I know 10 minutes is a long time to watch a video. But, I don’t think you’d be disappointed if you did.
There are some spectacular images.
At 3:45 …. behold the wisdom of a little child.
At 4:50 …. behold the wisdom of an aged man.
We live in a shitty world therefore, I hate too much. I can’t seem to help it, even though I know how destructive it is to my well being. Sometimes I wish I could be satisfied being a Pollyanna.
There is Bible verse that meant much to me when I was a believer …. and still does today … at least in my rare moments of clarity ——— “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”
Because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. It isn’t what goes into your mouth that defiles, but what comes out of it. Sometimes I scare myself at what a hateful old prick I’ve become.
Don’t be too hard on yourself Stuck, that’s what happens when you care.
What’s the alternative?
Ten minutes well spent! Thanks
As long as Stucky steers clear of defending boomers, I really think I’d get along with him. Seems like a great guy to have a beer with. I like his posts, just do.
Yeah … well …
FUCK BOOMERS !!!!!!!!!!!
Stuck…I’m full of gratitude every day . I will be even more full of it ( pun intended ) when I get a three year clean bill of health .
To all of those on this site I wish you the Merriest of Christmas’s and a very Happy New Year .
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Thanks Stucky. And I thought you were just a cranky ole bastard.
Btw, its videos like these that helped me come up with the TBP name that I use. Work-In-Progress.
Hilarious. You’re not a hateful old prick. The people that live the longest are full of anger. It keeps them going. The people that die of health problems prematurely stuff their anger inside, and put on a big fake smile and act like all the other happy clueless dipshits out there.
Anger is building in this country. A great deal of anger comes from fear. Some wise man said there are only two emotions in this world: Love and Fear. All negative emotion is based in fear. People in the USSA are afraid. The FSA is afraid the free shit is going to run out. The 30 million government drones are afraid they won’t get their pensions (they’re never afraid of losing their job, because they can’t), people with jobs are afraid of inflation, losing their jobs, and not being able to pay their bills. Youngsters are filled with fear for the future, their student loan payments, and actually having a life, and they should be. Even the criminals in Washington and Wall Street are afraid they’re going to lose all the fraudulent wealth. All that fear builds anger and hatred. Which is just what our controllers want: people to be afraid all the time.
If you believe in something greater than yourself, a higher power, and pray and meditate, your spiritual core is at peace, filled with love. No matter what happens, your core is solid. Which is why I try to get people to be spiritual. It’s an antidote to what our masters are trying to do to us. And for fuck’s sake, if you feel anger and hatred, then be angry and hateful. Don’t stuff it, let it out.
Thanks for sharing this Stuck, was simply gorgeous on all levels.
Very nice! Thanks. Something we can all strive for.
Wouldn’t advise dying anytime soon…..It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.Heb 10:31.
Anger ok?…..A fool vents all his feelings,but a wise man holds them back.proverbs 29:11
Thanks Stucky. You do know, don’t you, that a truly hateful old prick would find the video silly and over romanticized?
The old man was like the voice of God reminding us of the magnificence of our lives despite the troubles we may experience on any given day. I wish I could master living truly in the moment, because then I’d be experiencing eternity I think.
You might want to share this every year about this time.
Gayle
I have a special video I’ve been saving for Christmas. Bring tissues.
“Sometimes I scare myself at what a hateful old prick I’ve become.”
You don’t scare too many people around here. You have a big, warm heart, and try to help people around here when you can. You bring health tips, humor, amusing commentary, jokes, the works, the full spectrum. And most importantly, you’re honest and you tell the truth (the occasional dopple aside). Your value is immeasurable, you are humble, and you admit your weaknesses in public. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. We live in interesting times, that are turning many people into scared hateful pricks. You have what mystics call “a well worn soul”, and so you are also lucky. A life well lived, seems to me.
According to AWD I am gonna live forever.
What ass kissing pill have you been taking? I like you better as Little Mengele.
Gotta run to the rehab center ….. I made some genuine Russian Borscht for mom …. the rehab food is absolutely atrocious …. I thought they were there to make people WELL … not kill ’em with shitty food. Sigh.
AWD. Damn. I’d love to put that paragraph on my tombstone. lol Thanks, man. Thanks.
bb
Go fuck yourself. It’s dumbfucks like you that turn people like me into hateful pricks. There’s far to many fucking idiots like you walking around this country.
Stucky, hate is the flip side of love. One follows as the necessary product of the other. The real vice is apathy. Oh, and besides that, you are an emo bitch.
AWD – don’t you have some nice words for me, too? I really am an old softie.
Re hate – I hate things, or groups, but almost never individuals. Thee are but two individuals in the world I have ever developed a hatred for. May they rot in everlasting hell. But other than those two, I wish everyone I have ever met health and happiness. Some I dislike, but nevertheless I would not wish them ill.
But groups – now those I hate. For instance, politicians. The list of hated groups is fairly long.
Llpoh
You’re a prince, and I respect and enjoy you. You’re honest and tell the truth, and funny in a witty sort of way. You play it pretty close to the vest, while Herr Stucky wears his heart on his sleeve. But that’s what’s great, everyone still contributes and forms a whole, well almost everyone. Village idiots aren’t good for much except poking with sharp sticks.
I don’t hate anybody, except maybe Obama.
I see people in fear every day, everybody is afraid. They say “my nerves are shot” gimme a pill, I can’t take it anymore. They’re literally scared of their own shadow. It seems all self-determinism is gone, taken away and controlled.
There’s the concept of existential guilt, where your soul demands that you do what you were placed here to do, and most people don’t do anything, especially the FSA. Not doing what you’re supposed to be doing destroys your soul, and you turn into an alive type of zombie, mindlessly consuming and afraid you’ll never get enough. Everyone I see is full of fear. The opposite of fear is faith. It’s really pretty simple. Our society and the progressive forces at work are trying to remove faith and love and spirit from people, so they can control them for effectively. It’s working great. People can’t even manage their own lives anymore, and turn that responsibility over to somebody else, namely the government. Collectivism rots the human soul. Truly sad.
Out of the mouth of babes: “When you explore you get more imagination than you already had…and um when you get more imagination…it makes you want to go more deeper in so you can get more and see more beautifuller things…”
She’s what 6 or 7?….and she already understands the process of self-transformation. I am humbled.
[img
[/img]
AWD, every once in awhile, you say something that impresses me as pretty profound. This is one of them:
“There’s the concept of existential guilt, where your soul demands that you do what you were placed here to do, and most people don’t do anything, especially the FSA. Not doing what you’re supposed to be doing destroys your soul, and you turn into an alive type of zombie, mindlessly consuming and afraid you’ll never get enough. Everyone I see is full of fear. The opposite of fear is faith. It’s really pretty simple. Our society and the progressive forces at work are trying to remove faith and love and spirit from people, so they can control them for effectively. It’s working great. People can’t even manage their own lives anymore, and turn that responsibility over to somebody else, namely the government. Collectivism rots the human soul. Truly sad.”
Agree or disagree, there are some pretty smart people around here. I guess that’s why I hang around…besides the nearly total lack of moderation from Admin.
bb says:
“Anger ok?…..A fool vents all his feelings,but a wise man holds them back.”
Do not make friends with an angry man lest you learn his ways.
AWD – my nerves are shot. Doing what I do to keep a manufacturing busines alive for some decades now has taken its toll. The simple fact is that you have to be iron tough in order to run a profitable manufacturing business. You have to battle the small things as well as the hard things. You cannot let things slide – turning your back on 5 cents ultimately means disaster, as that small amount invariably grows and ends the business. I have seen it over and over again.
It is extremely difficult to battle endlessly. Suppliers and customers always want something for nothing, or want to supply less than agreed, or receive more. That means you must battle if your business is to survive.
But perhaps most difficult of all is the daily running battles with employees. Even the very best employee does present challenges. Everyone wants more of something. More time off. More pay. More flexibility. More heat in winter and cool in summer. More parking space. More authority. More something. And every employee hates you, at least momentarily, if they are told no. And it is hard, and becomes harder, to do – to say no when you know the result is you will be hated. But to run a business, you have to look at the big picture, and the road to hell is paved with yes when no is the right answer.
Yesterday, I threatened to fire my best and most senior employee – a senior manager. It had to be done. He over-stepped himself, by saying that he could not do what I wanted done (something I deem very important to the business). It involved him changing the way he does a certain thing – many people hate change. As I have said many times, I rarely give specific instruction or orders, but when I do there can be no opposition to me. I do it less than perhaps 2 or 3 times per year, and only when I deem it that any way but my way would lead to disaster.
By and large people know that they must do as I say in those situations, or they instantly forfeit their employment – no exceptions. My best and oldest and most respected employee forgot this for a tiny instance, or chose to test my mettle. But it took a toll on me to have to enforce my position. It is harder each day, and I am more volitile each time a battle must be waged. I have put in some buffers, which are helping considrably, but I am almost to where I must put this career behind me.
Too many people who have jobs do not understand the realities of the difficulty of running a business, and the stakes involved. If I do not run my business properly, it will fail, and it willdamage the lives of hundres – literally – of people. I feel that responsibility to my very soul. I am hard because if I am not many will suffer. It is as simple as that.
You are already back to normal.Damn I’m good……AWD ,people feel guilty because they are in a state of guilt before Gods moral Law.The law is spiritual but we are sinful and when we sin the Law it self judges us as guilty .This is real objective Guilt before God.
Lipoh , A men
bb is making too much sense today. are the planets in alignment? is you me, bb?
Llpoh
I have no idea what’s it’s like to run a manufacturing business. I used to run a medical office-business, but couldn’t continue to operate with non-payment by the state and having to give 50% of my assets to my ex-wife when she ran off with another man.
Some people are slated for more suffering in this world than other people. It carves out depth and breadth in one’s soul, allowing them to expand and grow more than others. Or so it seems.
So, now I work for administrators and bureaucrats, and have to put up with their bullshit. The government (Federal and Illinois) has eliminated my ability to be a small business, just like millions of other small businesses and small business people. There is something wonderful and fulfilling about running your own show, and getting the fruits of your labor. Now I support a bunch of desk warmers, where I work, in the city government, state government, and Federal government. Everyone with any drive and spirit throws in the towel sooner or later under this pressure. And then what’s left? Nothing, fraudsters, bureaucrats telling us what to do, the idle, all the parasites we have to support. It quickly becomes to much. But rest assured, the parasites are scared shitless the gravy train is going to end some day, when the producers quit producing and simply leave town. This is why they are clamping down every day, spying, tyrannizing, they know their fraud will end, and all their power and wealth will slip away, the free shit spiggot will be turned off. No amount of pills can fix what’s wrong with this country.
llpoh, here is the difference between you and I in simple terms. Your job mandates dealing with people…some you like, some you like and respect, some you don’t. Sometimes you have to make adverse decisions about people you both like and respect. Other times you have to hold your nose and assuage egos. Firing worthless assholes is a no brainer; we can both do that.
I don’t like dealing with people, in general. I do, if I like and respect them, but not otherwise. I prefer dealing with my own ideas, mathematics and the laws of physics. I welcome constructive criticism, collaboration and sarcasm, when appropriate. What I do not like dealing with is petty bullshit, irrational rules and generally anything that interferes with me doing what I want to do.
I am not cut out for management. I have long recognized it and accepted it. I could run my own company, but only if I had people around me who could take care of all the shit that I have no interest in doing myself.
Z – I have to treat my employees fairly and based on what they do as employees. Some are worthless pieces of humanity outside work but are good employees. Some are great human beings but bad employees. What I do re them has to ignore those things and focus on what they do and offer as employees. Hold your nose is apt in many cases.
By and large, it is very difficult indeed to find employees who will treat your business as though it were theres. Rare enough it s that I would say it is impossible.
That is the reality of it. As you say, I do not generally lose sleep over firing someone – they are responsible for it, not me. I do lose sleep if there is a downturn and I have to layoff folks that are otherwise good employees. Especially in those instances where I have found and organized work for folks that will most likely otherwise be unemployable.
I am in a position where during good years I can employ a few folks that are limited intellectually and skill-wise. I have certain jobs they can do, if I organize things properly. I do it as a public service. They are capable of doing those jobs well, and are good employees within narrow scope – they come to work, they are happy with their work, etc. Unfortunately in leaner years I cannot have jobs for them. They ose incomes of $45k plus bennies. They simply cannot replace that – they are pretty much unemployable if an employer is not flexible and willing to help fit them in, and most are not, for obvious reasons. Small employers simply cannot do it, and some large ones will not. I feel really bad when I let them go.
If folks do not come forward to take the risk of being employers/business owners, there will be no jobs for employees. It is extremely difficult to start a small business these days, and I do not recommend it. But if people do not do it, then what? Folks that talk of getting a good education atc and getting a good job will be screwed – without business owners there are not jobs. Multinationals will not provide enough jobs. Especially for average and below average skilled/intelligence folks.
We are in deep trouble.
I have a limited vocabulary, I think of many things and they rush forward but I cannot type the way RE does. So I have to condense these things into a few words hoping they do the work of many words.
I got my Christmas gift today. I pull up to the gate and there is a young girl there, overweight, pretty in a catholic school girl sort of way. I admire her youth and I am reminded of my own. she smiles at me as I hand her my badge, she looks at me looking at her, she swipes my badge on the reader but keeps her smile on me. I am enchanted with her face, not thinking of anything but her smile, it becomes wider as if she sees the admiration of my heart. she hands me my badge in a totally wordless interaction that leaves me with a memory of a smile I can’t forget.
I so love this place.
My continuing Christmas wish is that my husband would see the light and become more like Llpoh.
“…my nerves are shot. Doing what I do to keep a manufacturing busines alive for some decades now has taken its toll. The simple fact is that you have to be iron tough in order to run a profitable manufacturing business. You have to battle the small things as well as the hard things. You cannot let things slide – turning your back on 5 cents ultimately means disaster, as that small amount invariably grows and ends the business. I have seen it over and over again…”
That sums it up for him, and our chances as a family dependent on the biz.
But, to return to the topic, I am grateful that it has provided this long, and for every day/month going forward. Very, very, grateful.
And to make AWD feel better, if I leave and take my “half,” it won’t mean a freaking thing as 50% of nothing is still nothing, I will leave with my credit intact. And for that I can be grateful, I’m grateful I have been smart enough to keep my credit away from his.
“I have to condense these things into a few words hoping they do the work of many words.” —juan
They do, Juan. They do!! You are one of the most under-appreciated souls here. I just love your brief, pithy, often funny posts. Keep up the good work.
Reading llpoh’s posts in this thread …. one can see into his soul … some of the heaviness therein. And, TeresaE’s also. Beautiful, enlightening, and haunting at the same time.
Anger is what drives me. Gratitude lets me sleep at night.
Christmas brings out the worst in me, the balance I usually carry between the two swings heavily towards the anger.
I notice almost immediately. My wife complains more about me growling and I wake up with a sore jaw from grinding and popping my teeth. I don’t really sleep. Maybe 4 hours in a night, I lay in bed awake or sit at my desk and write my notebooks (personal or work) for hours after she goes to bed.
Gratitude, we all need it and so few have it.
PS: On a more personal note, the wisdowm of the old man struck home. The weather always relaxes me, if only for a moment. I just got back from S. Dakota and N. Iowa. The wind takes on a different level up there, and even basic action is a struggle. Truly invigorating.
Stucky, I thought of you when I saw this. Recalled your story about your family around Thanksgiving time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kpLDkWg5DA#t=237