Hello there…

Thinking about quitting your J.O.B. (just over broke)??? Of course you are! Don’t worry, I won’t tell on ya. You’ve been thinking about quitting for some time now, but before you do, I’ve listed the 5 best reasons for quitting that dream stealer. So if your reason happens to be one of these five, you’ll know for sure that you need to escape, and fast!

1. You hate it.

Plain and simple. When you describe your job, you use eloquent words like despise, loathe, and crap. You have nightmares about red staplers, exploding print cartridges, and duplicate memos. You hate your job, it’s ok. A lot of people have, do, and will continue to do so. Be different! Quit that soul-leeching company before your life withers away.

2. You earned a better job.

Congratulations! You’ve been offered a better job with a company that rocks your socks and has a badass medical plan to boot. You’re present employer has been taking advantage of you for far too long, now it’s time to work for an employer that truly appreciates you! Plus, it also doesn’t hurt that the daughter of your new boss is smoking hot.

3. You’re moving.

So you spent your week vacation in Barbados and because you loved it so much, you’re going to take up permanent residence there. That is great, but unfortunately you can’t take your job with you. You’re a bright young lad though, and you’re sure to find a new job as a bartender, masseuse, fisherman, or whatever wonderful new job aspects exist in Barbados.

4. You’re not moving.

I know it seems like a contradiction to number three, but you’ve been working for your employer for a decade, with no promotion, no raise, no ten year commemorative gold plated Bic pen, and no hope for the future. You’re frozen solid, and things are moving slower than a fire dancer in a nitroglycerin plant. You’ve been stagnating for too long, and you’re beginning to resemble Rip Van Winkle. It’s time to get out, and get out fast while you still have your good hip to run with.

5. You hit the lottery.

Who would have guessed that your ex-girlfriend’s birthday, the expiration date on your milk, your pant size, and the number of times you’ve been called “peon” at work would actually provide you with the winning lotto numbers that raked you in a phenomenal 172 million dollars after taxes. You now own the cheese factory you were working for, and spend your days enjoying the finest gouda and merlot money can buy. Can you help a brotha out will ya?

Those are the best 5 reasons for quitting your J.O.B. Here are other excellent reasons for quitting your job:

Dismemberment
Practicing Buddhism
Marrying into money
Preventing psychosis
Starting your own company
Family inheritance
Robbing a bank
Freedom

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~Confucius

Heath Ledger died today at the age of 28. The Academy Award-nominated Australian actor led a very promising career starring in such films as Ten Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, Monster’s Ball, A Knight’s Tale, Brokeback Mountain, and finally as the role of the Joker in the new Batman movie The Dark Knight to be released this summer.

It always saddens me when a talented person dies before their time. I see (as I’m sure most of you see) the potential of these young celebrities, and it’s a shame when that potential is extinguished. We are left trying to understand why someone with such a bright future can be taken from us.

I think that we as people are always looking for a hero, someone to root for, and expect great things from, despite what the news reports show on tv. When I speak of hero, I don’t mean Superman, or the person saving people from burning buildings. I speak more specifically of a person who is genuine, strong, capable of great things, a leader, and a good person.

When I think of Ledger, I think that Ledger was a person people could root for. He was a celebrity that hadn’t succumbed to the corruptibility of a celebrity lifestyle, unlike so many of his young peers, and I believe we admire that. This is why it shocks us when such a person is gone, because it wasn’t expected in any way.

So often we see in the media, the spectacles of crazed celebrities, that the good ones, the ones who live admirable lives, go unnoticed. I despise our media for focusing only on the negative side of people and society. It insults me that the media treats us like we’re gluttons for misery, suffering, and human embarrassment. This isn’t true for me.

I hope that Heath Ledger has gone to a better place, and my condolences go out to his family and friends. He will be missed.

“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

- Tyler Durden, from Fight Club (movie)

I’ve been reading Chuck Palahniuk’s, Fight Club lately. I watched the movie again the other night. I can’t help but feeling that I relate to the men in the book, the movie, a generation of men who feel like boys, lost, and unsure what it really means to be a man to begin with.

To deal with these insecurities, these men create a Fight Club, a place they can all join together and try to discover their hidden manhood by beating the shit out of each other.

“We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.”

What happens to a boy as he grows up without a strong father figure in his life? Does he grow up becoming less of a man…a man child?

Mother’s are great, but I don’t think they can show a boy how to be a man. They can’t give a boy that sense of pride, and inner strength that a man has. Some things a boy has to hear from a man, has to learn from a man before they can be truly believed and appreciated.

My mom raised me, even though my dad was around till I was 19. He provided for my family, but it was as little as he could get away with. I think about it sometimes, and wish that my dad had taught me how to play sports, or any sport, helped me with my homework, or showed me how to talk to girls. It may seem unimportant, but really I wanted a father who was involved in my life. I needed a father to show me how to be strong, dignified, and instill those values in me.

I didn’t have that example to learn from, so instead I had to learn from his bad example. I realized that when I grew older that I wanted to be nothing like my dad, that I would learn from his mistakes, so that when I had a family of my own, I wouldn’t treat them the way my dad had treated mine.

When I used to get into arguments with my mom and things got heated, she’d say to me that I was like my dad, and I wonder if she knew how badly telling me that had hurt. I ended up telling her at one point to never say I was like my dad again, because it wasn’t true, and she had no right saying it. A child shouldn’t feel this way about their father.

I think boys raised by their mothers tend to be more creative and expressive. I look at the music industry, and I know this holds true for hip hop artists. Tupac, Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, 50 Cent, and Kanye West all grew up without major father figures in their lives. I wonder how this relates to visual artists, writers, and other creative men. Does being raised without a strong father figure lead to an increase in creativity or expressiveness as an adult? How about increased femininity?

Who knows…but I’m thinking about starting my own Fight Club. Any other lost fatherless males care to join me?

“Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?”