You know what happened the other day? I was at home by myself, doing some of the usual household chores in the morning, and when I was done I just sat down in the living room for a few minutes, and that's when I noticed it ... silence. The sound of nothing. Living with family (one of whom works in construction and is usually doing some sort of improvement, big or small, on our house), and working a full-time job, I seldom get any peace and quiet ... and even when I'm by myself, I'm such a music fan that I usually have some of it playing in the background. Apparently, I get so little silence that I really notice it when I do.
I'm probably going to sound like I'm whining here, because it's not like I live or work in a big city like New York, and I don't have one of those high-stress jobs either. And I'm thankful that I don't, 'cause if I did it'd probably have driven me crazy by now. But it kind-of says something when a guy who lives a relatively low-key life actually feels the silence wrap around him like a blanket in an instance like I described above. I have to wonder what it's like for those hustle-and-bustle people, who literally never get a moment to themselves. Maybe the people in Europe and Latin America have the right idea with their tradition of the siesta.
I'm thinking that's something we need to introduce here: an hour of napping in the early afternoon, say from 2:00 to 3:00. I've heard that a lot of doctors endorse the idea of the afternoon nap, and I have the distinct feeling that Americans as a whole would probably feel a lot less stressed-out if they got a little afternoon pause like that. It wouldn't be too hard, really ... just introduce the idea that every business is closed from 2:00 to 3:00, and the way stuff spreads on the web these days it wouldn't be too long before everyone caught on that it's the "universal relaxation hour" ... although the word "siesta" does have a much more poetic sound to it.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Coach This, Beeyatch!
One of the uniquely 21st-Century American euphemisms that I totally cringe at whenever I hear it is "life coach". I'm sorry, but that's gotta be one of the biggest bullshit jobs (and money-making rackets) to come along since tarot cards and palm reading. What the hell is a "life coach", anyway? Basically, they're someone that disorganized saps pay an assload of money to tell them how to get their shit together ... something that friends or family would do for free, and probably in a nicer way. So evidently, anyone who would hire a "life coach" has more money than they have friends.
This is one of the more recent symptoms of a troubling trend. Something I've noticed in my job, working with and around the younger generations, is that for the most part they've stopped looking for answers themselves and turned to the much easier practice of just asking someone else (even when there's a sign just feet away that gives them the very answer they ask me). It's perhaps an inevitable side-effect of the Internet Age -- they're basically Googling the information, just from a person instead of a web browser. Today's high-school and college age kids would be completely lost if they had to take it upon themselves to look for answers, like I had to 20 years ago. I shudder to think how many of them have never even laid eyes on a good old fashioned multi-volume encyclopedia like World Book or Encyclopaedia Britannica.
I'd better stop here, 'cause this could very easily go on into a mile-long tirade on how dumbed-down and helpless this nation's population has started to become. Independent thought has gone out of fashion, and people have all but stopped trusting their instinct to get themselves on the right track. How else do you explain people relying solely on their GPS and then getting their truck jammed under an overpass that's a foot or two too low?
This is one of the more recent symptoms of a troubling trend. Something I've noticed in my job, working with and around the younger generations, is that for the most part they've stopped looking for answers themselves and turned to the much easier practice of just asking someone else (even when there's a sign just feet away that gives them the very answer they ask me). It's perhaps an inevitable side-effect of the Internet Age -- they're basically Googling the information, just from a person instead of a web browser. Today's high-school and college age kids would be completely lost if they had to take it upon themselves to look for answers, like I had to 20 years ago. I shudder to think how many of them have never even laid eyes on a good old fashioned multi-volume encyclopedia like World Book or Encyclopaedia Britannica.
I'd better stop here, 'cause this could very easily go on into a mile-long tirade on how dumbed-down and helpless this nation's population has started to become. Independent thought has gone out of fashion, and people have all but stopped trusting their instinct to get themselves on the right track. How else do you explain people relying solely on their GPS and then getting their truck jammed under an overpass that's a foot or two too low?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Where Do I Even Begin?
This sign is so disturbing on so many levels. Good ol' Crabby Dick's must have a loyal clientele, 'cause otherwise this sort of advertising would drive away a lot of people (except for the totally obvious niche market that we're all probably aware of). I wonder if the city council might have raised some concerns about the sign? Hell, in our ridiculously politically-correct climate, I imagine they did.That's not to say this picture ain't funnier than heck, though!!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sheesh, What a Bunch of Fruits...
Haha ... "fruits" ... "bunch" ... get it? (Although the guy in front and the guy on the left do seem to be taking care not to bite ... just sayin'....)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined...
Well, I'm not wasting any time getting into one of my rants on this blog, am I? (Don't worry ... there's lighter stuff coming up quite soon enough.) And boy, are we getting into a big rant right off the bat, one of my biggest pet peeves of all: smokers. My dislike for smokers goes beyond the simple fact that I can't breathe the crap they exhale (think about it ... that's the shit that even their lungs couldn't process!) or that they otherwise smell thoroughly disgusting (really, if they knew how horrible they stank, especially right after they've smoked a cigarette, I bet 80% of them would be shocked into quitting cold-turkey). I actually lose a bit of respect for people I know if I find out that they're smokers, specifically with regard to my estimate of their intelligence.
How smart can you really be if you're a smoker? Think about it: you're paying a corporation (full of bald-faced liars) a ridiculous amount of money in exchange for the "privilege" of them slowly poisoning you to death, and worst of all you're doing it completely willingly. Am I the only one mystified by this behavior? Can you blame me for thinking smokers are stupid? "It relaxes me," some people say. Really? It wouldn't relax me to know I'm pumping concentrated amounts of known carcinogens into my lungs, instead of the oxygen that my body needs. The worst part is that a lot of people who smoke are the people who can least afford to, especially those poor schmucks at or below the poverty line, who live paycheck to paycheck, yet can still scrape together enough cash to regularly buy a pack of cigarettes ... and then have the nerve to complain about how they "can't seem to make ends meet"! Oh, how I'd love to punch them in the face.
We all know that nicotine is addictive (which is where the "bald-faced liars" reference above comes from ... the tobacco executives had the nerve to say before a grand jury that it's not), so I'm not without sympathy toward smokers, at least to an extent. My father was a smoker for the first 25 years of my life, but it took an extended hospital stay due to an aggressive form of cancer for him to quit. My sad old great-uncle, in the last couple years of his life, barely had the strength to hobble between his bed and the living-room couch in the morning and the evening (with the occasional trip to the bathroom), but would nevertheless continue to smoke until his dying day. And then there's the ex-husband of a friend of mine, who still uses smokeless chewing tobacco despite the fact that HALF OF HIS LOWER JAW WAS REMOVED because of its ill effects. And yes, I'm including those "chew" users in the category of "smokers" ... every bit as dumb.
Now just so you know, I'm definitely not a "smoking Nazi" ... I won't arbitrarily flash a smoker a gratuitous look of disgust, or verbally chastise them or goad them to quit at every opportunity. I honestly believe that smokers have a right to smoke in certain places if they insist on doing so, and I think the efforts of these anti-smoking activists to ban smoking in outdoor areas is going a bit too far -- and even in bars, really ... I mean, going into a bar and not expecting to be exposed to cigarette smoke is kind-of like going to San Francisco and not expecting to see any gay people. But I also think that those of us who don't want to be exposed to tobacco smoke have a right (within reason) to have it kept away from us. I'm a big believer in what I call "lowest common denominator" reasoning, in this case: smokers can comfortably breathe either tobacco smoke or oxygen, but non-smokers can comfortably breathe only oxygen -- so the rights of non-smokers should take precedence. Can anyone honestly fight the logic in that? I think not.
Smoking is addictive, yes, but all it takes to stop is enough determination. One of my closest friends, who smoked for a good 20 years or so, mustered up his will power about ten years ago, went on the patch for a couple of weeks, and hasn't lit up since. And yes, I might have gently persuaded him to quit, but I'm not one of those relentlessly pestering kind of people, so it was mostly his own motivation to, among other things, save a startlingly large amount of money by not "needing" to buy cigarettes anymore (not to mention improve his health ... he told me shortly afterward that he hadn't felt that good in years). And he probably won't know until he reads this, but his quitting smoking is quite possibly the thing I most respect him for above all else.
So, all you smokers out there, the next time The Great American Smokeout comes along, please give it an honest try. Maybe you'll suffer from nicotine withdrawals for a very short time, but in the long run, you'll save a lot of money, you'll smell better, you'll feel better ... and you'll win back some of my respect. It's a win-win situation, isn't it?
How smart can you really be if you're a smoker? Think about it: you're paying a corporation (full of bald-faced liars) a ridiculous amount of money in exchange for the "privilege" of them slowly poisoning you to death, and worst of all you're doing it completely willingly. Am I the only one mystified by this behavior? Can you blame me for thinking smokers are stupid? "It relaxes me," some people say. Really? It wouldn't relax me to know I'm pumping concentrated amounts of known carcinogens into my lungs, instead of the oxygen that my body needs. The worst part is that a lot of people who smoke are the people who can least afford to, especially those poor schmucks at or below the poverty line, who live paycheck to paycheck, yet can still scrape together enough cash to regularly buy a pack of cigarettes ... and then have the nerve to complain about how they "can't seem to make ends meet"! Oh, how I'd love to punch them in the face.
We all know that nicotine is addictive (which is where the "bald-faced liars" reference above comes from ... the tobacco executives had the nerve to say before a grand jury that it's not), so I'm not without sympathy toward smokers, at least to an extent. My father was a smoker for the first 25 years of my life, but it took an extended hospital stay due to an aggressive form of cancer for him to quit. My sad old great-uncle, in the last couple years of his life, barely had the strength to hobble between his bed and the living-room couch in the morning and the evening (with the occasional trip to the bathroom), but would nevertheless continue to smoke until his dying day. And then there's the ex-husband of a friend of mine, who still uses smokeless chewing tobacco despite the fact that HALF OF HIS LOWER JAW WAS REMOVED because of its ill effects. And yes, I'm including those "chew" users in the category of "smokers" ... every bit as dumb.
Now just so you know, I'm definitely not a "smoking Nazi" ... I won't arbitrarily flash a smoker a gratuitous look of disgust, or verbally chastise them or goad them to quit at every opportunity. I honestly believe that smokers have a right to smoke in certain places if they insist on doing so, and I think the efforts of these anti-smoking activists to ban smoking in outdoor areas is going a bit too far -- and even in bars, really ... I mean, going into a bar and not expecting to be exposed to cigarette smoke is kind-of like going to San Francisco and not expecting to see any gay people. But I also think that those of us who don't want to be exposed to tobacco smoke have a right (within reason) to have it kept away from us. I'm a big believer in what I call "lowest common denominator" reasoning, in this case: smokers can comfortably breathe either tobacco smoke or oxygen, but non-smokers can comfortably breathe only oxygen -- so the rights of non-smokers should take precedence. Can anyone honestly fight the logic in that? I think not.
Smoking is addictive, yes, but all it takes to stop is enough determination. One of my closest friends, who smoked for a good 20 years or so, mustered up his will power about ten years ago, went on the patch for a couple of weeks, and hasn't lit up since. And yes, I might have gently persuaded him to quit, but I'm not one of those relentlessly pestering kind of people, so it was mostly his own motivation to, among other things, save a startlingly large amount of money by not "needing" to buy cigarettes anymore (not to mention improve his health ... he told me shortly afterward that he hadn't felt that good in years). And he probably won't know until he reads this, but his quitting smoking is quite possibly the thing I most respect him for above all else.
So, all you smokers out there, the next time The Great American Smokeout comes along, please give it an honest try. Maybe you'll suffer from nicotine withdrawals for a very short time, but in the long run, you'll save a lot of money, you'll smell better, you'll feel better ... and you'll win back some of my respect. It's a win-win situation, isn't it?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Once More Unto The Blog, Dear Friends
"Another freakin' blog from this jerk", you ask? Well, yes. I already have a blog about music and a blog about my geekdom, so I figured, why not a blog about everything else? At first I hesitated, since I have enough trouble keeping those other two blogs of mine updated, but then I realized that I think of at least one pet peeve a day to piss-and-moan about, and since this blog doesn't fit any real theme, I shouldn't have a problem packing it with junk that I hope you'll find at least mildly entertaining and/or enlightening.
The title of this blog serves a couple of purposes. You see, in my old-ish age (well ... I've still got a good couple of decades before Social Security kicks in, but I'm old enough to have been in my teens before home computers and VCRs materialized), I find myself looking around and seeing how insane and inane our world is becoming by ever-increasing orders of magnitude, and in more ways than I can count. And because of that, I just plain flat-out need somewhere to vent once in awhile ... hence, this here blog.
So, my "quest for sanity" is both outward (trying to make sense of this sick, twisted little ball of mud we call The World) and inward (hoping to get a cathartic release and maintain my grip on coherent thought), and I hope to accomplish both, little by little, post by post -- trying, of course, to make my rants at least semi-constructive. That's not to say it'll be all negative ... indeed, one of my personal heroes is the late George Carlin, and I'm hoping to inject my opinions with an offbeat humor not unlike his. Furthermore, you should fully expect this blog to venture into the mundane once in awhile, 'cause like everyone else, I too need to jabber aimlessly about random crap every once in awhile.
So, welcome to my world ... fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!!
The title of this blog serves a couple of purposes. You see, in my old-ish age (well ... I've still got a good couple of decades before Social Security kicks in, but I'm old enough to have been in my teens before home computers and VCRs materialized), I find myself looking around and seeing how insane and inane our world is becoming by ever-increasing orders of magnitude, and in more ways than I can count. And because of that, I just plain flat-out need somewhere to vent once in awhile ... hence, this here blog.
So, my "quest for sanity" is both outward (trying to make sense of this sick, twisted little ball of mud we call The World) and inward (hoping to get a cathartic release and maintain my grip on coherent thought), and I hope to accomplish both, little by little, post by post -- trying, of course, to make my rants at least semi-constructive. That's not to say it'll be all negative ... indeed, one of my personal heroes is the late George Carlin, and I'm hoping to inject my opinions with an offbeat humor not unlike his. Furthermore, you should fully expect this blog to venture into the mundane once in awhile, 'cause like everyone else, I too need to jabber aimlessly about random crap every once in awhile.
So, welcome to my world ... fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!!
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