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Yesteryear

Monday, November 19, 2007

November 19, 2007


           Here is an extremely rare photo. Viewing Anita’s blog made me remember this. I left this “farm” 67 days before my 18th birthday and never went back. One tractor would go far enough to sink axle-deep, then you trudged over to the neighbors to get a dual-wheeled tractor (see left of picture) to pull the first one out. There was always plenty of time and tons of money for this kind of malarkey.
           That’s a brand new $15,000 John Deere (around $83,000 today). The money was promised to me by my parents for an education, but never paid. They finally said they would only pay for my school if I quit school. (Duplicity was never unusual in my family.) The true cost of that machine, if measured by the lost income and extra years (sixteen of them) it took me to get through university, is probably well over $1,000,000.

           [Author's note: father was not plowing the wheatfield. There was no plow. There was no wheatfield. What you see in the background is dead grass. The tractor was for show. Three years later he gave that tractor away to a stranger. It was not just the tractor that was stuck in the mud.]

           Most of the day was at the computer, job hunting. One thing is certain, I look at work far differently than when I had to do it. Simply put, when you are poor, you find the highest paying job you can and do what you are told. This time, I pay very close attention to what the job entails. I don’t much like what I see.
           For instance, writing for a living is tough. That is why I pick apart all writing offers to find out what is required besides writing. Most of them require an awful lot of non-writing tasks, such as “interviewing”, which to me is something a reporter does. Digging for facts is okay if that means library and computer. My journals alone are proof that a work of some length and content can be produced totally from personal experience. There is no need to consult or pretend to consult anyone.

           Then again, my intent is to inform and instruct, whereas most writing jobs are to sell magazines. If you want entertainment, come hear me play. My writing is chock full of information, and from time to time, a little knowledge. Anyway, this is just an example of how so many jobs these days advertised as one thing are actually another. Certain “accounting” jobs are really insurance sales. Many “computer” jobs are answering telephones.
           Which reminds me, we still get a quota of yahoos in the shop who think that talking to me about computers is free. Sorry, you have to pay me even to watch over my shoulder. The going rate is $30 per hour and you make an appointment. My least favorites are these 35 to 55 year old males who’ve obviously smoked far too much pot. Their brains are fried and they can’t focus on anything for more than a few seconds. Then twenty years too late they go out and buy a computer and “want to learn to use it”. For what?

           The one in today was a corker. Have you seen that sizzled egg on the drug poster? He was the model. Trust me, there is nothing you will ever learn from watching me except that you can’t do what I do. It requires accumulated skill, a good education and deductive reasoning, yes, all at the same time. When I explained I was updating my blog, it took him five tries just to repeat the word. (He heard me but his mouth kept saying “vlog”.) Finally grasping the concept, he said he knew for a fact that “nobody in this world would ever do such a stupid thing”.
           When I informed him millions upon millions were writing blogs, he suddenly decided he “wanted one”. He starts to tell me how he is going to write about the babe he had in the sack last night. I told him he wouldn’t get read because several million other guys were already lying about the same thing. I doubt this doper has written ten pages of anything since the day he quit school thirty years ago. Bottom line? If that brand of borderline retardation bothers you, don’t move to Florida.
           Later, I read more material on China. Confucious is another word that Microsoft can’t spell-check. The Chinese Golden Rule is worded backwards, as in do not do unto others what you don’t want them to do unto you. Very wise, do not do unto instead of do unto. I like that, because we already have too many grinning Christians all over the place, constantly doing unto others.

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