My last post may leave the impression that one can become a Master at something by simply learning the rules and following them. One might assume the the rules are the important part of the process. This would be a mistake. As part 2 I am writing an addendum to expand Step 6 of the Path. It is as follows:
6) Teach yourself when and how it is appropriate to bend or break the rules. This is called improvisation
a) Try something that isn't covered by the rules
b) Fail
c) Go back to 6-a and repeat until something works
d) When something works keep it and go back to 6-a again
Following the rules is based on being consistent and minimizing the chance of failure. Improvisation, however, is based on failing a lot and learning from those failures as much as possible.
If the path in question is not a place where one can fail repeatedly, then there is no room for mastery and one should move on to something else.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Path To Mastery
This story has been written many times throughout the ages, but it is always the same. The Path to Mastery is simple, but arduous. It is joyful, but painful. It is fraught with hazard, but the rewards are impossible to quantify. It is as follows:
1) Find the Master
2) Follow them until they agree to teach you the rules
3) Learn from them all that you can
4) Practice the rules diligently until they become boring
5) Practice them more until you forget the rules and they become a natural way to act
6) Teach yourself when and how it is appropriate to bend or break the rules. This is called improvisation
7) Restructure your experience into a new set of rules
8) Teach these new rules to another pupil, so they may continue on their path
This path is always cluttered with dead-ends, false prophets, and mistakes. Nonetheless, it is the only way to master anything. The greatest risk is that, as ignorant pupils-to-be, we lack the ability to separate the pretenders to mastery and the masters of nothing from the real thing. The ability to accept that risk and walk the path anyway is what we call "faith." The difference between those who happen to choose real masters and those who do not we call "luck."
And finally, there are some whose only master is themselves. These people have a high degree of both "faith" and "luck." The process, however, is still the same.
1) Find the Master
2) Follow them until they agree to teach you the rules
3) Learn from them all that you can
4) Practice the rules diligently until they become boring
5) Practice them more until you forget the rules and they become a natural way to act
6) Teach yourself when and how it is appropriate to bend or break the rules. This is called improvisation
7) Restructure your experience into a new set of rules
8) Teach these new rules to another pupil, so they may continue on their path
This path is always cluttered with dead-ends, false prophets, and mistakes. Nonetheless, it is the only way to master anything. The greatest risk is that, as ignorant pupils-to-be, we lack the ability to separate the pretenders to mastery and the masters of nothing from the real thing. The ability to accept that risk and walk the path anyway is what we call "faith." The difference between those who happen to choose real masters and those who do not we call "luck."
And finally, there are some whose only master is themselves. These people have a high degree of both "faith" and "luck." The process, however, is still the same.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Like a tale of little meaning though the words are strong
It is nearing the anniversary of my father's death, which was Feb. 23rd. It was about 6 years ago, but it seems like only yesterday. I still miss him dearly, and when he died I stumbled upon a poem by Tennyson that summed up the feelings I had for the man. My father's was a life consumed largely by work, though he lusted for rest and retirement. At any rate, this poem provided some minor resonant comfort at the time and I return to it around this time each year without really intending to. I hope someone else enjoys it.
Song of the Lotos-Eaters
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass ;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes ;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And through the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
Why are we weighed upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness ?
All things have rest : why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
Still from one sorrow to another thrown :
Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber’s holy balm ;
Nor harken what the inner spirit sings,
‘There is no joy but calm !’
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things ?
Lo ! in the middle of the wood,
The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud
With winds upon the branch, and there
Grows green and broad, and takes no care,
Sun-steeped at noon, and in the moon
Nightly dew-fed ; and turning yellow
Falls, and floats adown the air.
Lo ! sweetened with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days,
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil.
Hateful is the dark-blue sky,
Vaulted o’er the dark-blue sea.
Death is the end of life ; ah, why
Should life all labour be ?
Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast,
And in a little while our lips are dumb,
Let us alone. What is it that will last ?
All things are taken from us, and become
Portions and parcels of the dreadful Past.
Let us alone. What pleasure can we have
To war with evil ? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave ?
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence; ripen, fall and cease :
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream,
With half-shut eyes ever to seem
Falling asleep in a half-dream !
To dream and dream, like yonder amber light,
Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height ;
To hear each other’s whispered speech ;
Eating the Lotos day by day,
To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,
And tender curving lines of creamy spray ;
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the influence of mild-minded melancholy ;
To muse and brood and live again in memory,
With those old faces of our infancy
Heaped over with a mound of grass,
Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass !
Dear is the memory of our wedded lives,
And dear the last embraces of our wives
And their warm tears : but all hath suffered change :
For surely now our household hearths are cold :
Our sons inherit us : our looks are strange :
And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy.
Or else the island princes over-bold
Have eat our substance, and the minstrel sings
Before them of the ten years’ war in Troy,
And our great deeds, as half-forgotten things.
Is there confusion in the little isle ?
Let what is broken so remain.
The Gods are hard to reconcile :
’Tis hard to settle order once again.
There is confusion worse then death,
Trouble on trouble, pain on pain,
Long labour unto agèd breath,
Sore task to hearts worn out by many wars
And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot-stars.
But, propt on beds of amaranth and moly,
How sweet (while warm airs lull us, blowing lowly)
With half-dropt eyelid still,
Beneath a heaven dark and holy,
To watch the long bright river drawing slowly
His waters from the purple hill—
To hear the dewy echoes calling
From cave to cave through the thick-twinèd vine—
To watch the emerald-coloured water falling
Through many a woven acanthus-wreath divine !
Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine,
Only to hear were sweet, stretched out beneath the pine.
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak :
The Lotos blows by every winding creek :
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone :
Through every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust blown.
We have had enough of action, and of motion we,
Rolled to starboard, rolled to larboard, when the surge was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.
Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurled
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curled
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world :
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying hands.
But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song
Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong,
Like a tale of little meaning though the words are strong :
Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil,
Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,
Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil ;
Till they perish and they suffer—some, ’tis whispered—down in hell
Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys dwell,
Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel.
Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore
Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar ;
Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.
Song of the Lotos-Eaters
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass ;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes ;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And through the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
Why are we weighed upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness ?
All things have rest : why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
Still from one sorrow to another thrown :
Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber’s holy balm ;
Nor harken what the inner spirit sings,
‘There is no joy but calm !’
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things ?
Lo ! in the middle of the wood,
The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud
With winds upon the branch, and there
Grows green and broad, and takes no care,
Sun-steeped at noon, and in the moon
Nightly dew-fed ; and turning yellow
Falls, and floats adown the air.
Lo ! sweetened with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days,
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil.
Hateful is the dark-blue sky,
Vaulted o’er the dark-blue sea.
Death is the end of life ; ah, why
Should life all labour be ?
Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast,
And in a little while our lips are dumb,
Let us alone. What is it that will last ?
All things are taken from us, and become
Portions and parcels of the dreadful Past.
Let us alone. What pleasure can we have
To war with evil ? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave ?
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence; ripen, fall and cease :
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream,
With half-shut eyes ever to seem
Falling asleep in a half-dream !
To dream and dream, like yonder amber light,
Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height ;
To hear each other’s whispered speech ;
Eating the Lotos day by day,
To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,
And tender curving lines of creamy spray ;
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the influence of mild-minded melancholy ;
To muse and brood and live again in memory,
With those old faces of our infancy
Heaped over with a mound of grass,
Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass !
Dear is the memory of our wedded lives,
And dear the last embraces of our wives
And their warm tears : but all hath suffered change :
For surely now our household hearths are cold :
Our sons inherit us : our looks are strange :
And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy.
Or else the island princes over-bold
Have eat our substance, and the minstrel sings
Before them of the ten years’ war in Troy,
And our great deeds, as half-forgotten things.
Is there confusion in the little isle ?
Let what is broken so remain.
The Gods are hard to reconcile :
’Tis hard to settle order once again.
There is confusion worse then death,
Trouble on trouble, pain on pain,
Long labour unto agèd breath,
Sore task to hearts worn out by many wars
And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot-stars.
But, propt on beds of amaranth and moly,
How sweet (while warm airs lull us, blowing lowly)
With half-dropt eyelid still,
Beneath a heaven dark and holy,
To watch the long bright river drawing slowly
His waters from the purple hill—
To hear the dewy echoes calling
From cave to cave through the thick-twinèd vine—
To watch the emerald-coloured water falling
Through many a woven acanthus-wreath divine !
Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine,
Only to hear were sweet, stretched out beneath the pine.
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak :
The Lotos blows by every winding creek :
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone :
Through every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust blown.
We have had enough of action, and of motion we,
Rolled to starboard, rolled to larboard, when the surge was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.
Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurled
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curled
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world :
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying hands.
But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song
Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong,
Like a tale of little meaning though the words are strong :
Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil,
Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,
Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil ;
Till they perish and they suffer—some, ’tis whispered—down in hell
Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys dwell,
Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel.
Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore
Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar ;
Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Financial Brain Dump
So, anyone that knows me knows that I've been wallowing in financial articles for the past few months. Basically, since I decided to repair my credit I've been trying to wrap my brain around how to manage my (rather limited) money to it's greatest effect. My mind is starting to get a bit full, so I figured I could dump some stuff on a blog entry and see what it looks like in a month or so.
Since this all started with credit repair, I may as well start there. It turns out, credit building is super easy. Pay off recent collections and lates. Wait out super old collections and lates (these fall off your credit report after about 8 years most of the time). Get a secured credit card, if you don't have a card already. Pay stuff on time, every time. After a couple of months get another credit card (unsecured, if you can), but watch out for cards with excessive fees. After a couple of months get another. Keep getting cards if you want, but I stopped at 3. Try to keep card balances below 10% of their limit. That's it. In 6 months my FICO has jumped from around 500 to around 650. It will probably keep rising to about 700+ over the next couple of years.
So, now I can borrow money (sorta). That takes care of today's needs. What about tomorrow's needs. My thinking on this is still hazy. I'm still learning a good deal, so most of the stuff I'm about to write may well be flat wrong. Time and research will tell.
I prefer to use a problem solving method, because it puts things into a real-world perspective. I think up likely problems and try to solve them before they happen.
What if my bike breaks tomorrow....I'll have to use credit cards to fix it and then pay them off.
That's pretty stupid. If I had money saved I wouldn't have to lean on an 18% loan.
What if I get fired tomorrow....I'll have to live on my credit cards until I can find another job.
Again, that's dumb. Doing that would ruin all the credit building that I've been working on this year.
Solution 1: Save up around 3k in a savings account. This should cover any immediate curve balls life throws at me, or pay my living expenses for 3-4 months. If I socked away 20% of my pay into a savings account it'd take about a year to build that big an emergency fund, but I could probably take care of it in 6 months if I really cut back on money-blowing fun stuff.
3k in savings = 20% pay cut for a year. Next!
Next up are a couple of short-term fears I've had for a while with no easy solution. What if I get in an accident, get hurt really bad, or get really sick. I'm a fairly young guy, but shit happens. The obvious answers are insurance. Catastrophic insurance and Long-Term Disability insurance. Unfortunately, this stuff isn't cheap. Bare minimum for a HDHP is 50 bucks a month (600 annually). Bare minimum for Long-Term Disability insurance is 25 bucks a month. So, for 75 bucks a month I can have a little protection in the event that I have to be fed baby food for the rest of my life. It's something to seriously consider, but I haven't made my mind up yet.
$900/year = coverage in the event of catastrophe
So, I've thought about today. I've thought about tomorrow. I've thought a little about next year. What about the next decade? I'm closing in on 30, and I'm betting 40 is gonna show up faster than I want it to. How am I going to ensure that I'm looking better in my 40s than I am now? Well, other than the typical career building song and dance (which I plan on following) I'll be investing. For me, investing makes the most sense if you think about it backwards. My Dad died at 62. My Grandfather died in his 50s. My Great-Grandfather died in his 60s (I think). With modern technology and a quasi-healthy lifestyle, I'll probably die at around 65-70. That said, I don't want to be working after 60. I'd rather not be working after 55, though that may be unrealistic. So, I'm starting my investing with my eyes on age 55+ (that's 2034).
I started with a Roth IRA. The conventional wisdom is that you should open a Roth as soon as you start working and chuck a little money in it every paycheck, and you'll be a millionaire when you retire. That is baloney. If you were born in 1939, started investing in 1959, and cashed out in 1999 then you'd be a millionaire. Because you rode the Econ-Bubbles up to the top and cashed out at the right moment. In short, you got lucky. I've heard the compound interest story so many times I could puke, and it always relies on that canard of, "The stock market historically provides a 12% return." HA! If you're lucky. Gone are the days of chucking money at a mutual fund and forgetting about it. Retirement. Accounts. Don't. Pay. Interest. They do provide returns, if properly managed. We can call this return "interest," but I've always found that word misleading about the amount of risk involved.
That being said, Roth IRAs are an incredibly useful tool for retiring. This assumes you are willing to study a lot on where to put the money inside the account. Since this is a 25-30 year project it puts me in an uncomfortable position of having to be patient and rush at the same time. I've decided to break my investing into 3 tiers. The first tier is a Roth IRA that won't be available to me until 2039. This is where I'm going to stick my long-haul purchases. Since I'm relatively young I'll try to buy some solid stocks with a good reputation for paying dividends and simply reinvest the dividends over time. Lucky for me, many of those stocks are quite cheap right now. Ford is way down. Alcoa is way down, and pays a decent dividend. Coke looks like it's going to dive after their 4Q Reports come out. There are a few others I've had my eyes on. There'll be a few other things I throw in there over time, but nothing too risky. I'm looking for stable, consistent bargains where I can find them.
My second tier is mostly for education. This is more of a medium-term trading account. I don't plan on owning anything in it for longer than a year, and I don't plan on dumping much money in it until the rest of my finances are sitting pretty. I may drop this idea altogether, but there is so much to learn here that I have to at least dip my toes in the water.
My third tier is for fun. This is for learning how to manage short term, high risk avenues of trade. This will be minimally funded. I'll be looking at stock-options, for the most part. I'm generally not a gambler, but a little bit can be entertaining. In addition, learning how options work is a great addition to learning how to protect investments once you've made them. Case in point, if you owned AIG last year and kept a few conservative Put Options covering it then you'd be sitting quite pretty despite their plummet to the bottom.
As I'm still in the research phase, I don't have a lot of budgeted numbers to go with this grand plan. Since my income is rather slim, then I don't expect huge returns. Even so, I see a solid investment plan as the only way I can avoid living out my "Golden Years" as a greeter at Wal-Mart.
I've had a couple of other ideas knocking around my head. I've thought of enrolling in a government backed IDA to help fund education and home purchase expenses down the road. I've considered enrolling in a few Drip programs to help grow my investment purchases over time. I've thought about enrolling in a HDHP and pairing it with a HSA to mitigate the high-deductible risk. I've considered, if my finances really improve in the next few years, starting an ESA or 529 account for my nephew's college education.
In addition there are a couple of things I've decided to avoid. Selling option contracts sounds like a bad idea in most cases. Covered Calls might be a decent income supplement, but I don't think I'd be comfortable with the Risk:Reward. Selling Puts might be a decent way to discount an intended long-term purchase, but I'd have to have the numbers down to the finest detail. In general, I don't like the notion of risking a lot of money to make a little bit of money.
Well, this has been a rant. There may not be much continuity, but like I said...this is a brain dump. I'll try to make a little more sense out of it in a week or two.
Since this all started with credit repair, I may as well start there. It turns out, credit building is super easy. Pay off recent collections and lates. Wait out super old collections and lates (these fall off your credit report after about 8 years most of the time). Get a secured credit card, if you don't have a card already. Pay stuff on time, every time. After a couple of months get another credit card (unsecured, if you can), but watch out for cards with excessive fees. After a couple of months get another. Keep getting cards if you want, but I stopped at 3. Try to keep card balances below 10% of their limit. That's it. In 6 months my FICO has jumped from around 500 to around 650. It will probably keep rising to about 700+ over the next couple of years.
So, now I can borrow money (sorta). That takes care of today's needs. What about tomorrow's needs. My thinking on this is still hazy. I'm still learning a good deal, so most of the stuff I'm about to write may well be flat wrong. Time and research will tell.
I prefer to use a problem solving method, because it puts things into a real-world perspective. I think up likely problems and try to solve them before they happen.
What if my bike breaks tomorrow....I'll have to use credit cards to fix it and then pay them off.
That's pretty stupid. If I had money saved I wouldn't have to lean on an 18% loan.
What if I get fired tomorrow....I'll have to live on my credit cards until I can find another job.
Again, that's dumb. Doing that would ruin all the credit building that I've been working on this year.
Solution 1: Save up around 3k in a savings account. This should cover any immediate curve balls life throws at me, or pay my living expenses for 3-4 months. If I socked away 20% of my pay into a savings account it'd take about a year to build that big an emergency fund, but I could probably take care of it in 6 months if I really cut back on money-blowing fun stuff.
3k in savings = 20% pay cut for a year. Next!
Next up are a couple of short-term fears I've had for a while with no easy solution. What if I get in an accident, get hurt really bad, or get really sick. I'm a fairly young guy, but shit happens. The obvious answers are insurance. Catastrophic insurance and Long-Term Disability insurance. Unfortunately, this stuff isn't cheap. Bare minimum for a HDHP is 50 bucks a month (600 annually). Bare minimum for Long-Term Disability insurance is 25 bucks a month. So, for 75 bucks a month I can have a little protection in the event that I have to be fed baby food for the rest of my life. It's something to seriously consider, but I haven't made my mind up yet.
$900/year = coverage in the event of catastrophe
So, I've thought about today. I've thought about tomorrow. I've thought a little about next year. What about the next decade? I'm closing in on 30, and I'm betting 40 is gonna show up faster than I want it to. How am I going to ensure that I'm looking better in my 40s than I am now? Well, other than the typical career building song and dance (which I plan on following) I'll be investing. For me, investing makes the most sense if you think about it backwards. My Dad died at 62. My Grandfather died in his 50s. My Great-Grandfather died in his 60s (I think). With modern technology and a quasi-healthy lifestyle, I'll probably die at around 65-70. That said, I don't want to be working after 60. I'd rather not be working after 55, though that may be unrealistic. So, I'm starting my investing with my eyes on age 55+ (that's 2034).
I started with a Roth IRA. The conventional wisdom is that you should open a Roth as soon as you start working and chuck a little money in it every paycheck, and you'll be a millionaire when you retire. That is baloney. If you were born in 1939, started investing in 1959, and cashed out in 1999 then you'd be a millionaire. Because you rode the Econ-Bubbles up to the top and cashed out at the right moment. In short, you got lucky. I've heard the compound interest story so many times I could puke, and it always relies on that canard of, "The stock market historically provides a 12% return." HA! If you're lucky. Gone are the days of chucking money at a mutual fund and forgetting about it. Retirement. Accounts. Don't. Pay. Interest. They do provide returns, if properly managed. We can call this return "interest," but I've always found that word misleading about the amount of risk involved.
That being said, Roth IRAs are an incredibly useful tool for retiring. This assumes you are willing to study a lot on where to put the money inside the account. Since this is a 25-30 year project it puts me in an uncomfortable position of having to be patient and rush at the same time. I've decided to break my investing into 3 tiers. The first tier is a Roth IRA that won't be available to me until 2039. This is where I'm going to stick my long-haul purchases. Since I'm relatively young I'll try to buy some solid stocks with a good reputation for paying dividends and simply reinvest the dividends over time. Lucky for me, many of those stocks are quite cheap right now. Ford is way down. Alcoa is way down, and pays a decent dividend. Coke looks like it's going to dive after their 4Q Reports come out. There are a few others I've had my eyes on. There'll be a few other things I throw in there over time, but nothing too risky. I'm looking for stable, consistent bargains where I can find them.
My second tier is mostly for education. This is more of a medium-term trading account. I don't plan on owning anything in it for longer than a year, and I don't plan on dumping much money in it until the rest of my finances are sitting pretty. I may drop this idea altogether, but there is so much to learn here that I have to at least dip my toes in the water.
My third tier is for fun. This is for learning how to manage short term, high risk avenues of trade. This will be minimally funded. I'll be looking at stock-options, for the most part. I'm generally not a gambler, but a little bit can be entertaining. In addition, learning how options work is a great addition to learning how to protect investments once you've made them. Case in point, if you owned AIG last year and kept a few conservative Put Options covering it then you'd be sitting quite pretty despite their plummet to the bottom.
As I'm still in the research phase, I don't have a lot of budgeted numbers to go with this grand plan. Since my income is rather slim, then I don't expect huge returns. Even so, I see a solid investment plan as the only way I can avoid living out my "Golden Years" as a greeter at Wal-Mart.
I've had a couple of other ideas knocking around my head. I've thought of enrolling in a government backed IDA to help fund education and home purchase expenses down the road. I've considered enrolling in a few Drip programs to help grow my investment purchases over time. I've thought about enrolling in a HDHP and pairing it with a HSA to mitigate the high-deductible risk. I've considered, if my finances really improve in the next few years, starting an ESA or 529 account for my nephew's college education.
In addition there are a couple of things I've decided to avoid. Selling option contracts sounds like a bad idea in most cases. Covered Calls might be a decent income supplement, but I don't think I'd be comfortable with the Risk:Reward. Selling Puts might be a decent way to discount an intended long-term purchase, but I'd have to have the numbers down to the finest detail. In general, I don't like the notion of risking a lot of money to make a little bit of money.
Well, this has been a rant. There may not be much continuity, but like I said...this is a brain dump. I'll try to make a little more sense out of it in a week or two.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Malcolm Gladwell and squandering talent
I love Malcolm Gladwell. Whether i agree with him or not, he's always got a way of forcing me to look at old problems from a new perspective.
In this video he touches on a topic that is near and dear to me. Talent. Not just brains, but talent. Talent at anything. Computer programming. Football. Stock trading. Whatever. In America we have a very simply method of discovering and exploiting human talent. I like the term YOYO. You're On Your Own. The only way to get good at something is to try, but you'd better not suck at it when you start. We want instant results. Meaning NOW. There is no patience for allowing someone to grow a skill. If you can't beat the other kids your first time out then you "Suck." We do this all over the place, with all kinds of things. Academic pursuits. Sports pursuits. Certainly occupations.
I think the rest of the world sees us as lazy because of this. It's the stereotype, right? Fat, lazy Americans always wanting something for nothing and too impatient to wait for the really good stuff. I don't think that's really the right answer. We aren't lazy. We work damned hard. I don't have the statistics on hand, but Americans work harder than our European counterparts and nearly as hard as our Japanese counterparts. We bust our asses! And I don't think we're necessarily impatient. We're willing to wait for the 401k payoff to retire. We're not all slavering for the winning lottery ticket all the time.
I think the problem, when it comes to nurturing a skill in ourselves or our children, is two-fold. Firstly, we don't know. We don't know that it takes a LONG time to develop a skill at anything. It takes us months to learn how to tie shoes, and we expect people to learn a job in 90 days and ROCK at it! That sort of attitude is contagious and toxic. I don't think it's rooted in impatience (except on the part of shareholders). I think it's rooted in ignorance. The second problem is related to the first. We don't give a fuck. America is really sliding into this Social-Darwinist, Law of the Jungle, Dog Eat Dog, Survival of the Fittest sort of cultural grudge match. If you're "meant" to be a oncologist, then you'll do what it takes to be one no matter what your circumstances. If you fall flat, then it's your fault. You should have worked harder, and it ain't nobody's problem but your own. Horatio Alger, Ra Ra Sis Boom Ba.
This whole Don't Know Don't Care attitude is rooted in so much sickening cynicism that it's difficult to even contemplate. Even when it tries to be positive, like every time someone's told you, "I'm sure you'll figure it out" it still smacks of negativity. "I'm sure you'll figure it out" has "on your own" left implied but still there. It screams, "I've got better things to do than give a shit about other people's problems." But there's a flip side. How many people's lives have to be wasted reinventing the mousetraps of life "on their own," and how many doctors, scientists, and engineers do we have to see waste away as waiters, cashiers, and dishwashers before we realize that there's a better way? And it's not that complicated really.
It's called giving a shit.
Not made in America.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
One of the many reasons I voted Obama...
A wonderful speech from Barack Obama's 06 Senatorial race on religion in America.
Full text at : http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/
It's so wonderful to hear a politician speaking about religious faith in terms that are unifying rather than divisive. Much of the Us vs. Them garbage spouted by Moral Majority shills this past decade has done nothing but divide America in a way that is completely unnecessary, and solely done in an effort to fracture the electorate for selfish gain. It's nice to think that maybe Americans finally saw through the trick this time. And I'd like to tip my hat to John McCain for not trotting out that tired old pony in this past election. Say what you will about him. He at least had enough honor not to sully the most precious beliefs of those he would lead so as to enrage them into voting for him. If there ever was a man who deserved to almost be president, that point of honor qualifies John McCain. I cannot say as much for his Republican brethren.
Fortunately, the sun has very nearly set on that obscene political strategy. Jerry Falwell is, thankfully, dead and it looks as though he has taken the real teeth of the Moral Majority with him. Bush's Neocronyism is fast fading from this earth, along with the careers of his fellow gang members. Reagan's voodoo economics are whirling down the drain, along with our floundering economy. The Preemptive Doctrine has been revealed as the hopeless rantings of a deranged paranoid lunatic in the blood soaked sands of that quagmire that is Iraq.
I believe President-Elect Obama. Change is coming. Like it or not, change is coming. And it has precious little to do with the election of a new president or senate. Change is coming because the ideology that we've operated under for the past three decades has been utterly discredited, and good riddance. The work of repairing our nation will be arduous and largely thankless, but in rebuilding this country I hope we never forget the lessons of our own history. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We have nothing to gain by demonizing our own people beyond poverty, war, hatred, and paranoia. We are better than that. We must be.
Full text at : http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/
It's so wonderful to hear a politician speaking about religious faith in terms that are unifying rather than divisive. Much of the Us vs. Them garbage spouted by Moral Majority shills this past decade has done nothing but divide America in a way that is completely unnecessary, and solely done in an effort to fracture the electorate for selfish gain. It's nice to think that maybe Americans finally saw through the trick this time. And I'd like to tip my hat to John McCain for not trotting out that tired old pony in this past election. Say what you will about him. He at least had enough honor not to sully the most precious beliefs of those he would lead so as to enrage them into voting for him. If there ever was a man who deserved to almost be president, that point of honor qualifies John McCain. I cannot say as much for his Republican brethren.
Fortunately, the sun has very nearly set on that obscene political strategy. Jerry Falwell is, thankfully, dead and it looks as though he has taken the real teeth of the Moral Majority with him. Bush's Neocronyism is fast fading from this earth, along with the careers of his fellow gang members. Reagan's voodoo economics are whirling down the drain, along with our floundering economy. The Preemptive Doctrine has been revealed as the hopeless rantings of a deranged paranoid lunatic in the blood soaked sands of that quagmire that is Iraq.
I believe President-Elect Obama. Change is coming. Like it or not, change is coming. And it has precious little to do with the election of a new president or senate. Change is coming because the ideology that we've operated under for the past three decades has been utterly discredited, and good riddance. The work of repairing our nation will be arduous and largely thankless, but in rebuilding this country I hope we never forget the lessons of our own history. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We have nothing to gain by demonizing our own people beyond poverty, war, hatred, and paranoia. We are better than that. We must be.
Monday, November 3, 2008
My Hope. My Fear. The day before the election.
It's the day before Election Day, and I am filled with hope for my country. I am, and have always been, a staunch liberal. The odds are good that my party of choice, The Democrats, will do quite well tomorrow. The odds are better than even that my party of choice will also inhabit the White House. One would think I would be ecstatic at this long-awaited opporunity. I am happy about this election, but I have my doubts.
My first doubt is whether Obama will actually win. No matter what the polling says, I still have a hard time believing that he might actually win. It's simply too unlikely. This is a pro-choice, pro Social Medicine, black man with a funny name and a Muslim father. His middle name's Hussein, for crying out loud! I simply can't believe that we might elect this guy, even though I know we need to. Call this my pessimism of the public in general. I hope to be wrong.
My second doubt is whether our political system will allow even a huge majority of Democratic seats and a Democratic presidency to accomplish anything at all. I feel as though our government has been hobbled by free-market right-wingers and well-heeled moneyed interests for the last 3-4 decades, and I'm not sure it's up to the task of repairing itself that quickly. The last 3 Republican administrations have left this country looted to the tune of 10 TRILLION dollars. Can there be any room in any budget to do anything but try to repair this damage? I hope to be wrong here as well.
My third and final doubt is whether Obama is the man he appears to be. I will break an unspoken liberal rule, and criticize Clinton about this. I think Bill Clinton was a far better politician than he was a Democrat or a president. We liberals aren't really allowed to talk bad about Clinton in public, just like conservatives aren't allowed to trash Reagan in public. That said, Bill Clinton helped gut the US Welfare system, signed off on NAFTA, and was working on privatizing Social Security before he spooged on that lady's dress (Thank God for premature ejaculation). He was (apparently) anti-Union, involved us in several foreign wars, and slept at the wheel on the widening gap between The Rich and Everybody Else. In short, he was a TERRIBLE Democrat! I fear a similar occurrence with Obama. I have no good reasons for this, but it is a pessimism with politics in general.
I think this lack of hope in the foundation of our democracy is a symptom of the slow dismantling of what made our country great. If everyone on television is screaming that "Government IS the problem" then you start to wonder if they're right. This demonizing of government is so puzzling in a country such as this one, because it is outside the very nature of our culture. We have no system of hereditary rule (excepting our sitting Moron in Chief). We have no system of iron-clad castes. We have no system of intractable aristocracy, or even slavery anymore. We ARE the government. So, if "Government is the problem" then by extension, WE are the problem. Shills and salesmen told us that taxes were unjust, and we bought it. They told us that income inequality was irrelevant, and we bought it. They told us that providing a safety net simply encourages laziness, and we bought it. And by they, I mean us. These slimebags go to our schools and churches. They used to shop at our grocery stores before they got too rich to need to. They used to work with us before we bought their faux-philosophy of "Rules are Bad (unless you're poor)."
It has been a point of unrelenting irony and pain for me that our country was founded by a bunch of Liberal, Elitist, Atheistic, Epicurean, Academics of moderate wealth. And now Americans in general HATE those people! Our founders were intellectuals to a man, and now we (self-included) have trouble trusting Barack Obama because he's the same kind of man. What have we done to our America? That we would even consider giving the reigns of our nation to an ignorant hawk like McCain and his more ignorant wing-nut of a VP pick Palin is tragicomedy at it's most absurd. And so, I will vote for Barack Obama tomorrow. And I will hope that he does right by all of us. And I will hope that the new Democratic congressmen and representatives will do the same. It might be a fool's hope. But I hope to be wrong.
My first doubt is whether Obama will actually win. No matter what the polling says, I still have a hard time believing that he might actually win. It's simply too unlikely. This is a pro-choice, pro Social Medicine, black man with a funny name and a Muslim father. His middle name's Hussein, for crying out loud! I simply can't believe that we might elect this guy, even though I know we need to. Call this my pessimism of the public in general. I hope to be wrong.
My second doubt is whether our political system will allow even a huge majority of Democratic seats and a Democratic presidency to accomplish anything at all. I feel as though our government has been hobbled by free-market right-wingers and well-heeled moneyed interests for the last 3-4 decades, and I'm not sure it's up to the task of repairing itself that quickly. The last 3 Republican administrations have left this country looted to the tune of 10 TRILLION dollars. Can there be any room in any budget to do anything but try to repair this damage? I hope to be wrong here as well.
My third and final doubt is whether Obama is the man he appears to be. I will break an unspoken liberal rule, and criticize Clinton about this. I think Bill Clinton was a far better politician than he was a Democrat or a president. We liberals aren't really allowed to talk bad about Clinton in public, just like conservatives aren't allowed to trash Reagan in public. That said, Bill Clinton helped gut the US Welfare system, signed off on NAFTA, and was working on privatizing Social Security before he spooged on that lady's dress (Thank God for premature ejaculation). He was (apparently) anti-Union, involved us in several foreign wars, and slept at the wheel on the widening gap between The Rich and Everybody Else. In short, he was a TERRIBLE Democrat! I fear a similar occurrence with Obama. I have no good reasons for this, but it is a pessimism with politics in general.
I think this lack of hope in the foundation of our democracy is a symptom of the slow dismantling of what made our country great. If everyone on television is screaming that "Government IS the problem" then you start to wonder if they're right. This demonizing of government is so puzzling in a country such as this one, because it is outside the very nature of our culture. We have no system of hereditary rule (excepting our sitting Moron in Chief). We have no system of iron-clad castes. We have no system of intractable aristocracy, or even slavery anymore. We ARE the government. So, if "Government is the problem" then by extension, WE are the problem. Shills and salesmen told us that taxes were unjust, and we bought it. They told us that income inequality was irrelevant, and we bought it. They told us that providing a safety net simply encourages laziness, and we bought it. And by they, I mean us. These slimebags go to our schools and churches. They used to shop at our grocery stores before they got too rich to need to. They used to work with us before we bought their faux-philosophy of "Rules are Bad (unless you're poor)."
It has been a point of unrelenting irony and pain for me that our country was founded by a bunch of Liberal, Elitist, Atheistic, Epicurean, Academics of moderate wealth. And now Americans in general HATE those people! Our founders were intellectuals to a man, and now we (self-included) have trouble trusting Barack Obama because he's the same kind of man. What have we done to our America? That we would even consider giving the reigns of our nation to an ignorant hawk like McCain and his more ignorant wing-nut of a VP pick Palin is tragicomedy at it's most absurd. And so, I will vote for Barack Obama tomorrow. And I will hope that he does right by all of us. And I will hope that the new Democratic congressmen and representatives will do the same. It might be a fool's hope. But I hope to be wrong.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Tidbit to remember...
"You don't rise to the level of your expectations. You fall to the level of your training."
-Some military saying I want to remember for later.
-Some military saying I want to remember for later.
Friday, February 15, 2008
I'm single, and I love Valentine's Day
It's the eve of Valentine's Day, and I'm supposed to be shagging someone senseless or lazily necking under the moonlight. But, I'm not. I'm single, and dateless, and I had to work anyway. A lot of people would use these things as an excuse to hate Valentine's Day. I hear it a lot. "Single-Awareness Day," they call for. There's so much bitterness that you could almost choke on it. Aesop's fable of sour grapes seems quite apropos.
Even so, I've tasted those grapes before and they are quite sweet. Love is a fantastic experience, and I'd be positively hypocritical to sneer at it simply because I'm not currently in the throes of passionate bliss. I am no longer a prisoner of that youthful naivete that once informed me that Love was The Greatest Thing in The World. Life is too full of rich experiences to catalog and classify just one of them to be "The Greatest." That said, Love is still quite incredible. I, for one, enjoy at least a single day formally dedicated to the celebration of it.
I have been single for a good while now, and I don't think I'll ever know Love like I used to. It was so overwhelming, and so all-encompassing. Everything else in my life took a back seat to it, and hinged on it. That's too big a burden for any one idea to bear, even one so grandiose as Love. Honestly, my last Love left me so worse for wear that I'm not sure I even want to go through all that turmoil again. I like drama as much as the next person (perhaps a little more), but life is a little too delicate to take that kind of Sturm und Drang very often. I'm convinced there's a middle-ground.
I've met so many people that loathe the fallout of Love, and yet long for it anyway. I'll celebrate Love with those people. There are people that want occasional companionship, but not to be smothered. People that crave passion, but cringe at insanity. People that desire the giving and receiving of pleasure, but also have other things to do. Love is strong stuff, but one can take even the strongest drink in moderation. It doesn't have to be teetotaling or total drunken abandon. That's the Love that I'll celebrate this Valentine's Day. It might be mere illusion, but who can say that Love isn't an illusion altogether?
So, happy Valentine's Day everyone. Daedalus knew what he was about. One can soar on wings of the softest down, and bask in the warm sunshine. Just don't fly too high!
Even so, I've tasted those grapes before and they are quite sweet. Love is a fantastic experience, and I'd be positively hypocritical to sneer at it simply because I'm not currently in the throes of passionate bliss. I am no longer a prisoner of that youthful naivete that once informed me that Love was The Greatest Thing in The World. Life is too full of rich experiences to catalog and classify just one of them to be "The Greatest." That said, Love is still quite incredible. I, for one, enjoy at least a single day formally dedicated to the celebration of it.
I have been single for a good while now, and I don't think I'll ever know Love like I used to. It was so overwhelming, and so all-encompassing. Everything else in my life took a back seat to it, and hinged on it. That's too big a burden for any one idea to bear, even one so grandiose as Love. Honestly, my last Love left me so worse for wear that I'm not sure I even want to go through all that turmoil again. I like drama as much as the next person (perhaps a little more), but life is a little too delicate to take that kind of Sturm und Drang very often. I'm convinced there's a middle-ground.
I've met so many people that loathe the fallout of Love, and yet long for it anyway. I'll celebrate Love with those people. There are people that want occasional companionship, but not to be smothered. People that crave passion, but cringe at insanity. People that desire the giving and receiving of pleasure, but also have other things to do. Love is strong stuff, but one can take even the strongest drink in moderation. It doesn't have to be teetotaling or total drunken abandon. That's the Love that I'll celebrate this Valentine's Day. It might be mere illusion, but who can say that Love isn't an illusion altogether?
So, happy Valentine's Day everyone. Daedalus knew what he was about. One can soar on wings of the softest down, and bask in the warm sunshine. Just don't fly too high!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
I did it!
It took me a month, which was pretty much what I had planned for, but I found a decent job at a great hotel! I'm now the newest member of the Hilton family! Not only that, but so far they appear to be the best company I've ever worked for. They are offering me a fair wage, respectful treatment, and a definite possibility for advancement. I think I've really struck paydirt with this place.
There isn't much more to say at this point. I've only worked 2 days, and that's been mostly training manuals (snore). Even so, I'm hopeful for the future. I almost can't believe it. I actually did it. I started over again.
There isn't much more to say at this point. I've only worked 2 days, and that's been mostly training manuals (snore). Even so, I'm hopeful for the future. I almost can't believe it. I actually did it. I started over again.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Return to The Holy City
I haven't blogged in about a month, but the past month has been incredibly busy. Much has happened, so I'll catch anyone not in the loop up to speed.
A couple of months ago I got absolutely fed up with life in Reevesville, and I decided to do something about it. After the incredibly fortuitous offer of a FROG from a friend of a friend, I realized that I had no more excuses and put in a month's notice at my place of employment. I would be out of Reevesville by year's end! That was November 23.
The following month was a nerve-wracking experience in limbo. Neither working or unemployed. Preparing for a move, yet not able to enact it. It felt as though I were at the edge of a ledge, with one foot dangling out over an inky-black chasm, preparing for a leap of faith. On New Year's Eve I jumped.
Stacy and I drove Michael's (the new roommate) truck to Reevesville and picked up the bulk of my furniture. Before midnight I had moved, but even today I'm in freefall. The question of work rears it's ugly head. In times past I would have been reluctant to bother with it. I would have hoped for things to just work out on their own, or simply avoided the topic entirely through reality denying hobbies. I'm so happy to have learned at least a little.
I've since had a few days to get settled in, and can now begin the real work of finding work. It's frightening stuff, but I'm confident I can find something quickly. My former boss has promised to write me a letter of recommendation, and I'd like to stick with the hotel industry. The contradictory nature of inns appeals to me. They are neither home or destination. Both incredibly public and incredibly private. The tenants are at once secured by their own anonymity, and rendered vulnerable by it. I find the limbo-like nature of the business interesting in the extreme.
Despite my interest, I'm not dead-set on it. I'm not stubborn enough to insist on hotels or bust. That is folly. There will be time to get back to what I want. Now is a time to take care of necessity. Speed is of the essence. Better an ill-fit today than a perfect fit far too late.
Until next time,
Douglas.
A couple of months ago I got absolutely fed up with life in Reevesville, and I decided to do something about it. After the incredibly fortuitous offer of a FROG from a friend of a friend, I realized that I had no more excuses and put in a month's notice at my place of employment. I would be out of Reevesville by year's end! That was November 23.
The following month was a nerve-wracking experience in limbo. Neither working or unemployed. Preparing for a move, yet not able to enact it. It felt as though I were at the edge of a ledge, with one foot dangling out over an inky-black chasm, preparing for a leap of faith. On New Year's Eve I jumped.
Stacy and I drove Michael's (the new roommate) truck to Reevesville and picked up the bulk of my furniture. Before midnight I had moved, but even today I'm in freefall. The question of work rears it's ugly head. In times past I would have been reluctant to bother with it. I would have hoped for things to just work out on their own, or simply avoided the topic entirely through reality denying hobbies. I'm so happy to have learned at least a little.
I've since had a few days to get settled in, and can now begin the real work of finding work. It's frightening stuff, but I'm confident I can find something quickly. My former boss has promised to write me a letter of recommendation, and I'd like to stick with the hotel industry. The contradictory nature of inns appeals to me. They are neither home or destination. Both incredibly public and incredibly private. The tenants are at once secured by their own anonymity, and rendered vulnerable by it. I find the limbo-like nature of the business interesting in the extreme.
Despite my interest, I'm not dead-set on it. I'm not stubborn enough to insist on hotels or bust. That is folly. There will be time to get back to what I want. Now is a time to take care of necessity. Speed is of the essence. Better an ill-fit today than a perfect fit far too late.
Until next time,
Douglas.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Romney's lack of faith in America
This entry is a reaction to Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech, given earlier today. It can be found here: http://www.mittromney.com/News/Speeches/Faith_In_America
First off, if you haven't read the speech then I highly suggest you do so. It is very well-written and I hope to hear Romney's presentation of it soon. The man is an excellent orator. That being said, I have a few of problems with what he actually says in the speech. I think these problems reflect on larger issues and as such am talking about them here.
In the middle of the speech, Romney says, "There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."
This, perhaps deliberately, misses the point.
Beyond being a cultural oddity, most Americans don't seem to really care about Mormonism that much. They don't care that the Mormon church used to be racist, but now is less so. They don't care that the Mormon church used to be sexist, but now is less so. They don't even really care that the Mormon church used to endorse polygamy, but now does so less vehemently. Nobody really cares about these things, beyond their just being interesting or wierd.
What people care about is what Mitt Romney thinks and believes. Americans want to know if Mitt Romney is a racist. They want to know if Mitt Romney is a sexist. They want to know if Mitt Romney will discriminate against blacks, women, or gays. They'd like to know if Mitt will discriminate economically. But Mitt's political positions have "evolved," and that inconsistency creates doubt. As such, people will look to the place where it is unusual to change one's mind lightly...religion.
Romney says, "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs."
One must wonder if he was being true to his faith when he supported Roe v. Wade in 1994. If so, is he being true to his faith now by rescinding his support? He says his views on this issue have evolved, but I'd like a good answer as to how and why. It has been 13 years, and I'd accept that he changed his mind if he'd tell me why. The same criticism can be brought to bear on his support of civil unions for homosexuals in 2005, and his lack of support in 2006. Why the change? I can accept a change of mind if there is a good reason, especially if one posits a sound religious reason for that change. But, no matter the reason I'd like to know what it is. Otherwise, I'm just left to assume that Romney holds whatever opinion will garner him political power.
I don't deny that Romney would probably be a capable president. He has been successful in business, and successful as Governor of Massachusetts. He strikes me as a shrewd and energetic man with a sound moral framework to guide his actions. I disagree with most of his positions, but I have no evidence to claim that his positions are not moral from his perspective. That is why I think it is vital that the public know what that moral framework is. Saying you "believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind" will simply not pass muster. Until you explain to me what your moral compass is in very precise language, I must assume that you have no moral compass.
Every politician must give me a good reason to assume that they want political power to do good, and that they can precisely define what that good is. Romney wants presidential power to cut taxes for they hyper-wealthy (such as himself), deny gays the right to have their marriages recognized by the state, rescind the right of women to have whatever medical procedure they wish and can afford, and continue occupying a foreign country despite the objections of most of his countrymen. How are these things good? How are these things informed by his faith? He hasn't answered these questions. For that matter, no GOP candidate has answered these questions all that well.
I know religion is a hot topic, and morality is a wooly topic. Moral issues are tough to talk about, and don't fit well into a 30 second debate response. That's fine, Mitt. We can handle it. If you want to have faith in America, perhaps you should have faith in Americans.
First off, if you haven't read the speech then I highly suggest you do so. It is very well-written and I hope to hear Romney's presentation of it soon. The man is an excellent orator. That being said, I have a few of problems with what he actually says in the speech. I think these problems reflect on larger issues and as such am talking about them here.
In the middle of the speech, Romney says, "There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."
This, perhaps deliberately, misses the point.
Beyond being a cultural oddity, most Americans don't seem to really care about Mormonism that much. They don't care that the Mormon church used to be racist, but now is less so. They don't care that the Mormon church used to be sexist, but now is less so. They don't even really care that the Mormon church used to endorse polygamy, but now does so less vehemently. Nobody really cares about these things, beyond their just being interesting or wierd.
What people care about is what Mitt Romney thinks and believes. Americans want to know if Mitt Romney is a racist. They want to know if Mitt Romney is a sexist. They want to know if Mitt Romney will discriminate against blacks, women, or gays. They'd like to know if Mitt will discriminate economically. But Mitt's political positions have "evolved," and that inconsistency creates doubt. As such, people will look to the place where it is unusual to change one's mind lightly...religion.
Romney says, "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs."
One must wonder if he was being true to his faith when he supported Roe v. Wade in 1994. If so, is he being true to his faith now by rescinding his support? He says his views on this issue have evolved, but I'd like a good answer as to how and why. It has been 13 years, and I'd accept that he changed his mind if he'd tell me why. The same criticism can be brought to bear on his support of civil unions for homosexuals in 2005, and his lack of support in 2006. Why the change? I can accept a change of mind if there is a good reason, especially if one posits a sound religious reason for that change. But, no matter the reason I'd like to know what it is. Otherwise, I'm just left to assume that Romney holds whatever opinion will garner him political power.
I don't deny that Romney would probably be a capable president. He has been successful in business, and successful as Governor of Massachusetts. He strikes me as a shrewd and energetic man with a sound moral framework to guide his actions. I disagree with most of his positions, but I have no evidence to claim that his positions are not moral from his perspective. That is why I think it is vital that the public know what that moral framework is. Saying you "believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind" will simply not pass muster. Until you explain to me what your moral compass is in very precise language, I must assume that you have no moral compass.
Every politician must give me a good reason to assume that they want political power to do good, and that they can precisely define what that good is. Romney wants presidential power to cut taxes for they hyper-wealthy (such as himself), deny gays the right to have their marriages recognized by the state, rescind the right of women to have whatever medical procedure they wish and can afford, and continue occupying a foreign country despite the objections of most of his countrymen. How are these things good? How are these things informed by his faith? He hasn't answered these questions. For that matter, no GOP candidate has answered these questions all that well.
I know religion is a hot topic, and morality is a wooly topic. Moral issues are tough to talk about, and don't fit well into a 30 second debate response. That's fine, Mitt. We can handle it. If you want to have faith in America, perhaps you should have faith in Americans.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
A wolf amidst the sheep?
If flying is throwing yourself at the ground and missing, and luck is throwing yourself at a Ford LTD and missing, then God must be the result of throwing yourself at an explanation of the universe and missing.
I went to church this morning for the first time in many years. I was invited by my aunt, and normally I would decline this sort of invitation. This time, however, a cousin of mine was giving a revival sermon. I have a lot of respect for this man, and I didn't want to miss this opportunity to hear him speak. I love a good oration, and I was curious to see how good he was. The promise of post-church dinner also played a minor role in my acceptance of this invitation, but mostly it was the cousin.
It was a bit of a shock going back to Reevesville Baptist. When I got there it seemed so small, and I commented that I remembered everything being much bigger the last time I was there. This should give a clue to how long I'd gone without attending. The scale of everything was just wrong, and what had seemed such an enormous edifice to God's glory in my childhood now struck me as a rather timid, austere chapel. Barely a closet of Christ compared to the majestic cathedrals in other parts of the country (or even the state). The walls are bare white, and undecorated in a manner that only Protestants can get right. There are three stained-glass windows, each bearing a scene from the Gospels, on either side of the pews. They struck me as rather gaudy today, as though affronting a bare pretense to the beauty that Catholics have long since brought to bare on worship.
The service was odd for me. There were a few jaw-dropping moments that made it difficult for me to retain my composure. At one point all of the children were brought to the front of the room and given a mini-sermon by a Sunday school teacher. The theme of this sermon was, "All of you are special, as long as you love God." My stomach turned a bit as this woman held a bowl of candy and asked these kids, "Raise your hand if you love God," and then gave all the eager youngsters a piece of candy to reward them for their naive public pledge. The Chinese once used a very similar method of brainwashing on American POWs to sway them toward accepting Communism.
There were a few songs, all of which I found difficult to follow. Lots of talk about clean blood, lambs of God, and taking up a cross. It's odd how I had sung these hymns as a child, and never took the time to read the words. I just sang along with everyone else, and never bothered to think that these lyrics might actually mean something. As an adult I can safely say that most hymns are badly written bad music. Dull, nonsensical, poorly timed, irritating to the ear, and difficult to sing.
Eventually my cousin got up to give his sermon. I was surprised to find him a very sober speaker. I was expecting fiery passion and hellish admonishion. I was expecting sweating and shouting. I was expecting people to scream, "Amen" and fall unconsious. He calmly laid my suspicions aside in the first few seconds of his speech by saying simply that he isn't "that kind of speaker." He, as it turns out, is a very structured speaker. He lays out his points, and then sets out his supporting points. He uses repetive rhetorical devices to create a sense of calm rhythm. He instills in his audience a confidence that he knows what he's talking about, and a feeling that he is compassionatly delivering a message that he thinks is important.
The message, on the other hand, was rather difficult for me to follow. It was something to the effect of, "We need revival because those who are full of God's love will be prosperous in life." It sounded good, I guess, but then he started referencing the book of Joshua. Now, I'm not fond of most of the bible. That said, I'm least fond of the Old Testament. How anyone can twist the stories of the Old Testament around to make a morally instructive lesson for a modern person without breaking his own spine is beyond me. The story of Joshua is no exception. It is a continuation of the lovely story of the Jewish invasion of "The Promised Land." This sounds very sweet as long as you keep glossing over the fact that other people were living on this promised land before the Jews got there, and these Jews butchered most of these people like cattle. These people committed no real crime save living on the wrong stretch of dirt, and for that crime these Isrealites slaughtered, robbed, raped, and enslaved them (and that was if they were in a good mood). The pinnacle of morality, these people were not.
After the sermon we were invited to the front to get saved, I can only assume from bands of marauding Isrealites that might lop our heads off and take our land at any second. I politely declined the offer, though those near me may have mistaken my shaking for some attack of zealous fervor. I was merely aghast at having been encouraged to act like Bronze-Age land-snatching hoodlums in such an even-toned manner. I saw numerous people that I hadn't seen in years, which was nice, and adjourned to my aunt's for a delicious chicken dinner.
In closing, I'd simply like to comment that if you're trying to teach people how to be successful and moral and you have to resort to using the story of Moses and Joshua to do that, then you've missed the mark by a wide margin. If you're trying to teach children to be moral and successful, and have to resort to brainwashing techniques that would turn most people's stomachs in any other setting you've missed the mark by an extremely wide margin. This experience has gone far to revive my atheistic fervor, however. Because if brainwashing and barbarism is the best Christianity has to offer then I want none of it.
I went to church this morning for the first time in many years. I was invited by my aunt, and normally I would decline this sort of invitation. This time, however, a cousin of mine was giving a revival sermon. I have a lot of respect for this man, and I didn't want to miss this opportunity to hear him speak. I love a good oration, and I was curious to see how good he was. The promise of post-church dinner also played a minor role in my acceptance of this invitation, but mostly it was the cousin.
It was a bit of a shock going back to Reevesville Baptist. When I got there it seemed so small, and I commented that I remembered everything being much bigger the last time I was there. This should give a clue to how long I'd gone without attending. The scale of everything was just wrong, and what had seemed such an enormous edifice to God's glory in my childhood now struck me as a rather timid, austere chapel. Barely a closet of Christ compared to the majestic cathedrals in other parts of the country (or even the state). The walls are bare white, and undecorated in a manner that only Protestants can get right. There are three stained-glass windows, each bearing a scene from the Gospels, on either side of the pews. They struck me as rather gaudy today, as though affronting a bare pretense to the beauty that Catholics have long since brought to bare on worship.
The service was odd for me. There were a few jaw-dropping moments that made it difficult for me to retain my composure. At one point all of the children were brought to the front of the room and given a mini-sermon by a Sunday school teacher. The theme of this sermon was, "All of you are special, as long as you love God." My stomach turned a bit as this woman held a bowl of candy and asked these kids, "Raise your hand if you love God," and then gave all the eager youngsters a piece of candy to reward them for their naive public pledge. The Chinese once used a very similar method of brainwashing on American POWs to sway them toward accepting Communism.
There were a few songs, all of which I found difficult to follow. Lots of talk about clean blood, lambs of God, and taking up a cross. It's odd how I had sung these hymns as a child, and never took the time to read the words. I just sang along with everyone else, and never bothered to think that these lyrics might actually mean something. As an adult I can safely say that most hymns are badly written bad music. Dull, nonsensical, poorly timed, irritating to the ear, and difficult to sing.
Eventually my cousin got up to give his sermon. I was surprised to find him a very sober speaker. I was expecting fiery passion and hellish admonishion. I was expecting sweating and shouting. I was expecting people to scream, "Amen" and fall unconsious. He calmly laid my suspicions aside in the first few seconds of his speech by saying simply that he isn't "that kind of speaker." He, as it turns out, is a very structured speaker. He lays out his points, and then sets out his supporting points. He uses repetive rhetorical devices to create a sense of calm rhythm. He instills in his audience a confidence that he knows what he's talking about, and a feeling that he is compassionatly delivering a message that he thinks is important.
The message, on the other hand, was rather difficult for me to follow. It was something to the effect of, "We need revival because those who are full of God's love will be prosperous in life." It sounded good, I guess, but then he started referencing the book of Joshua. Now, I'm not fond of most of the bible. That said, I'm least fond of the Old Testament. How anyone can twist the stories of the Old Testament around to make a morally instructive lesson for a modern person without breaking his own spine is beyond me. The story of Joshua is no exception. It is a continuation of the lovely story of the Jewish invasion of "The Promised Land." This sounds very sweet as long as you keep glossing over the fact that other people were living on this promised land before the Jews got there, and these Jews butchered most of these people like cattle. These people committed no real crime save living on the wrong stretch of dirt, and for that crime these Isrealites slaughtered, robbed, raped, and enslaved them (and that was if they were in a good mood). The pinnacle of morality, these people were not.
After the sermon we were invited to the front to get saved, I can only assume from bands of marauding Isrealites that might lop our heads off and take our land at any second. I politely declined the offer, though those near me may have mistaken my shaking for some attack of zealous fervor. I was merely aghast at having been encouraged to act like Bronze-Age land-snatching hoodlums in such an even-toned manner. I saw numerous people that I hadn't seen in years, which was nice, and adjourned to my aunt's for a delicious chicken dinner.
In closing, I'd simply like to comment that if you're trying to teach people how to be successful and moral and you have to resort to using the story of Moses and Joshua to do that, then you've missed the mark by a wide margin. If you're trying to teach children to be moral and successful, and have to resort to brainwashing techniques that would turn most people's stomachs in any other setting you've missed the mark by an extremely wide margin. This experience has gone far to revive my atheistic fervor, however. Because if brainwashing and barbarism is the best Christianity has to offer then I want none of it.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
It's Rainin' Men!
Got in my first collision on my motorcycle yesterday. I'm driving home from the library, and this kid in a light-blue Ford LTD turns in front of me while pulling into the Dollar General. I screamed, and slammed on the brakes. Luckily I wasn't going very fast, so I hit him at a rather low speed. I smacked into his passenger fender and flopped over the handlebars onto his hood. I think he was as freaked out about it as I was.
There he was, minding his own business. Just driving into town for some chips or whatever. All of a sudden some motorcyclist drops out of the sky onto the hood of his car. Has to be pretty disconcerting. Certainly rattled me up. He was asking me if I was okay, and I wasn't sure what planet I was on. Why do people have the need to ask that question? Are you okay? Of course I'm not okay! I've just been in an accident!
So, the cops show up. I was kind of hoping to avoid this, as at that moment I remembered that both my insurance and motorcycle permit had expired. I could tell the cop wasn't thrilled with having to write the guy that just nearly got killed a bunch of tickets. A bit like rubbing salt in the wound. But, as he was writing out the tickets that would have revoked my priveledge of driving anything more substantial than a golf-cart (and even that had better not be on a state thoroughfare) the kid's mother shows up and starts screaming for my blood.
She was royally pissed that I didn't have insurance, and was adamant about me going to jail. This pissed the cop off even more, and he politely told the lady, "If you want to go by the book then we can. I'll write your son a ticket for failure to yield right-of-way, and everyone will be treated fairly." She instantly changed her tune. She starts asking me if I'd be willing to pretend the whole thing never happened. I have to admit that I was fervently hoping for this eventuality, and assured her that I was very good at minding my own business. This made everyone there very happy.
Except me, whom it merely made not unhappy. I still had a maimed bike and wrenched shoulder to contend with. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of hassle from cops and insurance companies. I had bigger fish, so to speak. As it happened, my aunt and uncle were driving by at the time of the accident and stopped to help. They called their son, who showed up within minutes with a trailer to haul the thing back home. After we got there my cousin helped me fix it up a bit. It was really cool of him because at no point did I ask for his help. He just saw that I needed it, and did it without being asked. That's rare treatment, in my experience.
So, I'm bumming rides from relatives until Monday. I get paid then, and I'll be able to buy some insurance. I'll be back on the proverbial "Straight and Narrow" in that respect. It was odd having my life flash before my eyes, because not a whole lot happened. If it was a movie I'd have fallen asleep in the middle. I'll have to work on that, I guess. Insurance first. I was spared The Man's wrath yesterday. I don't want to push my luck.
There he was, minding his own business. Just driving into town for some chips or whatever. All of a sudden some motorcyclist drops out of the sky onto the hood of his car. Has to be pretty disconcerting. Certainly rattled me up. He was asking me if I was okay, and I wasn't sure what planet I was on. Why do people have the need to ask that question? Are you okay? Of course I'm not okay! I've just been in an accident!
So, the cops show up. I was kind of hoping to avoid this, as at that moment I remembered that both my insurance and motorcycle permit had expired. I could tell the cop wasn't thrilled with having to write the guy that just nearly got killed a bunch of tickets. A bit like rubbing salt in the wound. But, as he was writing out the tickets that would have revoked my priveledge of driving anything more substantial than a golf-cart (and even that had better not be on a state thoroughfare) the kid's mother shows up and starts screaming for my blood.
She was royally pissed that I didn't have insurance, and was adamant about me going to jail. This pissed the cop off even more, and he politely told the lady, "If you want to go by the book then we can. I'll write your son a ticket for failure to yield right-of-way, and everyone will be treated fairly." She instantly changed her tune. She starts asking me if I'd be willing to pretend the whole thing never happened. I have to admit that I was fervently hoping for this eventuality, and assured her that I was very good at minding my own business. This made everyone there very happy.
Except me, whom it merely made not unhappy. I still had a maimed bike and wrenched shoulder to contend with. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of hassle from cops and insurance companies. I had bigger fish, so to speak. As it happened, my aunt and uncle were driving by at the time of the accident and stopped to help. They called their son, who showed up within minutes with a trailer to haul the thing back home. After we got there my cousin helped me fix it up a bit. It was really cool of him because at no point did I ask for his help. He just saw that I needed it, and did it without being asked. That's rare treatment, in my experience.
So, I'm bumming rides from relatives until Monday. I get paid then, and I'll be able to buy some insurance. I'll be back on the proverbial "Straight and Narrow" in that respect. It was odd having my life flash before my eyes, because not a whole lot happened. If it was a movie I'd have fallen asleep in the middle. I'll have to work on that, I guess. Insurance first. I was spared The Man's wrath yesterday. I don't want to push my luck.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Customer made my day...
So I'm working the counter at the hotel, and this guy walks in. He starts talking, and I learn from his ID that he's Italian. Named Salvatore'. Thick accent, but very funny. So I just start making banal chit-chat and say, "Man, I've always wanted to go to Italy."
So, the guy just looks dead at me and asks, "So, why you don't go?"
He just floored me with that and I just laughed my ass off for a few seconds, and could hardly complete the sale.
Really good question, though. Why I don't go?
So, the guy just looks dead at me and asks, "So, why you don't go?"
He just floored me with that and I just laughed my ass off for a few seconds, and could hardly complete the sale.
Really good question, though. Why I don't go?
Friday, October 12, 2007
Interesting lecture...
Spurred on by my Creation seminar reaction from my last blog entry, I clicked over to RichardDawkins.net and found a link to a very interesting lecture on the psychological nature of suicide bombing. In the second part of the lecture the speaker touches on how religion tends to fracture kin loyalties and subvert family bonds in order to use them to other ends. I found this tidbit somewhat personally relevant, though I dislike the tendency to grant "religion," as opposed to religious people, with any moral responsibility for anything. Religions may serve a number of ends, but in the end people make the decision to use religious thought to further personal goals. Let us not confuse the sword and the hand the wields it. In any case, if you like lectures I would recommend this one. It is in 3 parts, the third part being a Q&A which is rather dull.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I'm Out...
I'm in the KFC today getting my prework din-din, and out of the corner of my eye I catch a sight of a word that I have an odd sensitivity for. Creationism. It hits me like a bolt from the blue because I understand that I'm in a KFC attached to a gas station in St. George, SC. This word isn't supposed to be here. So, I turn to check it out and see this...
A seminar? A SEMINAR?!?! My town, that can't bother to have a movie theater or a decent library, that doesn't have an Applebee's or anywhere else to buy a decent steak, that doesn't even have a damned record store, is hosting a fucking Creationism Seminar?!?!? With Brad Fucking Harrub, the young-earther apologist dressed in a Ph. D.! What.The.Fuck.
I suddenly felt very tired. Exhausted, even. I had a brief glimpse of this pageant of idiocy that is to occur less than a month from today. This Pee-Hache-Dee feller is going to get up at his podium and tell us rubes that the world is 6,000 years old, and science backs it up! He's gonna tell us that all the damn Commie-Athiest-Liberal-Hippies are trying to hit our children because they know us grown folks are too sharp to be taken in by all that Maoist bunk. He's gonna tell us that we didn't come from no damn monkeys, and there ain't nothing that's gonna prove we did. Hell, he'll say, this theory of evolution is nothing more than a guess anyway. Well, he'll add with a pause to build tension, I don't need no guess. I've got my answer right there in the book of Genesis. I realize that he'll use a lot of fifty cent words, and proper grammar. He'll talk about scientific findings and fossils a bit, and toss in some shaky "evidence" that would point to a young earth. Evidence that actual scientists have been guffawing over for two decades or more.
He'll come here and do his song and dance (What kind of ism? Creationism!) and at least one budding mind that was almost ready to actually question the bullshit Christian mythology that's been pulled over their eyes to make them feel safe will slink safely back into their Cave of Happy Thoughts and Shadow Puppets. The rest of the room will applaud and be happy that someone finally said what they'd been thinking all along, and remind themselves to bring some of this stuff up at the next PTA or School Board meeting. Ain't no Commie-Atheists molesting my kid's young mind.
Part of me wants to think that maybe the people that will show up to this "Seminar" will be people that are savvy enough to know that this guy is peddling bullshit. Maybe they'll be smart enough to recognize a shill when they see one, and perhaps ask him a difficult question he can't answer without tap-dancing. But that part of me is the same part that really wants to believe in Santa Clause. That part of me is the part Mr. Harrub wants to sell a 6,000 year old universe to, complete with an army of world-building angelic engineers. I wonder if they had to wear hard-hats when they were sinking those dinosaur bones into the earth, below any trace of where human remains would be found. I wonder if God knew, or if it was Lucifer's last practical joke. Maybe he snickered as he thought about how we'd find these props and completely reinvent the myths that explain our own origins.
No, Mr. Harrub will be long gone by the time the fallout of his speech is revealed. He'll be counting his twenties on a bus or train while some random St. George parent is screaming blue in the face to get evolutionary theory taken out of biology class. With any luck, I'll be long gone too. As I glanced at this poster and thought about all that probably will or won't happen in this seminar's aftermath I realized that I don't like living here. I don't like the fact that Mr. Harrub can get on a podium and peddle his horse-pucky science-like explanations about why the Bible is the inerrant Truth, but I have to feel embarrased at every family meeting when I'm asked why I don't go to church. I don't like people telling me my father is living in a mansion in heaven when I'm quite sure he's still firmly underground where we buried him.
So, that said...I'm out. I hope that Mr. Harrub's seminar (and yes, I know he's got a Ph.D. and should be called "Doctor." I've never seen any evidence of his Ph.D. so I'm going to operate as though it doesn't exist.) is the last thing I do in this shit-stain of a town before I pack up my suitcases and head toward anywhere I can buy a decent steak and visit a movie theater and safely say out loud in the street, "I don't go to church because I think Christianity is the biggest bullshit con-job ever pulled on this unfortunate planet, and I don't wish to be anymore complicit in it than I already am" without so much as a raised eyebrow. I'll probably end up in Charleston, which at least has 2 out of 3.
As an aside, my favorite form of proof that the Universe is older than 6,000 years is this. Some of the stars in the sky are so far away that it takes millions of years for their light to reach us. If they were only 6,000 years old then we wouldn't be able to see them. But we can.
A seminar? A SEMINAR?!?! My town, that can't bother to have a movie theater or a decent library, that doesn't have an Applebee's or anywhere else to buy a decent steak, that doesn't even have a damned record store, is hosting a fucking Creationism Seminar?!?!? With Brad Fucking Harrub, the young-earther apologist dressed in a Ph. D.! What.The.Fuck.
I suddenly felt very tired. Exhausted, even. I had a brief glimpse of this pageant of idiocy that is to occur less than a month from today. This Pee-Hache-Dee feller is going to get up at his podium and tell us rubes that the world is 6,000 years old, and science backs it up! He's gonna tell us that all the damn Commie-Athiest-Liberal-Hippies are trying to hit our children because they know us grown folks are too sharp to be taken in by all that Maoist bunk. He's gonna tell us that we didn't come from no damn monkeys, and there ain't nothing that's gonna prove we did. Hell, he'll say, this theory of evolution is nothing more than a guess anyway. Well, he'll add with a pause to build tension, I don't need no guess. I've got my answer right there in the book of Genesis. I realize that he'll use a lot of fifty cent words, and proper grammar. He'll talk about scientific findings and fossils a bit, and toss in some shaky "evidence" that would point to a young earth. Evidence that actual scientists have been guffawing over for two decades or more.
He'll come here and do his song and dance (What kind of ism? Creationism!) and at least one budding mind that was almost ready to actually question the bullshit Christian mythology that's been pulled over their eyes to make them feel safe will slink safely back into their Cave of Happy Thoughts and Shadow Puppets. The rest of the room will applaud and be happy that someone finally said what they'd been thinking all along, and remind themselves to bring some of this stuff up at the next PTA or School Board meeting. Ain't no Commie-Atheists molesting my kid's young mind.
Part of me wants to think that maybe the people that will show up to this "Seminar" will be people that are savvy enough to know that this guy is peddling bullshit. Maybe they'll be smart enough to recognize a shill when they see one, and perhaps ask him a difficult question he can't answer without tap-dancing. But that part of me is the same part that really wants to believe in Santa Clause. That part of me is the part Mr. Harrub wants to sell a 6,000 year old universe to, complete with an army of world-building angelic engineers. I wonder if they had to wear hard-hats when they were sinking those dinosaur bones into the earth, below any trace of where human remains would be found. I wonder if God knew, or if it was Lucifer's last practical joke. Maybe he snickered as he thought about how we'd find these props and completely reinvent the myths that explain our own origins.
No, Mr. Harrub will be long gone by the time the fallout of his speech is revealed. He'll be counting his twenties on a bus or train while some random St. George parent is screaming blue in the face to get evolutionary theory taken out of biology class. With any luck, I'll be long gone too. As I glanced at this poster and thought about all that probably will or won't happen in this seminar's aftermath I realized that I don't like living here. I don't like the fact that Mr. Harrub can get on a podium and peddle his horse-pucky science-like explanations about why the Bible is the inerrant Truth, but I have to feel embarrased at every family meeting when I'm asked why I don't go to church. I don't like people telling me my father is living in a mansion in heaven when I'm quite sure he's still firmly underground where we buried him.
So, that said...I'm out. I hope that Mr. Harrub's seminar (and yes, I know he's got a Ph.D. and should be called "Doctor." I've never seen any evidence of his Ph.D. so I'm going to operate as though it doesn't exist.) is the last thing I do in this shit-stain of a town before I pack up my suitcases and head toward anywhere I can buy a decent steak and visit a movie theater and safely say out loud in the street, "I don't go to church because I think Christianity is the biggest bullshit con-job ever pulled on this unfortunate planet, and I don't wish to be anymore complicit in it than I already am" without so much as a raised eyebrow. I'll probably end up in Charleston, which at least has 2 out of 3.
As an aside, my favorite form of proof that the Universe is older than 6,000 years is this. Some of the stars in the sky are so far away that it takes millions of years for their light to reach us. If they were only 6,000 years old then we wouldn't be able to see them. But we can.
Friday, October 5, 2007
1408
I watched the film "1408" last night. I live way out in the sticks, and it was 2 AM. These two factors contributed to me getting zero sleep last night. I will keep this short. 1) This film scared the hell out of me, mostly because I was alone in the woods at 4 AM (by the time it ended). 2) The Carpenters now cause me to pee in my pants. If you've seen the movie then you get it.
I used to like this song, and now it creeps me out. Thanks Mr. King.
I used to like this song, and now it creeps me out. Thanks Mr. King.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
If it weren't for bad luck...
Those of you who follow this blog might have wondered where I've been. The answer is...nowhere special. My bike has been acting up lately, so I'm stranded close to home until the parts come in. Apparently the bearings need to be replaced every 20,000 miles, and when they wear out the bike starts driving really crazy. If you go too long without replacing them the rear end will sieze up and cause an uncomfortable accident. The good news is that the parts are pretty cheap, and fairly easy to replace. That said, there won't be much in the way of news until I get this junk heap fixed and roadworthy again. I might find something to bitch about, but probably no events.
Later
Later
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