A beautiful sunny day, strapping your skateboard to your newly repaired Vespa and going out to hit a spot... i can't think of a much better situation for National Go Skateboarding Day. Well, topless girls maybe, they never hurt.
Jun 21, 2007
Jun 20, 2007
Retire
No, i have neither the age nor the money to retire. My generation may never get to retire the way things are going. This, however, is about the retirement party. Another obligation to add to the list of life's uncomfortable obligations.
What do you do for a workplace retirement party when you don't respect the person who's retiring? Sure AT the party you can feign excitement, they don't have to know it's because you're glad they're leaving, but what do you do as the celebration approaches?
Inevitably people come around asking for money for a group gift. What can i say, i don't think i need to explain to anyone how money's tight these days. Spending it on someone you don't particularly care for is quite hard to justify to your checkbook. Not contributing, however, is far harder to explain to the person collecting (quite possibly someone you DO like at work). Let's face it, workplaces are highly judgemental environments and also somewhere you don't want to burn too many bridges. What's enough to make you look like you've contributed but not so much that you can sleep that night?
The money is just the first speed bump in your passage through the retirement party. Inevitably you end up with a group card on your desk. i have a hard time writing stuff in cards for people i genuinely care about, what on earth am i supposed to write on this thing? i could do what i did in junior high when i had to sign yearbooks for people i didn't know well: write exactly what someone else wrote. This is more transparent on a card though. "Enjoy your retirement" is usually short but safe. Hey, you'll probably never see them again anyway.
After dodging several occasions where people reminisce what it's been like working with so and so the grand finally is making it through the party it's self. At this point in your life you should have survived through enough distant relatives' weddings and or funerals that you can 'put on the act' for some length of time. Play along, shake enough hands, and throw out a few well wishes and you should get by fine.
Look at this all as practice, because if you work somewhere with a large enough staff, chances are you will have at least one of these a year. Especially as the baby-boomers come of age. Prepare accordingly.
What do you do for a workplace retirement party when you don't respect the person who's retiring? Sure AT the party you can feign excitement, they don't have to know it's because you're glad they're leaving, but what do you do as the celebration approaches?
Inevitably people come around asking for money for a group gift. What can i say, i don't think i need to explain to anyone how money's tight these days. Spending it on someone you don't particularly care for is quite hard to justify to your checkbook. Not contributing, however, is far harder to explain to the person collecting (quite possibly someone you DO like at work). Let's face it, workplaces are highly judgemental environments and also somewhere you don't want to burn too many bridges. What's enough to make you look like you've contributed but not so much that you can sleep that night?
The money is just the first speed bump in your passage through the retirement party. Inevitably you end up with a group card on your desk. i have a hard time writing stuff in cards for people i genuinely care about, what on earth am i supposed to write on this thing? i could do what i did in junior high when i had to sign yearbooks for people i didn't know well: write exactly what someone else wrote. This is more transparent on a card though. "Enjoy your retirement" is usually short but safe. Hey, you'll probably never see them again anyway.
After dodging several occasions where people reminisce what it's been like working with so and so the grand finally is making it through the party it's self. At this point in your life you should have survived through enough distant relatives' weddings and or funerals that you can 'put on the act' for some length of time. Play along, shake enough hands, and throw out a few well wishes and you should get by fine.
Look at this all as practice, because if you work somewhere with a large enough staff, chances are you will have at least one of these a year. Especially as the baby-boomers come of age. Prepare accordingly.
Jun 18, 2007
Rails vs. Girls
i was recently asked if i skated rails. My answer: not as much as when i was younger. This got me thinking about exactly when i stopped skating handrails and downgraded to just the occasional skatepark grind-rail.The early to mid-high school years is when i was in my skateboarding prime. About that time i was skilled enough and adventurous enough to occasionally 'session' a handrail. This also was around the time where my interest in the opposite sex came into bloom and i started to 'session' females on the rare occasion.
The thing about skating rails is that when you hit your slide or grind it is one of the most fulfilling tricks. Partially due to the fluidness of sliding, partially (like sex) from the sensation of the friction, and partially from the comfort of knowing how wrong it could have gone but didn't. Oh, what joys. Oh, what tragedies.
After several rail-slide to crotch plant combos i found myself giving serious thought to what i would rather be doing with my crotch for the rest of my life. Bouncing my groin off of metal became less appealing than the other hopeful option involving the female of the species.
From time to time i find myself nostalgically remembering the sensation of sliding/grinding down a handrail knowing i had landed it before security or cops ended my run. Sometimes i find myself romantically eyeing a perfect set (i'm referring to handrails here). But then i am reminded of how glad i am that all my plumbing is in perfect working order and the feeling passes as i choose to drop-in to one of the ramps instead.Jun 17, 2007
A Tale Of Two Books
There is a significant difference between entertainment and true art. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" was a terrifically entertaining book. It appealed to the adventurous side of me, the spiritual side of me, and the proverbial struggle between good and evil. i would sit and read several chapters in one sitting. The book was finished in no time at all. i was thoroughly entertained (the movie being another story all together).
i have been reading a selection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson for about 14 years now and i am not even halfway through the book. i read about 2 paragraphs and then write, and think, and create. i can meditate for years on a single essay of his alone. It is not so much the words as what they pull out of you, what they stir up in you, how they inspire you. They mean something different to everyone who reads them. It is an eloquent call to be yourself. A call to better yourself. A call to inspire.
Both books grace my collection. One i enjoy and recommend to others for vacation or airplane reading. The other changes my life every time i open the well worn cover. i am glad i have both, but i never confuse the two.
i have been reading a selection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson for about 14 years now and i am not even halfway through the book. i read about 2 paragraphs and then write, and think, and create. i can meditate for years on a single essay of his alone. It is not so much the words as what they pull out of you, what they stir up in you, how they inspire you. They mean something different to everyone who reads them. It is an eloquent call to be yourself. A call to better yourself. A call to inspire.
Both books grace my collection. One i enjoy and recommend to others for vacation or airplane reading. The other changes my life every time i open the well worn cover. i am glad i have both, but i never confuse the two.
POP Goes The Weasel
Shakespeare and The Beatles created useless POP for mass consumption.
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Go ahead, bring on the comments...
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