When Reinhold Messner returned from the first solo climb of Everest, he was severely dehydrated, and utterly exhausted; he fell down most of the last part of the descent, and collapsed on the Rongbuk glacier, and he was crawling over it on hands and knees when the woman who was his entire support team reached him; and he looked up at her out of a delirium and said, “Where are all my friends?”
Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars, 1993
Monthly Archive for August, 2009
Rules of Unemployment
1.) Always wear fresh clothes. Don’t think that just because you don’t have to go to work doesn’t mean you no longer have to follow the rules of the working world. Don’t look like a bum. If you’re used to changing clothes twice a day, continue to do so. Wake up, take a shower, shave, comb your hair. Put on a pair of clean clothes, maybe a polo shirt. Then work on your applications, resumé, etc. Wear these clothes for six to eight hours— however long you would’ve worn them had you dressed for work. Then “slip into something more comfortable.”
Never, ever wear sweatpants. Pyjama bottoms are alright, as long as they advertise for liquor or beer. Various anthropomorphized mammals are forbidden, even those that are sports team mascots—unless you’re being ironic, say wearing the opposing team’s logo pj pants while watching a Lions (or insert your local squadron’s name here) game. Then go to sleep, wake up. Repeat. Also, please note that if you’ve already changed into your comfortable clothes but need to go out again, you must change into more formal clothing. (By “more formal clothing” I mean something like jeans and a tshirt, not a tuxedo or anything. Unless you’re going to a black-tie affair or something. Who am I kidding? I’m unemployed. Anyhow, please dress appropriately when going to shoot pool on your buddy’s dime. Everyone will apreciate it.
I should be noted that this adherance to routine is critical. Just because one is unemployed one should not quit the work of living. One needs to continue to be productive and not slovenly.
Yeah, it’s been a week and a whirlwind. But I was thinking on Monday how sudden and quick it is to come to Louisville and start looking for a new job and to be realistic about it I see it this way:
Sooner or later if you want to make a change in your life there has to come a point where you either go to bed at night or wake up in the morning and something’s changed. You either wake up in a new place, wake up with a new job, wake up married, committed, single, broke, rich or whatever—either way these changes really do just happen overnight. So one can either plan these things out carefully and meticulously or whirlwind and recklessly— regardless of the method, sooner or later, things will change in an instant. So I don’t feel very bad or scared or shocked that I can make this sort of thing happen in a snap, because for the most part I’ve been thinking about getting outta Meijer and outta Michigan for years and years, and I got that final push and so here I am. I remember complaining to my friend Josh back in 2005 (FOUR years ago) about feeling stuck, and I’ve felt that way ever since. Along came an opportunity to get un-stuck, and I knew I just had to take it.
Like I said, change is always sudden, and even if we don’t see it right away some day we suddenly realize that something (or everything) has changed-even if it has taken years-and it seems sudden.
All things being equal (for me at least) finding out that someone somehow for whatever reason “had it in for me” or didn’t like me or whatever the motivation was to try and make things miserable for me at work was what brought me to the decision to just quit, to say enough is enough, to finally realize it was time to take back my life and live it as my own—the same advice I’ve been giving my friends for the longest time. This is my life, these are my words, all that stuff. It was time for a change. Or: Let’s See How Far We’ve Come.
In conclusion (ha! like this is an essay…) 1 day you’ll make a decision, and you’ll execute it, and the sun will pour thru your windows in the morning and things will’ve changed. Slowly or quickly it always happens overnight, whatever that decision might be.
Harper:Tell me what to do, i’m stuck… my heart’s an anchor!
…
Harper: In your experience of the world. How do people change?Mormon Mother: Well, it has something to do with God so it’s not very nice. God splits the skin with a jagged thumbnail from throat to belly and then plunges a huge filthy hand in, he grabs hold of your bloody tubes and they slip to evade his grasp but he squeezes hard—he insists. He pulls and pulls till all your innards are yanked out. And the pain! [whispered] We can’t even talk about that.
And then he stuffs them back, dirty, tangled and torn. It’s up to you to do the stitching.Harper: And then get up. And walk around.
Mormon Mother: Just mangled guts pretending.
Harper: Yeah. That’s how people change.
Here’s a great article from The Guardian to remind us what we’re fighting for…
“Many of the people I treat have already been in front of a death panel and have lost – a death panel controlled by insurance companies. I see people dying at least monthly because we have been unable to get them what they needed.”
…
These are the stories, the broken lives, that have been obscured by the fury generated by the Republican rump. Unless Obama finds a way to regain the political initiative, to remind Americans that only nine months ago they voted overwhelmingly for change, then the future of millions appears bleak.“Here’s what I’d like to ask Palin,” Lee says. “People without health insurance are dying, here in America, right now. So I’d like to ask her: how does that fit into your vision of good and evil, Sarah Palin?”
Been hanging out in Loo-uh-vull all week, getting the lay of the land and a feel for the place. At this point I’m 98% certain that I’ll be moving here, probably officially on September 1st or something like that. Depends on what I find.
I had a really great interview today with Angie’s boss Mark, who runs E Fill Rx. They’ve got a very compelling business model; stationed at two high-volume doctor’s offices. You can get your script right there, or they’ll deliver or mail it out at no extra charge. This way they’ve got a really good, unique and face-to-face relationship with the doctors who write most of their scripts (they will, of course, fill scripts from anywhere) so it’d be a nice change from what I’ve been doing and also kind of exciting to be in a growing company.
The interview tomorrow I’m more excited about, as it pays more money and is a really detail-oriented kind of inventory job with a customer service facet to it as well. A lot of it is what I’ve been doing already– managing an inventory. It’d be with orthopedic devices for hips, knees, shoulders, etc instead of pills, but basically the same concept. I’m probably more qualified that a lot of people for that sort of thing, I just need to convince the guy of that. Hire me!! I will kick ass for you.
So yeah, good things are already happening and as I’ve found zero leads in Kalamazoo it seems like I’ll be down here permanently, and not a moment too soon. Whilst I’ll miss my people in Michigan, a big move like this to a bigger city is something I’ve needed for years. So I have a good feeling about this; I think I’ll find myself much happier than I’ve ever been, and even though it’s a big thing to do I think it’ll be for the better. My happiness needs to be paramount, after all.
So here’s a formal announcement kinda thing:
I quit my job Friday night, for several reasons but mostly because it’s been sucking the life out of me for years. There were also signs and wonders pointing the way out, so to speak.
So yeah, I left the job I’ve had for almost half my life, 14 years, and I’m ready to get on with something new.
Right now I’m in Louisville, KY kinda just hanging out, but I’m keeping my ear to the ground, my eyes peeled, and my fingers crossed.
I own this place. This is mine. I’ve owned paulpellerito.com for 6 years, and have had a place on the internet for thirteen years (back when we used to call it “cyberspace”). This place is mine for me to do with (mostly) as I see fit.
If you don’t like it here: close the window, go away. You can be offended, you can laugh at it, you can scoff at it, you can tell your friends about it. But this is my home, my land, virtually and quite literally my place on the whole great big internet. It’s what the internet is for— my self-expression, my self-searching, and a conversation between me and the rest of the world.
I’m uncompromising, unhidden, out there. It’s been this way for thirteen years, and I’m not about to stop now. This is where I’m free to say what I want to say when I want to say it, and none of it is unbecoming. Some people might think it’s not appropriate, brash, rude, offensive. Others find it funny, insightful, and interesting. That decision is yours to make. But this is my place, this is my life, these are my own words.
come all ye lost
dive into moss
i hope that my sanity covers the cost
to remove the stain of my love
the paper mache
come all ye reborn
blow off my horn
i’m driving real hard
this is love this is porn
well god would forgive me
but i.. i whip myself scorn scorn
and i wanna hear what you have to say about me
hear if you’re gonna live without me
i wanna hear what you want
i remember december
and i wanna hear what you have to say about me
hear if you’re gonna live without me
i wanna hear what you want
what the hell do you want
I wanted to put this here, because it’s a good quote I really like.
“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.” – Emma Goldman
kthxbai
NBC and its various entities have been doing this for as long as I can remember—whenever they need to talk about a text on screen they’ll display a fake picture of the text and then whatever words they’re talking about will float around in front of it in “tore out” style. I’ve always hated it. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
What’s funny about this one is that with the Asian people in the upper left it looks like a fortune cookie fortune.
Check out this nice image someone at NASA made featuring Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch of STS-128 is planned for NET August 25, 2009. STS-128 will deliver the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo, and crew will perform three spacewalks to remove and replace a materials processing experiment outside ESA’s Columbus module and return an empty ammonia tank assembly.
STS-128 Gallery
Astronaut Jose Hernandez, Flight Engineer, Mission Specialist 2: @Astro_Jose
IMAGINE you worked here in Kalamazoo at the Schloko Widget Corp.
and your coworkers all fall in love with and have families with people of the same sex
Suddenly somehow someone found out or heard about or heard a rumor that you like people of the opposite sex…
and one of them tells the foreman…
and the foreman tells his supervisor, who maybe hired you in the first place.
and that supervisor thinks that deviant people like you ought not be working in his factory.
so he he pulls you aside one night
and asks, “is it true? do you like people of the opposite sex?!?”
and maybe you try and dodge the question and talk about your “same sex partner”, even though you don’t really have one, but if he suspected something anyway…
or maybe you’re real brave you answer honestly.
either way
Come Monday, you’ve been told you don’t work at the Schloko plant anymore
not for any good reason, because you see, here in Kalamazoo we can fire you for whatever reason, except certain people (like the blacks and the christians and the jews) get special rights—they can’t get fired because they’re a darker color or they worship the wrong god—we’ve decided that those aren’t good reasons to fire someone.
So what is a good reason to fire someone? Is it because they’ve chosen to follow a different faith than what you or your family follows? Is it okay to turn away someone who wants a job or a place to live, even it they’re fully qualified either way, because that someone’s genes make them have darker skin than your brother or sister? What if the contents of their conscience led them to worship a different God than you? Should we turn away those members of our community?
Is it acceptable to deny an apartment or a job just because some of our neighbors love people in a way that you’re not used to?
What if we suddenly decided to put these things to a vote? Would you be offended if there was a ballot measure asking you to approve of the discrimination of people of a different color, a different faith, or a different nationality? What if Kalamazoo suddenly decided that the Blacks and the Jews and the Hindus were no longer deserving of their “special rights” of equality? Would you vote for that?
Should these sort of judgements be allowed in our city? What kind of Kalamazoo do you want to live in?
JOIN US now and let your voice be heard—let your voice be the voice of equality!
Do you stand with your neighbors, family, and friends?
Is Kalamazoo a place for EVERYONE to LIVE, STRIVE, BUILD A FAMILY, make a life, earn a living, LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE or just is that just for a select few?
WHERE DO YOU STAND?
Join us now in declaring that Kalamazoo, Michigan is a home for everyone!
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