Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Fox News again…

A friend sent this to me. Fox News! need I say more? Well YES I DO!

Oh for gods sake!

These people are nuts.

Poor people have been poor since the Polk Administration. That Conservatives or Liberals would try to lay the problems of the poor at ANY ONE presidents feet is insultingly stupid. Mind you I’m not at all impressed with Obama and haven’t been since well before he took office. Unfortunately, the republican alternative wasn’t an alternative at all.

The poor are poor due to any number of factors, education being chief among them. But when I say education I mean it in a far broader sense than books and classrooms. If folks don’t not KNOW that a better life is possible… then it’s only the few malcontents that aspire for something different. When you start rubbing peoples noses in what they don’t have that’s when you create problems. Hell, I’m poor by comparison to Bill Gates, Paul Allen, or Steve jobs. (I’ve got way better teeth than Paul Allen though. DAMN!) I’m obscenely wealthy compared to someone from Kenya.

“Poor” is an arbitrary measure usually applied by fat middle to upper class people that makes themselves feel better about their accomplishments and their obscene wealth. “Poor” gives bleeding heart liberals and do gooder conservatives photo opportunities that can be labeled “Socially Conscious”. “Poor” sows discord and creates the “Haves”&  “Have Nots”. The term then provides an excuse for someone that perceives themselves to be “poor” to feel entitled to take what they want.

Spend some time in Compton&  South Central like I did over the past 4 years and then talk to me about the “poor” the media is talking about.

I’d gotten to the point that I was wearing no jewelry, driving my beat to hell 13 year old truck and never carrying anything other than my ID and $20 while I was at work. And I’d go out of my way to NOT spend any money in that area.

When I was in KY I went to school with people that were more content on the farm using hand tools than accessing any of the modern technologies. Why? Because it was easier and they didn’t have to learn nothin new. These people were dirt poor, but they were actually pretty happy because they didn’t aspire to have all the pretty shiny trinkets. They were only interested in things that had practical value in their daily lives. Their phones only worked half the time because they didn’t always feel like paying the bill. They had electricity most of the time, but their farm houses had been built before electricity and everything worked just fine without it.

Most of these people quit school as soon as they could and went back to the farm. They weren’t stupid, they just couldn’t relate how anything they were learning in school was of practical use in their day to day lives.

They didn’t consider themselves “poor” any more than the Amish consider themselves “poor”. Although both groups were often well below the “Poverty” line.

In comparison, ask anyone in Compton or South Central if they’re “Poor” and they’ll say yes… When you ask them why they’ll say it’s because they don’t have the latest iPod.

When I started this rant I was thinking about the poor people that I’d grown up with. THOSE people were very rich in spirit and community. And so I disagreed with the characterization that Fox applied to the poor.

But then as I thought about it, “Poor” really means different things dependent on context. The media uses “Poor” to describe people living in the ghetto. In that context Fox news is right….

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Busy Morning

A morning of errands.

It’s a typical California day. For all the faults of California one thing I can say is that the weather can’t be beat. except perhaps by Hawaii… Then again who wouldn’t want to be in Hawaii?

Dropped the top on Pacific Coast Highway and enjoyed the sun & sea. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live on PCH. I know it would be a madhouse in the Summer months. I lived for a couple of years in Huntington Beach, several miles from the ocean and even that was almost too much on the weekends.
Maybe one day I’ll get to have one of those nifty townhomes along the ocean, at this point I’m thinking it’s not terribly likely.

I think if I was going to have a place like that I’d prefer it to be on the big island… perhaps in or around Kona.
I have no idea what I”d be doing to pay the mortgage It’s a nice dream though.

I stopped in a Starbucks in Sunset Beach, including my little netbook there was enough computing power to solve all but the most complex weather simulations. I’m always taken aback because I remember the days when computers were luggable, Black & White, used 5.25″ disks and weighed in at 40lbs. The other striking thing is how isolated the people are.

They’re all sitting together in a rather smallish space, and it’s dead silent. Didn’t coffee shops used to be social gathering places? Now eveyone is on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever. Ironically they’re reaching out to people that may be half a globe away, and missing the companionship to be had right in the same room. What a very strange place we find ourselves in now.

I’m off to finish the rest of my appointments. If I spend too much more time observing people I’m going to be late.

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A new day, A new chapter…

I relented. I decided that it was worth my while to divest myself of the company systems and close that door.

My desire to not show up to turn in my company equipment was nothing more than me wanting to inconvenience them as much as they have inconvenienced me over the past three months.

I made the 2 hour drive down to the office. I’m actually glad that I did, I got to see a couple of my favorite people one last time to say goodbye and good luck.

Of course the person doing the out-processing was for the most part winging it, and wasn’t entirely sure that the paperwork we were filling out was in fact the “Correct” paperwork.

I must say, I’m not surprised. Through all of this, the HR people have been notably absent and in fact left the final paperwork to a mid level manager who commented that there was no training. In my mind, this is a sad comment on the state of the company, and heralds what is to come.

It probably wont be tomorrow, or next year or even the year after that. But I foresee the company closing or being purchased then gutted for it’s patents or other assets. This assessment is based on my experience with other companies and what they were like as they got old and near their final death throes.

Happily I won’t be working for them as they implode and self destruct.

I received nothing in the way of information about my corporate savings account, 401K, COBRA, and I’m still waiting on my vacation payout. It looks like severance was deposited in my checking account.

Yet another aspect of how poorly implemented this whole layoff process has been.

I’ve been laid off enough times to pretty much know the process by heart.

In the layoffs where I was the manager, I had packets of information ready for each employee. Those packets covered every bit of information about the employees rights, their retirement accounts, how their medical was going to be handled, how to continue medical coverage under COBRA, who to contact with additional questions after they were laid off, and a FAQ sheet.

Any other questions not answered with the information on hand, and I’d get HR and / or Legal in my office or in a conference room to make sure everyone had the answers or knew that their questions were being researched.

But then again, I’m anal about such things and worked for companies that actually had a plan, clue, system, direction…. you get the picture.

So while I’m done with them mostly… I see that I’m going to have to be on the phone demanding an information packet and know that I’ll have to make that demand several times. I’ll start those phone calls on Monday.

I watched the sun rise over the mountain this morning. It’s a pretty day and I’m in a pretty good place.

I’ve got three books I’m trying to read. One of them is a study guide for HAM radio. I think it’s about time that I got my license. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a number of years and well… It looks like I’m going to have a little time on my hands for learning something new.

I’m also thinking that learning something new, that’s fun for me will make it easier to get into a learning mode for any training that I may take for a new career or a new job.

After I was done with the company debacle, I treated myself to a $60 stop by Ham Radio Outlet in Anaheim.  I was studying for my license before the fire. I had the books, and a sweet little radio. All of that was destroyed with the house. The $60 was me picking up study guides for the Technician and General class tests.

Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about disaster preparation and as part of that preparation, I think it would be a great idea to have a couple of small radios for local communication and a HAM rig for longer distance, so learning something new is a twofer…

Career choices are another matter I’m working on. I can continue on in the career path I’ve been in, or I could pick up some additional training and move into a slightly different and “new” direction. The problem is that the “new” direction may not provide many more opportunities for employment and could be pricey for the education. I’m still weighing that one out.

Alternatively I could leave technology behind altogether and go do something completely different.

Again, I’m weighing the options. I think a lot of it will boil down to a simple question.

What am I willing to give up?

Ahhhh…. there’s the rub.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily the lives we build for ourselves can become cages.