So, today was my last day at Lick Art Materials. No, I didn't forget the B, and I am justified in leaving it out because the sign on the store was lacking a B today, until it was fixed in the afternoon.
How fitting.
Anyhow, it was a good enough day. I'll miss everyone (excluding the customers) and will be staying in touch. I feel odd, as I always do when I shift jobs - not everyone has these feelings the way I do, the average lifespan of a job for me has been a year, the longest being 2 years. I'm sad to leave cool people behind, a bit nervous about starting something new and having to go through training AGAIN. A little worried about things working out. But, I won't know for sure until I try.
I'm finally getting something I want - at least I think I want - to work at home.
I realize that it will effect my homelife differently, and likely I may become stir crazy, but considering how little I hang out with people anymore, will it be a bad thing to want a push out of the nest?
I can get by with little human contact and still keep myself busy and happy longer than most. By nature, I am an introvert. You wouldn't know that if you saw how I acted at work. The last time I had a group to be this social with on a regular basis was high school. I do believe my social skills have imprived some as a result.
So, now I will naturally turn tail and wall myself up to read about death and despair when not cranking out crafts or art.
I may almost become a GOTH again. heh. Think not.
Ah, the ebb and flow of subcultures. I'm not sure what people would try to label me at this point if they saw me. Nothing really fits, and I'm fine with that. Goth was a shoe that fit for a while, until the shoe stepped into a steaming pile of stereotypical shit. And folks, shit smells. That shoe went in the trash.
I'm not much for elitism. it tastes bad, looks ugly, and calls your mom names.
Apparently, there's a new flavor of it that I've been trying to ignore, but nonetheless manifests in painfully obvious ways because of where I've been working.
HIPSTER. There are various definitions, but like any other subculture that is trying to distinguish itself from the mainstream, it only succeeds in enslaving people who are under the misguided impression that they are being edgy into following yet another form of conformity.
After one of my co-workers tried to accuse another one of my co-workers of being a hipster, I became interested in the psychological experiment that is subculture formation and decided to do a little research.
I am glad to say, that according to the guidelines I cannot be classified as a hipster because my taste in beer exceeds the imbibing of glorified toilet water, my thrift store outfits don't usually look like they are from a thrift store, i know people who have actually heard of my music even if it is obscure, i wash my hair, my glasses have pale rims, and while i spend a lot of time making art, I don't really feel the need to hang out in coffee shops talking about it and looking supremely bored and above it all.
I could go more into what hipsters are and aren't supposed to be, but I'll let urban dictionary do that for me:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hipster
And the onion amused me too.
Two Hipsters Angrily Call Each Other 'Hipster'
March 29, 2006 | Issue 42•13
AUSTIN, TX—An argument between local hipsters Dan Walters and Brian Guterman has devolved to the point where each is angrily calling the other "hipster," those close to the pair reported Monday. "Hey, hipster! Here's 12 bucks—why don't you go get yourself a bucket of PBRs at the Gold Mine?" Walters, 22, is said to have told Guterman, 22, invoking the name of a local bar known for its "poseur" clientele. "Whatever you say, scenester," Guterman allegedly replied. "Don't you have a Death Cab For Cutie show to be at right now?" Acquaintances of Guterman and Walters trace the long-running conflict back to high school, when they reportedly threw pencils at each other and argued about who was more "emo."
I don't like labels, I tire of them. However, sometimes people like to play these little stereotype games. The words yuppie, goth, and hipster are offensive to people...and yet so many are doing everything they can to fit the preformed mold whether they realize it or not. As much as we don't want to be labeled, some of us are letting ourselves. There's a reason why the stereotypes persist. I don't know of another easy way to describe a person in their 30's or forties who drives up to the art store in a lexus, chatting on their cell phone the whole time except for when they want to buy some awfully designed post-modern looking frame or kolo album and then argue the price which they can easily afford.(while their child who should be on a leash makes whatever is in their wake look like the aftermath of the apocalypse)
Ok, I guess there is a second kind of word for this kind of person.
That would be asshole.
But, as Type O Negative would say, shit comes in all hues.
"Yuppie" is still the best descriptor for a distinct pattern that keeps getting repeated.
I don't like the fact that i call people yuppies or hipsters, but what am I to do when I am faced with a carbon copy of a stereotype? It's a form of judgement to label people like jars of jam. I've been trying to judge people less at my (former) job but i'll be damned if some people don't force the label on themselves.
This is the crux, the fact that people don't have enough courage to really say "fuck it" and just be who they are. I know it took me a long time to get past the phase of fitting into a certain category, so i can see how college kids could fall into the HIPSTER thing so easily. But....
There are so many people both younger and WAY older than me who still feel the need to follow a recipe, a script. An equation that gives a meaningless answer.
Because the "Mainstream" is either uncomfortable, or uncool, or dangerous to some because of the dreaded conformity issues, people continue to splinter off into little subgroups that get created like viruses, and may start out based on the ideas of someone who was going against the grain. The fact that they gain followers because they are "cool" or "hip" doesn't say much good about human nature in that those who do follow are only being sheep. They aren't really being themselves, they aren't being cool for who they are, they simply see a formula that they think they can fit into. It's like letting someone else do all the work instead of forming your own personality.
Since when was it cool to be like someone else?
(dumbass question)
Blah blah blah.
I'm hungry.
I should have a beer.
If those 2 are connected, I know not.
