sincerity and the inevitable hypocrisy behind it

Recipe for sincerity: take a measure of insincerity and distill it to achieve the desired concentration, use sparingly. Sincerity in its pure, undiluted form does not exist.

I’ve seldom been accused of being insincere, but have on occasion been reprimanded for excessive sincerity.  Though at the time of such admonition the phrasing used is not ‘excessive sincerity’ but rather ‘bluntness’. You see, sincerity is a good thing, and an accusation of having too much of a good quality comes across as a compliment, so ‘excessive sincerity’ is called ‘bluntness’. And rightly so. My boss once called me on the carpet for being cold and merely professional to a coworker and for wearing my opinion on my face. The man voted for Bush twice and bragged about it. I still contend that I was as nice as I could have been.  Sincerity is often not politically correct in the work place - you know, that same place where your honest opinion is requested, appreciated and respected. We admire sincerity as a virtue while at the same time we scorn those who are completely sincere. And so we live in a constant state of hypocrisy. I suppose it’s part of the human condition. 

As a child you could not walk up to a playmate during recess and say “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny”, though you might have been completely sincere in your statement. We learn from an early age that complete sincerity will most likely get you a negative result, or even detention. True story: my cousin in pre-school had the following exchange with a teacher:
Teacher: You don’t like me because I’m old.
Cousin: I don’t like you because you’re old, ugly and annoying.
He was completely sincere! Sincerity gets you a spot in family lore for being a brat, yet it is regarded as a virtue. As a general rule, when I’m asked for my opinion, I give it freely and sincerely, people who know me, know what to expect. But over the years I have found sincerity is not necessarily what people want. They want reaffirmation, validation of what their own opinion might be, and so my friends are few, but true.  Sincerity is not as useful as insincerity in making superficial friendships or winning approval.  It is not always well received in making a point or backing an argument, it is not what is expected of a person in an exchange, but it is virtuous.

Sincerity is in fact diluted to the desired concentration by everyone all of the time.  When I pick up a ringing telephone knowing full well that I don’t want to talk to anyone who might be on the other side of the wire, I’m being insincere even if only in my own head.  If I was to be completely sincere, if my sincerity were pure and undiluted, the phone would never be answered and that’s just not practical. Sincerity is a virtue that cannot be applied in its purest form.

When Bill O’Reilly is on TV spitting some sort of incoherent lunacy at his audience and I tell him to shut the fuck up and proceed to change the channel, he and I are at opposite ends of the same philosophical concept and yet we are both being completely sincere.  Sincerity has no right or wrong.  But sincerity on both sides of an argument of opposing ideals becomes explosive, perhaps even hateful. But it is a virtue.

There are sycophants out there, people who are insincere all of the time in an attempt to gain some sort of advantage or standing.  We’ve all seen them, people with limited principles who flatter and adulate in order to gain something, I’m not sure what. I’m not going to discuss these poor creatures, they are the exception. But consider a pedophile hearing the confession of a woman who “took the lord’s name in vain twice this week”, when he says “I absolve you my child” is he sincere? Could he ever be sincere? And yet he holds a position of authority in society, that same society that values sincerity.  How about politicians who promise lower taxes, education, jobs, justice and freedom.  Are they insincere? Are they simply lying? Is there a difference? And yet, as a society we elect them, we reelect them, and never again demand fulfillment of those promises. Are we then sincere in our actions? Once you lay down your principles and your actions fall outside the parameters defined society do you forfeit sincerity? Are all your actions and statements tinged by insincerity from that point? Is a strong conviction to principles and an impeachable character a requirement for sincerity to exist in any person? And is that the reason we consider sincerity virtue?  I’m obviously leading the reader to conclude that the answer is ‘yes’.  And if so, pure, undiluted sincerity cannot exist because people’s principles are never pure and undiluted. All of our characters are flawed in some way, or compromised at some point in our lives.

Sincerity in its pure, undiluted form does not exist, it does not exist in the privacy of our own minds and it certainly does not exist in society. When anyone attempts to distill it into its purest forms, he is shunned by the same society that expected sincerity from him. So we live in a state of perpetual, sincere hypocrisy.  But we seem to prefer it that way. My dog, is the only completely sincere creature I know. So next time someone calls me a bitch because of some blunt statement, I will simply reply “Thank you, I try”.

Brazilians can be very creative

Walking back from a restaurant the other day I came across these two characters at a major intersection. It always amazes me how creative Brazilians are. They are creative for good and evil.  Decades ago when I was a little girl living in Rio and crime there was still petty pocket picking and the occasional car theft, there was an outbreak of watch snatching.  People would stop at a traffic light with their arms resting on the driver’s window and a kid would run by, snatch the watch off their left wrist and run off.  So people started wearing their watches on the right wrist. Brazilians in their infinite creativity would then run by the driver’s window with a lit cigarette, burn the drivers’ left hand who instinctively reached over with his right hand to grab the cigarette.  As soon as he reached the kid would grab the watch off the right wrist and run away.  Brazilians always find the “jeitinho”, a way around whatever obstacle faces them. It’s amazing.  These two needed money, so they devised a little show timed to the traffic light.  Right before it turns green they solicit donations from the first couple rows of cars. Clever. This sort of traffic light show is rather common here, some are better than others. I liked these guys.

The flip side

Imagine, if you will, that you live in a free country and you have one sister.  One sunny day a foreigner arrives in your country and kills your sister.  She does so publicly; she kills your sister in front of witnesses.  Your sister had left you her most prized possession and upon her death this newly arrived foreigner simply steals it from you, and everyone watches as it happens. The foreigner gloats about killing your sister and vehemently refuses to return your inheritance to you.  Society at large sides with the foreigner and against you.  Your countrymen mock you and tell you that the foreigner is entitled to keep your stolen property and, furthermore, that she will not be prosecuted for killing your sister.

What would you do? Would you curse the foreigner and vow to recover your inheritance?  Would you try to bring justice to your sister? Would you take justice into your own hands?

Well that is exactly what the Wicked Witch of the West did, isn’t it?  The Wizard of Oz was on last night and it got me thinking that there are two sides to every story.  Never take things at face value, always look for the aspect that is not readily shown. Just because it is written on paper, or in the news, don’t assume it is irrefutable and true. Always look behind the curtain!

fun with idiomatic expressions

All things being equal Joe wanted the best of both worlds. He buckled down to fight tooth and nail to have his cake and eat it too.  The ball was in his court and he put his nose to the grindstone. There were those who said the whole thing was out of the question, but he would not dance to their tune. In the small hours, Joe often locked horns with his conscience and made mountains out of molehills, but there was no sense in beating a dead horse, it was water under the bridge, the die had been cast. Getting cold feet now would make the bottom fall out. He had spun a good yarn.   He never let the situation come to a head and always waited for the dust to settle before making hay while the sun shines.  He was on the right track to blazing a new trail and those who said he was biting off more than he could chew were just not seeing the forest for the trees. He would go the extra mile and never dial it back. At this stage of the game all he had to do was put his best foot forward and at the eleventh hour he would be holding all the aces. Time was on his side.

He was all ears when he heard through the grapevine that someone had been cooking the books, and it spread like wildfire before all hell broke loose.  He was running against the clock, this could blow up in his face. 

They put him on the spot, accused him of taking them for a ride and turned up the heat. He knew there was no paper trail, they couldn’t catch him red-handed.  But he had an escape goat, that fat cat born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who was now dead as a doornail in the middle of nowhere.  The fat cat was a bundle of nerves and broke down in tears before he bit the dust. But Joe was on the horns of a dilemma, he was faced with a catch 22 and had to rub him out. It was a no brainer that the fat cat would have spilled the beans, Joe had bet on the wrong horse for a partner.

Now, between a rock and a hard place, he had the oldest trick on the book up his sleeve.  He would pull a fast one and grease these guys’ palms so they say he’s on the level. It would be a tall story, and it would cost him a pretty penny, but you can’t make omelets without breaking some eggs. The jig was up and Joe couldn’t  keep his ill gotten gains. He wasn’t all brawn and no brain, he knew you can’t take two bites at the cherry and that the brass ring comes around only once, so he vowed to turn a new leaf.  After all -touch wood- it’s best not to push one’s luck and run while the going is good.

Vesuvius has got something to say

Hello travelers, I can’t say ‘fellow travelers’ because I’ve never been anywhere. I'm pretty much rooted to one place.  Remember me? I’m Vesuvius. Yes, the volcano.  Here's my yearbook picture on the left. I see there are a couple of people in the back who look like they never heard of me.  Well, my name is Vesuvius and I’m all powerful. Back in 79 AD I wreaked some havoc, here let me show you…

See, you should all fear me. I deserve respect!  And I’m not getting it.  Here’s the thing, now that I have internet access I Googled myself - yeah, I did, so what? I bet you’ve done it too! Anyway, here’s the thing, you know when you pose for a picture and the moron on the other side of the camera chops off the top of your head? Or your entire left side? Then you look at the picture and you think ‘damn that would have been a great picture if I had a head’.  Well that’s what’s happening to me.  You morons are chopping off my right side on all your pictures.

This is half of me! There is a whole other side on the right. Apparently you see a peak and you think that’s the whole mountain, but I’m not a mountain, I’m a volcano… don’t make me show you. There’s a left side with a crater and then a right side.

See! There just behind the column in the temple of Apollo, a whole right side!

 There! See, a left side, with a crater and then a right side! Sheesh! In my yearbook picture above you can see I was one mountain.  So if you draw the lines extending from my right and left side you get an idea of the power of the explosion in 79 AD and devastation I am able to cause when I'm angry.


Well, I just wanted to say that I’m getting angry at all the pictures of me without a right side.

Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

The one and only Jon Stewart

America's Freedom Packages                           

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
America's Freedom Packages
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

                         

I’m responsible for what I say, not for what you understand

I saw a tweet that read “I am responsible for what I say, not for what you understand” and at first it seemed like an irrefutable axiom. Our western culture prizes individual freedom and with that freedom comes certain responsibilities, like the responsibility for our own actions. My action is to say something so I am responsible for what I say your action is to hear what is said, so you are responsible for what you understand. It makes sense.  In a free society this is a true statement… Or is it?

There’s a scene in an old Peter Sellers movie where Sellers is standing next to a dog and a man approaches him:
Man: Does your dog bite?
Sellers: No.
Man reaches to pet the dog and is mauled.
Man: You said your dog doesn’t bite!
Sellers: That’s not my dog.
The scene is funny because there is an underlying assumption that our responsibility extends no further than the words we utter. The man asked a question and received an honest reply.  Sellers is not responsible for any conclusions or assumptions the man drew based on the honest reply he received. Sellers is only responsible for his completely honest reply. Or is he?

If a man tells a woman “hey, I can only meet you once a week, because I’m very busy and I have a wife.” And the woman walks away thinking “Well he can only meet me once a week because he keeps busy trying to avoid his wife.” He’s not responsible for the assumptions she made.  However, six months later when his life turns into a remake of Fatal Attraction, it won’t matter much who was responsible for the communication at the start.  You are responsible for what you say, and you are responsible for what is understood because you share in the consequences of that communication.  Your responsibility does not stop at the words you say, it must continue through the consequences of the exchange. What is understood by the other person matters in the communication. You are responsible for what is understood.

You are responsible for what you say, you are responsible for what is understood and you are also responsible for what you intend the person to understand. By saying “Honey, I was with the guys from church last night” the intent is to communicate something completely different from “we went barhopping and ended up at a strip club”.  When that person is accused of lying, it will be a valid accusation. The intention was for the person to understand something different from the truth, though the words used were true the intent of the communication was a lie. Remember the whole “I did not have sex with that girl” fiasco. Intent matters.  You are responsible for the intent.

We have laws that make you responsible for what you intend the other person to understand.  By law an advertiser is responsible for what it says and for what it intends people to understand. When an advertiser says ‘Buy this product, it will grow hair on your head’ its intention is to make people believe the product will grow hair. When people discover it doesn’t grow hair, there is a lawsuit. The advertiser’s responsibility does not end with what is said, it extends to the consequences of the communication.  The consumer spent money on a product that does not work.  By the way, that’s why we invented fine print, to get around our intentions.  ‘This product will grow hair on your head”- and in fine print - “if you’ve recently had Dodo skin surgically grafted to your right buttock on a Friday.” Now it’s caveat emptor baby!

You are responsible for want you say. You are responsible for what is understood.  You are responsible for your intention in the communication. There is no way around it, the responsibility is yours!  So next time you are walking your dog and your elderly neighbor smiles at you and says “Good Morning, fine day for a walk isn’t it?” Just kick the cane out from under her and run like hell! It’s not worth it!

put your money where your ass wants to be

Am I alone in complaining about the leg room and general comfort of airline seats these days? Probably not.  Everyone who has traveled coach in recent years had less than stellar evaluations to make about the comfort of air travel in modern times.  It was not always so.  When I was a little girl my mother would ship my brother and me to the grandparents’ for summer vacations.   Back then there were two airline options in Brazil, Varig and Vasp there were few other players in the market and though both airlines provided great service, Varig was renowned for its onboard service.  You always had plenty of space, a hot savory meal with dessert, actual stainless steel flatware and dishes, a glass made out of glass, a cloth napkin complete with a button eyelet in case you wanted to protect your garment without tucking. The meal always gave you a choice between two entrees and the drink cart had everything from water to whiskey.  Sugar, salt and pepper were in with the flatware.  There was an individually wrapped wet wipe for you to freshen up before lunch, though it seemed redundant since the attendants distributed hot towels before serving the meal.  And oh, the leg room and the comfortable seats that reclined were things of beauty. Pillows and blankets galore.  The bathroom had little soap bars that were individually dispensed, feminine hygiene products, and multiple little compartments with personal care items.  Each seat pocket had a magazine, safety instructions and an individual zippered pouch with a toothbrush, comb, toothpaste, socks and other items to ensure your comfort. Yes, this was coach.

Then new players entered the market.  Varig and Vasp eventually went out of business and now we have dozens of airlines crisscrossing the skies. Competition is fierce. I don’t have to describe the current onboard conditions to you reader.  You know they are dismal.

New players entered the market providing less service and comfort for reduced fares. And we consumers voiced our opinions with our willingness to give up comfort to keep our money in our wallets. We complain about the airlines.  We say “charging for luggage is an outrage!” and we are outraged.  We say “charging for stale sandwiches is a slap in the face of the customer!” and we are offended. We say “My knees touch the chair in front, there is no room!” and we suffer.  We say “I will not stand for this” and then we buy the lowest fare we can find.  As a group we consumers opt for the cheaper fare.  People don’t purchase airline tickets because the airline offers them more service, comfort and food.  We compare prices and we purchase the lowest priced ticket. A few years back an airline advertised “hey, we have more legroom” did we the consumers flock to that airline and pay the few extra dollars for the additional comfort and service? No, we opted for the cheaper fare without legroom. So what did the airlines do?  They removed all service and reduced the fare.  Our behavior told the airlines that no service and low fares was in fact what we wanted.

Consumer behavior is at odds with consumer demands.  We demand great service and comfort, but when it’s time to put our money where our mouth is our behavior is just the opposite. We buy the lowest fare, not the best service. Every single time!

There are two choices people: 1 Stop complaining! Airlines are completely in sync with consumer behavior. They provide exactly what the consumers are willing to buy: no service, low fare.  2. Put your money where your ass wants to be. Pay for service, comfort and leg room. Well of course, there is the third, illogical and irrational choice that only leads to despair…. keep demanding service and opting the lowest fare without those services.  My guess is that consumers will flock to that third choice. If consumers were reasonable creatures marketing survey companies would be out of business.

Gramado, RS

I spent the weekend with an aunt in Gramado.  She had fascinating stories to tell and we had the opportunity to walk around town.  As a child I used to come here with my grandparents on day trips and I'm extremely fond of the city.  It has grown and changed over the years, but it managed to maintain its quaint appeal and characteristic architecture.Oh, among its many charms Gramado is also famous for its chocolate... no need to ask if I had a good weekend.





And for those who would like to know more here is some wiki information on the town:
Gramado is a municipality and small touristic town, southeast of Caxias do Sul and east of Nova Petrópolis in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the Serra Gaúcha region. Most of the population of Gramado are of German or Italian descent. Gramado is one of the towns along the scenic route known as Rota Romântica.

Gramado hosts the Festival de Gramado, a major South American film festival and Gramado's most important event. Gramado is also known by hydrangeas blossoming in late spring. Another key event in Gramado is Natal Luz, when Gramado is decked out in lights and wreaths made of recycled material by local residents.
Gramado was originally settled in 1875 by Portuguese immigrants. Five years later, the first German immigrants arrived and these were followed shortly after by Italian immigrants from the Italian settlements in Caxias do Sul.

In 1913, the town seat was moved to Linha Nova, where now is the town center. At this time, Gramado was an unincorporated township within the municipality of Taquara. Railway arrived in Gramado in 1921, boosting the local economy. Gramado became officially a village in 1937, when Gramado was already known as a summer holiday resort. Gramado became a municipality on December 15, 1954 by force of State Act 2,522. [from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramado]

eat, sleep, poop, jump, lick, wag, sniff and bark

Saskia came with some pre-installed routines: eat, sleep, poop, jump, lick, wag, sniff and bark. Each native routine has subroutines. For example, when the wag and lick routines are applied concurrently the ‘look how cute I am’ subroutine becomes active. I soon decided that some modifications to her pre-installed routines were highly desirable.  The ‘poop- anywhere’ routine was easily changed to ‘poop- outside only’.  Given that success I got cocky and thought I could reprogram the entire system. I started with the routines with the simplest installations. I installed ‘sit’ and at first it looked like a success. But later it became apparent that it didn’t install properly since I got the ‘sit-for a millisecond just ‘cause you told me to’ subroutine. Also the ‘sit’ routine apparently can’t be used to deactivate the ‘jump-on people’ routine.

Then I installed ‘stop that and lie down’ routine and got the ‘blank stare’ feedback. I may be paranoid but think the ‘blank stare’ feedback is not an automatic response, I think the system activates that feedback on purpose whenever it doesn’t feel like performing a command line. 

The repeated activation of the ‘look at how cute I am’ routine made me accidentally install the ‘beg whenever you smell rotisserie chicken’ virus by mistake. This virus is also responsible for the ‘Kibble? You expect me to eat kibble?” facial hardware distortion which I find very annoying.

I’ve almost managed to install the ‘don’t bark at every noise you hear’ routine, but I haven’t managed to locate and delete the line of code responsible for the ‘shut-up bitch and let me bark’ stance. I’ll keep looking.

I tried to install ‘don’t spend half an hour sniffing one spot on the sidewalk’ but it only works with the ‘tug of the leash’ patch.  I tried to modify the ‘eat’ routine to exclude ‘crap off the sidewalk’ but apparently the change would require a modification to the ‘yum’ code in the line ‘sniff- yum, this smells like it’s been dead for a week’, and changes to ‘yum’ requires advanced programming skills which I just don’t have.

I wrote a ‘don’t follow me into the bathroom and let me pee alone’ routine but now I have little hope it will work. The ‘stop shedding all over the place’ is the holy grail of routines, no-one has yet managed to write the code for it.  I’ve been told that there are professional programmers and published instruction manuals that teach you how to properly rewrite these routines.  But we all know that instruction manuals are for people who don’t know what they are doing. Years ago mother tried to uninstall the ‘instruction manuals are for losers’ subroutine in my ‘smarty pants’ routine, but she too had limited success. Oh well.

oi tia

This post is for my aunt.  I have three aunts but only one who reads this blog and this post is for her.  If you're not her this post will be of no interest to you. Sorry

A world of flat characters

I was once called a flat character by a flat character in my life.  The comment was directed at  a group of people, myself included.  I'm never offended by other people's opinions of me since I never spend time or effort in securing their favorable opinion.  But the comment made me think about the general subject of flat characters in the real world.

We are all flat characters in the lives of those who do not directly affect our existence, or who exist in the periphery of our lives.  We have an inner circle of friends and family and a broader circle of acquaintances including co-workers, and outside of that we are aware of information about individuals in a celebrity circuit including politicians, performers and criminals, but we are not acquainted with them in any way. And then there is the rest of the human population on the planet.  If you stop to think about it everyone outside your inner circle of friends is a flat character in your life. They exist, contribute to the plot inasmuch as they prevent you from living alone in the world and force you to adhere to established social norms, occasionally they may also be fodder for gossip. But you never see them evolve, change over time and grow.  Their storylines intersect yours occasionally but not enough to significantly contribute or detract. 

Flat characters sometimes have a significant impact on our lives.  A drug dealer that kills a member of your inner circle has a significant impact on your life, but he is still a flat character. Before that impact in your life you know nothing about him, after the impact you learn to cope without any contribution from that person.  His story remains static within yours, attached only by an event.

The person who made the comment that started me thinking about flat characters in the real world seemed annoyed to be in the company of flat characters. But it seems to me that flat characters are omnipresent and mostly neutral in our storylines. Unless, of course they invite you to lunch or try to have a conversation with you, then they are indeed annoying. Now, how can you tell whether a flat character is a potential inner circle member in someone else’s storyline?- No, I’m asking… how?  I don’t actually know. - At some point both people have to decide that they want the other person in their storyline, it has to be mutual otherwise you just end up with an annoying flat character.  The recipe seems to call for two way communication and a dash of time.

Two way communication and time seem to be essential ingredients in bringing a flat character into one’s inner circle.  Shortly after two way communication is established we decide whether that individual is someone we would like to promote into the inner circle from the realm of flat characters and we give some sort of continuity to the communication.  The circle of acquaintances is the buffer zone between flat characters and the inner circle. Seldom do characters progress from the flat character zone into the inner circle without doing some time in the circle of acquaintances.  The buffer zone is absolutely essential for the transition.  If we desperately try to pull a flat character into our inner circle without time in the buffer zone we come across as needy, desperate and even crazy.  If a flat character tries to push his way into our inner circle without time in the buffer zone, he is pushy, arrogant and meddling.  Both situations have a negative effect on the two way communication and the promotion into the inner circle usually fails.  The time spent in the buffer zone can be a few days or a lifetime.

Over time the person is brought into your inner circle. Naturally members of your family have done the communicating and the time necessary to be in the inner circle.  Similarly, a lack of communication or one-sided communication can easily demote a character out of the inner circle and into the world of flat characters in your life.  An ex-boyfriend, your best friend from grade-school or high school are often characters that once belonged in your inner circle but were demoted to flat characters in your life over time, distance and diminished communication.  You know about them, and perhaps you send out a card or an occasional e-mail, but you no longer watch them evolve within your storyline. They become flat characters.

Flat characters intersect our storylines all the time, they serve as examples, warnings, entertainment, but they remain flat over time. We care little about the flat characters in our lives, we pass them in the street, they help us in stores and work in the same office.  But remember this:  the flat characters in your life are all inner circle members in the lives of other people, and are therefore worthy of the same respect you would like the people in your inner circle to receive form the flat characters in their lives. It’s a simple concept that can make all the difference in a world of flat characters.

Shit happens

You get up in the morning and follow your usual routine which may include ablutions, coffee, tea, exercise; whatever you feel is necessary to get your day started on the right foot. Whatever your routine may be, it is most likely safe and predictable. For example you might walk your dog, have some breakfast, shower, dress for the day, catch the bus and go to work, all very safe, predictable and repetitive. You don’t expect anything to go wrong with your morning routine, it has become second nature to you, and some of us even accept it as a prediction to the sort of day we are going to have.

If your morning routine is marred by accidents and mishaps you feel that “this is not my day”, or “this day is not starting out right”.  Let’s say that your morning routine starts with your dog chasing the neighbor’s cat up a tree, a fallen coffee grinder that scatters grounds in places you never knew existed in your kitchen, your favorite shirt is in the hamper and you miss your bus. As you sit there waiting for the next bus you consciously or subconsciously brace for a bad day. The question that I propose here is whether a bad day is inevitable at this point, are these events foretelling of the sort of day it will be, or are they unrelated events separate from the progression of what remains of the day? The way I see it there are three different schools of thought on this subject: destiny, creation and pragmatic.

The destiny argument is that our destinies are written by some sort of superior power? It is preordained, somewhere in the universe it was written that Joe Blow would have a bad day on this day. It’s inevitable and you see the cat, the grounds, the shirt and the bus as warning signs of providence and prophecy.   Your destiny was written in the stars, or whatever parchment of your choice, and can’t be changed.  Your horoscope, tarot cards and crystal ball have already decided that this is to be a bad day. All you can do is prepare for the inevitable.

The creation argument suggests that you create your own reality; you are doomed to have a bad day simply because you’ve braced yourself for one.  Somewhere in your mind you have already thought “this is not going to be a good day” and with that attitude you then attract negativity to yourself. You create your own reality and the chance events of the morning plant the suggestion of a bad day.  All of your subsequent actions during the day will have an aura of that expectation of a failure. Subconsciously you expect failure and your conscious self is happy to oblige. You actually create a reality for yourself of a bad day. This is a self fulfilling prophecy, if the prophecy of a bad day had never been suggested by the marred morning routine, you would never have created that subconscious expectation and your day would have progressed normally. The creation subscriber is going to buy some self help books that teach how to control the subconscious, create your own reality and be very successful.  It’s all in the visualization, the mind’s eye and allowing the visions you create to enter into your reality, or something like that.

And then there is the pragmatic argument.  Dogs chase cats, coffee spills, your lazy ass didn’t do the laundry and didn’t move fast enough to catch the bus. Well, if you don’t like to start your day this way leash your stupid cat chasing dog, pay attention to what you’re doing, do your laundry and get your lazy ass out of bed a few minutes earlier. The pragmatist will not read the horoscope, buy the self help book and will have whatever sort of day is ahead of him, knowing full well that shit happens. It just does, stop reading more shit into it.

god's intentions are well known

The floods in Brazil have killed almost 600 people. The news coverage of the devastation is continuous. None of the Brazilian stations cover anything else.  It is a horrible situation and it is not my intention to diminish the extent of this tragedy in any way. But there are two comments I would like to make. 

First: The news channels have got to stop saying that the tragedy was caused of “excessive rain” or “heavy rainfall”, the rain is not to blame. They should instead be saying that the tragedy was caused by “faulty infrastructure”, “lack of infrastructure”, “lack of building inspections”, “illegal hillside construction” and “illegal deforestation”.  If the infrastructure had been anywhere near appropriate this would have been prevented.  Stop blaming the rain.

Second: Every victim interviewed says that “with the help of god I was able to get out alive”, “I prayed to god to hold back the waters so I could get out”, “with the god’s help I will rebuild”.  Excuse me! Who sent the water in the first place? There is an old joke about a guy who falls into a river and is being washed away by a fast current, he manages to hang on to a branch and pull himself out.  His friends run up to him and say “Joe, thank god you’re safe!” to which Joe responds “Thank god? No! Thanks to the branch! God’s intentions are well known.” It seems to me that god’s intentions are well known in this case. I suggest we fend for ourselves.

Protective gear? We don't need no stinkin' protecitve gear

The hot water main broke in my bathroom.  It had been poorly installed and when the plumber tried to shut off the water for a remodel project, the faucet came off in his hand and hot water started gushing everywhere. After shutting off the building’s hot water and dismantling the entire bathroom they set out to fix the pipes.  They broke through the tile and changed the pipes and faucet, which introduces the video below.  The elderly plumber doing the work installed a complex system of connecting pipes. Each connection had to be sealed with a solder-like metal.  He called it solder, and since I don’t know solder from salad I believed him. He heated the pipe and melted copious quantities of solder on the connection.  Then he heated the solder and smoothed it out with a wet rag.  Yes a wet rag! There is nothing but a rag between this man’s fingers and molten metal.  The searing sound you hear in the video is the rag against the hot metal, it could just as easily be human flesh against molten metal. (I refer you back to the man dangling out of my window to install a housing unit around the air conditioner.)  Safety, what safety?  Protective gear? We don’t need no stinkin' protective gear, we got a wet rag!     Also note the baseball cap instead of face shield… very stylish!