Tag: Rants

Vilifying people for being people…

overconfidence - when you assume you can make people be more or better without their consent.

Bad things happen when you expect the world to exist according to your whims. πŸ˜‰

Don’t expect heroes, but encourage them.

People are going to be people, it’s great to hope they’re going to be amazing, but you’re setting your self up for disappointment if you expect consistent social acceptance or heroism. It’s great to hope for it. It’s even okay to help people be their best version of themselves, thats what people do for each other right? I guess maybe its the pragmatist in me that is also saying “If you tell them its mandatory they are going to flip out.”

That’s pretty much what happened according to SFGate

About 15 years ago, I came up with this awesome program to drive engagement and improve public perception of the work my team was doing. 2-4 times a year we were going to shine. A few times a year, we were going to, instead of a regular work day, help on Habitat for Humanity builds. You can call it what you want, helping people, teambuilding, character improvement, improving public awareness was my gig. You would think this is a really cool thing. So many good people on our teams, amazing people. But you know what…half of them we’re pretty pissed off. You see some people arent here to do anything but what they want. Its a fact of life. They arent evil though.

The level of consideration it takes to prioritize something that does not directly or tangibly benefit people over their own wont is actually pretty considerable. It’s not bad manners, it’s not poor social engagement…it’s just their prerogative is not aligned with whatever you’re intending. Everyone seems surprised when some employee that makes mad money doesnt want to do something he or she doesnt want to do. Doesnt make them a bad person…just means they dont want to do something.

But what happened on our little Habitat program? My people @#$%ing 100% revolted. No joke. I had to actually sit down and remediate my own @#$%ing program because of it. I lost friends over this, no joke. The program completely flatlined and my awareness and charity program fell apart.

Learning this the hard way wasn’t fun.

Regardless of the workload, the type of work, or the character of the people affected…you will find a boundary you dont want to cross twice even in requesting something small, like asking for help loading office supplies. In new york, you can’t even get on a damn latter to do something yourself, you have to hire a damn porter($40/per hour for dude that climbs ladders) and if you dont you’re open to a business-killing state case against you because porters unions lost wages.

In today’s banter it’s about someone who (as an engineer) doesnt want to have to make food deliveries for a delivery service we ALL use…seems like an abstract but it isnt. People dont want to do what they dont want to do, and I will go so far as to say even if its helping people. So an engineer the makes bank doesnt want to do a delivery for Doordash. Doesnt make them evil, yall.

But now lets say DURING COVID said person that drives almost never gets told they have to go out and deliver cheeseburgers because of some corporate policy. I would say no too. Its not like lives are on the line, and I know damn well it doesnt make me evil.

Fast food isnt an essential service. So corporate policy or not, there is an argument here that maybe its not exactly the time to be telling employees they have to go out into the wild and risk exposure so that someone can get their wings on.

Yes its probably an unpopular opinion, but its not like its someones last meal, we’re talking about a company policy that really has no place in our current social safety outlook.

Having in the past required people to help build houses periodically for families that dont have homes 4 days a year taught me alot about human nature. Stop expecting everyone to be shine like a rockstar. Hope for it YES…but expecting if of them pisses them off.

I write rants like this occasionally under the tag “No More Stupid” if you want more. Dont hold your breath though I dont post often πŸ˜‰

Be amazing to one another.

-T




My take on the election.

My Clinton and Trump dump is finally here, and before you read further…no…this is not heavily thought out and to be honest I am out of practice in making my rants attractive, appealing, or even remotely warm and fuzzy. Read at your own risk.

So yes, we have a new president, and to be honest after this short rant, I am done bitching about the candidates. I have always stated clearly that I am an equal opportunity hater when it comes to our political parties and election system.

…and now the election is over. (YAY!)

But somehow, this has caused people to think that it is now time to wreck some shit because their candidate didn’t get elected. Y’all need to work something out if you seriously think you need violence and vandalism to make a change. Protests definitely have a role, but rioting, vandalism, and violence only serve to feed the argument against whatever you’re rooting for.

It pretty simple for me, in candidates, I always first ask myself if the candidates can be trusted with their finger on “the button.” Because of all the crazy things that can happen in the world, our ability not only to develop WMD’s is surpassed only by our idiotic sense that they are somehow necessary in a conflict. Our ability to instantly destroy that which we have no right to even consider, rests solely in this person’s moral scope of viable options.

Clinton in this election proved that she could be the only candidate to represent a broad scope of human rights necessities and social progress, while simultaneously shitting on our country’s national security and judicial system, and scaring the hell out of everyone in the world by promising to escalate every foreign conflict via embargo and military action rather than negotiation. All this said, Clinton would push the button, and blame someone else for the choice like it was some sort of scandal. She failed my “Button Finger” test immediately.

Trump has managed to become elected by boasting so many outrageous platforms and agendas completely outside the scope of the president’s power, inciting violence, and giving the public an excuse to become apologists for damn near everything a majority of us in the US stand wholeheartedly against, and still be the only candidate that might be capable of keeping the world from shutting us down economically, and fixing our deplorable foreign trade agenda…and maybe, just maybe, being able to amend a certain healthcare act that is putting damn near everyone I know into debt…just to have healthcare. Trump is a misogynist child in an old mans body that loves getting what he wants. His values are not anywhere remotely in the human liberties, freedoms, and rights. I am always given the impression that he would not only hit “the button,” he would do so for financial gain, and just like Clinton, pawn off the use on some scandal.

Johnson was the low-key candidate I wanted, but I saw some indifference in him on certain subjects that made me cringe. I suspect that his agenda was relatively closed to only deal with what he though the government should deal with, and thereby leaving the rest of the popular platform items by the wayside. The funny part, this guy, who was distant and slightly uninformed, came off as the only guy that wasn’t trying to start wars and dig our nation into an early grave (remember, we’re still a young nation by comparison.) Most importantly, he doesn’t present as a man who would allow himself to hit the button…I would only have to sacrifice all of my other moral, ethical, diplomatic, and economic concerns.

So yeah…voting this election for me was painful, too. I think it was like that for everyone. But…you don’t see me running around breaking shit over the results.

Of course…I would like to thank everyone who voted, and think everyone who did vote should pat themselves on the back for taking the time to show enough interest in the directions and policies our country is adopting. The system might be screwed up, but ambivalence, indifference, and reticence with regard to our elections will never solve this country’s problems.

That said, I think some people need to get their head out of their asses learn more about not only the election process but the greatest problems facing our elections, read up on the awesome people that run, but get no voice, while still trying to make our country better, and take a day or two to work an election/campaign and see how the process really works before they resign to temper tantrums against innocents and property in response to the election results…don’t be surprised when your vote doesn’t have the effect you expect when half the country doesn’t care enough to vote. Don’t shit on people that didn’t see the changes they are hoping for. There is your missing majority, there lies the greatest threat to our country…indifference.

I have been watching people get angry about the results and protest…and get violent. Look, we all want a better country to live in, and while we obviously aren’t getting the presidential candidate material we all wish for, protesting is your right. But Violence is definitely not. Turn that crap off. If you think it is your right to commit violence and destroy property, this isn’t the country that stands for it, and any movement, ideal, or group that advocates it will never get the support it needs to succeed. Plus, violence makes you an asshole.

In case you are wondering how I feel. not altogether unlike this guy.




Kiss My Disease

How often do you hear a song that inspires you to overcome your yourself? I think I first checked this song out in like 98 or 99. I didn’t like it much at first because I identified with it a bit too closely and didn’t like it that my own self identity was so easily plugged into a few verses of a song by a band that no one hardly knew existed anyhow. Regardless after a few times I eventually decided I like the song (I was already hooked bad on the band). And felt it was almost an inspiration to listen to before I set out to save the world πŸ˜‰

Well it’s been a few years, I haven’t quite finished saving the world, but I have a few things to be pretty satisfied about and decided to listen to the song again.

Here are the lyrics, I highly recommend the band as well.

Kiss My Disease
From Virgos Merlot – Signs of a Vacant Soul