Old Perceptions

The man just inside the door of the Torii beats his hands against his upper arms and stomps his feet. "It's cold!"

"Yeah it is," I laugh. A few days ago I was giving Dreamer shit for complaining about the weather, but I've had to abandon the flipflops myself recently for a pair of sneakers, and I rarely take off my hoodie anymore to run around in a T-shirt, "I can't wait for my winter stuff to arrive."

"Oh?" Billy asks, straightening is lab coat.

"Didn't I tell you? They threatened to impound it and left it all in New England."

"What?"

"Yeah. The state wouldn't let them bring it in because they thought I was importing moths."

"Moths... like ugly butterflies?"

"Yeah it's totally absurd. I stayed home the day they were suppose to deliver and when they missed their dropoff appointment of my crate I called... and that's when they told me it was still in New England."

"That really is absurd," Billy laughed.

"Can't you have them spray it down?" the man in the doorway asked.

"There are no moths in it! Just old computers and clothes!"

"Well to convince them?"

"I filled out some import forms stating there weren't any moths. My stuff is suppose to be here in another 2-3 weeks... unless the shipping company messes up again."

"I have a women's coat in my car," he said.

"Oh...well um... I don't need... I have mine coming you know... in the shipping crate."

"I'm not going to use it."

"I don't want to take your things..."

But Chris was gone again in a gust of cold air which ripped in the doorway, and a few seconds later he handed me a warm heavy jacket.

In college I wore the same light coat all four years through the New England winter, with various layers of sweatshirts and hoodies underneath it. Heavy winter coats were expensive.

The embroidery on the front of the new coat said "The North Face." I remember kids in Waldorf, and rich girls from high school having coats like this.

"I don't..." I said, "want to take your things..."

***

I got paid last week, my first real paycheck. It was combined with my relocation bonus, and even with taxes the amount made me laugh because of how much of a year's cost of living it represented.

It will not be my entire yearly living budget, however. The knowledge of this permits me the luxury of buying things like a single coat which will replace many layers of other clothing.

I dress a lot better than I have in years. There are no tears in any of my clothing, and all of it is relatively comfortable and moderately fashionable; yet I still come across as that kid who is too broke to get herself a winter coat. That's not the person I want to be. There isn't a lot more despicable in my mind than a person who projects a need with isn't real, and which is filled by the charity of others. Charity should go to the people who need it most...

***

I am most certainly not lamenting the change of my financial state, but I find it puzzling at times.

"Atom," I ask, "I'll make more than I need this year. What should I do with it?"

"You need me to tell you that?"

My head filled with the image of filling my home with playpen balls.

"Ok," I corrected myself, "What would a responsible adult do?"

I could hear him grinning through the text box, "You're asking me?"

"Answer the fucking question..."

"Invest it?"

"I don't want to play the stock market."

"A wise choice,"

"But you said..."

"Invest...yes, forex, bank CDs..."

"Whats?"

Atom sighed, "Well, it looks like we have some studying to do, don't we?"

I guess I'm not quite as prepped to not need parents as I'd like to pretend I am.

America Loves a Man Who Served?

Every election everybody is abuzz over who "nobly served their country in its time of need," and how a candidate's military service (or lack thereof) will impact the election. Parties, for as long as I have lived, have had groups come out every election to tout the extent of their candidate's military service or their opponent's lack thereof. The question really is: are candidates who have convinced the public that they served really any more successful than their peers?

Lets look at recent candidates who have flamboyant war stories...such as getting shot or tortured. Who would that be? John McCain (2008), John Kerry (2004) and Bob Dole (1992). All three of them, as I am sure you know, lost their elections.

So, the question comes from this, does military service in general indicate a losing candidate? Lets look at the records. The 1992 and 1980 elections must be skipped for now because they were between two candidates who won at some point. Al Gore (2000) served in the Vietnam war, while Dukakis (1988) and Mondale (1984) served in Korea. Ford (1976) served in WWII (remember, he was president but he never won an election, which is what is in question here). McGovern (1972) also served in that war. Prior to that a good chunk of the baby boomers were not even of voting age, and it gets a little hard to consider everything one contineous culture.

So, now lets examine the other side of the coin. What are the military histories of winning candidates?

Carter and George Bush Senior each won and lost one election. Both of them won against somebody with equal or less military experience, and both of them lost to somebody with no combat experience. Carter (1972) served on a submarine. He won against Ford, who had a considerable record of service, and lost against Regan who never saw battle at all and couldn't serve overseas. George Bush Senior (1988, 1992) served active duty Navy and saw combat. He won against Dukakis (who served) in 1988. Its reasonable to say this didn't break the trend because when both candidates in an election served they can not both lose. He lost to Clinton, who had no record of military service.

George W Bush (2000, 2004) worked first in the Texas Air National Guard and then was discharged to inactive duty in the Air Force Reserve. Various forms of the National Guard have been socially seen as a great way to draft dodge, and were a popular alternative to serving in the Vientam War for particularly well well-connected people. Since social perceptions directly influence elections, its reasonable to say that is what matters here, and that against the candidates George W Bush faced it isn't unreasonable to say that the majority of the public considered him the figure with less military service.

What about the rest of the candidates? Obama (2008) has no military history. Clinton (1992, 1996) employed significant shennanigans to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. Regan (1980, 1984) tried but never saw battle and couldn't serve overseas because of his nearsightedness. Nixon (1968, 1972) was exempt twice over from service, joined anyway and requested multiple times for more demanding duties but retired never seeing combat. This history brings us neatly back, once again, to the time before the baby boomers were of age to vote.

So what can we scientifically conclude from this? Nothing: this is just a statistical correlation. It is, however, a very strong correlation that United States presidental elections have, for the past 40 years, tended very strongly to favor the candidate with less military service.

So, why is this? Hippy baby boomers won't vote for "baby killers" they spent their college years protesting in the streets? Maybe, after all it really does fit the timeline, but I have never heard of a generation who sold their beliefs out so rapidly and wholeheartedly as the baby boomers (upcoming post). Atom proposed that the numerous foreign interests which contribute to our election campeign funds might be more likely to financially support a non-military candidate. That sounds very plausable, but I haven't been able to discover enough election campeign contribution data to really draw correlations either way. Personally, I'm not really ready to break out my tin foil hat quite yet.

What are the odds of this happening by accident? There have been 9 elections since 1972. If for each election a winner was selected at random from the two major parties the odds of it lining up with this exact correlation by random chance would be .19% or just a touch more unlikely than 525 to 1. So, its fairly likely that there is something mathematically to this, but I really haven't a clue what it is. I'd welcome any thoughts on the topic.

Scavengers

White two-person couch for sale. It has seen considerable wear but is still perfectly acceptable by college apartment standards...

I look over the listing for probably the fifth or sixth time. Its a sick part of me that really needs to to prove that I'm a different sort of moron from the other morons on craigslist. I'm the sort who can spell all the words describing precisely what item of trash I am overcharging you for.

I hit send and copy the ad to facebook. One down. All thats left now is the dresser, bookshelves, table, pots, pans, blender, cooking knives, desk, bed...

An IM window pops up, and the same conversation plays out again,

Friend: you're selling all your stuff?
Pika: Yeah, I'll lose less money if I just sell it all than if I pay first to store it then to ship it
Friend: Where are you going?
Pika: back to my old job for 3 months
Friend: and after that?
Pika: not sure

Its an odd feeling to walk around your home, take stock of your possessions, and try to determine which are worth carrying with you onto a plane, and what the rest is worth.

"Its just, when you buy furniture you tell yourself 'That's it. That's the last sofa I'm gonna need, whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem handled.'"

I'm pretty ashamed to be nervous, and I'm pretty ashamed to have any sort of attachment these material possessions in that I am a little sad to see them go.

Its the next day now. Three men are standing around the white ratty old couch, considering it. I find their presence bizarre. I did not expect this to actually work.

"That's a pretty nice dresser," a different voice says at a different time today. This one belongs to a young woman standing in my home in denim shorts and flip flops with a friend. She's making light condescending conversation between noisy chomps on her bubble gum. I can tell she doesn't care much, she has already evaluated the beaten up T-shirt and shorts I'm wearing as PJs, my lack of makeup, and the fact that my room is strewn with computer guts, and decided I'm not really very worthwhile as a person.

They had already loudly informed me they attended the local liberal arts school. A lot of kids here do that, as if this will excuse them if they say something stupid later.

"So you went up the hill?" she asks, pointing at the wall of the room nearest to my former university.

"Yeah"

"What did you study?"

I stand there a split second with a momentary brain jam. What sounds light, and makes easy conversation?

"Computer Science. What do you guys study?"

"Oh," the girls giggle and look at each other, then inform me again that they attend the local liberal arts school. I wasn't previously aware that precluded having a major. There is a pause before the girl with the gum pointed to my dresser.

"Where did you get it?"

I consider for a moment trying to explain snapping my cell phone shut in the warm sunlight as I sat on top of this dresser on some city side road. The free sign formerly attached to the dresser was in my hands and my feet bare swung over the edge in the summer breeze, making little thunk thunk noises as they bounced against the wood which made up the back. I put my cell phone back in my pocket and just lay there on top of the dresser on the sidewalk enjoying the sunshine until my friends came to help me move it. I wonder if the sight of a grown woman doing that amused passers by.

I had originally planned to strip the ugly white paint off it and re-stain the exterior. The inside of the shelves showed the piece was made of nice quality wood that somebody had covered over in a bad paint job. However, the paint job was botched enough that removing it would make it look funny and I resigned to sell it for something less than the original target of $150 because of that.

Where did you get it?

The girl's bubblegum clicks loudly and I snap back to reality.

"Around," I shrugged. It doesn't matter that my answer doesn't make sense because the girl did not honestly care what I had to say. This is the art of small talk. You should hear some of the absurd things I say when people's minds go on autopilot and try to have these idle meaningless chats with me. God knows they never do. The girl just hands me my money and walks off with her new furniture.

I look at the 20's in my wallet and I wonder how far this money will go toward re-buying new replacement belongings when the time comes for me to have them again. I realize I have no grasp for what my belongings are actually worth. I know what replacement ones cost new in a store, I know what competitors would sell the items I sold for, and I have a pretty good estimation of what people will pay for them, but I have no real grasp to their actual value. This is because I took them from a curb where they had no value. My discussions with buyers have given the items a potential value. Sometimes the illusion is strong enough for money to change hands. If, instead of having a discussion, I was to put them back on the street they would have no value again.

I took one microeconomics course in college. I should have taken more. I remember being taught that items are worth precisely whatever people will pay for them but it had never previously struck me quite on this level.

I wander around my home. When was the last time I bought something? I got a laptop for 200 dollars in December. I paid money to get a desk, a table and some cooking supplies the April prior to that.

For the past few years I have lived a very simple life in the anxious anticipation of a real job which would afford me new clothes (which are the one thing I have not mastered salvaging) and the privilege of turning the thermostat as high as I dared in the winter. I cook most of my food from scratch on a rotating meal plan with some friends. The time spent making meals on your night from scratch is offset by not having to cook more than 1/3rd of the time. We make most things ourselves when we need them: shelves, desks, whatever.

I live a very comfortable life. My house is full of belongings. All of them are scavenged from the streets or dumpsters. Nobody can tell, as a matter of fact I did not realize I was living almost purely off of other people's trash until today. Sometimes I polish it up and sell it, and sometimes I live using the object for a few years before I sell it.

I realize now that I never realized how good I had it, that I enjoy this lifestyle, and that if I had paid a little more attention to things here and there that I could have easily lived with both of those things which I wished for and lacked.

There's an email in my inbox from a news reporter who met Magpie and me at a swapmeet where Magpie was selling some very high power RF equipment scraps. He pulled them with some friends from an item they bought on craigslist. If they sell a single piece of the item it will cover the cost he bought the whole thing and leave us lots of scrap to, in the worst case play with, and in the best case sell as well. He already has interested buyers for two chunks. The reporter is fascinated.

The fact of the matter is, I live a very good quality of life due to other people's trash, both using it and making a profit off it.

I walk up to the edge of Magpie's room, head full of thoughts, rounding the corner lean against the doorjam. Magpie is happily typing away at his keyboard on a large home-made desk which covers much of that corner of the room. He faces three identical LCD monitors which he does his work on: all of them taken from dumpsters with bad power supplies and repaired. A fourth monitor which was unrepairable hangs from his ceiling facing down as a work lamp. If there is anybody who epitomizes this lifestyle, it would be him. Magpie bought his car off craigslist for a very small sum. We spend long weekends wandering the junk yard pulling out scraps to bring home. You can call us nuts, you can tell us that our time is worth money and we're not actually saving anything, but I am not sure I will believe it anymore. For one thing all of us work on salary. Secondly, I'm pretty sure that if we were not living like this we'd be buying stupid expensive gizmos to play with and clogging our homes with them instead of ripping things from the trash and making them useful.

Its hard to explain how I live. I guess Atom summed it up best when he called us "The Techno-Amish." Instead of getting together for a barn-raising, notes go out over the IRC channel for an event to replace Ginger's brake lines. We carpool up to the swap meets, many people split the costs of projects. This life would be nearly impossible to live this life outside a community such as this.

My mind flickers back to the image of the girl in the flip flops and the bubble gum before she left with her new belongings. Chomp.

"The shelf is light. I'm not big and the third floor apartment..."

"My new apartment is on the 3rd floor too!"

Sometimes I feel like I don't even know how to hold a conversation anymore.

There is a slight pause before she says, "You planned pretty far ahead when you bought this stuff I guess then."

I smile politely.

A week later I'm hauling down the freeway riding shotgun in a 10 foot UHAUL with the California sun on my face.

Tha-bump.

The UHAUL bounces over a pothole and everything in the back shifts. Among other things it contains four couches, a desk, and a dresser.

"Not a bad haul," I say, looking at the driver.

Supplies grins, mindful of the steering wheel in his hands.

My phone lights up with a text from Pacem, "Pika, you're a star. I'm buying you drinks."

In the first day we got that load and a second load which contained a leather couch, two tables, five chairs (three leather), a small end table, and a nice footrest that matched the couch and the chairs. All it cost was the 130 dollars it cost to rent the UHAUL. Saturday we plan to go out again, after all, we do have to furnish four houses for free.

Really though, not a bad haul at all.