From "We Blog Cartoons"

Alright, I admit it.  I have iPad envy… and its not because my iPhone is small.  Well, maybe it is.  Anyway, I was out the other night chilling with the family having some sushi and the table next to me of college kids had a new iPad and were showing it off.  And damn!  It is as cool as it looks on TV.  I haven’t actually had the chance to hold one and play with it but it does look seriously cool.

One thing that can go away is the constant media attention to it.  I can’t turn on the TV or radio without someone talking about iPad this or iPad that.  Its everywhere! Which is probably why they have sold 500k of them already.

Does everyone who writes and article or has a blog feel compelled to write about the thing?  Oh wait.  Anyway, I don’t think I will be able to get a P.O. from the wife to get one anytime soon so I will have to learn to live with envy.

And my iPhone is not small.

This is more of an observation… I had an interesting conversation over the weekend with my step father.  It was his birthday and he was saying he has another 3yrs to go before he can retire.  Of course, I am much further away, but it sparked my curiosity and wondered  how old I would have to be.  The answer is 67.  That is 27 years from now.  27 years is longer than the amount of time from  when I began “officially” working at 16 and today!  I don’t know what to say other than… shit.

Brian Masterson?

Some think it’s all fun and games when traveling for business.  Movies are made about it (Up in the Air, Airplane, the list goes on), books are written about it, and hundreds of stories are told at businesses all over the world. Different cities, different countries, new faces, new adventures.  To be fair, I have traveled more than my share in my short time of business travel, and have visited hundreds of cities and towns around the world. I have visited friends halfway around the world, eaten interesting cuisine, seen some amazing things, and had my share of fun. Someday, I hope my children can experience the same things I have been able to experience.

There is another side of business travel that most either do not know about, or care to think about.  The DARK SIDE of business travel.  From sitting next to and meaninglessly chatting with the nameless (and sometimes smelly) faces on airplanes, to eating dinner on your own (again), getting lost because the GPS you rented is not working, driving through snow/ice, it’s not always glamorous as some folks think it is.  Think about it in these terms – for a normal week long business trip, it takes about 6-8 hrs of preparation –  setting up appointments, booking flights, finding hotels close to the meetings, booking car rentals, figuring out directions to each appointment.  The list goes on.  And this is PRIOR to you even leaving.

So the night before, you pack up, confirm your itinerary, send it to loved ones, recheck it, go to bed.  Next morning, you wake early and head off to the airport.  There of course, you encounter long lines, crying babies, tons of people that are not “frequent travelers” and confused on where they should be, go, do.  Wait in line for your ticket, wait in line to get through security, get patted down because you look like you might be bad news, wait in line to get some food for the plane (because we all know how good(not) and cheap (NOT) the food can be on planes).  Then of course, you get to wait in line to get onto the plane.  Just too much fun.

So you get there, rent your car, take your train, get picked up, whatever your means of transportation may be for this leg of the trip.  Head to the hotel, first meeting, and so on and so forth.  This of course assumes the airline has not lost your luggage. This goes on for days and in some cases a couple of weeks.  No sleep in the hotel, wake up early to construction; eat a crappy FREE meal at the hotel, and the days starts again.  Honestly, there have been trips where I literally forgot not only what room number I was in, but what HOTEL I was staying at.  At the end of the day you eat alone or sit at a bar and talk with some stranger that is in the same situation as you.  Small talk, blah blah blah.  Gets old, you know?

As I mentioned initially, frequent travelers may say they have their share of fun on the road.  However, each trip is not just a joy ride.  Live one day in another man’s shoes, they say, and you will truly have your eyes opened to a whole new world.

It’s what we do, and we love it.

If you are like me, you don’t really feel the love at work.  Treated as a commodity with the ever present threat of corporate layoffs which seem to hit people by lottery since the “dead wood” has already been culled through the previous 5 layoff rounds.  It gets old.  I would like to reassure you that there is hope!  Many of us forget that a large part of today’s workforce are Baby Boomers, and guess what… they aren’t getting any younger.  Take a minute to read this article from October by Kelly Sharp called  Gen X- Small But Mighty which talks about the Baby Boomer workforce of today.

What I especially like is the point Kelly makes about the number of Baby Boomer employees in the workforce today who are planning on retiring in the next 10 years, but the number of Gen-X employee which will back-fill them is fewer than the number retiring.  Now, this is no panacea but its at least a glimmer of hope.  One point Kelly does miss is the fact that many Boomer employees are working further into their 60′s than their parents generation, which certainly doesn’t help the Gen-X workers waiting for promotions.

Well, I could stand a little more appreciation at work – even if it is only through attrition.  ~cg

P.S.  I just ran across this blog on Roberts Virtual Soap Box called Why we (non-boomers) hate our jobs.  You should definitely check it out.  And while you are there check out his list of people he would like to see die in 2010 in his Top 10 Wingnuts Whose Deaths I’d Celebrate, 2010 Edition.  He has Glenn Beck as #1 and I couldn’t agree more!

I am honored that you are even listening to me, listening to us, at this moment.  Alright – maybe “honored” is a little thick.  I’m more like surprised and impressed – in a good way. Hey – I know what it took for you to get here.  Booting up things, clicking around places, having to pay attention, downloading stuff, maybe.  All of that is work.  Really, and I know you have better choices than anything that even resembles work.  You could be half-passed-out on the living room couch right now, test-tasting the snacky things that your kid dropped between the cushions, drooling a little.  That would be easier; but instead, you’re here.  Well, maybe you’re both.  Anyway, if you are here, then you, my friend, qualify as a slacker.  THAT is why I am honored.  Thank you, fellow Slacker, for listening.

Slackers, like me and Chris(tian) and Rob and you, are not incapable of doing stuff.  We are actually really capable, and we actually do stuff. It is just that, when given the choice, most times we’d rather not.  Well, that isn’t totally true – we like to do the stuff we like to do, just not the stuff we’re supposed to do, or stuff we have to do, or stuff that sucks.

I find myself in total, almost constant, conflict.  Do I do the laundry, or surf the web for strange pets-in-costume photos?  It is important that I visit my parents and help them take out the their garbage, but just one more episode of Anthony Bourdain’s snarky world-travel show can’t hurt,  and then, I’m out the door – I promise.  Believe me, besides you, I am the least-disciplined person you know.

The place where my slacker-factor has the most negative impact is in the area of EXERCISE.  Can you relate, you couch-loving snack-forager?  Even the word sucks – ex-er-size.  It sounds like an awkward and uncomfortable way to cancel out the beautiful size of me.  I suppose that that is the point, but does it have to sound so dorky?  “I’m going to exercise.”  Sure…some people call it “working out”, but that involves WORK, and I’m not into that.

I suppose if you could exercise an actually look cool, which you can’t, or maybe if you could hang out with Henry Rollins or Iggy Pop at the gym, which you can’t, maybe it would be appealing.  But Rollins and Iggy are like the anti-slackers, and that would bring up so much additional guilt…forget it.

So, how does a slacker survive in this responsibility-filled, money-oriented, you-gotta-work society?  Often, in a bitter, and begrudging way.  Really, we seek out other slackers who can bring things to the table to assist our lazy-asses. Who wants to reinvent the wheel, when some other guy is into sharing his wheels with his friends?  The network of slackers is huge, and we’ll bring it to you, when we’re motivated.  We wanna help you, friend, enjoy the moments of your life, with minimal effort.  Let’s use this networking and technology crap to ease the pains of your intended efforts and relieve you from the toils of your existence.

~pp

<Hear this amazing rant, as well as other nonsense, on the podcast TSF4: Mary’s Gone Slackers, is NOW ONLINE!>