A blog about the things that interest me. Includes random thoughts, Cisco, programming, and business related stuff from convenience store world.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Abandoned Thoughts
I was going to write several different things. I realized they were all whiny, disconsolate
answers of people blaming the world for their problems. They were the thoughts of losers, and the
thoughts of losers need to be plunged and scrubbed from our minds as quickly as
possible. The facts are facts.
1) I am expected to perform at work.
2) No one cares what I think.
3) It is not my boss' job or responsibility to make me rich.
4) I am responsible for my own destiny.
5) If I am mad at my destiny, then I am mad at my own
choices.
6) I need to change my choices in order to succeed.
7) The choices I make must lead to action.
8) Those actions must lead me where I desire to go.
9) Before I can get anywhere, I need to figure out where I
want to go.
So... the facts are
laid out, as best as possible. I think Tom
Stanley's The Millionaire Next Door pointed out that 80% of millionaires are first generation
rich. That means, to paraphrase Dave
Ramsey, they started with nothing, did the right thing, and became rich.
Now why do I want to be rich? Because if I am rich, then I can work when I
want to work, and I can work on what I want to work on without having to worry
about keeping the lights on and food in my stomach. Instead of spending my spare time working on
my desires, I can spend all my time working on my desires. I'd much rather spend my time on what I want
to rather than what I have to make a buck and put food on the table. But that requires discipline to drag myself
out of the laziness and apathy that surround the world and surround life. It means dragging yourself out of what
average life says and reinforcing your world with a different truth.
I'm not mad at marketing, but it pervades and eats at
us. I don't smoke cigars. But working at an inbound call center that
took orders for cigars forty hours a week made me think about cigars. I didn't even take those calls. I was stuck on PBS and some farm animal
thing. But the pervasiveness of what I
listened to and what happened around me changed my thinking and made me change
my behavior.
The problem with me is that I've listened to the wrong
people for too long, and I've got to beat those wrong thoughts out of my head,
one thought and action at a time.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
The best example.
For all the effort I've been putting into describing what
I've learned, a Cracked author narrowed it down to six truths.
I would recommend everyone read this. Because it's awesome. And because this is the epitome of what I've
been trying to espouse. Both personally,
financially, and pretty much everything else.
But it took a professional writer to go out and put it to paper well
enough for it to get to the point of YES!
It's an excitement that just can't be contained once you
finally see someone point out the simple facts.
And it's strange, because everything David Wong, the author, discusses
is biblical truth. He even said so
himself on page 2.
So stop griping about what your life could be, and go
create! Create something FOR SOMEONE
ELSE and not just for your consumption.
Create something because creating is worth the worth is. Go out and create. Because as people, that's what drives us and
forces us.
Quit whining about what you'd "like" to do and go out and do it.
It's. Just. That. Simple.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Diamond Age
I've been thinking of The Diamond Age and at this point, I think technology has almost caught up
to what Neal Stephenson envisioned. I
keep imagining how I'm going to create A Young Students Illustrated Primer as a
download off the Google Android App Store.
I think the technology is there.
No, not for an exact copy. But
for a non-living, second half of the book, army of little girls copy. I can understand why it hasn't been
created. But... it would be totally
awesome if someone would.
I flipped through some of the Ubuntu options for
education. GCompris came to mind, but it just wasn't what I was
looking for. It's all games based a
different approach. With GCompris,
someone else teaches the subject. Then
GCompris takes over and helps with enforcing the concept through games. It doesn't do a good job of replacing the
teacher. And that's what I want to do.
Sorry unions, but the teacher has got to go. And the technology is probably there. But is there a will and a desire? Because we're talking something beyond
complex. About breaking concepts down
into teachable, repeatable sections where if you can't do what is going on,
then you can't move on. No pass, no
advancement. But like a real teacher,
the program has to be able to teach the same subject in dozens of different
ways to finally get the point across.
I think my major desire is because I don't believe the US school system is worth a damn. I grew up in the public school system. I found it completely lacking. The public school system teaches to the middle. If you are exceptional in either direction in any subject, you get left behind and chewed apart. I can't complain about class size, because mine were no more than 30 in any class. I grew up with the same 30 or so people. I was 9th of a class of 32? 38? Somewhere in there.
But I made it through without major effort. I had problems that became huge during college. Because I was on both ends. English was a joke. By eighth grade, I had learned everything they had to teach me. But math... that was a different story. I wish I was better at math. But I wasn't. I barely passed. It crippled me.
But because I had small class sizes... they passed me. And they crippled me. Algebra didn't seem important, and my teachers wouldn't put in the effort. Now, I wish they had. Because what I love to do requires math. Because math is a universal truth. And English is open to interpretation.
And now you get where the failing is. Or maybe you do.
English: many interpretations. None is absolutely correct.
Math: One interpretation. One answer.
If the education system refuses to accept there is one correct answer, then they will teach to failure.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
So....
Remote access. It's
something I think I've begun to love more and more. Sitting where ever I happen to be, I can
login to certain computers, and get them to do things I normally wouldn't be
able to do. See, normally I'd have to
have VPN access. But then with decent
remote software, I can be sitting up on a ladder, working on one project when
the phone goes off. Person B needs a
problem solved, and like 5 minutes ago because some device quit working. And I can connect to them remotely and fix it
if it can be done remotely.
It makes me think the future showed up a lot faster than
anyone ever expected. Somewhere in the
process of learning is to learn Linux. I
only have spare computers at work, and spare time at home. Not really spare... just a tendency to make time. So I can use remote access to connect to my
Ubuntu machine in the office while I hang out on my couch, and play with things
from there that would normally require VPN access.
Makes me think, though...
Linux is such a nice open platform, and I have no idea how to write much
code in it. I don't know much of
anything about it. Hence the remote
access to force me to figure out how to make certain things work. Small steps towards getting a decent network
monitor written and operational, and turning this Ubuntu machine into a full
featured remote administration machine.
That's the entire point...
remote administration and monitoring so instead of being reactive to
threats and problems I can be proactive.
But it's hard to be proactive to stupid.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The right thing, at the right time
From the vagueness of what I last left you with to something
specific. It's hard to quantify what I've learned in the military, and even
harder to explain it to people who have never been in the military. I've run into lots of people who thought they
could fake it... but when it comes down
to it, you just can't compare.
My brother-in-law lit himself on fire. It wasn't intentional. Someone was cleaning at his job with pure
alcohol and he lit a blowtorch and up he went.
He works in the oil business, but I couldn't tell you what he did. But the training he went through as a
firefighter stopped him from serious injury.
Now... what if you
could hire people that do things instinctively... without thinking... and it's the right thing? You'd probably make a pretty penny or
two. And that's what's good about
military people. They do the right
things in a pinch. Because that's what
they've been trained to do. The right
thing. Without thinking. Every time.
When the incorrect response results in death, then you lean
the correct response quickly. I knew one
fat fuck during my 2nd tour in Iraq. His
name was pronounced Gregwar. Except that
it wasn't Greg War. It was Greg
waour. Or something like that. It didn't sound like a badass in the middle
of a war. It sounded like a chain
smoking fat man with French heritage and a gut that said he was 9 months
pregnant. And that guy got shipped off
to war. He was shipped home early.
If Gregwar had been just incompetent, I could have worked
with that. But he was a lying sack of
shit. And lying is something I just
can't stand. If you are stupid, I can
deal with that. Ignorant? That's workable. Untrainable?
I can deal with that as well. But
a liar? That's hard. Actually, it's not. I just didn't have the authority or ability
at that time.
The point of mentioning Gregwar is to show what happens if
you retain incompetence. But what about
the person that does the right thing, at the right time, every time, without
being prompted? Firefighter training
saved my brother-in-law. Because he did
the right thing. At the right time. Without being prompted. And it saved his life.
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