A Ranting We Will Go

The political season is making me angry. And frustrated as I have said before. While I was about to give up hope of ever seeing rational dialog again, I found David Gerrold. Most Geek know him as the guy who wrote the Tribble episode of the Original Star Trek series. David Gerrold has a fine mind. And we think a like. In the last week my Facebook rants have taken on the same pithy quality as my essays in school. Not only that, my brain is starting to ask questions and make connections that, quite frankly, have slipped in the course of the last year. That may be due to the overwhelming need to hide from the chaos of the world at large or to shut down to avoid the ravings of a mad man too close to be healthy. At any rate, I shut down. But the brain is on fire now. And the rants have been flowing. 

I am back to my old self. And I am very much aware of the fact that these are the kinds of things that I thought in high school. These are the things that I was interested in exploring while everyone else was having a party. These are the kinds of things that assured I would always be single. 

I give you a reprint of a rant today that I am actually quite proud of. For you, I leave links to the information. 

In reading through arguments for defunding welfare programs and increasing taxes on middle and lower income households while avoiding infrastructure upgrade issues and boosting war coffers made by people who swear by their Christian faith that all life is sacred, I often wonder: do anti abortion politicians see each fetus as a life full of gifts and talents to be explored or a life with a tax contribution value of 764K (Lifetime average), or 1.4 mil adjusted for inflation? Let's see, that's 327K (# of PP abortions in 2014) votes not placed 18 years from now, 327K non existent tax payers and a projected net loss for those lifetimes of 458 hundred billion dollars. -458 hundred billion dollars times all the years this number of abortions is performed...Do you people follow the money?
Do you think any of those politicians playing on your genuine Christian sympathy haven't found an actuary to crunch those numbers better than my art addled brain?
They won't help feed or educate those kids. As it is they are trying to cut aid to the ones who managed to be born while they are hamstringing the parents who's pensions were stolen, CDs have been devalued, farms have been stolen, wages have been decreased and who will have to work far longer than any other generation before us save our early immigrant ancestors who worked in sweat shops prior to our own industrial revolution. 

• Those are also 327K + potential soldiers they won't be able to underpay to use as IED fodder.

•  Those 327K+ lives won't be around to do jobs they don't want to do and couldn't do anyway because there are still jobs being shipped overseas.

• That is 327k+ who won't take out student loans at (x)% interest, 

• won't buy homes at (Y)% interest. 

• That is 327K+ potential car customers at (z)% interest.

Those aborted lives that you call precious your government, bought and paid for by corporations,calls lost revenue streams. I am just cynical enough to think that gay marriage is opposed because it doesn't yield children (revenue streams).
All we are, when it comes right down to it, is a revenue stream. And quite frankly, I am not liking the theme of people only wanting me for my money.

What a Day

I think we lost someone around a sharp corner. To the unknown follower who has left our ranks in the last few weeks, I bid you peace. To those who have stuck around.... I thank you.

The timing is rather suspect and I think that sharp turn I made on G+ regarding the chasing of uninterested females on hangout might have done it. But that is ok. If it was the guy that got mad at me for not wanting to pick up my whole life after 3 emails then I am really no worse off than before. In fact, I probably saved myself a lot of bother. The communication was beginning to smack of falsehood. Most likely another scam artist. Kudos to him for not being obvious about it.

So this is my second "day off" this week. I had a full honest to goodness day of rest this week. Today I came home early because I am not up to par. Not sure what illness has beset me but I am freezing and it's rather on the warm side. For being home most of today I am absolutely beat.

Politics and World News is ramping up my hamster wheel. Apparently this idiot thinks that we can work forever without taking time off. Next on the chopping block should be Federal Holidays, Religious Holidays and the over turning of the Family Care Act. It only stands to reason that this Lady Violet wannabe should reduce everyone to the status of the peasants he believes everyone to be. After all, it's the totalitarian thing to do. Someone really needs to teach this guy how to salute and how not to salute. His Third Reich is showing. And people are worried about Bernie Sanders ushering in a new Communist America.

Speaking of Bernie Sanders. I think it is important for these voting Americans to get some facts straight. Socialism and Communism are not the same thing. If they were then Socialist Britain would not have been worried about Communist Russian or Dictatorial Germany blowing the warmth out of their tea. One can not even really argue that Socialism is the gateway to Communism. If it were then all of the EU would have declared itself Communist and not one eyebrow would waggle in Ol'Vladdie's direction over the Ukraine issue. The election is a full year away and the Bullshit is spreading faster than gossip in a church pew.

I think Bernie is ridiculously optimistic that he and Elizabeth Warren can overthrow the Corporations that had the Supreme Court declare their business entities human in 1995. But if I am given the choice between ridiculously optimistic and the status quo I am going to go with ridiculously optimistic. If he can overthrown the totalitarian corporations that are trying to strangle all of us commoners with the very same benefits they had as they were enjoying as up and comers and learning how to take over the world then more power to him.

Confederate Flag Nonsense is still Raging on Facebook. Do these people have any concept whatsoever of intellect? Fans of the Dukes of Hazzard are reacting to TVLand as if they had just murdered Bo & Luke Duke instead of removing a poorly done show. Just because it was popular doesn't make it good. We had 3 damn networks back then and nothing in the other networks' time slots was worth watching. It was a dumb show with a catchy tune. But let's hate on TVLand.

Of course TVLand's reactionary stance doesn't help anything. One article made a good point, Hogan's Heroes is still on despite the slathering of Nazi symbols all over the place. Of course, anyone who has ever seen the show knows that it is a typical good guys v. bad guys sitcom with America being the good guys. Except poor Hilde, she was just Loni Anderson in pigtail braids and a peasant blouse.

The Confederate Flag might mean a lot of things. It may have meant something honorable at some point. But when all anyone sees is the bad it might be time to revamp the PR. One side argues it is a Patriotic symbol. The other side argues it is a racist symbol. From my vantage point Upnorth where the Confederate Flag is as popular a pennant at Muddin' Holes and Tractor Pulls as the Union Jack is anywhere in Britain, everyone is missing the point. It ceased to be a symbol of Confederacy when it became the symbol if Idiocy. Every redneck flies this outdated pattern as an excuse to behave as badly, recklessly and without thought to consequence as them Duke Boys. The main difference between the Duke Boys and every other redneck is that the Dukes were sober.

And yes, I have a prejudice. And no, I do not think that I am going to work on getting rid of it. There is a huge difference between being a little bit country and a lot redneck. The main difference is a lack of thought process and the complete disregard for those who are around them. Low class doesn't always mean poor. The poor are not always low class. But I haven't seen anyone up my way fly this flag that had any class at all. And that is where my prejudice lies.

Everyone looks like a skittle. Following the SCOTUS ruling regarding gay marriage, everyone has lost their marbles. On the one hand "Yay do what you want!" on the other hand are the lectures about what our founding fathers would do. WWoFFD?

The short answer is that they would pack up and head off to the nearest parcel of seemingly unoccupied land, finding it really is occupied they would start a war, plant their collective asses on someone else's land, declare independence and start a whole new country. What they did not do was stay where they were being oppressed and wail through gnashed teeth while wringing their hands about the end of the world. THEY MOVED!!!!!!!!

Not only did they move, they declared that NO ONE WOULD EVER TELL THEM HOW TO BELIEVE AGAIN. The United States was founded not by what would have been the Christian right (though I do not doubt that those who would fall under the modern header, the Pilgrims, were here first) but by Unitarians. UNITARIANS. The ultimate live and let live dissenters toward organized religion wrote our rule!  They left England and other parts of Europe because the Church was getting a bit heavy handed with the way that it owned, co-opted, bought or stole Royal seats. They came here and declared that no religion would dictate their lives. They came here with a decided, collective idea that the State and the Church should never be bed fellows.

But here we go with the Christian Right lamenting the corruption of the founding father's intention. What corruption? Unitarians, ONE STEP ABOVE ATHEISTS (because at least they tend to believe there is a higher power even if they won't call it God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Christ, Buddah, Allah, Steve) in the "spiritual hierarchy" (which doesn't exist), built this country. Unitarians, by comparison to the Christian Right are heathens themselves. Heathens in respectable clothing built America.

So let's get all mad at the rainbow profiles and declare that the country has veered far enough away from what the Founding Fathers intended as to require a rapture to fix it.

Everyone has lost their mind.

Another Chicken and Egg Problem

Have seen a bunch of articles on feminism and why it hurts men lately. I have also seen a spate of memes in which it is suggested that if girls would act like ladies men would be gentlemen. My favorite image is this one which was attached to some Dr. Laura pages. On the surface this is a little kitschy, a bit clever and thought provoking. The thought that it provoked in me was this:

 

What comes first the gentleman or the lady? Is a woman a lady because a man is a gent? Is a man a gent because a woman is a lady? It really is a bit of a chicken and an egg question. But then something else was provoked.... anger.

 

 

How very 50s. How very Stepford. How very typical to make a Woman's behavior the crux of the issue. At least that seems to be what this picture and its text are saying. Why not the reverse? Why not wonder if men would be willing to be gentlemen, more women would feel challenged to be ladies?

 

Feminism exits as a backlash against centuries of oppression and repression. You can be a lady and have an education. Unless you live in most Middle Eastern countries today, Asian and Pacific Rim countries a few decades back, Victorian England and Industrial America. South America and Africa have not been forgotten. I know little about my southern neighbors and all I know about Africa is too grizzly to think about beyond Oprah opening a few schools so girls can have an education.

 

You an be a lady and cast a vote based on either an educated or uneducated opinion, the same as every man. It is foolish to think that because a man could vote, he was smarter. There are idiots of each gender and those idiots have valid voter IDs. Until the early 1900s, the only idiots who were allowed to vote were men.

 

You can be lady-like and study religion. Throughout most of recorded history after Roman conquest the only religious authority given  woman was what she could get away with and not be called a witch.... until a man got mad. Hildegard of Bingen, Joan of Arc to name but two.

 

You can be a lady and be a scientist.



You can be a lady and be in business for yourself or in the upper echelons of major corporations.
You can be a lady and a lawyer, barrister for our friends in the UK.
You can be a lady and be anything you want to be....
... if a man gives you permission.

And that is oppression. The idea that a man can do what he will because he is a man is idiotic, as we have proven over an over again. The contribution of women in the economic sector during WWII is evidence of that. Was every woman who entered the workforce perfect at it? No. But then not every man who worked was perfect at his job either. Hence the Quality Control departments. Was every woman who worked through the war cut out to keep it up when her man got home? Of course not. But there are a lot of men who seem to think they don't have to perform to the same standards as their counterparts. And they kept their jobs. To this day many a man is rewarded for slacking off, under producing and is allowed to keep his job because... well it's his. Not saying chicks don't get away with it. I experience that first hand.

The problem isn't men versus women.
The problem is a systematic rewarding of mediocrity in both genders. The problem is that we give lip service to feminism when we give it service at all. Girls can do whatever they want, whatever they imagine... just like boys. But when the kids of either gender won't step up to the work load either in education or work, and cry until they are rewarded for the weakest of contributions instead of being encouraged first to dig in and find the wherewithal to compete, or find the field in which their ability and interests match to inspire participation and competition, the whole fabric of society is weakened.

Your top level producers, unless motivated by greed or intense gain, cease to strive as hard. If everyone is rewarded equally and does not produce equally there is no incentive. Communism failed in Cold War Russian on this leg of its principles. Mediocre producers who struggle to keep up either due to disinterest or poorly matched skills set to job stop producing all together. Teachers see this in classrooms. I see this in the work force. Instead of getting rid of the weakest link, we dumb down entire production systems to appease the poorer producers.

Why be a gentlemen if you don't have to?
Why be a lady if you don't have to?

If you can be a rowdy jackass, a douche frat boy, a lazy bit of white trash, as ghetto as ghetto gets and still get everything you want, why would you do more? It is the rarest of human beings for which self improvement is a motivating factor. Very few people look at what they have done in one day and said, "I will strive until I can do more everyday." For those who's motivation is to compete with themselves it matters very little what reward the rest of the world gets. And you can imagine how many of those people there are out there.

Competition for resource is the largest motivating factor in humanity with rare exception. So when the standards are lowered the entire system slowly grinds to a halt.


From my perspective I ask a few questions:

• Why should I invest in over priced make-up and expensive and mildly affective hair products if men aren't going to do the same?
• Why should I invest in it at all? I am pretty enough without the extra garbage. Why isn't that good enough?
• Why should I wear high heels, and impractical clothing to do my job when a man is allowed to be as comfortable as safety allows to do his?
• Why must I wear a dress around the house when a. I find them uncomfortable most of the time, b. they get in the way, c. they lack a certain practicality for most household chores if a man is going to wear jeans & tees all the time?
• Why must I be demure and polite and ask for something four billion times before I get it but a man can make a single demand before he starts swinging his fists at my face?
• Why must I keep my opinions to myself when a man is allowed to spout off whatever he feels?
• Why must I be lady-like when a man is pig-like?
• Why must I hide my assets (physical attributes) while a man is allowed to strut his?
• Why is my property communal while a man may horde what he likes?

I ask those questions in part from past experience, in part from a survey regarding ones' status as privileges and found myself lacking. Severely lacking. And in part because of the classic arguments between respect and repression. I have lived my entire life, all 44 years of it, listening to men claim supremacy by virtue of gender. One would think that I live in the deep, deep, deep south. But I don't. When the gender card lacks sufficient trump, the religion card is played.

I rather resent that. Christian men, read your Bible more closely. Better yet, study your apologetics more closely. It was only a select group of gossiping women in Corinth who were told to keep their trap shut. Paul didn't mean the entire gender. If he did then the letter he wrote to Timothy explaining what the value and character of a deaconis (Greek for priestess) would not exist. After all, if a woman is not allowed to speak in a church, she can't very well lead a mass. And for all of you men who want a Proverbs 31 woman to keep your house, read exactly what proverbs 31 says. It commands a woman to work in and out of the home, to run a business, to educate the children.... TO LEAD while all you guys have to do is sit on your haunches while your girth spreads.

The Bible entreats us all to treat each other with respect. Husbands are to value their wives in the same way we read how women are to worship their husbands in a Christian ceremony. It's just that we almost never hear that part. Read all of the Love Chapter.... the whole thing.

The problem with every argument for male supremacy and against feminine equality is the tendency for males to abuse the power that they claim and the false belief that a wife is property. A demure lady makes a good punching bag. A woman with the spitfire to fight back makes a guy think twice about hitting her. a demure lady is easily cowed into thinking that she is deficient in every way that counts and is easily emotionally abused. Emotional abuse leaves no scares on her, but in many cases puts a bullet in him. She is the one who gets into legal trouble. But no one does anything about the man in those situations until he is a corpse. A demure lady may be enticed into giving up her assets because the world is a big scary place. That kind of financial abuse leaves no physical marks until ruin throws them out onto the streets (worst case scenario of course). Financial abuse lets a man have as much freedom as can be debauched when he lacks solid moral character while a woman is left defenseless at home. You might think that I speak of Victorian era issues. But it still happens today. The newest gadgets come into the home to entertain the man while the basics leave a woman without a phone for emergencies, trash piling up in the house because the garbage service was cut off or with no utilities until he decides he is cold enough to pay the heat. I lived it. Don't tell me it doesn't still happen.

Beyond that, men who act like asshats make it 1000 times more difficult for those who don't. I have a wonderful new boyfriend who wants to hold open doors, who wants to open the car door for me. I'd love to wear dresses more often. And when we get to live together perhaps I will. He is the kind of guy who likes to get things done and will help do them. So I won't be in jeans doing all the work all the time. But I grew up with two gentlemen who were mocked for being gentlemen. They were mocked by asshats. And I see where men of a lesser constitution would cease to be gentlemen under that kind of bullying. I've lived with and dated men who could not be bothered to be helpful, men who liked to get in the way and demean other people's accomplishments. The effect on my life is that I hardly am able to imagine my boyfriend is for real. The effect on society is that there are fewer men like my boyfriend.

And that is your biggest problem. It isn't girls who wear what they like, it isn't the girls who throw themselves at men from the TV screen or in person. The biggest problem that men have are the asshats who dominate everyone else. Men who run the music industry tell men what they want; tell women what men want and collect the money from all those dumb enough to believe that the scantily clad, boozy, stupid hot messes are what they are supposed to want. Men who tell other men that being a gentlemen makes them a sap are the problem. Men who tell women that they can do whatever demeaning things they want to do and then use fists, cash, status to back up that statement are the problem. The men who mock the British Gents slowly taking over the hearts and minds of American women are the problem.

Men who mock kindness, generosity, peace are the problem.
Men who mock the quiet, strong silent types are the problem.
Men who solve problems with theirs fists, a gun or any other weapon are the problem.
Men who mock hard work, dedication and devotion as weakness or stupidity are the problem.
Men who can not stand up for what they know is right are the problem.

In a world where these men are in control it is little wonder that the tools most used to survive by women and weak spirited men are capitulation and submission. The will to survive will always trump logic and reason until we are all a little more enlightened.

For myself, I have no doubts that I have a boyfriend of strong character who will value me as he was meant to, who will care about me as a person and not as a possession. It is still a strange enough experience for me to find it a miracle. I have a boyfriend of estimable merit whose behavior as a gentleman is not dependent upon my behavior as a lady. That said, the more he treats me like a human being, a precious part of his life an himself, the less defensive I am and the more willing I am to go beyond myself for him.

That is the way it should be.

Slow Posts

Everyone having fun with weather this Winter?

I've been snowed in. Stuck in the middle of the road on a sheet of ice. I've dug myself out of feet of heavy snow just like everyone else this year. And I am laughing my ass off at all the 20 somethings out there that think this is the worst winter ever and whine about wet feet.

This is Michigan. This is what Winter was like when I was a kid. This is the way that we grew up. Wet feet. Cold feet. Shoveling. School closings. Bad roads. Roads to travel without benefit of four wheel drive. Oh the whining.

Of course we have been spoiled for the last 20 years. I've never forgotten the Winter of 78. But I have not known the adult issues of a Winter like that since my last year in Marquette. To the Yoopers this is nothing. A bit of a trial getting kids to school. But this is their normal. This kind of Winter is only fun for kids. And we suck it up and keep shoveling.

And keep shoveling.
And stand on ice to push cars stuck on ice.
And when that doesn't work..... we walk home to diminish the frustrations of a day that began with one fantastically annoying adventure after another. Only to be told that the shoveling will always be my job despite re-injuring the hamstring.

Is it Summer yet?

an Illustration of Misbegotten Vanity

We live in a society where it is perfectly acceptable to say who you are. And to say it loud and proud. There is only one problem with this new age of self-advertising: some of us have absolutely nothing to be proud of. Please, be aware that your vanity plate, like your username on a website, says almost as much about you as your table manners on a first date. And a vanity plate makes you far more memorable than the average alpha-numeric scramble you get from the DMV. Take heed that what you are advertising is NOT your ignorance or casual disregard for personal safety.
 To illustrate:



This morning I was on my way into work. I drive a busy street to get to the quiet residential short cut. On this busy street I entered the left turn lane and assessed the traffic. A speeding fire truck was headed my way. The intersection I was stopped at is home to one of several metro fire houses. But there was no real way of knowing if it was headed home or moving onward to another fire house. The distance between it and the car that had just gone passed me was not enough to safely allow me to turn without causing distress for the engine driver regardless of where he was going. So I waited.

The car in the left turn lane behind me DID NOT! He cut the fire truck off and sped down the 25 MPH street trying to beat the light at the main thoroughfare. Stunned. Angered. And more furious than fast, I sped only a little to catch up to him. He missed the light and was sitting stopped behind another car. I got right up behind him, pen in hand ready to take down the license plate.

It was a vanity plate. Figures.

It read KHAAAN. No it doesn't.

KHAAAN. Yes it does.

Really? Really?!?!?!?!?!

No. NO. NO. NO. NO!!!!!!!!

Get out of my fan-verse you horrible hot-rodding fool!!!!!!!!!

You aren't Captain Kirk!!!!!!!!!!

That isn't the Enterprise!!!!!!!!!!

And if Karma really is a bitch the next stunt you pull like that will see your car stall in mid turn.


How hard is he going to be to remember? Not.

Of course perhaps it is not his fault. Perhaps he went to the Benedict Cumberbatch Driving School.*






*Now before you all decide to lynch me, let me point out that Ben himself is the harshest critic of his own driving skills based on his recent Top Gear "Star in the Reasonably Priced Car" segment.

Seriously America?

As you well know I loved the first episode of Broadchurch. I've love British TV for a long time and have spent most of these last 6 months catching up on all sorts of goodies. So today I, as I am contemplating the feasibility of another trip to the doctor's office, I am cruising Google UK for some updates. And what do I find?

Fox wants in on the Broadchurch action.  Really?

SyFy remade Being Human. And that is a good show. But SyFy is about Science fiction and can be trusted to do things right. Love the show. Not sure the network isn't going bat shit crazy (Sharknado. Ugh. And that name change! Still bristling.) CBS has Elementary which I've already said is not as good as Sherlock if you are a purist.

BritTV is the domain of PBS. It means that we sometimes have to wait a little longer to see something like Masterpiece and Mystery! but it is always worth the wait. And PBS does a great job building its own programming.

FOX. FOX on the other hand is only really good at pissing people off. I hope that Chris Chibnall has a great experience with them as the executive director. He better have a great experience. Doubts abound on that score because FOX is well.... FOX. It steam rolls everyone until they can prove that they have more value than FOX's concerns. Matt Groening and Seth McFarlane have both had their share of grief and threats from FOX executives regarding content and style. American TV is really good about being formulaic. And once it finds a formula it likes it has to convert everything into that formula.

I think that is why we don't have our own Doctor Who. THANK GOD! And it is why we don't have our own Downton Abbey. So why do we have to have our own Broadchurch? Because Fox programs lost too many shares to BBC programs in Britain? It's Britain. Let them have their own stuff! And let them share with us. Why do American fingers have to get sticky with everyone else's creative juices only to water it down in the end?

Sometimes I doubt very little why the rest of the world hates us. We force feed our products down people's throats and when their product is presented to America it is changed so much from the original that no one recognizes it any more. And if American execs at FOX make Chris miserable there is little doubt this will be the last time anyone agrees to work with us. If they would take a few chances in developing programming they would not be losing shares all over the place. Formulas get old. When programming gets stale people lose interest. That is more than half of the reason that I am watching something besides American television. I've watched all the Criminal Minds I can watch. After 8 seasons its the same show. Same with CSI, NCIS and everything else I was watching.

One of my other concerns about this maneuver is the casting. We all know a huge part of what makes the show is the cast. If you've a great premise and an awesome script and you cast the wrong people you have a disaster. Part of why I tuned into Broadchurch was because I miss David Tennant's Doctor (And he is soooooooooooo not Ten). The show doesn't rest on his acting chops; I was hooked before he showed up. Casting, though, is huge. And casting an actor with a following as devoted as David Tennant's is simply brilliant.

I love Broadchurch. But I don't think that the American grown audience is going to that big into the show. It's about a kid dying under suspicious circumstances and it is dark. I just don't know that we can do it justice. I don't know that FOX can do it justice. Dear God I hope they treat Chris better than I think that they will.

Don't click: Click You're Dead

or a proposal to turn referral spam in on itself.


So what brings you here?
What is a nice guy like you doing on a site like this?

Are you a guy? Did you think I was a guy?

Why do I ask?

My stats are inundated.... we're talking flooding the entire Nile River Delta, the Sphinx getting her paws wet inundated, from a site called the Tao of Badass. Now I'm just this little ole geek girl with the typical geek girl crushes and geek girl interests and geek girl hopes. I am weird even for some of my weird friends, breaking that threshold at a warp factor Scotty can not imagine. I lose people around not very sharp curves on a regular basis and have out geeked enough first dates to know that I will never get a second date if I don't tone it down.

The fact that I have not toned it down tells me that I am looking for a geek guy who can actually get over the hurdle or impress me with the creative alternatives. So far nothing too impressing. However, there is a lot to be frustrated about. And I have mentioned those frustrations here. And that makes me wonder if that is the reason that the Tao of Badass has found me.

It is a site designed to help men get the girl they have in their sites. It's rather glitzy looking. And I wonder if maybe it is from the same guy who likes to tell women what they are doing to chase men off and how to stop. I didn't look too closely at the site's actually contents. The fact that it is at the top of my stats makes me wonder about it being a spam bot. But a google search turned up all kinds of comments on youtube about the actual product eased those concerns.

So the Tao of Badass is a real thing though not on Amazon (or is it?). There are lots of other books that are almost the same but not that one. It makes me wonder if some of my ranting about how idiotic men are on approach brought them here. Perhaps the Tao has found me because of my tips on spotting a fake profile hunter, my rants about the stupid one liners... um. Wait. That might have just been on facebook. At any rate: Some how, for some reason the Tao has found me. And it turns out it really is mostly just a legit looking site that is used to hide referral spam. In other words it is linking to those similar looking books on Amazon but is not a real Amazon product. I'm sure someone will point that out to Amazon. So I will refrain from sounding that Trumpet and just let you guys in on a plot. A rebellion against the spammers. A way to Guy Fawkes the Fawkers.

And here is the thing. This looks like a real product. This guy might think that he has all the answers. So he might actually have some legit reason for being the top URL referrer. HOWEVER!!!! No legitimate traffic is coming to my site from his. So, since this happens so often. Since these kinds of people are so good at deflating our writerly egos. I say we take back the internet. And here is how:

First make sure you have the best anti virus software available to you and that it is updated. Run scans to be sure you are covered. If you are super savvy in tech talk then you can use Ubuntu to run a simulated desk top. I am not that savvy. So I am taking chances with doing things this way. Once you are secure proceed with joyous abandon but cautiously...

My fellow bloggers, open your dashboard and look at your stats. See those weird URLs that make no sense? DON'T CLICK them! Those are definitely spammers. Why bother creating a clever name when the random plinkety plink on the keys will yield an address? You'd think someone could come up with an algorithm to weed those random "poahgjajgpwu0t9hjagpka[     dot com"s.  I mean seriously if it is between a www. and a .com .net .org .co .whatever it should be clear that it is just spam. So DON'T CLICK THE RANDOM PLINKETIES!!!!!!!!!

Now to the rest of those URLs that show you who sends traffic your way. DON'T CLICK those either. CLICK AND YOU'RE DEAD. Instead open another tab then carefully highlight the possibly offensive URL, cut and paste that in the search browser and hit enter. One of two things will happen. The search will show the top search results: either a true fan or a list of people griping about referral spam and those who keep reminding the world DON'T CLICK!

And it is the second of the list that I want to talk about. All those people who keep posting about who the fake referrals are from don't write for their internet health. They write for yours, mine, ours. Referral spam takes the wind out of your sails as a writer/blogger. After days and days of this you wonder if it is worth it. The people who write to warn us of the spammers are fulfilling a civic duty. But they may also be providing us low tech folks who write for fun a way to stick it to the Spam-Man.

Read those blogs. Don't just read the referral spam posts. Read a few others. Follow whom you please. Publicly share their hard work. Leave a comment so that the author knows that you are a real person. Do this for a while. You will find some amazing content. And because there is so much referral spam out there and the "next blog" button is so awkward as to what it thinks is a similar blog to your own, you'd never find these awesome people in a life of Sundays. And when you comment let them know that you found them because the Google search showed them fighting the spammers. Just DON'T CLICK the links. CLICK AND YOU'RE DEAD.

Or hi-jacked. Which is like being dead in cyberspace.

This is the way that I found a pretty cool blogger that I follow on Google+ as well. As a matter of fact I have found a few cool bloggers because searching for the offending URL brought me some really good advice about avoiding spammers. Or a shared frustration and good old fashioned ranty rants.


I hate to think that my foreign visitors are just ghosts in the spam machine. But such is life. Again. Take the good. Take the bad. Then take it out on the spammers by becoming fans of their critics.

And...

DON'T CLICK. CLICK AND YOU'RE DEAD

I need a gif

Life is a Zoo

I do not know under what category this is going to fit. I do not usually write about work stuff. I do not have a geeky job. I do not have an artistic job and frankly folding laundry in any hotel is about as interesting a thing to read about as watching grass grow during a drought. But somethings transcend the norm enough to merit a post. And today certainly has lit the fire of creative prose.

Sometime in the not too distant past, our humble little band of laundresses was asked to assume the mantel of Public Spaces Attendant. In addition to doing the laundry for the hotel and ironing linens for special events, we split our shifts cleaning the lobby, restrooms, fitness center, pool & spa and generally maintaining appearances. And it has been my special joy, of late, to have the Worst Morning Shifts Ever. For the last month I've walked into the public restrooms to find plugged toilets and seat liner confetti strewn about the place like Buggy Bunny had lead a ticker tape parade through the place. And it has been my special Joy of Joys to be far more intimate with our guests than even an Orion slave dancer* would care to be.

You see, before I even put my hand on door handle I knock and announce "housekeeping". I do this in the hopes that any one occupying the bathroom will prevent me from walking in to see a bare ass or dangling appendage hanging our by the urinals. The first time it happened was startlingly inappropriate. I was already in the bathroom and cleaning the urinals when a man walked in and
dropped trou right next to me before I could stammer an "excuse me" and race Han through the Kessel Run**.

Hellllllooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woman cleaning the bathroom who is not your mother/sister/wife/girlfriend/friend with benies/FB/Bf/paid escort/maid!!!!!!!!!!!!! What are you people doing!?????????


Our management wants us to maintain a professional atmosphere while still making people feel right at home. I guess we win. It doesn't get any homier than peeing with the door open. But seriously!!!!!!! I have seen so many bare male asses and penises in the last month or so that I am seriously done even being remotely interested in male anatomy. BTW: the boyfriend thanks you for your commemorative "aw man that blows" to which I will snicker "he wishes". And.... as if the barrage of wankers at work is not enough, the good luck follows me everywhere.

The impetus for this ranting post comes from the coffee shop. 24 ounces of German Chocolate mocha can't hang out in my bladder as long as it used to. And there is little warning when the few ounces there want to be let out... like a cat at the butt crack of dawn. So I hopped up... gingerly picked my way through the swarm of patrons who descended on the place. I heard nothing but the snarl of espresso machine and the door was open. In bathroom parlance that means it is "un-occupado" or in the German, ungeschlossen. So as you would expect, all restraint and decorum evaporates under the pressure of an immanent containment leak (wow would that have been putting it mildly), and I burst through the door.

And there is a cute guy peeing!!!!

What the hell??? Was I the guy thousands of years ago who told the municipal governors in Londonium "We don't need no stinkin' public sanitation standards." ??? What the hell did I do in a past life or this one to see this ALL THE TIME!? Uggghhhhhh!!!!!

Sadly, my friends, my life has become a zoo in which the only exhibit is the baboon cage.

Which I guess could be worse. It could be a poop flinging monkey cage.


*its a Trek thing
** 12 parsecs+not enough for escape velocity.

Who Wants to Know What I Click on @ the Library

Mr. Atoz would poop his pretty little embroidered robe if he knew what our libraries are doing. Now to use the computer you have to register with your drivers liscense. I know. I know. I know. Who cares? After all the only place I go is youtube to listen to Matze, gmail to write notes that will be completely misunderstood by anyone who is not in my head when I write them, here to entertain or bore you guys to tears and maybe I go poke people on facebook. Big deal.

Well it is a big deal. If Google and Apple can't keep from leaving cookie crumbs on everything that we do then those mysterious 3rd party people with the megalithic data mining brains may one day be called upon by our governement to nark on us for what we write about. I know... so don't have a public blog. Oooh how very Chinese Government Bulldoggy of all of you who thought that. And see... that could get a person in trouble.

I can't help but have Orwellian and Huxley-an nightmares when I hear stuff like this. Because somebody is going to get a bug up there ass after winning a too-close-to-call election and decide that a certain type of person almost cost them their life's dream and use this data mining to go a-hunting. Not cool. Not right. and not fair. And what if someone who won by a landslide would like to go hunting for the "type" of person that their mother always taught them to avoid? Or that their pastor says is the bane of all human existence? And who is going to be the most compliant when it comes to helping these guys on their own personal vendettas?

Public Libraries. Afterall... they are government funded. So technically the government must have evry right in the world to know how its property is being used. Right? Um excuse me...... the government exists in THIS country for the people to allow us to govern ourselves and not be indebted, enslaved or indentured to a societal establishment. I my not have been the best history student in the world. But I know that we were getting pretty sick of the heavy handed way the English nobility lorded their "birthright' over everyone else as if everyone else was just another piece of furniture. And what are we doing now? We are sliding right back into that elitest crap that messed everything up in Europe for a while. And every advantage they can take they do wether they deserve it or not. So if the government which is being run by the people who call the shots in business and politics say that the libraries have to tell them who is using the puters they will tell them. After all who cuts off their nose to spite their face?

and what if someone who doesn't speak German sees all the german music I listen to and decides this little Jew-By-Blood is really a neo nazi? Matze's music is about love and life not death and entropy but will that matter to the next mutton-headed Czar-of-whatever-the-hell-the-government-fears-next? No. Oooh she listens to German music. She's evil. Get 'er boys!

And next comes the censorship.

say what?

I haven't ranted about anything good in a long while. It seems to me that I am about due for a knock down drag out good old fashioned Frasier Crane temper tantrum. I've gone to the neighborhood coffee shop twice in the last month and found that the opener has not been on time to open the store. I'm not talking about two minute late. I'm talking two hours after the sign says "We're open" and there is not a posted change of hours. Normally this would throw me into a tizzy on my day off since that is where I live when I am not at work. But I can't even muster a more-than-mild irritation.

The coffee shop is Geek central. Coffee stimulates so much in the mind. And the atmosphere stimulates the soul. I don't function well if I am not properly caffeinated and in possession of a calm soul. I also don't function well when my routine is interrupted. So why am I not more upset?

I must have a lot going on in my head. Either that, or I finally have come to the point where I am beginning to agree with 97% of the people surrounding me; it just doesn't matter what I have going on in my life because it will never be as important as what other people are doing because I am single.

Another hello

Greetings and felicitations! It is Friday and Thank Steve the Fruit bat and whatever other imaginary Deity stand ins there are that it is!

First, I'd like to say hi to Sunnie, showing on the followers list as mides5. "Welcome aboard." And I've gotta say to you, Sunnie, "Holy cow you make me tired!" You look fabulous. I have no desire to put that much energy into body building. I just like to blow off steam. While I haven't the desire, it would seem that I have the need since the last doctor visit is rather annoying me.

secondly: HA! Blogger can't count either!!!! Shows 11 follower and only 10 of you show up on the follow list. So my guess is that the 11th person if a figment of Blogger's imagination or blocked their profile. Tsk Tsk! or Come out come out where ever you are!

third: I am serious about your blog posts sounding crazy. If you ever go back through them and it seems like there have been about 13 people (seek help when you find 2, don't let it get out of hand) writing your posts for you and you know that you are the only one who bothers to use up all of the gigabytes that they give you SEEK HELP!!!!

I've been struggling with a lot of issues lately. Chiefly with my tendency towards Nazi-ism at work. I know that is going to annoy my Jewish friends. But seriously. Tyranny may seem more accurate and politically correct a term to use but it hardly conveys the feeling of my own self loathing quite the same as Nazi does. The tyranny of logic, while logic is good, is not very effective in any endeavor. Tyranny breeds revolt. Or... encourages people to tell you that your behavior is revolting. Toss a coin.... it doesn't matter how you look at it. It is not a good thing to be the fiddling tyrant when the world is burning down around your ears.

I saw the doctor yesterday. While I am waiting on the test results that are going to tell Dr. Mike where we start with treatment, he is certain that I have PCOS. Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome. First thing that ACG tells me is that it isn't fatal. I would disagree.

First because someone at work is going to kill me. One of these days Dave is going to go behind the machines to clean out the lint trap and find that I have become an episode of Castle. He watches CSI but he needs to lighten up a bit and have some fun with us on Monday nights. I know that no one in my class would ever associate me with the likes of the WWWest, Cruella DeVille or.... Dick Solomon. But if this weird, angry, petulant and tactless version of me doesn't shut up on its own someone will shut me up.

Secondly because it feels like there are many people in my head and not an iota of leadership, I am tired of being angry all the time and can physically do nothing about it I keep thinking that I'd be better off onto the next life than sticking out this one. Sure I have a name to go with the issues so its even easier to tell myself I am being an idiot. But what it doesn't do is make this idiot any easier to live with; and I am the only one who can't get away from her idiocy!!!!!

So... are people telling you that you don't seem like yourself? Does it seem like some of your blog posts were written by pod people or jack the Ripper reincarnated? Then for CRIPES SAKE!!!! GO SEE A DOCTOR!!!!!

Lecture over. Resume your day.

Geek sigh [facepalm]

Just caught a preview for the Green Hornet. I knew it was coming because there was a fan vid being promulgated on Twitter last Summer. The fan vid was cool, a case for Nathan Fillion as the Green Hornet. So now youtube has the previews. Wanna guess who gets to be the Green Hornet? Seth Rogan. Really?

See the problem with everything that I saw is that the Green Hornet from the serials my mother watched while the world revcovered from the Big War and the comics that I read as a kid is that GH was not... ever A COMPLETELY BUMBLING IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess this movie will make a case for the sidekick being more adroit than the hero which will make all of us who are struggling with the inane obscurity of our lives feel a bit better about punching in at work.

But the hero is someone to look up to. You aren't supposed to want to hide under your theater seat because the hero is a moron. Your eyes are supposed to be glued to the screen enjoying the action and soaking up the exemplary behavior, learning to emulate while your admiration deepens. You are NOT supposed to watching your life line splintering in the palm of your hand!!!!

Now I wonder how Hawaii 5-0 is going to be ruined. Thank God they were kind to the Holmes story. At least not EVERYONE in Hollywood is a baseless coward, afraid to do something new and adventurous. In a case like this if their were an honest way to do futures (see previous post on subject) then I wold totally take the bet against this one and send some unnamed Guido on a leg breaking trip.

The good thing about this. And it is the ONLY good thing. In the fall when Big Bang Theory comes back Sheldon will have something wickedly scathing and derisive to say about this that will entertain me for weeks thereafter.

Find your Happy Place!

I feel it is my duty to tell you the following, in the name of sanity and good mental health.

Whatever brings you to your happy place and allows you to function in a world where everyone wants to throw their crap in your way like you are a brain sucking Zombie use it! And use it often!

I've been car less for almost two weeks now. First it was the timing belt. Then it got ran over in the driveway. Silverado v. Focus= Focus looses every time. And due to an amazingly persistent streak of bad luck I am separated from my happy time. I've been without easy Internet access and since I am always "available" (read: home) I have been under constant attack energetically. The dogs want me. My brother wants to talk all the time. My sister in law. My niece. Everyone at work feels free to throw their shit my way when I am trapped behind the folding table. And it's been too much.

I have two things that are able to make me forget about other people's crap and loose that overwhelming sense of immanent doom. One is listening to Matthias Reim. And thank god I managed to learn a few songs that get stuck in my head to keep me company. The other is being in a coffee shop where no one is rude enough to interupt the peace. A book would make everything better too. But that isn't happening due to funding issues. But that is okay because I can write when there are not people knocking on my cranium.

After two weeks of this kind of energetic and emotional torture I about lost it. The new guy actually noticed and tried to talk me down from the Tower I've locked myself in. Sweet for him to try. But having learned several good, rock-solid lessons about stringent interviewing processes for confidantes, I just needed to get me to the cafe!

Your happy places are necessary. Use them! If you don't have them get them! And be warned. There are people who will try to tell you that you don't deserve that kind of respite. In their eyes you are depriving them of something they want, usually your time and energy. There are those who will tell you that you are being selfish, causing inconvenience and in general just being anti social. You know what? Too bad for them! If those kinds of people lack the imagination and the intelligence to find their own safe havens then you have to leave them behind/alone/to drown in their own sorrows. How selfish is it to demand resources from someone else when you are too lazy to find resources yourself?

My happy place keeps me from busting people's chops. Anyone who has read my blog for long should be able to see a quick wit and a sharpened pen. Yes, most of the time I try to bring the funny. But be warned, funny smart people who are pushed to far can slice you to ribbons with their mighty pens when pushed too far. My happy place reestablishes my tact. It gives me a measure of patience which erodes daily under the simple stress of life. A happy place is what keeps most of us from acting like the serial killers. A trip to a happy place lets petty things slide off my back. You do realize that no one with the grace of God and patience of Job is that way by virtue of birth alone.... don't you?

Nice people snap. Good people break vases in anger. It's the happy place, reconnecting with God/the Universe and whatever that let's the positive traits take point when charging t hrough life's pitfalls. Yes. I could pray and expect that and some Bible study to work the same way it works for Billy Graham. But God didn't make me that way. God made me to like music and art of many kinds. God made me a fan of one of the Highest orders. In the Grand Scheme of Things, I guess, he decided that he didn't want to be alone in the cheap seats at a concert and thought I'd be fun to hang with. Awesome thing to be if you ask me. I wasn't born to lament every little thing in the world or just be a Prayer Warrior as they are called in the Christian realm. God makes each one of us special. And as a result none of us are going to find the happy in exactly the same way. It isn't for anyone else to decide what makes us happy and calm.

And it isn't for you or me to throw away those things to please someone else who doesn't want to find a happy place. Misery loves company, so they say. But misery doesn't like happy company. Misery likes to make people as Miserable as it feels so that it feels more normal. Why? Because it is the easy cheap answer.

Find your happy place damn it!!!!

in which I am reminded I don't have a penis

There are people where I work who make my job easy, people who make my job difficult and an handful that don't care if I am there or not. One of the people who makes my job difficult is our bean counter.. you know, because that's what they do. No one likes bean counters other than the people who see the profits from them doing an efficient job. I get that. It's a universal thing and as old as at least the New Testament. But the latest thing just makes no sense.

We have a partnership with a corporate entity who said we needed to have someone who's job was to keep the publicly viewed and used areas clean. That is all they do during their shift. Bean counter decided that it was unnecessary. While I don't know that exact words that ran through his head when he was struck from behind with this epiphany, I imagine it went something like this: "Sherry doesn't have enough to do if she has time to be behind the bar making coffee for guests and popping off about things that she has noticed."

I have a history with this guy. Every time I need something ordered for my department he makes the maintenance guy do an inventory to verify the need. It seems as though every time I open up my mouth about something that he decides someone with a penis needs to make sure I know what I am talking about. It happens so regularly that the last time Maintenance went to count linens he finally asked "Why do I have to do this?"
"Because I don't have a penis."
"You're crazy."
"Do you have a better explanation?"
He walked away. I know he didn't believe me. So now we've condensed two jobs into one. We in laundry now have to spend part of the day cleaning public areas. It wouldn't have been a huge problem except that he reduced the number of hours we can work to get all of this done. During the week it is slow enough that this crazy idea is passable. On weekends we have problems. I can't get into the pool area to clean it before it is full of people and it is never not full of people. The other problem is that the sales department books events for 8 am, wants the public areas clean before the even starts and the first person in comes in at 8am. I know what you're thinking. It was the same thing I was thinking, "How much for just the time dilation device?"

So I said to the GM, maybe someone should come in at least an hour before events start. And maybe come in early on weekends. My super suggested the same thing. "We'll give that some thought." Really? How would you like to be the first guest on the scene, hit the bathroom and see that some ignoramus already bombed the hell out of the bathroom when the bar closed? So my super mentioned it in a meeting a week later. No reaction. Nothing. I mentioned it to the GM again. Nothing again. Then the maintenance guy said something about the early events. "Well, you could mention having someone come in early."
"What good would that do?"
"They might listen to you."
"Yeah? What makes you think so?"
"You have a penis."
So nothing happens. And nothing happens. Then this week the Sales manager, in the managers meeting, says to the GM, "You know, we should just go ahead and have someone come in early on the weekends. Especially before these early event." The ideas was seconded by her assist. The GM says to my super, Yeah we soooo should do that. "Do you think Sherry will come in early this weekend?"
Um what? Didn't I say that I would, could and SHOULD no less than 5 weeks ago???? I need hours since I can't live on 27.5 hours. But that was never the point. The point was that our business was starting to look like crap and we were not dealing the customers a good hand. I would have come in an hour early and gone home an hour early if the hours were too big a deal to them. But it looks like that isn't an issue. The issue is that I have neither penis nor status to ensure that my suggestions are heard. Oh wait! I lied. If I make more work for myself to do then I can be heard. Like not meaning to volunteer myself to clean carpets this weekend because I am tired of everyone telling me how we are falling short of our goals. Oh yea! I get to run the carpet cleaner.

Mr. Spock, odds that I can find someone with a penis to do that for me?

political outrage

I know this is so like me. My response to anything political is to quote Sting: "De do do do. De da da da" and call it a day. Problem is my new outrage involves Sting. Well the music industry.

And it's the auto makers fault. "Oooh bail us out bail us out. We knew NAFTA would fuck us right along with our own short comings but we agreed with you so bail us out." And the govt did. And because the car companies got a deal, mortgage lenders get a deal and the rest of us get very expensive "free" health care if govt gets its way now the Big Wigs at the record labels who have been ripping artists off for years want a piece of the bail out help. But make now mistake, they aren't calling it a bail out. Apparently having learned from the payola scandal that a spade is a spade is a spade they have initiated a Performance tax bill.

This means that besides the licensing fee that radios stations pay to play music to us for free, they will now be required to pay a tax for the privilege of playing the schlock and drek the record companies are producing at alarming rates these days. you'll still get your standard favorites of the 60s, 70s and 80s (for now). The problem is that it is an unfair tax. They are looking to recover revenue from lost sales since the digital age which they helped launch took over their business. Last time I looked the price of a downloaded album was comparable to a CD but you don't get the cool cover or the lyric sheets. I paid 12.00 for Sting's new CD in a book bound format with great back story from Sting. CHEAP! But I didn't set the price for the collectible book. The company did. In that instance the record label was in no danger from the digi-boogeyman and in fact didn't charge what they could have. Drat!

The record labels are crying foul. But hello... the music industry (prepare to be blown away by an unsubstantiated fact) is one reason that technology has advanced so rapidly in the last 15 years. I didn't here them lament the death of the record store. I didn't see the price of a CD drop significantly after the new tech came out of its infancy. They've gouged their buyer, cheated their artists and grown increasingly greedy over the years. If the digital revolution is such a problem for them then they need to lay down and die and get out of the way or they need to go a little Sun Tzu and use the enemy's strength against it. They helped create this monster under the bed and expect us to go chasing it for them. Hello? Did they not read Frankenstein? Build a monster, treat it poorly and then the monster goes SMASH!

Really how laughable would it have been if Frankenstein had pleaded with the villagers to save him from his own creation? +100 on the Williams scale of funny. They would have done what the government needs to do to the record label. Shrug innocently but helplessly and turn their backs on the greedy, pompous execs. If they want to survive they need to quit stealing and make the new technology they were so gung ho about work FOR them instead of AGAINST. geez. It ain't rocket science. Hell it isn't even as complicated as 10,000 monkeys writing Shakespeare...

They can just back engineer something else the aliens left with us*. Grow up guys and solve your own problems.



*That is supposed to be funny. One dark government theory posits that the Compact Disc technology was reverse engineered from debris/evidence left after the saucer crashes across the globe in the 1940s. The government couldn't make a lot of headway in producing equipment to sufficiently utilize the information stored on similar discs found in Roswell and other locations so turned it over to private industrialists whose R&D departments worked to prove the NASA ads "Space. Here's what's in it for you."

Let's go to Camelot!

I know, tis a silly place.
This post has been redacted to protect the not so innocent. A rant that could have gotten me into deep trouble. The best line, out of context:

Productivity is the key to a solid bottom line not the sweat and toil of lower totemic workers.

Across all of American industries, so many fail to recognize the need to continue to innovate the process as well as the product. Unless GM has truly learned from the mistakes of their past and Ford's the restructuring that was to be their salvation is nothing more than a cheap wallpaper job.

teh calmest rant I've written

Why can't I bodily feel the 20 something I am in my heart and soul? Of course I know the answer is Entropy. The detailed answer on God's FAQ sheet is probably some blend of sardonic humor and peevish fatherly aversion that is the equivalent of "Because". The older I get the more my body usurps my mental energy, betrays my physical weaknesses and embarrasses me in public. The latest event has been the source of a new term at work. It is called a "Sherry Incident."
Last Monday I was sent home after almost passing out in the second floor linen room. The biggest culprit turned out to be a pinched nerve that had partially stopped the corotid artery from making its regular cerebral deliveries. The nausea was obviously a result of being lightheaded; something my body tolerates only as relates to blonde moments, and then only grudgingly so. All and sundry are blaming it on the heat. Heat is only an issue because the HVAC design engineer got his education from a Bazooka Joe wrapper. And that is not what made me sick. But that is what everyone thinks and now I'm the wilting lily instead of the Stargazer. The fun hasn't stopped there.
I've just about recovered from improper work conditions because my regular folding table was lost in shipping, I'm being attacked by my insides again. I'm coming into a period of my life where my cycle is as painful as it was as a teen, forcing me from school 3 days out of every month. I was so unremarkable is school that my attendance record doesnt reflect that. Teachers all thought I was still there. Unfortunately that won't work in this stage of my life. I'll be missed. Nothing works liek it used to. Dad said this would happen. It just FEELS too soon. I know it isn't. I'm almost 40. Still... betrayal sucks.
Entropy=Epic fail.

its just music

I know this. And it shouldn't make me this nuts. But puh-lease! This is just ridiculously insane!!
Six months ago I heard about U2's new album. LAst Tuesday they released it on their Myspace site. But NOT IN STORES???? WTF! So I thought, well maybe Best Buy or Borders will have lucked out and gotten advance copies.
That's a big NO from BB. So across the street to Borders i go. And when I get there? IT'S PLAYING ON THE STEREO! I skippped over to Alan, threw a "Salve (sall-way)" at him and said I want this, handing him the CD case. No prob for Alan. He hit a few keys and presto magic NOTHING.
Alan: (sheepishly) You aren't gonna like this.
Me: Not available.
Alan: No... not until
Me & Alan: MArch 3rd.
A curse on the marketing genious who came up with this brilliant idea of frustrating the fan base. And a curse on he band members who concurred with this totally lame LAME lame idea.
I know it's just music. But really? Is it JUST music? Is music ever JUST music? I mean, there is something intrinsic in the creation of music, any art, that speaks to the soul and connects listener to band/solo artist. Music that speaks to the individual, feeds the soul. It quickens the body and stimulates the mind. It isn't just music... random notes on a page. It is an experience. An experience that I have been waiting for the last six months. It is an experience that I had hoped would induce sunshine on my cloudy days. A new experience to bring in a new phase of my life. Music tends to do that. "Beautiful Day" got me through a painful break up during one of Sting's dry spells. In fact, it rather laid the ground work to appreciate Sacred Love without a jaundiced ear.
So I have been frustrated and barely able to stand this passage of time this whole week. And I wa just doing something random on Facebook when I am suddenly face to face with an ad for an album I would already own if SOMEONE WEREN'T A COMPLETE IDIOT!!!!!!!!! Talk about torment.
I know this should eclipse all other negative comments about Bono and his spokesmanship, forever defaming him in my eyes. But you have to seperate the man from the marketing or you lose the music. I know this too. But I don't care. It's just plain mean!

when good dj's go bad

So I spent 8 hours at work in the breakfast bar. Then someone decided that she had to leave at 1 so then I housekept... as I said in the last post. Then I decided to drive home. We've been having snow, an inch an hour, all day with wind gusts up to about 30 miles an hour. No problem.
Stopped at the dollar store for new slippers since my fuzzy lined slippers went missing and found a space heater to replace the one that is going bad. When I came out the car was covered... again. I only spent about 15 minutes in the store. At this point I thought about going back to work and begging Colleen to let me stay, even if I had to pay for it. But then I thought better than to make a nuisance of myself. So I got out on the road. And a guy who turned left out of the no left turn lane cut me off in almost zero visibility. And it was zero for the next several miles. So I stopped and got gas. As I am on approach to the gas station the dj on the oldies station makes this smart ass comment. "Wow, it's snowing so hard we may need rudolph to get home." Granted, this was a bad day, the snow on a horizontal and like I said... zero visibility.
So a gas truck gets stuck on the hill just above the gas station, the hill I have to go up to get home without getting stuck myself. It then took 45 minutes to drive the last four miles home. My road was mostly closed and the driveway was impassable. But then that is the way that the winter works around here. So I called Colleen. She said Iwas crazy to have driven home. So I turned around and came back. The coming back was a problem.
The bayside drive was worse than anything I had seen today. I slid down the big hill almost sideways. And then along the bay, the only place that had any visibility was where our defunct zoo is. Couldn't drive more than 20 miles an hour, which didn't stop the guys in the SUV's, who fishtailed around every corner and starting from every stop. By the time I got to work, I was wet, tired and had been on hte road for two one half hours and only driven 16 miles.
Rudolph best keep his big bright nose to himself. And the dj's need to find other pop culture references. If rudy can't see his way to flying my crate home he best not bother with the lead light.

And the good times here just never end

Well, I came into work at 5:30 on my day off and it is now 2:35. I am going home to die myself a nice shade of corpse bride white so I can resurrect myself for another similar day tomorrow... and Friday... and Saturday... and Sunday... Monday I can come in at 9. Whoo hoo!

Don't get me wrong, I volunteered to do this because no one else can do this without big training and because I like helping people. I'm single and as much as I may have resented the assumptions past employers have made about my automatic availability in times of faux crises, this is a real crisis and I like the people enough to say "What the heck, why not." The problem is that I found muscles shoveling that heavy crap in my driveway that housekeeping for these last 7 months didn't reveal. And I am not really having a lot of luck in the getting sleep department. And it is Winter. For ten years I have worked at a job that I could, in essence, hibernate for the rest of the day. It is a stretch for me. And while I can appreciate the kind of character building this is accomplishing in my life... I am reminded of why exactly the pioneering life in America's mid and wild Western Frontiers was so excruciatingly solitary, even among a small community of settlers. There is too much friggin' work to do when you are boiling water for washing, cooking, and cleaning; hauling wood (thank G'd it's already chopped!) and trying to cook a meal in one friggin' pan. I am so tired from working here all day, I don't want to boil water for tea much less anything else. And socialize? NOT BLOODY FRIGGIN' LIKELY!!!

Rant over? Sure, why not. It's not like I have a lot of energy for anything else. I am not even certain that I have the energy for meeting Verta today... or driving home... or even undressing for bed... but I can not sleep in my work clothes.