Renaissance Faires aka The Least Sexy Place On Earth

    Renaissance Faires get a pretty good rap for being basically lowkey kink-festivals filled with heaving bosoms in tight corsets and rippling muscles wrapped in leather. They're seen as places of whimsical and sensual magic in a time of wenches and sexy knights and I am here to affirmatively say that none of that is true. A Renaissance Faire just might be the least sexy place ever. And it has nothing to do with the fact that they're usually child-friendly areas.

    When I was somewhere between 13 and 14, I somehow discovered it was possible to join the cast of a Renaissance Faire. I had only attended one in my entire life and as far as I remember it wasn't exactly life changing so I'm not sure why I even went out for the position. I can't even remember how I found out and in my experience that means my mother discovered it and convinced us to do it. That's just how it's always worked out. Regardless, Jess and I were in the Competitive Theater department at our school and wanted to branch out so we elected to audition. The audition was held in the basement of a rundown old mill. The first floor was being used as a flea market and the other two floors were deemed unsafe for people to walk on for fear of collapse and were, obviously, uninhabited. In hindsight, that was our first warning. The audition went well, Jess and I were twins so we already had a gimmick, and we were into competitive theater so if there was anything we knew how to do, it was give a monologue. We were given parts then and there as part of Street Cast, which sounded exciting at the time. What we didn't know was everyone who auditions for Ren-Faires gets in. The people they care about get to be Stage Cast, or Main Cast, who play all the roles and perform on stage. The rest, the degenerate, untalented, or ugly got relegated to the position of Street Cast who's only role would be to be in character for all 8 hours of the day in order to interact with patrons on the street. Street Cast was also the unpaid. The next year Jess and I refused to work unpaid 

    Still, Jess and I were excited and happily agreed to our positions. Rehearsals dulled our spirits exceedingly however. They were held in the same dank and dusty basement as auditions and lasted from around 10:00am to 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday if I remember correctly. All day is a reasonable time to rehearse a show you may say, and I said so too, but it's only worth it if you actually rehearse something all day. You'll remember Jess and I were Street Cast, we had no part on stage. So what exactly did we do all day? The answer is improv games. Now, I was in a theater program that had the same mentality, the idea of 'let's do theater games to get to know each other and get comfortable being silly' which I hated at the time but understood was important for high school age kids. Everyone at this faire was at least 10 years older than me though so the idea of 'getting used to acting silly' was definitely stale for everyone there. The secondary purpose of them was to help us with our street interactions, but street improv usually came in the form of 'bits', or pre-planned in-character interactions you came up with in advance to do with patrons. They went differently depending on the patrons interactions with you, but it would be the same premise. Robin Hood approaches a kid to do a bit about whether or not he's seen the Sheriff, Maid Marion does a curtsy teaching session with a girl in a princess dress, you get the picture. It might have been particularly useful for that time to be spent coming up with and practicing bits, but of course we couldn't do that. Instead we played every theater game known to mankind, all of which were exhausting, overhyped, and did nothing to help anyone's performance on or off stage. And we didn't just do it at the beginning to warm up. It was all rehearsal. That's a bit of a lie though, because we also had Singing Practice. Everyone, whether they could sing or couldn't, was part of one of two Pub Sing shows the audience members neither cared for nor attended. We couldn't sing, didn't have any instruments, and hated it maybe as much as the patrons did. 

    We endured these rehearsals for 3 or 4 weeks before we began the actual show, which lasted just as long. We had a green tent set up close to the site that was our 'cast tent' which was hot, cramped, and overall unpleasant to be in but you went there anyway because everywhere else on site was basically the same but you had to be in character. The 'everywhere else' was a dusty circular road lined with white tents selling all number of beautiful but mostly useless items. Here on the streets I spent most of my days doing 'bits' with people who definitely didn't want them to be happening, so at least we were on the same page. I've never known anyone who's left a faire and gone "Wow, I had a great interaction with the Random Civilian, it was the highlight of my day!" It doesn't happen. No one actually wants to be interacted with except maybe a handful of people, most of whom are just off-duty rennies themselves. Most people want to interact with their own friends and family, hence why they came with them, and while they certainly don't mind having their children meet the Princess or Robin Hood or King Arthur they themselves don't want to be engaged because why would you? Who wants to have some rando come up to them and, in character of a character they have never heard of, interrupt whatever conversation they were having previously to tell bad jokes, insult them, and try to get them to go see a show. We call the last bit Hawking and let me tell you it does not work at all. Main show got a good audience though, since it was the only show people didn't ask for money at the end of, and depending on the year and the script most people enjoyed it. No one went to the cast's Pub Sing or whatever it might be called because it was not only boring but horrible to hear. Luckily they put the show where there were picnic tables so a select group of people were volountold into being our captive audience. The night ended with Final Revels which we sang at and the audience endured.

    If any of that sounded sexy to you, just wait, there's more! The truly worst part of any day at faire was Morning Meeting. This sounds useful, and once in a great while it was, but for the most part it was people talking about pee colour. That sounds like a hyperbole but it's unfortunately true. Because we actors would be in the sun all day (and would be scolded firmly and loudly if we spent more than 5 minutes in the green room despite getting paid basically gas money for the run of faire) we were encouraged to drink at least a silo of water every day. That's excellent advice except for two things: First, such comments were always joined by some conversation about pee. We were frequently asked what colour our pee was and when we had last gone. Not in private, but publicly and by show of hands because that's normal. Second, it really didn't matter because the same 5 people went down for heat fatigue every run of faire anyway because you can lead a rennie to water but you can't make 'em drink. Morning Meeting had other useless parts as well, from telling us things we already knew to stories that didn't mean anything and just wasted another 10 minutes of our lives, but the worst part and majority of the meeting was a discussion of urine.

    I feel the need to specify that despite all of these qualms, I excessively enjoyed my time working at a Renaissance Faire. It was truly Acting In The Trenches and gave me the ability to endure just about anything, which probably had something to do with why I moved to Florida. But it was not, in any way a sexually stimulating time of my life. Sure, some people got found doing blowjobs behind stages, and people hooked up at the cast party, but for everyone besides those 4 people the entire experience was too exhausting to even consider sex.

Driving aka A Long Overdue Lesson

    I'm learning how to drive for the first time ever. I'm older than a lot of people are when they learn how to drive, for sure, but it it must be clear that I have never had any reason to drive until now. I suppose that's not entirely true, but it was for a long time. To start with, up north, back in good old Rhode Island, the bus system is awesome and could get me wherever I needed to go. When I was a YMCA lifeguard Jess and I would walk the mile or so to the bus stop every morning at 7:00am to get to work by 8:00am and it never failed us (except the first day we did it when the bus broke down before it got to our stop and we were forced to get a ride from our mother, thereby putting us in a slight state of terror every time the bus was a few minutes late). The high school we attended was less than a mile away and Jess and I happily walked there in the sun, rain, and snow. Was it awesome? No. Did we survive? Sure! In fact, lots of places from the local library to the Cumberland Farms we bought milk at were within walking distance since we lived in a small town. For sure, there were places we couldn't get to without driving, but I just stayed home instead! Problem solved!

    My sister and my methodology was not shared by our older brother Michael. As a 'young man seeking independence' he was gung-ho to learn how to drive! Mom began teaching him when he was 13 and by the time her was old enough to take Drivers Ed and get his permit he was an expert. He passed all his tests the first time he took them and was desperate to drive any chance he got. Looking back I wonder why my mother never took Jess and I out to drive. I suppose if she had offered we would have taken her up on it at the time and might have gotten our license at 16 just like our brother. There could be some underlying inherent sexism there, but I think it's more likely she just didn't want us driving. We were her babies after all, but also why bother! We weren't outwardly interested, so why bring it up herself? Michael was already a pain asking to drive all the time and borrowing the car for joy-rides with his friends so she might have decided it was a bad idea altogether to have two more drivers in the family.

    So Michael got his license and we didn't but as I mentioned, he always had to borrow the car. There lies the most prominent reason I never got my license: Why get a license if I can't afford to buy a car? Getting one's license is a liberating experience. It's meant to open the whole world to you. But does it really do that if you're driving your mom's minivan? According to my brother, yes, according to me and Jess, no. After years of borrowing mom and dad's car though, Michael eventually saved up to buy his own vehicle - a super sweet sports car that looked like something out of Fast and Furious. That sounds great but I remind you again, I come from a poor family. My brother worked an indescribable number of hours in order to afford this used sports car, only to discover it would cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to afford the repairs she needed to be same. Then there was the matter of handling registration and license plates and the fact that he lived in Boston where no one drives cars so he just had to park in semi-permanently and it just looked like a big old mess to me. As he was doing all of this Jess and I had moved into our place literally on the same block as our university and the downtown area. While we have yet to try the bus system here as the southern buses are allegedly not as reliable as the ones up north, nothing we needed, or need really, is further than a bike ride away. Michael can have his car, I would say, I have everything I need as long as I have strong legs and an umbrella.

    With all of this said and done, why have I chosen now to begin this license-acquiring process? The number one reason is because my mother has promised me her old car. Remember that minivan I mentioned earlier? That old ride is sort of set to be mine, but for complicated reasons. The van was in an accident that really only damaged the back bumper of the car but the insurance company said the car is old and sad and they would pay to have mom buy a new one instead of paying the repairs. So a new car was gotten for mom but the old car is still hanging around. Not worth enough to sell, my mother has informed me that the car is mine as long as it passes inspection. Complicated, but still solid enough to encourage me to get a license. The main reason I hadn't gotten one was because I couldn't afford a car, but with that issue resolved I am totally prepared to begin this strange and nerve-wracking process! Another reason, however, is my newfound desire for the convenience of a car. Like I said, everything I need is withing walking or bike-riding distance, but after three years of biking a mile home sometimes in pouring rain while weighed down with bags of groceries, I'm getting kind of tired. While my sister and I only pay about $15 every 2 weeks for groceries, you'd be surprised how much $15 worth of stuff from Save-A-Lots weighs. Especially milk. I am sick to death of the rope burns on my shoulders from that milk, cheese, and hot dog stuffed insulated cinch bag. I'm trying not to whine, but if you biked a mile carrying pounds of groceries every 2 weeks in the Floridian heat and rain for 3 years you'd probably be over it too. But a solution has been provided! A car would fix my problems astronomically! No longer would grocery shopping be an all-day event I have to plan for, but a quick trip I can fit into any days schedule! An additional, though less pressing bonus, will be the ability to drive Jess and I to the local Renaissance Faire instead of attempting to coerce her into coercing her kinda-sorta ex boyfriend into driving us, thereby forcing him to attend with us. It's not a necessity, but it sure would be nice!

    Of note, despite the car being offered to Jess and I, I am the only one of us learning how to drive. My sister says she doesn't want to do it because driving frightens her, which is true, but there are other reasons as well. For one thing she why should she learn to drive if I'm going to already? She gets to get places via a car but doesn't have to actually drive it, sounds like a win-win to her. Additionally, my mother has a habit of turning anything that could be convenient to her into something absolutely convenient to her and even while practice driving for the first time she already had me driving her to do some errands around her gated community. Jess has no desire to do any more chores than she has to no matter if mom does usually live 2 hours away from us and has opted out of the whole driving process. As mentioned just now, I have begun doing practice driving around my moms gated 55+ community and while I was a little unsure at first, after only maybe 5 hours of practice I'm quite comfortable behind the wheel. After this many years of being relegated to shotgun because my sister wants to listen to music and force me to converse with the driver, I'm not exactly uneducated in the process of driving. I've also started reading the drivers handbook for Florida and I'm all set to get this license as quick as possible. There's no hurry in the general sense, but in the personal sense the rainy season has already begun here and the local Ren-Faire starts in November. Those are pretty good reasons as far as I can see to get this done in a hurry.

Middle Ground aka The Great Tech Debate

    There was an episode the other day of Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures where Barbie and her family take a break from technology for the weekend because they're too attached and need to learn how to appreciate life while 'disconnected'. The characters endure a hard weekend of Pioneer-Life with camping, water fetching, and mosquito bites. This sounds like a typical 'technology is bad, life is better without it', but in general the vibe of the episode was that technology makes a lot of things better so we should appreciate what we have while remembering to disconnect in order to have meaningful interactions. This message could have been better articulated in the episode, but overall I'm really down with that message! Especially given how much attention I've been spending on my technology usage as of late.

    To be clear, I love technology. This is not me waving a cane in front of my lawn saying "phones are turning us into mindless zombies" and sharing those wild anti-technology images made by artists who then share them on Facebook because that makes sense. I love my phone and my laptop and my Kindle and there is nothing wrong with using them during breaks at work or during downtime at home or while waiting for a bus, but there is something to be said about our collective over-dependence on technology. In the past I've been strongly pro-technology in all varieties, but my latest focus on my own use of my gadgets has left me kind of in the middle.

    It started with me seeing posts online telling people to stop electronic-device usage an hour or earlier before going to bed. It's supposed to help you get to sleep better or something, but the main problem I found was "If I turn off all my gadgets, what am I gonna do for an hour?" Whenever we lose power in the house I sleep a lot because as soon as it gets dark I go "Okay, nothing to do, time for bed". That same mentality was what was dawning on me with this 'no tech for an hour' rule. If I turn my gadgets off an hour before bed, I'm just gonna go to sleep an hour early. The thought that I couldn't think of anything to do without my phone or laptop for an hour bothered me, and it led me to focusing more on what I actually do with my spare time. I noticed that I reach for my phone way more than I thought I was! And to be honest, I'm not actually that bad about it and I was still bothered! I put it away for conversations and don't use it during meetings and whatnot, but I realized that all of my spare time was spent refreshing Facebook and Tumblr and if that was boring me I would, literally, put my phone down and pull up the same websites on my computer just out of habit. And that's what I was doing for hours on end. Outrageous, right! I couldn't believe it myself!

    I took some time to process this. I'd sort of been convinced that there are only two ways to feel regarding technology: You hate it completely and think everyone needs to stop using it completely, or you love it and think everyone should use it as they please. I knew I wasn't chill with how much I was using my gadgets, but I still recognized their usefulness. Social media is a great place to communicate, my blogs and digital diaries are fantastic places to organize my thoughts, my games allowed me to be entertained when standing in long lines or when I was by myself, and texting is the fasted and easiest form of communication for anything and everything! Technology is great and useful so I didn't think I should give it up completely, but I also obviously felt myself, and maybe everyone, is too connected. I realized from all of this that I fall somewhere in the middle! Technology is great, but everything in moderation! Young people especially are so defensive of our use of technology and that's fine because it is a useful and fun resource, but to a point. We are all a little too attached to our phones! That doesn't mean get rid of them completely, just think about how often we use them and why and cut back in order to make room for other activities or personal interactions besides staring at a screen for hours on end. Technology brings people from around the world together, from digital penpals to gamer buddies, and gives us the ability to interact on a scale never seen before and that's amazing but we're lying if we don't say we a lot of use aren't using it as a form of communications and are instead wasting a lot of our time sitting alone sharing images other people posted as a 'hobby'. And that's a problem we all collectively need to work on. What's convenient for today isn't always what's best for tomorrow.

    Again, technology is fabulous, but I really did need to cut back so I could enjoy literally every other cool part of life that I was missing out on in addition to my tech-time. So, I still have my phone to catch Pokemon and send Snapchats and I still have my computer to post on my blog and visit Facebook, but I checked out some Nancy Drew's from the library. I forgot how much I loved reading those. I got a pennyboard from a friend and I'm learning how to ride it. I've always wanted to be a skater-chic. I'm holding game nights with my sister, and sure, some of them are video game nights, so it's still me using my electronic devices, but I think that's the point Barbie and I are trying to make. Technology is best when it brings people closer, not when it creates a divide.

Careers aka The Cookie Conundrum

    My sister's ex-boyfriend came to her for advice on an issue regarding his sister. He explained that Cookie has decided to opt out of attending college and is instead going for getting a managerial position at Chipotle where she works. Her reasoning is that she loves working at Chipotle and wants to only work part-time so she has lots of free time to hang out with her friends while also maintaining a leadership position. Frank, the ex, said his family is worried about this decision because Cookie tends to live extravagantly with her friends and he's afraid this life-path is just leading her to mooching off her parents. He wanted to know why she would think that's the life she wants to lead and what he could do to convince her to consider pursuing a genuine career that he feels she has the talents and capabilities for.

    A question to ask here is: why did Frank come to Jess with this question? Well it's because Jess and I are currently on the same path as Cookie. We attend University, sure, but our goals are equally small. We want to work part-time jobs because a career just doesn't feel right for us. Jess and I have different reasons than Cookie, naturally. Cookie wants free time, and so do we, but Jess and I have been working since we were 14 years old and honestly we're sick of it. That's a bit of an overstatement I suppose. I love work. I work 3 jobs on campus and I love all three of them. But I love them because doing them still offers me a lot of free time to enjoy the rest of my life. I can't imagine myself getting up at 7am every day to go to work so I can come home exhausted at 7pm and immediately go to sleep so I can repeat it the next day. I did that lifeguarding at Wet 'n Wild one summer and it killed me. Never again. Some people don't feel that way though! My brother, Michael, is a lot like Frank. They both found their passion in a science field - Engineering for the former, Physics for the latter -  and are pursuing that full force. They can't wait to work full-time in a career where they're able to get up every day and do what they love and I applaud that. But that's not the path for everyone, and it's not the one for me, Jess, or Cookie.

    Frank's fears in this matter, however, stem directly from his belief that his chosen path is the only correct one to be on. His sister does, in fact, live with her parents who pay for groceries, rent, etc., but her 'extravagant lifestyle' is her spending the money she earns from work on concert tickets and day-trips with friends. While it's true that should she choose to follow this path, eventually she'll have to budget her money to pay for groceries and rent as well as fun times, which is something she needs to think about and consider saving up for. The complaints of her 'living off her parents' are actually rich coming from Frank, who his senior year of college began his first part-time job and who's entire university experience and rent was paid for via his parents money. His explanation for this is "eventually I'll have a 6 figure job and won't need their money, while Cookie always will". Putting aside my own eye-roll regarding not paying a cent of your college tuition and not working at all through college, this argument is completely wrong. Frank is counting his chickens before they hatch, as it were, assuming that because he is pursuing a career where people make 6 figure salaries he is guaranteed a 6 figure salary. In this job market? Yeah, sure. Even supposing he does achieve that, there is no saying that Cookie won't be able to live the life she wants off part-time jobs. She may have to economize, but everyone does when they become an adult, that's life. But Frank doesn't want that for her, he wants her to reach a standard he has set for her and the people around him: You go to college and pursue a career that makes good money. He fails to see how anyone could want anything and refuses to listen to why. My brother is much the same way. When I switched majors from Computer Science to a BS in Digital Arts and BA in History he was so distraught. He though I was throwing my chance at a good career away and dooming myself to a life of poverty and the lower class. It took Jess and I getting our own place before him, keeping ourselves far less into debt than him, and showing how all of this is right on track with our 5-year plan for him to understand that we hadn't doomed ourselves, but just chose a different path than him. Frank has yet to experience that with Cookie.

    As of yet I see no issues with her chosen path besides it doesn't fit into the mold Frank wants it to and as a matter of fact, this is an ongoing issue with Jessica's ex. As stated before, Jess didn't fit into the above mold either. She is attending college, but her main goal right now is to work at the front desk of a hotel and see where that takes her. She lives with me and if we both work part-time jobs and stick with our current budget and situation we should be set to be content and happy with our lifestyle! Frank never saw it that way. He became increasingly bothered as he realized Jessica wasn't joking about wanting to work in a hotel and claimed their goals 'didn't match up' because he was going places and she wasn't. Degrading and wrong. He is going the direction he wants, and while Jessica doesn't see why he'd want that she respects that it's his choice to attend college out of his parents pockets until he's 30-something before he enters a highly competitive job market to become a Physicist while he doesn't respect her choice to live a simple life that requires some economizing. There are pros and cons to both, and the way I have framed it Jess's life looks like the better option the same way Frank tends to frame his as the better way to go, but it's obviously all a matter of opinion. Both are livable, attainable goals that, done right, are happy lives to lead. Not everyone wants the same things, not even people in the same family see eye to eye on everything and there's nothing wrong with that.

    So, what advice did Jess give Frank about Cookie? She told him what you might have gathered from this post: He's thinking about what he wants and not what Cookie does. He's projecting hardships and fallacies in her plan that haven't happened yet and might not just so he can glorify the life he's choosing to live. There are issues with his lifestyle as well, but people need to be given the chance to lead their own lives, whether you like it or not. Not everyone wants a 6 figure salary, despite what ever TV show ever has told you, and not everyone wants a simple life like every YA novel has told you. Maybe Cookie will endure a series of problems due to her job, but then maybe Frank will too. It's not about how well paying your job is, or how large your aspirations are, but about how effective you are at maintaining your lifestyle. Cookie has a job she loves and an attainable goal for the future that will help her become completely independent. Frank lives completely off his parents money and will for the next 10 more years of school as he has no plans to get his own job. One of them is cause for worry, and it's not the future Chipotle manager.

Tiny Houses aka The Benefits of Poorism

    Rich people have perfected the art of making poor people things look glamorous. This act, the essential fetishization of poor people culture, is apparently so rampant it has acquired it's own name: Poorism. I find that a particularly clever and useful title, but the necessity of it is what leaves me with questions. I'm not sure what the appeal is of poorism but wealthy people just adore it. Perhaps the attraction comes from the same feelings which drive many to go camping. The fantasy of a life of simplicity. The difference, however, is that people go camping for a weekend. Rich people engage in poorism as a semi-permanent lifestyle choice.

    You'll find poorism in many varieties, from wealthy people deciding to go 'off the grid' and live on the road - which would be a poor people thing if they weren't buying hundred-thousand dollar RV's to go travel in while still hoarding all the millions they possess but aren't using instead of donating it or at least spending it to put into circulation - to discussing how they wish they had been born poor because poor people "have so much humility and strength" and other nonsense that tells you they have no idea what it's like to eat cereal for every meal for three years straight because I came out of that bitter and jaded, but I still tip $5 on the rare occasions I eat out because I know for sure I don't want anyone else to live that way, not because being poor made me overly-kind.

    One of the larger trends of the wealthy elite is the concept of Tiny Houses. Arriving arm-and-arm with the Minimalism trend, this housing style has gained a lot of popularity in a very short time. Again, I have no idea what the appeal is. Having a Tiny House has always, to the rest of the world, been a sign of a person who is short on cash and had to make compromises in order to have their own space. These days, however, Tiny Houses have skyrocketed in cost due to their large following of the glamorous elite. If rich people are buying than you can jump the cost up as much as you want! So what used to be an affordable living style for the lower class has now become a much coveted residence type for the children of celebrities.

    I sound jaded and bitter in these previous paragraphs, and I usually am, but there is actually a bright side to all of this though it is a selfish one. In the summer before my Sophomore year of college my sister and I were looking for our own small place to rent out happened to find an available unit within walking distance of our campus. We checked it out and it turned out to be essentially a modified shed in the back of a regular house that had been converted into 6 apartments. It had three rooms, a living room/kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom, no internal heating and cooling except a mini-heater and a small window A/C, and a shed connected to the side of the house that was filled with an overflowing collection of junk that the landlords had unceremoniously stuffed there with no plan to remove. And it was absolutely perfect! We signed the lease right then and there and moved in that June. The house is smaller than most classrooms at my university, made of steal so it's always 20 degrees warmer in the house than outside in the spring and summer while also being drafty so it's always 20 degrees colder than outside in the winter, and has had a slew of plumbing and electrical problems, but it's $750 rent a month and for our simple needs the house is absolutely perfect! Not a fan of minimalism or keeping things in boxes, everything we own is on display as tastefully as we can manage on windowsills, bookshelves, and a large 5 year-old Barbie Dreamhouse that has become less a dollhouse and more a curio-cabinet. While the house might not fit a large number of people's standards of living, it does the trick for Jess and I and I think it's just darling!

    Remember what I said about the bright side to the Tiny House Poorism? It turns out that my sister and my frugality is all of a sudden trendy! While in years past it might have been embarrassing to say you lived in a modified shed in the back of someones house now it's almost bragging rights to say "I live in a Tiny House". My sister capitalized on that right way, repeating that phrase to anyone who asked where we lived. I thought she was being ridiculous, but people were innately curious about the lifestyle and asked a lot more questions than could have ever been predicted. "Is it comfortable?", "How have you decorated it?", "How many rooms are there?", "Was it expensive?", and most commonly "How exciting! What's it like living in one? I've only ever read about it!" I was almost in shock. It's just like my sister to play up everything we do like we're the style trendsetters of North-East Florida, but in this case she didn't actually have to play up anything! All she did was tell the truth - We live in a Tiny House.

    While Poorism is definitely not solving any problems and is absolutely creating more by glorifying the qualms of the poor and causing price rises in what could be effective and efficient solutions to said qualms, in a very small way the glamorized concept of Tiny Houses has done me personally a huge favour. They managed to turn turn the embarrassing house of a cheapskate into the trendy living arrangement of a fashion-forward icon. I think we all know which title we'd prefer, so really, can you judge me?