Not Just a Job- It's an Adventure!

Though I'm sure it's been quoted countless times; the old axiom:

"Life: What's going on while you're busy making other plans..."

Still rings true... Often and loudly.

Life's certainly played its part upon my mortal coil- the least of which is the current job market, the past election cycle and heaven knows any myriad of other things that includes everything from lawn mower mechanics to diaper changes.

Let's start with the last first...

Blissfully, thankfully, my daughter has just about made the hurdle from "princess panties" [Pull-ups are thusly named so in our house, it's the only way to get a hard-headed Irish red little girl to wear them. Wonder where she got that trait from- thanks Crappaw...] to real underwear- a cost savings as well as life savings to all including the pets who look at me like "Why can't we do that on the floor?!"

Lawn Mower Mechanics...

I hate yard-work. My wife knows it- now the rest of the world does too.

I really hate yard-work when the riding lawn mower decides to blow its one and only cylinder. I also hate having it sit for just under a year in a shop waiting for a [could be "hot" & I don't mean in the volcanic sense of the word] new/used engine & then getting the call that;

"The motor mount had to be modified slightly to get the thing to fit and incidentally, your throttle's gonna work backwards from the way it works now in order for the engine to fit- oh, & your headlights didn't work anyway but one of those had to be moved to make way for the exhaust..."

"Whaaaaaaat?!"

Let's just say that The Family Unit here at "Rose Manor" has now nicknamed that Murray lawn tractor "Frankenstein".

And we're talking the Gene Wilder "Frahnk-un- Steen".

This damn thing is so mutated it looks like a Transformer that developed rickets half way from turning into some kind of robot or at the very least, it could be it's own "Teenage Mutant Ninja... "X".

Strange thing is- it purrs like a kitten and drives like a dream- let alone cut grass better than it ever did before.

Something to be said for being different- right?

The past Election Cycle...

I'm a staunch conservative, "Confused Zen Buddho-Taoist in Christ".

As I see it the current POTUS is no more interested in me than I am in him- I'll leave him alone simply clinging to my guns & religion while in turn, he can leave me alone by staving off his "new age fascist world order".

Here's a common sense point to ponder:

No matter which extreme of the political spectrum one can be- I've come to learn that the acting President can't "win" regardless what he does- by satisfying anyone, no-one's gonna be happy. The two warring factions on either side of the political spectrum are so diametrically opposite that they join each other at the opposite end of the primordial circle.

Now I know why Ronald Reagan used Grecian Formula... I'm sure his hair was white 5 days after taking office back in the 80s.

And then, there's The Current Job Market...

18 years working where I worked & it was over one dry March afternoon late in the month.

Perhaps I should have seen it coming- perhaps not... I had come off a one year high having worked for Walt Disney Imagineering on the Toy Story Mania attraction- sadly what I gave all to had me return to something i should have at least kept privy, if not absolute attention towards- which was my "day job".

Corporate means being what they are- and no one can fault them for being such- I was laid off along with a gaggle of about 1400 others. Cest la Guer. Some will fall so that others may live to continue the battle.

For me- perhaps life begins anew...

Unhindered with the want, need or desire to keep a position that [after Imagineering] I'd finally outgrown [or, most likely "finally figured out"] my adventure begins again.

As the character Yojimbo [in the self-same titled movie] had noticed as his wander took him to a fork-in-the-road; with a decision to make, he had yet more decisions to make.

1. Simply choose a path and continue.
2. Allow the fates/gods/god/ancestors choose for him.
3. Figure out how best to let the [#2 dieties] broadcast this choice to him.
4. Take that path chosen outside his control.
5. Opt for the path not chosen outside his control.
   
6. Ignore all of the above and turn back.

Regardless of any choice [or "not choice"] he'd make:

With Yojimbo- there was no turning back.

So too will it be with me.

Much like Yojimbo- I have my tools of the trade- though perhaps in today's world it's a better plan to carry a sharp mind as opposed to a sharp sword- [though I can use both]!

Still, I'll be trying to hedge my bets- choosing a path that not only I can live with but will also allow my family to live right alongside me.

I continue to be;

Russ

The New Religion

Carbon footprint..?!

Okay- it's been around for a while.

I suppose there'll be those who'll say "Welcome to the party, Russ- glad you could join us!"

And yet, others that may be waiting with baited breath [pro and con] to jump at my rhetorical juggler vein just panting at what my next words will be.

I suppose in some ways I'll disappoint at one level and inspire or say nothing that hasn't already been said at the other.

I think 'global warming' is pure BS.

Oh, I can site my examples of researched study [not my own- The Good Lord knows what a bonehead I'd be as a scientist] and for every example sited there would be contrapuntal evidence against and then repartee'd with yet more examples of either side of this fulcrum called "Global Warming".

Al Gore got his Nobel for having made his junk science a reality to the world court- excellent.

And I mean "excellent" in all it's manner befitting a Nobel winner- I mean it with all humility and not even a speck of degradation or mock.

But where people may not understand the dichotomy of acquiescence to Al Gore and yet call his "research" "buffalo plop", let me also harbor this notion...

I also appreciate the Darwin Awards.

What do these two items have in even remote commonality to one another- ah! That's where the mind of the astute common-sensor comes to light!

The Darwin Awards are often bereft of old wives tales and mythological "facts" concerning some hapless buttcrumb who's managed to keep himself from rutting and infecting an already plagued gene pool based on the most eviscerating or heinous death imaginable. As I just mentioned- the DA's are often plagued with falsities and disproven myths.

The Nobel Peace Prize for Global Warming is no more "factual" than the Darwin Awards.

All the spouting and frothing and gnashing of teeth- whether at a 'green event' or some half baked hash induced rock concert where Gore makes his appearance having flown in on his "rented jet" reminds me of the "Diastase" character in AKIRA.

Both are archetypes of one another, both spouting words of imminent destruction through a gleeful grimaced smile as if resigned to their fate and more than willing to bring as many with him as possible.

Where the two analogies/similarities end is that at least in the film AKIRA, the police don their riot gear and start pelting the myopic mobs with teargas canisters [the one-shot of an armed riot officer popping a round of CS right into the chest of a hacking/coughing bystander gives me certain amounts of smirk-some glee if one imagines Al taking the shot in the gut...]

The facts are there- one side says we're doomed in the next 20 years the other says we need to sit back and breath a little bit and stop ourselves short of hysteria. Where both sides say they're using science as their motivator to their viewpoint- one does so to presume that there is a status quo- the other does so in hopes of a magnanimous return to utopia by way of human cleansing and an equally human method of resolution.

That- dear readers is the outline of a religion; oh, surely a man-based faith, mind you- but a religion none-the-less.

So, whether the earth ends some time around noon in the next 12 years or I continue along in my "educated idiot" method of plodding, I'll continue to be;

Russ

The Definition of Madness

We all know that rather old idiom about "madness", right?

If not- it goes like this:

"The definition of 'madness' is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each and every time..."

I'm roughly 8 hours into the New Year, this '08.

Actually, I woke up to the sounds of fireworks, shouts of "Happy New Year" and my going-on-two year old's night-fright shrieks so the New Year and I are already acquainted. "Madness" in the sense of the idiom we're discussing is already a well embedded psychological trait- being a parent pretty much saw to that 6 years ago.

Still; stepping into this new year I had a chance to ponder this particular entry and what I'd say.

To be honest I hate the concept of "New Year's Resolutions". It's BS. Why would a person choose to wait for anything that would in effect help to better themselves?

Why wait to quit smoking?
Why wait to cut back on sweets?
Why wait to start even a daily five push-up ritual?

Anything that improves a person should wait for no man- even if that man is himself.

To me, a resolution is not a commitment- it's simply an affirmation to "give it the old college try".

Last time I checked- I never really "tried" all that hard in college- I was no gazelle when it came to the grades- but I knew how to "F" off and still pass with a better than average grade at the end of the semester. A "college try" is slightly better than the combination of a Kevin Smith movie slacker and a Revenge of the Nerds aptitude watching as your grade is determined by the actions of the student and the whims of an indoctrinated and entrenched Secular Progressive professor.

What this world needs is more promises. Real promises.

When I say promises- I'm talking about those types of promises that border on sepuku induced, honor crushing commitments to success if one fails. The world is so full of half-assed commitments it's little wonder we don't count the population by 1/2 as much.

Personally, my promises to myself and to this world will have to be for another time. I take my commitments seriously enough that I make no lists, make no affirmations and I most certainly will have success at them regardless how easy or hard.

For me, a purpose driven life means rewarding my family, my world and then myself- even if that self reward is nothing more than silent pride in a job well done: Increased self-actualization a strident goal that may or may not be complete at the end of my days.

If there's one thing I may state for you, dear readers- if one is just dying for something philosophical from 'Dear Russ'- so here's a 'hard one' from me.

I'll commit to letting go of those things that hold me back.

Letting go... Sounds so infantile in its simplicity- right?

Try this on for size...

• I'll let go of the trappings of what others- which subsequently become 'me- consider "wealth".
• I'll let go of the limiting fears of what a job entails, demands or expects.
• I'll let go of those things that seem so important "for-the-moment" and thusly tenaciously hold on to those things that truly are worthy of importance.
• I'll let go of my Crappaw- who's death has brought me closer to my own recognition to everyone's mortality.

Nothing truly worth possession to a warrior spirit can be termed "easy".

And only once the commitment is made does one realize that the journey itself may in fact be the only possession- an intangible thing that becomes a reward/relic to the spirit. Something both my Grandfather and my Father-in-Law had shown me in their passing but where the grief and tribulation of the loss blinded me for the last 3 to 4 years, only now am I seeing the richness of that somewhat 'lopsided' gift and lesson.

So...

What commitments of honor are you willing to make dear readers?

What levels of "madness" are you willing to let go of so that you can accept something so much better?

A few forms of madness I'll continue to hold close will be my sense of humor and that I continue to be:

Russ

Classically Trained- Currently Adjusting...

It's been a while, good and valiant readers...

I've taken notice that there's a few in the Blogosphere who've included me in their own writing repituar- for their prescience and favor, I'm greatly humbled- hopefully I'll continue to be a contributor to their sites as I hope they will be to mine.

There's an old saying- who exactly made it, I'll ask you to help me remember; it went something like this:

"A man can truly consider himself old when his regrets far outweigh his aspirations."

I'm not "old" yet- but there's days when I doubt my age.

I've looked reflectively on my life this holiday season- patching together fading memories of younger days- wondering where the time had gone and perhaps this first Christmas without my Grandfather's well-wishes stinging worst of all.

As my earlier entry would have you presume, I thought the greatest of things concerning my Grandfather- both of my grandparents actually.

Do I wish for another chance to say some monumental thing that I can know will fill my remaining decades with the pride of a man who's love for the familial patriarch would be forever resounding..?

Who wouldn't.

The thing is, though- I'm not going to regret having not had that chance.

Oh, I'm still stewing over it and moping from time-to-time; this particular holiday season being the most notable exception. As much as my Crappaw would express earlier in life that he'd "want us all to get along in our lives- no sense worrin' about his carcass" no man wants to be trivialized, nor forgotten.

So- though rather belated- Merry Christmas, Crappaw!

I couldn't think of anything I could give you this year, seein' as you're all "Halo'd" and all... Never could figure out what went good with wings and a halo- 'cept for maybe a silly grin and a warm welcome.

And to you- my readers, my online friends- to you a Merry Christmas and/or any other belated form of holiday merriment your heart desires.

To the rest- who have no desire or intent to the holidays [and I actually knew a few very wise individuals who's ideals of what was and was not a "holdiay" in the true sense of the word were quite remarkable] I wish you good tidings- no more or less tied to the trappings or rituals of a faith you neither want nor percieve- simply "peace on earth and good will".

To those venomously opposed to anything even remotely akin to what you might call my "neandertal beliefs in a fairytale legend of mythological faith and redemption" who nearly recoil with the kind of revile befitting a Romero Zombie; I still offer you the hand of friendship.

But feel free to kiss my ass all the same.

"Still Adjusting" and continue to be...

Russ