Saturday, April 29, 2006

C is for Cookie!

You just have to watch this video:



It's just way too funny. Maybe my brothers and sister's 'Cookie Business' had a much more sinister plan.

I met with the new owners of the gym today. They are good guys, but it looks like I probably won't be able to continue working out of Personal Trainers Studio. I train only part-time, and the rent they're asking is more than is workable for me. After rent and expenses, I'd come out with just under $2.00 per hour. It's too bad. They've really made some improvements. What they want in rent isn't unreasonable. It's a really good deal for a full-time trainer, but a part-time trainer, like myself, would lose money. Part of the business of being an independent trainer. I still prefer it. After 20+ years being a personal trainer, I'm just not good as an employee trainer. Talk about a problem employee.

Things are iffy about school this semester, too. The classes I need are either full, or offered at times I can't do. It's funny how important choices and decision come at you all at once, with a brief lull here and there. It reminds me of an airline pilot I use to train. He said, "It's hours, weeks, months of sheer boredom and monotony, with brief moments of sheer terror." Okay, I'm not in a terror situation, just a slightly frustraiting one. One that could have been avoided had I made better decisions earlier. Much earlier. Like 5th grade earlier, or at least high school earlier (Stephen and Brett? You reading??)

Even with all my mistakes, even the continuous ones, my life is pretty damn good. Far better than I deserve, that's for sure. I certainly haven't earned it. I've barely earned a soggy refridgerator box in the woods off Lee Road.

Part of problem is I abhor financial achievements. I see most of them as self-indulgent, self-important, and adding to our over-consuming society. What makes it a problem is that I am part of that society, like it or not. I am part of an economic system that depends on each of us giving up some of our ethics to 'get by'. Our achievements depend on us turning a blind eye to things we know are just wrong. The more we do it, the easier it is to ignore what's really important. If you've read the books, Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't read those books, I highly encourage you not to read them. Keep ignoring what's around you. Go about your over-consuming lifestlye. It's much easier to forget your ethics. Whatever you do, don't read those books. You just don't want to know how much of a lie the American Dream has become, or what it takes to achieve it.

I wish I'd never read them. Or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Or Man's Search for Meaning. I wish I'd never seen photos of the factories that build the stupid products I buy, and how the workers are treated. I wish I'd never seen the money that the CEO of Exxon, Lee Raymond, is going to get.

I guess I've been inspired by the Cookie Monster to be a rebel.

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