this post has been edited on july 28, 2004 13:21

see it? over on the right there? it's pretty tight i think.

todo - figure out what the fuck i'm allowed to use to make linebreaks within <blockquote> tags... to the few of you who understand what i'm sorta saying, the
tags that i use to quote aim conversations (see the vote niv post) apparently aren't allowed and are killing my attempts to validate this page as xhtml 1.0 strict. strict is good, so i want to move this way. strict in terms of validation, i mean.

i was working on a new banner graphic, but chad vetoed it. we'll see if what i was working on turns into something l actually like.

i'm working on a page for the philadelphia trust company. i have to submit a proposal next week. my work in progress can be seen over here. it's all very standards-based. this is another good thing. critiques are welcome, so have at it.

i was talking to zack again today... hell, i talk to him every day i'm at work, so i don't know why i announce it. but anyways, talking to zack, and we decided that a better social system would have young people retired until they turn 35 or somethign and then start working. of course, this system is stupid because young people get more work done (energy and whatnot) and thus should not waste their "useful" years having "fun". at the same time, a lot of people who read this site just graduated. how many of you are prepared to work in an office for the rest of your lives? i don't care how fun your office is, are you prepared to be in an office of some kind five days a week for the next 40+ (ha, more like 50+) years of your life? we used to get 3 weeks off for winter break and a week off for spring break, not to mention the three months that compromised summer vacation. now we get two weeks off a year, with weekends (unless you are ryan) and a handful of holidays.

now, i'm not saying your job isn't fun. i'm sure it is. i like my job fine too. it really doesn't matter, though, how wonderfully purple the walls of my office are, or how you may get to run around all day and you feel like you're affecting things on a large scale - i feel like no matter how much you like work, it's qualified by the fact that it is work. how many recently graduated twentysomethings would rather work than chill out in whatever way they chose?

now, pose the same question to your parents, who have worked for 20-40 years, and see what they say.

now, be afraid, because you're going to get used to working almost every single day of your life to the point where you can't imagine just chilling out... or at least, where you can't imagine a time where chilling out was the primary thing to do, as opposed to an extremely secondary thing to do.

now the point isn't to get you depressed or anything. the point is the find a solution. there is a solution here, i think. there is a way to structure one's life so that they aren't hit with a 40 year block of just working, but also so that they aren't hit with a block of time when they are forced to panhandle or something. my solution seems to line up well with my interests - i want to get better at this whole design thing, to the point where i can design for other people, work about 20 hours a week, and still pay the rent, bills, and whatever. it's not impossible, because of the kind of fees one can charge as an able web designer. the steps to get there involve working on my site a ton, getting lucky with connections like zack and the philadelphia trust company, and wow-ing the crap out of people.

so, i have a plan. kind of. it seems difficult from where i am now, but i think i can do it.

my question to you is this - do you want to work less a week? do you think work is a priority or secondary? do you have a plan on how to work less a week (if you are interested in such a thing)? why do you like working a full week (if you aren't interested in working less)? the floor is yours.