Occupy Comment Boards

I love (read: am consistently totally floored) that there is something about a chat room/comment board that allows people a feeling of complete anonymity... and thus a total and utter lack of accountability.  Shocking what behaviors such a scenario can bring out (if I recall psych 111 correctly, psychologists call the effect 'de-individuation' [you know, that same thing that causes a spontaneous mob to form and encourage someone standing on a ledge to jump to their death] ).

For whatever bizarre reason, I ended up reading all the comments on an article about Gen-Y's who are currently unemployed.  I am consistently blown away by the inaccurate, uneducated, biased, heated remarks people feel the need to share in order for their meaningless existences to be validated.  And if they end up in a debate they can't win, or feel their life perspectives threatened, they can always stab back with an ad hominem argument and hope no one cries 'objection!'

Really?  Really now.  Let's try for a little bit of class.

Call me a devil's advocate (people usually do), but I find both sides make good points, and both sides are totally ignorant.  I could probably successfully argue either way, most of the time.

Truth is, I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle (as it usually is).  The government has problems, so do the people they govern.  Republicans have fundamental flaws, so do democrats.  We are both the product of our society and the cause of it.

Yes, I'm a slightly right-leaning Gen-y with a job.  That doesn't mean I automatically blame everything wrong in the world on the President and baby boomers.  It's not like the federal government is intentionally trying to sabotage the country... it's more of an incidental thing (I think... I would hate to find out I was giving them the benefit of the doubt only to be wrong).  It's not like the baby boomers are staying out of retirement out of a malicious desire to thwart the lives and careers of their children... mostly it's because the money they thought they had?  Yeah, turns out it's not there anymore.

And yes, there is something to be said for the theory that the mass over spending and debt accumulation typified by the baby boomers certainly didn't do us any favors.  Nor did the implied lessons of freedom from responsibility brought on by their catering to every whim.  Or the myth that "if we get an education and work hard we can live the American dream".  But I think their lives weren't so different than ours.  A boomer was born between '46 and '64.  Many of them grew up during one of the countries greatest financial booms, only to suffer economic turmoil right around the time they were graduating college and trying to make their way in the world in the mid-late 70s.  Luckily the 80s and 90s allowed them to, once again, enjoy the financial prosperity of their youth.  A Millennial was born between '80 and '00.  We grew up during one of the countries greatest financial booms, only to suffer economic turmoil right around the time we are graduating college and trying to make our way in the world.

Now if we're lucky, in five years or so we'll see the market turn around so we can once again enjoy the financial prosperity of our youth to raise our own children.  And can we honestly say that we won't follow the pattern our parents laid for us?

So am I guilty of making gross-over-generalizations?  Yes.  Often.  All the time everyday.  About most people and situations.  But I think just this once I want to be politically correct (or at least just plain correct... you know how I feel about politics).

It's that time of year

Admittedly, "that time of year" is essentially over in Alaska... but that doesn't stop me from loving it.

Fall is unquestionably my favorite season.  There is just something a little bit magical about those clear crisp skies and crunchy leaves, something that just feels right.  I'm pretty sure it was my favorite thing about living in Michigan.  Especially going on those long cross-country runs that ended at the cider mill.  Can anyone really top fresh cider and hot, home-made donuts?  I submit that they cannot!

Yum.

The clothes are even better!  You get to wear all those wonderful sweaters and jackets and layers... not to mention the beautiful colors.  All those over-saturated jewel tones paired with neutral wool and tweed that show up this season.
It's pretty freaking fantastic eh?

I think I've decided it's my goal in life to one day live somewhere with an extended fall--the longer the better.  Like Vermont.  Maybe.

Other fantastic things that Fall reminds me I'm obsessed with:

Caramel-apple cheesecake bars (seriously, these are like the best things ever)

Leather

Jumping in piles of leaves--did you know that the first time I remember jumping in a pile of leaves was our first fall in Michigan?  I was 12.

Horses, and barns of course--you ought to know those go hand in hand

New England... and also the northeast.  There is something about that area that has always felt just a little bit magical to me.

Heavy wool coats (especially in bright colors!)

Cowboy boots

I will go out of my way to jump on a crunchy-looking leaf

Leather knee-high boots (actually, this is more of a year-round sort of thing)

Running.  I don't know that I'll ever lose the whole cross-country association.

School

Football

Pumpkin bread (and cookies!)

Marvin, the Paranoid Android*

I feel life I've been experiencing writer's block, artist's block, building blocks, and block parties for months now.

I used to have all kinds of viciously snarky or deliciously off-the-wall things to pontificate on to the point of exhaustion from a-top my soap-box of pointlessness.

I miss those days.

Lately I've been coming to the realization that I become bored easily.  I guess I shouldn't call it a realization, so much as I've stopped trying to be in denial about it.  The best thing about these little epiphanies is they give me the chance to analyze myself to-death.

I feel like once my brain solves a problem once, it programs some sort of default solution into the memory mainframe, so when the same problems come up over and over again, all I have to do is run a certain program and voila.  Problem solved.  Instant boredom.  Again.

Superficially, this isn't a big deal.  I could just give myself more to do.... or something like that.

But I think that these behaviors are actually symptoms of a much more involved issue, with far-reaching consequences.  I'm working at my dream job, and I'm bored out of my mind.  Every time I get a new project I experience a little jolt of excitement.  "This is it."  I think.  "This is the project that is going to stimulate my creative juices and require me to actually work for once."  And then disappointment settles in like smog over LA county as I realize that I just have to draw up the same cubicles.  Again.  The only challenge comes when my computer decides it doesn't want to work and I have to figure out why, or if my clients ask for something impossible.  But then it's just disheartening.  Because despite my best efforts, impossible things are just like they sound.  But that doesn't stop me from trying.

I need variety.  I need a challenge.  It's like my brain has to be in a state of constantly changing stimuli, or it just shuts off.

I've tried researching, reading, writing, the outdoors, watching movies, playing games, picking up hobbies.......... and nothing.

Sometimes I make simple activities incredibly elaborate and difficult to accomplish just to have something to do.

I'm like an addict.  Constantly searching for more and more stimulation to stave off the restlessness and boredom.

But as boredom sets in, so does laziness.  Unfortunately, although the boredom is typically localized to a certain area of my life, once laziness gets its foot in the door it tends to take over the whole house.  It's all so plebeian and simple.  Why even bother doing anything anymore?

And thus we see why I need to stay busy.  Or perhaps go back to school.  Or change careers.  Or actually maybe just have a social life again.

*Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and put it on your to-do list.