I won’t give up on you
These scars won’t tear us apart
So don’t give up on me
It’s not too late for us
And I’ll save you from yourself
And I’ll save you from yourself

Our legs begin to break
We’ve walked this path for far too long
My lungs begin to ache
But still we carry on
I’m choking on my words
Like I got a noose around my neck

I’m not coming home tonight
I’m not coming home tonight
‘Cause dear I fear, dear I fear
I’m not coming home tonight
I’m not coming home tonight
‘Cause dear I fear
This ship is sinking
Is there hope for us?
Can we make it out alive?
I can taste the failure on your lips
Is there hope for us?
Can we make it out alive?
I can taste the failure

Close your eyes
There’s nothing we can do
But sleep in this bed that we made for ourselves
You’re trapped in your past
Like it’s six feet under
I won’t give up on you
These scars won’t tear us apart
So don’t give up on me
It’s not too late for us
I’ll save you from yourself
I’ll save you from yourself
I’ll save you from yourself
I’ll save you from yourself

Try to numb the pain
With alcohol and pills
But it won’t repair your trust
You can’t stand on two fucking feet
With a substance as a crutch

I won’t give up
I won’t give up on you
We’ll play this symphony
I won’t give up
I won’t give up on you
We’ll play this symphony of sympathy

I won’t give up
I won’t give up on you
We’ll play this symphony of sympathy
I won’t give up
I won’t give up on you
We’ll play this symphony of sympathy

Yes lyrics from the band Bring Me The Horizon’s song – The Sadness Will Never End.  I think there are a lot of portions in this we can all relate to on one or more levels.  Hints of lost love, a new love that seems possible but the brambles of the past are still sticking to us, underlying substance abuse all bits and pieces of this song to me.  But yet through this remaining hopeful that there is light in a darker situation or the hopes of light.

Here is the song/video itself

It is Thanksgiving so quick list format of what I’m thankful for.

• My Family
• My friends (going to name some, justin, dj, chris v, chris b, paul, briana, erica, sheena, jessica…if you were left out its nothing personal)
• Modern Medicine (otherwise my mom may not have been here)
• Hot Showers
• A job I love with stable income
• Heartfelt text messages from those you care about
• Health
• Arts (Music, Movies, Literature, Theater)
• Drums
• A heavy, sound sleep
• Laughing/Humor
• Memories
• Rum and Diet Coke
• Good Food
• Online Bill Pay

I’m sure I could go on and on but I feel this captures the whole range of things I am very thankful for.

They way in which we communicate has evolved in leaps and bounds since the days of my parents.  But what has it really done to us?

I remember when I was but a wee lad and landline phones were used to make arrangements for everything.  From party organization, rides to school , meetings and sports events.  What I see has happened now with cell phones is that we have all fallen prey to constant tardiness, laziness and perhaps even a lack of appreciation of someone else’s time.  But why has this happened?  Well, I feel that there is no sense of urgency anymore when you can just call or text when your’e already 20 minutes behind schedule and its expected that it is ok.

Now I know this comes off as a complaint but its both complaint and concern for I see myself falling into this habit more and more frequently.  I also find friends having this bad habit as well. Overall, I think we should be respectful of each others time and put our best foot forward to be on time when within our control.

But what happens when this technology fails us?  When calls drop or even more likely text messages get received late, out of order or not at all?  What transpires is usually one person gets irritated or upset  and all because too much faith was placed in technology.

I feel much like the man to right in this post at times.

But lets look at what the iPad is going to do. With e-book readers starting to gain more and more attention Apple has taken the e-book reader and made it well.. beautiful.  Thats one thing Apple always does and does well.  Make things look great.  And the iPad does look great with its bright and large screen and slim form factor.  Some say that the iPad will save print media.  I would say I do not share that same sentiment.  With colleges like Seton Hill giving every fall enrolled student an iPad and delivering all student course materials to the device I feel Apple’s definitely going to have a foothold in the e-book market.  Whats really going to make this device successful is the app store.  Which before launch of the iPad already has over 1350 unique iPad applications.

Yes, I feel Apple’s new iPad will be a success but I will be waiting to the 2nd or 3rd revision to get the standard features Apple is leaving out on the initial launch.  If you recall it took years to get MMS on the iPhone and getting multitasking took 3 revisions of the device.

My advice, wait and wait some more.  Unless you are independently wealthy and can throw away an extra $600 year over year for a new revision, then go for it.

I suppose the start of my shifting view of the good ol’ rule began approximately 3 years ago when I was utilizing a tuition assistance program that my employer offered. The criteria of this plan was simple… Submit the course information, choose if it applies to your job, get a good grade and BAM!  Said course is paid for.

Now hopefully you caught the main caveat from the above excerpt but if you didn’t it was the  ”applies to your job” portion of the program that is cause for this post.  I was honest when filling out this option for the request of tuition assistance.  BIG MISTAKE!

Lets fast forward to year end of when I received my associates degree in Business Administration (which was not applicable to my position/title with my employer). Hey looky here its also tax time for the year so let me go ahead and get a start on this with my handy dandy turbo tax software.  Ok, how much money can I expect Uncle Sam to give me back?  SCORE!  He is giving me five thous… wait … the text is in red and a minus sign in front of it?  Insert series of expletives … I owe 5800.00 to the government.  How can this be?  So I made the sequence of expected calls to the IRS and the tuition assistance program and lo and behold since I selected does not apply to my current position I have to pay all the taxes on my tuition.  My inquiring mind went to work asking around to other coworkers that have made use of this program and all of them tell me to never , ever select that the courses “do not apply to your position”.

So how was honesty the best policy in that situation??

Ok thats one example.. but lets look at another.

I work with a large customer base from all over the country in my job and because of that I have to adapt from client to client.  However I get more complaints about me to my supervisor because I’m honest with the customers and don’t lie to them just to appease them and get them off my phone like most of my coworkers.  If you call me and your crap is broke I’m going to tell you its broke.  It’s not that I lack tact in relaying the bad news it is just that people I find just want to be lied to and when you challenge  that with old fashioned honesty you get reprimanded for it.

I end with a quote from Billy Bob Thorton from School for Scoundrels.  ”Lie, Lie and Lie Some More”