As my brain wanders to and fro minute by minute, old memories and aggravations surface seemingly out of the blue. I am sure that there are things in everyone's environment that trigger such memories but I have as yet not figured out more than a few of them.
Over the years I have taught a number of kids to drive. Side note: teaching your own kids is way harder than others. I'm just saying. Anyway, one such driver I had taught how to drive told me some time later that their father told them my rule about not letting the RPM's go over 3 (3000 for you purists) was stupid, they were taking off too slow and that I had taught them wrong. This irritated me on several levels. The first one I will not deal with much here other than to say teach your own kid. But more to the point of the blog/story I was aggravated because months of teaching this had a reason. While I do not have the profound wisdom of an Okinawan Karate master I do have enough intelligence to teach to the child. I did not need the government to tell me how to teach. I had a problem and I came up with a solution. This driver would get in and put the pedal to the metal. No amount of telling them would stop it. I knew my car and I had learned the driver. So I imposed the 3 RPM rule. This forced them to learn pedal control. It had nothing to do with actual speed. It had to do with a definable goal to achieve. It was not an out of reach goal. At every stop there was an easily attainable goal on acceleration. It worked. They waxed on and waxed off until it became a habit. One for which they even took crap for later (yes, I'm bitter). But it got the job done
I think that there are lots of life lessons like that. We don't understand why in the world there seems to be an arbitrary rule in place or an insurmountable problem in the way but sometimes it is there as a goal to get through. Not the end game or destination but something with a short term goal to teach us a certain amount of control. I don't know about everyone else but I am fairly certain that I fail most of these. Heck, I'm not even sure that I recognized them as short term goals even after the fact. But I suspect that there are even goals in that...
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
College
As time rolls on I see life in the bigger picture more and more.
Which is funny (ish) as I tend to stress the details of the little things more and more.
The aside put aside for a moment, whether it is knowledge, wisdom, experience or just plain insanity my perspective on life has changed and potentially grown.
There is this pervasive thinking in America that college is a must. It is a goal to be achieved and attained. There is pressure from parents, family, culture and even politics that unless you attain this goal you are a failure or somehow less of a person. If I (meaning a some nebulous "I") do not go to college then I am a failure or doomed to a life of mediocrity or "meaningless" labor. We put all this pressure on TEENAGERS to make this decision that has an impact on the rest of their life that they feel they have to go through with it no matter the cost. I hear all too often and from a seemingly VERY large percentage of college graduates that they spent years and thousands of dollars learning something that they end up not using. Whether it's getting out into the real world and realizing that they just really don't want to spend the rest of their lives doing that or they did not learn all they needed to learn or just plain cannot find a job in that field. The latter being far more frequent. We waste a lot of time and pile a ton of stress on teenagers to make these choices and it ends up being a waste.
No, I will not now go into the ramifications of the "free" college push and what that means for these problems, but it is something to consider for a future discussion.
Now, that is not to say that there aren't plenty of teenagers who know what they want and/or have a desire to go but I think, with a nod to Mike Rowe, there are MORE opportunities out there that do not require a degree, are just as fulfilling and don't cost much if any money to get into. Society would have us believe that these are beneath us or are becoming obsolete so we ALL need to go to college and get a degree because that is the FUTURE! This is a lie. I'm sorry if I burst any bubbles. But it is a fact. Unless or until there is a completely machine automated workforce there will always be "lesser" jobs that need done and to be quite frank are going to be paying more than most college educated jobs. The whole "jobs people won't do" market is by necessity going to pay more and more as we become a nation of people who are to "weak" to do real work.
There is a "reset" coming. Where the top becomes too heavy and the whole system of college graduates collapses. There are those who are meant to go to college. There are those who are not. And more importantly there are those who aren't ready until later in life. How about we encourage our kids to not be so stressed about it or be in such a rush and encourage them to make the RIGHT decision for this time in their life. Opportunities come around. Wait for the right one.
Which is funny (ish) as I tend to stress the details of the little things more and more.
The aside put aside for a moment, whether it is knowledge, wisdom, experience or just plain insanity my perspective on life has changed and potentially grown.
There is this pervasive thinking in America that college is a must. It is a goal to be achieved and attained. There is pressure from parents, family, culture and even politics that unless you attain this goal you are a failure or somehow less of a person. If I (meaning a some nebulous "I") do not go to college then I am a failure or doomed to a life of mediocrity or "meaningless" labor. We put all this pressure on TEENAGERS to make this decision that has an impact on the rest of their life that they feel they have to go through with it no matter the cost. I hear all too often and from a seemingly VERY large percentage of college graduates that they spent years and thousands of dollars learning something that they end up not using. Whether it's getting out into the real world and realizing that they just really don't want to spend the rest of their lives doing that or they did not learn all they needed to learn or just plain cannot find a job in that field. The latter being far more frequent. We waste a lot of time and pile a ton of stress on teenagers to make these choices and it ends up being a waste.
No, I will not now go into the ramifications of the "free" college push and what that means for these problems, but it is something to consider for a future discussion.
Now, that is not to say that there aren't plenty of teenagers who know what they want and/or have a desire to go but I think, with a nod to Mike Rowe, there are MORE opportunities out there that do not require a degree, are just as fulfilling and don't cost much if any money to get into. Society would have us believe that these are beneath us or are becoming obsolete so we ALL need to go to college and get a degree because that is the FUTURE! This is a lie. I'm sorry if I burst any bubbles. But it is a fact. Unless or until there is a completely machine automated workforce there will always be "lesser" jobs that need done and to be quite frank are going to be paying more than most college educated jobs. The whole "jobs people won't do" market is by necessity going to pay more and more as we become a nation of people who are to "weak" to do real work.
There is a "reset" coming. Where the top becomes too heavy and the whole system of college graduates collapses. There are those who are meant to go to college. There are those who are not. And more importantly there are those who aren't ready until later in life. How about we encourage our kids to not be so stressed about it or be in such a rush and encourage them to make the RIGHT decision for this time in their life. Opportunities come around. Wait for the right one.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Today's Temperature
I know I am in the minority but I am NOT ready for this kind of heat. I'm fine with warm temperatures and yes, even I get tired of winter but, I do not want to be soaking in my own sweat all the time. That is what I hate most about the heat. It's gross to be soaked in your own sweat. I'm just saying.
Friday, April 15, 2016
New update
Two weeks. Not too bad on time since last updated. I tend to focus so much on social media that I miss the blog world.
Life is really kicking hard. It just is. I have gotten to the point over the last several days where I realize that hope is a mythical thing as it applies to me. I've thought for a long time, many years, that old saying that "hope springs eternal" is missing a part. I believe the reality is that it should be "Hope springs eternal but reality is the drain plug". Recent events have reinforced that thinking. I see no light at the end of the tunnel. I have nothing else to really add to this.
On my next post maybe I will discuss pivot points, anger and control. We shall see.
Life is really kicking hard. It just is. I have gotten to the point over the last several days where I realize that hope is a mythical thing as it applies to me. I've thought for a long time, many years, that old saying that "hope springs eternal" is missing a part. I believe the reality is that it should be "Hope springs eternal but reality is the drain plug". Recent events have reinforced that thinking. I see no light at the end of the tunnel. I have nothing else to really add to this.
On my next post maybe I will discuss pivot points, anger and control. We shall see.
Friday, April 01, 2016
Life
I don't keep up with this as often as I ever meant to. I have lot's of thoughts but I tend to not post them to Facebook as I assume people no longer pay any attention. It is what it is. Here's to posting again!
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