Feeling like I know this person like I know myself.

Mayberry did a rant and While reading it, I realized that I was reading nearly my own autobiography. Skills without the paper and an honest work ethic.

If kissing ass is what's required for "success", then call me a failure, because I refuse. And I sleep just fine at night, thank you, because I am my own man. Nobody has a hold on me. I don't play games. I go into a job intending to do my best, and to make money, nothing else.

What really bothers me the most about our current society is the Brainwashing that has taken place over the years. I even bought into at some point. Then I look at my dad and realize that its all bullshit. My dad, due to family matters, was unable to finish more than the 6th grade back in the 40's. He held a job with one company for 40 years(till they folded up and forced him into early retirement.) and raise us kids as a single parent for 11 years(when I grew up and moved on).

Now by society standards he shouldn't have been able to do these things as he was "uneducated". I still find that he has forgotten more things than I have ever been able to learn. Maybe he doesn't understand all the tricks of a cell phone, but he really hasn't ever had the need. But if something were to happen to the grid, he wouldn't be lost "because the microwave don't work". Hell, it would only be an inconvenience for him where with the people living around me, it would be a death sentence.(or nearly)

He may not know all that much about higher maths or engineering, but the company he worked for couldn't maintain all of the machines they had without him. I remember him being called in the dead of night during winters because some piece of gear had taken a dump and the engineer couldn't figure out what the deal was. I am proud of the fact that I inherited his intuition for mechanics. and electric, wood, etc etc etc. There isn't much I can't do, and of those things, it may only be the fact that I hadn't tried yet.

Currently I am trying to educate myself and for reasons that are more personal than societal. I had always wanted to be a teacher, and I have only my dumb ass(read sense of 'doing the right thing') and a raging case of hormones to blame for that one. (I won't go into anymore detail than that but I am sure you can put two and two together.) Now that I am single again and not interested in trying to share my life with another woman UNTIL I have built my own home, I find a raging desire to 'catch up' on all of those courses that I missed out on. The means are readily available now thanks to the internet, and of a much broader selection than you could imagine. Do I plan on pursuing a degree? I dunno, Hadn't thought that far ahead yet. I just want to know that all of the ideas in my head have an outlet and not just a pipedream. I would also like to teach in an old fashioned sense. More of an open classroom style where subjects are decided upon as needed ONCE the basics are mastered. I guess in a similar way I am doing now.(look at the wishlist in the tip jar and you will understand)

Well, I sort of took a right turn there, didn't I? Oh well, my blog, my rambles, LOL.

I think that what bothers me most is how someone trying to do what I am doing are discouraged: told to go to the "houses of higher learning" and run up a lifetime of debt for a piece of sheepskin that may or may not reflect that persons actual skills. No, that isn't how I want to go about learning. I know many brilliant people that chose not to go that route also without losing any sleep over it. Look into history and you see many cases of it. (not that I want to be in the history books, but you never know.) People that hadn't taken the 'worn pathways' and yet pulled some miracle of whatever out of thin air and made the world a better place for all. Even if all I end up doing is waking some child's mind to learning, I will have made an impact a lot larger than myself on the world. (and I think that is a lost art in current public education: inspiring learning that is)

Well. A big H/T to Mayberry for getting my mind out of the books and giving me something to 'rant' about myself.

Keep watching the skyline, we are still on the road to some serious history making.

Stay safe.
P.S. The anger in Mayberry's post is similar to what I feel when checking out the daily atrocities of our 'elected'. I see how the world has changed in the 25-30 years since I was a kid running around the woods with a BB gun. I sickens and saddens me to no end. I used to listen to the talk radio but I am hearing more and more Hardline propaganda from both sides. I feel like I am in Pre-Soviet Russia running headlong into a that hell. The two parties are trying to reach the same goal under one banner even though they say they aren't. I know freedom. I have tasted it and know that what we have isn't it. More thoughts on this tomorrow.