People and toilets

I'm bemused by the actions of people...seemingly educated and professional people.

I had to take a dump at work today. Stall #2 (hehehe) was open so I walked in and this is what I see.

People so afraid of sitting on a bare toilet seat and catching something that they build a 'protective' layer for themselves to sit upon instead.

Feeling protected, they do their duty (hehehe) and leave. But instead of pushing their protective nest into the toilet and flushing it, or not, they leave it. No cares or worries about the next person's feelings. No cares or worries about essentially leaving trash behind. As long as they protected their own ass, why clean up after themselves.

I'd like to punch this fraidy cat bastard in the nut sack!

What this person/these people don't realize is that our restrooms are checked on, wiped down and clean every hour on the hour all day. One could literally eat off the toilet seat and not deal with as many germs as they would eating at their own desk!

Rant over!

Minimum wage then (1970s) and now (2010s)

Saw an article on Reddit about a guy that used to work at McDonald's back in the 70s. A simple read but interesting to hear about the changes over the years as far as his experiences goes. One thing that caught my eye was someone asking about paychecks. This man earned minimum wage and felt like he was "rolling in money." Granted he wasn't supporting himself but he also didn't plan on flipping burgers as a life-long career choice but who does? Apparently those people protesting that minimum wage is to minimum.

I think this is what is lost on the current minimum wage debate — minimum wage is not a support-the-family wage. It's a stepping stone towards (potentially and expectantly) earning more money by either moving up within a company or moving to another company.

As defined:  Minimum wage is the lowest wage as permitted by law.

Do you minimum wage earners hear that? Do you understand it? It's the MINIMUM wage allowed by law! Employers can't pay below that rate but they sure as hell can pay just that rate.

If you want to earn more, learn a SKILL or take some college or continuing education courses specific to learning a skill or craft. Do you really, I mean REALLY expect to earn $15/hr working at a McDonald's or Wal-Mart? Those are very easily learnable duties and do not take any sort of educational training or specialized skills. Let's put employment at McDonald's and Wal-Mart into perspective:

At McDonald's you either take orders at the front or drive thru, flip burgers, deep fry things like fries or chicken and maybe occasionally clean the restrooms. At Wal-Mart you either walk the floor as a "helper" for customers or refolding/refixing things the customer messed up on shelves or hangers, "guard" the dressing room, checker, stocker or greeter. All in all the McDonald's employee seems more happy/friendly than the Wal-Mart employee even though both think they should make a lot more per hour but I feel the McDonald's worker could have a worse job because of all the grease, food smells, nasty restrooms, etc. Anyway, do any of the duties I listed require any kind of specialized training and/or education? HELL, NO! So, why in the world would you think you DESERVE ANYTHING more than minimum wage? Again, it's the MINIMUM an employer can legally pay and not a minimum LIVING wage. Hell, I'm not making too far above the latter and I AM skilled and educated! So fuck y'all!

Anyway, most minimum wage jobs were previously occupied by 15-18 yr olds or so until they went off to college. Sometimes they'd come back during holiday breaks and summers to that same job. I'd bet none of them complained about it like the minimum wage earners now.

Minimum wage is a stepping stone to learning about working hard to earn money...no matter how little that was after getting raped by the governmental taxes. A step to learning how to stretch that money over time until the next paycheck. A step to learn a sense of responsibility and build trust with employers, family and friends. A step towards life maturity. A step to learning that there's got to be a way to make more money whether it be a college education or learning a skilled profession as an apprentice or something. It sucked to earn minimum wage and sometimes it took a while to earn more but no one EVER wanted to stay making minimum wage in ANY job. The minimum wage worker at McDonald's typically stayed there for a long period of time to try and work their way up the ladder to assistant manager, then manager and then whatever is next. They didn't EXPECT to earn more than minimum (or even double as the bitchers are bitchin' for now) as a burger flipper or order taker.

Wake up people! Why should we cater to you people that want to stay in the same job doing the same duties for ever and ever and ever? Many jobs are like educational courses — you take one and then move to a new one at a higher level unless you fail or suck at it and you stay at the same level. Stop looking for free upgrades that you feel you are entitled to because you ARE NOT entitled!

Article here while it lasts.

Going Deep with David Rees

I was channel surfing a week or so ago and came across this show: Going Deep with David Rees. I didn't know the name of the show at the time. What caught my attention was that this guy is supposed to show people things a "new light." However, what he showed me is that he's kind of an idiot. The stupidity is said at around 6 seconds on the video. Let's see if others realize his mistake!

 

∞
That's all I got to say about that!
 

People are so stupid and clueless sometimes

I got an email from the CompUSA listserv mentioning a "deal" on the Alienware M14X AM14X-5283SBK today. I have previously typed about owning the M11X but I'm really interested in upgrading to the M14X for more screen real estate. I'm going to find a REALLY good deal on it sometime in the near future. I just know it.

Curious as I am, I clicked the link in the email to see what kind of deal they were offering. It wasn't that great but I didn't see something that made me realize even more the ignorance of people.

I screen captured two comments (see below) about the M14X which are supposed to be reviews. What's stupid about these particular "reviews, ratings, comments" is that the people typing them do not even OWN the product they are "reviewing!" They are generalizing what they want in the item or what they feel is wrong about the item without even buying it and physically using and testing it. They make blind, ignorant judgments (where has thinking like this gotten the world in the past...very bad places and happenings).

Anyway, if you're not going to contribute in a meaningful manner to the world of electronic purchases, keep your stupid mouth shut! What's even funnier is that these stupid blokes hide behind cryptic usernames because they don't want their friends and family to point out the stupidity!

So, if you want to comment on something whether it be a product, an article, a blog entry, or whatever, at least have some experience with what you are speaking about.

=== end transmission of frustration ===

Who should you ignore?

Whether it's a comment on a blog post or an article in the paper/on the web, how can you quickly decipher which people to ignore completely if you care to acknowledge them at all?

Today just happened to be a day where I was reading a few articles/posts with comments and I noticed something: America (and maybe somewhat abroad) is full of non-spelling idiots!

First of all, I don't profess to know how to spell every word. If I don't use them, I usually don't know how to spell them or if I use them verbally, I can always hit F7 while in MS Word or do a search for it on the WWW.

Second, these misspellings aren't hard to spell words, big words, or words with hidden consonants or vowels.

Third, I'm not saying people don't make random mistakes like typing an 'I' before an 'E' or any inadvertent swapping or omission of letters. I'm talking just a general misunderstanding of what word to correctly use and then correctly spelling it.

So, one of the most common misspelled words I have found in comments is:

• definately instead of definitely
• loose instead lose
• chose instead choose
• there instead of their

There are more but I can't remember them all at this time. The worst violators are the ones that brag about being educated and/or even a teacher of some sort and then they type definately — That's when I sarcastically think, "Yeah, I'm glad you are teaching someone's kid smarty pants."

Anyway, that's all I got to say about that...for now.

Stupid people at work...again

I find some of the best random blogging material by just sitting at my office desk listening or seeing what goes on around me.

I've posted about the stupid people at work and specifically the stupidest girl at work.

So, Monday she called in sick to our boss who has been out of town on recruiting trips for almost a month straight. The boss often has been sickly on the various trips and when she got back in town, she still came into the office. I'm not promoting it. I'm just saying for reference/comparison.

So stupid girl left boss a message saying she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be in until may be later after lunch time...approximately 1pm.

No big deal, right? Wrong! Stupid girl just happened to take off Friday for a three-day weekend where she apparently ventured to Austin, Texas for Austin City Limits. That's like three days of mindless drinking, partying and music listening. I'm sure the boss knew this was where she was going and then stupid girl calls in "sick."

Do you see where and why stupid girl gets her moniker?

Again, I don't care what the fuck stupid girl does. I care that her stupidity will somehow affect me somewhere down the road. What if I want to call in sick on a Monday? Now the boss will think, "Hm, [stupid girl] had a party weekend and called in. I wanted if [Jay] is 'playing' sick." See? It sets a trend for others that really isn't there but because of stupid girl, it's now in the thoughts of the boss.

By the way, I've told a couple of people or they were privy to the information the same time I was but they all say, "Isn't [stupid girl] too old to be doing this shit now?" She's 30...31 in a month or so. I take a more stand-offish approach and say, "30 is really just a number. Yes, maturity-wise you would think she'd be out of the going-somewhere-to-party-and-get-drunk phase but I guess everyone is different."

At the same time, stupid girl seems somewhat immature (mentally) at times. I think she spent more time acting like a frat boy in college than a sorority girl. Nothing wrong with that, but I would think the maturity eventually kind of just naturally occurs. I could be wrong since I purchase my evolutionist degree online.

So, what do you think? Is there an age that people should stop "partying"? I know partying is a very broad idea. For me a few years ago, playing Medal of Honor: Spearhead on my home LAN of seven computers was a party. Should I have grown out of that? Of course, part of your decision could be how much community partying is done (i.e. dance clubs, concerts, bars) versus in-house partying (i.e. LAN parties, house parties with close friends).

I'm a little skewed in my opinion because I don't drink or believe in completely wasting my hard-earned money. If I did drink, I don't see how economically smart it is to pay $5 for a bottle beer at some venue when I can buy a 6-12pk for the same or slightly more. I like listening to music but I don't need to see the band in person, especially from within the mosh pit or the you-got-charged-way-too-much-dumb-ass seats up front. I'm happy with just jamming to the music on my computer or MP3 player.

I'm just easy like that...easy like a Sunday morning!

Racists, racists everywhere

I just got a chance to write about this but there was an incident at my roller hockey game a couple of weeks ago.

No, it didn't involve me.

It could have easily been avoided but there's this uncanny knack that men cannot take the high road (I'm guilty of this once in a while as well). It bears no weight that most are at least in their late 20s and above on whether they act like a jackass or not!

This though was completely ignorant and 95% one guy's fault.

So, picture my teammate: about 6'2", Caucasian, biker mustache/goatee, definitely seems to have anger issues. He's on the bench with me and my brother when a team member of the opposing team seemingly (more than likely) takes a dive to draw a penalty. One is called on our team but for slashing instead of tripping. Weird but we move on.

"Angry man" responds to the call with something like "What was that?" "Are you seriously going to call that?" "That was a Dora-like performance!"

Where that last comment came from is beyond me other than the fact that the "diving guy" was seemingly (more than likely) Hispanic or Mexican. The Dora comment was pretty ignorant but I guess if one dug deep enough the correlation could be made...maybe. The point is there was really no need to bring ethnicity into it.

So, the immature bantering goes on between my teammate and the "Diver" and a couple of others on the opposing team. There is about 20 seconds left in the game and what players just happen to be left on the rink: White guy, the Diver and a few other Hispanics (presumably), and my brother (who looks Mexican like I do).

All of a sudden we see White guy get tackled by Diver. Which is just plain stupid to begin with because we are all "adults" but I do understand the Diver's reaction to the ignorant Dora comment. White guy gets out from under Diver but is in a kind of sitting position and then Diver's brother bum rushes White guy, knocking him to his back and sucker punches the White guy on the left side of his face.

It's not my altercation so I remain on the bench as to not bend/break any of the "rules" as I really don't know what the facility's rules are to begin with. I just know it's not my issue and I'm not friends with White guy or Diver.

My brother sees it another way. He's three years older than me and a little shorter and scrawnier. But he has the same temper - we get that from our dad. Anyway, my brother sees the sucker punch and goes in to pull Diver's brother off White guy. I yell from the bench for him to stay out of it. His wife and son are in the stands watching and I hear her voice the same sentiment. I keep a close eye on my brother because if someone did involve him, I would have jumped off that bench and leaped over the wall to bust some knees! Fortunately, the facility workers were able to separate and settle things if not temporarily. They went ahead and ran the remaining 20 seconds off the clock and the game was called. Our team was victorious.

We are removing our equipment in the locker room (basically the back side of the stands without doors or really a room) when I told my brother that I'm glad he stayed out of it. His wife and son again shared the sentiment. My brother said he wasn't getting involved until he saw Diver's brother sucker punch White guy. He just wanted to make sure it didn't happen again.

After a few minutes or so, when we were done de-equipping and getting ready to leave, my brother walks down to White guy and says something. My brother starts to walk back towards me and I hear White guy say, "No disrespect," and my brother says, "That's alright. I'm not Mexican."

My brother sits back next to me and says that White guy skated by Diver and said, "Chico." This apparently is what set off Diver. This is also some portion of what White guy probably said and "apologized" to my brother because White guy thought my brother was Mexican.

So, other than the obvious immaturities, I was a little bothered by the situation. Granted, I'm not Mexican but as I've stated time and again, I look Mexican, especially to the ignorant gringos of the U.S of A. especially in the border states!

Should I feel offended by White guy's comments even though it wasn't me and I'm NOT Mexican? Yes, because that very well could have been me he asininely called, "Dora" or "Chico." Would it have pissed me off like it obviously did Diver? Fuck yeah it would have!

Should I feel awkward by my brother's oblivious statement of "It's okay, I'm Hawaiian?" Because fucking White guy thought he was Mexican to begin with. And as such, his Dora and Chico comments could have indirectly affected us. Just because we aren't Mexican, doesn't mean we haven't had to deal with the outright ignorance, stupidity, racism and dickheadedness of White guy in some form or fashion.

White guy is obviously a pigheaded dip shit that doesn't know any better. Diver is probably an asshole too but it has nothing to do with him being Mexican. My brother is just a dumb ass for encouraging White guy and thinking that whatever White guy said was funny or intelligent sounding.

So, it bothered me a bit. I'm over it but I wanted to write what I was feeling/thinking at the time. I'm just as racist as the next White guy but I've written before about how I don't think it's racism by me when I hate and make fun of every race. :-) Most of the time I'll make fun of your intelligence, your overall life skills and your wife or family in general (even though I don't know her/them). Sometimes, deep down in my mind I may have some damn good racial slurs waiting to creep out of my vocal chords but the odds are I won't bring them to the plate unless the other person brings it first. Even then, I really try to keep my arguments precise and to the point and if your race had nothing to do with it, why even bother mentioning it? It's a waste of time and effort for the argument and it just shows the ignorance of the person who flung the race card because they can't hold their own without turning it to race.

I guess that's all I have to say about that.

Annoyances at work

Some days I can barely take the inane conversations that I have to endure.

Boss-boss walks down the hall and asks in a whiny voice, "Jay, where's Boss [my immediate supervisor]?"

Absent-Minded Jay says, "She went to lunch."

Boss-boss says with a pouty tone, "Oh, but I really need her."

Absent-Minded Jay rolls his eyes at his computer screen. Luckily Boss-boss has turned and walked away by then.

What the hell did Boss-boss want me to do, go find where Boss went to lunch or call Boss's cellphone to see when Boss'll be back? Boss-boss has Boss's cell number too, duh!

Poking myself in the eye with a syringe would be more enjoyable than listening to and putting up with this on a daily basis!

Did I mention how much I hate working?

I do. It's a shitty thing that we are made to work to survive, especially if we have kids, a family.

Work isn't as welcoming as it used to be. It doesn't feel like it anyway.

I'm pissed. I'm bitter. I'm so easy-going that things roll off my shoulders at phenomenal speeds (usually) and I get over my pissed and bitterness. Some things I hold onto for a long, long time but others just kind of bounce off immediately or hang around for just a short time.

I don't think so today, especially since it's a culmination of a few days.

My immediate boss has push buttons that should not have been pushed. Not because I'm this unpushable button guy but because she crossed a line.

She complains to me about work and coworkers within our office using colorful language to do so. I try not to get sucked in because I can curse like a sailor with the best of them but I know it's not something I should not do at work especially with my immediate supervisor.

Anyway, I considered us on a friendly level...more than boss-underling...more like work friends. We weren't like this because I wanted it. I tend to distance myself because I know people will fuck me over. It is inevitable and always happens no matter who or what level of "friendship" you are on among yourselves. It pisses me off to get stabbed in the back or something of the like when I allowed them to be inside my "friend" web. Of course, these work friends aren't all the type of friends that I would go to world's end for. There are a couple but no more.

So, the other day I got out of my 8 a.m. class at 9:30 a.m. and I get a call from this sheet rock repair guy. We had some plumbing issues where the plumber had to cut in the wall and the sheet rock guy was coming to assess and fix the problem. He said he could meet right now (or then) otherwise it would be later in the day or even week. So, I made a judgment call. I came back into the office. My immediate supervisor was not at her desk so I told her equal counterpart that is sometimes a stand-in boss for me when the regular one is out of the office. I told the stand-in that I had to go home to meet the repair guy to let him in. She said, "Okay."

I didn't realize I'd have to stay there while they repaired the roughly 2' x 4' hole. They showed up to inspect it, took measurements and then went to get the supplies. They plugged the hole and then they had to seal and paint it. By the time this was completed, it was around 3 p.m. I emailed the boss lady and CCed the stand-in to let them know that I guess I will just take the full day as vacation since I had to pick my kids up from school at 3:30 p.m. and I didn't see any point in coming into the office for an hour afterwards. The boss lady replies saying, "Thanks for letting me know – was this a last minute issue? If not, you need to remember to ask for the time off in advance, even if it’s at the start of the day."

What the fuck is that!?

I felt like she is accusing me of making my own decisions on when I can take time off. I mean it would be nice but I know where I am on the food chain at work. That bitch pissed me off that day. I was reeling. After talking with the wife, I calmed a bit and then a few days passed and it slid under the rug. That was until she started talking to me the next day or so about her personal opinions, show watchings and such. I was like, "Why the fuck do I want to listen to you, bitch, when you just offended my intelligence?" Gah! I don't do a good job of letting all things go especially shit-ass statements from my supposed superiors...in title only, not in overall intelligence!

A couple of weeks later, I've sort of moved on. I don't get personal on my side of the conversations but she still feels the need to talk to me. I'm just too nice of a guy, I guess. Except for today!

The boss is out of town the entire week. The stand-in is here. I have a class on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I work through my lunch because the boss lady thinks I need to make up for that hour or so I am in class. Like that hour or any hour is that important in the grand scheme of things! It's not like we aren't in a slow time of the admissions cycle and there isn't much to do! I'm okay with it, to an extent. Basically, I deal with it until I complete my degree and then I'm going to be like, "What now, fuck sticks!?"

Anyway, the boss lady emailed the stand-in the other day this week saying something like, "[Jay] is supposed to be at his desk/office during this time but I couldn't get hold of him? Do you know where he is?" Again, what the fuck!? I know this about the email because the stand-in told me. In fact, I wasn't at the office because I was at the stand-in's house hooking up her new Bose DVD entertainment all-in-one system during what would be my work-thru lunch hour.

Oh well, it's the end of the day and I guess I'm done ranting. I got to go home and watch movies and hope that the weekend will help me mellow and forget and let it go.

I just need to ride it out and finish my degree in the next couple to three years and then give them the finger on my way out the door! I mean I don't have to leave but it would be nice to make them suffer since I can do all the people's jobs in my office but they can't do mine. That's sort of job security, right?

Monday morning blues

A few days late but I've been busy (sort of).

I don't have the Monday morning blues but I do occasionally...well, all the time...hate coming to work on a Monday...Tuesday...hell, every weekday!

Anyway, a coworker of mine seems to either be absent from work or does a half day basically every Monday for the past few months. Not that I care, but if someone in the office would pay the hell attention, they'd see it's a little suspicious. Duh! Anyway, this is how the conversation (I'm assuming/making up) must have gone when she called in to her boss.

MONDAY
I cannot make it into work today because I have a cold sore.

What? Why are you not coming to work today?

Because I have a cold sore.

WTF? You are not coming in because you have a cold sore?

Yes. It's huge and very unattractive, not to mention embarrassing.

Well, okay then. [Said with a little bewilderment and sarcasm]

Tuesday she was a no-show as well and she just got into the office today (Wed) at around 10:40 a.m.

Again, I don't care why you don't come in or why you don't do your work. It's not my place to give a shit. I'm not your boss and I'm not your boss's lacky to tell them when you are failing at your job. BUT, I do feel it may be a little bit of my responsibility to tell you when your excuses for missing work are LAME-O!

Hell, tell them you shit your lower intestine out or you puked up your gall bladder. SOMETHING that is better than, "I have a cold sore!"

Oh well, that's just me I guess. To each his/her own.

I'm sorry, white people suck!

Why do white people always have to turn things into something about race? Now, I am not your typical white guy. In fact, I am so not-white-looking it's amazing.

My dad was white, born and bred in a little hicktown called Gladewater, Texas. My mom was Philipino-Hawaiian, born and raised in a little hut village in Hawaii. You put this combination together and you get what "white America" calls Mexican — I have a goatee which doesn't help but it also doesn't affect the white man's narrow view.

So to the point of "why white people suck".

Yesterday, at my Over 30 roller hockey game, a dip shit white guy on the opposing team was trying to check me and others on the team. One time, I was burning past his ass and he stuck his foot out to trip me. I angrily said, “What the fuck asshole, why are you trying to trip my ass on purpose? Why do you feel you need to fucking cheat because you can’t stop me?”

We jawed back and forth a few times and I pretty much put him in his ignorant place. A few minutes later we were on the rink at the same time again. I had the puck and passed it up to someone on my team. He skated close to me like he was going to scare me or something. I just pushed off of him to give me a “push” start. It’s not like I could really move him unless I really tried because I’m about 5’ 7” and he is around 6’. Anyway, I smoked by him time and time again. I’ve become a real expert on avoiding attempted checks. At one point my brother and a friend (we play on the same team) were out there and this guy and another made too much intended physical contact with them. I was on the bench and was yelling about it to the refs and the punk fuckers who can’t play with skill so have to resort to near violence. I say this because I, my brother and my friends don’t play physical in the sense that we don’t go out of our way to cause physical harm to the opponent. We are all skills, baby!

Anyway, after this one altercation and my yelling from the bench, the fuck I initially spoke about yells back at me on his way to his team bench, “Taco”. I was like, “What the fuck?” Did this guy just resort to 7th grade immaturity? He can’t best me on the rink so he has to resort to racial name calling. Of course, I laugh at him and tell him he’s really funny like the dumb fuck he is. I thought about retaliating with a slur of my own but I thought “numb nuts dumb fuck with no hockey skills” was much more appropriate. And since we are playing in the “OVER 30” league, I thought I’d keep it within our grade level.

I get back into the locker room after the game and I ask my teammates that if I was white(-colored), what would have been his retort for getting his ass kicked!? Would he have called me "chicken fried steak" or "meat and potatoes"?

The gratifying end to it all was that even with their cheating, they still lost.

So, take that you paleface, honky ass mofo!

** NOTE: Yes, I know I generalized all white people just like he generalized me and all people of color (basically meaning not like him). I know not all white people suck but it caught your attention, didn't it?