idea to take the concept from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory he has hidden five golden tickets in random boxes of paper that were shipped out each offering a 10% discount. So eager with anticipation was Michael that he came in dressed as Willy Wonka and was dancing around the office, gloating about how he is the only one trying to offer up ideas on par with the golden ticket.

He attempted to do a brainstorming meeting in which he encouraged other employees to voice their golden ticket idea, but it didn’t go as expected. Jim’s were too wordy (truly good ideas should summed up in one or two words) while Andy was stuck on thinking the ideas needed to use the phrase “golden.” Michael tries to explain what are considered golden ticket ideas including Post-Its and that to get to the moon, NASA had to use use five or six golden ticket ideas. Now running a brainstorming session at work can be a great idea to get unique ideas and viewpoints that you would not have thought of. But there is more to running such a meeting than telling them to give your ideas. Tom Krieglstein goes into detail in an article he wrote on his LinkedIn with some tips including providing a clear goal of what these ideas should work towards, setting the right tone, and even recognizing that you need to address that most groups have a combination of introverts and extroverts. To give my own personal experience, when in a smaller group of perhaps 10 or less people I do find myself pretty vocal with giving ideas and insight into the question at hand and will usually feel pretty confident. Once you get into more people than that, you find yourself competing with (as Tom puts it) extrovert hijacks, the person who can somehow take over the entire meeting. Brainstorming should be a creative collaboration but that doesn’t mean there should be so some rules and boundaries in place, so I would recommend you do some research before throwing your staff into one1.

Perhaps the most annoying aspect of this was how smug Michael was and how he feels he invented the golden ticket concept (basically just a coupon). He was, at least, until he first call came in from a recipient of the coupon. It was one of Jim’s clients and Michael was stoked until he found it was Blue Cross of Pennsylvania. Being one our of biggest clients, losing 10% is a pretty big deal. That is until it is revealed they received all five coupons which means we are losing a staggering 50% in their order. To make matters worse, Jim reports this all to corporate to explain to them why they will see a sudden drop in his sales following this incident. Typical Michael fashion, what started off with him in a good mood has now left him spiraling on how to handle this. Also true Michael fashion, he handles this spiraling very poorly.

He attempts to do some damage control and how he does this is by backpedaling his involvement with the golden ticket idea. This is pretty difficult to do while dressed up like Willy Wonka so he went ahead and changed out of the costume, even tossing it in the dumpster like it was never there. He then holds another meeting where he explains that he tends to take in all of our ideas so this golden ticket idea was really our idea and he wasn’t involved. It was then that Michael had to face the music and take a call from David Wallace at corporate who was expecting an explanation on how this happened. And Michael chose to throw Dwight under the bus as being responsible for the idea. This then motivates Michael to take Dwight away on a friendly stroll. He uses this entire time to convince Dwight to take the fall as it would be good because he could focus more on the farm and bed and breakfast, but Michael only has this job. That and the idea for a men’s shoe store (Shoe La La) where one could buy shoes for every moment in a man’s life. I did like learning more about Michael’s idea for his own store, I think it is very telling of people to ask what they would do if they could open their own business. I personally would love my own bookstore which would could also host classes and readings, along with coffee and baked goods. Simple and while it is not something I am working towards, if I was suddenly given a blank check to go out and open up my own storefront that is likely what I would do.

I have to hand it to Michael with this whole Wonka situation. As disgusting as he is in how he has completely flipped to hide that it was his idea, I would argue this is a true masterclass in how to do so. There are not many people who can show up dressed in a Wonka Costume, spend all morning bragging about how it was their idea, and then can instantly turn around and say they had no involvement. With that level of denial and deceit, I think he should consider running for president.

He will come to regret his decisions when David Wallace shows because just as Dwight seems ready to accept responsibility, David reveals the golden ticket idea ended up being a success! Blue Cross was so excited over the discount, they are committing Dunder Mifflin to also be their vendor on office supplies. Knowing how much office supplies can go for, and how quickly offices can consume them, this could be a big deal in the long-term. And Dwight is all too eager to take the praise for this idea, and Jim and Pam quickly rally behind him and insist Dwight deserves all of the credit. Yet again we see Michael spiral because now that it is praise, he really wants the recognition that he came up with the concept. Not only that, but David takes Dwight into a phone call with the Dunder Mifflin marketing team to brainstorm additional ideas. Well that has to be Michael’s dream to be asked for his ideas. He keeps assuming Dwight will reveal that it wasn’t his idea and when he doesn’t, Michael has to suddenly just let it slip out. Proceed to Dwight and Michael arguing in front of David to the point that he no longer cares and quickly leaves Scranton and just wants to forget about this whole incident.

While I might be in awe at how Michael was able to backtrack his way out of being tied to the golden tickets, one of the most important aspects of being out in the business world is to learn to accept responsibility for your actions. Too often we hear about those in leadership positions who attempt to find a “fall guy” for a situation so they do not have take the blame. I’m afraid that in my opinion, that just happens to be part of being in such a high position. You are overpaid because you need to take on responsibility for when something goes wrong, especially when it is your fault. But the same goes for us who are not in such positions as I have certainly made mistakes or made decisions that didn’t pan out right. The best thing to do is own up to the error so you can begin formulating a means of correcting the issue. No one wants to be in trouble, but I feel that your merit as an employee comes not just from your accomplishments but also from how you handle your failures.

And that is this week’s Breakdown, I hope you all found it incredibly exciting. I do want to call out that Excalibur Con 2025 is quickly coming up this next month. You can get all of the information, including purchasing your tickets in advance at https://mnswca.org/excalibur-con-2025 and I look forward to seeing you there!

As always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

  1. Krieglstein, T. (2024, January 23). How to Run an Effective Brainstorming Session. LinkedIn. Retrieved July 24, 2025, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-run-effective-brainstorming-session-tom-krieglstein-gpxge/ ↩︎
Posted in The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 18 “Blood Drive”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope you have all had a great week, not thinking too much about the fact that we are already halfway through July. Personally I suppose I really do not have too much to report back for this week. Work was a bit hectic but nothing too unique to report back on, overall just ready for the weekend and figuring out how to spend it. We have been doing some great grilling this week between chicken legs and kabobs, I would love to know if anyone has some unique ideas of recipes with the grill. Obviously I know about foods like burgers or hotdogs, looking for some things out of the ordinary. The grill is such a seasonal device that I want to make sure we get as much out of it this year as possible! With that out there, let us get into today’s Breakdown!

Every so often we get some secret happenings where it is deemed necessary to keep Michael out of it, and we had one such instance. A salesman had came to the office and spoke with Pam about arranging a meeting with Michael where he was trying to sell him on moving into their new phone system. This sounds harmless but Pam is aware that their new phones offer aspects like outside callers being able to navigate directly to specific employees and departments. Since this is “basically 95%” of her job, they might start questioning if they still need her. She tries to point out that the phone system wouldn’t put candy out like she does, but people could just go to the vending machine and have money come in to the company. Certainly does feel a little similar to the AI debate going on these days where companies are trying to find roles that can be replaced with computer programs rather than actual people. Pam has been keeping him at bay for awhile, always acting like Michael is busy, but he is formally asking to schedule a meeting to ensure he has something on the books. As Pam is trying to come up with an alternative, Jim catches the whole situation and runs up and introduces himself as Michael Scott. He quickly explains they are not interested and he can take his business elsewhere. That seems to work, until the real Michael comes up asking what is going on. Before the salesman could say anything, Jim just blurts out “heyyy” and a couple thumbs up (like Fonzie from Happy Days). Pam then follows suit until Michael is copying them and then even Dwight jumps in, ultimately scaring away away the salesman and leaving Michael comfortably in the dark. Not sure this qualifies as a Jim prank, but I have to give them major props for orchestrating that.

The big news of the day is that it is Valentines Day and the office park is hosting a blood drive with the blood mobile collecting donations. Valentine’s Day sounds like it should be a happy time for everyone but unfortunately there is a large amount of people single and have been having some dating woes that people are not excited. Pam, for instance, has a planter of flowers from Jim and Michael keeps trying to set it on the floor so he doesn’t have to look at it. I do think it is obnoxious when people trying to throw their sappy romance in your face, but I feel Jim and Pam are actually pretty good most of the time. Just because you are single, doesn’t really mean it is fair of you to try to throw that on your colleagues. Fed up with having to put up with them, Michael decides the office will put on a Lonely Hearts Valentines Day party. The concept of these types of parties is to act as a boycott to Valentine’s Day and celebrate being single. While the office is busy decorating and planning, Michael went on down to get his blood donated.

They got the party in swing and unfortunately it started to sway towards the alternative form of Lonely Hearts parties and that is essentially a pity party for everyone. Michael insisted they go around and talk about everyone’s worst breakup story in an effort to move past it. While the sentiment might be nice, I feel like most of the people had already moved on and now they are simply choosing to relive a low point in their lives. After almost an hour of increasingly depressing stories, Michael suddenly decides it is time to turn this around and rebrand the party as a Singles Mixer. Rather than dwell on being single he wants to invite people from all over the office park to come in for the mixer. As well as try to find the owner of a lost glove, for some reason.

Before long quite a few people begin showing up that we hadn’t met before and it is actually pretty fun, even Kevin met someone who worked in the building. As a lover of a good party, I was more focused on the refreshments with the key being a red velvet cake. Red velvet is a classic for Valentines Day, besides being delicious the color lends itself to the theme of the party. There was also some sparking juice to drink as well as a few other sweets. That is always the problem when it comes to Valentines Day parties, it becomes very sweet heavy and not often a lot of savory dishes. I would say a little charcuterie board would be a good option at a party like this so an assortment of meets and cheeses to help counterbalance all of the sweetness.

We start to realize that Michael is transfixed upon the door, beyond just watching for new people and seems like he is expecting someone specific. Turns out when he was donating blood he met a woman who was donating at the same time. They seemed to hit it off and were joking together and he probably would have asked her out except he passed out after donating the blood. For those who never donated, it is important to eat the day because if can be very possible to pass out if not properly hydrated with the right blood sugar levels. When he came to, she was gone but she had forgotten her glove behind and that is why Michael was advertising that it had been found. Everyone was really moved by this story and I think because they were all so lonely as well, they really hoped someone could walk away in a relationship. We hung around till the end of the day but she never showed up. Michael said he’d just wait around but we encouraged him it was time to move on and that we should all leave together. It isn’t often we all side with Michael but he does have his moments where he can be a pretty decent person.

Now while we were doing this, we had some missing faces in that Jim and Pam were invited to a Valentine’s Dinner with Phyllis and Bob. Sounds like they had a great time in they were joking and laughing together, bonding over bowling as well as how annoying Michael is. Everything was great until Jim and Pam wondered why Phyllis and Bob had been in the bathroom for so long because they actually through they may have ditched. The food had been delivered while they were away and Pam brings up an interesting question in at what point is it okay to the meal dropped off if people are away from the office. I have a few opinions on this and I would say that it would be polite to wait for your dinner companions to return in order to eat together. I would say Jim is correct in that if you have ordered hot food, I would normally give them maybe 5 minutes before eating because if the food is hot you should be allowed to it eat it before it gets cold. Of course, if they are gone for reasons other than simply a quick bathroom trip then I believe the same rules do not apply. Jim and Pam actually went to look for them and realized they were having relations in the handicap bathroom. Now if the people I was out with were choosing to take their time with something like that or taking a phone call, I would say it is okay to begin eating. Again, I feel it is okay to give them a small grace period (5 to 10 minutes) but afterwards it is on them to get back to the table.

And that is the Breakdown today! While Valentine’s Day is not a major holiday in my life, I was excited to be able to weigh in on the restaurant issue at the end because I do find such rules about etiquette to be interesting especially because there are plenty of instances that can be up for debate. How do you feel about my interpretation of the scenario? Do you agree or do you have your own opinion?

I hope you enjoyed today’s Breakdown, and I hope to see you all again next week. As always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 17 “Lecture Circuit Part 2”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! This week we are unfortunately falling into the traditional summer pattern where the work days drag on yet the season seems to be passing by. I hope you all were able to enjoy your holiday weekend this last week whether it was grilling, spending time with family, or what have you. As I had mentioned we decided to run off to see Jurassic World: Rebirth which I am going to highly recommend as the dinosaur film of the year. Between all of the fun dinosaur scenes and Jonathan Bailey in his “slutty little glasses” I think there is something for everyone. And I’ve been rocking the new Jurassic Park hat and t-shirt since then to show my appreciation for the franchise. Afterwards we hosted a barbecue and mini bonfire so all-in-all it was a great time. We did skip the fireworks as our dogs do not like them, and honestly they’re nothing super important so I’d rather relaxing after a busy day anyways. The rest of the weekend was brought to us by Costco as during our weekend trip we decided to go through all of the summer products and we decided to get this badminton set that sets up fast, plus a pool for the dogs. I think we had more fun than they did and we finally got our summer sunburn. Nothing of note this week aside from my husband heading out for the weekend back down to Kansas City for his final requirement before he can begin teaching as a Lanza educator. And I’m going force myself to be productive and work on a couple of projects I have going on. So that is my recap, I’d love to hear from my reader(s) of anything fun you did over the holiday weekend when you were not in the office!

And while you think back, let us jump into the continuation of what has been going on in the office. Where we left everyone, Michael and Pam were out on a lecture circuit visiting the other branches while Jim and Dwight were attempting to throw Kelly her (belated) office birthday.

After Pam had a cathartic moment visiting Karen, Michael realized that perhaps this was why he is still so upset over Holly. They left so much out in the open that they need to have some sort of conclusion to that moment in their lives. So they decide to head up to the Nashua branch and include them in their lecture circuit and Michael and get some face time with Holly. Unfortunately, this does not go as expected when they arrive only to discover that she is out of town on a retreat and is unavailable. Not only that, they discover she already had a boyfriend who works in the sales department, AJ. I find it very interesting that after being transferred for dating someone in the office, she is already dating someone again. Yes, AJ is not management like Michael was but it is very odd that she continues to date people she works with. Are we sure that perhaps the reason she had to leave her last job wasn’t because she ended up dating too many coworkers? Guess we will never know, but probably. Pam was still able to talk Michael into putting on the lecture to save face, and maybe be a special story everyone will talk about when Holly returns. And it was sort of working, unlike the other branches Nashua seemed genuinely excited and interested in his performance. Until Michael began to spiral by fixating on AJ, Holly, and just the fact that they are no longer together. Pam attempts to take over the presentation to salvage a bit of self respect but Pam by no means has the same level of showmanship that Michael brought to the lecture.

While Pam was doing this, Michael strolled to the back of the office and was able to find Holly’s desk. In his weird headspace, he decided to cut a sleeve from her sweater to remember her by. I’m just going to say, he could have just taken the whole sweater because losing a sweater is much more plausible than misplacing a full sleeve. That wasn’t even the worse part, though, as Michael noticed Holly’s computer was still on and he copied a document titled “Dear Michael.” Holly is gone for a few days and she just left her computer unlocked? Being in human resources, she will have certain access on her computer that other people do not have and in companies like mine you could get in trouble for leaving a computer unlocked like that. Michael did recognize how inappropriate this was because he admitted it to Pam, seemingly hoping for permission to be able to read it. Pam was adamant about it being a breach of trust and that he could not read it, but she certainly could since she wasn’t in love with Holly. Pam wouldn’t reveal the exact details, but she seemed very confident that Holly was not over Michael and there may still have been a chance. Not exactly a perfect ending to their story, but perhaps it gave Michael a bit of hope in the sense that Holly still wasn’t over him.

Back at the office, you will recall that after everyone forgot Kelly’s birthday (aside from Phyllis who still chose not to say anything) Jim and Dwight need to make up for it with a special party. Despite being such creative individuals with so much passion for things, they are potentially the worst party planners I’ve ever seen. Dwight was doing research to verify Kelly’s age and discovered that she was in juvenile detention when she was a teenager and decides to harass her about it. Turns out she stole a boat that she thought belonged to her boyfriend at the time. Pretty serious but she was just a teen back then and really has no bearing on her current life. Jim tries to make her forget about this by showing off the ice cream cake he got from the store. I do not know why the store sold this, but it was literally just a blank sheet cake with no color, toys, or decorations. It did not represent the theme of the party because Jim and Dwight did not pick a theme. There should always be a theme to a party, and it doesn’t even need to be that complicated. My barbecue last week? It was a 4th of July party with barbecue, drinks, and I made a white chocolate cheese cake and homemade compotes of raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries to be the red, white, and blue. They literally could have made the theme “birthday” and get some flashy colors on the cake of balloons and fireworks and that would have covered it. I am not saying that throwing parties are always easy, but I am saying that there is a difference between putting in little effort compared to Jim and Dwight’s putting in no effort.

But they cannot comprehend how simple a theme can be and start breaking down what they would want to see in a party. Dwight doesn’t celebrate parties in his family so he pitches ideas like “horse hunt” because he doesn’t see the appeal. I loved Jim’s favorite birthday memory when his father took him to the Natural History Museum in New York and then bought him a triceratops toy which was always one of my favorite dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Kelly doesn’t seem like the type who would be wowed by a dinosaur party as much as I would be. In a surprise twist, they are ultimately able to put together an idea for Kelly. Using a rectangular piece of gum on her cake, it represents either a pillow to take a nap for an hour, or a television to watch for an hour at work. After some debate, she settles on taking a nap (I pry would’ve taken television). Not my idea of an office party but Kelly seemed to love it so they did succeed at this endeavor.

There was still one big event at the office which would explain why Angela wasn’t passing off judgement on Jim and Dwight, and that was Angela got a new cat! She decided to get a new cat related to the cat from Meet the Parents and is a third generation show cat named Princess Lady; all for the small price of $7,000. Where did she get this? She decided to sell Andy’s engagement ring because “he wouldn’t have wanted it returned.” There seems to be some debate online over what would normally be done in the situation. You would think that the ring should go back to Andy since the wedding didn’t occur, but there are those who see the ring as a gift and should belong to Angela. When it comes to engagement rings, particularly valuable ones, I have my own personal opinion on how it should be worked out. I believe the fate of the ring should come down to the circumstances of the breakup. Typically, whomever is the one who chooses to call off the wedding should give up ownership of the ring. However, if the person calling off the wedding is doing so not because they have changed their mind but because the other person committed a betrayal serious enough for a breakup, they should be entitled to it as compensation. To walk through their scenario, Andy was the one who formally broke up with Angela so he called off the wedding. But he did this because Angela was cheating on him and because she betrayed their relationship, I believe she ring should have been retuned to Andy because she betrayed what the engagement ring represented. Do you all agree with me or do you have a different opinion? I would love to hear from a lawyer on if there is some sort of precedent when it comes to the fate of a valuable engagement ring after a broken engagement.

Semantics aside, Angela is thrilled to have a new cat at home, and is devastated that she has used all her personal time and that “pet maternity” is not currently a thing. I did look it up, and there is a trend of “Pawternity” where the company allows employees time to take off for a pet. Glancing at the examples provided, they were predominately pet-related companies like veterinary companies or pet insurance. I would love to see this as the wave of the future; I may never have human children but I’ll certainly have fur babies needing my attention. Unable to take time off, Angela has resorted to the use of a pet cam so she could watch them all day. That sounds cute but obviously the purpose is to watch for ay problems, and that is what happened. While Princess Lady is a sweet feline, some of her other cats couldn’t resist the chance to climb all over her. This prompted Angela to rush home to get them sorted out and in their respective corners. Unfortunately, she forgot to turn off the camera so she didn’t realize that a few of us were able to see her on camera taking care of her cats. This wouldn’t be weird, except she was actually licking Princess Lady to clean her. Evidently this is a thing, but it is usually done with young kittens who do not have a mom to take care of them. They even have fake tongues to use so people do not need to lick them directly, but it is meant to help show them affection. If Princess Lady was a young kitten it might not be as weird, but it makes me question how much licking is actually going on. None of us said anything but she better watch herself in the future to not get on our bad side.

And that, everyone, was the conclusion to this Breakdown! Michael didn’t really get his ideal conclusion with Holly, but he is walking away with a sense of hope. Jim and Dwight were somehow able to pull off the party, but I still agree they are two of the last people who should ever be in charge of planning a party. And Angela has a brand new cat at home, which I always adore a happy ending involving pets. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and can get away from work, not thinking about your job, and just enjoy the summer vibes. Until next time, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

Posted in Uncategorized

4th of July 2025

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom!

I was going to try to get a Breakdown today but have been a little busy this week due to the holiday, work has been crazy plus I have a bunch of prep work for tomorrow. But despite being “Out of the Office” I did want to come out here and say a few words for my fan.

First, I know you might be devastated over the passing of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” which is going to be devastating to the American people. We will see people lose their healthcare, rural healthcare facilities will need to close, large amounts of money have been set aside to fund illegally arresting American citizens, and the ultra wealthy get wealthier. It is times like this that my faith in the United States waivers and I question what I am supposed to do. But I continue to see fellow citizens remain confident that we will be able to turn this country around, and we cannot be defined by the rampant bigotry we are seeing. So if you also are feeling confused on how to feel, please know that you are not alone and set a reminder in your phone for the 2026 Midterms.

Second, it is okay to use this holiday as a protest against the bigotry. I intend on seeing the new Jurassic World movie (where the evil, rich men typically get eaten) and then spending time with friends and family plotting the queer agenda and reminding each other that there are good people in the world. I know there will also be many protests planned around the country and if that is where you want to be, then I say go for it. Please just be safe, not just in the heat but for potential violence towards the peaceful protestors.

And third, even when you’re being righteous and angry please find healthy methods of dealing with your emotions. I often get very worked up and upset with the world and I have to check myself to bring myself back down. Whether it is video games, dinosaur movies, I do love some good podcasts (Office Ladies and I’ve Had It are my obsessions), or even just having drinks with friends. It is okay to take time away from the anger and try to enjoy your life, so please take care of your wellbeing.

To make up for the missing Breakdown, I hope to do at least one extra post this next week. I’m hoping to have some pretty big things coming this and next month so certainly stay tuned and I am going to work hard to not let my fan down.

Happy 4th of July to you all, and feel free to share how you are celebrating today.