The Moon Garden Lounge

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNIEMOON! This is not a birthday video, although I always find it by typing "joe cocker happy birthday" on youtube. I laugh out loud every time I watch it.



And especially for your birthday,

Don't know if you're a Leon fan (genius songwriter IMO), but he's in pretty good company here. Wish I could have been at Willie's 70th concert.

A Song For You.........................

You are right...that really is funny! I am glad you found your new love tonight...great birthday ending!

My special feline friend is waiting patiently for me to indicate it is bed time! He absolutely loves the night...he waits till I signify it is that time by turning on the BR light...he runs, mewing with happiness and excitement, and leaps on to the bed and then mews at me till I join him!! It is really endearing. He purrs so loudly you would think his little heart would jump right out of his chest.

He almost looks at me like I am a monster tease if I head to the BR earlier in the evening to get something and then do not follow through...he sits in his bed and stares at me...not wanting to give up on the notion that I am headed there....haha...a little like us not wanting to give up on the idea that Adam will somehow end up in a judges chair at AI.

Well I think I will go make my Goffman a happy kitty...:-)

This is going to be a bit of a post and run I am afraid, as I have a busy day ahead. I was thinking about the whole judging thing and Adam losing out to Randy because R did not want to leave. or at least, this is how it looks...

This is what is happening in the educational system as well and it is crippling the system. Educators at the top are refusing to retire....in the Universities, those full professors add prestige and gravitas to the system but they do not [for the most part] do anything like the work they should be doing to keep the system going. The often earn upwards of 3 to 4 times what a new tenure track prof would make, and each of those would teach a minimum of 5 courses a year and many schools would have them doing much more than that. That full prof's wages would support even more sessionals...7 or 8.

Most full profs no longer bother with administrative work at all and universities hire sessionals and grad students for the bulk of the undergrad teaching. They need to support a lot of grad students to do this teaching as there are union rules and practical reasons for keeping the teaching loads of these sessionals minimized. This means that the tenured and tenure-track Assoc. profs are doing all the admin. work and much of the grad supervising. Those esteemed full profs get the pick of the PhD cohort and the rest of them along with all the MA students who are TA'ing for the senior Grad students go to the same overworked few Associate and Assistant profs....who are rarer and rarer as the universities are still locked into paying those high $'s to the aging Full Profs.

If it seems complicated...it is. Fewer and fewer PhD students are completing and those that are, find it difficult to impossible to find secure work. They end up teaching 4 and 5 courses a semester, often at multiple schools, just to scrape by....a very disappointing lifestyle after attending higher ed for 10 to 12 years.

The last semester before I dropped my studies, I was teaching 1 course each at 2 universities, 1 at a community college, 1.5 for a university but fully web-based, and for part of that semester, I also taught the part-timers at a Beauty Academy. At the same time, I was supposed to be writing my dissertation....I got to where I could barely roll out of bed in the morning ....so I dropped everything, took what I could fit in my car, and drove across the country to the little island I live on now!!

I am pretty broke and back to doing hair but I would not go back to that now for anything....I only tell this story because it is symptomatic of what is going on all over the country. I happen to be of the age of those refusing to leave but in the position of those who are trying to crash the barricades. The people hanging on to their positions feel they have the right to stay if they want and they refuse to be honest about what their staying actually means to the young people coming up, and to the system itself. The economic downturn simply gave increased justification. But that economic downturn is even worse for the younger generations....and they were not the ones to get our world into that position.

Relate this to Adam....well....it was Randy hanging on to a position he has had for some time and is not that great at, knowing he was leaving Adam hanging....and refusing to step aside...sigh...

PS....this is not about 'pushing the elderly aside'....my concern is that most of these long time profs are simply not pulling their weight...not even close. They are effectively living the life of a semi-retired person but with all the perks and pay of full time. If you want to work, you have to work. jmho

Thanks for letting me rant.....got to go do hair....hehe...best job in the world if I did not have to stand...:-)

chapf -- wonderful.

Did you know the Apollo 11 astronauts promised to look for the Chinese moon goddess and her rabbit? I believe Buzz Aldrin said, "We'll keep an eye out for the bunny girl."

mszue, your post reminded me of what is so great about having the moon garden, the chance to talk about these larger connections without being OT. This societal problem illustrated by Randy and Adam is huge.

When I took economics, I learned that the "normal" unemployment rate is 4 percent -- that is, normal shifting around of people changing jobs, leaving school, etc. The unemployment rate among those under 30 today is over 12%. That is huge. By contrast, the rate over 50 is 6 percent; over 62, just 4 percent.

The reason is that people are not retiring, just like Randy. Many were wiped out in the crash 4 years ago. No one can earn their money back or build anything for the future because of low interest rates and the inability to sell their homes. Therefore, they camp out on jobs they may have given up under normal circumstances.

I have found where I live that senior level jobs are opening up only when someone retires or dies. No one is creating new positions. Take Adam -- we have talked here about what a host he would make of a new and wonderful variety and talk show, but where is the creativity and investment to make that happen?

At least he hasn't been reduced to "Stars Earn Stripes" yet. From what Eber has said of Adam's early years, somehow I can't see Adam in Navy seal training.

Seriously, the issue you raise is one of the many that makes me feel afraid when I think about the future sometimes, and that isn't even counting the dreadful events overseas. A lost generation is being created before our very eyes.

And those stats say nothing of the underemployment. Who among us who saw Adam perform with Queen this summer could argue that he is not currently underemployed?