Sibling Role Reversal

I'm the oldest among my siblings. I felt one disadvantage being the oldest when we were children and teenagers. I was the first to make mistakes. My siblings learned from my mistakes growing up. I was the first child my parents raised me. My parents learned from their mistakes raising me. My siblings didn't repeat my mistakes. My parents corrected their mistakes raising my siblings. My siblings were smart students with lots of friends. My parents encouraged my siblings to study hard. I was the opposite. I was an average student with little friends. I felt jealous. I felt weak. I felt my family abandoned me. I felt life betrayed me.

We are adults today. My siblings are making mistakes today. I'm learning from their mistakes which includes raising a family and dating people. I have the desire to avoid repeating their mistakes. I have the desire to get smarter. I don't know why my siblings are regressing? Is it family stress? Is it work stress? Do my siblings stop learning? Do my siblings take life for granted? Do my siblings loss the desire to continue improving? Do my siblings accept their life as good as it gets and can't get better? The answer or answers is yes to more than one question.

Further, I experienced the most problems when we were children. My problems were poor physical fitness except my running speed, mental average intelligence, emotional worrying, emotional cowardness, and social being a loner for some school years. Today my siblings have the most problems. My adult problems are George Constanza problems unemployed and live with my parents. The two problems are nothing compared to my siblings.

One last question which is personal. Am I evil observing and learning from my siblings' mistakes? I forgive my parents for their poor job raising me. I'm an adult. I'm responsible for my successes and for my failures.

Desire Is More Important Than Knowledge

People expected my siblings to work at high paying jobs. Their jobs are typical middle class white collar jobs. I wonder why almost all smart students in high school and college aren't millionaires. Research concludes many millionaires are average C students or dropouts. Do these average C students or dropouts have the desire to learn to become millionaires? Likely yes. Do these average C students or dropouts know what to learn and what not to learn? Likely yes. I'm making a connection between my smart siblings when they were young not becoming millionaires and the millionaires who were average students. Do my siblings (and people like my siblings) lose the desire to continue their education or do they accept their current life not working to improve their lives?

He’s More Than Charming Or She’s More Than A Sweetheart

Single people finding love with one expectation is naive. He just needs to be polite. She just needs to keep the bed warm. He just needs to write love letters. She just needs to cook comfort food on a bad day. He just needs to say "bless you" when I sneeze. She just needs to tell me there's a problem with her car. There are success stories accepting the one expectation because of good chance, good timing, and good luck the couple meets. I was a person finding love with one expectation naively; fortunately, I was a senior in high school. My future wife just needs to be a sweetheart.

Times have changed. Decades ago married couples with one expectation each was valid. He's a nice guy. She's a good cook. The expectations are raised today. He must be more than a nice guy. She must be more than a good cook. Human relationships have evolved with more knowledge. We accept more knowledge to increase our chances of finding lasting relationships.

I have high expectations decades later. My high expectations are not impossible. I have deal breakers such as avoids driving freeways, eats too much junk food, smokes, and hates board games. I have must haves such as enjoys outdoor activities, reads books, financial discipline, and good self-esteem. I'm fortunate I tell a story the woman I'm seeking. A story is powerful. A story is better than the common one liners such as beautiful, intelligent, good smile, *insert hobby one*, *insert hobby two*, and no drugs.

There are single men. There are single women. There is a match for a man. There is a match for a woman. There is chemistry. There is compatibility. There is compromise or give and take. It's supposed to be hard finding love because marriages last till death do us part. A marriage is a one-shot opportunity.

Here's My Story

I'm looking for a woman who is still new in life. She's fresh. She's behind in life. I missed many experiences when I was younger. I'm catching up. I want a woman to join me catching up. We seek new adventures. We experience new experiences. Our bucket lists have too many unchecked boxes. For example, I haven't visited a foreign country outside North America. Canada doesn't count as visiting a foreign country. Another example is playing a song from a jukebox. Get up and do something, anything.

Follow The Money

Deep Throat from the movie All The President's Men told Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to follow the money trail to solve the Watergate scandal. The follow the money thinking applies to careers.

Many of today's career challenges are skills, knowledge, education, and experience. We live in the information age. More careers require advance skills, technical training, indefinite education or self-training, longer hours, and more experience.
More industries are complex, complicated, and difficult. Reference materials, books, notes, YouTube, and Google are required to research, to look up information, and to refresh our skills. Companies pay high salaries to workers who are strong, gritty, intelligent, motivated, and devoted to long hours. Companies pay high salaries to workers with highly demanded experience, best trained, and strong skills.

Some of the most common industries with high salaries include engineers, programmers, medical, scientists, and business. The five industries are changing rapidly. The best way to monitor the changes is job searching. Job postings inform the latest skills and experience. Job postings are up-to-date compared to college career centers and career counselors. Follow the money to learn the education, skills, and experience required in today's evolving industries.

There are some industries salaries have stayed the same. The reason salaries have stayed the same is because nothing changed. The skills are the mostly the same yesterday and today. No technical training or little technical training is required. There is no need for additional education. The hours are the same. Little past experience is necessary. Almost all retail jobs the pay is low. Retail jobs haven't evolved. Post office, waiting tables, cleaning, and bus drivers their pay is low.

College Majors Lower Chances For High Salaries

I don't know how students majoring in humanities, fine-arts, art, music, education, and social science earn high salaries. However, these students can think of ideas earning additional income related to their majors. Podcasting? YouTube? Streaming? Blogging? Write books? Earn an advanced degree? Double major selecting a second major in a technical field or a business field? Generations ago college students can make a living in any major. Today's generation the high salaries goes to people with the latest and greatest skills and experience--the latest and greatest everything.

The workforce is not dumb. The industries are hard.

Update On A Past Blog

I forgot to mention to do something, anything new for which I'm uncomfortable in Get Back To The Basics When In A Jam on Sep 11, 2019. My life is moving forward too slow. It's time to take action. The best way is go back to the past when my life moved forward faster. I'm uncomfortable safely. I'm uncomfortable intelligently.

Money And Life

Money buys life. There are costs to live. The minimum life payments are the basics. The bare necessities costs increase as we age and as time moves forward. I explain differently. The bare necessities costs increase because of inflation, overcrowding, and complexity. More costs are required to live in today's information age. More costs are required to maintain life. More costs are required to improve life.

There is no avoidance. Costs are mandatory. Costs are required. Payments are due daily to live a good life. Costs are another example life is X's and O's. Life is connected how life is lived daily with the X's. Life goes full circle with the O's. Life upgrades are inevitable. Life replacements are required. Goods break. Services are needed. Soap, towels, mattresses, food, taxes, transportation, phone, light bulbs, leisure, health including dental and medical, and utilities are examples. Similarly, raising children requires money. Money and life and raising children are another blog subject.

How about the systems? Medical, phone, insurance, rent or mortgage, and taxes. The systems are outdated. The systems are broken. The systems are stressed. The systems are overcrowded. The systems are another blog subject.

Update On A Past Blog

I said 2018 was a momentum year for 2019 in 2018 Year In Review. Three Consecutive Bad Years For The First Time in My Life. blog on Mar 9, 2019. Past momentum years or set-up years preceded good years except 2003 which was a no set-up year for a good 2004. 2018 was a set-up for a good 2019. 2019 is uneventful year-to-date. It's possible the 2018 set-up is incomplete. It's possible I need more set-up time. 2019 continues 2018. Perhaps, life is telling me I'm not ready for a good year. Perhaps, life is telling me the greatest year is coming soon. Continue the present path. Be patient.

Get Back To The Basics When In A Jam

The time is now to get back. My life has been on pause too many times. The minimum moving forward is slow play. It's better to play on slow compared to pause. I have been experiencing fewer bad luck moments in 2019 compared to past years. The top reason is I'm inactive more days in 2019 compared to past years. There have been fewer opportunities in 2019 compared to past years.

The time is now to get back. Get up and do something, anything. I get back to hiking. I hiked the Montara Mountain trail at San Pedro Valley Park in Pacific, CA for the first time on Sat Aug 31, 2019. I brought back the movie of the week when I was a student at De Anza College renting a DVD from the library for the weekend. I'm motivated to try new foods. I'm motivated to eat at new restaurants. However, I minimize eating processed foods weekly. I job search six days a week like I did when I was recently unemployed. I learn new job skills and review existing job skills six days a week like I did two years ago learning Salesforce. However, learning Microsoft Power BI is better than learning Salesforce. Some past job interviews the hiring manager offered to train me in Salesforce. I continue writing blogs, working out at the gym, sleeping eight hours a night, and reading books.

Today's blog is not a reset blog. Today's blog is not a bullshit blog. Today's blog is a reminder go back to the basics when life is in front of a brick wall. Today's blog is a reminder go back to the basics during happy times. There are people moving ahead in their goals. There are people earning achievements. I'm not moving ahead significantly. I'm not earning the big achievements. I'm making changes to get back hoping something, anything happens. I accept the small achievements. I accept the small changes. Unfortunately, I add the small achievements and small changes they don't equal big achievements and big changes.

Going Up Or Getting Better Am I?

I wrote a blog at my Finding Raymond Mar titled Going Up Or Getting Better Am I? on Jul 13, 2019. I choose to share the blog at Innovating Common Knowledge. Here it is.

I question my life. I'm getting smarter learning new job skills, reading books, and writing blogs. My health is good working out at the gym four days a week. I haven't been sick in 2019. I minimized eating processed foods. I rarely watch TV. I watch one or two movies a week. I sleep eight hours a night.

On the other hand, I'm unemployed long-term. My social skills are regressing. My relationships are diverging. It's the natural growing apart from my family and my friends.

Is my life getting better or getting worse? Is my life going up or going down? Honestly speaking, I'm one step closer to become a genius.

Update On A Past Blog

One sign a person has poor self-esteem is laughing too loud, laughing too much, talking too much, and behaving too enthusiastic. I'm fortunate I no longer all of the above. It's okay to behave those emotions when achieving a big goal, experiencing a big moment, or you’re the highlight of an event. Keep them in check. Be discrete. Stay in control. I refer to be discrete and stay in control from the two blogs "Let Me Think", A New Social Problem I Must Fix on Oct 26, 2013 and Innovating My Enthusiasm on Mar 5, 2007.

The Gendo Smile From Reddit

I created my second meme and posted my first meme on Reddit "The Gendo Smile Because You Got This." The "You Did It" and "Because Its Game Over" memes are posted on my blog only. I created a bonus third meme comparing the experience required for selected activities. All screenshots are below.