Where slacking is a sport, reading an addiction, and underachievement a birthright
March 19, 2009 at 5:10 pm · Filed under Random Musings
My lack of presence here can be explained in the title. Facebook.
In the beginning, you join, and that’s lovely, but you just don’t know what you’re in for. All of the sudden, people start coming out of the woodwork, and you’re connecting with people you haven’t seen since elementary school, or from your college years, or from your twenties, all those people who were so important to you at that time but somehow faded into the woodwork. When you become someone’s friend, you can see all of their friends (and vice versa), and then suddenly there are ALL of these people from the days of yore, and your friend list explodes like a field of dandelions. Then friends of friends are wanting to be in your world (why?), and for me, I suddenly had 300 ‘friends.’ I honestly do not even KNOW 300 people. However, Facebook IS an interesting application, and since it involves me sitting here staring at my computer, I look like I’m working. On something important. In the beginning, it is EXTREMELY addictive. And I would know.
On Facebook, there are all sorts of applications-ones where you can send good karma to your friends, help save the rainforest by sending virtual plants to one another, another where you can help our oceans by…yup, sending virtual fish. Yet, there are also games on it that are a bit more…involved…shall we say.
And you know what I’ve got addicted to? Virtual FARMING! No joke. They start you off with 5 plots of land planted with tomatoes, $1000, and a cow, I think. Your goal is to grow crops, make money so you can clear land and grow more crops (clearing & plowing are 20 bucks a shot). That’s all. It almost takes on this Zenlike quality because there’s no competition, no worrying, no nothing.
In the beginning, I plowed and grew sooooo many tomatoes (because you can harvest them in one day and they have a high ROI) that it took a big chunk of my day. After you harvest, you have to re-plow and re-plant (no, there is no crop rotation or things of that nature on it-yet). If you had friends who were also farming, you could send them trees and animals. Receiving gifts of trees was great because they ripened every 3 days, and you made money harvesting them.
Now, I am wrought with so many trees that I don’t know what to do! I only farm a crop on the perimeter of the plot now, more for aesthetics than anything. I have so many different trees and animals that I’ve piled everything off to the side in hopest that the blank space will inspire me to design something that looks really absolutely ultra fantastic.
In the beginning, one could send 30 trees/animals to friends. Then it went up to 40. Then there was about a week where there was a glitch in the system, and you could send as many as you wanted. You see, if you RECEIVE a gift from someone, it’s free. All of the items are also for sale, but they are incredibly expensive.
When I’m hanging out on my ‘ether-farm’ these days, I am amazed. I have SO many animals and trees, and they were ALL presents. People talk about Facebook negatively, saying it is shallow and you don’t REALLY rekindle your friendships, you just have them in your friend list and send them silly things. That’s probably the truth for most. But that’s probably good enough for most too. However, one thing I CAN say is that through this little game I’ve been playing, and in the sending plants and fish and karma, I have re-connected with some people I never thought I would see again in a million years. True, there’s not much personal communication with most of them-you see that they’ve sent you something, you send something back if you’re so inclined, you write an occasional comment on their wall, but that’s about it.
This would serve as proof that Facebook is a shallow thing. But one day, a girl with whom I went to boarding school came across my farm. We fast became ‘farm buddies, and soon, we were writing more in depth messages, not merely leaving comments on one another’s boards, but really emailing one another and discussing the paths our lives have taken (which were VERY similar, even though we had little in common in boarding school), where we are now, where we hope to be. I would say that ‘back in the day,’ we were barely more than acquaintances, and now, I feel I can consider her a real friend. In the ethers.
If it WEREN’T for Facebook, we probably never would have crossed paths or seen/heard/or particularly cared if we did. In spite of all of the superficiality found on that site, it IS possible to reconnect with people there, if you choose to, and maybe that’s what was meant to be. If it was any time earlier, we would have been in very different worlds living very different lives, but NOW was the right time for us to meet again. I guess some things are just supposed to happen that way. Thanks, Facebook.
February 25, 2009 at 11:04 am · Filed under Banging My Head Against A Wall
I am so, so tired of hearing people talk about how bad the economy is. President Obama is under such microscopic scrutiny, it’s as if the desired results are going to magically present themselves the moment he finishes signing them. Sure, times have been better than they are now, but this running around in a constant state of panic that this recession is going to turn into a depression has got to STOP. Please.
This ain’t our first rodeo, people.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States
Wow, this is my 5th recession! And I’m not even very old!
I can’t say I remember anything of ‘my’ first one, where people were lining up to fill their gas tanks. We lived on a ranch and had our own gas tank (because of all of the tractors and equipment that require gas in order to work), so I don’t remember waiting all day to fill up one’s tank. Then again, I was about 3 years old. Nothing is too bad when you’re 3. However, it was a bad recession, or so I’m told.
The early 80’s recession…that would put me in early Jr. High School. My life pretty well sucked during the entire experience of Jr&Sr high, all of which took place in the 1980’s. I’m sure I was focusing a lot more on the myriad elements that comprised my life sucking than I was on the early 80’s recession. The lovely ‘trickle down’ theory didn’t trickle down as low as Reagan had assured us, if it even trickled at all…
The early 90’s recession: Ooooh, I remember this one! It wasn’t just Ivy League graduates who had nowhere to go, it was EVERYONE graduating from college around that time. You just went through all this schooling, and now there’s nothing for you? If you could afford it , you’d get mommy and daddy to pay for you to just stay in school and get your master’s degree right then. A lot of us weren’t so lucky, but even so, many opted for the ‘take out more loans, get my master’s/PhD and hope times are better when I’m done with them’ route. I remember being utterly petrified the 2nd semester my senior year. I had no idea what I was going to do. I ended up packing up and moving to the big city of San Francisco. The one advantage to this time was that so many schools had been cranking out kids with business degrees that suddenly, companies wanted to hire people who had a more ‘well rounded’ education. Though Psychology was #1 and English #2 in the list of slacker majors, they definitely counted as ‘well rounded, and somehow employment was found.
2001-2003-Oh, the dot com bubble! And right on the heels of the Japanese recession of the late 90’s! I had friends who were working really hard, trying to get in on IPOs, then BAM! It was all over. They had spent the best part of their 20’s working their asses off in hopes of the big payout, and I spent most of mine NOT doing that, and then, years later, there we were, in the very same place. It was as if the ‘ant and the grasshopper’ fable was turned on its side.
And NOW we’re in the late 2000’s recession, and everyone’s running around like chicken with their heads cut off, screaming like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?” It’s not as though this has never happened before. And everyone’s saying ‘This time it’s going to be different; THIS time we’re going to find a new way, a super great ultra utopian way, THIS time we’re going to become self sufficient, join hands across the land, and by the end of it, we’ll all be working at high paying jobs, and we’ll all be so much wiser for this experience that it’ll NEVER happen again.
I’m not denying that maybe this IS the chance for people to get together, get off their asses, and elicit major change for our country. We are so used to being the king of the hill in terms of world leadership that we have been on autopilot for so many things, and we’re paying for it now. I think this time we do face unprecedented challenges, and just maybe, the necessary elements WILL come together, and people will realize the benefits of doing things in a new way, more economical, ecological, self sustainable. Really, we don’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter.
No matter the situation, it’s STILL a very lucky thing to be an American. However, we’re a little amiss in thinking that the troubles we face now are new. Our 225+ year history has been wrought with some sort of financial problem, panic, recession, depression, crisis, or crash going on since we became a country. Yes, it is incredibly important to learn from our mistakes, misfortunes, and things of the like. However, to think that if we change things, radically change things, we will forever be free from such troubles as we’re facing right now; it’s a beautiful idea, truly, but whether or not it’s realistic is questionable.
January 15, 2009 at 9:08 am · Filed under Banging My Head Against A Wall, Better Living Through Chemistry, Random Musings
It was not a good idea.
Something has happened to my body. I’m not too sure who took it over, but they’ve done a great job messing it up. After being in the 120 pound range for the last two decades, suddenly, the question I get asked most is “When are you due?” Last year I probably used up 85% of my vacation time going to doctors. Nothing.
Could it be me? Could I be eating more than I think I am? My general doctor had created a diet which he said always worked. A dry piece of toast for breakfast. A salad as big as I want for lunch. A lean cuisine type entree for dinner. Follow this draconian diet for six days, and you are allowed ONE ‘free’ meal. The only problem is I hate salad. So I took my salad fixings and blended them into a sort of mush in the food processor. I figured this way, I’d be able to have a few bites, and that would equal out. Another bad idea.
The pounds just have been staying, inviting their friends, and have been in no hurry to leave. I have a bit of chronic kidney disease, a doctor told me. Couple that with it not really being the best time out of the last 28 days, and that’s me today. I’ve been spending a lot of time on learning about fashion and taste, because I really want to be wearing something other than wrap around skirts for the rest of my life. I’m trying to figure out how to turn this eternal hippie wear into something more timeless. I want to look cool, but classy as well, and in a day to day way. I can do classy for something like an event without a problem, but on Monday, I’m lost.
Today I went to Nordstrom’s. I had one of my books with me so I could understand what they’d been talking about. I found some jeans. I tried them on. I could button and zip them…barely. I see a lot of people wear their jeans this tight. I couldn’t imagine being one of them, but I could if I wanted to. I handed the ill-fitting pants to a saleswoman and gave a quick excuse-not a good time of the month to be trying on things.
But we got to talking, and I told her about my newly diagnosed thyroid /kidney condition. She told me a relative of hers had the same thing-a huge weight gain out of the blue, and everyone asking her if she was pregnant because she looked like it. Hey, that’s what happened to me last year! The saleswoman said she could tell I was supposed to be thin-she could see it in my wrists and ankles. Unfortunately, she then said that the condition the other girl had eluded doctors. Bummer.
However, it was the first time since my body has been practicing circus tricks that another person understood. Another person had seen this before. Another person who (among the very few) said it wasn’t my fault. She said to get over the ‘womanly week,’ and come in again. Her name was Dana. It was the first good ‘bad’ shopping experiences I’ve ever had.
And I’ll be looking cool, timeless yet modern, and all that other fashion stuff some day.
December 3, 2008 at 2:06 pm · Filed under Random Musings
As I sit here at my desk in full view of anyone and everyone who enters this office, who stops by to sign in or out to let the rest of the office know where they are (even though most employees rarely do this) or to grab some teeth rottening sweets, as we do have a candy jar that is visited in direct proportion to what kind of candy that is in there, I generally do come across most of the members of my office on a fairly regular basis. I get a kick out of the ones who come for candy- most feel they must say something in order to justify their actions, or they look at me with guilt, as if I’m silently judging their need for sugar. I’m polite to everyone; I engage in small talk, I answer the phone and do my other work. It’s a job. I am here on time, and I leave at the stroke of 5pm.Recently, the space next to me has become occupied by a girl who is a ‘word processor’. She’s nice, in general. She has to do reports for people. Sometimes that makes her eminently more important than me, and she is busy to the extent of not even being able to finish a sentence. I’m not sure I believe one could be that busy, but it has a feel that seems to say ‘my job is MUCH more important than yours; hence, I am MUCH more important than you, and I will speak with you on MY schedule, not yours.’ It’s kind of a rude tone, but it is what it is.In recent weeks/months since she’s been hired, she’s shared with me much of her personal life, her school life, etc. I don’t really do much, so there’s little to reciprocate from my end, plus, I think she likes having that spotlight. That’s all well and good, and I’ve asked her questions about her world because I did start to see her as a friend. And that’s what friends do, right? They take interest in other people’s lives.However, in the last little while, she’s felt it necessary to tell me about the office on goings here, and strangely, I’m in them. The first one came one afternoon when I was told, pretty much out of the blue, that the EVERYONE in this office actively dislikes me and avoids me at all costs. Eh? I’ve been here for 2 1/2 years, and while I’m definitely one who keeps a BIG separation between my work life and my home life, I’m not unpleasant to anyone. An active avoidance makes me think of a Tyrannosaurs Rex coming down the hall and people running for their lives. I’ve never seen that. She says she never lies to her ‘friends,’ which necessitated such an obligation to tell me.Eh? If I knew that about one of my friends, I would NEVER tell them something like that! I’m sorry, but in my book, that’s MEAN. As in REALLY MEAN. Even being a person like me who keeps a layer of kryptonite between her work life and regular life, to be told something like that hurt. What is it that is so wrong about me that people feel the need to run away when I’m near? Even worse, why are these people taking precious time out of their lives to actively even care about disliking me? And then, why am I taking all this time to get upset over what people who don’t even know me think about me?‘Oh, and by the way, that was one of the nicer things that was said about you. I didn’t tell you all of the things people said about you because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.’ Now it’s just feeling like it’s made up. There’s just no way that people here have that much time to go around not only actively disliking me, but campaigning others to do so as well. I have one of the biggest slacker jobs in this place, and even I don’t have that kind of free time. After being sad for a while and looking at everyone with suspicion, I’ve decided to at least try to listen and follow my own advice of blissful apathy-which is that it’s all good because to formulate a thought about this would mean that I care, and in this instance, I just don’t.For the record, however, when in possession of knowledge that might be hurtful to someone and really serves no other purpose, it might be a good idea to think once more before telling that person. The world has enough negativity as is.
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