[ WP ] Knowledge is property . Leave a job ? Your employer keeps your work experience . Break up with someone ? You can take back their knowledge of your secrets . Want to get an education ? You can rent it for cheap ... just do n't fall behind in your payments if you value what you learned .

It ’ s difficult to cling to knowledge when the loggers are constantly trying to tear it from you. Even the smallest fragment of information can be solidified in your memory one moment and gone the next. You can go to sleep an experienced electrician and wake up a wiring nightmare – there ’ s nothing worse than frying alive because you ’ ve forgotten to ground an essential line. 
 
 That ’ s the world I live in, where knowledge can be reversed with the flick of a switch. It ’ s a real mess, but there ’ s not all that much one guy can do to combat it. Loggers are required mindwear; grandfather clauses simply don ’ t exist. No one gets a free pass. No one is above the system. 
 
 Education isn ’ t something you stop paying for once you toss your cap in the air. If you want to hang onto college knowledge, the deposits need to keep flowing. A couple of the guys from my dorm floor found this out the hard way. Brad ’ s bank account ran dry six months out and his secondary education followed suit shortly after. At least he had a few days ’ time to correct the problem, even if he didn ’ t. Rodney wasn ’ t so lucky. A clerical error erased four years of accounting overnight; by morning, he could barely add three-digit numbers without a pen and pencil. Some institutions hold much harder and faster to deadlines than others. 
 
 The job market is even worse, if you can imagine that. Sure, you can secure one with minimal effort upfront, but if you ’ re smart you ’ ll stay under the radar. A low profile is the key to keeping your job; too much noise, and the higher-ups notice. Don ’ t offer to run meetings, don ’ t think outside the box you ’ ve been put in, and above all, don ’ t even *think* of asking for a raise. That ’ ll get you fired faster than anything else, pretty much. Worst of all, they retain any and all practical knowledge you may have learned during your short stay. Employers aren ’ t looking for exceptional workers when competent yes-men will do just fine. 
 
 Relationships run the gamut: great if you can keep ‘ em going, awful if you screw ‘ em up. It ’ s nearly impossible to learn from mistakes you can ’ t remember – a bothersome side effect of the loggers. More than likely, you ’ re going to mess the same things up over and over again without realizing it. Most people give up after five or six tries; only the real masochists keep throwing themselves into the mix, hoping something besides their elbows will stick to the booze-covered bars. 
 
 Just once, I ’ d like to walk away from a job with some experience. It only has to be one time. I just want to know what it feels like to retain something real in a world of forced forgetfulness. 
 
 Even if I never find “ the one, ” is learning from my mistakes so much to ask? 
 
 When did first impressions become sole impressions? 
 
 I feel the knowledge fading into the background. 
 
 I won ’ t remember this, will I? 
 
 I ’ ll never know. 
 
 -028
