This is a very special post here on Geek Alabama! For starters, this is the 5000th post on this site! Yep, from the time I started this site in August 2011 until August 2015, I have written 5000 quality articles including plenty of great stories, photos, and videos! And here is the second thing, this week is my birthday week, and on Saturday August 15th, I will be 29 years old. And with my birthday coming up, I just don’t feel like celebrating. I mean, others have had fun on their birthdays this year, many have had good parties, and quite of few have taken some cool vacations, I know because I have seen the pictures on social media while I see them in the middle of the night using a public Wi-Fi source.
So to kick off my birthday week, I have decided to make a personalized hand drawn birthday card for everyone that knows me! And just like my special Christmas card last year, I have made the card serious. As you see below, I am wishing for a number one birthday this year! And I am not the only one hoping for a number one birthday. Alabama has plenty of number one things it should be ashamed of. From having the most people with disabilities in America, to having some of the worst public corruption in America, to having some of the worst education cutbacks in America, to having some of the worst bullying in America, to having some of the worst job creation and economies in America, and of course having some of the worst healthcare cutbacks in America, with more probably coming.
Alabama continues to shoot itself in the foot each and every day. And just like the Christmas card, this birthday card is going to be seen by plenty of people, here in Alabama and around the world. So, I wish you have a number one birthday, while having some of the worst problems in America, welcome to weird and corrupt Alabama!
So, with my birthday card out of the way, let’s talk about some of my feelings as Geek Alabama reaches 5000 posts and my 29th birthday fast approaching. First off, just like what I have said above, I am not going to enjoy my birthday this weekend. I mean, a birthday should be a time where you enjoy your special day, get some gifts, go out with friends, and have a happy and grand time! Instead, I will be in a bad mood while my gifts will be simple supplies like soap and toilet paper, I will probably see my mother and we will be talking about the bullying online, I hope I get some money from my grandparents, and might go out and eat in some cheap restaurant. Because I am unemployed, my mom is unemployed, and my half-brother is unemployed. What a great birthday this will be!
Hey, a little money is better than nothing at all; it means I can afford some toilet paper instead of stealing some at the library, that’s something good I guess. And if my regular life is not doing too well, well my online life has been in turmoil! You have probably seen the story about someone creating a “Nathan Sucks” YouTube account and leaving a bunch of harassful comments. Have not seen it, enjoy me reading them below. The video has uncensored bad language in it.
Well, the past week also has seen a few others on social media taking a shot. For example, when I wrote an article about the legislature wanting to cut a lot out of education, a big radio conservative talker named Dale Jackson called me out.
https://twitter.com/TheDaleJackson/status/629684725578379264
Then I called him out, and of course then he called me back.
To @TheDaleJackson, Geeks/Nerds are smart people, we just don't tolerate stupid legislative idiots who hates poor! pic.twitter.com/lCf1BrY6Mg
— Nathan Young ❄️☮️💜💙🧡 (@nvyoung) August 8, 2015
https://twitter.com/TheDaleJackson/status/630018201791909888
This happens quite a bit with media here in Alabama. I mean, a lot people know my site, and that is a wonderful thing! Geek Alabama has a very high Alexa rating! But, my viewpoints are way different than a lot of other people here in Alabama. For example, I support those who are homosexual. I think the state should have a lottery and gambling. I think the property taxes in Alabama should go up, and that horrible 1901 constitution should be re-written. And I have other viewpoints that go against many in this state. It almost feels like I am un-fit to live here, and I get plenty of criticism from people here. Those conservative radio shows in Birmingham, I get talked about on there. And with my viewpoints, it makes it easy to be attacked. Because of the attacks, I have a very good relationship with the police here; they are almost like my second family because of the attacks I get.
And when I get critical on something, I let everyone know! I don’t just do a written article and let people read it. I might also do a presentation showing you the problems, like this one below about the problems in Anniston / Oxford that some have hated!
I might do a video highlighting some problems. For example, in my first Aspie Vlogs video, I counted 61 places closed down, mostly in Oxford. That got some angry!
And, I might highlight something that needed to be changed months ago. For example, over the weekend I took this photo of part of a five lane road that was repaved over 90 days ago, and there are no paint lines. This is not right and dangerous!
Hey Oxford, when are you going to paint road lines on this five lane road? pic.twitter.com/wKK2QQFVqp
— Nathan Young ❄️☮️💜💙🧡 (@nvyoung) August 9, 2015
As you can see, I don’t operate in the “let’s take our sweet old time” mindset like many I have seen do around in Alabama. Stuff needs to get done and fast, or ASAP. Even if that means the dreaded “Tax” word has to be used, and you might have to pay a little more, you don’t just sit there on your hinny and let each passing day go by, you make sure things not working right are corrected, and that everyone has a chance to live a fair and successful life. This is what I do, along with the geeky and nerdy things I talk about on Geek Alabama. So, when a story came out last week saying Alabama has the most people with disabilities than any other state in America, I was not shocked. You should know that I have Asperger’s Syndrome, and organizations in this state have not lifted any finger to make sure I am doing well. And this has led me to the disability path.
If I get to my birthday on August 15th and I have not heard anything from Social Security, it will be two months, and the chances that I was denied at my hearing have better odds of happening. When I had the hearing in mid-June, the attorney said the longer I hear back with the results, the better chances I was denied. So my question is this, how long do I continue to wait before me and my family come up with a plan B? I can quickly tell you what a plan B would look like, me moving somewhere else (another state), where it’s not on a hell-bent mission to cutback everything to where there is nothing left, like what is going on in Alabama right now. Even if I was approved for disability, how long it might last, because Alabama wants to end Medicaid and make those on disability suffer even more.
So what I am saying is my 29th birthday needs to be spent working on a plan B. There are organizations that can help those with Asperger’s, but I would have to move to Birmingham, Atlanta, Huntsville, or somewhere else. My mom has even said she would pay my own salary for a few weeks just to have someone let me get my foot in the door, that has not worked. Even though I have been waiting for the disability results, I continue to share my visual resume and newly created video resume online. The visual resume almost has 16,000 views now and the video resume is catching on as well. I mean, I am very good at the media world, but no one has offered me a chance yet to show them what I can do. You can probably see why I can be critical and be a little depressed at the same time.
Spending time thinking about what to do if I am denied from disability is not a good way to spend my 29th birthday, but it must happen! I mean, unless my mom wants to keep paying nearly $500 in rent and have more trips to the police because more people are leaving harassful and threatening comments online against me. I have had many on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites tell me that I have to move on somewhere else, probably to a state where my viewpoints are like those of many others. A state like Minnesota, California, or New York might have to do. Heck, even the attorney doing the disability case said this too. Moving to state like Kansas, who is cutting everything like in Alabama, will not work!
I would like to stay in Alabama, but it feels like the only people who want to take me on wants to do it with no pay and only pay me with name recognition. I have applied to other places in Alabama where I know I would be a good fit, but every time I hear nothing back. A videographer job for a website in Birmingham, nothing. A writing job for a newspaper in Alexander City, nada! A photographer job for a newspaper in Carrollton, Georgia, nope! I guess others are scared of what I currently do, because I challenge the status quo and have people think about other things. I am guessing many in Alabama don’t want their thoughts challenged? Can you see why Alabama is almost dead last in job creation, while almost number one for corruption, education cutbacks, and people with disabilities. I can see the connections, can you?
I do have some hope that my 29th birthday can be one of my best birthdays ever! Every night I am out there sitting on the sidewalk in front of a public Wi-Fi source I write and schedule my articles, update social media, check stories and e-mails, and apply to more jobs. Maybe this will be the week where I can prove my worth, get some money to buy basic things like soap and toilet paper, take the financial pressure off of my mother, and see my mood get better. Maybe you know something, if you do contact me at: [email protected] and see my visual resume and video resume below. I am better than those who bully me online and in person. I need to show them that no bullying pays off!
At the end of this post, if you have read this to this point, my gut feelings tell me that something MUST happen by October, or everything I know is going to hit the fan. The Alabama government will probably have no budget in place, meaning everything government shuts down, probably including my SNAP card, which means my mom will get to add groceries to the things she is helping me out on. If we have not heard anything from Social Security Disability by October, it means I will probably be denied, and I don’t think we have a plan B. And by then the $475 monthly rent might just become too much to handle. What will happen, who knows? I know this; I have a list of about ten different names to rename the Geek Alabama site. Because I will most likely be not living in Alabama anymore. I am optimistic that I can continue to live in this state, but as you see in that birthday card above, Alabama has so many bullet holes in the foot that it cannot heal. Thank you for reading!
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