As Bushie's World Turns (The Update Thread)

[opebo]

I continue to maintain that this constitutes trolling. I derive no pleasure from my vindication.

I maintain that your maintaining of this is trolling.  I would derive pleasure from your absence from this thread.

[opebo]

Aside from the "shredding" incident (odd term there - you don't literally have a shredder do you?)

I don't think it is all that unusual for poors to have shredders, Torie - I think with Globalization/Deflation they cost about $5 now.  I know we had one in the family office from my earliest memories of the place (mid 1980s).

[opebo]

...most of my high school class stayed in South Carolina for the 4 years because they didn't want to change scenery, but I went to North Carolina...

Wow, so exotic!  Was there a culture shock?  Hard to get used to the food?

Just kidding, good for you for going to university out-of-state, even if next door.  Though keep in mind this option is only open to the wealthy.

[opebo]

Jesus man, you get the point.. I was far enough away from my parents to where I didn't see them but during holidays. BushKE is 30 and still sees them every day - hell he still eats with them almost daily. He needs a new lady, fresh, young, full of life to really kickstart him!

Yes, I get you, for sure, was just having a little fun.  I myself went to college partially in my own state, just a few hours from home (though also in NY state partially as well).  But yes, the key is to be at least far enough away that you rarely see the parents, and they can't just 'pop by'.

As for your ambition for the BushOK loins.. perhaps you set the bar a bridge too far, my friend.  Lets help him get to the point where he can find it, before we advise him to use it.

[opebo]

Torie was hardly 'fat' before.  

By the way, BushOK, if we may pry - whatever happened to that telephone interview with what's-his-name, the helpful forum member..

[opebo]

Opebo, you've forgotten my name already!? I'm wounded ... we've had such fun together over the years!

My conversation with Jeff was preliminary to any formal interview with my company, which would be handled through human resources first. We discussed his current situation, looked at an assessment which covered his strengths as a contributor and a leader (with the goal of making him aware of those strengths so that he can focus on them in interview situations), and did a resume critique so that he could make his look stronger. We have one position at my company that Jeff may be qualified for, and I encouraged him to apply after he'd cleaned up his resume.

He came across well over the phone (more confident in tone than I would have imagined) and honestly has some skills of which I wasn't aware. Jeff has potential ... he just needs to focus on his strengths, cut the fat in his life (literally, as well as in terms of poor advice and the following of whims) and commit to turning decent employment into a career.

Sorry, J-Mann, it was more of a temporary lapse, now I place your name and character.  I am after all getting very old, and you have been largely absent for a long time.

I'm happy to hear the positive tone of your assessment (though your history suggests you are a rather extremely positive person), but it doesn't surprise me.  I have always surmised that BushOK is probably a competent and rather normal middle-American.  The fact that he is mis-categorized as some kind of 'pitiable case' (or even 'loser') here says a lot about our forum's misunderstanding of both the terrible nature of the economy and employment nowadays, and also those same middle Americans.

[opebo]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/california-farm-labor-shortage-worst-172326668.html

[opebo]

I'm 6 feet 1 inch, and weigh 165-170 pounds.

I'm between 6'2" and 6'3" and I weigh around 175-190. Your target weight should be at least in that range, Bushie.

Surely you realize you guys are extremely abnormal.

[opebo]

I'm 6 feet 1 inch, and weigh 165-170 pounds.

I'm between 6'2" and 6'3" and I weigh around 175-190. Your target weight should be at least in that range, Bushie.

Surely you realize you guys are extremely abnormal.

lol opebo they're not "abnormal". That's a normal weight. I'm 6'2" and weigh 145 lbs. Perhaps you could consider me "abnormal" in that sense but certainly not adult men weighing 165-190.

They are certainly 'abnormal' in the sense of being unusual, particularly Torie.  Nathan is perhaps closer to normal, but still, the point is they are setting the bar far, far to high for BushOK.  Tories BMI is around 22, which is in the 10th percentile for his age group, and the other guy is having a BMI of around 23, in the 25th percentile for his age group.

Encouraging a very over weight man to shoot for that which is statistically unusual is not advisable.  My BMI of around 26-27 is a much more realistic target, and roughly average for my age group.

[opebo]

Surely you realize you guys are extremely abnormal.

Do I look emaciated to you?  Maybe I need another shirtless snap. 

I didn't say you look bad, Torie, just that your level of thin-ness is a bit unrealistic for BushOK, and not really necessary.  I have one older friend here in his late fifities who is has become a compulsive dieter, and he does verge into that emaciated look a bit.  You I think exercise enough to avoid that.

[opebo]

So you're going for the government job, right Bushie?

[opebo]

I withdrew the eggs...

Your poor, poor eggs.

[opebo]

Ban and close this thread please.

Or rename it to 'As Bushie's Lies Unravel'

Whether it is as an exercise in fine fiction writing or internet buff's sleuthing, the thread has a lot of interest and value.

[opebo]

So you're living in Layton now? This is crazy - I literally have a brother who lives in Layton. I'll be sure to warn them of your arrival.

One more fat guy bevy-ing up to the food-bar at the Ryan's steak-house more or less isn't going to make any difference.

[opebo]

...I will need to make a quick Walmart run on my way home so I don't have to keep eating out and blowing money and gaining weight.

What can you get at Walmart that won't make you fat?

[opebo]

I do believe I would be good at it.

No.

He would be just fine. 

Bushie, you remember I told you many times that you could come teach in Thailand?  Just go back and get your teaching certification from an Oklahoma 'university', and you can make a $3,500/month salary in Bangkok - a fabulous living here.  And, its really not that difficult for an early-morning type such as yourself.

[opebo]

I do believe I would be good at it.

No.

What's to be 'good' at, guys?  That's like asking 'would he be good at being a garbageman?'  The whole trick of it is to stomach it.  I think he can stomach it.

[opebo]

...a good shaper of minds.

Oh good lord.  Stop discouraging him, guys.  Teaching is NOT a job that requires special talent.  It is a job that requires stomaching abysmal pay and loads of unpleasant duty - rather like most jobs.  

One thing the neophyte teacher better understand from the get-go - you aren't going to shape anything, much less a young 'mind'.

[opebo]

We don't want young minds destroyed, opebo.

It is rare any teacher has any significant effect on young minds, Grumps, and a BushOK type of teacher would only reinforce convention.  You have to be worried - marginally - about the intelligent, open-minded skeptic in the role of teacher, not the deluded conformist.

[opebo]

The idea of Bushie teaching children represents what's worst about America.

Seriously?  Teachers only get like $30,000/year, who do you think will become a teacher?   If they'd double or triple the salary it might attract someone a bit more exciting.

As it is they'd be lucky to get someone like BushOK.

Surely he can claim some sort of "disability" payment from the government? He does seem to have plenty of ailments, one of them must qualify.

No.  It is too much to difficult to get this kind of a dole, and that is something much more 'wrong with america' than what kawledgt refers to.

[opebo]

Most teachers are starting off at 40 grand. Teachers make good money, and have great benefits.

Haha, no.  It is a grim job with horrific working conditions and survival level pay.  The starting salary is well below 30k, and even at the height of one's career one barely makes enough to support a family.  Yes, so far they do get things like real health insurance and a sort of pension, but as we all know, every effort is being expended to take away even these small sops.

[opebo]

Yeah.. I'm going to just let opebo keep living in his fantasy world, mainly because I know I'm right, and he's wrong.

The table provided above shows I am right - if the average starting salary country wide is $30,000, it is assuredly less in the Midwest and South (balancing out the civilized zones).  And after 15 years of work they rise on average to less than $45,000 - as I said, not really enough to raise a family.

Teachers are paid absurdly low salaries, my friend. I wouldn't blame them for actively sabotaging their 'duties' as a form of protest. 

[opebo]

Opebo, you said that teachers get $30,000 a year and that the starting salary is well below $30,000.  In some areas, it may be below $30,000, but that's not what you said.

The general point - that it is a miserable job, with abysmal pay, certainly stands unassailable.

I know the starting salary was around 26-27,000 a few years ago in Missouri, because some poor unfortunates I know had to resort to it.  It is very difficult to live on such a salary - it is a subsistence - and of course in many cases they never progress to the career-topping (haha) $45,000 (itself inadequate to raise a family properly) because they leave the thankless profession long before that.

[opebo]

I have to say it is completely crazy that jobs don't allow people a couple of weeks off to go somewhere on holiday - such as Kenya.  Such holidays should be required to be paid, by law.

My sympathies to all of you, not just BushOK, facing this oppressive environment.

[opebo]

I may have just found me a new city to live in!

Did you just intentionally but subtly reference the 1980s band 'the Talking Heads'?  Personally I find that rather cool.

BushOK, best of luck to you.  It appears I may be unemployed soon, and I fear I'm far less employable than your good self.