Video to start your day: First Mystery Science Theater Theme

This one was always my favorite for this line:
"Joel says when you got lemons you make lemonade."

Kind of lines up with the essential philosophy of my life: Other people can be full of crap all they want, if you make the best of it you still get to win.

Think about it, after being betrayed by the boss Joel still has a smile on his face. He builds robots and makes fun of movies, thus creating one of the best series ever. He turns bad movies into comedy. There's always a bright side, here's hoping we can be as adept at finding it as Joel. Cheers.

quote of the day #2

Today is one my own:
"God created a world with capricious and dishonest people/companies. God created a world with coffee and tobacco. So you see, for every slimy unpleasant thing in this world there is a counterbalance." Max Malcolm, February 28 2016

Bait and switch

Normally I'd be elliptical and evasive about the crap that's happening to me, but fuck that. If you respect me so little as to change your story every 18 hours I no longer have the respect to not call your crap out. This company flat out lied to me. They said I needed to be ready to make major sacrifices to obtain minor gains and being me I accepted it: Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), forgive your brother (Matthew 18:22), Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's (Mark 12:17, Matthew 21:22)
Or to go to philosophical sources: Strange travel plans are dancing lessons from God and Bokonon's method for handling Caesar (his paraphrase of the last two verses): Bokonon’s paraphrase was this:
“Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn’t have the slightest idea what’s really going on.”
Both are quotes from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963).

The point being that I did not resist the bullcrap, I began to adapt to attempt to thrive under their tyranny. That is the biblical/christian approach to the problem as far as I can tell. Then, after I had it all figured out they pulled the rug out from under me. Pulled out the challenge, reward, and whole ball of wax. This is the central flaw of the capitalist relationship between the worker and conglomerate. The conglomerate takes minimal risk (to itself) and reaps ample profits whether the risk pays or not. The individual is forced to absorb the actual liability of the risk that the conglomerate bought into without sufficient knowledge of the nature of said risk to assess whether the rewards are worth it.

This is a horrible place to be a human, because humans have needs. Humans have bills to pay and bodies to keep alive. Companies do not suffer the same limitations. If they behave unethically, punish those who trust them, where is the punishment? Will their mortgages be late? No. Because they don't answer to the worker. Many don't even answer to the consumer. Companies do business with other companies and do not need us anymore. This is why we need change, and even Bernie doesn't have a fucking clue about how to fix this.

Quote of the day #1

First edition of Quote of the Day (soon to possibly even be a daily feature)

"There are hundreds of books addressing all the different reasons. Some of them even agree with each other."

John Burgess, Former US diplomat

I have yet to find an answer to my simple question of whether the middle east was unstable before the creation of the state of Israel. I say simple because it's a binary yes or no question. But in a traditional to my philosophy results were far more entertaining than planned, hence this quote.

Tune in next time for: "The pope said WHAT?!"

PS: Not really, I have no idea what quote I'll like next time.

Ah, but then there's more time

I had thought that in a week or two the last word would be said in terms of the journey I'm on.
It was somewhat distressing in the way that all endings are. We expect a certain amount of sadness. Then Thursday happened. I want to emphasize that I had reached total peace with the end. I knew two facts: God is good and faithful, and I am wily and hard to destroy. They aren't entirely separate. I wouldn't be so hard to hurt if God wasn't my ally. God wouldn't be so good to me if I didn't trust him so completely (or so I assume).

Then the crisis I expected wasn't. The ones intent to attack me were attacked themselves, needed me to help. "Strange travel plans are dancing lessons from God", as Vonnegut once said. I still find it ironic that the best theological commentary is in a book written by an agnostic humanist. He said that anyone who can't understand how a completely false religion could be useful wouldn't understand. Yet this veteran Christian understands all too well that truth couldn't matter less. What matters is results. What matters is that my faith presented me with better fruit than I hoped for.

I can't say what this means for my walk with God. I've been seeking him for so long, and his results have been so strange. By strange I don't mean abnormal, from what I can tell he acts like this to everyone. I mean that it goes so against the grain of what I thought a loving God would be. God loves me like the wind blowing my hair out of my face and then in my eyes. God loves me like the rain, cleaning the air and flooding my yard. God is more than I can ever understand, yet I try. One of these days I will be fully satisfied and then I will cease to try. I know and trust fully that it will come. What's more I know that I won't see it until I'm there. More important is the understanding that the truth of that moment will satisfy in ways I can't fathom until I'm in that moment, and maybe not even then.

God is good.
God is faithful.
God's hand is ever active on behalf of those he loves.
When I understand that I can't understand that's when he acts.
When I know I have been faithful, and the attacks come anyway, that's when he defends.

Nothing artificial can create a connection to his provision. It's there anyway. His provision is persistent.

In the lion's den

Editor's Note: I wrote this a few days ago, but it's dealing with biblical/faith related issues which are still relevant to me today.

It bothers the living crap out of me that certain bible stories are slanted one way or another. I was raised believing the Bible to be take it to the bank facts. Adulthood has made me come to terms that the writers and editors have edited out important bits.
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The good news is we have a living God, and as new covenant creations we don't have to live by the book. Yet the book is the only verifiable evidence of how God has acted. To explain the importance imagine God was an amazing creature the world thinks is gone forever but is actually alive and well just not especially visible. Now imagine an explorer during the time of Columbus traveled to the native island where the creature used to have large populations and took documentation. Now to truly understand the Bible, understand that the explorer in question had his own agenda about documenting what he saw. He saw what he wanted to see, and interpreted it's meaning with his own spin. Then he printed it in an obscure forgotten language and we are today only dealing with translations.

Yet it still matters. The story of Joseph is the one that kills me, if there was ever an event that I doubt happened the way we're told it's that one. See, God creating the world in 7 days is chump change compared to the story of Joseph. The story of Joseph is beyond implausible, because every step of the way Joseph seems to know which way to step, where to go and what to say. Honestly all the pure good that came his way has got to be seriously reduced by how many generations of Christians and possibly Jews who point to the story while talking to God and say, "See? You did it that time."

I don't know whether to call it temptation or not. The fact is I doubt that I am personally that important to be Joseph. Joseph is second only to Christ in terms of a perfect track record with God. Every time Joseph needs something, there it is. This spoiled rich kid thinks he's going to run the world and THEN HE DOES. Joseph perfectly embodies what white rich kids in my generation think will happen to them. We're more prone to believe that no matter how screwed up things get somehow it's going to get better. I'm not saying it won't mind you. I'm saying I've been waiting a decade. I'm saying that I'm happy with whatever God sends my way, because I walk a thin line between hope and despair. God is the ONLY reason I haven't given up, and it's not because I think he's going to burst out and fix things. It's because he knows what he's doing and fuck if I do.

I walk into the lion's den not because I expect him to close their mouths. It's that I know he can, and even if he doesn't he'll give me peace while I die.

One of the best verses I have ever found is Daniel 3:16-18
"16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

See this is how faith is. We don't know what he's going to do. We do know that he's the one that can save us. He doesn't have to, and he doesn't always do it. That's not the peace, even though that would be nice. The peace is knowing that sooner or later while following him when things do go wrong you'll end up completely out of control. When that happens, it's his ball. I have no desire to try to control this, apart from the urgent desire for it to end. I still think one of my greatest hopes is that he allows me to perish. Sooner or later every man dies. I just wish it was now. If only if only....
Kurt Vonnegut put it so well:
"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."

You'll have to overlook it

I'm going to take a break from grousing about my present trouble and talk about the potential next step. I've been trying to move in the direction of becoming a lineman. At the outset I knew this was a dangerous job. On the other hand it's problem solving (my personal thrill) in an environment where everything you do matters.

Reading horror stories about lineman does actually give me pause. I determined there are three reasons a job pays well: It's unpleasant to most people, it's risky, or it requires a high amount of time investment. I have no problem putting the time in, three years is nothing in my life. Hold off on the risk, because that's the big one. I want to mention unpleasantness. I love this one because I call people that find a difficult job unpleasant to be wimps. Nothing against them, everyone has their own needs. Mine are emotional and job security. I can't stand passive aggressive bosses, which seem to be a staple of office life. The amazing thing about field work is how little of your boss you see. Further if you do your job correctly your boss will have a really light touch with you. That isn't true inside. Inside managers get lonely and call meetings. They gripe at employees because they're sick of the sight of them. They take out their personal petty problems on those they work with. Not every one of them does this, but enough have done it to me to make me especially unfriendly to sitting at a desk. I'd rather face an angry dog (which I do almost every day) than an unfriendly boss for a simple reason: That angry dog doesn't control whether I get a paycheck. Heck an angry customer doesn't control if I get a paycheck. That's the gold standard of jobs there. When you have a job where the customer can throw the biggest tantrum they can manage and your boss compliments you for enduring a hard job.... I can't stress enough how little that happens in the private sector.

Which brings us to risk. Risk comes in all shapes and sizes. In business class one of the first lessons I was taught was that risk is proportional to reward. What that means is that there are things that are easy to do, and things that aren't. The less easy they are to do the more money can be made doing them. In math terms the best example is gambling, which I am currently playing a hunch on. I placed a bet that Bernie would win the election, a 20 dollar bet I made 4 months ago. I get day by day updates on what other people will buy me out for. Currently I would still break even because people still don't appear to believe that he can win. That's fine for me because I'm playing a long game. If he wins I get 175 dollars. I took a 30% risk on 20 dollars.

Risk works the same with other things. Sometimes what you risk is reputation and career. When I worked at the mental hospital there was a constant very high risk of being taken down for a little mistake. If I was lucky I might have just been fired and reported to DHS. More often I was threatened with being taken away to jail. This threat was not based on controllable factors. For example a coworker could make a mistake that leads to prison for me. That was an unacceptable risk. That alone is why I am no longer interested in health care as a profession.

With lineman the risk is different. The risk is injury or loss of life. It's the biggest risk I've faced, but it's not the first time for either. I face both every day. Some research has revealed that the type of risk is the same: controllable. What an individual does is controllable by that individual, everything else isn't. Taking safety precautions is part of the job for most industrial or technical jobs. That doesn't scare me. I know how to listen to my gut and value safety over speed/convenience which is all most safety precautions are. I understand the effects of complacency.

To anyone who still thinks lineman is too risky I return to the lines so wisely said in the Super Chicken theme:
"Fred, if you’re afraid, you’ll have to overlook it.
Besides you knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

Winning all the time? Not yet.

There is a great secret to securing most wins that I get. That secret is setting the terms so that no matter which way a contest wins my plans advance. That's all you need to read if you are just in this for strategy. The rest of this is going to be rambling about particulars.

Growing up I was a big fan of the show Gargoyles. It was a typical 90s cartoon action drama aimed at kids and teens. However the startling high points of the show were it's villains. Not going into any of the other cool ones; my favorite was David Xanatos. In addition to the strong biblical overtones (the hero was named Goliath) there were alusions to myths and legends. His hallmark was creating plans which always ended with him winning, even if the hero defeated him. The TV Tropes wiki calls this the Xanatos Gambit.

The Xanatos Gambit to me represents the ultimate in strategic thinking in that there is no way to defeat someone using it. Obi Wan in the original Star Wars is the best example of this. Even when he got killed it just allowed him to be anywhere he needed to be at just the right moment, which fit into his plan. Granted that particular variant was never tried by the original character in the show (cannon wise anyway). I think the whole death not death gambit is the easiest to win, at least for me. If someone were to try to kill me either way they would lose. If they killed me, I'd be getting what I want given my previously demonstrated lack of enthusiasm for living. If they allowed me to survive I doubt they would. For one I'm fierce backed into a corner. Another factor is that once someone has gone to a certain level I have no limits on how far I will go for revenge. Well, one limit: I won't kill myself trying to avenge my own almost death. The math doesn't work for that one.

So today I experienced a new level of how effective the gambit is in practice. I have been facing off against an unfreindly future, and I had already made my plans assuming that was coming. Now I come to find out... well it's a lot more unsure than I was previously led to believe. Hence the future is split binary between a continuation of the present situation and a new vista. Either one is fine with me is the thing. I progress the exact same amount towards my goal going down either path. So I will admit I don't win all the time. The fact is that I still haven't figured out how to plan effectively enough to achieve the totality of the gambit.

Pan begins to tip

I have spoken before of the out of the frying pan and into the fire metaphor in relation to the current events in my life. In introduction I must admit that I am forced to be vague and elliptical by the nature of the crisis. Things being the way they are (in that the source of the trouble will be eliminated should the crisis reach a head) I will at some point be able to speak about these matters with more frankness.

Well to stick to the metaphor the frying pan has begun to tip. I had thought the crisis had passed. I was not in safe waters though and things heated up this morning. Last week an incident occurred which has magnified the danger I am in. However, time is an excellent lens for enhancing understanding the truth.

To quote one of my favorite Dustin Hoffman movies, Wag the Dog:
"This is nothing. D'you ever shoot in Italy? Try three Italian starlets wacked out on Benzedrine and grappa, this is a walk in the park..."

Everything is a matter of perspective. That has become my personal slogan, my mantra which brings me peace beyond what any religion or philosopher ever has. The fact is that in fact bad things do happen. They happen every day. Good people are not immune from bad things happening, in fact to some extent they are more vulnerable. An evil person, supposing such a being exists, must suspect everyone of betrayal as a matter of logical following out of job duties. Unless they are a profoundly ignorant evil person they must admit that given their own dishonesty they can't expect better from others. Good people suffer from no such notion by nature. They must go through life getting the shit kicked out of them until they either become cynical or find peace another way.

I was moving towards a point though. I look back at my worst moments, and in comparison the present moment seems pale indeed. I knew this evil was there, and I have known about it for a long time. I hoped I could avoid it, turns out I can't.

There is however peace here too. Though this obstacle is apparently fixed in my path, I am not a victim. I can choose how I react. I find peace when I know I cannot fix the thing bothering me, because it allows me to focus elsewhere. When my ex-wife cheated on me and left, I realized I had no control over who she was. In that there was freedom. I was free to direct my life away from her and her destructive influence.

I find similarity also in who I am in regards to the thing hurting me. It is the nature of my personality that only those close to me can hurt me. That I am hurt at all proves that this loss is personal. I only let things that uplift me get close to me. Looking back I can see that not only am I a better person for it's influence, but also that should it choose to go beyond redemption I will be better for the departure.

I survived. God has preserved me. These two facts are absolute. Have I been hurt? Of course I have. Pain is part of life, it lets you know you are growing, and which things to avoid in the future. I could not have avoided getting here, but hopefully what I have learned will help me be less of a target for stuff like this in the future.

I have also been given time to think. Time is a gift that I cannot afford to waste. Today I have made progress towards thinking my way out of this. Currently all ways are going straight through. A step at a time I'll get there.

Turn the other cheek...... or why I hate having my principles... helpless...

I have to get this out, because stewing on it will only make things worse. I am so tired, on so MANY levels, of what is being given to me. No matter how low my expectations it is never low enough! Humans INSIST on finding new ways and methods of turning everything I considered good in myself into a knife, and cutting at me with the proverbial knife.

If only I was a cold blooded psychopath, but then I wouldn't have these problematic principle and problematic emotions. It seems to me that God is completely non-functional in practical purposes in the present moment. Today I celebrated a year, a year of turning the other cheek and attempting to follow my principles... my reward? Only the knowledge I made it, and barely EVEN that. I don't want to go out and hunt again, yet I have little choice. I'm sick of it, I know I will in the end do it, as I do all unpleasant and unsavory things because I have no choice and God does not take individual interest in removing said problems.

Is it a sin to kill yourself because God obviously doesn't have any interest in:saving you, protecting you, caring for you?  I could make a logical case, granted, flimsy logic, but logical and reasonable. I wish I could be pushed too far. The problem is at the end of the day my mind (which is much MUCH stronger than my heart and will) reminds me that taking a gun and ending it is a choice. Heck, smoking is a choice. In what sense is God essential, if life is a never ending gauntlet of "how hellish can it get?" It's like one of those terrible reality shows, where God is the sadistic moderator watching us endure one trial after another. I don't know he's sadistic, I'm just very very hurt. Actually theologically speaking I am to understand that he is loving and good. Which of course leads to the paradox of my existence: Living by my principles puts me in hell. I am given the choice of relief from hell if I could let go of God and trusting him, waiting on him (ENDLESSLY) to show the worth of the trial. He doesn't save me except when I am powerless against a terrible problem. I wish he'd kill me. I wish he'd end this trial, on any terms. At this point I am too tired, and going through this trial even once more is too much. But I don't get that choice, because my shackles are my love for him, my love for my family, and even my love of self. I must step one foot in front of another, fight the fight I will never be recognized for. Because I have no other option which I would take.

If I were to try to ignore God or even deny him I would cease to be me. I am philosophically and psychologically incapable of ignoring my deepest principles. One day I'll find a loophole, a loophole that will allow me to die. That is my light at the end of the tunnel. I'm 28 years old, and that leaves maybe 52 years more of this torment... at most. I sure damn hope there is a heaven... to make it worth it. Or nothingness. I'd be satisfied with that as well, non existence would be satisfactory. Heck if knew for a fact it was just non-existence... well nope, still couldn't kill myself. Damn love, damn principles...... loyalty.... faith...... one day I'll figure out why God requires such destructive emotions from us.