Category: Writing

  • FaceBook, Same as the Old Boss

    I just read the new article in the NY Times that details how FaceBook put up privacy walls for users, but then turned around and created partnerships with other tech companies and gave them the private data.

    For one, 2018 has been an awful year for FaceBook.

    And for two, why am I still on FaceBook and Instagram?

    There’s lots of ground covered in the article, and Facebook isn’t the only guilty party in this story either, but are any of us really surprised that a corporation was greedy, and put profit over the well-being of their customers? Even lied to their customers, so they could keep making more money, and to make the shareholders happy. (Even Google has stopped using it’s, “Don’t Be Evil,” moto. That can’t be a good sign for a corporation.)

    I’m not naïve enough to believe that there was ever a “good era” for corporations; such as, corporations were acting in the best interest of their customers and society in general. Their job is to make as much money as possible, and I don’t think that will ever change. What I do have a problem with is that there seems to be no repercussion for a corporation when they get caught telling outright lies to their customers and the country. What are you going to do?

    We could sue them?

    Nope, we all signed agreements that allow FaceBook to do this. And even if we wanted to sue them, we couldn’t because we agreed to settle any disputes in arbitration, and not a court.

    Yes, I am seriously thinking about deleting all of my social accounts.

    But is it even possible anymore to go anonymous on the internet?

  • Keep It Together

    I have been trying to stay positive through the move to California, all the changes that it has brought, and the fact that I am way outside of my comfort zone. It has been messin’ with my head.

    The biggest issue that I am having right now is that I haven’t been able to find a job. I have sent out 20+ resumes to prospective jobs in the span of 6 weeks, and I have only landed two interviews. It has made me start second guessing myself, and then on Friday night I started down the spiraling path of self-destructive thinking by beginning to believe that I would never find a job, and that would cause us to default on all of our bills, and that it is only a matter of time before we are homeless…

    And then I read this opinion piece over the weekend, all about rejection.

    It did put a few things in prospective, which I needed, so thank you Emily Winter for writing it.

    I still need to get a job to pay bills, that part hasn’t changed, but it reminded me to start thinking about longer term goals. What are the steps that I need to be taking now? And there is a difference from just “trying” at something, and working hard at it. As Emily said in her piece, “I’m so tired, and that’s how I know I did it right. If I weren’t exhausted, it would mean I’d just spent the last year asking for things without putting in the work to earn them. To me, there’s nothing more off-putting than entitlement.”

    She has a very good point.

  • Purpose of Being

    I guess the positive thinking thing worked. I have an interview next week, and it is a relief just to have that. As I stated before in the earlier post, I was beginning to get worried that there was something wrong with me. I’m not sure if this is the job for me, or even if I will be offered a job, but I’m glad that I have been scheduled for the interview, and let’s be honest, if they offer me a job, I will be taking it.

    Okay, so, what have I learned from this month of getting constant and consistent rejection?

    Besides that it sucks…

    I do need to feel productive and help contribute to my family. Right now, that feels like I have to have a job and bring money in. But I started to have a thought; what if I didn’t have to work? Such as, what if my wife brought in enough money that it wasn’t required for me to have an income?

    We have already been in the situation where she earned more money than me, and that didn’t threaten me in any way. I am confident that her earning all the money wouldn’t be an issue.

    I think that this situation would manifest itself into my need to have a purpose. As long as I had that, a goal, then I would be okay. If I was the house husband, supporting her career, and looking after the kid, while still having the time to write, that I would be okay with.

    Not that we’re are in that situation.

    I just need to get a job, and I am one step closer.

    And things don’t look so bad anymore…

  • It’s the Debt, Stupid

    I like reading David Brooks. Today, I read his opinion piece about how it’s not about the economy anymore. That things seems to be going well with the economy; stock market is up, GDP is up, growth is booming… but somehow no one is happy. He points out the many ills in society right now, especially the report that showed that American life expectancy has decreased due to suicide and drug overdose. He draws his own conclusion on what we should do, but my gut tells me that what he prescribes is just old thinking for new problems; as he put it, policy makers will need to “…figure out how economic levers can have moral, communal and sociological effect.”

    So… Jobs won’t solve these problems, but jobs will solve the problem?

    I have heard that before. Polices have been made around that idea, and yet here we are. A job without dignity, both moral and economic, creates more problems than it solves.

    The thing is that if you don’t earn much money and if you get a minuscule raise, though statistically a significant increase, you still don’t have shit. And if shit keeps increasing in price, you never get ahead.

    Why do people under forty spend more money on “experiences” rather than homes, retirement, or even a savings account? Because that’s all they can afford.

    A dollar value-based society, whose capital is not easily accessed by any economic levels except the top, creates a debt culture, and in the end, will start to eat its tail to survive.

  • Roots of My Humor

    As I was writing in my journal this morning, I asked myself the question; when did I find a certain thing funny? When did I start looking at funny things as an art, and not a reaction to a situation that involuntarily made me laugh?

    The first thought that came to mind was Monty Python’s Philosophers’ Football Match sketch.

    I remember first seeing it when I was about 10 or so, on PBS. One of my older brothers was watching Monty Python on a Saturday night, and I happened to still be up and watched it with him. Just about all of it went over my head, and I couldn’t figure out why my brother found this funny at all. Then the Philosophers’ sketch came on. What I remember finding humorous about it was that ancient Greeks were playing football against Germans. The silly nonsense of it struck me as funny.

    Jump ahead a few years to high school, and I take a Humanities class, which was basically an intro to world philosophy. We learn about the ancient Greeks, the early Christians theologians, Renaissance thinkers, the Age of Enlightenment, all the way to modern existentialists. Arty/farty me just ate that stuff up. I was, in my mind, a brilliant high school artist, and all this philosophy stuff was exactly what someone like me needed to become… an artist?

    About this same time, the Comedy Channel debuts, and they happen to show Monty Python. As all nerdy boys will attest, you have to watch Monty Python; it a rite of passage. So, as I watched, the Philosophers’ sketch came on, which I remembered watching with my brother… And then I really watch it.

    It was a lightbulb moment for me.

    Funny could be really smart, and you should never talk down to your audience.

    It seems silly now, but for 17-year-old me, it was like learning that, yes, you can do this; you can be smart and funny at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive.

    As I write this, it also taught me another valuable lesson, they funniest people are usually the smartest as well.