ABOUT YTP

The Basics: Contact Info, Advertising Policy, Privacy Policy

Contact details; Information for Advertisers; Privacy Policy

About YTP: The Short and Professional Version

Click here, and you save the time but lose the laughs.

About YTP: The Long and Funny Version

Really? You want to commit to this? Ok. Here goes.

This blog is about yielding to the things pedestrian, the everyday small but wonderful stuff in life. You know, stopping to smell the roses, enjoy the day, listen to the birds, and all that jazz.

On a more cosmic level, it is also about acknowledging the power of one individual, one small person walking along, and their ability to change things. Yes, I know. That’s very deep. Profound even.

But most important of all? The title of this blog is a great and irresistible opportunity to use a pun. I cannot resist a good pun. I can sense you screwing up your face in a grimace of disdain.  Puns? That low-brow form of humor?

I, too, once thought ill of the pun. I would think, “Aren’t puns the jokes people make when they can’t muster something funny to say?”

Then I married YTP Spouse, whose entire family thrives on a humor based almost solely on puns.  And I found out that puns, like many a communicable disease, are highly contagious, and stay with you for life.  And, also like communicable diseases, a proclivity for puns explains a lot about people. That man laughing quietly to himself in line? A case of the puns. Your spouse interrupting the flow of cocktail party chitchat for a good self-chuckle? Puns. The groans from the table next to you at the restaurant? A severe episode of the puns.

But really, you didn’t click on the “about” button to hear of puns, did you? You want to know about this blog.

More than a public venue for my private puns, this blog is actually a critical part of my life as a recovering cynic.  Yes, I converted to cynicism at a young age, somewhere around 7 or 8.  By the time I was 24, the only people I could relate to were grizzled Cold War veterans and old men playing chess in parks. Then, the unthinkable happened. In my late twenties, I found myself in a job and a living situation that defied even the low expectations of my inner cynic. Remember that game “the limbo”? “How low can you go? How low can you go?”

Oh, yes, it was low. It was really, really low. So low that it broke the metaphorical back of my cynicism. I quit my job, moved half a world away, changed up my life, and started over.

Out of the ashes of my inner cynic arose the cautious optimist. To be fair, the inner cynic isn’t totally dead. I live in Los Angeles, so it is always screaming at me about things like “situational awareness” and the importance of defending the YTP homestead. But the cautious optimist is taking baby steps towards a slightly less crusty existence. And step one in that process is: find things to be happy and excited and pleased and generally not cynical about. Step two: write them down.

And there, in a long-winded nutshell, is the reason for YTP’s existence.

I also blogged about it here, without the little defense of puns.

About me:
Really, do you want to know? Wouldn’t you rather just project your own image of who I should be and allow that to make the experience of reading my blog so much more enjoyable for you?

No? ok.

I used to work for the federal government. I don’t anymore, but I worked there long enough to automatically note that nothing I say in this blog should be taken to be the opinion or position of the U.S. government. Though I imagine that all of you who believe this is yet another USG-run site in a larger conspiracy to put pro-U.S. propaganda out there won’t be put off by my little disclaimer, so really, why did I bother? (ooooh, the inner cynic rears its ugly head).

Now I am a business owner. And a parent. And a spouse. And much, much happier.