Absent

I'm absent minded, I know this, and it's an issue. My mind tends to wander away from the things that are important, and settle upon whatever may tickle my fancy that is not my responsibilities. It makes things difficult sometimes, as I will fully have something planned in my mind, and fifteen minutes later when I intended to do it, my mind has simply drifted onto a new task. It's the reason I come now with ten minutes to produce an article.

Though there are advantages to it... Because my mind tends to drift, I can chain a string of thought a mile long, contemplating and analyzing a variety of things only tangentially related. These loose thoughts become solid ideas, which allows me to produce something without much brainstorming. Being absent minded, and coming to tasks at the zero hour has allowed me to stand the test of time. I work fast, taking those solid ideas and expanding them into a working project amazingly quick. I am able to go from thought, to idea, to product faster than most...

Though these are all excuses, the problem with all of this is that most of the time I simply end up not making it. The zero hour comes and goes without even a passing thought from me, only banging my head when it's brought up too little too late. I hate myself when I end up missing my deadlines, simply because there were no obstacles in my way aside from my own thought process.

I wonder to myself if other people are like me, people who's mind's run at a mile a minute, too fast to focus, too much at once to really rely on one thing. How many people forget dates, deadlines, appointments? How many people forget what they need to do even when they were just telling themselves to put some time aside later to do it? Is my frustration a uniqueness, or is it a common practice?

Don't you wish sometimes your brain would just listen to you?

"I used to say that politics was the second-oldest profession. I have come to know that it bears a gross similarity to the first." -Ronald Reagan

The old wives tale goes as such, that prostitution is the worlds oldest profession. This is a wives tale simply because through simple logic and rational, without money or goods, there is no profit. So the oldest professions had to be farmers, followed by bartering market men, and then maybe prostitution. Then unfortunately someone had to muck it all up by becoming a politician.

Now I'm not gonna beat Ronnie by up here, the man is obviously being poetic. He is placing the concept of politics on par with prostitution, it's quite an astute summation if I do say so myself. What else are politicians than men and women who sell themselves? Men and women who put themselves on the auction block, hoping for top bid. And boy is America buying.

In the past twenty years the electoral process for President has become a circus. Mostly brought on by the media clammering for a story, and a little brought on by politicians trying desperately to get America to care. Many times I've heard the statement that Politicians are becoming more and more celebrities as the coverage of politics becomes more outlandish, and it's completely true.

Look no further than our current Commander in Chief Barack Obama. Moments after his election to office there were already commemorative coins, plates, and DVDs. T-Shirts with his face and slogans can be found anywhere, there is even a Barack Obama action figure. All of his success can be lead to the fact that he sold himself to us so well. A powerful campaign filled with extremely articulate speeches, charm, slogans, and having the knowledge to use media to his advantage.

His objectors hoot and holler about how this is all a sham, acting as if this whole parade of politics is somehow new, it's not. The 1960s held the first Presidential Debate ever broadcast over television, Nixon vs. Kennedy. Those who watched in person felt that Nixon had won the debate hands down, but those watching over television had a different opinion, they felt the charismatic and charming Kennedy had dominated the debate. This is not a new phenomena, the only difference is with the advancement of technology, it's just bigger, louder. The internet and twenty four hour news station allows us to watch the auction block all the time, as opposed to just once every four years.

It's not necessarily bad either, the fact that these men and women know how to sell themselves does not mean their disingenuous, it doesn't mean their issues are lacking. These men and women aren't liars, they aren't cheats, they aren't thieves... They have the issues that all politicians have, they have the same drive and need as the others, they just know how to sell it to us along with themselves. So, they're really prostitutes and barter merchants...

Still amazes me that a quote like that would come from an actor of all people.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

I'm once again going to talk about weather. Though this time, it won't be in a nice introspective metaphor, it won't represent adaptation and resilience. No, this is gonna be a bit more real, and a bit less happy. I'm gonna talk about something that is being debated all over, something that shouldn't really be debated anymore. I'm gonna talk about something that effects every living person on this planet, I'm gonna talk about Climate Change.

Yesterday I checked the weather, as I normally do, to see if it would be necessary to grab a jacket for work. I saw that it was predicted highs in the sixties, lows in the thirties. I'm going to repeat that, for it bears repeating. The weather services were saying that throughout the day it may reach sixty degrees, or go down as low as thirty. That's a thirty degree margin of temperature, let me tell you, thirty degrees is the difference between sitting comfortably in a hammock with a nice book, and freezing your nipples off.

Now I understand, of course, that the weather is never one hundred percent predictable. There are simply too many variables to reliably know what will happen, but a thirty degree margin of error is a rather wide margin of error. Throughout the day the wind howled and chilled the air, it remained at a constant between forty and fifty degrees. It was cold... It was cold at the tail end of April, the middle of Spring. Now today the temperature has pushed seventy all day, all I would like is some consistency.

And this is not a new occurrence, though. For years now the weather has been erratic and strange. Winter not starting till late November, Summers that shift from mild to flesh frying within a daily basis. I've never in my life seen colder Winters and hotter Summers than I have in the past few years. The weather is becoming wild, it's shifting, it's changing...

Whether or not you want to argue if it's Global Warming or not, whether you want to debate on if it's man made or a natural occurrence, something is changing. I don't need the science, the studies, the research, or the arguments to see or feel that the weather is becoming more erratic. I don't need to have the government put together a think tank to get to the bottom of Global Warming. I don't need to see a petition of countries and governments of who think Global Warming is real. I need to see forward movement.

The arguing, the debating, they only go on and on, and they all miss the point. The point isn't on who is right and wrong, it doesn't really matter. The point is that we are doing nothing to prepare, nothing to work on a solution. We bicker on the cause, the result, the name it should be designated, but what people fail to discuss is what needs to be done to adjust to the coming change. Our world leaders are arguing on whether or not a flood is coming, instead of building a boat.

I'm not worried about the flood, I'm worried about the boat.

Weary

We all get tired from time to time, it just happens. We don't mean it but every now and again through over exertion, illness, stress, or even weather change, we become weary. Me, I've been weary for the past five days. One night in the past five I've gotten a full nights rest, and being so tired all week is what caused me to miss my update yesterday. So once again it's time for me to accept punishment... For the next week I will writing articles, three of which will be chosen by Manda, and in my opinion, she's pushing the limit pretty far in this one.

So that's my excuse, I was tired, I had fallen asleep and woke up after the midnight mark. It was a possibility that I'd even miss today's article, as I can feel the drag, the allure of my bed. It's hard, working tired, not just kinda sleepy, exhausted. There is nothing in the world that would make you happier than to put your head down on that pillow, take a breath, and close your eyes. Nothing makes you smile except the thought of feeling that wave of relaxation wash over you as you just let your body shut down. It's so frustrating, so enraging to have to be up... So agonizing to have to keep moving, keep working, keep talking, keep alert. '

But you have to do it. It's not an excuse, not a good one. Tell someone you're tired, you're exhausted, they won't show much sympathy if you have responsibilities due. Keep chugging that cola, keep downing that energy drink, cause you have things to do and nobody cares if you're a little tired. At least, that's the way it feels. Being tired really warps your mood, your perspective. Everything in graining, everything annoys you. You find yourself sneering at friends and family, for doing nothing more than they normally to. But to you, so tired, so wanting of sleep, they're just annoyances that keep you up.

How do you deal with it? Push through. If you absolutely must stay up, that's all you can do. Try and keep the attitude inside, and once you can... get to a bed. It may be hard, the world may suck, and you might want everyone you know to just shut up, but once your head hits that pillow it'll all just wash away. Whatever you do, don't start counting the clock, once you start on a roll the adrenalin will kick in, motor reflexes and muscle memory will carry you through. As long as you don't dwell on how much longer you will be up, how long you have been up, your body will be able to accomplish on it's own what the mind can't. Once you're done, you can reward yourself, can finally just...

Sleep.

Post of... not so much

I am feeling uninspired.

Which is weird, because I am happy. I am excited and thrilled and relaxed and feeling generally good.

So why is is that whenever I set my fingers on the keys, nothing comes out?

It's frustrating, being so happy and full of life and ready and then... BLANK.

Fingers on keys
Don't equal words on the screen.
Isn't it a bitch?


So how do you get inspired? Will's talked about it a lot... but I asked some friends.

Some listen to music. Some put it away and come back to it.

Some just start writing and don't stop until they either pull all their hair or they actually crank out something of substance.



The more I type... the more frustrated I am getting. But... you know... I'm typing. And that's all that matters.

Perhaps though.... you people who read this can give me some suggestions.



Also.

I have noticed, over the course of the past week, that people jump to erroneous conclusions way too easily.
....Stop that. Thanks!

Wednesday..... probably be a rant. I promise it'll be a lot better than this piece of shit.

Work Ethic

I want to expand my last topic a bit, and talk about working some more. I talked about the possible closure of the store I work at, the loss of my job. Now, while I don't wanna lose my job, I also really don't care if this company goes under. I feel no attachment to my work, no desire to see it go on past my own need for a paycheck. This company has done nothing to endear me to them, to make me want to continue working there.

It's not just this company, all stores I've worked with have this problem. The simple fact is that I don't care about this business, so why should I work my hardest? Well, because they pay me is the obvious answer. I don't want to sound greedy, but that's just not enough. Paying someone is only going to ensure they work hard enough not to get fired, without any real connection to their work, there's no real motivation to surpass whats required.

My job now pays me a little more than minimum wage, and only give me two shifts a week. Last year they removed the option for annual raises. I can work my hardest, and it will not effect my paycheck, my reward. I can skirt by with the bare minimum, I can try to excel, in the end I receive the same paycheck.

And this isn't just about money. There's no sense of pride in what I do, I don't have any real sense of satisfaction when completing a task well. I'm just a low level employee, completely replaceable. The company gives me nothing for doing an okay job, and nothing for doing an exemplary job. I feel for this job like I feel for a Doctor's appointment, I don't want to be there but it's necessary, and a doctor will give you sweets afterwards for being a good patient.

If you are reading this and you work in retail, fast food, tech support, or the service industry in general, do you get a sense of satisfaction from your work? I'm not asking if you're happy with your job, I mean the actual work itself, does you feel pride when completing a task, or is it just another check on the list? Does your work job appreciate you, reward you for good work and offer you something for exceptional work? Are you able to have a connection with your job, or is it just a place you go to make money?

Whats your work ethic?