So there's a few things I wanted to cover here and I think that it would be a little long for a Facebook post. I'll dive right into it.
For the last... I don't even really remember how long... almost a year? I've been either commuting to American Fork or Ogden (specifically Riverdale) for work. It has sucked. I still live in West Jordan so it's either 45 minutes to American Fork or just under an hour to Riverdale (assuming I don't hit any traffic.) In addition to that, I only got to work one day a week as a PC agent in American Fork and two days a week as a PC Double Agent in Riverdale (I transferred to Riverdale for the promotion and then hoped to transfer back into the Salt Lake area at some point. It became clear after six months in Riverdale that my boss wasn't going to let me transfer because I did a really good job attaching service money in Riverdale, customers liked me, and he didn't have a backup plan for me up there.)
When I wasn't doing PC work, I was working as a home theater assistant to a Home Theater Double Agent. It was occasionally interesting... but it usually just bored the living hell out of me. The other problem I ran into was my car. I still drive a 1999 Z28 camaro. Horrible gas mileage and... it's just old. The brakes are shot and it has several other major problems that will require the attention of a auto repair team very soon.
I realized that my car was going to cost me a lot to fix, I was tired of commuting an hour each way to work, I was sick of doing home theater instead of PC jobs... and I decided to make some changes. I started looking for a new job and called in some favors to several of my friends. The great thing is that I still had friends that were willing to help me out. I had several job offers (or tentative offers) within about a month. So I finally decided before my two week east coast history vacation that I was going to quit Best Buy and the Geek Squad after six and a half years.
I have a new job as an IT hardware specialist at ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake (basically it's right on the University of Utah's campus.) Comparable pay, my medical insurance costs went WAY down since I'm working for a medical lab, and I don't pay Social Security anymore because it's a government contracted facility. Plus my commute time is cut in half. I know I'm going to miss the Geek Squad a little, but I'm excited to start at my new job (which means I'm back to working on computers five days a week... which is pretty awesome.)
I've also put law school on hold for another year. I had a great GPA from BYU and decent LSAT scores and I'm pretty sure I could have gotten in to BYU or the U of U's law school but I pulled my application from both places before they made a decision. My car is going to drain almost all of the money I saved. I may take the LSATs again before applying next year, but only so that I can study this time, get a higher score, and take a shot at a scholarship. I'm not worried about getting in.
To those of you who looked into finding me a job, thanks a ton. I'm glad I still have good friends. To those of you that I've worked with for almost seven years at Best Buy... good luck to you. I don't wish any harm to the company... it just isn't a place I can work at anymore. I honestly hope Best Buy continues to succeed.
One more thing... I'm working on a new photo-based tour after our east coast history vacation but I have a lot of pictures to go through and it'll take a decent amount of time to throw some text in there too. The three that are already available as ebooks are soon going to be available as paperbacks if anyone wants to purchase them that way. I'll update everyone who wants to know as soon as everything is available.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Nostalgia: Bringing Back the 90s - Netflix Style
As some of you have seen on Facebook, I recently found Goosebumps the TV series on Netflix. 13 episodes of about 21-22 minutes per episode. I worked Monday and Tuesday and I have other things going on (I've made some decent progress on Minor Demons, the novel I'm working on) so the Goosebumps marathon took me three days. The graphics were pretty bad and the attempt to scare was pretty laughable but I still like the series. I guess since I watched it as a kid and thought it was awesome, a part of me will always think it's awesome. I'll admit that I enjoyed all thirteen episodes. Part of the entertainment factor was the nostalgia it brings since I grew up in the 90s. The Goosebumps series is from 1995 and I was 9 at the time. If you haven't seen them... it's worth watching. Good for a few laughs but also for reminding you what things were like before technology hit us like it did.
There's a few things I realized when I watched the series. Things have changed a LOT for kids born in the 21st century. Here's a few of the noticeable ways that life has changed for kids:
-In Goosebumps, almost everything takes place outside. Kids are chased by monsters or run into weird situations outside. They usually have a dog. Dogs in the 90s were always part dog and part hero. Kids transitioned between video games and playing outside. They didn't just sit down and play video games all day. They went outside and played basketball and baseball and beat up other kids. They played with the dog. They rode their bikes. Some kids are still that way... but I don't think outside plays as big of a role in kid's lives now.
-None of the kids had a cell phone. I don't want to sound older than I am (remember that I'm only 27) but I think it's ridiculous that any kid under the age of 10 needs a cell phone. I understand them bringing one with them if they're going over to a friend's house but I don't see why 7 year olds need iPhones. That just doesn't make sense to me and I don't know if it ever will.
-Corny jokes and puns were apparently in. The friend who is deemed "the funny one" usually has a lot of kids that shake their heads at him. Mostly because he wasn't funny. His jokes were pretty terrible. Insults weren't all that great either. There was one episode where a little girl called her brother a "krej" and explained that it was jerk backwards. I heard people insult each other by calling them a geek a few times. Geek is not an insult now... it just means that you're smarter than lots of other people.
-SPOILERS BELOW if you plan on watching Goosebumps on Netflix. Shit didn't always end up tied with a nice little bow on top. There's an episode where a little kid is tormented by his little sister and he goes back in time using a cuckoo clock. He eventually goes back to the present but ends up erasing his little sister in the process. She doesn't exist anymore. He's cool with that. The episode ends with him just being cool with it and saying that he might go try to fix it eventually. I was pretty amused with that ending. There's another episode where two kids just accept that they're the children of two monsters. They're totally cool with it. I know some kids now would be ok with that but I've heard kids too many times say that something was bad because it didn't resolve itself all nice and neat. That's teaching kids poor life lessons. Stuff doesn't always resolve itself cleanly in real life and TV and books shouldn't always teach you that it does.
I'm sure there's more... but those are the big differences that I noticed. Don't get me wrong. I love Netflix and my iPhone and my sweet home theater system. I also miss the 90s a little bit. I'm betting some of you do too.
There's a few things I realized when I watched the series. Things have changed a LOT for kids born in the 21st century. Here's a few of the noticeable ways that life has changed for kids:
-In Goosebumps, almost everything takes place outside. Kids are chased by monsters or run into weird situations outside. They usually have a dog. Dogs in the 90s were always part dog and part hero. Kids transitioned between video games and playing outside. They didn't just sit down and play video games all day. They went outside and played basketball and baseball and beat up other kids. They played with the dog. They rode their bikes. Some kids are still that way... but I don't think outside plays as big of a role in kid's lives now.
-None of the kids had a cell phone. I don't want to sound older than I am (remember that I'm only 27) but I think it's ridiculous that any kid under the age of 10 needs a cell phone. I understand them bringing one with them if they're going over to a friend's house but I don't see why 7 year olds need iPhones. That just doesn't make sense to me and I don't know if it ever will.
-Corny jokes and puns were apparently in. The friend who is deemed "the funny one" usually has a lot of kids that shake their heads at him. Mostly because he wasn't funny. His jokes were pretty terrible. Insults weren't all that great either. There was one episode where a little girl called her brother a "krej" and explained that it was jerk backwards. I heard people insult each other by calling them a geek a few times. Geek is not an insult now... it just means that you're smarter than lots of other people.
-SPOILERS BELOW if you plan on watching Goosebumps on Netflix. Shit didn't always end up tied with a nice little bow on top. There's an episode where a little kid is tormented by his little sister and he goes back in time using a cuckoo clock. He eventually goes back to the present but ends up erasing his little sister in the process. She doesn't exist anymore. He's cool with that. The episode ends with him just being cool with it and saying that he might go try to fix it eventually. I was pretty amused with that ending. There's another episode where two kids just accept that they're the children of two monsters. They're totally cool with it. I know some kids now would be ok with that but I've heard kids too many times say that something was bad because it didn't resolve itself all nice and neat. That's teaching kids poor life lessons. Stuff doesn't always resolve itself cleanly in real life and TV and books shouldn't always teach you that it does.
I'm sure there's more... but those are the big differences that I noticed. Don't get me wrong. I love Netflix and my iPhone and my sweet home theater system. I also miss the 90s a little bit. I'm betting some of you do too.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
It was the worst of times... Jamestown Cannibals and The Walking Dead
A recent story in the news got me thinking. The results of a study of Jamestown were recently reported and the researchers have concluded that Jamestown colonists, when they were in their most desperate situation, resulted to cannibalism. Here's a link to the full news article on CNN: Researchers: Jamestown settlers resorted to cannibalism. I originally saw this in a YouTube video from Sourcefed (I generally like watching Sourcefed for my daily dose of news. They're pretty funny and, while they give their opinions, they focus on the information for the most part.)
The summer of 1609 brought two major setbacks that led to the desperate circumstances that eventually led to the Jamestown colonists resorting to cannibalism. First, a fleet of ships bringing 500 settlers from Plymouth and supplies was hit by a hurricane and scattered. Of the new settlers that made it to Jamestown, many were sick and most of the supplies were spoiled or rotten. Second, relations with the Powhatan Indians broke down and they eventually declared war on the colonists. With disease rampantly spreading and certain death waiting for them outside Jamestown, the colonists resorted to eating horses, dogs, cats, rats, mice, and snakes. They also boiled and ate any amount of leather that they could find. Once their food sources were depleted, rather than attempt to gather food from outside the fort (and be killed by the Powhatans), the colonists resorted to cannibalism. For further details, you can read the CNN article that I linked to above.
This actually got me thinking about the popularity of The Walking Dead on AMC. In a world where things become desperate (for instance, zombies coming back from the dead to eat people), many or all of our rules that make us "decent" or "good" people mean little or nothing anymore. The tagline for Season 3 was "fight the dead, fear the living." With limited resources and everyone fearing for their lives, you can't trust anyone to act like "decent people" anymore.
A lot of people like to say that they wouldn't resort to cannibalism, murder, theft, etc no matter what the circumstances. That's a great sentiment, but you can't say that with certainty until you're in a situation where cannibalism, murder, or theft seemed like a viable solution. Of course it's easy not to resort to those things NOW - you have no need to. I'm going to make up three hypothetical situations in which I think people may have a much stronger inclination to resort to what I'll call "end of the world crimes."
1. Cannibalism
The plane you were in crash landed and you were a survivor along with a few others. While attempting to make it back to civilization, weather conditions become severe (rain, snow, etc.) and all of you are malnourished and starving. It comes down to the point where several people have died and others in your group resorted to cannibalism. You declined to eat your fellow group members.
Eventually, your group is able to see a city in the distance and you realize that, given your current levels of strength, the group members who ate other group members are going to make it (barely) to the city but they don't have the strength to bring you along and you know that you won't make it. Another member of the group dies. Do you eat them to stay alive and make it to safety? Keep in mind that hunger, the cold, and malnutrition have driven you very close to insane and your only real instinct at this point is a will to survive. In this situation, you have no other option. You either eat the recently deceased member of your group or you go insane with hunger and then die. Would you become a cannibal?
2. Murder
You survived the end of the world. Nuclear holocaust, zombies, whatever you want to pick as your end of the world situation. You've become the leader of a small group that includes the surviving members of your family and people who have eventually joined up with your group. You know you can trust all of them.
Your group barricades themselves inside a warehouse and is able to get a decent amount of supplies. Things seem to be alright until a group of all men surrounds your warehouse. When you go out to meet them, the leader of your attackers tells you that you can give up your supplies and let them rape all the women in your group and they will move on. Those are their terms. They have superior numbers and firepower.
Your spies later hear the men boasting of the people they had raped and then killed. They're all laughing and bragging about it. Your spies also report that they have a large supply of alcohol and that they get drunk every night and many of them pass out in their tents. Your spies are confident that a small number from your group could easily kill them all during the night. Would you give the order to murder your attackers in their drunken stupor if it meant saving your family and friends?
3. Stealing
Your family has fallen on hard times and you live in a poor country. Several of them are ready to die from hunger. You know a way into a wealthy man's food storage and you know that you could get in and out with food without being detected. You know that the wealthy man will still have plenty of food for himself. Would you steal food to save your family from starvation?
Let's change the theft situation. Your family is sick from a disease with only one known cure. You meet another small family that has recently come upon a small supply of the cure but they have the disease as well. You know that you could easily overpower this small family with the help of your siblings and could then cure everyone in your family that has the disease but it would mean letting this small family die from the disease because there wouldn't be enough left for them. The small family consists of a man, his wife, a three-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy. Would you steal the cure?
No matter what you THINK your answer would be to those questions (and I'm interested in knowing how you would answer them, feel free to leave your responses to these hypothetical situations in the comments below)... you can't really know what you would do unless you were faced with those situations. When humanity is at its lowest and most depraved, you may have to do some terrible things to keep your family and friends safe because you know others will do them to you if you don't act first.
The summer of 1609 brought two major setbacks that led to the desperate circumstances that eventually led to the Jamestown colonists resorting to cannibalism. First, a fleet of ships bringing 500 settlers from Plymouth and supplies was hit by a hurricane and scattered. Of the new settlers that made it to Jamestown, many were sick and most of the supplies were spoiled or rotten. Second, relations with the Powhatan Indians broke down and they eventually declared war on the colonists. With disease rampantly spreading and certain death waiting for them outside Jamestown, the colonists resorted to eating horses, dogs, cats, rats, mice, and snakes. They also boiled and ate any amount of leather that they could find. Once their food sources were depleted, rather than attempt to gather food from outside the fort (and be killed by the Powhatans), the colonists resorted to cannibalism. For further details, you can read the CNN article that I linked to above.
This actually got me thinking about the popularity of The Walking Dead on AMC. In a world where things become desperate (for instance, zombies coming back from the dead to eat people), many or all of our rules that make us "decent" or "good" people mean little or nothing anymore. The tagline for Season 3 was "fight the dead, fear the living." With limited resources and everyone fearing for their lives, you can't trust anyone to act like "decent people" anymore.
A lot of people like to say that they wouldn't resort to cannibalism, murder, theft, etc no matter what the circumstances. That's a great sentiment, but you can't say that with certainty until you're in a situation where cannibalism, murder, or theft seemed like a viable solution. Of course it's easy not to resort to those things NOW - you have no need to. I'm going to make up three hypothetical situations in which I think people may have a much stronger inclination to resort to what I'll call "end of the world crimes."
1. Cannibalism
The plane you were in crash landed and you were a survivor along with a few others. While attempting to make it back to civilization, weather conditions become severe (rain, snow, etc.) and all of you are malnourished and starving. It comes down to the point where several people have died and others in your group resorted to cannibalism. You declined to eat your fellow group members.
Eventually, your group is able to see a city in the distance and you realize that, given your current levels of strength, the group members who ate other group members are going to make it (barely) to the city but they don't have the strength to bring you along and you know that you won't make it. Another member of the group dies. Do you eat them to stay alive and make it to safety? Keep in mind that hunger, the cold, and malnutrition have driven you very close to insane and your only real instinct at this point is a will to survive. In this situation, you have no other option. You either eat the recently deceased member of your group or you go insane with hunger and then die. Would you become a cannibal?
2. Murder
You survived the end of the world. Nuclear holocaust, zombies, whatever you want to pick as your end of the world situation. You've become the leader of a small group that includes the surviving members of your family and people who have eventually joined up with your group. You know you can trust all of them.
Your group barricades themselves inside a warehouse and is able to get a decent amount of supplies. Things seem to be alright until a group of all men surrounds your warehouse. When you go out to meet them, the leader of your attackers tells you that you can give up your supplies and let them rape all the women in your group and they will move on. Those are their terms. They have superior numbers and firepower.
Your spies later hear the men boasting of the people they had raped and then killed. They're all laughing and bragging about it. Your spies also report that they have a large supply of alcohol and that they get drunk every night and many of them pass out in their tents. Your spies are confident that a small number from your group could easily kill them all during the night. Would you give the order to murder your attackers in their drunken stupor if it meant saving your family and friends?
3. Stealing
Your family has fallen on hard times and you live in a poor country. Several of them are ready to die from hunger. You know a way into a wealthy man's food storage and you know that you could get in and out with food without being detected. You know that the wealthy man will still have plenty of food for himself. Would you steal food to save your family from starvation?
Let's change the theft situation. Your family is sick from a disease with only one known cure. You meet another small family that has recently come upon a small supply of the cure but they have the disease as well. You know that you could easily overpower this small family with the help of your siblings and could then cure everyone in your family that has the disease but it would mean letting this small family die from the disease because there wouldn't be enough left for them. The small family consists of a man, his wife, a three-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy. Would you steal the cure?
No matter what you THINK your answer would be to those questions (and I'm interested in knowing how you would answer them, feel free to leave your responses to these hypothetical situations in the comments below)... you can't really know what you would do unless you were faced with those situations. When humanity is at its lowest and most depraved, you may have to do some terrible things to keep your family and friends safe because you know others will do them to you if you don't act first.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)