Saddest fucking story I have ever heard. Dude, we should make a movie. I wonder if skriten will loan us the money?
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Funniest thing I ever saw in my life. Walt Disney ‘Tales of The South.’ Final scene. A little boy is crossing a field. There is a Big Black Bull in the field. The boy sees the bull, The bull sees the boy. The boy looks again. The bull strikes his front hoof on the ground. The boy begins to run. the bull snorts steam from his nose and lowers his head. The boy is running. The bull is running. The boy is running. The bull is running, The boy is running, The bull is running, EVERYTHING GOES BLACK.
From up above we see the boy laid out in the grass, face down, his hand just six inches away from the fence.
I laughed so hard I though I was going to piss myself. I shouted out, “Awww, He almost made it.” The guy in front of me was with his kid and he threatened to kick my ass. I told him, “You don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of your kid.” I kept laughing and a couple of other people in the theater got the joke and started laughing too. Nevertheless, after a few more ‘shushes from the crowd.’ I had to get up and go into the lobby to calm myself down. Damn, that kid was so close!
Hey, I recall the second movie I almost got kicked out of. “Goodfellas?” The scene opens with a man getting run over by a hot dog cart as he is walking out of a subway. I kept thinking of the phone call to his wife. “Sorry mam, your husband is dead. He got run over by a hot dog cart while exiting the subway.”
I have a real black sense of humor.
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No, mate you are not. You are hearing but not listening. You are watching but not observing. But then you are the outsider to them, old as Methusalah, outdated, set in your ways and self satisified with your achievements in surmounting what fate has cast you.
Inn my case I worked until two years ago with a mostly young crowd, college age to 30 ish in one of the most competitive (read most likely to not succeed) professions in the world.
The difference is that although (much) older, much more experienced I was as they were in the workplace. They were my peers. So their “empty chatter” is not empty, you just do not get it and its nuances. Their communication skills are amazing much better than my generation of so called literates. I qualify that with the proviso that their formal literacy is often lost in the abbreviations and fashion speak they employ.
But then none of you kens and karens would understand Chaucer in the original…and he would most probably be scathing about your preferred speech and methods of communication…
I will give you an example of modern skills: I was standing in for the director in a cast meeting for a production I had written. The cast were all in their late teens, early twenties. All were sat at the meeting with phones and laptops clicking away. I stopped the meeting - oh yes reacted as Tin Man or Cog would react according to their boomer comments. I said; I found the use of phones etc. disrespectful and they were missing out on important notes they would need for their performances.
Ooooops. My charming assistant ( one the most efficient First ADs I have ever known) tugged my incandescent, pompous boomer sleeve and pointed out that nearly every one (including herself) at that meeting were recording my comments for revision and practice, those that were not ( who I ASSUMED were texting)…were in fact typing the notes as they went along. Oh fuck. Did I feel a dinosaur…oh yes. Not only that earlier at the meeting I had asked the cast to put out feelers for extras and a couple of minor roles…they had done it as I spoke on their phones and laptops, and the buzzing I was so irritated by…were their friends and contacts replying. I apologised to them all immediately and the difference in atmosphere was immediate. I should not condemn on the basis of seeing but not observing.
Young adults are brought up multi tasking, their phones/laptops. watches are their tools. Their fingers, are their bridge into a world populated by them, not fucking dinosaurs who want to drag them back into letter post and chalk and slates. Fucks sake.
They are the future, we gave them those tools, and if you want to be a fucking dinosaur and complain about it, go right ahead on your irrelevant, grumpy, entitled course. You will be rightfully ignored when you are the butt of amusement by the inhabitants of a world you can hardly guess at. Let alone appreciate. “OK BOOMER”
The kids are all right.
I’m capable of being social and interacting with other people as long as they aren’t an asshole or an idiot. My wife has been at her job for over 25 years now, and I’m friends with all of her co-workers, does that count?
I already know how I’ll do it if/when I decide that I’ve had enough, and it won’t involve anyone but myself, unlike people who walk into traffic, or in front of a train, or make a cop shoot them.
We live in Washington state near the Deception Pass bridge, which connects Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island. It’s 180 feet above the water, and a favorite place for jumpers from what I’ve heard. No one who’s jumped has survived that fall into Puget Sound’s waters.
It means you are human and just deeply unhappy at the MOMENT.
The journey from your unhappiness is for you to direct and manage. Cog is right on the money in that. He must have an overdose of fermented banana as he is not normally that sensible. But, yes, you are already moving in the direction you want.
Keep on keeping on and allow your self the luxury of being a grumpy git when it is necessary to keep the varmints in order.
Good luck mate.
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I know what you mean, every morning when I slowly climb out of my sleeping chair( I can’t sleep in the same bed with my wife anymore, not for 6 years now), I use my left hand on the bedroom wall to steady myself while I slowly stand up from my recliner and walk the 5 or 6 steps it takes to reach the alarm clock.
I feel like Frankensteins Monster every morning until I get my balance. Last week, I fell down when I was trying to stand up, luckily I fell backwards into my chair.
Anyway, we have 4 grandkids, and they all live less than 75 miles from us, so I try to spend as much time as I/we can with them.
We got to spend time with all of them this past Saturday, and damn they grow up fast. They are one of the reasons I choose to stick around, but my wife is the real reason I’m still here.
I can’t believe she’s stuck with me during our bad times, I don’t deserve her.
Whenever she’s not here, I have my music on, especially when I’m having a really bad day pain wise. I’m convinced that metal music, black metal specifically, has helped me choose to stick around on days when I otherwise would have paid Deception Pass a visit.
I’m looking forward to 2 shows in Seattle, one in October, and one in December. It’s simple things like going to a show that help keep me going and want to stick around.
I am abby-normal, aren’t I?
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LOL, I am nowhere near behind the times when it comes to phone apps in the workplace. Text messages fly from office to office, meetings are set up and of course, information is recorded. Nothing going on there that I am not completely familiar with.
However; I have never played a game on my phone. I also don’t answer it. It’s my phone, not someone else’s. The phone is for my convenience and not for the convenience of anyone else. I answer it when I have time or just feel like it. My phone will take a message and I will get back to you. I am not a slave to my phone, my computer, video games, etc… Most of the students I have seen are. I will grant you, that what you have described does fit a very small segment of top students who are motivated and seem to know where they are going. I know two young boys that fit your outline and one very motivated young girl.
I don’t see a lot of motivation. I see a lot of complaining, whining, and just getting by to get the degree. I don’t even see people with a real interest in the field they are studying. But I think that was true in my major as well. There were 340 students in my class. 42 made it to graduation. Probably another 40 extended. Most dropped out. Perhaps it’s the same. Not everyone who goes to university is going to make it. But in this country, you pay your money, go to class, and you will get a degree regardless of your grades.
I think American universities are not following a similar programmatic outline. Keep the money rolling in, and give the kids a piece of paper. They say the BA is the new HS degree. I’m thinking it’s true. I have teachers with BA degrees who can’t write a paragraph.
I posted some of the writing a while back…. 24-year-old man with a BA degree gave to me.
“Paul tries to be a drawer. I encourage him to take his time and slowly observe what is in front of him with caution and attention to detail; this attribute applies to paper folding (origami) and paper cutting with scissors. Paul loves singing songs, and he quickly learns the lyrics off by heart and sings with the class. Paul’s hand and eye coordination are normal; he can appropriately hold his pencil and write his words precisely. He can walk and steadily hold his lunch tray to his seated table, and he can bring down big or small food containers without any problem with balance. He can hold his spoon carefully without hardly ever spilling his food on the table or floor.”
The above is a Student Report and the man used Grammarly. LOL, I’ve got two more that aren’t as bad. Perhaps writing is a lost art?
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YES! They do not know how to count back change!!! It’s fucking amazing! They rely on the fucking computer. The bill is $5.26 and you give them a $10 and a fifty cent piece. They go fucking nuts. LOL… It’s so true! LOL
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I feel exactly the same. We are both very lucky.
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Thanks Old_man, us millennial dickheads have this nice new built in feature called Boomer noise cancellation.
Sorry we are all too busy paying too much for houses or living in co-housing with family and friends because boomers didn’t care to keep inflation in check and encouraged us to take on debt at the age of 18 when we had little to no idea of the predatory lending practices boomers peddled to us.
Also we are the way we are because boomers decided it was a good idea to give us 8 year olds participation trophies. Because clearly at 8 we should have known better lol.
Boomers created us, and guided us, but it’s our fault.
Sorry I’ll go back to fixing the dinosaur machines that boomers neglected to fix properly or maintain.
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perhaps you can sell me one so I don’t have to listen to them avoid their responsibilities for letting their children (your parents) fuck up so badly.
The kids are ok.
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This conversation cracks me up. Around fifty years ago when I first started working in an orchard, the man I worked for was a great guy but he always had things to say about my generation. Not particularly negative, mostly just concern for our lack of connection to his world. He had seen that the young men like me who came to work there had little to no practical knowledge of rural or farm work, and indeed didn’t really know how to work. I got on well with him and worked for him, off and on, for several years. My step-father had taught me how to work and I had started hauling hay when I was thirteen so I fit right in with him.
Me and a couple of my friends worked together for him at times and we would talk about how he lived in the past, even though we liked and respected him.
Now I see this repeating fifty years later. My son-in-law is now having a hell of time finding apprentices for his plumbing business who will actually work. They bring zero skills to the table and would prefer to be on on one of these phones. Grumble grumble…
This is one view. Another is the view of my son’s five kids who are all academically advanced and are definitely much better educated than I was at that age. They do not have the work ethic I did, but that too can be learned. I also have friends with kids in their teens or twenties who too are encouraging to see how engaged in learning they are.
I think it is somewhat normal to worry that the things we think are important or things we have embraced as important, may not be as important to a younger generation. I feel it, I see it, I sometimes bitch about it. I also see a whole lot of “wrinkles are wisdom” horseshit from people, even ones a good deal younger than me.
Sure, I knew how to count change back when I was a kid, because I had a paper route! Times change, people change, the wheels on the bus go round and round…
No generation should be painted with a broad brush. There are always idiots and there are achievers. I knew pretty early on that a lot of my friends would struggle if they had to meet the standards of their parents. But the reverse is often true as well.
A good portion of my generation “sold out”. When it came time to pay the bills, much idealism faded with the morning fog. So what?
My takeaway is that we all want someone to lay blame on for why things are not as we think they should be. “It’s these kids today” “it’s the boomers for leaving us this mess” “ it’s the WWll generation for inventing plastic and nuclear weapons” “it’s the ethnocentric Europeans” blah blah blah…
I think we all secretly know that it is all the Aussies’ fault…
(Edit for corn)
This is an amazing quality to have. The ability to know how to work. When I hire people I hire them to do a job. What I get, I call the MacDonalds Mentality. The minimum requirement for any position I have hired for is a BA degree. New hires get in here and they can not do the job they were hired to do. Okay fine, but they have learned the skills and have the degrees. They are unwilling to put in the time to learn. They want to do their 9 to 5 and go home. They think they earn their money by just showing up, sitting in a seat all day, going through the motions, and not really giving a shit about the job.
The learning curve for my current position was about a year. The asshole that had it before me was so far behind in reports and bullshit that I ended up doing all his work and my work for the first year. For my second-year contract, I was given an $800 a month raise and they begged me to sign a 2-year contract. (The maximum allowed by the Korean government.) I am socking away $$$ for retirement. If I ever retire. The fact is… I like what I do.
Now, I work 40 hours a week. I have copies of all the old reports I have written on my computer so I have templates for everything. I do my job in half the time I did when I started and twice as well. Until the economy improves, I have no plans to return to the states. Cashing out my Korean won at this time would cost me 25% I’m going to sit this inflation out and hope for the best. But back to these people with university degrees…
I’ve told my story on here before… I was literally kicked out of a university for writing as these peoploe write. I could not write. I had to go back to a JC and practice for a year before making a second attempt at university. Universities are graduating people that do not have basic writing skills. It’s nuts! FACT: They didn’t let me get away with that shit but in today’s world, it seems perfectly okay.
Not only is this true at my current job but it was true at my previous job. Coworkers constantly asked me to edit papers. (Regardless of how I write here at AR, I can compose.) Coworkers actually complained, “I didn’t know I would have to write when I accepted this job.” LOL — You are a fucking University Professor. What in the hell do you mean, you didn’t know you would have to write?
This is the world I seem to live in. There is certainly a lack of work ethic out there. More than that, there is an unwillingness to learn. (Just My Opinion)
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Carrot and stick, unfortunately younger people aren’t motivated to go above and beyond. Especially after watching everyone older than us work so fucking hard and get clotheslined and completely fucked over by things like the 2008 market crash.
We watched everyone in the trades and service industry get flattened here. Everyone gravitated towards side hustles and temporary gigs because most of us know we can never afford the life boomers had. It’s gone, inflation and stagnant wages have destroyed worker confidence. Why waste 30 years somewhere to end up with no money in your 401k because the markets bellied up. All the whole DESTROYING your body to do it. What’s the point, be a shriveled up crippled corpse they sweep off the loading dock because I can’t afford to retire and die on the floor?
Of course I and my more stout millennial friends carry the torch. Wish there were more of us though. There is going to be a dramatic shift at some point as more and more service industry jobs fall by the way side to computers and closures because of lack of necessity. Us dickheads will keep the doors open till they all wander in. Now if industrial and manufacturing can figure out which carrot to put on the end of the stick, that’s a whole other ball of wax.
I just keep on wrenching and remember my motto, “We’re not satisfied, until you’re not satisfied!”
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Ah yes, more of the shit created by the asshole corporate people from my generation.
They are not picky about who they fuck over in their relentless pursuit of more.
There are a bunch of us that saw that coming a long time ago and managed to avoid becoming victims of it. You have to look out for yourself first. Selfish? Hell yes! Anyone who says they don’t look out for number one first is either delusional or a fucking liar. It is basic survival.
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LOL… Memories of my first job. Get up and deliver those dang papers before school. Get up earlier on Sundays because the Sunday paper came with all the inserts and took twice as long to fold.
So true! I paid off all my student loans in 2 years. I just thought that was what people did. The money was a “LOAN” after all and I really appreciated it. I would not have had my degrees without the help. But now you hear of so many people defaulting and not caring; acting like the money was owed to them.
I don’t think it is a “BLAME” thing. It is an “OBSERVATION” thing. And perhaps it is true of every generation. The cream floats to the top and everyone else just tries to get by?
I realize my standards are my own; however, when I end up doing another persons work because they did not get it done, are too lazy to get it done, are unwilling to put in the time to get it done, that fucking asshole is not going to work with me for long. The person who wrote the 'Student Evaluation" I posted, lasted 3 months. I’ve got another whose contract will not be renewed and I have a young lady who seems to be willing to work. I’m going to talk to her and see if she is willing to take my job when I leave. I think she can do it with some training and some work. (Is she willing to work? Hmmm?)
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Maybe a poor choice of words on my part.
Drawing conclusions based on observed facts is not a fallacy or a bias or an unfair presumption. However, much like bigotry, it is a lazy thought process to jump on the generational blame game just as a handy “explanation”.
Yeah, remember when it was near Christmas time and the Sunday paper had a huge pile of inserts (which we had to insert) that made the papers so thick that you couldn’t fold them?
I was really grateful to have an opportunity to earn some money since there was no “allowance” to be had. I liked having at least enough coinage for my sugar fixes and from about twelve or so, cigarettes.( yeah the cig thing was really smart, I know) I also loved the “show” which is what we called the movies, and that thirty-five cents it cost had to come from somewhere. A friend of mine and me would sometimes stop by the candy store (yes that was a real thing) on the way to school and load up on pixie sticks, etc., and then sell them at a higher price to other kids so we could pig out for free…(capitalist little bastards).
I feel sorry for kids now that have little or no opportunities to learn how the money thing works. I don’t want kids to have to work to be able to eat, but there is something to be said for learning the “value of a dollar”. (Wow, I just reread that and I sound like geezer boy)
Edit for blather
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I don’t think it is a generation thing. I think it is an Economic and Educational and to a degree a technology thing. This is a really long discussion.
Schools care more about $$$ than education. They are failing. Admins do anything to keep a warm body in a seat and qualify for government money. Teachers are required to keep kids in the room because that is where the public money comes from. Under the traditional “seat-time” funding rules in most states, schools receive funds only if students are physically present at school, working directly with a teacher. This is a fucked up way to run a school. Students with disruptive behaviors are kept in the school to keep the money flowing in. No wonder we have problems with …
The decline in safety: Mass shootings, physical fights, guns in the schools, police in the schools writing tickets when kids act out, and parents paying for the tickets. It has gotten insane. It is not education.
Voucher programs that take money away from the heathen Public School System with its crime and corruption and allow religious families to send children to religious schools.
Teacher salaries are by no means impressive and, in most states, they have decreased steadily over the past few years. In fact, research shows that the average salary for public elementary and secondary school teachers dropped by nearly 5% between the 2009/10 school year and now. States like Oklahoma and Colorado experienced a 17% and 16% decrease – these states also saw massive teacher walkouts in 2018.
In addition to lower salaries, there is more work and ‘overcrowding.’ In the 2011/12 school year, the average class size in American public schools was about 21 students in elementary school and almost 27 students in secondary school. Anecdotal reports, however, suggest that classrooms today have closer to 30, and in some cases, 40 students.
"Along with Common Core, there has been an increased focus on standardized testing, especially during the No Child Left Behind years. Teachers are blamed for the poor performance of children. Teachers cheat to pass children and make themselves look good. School districts cheat to get government funding. Diane Quisenberry was hired as a director at the university I work for. The Koreans did not Google her past. “Two educators who worked with Copeland at Benteen during the cheating scandal have left the school system. Marty Cummings, who investigators said worked with Copeland in her office to change student scores on the tests, resigned in June. Principal Diana Quisenberry’s contract was not renewed this year.” She was the mastermind and turned state evidence to avoid prosecution. The university terminated her contract upon discovering the information
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/testing-coordinator-defends-self-hearing/KZrXOATBfcjZOACKkZZpuM/
Growing poverty in US schools: According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 50% of the public school population in the United States was made up of low-income students. This is a significant increase from 38% in 2001.
There is probably more… And this will be a mess to get into. Just my opinion and I will leave it at that. We can have a long discussion over a beer… Wait, I don’t drink beer… well, not often anyway. I’ll buy you a beer and I’ll have a coke.
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