Opening Boxes

So I finally got around to trying out Pandora like Chris suggested months ago. It's amazing! I finally found a way to get Gorillaz, The Tractors, and KT Tunstall in one place. My own eclectic/bizarre/freakish mix can be found here.

Today my boss came to my office for a little chat. It seems he's in over his head on a particular project and was lamenting the lack of "tools" provided by our corporate clowns. I shook my head, thinking about the standardized safety manual we received a couple months ago (the one that he said was more of a suggestion), and told him the same thing I tell all the noobs who start to feel overwhelmed. "Company policy is: We let you do it wrong, Tell you how wrong you were, Then tell you how to do it right." I might feel sorry for the guy, if I didn't know he was wasting all his time making highly detailed maps that show the exact same thing as the printed flyer; and for twice the money I'm making (or more).

On a related note, I think I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up; A high school History teacher. I love to read, tell stories, be around teen-agers, having summer off is a huge benefit, the pay starts at about what I make now, and I'd have the same quasi-autonomy in a classroom that I enjoyed while driving. Next week I'm going out to the Butte campus to fill out a BOGWaiver and get a winter schedule. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

There is nobody like me... well, almost nobody.

I work for the worst bunch of chicken-shit, second rate, morons I've ever known. I could offer up new stories of the brilliance in which I am forced to bask, but it wouldn't do a bit of good. I have decided to try a new tactic at work; instead of wearing my jeans and t-shirts (this irks both of the people above me on the org chart) and politely nodding when they regurgitate corporate tautologies, I will dress in business attire and tell them that I think they're selfish, criminal, hypocrites. To their faces. If that doesn't make an impact before the end of the year, I'll try something else. I like playing games. I don't like feeling second rate, so I refuse to dress or behave second rate anymore.


Oh, and this looked fun so I stole it from Evan. Thanks!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 7 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Imagine the Possibilities

"I missed the Damn bus again!"
"Those Damn buses are never on time."
"Is this the Damn bus to Oroville?"
"I've been waiting for the Damn bus for over an hour!"
"Those Damn bus drivers really piss me off."


I'd like to thank the programmer who just couldn't resist the temptation. Names have not been altered or hidden because no-one is innocent.

Melancholy

I typed a whole post, then deleted it. It was a cryptic piece of downer crap. Great therapy, bad blogging. Anyway, work continues to be mind-numbing, soul-sucking drudgery (that's why they call it work!). My son is adding vocabulary faster than I can say, "Don't repeat that in front of your mother" and my daughter can move every direction but forward on her own. And my wonderful wife puts up with my nonsense so things are definetely not too bad.
Humorous hijinks to follow soon.

Texas Speed Bumps

I was browsing and came across a picture of an armadillo on the Invasive Species Weblog. As an eleven-year-old Boy Scout I attempted to chase one down (I say attempted because it was very fast and I was not). Anyway, if you follow the link you'll have to scroll down to the 'Sunday, October 8th' entry to see the pic. Just a little bit of nostalgia that brightened my day, that doesn't happen nearly enough.

Creative Genius

One Day, I hope to have as much creative genius (and free time) as these guys seem to have. There is that one idea rotting in the back of my head... time to warm up the front burner.

The Next Chapter

I have decided to give up Transit War. It's sad, I know, but it's for my own good. I was having trouble actually committing heinous acts of mind numbing pain. I talked a good game, had some beautiful ideas that were both humorous and ironically just, but I was lacking in the action department. So I choose to give it up. Or more accurately, replace it. I will now spend my time helping to organize a union. Something I never thought I'd say. I thought unions had outlived their usefulness and existed only to leech from employees and employers not smart enough to remove the extra yoke. But my wonderful employer (the same one that inspired Transit War) has shown me why people still unionize. When a company refuses to obey the law, creates their own turnover problem through mistreatment, recinds their own policies without notice, and generally behave like despots without oversight or conscience that is when employees find someone with the muscle to stand against their employer. Balance of power. Checks and Balances. Whatever you want to call it, it represents the idea that groups with differing strategic aims must find a mutually beneficial consensus in order to have a lasting relationship. We, the employees, have borne the burden of the Corporation long enough, now we will prop the Union and the Corporation against one another... and seek shelter underneath.