A Long Day

Regular readers know that I believe in Capitalism. I think that people who work for a living are engaged in a much more noble pursuit than, say, bank robbers or politicians. I believe that the free market works, and that providing a product or service of value to others in exchange for remuneration is a dandy way of satisfying a society's needs. I am quite happy to be employed, and am proud of the contributions my company is making to the world.

Unfortunately, my genetic makeup doesn't seem to be well-suited to the workaday world. Oh sure, I possess skills and talents that my employer values, and I think I effectively apply them toward achieving the company's goals. But if I took an aptitude test to determine what sort of position I am ideally suited for, the results would probably indicate something more along the lines of "sitting in a hot tub", or "taste testing fried cheese products".

The other problem is that my brainpower fades as the day goes on. So when I ended up staying at the office until 7:00 on Monday night, I was pretty much a zombie by the time I did finally get home.

So what does this have to do with the picture at the top of the post? Well...absolutely nothing. I was doing a search for a graphic to represent the plight of the common wage earner, and through the various linkages and cognitive connections provided by the Internet, I ended up on a page that talked about the Monopoly Guy (aka "Rich Uncle Pennybags"). You know the guy I mean -- he shows up on Community Chest cards, flaunting his wealth by wearing a top hat and growing a Jamie Hyneman mustache. Anyway, some creative Photoshopist had Pennybagged Picard...and seeing it made me laugh. So I decided to share the image with you.

You're welcome.

The downside of this little diversion is that it completely derailed what was intended to be a serious discussion of the character-building properties of honest labor, and of the motivations that cause a natural-born slacker such as myself to burn the midnight oil (so to speak) in service of his employer. I seem to have forgotten all the pithy points I had planned to present, and no longer have the desire to discuss the topic. I will say this, though -- the complexity of designing advertising materials grows by the square of the number of people involved. The old standard about a camel being a horse that was designed by a committee...well, it absolutely rings true.

The good news is that the project was completed. The required agreements and buyoffs were obtained. Deadlines were met (pretty much), and all participants were still speaking to each other. (And it goes without saying that passive voice sentence quotas were satisfied.) If I were the kind of guy who could tolerate staying up later at night, there might have been an appropriate moment to say "It's Miller Time,"...but it was all I could do to insert my depleted carcass between the sheets for the night.

If I do manage to get more rest and find that I'm fully recovered from this late-night labor, perhaps I'll make another attempt at a philosophical discussion. In the meantime, I'll just continue to laugh at Riker's reaction, and will go back to the office to see what other tasks are in store for me. Wish me luck, and have a great day!