I will be as blunt as possible right from the start so you don't waste your time reading something you disagree with.
If you live your life in accordance to a book written thousands of years ago (and embellished throughout the generations to accomplish some selfish assholes' goals) you're a fool and cannot think for yourself.
If you wait for God, Allah, Buddah, Odin, Ares or some other mythical "being" to solve your problems you get what's coming to you. The whole of any religion is contradictory to itself. Religion is a way for a few to control many. The Devil is in the details.
Generally speaking, most Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Pagans are all about supporting their communities. Feeding those who are hungry, housing those who have no home, aiding those who are sick... That's not religion. That's just being a decent human. What difference does it make if a hungry person is homosexual, muslim, christian, pagan etc. When someone falls, you pick them up. Period.
I was forced into attending church as a child. I didn't believe any of it and rebelled at every opportunity. I skipped out of the conformation classes frequently and when confronted by my parents I would ask "What are they gonna do? Hold me back another year?" It was important to my parents, but not to me. There's a twist to the story.
My Mother's Father, Grandpa Arnie, was a Methodist Minister. Grandpa had married Grandma, in secret mind you, had three children (my Mother being their first) and were farmers. This all happened in the midst of the Great Depression. Grandpa, due to having a family, or being a conscientious objector, worked in a bomb factory during WWII as his way to contribute to the war effort. I don't know the details, but at the end of WWII he heard the calling of God and gave up farming to become a servant of God. Though I'm not a "good" christian, I can't help but respect my Grandfather for having the cajones to throw everything to the wind and pursue something he thought was his destiny.
My Mother's family was living on a shoestring as farmers but once Grandpa started his journey to becoming a servant of God, things for them became dire. Mom frequently tells stories of how they depended on donations to keep them alive. During Grandpa's time earning his theology degree (something most "preachers" don't possess) his youngest child, my Uncle, contracted polio. You anti-vaxxers are idiots. Through hand-me-down clothes, used cars and donations of food, Grandpa completed his degree and became a Minister. He became an evangelist of the purist form. Not the Billy Graham type of bullshit "evangelist". Grandpa took care of his flock. He visited people at their homes, made sure they had enough to eat, fixed their tractors (he was an old farm boy after all), visited the sick in hospitals... He was being a good person and looking out for his fellow man.
Grandpa baptized countless babies, married countless couples and presided over the funerals of his people. It was this world in which I was raised. Though I did not like being forced into attending church every Sunday, Grandpa's humanity was passed to me. It is a gift of which I am most thankful for. That gift is, for me, what "religion" is. Taking care of your fellow man. Regardless of what a person's beliefs are. If you are hungry I will feed you. I'll also show you how to bait the hook so you can fish for yourself. If you are cold I will bring you firewood to heat your home. I will also show you how to sharpen an ax, fell a tree and split logs.
Outside of the sermons I heard Grandpa give, I never heard any of the "The bible says this and the bible says that..." nonsense. I have exactly two sermons of Grandpa's on tape. They are very precious to me. In those two sermons he is expressing how to be a good person. Help your fellow man. To me THAT is what religion is all about. Helping people.
23 February, 2019
03 February, 2019
Replace, Don't repair: A lesson In Corporate Greed.
Those of you who did have a Dad, Grandad, Step Dad etc. who DID fix things, you would take the faucet apart, figure out how it works and do what you had to do in order to make the faucet work properly.
If you fall into the first category, I'm not trying to degrade you and make you feel like less of a man. Not being sexist, the man typically gets the "fix it" tasks. Or the more manly man of the two if that is your situation. If you're using a butter knife as a screw driver to assemble your shitty Ikea "furniture" I will applaud you. You are taking the task into your own hands and doing the job the best you know how. Conversely, I will chide you for not having taken advantage of your "smart" phone to look up the task on YouTube. Or, perhaps, order up an old shop class textbook from Amazon. The demise of shop class in schools has put a massive surplus of those old textbooks on the market. There is no excuse for you to NOT have one of those books. Read it. You will become more independent. Even if you have no desire to build things or repair things, reading old books will, at least, give you some idea of what you're dealing with. An informed person cannot be taken advantage of.
My bathtub's faucet started dripping again. I have "hard" water in my home and the plumbing is subject to the effects of mineral deposits and scale. About nine years ago the bathtub's faucet started dripping and I had to address it. Being outside the "normal" business hours, something I deal with as a night shifter, I had to do with what was available. That's my super power. I make things happen with few resources.
I grew up in a rather frugal house. When a faucet started to drip my Dad would fix it. He would take the faucet apart, inspect it and repair it if he could. If seals and springs need replacement he would take me in tow and head off to the hardware store. He would take the old parts along so he could compare them to the variety of replacements, purchase what he needed and then we would return home. The new parts were installed, the faucet didn't drip, Mom was happy and then he would give the old parts to me. Maybe I was different, maybe not. I found those old valves, seals and springs to be more fascinating than the toys I had. I would assume my parents knew that I was interested in those things. Otherwise they would have just thrown those old parts into the bin.
So nine years ago I took that bathtub faucet apart and inspected the parts. Mineral scale had built up on the seals and the bore they resided in. The scale prevented the seals from seating, completely, against the valves. I scraped the scale off of each part, used pliers to stretch the springs a bit, resurfaced the face of the valves and put it all back together. That repair lasted nine years. Then the faucet started dripping again.
I expected to go through the same process of disassembly, cleaning and reassembly but it wasn't to be. The cup seals had wear in them that was beyond repairing. Home Despot was still open so I figured I would go out and get a seal kit, install it and be done for another decade. Nope.
Home Despot had a valve and seal kit from some shit-hole Chinese manufacturer for $10, but they had only one in stock. The sealing face of the valve was plastic. Not the brass of the original part. $10 for injection molded nylon, two o-rings, a spring and cup seal. That's a ridiculous price. Oh, but wait, the genuine Delta valves are plentiful. $10 each, but no cup seals or springs. The only cup seals and springs available were in a "Pro Pack" of 50 for $10. I was pissed off.
You can bet there was some suit, who had no idea that Phillips head screw drivers came in different sizes, who meticulously planned the exact situation I was in. When my Dad and I went to the hardware store a kit of valve, seal and spring could be had. Dad didn't have to purchase a 50 pack of seals and springs because the valves did not include those parts. If you're one of those suits, go fuck yourself. You're the kind of douche who buys a diesel pickup because you don't know any better. I see that and will rake you over the coals as revenge. You twats couldn't change a tire without calling for help. Enjoy your extra long wait and extra billable time as your family waits to get "up north" for your vacation. If you could get out of the mindset of blue collar tradesmen being "below" you, you might just get better service. Your "nose in the clouds" attitude is what your level of service is based off. Us "lower" people know you couldn't fix your way out of a wet paper bag. Maybe you should have taken a shop class instead of calculus I. Shop class would have been a better choice.
It is plain to see that the suits know most people, younger generations in particular, haven't had the benefit of shop classes. [sarcasm] "Who would want a shop class? Nobody would want to have such a lowly blue collar job. They can just call a plumber to fix that leaky faucet. [/sarcasm] Yeah, sure. With their nearly maxed out credit cards on top of their crippling student loan debt. Those young folk couldn't take a shop class because shop class didn't exist. They're at the mercy of those who DID have shop class and bothered to learn, on their own in many instances, how to work in the skilled trades. I find that shameful. One of my nephews was told by the local "quick lube" place that his car needed an air filter. He doesn't even know how to change an air filter! The shop classes were gone when he was in school. The suits know of my nephew and others like him. They're taking advantage of it.
Through my YouTube videos (amongst other YouTubers) I am doing my best to wrest control away from the corporate bean counters and put it back into the everyman's hands. Did your tire go flat? YouTube that shit and do it yourself! Plugging a tire is not rocket science. Do NOT let the fear of the unknown stop you. The information is out there. You just need to search for it.
"Throw off those chains of reason and your prison disappears" - Neil Peart, Rush, Hemispheres, Cygnus X-1, Book II.
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