Ticking away
The moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours
In an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground
In your hometown
Waiting for someone
Or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
This is a good place to remind everyone that if you wait for social security retirement in America you have a really good chance of dying shortly after that retirement. The great die off starts at 65.
And yes you can live healthier to have better odds of getting higher on that chart. But you cannot add young years. So if your idea of Europe includes skiing in the alps or something then you need to go before you retire. Don’t let the idle rich dictate your life. They aren’t waiting around.
And yes you can live healthier to have better odds of getting higher on that chart.
Living healthier means keeping your stress low, saving time for exercise, and limiting your intake of fast food.
But these are luxuries primarily reserved for the already wealthy. Luxuries afforded through cheap service sector labor.
Like so much else in this country, good health is paid for with a labor tax on the poor.
Do not work more than what is advantageous to you. This is your own limit and can change throughout your career. There will be times when working extra hours may get you to the next level, this is a path you can pursue or walk away from.
When I was just starting off in my career, my mentor told me about Scott as a cautionary tale. Scott was a hard working, and dedicated employee. He started with the company on a factory floor. He was known for always working overtime when it was available, and the first person to call if you needed someone to cover a shift.
The company was investing heavily in IT and people it determined were intelligent enough and dedicated enough to do the job. Scott was brought into a training program, sent to some classes, and pulled from the factory floor to an office job.
Scott maintained his work ethic, even though he was salaried he found value in working extra. He felt he was noticed and that his efforts were appreciated. He was also able to pick up new skills and knowledge much faster than his coworkers because he worked more hours.
Scott never married. He tried dating a few times, but the women he dated didn’t like being second to his career. Scott lived modestly and talked to his parents a few times a month.
Scott was the first one to arrive and the last to leave. The joke around the office was that he had a bed under his desk. He eventually got into gaming, late nights playing started to drag on him. But he was always at his desk before anyone else. Occasionally someone would catch him sleeping at his desk.
One day the police came looking for him. His parents hadn’t been able to reach him. When someone went to his desk, he was asleep, but they couldn’t wake him.
The coroner estimated he had been dead for 3 days. In that chair for 3 days. Coworkers walking by, saying good morning, jokes about not working too late. He had nothing really but that job.
You work your entire life to pay for your headstone.
(Approximate translation of some french punk lyrics that capture the same sentiment)
Poor bastard was waiting for Windows update to finish.
It’s not like you can afford anything else.
to rebel is what we have left
I’ll see you on the dark side of the Moon.
I think I’m the second frame, quickly becoming the third
I might still be first, how do I break out, waiting for instructions…
Father time is undefeated; try to have some fun!
Maybe it’s time to finally give it all up and buy that little sailboat ⛵
I keep having dreams of things I need to do
And waking up but not following through
But it feels like I haven’t slept at all
When I wake to a silence and she’s facing the wall
Posters of Dylan and of Hemingway
An antique compass for a sailor’s escape
She says, “You just can’t live this way”
And I close my eyes and I never say
I’m still having dreams
I suffer from catastrophic seasickness
God I love Pink Floyd!!
Same. Especially this song. More chills given than any other song. I’d assume I’ve listened to it 200 times or more at this point
It’s brutal, isn’t it? 7 minutes of pure distilled existential terror
Yeah it’s breautiful™
Mine is “Dogs.” The combination of the message and the barking in the solo is just…
I wonder what motivational posters workers in the Bahamas have on their wall
People crave what they don’t have.
A big rusty secondhand spaceship, with which to run a dinky little trans-lunar scrap and salvage company. My second mate would be a cat.
I too crave the carve
A picture of some depressing city alleyway that’s says
“Laugh at the losers who are stuck with this out their window”
A lot of “third world” countries don’t work the hours we do.
This claim doesn’t really pass the smell check for me - can you point to where you get the notion from? Checking the lists for average hours worked per year per worker, richer countries routinely have lower numbers than poorer countries.
Mostly it’s for areas that aren’t even in the developing category yet. Once you’re developing you’re talking about 9-5 work with less pay and benefits than in the West. But traditional work doesn’t do office/factory hours. That means periods of lots of work and periods with little work where you live off the previous gains.
Loved Floyd in my youth. Now most of their stuff just depresses me. Their lyrics are too genuine, too accurate.
Surviving in love, surviving in hate
We still have to die, there can be no escape
Clock in, clock out, forty hours a week
Our lives being spent with no real truth to speak(Sung by the guy who hung himself at age 40 to the sound of Sean Lennon’s “Into The Sun.” Don’t try this at home, kids.)
I was just listening to this song today.
There is always time (until there isn’t)
