I have been busy... working like crazy. Thats a bit of a lie, Many people work more hours/harder work. But of course it's all relative, those who have built up endurance can go for harder and longer, I'm still getting back into that swing of things.
I was doing my own thing for a while, working on some of my own pursuits and helping out my parents on the side but beyond that i dort of felt a pointlessness of existence, like they say "idle hands are the devils workshop."
Some days i think the existence we have come up with as humans is a bizarre one, study so you can get a good job, or work hard... work hard, to make money to afford stuff. But this lifestyle tends to also trap peoople in a life where they just have to work, to pay for all their stuff they bought, because of course things require time and often money. Repeat this until you are old and frail and mostly unable to enjoy things as fully as you could have in your younger years. I'm not saying that work is pointless, in fact the opposite, but you have to be careful which ladder you are climbing in life because you could reach the top one day only to realize the ladder you were so intent on climbing wasn't really what you wanted, it's not the ladder that would have lead to happiness, which is something i think we are all questing after but it takes on various forms for each individual.
What i think is pointless is a life based solely around oneself, i mean one must of course look out for yourself first and foremost but beyond that a life just centered around oneself could be a missed opportunity to enrich ones own life while also enriching the lives of others. I mean maybe i can explain it in a slightly different way, if all you do in your life is chase material possesisions, well... we all gotta go one day, and are you going to take those things to the grave with you? Meanwhile when we are in service for others, those actions will live on forever... because in some small way we affected someone else, and this in turn will lead to them affecting othe people and so on and so on.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't chase wealth or material possessions if there is something that you want and it will bring you and others joy because of it for sure don't stop yourself, nor should one be a doormat for others.
Anyways I was starting off talking about a new job and got super philosophical but i have felt so great and alive recently just being of service, showing up, doing my best, engaging with the world more.
In the past a lot of the jobs i had I would dread the time spent at work and even dread in anticipation like going to work... if I had a few hours before work I felt a bit uneasy even like knowing work was coming up and thinking about it constantly... now i am more keen to just live in the moment and not let myself get caught up in that whole 'future' mentality because it's just like taking away your present moment for something not even real, some idea off in the future basically. I think i have come a long way now that even if I was now doing one of those jobs i previously dreaded, I feel i could 'be happy' and set aside thoughts of 'this sucks' sort of thing while at work... I think it's also true that often we can draw some sort of imaginary line between 'work' and 'play' but if we want to, everything can be made into a sort of game and be fun. if we want it to be. But also beyond that, i think because i do have a choice of what job i could do i must of course go and choose the best one for me because otherwise i will not develop and even could look at it like i would be depriving someone or a group of people my actual skills when more or less anyone could do the less specialized jobs.
Having said that, I actually have 2 new jobs, one is chasing hot air balloons, and the pay is a bit crappy (especially to start when we don't know what we are doing and take longer) and it's quite physical work but honestly i think it's good for me, there is a lot of jogging around involved too and it's good for my ankle which is still occasionally a bit sore after breaking it last year but it's gotta be worked out, you don't use it you lose it right? Sitting around on my ass doing projects is fun but it's gotta be more balanced out with some physicality.
It's been tough to find time to post, I have a lot of project posts to share, not shure how into those people are but at the same time I think if you are genuinely interested in something it will show and people will sort of see a bit of that themselves.
The other job is installing speakers, mixers, sound, lighting and audio visual equipment and it's fun, i get to use drills and tools and stuff and those skills I was talking about. My employer is a local music store called musiccitycanada.com and it's a cool group of people, people really into music are often interesting people and everyone that I work with is so cool plus is awesome to be surrounded in this environment, I heard that if you want to go anywhere in the music industry you should work in some capacity or another in the music industry. For years I thought about dropping off my resume there, I spoke to people at the shop that told me to bring my resume by. But i never did, i felt my resume was 'lame' and the longer i sat there thinking that really the lamer it was gonna get(aside from doing courses and other stuff...) but yeahI wrote the owner a big letter the following day after sending my resume and it was an awesome surprise to get an email from someone working there asking if I was available to come and help out with a trial install. I mean it's still very early days but i know that if i keep doing my best it's a no brainer. I actually met the owner today because I hadn't properly met him yet and he was saying that finding people that can perform at a top level was especially difficult and it does seem that way. It's like in Ayn Rands book Atlas Shrugged, the story is that finding actual, decent hardworking people that took the responsibility to take command and get the required tasks and job done is a tough call. People are afraid, make excuses, don't have good morals and/or work ethic. And of course everyone loves the idea of some fancy job but then there is the reality of getting up and doing the things and that is what really separates the wheat from the chaff... if you really want to, or "have" to, you'll just do it. Otherwise you won't and come up with excuses why you couldn't and rational-lise that to your self. Of course things do happen but yeah it also takes discipline and willpower do it... because at the end of the day, we don't really 'need' to do anything, we can just all be 'lazy' and say to heck with it but we don't because we 'choose' to do the work because it's the right thing to do and we know that mindless self indulgence isn't going to bring you true happiness at the end of it all.
It's funny that Ayn Rand seems to get so much hate but on the flipside she does get a lot of love because i think she has a lot of good points and perspectives, one day I hope to write the article on her I've been meaning to and my thoughts because they do deserve their own article. But many of the things she writes about in her books are true and actually happening. Of course we all have 'confirmation bias' but it's hard not to hear some stories of how people are and thing back to her books because if you actually take the time to read some of her stuff she is often misunderstood, or just sort of has a bad reputation because people listen to other people and make their minds up based off that instead of actually doing the groundwork and reading and deciding for themselves. She talks about many things like the value of hard work and is a huge proponent of being selfish, but what i love is that she says not at the expensee of others! This is the part that many people seem to want to forget... she is saying that by lifting ourselves up we can lift others up, that we shouldn't expect or put burdens on other people, that we should look out for ourselves and not lay down our lives for others, we shouldn't sacrifice ourselves for others... It gets a bit muddy because she says Altruism is bad and people could think that means that doing things for others is bad. But she isn't agains't that, she is just saying you should't sacrifice yourself, your own life, vision, ideals because there is someone that thinks they have the right or whatever because they are family or your friend and that therefore you 'should' i mean... we all have to live with other people in some capacity or another and that will involve varying arrangements but the arrangement has to be mutually beneficial, for both parties to benefit, like not one party living off another and just using guilt or something to continue that relationship, she says we shouldn't have to sacrifice ourselves in that sort of situation. It's not an easy thing to explain and I don't think she is right about everything 100% but she has a lot of good takeaways, including the odd notion - that being utterly honest - is the most selfish thing you can do. When i first heard that i didn't understand, but in time it did make sense. If you lie to someone, you omit your own truth, the actual reality of the situation as it was and happened, for some alterior version, a fabrication made up to suit this person in order to be agreeable to them. In other words, you are making this person your master, you are forefeiting your own REALITY for this person and you are subjugating yourself to them as your superior. I mean this is a tricky one, if your wife was really sick and said do I look bad do you have to be honest then too? I am not an "expert" I can't really say but I'm probably sure there is always a way of conveying truth in a way that is loving but of course it's not an easy one. And once one starts lying it gets easier to keep lying as the house of cards starts to pile up. So i definitely think there is some truth to what she is saying... but this got way sidetracked again.
I should finish off because it's getting late and I have to get up at 3:30 to go chase this huge flying balloon around! I will have to get more pics because it's incredibly insanely huge in person, like pictures and videos DO NOT do it justice it's incredibly, incredibly huge in person and seeing it blow up and fly around is pretty crazy. But it's definitely a labor of love cause it's hard work to pack that all away. It carries 12 people at a time and the ballon fabric is like. 600 pounds... I also found out the ballons are made here and I asked if I could see the place one time, and he said sure, it would be cool to see what sort of equipment and space is necessary to make these because it seems to me mind boggling it can be sewn together so neatly.
Great to have you here buddy and good to know you have to amazing work which you find so much fun in it. It's great to know that you're busy with many projects and I can't wait to see you share some of it with us here. I will always wish you good luck in everything you do because that's what you deserve. Always keep the spirit high buddy 👍07037022637
Thanks a lot yes i was working today, i rode my bike out while the sun was coming up, something i so rarely have experienced it was really amazing and seeing peoples reactions to the balloon experience makes the effort worth it, and we get them to help put it away too (if they want to which people usually do). Annyways i'll catch ya in a bit thanks for the link i'll hit u up soon 😎
I think I’d have to check some of Ayn Rand works to have a full understanding of what you’re talking about
Also, it’s good to have you here after a while
Thanks a lot, yeah if it sounds like something that interests you definitely check it out. The book "The Fountainhead" is a sort of look at individuality and a good starting point for her books... Atlas Shrugged is her 'magnum opus' the thing she is known best for. Atlas Shrugged also deals with themes of individuality but also the scope of that entire story is absoultely breathtaking. And when reading he books it's easy to fall into the sense of, ah yes, but of course, it's just a made up story - which basically they are. But I have also seen exactly what she is talking about play out in the real world in many instances and i wonder to myself just how much of a story is it really. She was a 'romantic' author not like romance novels but writing in the way that life out to, and could very well be, which is another consideration in the whole 'its just a story idea.' Also if you don't want to dive headfirst into reading Atlas Shrugged was made into a movie. Three actually, because the book is in three parts. The movies might appear a bit boring and i think they had a hard time trying to actually get the movies made because there isn't an insanely massive demand for this type of stuff so budget etc. was a bit all over the place. The first movie part 1 has the best budget and it shows a bit. Also the movies contain only like probably 1/10 of what is really in the book but i think they did an excellent job with what they had of preserving the sort of 'spirit' of the message in her work. You can only fit so many lines into a movie without it being 60 hours long or something as well the budget needs to cover. Oh yeah, also the main protagonist of Atlas Shrugged could be considered Dagny Taggart and she is such a badass heroine figure and h er relationship with her brother as president of Taggart Transcontinental and her doing all the work and him taking all the credit, i think it's such a wonderful way to illustrate her philosophy of there are people that produce and make things happen and then there are others that would just wish to use others and this story is an exploration of what happens in that dynamic when things are taken to their extreme and logical outcome. In the story it's observed both on a personal level as well as a greater societal level which is why i was saying the breadth and scope of atlas shrugged is impressive.
Anyways haha thanks for checking out the blog glad to be here hope you have a wonderful day @rafzat
Ok I know that was a big reply, but i just watched the trailer of the movie and thought it might be good to add just a few more points 😳🤣
First of all, Ayn Rand is very pro-capitalist, and i feel like there is a lot of anti-capitalist sentiment nowadays. So Ayn Rand was raised in Communist Russia and her family managed to escape the absolute horrors (which are very well documented, by countless authors, survivors and other remnants of history) of the communist system. She then went to New York which must have seemed literally like a glittering, shining utopia to her. She talks about this, and i think during that time America was especially in the 'Golden Years' of Capitalism. But I do understand why people find it so easy to hate on capitalism, it makes perfect sense, but if you peer further underneath the surface, it's a little bit more complicated. At the core of it capitalism is just a system where people can voluntarily exchange money for value, and nobody is stopping you from creating that value for people (or at the very least, trying.) But people see ecological destruction, people being taken advantage of, sweatshops, factory farms, pharmaceuticals, medicine as a way to make money not heal people etc. I think that growth just for the sake of growth is one of the dumbest ideologies people have come up with, and that is probably where these problems are coming from, not from capitalism itself. And if you think capitalism is really that bad, then go ahead and go live in a communist country, because a lot of these people seem like they have no clue what that sort of experience that was like for millions and millions of people that suffered and died under that. So yeah the movie deals with a lot of 'rich white men' and with all this capitalism stuff it's easy to take a glance at the movie and come off with the wrong sort of idea. Because we often see presented the idea that all these rich white men and corporations are just out for themselves and set to screw anyone in the process. Not saying that doesn't happen either but yeah... like I said I watched the trailer and those things came to mind, about how people are saying money is the root of all evil but what if really money is just a tool basically. Ayn Rand puts it this way, if money is the root of all evil, then what is the root of money? I think this is a sort of question to make us reflect about ourselves, instead of blaming money we could look at it differently and see that maybe it's something in our entire morality and code of ethics... and i think it can really be summed up in the phrase "be selfish, but not at the expense of others." I think if these corporations were set up and structured in the way to be like how can we help people the most and build mutual and beneficial relationships with our employees and customers" the world would be a very different place insteead of "how can we make more money." Because people end up doing all sorts of things for money if that is the only goal in mind. And I do think those types of businesses exist and not only that but do well. So I think maybe in a way that could be the 'problem' with Capitalism, I will call it modern capitalism - where corporations are basically in servitude to their stakeholders and they are OBLIGATED to keep making more and more profits each and every quarter (4x a year needing to make increasingly more money!?! come on. You can't even watch youtube now without seeing 15 ads in the space of 5 minutes it seems, I wonder why)
😎😉👊 congrats to u man! sounds like u found a good place for u..
i was thinking back.. WHEN i 'worked', i remember always glad to go to work, wether it was at fun factory, or at SEARS. now i do maybe 1-2 hrs a day 'working' at the hive office and slaving over trades/investments. :(
life is just hard sometimes (u know i'm sarcastic, right?), but yea.. the butterfly effect and i am most excited to spread joy and really help people now.. that is worth more than accumulating junk.
Hehe, "worked" ;)
And the butterfly effect, I totally forgot abbout that and is a great way of describing what I was talking about. Nice one @chinito 😎
👊😉🦋
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