There are the lists people have deemed fit to put me on using Twitter. It seems about right.

And yet nowhere do I see myself on a list called "Unemployed Losers With No Career and No Prospects Who Have Even Given Up on the Thing They Once Cared About Deeply." I guess I'll have to start that one.

If you've never had the pleasure of playing Gold Miner, you're missing out. Go ahead. Waste an hour. Or two... :-) 

Uh-oh. I just know that this will piss off some of you immensely. And of course some will be made quite happy by it. India has the world's second highest population, does it not? Wow... that's a lot of potential new adherents to libertarianism. 

Oh dear... It would appear that I've broken my promise to post something every day. Of course it would be easy to blame this on my not having an iPhone. Posting stuff using it seems to be ridiculously easy or at least that's what the number of things posted by people with iPhones would suggest. But I don't think I'll ever be one of those cool kids with an iPhone. And furthermore, I think I may have run out of interesting things to say. Yes, I know. You didn't think it was possible. But such a thing can easily happen when a person has no job and nowhere else to go during the day except the gym or the grocery store. Nevertheless, I'll start working now on something interesting for tomorrow.

Starting today (or maybe starting yesterday), I'm going to attempt to post something here at least once a day. After all, there's so much to talk about, complain about, ponder, etc. Surely I shouldn't be at a loss.

Today it was remarkably easy to come up with something. I'm in dire need of contributors for the Daily Daley and would appreciate any volunteers or referrals. We've lost our Monday person and after this week our Tuesday one as well. I myself am also sometimes finding it difficult to post on my day: Thursday. Some days there is no post and these omissions weigh heavily on me. It's just a blog, yes, but I've always prided myself on doing the best job possible with it and staying consistent. Won't you sign on to help? 

This morning there was a delay in getting my breakfast sandwich at the
Starbucks drive-thru window. So after the money had been paid and the
latte had been handed over, there was a bit of a lull and the lady at
the window proceeded to tell me that they were hiring and I should
spread the word. She also said she has a lot of fun working there,
perhaps selling the job a bit too hard. In any event, I was too
embarrassed to admit that, in my sweatpants and Harvard zip-up hoodie
(I didn't go to Harvard) i.e. demonstrably not in any kind of work
attire at a time when people were heading to work, I was actually the
perfect candidate for the job. Sure, I know nothing about working that
confusing-looking coffee machine, but I do really like wearing green,
smiling at people and I also I live approximately two minutes away.
You can't beat THAT commute. This little interlude happened nearly
three hours ago, but I still find myself thinking about it. Should I
apply?

Trying this again. Does anyone know people at The Chronicle, a paper in St. Charles, Illinois? They're hiring and I'd love to know who specifically I should contact.

I mean, seriously. No one in their right mind can be in favor of this boondoggle. Allow the inimitable Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter to explain much better than I could. Please read to the end.

This is the title of the last chapter of Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by well-known cultural critic Neil Postman. You may be more familiar with his book about television or education or one of the other tomes he has penned on various topics. Technopoly is the first of Postman's work that I've read though and it resonated quite strongly with me.

The basic premise of the book is that we are living in an age governed by machines and that this is not a positive development. If you're turned off by this thesis statement, I urge you to fight that feeling of revulsion and read the book anyway. This is not a treatise against iPhones, Twitter, or anything else like that. It has at its core much bigger thoughts and ideas.

Perhaps the thing I liked most about Technopoly is that Postman, in writing it, engaged in one of my favorite activities: questioning the conventional wisdom or status quo (more on convention wisdom when I finish my current read, Freakonomics). Such questioning is an activity I recommend everyone to engage in regularly. Question everything. Rigorously analyze everything. Don't come to conclusions easily or quickly.

But back to this last chapter. In it, Postman lays out what a technopoly resister should commit to. I think they're great ideas and would love it if everyone gave them a try. Should you want to attempt it, Postman asks loving resistance fighters to be people...

1. ...who pay no attention to a poll unless they know what questions were asked, and why;
2. ...who refuse to accept efficiency as the pre-eminent goal of human relations;
3. ...who have freed hemselves from the belief in the magical power of numbers, do not regard calculation as an adequete substitute for judgment, or precision as a synonym for truth;
4. ...who refuse to allow psychology or any "social science" to pre-empt the language and thought of common sense;
5. ...who are, at least suspicious of the idea of progress, and who do not confuse information with understanding;
6. ...who do not regard the aged as irrelevant;
7. ...who take seriously the meaning of family loyalty and honor, and who, when they "reach out and touch someone," expect that person to be in the same room
8. ...who take the great narratives of religion seriously and who do not believe that science is the only system of thought capable of producing truth;
9. ...who know the difference between the sacred and profane, and who do not wink at tradition for modernity's sake;
10. ...who admire technological ingenuity, but do not think it represents the highest possible form of human achievement.