"I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to grow up if I'd known it was all going to be ad-libbed."
Calvin's dad was a wise man.

You know how when you're a kid you can't wait to grow up because then you'll be allowed to do all the rillyrilly kewl stuff like drive and shoot guns and drink the stuff in those kewl bottles?

Yeah. I remember that too.

For many years I've been working hard at getting to some point at which life will click for me. In fact, I'd say that I've spent about 45 years doing that. We work our asses off to get through school so we can get money, we get into our careers and work our asses off to get to the point where we earn enough for a house and a car, we get them and then work our asses off to make enough to retire on besides. We look at the people around us who are our peers and see so many of them going along and becoming executives and whatnot, getting all the stuff we wish we had, and wonder what the fuck we're doing wrong. Maybe if I just do this I'll get ahead, we all think...

I'll let you in on a little secret.

Mom and Dad made it look so easy as they sailed confidently through life, didn't they? And yet as an adult you find out that they struggled just as hard as we do now. The neighbor who's an executive? He's mortgaged to the hilt. If he gets shitcanned, he loses everything inside of two months. The people who have their life planned out at 18 and then follow through on all of it? By my age they've either cracked and gone tits up, or they're screwing someone twenty years younger and riding a motorcycle.

So you know what I say to those people who tell their teenagers that they need to find a sensible solid career and stick with it all their lives so they'll get ahead?

FUCK. THAT. SHIT.

Us grown ups don't know what we're doing half the time. We really don't. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either deluded beyond repair or lying through their clenched smiling teeth.

Experiment, people. Try things. Take a shot at acting if you want. Take that occasional day to go play on rocks in the river. Write a book. Dye your hair green. Just remember to have some sort of back-up plan in case things don't work out, and don't gamble more than you can afford to lose.

Otherwise when you get into your forties you'll be disappointed by adulthood.

(Shit, I should have posted this last week... ah well, it still applies here.)
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 26 Jun 2008, 16:48, 14 replies)

*click*
*bookmarks for advice if ever anyone is stupid enough to reproduce with me*
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 16:54, closed)

^^All of it.
Learn from us children.
( girlinthehole, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 16:57, closed)

DiT
If you've got the time, I've got the gametes.
( Cawl, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 16:57, closed)

Very well said TRL
*clicks*

Oh, and I have been thinking of coloring my hair something really odd. The only thing holding me back is working at a Courthouse surrounded by Judges. but then they all already think I'm a bit odd and like me anyway so maybe I'll get away with it. I'm only 33 so that is old enough to do those kinds of things, right?
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:03, closed)

ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ACE
Brilliant!

You know, I have changed career so many times because I was bored and wanted to try something new that my Mother is convinced I had ADHD!

But you know what? At the end of they day, I have a MUCH better appreciation for SO much of life. You know?
( Citadel Because the world needs less morons, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:03, closed)

Believe me, I know.
Jobs I've had so far include, but are not limited to:

-amusement park ride operator
-racehorse groom
-house painter
-dishwasher
-cook
-waiter
-bartender
-draftsman
-several different kind of engineer

I still don't know what I'll be when I grow up, other than old. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:15, closed)

CLICK-O!
It's a real 'Emperor's New Clothes' moment when you realise that without exception, as you say, people are either wholly deluded or just playing at being the same as everyone else.

Revalatory...
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:45, closed)

Yup
that's all. Just yup.

*click*
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:53, closed)

And this
is why I'm volunteering on a kibbutz.

If I like it I fuck property, excessive material possessions and instead concentrate on my relations with other humans.

Imagine how long each day you can spend just talking to someone - and you love it, you can go for a meal with them, watch a film, or just sit and talk and would never feel any happier doing anything else. You don't need a fucking Porsche for that, nor do you need 50,000 bedrooms, you just need a good mate to share both the good and the bad with you. And when one of you inevitably passes away the other can look back and say, "we had good times, we were chasing nothing we didn't need to; sure, times got hard, but I'll remember them for who they were and not the dead body in the box."


[/already fed up with life, but still a romantic blog]
(Frozen_Banana Shaved against the grain; thoroughly unrewarding., Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:57, closed)

Loon, I'm 22 and disappointed by adulthood. I haven't even fucking lived and I'm already cynical about the whole thing.

( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 26 Jun 2008, 18:32, closed)

Click!
Good advice fella!
(Mmm Zebalicious is wondering..., Fri 27 Jun 2008, 9:17, closed)

Have you been peeking at my life?
Spot - fucking - on.

Life is a damned sight harder from the inside than it looks from the outside isn't it. There are days when I'm walking in to work along the cycle path which goes along the river - it's a lovely day and it's giving me the power to get through 8 more hours of doing the bidding for 'The Man'. Then I see a wino with his early morning 2litre bottle of Happy Shopper own brand White Lightening, sitting on a bench, tanned, smelly, taking the odd sip and I think: "You know, that looks kind of easy and nice...why not get a little bottle of whisky and forget all of the shit just for a change?"

So far, I've resisted but shit...some days.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:43, closed)

"Just remember to have some sort of back-up plan"
That's the thing though, innit? In today's economic climate, for quite a lot of people, there *is* no real back-up. If you're barely making ends meet each month, you're not going to be inclined to experiment very much.

Not that I've ever been in that situation, mind you, but I'm still young enough to be a rabid communist* who resents the fact that some people *are*.

* i.e. moderate social democrat
(julius, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 16:29, closed)

Cheers!
Reading that made me feel a whole lot better... After many years as a sound engineer (and a psychology graduate) i'm now training to make stuff out of C# and it's boring the tits off of me, and I'm now considering moving back to the UK after almost 30 years in France... I'm trying to work up the Cojones to do it, so reading stuff like that makes it seem... feasible!
Thanks!

ps: if anyone has any job tips in London, Bristol or Cardiff, feel free to message me!
(Alaning, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 11:18, closed)