Hal - Deliberately Basic

Yes, It Is Fun In a Strange Sort Of Way

I just noticed that I’ve been posting to my blog for six months. I’ve looked back, and read most of my articles posted thus far, to see if I find them interesting. Even though I’ve been writing for a number of years, the media for blogging is quite different than anything I’ve ever written before.

A little to my surprise, I am happy with what I’ve done up to this point. My posts are eclectic  with a touch of “Andy Rooney” cynicism for flavor. Most of all, this has fulfilled my original intention of having fun writing my opinions about whatever pops into my head.

Aside from checking my own history, this post has a second motive; to make it known that I use language that will offend anyone with an American Puritanical persuasion. Let it be known, I don’t care. The greatest thing  about the Internet is, I don’t have to care about what I say. You don’t have to read it.

Of course I want people to read my stuff. That is not the primary motive for writing a blog in my case, but I am endowed with an ego like everyone else. Anything else is bullshit.

The most current figure I’ve seen claims that there are now more than 82 million blogs. With a figure such as that, you know 81.9 million are crap, and not worth the digital media they’re written on. There is a lot of crap written about blogging as a hobby for everyone. Why is it when a thing becomes faddish, the ardent followers need to spread the gospel? Remember CB radio? Aside from truckers, do you know anyone who has one now?

It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in another six months. Meanwhile, don’t forget the language issue. If you really want to see some nasty stuff, go to the nearest social networking site. The kiddies there will teach us old dogs a thing or two about how sailors talk.

Unless You’re Retired, Don’t Talk To Me About Time

The last thing you want to hear after you finally get to retire is, “You’re retired. You have nothing to do, so do this – insert chore here – for me.” There is a stigma concerning retirement, that by virtue of leaving your job, time no longer has meaning for you. This very well may be true for some, especially previous generations, but not for baby boomers.

Articles abound in magazines and on the Internet about having enough money saved to retire. Depending on what you want to do, money may not be an issue, even if you don’t have much. More important than money is, how you will spend your time. The one thing that makes all men equal is time. All of us have exactly the same.

We constantly hear sage advice about saving for retirement, and that is construed as saving money for retirement. What we really need to do is save enough time for retirement. How do we go about saving time?

How many people do you know whose life is defined by what they do for a living? When I was young, and observing older men retire, I used to hear how awful their lives had become after retirement. Many men equated retirement with death. I remember one man saying, “The day I retired was the worst day of my life”. He, like so many from the WWII generation, had developed no interest in anything except what they did at work.

The key to retiring is no different than the way you live your life now. You need something to do, and you need a schedule to do it. The difference is, you make and control your schedule, as opposed to a corporation making it for you. Consider this as working for yourself.

Think of the perks you can give yourself. Do you want three months vacation to travel. Consult with the boss and do it. Perhaps you have a passion for something that took far too much time when you worked for someone else. If you didn’t develop interests outside your job while you worked for someone else, shame on you.

Years ago I read the three fundamental requirements for happiness:
Something to do, Someone to love, and something to look forward to.
You could add to this list, health, money, and everything else in the world. But assuming you are relatively healthy, those are the big three. Even if your health is not so good, and you have the first two things, and you have something to look forward to.

Something to do is vital to retirement. Development of something to do should start early in life, and continue till you die. Some people have only one thing they want to be the center of their focus; others have an interest in nearly anything that happens. I consider myself fortunate in that I’ve developed many interests, far too many too ever be expert at one. I don’t care to be an expert at anything. As you read this, you are experiencing an interest I recently developed; blogging. What you do is not at all important. Sitting on your ass and doing nothing will earn you nothing except a fat ass.

Finally, unless you are an idiot, you will find something to do. You will find yourself saying, “How did I ever find time to work?” Nature abhors a void, and if you have time with nothing to do, you had better fill it with something, or else someone will do it for you.

Pray For More Expletives to Keep us Awake

At last, we have interesting politics. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) accused Senator John McCain (R-AZ) of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations concerning illegal immigrants. McCain told Cornyn, “Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room.” I do like a plain spoken man, even if he is a Republican.

Dirty politics is not new. Thomas Jefferson hired James Callender, a yellow journalist of his time, to slander Alexander Hamilton. Myriad examples of actual fighting among political figures abound in American history. Fist fights in Congress, beatings in bars, and slander of every ilk is common, so a mere “fuck you” is minor by comparison to some incidents that have occurred.

Nevertheless, I don’t remember hearing this exact expletive used in public by a politician before. More than likely it has, I just never heard it. McCain probably lost some of his followers using language like this, but at the same time, gained a few replacements.

Now, let’s move on, and hope things get really nasty. We have a long, long way to go before the election, so I beseech all the candidates to make it become even more interesting. My personal favorites for a good fight are Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Giuliana, a true New Yorker, could probably peel paint with a fine blue-aired diatribe. And Hillary, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see her shuck her jacket, roll up her sleeves, and bitch slap Giuliana? Oh, yeah. This could turn out to be a fine election year after all.

Or 4 for Mandarin

There is no official language for the USA. Many people believe that English is the official language, but in fact, only 30 states – as of this writing – have made English the official language. Since 82.1% of the American people already speak English, I believe it should be made official.

Most polls, and there are many, show an overwhelming support for making English the language of the US. Count me as one of those people who favor English. A Harvard study found that 72% of 18-24 year olds support English.

This is not a personal affront to Latinos or the Spanish language. This is common sense. We are indeed a melting pot, and with the exception of American Indians (I refuse to use the hyphenated American crap) we are all immigrants. With this rational, why not make French the national language? Or, pick one, pick anything but English.

Granted, after English, Spanish is the second language most spoken, followed by French and Mandarin. Still, with about 10% of the entire population speaking Spanish, many of which are bilingual, why the relatively sudden push to make the US an English/Spanish country?

The answer is money. When in doubt of the cause of an issue, look always for who is making money from it. An estimate for 2007 puts spending by Hispanic/Latinos at $926 billion.

How does this compare to spending by non-Latinos? I won’t bother to look that up, knowing that the figure would be astronomical, with non-Latinos spending a far greater amount.

But when we speak of billions to be made, marketers listen, and they listen even more to the projections for spending by Latinos. And this my friends is why you are asked to press 2 for Spanish when you call most companies these days. Get used to it. The day may come when you are asked to press 2 for English.