Is Accelerating to Pass a Crime?

I’m often stating how I prefer riding the train to driving, since I can sleep, read, write, and still get to my destination with minimal problems. A recent incident made my opinion even stronger. After twelve years of nearly flawless driving (meaning no accidents and no traffic violations), I received my first speeding ticket on a questionable infraction this past month. While I cannot get too detailed for security reasons, let me explain the utter bullshit of the situation.

I was driving on a two lane highway with a speed limit of 65 mph. Traffic was moderately heavy, and I was in the right lane behind a tractor trailer. We were approaching a large hill and the truck was doing 65. On road trips like this, I usually cruise between 70 and 75. Yes, I know that’s already speeding, but let’s be honest— that is the speed at which traffic usually flows on a major 65 mph highway. Anyone who drives more than once a year knows that.

So I check my rearview and see a group of cars and SUV’s gaining in the passing lane. Before those cars pass me, I decide to pass the truck and accelerate. As I just get around the truck coming down the hill, there was a state trooper waiting at the bottom. He throws his sirens on and pulls me over.

Never in my life have I been victim of a speed trap as ridiculous as this. Pulled over for speeding while passing another vehicle! When I saw the cop at the bottom of the hill, I looked at my speedometer and was doing 7-8 miles less than what the officer told me I was doing. I told him I was passing the tractor trailer and he claimed the truck was going faster than 65 as well. I knew there was no way.

It’s days like this that I wish I understood the mechanics of how a radar gun could clock me and the truck at the speeds the officer indicated. Was it because we were coming downhill at the time? I don’t know. All I know is I was making sure I wasn’t creating a traffic buildup. Had I stayed behind the truck, the mass of traffic would have passed me, and I would have had to wait to get around. Had I passed at only a small increase, all of the traffic in the passing lane would have been up my ass, creating road rage in others because I was halting the flow of traffic.

I’ve never been in an accident, partially because I’m lucky in terms of statistics, but more because of the fact that I watch what other cars do and how they react. I feel I handled the situation in the best way possible for all parties concerned that were on the road. Was I planning on maintaining the passing speed? No, I wanted to get in front of the truck and cruise the rest of the way to my destination. Would I plead guilty if I was caught doing that same cruising speed in the open without any vehicles around me? Yes.

So I plead not guilty to the ticket and sent it in. I received a court notice for a trial. I then sent that letter back stating that I could not make the trial, since the little town court was four hours away from where I live (and they were open a total of 8 hours the whole week on Tuesdays and Thursdays only!). Knowing I could not beat the officer’s testimony if I did not show up, I requested a plea bargain. To my chagrin, I was granted one, on the basis of my good record, and after some more paperwork exchanges, the traffic violation was dropped by several points.

The catch, of course, was that the fine stayed the same. It ended up costing me a little more than $200. Ouch. For a middle-class artist, that’s a nice chunk of change. But I realize that this all was an experience that shows me that most tickets are driven as much by public safety as they are by the need to make quotas to pay for bloated state police salaries.

So tell me, is accelerating to pass a crime? Let me know what you think.

Creative Psychosis: A Hypothesis

Alternate Designation: Failure Gonna Put Mo Hair On Ya Chest, Boy

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Of the three fluorescent lights in my work cubicle, one buzzes noisily. When an Info-Tech guy sits at my computer to install new software, they usually ask, “Doesn’t that buzzing drive you crazy, man?”

I start to laugh inside. Well, maybe it’s more like the chuckle of a sinister villain waiting for his plans to come to fruition. You see, I already know I’m crazy. But not like your Uncle Nick who sawed his car in half because his team missed the playoffs. No, my crazy is self-inflicted, a detachment from reality that most creative folks know all too well. Because reality says: the odds are stacked against you succeeding on a creative level. No matter what the field is—music, writing, painting, illustrating—we will most likely fail to live up to our expectations. I am presently part of that statistic, but I have come to accept this as unavoidable. To which I laugh again.

People throw around the cliché ‘glutton for punishment’ when it comes to those who try many creative endeavors without success. But this is only said because of our endless quest for fame and money. The two determinants of success convolute our collective arts, our whole creative process. They cause the natural inclination in people to try and market everything, so we can buy luxury cars, mansions, platinum toasters, have our face whored out on Spin and People. Because who the hell wants to dwell behind a desk plugged into a computer all day, working for a company that could replace us tomorrow?

While our culture caters only the creative success stories, that’s no reason to see it as defeating. It is the process and the production which should be the focus. We should be just detached enough from reality to keep being imaginative in our daily routines. No matter how many times it burns us. That is creative psychosis. That is why I ride into the cardboard sunset backdrop that’s staple-gunned to the wall. Because I can always get up and search for that real sunset.

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All things aside, I might sit in this cubicle until I retire. Or have a heart attack. Or get abducted by aliens. Whatever comes first. It’s just commute, work, commute, repent and repeat. But that’s the system. We gotta pay the bills and try to live comfortably. Realizing creative psychosis is not an overnight decision. It might take years in the work world to truly know that fulfillment won’t come through wishes, dreams, adherence to a self-help system, or even through hard work. While we know it’s always coming, opportunity has no set schedule.

The imagination that we fall in love with as children is the same one that has lets us down. I know I’m not afraid to admit it. People try to sugarcoat, to deny their failures, when there’s more knowledge in such than any record contract or book advance you could ever get. If my creative life continues like it has for another thirty years, then I’ll have an ego that looks like an old country screen door. Just a wiry spring keeping me from falling off the damn hinges. But as long as it holds on, then it’s fine.

In the end, nothing is conclusive enough to pledge full allegiance to, but I’d like to continue to expand this hypothesis. After all, I may just get lucky one day. Meanwhile, I know all of our failures will never kill us… unless it was a fission experiment that transmogrified you into extra-tasty-crispy chicken, but I digress. If you’re reading this, then you’re still alive to try something new, succeed, fail, whatever.

In truth, the process is never anything worst than annoying. Just like that buzzing fluorescent light. To which I answer the IT Guy’s question, “Nah, I deal with it.”

Kill the Cable, Baby

“The end is near, my little friend. I shall unscrew the cable from your brain and send you back to your bloated master.”

These are the words I might speak tonight to the last cable box in my apartment when it gets disconnected and returned to Cablevision. No, this is not a pitch that I am not switching to satellite instead. I am getting rid of the multitude of choices on cable altogether. To be more specific, I asked my fiancé that we eliminate the Family package of our cable service (aka 400 channels of never-ending channel surfing), and have only the Basic version (all of the channel a normal TV used to pick up, but with clear reception).

For my area in New York, here are the costs:
- Family Cable $45.00
- Broadcast Basic $9.00
In the grand scheme of things, saving $36 a month (or $432 a year) is nice on the budget, but honestly that’s not why I wanted to get rid of the Family package.

The main reason is that when I’m older and I look back on the portfolio of my life, I don’t want to say that a healthy percentage was spent watching programs which benefit me only in the short term. Be honest with yourself—other than momentary entertainment, what greater good has television done for you? Could you not have been doing something more productive?

Basically, up to this point, I have concluded two things:
(A) My girl and I only watch two shows each week (24 and Alias), both on basic.
(B) Every other time we turn on the TV is just for pure vegetative state. We turn it on, and because there are 900 options to choose from, we’re bound to find something moderately interesting to waste our lives to. It took me some time to convince her of this, but eventually she decided the logic was true.

This decision was not without debate. Cable has always been such a vast tool of endless entertainment… movies, sitcoms, self-help shows, news, sports, cartoons, and on and on. When I was younger, I didn’t get Cable until I was in high school, so I remember how great it was to visit my buddy’s house and watch MTV and HBO and Cinemax. Of course, then I was naive, and believed in the system to be pure and concurrent with the ways of American life.

While I still recognize that Cable TV, and its’ evil clone Satellite TV, have become a vital artery of American culture, I have chosen to resist it. Does that make me less patriotic to not be a daily vegetable? I hope not. But then, I know I am in a tiny minority with this choice. Most people could not give up cable if they tried.

But I hope more people do resist cable… there’s way too much in life that our scattered years could not even begin to explore. You sure won’t get there by watching reruns of I Love The 80′s every week.

The Moisture Farmer Syndrome

When my alarm went off this morning at 6:45am, the radio newsman was talking about the late breaking news from London and how bombs had gone off in their subway and on a double-decker bus. I’m sure that the blogosphere has been flooded with posts this morning on this topic, so I will resist posting the usual “how can those mean people do this?” entry. I accept the fact that hatred and murder are prevalent elements in our world, and will never go away no matter how hard we try.

While I feel bad that the citizens of London have to go through such events just like New Yorkers did 4 years ago, I feel infinitely disconnected from them. Of course, I maintain a certain level of disconnection from everything in the universe, but this is much larger. I mean, is there anything real I can do to help? Nope. In a perfect world, I’d love to think my vote or my dollar could really go to some great cause that makes everything right, but that is all imaginary.

For some reason, I recalled the part in Star Wars: A New Hope when Luke tells Obi-Wan that he can’t go fight the Empire because he has work to do back at the moisture farm. In the story though, Luke goes anyway because the farm gets toasted by Stormtroopers. But in reality, such circumstances are missing from any global solutions. But that is the way it goes.

When a Sport Becomes a Job

I received an envelope in the mail yesterday from the NCAA, also known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Being seven years removed from college, I was curious to what it could be.

Naturally, it was a survey asking for my participation. I laughed and was about to tear it in half and send it on it way to the junk mail dumpster, when my fiancée grabbed it and started reading the questions. Turns out they wanted to know how athletics had affected my college education and subsequently impacted the working drone reality I presently reside in. I decided to take a second look.

For reference, from 1994 to 1996, I was part of a Division I collegiate wrestling team and I received nearly a three-quarter scholarship for it. After having achieved many accolades in high school wrestling, the college experience made me quite jaded to the sport that I had been a part of since 4th grade. The difference was that all semblance of fun and camaraderie that I had previously enjoyed about the sport were gone.

In college, the sport became a job. Practices twice a day, and highly exhausting ones at that. A good deal of traveling to other states during the season, although involvement was year round. Most participants were out for themselves because of the competitive environment that it was. I eventually had to quit because I had an injury that required surgery in order to continue. I opted for rehab instead and voluntarily surrendered my scholarship.

Back to the survey though, I found it quite ironic that the NCAA was looking to see if the aspects of collegiate athletics had an effect on how I viewed full-time employment. The similarities were uncanny, but not in a positive way.

Participating in a collegiate sport reflected many of the negative politics and of the work world that human resources like to sugar coat over. Think getting downsized is tough at work? Imagine being an 18 year old kid trying to get an education when the coach of your team gets forced to resign, and the new coach that’s brought in subsequently tries to get every athlete that arrived before his tenure to quit.

That was my reality in college. As a teen, I learned the hard way of what to expect in the work world. Sadly, I wasn’t disappointed. I understand it even better now, it’s “just business, nothing personal” as the cliché goes, since money does run our world. Would I have preferred to learn these lessons at work? Sure. It sucks to look back on my collegiate career and have the lemon that was athletics sour the experience as a whole. Alas, these things happens, but I did graduate which was my original (and primary) goal.

So I will send back my survey and hope that such lessons might reach high school athletes so they better understand what it is they are getting into. I can only hope that the NCAA doesn’t sugar coat the reality like a human resources department does.

It’s Been Vegasized!

I’ve only been to Las Vegas twice (in July 2004 and this past week). But it’s enough to make some factualizations about it. In a year’s time, it’s evident that the whole ‘adult playground’ concept has been homogenized enough that every casino is doing just about the same thing to get people to stay there and, of course, gamble there. The extravagance of some of the architecture, interior decoration, and signage is almost disgusting from the standpoint of usefulness.

While I did not find it obtrusive to be in Vegas by any means, it still amazes me that people get so caught up in all of the bullshit. When you break all of the events and special features down, everything there is so artificial, and most of the people who work there are paid to push this artificiality down anyone’s throat who should walk in the door. Vegas is nothing more than a lavish collection of stores and casinos, all only caring about you if you plunk all your money into their bank accounts.

I was hypothesizing that if all of the money that was invested in the construction and maintenance of Las Vegas over the past 20 years was converted into aid for all of our collective American problems, our country might be in a little better shape. But the reality of it is that if you plugged most people into a lie detector and asked if all of the unnecessary extravagance of Las Vegas was more important to have than aid for our countries’ problems, Vegas would win easily. “What cares about the national debt or social security, but did you see the glass sculpture at the Bellagio, or the new stores at Caesars?”

But I digress. People need their artificial escape, it’s just ingrained as a vital part of our culture. They need places like Vegas or a beach on a tropical island to go to when their lives have reached a boiling point of routine and monotony. It’s sad really that we choose to live this way… that so many people’s primary escapes are where real substance takes a backseat to neon and crystal and giant vaulted ceilings.

Nevertheless, this is the way it is. I won’t directly complain since I spent my recent Vegas excursion with family, but I’m aware of the inherent truth of Vegas… and I’ll try my best to resist it in the future in the hope for something else with more substance.

Save Your Pennies To Gamble With

You could call it an utter distortion of the money saving process. But I have my reasoning.

Last night, my fiance and I took all of the spare change we could find to one of those Coinstar machines in the grocery store. While I’m no big fan the whole eight and nine-tenths processing fee, it had to be dealt with since the bank we wanted to go to had already closed its lobby after work.

Anyway, the primary reason I was cashing in my coins was for gambling money on my trip this weekend to Las Vegas. Yes, I know, my chances are one in several million of bringing home anything substantial. But I mean, I’m already going to be out there… I may as well take my chances with Lady Luck.

The point is this: if I win a progressive jackpot of 300 grand, which I plan on playing for, then it will have happened because of spare change. What can be better than that? To sit on the porch of my new house with my girl, feet up, sipping an ice cold lager— and to know that I have this house because I saved up my pennies.

Sure, it’s a little bit extreme to smoke on such a pipe dream… but I always say, if you plan on living well, then you have to find every way possible. At least legally. However, that way of life is not going to come to me while I’m sitting here in this cubicle wasting away in obscurity. So place your bet, people.

The Problem With Philosophy

Almost every person could spend the rest of their life asking “what if…” questions, and trying to sort out how things became the way they did, and why they did not reorganize and prioritize their life a little more. But that is the problem with philosophy… that as great as it is to sit and ponder the universe and then (hopefully) reach conclusions, it is time lost that you could be using to do things.

I guess my question is whether one can be a philosopher and a go-getter simultaneously? Or do you constantly have to alternate between waiting to figure things out, and then applying the solution? I can only hope I have the wisdom inside to not think as much as I have in the past… because the time is now for doing things.

Do Blog Opinions Matter More or Less?

I go online to purchase a new album, but am skeptical if it’s any good. Thus, I read a review on a corporate website, and then read another by an independent blogger. Both reviews offer good arguments for their opinions, but differ completely in rating the product. So who do I trust?

Reviews and editorial content will eternally be debated over their opinions, but should the source that it originates from be more the target of debate? With the availability of blogs and user review sites over the past several years, the playing field has shifted dramatically. I’ve tried to analyze the pros and cons of corporate versus independent reviews, and I believe it’s pretty even now.

It’s easy to be skeptical of corporate reviews, if you know the money involved behind the scenes. For example, do you think an MSNBC editor would be able to publish a review ripping the inadequatecy of Windows? Not a chance, since the site is partially owned by Microsoft, it would get edited out.

Advertising and sponsorship revenue plays a huge part in how corporations review. For example, if Rolling Stone hypothetically published an editorial claiming Guess Jeans are made in sweatshops, I doubt you’d be seeing that two page spread of Paris Hilton modeling the latest cut of Guess denim again there. Corporations cannot bite the hand that puts their gold fillings in place.

On the other hand, most bloggers or user reviews are not being paid for their editorial content. This aspect allows their honesty to be more raw and less edited. Most do it because they want to either showcase their writing in hopes of more opportunities, or they simply enjoy voicing their opinion in this open forum. I’ve found a lot of user reviews are just an outlet after that user finds the product deceptive in its advertising (what a surprise!).

Additionally with a blog type review, the ability for many people to add their opinion or debate certain points within the critique allows greater room for accuracy. Granted, a hundred hard-core fans could be the ones posting comments, but normally objectors are the ones to chime in. Such democratic consensus surely has to have corporate reviewers looking towards such a format in the future.

I’d imagine the primary advantage of a paid reviewer though is professionalism based on previous credentials, although blogs have gained a tremendous amount of ground on them. Celebrity reviewers that everyone knows (like Roger Ebert) create a name recognition that the bloggers and user reviewers aren’t able to match on a national level. But by no means does that make an independent review any less credible.

I think in the end, reviews come down to trust. If you follow a blogger’s other reviews and continuously agree with what they say, they become just as credible as a newspaper reviewer you’ve read for years. For now, I will continue reading both corporate and independent reviews, because I like having the perspective in my research. I implore you to do the same.

A Star Wars TV Show?

USA Today reported that, at his appearance this weekend at the Star Wars Celebration III convention, director George Lucas officially announced that he has…

“given the green light to two Star Wars television series. First up will be a 3-D animated half-hour series based on his popular Clone Wars cartoon shorts. The second and most ambitious project will involve a live-action series. He wants it to be similar to the serialized The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series he executive-produced in 1992. Lucas plans to film the entire first season all at once, with shooting to begin in about a year. Lucas says he will set up the show, but then plans to step back and move on to other projects.”

While most of the Star Wars TV endeavors based on the Original Trilogy were not commercial successes, the Clone Wars mini-episodes from Cartoon Network have proved otherwise. While the animation is more streamlined and caricatured that what you would expect for Star Wars, the writing and action sequences was done in a way to make it entertaining to adults and children alike.

However, despite being a modest fan of Star Wars (meaning I don’t dress up in costumes or attend conferences), I’ll be honest and say I’m not initially crazy about the idea of a live action TV show for Star Wars. Now, before all of you Star Wars-aholics strike me down with all of your anger, please allow me to explain.

First and foremost, going from Film to TV is usually a recipe for disaster. Remember, there were TV shows made of: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing, Clueless, and Stargate (Yes, I know that show has lasted a while, but it’s only because of MacGyver fans.) The only recent Film to TV success I can think of is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But with Buffy, the movie was really bad, while the TV show got a better actress (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The only all-time Film to TV success is M*A*S*H. But 2 out of 50 isn’t good odds.

Second, with TV budgets not necessarily being the same as the movies, I worry the special effects necessary to maintain a multi-episode show will have to be compromised. Come on, let’s face it, one of the reasons so many live action sci-fi TV shows cannot compare to the movies are because the effects are sub-par. I give a lot of credit to channels like Sci-Fi for producing original programming, but one of the reasons they come out somewhat cheesy is the lack of budget.

Lastly, if there are to be any characters that carry over from the movies, I doubt they’ll be able to secure the same actors to play them, thus convoluting the original impressions you know so well from the movies. Think of George Clooney or Val Kilmer taking over in the Batman movies after Michael Keaton left, or better yet think of Sammy Hagar taking over vocals for Van Halen after David Lee Roth left. Yes, I know, those are different genres, but I think you get the point.

All in all, Episode III is sure to please, and fans can speculate the future later. Hypothetically, Lucas could put out an Emmy award winning series for all we know. So let’s hope that his sorcerer’s ways have the clairvoyance to avoid the pitfalls of cheesy sci-fi TV.

Lack-a-Earth-Day-sical?

I did not know today, April 22, was Earth Day until I tore off the page on my calendar. Unfortunately, I wasn’t suddenly inspired to go outside and try to save the planet. I mean, I hadn’t even finished my first cup of coffee yet.

I was not even born when Earth Day was started back in 1970. I would imagine that much of my generation (born 1975 and after) could not see the impact that Earth Day initially had, other than getting an extra blue trash can in the 80′s next to the garage that you threw empty soda and beer cans in every week.

Thus, as a young adult, I have tried to do a better job at recycling all that I throw away, be it cardboard, plastics or aluminum. It should come as no surprise that our technology is the next big thing that is building up as an environmental hazard. See this article today on MSN. It makes me wonder what became of all of the old tape drives and computer equipment I tossed out years ago. I guess I’ll try to find a better alternative for the next generation when it becomes obsolete.

Back to my point though, I think the greater amount of Americans fall into the category of apathetic towards “saving the planet”… that they’re too wrapped up in work, nurturing their children, maintaining their homes and their sanity amongst it all. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the people who had Earth Day circled in red marker on their calendar… that are doing something special today to expand on their environmental beliefs. And I give the ‘Boba Fett nod of respect’ to them.

But for all those stuck in the apathy category, I implore you to fall somewhere in between those two examples— that everyone should not try to be a 24-7 environmentalist, but rather do the little things every week that could help clean up your property or your community and, as a collective result, the planet.

I think the truer meaning of Earth Day is not that today is the day you go all out to make the planet a cleaner place, but it’s a reminder that you should be doing a little bit every week.

Mixing Local and World

You could suggest it should worry me which news headline I found interesting today. But I confess that the Sixers making the playoffs was more exciting on a personal level than a new pope being elected. Does that make me a bad person?

You could chalk this up as yet another American mentality with little regard for world news. But I try my best to be honest, even if it is self depreciating from a global standpoint. Ultimately however, since I do not belong to their church or their immediate geography, electing a new pope has no bearing to me. Meanwhile, I grew up 20 minutes from Philadelphia, and have been following the Sixers for many years and am generally happy to see them back in the NBA Playoffs.

This is not to say that I don’t think the pope can do many great humanitarian things around the world in his tenure (and I hope that he does), but he will not be doing anything that directly impacts my way of life. Meanwhile, the Sixers will be providing me with the entertainment of at least 4 games (and maybe more) of playoff basketball. I don’t consider this to necessarily be the path to a higher intellectualism, but then that’s just the way it has to be.

Nevertheless, I wish good luck to both the pope and the Sixers, because no matter where your priorities are, you should let other people be happy about what interests them most. Peace.

Is Gambling Killing You Softly?

One of the reasons I’ve always loved Monopoly was that it was based on Atlantic City, a town in which I spent a fair amount of time as a child growing up in New Jersey. However, after reading Newsday yesterday, I learned that the Grim Reaper is building a hotel on Boardwalk. So maybe I’ll keep my visits to once or twice a year now.

Naturally, I can’t imagine that AC’s high death rate will scare too many people away. After all, people seek thrills to add something to their routine existence. The lavish landscapes of casinos makes the fantasy of wealth accessible to the middle and lower class. Winning a jackpot feels more authentic when you’re surrounded by mirrors, flashing lights and ringing bells. You’re not going to get that effect sitting at home in your slippers.

As far as the article is concerned, it’s a no-brainer that overeating and smoking are some of the major hazards, but the thing the article does not elaborate on is the effects and stresses of gambling. While there’s always winners at casinos, odds are you’re walking away a loser. But does this loss affect more than your wallet? Is it possible that disappointment hurts you physiologically? Let me know what you think.

Grapes of MSG Wrath

I read today that Madison Square Garden is suing the MTA for agreeing to sell the railyards on the West Side to the Jets for a new stadium. You have to hand it to Cablevision, they’re stopping at nothing to try and keep their monopoly in the city…

To which, while I’m psyched to see an indoor football game in the city, I can understand why they’re suing. You have to imagine that if your bread and butter venue is the only place of this size in the city, then you’ll going to lose some serious business to the new stadium. Any rock concert would easily go for the bigger venue, because you know it’s all about ticket sales. Of course, seeing Radiohead there would be a total braingasm. Yes, I just made that word up.

But such is the way of life, Cablevision. It reminds me of these 60 year olds at my former job who used to be paste-up artists and were forced to learn how to learn Quark and PageMaker. It wasn’t that paste-up didn’t work anymore, it was just obsolete next to desktop publishing. And sadly, that will be what happens to MSG as well… it will be honored more for its history than its utilitarianism. But at least Cablevision sees that, and they’re fighting to keep that from happening. I doubt they’ll win, but the effort’s honorable.

Destroy the Bar Car

For anyone who has ever rode on the Metro-North (or similarly designed railroad), they’ve probably run across the Bar Car. For those that haven’t, the Bar Car is a segment of the train in which the standard row seats have been removed in place of a huge metal bar that spans the entire middle of the segment and two uncomfortable circles of seats. The problem with the Bar Car is never once have I seen a bartender in them, and even worse is that they send these cars out into the field IN THE MORNING TIME! Come on now, even the hardest of core drinkers resist at 8am… and those that don’t certainly aren’t sitting on a train headed for NYC.

My stop is the second pickup in the morning, and with a bar car as the first car, it meant all of the usual riders from both front cars were packed into the 2nd car because no one wants to sit in the Bar Car. So instead of getting a nice aisle seat like I do every morning, I was forced to sit in a middle of a 3-seater. The burly guy to my left kept bumping his elbow into me as he was noodling with an Excel document on his laptop, while the guy to my right was trying to take up extra leg room as he was reading a miniature Bible. I suppose I could have stood, but that 30 minutes in the morning is part of my sleep regiment, so it’s necessary to sit. Okay, I’m done venting. Memo to Metro-North— stop using the Bar Cars!

I’m Suing You For Not Reading My Blog

“Perhaps you feel you’re being treated unfairly?” – Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back

I think far too many people would answer ‘Yes’ to that infamous quote above. Just look at all of the lawsuits, mass protests, and workplace disdain going on in our country. There’s really a lot of people that think they’re being treated improperly. But is it all justified?

While I’ve done my fair share of complaining on the work world, I’ve always been the first to say that if you don’t like your job, then start looking for a new one. Unless you’ve signed a contract, quit and go elsewhere… otherwise, cease your bitching. I’ve yet to have even the slightest need to protest or file a ridiculous lawsuit. But will I? Would I join a protest if they branded all novelists as plagiarists, or all artists as bigoted?

Feel free to argue, but I think it all stems from our preoccupation with money. If everyone made a million-a-month salary, we all wouldn’t complain so much, or sue for lavish amounts, or have to protest for higher raises. The obvious problem in life is there is no almighty voice of Reality to tell us when we’re just being too sensitive or if it is meant to be fought for. Yes, there’s also no Darth Vader to choke the resistance out of us either. )

Wearing Green? Why?

This morning, I joked to my fiancé about me wearing a hideous kelly green sweater I have at the top of my closet just because I heard on the radio it was St. Patrick’s Day. Since I’m not Irish and no longer a frequent visitor to the Manhattan bar scene, I decided against it.

However, on the train into work, I thought about why people wear colors on holidays… red on Valentine’s, green on St. Patty’s, both around Xmas, orange at Halloween, and any variance of pastels at Easter, etc. But does the penchant for color that relates to a holiday make you any more festive? No, it does not.

I suppose if you are actually Irish, and not a poser like most who just need a good excuse to drink green beer on a Thursday night, then it’s understandable. You’re celebrating your heritage, who you are in relation to your ancestry, and I accept that.

But my point is, try to remember that the surface of things proves nothing… your true allegiance to your roots exists in the inside, and only you need to know that. You could be the Incredible Hulk wearing a giant shamrock dress and it does not prove a thing to anybody.