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My Take On It All
The Reason For Living If you find out, I'd like to know. If God knows everything, why didn't he spare us the agony of struggling through life and just fast-forward to the end? If I've learned anything this year, it's that nothing is certain. Uncertainty is all we can be certain of. Maybe this is just a paraphrase of the old quote, "nothing is is constant but change". The latter is usually uttered by corporations as they try to sell management's latest "bright idea". Embracing change for the sake of change isn't always a good thing. To bad we don't have more people willing to stand up and say, "The Emperor isn't wearing any clothes!". The Road To Success Embracing change blindly will never lead to success. But neither will swimming against the tide all the time. It seems that the key is to follow when the battle can't be won, but having a razor sharp sense of timing to know when it makes sense to do so. Smelling opportunity helps, and at the end of the day no one ever gained much without risking something. The Case For Dying Well it happens to the best of us doesn't it? And who hasn't thought of just helping it along a bit? I have an explorative nature and my desire to see what is over the next hill keeps me from cutting the journey short. And if the desire to keep exploring ever dies, I figure I'd first max out every line of credit I could possibly take out before checking out. What I couldn't spend I'd just give away. Spending Your Love Wisely "Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all". This phrase is usually uttered by those who are trying to justify their feelings. Anyone who finds their self a single adult has to come to the realization that they are at the end of a long series of failed relationships. I believe our culture brainwashes us into having unreal expectations with regard to relationships. You get out of it what you put into it. Going To Hell If there is one. Seems like a strange place, all that fire and brimstone. Sometimes it feels like I'm living in my own personal version of it. I'm no Einstein but I'd like to spend the last half of my life getting a handle on where I stand on this issue. Screwing Up Comes easily to me. Some are born with the gift, others such as myself have perfected it. I've had plenty of Forrest Gump luck in my life which has most fortunately counterbalanced most of my mistakes in life. The Real Deal This page was once aglow with my personal accolades, accomplishments, achievements. Who am I trying to convince? I'm a successful person by most measures in life and given the difficulties many are burdened with I don't have much to complain about. But sometimes I still do. The "Ex" Yes believe or not, in spite of my bubbly personality I am indeed divorced. At least it wasn't messy, and I got to experience the whole dating thing again, which is its own mixed bag of good and bad times. The Homestead I like having new homes built. Maybe it's the smell of new appliances but the idea of getting a fixer upper doesn't do it for me. The Job
I'm still employed at Wachovia Securities, and was promoted in 2007 to Vice President. I've been there about 7 years to many. I have a nice view of Lake Michigan and the Sears Tower on the 28th floor of the United Airlines Building. Our time there is limited though as Wells Fargo has now purchased the company and is continuing to support the transition of the Information Technology jobs to India. The trend to mass out-source all of the high-paying American jobs is quite frankly one of the most tragic things I've ever witnessed. The Past I tend to think about the past a lot, and combined with my love of writing I have documented a lot of it. See the 1981-1982 pages if you're interested in those years. I also spend a lot of time thinking about the "recent past", which also forces me to look inward and examine the thought processes that have led me here. If anything I'm very interested in constantly remaking myself into a better person. My mother is my role model, as she gives so much of herself to others. The Economy A lot of press is out there, and a lot of people are asking, "How long will the recession last?". In my opinion nothing the government does will change our long-term problems until they address the issue of high-paying jobs, which are quickly disappearing in the United States. I don't see anything on the horizon that makes me believe some New Industry is going to come down the pike and save us all. Y2K has come and gone, and so has the Internet Boom. Sadly, all the big companies are blindly following off-shoring models and for the rare positions that are filled on-shore they choose contractors, most of whom have moved here from other countries and are willing to do the work for less than the traditional American worker. At the end of the day, as the Global Economy shrinks the world, there will be a rebalancing of wealth. It's good news for the poorest countries as they will see an increase in their standard of living, but bad news for the large and established countries who will see a reduction in their buying power. I hate to add to the doom-and-gloom that is widely written about in the popular media, but I don't see this as a recession or depression because those terms imply that they are short-term events. I feel that going forward, things are going to be tough. From now on. There are no more free rides. As competition for world resources ramps up, we can expect to see more conflict and more poverty. There just isn't enough of anything to go around. The solution, one you will never hear any politician advocate though, is to simply put in place programs that will help reduce the world population. Imagine what a pleasant world it would be if we only had 1 billion people on the planet. We would have huge forests, and plentiful seas. And no one would ever go hungry... Into The Unknown...again At this point in my life the future seems a bit uncertain - and somewhat scary - the company continues laying off its employees and off shoring every task they can. I've never seen such wide scale idiocy in my life. Anything to crank up that profit just a little more. Because the economy is suffering horribly it has me thinking about hunkering down and spending as little as possible in 2009.
Las Vegas, Nevada. taken from the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Paris, circa 2003.
Some Of My Favorite Pages You can use the links below to jump directly to some of my favorite pages. The pictures were taken using a range of digital cameras I've owned starting in 1997. We've lost some and retired others. I'm currently using a Cannon S220. I'm into MIDI, Song Writing, RC Airplanes, Piano, Programming, Web Development, Photography, Model Railroading, Flight Simulation, Video Games, Drinking with Friends...and all things Cosmological. Yep my interests haven't changed in 20 years. But all of my hobbies are a blast and I can't help feeling sorry for those who don't know the thrill of creating and building new things.
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