TubaOrNotTuba

If you are employed by a firm that has proper hiring practices, be thankful. Not everyone has that as part of their life. I was fortunate in that most of my working career was spent in a world where there were rules. But, it was not always that straightforward. I remember going for a job interview early on a teaching job. I knew my material they needed my skill set and I really believed that I was going to get the job especially when the interviewer told me that I was going to get the job. Until a couple of days later when I received a call from a secretary that they had decided to go with another candidate. Again part of life. Except that I learned that this successful candidate was married to the person doing the interview and had lost their job and this was seen as a way of levelling up the family budget. I was an outsider and I had no recourse. I might now but those were different times and so I carried on looking for work and with that I took the realization into my heart that sometimes the table is not in your favour. Do not go and spend that pay-check before you actually receive it. No I did not but the temptation would have been strong. A good interview and being told the job was yours. Those are all seen as positive signs. Add no part of the interview was I told that there will be another candidate who would be chosen because of being married to the interviewer. No sense in naming names because it was a very long time ago but I hope they know that they were wrong. When you interview someone be straightforward and let them know if the table is weighted against them. Just humanity. And after that I carried on and my career took a turn for the better and I managed to put in several decades with that same employer. Got my pension and if I had taken the original job that was never an offer. I know this is rationalization but I think I won in this case.

Time to retire to a happy place. I cannot invite my children because they will not know what I am talking about but my siblings may remember. The awesome world of penny candy. Found in every small corner store. A variety that defies description. And with it the way we paid for our rations. We collected empty pop bottles. Another part of the economy that my children may not realize was important. If you roamed the ditch, which we did you might come across an abandoned bottle that could then be traded at the local corner store for a small brown paper bag filled with goodness. Of the sugary kind. I know there are still stores that sell penny candy perhaps one or two per country. A place where you can go to buy things that as I said defy description. How to tell someone else about the red hot or the licorice pipe or the coloured peppermints. Pale pink and pale green. All the same taste. We would learn which store gave the best return on our investment. At the top of the list would be a store that would give you a whole small bag in return for two bottles. I think it had to do with the way that people would go out with their friends buy a couple of pops and then throw the bottle away not realizing how important that was going to be to someone younger than them. It actually would be best served by a full length movie. We could roam those same ditches with a guest star and come back to reap our treasure. We did not put penny candy in our pockets for fear of losing any one piece through a hole in the bottom or by having something melt down and coat the inside of that pocket which would then bring on the wrath of the parent. How to explain why you had goo in your pockets. Probably impossible. For the record the standard 12 ounce pop bottle came with a return value of two cents. How many children even know what a penny is anymore.

It seems like something from my distant past period one of the first computer games that caught my eye with something called Sims. In particular SimCity. I knew the basics of urban planning but this took it to a whole new level where you could lay down the roads and place the factories and then see how the people moved in. One of the key features of the game which seemed almost random was that fires would break out. In buildings and on properties. How little we know. I’ve been watching some of the weather reports from the centre of the United States and right now they’re dealing with what seemed like random fires breaking out in the cities and in the country. Scorching acres of land and destroying buildings. Almost like something out of a game. Now, I don’t understand the full system involved here but it strikes me that if you have a house and the land around it suddenly catches fire that could be a sign that things have gone horribly wrong. Almost off the rails. Think back to those scenes in The Sims where you could put in place railroads and then watch the trains come through. Except that this does not involve transportation. This is purely climate getting beyond itself. I know, we were warned. Things would get warmer before they got cooler. I doubt that I will live to see the start of the next Ice Age but those fires could come into view. Not around here specifically because there is too much motion ocean water and fields that are still wet but if I lived in places south of here those flames could be a risk. I think someone needs to restart the game. And as for allowing fires to burn out of control. They’re not. Right now certain places are throwing everything they have in a last ditch effort to keep their property safe from destruction. As I said we need to restart the game. There have always been wildfires I imagine. Just not at the scale we now are witnessing.

Like most people I have certain objects that I consider my personal treasures. No gold or precious stones. Rather small objects that I have found over the years they come with a set of memories. However I have been reluctant to gather my treasures in the homes of my family. Unlike some of my relatives. We have certain objects that have come back to us after many years away. Things that were picked up by relatives and taken home as their personal souvenirs. I like getting these objects back but they filled me with a sense of curiosity. I imagine that there are other things that I am unaware of which have gone away to new homes. Things like a spinning wheel that left my grandmothers house years ago and never ever spun another scheme of yarn. In other words something to elicit conversation not solve a problem. What about you would you take home objects from a family home? In a sense you’re home but no longer. Would you reveal these treasures to others? Do you have a plan for that object continuing its journey once you no longer have a need or concern? I want to know more about this. As my basement needs to be emptied perhaps I have treasures that you would like to re-home. I must check that out with my siblings and my children. I have an old radio that someone could love again. All the old books are gone I hope but that was more my choice. And no for those of you who feel that this would be a place to plunder I said at the outset that there are no samples of gold or precious stones anywhere is in the mix. Just some old photographs that still need to be labeled before anyone else can take pleasure in them.

One more spoonful. With that I have emptied the current container of yogurt. Ready to be washed sorted into a waiting blue bag and brought out to the roadside for the pick up tomorrow. We do this about once a month which means that over the past 10 years I have done this over 100 times. And still the mystery is maintained. What happens to my empty container once that truck takes it away. There is a belief that we recycle in order to let things be reused. Somehow, in looking at my blue bag, I fail to find the connection. I do not believe that the containers in that bag which for the main part were used for dairy products are actually being recycled into something that I would recognize. I know that the local dairy does not use those containers. Instead they’re being bundled and shipped off to somewhere else in the world. Probably to be made into fine powder for return to the industrial process. Recycling at a molecular level. What does this mean for the world? In the old days we did reuse containers. Over and over again. Those jars of preserves would be carefully washed and stored for the next harvest. But then our food became part of the industrial process and somehow I think we’ve lost sight of the goal. I will continue to put my bags out to the curb once a month. Generally because I sometimes miss and hang on to the bag for another month. I am always glad to empty the garage of my harvest. Am I doing something to help the world? I remain sceptical. In a better world we would not have containers that needed to be sent away. In a system closer to home we would keep all of our materials for reuse. At the home level. Can you imagine throwing away a dairy can on a dairy farm? It would never happen. The food stores never mentioned recycling. Not their worry. And the government sends me out a calendar to follow so I will not miss that pick up once a month. But they also are avoiding the issue. Too much waste in a place where we cannot possibly reuse the materials.

I guess I have too much time on my hands. I have been sitting here, reflecting on some of the tests put before me in life that I did not complete. In high school there was the pole vault and I never managed to clear that bar. I think that I came to a realization why no one on the street carried a pole. There were better ways to get around barriers. Similarly once the famous rubik cube was available to purchase I bought into the game. I played with the toy and managed to solve 1 face at a time but the idea of actually completing six faces seemed insurmountable. And so I purchased a solution book and I learned that all I was doing was sorting. Useful for laundry but not much else. I put the toy aside. I have had other things in life there were similar. I completed all the tasks I set for myself in academia. I received those coveted degrees which I never hung on my wall. I think they’re in the bottom of a drawer someplace. At the time they were goals but once I came within reach the value decreased. There are other things to learn and that’s what I did. I am not going to make a list of all the things that I tried and did not complete to my own standard. Some things are best left unlisted. But I listened to her podcast talking about meritocracy in universities. The one place where many are called but few are chosen. And it turns out that there, two, there is a game being played. The schools do not want everyoneq to be included because it hurts their standing. If you told an incoming student that he was being accepted because of that arcane rule he would probably walk away as well. So back to the pole vault. Have you ever asked yourself why you cannot buy a pole for love nor money in the local hardware store, well there is a reality all the best poles are used for fishing.

About 3 days ago this site stopped. Failed to present any pages. Failed present any login. Strangely specific behavior. The site is underpinned by PHP. The software equivalent of Jenga blocks. You push and you add and you push and you add and suddenly it all falls down. I hadn’t had this for several years so I was unfamiliar with the day-to-day routines of fixing something broken. I mean I knew the theory but I no longer had the tools. And so I called upon the first person available and she got busy on it. Now with a blog you become routine in your efforts. You do not change things that are working and so with a bit of careful reading we learned at the most recent software version had certain problems. Specifically involving a change in the version of PHP. With that we called the support people. The technician was wonderful. After a quick look at the site and the logs he realized that they had done something the software sites should not do. They had updated my software bundle. And with that the jenga blocks fell down. By turning back the version the site returned to life. It does not mean that the the problem has been rectified as I am sure we will see it again but it was good to know that the software was stable enough that it could be repaired. As for me I now know my own weaknesses. I really should keep a better list of how to and where to go. I had become complacent. And now the things are back on track I will try to find a better way to get through the day. In passing I was not ready to give up the whole idea of a blog. Not just yet. I want to wind things down in a more subtle and calm fashion should I decide to make that decision. No suddenly going it’s gone. Just so you know. My content will not be better but it will be available.

From time to time I come across lines in books that leaves me puzzled. Things that deal mainly with the physical condition. If someone says that they have a pounding headache I can think that must be really unpleasant. If they say they have an itch that they cannot scratch I keep thinking about those back scratchers I’ve seen in novelty shops and why those are actually a good thing. How about « there wasn’t a dry eye in the house »? From time to time I have to deal with the dreaded dry eye where the tear glands plug up and there’s a level of discomfort that is worth mentioning. Not having a dry eye is really something to wish for. I’m not going to get into the myriad of aches and pains we go through as humans. It would take far too long. But, we are rather fragile as a species. Animals will scratch when they need to and when it’s time to sleep they do so I doubt that the dog has ever needed and over the counter medication to get a good night’s sleep. What other conditions come to mind? Of course there are things like sore feet but that’s more a result rather than a condition. You spent too long walking around the mall and now you have an ache. Simple solution. Layoff on the hours of shopping. As for the things that we eat and drink, if it does not taste good then just avoid it period. Imagine seeking out a cough drop that has a foul taste. Why? As for those people that have conditions related to their occupation I have a certain amount of sympathy but if, for example, you like to throw the baseball too much then stop throwing the baseball so much. Most of these are self-evident. And if you got a sunburn learn to dress better. Avoid spending so much time on the beach. Besides, it can lead to other things that are actually serious and painful.

It took me for too long to figure out the trick. The magic that is used by people teaching mathematics. Not that mathematics is magical. Rather that we continue to provide a magical trick to virtually every student and then wait for them to figure it out. If you are still in school here is the shortcut. Every single mathematical question in your textbook has an answer. That does not mean that every single mathematical question in the world has an answer. Two different things. When you sit down and try to decipher the questions on the page before you will be aware that every one of them can be answered by a thinking human being. Perhaps not you. Do not tear out your hair if you are one of those that has not consolidated the knowledge necessary. There is a risk of going bald. I look back on my years in school and realize that every single subject with the exception of mathematics made sense. Every course came with a message to the madness. With the exception of mathematics. There someone was waiting for a student to figure out the puzzle. Hoping they would stay on message long enough to keep from going wild in the classroom. It took me years because I believed that there were not answers. Only when I went to work in the school system did I discover secret texts. The teachers kept them hidden away and the title made it blindingly clear. The book of solutions. I learned far too late to help me that every question on the page had already been answered and that someone had put forth the methodology. The teachers go to great lengths to keep that part a secret. In the same way that a magician swears to not reveal how his trick works. We are told that mathematics is there to build the mind. It might if you live long enough. At some point there will be a moment when it becomes clear to you that all of your labour is for not. That’s a nice way of saying 0. Also a way to explain chords time together. But I digress. Any magical trick keeps thousands and thousands of young people chained to their desks without revolt is legendary. Go ahead. Try to remember a single problem that was presented to you that did not have an answer. At a guess the best you will do is to realize that you had not found the answer. Think back to that small subset of people who seemed to get math in high school. They were the ones that had figured out early on in the game that the answer was irrelevant. This was just something to make them search for an answer.

Happily reading through some history I learned in astounding fact. Back in the good old days those who went exploring often died. While exploring. I would point to those who wandered in the far north and far South. While most of us try to avoid the rigors of winter there were people who used to put together what they called expeditions. Fill a ship with food in men and sail until the end. Did it matter that the end was often death? I doubt they were aware because unfortunately what happens to people when they get lost in the outer limits is often not discovered until years later. Our whole idea of search and rescue was still very primitive and when your ship sailed from the harbour north you were on your own until you came back. Hence you will notice that none of our roads go very far north. Even to Rd. builders it seemed to be too dangerous for the common man. But we still tend to praise those who were the pioneers of travel. We name areas after them and even in the history books children learn that sometimes you just do not get a chance to come home. A veiled warning to children who wander too far after school I guess. I was listening to some music from one of the supergroups from when I was a teenager and it is only now decades later they learn some of the background behind the songs they sang. Thank you, YouTube. You continue to enlarge my education. I would have a hard time getting into a ship and sailing off to the great unknown. I much prefer to know that my port of call has a warm bed and a table with food. No getting out into the wilderness or worse into the open ice packs as so many of those explorers did. There are some frightening tales from those who lived through the rigors of whaling and seal hunting and sailing away. I can assure you that I have not done those things nor do I intend to. I know my limits. As a side note I did find my winter boots yesterday. Before the 1st snowfall. That is a triumph.