I’m mixed about my return to the campus in October getting pushed back to January. I miss my veal-fattening pen and its perks. However, they weren’t really going to be open or at full capacity. Ergo, what’s the point? It is nice to spend the time with my cats plus I really cut back on eating lunch at fast food. One ritual I have is making pasta-based dishes in semi-bulk on the weekends; next up, sandwich things. I also discovered the joys of thin-crust HEB-based pizzas; they’re done in 12 minutes which lets me eat sooner while I enjoy my Cartoon Network/Simpsons break!
Now if I got to have a flexible, hybrid setup. I would take it. There are days I would like to be home: a cat is sick, I’m not feeling 100%, the roads are icy/flooded, I want to finish some laundry over my lunch break. They just better not mess with what I consider my below-industry-standard salary. I can’t see why they can’t do this for me. My primary workstation is a portable, I live alone, the cats aren’t a security risk and I have been a reliable employee when left alone. I haven’t even missed a complete day in (checking my personal calendar)…127 straight days. One co-worker recently had permission to work in another city temporarily due to a family emergency. If the stars align, I would appreciate it very much should Jennifer land this contracting gig in DC or Vermont, the latter is close to Boston, a place I’ve never been.
There was a recent push for people to voluntarily move to the new, third campus in…Raleigh-Durham, aka, Really Dullhum. I escaped the Indicrapolis of the East 23 years ago, I hardly think it has improved. I wouldn’t go if my life were threatened and/or they paid me a helluva’ lot more.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to see people fighting back across Amerika. We’ve been at a breaking point in which employers need to stop being inflexible, stingy assholes. Child care is a huge drain on Americans’ time and money. Numerous cities, especially Austin, lack any decent public transportation and Texas continues to double down on more and more toll roads, congestion only worsens along with air quality. Others have realized, their jobs suck and aren’t worth it. A while back, I think it was the stuffy Economist brought up how the 1917-19 Pandemic led to not just social change, aka the Roaring Twenties, but risk taking blossomed. The Dollop covered a story about some doofus who tried to monetize his backwards walk around the world since the more impressive stuff has been done: wing walking, flagpole sitting, dancing on the ledges of skyscrapers. I would have to agree. Women cut their hair short. Weight loss began to be a thing after centuries of obesity meant wealth and success. The world got smaller as movies and radio became more ubiquitous. Most of all, the American vets from WWI saw the horrors of the European conflict and figured, life is too short to play it safe. The contemporary authors agreed.
My immediate and long-term concern? Will this lead to a positive revolution on how work is compensated, handled, etc. Namely, as the greedy, short-sighted Boomers die off and Gen X/Mills take the wheel, will Amerika finally catch up to its European cousins on socio-economic programs? Will there be true, better innovations across the spectrum of human endeavors? Namely, can we lessen the pain we’re all going to suffer with Climate Change’s recent (I’d say past) arrival?
It looked pretty good in the Roaring Twenties until the Stock Market Crash of 1929, putting the world into the Great Depression, an economic downturn lasting over a decade in the West. All the problems were swept under the rug too. Two banks a week were going insolvent. Inequality grew while horrible race riots took place everywhere. Organized Crime became powerful enough to operate overtly. A disastrous flood made its way through the Mississippi River ecosystem, prompting people to say, shouldn’t the Federal Government help coordinate a response. Lastly, my favorite, the irrational fear of Communists at home because the Soviet Union existed. The Republicans were put in charge and they screwed the pooch as they said, “The business of America is business.” Yup, their failures here and abroad helped fuel the Soviet, Fascist and Nazi movements throughout the West which took WWII to partially resolve.
I seriously hope the younger generations help turn things around or for once, this may be the end of humanity (at worst) or what I think it will be, the dawn of a new Dark Age.