Only the Good Die Young

In the midst of so many celebrity deaths (Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, etc.) a new study has come out to refute what parents have been lecturing on for so many years.  

As it turns out, according to this study the reason why many teens take part in risky behaviors is not because they think they are invincible.  According to this study's findings the reason why many teens take life threatening risks is because they are convinced that they will die young anyway.

This bit of news seems to goes heavily against common knowledge in many ways, but also seems to make more sense then the old idea.  

Personally when I heard this my thoughts went to something that my younger brother had said to this affect a few weeks back as we sat on the porch at 12 am trying to hash out what we are going to do in this next year.  He said that he doesn't expect to live to see a ripe old age.  Funny, I can't either.  Maybe its just the chronic nightmare.  I dunno...

My brother was the one who usually ignored whatever it was that "good boys" his age were supposed to be doing until I announced that I was "taking some time off from college."  Now he is doing what he is "supposed to" and applying for junior college.  An ironic choice of paths for someone with ADHD and authority issues.  I'm sure he can pull it off, but at what cost to his character?  He was considering the military before, but with me "misbehaving" I guess he decided to go for the path mom and dad have been pushing for.

I guess the study is a reflection of what happens to people at this age between 17 and 22.  We feel pressured to conform, and we either submit ourselves to the accepted path or say to hell with it and do our own thing.

I'm glad I opted out of what I'm supposed to be doing though.  While taking the path of least residence I got to feeling like Bilbo Baggins when his journeying days were coming to an end:

"I'm old, Gandalf. I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel... thin. Sort of stretched, like... butter scraped over too much bread. I need a holiday. A very long holiday. And I don't expect I shall return. In fact I mean not to."

On the other hand, now that I am attempting, though with no great success thus far, to do my own thing Thoreau comes to mind more often.

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." 

Maybe I'll succeed, maybe I'll fail, but at least no one will be able to say that I haven't tried.

Click here for Billy Joel.

Will Work for Peanuts

I look up and watch the green sun drenched leaves stir slightly with the warm summer breeze.  I don't know where I'm going.  Then again, who does.  The "plan" for the moment is to try to kick butt at the job interview I have lined up for Tuesday.  

If I get the job, I'll be working with food again which can be super fun if the people in charge are even mildly intelligent or endlessly frustrating if they are convinced of any one of the hundred fallacies that come with the business.  I like working with food though, so maybe it'll work out.

The food thing works well with my "starving artist" results on so many career tests too because it is one of the few "art" careers where I probably wouldn't actually starve.  Ha ha.

I guess the point of this whole thing is that...  I don't know the point of this whole thing.  I want a job where I can be creative and have fun every now and then.  

It feels like senior year of high school all over again:  I want to cook and I want to write, but you can't major in both and it's pretty damn hard to do both considering neither one pays even decent unless you're hard core awesome.  

If I take this path toward cooking and writing then best case scenario I'll end out being awesome like Emeril, Rachel Ray, Guy Ferrari, etc.  Worst case scenario, I'll go broke and have to get an office job.  Sounds like a risk worth taking.

So raise your glasses, here's a toast to doing what you love even if it only pays peanuts.

Squirt bottle Correction

I put in my resignation last week.  Some times things just aren't meant to be.  This job was one of those things.  

It wasn't the work that made it a bad fit either.  I don't mind hard work.  What bothered me was the mentality that the management had about the work.  Observing the way they worked and tried to make things happen was so frighteningly anti-logical that I wanted to pull out a squirt bottle, spray them and say "No, bad manager."

I've found myself wanting to do this to more and more people lately.  Maybe it is my flaw that I want to train people like a bunch of puppies.  That I want to get rid of bad behaviors with a squirt bottle and a firm voice.  Maybe it would be good for them.  More likely they would think I was crazy.  I still kind of want to correct those behaviors before they prove to be detrimental to the guilty parties and the people around them.  I want to bring this change to them.

To the manager who gives a vague idea to employees of what they are supposed to do, then swiftly negates all employee suggestions at ways to be productive that don't fit perfectly within what is already being done at that office. 

*squirt* "No, bad manager."

To the professor who ignores the wide variety of learning styles and teaches in a way that only truly appeals to audio learners.  (Telling students to read the book does not count as covering the visual aspect.)  

*squirt* "No, bad professor."

To the salesman, co-worker who talks too much about the negatives of an otherwise good product before getting around why the person should actually care enough not to tune you out right then and there.  

*squirt* "No, bad salesman."

To the parent who upon learning that his/her child has made a major life decision that will hopefully make his/her life better asks about finances before anything else.  

*squirt* "No, bad parent."

To the person who never seems to appreciate a job that's been done and only looks at the job that needs to be done.  

*squirt* "No, bad person."

It is probably a good thing that I don't have a squirt bottle.  I might be tempted to actually use it then... even more so then now.