skepticlysm

Tag: blog

  • Some of Those Who Work Forces

    Some of Those Who Work Forces

    • This morning at our pre-school ritual, the Teenager said (paraphrasing), “I wonder what Yelena did with her dog. And the guinea pig.”
    • “The dog probably ate the guinea pig already.”
    • “What?!”
    • “No it didn’t. It’s a golden retriever.”
    • “No it wasn’t.”
    • “Yes it was.”
    • Teenager looks it up. No, it wasn’t.
    • Dammit.
    • “Fine. You were right.”
    • She usually is; because if she doesn’t know, she won’t speak up.
    • I had this personality trait when I was younger.
    • I would not bet or argue if I did not already know the answer/outcome.
    • I am risk averse.
    • And I hate losing.
    • She’s the same way.
    • I feel I’ve failed her in this way.
    • Because you have to be able to fail in this life.
    • It’s like that failure speech Chris Pine gives in the D&D movie.
    • (Such a good flick, btw. Sorry, “fun” flick.)
    • Maybe that failure philosophy is a conjuration from failures, but rarely does anything work the first time, or the way you think it will.
    • You need weird outcomes to stretch your mind.
    • You know this.
    • I’m rambling.
    • I’m trying to write today, but struggling because I’m talking D&D with my buddies.
    • All of them, really.
    • I feel like I opened the flood gates.
    • And I’m just getting to orchestrate fun for people and work on my storytelling and improv.
    • “I’ve got something to say! It’s better to burn out than fade away!”
    • (If you know, you know.)
    • They’re remaking that with Henry Cavill and the guys behind John Wick.
    • I cannot wait.
    • I’m going to watch the old crappy version this week while convalescing.
    • It was one of those movies we’d watch as teenagers over and over and over again.
    • Highlander
    • Conan the Barbarian
    • The Terminator
    • Aliens
    • Heartbreak Ridge
    • I had three of those on one VHS tape.
    • (No, I do not remember which.)
    • Probably Star Wars, Empire and Raiders were wrapped in there, too.
    • Lethal Weapon
    • This is what we did when we were not skating, playing D&D, or doing something on the NES.
    • We’d have epic Pro Wrestling tournaments.
    • I beat our unbeatable friend and true story, he hit the power button right when the ref was saying, “Three!”
    • I always say this in the work list when this stuff comes up, but those kids in Stranger Things?
    • Us.
    • More or less.
    • Do you know how I got started in D&D?
    • I had this older cousin Jeff.
    • One year for Xmas, he gave me the D&D red box, which was the basic rules.
    • And then we played.
    • Melted my brain.
    • And I’m not sure how it got brought up to my friend group, but once it did, it was part of our lives into college.
    • Geeks.
    • I took time off from being a geek in college.
    • Because girls.
    • Had a whole conversation with the Wife yesterday about how much awareness she had of my geekery.
    • She says she knew the whole time.
    • Geekness has gravity and I’ve been pulled back in.
    • Coinciding with this GenX/50-something “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me.” mentality that keeps growing.
    • That’s my theme song, btw.
    • My core value.
    • My mission statement.
    • My ethos.
    • Dude.
    • I hate being told what to do.
    • Hate it.
    • Society is what it is.
    • Much dissonance.
    • I’m not sure I even want to work on it.
    • I do.
    • I persevere.
    • You do what you gotta do, right?
    • What I’m learning RIGHT NOW is how to get more of what I want from this life.
    • I let it win for too long.
    • No longer.
    • You are not guaranteed any time here.
    • Any time you spend neck deep in someone’s ends other than your own is a waste of your most valuable resource.
    • Fuck your commute mandate, Gov. Stitt.
    • Stop living quiet lives of indentured servitude.
    • This is what stream of consciousness gets you.
    • This is the stuff I’m passionate about.
    • My current state of happiness makes me want to push these things.
    • To find paths.
    • To lift myself and all my people up.
    • Freedom must be seized.
    • Hope you’re having a pocket full of sunshine today.
    • Love you guys.
  • To A Certain Degree

    To A Certain Degree

    • And we’re back …
    • We’re going to run through some updates from yesterday, and then I’m tackling something serious.
    • Head’s up, peeps.
    • Let me say how annoyed I am Facebook won’t let me use italics.
    • Style guide: Book, movie, and album titles should be italicized.
    • Song titles and poems get quotes.
    • This morning, I woke up early and laid there for an hour planning.
    • Lots of things.
    • One of them …
    • I’m not supposed to climb stairs, but Kaia’s room is upstairs.
    • I queued up “A Pocket Full of Sunshine,” climbed the stairs.
    • Turned the volume up loud on my phone and stuck it in her door.
    • She did not recognize those opening notes and said, “What’re you …”
    • Then the lyrics kicked in.
    • She shut the door in my face.
    • Mission: Accomplished.
    • Then I sent it to a friend, ‘cause screw him.
    • SitRep: Mostly, my head does not hurt.
    • Now, I have had literally agonizing pain in my head since 2020.
    • My pain calibration is … skewed.
    • This isn’t awful.
    • However, I am exhausted.
    • Prone to passing out at any moment.
    • And I sleep like poop because 1) 45 staples in my dome; 2) the goddamn dogs; 3) the PICC IV in my right arm.
    • None of these things make bedding easy.
    • When I’m awake, as long as I’m sitting, I kinda do okay.
    • Walking comes a bit challenging.
    • Random dizziness happens.
    • I have the doc appts coming up in another couple of weeks.
    • And then treatment.
    • We’re not out of the woods.
    • But fuck it, I will prevail.
    • Okay, let’s be serious for a moment.
    • I put up that pic about degrees the other day.
    • I have worked in higher ed for all but four of the last 25 years.
    • My job has been to sell it.
    • I know the data.
    • And when I don’t, I know both Librarians and IR.
    • Short version: Degrees make communities more successful.
    • The more bachelor’s degrees a city has, the more financially successful it will be.
    • Full stop.
    • What we’re running into, however, is the death of the American Dream.
    • Personally, I do not believe in it.
    • Companies no longer treat us as people.
    • You’re just a number to check a box to do something.
    • And they’re trying to kill even that with AI.
    • Let me ask you a question: What’re you worth?
    • I don’t mean net worth.
    • I’ll answer for you: your hourly wage.
    • Companies will get away with paying you as little as possible.
    • And they’ll get away with devaluing your position as much as they can.
    • At our college, there’s an initiative to promote those degrees that provide the most life-sustaining wages.
    • Not things you’re aligned with from a personality standpoint, mind you.
    • But things that pay you and generate revenue for companies.
    • You know, the ones that get away with paying you as little as possible and get away with providing as few benefits as they can.
    • Because their responsibility is to the stakeholders, not you.
    • Enjoy that few weeks of leave, and paying part of your health ins (which is tied to your job, mind you).
    • Enjoy that lack of pension.
    • You ever want to know how free you really are?
    • Who can you say no to?
    • You have a choice of when to arrive at work?
    • When you can leave?
    • What about your dress code?
    • Or what you’re allowed to say to your manager, based on who they are and what their leadership philosophy is?
    • And work from home has largely been stomped on my employers because they want to control you.
    • The data supports working from home.
    • Hell, the data supports a four-day work week.
    • America has always flown the banner of freedom.
    • Are you?
    • Back to that degree thing.
    • Degrees, all of them, make our lives better.
    • Let’s say “you” don’t want to fund a theatre degree.
    • How is it so easy for you to dismiss the contributions of a creative to your life?
    • They are responsible for all the books you read.
    • (Sorry, the books you listen to.)
    • The shows you watch.
    • The concerts you attend.
    • The art on your walls.
    • The design of all the marketing materials.
    • The gardens and parks you visit.
    • Creatives make your life livable.
    • But hey, don’t help them get started, right?
    • (Before running your mouths, go research how scholarships are funded for every degree that exists.)
    • They’re all paid poorly because fucking companies are in it for profit.
    • The whole fucking country is about profit.
    • For the few, not the many.
    • Do you ever stop and think about why so many cities are based around roads?
    • It’s because the government has funded so many companies that make cars and oil.
    • I don’t want my taxes going there.
    • I want my taxes making mass transit a thing.
    • Making it easier to cycle and walk.
    • Making everything greener.
    • Because literally ALL of that is better for people and the environment.
    • You know what I don’t want my taxes doing?
    • Bailing out the rich.
    • Bailing out corporations that have more freedom and resources than any of us.
    • That greener thing.
    • Is it better for profit?
    • Not right now it isn’t.
    • Okay, so let’s talk about why you think some degrees are “less than.”
    • What do you watch?
    • I know you don’t read.
    • (Go check out the stats on functional illiteracy.)
    • Now, before we start this conversation, let’s discuss my credentials.
    • I have a bachelor’s in Journalism (news/editorial) with a minor in Creative Writing.
    • I have a Master’s degree in Mass Communications/Media Management.
    • Before you want to argue with me about media, just know what you’re getting into.
    • Right now, our mass media (newspapers and television stations) are largely owned by billionaires.
    • Those assholes are in it for … profit.
    • The content on those stations, particularly the broadcast stuff, is chosen to maximize profit.
    • What’re you watching?
    • Have you checked the bias chart?
    • Have you looked up the research on the shit you’re spouting?
    • (And before you go running your mouth on me, just know, I know an Army of Librarian Ninjas and I swear to the Lort I’ll sick them on you.)
    • I’ve heard a ton of you say stuff to me that is 100 percent bullshit.
    • You didn’t look it up to verify.
    • You just repeated it.
    • Cut that shit out.
    • You are being manipulated.
    • And don’t tell me what I think because you’re making assumptions based on the fact you know I disagree with you, but you don’t know why.
    • If you are friends with me, you know (or are going to over the next few months) I care about you.
    • I’m disinterested in fighting.
    • I’m interested in better relationships and a better reality.
    • And we can make it together.
    • But it requires you to let go of the bullshit.
    • To avoid it.
    • To free your mind.
    • To work toward freedom.
    • Because unless you work for yourself, you are not free.
    • So let’s leave off there because I did not make a bunch of jokes or talk music today.
    • Our freedom is being taken from us.
    • Don’t be distracted by the shit you can afford to distract you from that fact.
    • Love you all.
    • More words tomorrow.
  • Have You Tried Staples?

    Have You Tried Staples?

    • Hey, what is up.
    • Coming at you from non-malignant brain tumor land!
    • 45 staples in my dome are not going to fucking defeat me.
    • I have been up since five something because of the fucking dogs.
    • (This is the kinda list you get when I’m not writing them for work.)
    • (Profanity warning!)
    • When Steph took Kaia to school this morning (after we had a great conversation about her dreams), I found myself craving some Prodigy “The Fat of the Land,” so I queued that up on Spotify on the TV and let it go.
    • So good.
    • “Smack My Bitch Up” has a spectacular second half.
    • “Narayan” is fantastic, too.
    • Good album all around, really.
    • Get some.
    • So we have this Family text chat. Me, Steph, my sister, by BIL and Kaia.
    • It’s full of all kinds of random shit
    • This morning, Kaia told us all about something in her class playing Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocket Full of Sunshine,” which you know from Easy A with Emma Stone.
    • I kinda like it.
    • Kaia hates it.
    • So now I’m going to ambush her as often as I can.
    • I have this thing for songs that are borderline electronic with women singers.
    • I will not apologize for it.
    • I’m still a metalhead, but I’m also of this age where I do not give a fuck about what I’m “supposed” to like.
    • I’ve got a pocket, a pocket full of sunshine …
    • If you’re a facebook person, you should know I write a bullet-list column for work.
    • It’s sanitized for work.
    • Not how my brain works, but … I get to write a column for work.
    • Here’s the thing.
    • I can’t not do it.
    • It has become a writing compulsion.
    • So I’m going to write these the whole time I’m recuperating and getting treatment for the mass.
    • I’ll post them on my blog because Facebook fundamentally sucks.
    • Go there. Subscribe.
    • Something that happened while I was in the hospital.
    • I came up with an idea for a business, so I’m going to be launching that shit while I’m on FMLA and waiting on the sawed hole in my dome to heal.
    • I can no longer allow other people to control my creative endeavors.
    • I am finished with being an Indentured.
    • #DoNotGoGentle
    • Stay tuned.
    • The idea involves the launch of a website.
    • #FuckYoSocialMedia
    • I’m either good at this writing/entertainment nonsense or I’m not, but I think I am.
    • Buckle up, kids.
    • These lists are going to be unfiltered, and I’m going to call people on their responses to some of the shit I’m going to say.
    • You’ve been warned!
    • BTW, hey TCC people, thank you for being here and for your support.
    • I apologize for all the F bombs, but … this is the real me.
    • I got in trouble when I was four for saying jackass in front of my great grandma.
    • I said chicken shit soup in kindergarten.
    • I called the sub teacher a butthole in second grade.
    • I have an uncertified degree in profanity is what I’m saying.
    • This is the real me.
    • And this is the first Black List, which will be part of the new business.
    • All that said, the TCC Librarians are one of my favorite groups on campus.
    • I actually plan on having a Teams meeting with the Librarians when I get back on the clock.
    • More on that later.
    • The last episode of “Friends and Neighbors” on AppleTV was spectacular.
    • I am super stoked to see “Thunderbolts*” this weekend.
    • We thought I would not be able to handle it, but … I can.
    • Fuck them staples.
    • Do what you want, but you’re never gonna break me …
    • You know what else I have planned now?
    • My tat sleeve.
    • SHIT IS HAPPENING.
    • Love you guys.
    • Thanks for your support.
    • Subscribe over on the blog.
    • More to come!!