Being on time

I am very time oriented when I work. I used to do fixed price contracts and you had to know how long things took to do that. One of the things people don't seem to understand is that if you want to be somewhere on time you have to leave on time. If a meeting runs late it pretty much guarantees you will be late for the next meeting, which may in turn make that meeting run late. If everybody showed up on time and used the meeting time effectively the meeting would end on time. Simple, but lots of people don't seem to get it.

Courage

I have met a lot of people who are lacking in courage. Courage to say no, courage to say what they mean, courage to stand up for what they believe in. It is discouraging to see this but I think is our societies fault. We raise children to do what they are told and not disobey adults. We reward uniformity and discourage independent thought. We need to encourage people to think for themselves and act on what they believe in.

Life

I hate it when people lie to me or put off telling me something because they don't have the courage to say something. It is very annoying. Just tell me the truth. Tell it to me nicely if you think it will hurt my feelings but just tell it to me. Lies and half truths only make things worse.

Cows go moo

I have been busy at work lately so haven't posted much. Which I suppose is okay since only a couple of people actually read this, but I really should try to keep it up. I did have some good ideas for posts but they are gone, I was too busy at work to record them and now they have wandered off and gotten lost. I hope they are okay and haven't been killed by cars or are living as crack addicts in some cheap flop house in the inner city. Poor sad lost ideas. I would pray for them if I believed in that sort of thing. I wonder if all prayers go to heaven or if some wander off and get lost. Poor sad lost prayers. I would pray for them if I didn't think it would just perpetuate the cycle.

I cannot believe how hung up people are on looks

It is amazing how many people make important decisions based on looks along. What is even more amazing is that some of them know they are doing it and try to justify their decisions. It is mind boggling.

I have been working in software development for over 30 years and not once has a computer program run incorrectly because of the way I look. And yet people making hiring decisions are influenced by appearance.

I have worked with or spoken to a bunch of men and women who are unhappy with the people in their lives, yet they chose those people primarily on appearance. And when they go to find a new person they also chose by appearance.

Of course not everybody uses appearance as the primary criteria but lots do. It is amazing.

Communication

Communication is one of those problems that I can't seem to solve, and as a dedicated problem solver that really annoys me. I have worked hard to improve my communication skills, yet the ability to communicate clearly keeps eluding me. I know one of my problems is that I don't explain enough and while I recognize the problem I keep making the same mistake over and over. But there are other problems that I just can't identify. It is very frustrating.

Anybody have any solutions?

My thoughts on the ethical treatment of animals

I am a strong believer in the idea that all people are equal. I have never understood the arguments that skin color, sexual orientation, strength, or even genetics makes one person more important or "better" than another. To me it is fairly obvious that people all have different qualities, some good and some bad, but all come out about the same. There are some people (such as rapists) that I feel the world could certainly live without but that doesn't in my mind conflict with the idea of people being equal.

But what about animals? Are we better than them? No, because technically people are animals. We are just a different class of animal. But to make the wording simpler I am going to refer to people and animals instead of people being a type of animal.

I have met people who treat all animals badly, others that treat animals with indifference, and a few that view them as having equal rights as people. Each philosophy has its points but for myself if I had to choose between an animal dying or a person dying it would be a no brainer. I value people more than I value animals. People have a higher intelligence (at least in general).

But just because I value people more than animals doesn't mean I treat animals badly. I eat animals for food but I want the animal killed as painlessly as possible and raised as painlessly as possible. I do not go out of my way to cause pain in animals. I do not have a pet because I am away from home a lot and they would be very bored sitting inside all day.

I am having trouble with the wording of this post, but here are some of my thoughts so I don't lose them:

Wild animals should be left alone where possible. If they are a pest they should be killed as painlessly as possible but we should in no way try to improve their lives. Feeding or trying to help a wild animal always ends up causing more pain in the long run and not less.

Pets should be treated well. If you can't treat them well give them to somebody who can. If there isn't anybody then they should be killed as painlessly as possible. A painless death if better than a life of pain.

Food animals should be raised in decent, clean environments then killed as painlessly as possible. An animal should be given a decent lifespan, not killed when it is very young. A middle ground needs to be sought over giving an animal a decent lifespan and the quality of the meat.

There are good animals and bad animals, the same as there are good and bad people. A dog that attacks a person should be killed outright even if that causes it pain. We need to balance the pain we cause it with the pain it causes others.