Filed under: Uncategorized
Yesterday as I drove to work I just missed being stopped by a road block put up by the Barrington Hills Police Department on Rt. 68. It was two thirty eight in the afternoon on a Saturday. They were picking up their “Prepare to be stopped” orange signs and getting in their cars. It appeared that they had encountered too much traffic. The other lane was backed up several football fields. I was thinking as I drove by that that was like Fascism. If I left five minutes earlier I would have had to check in with a police officer on my way to work. I must admit that that sort of thing makes me feel really angry. I feel as though my liberty is being taken away. The constitution says I have the right to “no unreasonable search.” What is reasonable about being searched/stopped because it’s Saturday afternoon at two. It’s seems hard enough to justify these road blocks on New Years Eve and other holidays where DUI is most pronounced. I felt completely violated by government yesterday.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Our economy is extremely faceted. So faceted, in fact, that it is now almost completely abstract. Is it a financial loaf of bread, credit acting as yeast? Or, if it’s bread then what type of bread; pita, Tortilla, Rye maybe? What does our bread look like when it’s deflated? What structures do we have in place that stay when credit is removed?
Filed under: commentary
On a simply complex level: Money=Human Work
We receive money in proportion to how we make life easier for other human beings. There are too parts to the equation for Work.
Work: Work=Effort*Distance.
Effort*Distance is also a ratio.
That ratio is equal to the efficiency of a person’s work.
In your daily life do you not try to make it easier? Every person works and gets better, or more efficient, at the task that they choose to undertake. Basically, human beings are steadily trying to make life easier. This has gone on through out history. In general we call this process of making things easier progress.
If you look at the governmental structures during times of the most progress you find that they are free market and democracy, or at the very least moving towards either. Conversely, the times where there is the least progress are just after the collapse of such establishments (ex. the dark ages). Why?
During free market times some people/organizations become highly efficient at making money. After working hard these people had an extreme concentration of wealth; enough to change the governments to fit their needs.
Here is why democracy is essential and mostly free markets are essential. If people are not given the illusion of freedom then they lose efficiency in their work. Essentially, any nation, that cannot motivate it’s workers with the idea that they can make life easier, will become extremely in-efficient and fail. Human beings are motivated by the idea that life will be easier tomorrow if I work hard now. That idea is called hope.
This is the reason why communism has failed. In communism, there is no hope that tomorrow will be easier. There is only the reality that it will be the same. Every day, the same.
McCandless (Into the Wild, Krakauer) was right that what excites a person is a changing horizon; what he missed was that the horizon doesn’t literally need to change. Risks are taken everyday, without the use of a canoe and the Colorado River. In businesses and in ordinary, seeming, life. That is, as long as there is hope for betterment.
That doesn’t mean that everyone is motivated by hope of betterment. Some people, like McCandless, reject that life for one reason or another. You can live like he did, essentially in the same way human beings have for two million years; only keeping what they need; having an efficiency just over one.
McCandless died at age 23. That’s an important bit.
Anyway, at this time our nation is attempting reform, a little, by regulating our economy to stop corporations from influencing our government as much. That way the average citizen feels that they can do something. President Obama was elected overwhelmingly because of the hope that tomorrow will be better; safer, more fun, or more delicious etc.
Whether or not, regulation is successful and gives us our government back, I don’t know. Our government was never designed to represent the three hundred million people it does. We’ve never been democratic, and not truly a representative country. Our modified republic has been changing; incorporating parts of socialism, and fascism/corporatism along the way. Our government is changing every time it meets. Luckily, it has a strong foundation, with only a few modifications.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I have been busy recently, and busyness doesn’t comply with writing with quality (I better make this one good because it’ll be the only draft). I want to write here. That’s why I am posting this. I need the structure of school to guide my work right now, because my attention isn’t here. It’s else where and it looks to be elsewhere for a while. My posts are not going to be regular until I get into school and am writing frequently. Anyway, my portfolio will take a hit with this but I need to post something, and this is it… for now.
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I was visiting the world before the interenet, this past week or so. I moved and was without interenet or tv. I wish I had something insightful to say about not having it, good or bad, but I have no such insight. So it’s been a long time and this isn’t a post.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I am presently watching the Raiders getting dismantled by the Broncos. It’s ridiculous. The Raiders have been terrible since they lost the Superbowl. Wow, they are terrible.
The Bears defense played well. I did not expect to see that, considering how poorly they had tackled during the preseason. I wonder if the Bears D decided not to try in the preseason. Also, the Bears offense played well, too. Orton played effectively and made throws and descisions that make you wonder why he hasn’t been starting. Matt Forte is a complete running back who’s strength is blocking and yet he runs more effectively than any of the running backs in the last ten years. The Bears look ready to take control of the NFC North once again. The success they had against the Colts, one of the leagues elite teams, sugests that the Bears gameplanning, coaching, and talent is elite. I’m excited, and I wasn’t on Saterday… Excellent.
Filed under: commentary
Friday was a long day.
We found an apartment, in Elgin, agreed to instal a radon system, slept only three hours total, I drove to Elgin and back (dangerous considering previous), took a nap, found out showering was not an option, neither was dry clothes, because gas was turned off, lost keys, found keys, dried work shirt on way to work, sweated in the sun, thank you convertible, put on shirt slightly damp shirt before work, punched in barely on time, found out I needed to buy a new shirt that was dry all day, took off damp shirt, put on new one, worked hard, felt dizzy, had poor perception of reality like tunnel vision for thought, made a few mistakes, entered in an order nearly twelve minutes late, told the customers the honest truth, apologized, gave them a brief description of my current state, grabbed food, ran food, entered more orders, found out that the food I entered in late came out differently than ordered, also the table concluded it was my fault completely, checked order again, I entered it correctly, endured managers negativity, laughed as I rolled silverware, told people about my day, decided to document it, and went to sleep.
That was Friday.
If you don’t do your homework this is where you end up. I suppose this is after detention isn’t enough. So, this is where you end up if detentions don’t scare you straight. To my right drooling is normal, repeated phrases are as well, so are repeated questions, and to my left is a wall that I bury my head into. I am in Special Education’s classroom. There is nothing more demeaning than this. This place is pitch black. The peaceful tones chime and I leave as quickly as possible and I vow never to return.
I attempt to return to my class as usual. I sit in my normal seat in the class with normal people and I blend in. I do the homework that isn’t repulsive. Soon though the Special Education teacher knocks on the door. I am requested, and now everyone knows that I am a Special Ed. kid. The world goes from dark grey to black once more.
My one time without adult supervision is my daily transit from home to school or school to home. This is the time where grey washes out the blackness. I am flying, as I get out of school and unlock my bike I am gearing up for my race. I hop onto my bike; the pedals heat up under my force. I lean deep into every turn, bomb every hill, and fly. Mothers with their strollers move off of the path, a futile attempt to be safe from the sonic boom that follows me everywhere. Grey turns to white as I pedal into the sky off of a giant dirt ramp. Weightlessness and wind resistance are the only things I feel. This is my time, my love, my peace.
The familiar clap, clap, clap, progressively getting louder, reverberating down the empty hallway, five or six teachers or assistants or librarians walk past me every time I sit in the hallway.
“Why have you been in Special Ed.?” Danny asks while surrounded with his other friends.
“I didn’t do my homework.”
“Ah, I see.” Danny looks down. “You know…” The tones chime, the day is over, and the hallway fills up. Danny is greeted by a gamut of the cool variety. They talk to him and glance over at me.
I head to my locker, gather my books, assignments, then head to my bike. I remove the lock and turn my bike around; its posture is ready for speed.
“Hey, Sammy!” Danny interrupts my preparations. He is still with his friends. “Can I see your bike?”
“Sure.” I hand to handle bars over.
He seats up, pedals a big circle, “Woo!” bunny hopping up onto a parking barrier. He then pedals like mad away from school.
“Danny?” I yell as he’s flying away with my bike. He turns and looks back and I can tell he intends on continuing away. I point for him to look down.
He sees the registration plate and turns back. “Oh; well, in that case.” He pedals up and hands the bike over nicely.
“Seriously though what’s with being a Special Ed. kid?” Smirking and waiting for a response as his pose stands behind him.
“I, uh, like I told you before, don’t do my homework.”
“Dude; I don’t do my homework and I’m not in Special Ed.”
“I don’t think it’s fair.”
“Maybe it is fair, fagot.” Laughter follows Danny’s statement.
“No it’s not then, I know the material.”
“Obviously not, why else would you be in Special Ed.” He cuts me off. “They don’t just put anyone in there.”
I pause, “leave me alone.” The world that should be nicely grey is black.
“I will when you stop crying like a fagot bitch all the time, or when you get a job bagging groceries or collecting carts, but only then because it will officially be wrong.”
“Why are you picking on me?”
“You sit in the hallway everyday and cry like bitch.”
“Why are you picking on me?”
Laughter, “Why are you picking on me?” He mocks. Life is dark all over and it’s I fly away. I ride away as fast as I can but the world remains dark, and I have no way to escape.
During school I hide away until it ends. Then I go out to ride my bike home. When I get out side I find only its absence, and an insubordinate lock. I take my lock and head toward the tracks. I walk past the smoke stack bellowing unfulfilled dreams past the empty vessel called down town towards the timeless field of cattails and the silent stream under the bridge. As I walk, I see my bike down the gravel slope off of the tracks. The brake lines are mangled and the brakes are broken. Sliding down the slope I noticed my grey bike had a red streak on the frame. The cattails were matted down in a path leading away from the bike. In the maze like trail I stumble upon a person face down in the silent stream. As I get back up I realize the gravity in the lack of any response to my stumble. I look closely and realize that Danny is a different shade of grey than normal. Danny is easily dragged to the bridge and sat up against the wall. His flesh is grey except for the dark red that has solidified in his ears. I keep getting up then sitting back down next to him. I clamor for something to say or do, but nothing comes to mind.
I leave Danny to sit, Danny is dead, and now everyone knows it.
