Creative Ways To Deal with Assholes Who Want to Ruin Your Day, Part One: In Public

Originally published at Am I the Only One Dancing?. Please leave any comments there.

You Can Control How Assholes Affect Your Day

Cover via Amazon

Yes, you really can. First, we need to distinguish between assholes who want to ruin your day and people capable of doing actual harm to you. I’m talking about trollish behavior, the sort of thing designed to shut down conversations, embarrass you, and change your emotions for the worse, not the sort of thing that can actually hurt you. That’s a different post.

Sample Assholes Who Want to Ruin Your Day:

• That guy who wolf whistles or shouts insults at you as you’re walking down the street.
• The one who steps into your personal space in a waiting area and won’t back away.
• The woman who cuts in front of you in line with her toddler in her arms, daring you to say anything.
• The store clerk that pretends you don’t exist because you don’t look like that store’s usual customer.

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Share the Joy and Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

Originally published at Am I the Only One Dancing?. Please leave any comments there.

I’m new to this giveaway via website thing, so I’m curious about what sorts of prizes you all might be interested in. I know an Amazon Gift Card is always a good fallback giveaway for a literate crowd, but other ideas are appreciated.

Gift Card Holders (Photo credit: campbelj45ca)

Please leave comments with ideas for giveaways below or on my Facebook page.  My budget is pretty small for this sort of thing right now… I’m thinking of making it a regular Saturday or Sunday feature with a value of between $25 and $50.

I want these giveaways to be items people really want and need. I live a fortunate life, and want to share that fortune with others (and no, I don’t mean financially fortunate, I mean full of joy).

Books? Yarn? Gift Certificates to various online retailers (ideas welcome)? Donations to favorite charities in your name? Handmade goodies (does Etsy have a giftcard program? — yes! yes, they do!).  What kind of giveaway do you want?

As a note, I don’t intend to necessarily restrict myself to affiliate programs, and I don’t intend to coordinate giveaways with retailers for promotion of their goods. These giveaways are my idea, and they come from my heart and pocketbook (and my bookcase and yarn stash and fabric stash). So feel free to come up with ideas that don’t involve traditional sources or prizes.

On another note, another tradition I plan to start tomorrow is to call attention to a noteworthy cause or individual deserving of micro gifting or a micro loan. I plan to work with existing organizations for these sorts of things as much as possible, and would appreciate it if others could make me aware of such organizations other than Kiva, MicroGrants Indiegogo, and Heifer International.

So that’s all, folks. Like my Facebook Page and share this post around to participate in sharing joy and making someone’s day.