More Fun Than You Really Wanted, part II of V

[Adios]

Andy Gibbs.....OH HELL NO

[Richter]

Well done, both this and the first.  Comments aren't posting today, and the brain is full of fuck and yarg.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

I used to have a brother like that until he went too far and I disowned him.

[Adios]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

I used to have a brother like that until he went too far and I disowned him.

I was that person once.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

I used to have a brother like that until he went too far and I disowned him.

I was that person once.

That's really hard for me to believe.

[Adios]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

I used to have a brother like that until he went too far and I disowned him.

I was that person once.

That's really hard for me to believe.

Knocking down over $95K a year, full of myself and in the top 10% of Denver area Realtors. I knew everything, all you had to do was ask me.

[Phox]

Wow, Roger, you've really been cranking them out these days. And they've all been fantastic.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

I used to have a brother like that until he went too far and I disowned him.

I was that person once.

That's really hard for me to believe.

Knocking down over $95K a year, full of myself and in the top 10% of Denver area Realtors. I knew everything, all you had to do was ask me.

It's nice to know that people can recover from that. What did it take?

[Juana]

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Wow, Roger, you've really been cranking them out these days. And they've all been fantastic.

I've been awfully Tucson for a month or so.

[Aucoq]

Gary is a moderately successful businessman.  When I say "moderately", I mean that he lives in a 2400 square foot house, keeps a Hummer3 and a Lincoln Navigator in the driveway, and kept all that through the downturn (People like Gary use the word "downturn"...To many people it's "When I lost everything".).

He's a Calvinist who is well-respected within his community (meaning he puts a hundred in the plate a church every week, and gives just enough to all the right charities.).  He's a true believer in Calvinism, mostly because it tells him that his riches are proof that God loves him, and those less well off than him are in that situation because they aren't "the elect", as he is, and thus God doesn't care about them.  It makes him feel good about himself, and more comfortable about the wealth he has amassed.

Gary's a busy man, too.  He's always on the deal, always ready to jet out to China or India to make sure that things flow in a manner that directs more money into his accounts.  He is in fact so busy that he hasn't noticed that his youngest boy is developing some rather expensive and debilitating habits.  His oldest kid's excesses finally reached the point where they couldn't be swept under the rug anymore, so he had the kid shipped off to military school, where the kid's problems wouldn't interfere with his conference calls.

He's so busy that he answers his cellphone on the rare occasions that he takes his wife out to dinner.  At parties, he talks about deals...While his wife smiles that painful, embarrassed smile that says "I wish I could say he isn't always like this".  He hasn't got a clue that she hates him like poison, and wouldn't have any idea why she does, if he DID know it.

Gary's an easy guy to hate.  Too easy to hate, in fact, because the simple fact of the matter is that Gary hasn't got anything.  He's a human doing, instead of a human being.  All his toys and his money and his deals will not remember him after his death - or retirement, which is basically the same thing for someone like him - the way a proper man's family will remember him when he dies.

Gary is a cipher.  He's a human-shaped hole in the world.  He's a bank account where a soul belongs, with "assets" for employees and strangers for family.  He can never, ever stop running.

And he is the sum product of 65 years of American culture.

Chew on that a while.

Or Kill Me.

 

[Jasper]

I used to think my entire maternal family was Gary, but then I got to know them.  They're actually quite a bit saucier and weirder than I took them for, and apparently they were just acting normal for the kids.  Catholics, man.  Crazy people.

Ack- Slow down Sig.  You forgot to mention how much you love this.

[Adios]

Augh

This made me shudder, and brought to mind the sudden self-congratulatory, condescending smugness that some people get when they "move up in the world", which to them is what making a lot of money means. Like my ex, going from a copy boy to a programmer earning six figures... he looks down on us common folk now. Or Mr. Language's former best friend, who went into management and now regards people who hold ideals that are incompatible with corporate interests as "immature".

My brother was like that for a while.

I used to have a brother like that until he went too far and I disowned him.

I was that person once.

That's really hard for me to believe.

Knocking down over $95K a year, full of myself and in the top 10% of Denver area Realtors. I knew everything, all you had to do was ask me.

It's nice to know that people can recover from that. What did it take?

A mirror. It told me I was a prick.