Path to Enlightened Insanity

Today’s PEIDM is brought to you by the theme control, the emotion frustration, and the physical state tired.

Its been an odd day overall, but the thing that set me off was a discussion regarding my job. You see I’m a bill collector, if you don’t pay any one of seven different accounts and you’re more than three months past due I call you. I do my best to be nice, but dammit I want money.

One of the things that I’ve been grappling with is the ethics of being a bill collector and in general the ethics of credit cards.

Are credit cards inherently evil? While I can understand the argument that credit cards are evil and I even used to subscribe to it, its like saying every blade is evil, because knives can stab people and as a result can kill people. Scalpels are a blade, but no one would ever think of banning them from the operating room. Likewise knives are a essential item in kitchens. Like words credit cards are only tools, in and of themselves there is nothing inherently good or evil about them. It what people do with them thats evil.

What is frustrating about my job, is people use credit cards to delay making those hard choices. By the time they get to me, the problems have just been compounded and compounded. Instead of trying to clean up just the original problem the credit card account holder and I have at least four if not twelve months of problems to attempt to tackle in one phone call about 20 minutes long, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. But the hardest part about it is dragging their head out of the sand, because they’ll tell you everything they can to keep their head in the sand, so what you’ve gotta do is drag it out of the sand.

Okay but backing up a step. The whole thing that got me started on this is I got well verbally chastised in class for stating “I’m not gonna take food off the table.” Honestly not in a bad way, but at the time I wasn’t a happy camper. I’m sort of learning one of the major things about debt collection is pulling a customer’s head forcibly up out of the sand that its lodged in, because it ain’t gonna get out without any help. You’ve gotta take control of the situation because they’re not going to.

In other news I had to cut Jake lose. Its not something I’m thrilled about doing, but a relationship has to be give and take on both sides.

I honestly feel that I just was giving and giving and giving. Well I got tired of it and I just got exhausted always feeling that his problems were my problems to solve as well. If someone is just going to always put their tail between their legs and run, there isn’t anything I can do about it. I can try, but I can’t always be the one to whip it out from under them and stop them and make them face the problem. I just got so frustrated being the one in the relationship to tell him to grab the bull by the horns. If someone is on a bicycle eventually you have to stop running behind them and just let them ride on their own, even if they’re going to go through a thorn bush. (Trust me, i know, my mom pushed me off when I was bike riding for the first time and I went right into a thorn bush. I’m not doing that again.)

A related entry is Bullfighting Life.

I’m also amazed at how many people will make bad financial decisions.

Honestly this isn’t that hard, you have to bring in more money than you spend. If you spend more that you bring in, then you need to either make more or spend less. Its okay to spend more than you bring in a month or two, but beyond that take care of it.

Another thing that amazes me is people who go for larger payments on essential items even though they’re already having problems with their bills. An example, a friend of mine, who I shall call V, traded in his vehicle that he was paying $152 a month on for a more expensive vehicle that he is paying $350 a month for. Now if he got a raise or something that would be good, but instead he was having issues getting bills to meet before, the extra $200 car payment isn’t going to help anything. Stupid decision, plain and simple, there is no non-emotional way to argue that it was a good decision.

Finally. I’m ready to get going.. I’m a tug boat lashed to shore. I’m waiting to get out there on the open sea and get going again, perhaps I’ll find Jim somewhere…

I got approached by a petitioner today, no it wasn’t after I went to vote, it was after I checked out a library book at a polling place, just not my polling place.

I was being asked about repealing Amendment 12, Cincinnati’s anti-gay amendment. Unfortunately I couldn’t sign it because I’m not a Cincinnati resident, but it got me thinking again about the concept of otherness, specifically in relation to sexual orientation.

Its been spinning in my head since I watched X2. The whole movie is about “the other,” people who for one reason or another can be segregated from the population at large. The movie shows two realms of thought that of Professor Xavier (meld into the population) or that of Magneto (maintain our separateness) The implied argument is that evil (or the perception thereof) results from separateness.

The thing is good can come from both. We homoattracted people use the word family not because we’re looking to make a political statement, but because for many the gay community is family.

I honestly feel closer to my homoattracted friends that my hetroattracted friends that are not in the gay community.

The unique things about this time is we homoattracted people are demanding assimilation whereas other “others” have fought it. Oh we have or foot-dragging in the community, but overall we’re demanding to lose our otherness to some extent and I think thats a good idea.

Now lets just don’t have any wars like the X-Men. K?

I wrote my first letter to George W. Bush since the 2000 election debacle. Here it is

February 29, 2004

George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Bush,
I am angered at the blatant disregard displayed by your recent comments regarding supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, to ensure that the commitment between two men will never be recognized in the same manner as the similar commitment between a woman and a man.

I am stuck thinking about September 10, 2001, not for reasons of national homeland security, but instead this was the day that my best friend Jennifier Kline and her fiancè Thomas Trapp exchanged their vows in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. I had the privilege of giving Jennifier away at her wedding where she and Thomas declared their mutual commitment for each other in front of their friends and family, their religious leaders, and subsequently in the eyes of society and the government. I some day I hope Jennifier will return my gesture as I partake the same commitment, and I have every right marry a man with whom I wish to share my life.

You have stated that marriage has had the experience and growth of “… more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience.” Your statement implicitly acknowledges a very important detail that is not part of the debate regarding marriage: marriage existed before the governments which comprise the United States even existed, or had the ability to infer legal rights upon married couples. The government by borrowing and codifying the norms of religion at the time violated and continues to violate the First Amendment by respecting the definition of marriage as defined by the churches when the laws in question were written.

Herein lies the fundamental mistake that is the source of much disagreement. The First amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” In recognizing the religious ceremony of marriage the government has violated this sacred amendment, one which both protects both the government and religion.

I will not attempt to argue that the government has no vested interest though in supporting unions of two people. I believe that the union of two people into a family unit provides stability for society. Government should recognize and encourage the civil unions of two people regardless of their genders.

I have digressed into a brief analysis of marriage, but I will get to the point. You are a bigot and should not be in any elected office. By proposing that the nation enshrine discrimination into our most sacred document, you have disgraced our nation in front of the world community and you have lost the last sliver of respect I had for you. I currently respect the homeless drunk more than I respect the President of the United States.

For that I am disappointed.

Nicholas Barnard

Will someone please explain to me what the hell is wrong with my feline? He’s gotten into this habit of finding ledges that overlook the 2.5 story drop down to the ground from my apartment, sitting on them and just well being there. It scares the shit out of me. I know falling scares the shit out of him because I have held him hanging over the precipice to make sure he knows how dang far up he is. I only want to scare him because I don’t want him to be hanging out in spots where he can fall. A gust of wind or something similar would do him in. I don’t want that to happen.

I’m in a strangely pensive mood. I’m distant from everything really. I’m physically distant from my family in friends in Dayton. I’m distancing myself slowly from my coworkers at Chiquita. Eric and I instead of transitioning from friends, to boyfriends as announced, we’ve transitioned from friends, into declared but not really boyfriends, to coworkers. I feel disconnected from Cincinnati, not having been here long enough to really feel connected.

To top it off I’m not sure where I’m going at the moment. I have no long term plan, no spots I want to be at in five years.

I’ve been thinking about January 2003, the last time there was a five year plan and I decided that the five year plan wouldn’t work. I just read Relationship Thoughts… in Shawn’s blog.

I’m ready to respond to it now. (Probably again, since I’m sure I did respond to it in 2003.)

Shawn,
I agree with you. Building a real relationship that will last cannot happen over hours, days, or weeks. There can be the illusion of a real compatible relationship when a commitment is made to someone without knowing them.

Now my question. How can you temper the commitment without the other person thinking they’re being blown off? I dated someone once and I asked him at one point “How are we doing?” He told me that we hadn’t spent much time together, whereas I felt the exact opposite. How do you balance wanting to take it slow without pushing the other person away?

Nick

I have a strange habit of reading everything. I’m the guy who reads the credit card agreement, the insurance statement, the back of the milk carton, the front of the milk carton, the cereal box next to the milk carton, the junk mail under the cereal box next to the milk carton, etc..

I found a little gem in my State Farm renter’s policy. One of the losses that is covered are losses caused by “Aircraft, including self-propelled missiles and spacecraft.” I’m happy that I’m covered in case the Space Shuttle or a Soyuz capsule careens into my apartment.

What bothers me is the self-propelled missile part. I know there are such things, but later in the policy there is a standard exclusion for “War, including any undeclared war, civil war, insurrection, rebellion, revolution, warlike act by a military force or military personnel, destruction or seizure or use for a military purpose, and including any consequence of any of these. Discharge of a nuclear weapon shall be deemed a warlike act even if accidental.” Okay so logically reasoning through these two clauses we can come up with the fact that there are non-military self-propelled missiles? Who has these? Hopefully not Walmart or some other evil corporation. (Okay I know their CEO’s are Dr. Evils in training, but still.) So who has the self-propelled missiles??? Please will someone tell me? Now note its not a satellite launching rocket, as that isn’t a missile.

Okay so maybe I’m a bit paranoid, but I want to know who has the missiles, but is not the military? Next thing you know the kid down the street is going to be playing with AK-47s, and there are rocket launchers next to the door bell buttons to repel the door to door salesmen that are coming now that the do not call list is in effect. Now that’ll be the day. But I at least I’m insured against the self-propelled missiles.

I’m awake at four in the morning or so. I just finished watching X2: X-Men United… While I’ve got thoughts on that those will have to wait till later.

I’m supposed to be up for work in two hours but well given that I’m not yet asleep and I had a few hour nap today I’m giving myself some slack. (well a lot of slack)

I’m unable to finesse this in anyway so here’s a list:

1. I’m feeling lost and slightly drifting
2. I’ve been at these "I don’t know whats in my future" moments far too often recently
3. I need to break up with Eric
4. Although my cats are very good at cuddling they’re no substitute for a boyfriend
5. Its strange to keep seeing the same people on Yahoo Personals again and again.
6. Every list needs six items.

I’ve been debating what profession I should go into.

Wait, let me rephrase that, I’ve been debating what I should do with my life.

I ‘m more and more sure I don’t want to get stuck in a business office. Not that I’m allergic to the matter, but well its really the facades that we put up that I’m allergic to.

I make a descent amount of phone calls with my current job to other businesses. There is this formality we have of saying “How are you?” Its honestly about as formulaic as answering the phone “Hello.” Its partially a BS facade that we put up just to seem pleasant.

It would be better if we were pleasant, which I do my best to do. But, I’d rather be in an environment without the facades.

There is no Norms 3.

All these thoughts about norms has led me to thinking about manners, some of which are social norms.

I’ve been thinking about them in specific relation to driving. I consider a majority of driver’s to be rude and inconsiderate pricks. (Note: this is in relation to their driving habits, not their whole person.) I have a laundry list of ways people could drive more courteously (which I won’t bore you with here.) I believe if these were implement by everyone driving would be less stressful, smoother and faster.

Given the fact that i am not king, and cannot imposed the death penalty for being a prick while driving, I live with and have worked at ways to keep my stress level low while driving.

The point is, I’ve chosen not to be stressed.

What differentiates driving manners from eating manners is that they have tangible benefits for others, whereas eating manners are solely about showing that I’m cultured in some manner. note, this doesn’t mean that I’m cultured, only that I know how to show it. It is possible for me to place a false facade to appear cultured or uncultured.

(An aside, think of Titanic where Jack places a facade to appear cultured at a dinner with Rose. Note all of the extraneous formalities that sever little purpose other than to say “I’m cultured”)

But the crux of it is, I’m not going to put some show just so people think I’m someone I’m not. If little bullshit things like that are going to drive them away, it is to both our benefits.