Five year plans, and why I screw them up.

I just had a rather heated discussion with a friend, who knows me well, about how I should just pick some piece of crap five year plan that folks asking that question in job interviews want to hear, and use it.

My problem, what those folks want to hear, would be a lie. Yes, I'd love to spend five years at a company, the problem, about the only jobs I feel able to land in this day and age, five years would be a white flag flapping loud in a gale that flipping burgers would be my life. Did enough of that growing up, in my parents cafe as a teenager.

Look, after what I've been through the last few years, the only two five year plans I have still turn folks off, even with the positive spin put on them, which is a bit of a white lie.

1. To make just enough money off my writings to fund certain fun parts (to me) of my life, like, say eating out with a friend every few months, or going on a vacation (a real one, not a job search or scouting mission, which all but one of my vacations were).

and

2: To actually be at a company five years down the road, without it or me having crossed any legal issues or moral/ethics issues that make one, the other, or both sides want to end it before then.

Yeah. Most times, either I crossed some line, or the company or co-worker did, and it left me out of work. Why? Some friends still remember this phrase, uttered at Green Street (a now defunct bar in Salt Lake City) a decade ago. "I have standards." Actually, more like moral values I am not willing to break for anyone, even if the only folks who like me think I need to, as they do.

I see no advancement, no schooling, not a hint of a chance to improve my situation in life until I have some foundation to build it back upon. Foolish as that may be, think about it. How can you make a plan without being in a position to actually have it come true? Yes, you hear all the stories about how folks overcome such adversity, but how often do they sacrifice their moral values to do it? Considerably more than you think.

So, what plan could I lay out, in what strange way to pitch it, keeping my cynicism in check? That requires thinking, which in my case, links these days to writing. Well, okay, it always has, I just actually toss such things out there now, to show folks that not all my computer time is spent playing games, on social media, or surfing the web.

Breaking it down, honestly, not lying about the plan, would be the hard part. '

Let me try one out on you, who read this blog (or stumbled upon it, and made it this far before yawning and wandering off into more steamy, lurid areas of the web, filled with celebrity gossip and sleazy photos.

the new plan(?): To be a writer and worker, respected and fairly compensated for his work in both realms, and keeping a balanced life between those careers and a small social life. 

The only lie there is I want more than a small social life, but at my age, small is better than none, and I went that route several times in my life. Not happy times, and if you think I'm a grumpy old codger now, you should have crossed paths with me when I had no social life.

Would that pitch work? Could I get away with just that much? Doubt it. They always want details. So, expanding it just a touch, you get. And that fairly compensated bit makes me sound greedy or leftist, which I am not. Not to mention the small part makes folks think I

To be a published author, respected poet, solid employee, and still a good friend to those who helped me along the way. For there to be a bit of money each month left over after the bills and a few pleasures to stash away something for retirement. I hope to find myself in a secure enough position to feel the risk of investments is not a crushing burden it is now, to be in a nice place to live, and have my small moments of quiet, out under the stars enjoying their night-show some evenings, sipping a favorite beverage and savoring the moment without worries of is it my last for a long while. 

Still stretches the truth, as I don't see the investments part ever happening again, as I always seem to loose out more in the markets than at a race track or casino, the few times I've hit those (still up on that kind of gambling and way down in the stock picking games).

Maybe I could pitch that one, but will my face stay straight? I doubt it. But at least the guy in the mirror won't be too harsh on me for that kind of fudging the facts. Then again, my harshest judge is not those around me, or supporting me, but him, over in the reverse land of reflections. Better take out the investment part.

God knows, the only stock I feel comfy risking cash if I had it, better have some dividend, and be something I use just enough of to get back at least half what I spend on their products each year.

What determines your worth?

Had to post this somewhere today. Not happy about my situation, but like the judging of worth by a piece of paper even less. 

Something I need to lay out there folks. I am both long-term unemployed and homeless. Never got unemployment as when I "resigned upon request", never got that in writing, so it was reported I "Quit without notice" which even in a right to work state, denies you unemployment benefits. That was a decision made by some chumps with degrees. So, when folks try saying a degree makes you a better person, well, you can conjure as to why I might disagree with that.

A degree is a piece of paper, issued by others who have them as well, that just says you studied, maybe actually learnt something, and paid for it, or had others pay for it. Under NO circumstance does a degree convey wisdom, mercy, or true intelligence. Don't believe me? Your choice.

Folks who measure worth often equate some piece of paper, be it a deed, degree, or stacks of cash or stocks as worth. The true worth of a person is in the three areas I spoke of. I may not be as wise as Solomon was said to be, may have lapses in my mercy, and not as intelligent as once showed promise to be, but I have a worth.

Do you really have the worth your think you do? Meet the eyes of the person in the mirror when you answer. They might disagree.

Our National Shortcoming...

I hear the cries of the folks Irene flooded, and I sympathize, but the media forgot the real big flood this summer.

Parts of the Missouri River Valley are still under water, and have been since June. You folks back east can get a taste for what has happened in the midwest now. And I hope some of your claims get rejected for Irene just like the Great Corps Deluge of 2011 has bugged folks who had whole counties denied their disaster relief requests after the Corps of Engineers opened the gates of the dams, and their bloody levees failed. You can say what you want out there, but these folks lost sight of their land and roads back in June and its just now receding so they can see the higher parts.

There were two great inland seas this summer, one north of Omaha, and one south. Go to YouTube, hell, amatuers did a better job covering it than the media did. Oh, I'm sorry, did your sound bite driven ADHD personality just get offended by that, national media? Good.

Once upon a time, we had a real media, one that covered stories, was patient and not worried about the ratings of the news, and rarely covered the entertainment gossip save as a light thing on a slow day. We had local papers that covered all the minutes of the city council meetings, school board meetings, and all the other things we need to know about.

Not anymore. Or if they exist, they are too damned few and way too far between.

Look, the problems in this world don't start with what you neighbor is doing folks, but with that freak in the mirror. The one that cares more about the fashions of Lady Gag'me or how the Phats are playing, than about what is going on in local politics. When you accept that, start reading the papers, even if its the E-version, maybe the bozos behind the curtains will realize they bought that barrier from the dude who sold an Emperor some clothes.

The best way to transparency is you giving a damn enough to actually read or finding out yourself what your elected bozo's are doing.....
and my apologies to all clowns out there for insinuating they are as incompentant as politicians by the comparison.

And look at what happened to those counties in Iowa.... actually look and think about it.