"One-upmanship"

Sorry Paul, I didn't have my code to log into your site handy, so this goes here.

I wonder how far the one-upmanship will go. By this I mean everythings attempt to "top" everything else in some sense. Tylenol wasn't good enough, we need extra-strength, then maximum strength. I'm ready foe tylenol Infinity - one tablet lasts forever! Elvis & The Beatles were as extreme as it got in the 50' & early 60's, now we have music so vulgar that it even makes me blush.

There has to be a cap to it all, but there is no end in sight, and the further you take it, the harder it is to come back. Simple pleasures should be paramount, revered even. A walk in a park in spring, playing with a puppy, watching the leaves turn colors in Fall, these things are all precious. Wonderful things like children laughing seeing a shooting star, finding a 4 leaf clover, these are the magical things in life.

We've become slaves to pop culture. It's all "extreme" and "in your face". Why does it have to be in your face? We have music that makes you want to fight, TV shows that numb you to everything, books that are never opened, and video games that have our kids vicariously dismembering people and causing wanton destruction for "fun".

And the values have gone away. We were in such a hurry to be rid of them, now they are gone and we see why they are so important. We have mothers & grandmothers raising children and fathers with no accountability. Boys especially cannot grow up proper without a man there to show them the way.

I can only hope we've hit the crest of the "extreme" mindset.

do or die ranger time.

I'm going to put a serious effort between here and January toward making my pickup road ready. I'm pretty sure it's close to finished, just a few bug to work out here and there. I still want to do the V8 conversion, but I'll have to wait for now on that.

Upon experimentation and playing with it. I conclude mechanically, it needs the Idle Air Control and the EGR replaced. I believe that the IAC is faulty, but the EGR was disconnected and has since stuck patrially open. Hence, it will behave semi-normal when warmed up. Now there is the brake issue. I'll get into that one later.

I think I can have it up & going in a few weeks, financing it all is the big issue.

I have failed myself

I didn't get crap accomplished this weekend. I did some good stuff. I help my folks and Robyn, but got nothing really accomplished for myself.

I came to a Best Buy revalation. The job itself is not so bad. I just don't like retail. I don't like it for the same reasons I don't like food service.

1. People are mostly surly, especially around holidays and you have to deal with them.

Now, I believe in customer service, but I'm not the customers' servant. I like to help, but I don't always care for the attitudes.

2. The hours are never constant, nor is the time you get to go home.

I hated the thought that a surge in buisness or a late delivery could keep you hour past you scheduled time. In the private sector, yeah, you have deadlines, but not every freakin' day. And I don't need to ask some scatterbrain for permission to leave when my job is finished.

3. Management is usually very inept and are the cause of reasons 1 & 2.

This needs no elaboration.

4. They pay slave wages.

I find it almost insulting what they expect a person to live off.

5. For slave pay, they expect you to work like you make a killing there.

I guess they try to pump you up for the "team". We're gonna work hard and have fun! Let me explain this, I'll enjoy my job when my pay check is large enough to cover ONE bill. Until then, bite me.

6. There is no accountability. Everybody blames everyone else for the mistakes that happen.

I was actually accused of three separate things the last night I worked with a team. I'll tell if I did something. They know I'll admit too, but I guess they want to see if I'll clean up thier mess. The answer is ususally yes.

7. The people who are not surly are little more than animals and they soil the area around them as though they were marking thier territory.

I have seen more nastiness in Best Buy from full grown adults than I have from the middle school students I deal with at my day job. And I get the worst of the worst kids! I won't even go into detail what I've seen, but if a peron does the kinds of mess I've seen and leaves it for others to clean up, they don't even qualify as humans.

I'm going to get my education completed just so I can earn enough to never even have to step into such places if I so choose.