I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide

No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent

And you know what? I don't think I fit here in the United States either. There has always been this frustration because what society seems to want me to do is not what I want to do at all. And that frustration has been growing pretty strong over the last few years, to the point it feels like I'm chafing in clothes that just don't fit. Maybe they used to fit, I don't know. But now, they certainly don't.

All it takes is a little time in front of the TV to see the advertising presented for the general public. You need a new car. You need new clothes. You need a new phone. Oh, but you need a Verizon Droid phone instead of an iPhone, don't forget that. You need a diamond engagement ring for your fiancee-to-be. You need a Mac so you can be a smirking jackass that looks down on the rest of the computing world. You need a PS3 because it only does everything. But you need an XBox 360 Elite CoD:MW2 Special Edition because it has HDMI and does 1080p. And don't forget all the games you need, at $60 a pop. And you definitely need to get maintenance insurance for your car, because Lord knows you might need to replace your entire engine and that costs $4000 or more.

I think as a society, we're far too concerned with the shineys. You know what it is? We've got such a cushy first-world life that all we can concern ourselves with anymore is the shineys. We have no worries larger than getting the latest app for our iPhone that makes it look like we're drinking a beer. We don't have to worry about growing our own food. We don't have to worry about finding shelter, or keeping predators away. We have vehicles that always start and are capable of taking us hundreds of miles in just a few hours with no more effort on our part than operating the controls.

And it kills me! The job I used to have was so amazingly unfulfilling at the end. I'd go in and sit in front of a screen for 8 hours and come home beat. Why? What did I do all day that would make me tired? If I'm going to come home tired, I'd much rather it be because I was hauling boxes in a warehouse, or farming up vegetables or digging trenches. Come home tired but have something to show for it, and feel like I'd actually accomplished something, that I'd sweated and done an honest day's work.

Funny thing though... blue-collar jobs here are almost always looked down upon. Like if you have to actually go do manual labor instead of sitting behind a desk shuffling papers, you're a sub-class citizen. Why is that? Who do you think makes sure the food gets to the stores so you can buy it? Who do you think makes sure the power lines stay up, the water keeps flowing and who hauls away your trash every week? What if all the blue-collar jobs just disappeared? How quickly would this society collapse on itself?

Moving away from Los Angeles probably helped some (although I'm not sure I fit in the PNW either), but I'm beginning to worry that the only real cure will be moving to some second-world or third-world country where I have to physically work for a living. And I think if had to do that, I'd be truly happy there. Because there's got to be more to life than new cars. And new clothes... and new phones... and new shoes... and new computers...