It Doesn’t ADD Up

Over the past couple decades we’ve seen a boom in diagnosed cases of Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD, and Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder, ADHD. Either the food we’re eating is jacked with hormones (as Bill Maher may say) or the pharmaceutical companies love selling Ritalin.

Could there be another answer though? I think there is. I think we have technology to blame, and I’ll tell you why.

Today’s technology is twice as advanced as yesterday’s technology, and this exponential growth will continue for generations to come. Computers, phones, PDA’s, and even MP3 players have the ability to multitask several high priority processes without as much as a hiccup (unless of course you’re running a Windows based product…. … ). A person’s capacity to multitask has also grown exponentially these days; to the point where it becomes one of the most widely used keywords searched by on websites like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com.

Today’s generation can’t get a job unless they can multitask the very processes that management can’t multitask themselves. But in an age dominated by technology and devices, has management come to expect “device-like” behavior from their employees; which are oddly perceived more as resources and tools than personnel?

I think we will all begin to suffer from some form of ADD/ADHD in the near future, at least those of us working in an industry that relies heavily on technology and instant gratification. Your UK clients are aware of technology that allows them to send an email to all of your accounts and simultaneously ring all of your telephone numbers. You can’t hide.

Now back to work.

The Doomed Generation

Shortly after arriving at work I found myself double-clicking Firefox and navigating directly to various news/media sites.  It didn’t take long for me to stumble upon an article that got my rusty gears cranking again.

My eyes wizzled through the article as my mind held its breath, hoping for that one profound statement that would send my spiraling thoughts overboard into the tumultuous sea of anger and frustration.  But as the article wound its way down and the advertisements beneath began to rise, I knew I had to be the one to make that profound statement.

Why is it so wrong for the people of a nation to want the government to help?  Upwards of 35% of my paycheck is taken away from me and I’m hard-pressed to tell you where all that money goes.  However, if the inability of the government to sustain and regulate its own economy has wreaked havoc on millions and millions of American families, then why, I ask you, is it so wrong to ask – no – EXPECT the government clean up their own mess?

Predatory lending practices.    Unsanctioned military actions.  Trillions spent on false wars.  Oil speculation.

Who has benefited from all of this?  Banks are failing miserably and desperately trying to pass off their costs of foreclosures onto new borrowers, so they certainly aren’t aided by this.  Thousands of our troops and countless more families and friends have been devastated by the losses and injuries sustained by those sent to fight in a war veiled by “our need to protect our way of life.”  Meanwhile, our way of life has come under attack from within our own borders with skyrocketing energy prices and an economy that can’t sustain itself let alone grow.

Oil speculation.  Big energy companies and the oil futures market has become grossly wealthy since this began – and it truly began when the government decided it wasn’t necessary to regulate the oil futures market to ensure speculation didn’t falsely drive up the cost of oil.  As we typically do in America, we saw an opening, a loophole and we took advantage – even if it meant sabotaging the American Dream in the process.

And in the midst of all of this we have a government with no accountability and one that accepts no responsibility for the current state of life in America.  The government can claim it needs to spy on its own citizens to protect our way of life, but they hesitate to pay Medicare doctors fair wages.  The government can argue we need to attack the Iraqi’s and Iranians because they pose a threat to our safety, but with hundreds of thousands losing their jobs – who is going to protect their families?

The cost of a house in the past decade has risen to astronomical values, but when those unrealistic home prices drop 5% in a couple years, the housing market begins to self implode – who is going to protect the average citizen from losing their home?

This administration, our current government has stressed time in and time out, “If you are not with us, you are against us.”  The cowboy mentality of guns blazing and riding into town to save the day is nothing more than a farce; a cruel prank played on us all.

Government has assumed the right to impose laws that “protect ourselves from ourselves” and to protect the innocent.  Abortion has come under heavy fire in recent years, but not a peep about the death penalty.  Recently, the current administration has been trying to persuade law makers that contraceptive pills, birth control, are a form of abortion and should be regulated as such.  Two people who share a life, a home and a family are told by the government they cannot be married in the eyes of the government, and this is done “to protect the sanctity of marriage.”

I see so much that has changed in the past 8 years of this once great nation.  I feel beaten, battered and worn down.  I feel cheated, robbed and scarred.  I see so many of my fellow people struggling to just survive.  These people aren’t concerned with the “American Dream” they just want to feed their families and put a roof over their head.  They just want to wake up and have a job to go to, a meaning in life.

In a nation that has put so much focus on working towards success, towards a unified goal of freedom – we’ve fallen terribly short.  Owning a home is truly a dream in today’s economy.  Earning a fair wage out of college is becoming an endangered practice.  And it’s not just the salaries that are bias, it’s the cost of living.  In 1962, the mean annual household income was just over $50,000.  In 2007, the mean annual household income was just over $75,000 – that’s a 50% increase in salaries over a 45 year period.

In 1962 the average cost of a home was $20,000.  In 2007 the average cost of a home is just over $200,000 – that’s a 1,000% increase.  If the cost of a home were to remain on par or close to the mean annual household income, homes would cost on average, $30,000 (a 50% increase over 45 years).  If the mean annual household income were to remain on par or close to the average cost of a home, salaries would average over $500,000.

But I digress.  My point is going to become lost in these numbers, in my ramblings.  Our focus has been so heavily on one matter that we so easily forget to focus on the others.  I’ve illustrated this in my writing and we’ve experienced this in our lives.

We’ve put trillions into protecting our way of life while our way of life has suffered because of the lack of focus on ourselves.  Our focus is guided by those in power who tell us what our focus should be.  For 8 years our focus has been safety and security for the future.  I hope we can spend just one of the next few years focusing on ourselves for a little bit, to secure our personal futures in our personal lives.

A Return to (un)Normalcy

Here we go again! I’m sitting in the airport, but I’m not on my way to an exciting destination or even to see family or friends. I’m back on the road again, but this time, it’s on my own terms.

Minneapolis is the destination city (MSP) and as I sit here in New York City (LGA) I begin to realize that this is for real. I’ve just left my cushy job at CA, Inc. where I was free to go home each day for lunch and play with my puppy. I had freedom to work from home as needed and was well on my way to be a Project Manager. But I gave it all up. You may be curious as to why I gave up a job so close to home, both literally and figuratively. After all, CA, Inc. was supposed to be the company that catapulted me to the top of my game – but after only 10 months, I’m already on another journey.

People like to think that things come full circle. Circles are, for all intents and purposes, representative of life. The wedding or engagement ring is to symbolize the circle of life and unending/undying bond of love between a couple. Elton John wrote a nice song for Lion King titled, “The Circle of Life” as it depicted a young Princes rise in society to take place of his fallen father. And just like these circles, I’ve circled back to RWD Technologies, Inc. They’ve taken me on as a contract employee this time, so I have an opportunity to pick and choose my projects as well as my pay. As a contract employee, RWD will pay me for each hour worked, and will pay the government my required taxes, but they do not offer you benefits of any kind and can simply choose to NOT hire you back for another project upon the completion of your contract.

I’m doing this on my own terms this time.

The ‘Blackberry’ Transformation

This is my first time blogging about something other than my life or something that’s going on in my head.  I like writing about my thoughts and all that jazz, but what I did today deserves to be thrown in the mix.  If you’re reading this and you’ve never read my blog, don’t expect other “techie” or useful entries; because all you’ll find are thoughts on anything and everything.  But hey, this could be a new beginning.

Recently, I decided to add the $15 unlimited data package to my PCS Vision Phone.  I wasn’t happy with just checking scores on My Yahoo! and Google can only put out so many mobile applications.  What I really wanted to do was to find a way to help make this phone even MORE of a communication device, outside of standard text messages and voice chats.  So I set out to find free applications and tools that would help me in this endeavor. 

Before any of this began, I had to find a replacement browser, as the browser on my phone took way too long to do everything.  A friend mentioned Opera Mini and how helpful it was for him and his phone.  The browser couldn’t override my current browser and is therefore accessed as a data application on my phone.  The Opera Mini browser opens 75% faster than my browser and makes, well… browsing so much more simple than the default version.  There are no limits on bookmarks, and moving forward and backwards is smoother and quicker (plus it’s easier on the eyes). 

Now on to the communication side of things.  Google Calendars is a great tool to begin with, but I wanted there to be a mobile only version of this tool that would give me the same reminders I get on my PC/Mac, and that wasn’t happening.  I jumped into the Settings page of Google Calendars and clicked on over to the Mobile Settings tab.  By filling out this simple form and verifying my phone, I am now able to receive daily text messages with my itinerary, and reminders of upcoming events.  The advantage to this is also buffed by the fact that a meeting request can be sent from Outlook and received in Gmail, so I am able to easily add in these “lunch meetings” to my GCalendar and get a reminder as needed.  To add to this, I added a filter on my text messages to move all of these reminders to my ‘GCal Events’ folder on my phone so that I could scroll through them easily without having to skip over the 500 text messages from my friends about their varying farts and floaters.

After having set this up, I realized that I have a lot of stuff in my Outlook Calendar, and I didn’t feel like forwarding them to my personal GCalendar.  I set out to find a tool that would do exactly what Google does, but in the Outlook realm.  Enter OMM, or Outlook Mobile Manager.  This tool is a bolt on from Microsoft themselves and it actually performs decently well.  After installing this tool, I simply entered my mobile information (you can refer to this page to find your service providers text message “email” format) and set up OMM to send me only the high priority emails (as text messages) and calendar reminders.  Now when I step away from my computer for lunch or for a quick afternoon workout, I can receive urgent notifications and text message reminders for upcoming meetings. 

And just like that, my little phone became a much cheaper and less time-consuming version of a Blackberry.  I’m not required to answer the phone or respond to emails like most corporate Blackberry owners are, and these tools give me the freedom to stay in touch on the personal and professional side without the burden of a required response and weekend phone calls to the boss.

The Grass is Always Greener

On the other side, is always where you want to be.  We set goals for ourselves and when we obtain those goals, we immediately set another without even enjoiing our current position.  For example, a couple could be together for 5+ years, and the second there is an engagement proposal, the two are off and running; planning the wedding and inviting guests.  What ever happened to relaxing and enjoiing the simple pleasure of calling your significant other your fiance? 

But that’s the way we operate in our world.  We are always looking forward and rarely looking down and around, and sometimes even behind us.  I saw an incredibly tasteful and uplifting movie last night as I was lying on my couch as our puppy sat curled up in his chair in front of the AC.  The movie was based on a true story and depicted a stage in a man’s life where he risked it all to get it all, for his family. 

Every single day was a struggle for this man, his wife and his 5-year old son.  They worked double shifts and traversed all of California in an attempt to sell a product that would yield an income to buy groceries and pay rent.  With each incoming disaster this father, this husband, this man adjusted to his scenario so that he could survive.  It was no longer about buying a home, or fixing a car, it was simply a story of survival.

The movie did a wonderful job of illustrating the unfettered love of a man for his family, and his willingness to be faithful to himself all the while. 

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do what you want to do.”

For this family hero, the grass was not greener on the other side.  The grass was green on his own lawn, he just needed to feed and care for the lawn – staying true to the goal even through the drought. In the end, the grass was greener than any grass you’d ever seen.  The moment this man saw his grass blooming in bright green, you couldn’t help but be thankful for everything you had.  You couldn’t help be look around and smile, and be proud of where you are and what you’ve done.  You couldn’t help but cry with joys of tears with this man as he raced to get his son.

I don’t want to be the person who is always looking for something else, and always trying to reach another plateau.  I want to be the person who kisses his wife every morning, hugs his child before school and talks his dog for a walk every evening.  I want to be the person who everyone says “hi” to at work, and the person who everyone seeks advice from, and the person who everyone wants to share a beer with.  I want to be all of these things, not just some of them; and so I hope that as I continue writing sporadically, I can write about my progress.

The Balance

I find it amusingly peculiar how we, especially myself, put so much effort into our endeavors with the hope of a greater return. Why do we allow ourselves to believe that it is acceptable to work for 40+ years? So that we can enjoy the last 20? Would the logical man not say, “Enjoi it while you’re young?” For every 9 or 10 hour day I spend in the office, how much time do I get to spend at home? How much of that time at home am I as devoted and focused as I am during the 9/10 hour shift? How much of that time at home do I spend sleeping or eating or showering or maintaining the home, and how much time do I spend ACTUALLY enjoiing my time at home and the company within it?

The answer may seem fairly obvious to the last few questions, it’s the answer to the first couple that I cannot seem to find. The problem with life in our society, is that our lives are built around work. We go to school and work hard to get good grades. We get good grades and then we get into the good college. We study hard night and day and cram for exams overnight over pots of stale coffee and beer stained sweatpants. We graduate and get the good job out of college. Being new to the workforce, we work the extra hours and study extra hard to stay ahead of the game, so that we can pad our resume with gold stars and double-thumbs up. Some of us go back to school while working so that we can get an even more advanced degree; as we split our time between work and school and leave none for friends and family.

When we finally get together with friends and family, what do we talk about? Work. Money. Stress. Why don’t we talk about friendship, stories, our hobbies and current events? We compare our salaries and our titles as we did when we were kids, except back then, we compared baseball card collections and a shiny new bike. We work our fingers to the bone and our relationships thin, and we do it all for the sake of competition, to be the best!

But what are we the best at? Ruining our own lives from the inside? Sabotaging our relationships, friendships and health? Distancing ourselves from our dreams as kids, to be astronauts, firemen, lawyers and doctors? We struggle our entire lives to be the best, and when we fail, when we fall short of our expectations and of societies expectations; what then? Do we simply bow out of the race? If so, what then? There will always be a “what then” as long as we’re alive.

Sure, we have the “American Dream” to strive for right? What happens after you get the dream job, big house and white picket fence, two and a half kids with a furry dog and energetic cat? What then?

In our society, we feel the need to have our lives headed in a direction; in this case it’s work. We are so afraid to just live life, that we need to set guidelines for ourselves. God forbid we go out and explore the world that was built around us. How dare we even think to quit our jobs to travel the very Earth, the very miracle that we walk on, spit on, drive on; every single day. And how blasphemous to think that we could take a job, doing something we love, and just letting that be enough.

We secretly mock those who swing a pick axe for a living. We look down on the man who rides on the back of the garbage truck and has to pick up the debris left behind. We wonder why the 40 year old lady at the local grocery store works as a cashier rather than working in an office, in a cubicle and behind a computer.

Deep down inside, we’re all cowards compared to these people. Or maybe they’re cowards because they didn’t devote their lives in the same manner we have. Either way, one of us will be the coward, and the other will be the fool. We all believe that live is about attainment, rather than life being about life.

I remember towards the end of high school, my friends were picking up their yearbooks and flipping through the senior pages to read quotes and quick biographies on themselves and their friends. We all read aloud the “Senior Quotes” and chuckled as some people took them less seriously than others. Since I spent my senior year of high school attending two different high schools, I never had the chance to write a senior quote. I missed out on my one opportunity to be immortalized and remembered for that special one-liner.

In the back of my mind I made up a quote that, at the time, meant nothing to me. I was trying hard to be deep and insightful – so I spoke in a circle.

“Live life like it was meant to be lived.”

Again, at the time it didn’t mean much to me and I’m still surprised that I remember that line to this day. I didn’t necessarily live my life to this motto, or mantra; but in an odd way, I feel that I may have been all along. Granted, I still went to college and I still got the job with the 10-12 hour shifts and I spent little time with friends and family. But to be honest, deep down inside, I always felt that I was living life the way it was meant to be lived. Even while at work I did what I could to insert a little piece of myself into every mundane task. I did my best to make those around me comfortable and I tried to build friendships and relationships with those people who were willing.

I didn’t spend as much time with Kelly as I would’ve liked. If I had my way, I would never work a day in my life and I would spend every moment sitting next to her, traveling with her and just living with her. Every moment that I spend with her is a moment more I wish I had. It’s funny now that I think about it because I lecture others on devoting their lives towards a direction and all I can think about is devoting my life to Kelly. All I can dream about is devoting my life to my children, my friends and my family. And in the end, when I go to meet my maker (whether it be a He, She or They), what will I be able to look back on? Will I regret not making an impact on the world and leaving my mark? Will I regret not making more money or getting that position as CEO? Will I regret not running every day so that I could live an extra year or two. Will I regret the nights of drinking and partying with friends?

I don’t know the answer. I don’t want to know the answer. All I want to do, is…(you know )

Entrapment

There are a number of reasons why we strive for the upper echelon of societal sects. Some of us are looking to gain assets far beyond our fore-bearers and provide a life that they could not . Some of us are looking to hold power in our hands and wield this like a mighty broad sword in battle. Others strive for that plateau of social elitism so that we can coast through the rest of life, and worry about matters other than that of the monetary.

Whatever the reason is, many of our peers are spending more and more time at work and less and less time at home. We justify the 12-15 hour shifts and weekend fits of binge drinking on the stress of work and the goal of “financial stability.” We try to convince ourselves that this is only a temporary sacrifice and this will all end when we attain our goal.

When does the sacrifice cross the line and turn into a blatant disregard for the family and for the personal life?

Finding the balance between work and your personal life requires the greatest sacrifice of them all; or so we are lead to believe. Why must I let my life suffer for years? For the salary? The power? The big house and fancy cars on my very own cul-de-sac? Is that what this is all for?

So who is pressing this issue upon us? Is it ourselves or our bosses and managers? For so many years we, the worker bees, fought for solidarity. We chose our right to choose and now we must live with the consequences and responsibilities. We cannot blame our managers for expecting us to work overtime and weekends. We can only blame ourselves for not putting the truly important facets of our lives on top.

But, again, is it really our fault? Or am I simply looking to push my responsibility on others so that I can stand by my alibi, “I had no choice.” What decisions would we own up to at that point? Where do we draw the line between the job and our lives?

The line has been drawn for us, it is simply our choice to stand on either side. Straddling the line is not an option, we must decide. But how is one to decide when the work makes us happy, but the family must suffer?