Aspiring to laziness

I posted before about the price we must pay for knowledge.  There's quite a few people who don't like paying the price for much of anything.  In fact they think everything would be much better if we didn't have to earn a living at all.

Let's consider that phrase for a moment, "earning a living".  It mean working so that you have the means to support yourself.  You're able to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly.  It may not be much.  You might be sharing a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with three other people, and be chowing down on some of that glorious Top Ramen; but you're surviving.  Lots of people start out that way.  They get a job, which may not be great, but it keeps money coming in.  Then eventually, and hopefully they can work their way up to the point where they don't need the three roommates.  Maybe even have a bit of money stashed away in savings.

There are those however who think this concept is completely horrible.  Legislation has been seriously considered in some countries to pay people a minimum wage just for existing.  The notion is that people are happier when they don't have worry about paying their bills.  Happier people are more productive.

Yeah, right.

While there are some people who use their free time for self improvement and community works, we live in the era of Netflix, weed being legalized, and free internet porn.  There's a lot of people who if they didn't have to work they wouldn't be doing anything at all.  I lived at the beach for years.  I worked in a little bar.  I've seen these people.  They only want enough money to pay bills and have some left over for booze and drugs.  If they didn't have to pay bills that would just mean more money for booze and drugs.

Not everyone has the self-motivation to succeed in this world.  By succeed, I mean support yourself.  If it wasn't for hunger and a firm desire not to sleep in one's car a lot of people wouldn't work at all.

Then there's those who say if a person does not want to work then they shouldn't.  They can go write poetry or something.  That's ridiculous.  They have this pipedream about some person being freed from the shackles of employment and being the new Thoreau.  The reality is Thoreau was writing about the beauty of a simple life because he was mooching of his friends, and if you're doing that then you better be expressing the greatness of simplicity.

This isn't anything new.  People throughout history have been trying to build a better economic mousetrap.  Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto because he was lazy dope who wanted the government to pay his bills.  He was so lazy he didn't even finish writing the stupid thing.

My old boss tried convincing us that if we just worked four ten-hour days then we could have three day weekends all the time.  Sounds great, but we were roofers.  You work two ten hour days doing that and you're ready to croak.  And that's when the temperture is decent.

Money to live is motivation to get people to do jobs that no one else wants to do.  Nobody goes into roofing because it looks like fun.  How about sewage treatment?  Road paving?  I don't go out six days a week to build, destroy, paint, replace, lift, load, dismantle, bleed, cough, and everything else I do on the regular because I really enjoy back aches and sore knees.  I do it because there's money to be made, and I've allied myself with men who watch out for me and I'll damn sure do whatever I can to look after their best interests.  We get things done because we don't want to eek out a living, but we want good lives for ourselves and our families.

And we'd give it up if we suddenly didn't have to do it anymore.

But then, who would do it?

This world functions because there's one truth that we cannot escape: we have to earn our way through it a dime at a time.  In earning our way through it the world keep turning.  Money makes the world go round, and our sweat is the lubricant.  Take that away, and watch it all grind to halt.

Price of Knowledge

I came across a quote from Richard Buckminster Fuller, and by came across I mean people put the quote as a caption which is called a "meme" by people who have no idea about memetics and put it up on their social media whatever to be shared and make them seem insightful

We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.

Wow.  This is advocating flat out mooching.  Let's take his "fact" that one in ten thousand of us could make a breakthrough that could support everyone else.  Why should they?  If a system is in place that people are taken care of then what is the point to doing something or really anything?  Fuller had this notion that we'd all be better off if we were left to ponder things without all the hassle of actually having to do things.  Of course he was a philosopher of sorts so his idea of a solution to the problems of the world will be what his specialty is.

What does his idea of a solution lead to?

Life doesn't work the way Fuller seems to think it does.  Necessity is the mother of invention, but desparation is the father.  You have to have drive to make things happen.  Just look at the homeless guy who when given a choice between $100 and lessons on how to write code made the smart choice.   This guy showed dedication because he knew that $100 goes fast but learning a valuable skill can keep you fed much longer.  People in general love accomplishing goals having experiences along the journeys of our lives.  Thinking is important, but we can't let it stop us from doing and living.

We do have to think, and we do need a proper education.  You have to know and understand the world around you so that you can make good decisions.  Unfortunately, we've run into a bit of a problem with our education system.  High school level and below seem to be struggling to find its feet in the best ways to educate our young people and there's a nearly fanatical push to go to college.  College isn't a bad thing but it isn't for everyone, especially at today's rates.

I like Henry Rollins, and while I don't totally agree with everything he said in this video he makes some excellent points.  First and foremost that the debt young people incur from going to college is way too high.  It is ridicuous.  Rollins goes on to say that if we want to succeed as a nation that we need to make college either free or really cheap.

Let's go with cheap, because knowledge is a valuable commodity and anything valuable has price.

Education does not just come from schools.  We can receive it from many different sources if we keep our eyes open.  College is not a must have anymore, and the myth that it is preparing to evaporate.  We've got great stuff like Mike Rowe Works which is really worth everyone's time to go in and check out.

We need a balance between Rollins and Rowe, and if we get that, look out world.  Affordable college and plenty of alternatives to close the skills gap?  That's a hell of a combo.

But then some people may ask, "Why no just make these things free?"

I teach Karate.  I don't make a lot of money at it.  In fact, most of the time I'm probably doing it a financial loss.  I still charge my students a nominal fee.  My time and the knowledge I'm imparting are worth something.  I worked hard to gain the knowledge and experience that I'm passing on.  Just like any teacher in any school.  I'd love to have more students, and I was once asked "why don't you just make the lessons free?" since I really am in it for the love of the art and if it was free there's a notion I'd probably get more students.

The reality is I'd likely get less students and the one's I have may not be that great.  Same with college.  If we made college free, sure there would be young people who really benefited, but there'd also be young people when faced with the choice getting a job and goofing off in a classroom for free will take the latter.  Those kids in those college classes work hard.  Why?  Because that class cost a whole lot of money so they better get something out of it.  Charging puts that blockade up that weeds out slackers and admits serious students.

There's also the sweat and pain that comes into a Karate class in which students must learn a technique, put the work in to do it well, so they can learn the next technique.  Same with any type of learning.  You learn your basics.  Put in that work.  Do your homework.  Then move on to learn more.  You put in that sweat equity.  I spent a couple of weeks limping just from one workout in which I learned a very good and very brutal technique.  People asked what happened.

"Its the price of knowledge."

You don't start off knowing everything.  You don't even know everything after going to school.  That's one of the reasons I get irked by fast food workers demanding $15 an hour.  That's a starter job.  That's where you learn how to run a register, and make sure your drawer comes out right.  That's where you learn how to make quick things on demand.  You get a big order from a hungry family and you have to quickly assemble what they want.  That's a skill.  That's a useful skill that you are being paid to develope.  Not mention the customer service skills you gain.

You can take those skills and work you way up the fast food chain to manager and eventually franchise owner, or you can take those skills, put them on your resumé and hunt for another job that pays better.

And people complain that its not a living wage.  Its not supposed to be.  They are entry level.  That's where you start.  Once you start you're supposed to go somewhere.

Hopefully we'll get Governemnt out of throwing money around and suckering kids into debt and hopefully our society will wake up and realize that there's more to learning then just sitting in a classroom.  Thinking is important.  Learning is important.  But without working and doing you're going nowhere.

Nozz versus the Weekend

Is it Monday yet? Its Sunday, December 4, 2011, weekends are out to kill me, and this is The Side. I remember when Saturday was all about sitting around all morning watching cartoons, and maybe having to mow the lawn in the afternoon. Now its work all day (which I'm glad to have the work) and maybe some TV.

It sucks when both conspire against me.

WORK!

Saturday didn't start off well. I go out to find that I had a flat tire. That sucks. So i was a little late getting to work because I got to spend some quality time kneeling in the dirt changing my tire. That was possibly fate telling me I should have stayed home. I'm still waiting for fate to tell me I should be very wealthy and provide my with good lottery numbers. i was hoping getting my tie fixed wouldn't be too expensive.

It was supposed to be an easy day, it really was. We were knocking jobs off the laundry list of stuff to do. We were actually looking to finish early, which is nice on Saturday. We split up to tackle the last few jobs. My first one was supposed to be simple. Check out a leak in a rental property. The tenant was supposed to have checked out already. There was no car in the driveway. I rang the doorbell and knocked, and there was no answer. I used the key I had gotten from the rental company to get in and announced myself, "Hey, its the IRS! I'm here to take all your shit!" No answer, but I wasn't expecting one and I checked my work ticket to try to help me find the leak.

I went upstairs and was heading towards the bedrooms where they said the leak was. I heard a noise coming from one of the bedrooms, and that's exactly what you don't want to hear. Best case scenario is that there's cleaners in the house, and they didn't hear me because they were listening to their iPod or something. Worst case, I figured, is that the tenants were still there and taking a nap or something and didn't hear me. Not good. I figured it would be best for me to announce myself.

Didn't get the chance.

The door swung open and there was some crazy looking sum'bitch wearing overalls, a work apron, work gloves, and goggles. I have no clue what the hell he was holding, but it looked like a freaking cannon and there was smoke and sparks coming off of it and it sounded like a lawnmower that had been beaten half to hell. I imagine I looked pretty surprised. He didn't, because he leveled that whatever the hell it was at me and screamed, "SCIENCE WILL HAVE YOUR ASS!"

I dove to the side, and that thing went the hell off. The wall that had been behind me had been transformed into a more rubbly state. I looked to where the crazy bastard had been standing and he was gone. The kickback from the shot had launched him back into the room. He came back out quick enough with the cannon, still screaming, "YOU CAN'T HAVE MY SHIT! MY SHIT WILL HAVE YOU!"

I let loose a few profanities as I dove through the hole he blasted in the wall. He let loose another shot. I made for the window, and really regretted saying I was with the IRS. I don't know if he built that thing but he was crazier than a toad-licking squirrel.

I opened the window and scrambled out onto the porch roof. A second later the window was gone, because that nut blasted it out. Glass rained all over the side yard. I ran across the porch roof and got cut short of the edge by the house wall getting blasted out in front of wee send debris flying past my face. I looked into the house through the large hole to see the goggled kook stumbling around inside the house. "DAMNED LEE HARVEY GACY BASTARDS ALWAYS TRYING TO STEAL MY SHIT!! THERE YOU ARE!!"

I can count on one hand the number of times I've jumped off of a roof. This was, by far, the best reason. I hit the lawn and rolled. Getting my feet under me I sprinted around the house towards my car. I saw my car, and had the keys in my hands when it exploded. At that point getting the tire fixed didn't seem like that big a deal.

"MY CAR!!"

The lunatic was hanging out a second story window still aiming his cannon at the smoldering wreckage that had previously been a 2006 Ford Focus. I glared at him with a burning, seething hatred. I had a Coke, a bag of Cheetos and a copy of CHECKMATE: PAWN BREAKS in my car. I was now determined to kick that crazy prick's ass. He looked a little taken aback. "Uh oh."

"UH OH?" I raced to the front steps as he pointed the cannon at me. He fired and missed and the kick knocked him back, making him disappear from the window into the cloud of nasty looking smoke the thing was spewing out.. I heard him cursing as I went back in the front door. I grabbed a piece of decorative pottery from a little table in the downstairs living room. I turned the corner towards the staircase and chucked it up the stairs as hard as I could without looking. I knew full well he'd be waiting at the top of the stairs with that thing waiting for me.

I heard the pottery hit something as the blaster went off. I stormed up the stairs as bits of drywall rained down on me. When I got to the top the stairs, he was sitting on the floor holding his face with both hands. I could see a little blood.

"I think you broke my nose."

When I managed to get a hold of my buddy to pick me up we went immediately to the rental agency. I felt the burning need to inquire about their policy as to renting beach houses to mad scientists.

TELEVISION!

The Missus is having a battle of wills with the TV. Since the move to digital television, which does suck, TV has been trying to curry favor by spontaneously growing new channels at random. The most recent addition is "Bounce" which has been described by the Missus as "wanna-be BET".

They're showing Soul Train. Not the old school awesome Soul Train. Its the new skankarific Soul Train.

What's really sinister is that if you're scrolling through the channels and hit Bounce, you can't scroll any further. You are stuck there until you input a different station in your remote. This may be the beginning of a TV ghetto black hole in which the next step is that once you get to bounce you're stuck there. It may possibly result in the TV coming on of its own accord and showing skanky Soul Train 24/7.

The Missus has tried repeatedly to delete the station. It keeps coming back. We can't delete it. If any of you know how to decapitate a TV station, please let me know in the comments.

MUSIC!

All the insanity this weekend and then I get asked why there's a story on the news about a PETA operative who was beaten about the face and head with a flank steak. May I give my response in the form of a song, officer?



I'm out of here. I'm going to go hide under a blanket until its Monday. See y'all later. I hope.

They all had it comin'

Gadzooks! Its Sunday, July 10, 2011, I'm being plotted upon by small, fluffy animals, and this is The Side. Sure enough I was walking to the garage to get something and a partially eaten pear was dropped right in front of me. I heard the little bastards making their squirrelly type noises in the tree. If that's how its going to be, I'll have their fluffy asses.

On business that doesn't involve a varmint vendetta. As many of you know, I'm a laborer. I help fix stuff, paint stuff, etc. Saturdays in the summer are jam packed because that's the turnaround day for renters at the beach houses. So we get a laundry list of things that need fixed that the renters let the agency know about and we try to fix as much as we can between the time the previous renters leave and the next ones arrive. Not much time, so its pretty annoying when they show up early and wait around for the place to get cleaned so they can enter. There is a set check-in time after all.

That said, we don't feel too badly when the occasional stray comment slips out as we walk by them as they sit by the front door like vultures.

THINGS WE REALLY SHOULDN'T SAY IN FRONT OF RENTERS AS WE LEAVE, BUT DO ANYWAYS BECAUSE WE ARE TRULY HORRIBLE MEN: THE TOP 10!!!

10: "Its a shame they've condemned this place."

9: "With all that blood I'm surprised they didn't change the carpet."

8: "I know they did a great job cleaning it, but I don't think I could swim in that pool after that guy crapped in it."

7: "You can't even smell the dead guy anymore."

6: "If that thing goes there's going to be raw sewage on every floor."

5: "How will they get the snakes out of the attic?"

4: "People really need to clean up after their orgies."

3: "I told you caulk would fill a bullet hole just fine."

2: "I wonder if it'll catch fire again."

1: "Think the exterminator got 'em all?"

MUSIC!!!

Linkin Park covering an Adele song: surprising. It being really good: shocking.



Alrighty. I'm off to Google to kick off the G+ Buzz Tourney. Look me up on there. See y'all Wednesday.