Today's hurdle in the path...

The FDA is NOT AWESOME!!

I have asthma. It is very non-awesome. But today to add insult to injury, I found that the FDA has mandated that the CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) used in most asthma inhalers are ruining the environment. Therefore, they have implemented that the inhalers that I and many others have relied on for years be substituted with an HFA (hydrofluoroalkane) inhaler instead.
Now to the layperson not familiar to the plight on asthmatics this may not sound like a very big deal...but it gets worse.

HFA inhalers do not grant the same sensation of respiratory relief as the older CFC inhalers. Click on the link to view a demonstration of the 2 types of inhalers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_OL6TVvam0 Although there is plenty of FDA data to support that there is no difference in the functionality of the inhalers, you need to merely type "HFA inhalers suck" in to a search engine, and you will find countless masses that share my contempt for the new medication.

I am all about supporting green causes: I recycle, I take my own bags to the grocery store, I let my [hippie] friends listen to the occasional Widespread Panic (resoundingly not awesome) song on the jukebox while out at the neighborhood bar. But this federally sanctioned change to a medication is quite simply ridiculous. It is like putting a band aid on a severed leg...not really going to fix the problem. When you are gasping for air due to a severe asthma attack, that quick relief from asphyxiation is much more pressing than the potential damage to the ozone layer. When given this choice, I vote that the ozone can kiss the middle part of my posterior.
And the final kick to the stones is that now that the CFC inhalers are no longer available, asthmatics have to purchase the HFA inhalers with a too-convenient 400% price increase (that is with my insurance coverage) from their predecessors. Makes sense to me: Lesser product, higher cost to the consumer!??!!

One of us! One of us!!!

Recent study has led me to add an addendum to Step #4...

I reside in a city in close proximity to the where the Sundance Film Festival is held every year. And every year it seems that it coincides with a barrage of celebrity citings (yeah I know it is the other type of sighting, but I refer to the "citing" of "Don't you know who I am?"). However, I avoid the festival at all costs, the last movie I saw during Sundance was Orgazmo. Followers of the path will know that this film was at Sundance ages ago (circa 1997ish) and although I saw it at a small theatre in Salt Lake, the theatre was chalk full of your L.A. industry douchbaggery. It never ceases to amaze me how the week-long film biz transplants to Utah clad themselves in the Sundance uniform (see examples)

• Black sweater
• Black pants, (or close to black jeans)
• Black, puffy life-preserver coat
• scarf that hangs way too low, also black or near-to-black
• silly spaceman footwear
• faux (or real if are not a friend of PETA) fur trim to either hat, boots, or coat
• 24 hour-insect-looking sunglasses (regardless of your level of fame)
• aire of self importance (generally worn under stupid sunglasses)

I am thinking about starting my own film festival at my house every May. Everyone will have to be clad in cargo shorts and green moon boots, (try to find them, it is hard to do) and we will only watch films that John Candy passed on because of his high dedication to the craft.

Step #4 Awesomery is effortless

Do not allow that which is counter to the awesomery principles to influence your daily activities and decisions.

Simply stated :

DO NOT spend all of your efforts trying to impress people that you can't stand. This alone can be the biggest hurdle to maintaining an effective awesomery quotient.

So many times in life we adhere to the junior high school philosophy that we can withstand a few crotch shots to our ego, if there is a perceived "cool kids table in the lunch room" at which to reside. This is a fruitless existence. Awesomery should be effortless...and least of all without injury.

In my experience and research, the perception of awesome is in the eye of the beholder. 'Captain Cool Guy' might seem as though he has all his ducks in a row, but in all actuality, he is a mess. Attempt to peel back the outside layers of individuals in order to reveal if they have a delicious creamy center rather than a void of awesomery.