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COMPLAINTS, MUSINGS, AND OF COURSE WISDOM FROM DOUCHEBALL HIMSELF! NO'MSAYIN'? ~George Carlin
Archives
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Monday, July 30, 2001
It's a bad day. It's the 1 year anniversary of my grandpa's suicide, and I'm here at work with this new shift. I had Mondays off until this week. I'm not trying to get sympathy by publishing this entry. I'm just having a hard day, where it's difficult to think about anything else. I hope he's happy.
Thursday, July 19, 2001
Well, it looks like I've avoided the dreaded layoff as long as I can. Work announced yesterday that they would be eliminating 4,000-5,000 positions in the company. 800-1,000 of them would come in my division. They haven't come to us one by one and let us know what's going on with us individually. The word that they gave us today was that the deadline for their decisions on who, when, and how many would be September. Then over a 12-15 month time period, they will begin massive rounds of layoffs. I know I'm supposed to view this as an opportunity, but I'm not really prepared for that...yet.
Sunday, July 15, 2001
"WHAT KINDA JAIL CELL IS THIS? SITTIN' HERE WITH A DRUNKEN INDIAN....HE KEEPS TRYING TO GET HIS HANDS ON MY BEJOSHA" --Jon Wayne (again, the band, not the man)
Well, here are the final results of my poll...question being: "What undeserving group of people do you have animosity for?" 1. African Americans- 0% of the vote. 0 votes. (I kind of expected this. I think this is the most taboo minority to dislike.) 2. Hispanics- 8% of the vote. 1 vote. (I think I know who cast this vote....definitely a female. Unfortunately, I have some neighbors who embody nearly every stereotype imaginable for this group of people.) 3. Homosexuals- 0% of the vote. 0 votes. (I figured none of my friends would cast this vote. But I thought some blog-browsers might.) 4. Asians- 25% of the vote. 3 votes. (Interesting. Most of us don't really think of this group of people when we are expressing crime concerns. Yet I think many Americans find their customs and cultural differences with us to be extremely irritating.) 5. Middle Easterners- 16.7% of the vote. 2 votes. (This group had my vote. My perception of this group of people stems from firsthand experience. I find that many of the men have little respect for women, and...well, the financial industry will give you a certain perception of their pursuit of wealth. Although I'm certain that their are plenty of wonderful middle eastern folks out there, I haven't had the chance to meet them.) 6. Polynesians- 0% of the vote. 0 votes. (This used to be a group of people that I had certain feelings towards, thanks to working in the music store. It's very unnerving when your duty is to safeguard the rap CD's in a store, and 10 gigantic men come in scowling at you, and staring you down while you are keeping an eye on the merchandise. Fortunately, I no longer work there, and I no longer have that mentality. Plus, meeting Rob was one of the most enlightening experiences in my life.) 7. Poor people- 8.3% of the vote. 1 vote. (I know who cast this vote, because I checked my poll right after he voted. This is hard for me, because I certainly have a problem with people who put themselves in this situation by thoughtlessly breeding in excess, or simply being too lazy to work. But I also realize that many people are there by circumstances completely out of their control.) 8. Caucasians- 0% of the vote. 0 votes. (No big surprise, given that the vast majority, if not all of the people who voted in this poll, are caucasian. But I felt it to be only fair to include us, given that we have given a lot of people a lot of reasons to hate us.) 9. Jewish people- 0% of the vote. 0 votes. (Another group of people that society really frowns upon prejudice towards. I've met so few people that I knew were Jewish, that I really have no opinion on them.) 10. Fat people- 16.7% of the vote. 2 votes. (I put this group of people on here because 1. I'm a fat guy, and know that it is still acceptable in mainstream society to ridicule us fatties. I have felt the sting of it many times, real and imagined. 2. So that Scott would be able to vote. I don't know if he has any other prejudices...well, maybe the homeless people. Although I'm not certain on that one.) 11. Old people- 0% of the votes. 0 votes. (This I can't believe. People bitch so much about old people. Myself included. Maybe it's because we know we'll all be there one day, aggravating the youngsters with our cantankerousness and eccentricities.) 12. Homeless people- 25% of the votes. 3 votes. (I kind of expected this to run away with the votes, but it tied with Asians for 1st place. I'm sure this stems from both irritation, and some fear. I actually had a homeless guy pull a knife out on me when some friends and I bought a few dozen burritos from Taco Time, and passed them out in Pioneer Park. He put it away, when we were able to convince him that we were just trying to give him a burrito, not to antagonize him. From that point in time, I swore I'd never do anything nice again.) The whole point of the poll, was to say, hey, I acknowledge my prejudices, and I know that most, if not all of the rest of you have some form of prejudice against someone. We form these, usually from having a number of unpleasant experiences with a particular group of people. But if we are always working on trying not to be so close-minded about the groups of people we...have issues with, then we are still good people with generally good intentions. I'm certainly not proud of my issues with particular groups of people. However, I think when we are so sensitive about prejudices, that we can't laugh at and be amused by them, we make the world around us tense and uptight. Preachy fuckers rarely change the world for the better, in my experience. (Shit, I forgot to include crazy people in my poll.) The poll is still up for now, but it will be changing soon.
Thursday, July 12, 2001
CHECK IT OUT NOW, FUNK SOUL BRUVVA....
Scott, I definitely did not recommend the Gorillaz to you. Haven't really heard them. It's got the dude from Blur in it, so I probably won't like it. But who knows. I've started liking some damn questionable music, lately. Has everybody checked out Sonicnet.com? If you sit in front of a computer all day, Sonicnet radio is your friend. They have channels to appease every taste imaginable (even mine).
RIGHT ABOUT NOW, FUNK SOUL BRUVVA....
I'm in a damn fine mood today, as my internet service is finally up and running through AT&T! The superfast connection reeks of awesomosity!!! However, I didn't think I was gonna end up keeping it. A long story that I won't bore with the details of it, except to say that I had it installed on Monday, and it worked when the installer left. About an hour after he left, it stopped working. After several calls that totalled probably about 4 hours, I was told that they would send someone out to my house with a new USB cord....ON JULY FUCKING 20TH!!!!. Fortunately, my mother had some local connections to AT&T, and was able to get someone's ass out there last night. My Mom may be lacking in technological savvy, but she sure knows how to deal with customer service reps.
Monday, July 09, 2001
Just came off a fun weekend (and week). Got to see "Cats Vs. Dogs" on July 4. I give it a 7, for a kid's movie. If I had a child, that would be the kind of movie I'd wanna go to see with it. Speaking of having children, Lorene and I saw "A.I." this weekend, and we both agreed that if we could have a creepy little robot boy like the little star of the movie, that would work for us. I liked this movie more than Lorene (although it was at least 1/2 hour too long for my liking). It really was a movie that provided food for thought, and will likely be a good conversation piece with friends and acquaintances. (don't read the rest of this entry if you haven't seen the movie. It will give away part of it.) I think that the thing that disturbed me the most about the movie was when the mother abandoned the robot in the woods. I kind of equated that with the evil that people engage in by taking their animals to the wilderness and dumping them off, when they decide that they no longer find them cute, or the animal has proven that it is too much responsibility for a walking dump, like themselves. That makes me fucking sick. From that point on, the mother was a complete villain to be thoroughlly reviled and deserving of a violent fisting and other hideous tortures by a horde of bloodthirsty prisoners. Not that that evoked any strong feelings in me, or anything....
Saturday, July 07, 2001
2 new CD's in the collection:
Brian Setzer (not the orchestra) "68 Comeback Special": Rips!!! Kickass rockabilly in the vein of his Stray Cats! Unfortunately, he always has to put a doo-wop number on his releases. Plus, it has a Spanish flavored ditty. Why do artists always feel a need to deviate from the successful formula? Anyhow, I'm pleased with this purchase. Hudson Falcons (can't remember the album title): Booooooring!!! Hookless Oi. I gave them a second chance after their boring first album. Sorry for lack of substance with this entry. Nothing of interest to talk about. By the way Scott, I read on the shitter, as well. I don't think it's as abnormal as you think.
Thursday, July 05, 2001
Tuesday, July 03, 2001
I was gonna post another funny story starring my mother; however, I'm not sure that it's nice for me to make fun of my Mom in print. I'm sure she could find plenty of equally humiliating things to share about me. Plus, I love my Mom, and I'd hate for people to think I'm trying to be hurtful to her. I just get very exasperated with the folks.
.......ahhh, screw it: So my Dad signs us up for voicemail with Qwest. Well, my Mom gets a mailing that says press *98, and enter your temporary passcode of 1234, then change your passcode. She comes downstairs, bitching up a storm about how the temporary passcode doesn't work. She has to go to a baseball game, and doesn't have time to sit on hold with the customer service line. Would I please call them and get it working. Later, I go up and look at the letter that she received. I dial in *98, and the temporary passcode, and change the passcode. No problem. I figure that the system must not have been working when Mom called before. She gets home, and I tell her that I have taken care of it, without calling customer service. She stands there in bewilderment, and says "I don't understand. I dialed 1234, and it wouldn't take it." "Did you dial *98 first" I ask? "No. I didn't know I had to do that"................... Sheesh! My Mom has severe trouble with technology if it doesn't clean her house or cut hair. I guess that's what I'm here for.
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