One year ago today: March 5, 2017, the flowers never grew.
Five years ago today: March 5, 2013, let them complain, already.
Nine years ago today: March 5, 2009, cooperation by majority rule.
Random years ago today: March 5, 2015, gnawing at the 5th.
It’s amazing to me how so many people don’t spot their problems as self-inflicted. I can’t give you the details, but if you are going to put your resume on-line, do not include any personal information (beyond the basic requirements). If you must, state your age, but not your birthdate. You are not applying for any specific job, you are subjecting yourself to the scrutiny of some unknown entity who could care less about your situation. The entire concept of applying to an agency instead of for a specific job has always set off alarms. I’ve always thought these agencies were started by some failed human resources types who got fired for incompetence. Who remembers the time I had to fight for my resume back from an agency that had lied to me by saying they were the hiring entity?
[Author’s note: OneBuckResume.com is still listed as an active website, claiming a five-star rating. From who, I don’t know. It is a Miami site that, as far as I know, been repeatedly shut down for overcharging client’s credit cards or something. Anyway, the site won’t load.]
This morning was not as tough on me as others. Bradford, the guitar jam guy, lost an hour of his work at the library for not knowing the difference between save and save as. Had he read this blog thirty years ago, he would know they are far different functions. He’s also unclear of the perils of save as, that it can create files that cannot be opened on older operating systems. He is not even sophisticated enough to know that MicroSoft does this kind of thing deliberately. I had a go at it, but his file was lost, it was not even in the asp bin. I don’t know how he managed that.
But I do know Agt. R has learned a valuable lesson, and that is that if you still think you can rely on anybody out there, you haven’t learned much at all. Today I had to step in to get a statement verified and could not find anybody. You see, the statement contained three estimates ranging from $4 to $45 concerning his cash flow. All I could find was small-minded locals who couldn’t fathom a pro-rated figure. For non-accounting types, pro-rated is where your payment does not match the period, so you have to calculate, for instance, how much of the monthly payment is used per week. Child’s-play for anybody with more than a third grade education.
This instance needed the amount of annual vehicle insurance that is used up in six weeks. I could not find anyone to endorse the statement because nobody could grasp the concept. (Take the annual figure, divide by 52 to get a week’s portion, then multiply that by six weeks.) I met people who wanted to make an appointment to interview and go over the 2017 taxes and all kinds of bullshit. I even showed them the process. His insurance is $2,402 per year. Therefore each week “uses up” $46.19 (=2,402/52) worth of insurance. In six weeks, his cost is $277.15 (=$46.19x6). QED.
Worst was this fat lady who explained she could lose her license. Nonsense, but that is the world these people created for themselves. It’s laughable how things would work if everybody was so clueless. The endorsement was only to check for reasonableness, and it was based on filed tax returns. The common element in each was they wanted to turn it into a $250 piece of work. I hope some day the fat lady breaks her leg and the ambulance driver refuses to take her to the hospital because he didn’t personally witness the injury.
The point being all this works in our favor. It reinforces the them-against-us premise that precedes 90% of all successful new business ventures. It’s the realization that nobody out there will help you and even friends and family cannot be trusted. That situation is taken care of, but here is another cropping up already. A lady friend of mine has a brother in the slammer. I did not know they could not receive anything from the outside, like a care package. But they can receive money.
Then I learn that the jail charges them $2 per day for being there, and they can only receive money via their jail account. Didn’t what’s-his-face mention that years ago? The Hippie guy? If it is in arrears, the jail grabs the money first and only gives them the balance, if any. I would have thought such conduct to be illegal. It is certainly unethical, but this is Florida. How is somebody supposed to pay daily if they are incarcerated? It’s insane, $2 per day isn’t enough for anything, so what the hell are they up to with that?
Annab὚n Island.
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Miami called and there is a check ready for me for my precious blood. The contact was they figured needed the money asap. When I said just put it in my file, I’ll pick it up in May, they were taken aback. I asked what’s the big deal? They’ve never had anyone in the study before who didn’t need the money instantly. Seriously? She said darn tootin’, some people when they hear the check is ready ask her to hold it, they’ll be there within the hour. I’ve been there, but I also know what it is to get out of that rut. It seems to me anybody who had the slightest head start in life has no excuse for living like that. S’matter, can’t these millennial heroes last until May. (I’m joking, I’ve been there. Just not there because I deserved it.)
So last evening I said to hell with it and went back a second time to the coffee shop. This time with my book, “Chromosome 6”, which I finished. The good guys win again, but in the process, they reveal what a massively corrupt scheme this entire American plea-bargaining system is. Nothing but legalized blackmail, the wrong people are consistently sent away and everybody knows it. The book is about twice as long as it needs to be, so wait for the movie. For all I know, there already is movie.
The two teams of doctors wind up meeting in the African jungle. The good ones have figured out the bad ones are implanting human genetic material in bonobo monkeys, or apes or whatever they are. The ones that live in Gabon. The bonobos develop human characteristics and can talk in single words like “bana”, “arak”, and “zit”. The evil doctors realize the error of their ways and free all the monkeys from their cages, a tribe of some sixty individuals. (I was unable to find on the wonderful Internet if there was a collective noun for a group of bonobos. But I found a lot of junk.)
The mystery that started the commotion was how the mob stole a corpse from the morgue to prevent an autopsy. I’ll tell you the answer. Funeral parlors regularly pick up corpses, which are in refrigerated locker with a toe tag containing a number. Normally, the morgue staff wheel the gurneys out, but on night shift, the funeral staff regularly fetch the corpses themselves. They find quickly find a ‘john doe’ (unidentified) corpse in another locker, switch his toe tag to the one they want to steal, shove ‘john doe’ into an empty spot and throw the sheet over their package. On the way out, the night clerk checks the toe tag number and it’s out the door.
As for the protohuman bonobos released into the jungle, that is the supposed end of the story. They had learned to make fire and use basic tools. That puts them just a few million years behind modern man. The jungle around Gabon is millions of square miles, most of it unexplored by land. Sixty of the animals represents a breeding population, and the book was written in 1997, so several generations will have passed by now. As for the original transgenic monkeys, nobody knows what happened to them since they were last seen standing a group chattering words like “carak”, “hana” and “sta”, while scratching themselves.
I know what you are thinking. All I have to do is think of America’s current immigration policy and remember the last time I was at the DMV . . .
ADDENDUM
Just for the record, the coffee shop was full of pro-Trump anti-liberal talk. I listened only, but I don’t think the media or the politicians realize how serious and passionate some of these matters have become. Although Trump is not the man they would follow, I think if a more natural leader arises from their midst, there could be some real trouble brewing in the land. You don’t have to read much history to see the pattern is well along the way. The main issue, in many forms, seems to be near total frustration with federal over-reach. People do not like being told what to do or what is best for them.
The difficulty is that nobody can tell how serious the talk has become until it is too late. But my estimation is that many of these people are quite serious. And they would follow a real leader.
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