Just got back from the job interview in Dayton. I felt like it went well. Not fabulously or anything, but well. Though they did point out that there is a hiring freeze right now. So, it may be a while... like months, before I hear anything. I guess that's encouraging, because if they thought I sucked, they would be able to let me hear something right away.
Still bummed that school turned out like it did this semester. I really did want to try and keep the rest of my life from destroying my semester, but I didn't succeed. By my estimation, I will have to repeat two classes. We'll see. Could actually end up worse. Could be better, but could be worse. Only time will tell.
My AC unit at my house is dead. Yah. Freakin' yay. Oh well. Why the hell not.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Eventful Week Coming Up
This is the final week of the Spring semester, and unfortunately, probably my last semester of law school.
On Thursday, I am going to Dayton for a job interview and if I get offerred the job, I just don't see a way I can turn it down.
I had hoped that either ONU Law or Dayton Law had a part-time evening program, but neither school does. Literally, it looks like University of Toledo is the closest school with a part-time evening program. With a 2.5 hour commute each way, I just don't see how I can make that happen.
The job I'm interviewing for mentioned that they do allow telecommuting, but who knows under what circumstances, etc. I am not counting on it, but if they allowed me to telecommute a couple days a week, it may be possible to return to school part-time.
It's all just going to be very difficult. It also raises a question of how realistic it would be to try and start a law career if my graduation would be at an even more advanced age.
If I do get this job, with the working years I have left, the smartest thing for me to do is to work there until I retire.
So, this could, effectively, be the end of my aspirations of getting a JD.
I've tried not to be a person who blamed my circumstances for things. I've tried to look at myself, and my personal failings, to see what I could have done better, or differently.
As much as I keep trying to find a way to beat myself up for the state my life has gotten to, I just can't find very good reasons to.
The business? Horrible timing. I took on a mountain of debt almost immediately prior to the economy collapsing. Then, we went on a 3 year streak of continuously non-disastrous weather. I don't believe in fate or destiny, but if there were some grand force controlling the universe and it had set out to destroy my business in a manner most likely to crater my finances, it would have done exactly what I've seen happen these past 4 years.
I will really miss Law School, though. I really enjoyed it. The irony is that my Spring semester is going to be a disaster. Chances are if I stuck around, I'd have to repeat some classes. However, it's not so much because of Law School. It's because of everything else in my life. My business was horriffic this semester. Not just slow, and money-losing, but with insane customers who were threatening to sue because we have a 1 year warranty on workmanship, and they experienced problems after almost 3 years.
These customers. Oh my god. One of them lives in a mobile home. "Repaired" the caulk job we did when we installed a new shower, themselves. The caulk leaked. Now, 3 years later, they want us to replace their entire bathroom. No, I'm not making that up.
The other customer? Lives in a wet basement. When it flooded and we cleaned it up, the press-and-stick tiles came up. We spent countless days drying out the basement, without charging for it, to get the new tile to stick. It did stick. Clearly, the place has flooded again in the mean time. The tiles came back up. Customer wants us, 3 years later, to come and fix them.
As somebody once explained to me, when you filter out the number of people who are thieves, opportunists, flat-out crazy, etc., the number of actual sane people you deal with in any business that deals with the public is startlingly small. We've been lucky previously, I guess, but both of these idiots decided to jump into my life back in February/March.
Then, a bunch of stuff on the personal side. Basically, somebody lost their damned mind and it ended up costing me a bunch of money I didn't have, overdrew my account, etc. That happened in February/March.
2 of the lowest volume business months we've ever had. Lost a ton of money. On top of the tons we've already lost. The biz was within days of being insolvent. Happened in February/March.
It is not an exaggeration to say I slept about 2 hours a night all through March, and even today, I'm still catching up. I am absolutely just worn out. I still lose a lot of sleep, but nothing like back then.
So, yeah, I could have done a better job of keeping up with school, but frankly, I was just exhausted and stressed out of my mind. Fell completely behind in school. I may as well have not bothered going to class. I was totally unable to focus on anything.
Things are not looking like they'll improve, either. Which means I basically have to take the job if I can do it. The business has been nothing short of an insane nightmare and it isn't ending anytime soon.
I had hoped I could limp it along for the next 2 years when the fixed-term debt would be retired, and I could be graduated with my JD. Unfortunately, it has never ceased to find new and creative ways to get even worse than before. It continues to do so, today.
I guess in a lot of ways, I'm just sorta numb after all this. Knock on wood, there are so many ways this could be worse. I still have my house, for the time being. Oddly, I'll still have the business, though it's for sale and has been for sale, literally for years, now. In an economy like this, nobody has money and banks aren't lending money.
I may have a shot at a really good job. Not a perfect situation, but a darned good one in a lot of ways. There are still ways I can get back on my feet. It'll take better luck than I've had lately, but it could happen.
So far, none of this appears to have affected my son. That's the one bright shining star in all of this. I want his life to be as good as I can make it.
So, I just keep trudging along. One way or another, something will work out. However, I don't think I'll be back in the Fall, which sucks. Law school was one of the parts of my life that I really enjoyed and that I had some control over.
Again, I don't believe in fate or destiny, but I can't help but say that it was inevitable that because Law School was a positive thing in my life, there was no way I'd be allowed to keep doing it.
On Thursday, I am going to Dayton for a job interview and if I get offerred the job, I just don't see a way I can turn it down.
I had hoped that either ONU Law or Dayton Law had a part-time evening program, but neither school does. Literally, it looks like University of Toledo is the closest school with a part-time evening program. With a 2.5 hour commute each way, I just don't see how I can make that happen.
The job I'm interviewing for mentioned that they do allow telecommuting, but who knows under what circumstances, etc. I am not counting on it, but if they allowed me to telecommute a couple days a week, it may be possible to return to school part-time.
It's all just going to be very difficult. It also raises a question of how realistic it would be to try and start a law career if my graduation would be at an even more advanced age.
If I do get this job, with the working years I have left, the smartest thing for me to do is to work there until I retire.
So, this could, effectively, be the end of my aspirations of getting a JD.
I've tried not to be a person who blamed my circumstances for things. I've tried to look at myself, and my personal failings, to see what I could have done better, or differently.
As much as I keep trying to find a way to beat myself up for the state my life has gotten to, I just can't find very good reasons to.
The business? Horrible timing. I took on a mountain of debt almost immediately prior to the economy collapsing. Then, we went on a 3 year streak of continuously non-disastrous weather. I don't believe in fate or destiny, but if there were some grand force controlling the universe and it had set out to destroy my business in a manner most likely to crater my finances, it would have done exactly what I've seen happen these past 4 years.
I will really miss Law School, though. I really enjoyed it. The irony is that my Spring semester is going to be a disaster. Chances are if I stuck around, I'd have to repeat some classes. However, it's not so much because of Law School. It's because of everything else in my life. My business was horriffic this semester. Not just slow, and money-losing, but with insane customers who were threatening to sue because we have a 1 year warranty on workmanship, and they experienced problems after almost 3 years.
These customers. Oh my god. One of them lives in a mobile home. "Repaired" the caulk job we did when we installed a new shower, themselves. The caulk leaked. Now, 3 years later, they want us to replace their entire bathroom. No, I'm not making that up.
The other customer? Lives in a wet basement. When it flooded and we cleaned it up, the press-and-stick tiles came up. We spent countless days drying out the basement, without charging for it, to get the new tile to stick. It did stick. Clearly, the place has flooded again in the mean time. The tiles came back up. Customer wants us, 3 years later, to come and fix them.
As somebody once explained to me, when you filter out the number of people who are thieves, opportunists, flat-out crazy, etc., the number of actual sane people you deal with in any business that deals with the public is startlingly small. We've been lucky previously, I guess, but both of these idiots decided to jump into my life back in February/March.
Then, a bunch of stuff on the personal side. Basically, somebody lost their damned mind and it ended up costing me a bunch of money I didn't have, overdrew my account, etc. That happened in February/March.
2 of the lowest volume business months we've ever had. Lost a ton of money. On top of the tons we've already lost. The biz was within days of being insolvent. Happened in February/March.
It is not an exaggeration to say I slept about 2 hours a night all through March, and even today, I'm still catching up. I am absolutely just worn out. I still lose a lot of sleep, but nothing like back then.
So, yeah, I could have done a better job of keeping up with school, but frankly, I was just exhausted and stressed out of my mind. Fell completely behind in school. I may as well have not bothered going to class. I was totally unable to focus on anything.
Things are not looking like they'll improve, either. Which means I basically have to take the job if I can do it. The business has been nothing short of an insane nightmare and it isn't ending anytime soon.
I had hoped I could limp it along for the next 2 years when the fixed-term debt would be retired, and I could be graduated with my JD. Unfortunately, it has never ceased to find new and creative ways to get even worse than before. It continues to do so, today.
I guess in a lot of ways, I'm just sorta numb after all this. Knock on wood, there are so many ways this could be worse. I still have my house, for the time being. Oddly, I'll still have the business, though it's for sale and has been for sale, literally for years, now. In an economy like this, nobody has money and banks aren't lending money.
I may have a shot at a really good job. Not a perfect situation, but a darned good one in a lot of ways. There are still ways I can get back on my feet. It'll take better luck than I've had lately, but it could happen.
So far, none of this appears to have affected my son. That's the one bright shining star in all of this. I want his life to be as good as I can make it.
So, I just keep trudging along. One way or another, something will work out. However, I don't think I'll be back in the Fall, which sucks. Law school was one of the parts of my life that I really enjoyed and that I had some control over.
Again, I don't believe in fate or destiny, but I can't help but say that it was inevitable that because Law School was a positive thing in my life, there was no way I'd be allowed to keep doing it.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Quick Review of the Hunger Games
Since final exams are only a few days away, time for me to review a movie I saw weeks ago.
The Hunger Games was entertaining, but I had some big problems with the movie. By extension, I would probably have problems with the book for the same reasons.
There are a handful of problems with the story, but at a certain point, you just come across as a curmudgeon. So, let's just say I suspend disbelief for the many logically unlikely things in the story and let's proceed to the end.
In the end, the main character, Katniss, devises a plan that essentially forces the game's overlords to allow both her and her buddy to live, instead of forcing one of them to kill off the other.
Now, there are three basic ways the story could have ended, once the boy and the girl were left at the end.
The first is that one of them could have had to kill the other. This is, without a doubt, the most dramatically powerful ending for a story that is about cruelty and survival. Or, one of the characters sacrifices himself/herself in order to save the other. This ending would show the most redemptive qualities of the human soul.
They glanced right past that one.
The second way it could have ended would be with the death of one kid, and the suicide of the other. Or the mutual suicide of both.
The movie leads you to believe that this is an ending so out of the question that the games' organizers were so appalled that they would rather knuckle under to a teenager than allow it to happen.
Let's step back for a minute, here. What they're saying is that audiences would never accept a love story where two teenage lovers, because they could not live together, took their own lives.
Not only was this idea abhorrent to the writer of the story, but it was, apparently, so obviously abhorrent that the evil empire that sadistically puts on the games was okay with over 2 dozen dead kids, but were completely horrified at the idea that the hunger games could end with two star-crossed teenage lovers killing themselves.
Okay, so not only did the writer of the hunger games zip right past the most powerful emotional ending to a story about surival in a sadistic combat game, the author totally blew it on the most powerful possible ending for a story about star-crossed teenage lovers.
In fact, if she had really been thinking, she'd have made the two star-crossed teenage lovers from colonies that would never have accepted their love for each other...
Okay, so, the two best endings to the story? Forget all about them.
The ending they picked? God, you can tell this was written by a woman, primarily for the benefit of teenage girls. The two live happily ever after! Even though their mom... I mean, the evil empire tells them they shouldn't! And how does Katniss, the clever protagonist, do it?
She locks herself in her room, tells her mom that she's ruining her life, and threatens to kill herself if she doesn't get her way.
I mean, she tells an evil empire that if they don't respond to Katniss' little tantrum, she'll give them the most romantically compelling ending to a Hunger Games that could ever possibly happen. So, naturally, they give in to the tantrum.
Really? I mean, they couldn't possibly allow both the kids at the end to die!!! That's just insane! Could never happen! What sort of drama would that create? I mean... other than the kind of drama that is pretty well recognized as the greatest love story in the history of the written word.
Yes, I know this is tween lit, which means it exists entirely in a world where things make sense to a 14 year old girl. It's a marvel that everybody isn't wearing sparkly pink hats in this universe. Still, yeesh...
So, overall, somewhat entertaining, but it operates on the level of a 14 year old girl.
The Hunger Games was entertaining, but I had some big problems with the movie. By extension, I would probably have problems with the book for the same reasons.
There are a handful of problems with the story, but at a certain point, you just come across as a curmudgeon. So, let's just say I suspend disbelief for the many logically unlikely things in the story and let's proceed to the end.
In the end, the main character, Katniss, devises a plan that essentially forces the game's overlords to allow both her and her buddy to live, instead of forcing one of them to kill off the other.
Now, there are three basic ways the story could have ended, once the boy and the girl were left at the end.
The first is that one of them could have had to kill the other. This is, without a doubt, the most dramatically powerful ending for a story that is about cruelty and survival. Or, one of the characters sacrifices himself/herself in order to save the other. This ending would show the most redemptive qualities of the human soul.
They glanced right past that one.
The second way it could have ended would be with the death of one kid, and the suicide of the other. Or the mutual suicide of both.
The movie leads you to believe that this is an ending so out of the question that the games' organizers were so appalled that they would rather knuckle under to a teenager than allow it to happen.
Let's step back for a minute, here. What they're saying is that audiences would never accept a love story where two teenage lovers, because they could not live together, took their own lives.
Not only was this idea abhorrent to the writer of the story, but it was, apparently, so obviously abhorrent that the evil empire that sadistically puts on the games was okay with over 2 dozen dead kids, but were completely horrified at the idea that the hunger games could end with two star-crossed teenage lovers killing themselves.
Okay, so not only did the writer of the hunger games zip right past the most powerful emotional ending to a story about surival in a sadistic combat game, the author totally blew it on the most powerful possible ending for a story about star-crossed teenage lovers.
In fact, if she had really been thinking, she'd have made the two star-crossed teenage lovers from colonies that would never have accepted their love for each other...
Okay, so, the two best endings to the story? Forget all about them.
The ending they picked? God, you can tell this was written by a woman, primarily for the benefit of teenage girls. The two live happily ever after! Even though their mom... I mean, the evil empire tells them they shouldn't! And how does Katniss, the clever protagonist, do it?
She locks herself in her room, tells her mom that she's ruining her life, and threatens to kill herself if she doesn't get her way.
I mean, she tells an evil empire that if they don't respond to Katniss' little tantrum, she'll give them the most romantically compelling ending to a Hunger Games that could ever possibly happen. So, naturally, they give in to the tantrum.
Really? I mean, they couldn't possibly allow both the kids at the end to die!!! That's just insane! Could never happen! What sort of drama would that create? I mean... other than the kind of drama that is pretty well recognized as the greatest love story in the history of the written word.
Yes, I know this is tween lit, which means it exists entirely in a world where things make sense to a 14 year old girl. It's a marvel that everybody isn't wearing sparkly pink hats in this universe. Still, yeesh...
So, overall, somewhat entertaining, but it operates on the level of a 14 year old girl.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Taxes and Divorce Paperwork
I got my tax info ready to drop off at the accountant. That will be a relief. Not sure what's going to happen this year, but I won't have much tax liability. We'll just have to see how it goes once all the deductions are applied.
I still have some forms to fill out for the divorce attorney, and I hope to have them done today. That's another thing where I'll be very, very glad when things are finalized.
Other than that, back to school after a nice break. We had one week off for Spring Break and I took the previous week off to work on my memo. (We get 4 absences per class and this basically worked out to 2 of those in each class.)
Back to the grind. Fall semester, I really enjoyed school. This semester? Not so much.
There's a pretty strong possibility that I won't be able to continue as a full-time student after this semester. The business has been struggling and I really need to find a job. If I can't find one here, I may have to move to a city with a more vibrant economy.
The business? It's close to bankruptcy at this point. It has truly been a burden these past few years. I may liquidate my assets after this semester if things don't turn around in the next few months.
I still have some forms to fill out for the divorce attorney, and I hope to have them done today. That's another thing where I'll be very, very glad when things are finalized.
Other than that, back to school after a nice break. We had one week off for Spring Break and I took the previous week off to work on my memo. (We get 4 absences per class and this basically worked out to 2 of those in each class.)
Back to the grind. Fall semester, I really enjoyed school. This semester? Not so much.
There's a pretty strong possibility that I won't be able to continue as a full-time student after this semester. The business has been struggling and I really need to find a job. If I can't find one here, I may have to move to a city with a more vibrant economy.
The business? It's close to bankruptcy at this point. It has truly been a burden these past few years. I may liquidate my assets after this semester if things don't turn around in the next few months.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Divorce
One of many unpleasant midlife experiences is divorce. I'll be finalizing mine, soon. The soon-to-be-ex (STBX) and I have worked out a basic, informal, verbal separation and I bought my own house a couple of years ago. It worked well enough for quite a while, but the agreement is starting to fray. I had extended an offer that she get an attorney and draw up an agreement favorable to her and if I could afford it at all, I'd sign off. However, now that the agreement is unravelling, I need to get everything official to protect myself.
More importantly, I need to get this thing done and in the past so I can get on with my life. I visited the attorney and have paid his initial retainer. I had to laugh: the last time I saw him was in 2007. Obviously, I dropped it in the hope of working on a reconciliation, and the past couple of years, because the informal separation we'd worked out was working well enough, I didn't think there was any urgency to this, but there really is.
I also need to give a shout-out to my Dad. I don't know how he does it, but he's helping me quite a bit through this. You really know what's important in your life when the chips are down and you really need help. A friend in need is a friend, indeed.
My life could really take a turn for the worse, here. The business is failing. If it goes down, that not only makes things difficult financially, but will probably lead to bankruptcy. Without a means of income, I don't see how I can continue to go to law school. I'ld lose my house, probably. Which would make me a 40-something unemployed guy with no place to live.
Anything can happen in this business. However, the clear trend since the downturn is that things are getting worse, not better. I started law school with the hope that the biz could keep afloat to graduation, however, there was never any guarantee that it would.
Of course, things could turn around. All I can do is focus on the things I can do something about.
I need to finish out the semester, no matter what. If things turn around, I may be able to finish at University of Toledo. If they don't and I have to relocate elsewhere, I would have some hope of being able to transfer and continue at a different school.
I need to try to keep the business afloat until the end of the semester. At that point, I need to sit down and evaluate whether the thing can continue to survive on its own, or whether it's time to pull the plug. I can't keep doubling down on this. It's killing me in so many ways.
Not sure what I'll be doing this time next year, but right now, it's all sort of up in the air. I'll just keep plugging away as best I can.
More importantly, I need to get this thing done and in the past so I can get on with my life. I visited the attorney and have paid his initial retainer. I had to laugh: the last time I saw him was in 2007. Obviously, I dropped it in the hope of working on a reconciliation, and the past couple of years, because the informal separation we'd worked out was working well enough, I didn't think there was any urgency to this, but there really is.
I also need to give a shout-out to my Dad. I don't know how he does it, but he's helping me quite a bit through this. You really know what's important in your life when the chips are down and you really need help. A friend in need is a friend, indeed.
My life could really take a turn for the worse, here. The business is failing. If it goes down, that not only makes things difficult financially, but will probably lead to bankruptcy. Without a means of income, I don't see how I can continue to go to law school. I'ld lose my house, probably. Which would make me a 40-something unemployed guy with no place to live.
Anything can happen in this business. However, the clear trend since the downturn is that things are getting worse, not better. I started law school with the hope that the biz could keep afloat to graduation, however, there was never any guarantee that it would.
Of course, things could turn around. All I can do is focus on the things I can do something about.
I need to finish out the semester, no matter what. If things turn around, I may be able to finish at University of Toledo. If they don't and I have to relocate elsewhere, I would have some hope of being able to transfer and continue at a different school.
I need to try to keep the business afloat until the end of the semester. At that point, I need to sit down and evaluate whether the thing can continue to survive on its own, or whether it's time to pull the plug. I can't keep doubling down on this. It's killing me in so many ways.
Not sure what I'll be doing this time next year, but right now, it's all sort of up in the air. I'll just keep plugging away as best I can.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A Great Weekend...
Sleepover:
Logan had a sleepover last night with 3 of his buddies. It's like a little 10 year old party when they're here. They're too young to get into any of the trouble that I'll have to worry about later: drinking, driving, smoking weed, and activities that may or may not lead to pregnancy. The prepubescent years are really sort of nice. They were loud, they were messy, they were kids and it was wonderful.
It surprised me how much they enjoyed pounding on all the musical instruments. Obviously, this is a novelty for them, but most of the instruments that are involved in popular music are highly tactile. You have to actually grab them and do things with them. Experimentation with them is a critical part of the path of learning an instrument. Glad the boy did it and glad the other kids did, too. Popular music is mean to be enjoyed. Maybe this will spark an interest in music, later.
Music:
Funny, but I worried (not that much, more like a fleeting thought) that I may have gyped the boy by not getting him music lessons earlier, but to be perfectly honest, that's not where his passion has been, really. He's intersted, but far less so than in sports.
However, it's becoming apparent that he's the only one of all his friends who can really play a musical instrument. He's getting proficient with the chords I've shown him on the guitar. He's right where he needs to be. I am sure there's probably a handful of kids who started suzuki violin when they were 3, but not very many.
Coffee:
I was considering going a different direction with coffee. My old method was to grind beans and make a pot with a home coffee brewer (Mr. Coffee) type. That makes not particularly good coffee, but with enough sugar and cream, it's okay. These days, though, I drink black coffee, and home-brewer coffee really doesn't taste very good.
Years ago, my Dad gave me a Keurig brewer as a gift. It was one of their nicer units, too. Thing is, it never really worked properly. I kept meaning to call them about it, but never did. Now, years and years later, I was talking about Keurigs with some others and heard another legendary story of their customer service. I figured what the heck and called them. Because it was misbehaving since I got it, they agreed to exchange it for a new unit.
Truly, this is premier customer service. Now, I do think Keurig is an expensive way to go, but for the most part, it's well-brewed coffee. Also, I drink about one cup of coffee in the morning and maybe a cup of green tea in the evening. So, brewing an entire pot is not that much cheaper since I'd throw most of it away.
So, I think I'll stick with Keurig for a while. I'll be excited to get the new unit. One of the things that didn't work on my old unit was the ability to set the timer and have it get ready in the morning. Not that it takes that long, but maybe 3 or 4 minutes to get the water heated and ready. This way, I'll be able to get that first cup of joe that much sooner.
The Business:
Looks like we've survived February, with March being uncertain. Every month I survive is a victory. 2013 will mean increasingly strong positions as the year progresses and 2014 will mean the end of all my term-loan debt. Survive, survive, survive until 2014. Life changes a lot, then.
Sometimes I feel really old, but I think so long as you have something big to look forward to, there's still part of you that's young. Plus, it sucks to be poor, but it isn't so bad if you can count down to a time when your situation is going to change. I still have a lot of big things ahead of me.
Logan had a sleepover last night with 3 of his buddies. It's like a little 10 year old party when they're here. They're too young to get into any of the trouble that I'll have to worry about later: drinking, driving, smoking weed, and activities that may or may not lead to pregnancy. The prepubescent years are really sort of nice. They were loud, they were messy, they were kids and it was wonderful.
It surprised me how much they enjoyed pounding on all the musical instruments. Obviously, this is a novelty for them, but most of the instruments that are involved in popular music are highly tactile. You have to actually grab them and do things with them. Experimentation with them is a critical part of the path of learning an instrument. Glad the boy did it and glad the other kids did, too. Popular music is mean to be enjoyed. Maybe this will spark an interest in music, later.
Music:
Funny, but I worried (not that much, more like a fleeting thought) that I may have gyped the boy by not getting him music lessons earlier, but to be perfectly honest, that's not where his passion has been, really. He's intersted, but far less so than in sports.
However, it's becoming apparent that he's the only one of all his friends who can really play a musical instrument. He's getting proficient with the chords I've shown him on the guitar. He's right where he needs to be. I am sure there's probably a handful of kids who started suzuki violin when they were 3, but not very many.
Coffee:
I was considering going a different direction with coffee. My old method was to grind beans and make a pot with a home coffee brewer (Mr. Coffee) type. That makes not particularly good coffee, but with enough sugar and cream, it's okay. These days, though, I drink black coffee, and home-brewer coffee really doesn't taste very good.
Years ago, my Dad gave me a Keurig brewer as a gift. It was one of their nicer units, too. Thing is, it never really worked properly. I kept meaning to call them about it, but never did. Now, years and years later, I was talking about Keurigs with some others and heard another legendary story of their customer service. I figured what the heck and called them. Because it was misbehaving since I got it, they agreed to exchange it for a new unit.
Truly, this is premier customer service. Now, I do think Keurig is an expensive way to go, but for the most part, it's well-brewed coffee. Also, I drink about one cup of coffee in the morning and maybe a cup of green tea in the evening. So, brewing an entire pot is not that much cheaper since I'd throw most of it away.
So, I think I'll stick with Keurig for a while. I'll be excited to get the new unit. One of the things that didn't work on my old unit was the ability to set the timer and have it get ready in the morning. Not that it takes that long, but maybe 3 or 4 minutes to get the water heated and ready. This way, I'll be able to get that first cup of joe that much sooner.
The Business:
Looks like we've survived February, with March being uncertain. Every month I survive is a victory. 2013 will mean increasingly strong positions as the year progresses and 2014 will mean the end of all my term-loan debt. Survive, survive, survive until 2014. Life changes a lot, then.
Sometimes I feel really old, but I think so long as you have something big to look forward to, there's still part of you that's young. Plus, it sucks to be poor, but it isn't so bad if you can count down to a time when your situation is going to change. I still have a lot of big things ahead of me.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
There is Nothing Wrong with Kids Today
I have always cringed when folks would beat up on the younger generations. It's axiomatic that older generations can't believe what a bunch of slackers the youngsters are these days. There have been various quotes made in the times of classical Greece, that may as well have been written today, about how the younger generation is disrespectful, spoiled, etc.
I have some insight into this because during my time in the Navy Reserves, and during my days in Law School, I interact with a lot of 20-somethings and I can only say, hands-down, they're an awesome generation that deserves our respect.
When folks complained that the younger generation was spoiled and entitled, I don't think it was true or fair during my day and I sure don't think it's true, now. Yes, our kids have advantages we could only have dreamed of. But we had advantages our parents didn't have. I didn't grow up during the Great Depression and neither did my Dad.
HOWEVER, that's just one side of the coin. My father's generation had advantages that were long gone by the time my generation rolled around, and those advantages are only to be found in history books for today's generation.
Let's look at what life was like for my grandfather's generation. My grandfather was a fantastic guy. Bright, athletic, hard-working, good-looking. Should have been a success in any era. During his era, he was. Bought a spacious house in the suburbs, raised a family of five kids and departed this world leaving a modest estate that, combined with social security, allowed his widow to live independently for decades after.
He worked in the chemical labs at Goodyear and to this day, you can google "Strebler Adhesion Test" and pull up proof of one of the tests that defined his life's work. Though far from wealthy, he was an accomplished, respected man for his day and age.
He got a job at General Tire during the Great Depression because the company baseball team needed a pitcher. Because it was legal to discriminate against black people, he was able to move ahead of a sizeable chunk of the population, too. The military services wouldn't be intergrated for more than a decade after his career started and the civil rights act of 1964 was a quarter century away.
He also never graduated college. Never needed to. The employment environment was such that for most jobs, it simply wasn't expected or needed. You got into a company and demonstrated accomplishment and aptitude and they trained you and moved you up.
Even when I worked for the Parker Hannafin Corporation at the turn of the 21st Century, we still had a senior corporate executive who didn't have a college degree. However, he was the very last one. That opportunity simply didn't exist in very many places once my Dad's generation started graduating High School.
People like to beat up these kids for going into college before they knew what the heck they should be studying. Then, they beat them up for graduating six-figures in debt. What happened? The world changed. These kids know that the jobs for those with a high school diploma are few and far-between, plus they're usually pretty crappy with little potential for advancement.
In my grandfather's day, you could graduate high school, get a job at a factory (at least towards the end of the depression and beyond... obviously, the depths of the depression were different), marry your sweetheart and start a family by the time you were in your early 20s.
I shudder to think of the likely outcomes for kids who try that today. So, they go to school, because they know that's the general direction their lives need to take if they ever hope to live out on their own.
Also, let's look at the fact that grandpa did this all with a one-income household. Yes, that was a crappy deal if you were a career-minded woman. But it was a hell of a deal if you were a guy who wanted a stay-at-home wife, and it was an awesome deal if you wanted to be a stay-at-home wife. (And in this modern day and age, there are a LOT OF WOMEN who would like to be stay at homes, but the reality of our times says that's just not accesssible for the vast majority of us.)
By the time my Dad graduated High School, factory jobs were plentiful. If there was a factory in your town, it was always hiring. Why? Talk to HR professionals of that day and they'll tell you: even with protective union work rules, they were constantly churning employees. Firing them for cause or the employees would quit.
So... how superior were previous generations? I mean, you only need to do some cursory study of the labor environment in the 60s and 70s to know that workers back then were all-too-frequently unreliable, did shoddy work and shut down the plant with a strike on a frequent basis.
Now, not saying they were bad, just saying they might not want to break their arms patting themselves on the back too hard for how much better they were than today's young people.
My Dad's generation could work at the factory, attend night school (frequently with the company picking up the entire tab) and once they got a BA, their future was set. Only a little more than 10% of the workforce had a bachelor's degree. If you didn't, a career in middle management, or even in a few instances, a career as an executive was well within your grasp.
Today? Again, think of the prospects for a young person without a degree. In my father's generation, it was a nicety and it really differentiated you. These days, without one, you're screwed. You might luck into a good job, but you'll really have to beat the odds to find one, then you'll really need to beat the odds to keep it.
My generation was somewhere in-between. We were pretty well aware that if we wanted to work in an office, we needed a degree. We were also among the first to deal with the reality that managers had to have MBAs. The good factory jobs were already disappearing when I graduated High School in the early 80s. Those who went that route probably did well for a few years, but for the most part, very few made it to this point without having to deal with several layoffs, and maybe a few plant closings and changes of employer in the mean time.
Not only has education become a necessity, versus being a luxury, but the cost of it is astronomically higher now than it was when we were young.
The numbers are easy enough to look up, but let me put it in human terms. During my grandfather's day, if you weren't wealthy enough to go to college straight out of High School (and few were), chances are, you never did. It just didn't matter that much. You could work your way into management and a director or executive level position was always within your grasp.
My father's generation? They could do something called "working your way through college." I remember a couple of years after I finished my bachelor's degree, saying to my Dad, "you know, kids today can't work their way through school."
For my father's generation, it was not uncommon at all to see people who worked their 40 hour a week job (and yes, back then, it really was 40 hours a week... not 50, not 60... more on that later...) They'd leave work, go to school, and finish their degrees at night. If they worked for a big enough company, their company paid for it, too.
However, even with folks who didn't have that sort of setup, every factory worker could tell you about the person or people who worked during the day (or night), doing something like building tires, and then finishing a bachelor's degree in their off-time.
The reality was, during my father's day, it really wasn't that hard to find a job that paid enough that you could sustain yourself, modestly, and also pay for the entire cost of college. Student loans, at the time, were absolutely unheard of. I'm not even sure they existed as a concept.
By the time I graduated High School, it could still be done, but wow, you had to be lucky. It was also becoming increasingly difficult to get through if you weren't getting tuition reimbursement.
Now? Seriously? What High School kid can find a job that pays not only enough that they can live on their own, but also pays enough to cover the cost of tuition? In-state tuition in Ohio, for instance, is about ten grand a year. Most High School grads would be lucky to find a job that paid enough for them to pay their car insurance.
Now, back to work-weeks. My grandfather worked 40 hours a week. Not a minute more. Yours probably did, too. By the time my father's generation came around, the standards was that if you wanted a promotion, you should probably put in an extra hour or two every day.
By the time my generation hit the ground, if you wanted to advance, you really needed to put in a couple extra hours a day and a half day on Saturday. 40 hour work weeks were for people who wanted to be fired.
All of these trends are continuing for the current generation. Grandpa did 40 hours a week and got promotions and job security. Dad did 46 hours a week and got promotions and job security. I did 55 hours a week and got promotions and maybe some job security. Kids today? Probably doing 55 hours a week, but without enhanced promotion opportunity and with NO job security.
Folks wonder why these kids sometimes cop an attitude about their jobs? Well... hell... why wouldn't they. It's unprecedented that employers would ask so much of employees and guarantee so little in return. If they squawk every now and then, that doesn't tell me that they're spoiled and entitled. It tells me they're normal and probably a little worn out.
My father's generation would chain themselves to their desks because they knew it would eventually lead to the executive suite. My generation chained ourselves to our desks because we hoped it might lead to middle management. This generation? Employers expect them to chain themselves to their desks and just be happy they have desks. That might be reality, but it sure isn't pleasant.
As a final note, young kids today really don't remember a lot about the years before we were fighting two wars in a god-forsaken corner of the world. Yes, my Dad's generation had Vietnam. My grandfather's generation had World War II. However, my generation had nothing of the sort.
These kids are taking responsibility for themselves and the entire country and if you ask me, for the entire free world. (Most other countries are perfectly content to mooch off of the contributions of our military, all the while bitching about US foreign policy and force projection overseas. Yes, these young kids are saving their worthless whiney asses, too!)
So, I don't see anything wrong with this generation. I really don't. previous generations, through carelessness or perhaps simply ignorance, raped the world's resources, pillaged the global economy and left things in a shambles. We aren't doing nearly enough help to this younger generation. Basically, the greatest generation built a better world for their kids. Boomers made the world great for themselves. My generation? Honest to god, it's all I can do to try not to be a burden on the next generation. These kids? They're basically on their own.
When folks didn't have jobs when I graduated High School, it's because they were lazy and didn't want to work. However, these days, these kids are six figures in debt, with no jobs to be had. Best of all? Our government (bought and paid for by the scumbags on Wall Street) made sure that they couldn't discharge their student loan debt in bankruptcy. We didn't have to deal with that. That's completely unprecedented and a burden no previous generation has ever had to face.
They've got their challenges and there are a lot of ways their lives are a lot easier than mine was when I was young. But in a lot of ways, it's harder, too. I think they're doing a damned good job all things considered.
I have some insight into this because during my time in the Navy Reserves, and during my days in Law School, I interact with a lot of 20-somethings and I can only say, hands-down, they're an awesome generation that deserves our respect.
When folks complained that the younger generation was spoiled and entitled, I don't think it was true or fair during my day and I sure don't think it's true, now. Yes, our kids have advantages we could only have dreamed of. But we had advantages our parents didn't have. I didn't grow up during the Great Depression and neither did my Dad.
HOWEVER, that's just one side of the coin. My father's generation had advantages that were long gone by the time my generation rolled around, and those advantages are only to be found in history books for today's generation.
Let's look at what life was like for my grandfather's generation. My grandfather was a fantastic guy. Bright, athletic, hard-working, good-looking. Should have been a success in any era. During his era, he was. Bought a spacious house in the suburbs, raised a family of five kids and departed this world leaving a modest estate that, combined with social security, allowed his widow to live independently for decades after.
He worked in the chemical labs at Goodyear and to this day, you can google "Strebler Adhesion Test" and pull up proof of one of the tests that defined his life's work. Though far from wealthy, he was an accomplished, respected man for his day and age.
He got a job at General Tire during the Great Depression because the company baseball team needed a pitcher. Because it was legal to discriminate against black people, he was able to move ahead of a sizeable chunk of the population, too. The military services wouldn't be intergrated for more than a decade after his career started and the civil rights act of 1964 was a quarter century away.
He also never graduated college. Never needed to. The employment environment was such that for most jobs, it simply wasn't expected or needed. You got into a company and demonstrated accomplishment and aptitude and they trained you and moved you up.
Even when I worked for the Parker Hannafin Corporation at the turn of the 21st Century, we still had a senior corporate executive who didn't have a college degree. However, he was the very last one. That opportunity simply didn't exist in very many places once my Dad's generation started graduating High School.
People like to beat up these kids for going into college before they knew what the heck they should be studying. Then, they beat them up for graduating six-figures in debt. What happened? The world changed. These kids know that the jobs for those with a high school diploma are few and far-between, plus they're usually pretty crappy with little potential for advancement.
In my grandfather's day, you could graduate high school, get a job at a factory (at least towards the end of the depression and beyond... obviously, the depths of the depression were different), marry your sweetheart and start a family by the time you were in your early 20s.
I shudder to think of the likely outcomes for kids who try that today. So, they go to school, because they know that's the general direction their lives need to take if they ever hope to live out on their own.
Also, let's look at the fact that grandpa did this all with a one-income household. Yes, that was a crappy deal if you were a career-minded woman. But it was a hell of a deal if you were a guy who wanted a stay-at-home wife, and it was an awesome deal if you wanted to be a stay-at-home wife. (And in this modern day and age, there are a LOT OF WOMEN who would like to be stay at homes, but the reality of our times says that's just not accesssible for the vast majority of us.)
By the time my Dad graduated High School, factory jobs were plentiful. If there was a factory in your town, it was always hiring. Why? Talk to HR professionals of that day and they'll tell you: even with protective union work rules, they were constantly churning employees. Firing them for cause or the employees would quit.
So... how superior were previous generations? I mean, you only need to do some cursory study of the labor environment in the 60s and 70s to know that workers back then were all-too-frequently unreliable, did shoddy work and shut down the plant with a strike on a frequent basis.
Now, not saying they were bad, just saying they might not want to break their arms patting themselves on the back too hard for how much better they were than today's young people.
My Dad's generation could work at the factory, attend night school (frequently with the company picking up the entire tab) and once they got a BA, their future was set. Only a little more than 10% of the workforce had a bachelor's degree. If you didn't, a career in middle management, or even in a few instances, a career as an executive was well within your grasp.
Today? Again, think of the prospects for a young person without a degree. In my father's generation, it was a nicety and it really differentiated you. These days, without one, you're screwed. You might luck into a good job, but you'll really have to beat the odds to find one, then you'll really need to beat the odds to keep it.
My generation was somewhere in-between. We were pretty well aware that if we wanted to work in an office, we needed a degree. We were also among the first to deal with the reality that managers had to have MBAs. The good factory jobs were already disappearing when I graduated High School in the early 80s. Those who went that route probably did well for a few years, but for the most part, very few made it to this point without having to deal with several layoffs, and maybe a few plant closings and changes of employer in the mean time.
Not only has education become a necessity, versus being a luxury, but the cost of it is astronomically higher now than it was when we were young.
The numbers are easy enough to look up, but let me put it in human terms. During my grandfather's day, if you weren't wealthy enough to go to college straight out of High School (and few were), chances are, you never did. It just didn't matter that much. You could work your way into management and a director or executive level position was always within your grasp.
My father's generation? They could do something called "working your way through college." I remember a couple of years after I finished my bachelor's degree, saying to my Dad, "you know, kids today can't work their way through school."
For my father's generation, it was not uncommon at all to see people who worked their 40 hour a week job (and yes, back then, it really was 40 hours a week... not 50, not 60... more on that later...) They'd leave work, go to school, and finish their degrees at night. If they worked for a big enough company, their company paid for it, too.
However, even with folks who didn't have that sort of setup, every factory worker could tell you about the person or people who worked during the day (or night), doing something like building tires, and then finishing a bachelor's degree in their off-time.
The reality was, during my father's day, it really wasn't that hard to find a job that paid enough that you could sustain yourself, modestly, and also pay for the entire cost of college. Student loans, at the time, were absolutely unheard of. I'm not even sure they existed as a concept.
By the time I graduated High School, it could still be done, but wow, you had to be lucky. It was also becoming increasingly difficult to get through if you weren't getting tuition reimbursement.
Now? Seriously? What High School kid can find a job that pays not only enough that they can live on their own, but also pays enough to cover the cost of tuition? In-state tuition in Ohio, for instance, is about ten grand a year. Most High School grads would be lucky to find a job that paid enough for them to pay their car insurance.
Now, back to work-weeks. My grandfather worked 40 hours a week. Not a minute more. Yours probably did, too. By the time my father's generation came around, the standards was that if you wanted a promotion, you should probably put in an extra hour or two every day.
By the time my generation hit the ground, if you wanted to advance, you really needed to put in a couple extra hours a day and a half day on Saturday. 40 hour work weeks were for people who wanted to be fired.
All of these trends are continuing for the current generation. Grandpa did 40 hours a week and got promotions and job security. Dad did 46 hours a week and got promotions and job security. I did 55 hours a week and got promotions and maybe some job security. Kids today? Probably doing 55 hours a week, but without enhanced promotion opportunity and with NO job security.
Folks wonder why these kids sometimes cop an attitude about their jobs? Well... hell... why wouldn't they. It's unprecedented that employers would ask so much of employees and guarantee so little in return. If they squawk every now and then, that doesn't tell me that they're spoiled and entitled. It tells me they're normal and probably a little worn out.
My father's generation would chain themselves to their desks because they knew it would eventually lead to the executive suite. My generation chained ourselves to our desks because we hoped it might lead to middle management. This generation? Employers expect them to chain themselves to their desks and just be happy they have desks. That might be reality, but it sure isn't pleasant.
As a final note, young kids today really don't remember a lot about the years before we were fighting two wars in a god-forsaken corner of the world. Yes, my Dad's generation had Vietnam. My grandfather's generation had World War II. However, my generation had nothing of the sort.
These kids are taking responsibility for themselves and the entire country and if you ask me, for the entire free world. (Most other countries are perfectly content to mooch off of the contributions of our military, all the while bitching about US foreign policy and force projection overseas. Yes, these young kids are saving their worthless whiney asses, too!)
So, I don't see anything wrong with this generation. I really don't. previous generations, through carelessness or perhaps simply ignorance, raped the world's resources, pillaged the global economy and left things in a shambles. We aren't doing nearly enough help to this younger generation. Basically, the greatest generation built a better world for their kids. Boomers made the world great for themselves. My generation? Honest to god, it's all I can do to try not to be a burden on the next generation. These kids? They're basically on their own.
When folks didn't have jobs when I graduated High School, it's because they were lazy and didn't want to work. However, these days, these kids are six figures in debt, with no jobs to be had. Best of all? Our government (bought and paid for by the scumbags on Wall Street) made sure that they couldn't discharge their student loan debt in bankruptcy. We didn't have to deal with that. That's completely unprecedented and a burden no previous generation has ever had to face.
They've got their challenges and there are a lot of ways their lives are a lot easier than mine was when I was young. But in a lot of ways, it's harder, too. I think they're doing a damned good job all things considered.
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