My Defeat-Dream

Why were Jack and his brother digging post holes? A fence there would run parallel to the one that already enclosed the farmyard. The Welches had no animals to keep in or out - a fence there could serve no purpose. Their work was pointless. Years later, while I was waiting for a boat to take me across the river, I watched two Vietnamese women methodically hitting a discarded truck tire with sticks. They did it for a good long while, and were still doing it when I crossed the river. They were part of the dream from which I recognized the Welches, my defeat-dream, my damnation-dream, with its solemn choreography of earnest useless acts.
   ~Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life

You know what another earnest useless act is? Sending out resumes. Why bother? You're lucky to get a two-line acknowledgement from a potential employer addressed to "Dear Sir or Madam", if they respond at all. That's my damnation-dream of an earnest useless act―sending out resumes. I would be better off beating a discarded truck tire with a stick for a good long while each day than applying for jobs. If I used a sledge hammer, I could probably get a pretty good work out.

My other defeat-dream? A job erasing bollywood escort spam from the SL forum. The Linden gods are no match for a determined spammer: