Simulants and Depressants

So this weekend I did some very bad things to my body by mixing stimulants and depressants. First I was in a van ride back from Columbus, OH that took about 7 hours, during which I was consuming beers and taking naps in between my beers. So we got home at 11:30 and then headed out for a Halloween party at a bar. At this point, my roommate pointed out that I looked tired (I had gotten up at 5:00 in the morning) and that the bar was open for another hour because of daylight savings time, so he decided to get me a Red Bull. So there I was well rested, but still tired and drinking beer and Red Bull (seperately, not mixed together). Finally, at 2:30, I managed to sneak out the side door of the bar and get home. That's when I noticed that the Red Bull was still in my system. So I decided to take a little NyQuil, you know to help put me to sleep. So with all these things mixed together in my body, my mind decided that it wanted to dream about George Costanza teaching a class on breasts. You know mostly about size, density, and what have you. Needless to say Sunday was a little bit of a blur.

White Sox Parade

Who are all these people at the White Sox parade? Don't they have jobs or somewhere to be on a Friday afternoon? Were we suppose to get the day off or something and I never got the memo?

Confetti

As the city of Chicago celebrates the World Series victory of the White Sox, I must pose the question of the use of confetti at the parade. Our idea of celebration involves trowing litter (and tons of it on our streets. What better way to show city pride than taking a big paper dump on it. This makes as much sense as rioting after a championship. When you say, "this city is great, lets rip it apart it!"

Not to mention the people who have to pick up the confetti. Sucks to be them. But their efforts are in vain anyway because that paper will be in the ecosystem for years to come regardless of how well they clean it up.

Now I don't consider myself an environmentalist, it's just that this practice seems kinda pointless to me.

Pessimism

Do you ever feel like the entire world is against you? Let me tell you... it is. From the moment that you wake up and little stinging rain pelts your face to having to deal with bosses to having meeting large barriers between you and your goals. The world is a bitch and I wonder if there are really any ways to escape from its bullshit. I don't want to be all negative. Some places do exist where you feel comfortable and don't have to deal with all the real life pains-in-the-ass. But you can't always stay there. Eventually you get summoned out and face the bullshit of the world. Although some of the world's pains are challenges are beneficial as they help you find you identity and develop as a person, the rest of the time they are just a bunch of bullshit that just get under your skin.

How can we escape all the bullshit? Is it possible? I'm not too sure. We can certainly put ourselves in situations where bullshit is limited, but eliminating bullshit competely may prove to be impossible (especially when you deal with people full of it).

Bottom Line Thinking

How effective is focusing on the end result? It seems to me that so many people today focus on the outcome they don't pay attention to the process of getting to the outcome. A prime example is sports. When you focus too much on beating your opponent, you often tend to stop focusing on how well you perform and strive to perform well enough to beat your opponent. Even if you manage to defeat your opponent, you have limited your chance to develop and that will hurt you against a better opponent (which you will inevitably face).

Thus far, I have also noticed this trend in the working world. Always focusing on how much money you are making or losing can really take emphasis off of how well you are doing the job. Although it is a little cliche, people really do need to have a short memory when it comes to competitive success and failure. You need to learn from you successes and failures and then move on. This type of thinking will greatly aid your development and make you a more viable performer in the future.

Carmex

It is my belief that if you manage to finish a container of carmex, then you should recieve some sort of prize at the bottom. Those things are so darn hard to finish, and I used to think that even finishing one was impossible, until i was proven wrong by a certain lady friend.

Additionally, I believe that the instructions on Carmex should include keeping it in your pocket for an extended period of time so it gets warm and easy to apply. This makes the product so much better.

Apothecary

I believe that we should bring back some of the old english vernacular. For example, the name pharmacist should be replaced by the term apothecary. If my job were to put pills from a big bottle into little bottles, I would at least like a cool name the cancel out the lameness of my job.

And on that note, I am changing the name of my job from clerk to scribe.

Being Blind

In the last two days, I have seen two blind guys riding the el. And that got me thinking... What would be worse: being born blind or having sight and then going blind later? On the one hand it would be pretty rotten to never see colors (especially in the fall) or see the faces of the people that are closest to you. However, if you never experience sight then you won't know what your missing out on. If can see and then go blind, then you lose something. So are you more fortunate for having sight in the first place or fortunate for not knowing what you are missing out on? What do you think?

Friday Afternoon

Would someone please tell me the point of working on Friday afternoon. It's not that we are unhappy to be working on a Friday afternoon but rather we are so jacked about the weekend that there is no focus. Instead we waste away this tiny part of our week by writing in our blog, playing tetris or perhaps watching a Seinfeld episode. But what else is there to do...work? I laugh at the thought.

Evils of Specialization

Hundreds of years ago, people had to do everything for themselves; grow their own food, build their own house, brew their own beer, etc, etc. Now it seems like all Americans are utterly helpless except in a couple of areas. We have become such a specialized people that we have lost touch with how to do simple things like cook a meal. Sure life is a lot easier now with less work to do at home, but what do we do otherwise...watch tv, drink until we are stupid, maybe play some sort of video game. I don't know about you but I'd rather spend time doing things for myself. It seems that you can get a lot of satisfaction from making a meal or wearing clothes you made (even if they are of poor quality. Perhaps that is why Survivor is so popular. We get to observe people doing things that they may not know how to do, but need to do to "survive." I think that there is an innate part of us that wants to be able to do things for ourselves. Knowing that we can survive on our own can be a very comfortable feeling. Perhaps these reasons are why running a business is a goal of so many people, but a reality for so few.

Today

Yeah, so today I stared at a computer screen for 2 straight hours and did not do one thing. I feel far from a productive person. But at least I looked at a bunch of random pictures on google. I didn't loose thousands of dollars at least.

Thoughts on Drinking 2

Drinking is fun but the next day isn't always, especially when you have to wake up at 5 and work.

Thoughts on Drinking

Why do we like to drink so often. I do and I presume that you do too. I went drinking last night, and it was fun, and I'm going drinking tonight and it'll be fun, I'm probably going to go out drinking on Thursday, and it'ss be fun. Friday I will probably take a break and make some alcohol.

And another thing, how could they have ever thought that it was a good idea to ban drinking...bad idea. Without drinking, how are we suppose to be drunk?

Bill Gates vs. The Panhandler

This morning coming out of the el stop I noticed some writing on the ground in sidewalk chalk. It said, "WORK SLAVES WORK." I thought about the person who must have written it, an middleaged man who probably has been working his whole life and has little or nothing to show for it. So I'm thinking well maybe this guys got it right, he has his freedom despite no money, but money is not real anyway. So he's probably enjoying his life of lesiure.

But on the other had where is the fulfillment in being a bum. It can't be that great. But working isn't that great either. Just today I lost about $6000 of my company's money in about half an hour. This just stressed me out further. So being a bum is not fulfilling, thus far working has not been fulfilling, so what are we supposed to do.

Also today, an article appeared in the Chicago Sun Times about Bill Gates and his contribution of $15 million to fund a museum. This seems like a huge amount of money, but to him it ways a mear $15 donation to the average person. Then we got to talking about the fact that so many people who don't even graduate from college become the wealthiest people around. Is this the way to go? Or does all that money just go to you and make you something completely different. I guess I will never know (for a couple of years).

What I care about

But of real interest to me is mead. I hope to one day produce and sell mead for a living. I have recentl ordered The closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened: Whereby is Discovered Several ways for making of Metheglin, Sider, Cherry-wine...London, 1669. This may seem very strange to read a book that was wrtitten in the 17th century, but this is the guy who thought of eating bacon and eggs together to breakfast, so I think it would be good to listen to what he has to say. Plus his book contains 106 recepies for brewing mead and at least some of them have to be good. If I can find one that I can sell, I think that I'll name it after him.

Bored

My job this week is hedging options with futures on a computer. I am not very excited about this job, but I won three games of solitare and defeated metal man and wood man in mega man 2. Yes, this is my job and I get paid for it. If markets are efficient, I sure am not.

My blog

I have decided to start my blog as a way to document my life thoughts and ideas. It seems that time is moving too fast and there is not enough time to think about the past and future. On this blog I plan to complain about my job and talk about alcohol, rugby and pretty much anything else that comes to mind. And one day I plan to sell my story to network television since they seem to be low on ideas and my life is not that much less exciting than a made for tv movie.