It Won't Hurt/Today I Started Loving...
Live TV 2007 MSNBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSfwHkDH5A&feature=feedrec_grec_index
4/23/11
4/22/11
Living In America
Toxic People, Toxic Situations...
Avoid them.
We're in poisonous times right now as we head into almost four years of when the world became aware in the summer of 2007 of the great economic disruption. It is a toxic time for many people who aren't prepared to guard themselves from noxious fumes. As someone who is interested in the social sciences I've had to be careful at times of absorbing and emitting too much toxicity. An ironic situation itself, since in 2007 when I was personally struck by this global financial fiasco, I was determined to remain positive and above it all. Generally I have been upbeat and made the most of the situation but at times have paid too much attention to the economic, political and social events of our time. That is not to say that I think anyone should remain uninvolved and obliviously unaware, only cautious about how to absorb it and manage personal thought toward current events.
It was a conscious decision on my part to not participate in the psychological downside of this recession, that seems to have developed into a depression. One thing I have learned, through periods of unemployment, temporary and underemployment, involuntary and voluntary, is being "laid off" from a "real job" in 2007 was the best thing that could have happened to me. Since I was 16 years old I've worked long periods for a major corporation, a huge bank and state government. According to the standards of the Old Economy, these were "real jobs" that were considered "careers." I struggled with identity when I was booted out of the first one, an epically long 30 plus years off and on journey. I also felt I had to replace that so-called career with another one, which I managed to do not once but twice.
The New Economy has been liberating for me. In many ways I was fortunate since I had several small sources of income and a support system that allowed me to get by financially. Not always having funds to do everything I wanted to do when I wanted to do it wasn't as bad as I would have once thought. It is through a process of time I began to realize I had been relieved of the toxic situation of trying to fit the proverbial square peg in a round hole. I was never cut out for a career in the world of major corporations and banks and I managed to survive among toxic people but it was at a cost to me. It was too draining. That was when the economy was supposedly good, although on reflection most of us know it was a consumer economy based on a false happiness I couldn't buy into. That kind of life was a more poisonous time for me than the one we live in now.
What I have learned about this entire situation is to avoid toxic people and toxic situations. For me that means not being employed in a job that is poisonous to me due to negative people and oppressing organizations. It has now become irrelevant to me that the part-time job I have, that I generally enjoy, is considered by many as my being underemployed. What those people don't realize is that part-time underemployment provides me with medical benefits, some additional income and most importantly, free no-stress time. During that time I am able to be creative and supplement my income from freelance work that is creative and enjoyable to me. Most importantly I don't feel I have to fit into a work situation I don't feel comfortable in, a toxic situation for me and for the most part allows me to avoid toxic people. That is as valuable to me as the skyrocketing price of gold.
Avoid them.
We're in poisonous times right now as we head into almost four years of when the world became aware in the summer of 2007 of the great economic disruption. It is a toxic time for many people who aren't prepared to guard themselves from noxious fumes. As someone who is interested in the social sciences I've had to be careful at times of absorbing and emitting too much toxicity. An ironic situation itself, since in 2007 when I was personally struck by this global financial fiasco, I was determined to remain positive and above it all. Generally I have been upbeat and made the most of the situation but at times have paid too much attention to the economic, political and social events of our time. That is not to say that I think anyone should remain uninvolved and obliviously unaware, only cautious about how to absorb it and manage personal thought toward current events.
It was a conscious decision on my part to not participate in the psychological downside of this recession, that seems to have developed into a depression. One thing I have learned, through periods of unemployment, temporary and underemployment, involuntary and voluntary, is being "laid off" from a "real job" in 2007 was the best thing that could have happened to me. Since I was 16 years old I've worked long periods for a major corporation, a huge bank and state government. According to the standards of the Old Economy, these were "real jobs" that were considered "careers." I struggled with identity when I was booted out of the first one, an epically long 30 plus years off and on journey. I also felt I had to replace that so-called career with another one, which I managed to do not once but twice.The New Economy has been liberating for me. In many ways I was fortunate since I had several small sources of income and a support system that allowed me to get by financially. Not always having funds to do everything I wanted to do when I wanted to do it wasn't as bad as I would have once thought. It is through a process of time I began to realize I had been relieved of the toxic situation of trying to fit the proverbial square peg in a round hole. I was never cut out for a career in the world of major corporations and banks and I managed to survive among toxic people but it was at a cost to me. It was too draining. That was when the economy was supposedly good, although on reflection most of us know it was a consumer economy based on a false happiness I couldn't buy into. That kind of life was a more poisonous time for me than the one we live in now.
What I have learned about this entire situation is to avoid toxic people and toxic situations. For me that means not being employed in a job that is poisonous to me due to negative people and oppressing organizations. It has now become irrelevant to me that the part-time job I have, that I generally enjoy, is considered by many as my being underemployed. What those people don't realize is that part-time underemployment provides me with medical benefits, some additional income and most importantly, free no-stress time. During that time I am able to be creative and supplement my income from freelance work that is creative and enjoyable to me. Most importantly I don't feel I have to fit into a work situation I don't feel comfortable in, a toxic situation for me and for the most part allows me to avoid toxic people. That is as valuable to me as the skyrocketing price of gold.4/21/11
4/20/11
You Can Quote Me On That
What is propped up most go down....
Gold is skyrocketing and so is the US Stock Market. Why is that? Both are bubbles but one is likely to last longer and if I were a betting man it would be on gold as well as silver. Gold and silver still have real value and the dollar no longer does. The US dollar has been so devalued by overprinting that it sends the wrong message to cash savers, interest rates are too low.
Fund traders are investing in the stock market for short term returns on the investments the average person has placed money in for a better return. Once the Federal Reserve quits Quantitative Easing and withdrawing from the capital markets in June there will be trouble. Look for the beginning signs on April 27 after Bernanke gives his first press conference after the next Fed meeting.
Gold is skyrocketing and so is the US Stock Market. Why is that? Both are bubbles but one is likely to last longer and if I were a betting man it would be on gold as well as silver. Gold and silver still have real value and the dollar no longer does. The US dollar has been so devalued by overprinting that it sends the wrong message to cash savers, interest rates are too low.Fund traders are investing in the stock market for short term returns on the investments the average person has placed money in for a better return. Once the Federal Reserve quits Quantitative Easing and withdrawing from the capital markets in June there will be trouble. Look for the beginning signs on April 27 after Bernanke gives his first press conference after the next Fed meeting.
4/19/11
Economic, Social and Geopolitical
Ayn Rand on neoconservatives...
"Conservative Sellout of Capitalism"
Ayn Rand's reasoning on Religious Conservatives (Social Conservatives), Liberals and Statism in this video from the 1950s is as current now as it was then. It explains why her philosophy is popular again today. Those calling themselves conservatives in favor of free markets and capitalism use three interrelated arguments based from faith, tradition and depravity. These are fallacies that contradict the fundamental principles of the United States.
http://youtu.be/vpp5EXZZrgA
http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertyPen
"Conservative Sellout of Capitalism"
Ayn Rand's reasoning on Religious Conservatives (Social Conservatives), Liberals and Statism in this video from the 1950s is as current now as it was then. It explains why her philosophy is popular again today. Those calling themselves conservatives in favor of free markets and capitalism use three interrelated arguments based from faith, tradition and depravity. These are fallacies that contradict the fundamental principles of the United States.
http://youtu.be/vpp5EXZZrgA
http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertyPen
4/18/11
Thinking Out Loud
Courage and Encouragement...
It takes courage to live in a world where we are bombarded with multi-weaved visuals and sounds ranging from good to bad on an unprecedented scale as never before. This is true if you live in a relatively quiet New Hampshire village or a large Western American city such as Phoenix. The blare is incessant, unless we gather up our strength and bravely fend off what we don't want or need to see or hear.
We are heroes for living in an evolutionary cultural era of sweeping change. What we present to others is intangibly reflected back to us.
Certainly we are not the first humans to do this. We should recognize we are living in a time period that is not merely a change of century but the turning of a page in history. For this most certainly is a monumental juncture of future present and we are living in global change, not unprecedented, but definitely not the relatively placid post-Industrial period of the past century. Strange how we don't really recognize a significant time period when we're living in it.
Our heroism for drawing breath in this unsettled time is rewarded by the reassurance we pass onto others, which in turn is handed back to us.
We sense the change in the atmosphere like hair rising on our arms from static electricity before a lightning storm. We're aware lightning is going to strike but its target is unknown to us. We live in an instant of time that will be recounted in history in ways we may not recognize due to the distractions of the moment. Safeguarding ourselves from fear of the unknown requires courage. The spirit and guts we need for courage can be obtained by encouraging others, that is then redirected back to us. It is the intangible law of return on investment in others.
It takes courage to live in a world where we are bombarded with multi-weaved visuals and sounds ranging from good to bad on an unprecedented scale as never before. This is true if you live in a relatively quiet New Hampshire village or a large Western American city such as Phoenix. The blare is incessant, unless we gather up our strength and bravely fend off what we don't want or need to see or hear.
We are heroes for living in an evolutionary cultural era of sweeping change. What we present to others is intangibly reflected back to us.
Certainly we are not the first humans to do this. We should recognize we are living in a time period that is not merely a change of century but the turning of a page in history. For this most certainly is a monumental juncture of future present and we are living in global change, not unprecedented, but definitely not the relatively placid post-Industrial period of the past century. Strange how we don't really recognize a significant time period when we're living in it.
Our heroism for drawing breath in this unsettled time is rewarded by the reassurance we pass onto others, which in turn is handed back to us.
We sense the change in the atmosphere like hair rising on our arms from static electricity before a lightning storm. We're aware lightning is going to strike but its target is unknown to us. We live in an instant of time that will be recounted in history in ways we may not recognize due to the distractions of the moment. Safeguarding ourselves from fear of the unknown requires courage. The spirit and guts we need for courage can be obtained by encouraging others, that is then redirected back to us. It is the intangible law of return on investment in others.
4/17/11
You Can Quote Me On That
Operating outside the standard time schedule...
"I'm a night person who won't be forced into a lifetime of days."
This is the time of year that I start entering my most creative period and nighttime is when it all happens for me. I am quite content with the heat of desert summer (well...until the very end of August), day and night. As any creative person knows, creativity is like manic depression (therefore many creative people are often manic depressive) and occurs like mood swings. There are cycles of abundant creativity in bursts with extents of time when relatively little happens. I fully recognize that my anxiety and low level depression occur mostly in winter months, even though what we refer to as winter in the desert is nothing like what a person in upstate New York might call it.
This is not a problem at home since I live with someone who works all night and is a day sleeper. Mostly I steer clear of the so-called "regular" world that operates on a daytime weekday schedule. I do my waking and sleeping to suit my own circadian rhythm that is regular to me. Fortunately my "real" job is part-time with varying hours and days so I choose an afternoon-evening schedule. I circumvent a so-called "normal" life and am quite content not living in the 8 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday world (nor do I operate well in one). I am free of being dependent on one source of income but several that combined, most of the time anyway, is enough for me to live on and obtain the tools and supplies I need to be creative.
I'm aware I am not the only one who lives in a similar way and I tend to think our lives are much healthier and happier for those of us who follow our own natural cadence. Too many people try to force themselves into a pattern against their nature and create stress not only in their lives but in general society. Perhaps one benefit of this economic era of high underemployment and unemployment will cause a lot of people to reevaluate their priorities in scheduling and managing their lives.
"I'm a night person who won't be forced into a lifetime of days."
This is not a problem at home since I live with someone who works all night and is a day sleeper. Mostly I steer clear of the so-called "regular" world that operates on a daytime weekday schedule. I do my waking and sleeping to suit my own circadian rhythm that is regular to me. Fortunately my "real" job is part-time with varying hours and days so I choose an afternoon-evening schedule. I circumvent a so-called "normal" life and am quite content not living in the 8 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday world (nor do I operate well in one). I am free of being dependent on one source of income but several that combined, most of the time anyway, is enough for me to live on and obtain the tools and supplies I need to be creative.
I'm aware I am not the only one who lives in a similar way and I tend to think our lives are much healthier and happier for those of us who follow our own natural cadence. Too many people try to force themselves into a pattern against their nature and create stress not only in their lives but in general society. Perhaps one benefit of this economic era of high underemployment and unemployment will cause a lot of people to reevaluate their priorities in scheduling and managing their lives.
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