I have this intense urge to want to write something meaningful but I’m completely distracted by the saddening news that the people around me don’t know what I do for a living no matter how many times and how many ways I’ve tried my level best to explain in as simple terms as possible what it is that I do and after being accused yet again of using flowery language at the office by idiots that are supposed to have received a superior education compared to my own I find it impossible to maintain my composure knowing that my efforts to be understood or known have thus far been an utter failure of epic proportions leaving me feeling like a deflated drama king anxiously scanning his surroundings for affirmation that all is not lost, yet.
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Question – Pompous Pursuits
doctorofnothing replied to your post: Pompous Pursuitswhat do you do? but yeah… most academic pursuits are vocational training no matter how you label it. after all, that’s the point of existence within the modern framework.
I’m an IT professional with a really weird job description. Actually, I’m not even in IT any longer, but as fate would have it, I now define policies, strategies and processes to guide the interactions between IT and the Business divisions of the company I work at. I guess, in a nutshell, I create order out of chaos. I implement good governance and common sense where none exists. 🙂
I agree that most academic pursuits could be viewed as vocational, but I guess this is a good time to bring in that issue of context, right? Problem is, far too many people don’t apply their minds sufficiently when they start out studying, or maybe that’s just the case with people in the industries that I’ve encountered. My generalisations would typically exclude people in the medical, legal and engineering fields since those are very specific streams of study that can be and is applied directly and practically to their chosen career path. But given that I’ve debated circles around people who claimed to hold doctorates in various disciplines, while I myself have barely even finished high school without any tertiary studies, it leaves me somewhat disillusioned to see the glaring gap of common sense in people that spend so many years of their lives acquiring knowledge that they’ll never use.
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How The Greek Bail Out Works
Received this in email a while back. Stumbled across it today again and thought it worth sharing…I have no idea if this is a true reflection of how the bail out package actually works, but it’s an interesting tale nonetheless. 🙂
It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The supplier takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna.
The tavern owner slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has been offering him “services” on credit.
The prostitute then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything.
However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.
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Pompous Pursuits
Apparently I use too big words in my business emails at the office. I was ‘reprimanded’ today by a very senior member of the organisation regarding my use of ‘big words’ when questioning or explaining issues in email. This is hilarious in a number of ways, most importantly in that the people that generally accuse me of such nonsense are academically superior with one or more university degrees and other nonsensical acronyms embellishing their CV’s and email signatures in their efforts to be taken seriously by those of us that are intimidated by vacuous theory.
This further cements my view that academic pursuits, unless vocational by nature, are a waste of a good mind. It pumps largely unusable rubbish into the heads of intelligent beings and turns them into zombies trying to unravel mysteries and conform to expectations established by their own pompous pursuits. Academics rarely make a significant contribution to humanity. Only that 1% that are able to practically apply their knowledge to improve their quality of life and the lives of those around them actually enjoy any return on investment, both monetary and otherwise, from their years of self-inflicted torture.
It reminds me of individuals that I’ve often interviewed as potential candidates in various roles in IT within my team that proudly proclaim their BSc degrees as having been significant achievements in their lives, only to slip back and cringe in their seats when I ask them how much of what they studied is actually still relevant or can be practically applied to their chosen careers. We need a college or university degree to be developed around common sense. Maybe that way it will finally become as common as it needs to be.
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The Real Terrorists
The numbers speak for themselves. There’s no point in sharing any observations around this because anyone with a thinking brain can see the disproportion between what is stated in the media and emphasised in studied history relative to the facts.
It’s a simple chart indicating the death toll of the various responsible ‘civilisations’ since the beginning of the Gregorian calendar, through war, or other means other than violent personal crime.
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Life Lessons From Forrest Gump
Nothing amazing was ever achieved through conformance, and non-conformance is by its very nature a painful experience. Human nature, through its inherent survival instinct will avoid pain if left to follow its instinct. But we’re a step above animals, because we have superior intellect, reason and choice. If we cower, we reduce ourselves to animals. But if we persevere, we’ll become masters of our state, rather than victims. When we’re in this state of mastery-consciousness, we’re automatically administering the cure for so many spiritual illnesses that plague our society independent of race, religion, culture, social standing or material worth.
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Brain dump…almost
This icy weather, failed attempts at parenting and hyper-acidity are recipes for a very depressive night. But there’s enough positivity to keep me grounded in reality, rather than allow me to slip into a morbid state. Nonetheless it’s the type of mood that prompts mass un-follows and bulk deletions of posts, but for now, I’ll resist the urge for both.
Waiting for the calm, for the ease or the breather between life’s throes continues to be a futile exercise. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a meaningful and therapeutic brain dump, but even an attempt at that leaves me staring blankly at my screen. I discovered that the secret to overcome this is to write about the blankness when staring at the screen. So this is my brain dump. A post of seeming nothingness from a brain incapable of much right now.
There’s always just one more thing before I should be at ease. Always one more thing I need to do or get out of the way, or one more thing that needs to be achieved. If only I can just get past this or just get that resolved, then I’ll be able to focus on what I need to, or rather want to. But I suspect that this same cycle of insanity is what causes people to lay in their death beds wondering where they lost sight of what was important.
The philosopher’s view of life is insensitive, although often truthful. Right now, philosophy is a cold comfort in the face of dis-ease. It’s the kind of uneasiness that rears its ulcerous head when my energy levels are lowest, and the brain clutter is highest. It’s the burden of being conscious. Not awake. Conscious. Aware. It’s tiring. Even when nothing is wrong, the realisation of how little it takes to make everything go wrong nags like an annoying itch that can’t be reached because it’s in between the skin and the bone, but not quite in either and scratching it only causes it to flare, but rarely to abate.
That’s reality. That annoying bit between the head and the heart that can’t be fully rationalised, nor fully dismissed. What a ramble of bull!
