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Old 11-26-2012, 04:50 PM   #41
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Certainly not, but do they see you as serious competition for scarce workplace goodies (promotions, awards, perks)? If so, and if everyone still likes everyone, then you have achieved workplace Nirvana.

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I like my co-workers. Is there something wrong with me?
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Old 11-26-2012, 04:57 PM   #42
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I need to be more learned in my readings. I always attributed that quote to Khan from Star Trek 2. I didn't realize he stole it from "Moby Dick"
The movie was The Return of Khan; prior to that was the TV segment regarding how Khan got there in the first place and why he had it in for Kirk: "Star Trek" Space Seed (TV episode 1967) - IMDb
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Old 11-26-2012, 05:17 PM   #43
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I need to be more learned in my readings. I always attributed that quote to Khan from Star Trek 2. I didn't realize he stole it from "Moby Dick"
Yes, cried by Captain Ahab to the whale, in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Chapter 135, only a page and a half before the epilogue.

Quote:
"I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel; and only god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed prow, - - death-glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest ship-wrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole, foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"
I am in such awe of Melville. His writing is to me tremendously spiritual, ethereal and profoundly moving.
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Old 11-26-2012, 05:33 PM   #44
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"from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."
Here ya go, kids.

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Old 11-26-2012, 05:39 PM   #45
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Here ya go, kids.
Oh boy. The only thing I can think to say is...

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Old 11-26-2012, 06:00 PM   #46
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Old 11-26-2012, 06:44 PM   #47
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I am in such awe of Melville. His writing is to me tremendously spiritual, ethereal and profoundly moving.
Yeah, but he never had to compete with William Shatner or Ricardo Montalban...
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Old 11-26-2012, 06:53 PM   #48
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Yeah, but he never had to compete with William Shatner or Ricardo Montalban...
Ah, I can tell that I am on a different plane from the rest of you when it comes to Melville....

Sure, Shatner and Montalban are ok at what they do/did. But Melville.... was Melville.
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Old 11-26-2012, 10:12 PM   #49
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Yeah, but he never had to compete with William Shatner or Ricardo Montalban...
I bet Mehlville couldn't compete with Ricardo's 60 year old pec's either. Pretty impressive I dare say in that movie.
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Old 11-27-2012, 03:26 AM   #50
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This is like coming out of the closet; it's scary but ultimately you have to not care what people think to achieve your own happiness.
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Old 11-27-2012, 06:22 AM   #51
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Gee... Shatner looks a lot better as young Kirk than pushing his Priceline commercials
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Old 11-27-2012, 07:23 AM   #52
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I had been pushed into early retirement, not entirely voluntarily. If your were in the the corporate rat race, you probably had to deal with your share of unethical cut throats, who would undermine and stab people in the back both for their own advancement or strategic advantage, or it was from their shark instinct. I had been on the receiving ends of those acts.

Now that I am retired, I am thinking about what will be the best revenge on those people.

1. Try to do as well as I can financially, on my own, on my own time, and amass as big a pot as I can that will make them green with envy?

2. Living it up to my heart's desire. And laugh at the tormentors' enslavement by their jobs, their unhappiness and personal traps they set for themselves?

The flaw of option 1 is that I have no beneficiary and have yet identified my charitable cause, and I do not really want to leave the government with 45 or 55%. It is more with the satisfaction of achieving a set goal and subscribing to the notion that money is a way of keeping score in the game of life. I do realize that you cannot take it with you. I am torn between going all out with either option 1 and 2, but likely will have to settle with a mix the the two options.

Yes, revenge is for those with small minds and I admit to that character defect.
How about forgetting about it and enjoying life?

As far as choosing between number 1 and 2 we have tried something in between. We have a day to day living budget and a vacation budget with
a target balance in 20 years. That way we believe that we are enjoying our money and will still have enough to live on when we are in our 80's
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Old 11-27-2012, 09:29 AM   #53
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I had to fire a guy once, my one and only time.... He ended up quitting engineering and becoming a lawyer. He came back a few years later and gave us some baseball tickets and said thanks for the push.

I gotta think it was revenge of a mild sort, the "I'm doing even better now in spite of what you did to me!" kind. But mostly it was just kind of baffling. If he wanted to be a lawyer, then great. But why did that involve becoming an engineer and working for us?
I don't pretend to know all of the facts, but I do know that it is easy to get caught in a rut and rationalize the decision to stay in a less-than-perfect situation rather than taking the risk of pursuing another option. Also, the idea of becoming a lawyer may simply not have occurred to him until he found himself out of work in the engineering field.

Again, I don't know the personalities involved; however, it sounds possible that his gratitude was sincere.
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Old 11-27-2012, 09:38 AM   #54
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Now that I am retired, I am thinking about what will be the best revenge on those people.

1. Try to do as well as I can financially, on my own, on my own time, and amass as big a pot as I can that will make them green with envy?

2. Living it up to my heart's desire. And laugh at the tormentors' enslavement by their jobs, their unhappiness and personal traps they set for themselves?
Assuming that you proceed with your quest for "revenge" (and I agree 100% with those who counsel moving on and not devoting any time or energy to showing other people the error of their ways ... which is almost never a profitable endeavour), I don't see how you would put plan #1 into effect.

Even if you manage to be very wealthy, how would your former bosses and co-workers know? Sure, you could tell them, but unless you're prepared to provide certified copies of investment account statements and tax returns - which would be WAY over the top - I suspect that they wouldn't believe you.
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Old 11-27-2012, 09:42 AM   #55
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I don't pretend to know all of the facts, but I do know that it is easy to get caught in a rut and rationalize the decision to stay in a less-than-perfect situation rather than taking the risk of pursuing another option. Also, the idea of becoming a lawyer may simply not have occurred to him until he found himself out of work in the engineering field.

Again, I don't know the personalities involved; however, it sounds possible that his gratitude was sincere.
+1. Who knows what the absolute numbers are, but I don't think it's uncommon at all. Here's just one stat I found online (I suspect the numbers are a little high?)
Quote:
Credentials aside, what matters is whether you're actually cut out for what you do. If you're in the right field, things will click and you'll start getting helping hands from mentors. If you're not in your element, or not sure you're in the right ballpark, your career will feel like it's not going anywhere.

Studies show that at least 65 percent of college grads picked the wrong major to study. After 10 years on the job, people declaring they're in the wrong field increases to about 90 percent. I realize this sounds high, but sadly, it is the state of things.

Frankly, most 20-somethings will endure a career mismatch until they hit 30. Finding a mate often takes precedence. If your gut hunch is telling you that might be in the wrong career, you're instincts are probably right. The sooner you deal with the pain of a mismatch or bad career decision, the faster and easier it is to redirect.
Sadly, most people just stay trapped it seems...
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Old 11-27-2012, 04:39 PM   #56
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And suppose you accumulate $10 Million. Then they all inherit $20 Million apiece, and there you are on the bottom rung again


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ta

Even if you manage to be very wealthy, how would your former bosses and co-workers know? Sure, you could tell them, but unless you're prepared to provide certified copies of investment account statements and tax returns - which would be WAY over the top - I suspect that they wouldn't believe you.
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Old 11-27-2012, 05:32 PM   #57
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I have some bitterness about my working years. But I try and not think about it too much. I am no longer playing the game anyway. I took my ball and mitt and went home!
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Old 11-27-2012, 05:56 PM   #58
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W2R we are soul mates. Moby-Dick is my favorite novel of all time. I got a Ph.D. in American literature largely because of it, and I had the joy of teaching it to college students for many years. Several years ago I edited a new edition of it and spent several weeks in Nantucket--including touring the fabulous whale museum and the Quaker sights--to do research. It is truly an American epic--and one of the world's great religious/spiritual novels. Man, I'm getting hungry for chowder just thinking of it!
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Old 11-27-2012, 06:13 PM   #59
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Moby Dick is my son's favorite book. He read it in high school and loved it. He was always trying to convince me to name our pets after characters in the book. in particular, he wanted me to name a cat something like "Queequay". I wouldn't give in though. I have to admit that I've never read it.
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Old 11-29-2012, 04:37 PM   #60
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W2R we are soul mates. Moby-Dick is my favorite novel of all time. I got a Ph.D. in American literature largely because of it, and I had the joy of teaching it to college students for many years. Several years ago I edited a new edition of it and spent several weeks in Nantucket--including touring the fabulous whale museum and the Quaker sights--to do research. It is truly an American epic--and one of the world's great religious/spiritual novels. Man, I'm getting hungry for chowder just thinking of it!
Marita, thanks! I did not see this post until today, for some reason.

I can tell that you, Ally's son, and some others here truly do appreciate Moby Dick! So few of us do. Seems like the mention of this book most often elicits a groan from others.

The quote that I use as my signature line is the first sentence of Chapter 32. I have never seen it on a quotations website or book; it is a sentence that sprang out at me when I was reading Moby Dick myself many years ago. This quotation has meant a lot to me in life at various stages, as I launched upon one endeavor or another. Now, to me, it is about retirement.

I am a retired oceanographer, and in the cadence of Melville's words in Moby Dick, I can hear the ocean and I can (almost literally) feel the heave of the wooden deck beneath my feet. If you read my signature line over and over a few times and feel the rhythm of the words, perhaps you will almost feel this rocking, too. Moby Dick brings me closer to the sea than any other book I have ever read. Not only that, it is spiritually inspired and inspiring and simply breathtaking. To describe this book as his masterpiece is selling it short, IMO. I could go on, but I see that I am "preaching to the choir", so to speak.
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