The Loss of the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Perhaps it is because I grew up idolizing "self-made" men and women rather than the current sport figure or rock star of the month. I have always looked to the entrepreneurs before me for inspiration even as a kid. Now, I'm not a kid anymore which was driven home quite clearly when I had to buy new jeans and found that my waist size was now a larger number than my inseam. I'm sure that tragedy will make for another post, but not this one.

However, this past week or so that I have spent in dandelion hell has made me aware of a few things that I just can't seem to explain to myself. You see, when I was a teenager (12 to 15 years old anyway), I was definitely the little entrepreneur. I wasn't setting up lemonade stands or anything like that, but I found out quite early that I could trade my labor for money for many of my neighbors. And there was no shortage of neighbors just north of Denver Colorado where I grew up that were perfectly happy to pay me to do a job they didn't want to do or have time to do. Things like shoveling snow in the winter and weeding and mowing lawns through the spring and summer. Nothing major, but it worked for everyone involved. I got some extra spending money for when I was in California, and they got the "chores" done.

Now, I live in a neighborhood that at this time has no shortage of teen aged boys in it. Any one of whom I would have been more than willing to hand a twenty dollar bill to for pulling the dandelions out of the front yard. It would have taken them a good afternoon, but I would have supplied the tools and probably even would have helped them along the way. Or, if dandelions aren't their cup of tea, I would still be more than willing to hire on of the neighbor kids to come mow the lawn (the front at least), with my mower and gas even. The trouble is, out of the half dozen kids that I would have thought would be up for doing this, none of them shows the least bit of initiative in wanting to do it by coming to ask about it. I find it odd, especially considering the way I was as a kid.

At that age, I was quite content to do the work for money rather than idling my time away. Sure, I missed a couple of weekend afternoons with my friends, but I routinely missed two and a half months of those same afternoons anyway. It wasn't that I needed the money either. I spent all my summers with my grandparents who quite frankly spoiled me. Anything I wanted all I had to do was basically ask. But it was nice to know that I could buy some things on my own, with my own money, and not have to "ask" someone for them. This is something that I don't see anymore, at least with the kids around here. Maybe it is because McDonald's pays damn near ten bucks an hour here for doing little. Maybe it is a shift in our society in general. I don't know. But I know as a kid, I would have been asking if I needed some help and getting paid, while the adult side of me would have been more than willing to pay.

Do I REALLY Sit Around Thinking This Up?

Sometimes I just gotta wonder about my brain! I mean, do I really sit around all day thinking up all this shit? How does my brain run from a comedy movie to some of the biggest challenges our government faces to how many dandelions I have sitting out in the front yard that I have to go pull up?

Well, first, yeah I do sit around all day thinking about this shit. I have always done so. I know there is medication for this sort of thing, I have been on most of them. But you know the funny thing? As long as I can still function and get my work done, I actually prefer to have my brain wandering all over the place. I know not all of it will ever get onto this blog since I would have to write nearly constantly (and that would kinda kill the idea of getting my work done and functioning, wouldn't it?). So maybe that explains why I seem to post all at once on a variety of different things. I post when I have the time to sit down and let my mind wander and it wanders right out the end of my fingers.

I guess the real proof of this whole thing is when I first met my girlfriend face to face and after about two hours she said "Holy shit, are you OCD and ADHD or what?" Oh yeah, and then some!

Thoughts from "The Man of the Year"

I know, it's a comedy, and a rather good one at that. But then I am biased since just about anything Robin Williams does I like (after Mork and Mindy that is). I thought the movie would just me be laughing my ass off about the idea of electing a comedian President, but then I find I was actually thinking about some of the stuff that the movie brought up.

First, the actual election process. I know computers are supposed to make our lives easier, but when does that ease start getting in the way of our democratic process? Put all the safe guards in place you would like, and quite frankly in the megabytes and gigabytes of code that enables the voter to go in and push a button on a computer screen is still easy to compromise. All it takes is one programmer with an agenda (politics and agendas... imagine that!) and the results can come out as anything the said programmer wants it to be. Fact is, once the code is finalized, there is very little review of it as long as it functions. Now, combined with the fact that it is largely taboo to talk about who you actual vote for, who is to say that the election results are acurate? The government? The folks that are benefiting from those very same results? Sounds a bit fishy. But think about it, if you go in and vote for Candidate A but Candidate Y wins, the reaction is largely "oh well, my person didn't win, maybe next time." Except for the scenario of a huge popular vote landslide being overturned, who the hell would think that a popular vote difference of seven or eight percent would be anything but the democratic process at work? Apparently I would.

Secondly, the whole debate structure. I know we need order and civility in debates, and since they are televised they need to be somewhat choreographed, but come on. How many times have we all sat around listening to someone answer prescreened questions that they have had their handlers give them answers (or non-answers more often than not) that follow the party line. Are we supposed to be so naive that we don't realize that these are canned answer? Even though we have been listening to the same fucking answer from both parties for the past twenty years?

Third and last, the whole idea of the financing that goes into the campaigns. Yes, there was supposed to be campaign finance reform (in case you don't know, that largely when out the window when Sen. McCain needed to get re-elected), but regardless of how you reform it as long as the money for the campaigns and the television ads comes from lobbies and the national party coffers there won't be any real reform. We are a capitalistic economy, but does that mean that our government has to be a capitalistic entity also? Wouldn't it be nice to actually be able to elect someone on the basis of what they think and what they can do other than throw mud? Maybe I'm dreamin'.

We won't get into the actual "who" we are ever electing, that is something for another time.

Anyway, get a bowl of popcorn and a copy of "The Man of the Year" and see where it takes your mind.

More adjustments from my end are in order I think. I have another blog doing dvd movie reviews which I mentioned in a previous post. I started it damn near a year ago, but I could never find the ambition to keep up with it. Then I reorganized it, and now I still don't want to go over there to post to it. What the hell is wrong with me? I like movies, I like my dvd player, I like blogging, I like everything about the concept...

So, I sat down for a bit and thought about it. Yes, I actually do think every once in a while... And I believe I have discovered the problem. What I like about movies, other than the entertainment and escapism values of them, is when I find my mind going off on threads of thought that might have been mentioned or insinuated. I love things that make me think, and that is the part of the movie thing that I am most interested in handling. I mean, let's get real, how many times can I say a movie was good bad or indifferent months after it's initial release? Gets pretty boring for me writing it, can't imagine what it does to the reader!

So, here's the adjustment. I will still sorta do reviews, but more importantly I will explore where my mind goes after watching one. Oh, and they will all be posted here under the label of GBR. Should be an interesting ride and hey, at some point I might even find out more about how my damn brain works right along with you!