H is for sucking at life

So beginith the rant:

If you know me you know that I have a raw seething hatred of all things "reality TV" I have a hard time watching the Ultimate Fighter on SPIKE even though I have been an avid MMA fan for years (thanks God for allowing us to have the brainpower to invent the DVR allowing me to pre-record the whole show and fast forward to the actual fights... Really who wants to see grown men bickering over who stole their stickers and who said whose butt was fat... Or whatever they talk about between the fights.) Back on topic. For some reason this reality crap continues to grow and mouth breathers continue to watch it allowing for a parade of stupidity to overrun my airways. Even the most educational of television stations have fallen prey to this disease of stupidity.
Starting with Discovery, and their deadliest catch, but I don't mind it. Not because I enjoy the show but it falls under the scope of documentary with Mike Roe narrating the story and filling in the situations with facts. Yes, the show has leaned toward the obvious "drama" but still holds to the, "see what happens when people risk their lives on the frozen sea to yank crab from the mud on the bottom" premise.
But the station that has fallen farthest from grace is History "H". I used to have this station trained on all the time. One could do a brief run through the tripe being peddled on the other stations and find their dials on H and know that they would be educated. Either by how the stuff we have came about with Modern Marvels. Or, you could get the opportunity to get a in depth view of a classic battle from WW2 or some ancient civilization. My personal favorite was the Gunny's Mail Call that told me about obscure weapons used in past and present warfare. You could even find some shows about the Bible and some were even well done showing the historical context of some of the more common known stories.
Now, the stations is held together with Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, not one, not two, but three logging shows, and a show called American Pickers about two junk peddlers digging through hillbilly hoarder's trash piles. How did that become history? How is that educational?

When did the people at the station go:
"Well ladies and gentlemen. We have had a good run with shows with educational value. Yes, I know we have thrown in some weird stuff about Roswell and UFO's in the world wars, but even those obscure shows feature some historical context. But now we are going in a new direction. We are going to make shows that feature nothing educational. In fact most of these shows will rob people of intellect, possibly undoing years of our programmings good work. Why? you may ask. Money. More people want to stay dumb than learn stuff. More people want to watch people bleep cussing out of conversations and react to normal daily situations... Well scripted normal daily situations. I know. I know. It seems like we are selling our soul here, but we can't put all our eggs in that "people who actually like quality educational informative programs to learn new stuff" basket. All in favor?.... I see the I's have it."?

But I'm not here to talk about H's dive to the dark side of reality TV. No, I'm here to point out the ripple effect that crap programming has. As the mind numbing garbage of reality spread to more time slots more and more "stupid" people... Wait why did I use parenthesis for stupid there? I'm not one to try not to offend. If you watch reality TV you like stupid TV. And unfortunately you are part of a demographic of people with sub par scholastic goals. No, I'm not calling you stupid, but if you were to gather with your peers who also enjoy those shows you would call them stupid. If not.. then you are too stupid to know and you probably gave up reading this when you saw the words.
Dang it... back on task. The other shows had to watered down to make the other not crap reality time slots appealing for this demographic of trash eaters. Which I'm sure is how we got the programming gold that was "Ancient Aliens".
This show went about "proving" or "offering" that the greatest achievements of man were in fact the work of aliens. A professor from a college that I was too bored to remember, the moral of the story is this jackass is teaching people for a living, was convinced that the great pyramid was a power plant that turned hydrogen to a focused beam of microwaves that could charge up the batteries of passing mother ships... Just let that sink in for a minute.... An f'n pyramid with no moving parts... made of rock...
The next and what I think was the creme de la creme (or is it crem de la crem... who cares) was the three educated men, doctors, professors who all agreed that he Ancient of Days (AKA GOD) who delivered manna from heaven was in fact a nuclear powered algae refining machine that used water vapor from the morning air to start the process of cultivating and producing a high protean green algae that could sustain an entire nation of people while roaming the desert of the middle east. (turns out NASA lets astronauts eat green algae, and it work as a super food... kind of like soilent green only less peopley) No the ancient Hebrews didn't come up with the machine on their own. Some nice aliens dropped it off for them. Wait there is more. These "experts" also came to the conclusion that the ark of the covenant was probably the nuclear reactor core of the device which is why those who touched it, came close to it, and opened it died. In case the question of "How did an ancient people handle nuclear materials let alone a reactor core?" was the wrench keeping the cogs of this idea from spinning in your mind.

I have come to terms with people trying to use science to explain some of the great mysteries of God's powered chronicled in the old and new testaments. Even though I see this a fools errand because at best they are just describing the "how" not the, "how could that happen at just the right moment?" I also understand that intellectuals are terrified of God because His existence makes them just people, and they must be more important than that.
Sadly, that show went on the air. Which means money was spent to make it. Which means that the idea was pitched to investors. Which means that people with means saw this subject matter as valid and in need of dissemination. Or even worse that these morons received grant money from a government or used university money to produce this.
Why does this crawl in my craw?
Because it makes a mockery of my God?
Because it proves that those who can't teach?
Because I fear my tax dollars made it?
No, because this show was allowed to exists and FIREFLY was canceled. The only way I sleep at night in a world like this is with the knowledge that there is a just and loving God who will right the wrongs of this world... Or beep and whip me up an algae smoothie.

So Endith the rant:

a trip

So beginith the rant:

I recently took a trip to Oklahoma to visit my family. This trip was long over due and I have recently found myself in a position to take a week long jaunt. My visiting of family and friends was great and recharged the batteries, if you will. The only downside, if you consider it a downside, is I chose to drive rather than fly. The drive is 13 to 15 hours depending on the method of driving and traffic, and takes me across 4 states.
On this drive I made one observation, which I will first context with this phrase, "If everyone is supposed to strive to be rich and famous we would have no janitors." I like this phrase. I can't remember where I heard it but I know I didn't come up with it. If I did then I'm pretty awesome, and have come up with a phrase that I often think about.
You see this phrase implies two things.
One, that not everyone will be rich and famous. Which is true. We will not all get fifteen minutes let alone fifteen seconds.
Two, if everyone strove to be rich and famous the jobs on the low end of glamor such as custodial work would be left vacant. Because we all know the best way to get noticed and become rich is to be scrubbing a toilet.
Why is this phrase significant? Why is it in my mind after two 14 hour road trips a week apart?
On my travels I stopped for gas three times coming and three times going. Each in a different area of the states I crossed. When on these short stops I generally like to do some jumping jacks, stretch my legs, and relieve myself. This has allowed me to see a cross section of bathrooms in truck stops. And one thing I can say is "Grrrmnthmmgag" that's my typing of the that dry heave noise we all make when we trigger our gag reflex.
I know that at times the rigors of being a gas station worker can be busy. Every now and then you'll have a rush of people and a line at the register that may even take 20 minutes to clear. I know this because I have worked at a convenience store. But the fowl condition of these restrooms rivaled any privy I may have had to use in the backwoods while camping. In more than one case I could smell the offending water closet before I could see the door. These dank urine soaked hell holes showed days of neglect, and no convenience store is so busy that a person can't find ten minutes to run a mop and broom, maybe even a rag and a cleaner.
The moral of this story is sometime in our society we have made it so stigmatizing to take pride in your job, even if its just a lowly gas station attendant whose responsibility could include the frequent mopping and cleaning of a bathroom, that those who find themselves in that position just provide a warm body to push buttons on a register and get offended if you ask them to print a gas receipt.
I guess what I'm going to wrap up with is this. Too many people just show up to work for their paycheck. They feel because they have graced the place with their presence they are entitled to pay and those paying are lucky that they did. This entitlement mindset keeps people from looking at where they work and thinking, "Wow, I'm lucky to even have a job. What can I do to make this place better and therefore my job better?"
Yes, I connected the filthiness of gas station bathrooms to the decline of the United States work ethic, and they both stink.

So endith the Rant.