Monday Funday

oh yeah. Let's all wink together and exclaim how awesome Mondays are. But I am off work now, and for the first time in weeks I was not by myself on the big truck day. I am still chuckling at a few dumb things my boss said. Now I am at the practice space waiting for the rest of the band to arrive. Fighting off tiredness is making me tired. I cannot succumb to the sleep færie. I am too busy these days to worry about such frivolous things as sleep. pshaw. Instead, I am going to try and organize my computer. Of course I said that 30 minutes ago.

But let's talk about Nano. I'm getting more serious about my SciFi idea. Here is the basic premise. Around the turn of the 22nd century, scientists have established a colony on Mars. They are experimenting with the construction of, what they call, Terradomes which allow for a self sustaining micro-ecology inside the dome. These are the first steps towards the long term goal of terraforming the entire planet. The project however is facing serious cut backs and possibly termination because of rising costs. Transporting, supporting and compensating laborers, not to mention the cost of transporting raw materials, is costing world governments way too much money. Then one day, a prominent military general arrives with an elite team of engineers and a couple of soldiers with a highly classified project to assist in the effort; that project is to make human clones on Mars as laborers. This cuts back costs significantly. These clones are also intended to work on asteroids extracting the raw materials needed to build the domes. Things get out of hand, however, and an attempt to enslave the clones leads to rebellion and eventually war. When the clones discover that they can clone themselves, they head to Earth as the front for a bloody war to liberate themselves.

Developing ideas in the works.

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E.S.

Economic Slavery.

Pretty much the situation that most working Americans, including myself, are experiencing now. Had a conversation with my boss the other day regarding work he wanted me to do that is no longer my responsibility. Went something like this:

boss: "I need you to work on project x today"
me: "Oh? What are you going to do when I am gone?" (implying my near resignation and suggesting that it is no longer my responsibility to take care of project x)
boss: "I'm paying you $9/hour, i'm gonna get my money's worth"
me: (exasperated at the fact that he suggested I am overpaid) "You're already getting your money's worth, bro"
boss: "Not by the company's standards"
me: "This country did away with slavery decades ago"
boss: "You can work for free if you want, go ahead an punch out"
me: incredulous laughter

I made the slavery joke to a coworker later, and he said "yeah it's economic slavery." That struck home with me. What is different between being underpaid, as many of us are, and slavery? I say almost nothing. Even slaves back in colonial America were provided for, in a manner of speaking. They were given housing, food, clothes, and anything else their masters wanted to provide. They were expected to work hard, do what they were told, even go above and beyond, for what they were given. We are, for all intents and purposes, forced into this economic slavery. I mean, we need to eat, be sheltered, and travel at least around the city in which we live. Many of our wages cover barely that. Those in more privileged positions feel justified in squashing the lower echelons and feel deserving of what they have. Of course, the higher up you go the fewer privileged positions there are, the greater the rewards and the greater the security. Of course they would argue that anyone can get to where they are. Yes, almost anyone has the potential but only a few actually can due to limitations on the number of positions available. For the rest of us, there is economic slavery, and we deserve it. Don't we?

Later that night, my boss calls me about a task a coworker and I took care of. It went something like this:

boss: "Why'd you do this task like you did?"
me: "Because you told me to do it one way, and you told coworker to do it another way."
boss: "Don't you remember me coming to you and telling you how to do it?"
me: wondering if he heard what i said, "Yes, I remember. But you told coworker to do it this way. I don't know when you told him this, maybe it was after you told me. And when him and I put our heads together, his way made more sense based on what corporate wants."
boss: "Yeah but I am going to try and do it the way I told you anyway..." he goes on the justify why he is going to do things outside of what management outlined and that i should have followed his directions.

He didn't even accept my apology, which I never should have given to begin with. It is this kind of idiocy in management that I can't stand. It used to stress me out, now I just laugh at the folly of corporations. Communication, please. Here is a tip, make sure that everyone knows what is going on and don't give two people on the same task two different directions for how to complete it. duh.

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Okay. Let's try this again.

Well. As we can see I am about the laziest blogger ever. You are probably wondering if I ever finished NaNo. If you aren't, then you are now. I did finish. And I did win (yay me). It was intense, and i had to sprint on the last day to do it (to the song of about 6k words i believe). It felt goooood to print up that manuscript (for about $15 at kinkos) and actually touch it. For 4 weeks I intensley pursued this intangible thing staring back at me from my laptop screen. I had it in my hands finally, and I felt accomplished. Until, I started to read it. What can one expect from at 175 page book written in 30 days, though? It has some good ideas, and a solid basis for my New York Times Best Seller is now established. This year I am contemplating writing it again for NaNo. Stripping it down to it's exposed, naked parts and redressing it. Or perhaps I will vomit 50,000 words for one of my other "works-in-progresses." Or, perhaps, just perhaps, I will in true NaNo style start from November 1 with not a clue of what I am writing about and seeing what happens. One key deciding factor will be how I feel after I read my manuscript from last year.

Speaking of, I better get back to my algebra homework so I can make time to do just that.

\m/