Ok, gotta talk about this crap!

Uh, I was watching the news this morning, and found myself seriously asking this question:

"Why is Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize?"

I mean, sure, he's the first African-American President for our nation. Yes, he's actually done SOME change with our economy.

However, I fail to see how those two things qualify him for the prize.

Teddy Roosevelt earned it because of his actions in ending the Russo-Japanese war.

Woodrow Wilson earned it for starting the League of Nations.

Jimmy Carter has earned his for trying to continually promote world peace. I mean, even after being in the Presidency, he's still working for a global community!

And now we've got Barack Obama.

What is the reasoning?

"His effort to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"

Um, excuse me?

Isn't that the job description of EACH and EVERY president we've elected?

Ronald Reagan had to deal with the Soviets.

Hell, Kennedy had to deal with Castro, Vietnam, and the Cold War.

FDR had World War II to deal with. Same with Eisenhower.

Yet none of these men even got an honorable mention for their efforts.

So again, I have to ask what exactly has Obama done?

He's moved troops around in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He's trying to bring our nation back from the brink of bankruptcy (yet again!).

However, he hasn't really formally been able to conclude ANY of these actions.

There's still military actions being taken in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We're still in the middle of an "economic crisis" here in the states.

In fact, funding is getting so poor that we're having to cut costs by decreasing the time we spend teaching our children.

So as long as we can't teach our kids how to better themselves, and then can't afford to pay for them to make it to college, send them off to wars that have been brewing and going on EVEN WITHOUT OUR INVOLVEMENT, then get elected, we should consider ourselves prime candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize?

I can deal with that.

I'm running for office next year.

Write me in, and I'll be sure to keep y'all in my mind while I walk in the footsteps of giants, and take all of the credit for it!

Job Security!!

Well, I know that as long as I'm able to deal with ID-10-Ts, I'll have a job here.

I mean, you can take this morning's conference call as a prime example:

Me: Hey. I was just curious. I've been working on that new laptop you sent me, and I can't get it formatted. Did you set up the hardware so that I can get this formatted and distibuted?

Tech: Of course! I got it all done last night. Should be right here.. No, it's not there.. Maybe I saved it here? Nope. Wait.. There it is! You can't access it there?

Me: Um, no. The formatting is automatic, and I can't change where it points the laptop to when it starts to format. You're going to need to move those files to the correct area so that I can get this laptop out of my office, and out to the warehouse floor.

Tech: Sure.. Give me about an hour to copy all the files down and move them.

Me: An hour? You can't click and drag them?

Tech: You can do that with these files?

Me: Nevermind. I'll get it done. Thanks.



You never know when I might start decorating the interior of my office door with divots from beating my head against it...

ARRRGH!

I'm livid.

Pissed off.

Heated.

Add any adjective for angry as all hell here.

Why? You might ask?

Because I've got some lazy-assed managers who think that when my manager goes on vacation, they can come out of the woodwork, and use and abuse me to take care of their petty problems.

Case in point:

We've got some managers who have to drift from one desk to another during the week. Because of this, I have a special program I have to give each "travelling" manager so that they can have access to their email. However, this program doesn't give them access to the network site we have for some automatically generated reports and such that managers need for their End of Day reports.

Well, I've got a manager who is now telling me (once my manager left for vacation) that she needs me to install access for one of my "travelling" managers for emails at her location.

Why?

Because she doesn't like that she has to take an extra 10 minutes out of her day to print out the End of Day reports, when she could pawn it off on the "travelling" manager, and give her some extra time to BS and sip tea with other management staff.

Seriously?

And here I thought _I_ was the lazy buttwipe.

Not only that, but once I called her on it, she proceeded to try to rub it in my face that _She's_ the one with the authority, and _I'm_ just the peon to do exactly what she tells me to do.

Um, if there's anything that gets my anger up faster, it's someone telling me how to do my job when they know that I'll get my butt handed to me when it comes out that I've bent or broken a company rule.

This is one of those times.

So I did what any sneaky under-handed vengeful bastard in my position would do.

I copied all of the nasty emails, and forwarded them to my corporate advisors.

These are the folks who set policy for our company, and are the ones who informed me of how I was supposed to handle this situation a couple of months back, before my manager went on vacation. In it, they gave me specific instructions, and then told me to NOT deviate from this plan.

So, since the goddess decided to dictate her terms to me, I forwarded them on to others who would be interested in her actions.

I'm not sure what the end result is going to be, but I know for a fact that CYA is going to apply to me for a couple of years at least..

Or maybe only as long as this queen "b" manager lasts..

Time will tell.

Now, I'l going to head over and make some noise like I'm getting stuff done, but really just blow smoke up her butt until I get an answer from my advisors.

You all have a good day.

If you see a news entry about an IT guy who went postal on some management in the workplace.. That'll be me!

You know it's the government when:

I got this little tidbit of information off my desk calendar at work..

In 2002, the Department of Homeland Security asked for, and was given funding for these national monuments that they thought were likely targets for terrorist action:

The World's Largest Ball of Paint in Alexandria, Indiana ($12 million)

Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum in Alamo Heights, Texas ($10 million)

The Museum of Bad Art in Dedham, Massachusetts ($31 million)

Carhenge (Stonehenge replica made completely of junked cars) in Alliance, Nebraska ($25 million)

And finally, The Giant Lava Lamp in Soap Lake, Washington ($143 million)

I often wonder just how much it would cost to REALLY get a security company, and charge each place this much to patrol their area..

I think I'd be able to retire nice and comfortably after a couple years of doing nothing.. Don't you?

Caution: Bitch warning!

Yeah.. I'm HEATED.

I take my job seriously, and I honestly love the work, but if you start to mess with my job, and make it so that I can't get my work done, I become a rather pissy, bitchy and complete asswipe to work with.

Yeah. That's how I'm feeling today.

In my job, we have to do random quality checks before stuff gets shipped to the stores, to ensure that not only do the stores get the items required, but that the employees are doing their job correctly.

Normally, this process takes around 1-3 hours, depending on the size of the store, and the amount of pallets and cartons to tear down and check out.

Today? It was over DOUBLE that.

First off, we have to do AT LEAST 700 cartons per store, so we try to keep it as close to taht number as possible, except for today. Yeah, we doubled that. That got me all excited and jumping at the bit to get started.

Then, we get the slowest person on the loading dock to stack the product. I kid you not, this person can load, and I can put cartons on the roller, then sit back and watch moss grow on the sides of the trailer while he looks for just the right place to stack each and every box.

Then, you add to this the situation of the dock manager wandering past our loading door every 30 minutes asking how much more we've got to do. If he really gave a crap, he could turn around and see for himself just how much is left, but all he really wants to do is annoy the shit out of me.

So, there I am, working to try and keep my temper while we're doing the stupid audit, and listening half-heartedly to the jerk manager ask every 30 minutes how much longer we've got to do...

I got to deal with this from 5:30am until noon. Yup.. NOON.

SEVEN HOURS stuck in a door that should have only taken us AT MOST 4 hours! I'm so pissed still that I'm seeing red.

Then add to this joy the pleasure of getting into my office, only to be able to read nasty emails from corporate folks about me needing to answer emails in a quick and timely fashion...

How exactly am I supposed to answer an email when I'm not in the office to get it? Imagine that someone's emailing me, run in, check the computer, then run back??

I don't think so.

So not only did this job waste over 3/4 of my workday today, it also got me in hot water with my corporate advisors.

So yeah.. I'm fit to be tied. I could chew a pound of nails, just to make a couple of bullets to spit at a certain manager..

Good thing I'm busy trying to get some computer complilations done, or I could be in some serious trouble today.....

See you all later!

General Ranting

I hate it when folks can't make up their minds.

Or is it that they can make decisions, but they just can't decide which decision to stick with?

Whatever the cause, it's running amok with my schedule yet again.

I was asked to switch over to 5 8-hour shifts because I was needed each day that this warehouse is open.

Yet just yesterday I was called in to be informed that I need to switch back to 4 10-hour shifts starting next week.

OK.

Quit yanking my chain, and let me know..

Is it going to be one, or the other?

My guess is that in six months, I'll be asked to switch back again..

Any takers??

Blah, blah, blah...

Well, it's that time of year again.

Corporate visitors who are determined to make your work week (and workday) hell on earth.

They come in, act like they're doing you a favor just by being there, and then tear apart each and every job that you do.

"You know, you could spend a little less time doing that job, and spend a bit more time doing this one."

"Why didn't you take more time doing (job I just said you could take less time on)?"

"By the way, I love how you've got control over this area, but here are some pointers to really help you get the most out of your time at this task."

Ad nauseum.

I'm at the tail-end of an entire network upgrade.

Beacuse of this, I've got computers, memory, and laptop stuff ALL over my office. I can't get rid of the towers or laptops until I've taken the memory and hard drives and disk drives out of these old pieces of crap. Once I do that, then I get to pile said parts into a HUGE box that I'm unable to lift by myself, and try to find some place to store it for a short while.

Then I can put the rest of the stuff on a pallet, and shove it in some dark corner of our warehouse until the disposal truck comes.

While trying to do all of this, said corporate inspector drops by, and offers these words of wisdom:

"You know, if you only did one or two machines at a time, your office wouldn't be as cluttered or crowded."

This is the same fella that two days ago sent me the email stating that all the PCs and laptops needed to be done by the time he got there, or my job would be at stake.

I don't know about you, but when given an ultimatum like that, I tend to take serious action.

Now, we've had the PCs and such for a LOOOONG time. Purchasing bought these back in January, and they got here in March. However, I couldn't DO anything with these machines, beacuse the computer lab folks on the corporate end hadn't gotten their machines yet, and as such, didn't have protocols set up for the new PCs to be installed on our network.

Yeah, that little gem there forced me to sit in my office with 40 boxes of computers that just gathered dust.

Once everything was done, it was time to take ONE machine, and work out the bugs. First, it was the operating system not liking some of the programs we run. So we start going over TONS and TONS of code in order to fix that problem.

Then it was access to specific much-used internet sites that were being denied. So we went back into the firewall hardware to reconfigure security settings.

Finally, I was able to install all the programs and configure the PCs the way that they needed to be. However, each PC took a little over 4 hours to get ready.

Do the math:

4 hours per PC

40 PCs

8 hour workdays.

Yeah. LONG time getting it ready.

Then comes the easy part.. Replacing the old one with the new PC.

Simple, right?

WRONG.

Then you get the calls about this screen saver not being on the new machine. Or this one program that they downloaded (against company protocol!) that they want back on the new machine... Yeah. I lost hair at this point.

So I'm frantically trying to get PCs done, changed out, and then stored in my "locked" office facility.

My office isn't really that big.

In fact, it's really quite tiny.

Once you add the networking hardware and servers, and battery backup and alarm monitoring equipment, it gets even smaller.

Now add 40 boxes of monitors, PC towers, laptops, and memory upgrades.

I have enough room to walk, very carefully, from my desk to my door. That's about it.

So, I finally get the stuff done, I get the drives and memory pulled, I get the towers stashed far and away from my office, I get the new PCs installed.

What next?

"You missed two PCs that need to be installed here this year."

Yeah. The two he's referring to aren't even here yet. One he's directly responsible for, since it's the security PC that hasn't been upgraded for 10 years.

The second is the "new" trial PC they're using for applications. This one is basically going to be a "dumb" terminal, where you turn it on, and it automatically boots to our application site on our LAN, and nothing else.

So yeah, I'd have replaced those if they'd gotten here, but since they're not here, nothing's been done about it.

So here I am, looking fondly at the reclaimed space I now have thanks to my hard work, and wonder just when this guy will leave so that I can get back to doing my job without having the moronic statements put me over the edge.

Wish me luck!

I'm gonna need it, I think.

A bit of clarification here:

So, I've been told that this rant I'm currently on is childish.

Really?

So then you feel that our ancestors who left a country in order to speak and say what they wanted were idiots and fools, little better than children for leaving their country of origin, and sailing across the oceans in search of freedom?

I'm not doing THAT grand of an action.

All I'm asking for is some respect and consideration for those that want it.

I'd have done this REGARDLESS of who was being attacked.

The fact is that I read about 20 or so blogs, and it just so happens that Dana's blog is the ONLY one where I see constant belligerant behavior.

(Aside from my own blog, of course!)

I can't stand the fact that some person can come into a place, belittle someone, make everyone else feel just a bit badly for the blog writer getting flamed, then spout off when attacked about their "freedom of speech" and how they have every right to say their piece of mind.

I agree with this.

Yet having that say ALSO means that the person who you're belittling has a right to what they say.

I mean, if Dana were to succumb to the peer pressure that Snugs and DoggyBloggy put on her, she'd really be no better off than most oppressed folks.

What good is it to have freedom of speech if you can't say what you like on a BLOG that you created?

What good is it to have freedom of speech if you can't be open on a public forum?

Attacking someone for what they do is usually expected. Especially from small-minded folks who always assume that you're only doing things for attention and the "oooh-aaah" factor.

Am I childish?

Yes. I have a good penchant for childish behavior.

If you don't belive me, ask my wife. She'll be the first to tell you this, I'm sure.

Is it childish to stand up for someone else?

I don't think so.

Is it really childish to stand up for your rights?

Absolutely not.

So there's the gist of my argument.

I'm standing up for rights. I'm not playing favorites, I'm not trying to be the hero. I'm just standing up for what I truly believe is right.

Will I get attacked for this?

As you can probably see already, I have.

What you can't see are the attacks going on behind the blog. The emails, the name calling, and the disgusted sighs I get.. Even from my wife.

I'm sure that the main reason my wife is against this tirade of mine is because she's assuming that I'm defending Dana.

Well, in a way I am, but to me it's really quite more than that.

I'm standing up for the rights a priviledges of ALL people that blog and write. You shouldn't have to make a personal page private just to be able to talk about your family life. You have the choice to write WHATEVER you feel needs to be said. Sure, if you're going to use folks in your blog then you should use permission before naming someone. However, there are times when I feel that you should be justified in your use of names no matter WHAT their opinion is.

This is one of those times.

I actually like Doggybloggy's site. The food really does look good, and he approaches this with an obvious love for what he's writing about.

That still doesn't give him the right to wander onto someone else's page, and spout vile and nasty words and abusive language to other bloggers.

Snugs is a different matter.

She's a follower, and one with a personal axe to grind against Dana.

Because of this, I could really care less about whatever it is she has to say. She assumes that things are "private" yet then drops onto a public blog to air this dirty laundry. She claims that she doesn't want to write a blog, because it's not a priority in her life. Yet this very same person haunts more blogs than I do, and has time to comment on them all. So writing a blog, not important, reading and commenting on them, very important. She also claims that she doesn't want to drag her family life into her blog. Not every blog I read deals with family issues. Some (like doggy's) deal with hobbies. Others include memories. Still others deal with things they find humorous in the news and outside influences.

Yes, many blogs tend to incluse family life in them. Why? It's simple. When you write, you tend to deal with the things you interact with the most, and that give you inspiration. My family does that, because I tend to spend the most time with them outside of work. Yet this doesn't mean that I keep on talking about them day in and day out.

Mostly I write about MYSELF. My work. My life. My perceptions. My feelings. My rights. Me, Me, Me, ME.

Do you see a pattern here?

The rants I took even revolved around ME.

My personal vendetta. My response and actions. My comments.

Hrm. So if I'm defending someone else, why is this still about me?

Think about that one for a second, and get back to me tomorrow.

The "Piece de Resistance": Doggybloggy speaks!

As any of my readers know, I've had an issue with two childish bloggers who have decided that their words, views, and opinions are much more important than anyone else's.

These two are quick to spout off nasty comments, diry language, and directions as to how someone should write, or post their blogs. They'll be the first to yell out about this forum being an open and public blog, and that how freedom of speech gives them the right to state their POV regardless of what anyone thinks.

They're right.

Freedom of speech gives you the right to say whatever you'd like to say in a public forum. It's one of the most dear rights our highly lauded Bill of Rights gives to citizens of the US.

However, their beligerrant usage is something else, entirely.

Friday I tore apart the comment that was left to me by one of the two personages I'd had an issue with.

That posting was then graced by the leader of this twosome. Even though this person claims not to have any kind of control or say-so in what Snugs (the other poster) does, she tends to copy and mimic his every move.

That's like telling a parent that their kid doesn't copy their behavior and actions because they want to be like them, but because they're just trying to be their own person.

Yeah.. Doesn't add up here to me at all.

So, to my illustrious blogfiend Doggybloggy, I'll take those two comments you posted on Friday, and as you asked, I'll dissect them, and give you my take on YOU as a person as well.

Are you ready for this? I hope so!

Let's start with the first comment you put up, shall we?

"you are such a pussy - now go on and dissect that!"

Let's see here..

Name calling. You know, if we were face to face, I might actually be worried that you were trying to intimidate me. As it is, this resort just leaves me feeling kind of sorry for someone who is trying to act big, tough and macho. It strikes me more as some 89 pound weakling using blow-up muscles to make themselves look bigger.

You know what the saddest part about this is? I actually like his blog. It's nothing amazing, but just the down-to-earth way he approaches his one true passion really could be interesting, if there wasn't the fact that I know how much of a schmuck he really and truly is.

Moving onward.

"here is only one of your idiotic statements:"Of this I have no doubt. You are both old enough to know better. However, Dana has taken the high road, and tries not to rise to your childish behavior"you dont rise to shit like this you lower yourself - like I am doing by even making a presence on this blog...are you worth it? probably not. will you get readers from this - no more than usual - whats the point? pointless!"

Let's see... You actually read something I posted, and found an argument to tear down! Well, kind of.

Yes, you lower yourself when you start bickering like this. How did you phrase the term? Oh yeah.. "High-school antics" I think was how you'd put it.

You know who mostly started that crap? The bullies. Those "popular people" who thought that their shit doesn't stink, and that they can do no wrong with whatever they touch.

Those were also the ones who tended to cause as much trouble as they could if only so that they could blame someone else for the fuckups that would happen.

Sounds to me like you never left high school Doggy.

You've made a presence on my blog. Heck, even more so than I have on yours. So, if I've taken this entire fiasco, and blown it completely out of proportion, then what exactly are you doing now?

Yeah.. Sit down for a while and think about this.

So if someone stands up to you, shows you just how childish and stupid your actions are, your only recourse is to then make it EVEN MORE childish and stupid?

Great solution. I have to applaud. I'd never thought that taking something that was "high school drama" and descending to preschool antics would work, but you've completely proven me wrong.

But wait folks, there's more!!

I'd posted on this that I was going to dedicate this to him and have it run on Monday..

I got this response just a short while later:

"nah...by monday I will be so over you and so anxious to see the rest of darling danas trainwreck - you need to up the ante - go hit some children or something - make it worth my while to even come back..."

So now he's taking my faults, my mistakes, and trying to belittle me with them.

However, I'm actually NOT ashamed of what I did. I'm upset that my actions caused something that I didn't expect or plan on happening to occur, but I'm not ashamed of it.

But he's trying to make me feel less than a person because I have flaws and faults.

Guess what Doggy? Your flaw is that you can't leave folks like Dana and I alone.

You are the sick bastard that will stand and watch a car wreck just to see if there are hurt and injured folks, then stand there and point, instead of actually trying to help.

You'd rather show everyone else that you're better than those you read about.

You'd rather hide back on your "foodie" blog, talk about foods and get praise for the nifty pictures you cut and paste onto your website, and pretend that you actually mean something to those folks who really only come to drool about food while waiting for their lunch break.

Admit it, when you found that I was coming onto your blog and talking nasty, you didn't like it, because there was someone out there who was "dirtying" up your pretty little website.

I'm amazed that Snugs and you started thinking that I was the anonymous blogger who came crashing your site as well.

Why would I post my own comments, only to then log in with another account, and start all over again?

I stood up for my comments, and I own every word that I wrote.

If you really want to put the blame of someone else making nasty comments on your blog, fine. I'll take credit for something I didn't do, but I did find it quite funny.

So DoggyBloggy, here's my question for you:

If you're such a "big" person, why is it that you feel the need to be so nasty, rude, insensitive, and overbearing to the blogsites that you read?

Do you really think that much of yourself that you could walk on water if your body would just accept what your mind already knows?

Meh. I don't think so.

I think that in all honesty you're just a frightened little middle-aged man who hasn't really made much of himself, and to make up for that lack has lashed out to make himself feel better by tearing down others that he can find flaws in.

In doing so, you've gathered a couple others around you who are willing to jump on the bandwagon because they think you're doing something worthwhile, but in reality all they're doing is trying to tear down the self-esteem of others to make themselves feel better.

Well, if that's the case, then you're welcome to hack at me all you want.

Tear me down. Rip me apart.

I'm willing to stand here and take any and all abuse from you that you might want to dish out.

Do you know why?

Because I know for a fact that each and every insult, slander, or name you call me is just one more petty frustration that you're able to get off your conscience, and help you feel better about your petty existence.

Have a great blog life Doggy. I hope you feel better about the man you are now.

Retribution..

At last! I finally have a reponse from one of those I have an issue with!

Here.. Instead of making you dig for her comment, I'll post it!

I have not bothered to comment since you deleted doggy's comments, why should I waste my time, besides nobody else seems to interested in your rants either. You are NOBODY to me and you know NOTHING about me. I choose not to blog because I respect my family's life and privacy, I have a life and a busy one at that, and blogging is not a priority for me. Show me where it says that I have to have a blog in order to comment on others blogs. I respect that others do not feel the same way that I do so why am I not offered the same in return? Why does the fact that I do not have a blog matter at all? To each his own.My issue with Dana is between me and Dana. I do not feel the need to answer to you. You have called me names, you have threatened me, you have ranted like a raged mad man over something that does not even involve you. I could do the same with you and the way you are treating doggy, but ya know I think that is between you two.Dana and I have a history of disagreeing and I am pretty sure that we are both big girls and can deal with it ourselves. I am not trying to speak for her, but really, who made you this blog god/police? Do you really think these tangents of yours make you some sort of hero? If you or she or anyone for that matter does not want argumentative comments by me or anyone else you can always go private. If you choose to make your life public you open yourself up to this.I don't know what you think gives you the justification to call me the names that you have done and you seem to be really obsessed with my weight, not sure what that has to do with anything, but I can assure you that even combined me and doggy are no where close to this 500# figure, how about you and your wifey? Maybe you are getting us mixed up. I have never called Dana names. From my view it appears to me that you are doing the very thing that you are upset with me and dogggy for doing, but you are doing it on a much grander scale. In my book that makes you a hypocrite. Seems only fair to me after all the names you have called me that I give you that one. If I was a friend of yours, I would have grave concern over your apparent anger management issues. But since you are nobody to me, I will leave that to all your adoring fans and readers.I hope this satisfies your ego that I have responded. You will not get more out of me, I have no interest in you or your little blog and do not find it entertaining in the least. I refuse to continue this with you although I find it amusing that you have been so monopolized by it. If you want to go on with it that is your choice; it's obvioulsy given you something to blog about. Get a life dude, seriously...Snugs

Yup. For someone who doesn't care, she certainly can be long-winded, can't she?

Now, let's take my highly useless college education that I received, and we'll go over this argument, and tear it apart a bit..

First off:

"I have not bothered to comment since you deleted doggy's comments, why should I waste my time, besides nobody else seems to interested in your rants either. You are NOBODY to me and you know NOTHING about me."

This is a contradiction in terms right here. Hello.. Snugs? This post you put here is called a COMMENT. Congrats on not being able to figure this out.

Secondly, you only comment if Doggy comments? Do you not have a mind of your own? Seriously? I find that quite sad.

I know something about you. You're pathetic enough that even though this _is_ a public Blog, you still feel the need to personally attack those who are willing to talk about their viewpoint and experiences. If that's such a big deal to you, CLOSE the Freaking Window!


Let's move on, shall we?

"I choose not to blog because I respect my family's life and privacy, I have a life and a busy one at that, and blogging is not a priority for me. Show me where it says that I have to have a blog in order to comment on others blogs."

Um, what does blogging have to do with your family's life and privacy? I've read DoggyBloggy's blog, and it's about food. How exactly does that impact his family life?

Granted, WRITING a blog isn't one of your priorities, but apparently reading and commenting on blogs IS.. I mean, you comment more and read more blogs than I do in a week!

You don't need to write one, but if you really want a foot to stand on argument-wise about blog content and what "should" and "should not" be posted on a blog, then walk where others tread before deciding that it's not a path for you.

Moving right along:

"I respect that others do not feel the same way that I do so why am I not offered the same in return? Why does the fact that I do not have a blog matter at all? To each his own.My issue with Dana is between me and Dana. I do not feel the need to answer to you."

I have to call BS to the first line. Actually, you DON'T respect other viewpoints, or we wouldn't really be having this argument (sans comments and blog posts) over your behavior, now would we?

The fact is that because you don't have a blog, you still feel the need to tell others what to do or say. Fascism at work here, ladies and gentlemen! I mean, what's next? You're going to tell me that even though we've never met, I'm not going to be fat/thin/well-dressed enough for society's views?

You issue with Dana has caused a poor display of childishness, and that involves WHOMEVER reads Dana's blog. It's just between Dana and you?? If that's the case, then your whole argument about privacy is CRAP, since you decided to air this PUBLICLY on Dana's blog. You hypocrite.

You don't feel the need to answer to me? Funny, then what is this comment and rant all about then?

Moving onwards, and further into her sick, twisted mind:

"You have called me names, you have threatened me, you have ranted like a raged mad man over something that does not even involve you. I could do the same with you and the way you are treating doggy, but ya know I think that is between you two."

I've called you names, yes. Why? because I'm tired of your attitude and belittling of someone who is just trying to air their dirty laundry. Is it REALLY any business of yours how she does this?

NO.

But then you take your high-and-mighty act, become a total bitch, and post some snide and evil remark just to try to get her goat.

Yeah. Like I said before, I don't take well to bullies.

I've threatened you?? How so exactly?

I'm sure there have been many folks who have offered bodily harm to me over the internet, but have I actually felt threatened?

Nah. Not so much.

Ranted and raved like a madman. You know, I kind of like this.. Mind if I take it, and use it for my blog tagline?

Over something that doesn't involve me? Are you serious? You take pot-shots and make cheap and snide comments on a public blog, and think that it's none of my business? See again the point about this being a PUBLIC blog, and where privacy ends, please and thank you!

You could do the same, and complain about how I'm treating Doggy, and right there you just did! Congratulations! Yes, this is between him and I, and it's also between you and I as well! You also take cheap shots at me EVEN ON HIS BLOG. You can't take the time to open your own page, and just rant like I do about it, so you clamp down like a leech on someone else's work, and air your complaints. You know what? The reason I think you don't is because you're afraid of the rejection that _NO_ readers would even bother LOOKING at your blog, much less reading your crap.

Contrary to popular opinion, I actually DO have a couple of readers. They faithfully read, even when I have absolutely nothing to say. I kind of like that.

However, in this point, I'm sure they'll agree with me that your actions have been reprehensible at best. That you should actually feel the need to defend yourself over this SHOWS everyone that you KNOW DAMN WELL that you're in the wrong, and that you're just trying to justify it in some sick and twisted way for your own self-satisfaction.

Moving onward:

"Dana and I have a history of disagreeing and I am pretty sure that we are both big girls and can deal with it ourselves. I am not trying to speak for her, but really, who made you this blog god/police? Do you really think these tangents of yours make you some sort of hero? If you or she or anyone for that matter does not want argumentative comments by me or anyone else you can always go private. If you choose to make your life public you open yourself up to this."

Of this I have no doubt. You are both old enough to know better. However, Dana has taken the high road, and tries not to rise to your childish behavior.

To be honest, I wrote to her BEFORE I started this, and told her what I was going to do. I can't sit around and watch someone get belittled for their actions by a couple of folks who really don't have much of a clue what she's going through. So yes, I was given (minor) approval for my actions. I don't think she knew the lengths I was going to, but that's my problem, since I'm an adult, and can vouch for my own actions here, thankyouverymuch.

I don't think of myself as a hero. I'm actually trying to teach you and Doggy a lesson here about RESPECT. You're not going to get any from me until I see that you're actually trying to show some to others... Do you recall that one Snugs?

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Amazing what truth lies in such a nice, little statement, don't you think?

So if we don't want to have argumentative statements, we need to hide away from everyone else. That's your solution? Well, that can go two ways. If you don't want someone attacking you for being an overbearing selfish bitch, then you shouldn't post argumentative comments on a public blog, now should you?

Digging further:

"I don't know what you think gives you the justification to call me the names that you have done and you seem to be really obsessed with my weight, not sure what that has to do with anything, but I can assure you that even combined me and doggy are no where close to this 500# figure, how about you and your wifey? Maybe you are getting us mixed up. I have never called Dana names. From my view it appears to me that you are doing the very thing that you are upset with me and dogggy for doing, but you are doing it on a much grander scale. In my book that makes you a hypocrite. Seems only fair to me after all the names you have called me that I give you that one. "

You don't know what gives me justification in calling you names.. True. I'm a jackass for doing so. but I've never made apologies for who I am. Like I've said before, I'm an ass.

I seem obsessed with your weight? I've made two comments about it, and that's an obsession?

Then obviously you're OVEROBSESSED over Dana's blog, since you can't seem to leave her alone. Let's count how many times I've made mention of your weight, and how many times you've gone the extra mile to belittle her blog postings..

Yeah. eat that one Snugs.

You've never called Dana names. But you have insinuated that she's a bad parent, a bad person, many other things. What's worse?

Yes! you get the picture here! I'm treating you and Doggy EXACTLY like you've been treating Dana! How does it feel? Like it? I hope so, because until you start to mature, and clean that SHIT up, I'm going to keep doing it!

Oh joy.. Here's my name:

I'm a hypocrite. *shiver*

Actually, this is what is called "poetic justice". I mean, after all of the nastiness and crap that has been spewed from your comments, you're daring to call me a hypocrite for daring to treat you exactly like you've been treating someone else?

Yeah.. Priceless.

Continuing on:

"If I was a friend of yours, I would have grave concern over your apparent anger management issues. But since you are nobody to me, I will leave that to all your adoring fans and readers.I hope this satisfies your ego that I have responded. You will not get more out of me, I have no interest in you or your little blog and do not find it entertaining in the least. I refuse to continue this with you although I find it amusing that you have been so monopolized by it. If you want to go on with it that is your choice; it's obvioulsy given you something to blog about. Get a life dude, seriously...Snugs"

Rule number one here: You're NOT my friend, Snugs. Nor will you ever be. I don't want to associate myself with someone who not only doesn't care about what others read, but then feels the need to belittle those who are really writing from the heart.

That kind of small mind just isn't something I'd care to surround myself with, thanks.

Adoring fans and readers? I don't know.. Why don't you ask them? More often than not, I really feel like they're just folks waiting for some kind of nasty car wreck, and then they can come out and gawk at the mess.. Then again, some of them really do like what I write, so that's just one more bonus notch for my belt, isn't it?

Yes Snugs, my life is complete now that I've had you comment a couple more times on my blog. Life is full, I can die happy. If it also amuses you, well then I've been able to strike gold not just once, but twice. Oh happy day!

For some reason, I highly doubt that you aren't going to stop posting, especially when this personal character attack on you that I'm posting hits tomorrow. (I'm writing this on Thursday, since that is when I got the comment!)

Like I've said before: Until I see some kind of change of heart from EITHER of you two in regards to your childish behavior, I actually AM going to keep up with this vendetta of mine.

I hope you enjoy this Snugs, I really hope you do. Maybe somewhere along the line, you'll be able to grow up a little, and learn something in the process.

Many happy returns!

Silence is golden..

You know, this is day three, and so far there's been absolutely NO response from the said perpetrators to my challenge.

Oh, they're willing to run off and hound someone else's blog, but to come right out and face the music just isn't something that they're willing to do.

No.

Like I said before: These people are nothing but internet bullies.

You know what the main characteristic of a bully is?

They're cowards.

Each and every bully that I faced down tended to fold when serious opposition came their way. All of the posturing, the bluster, the fanfare, whatever their "game" was to intimidate others just blew away when someone was willing to stand up to their little game.

Same goes here.

I stand up, I issue a challenge, and look what happens!

Two no-shows from the folks that I called out.

Am I surprised?

Not really.

Does this mean I'll stop?

Nah.

I made a promise to them that I'd keep up my actions as long as they kept up theirs.

I'm still seeing their veiled disrespect and harassment going on at other blogging sites, so I'm not about to cut off my postings.

They're not changing their tunes, they're just hoping that I'll go away, and that someone else will occupy my time. That maybe I'll forget about them, and they'll be able to keep on playing Blog-God here.

Guess what??

Not gonna happen.

I've admitted before that I'm an ass. I really am. I have firm beliefs, and I don't give them up for anything.

Well, this is one of my beliefs.

I'm here to put a stop to what I've seen. If that means that I've got to enter a blog, and write nasty shit for everyone to see, and make folks think otherwise about reading a blog, then so be it.

If that means that I need to go and belittle some writer just because I don't agree with their standpoint.. I'm game.

I think I'll treat these two just like I have to deal with my ADHD son. Actions deserve a consequence.

They've done plenty of actions, and basically recieved no consequences for them.

Well, prepare to reap the whirlwind, because I'm still not through with you two just yet!

Oxymoron warning!!

Yeah.

In case you're confused, I'll explain.

An OXYMORON is a contradiction in terms.

Jumbo Shrimp.

Military Intelligence.

You get the picture..

Yeah. Well this week I started a feud with a couple of lumps of lard on the blog-o-sphere over some (percieved) injustice.

You know what's funny? These same people advocate an open and free internet, and then try to tell others what they should and shouldn't say!

Are you getting the irony here?

They're willing to pass judgement on others, point out faults and flaws, and then expect everyone to assume that they have none themselves.

I'm sorry, did you mean to tell me that you're Jesus Christ returned in the flesh??

You're the next Buddha, and I completely missed that fact?

No, wait. That was the Virgin Mary talking, and I should pay better attention next time.

What. The fuck. Ever.

These folks are just as flawed as the next person. They don't have cause or grounds to be able to do or say these things, and then expect someone NOT to show them the error of their ways.

Beacuse of this, I'll leave any comment open. I'll leave posts unaltered.

However, I expect the same from them.

Oh, wait.

One of them DOESN'T blog.

This is the one who goes to read other folks thoughts, feelings, and life stories, and then proceeds to pass judgement on them.

Yeah. Go find another fence to gossip at.

Unless you're unable to get yourself out of the house.

Then I suggest you look into the Jaws of Life in order to get out and get some liposuction done.

Anyway, I'm done here.

Anyone want to see what happens next?

Read on.

I've been around the world and seen that only stupid people are breeding...

Yeah, it's Friday.

I'm actually getting a bit annoyed with the antics of some of my "frequent flyer" idiots. I mean, there are only so many times that I can repeat something before I start wanting to get sarcastic and snarky.

How many times should one person have to remind another about logging onto one specific program before starting another one that requires the first program to be open in order to gather data from the initial program's database?

It's as simple as:

Open program A. Then open program B. Why? Because program B needs to get info from program A in order to work correctly.

Yeah. Not quite rocket science.

Then there are the occasional idiots that decide to make the worst decisions ever when I'm extremely busy, and caught in the middle of another job.

Take today for example:

I'm currently in the middle of doing an exhaustive inventory for ALL of the computer equipment located in my building. That means servers, switches, scanners, radio ports, data cables, even Cat-5 jacks and phones.

While scraping away 3-4 years worth of dust from some locations, I happen upon interesting things like copper line converters, and BOS twinex controllers. These have been phased out of my system for the last 3 years, and yet I've found four that are still hooked up, and running...

While doing this, one of our associates decided to calibrate the laser scanner that we use to determine cube for an item. This scanner has a scale and sonic measuring devices located on it to determine height, width, and depth along with weight. This then can tell us how many of these will fit on a pallet, and how many pallet we can potentially put on a 48 or 52 foot trailer.

So, while deciding to calibrate the scale, they start pressing random buttons all over the scale.

My corporate supervisors call me an hour later to tell me that the weight info they're getting from my scanner is WAY off from their initial scans. Things that used to be 2-3 cube items are now coming out to be 200-300 cube items.

I head over to check.

Yes, I found the problem.

While calibrating the scale and scanner, they hit the buttons for Grams instead of Pounds, and Centimeters instead of Inches.

My company's data is measured in Inches and Pounds. So for the Inches to increase from 3 inches to 155(cm) is WAY out of proportion. Why? Because their hardware is still trying to convert the CM into Inches. So it's reading 155 inches when it was last measured at 3...

Now imagine this 45 pound box coming in at 1500 grams or so.

Yeah. You get the idea.

Once nice long recalibration session later, I've got the issue solved, but I've also killed 1/3 of my workday.

Ah, the joy of knowing when to leave things alone, and when to just nod and go about your business like it's another "normal" day....

I'm actually looking forward to this weekend. Maybe in some way I'll forget about the stupid crap, and be willing to start all over again on Tuesday...

I honestly think that's one reason my General Manager asked me to move to the 4 12-hour shifts..

See you all on Tuesday, and have a great weekend!

Yarrrr!

Yeah, I really didn't know what else to title this, so I figure that if I just put some kind of piratey-type of growl up there, it might attract some folks.

Have you ever wondered how some people got the jobs that they have today?

I'll give you an example:

Here at my work, we have an HR person. HR = Human Resources.

Now, by my understanding, this person should posess inter-personal relationship skills. You know, be a kind of "people person".

However, this lady doesn't have anything close to resembling people skills.

Yesterday was a great case in point.

I'm the network administrator for our warehouse's computer systems. I have to get authorization for any kind of software installs that are done on the computers, as they are all tied into the corporate network, and could potentially disable the entire company network if something weren't quite right with the software.

A couple of weeks ago my safety manager asked to install some software onto her computer for some tracking reports that were given to her by a supplier. These disks aren't company approved, and so I told her that I'd have to get permission from the corporate network executives before I could make any decision on whether I could install the software or not. I also warned her that because of the time she was making the request, it was probably going to take a back burner to other projects until the start of the new fiscal calendar year. She agreed, and we parted.

However, since that time, she has made a point to send me at least one email a week asking about this software. I have kept her in the loop regarding the request, and have copied and forwarded each and every response I get from my bosses over their decisions. They are just too busy right now with other matters affecting the company to look over some software to see if they don't mind it being added to a computer. This isn't a priority for them, so they blow it off.

Apparently this means that I fall into this same category of person, and so my safety person got my HR manager involved.

Now, I'm not management. I refuse to be a manager. I prefer working my hourly rate, and I really enjoy the job I do. I make the management team look competent and efficient, and since they look good, that reflects well on me for those who know where to look. (Read my bosses!)

Anyway, I was then called into the HR office to "talk".

I was informed that since I, being a "lowly" associate, needed to follow instructions, I was to obey this manager, and install the software. No questions, no reservations, I was to do as I've been told.

I nodded, asked if there were any other instructions I needed to follow, and got the fish-eye.

Apparently sarcasm when being taken down a notch isn't a good idea.

I was informed that my tone and attitude were bordering on insubordination, and that it could cost me my job.

When threatened like this, I tend to get confrontational, so I asked if I needed to bring in my General Manager, and make this a "formal" meeting.

She proceeded to tell me that it wasn't necessary, and that this discussion would be "Between the two of us".

I nodded, left her office, and walked directly over to my General Manager's office to inform him about what had happened.

Now, I'm going to install the software.

However, I've got a serious CYA clause going on right now, because she did the silly thing of sending me my escape clause.

She wrote me an email explaining to me that I would install the software, and then inform her when the install was done. No questions.

Because of this, I can now claim that I was ordered to do this by my upper management staff, and there wasn't anything else but to follow the orders given by a duly represented manager of my corporation. All responsibility for this action are now on her shoulders, and if my bosses decide that this program ISN'T necessary and shouldn't be installed on the PC, well she's going to have to explain to them why she wouldn't wait for their decision.

All of this, and she's so proud of her schooling and certifications.

Me? My pride comes from knowing that when assigned a job that I get in, get it done, and get out as quickly as possible to allow the smallest timeframe of down-time in a production setting.

This means that even though I have to get in and stall the line, I'll get done as quickly as I can, and get the line moving again to make the smallest impact possible in the total day's work.

You can tell when I've done my job right when there aren't calls for me going on around the radio systems in the building. The only real time my name gets called out too much is when there's something outside the facility that's causing trouble with our network mainframes.

Tell me about some of your experiences.

Do you have people that completely baffle you as to how they were able to get their position?

(im)Patiently Waiting

Have you had those days when you're coming up to a nice vacation period, and you just can't stand the stuff going on around you?

Yeah.

I'm there.

I have today and tomorrow to work, and then I'm off for a nice vacation with the family.

However, it seems like every idiot and moron in my workplace has come out of the woodwork and decided to put on one special show for me before I go.

Let's talk shop, shall we?

Yesterday I had to be called in to set things up because one of my maintenance managers just can't get it into his head that he doesn't know SQUAT about computers.

They have been stripping and then re-waxing and repainting offices this year, since it's been 5 years since it was done last.

Because of this, offices are being cleared out, and then they paint and wax, and then shovel it all back into the office.

However, this specific office houses the network printers that we use to not only print out the labels needed for proper inventory, but it also housed the data and fax lines for traffic communication with the shipping company that we use.

All of this was unplugged, dragged out into the warehouse, and left to sit over the weekend.

Come Monday morning, they put everything back into the office, and plug it in, but NOTHING worked.

This is because not only did they not plug it back in where they'd taken it from, but they completely moved around the office furniture.

The printers I've got have a dedicated line and server for them to operate correctly, and just plugging them into any data port is like hooking up a phone to a dead jack. It won't get you anywhere. Also, there are more data ports physically in my warehouse than I have positions available on my data switches, so there are specific data ports that aren't live unless I physically go in and punch them down onto the network switch.

Because of this, I know what items work, and what jacks to plug things into.

"Normal" folks don't.

Thus I got to waste 2 hours of time plugging stuff back into switches, reprogramming a printer, and clearing out error messages from documents that were sent to printers that weren't online.

Annoying? Most definitely.

Boring? Not really.

Tedious. Absolutely.

I am honestly counting the minutes until I'm able to get out of here, and get on that plane. I don't care what the day or date is, I don't care if we have to sit on the tarmac because of weather. I just want out of this circus, and not have to worry about stupid stuff for at least a week. The most challenging thing I want to cope with is what ride to take the kids to next, or decide where we're going to eat lunch.

I think I need some Advil, so I'm headed to lunch...

More ranting tomorrow.

A minior personal revelation...

Let's get something straight here..

I'm an ass.

Not just ANY ass, but a sincere ass.

Heck, I'm even "PC" enough to admit that I'm an equal-opportunity asshat. It doesn't matter to me who or what you are, I'll be happy to oblige you with my assholed-ness.

There have been some times where this attitude has gotten me in trouble. Yeah, it doesn't work so well at the workplace, but I've been known to make it work (current job being proof of this!). It doesn't sit well in some social situations. Like when trying to apply for a mortgage, or debt consolidation, or buying a car, etc..

There are times when it's come in EXTREMELY handy. Those annoying telemarketers that seem to know when you're sitting down for dinner with the family, door-to-door salespeople, Jehova's Witness door knockers, Heck, even Mormon door-knockers!

It REALLY doesn't do me any good when I follow folks into a place. The main reason for this is that they then get marked for all of MY hard work. I mean, I'm an ass, but I like to take the credit for my butthole ways. I don't appreciate someone getting all the glory for my behavior. If I go to church with my folks, and I'm an ass, I don't want folks blaming my dad for my actions (as usually happens on the rare time I go to church with my folks). I don't want some waiter thinking that my friend is a jerk when I tell him off for not getting my order right. If I'm an ass to you, don't blame the other person for bringing me. BLAME ME.

Because of this, I want to let folks know that I rarely apologize for my behavior. Sure, you don't deserve treatment like this, but reading about how I chewed out someone else makes for funny reading... Unless you're the one who got the chewing. Then it becomes personal, and personal isn't funny.

I read a TON of blogs. I know there are some out there who read more, but I'm dedicated to a few, and I make comments on them consistently to let them know of my approval or disapproval of a post.

A couple of days ago, I made a biting and sarcastic comment on one of the blogs I follow. The reasoning behind it was all about things that were happening in my area, and I applied the rationale to an instance that was actually happening clear across the nation from where I was located.

I made a generic statement, and coupled a large group in my comment.

Yeah. It was aimed at the gay community.

Because of this, a gay person had to come forward, and complain about my biting and sarcastic remark.

Unknown to this person, I have quite a few Gay and Lesbian friends that I'm actually quite proud to call my friends. The ones that read my comments actually wanted to give me the "high 5" for it, because of the crap that's happening around here.

It's really all a matter of perspective. Someone somewhere doesn't find it funny, yet someone else in another state finds it drop-dead hilarious.

Tomato, tomatoe, really.

So, even with my explanation, I still stand by my comment on that blog. Yes, it's degrading to some extent, yet if I found someone of my ilk doing the same thing, I'd use the samn big-ass brush, and paint us all that color. If you condone the behavior, you might as well get on the bus instead of point a finger.

So, do I think that all gay people are assholes? Only as much as I think all white folks are stuck up, and all black people are angry about their ethnicity. Only as much as I think all American Indians are greedy alcoholics, and Jewish folks are penny-pinching misers.

Get my point?

Good, now get over my smart ass, and just feel free to read.

Yet more bitching about work..

Yes, I'm going to rant and rave about work stuff again.

However, before I do, I sent some questions to my wife's blog at her request. I think you should check out her answers, and see what you think!

Anyway, on to my raving....

Yesterday, I had one CRAZY workday.

Let's start this thing out right, and I'll paint you a small picture.

When this warehouse was built, it was decided to build in a small rural area that wasn't being utilized extensively by anyone, and would be easily accessible from the main freeway. They found this spot, and proceeded to install an ENORMOUS warehouse here. I'm not kidding about the size. This warehouse is over 975,000 square feet of space (floorspace), and rises over 180 feet. Plenty of space to store things!

Anyway, things seemed well. That is, until the first real rain hit. Then we promptly lost phones. That's when we found out some seriously bad news.

The city around where we'd built this place had installed sub-market cabling in this area, since before we'd come here there was nothing but cows and fields.

Moving a heavy indutrial zone in here blew out all of the specifications for the underground conduit and wiring that ran through this area. Because of this problem, ground water was now able to seep into the undergroun cabling, and effectively shut off any communication we could have with the "outside" world after any kind of heavy rain.

We brought up this finding and our concerns, and were reassured that the city would replace the cabling as soon as it was able. Passified, we went back to get our work done.

That was 5 years ago. Since then, each and every winter and spring we deal with the serious loss of phone communication. This will also include cable, and electrical at times too.

Yesterday was one such day. It had been raining here for about 3 days, and the water tables were getting high. At the end of the workday on Wednesday, my connection to the corporate network was getting dicey, and phones were becoming heavily laden with white noise and static. I contacted the local phone company to come out and fix the issue.

They never showed up on Wednesday. At 5pm on Wednesday we lost ALL phones and data lines. It was a total death blow to my warehouse, as with no corporate server to work on gave us no ability to update inventory or stock. Thus my warehouse ground to a complete halt, and workers were sent home.

I came back to the warehouse on Thursday assuming that the phone technicians would have taken care of the trouble, and everything would be running again at normal pace.

Nope.

Workers were sitting around chatting, managers were discussing options, and nothing was being done out on the warehouse floor.

My General Manager spotted me, and called me into his office, demanding an explanation.

I proceeded to show him the emails I'd left, and the calls I'd made to take care of the problem BEFORE it got to this point. He agreed that I'd taken the right actions, and proceeded to chew a new one on the phone representative that he'd had on his cell phone.

I contacted my corporate advisor, and they started putting pressure on the phone company from their side as well.

In all, the warehouse was effectively shut down for nearly 18 hours, costing my company approximately 2.5 MILLION dollars in lost time and revenue.

Because I didn't stay past my quitting time to wait for the phone technicians to show up the day before, I got my butt chewed.

So, thanks to all of this, I was in a REALLY bad mood.

Enter in my "second" part of my job.

Not only do I work the technical side of this warehouse dealing with the network administration and upkeep, but I'm also part of the Quality Control group.

Being on the QC team means that we do daily audits of trailers being sent out in order to assure the stores that the product they ordered is correct.

Well, because of some slacking on the QC side, the department was behind on the number of annual audits needing to be done. My head QC manager decided to "bulk up" yesterday, and we did double the amount we normally do.

One lucky group of loaders had to deal with us 3 different times.

Yeah. Three.

The first one wasn't so bad. They didn't like being slowed down too much, because they wanted better hourly numbers, but they were willing to work past it. They started to seriously complain on the second one, and it took nearly twice as long to complete because of talking, whining, and going to their manager to "demand" a transfer to a different trailer.

Being in the piss-poor mood I was in, each whine and grumble from them just get me off a little bit more. Somewhere in the middle of the second audit, and listening to a basic temper tantrum from a middle-aged man, I broke.

I called my manager, and informed him that I'd be doing yet a THIRD audit in the same trailer. With the same people. He approved it, and informed the shipping and loading managers. That act caused a fuss that I've never seen before in an adult male.

Whining, moaning, pointing fingers, I half expected one of them to throw themselves on the floor of the trailer and pound on it with their fists and kick their feet.

This display lasted nearly 45 minutes before they finally agreed to settle down and load the store.

45 FREAKING minutes!

After much delay, and quite a bit of grumbling and moaning on their part, we got the store audit started and we finished in about 35 minutes. As I cleared out the gear, and headed to my office, one of the loaders proceeded to thank me for the work. I ignored him.

He followed.

I walked.

He asked me to tell him what I had a problem with.

So, because of his request, I did.

I told him that I understood about the pains of dealing with the slow audit process. I understood about wanting to get work done as quickly as possible in order to have the option to leave early if the chance presents itself.

But I also informed him that the QC part wasn't my only job. I told him about my sincere hatred of someone wasting my time by doing childish things.

Needless to say, I wasn't nice about the whole thing at all.

I was actually quite the jerk.

But I really don't like it when folks kill my time by doing something stupid and childish.

The time they spent crying could have been better served doing work, and 10 minutes after we finished the store, they would have finished their tirade!

So.. Guess what I got to deal with this morning?

Yeah. The manager for those two isn't going to act on the incident, and DEMANDS that I apologize for my actions the day before.

Um.. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

I think I'll waste his time today, and see how he likes it. If he enjoys it, then I'll apologize. If not, he can kiss my ass.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I'm looking forward to getting out of here for a while!

Awhua?!??

OK..

Normally, I'm not one for really picking on folks....

Wait, wait.. I take that back.

I'm usually the FIRST person to pick on someone about strange things.

However, with this one, I decided to leave well enough alone. So I'm going to blog about it, and snicker under my breath.

The person in question is one of my "upper management" people. This person has repeatedly told me about his education, his skills, his schooling, and why all of this makes him a far better candidate for a higher-paying job than me.

To be honest, I could care. I've got the job I was shooting for, I'm resonably happy, and I don't have to deal with the corporate asshats nearly as often as someone even one step higher on the company ladder.

This person has been nagging me since the end of November for a new monitor.

The problem has been that it's a "fuzzy" picture.

I'd go into the office, and see nothing but a crystal-clear screen. So I wouldn't do anything about this problem.

Lo and behold, last week I noticed something while walking past the "faculty" lounge.

This said manager was using reading glasses to read the paper.

Does anyone else make the connection here?

Yeah.

While using the monitor, this manager refused to use their glasses. Thus, a "fuzzy" screen to read.

Well, I got sneaky. I started a polite conversation, and pulled out my own glasses to read. This opened up a discussion on prescriptions, and I mentally noted what their prescription was for.

Then, dear reader, I went online, and ordered a "privacy screen" that also doubles as a set of reading glasses for this manager.

It arrived yesterday, and I put it over the screen. I got a call about 10 minutes later thanking me for the "new" monitor that I'd replaced the "old" one with.

Yeah. I'm sneaky like that.

But heck, as long as they're smarter than me, I know that my job will forever be safe!

More tales for the New Year

I really, REALLY hate this time of year.

Work gets slow.

And when work gets slow, managers tend to have extra time on their hands..

Restless managers are NOT good. They get into things, they "tinker", and they just get to be a MAJOR pain in my butt.

Let me ask you something..

Just because you don't have something to do, do you go out and start taking parts and pieces off of your car because you think it'll run better?

Do you give the licensed mechanic advice about how to do his job because you read somewhere that doing this one job will save time and money?

What? You don't?

Then explain to me why so many folks assume that since they own a computer and can operate a couple of programs, that they can tell me what needs to be on their computer, what needs to be removed, and how I can effectively "speed up" the networking lines and communication?

Simple fact is that if I were to bring any of these folks into my office, they'd be floored at what was in there, and no clue where to begin.

When it comes to major installations like mine for computer stuff, please let the folks who know what they're doing get their jobs done.

I mean, if you want to get your job done, that's fine..

But please.. PLEASE let me do my job as well, and don't screw around with things you know NOTHING about!

Let me give you this example:

Today I came into work with two computer towers sitting on my workbench. This was news to me, because when I'd left on Friday everything was cleared, and all was good in IT-land. Upon further inspection, I find a Post-It note on the side of one of the machines.

It read: "Removed some unnecessary programs from the desktop, and now it won't work" *manager's initials here*

I sigh, and fire up my workstation computer. After slaving the "dead" tower to my workstation, I go over the programs that were uninstalled before the comp went dead.

Here's a list of the "unnecessary" programs that were removed by this helpful manager:

Microsoft Word.
Microsoft Excel.
Powerpoint.
Microsoft Office suite 7.9
Outlook Express
Lotus Notes
and finally:
System Comp Manager.

This last was the one to kill it.

The System Comp Manager is the script written by MY network manager for all computers linked to the network. Without this script in place, the network then will delete all company hardware from the machine attempting access to the network, effectively shutting it down.

Was dipweed manager to know this?

No.

All he needed to do was leave the machine alone, and let the computer do the job it was designed for.

All in all, he removed the basis for the paperwork templates he uses for reviews (Word), the templates he uses for production reports (excel), the templte he uses for weekly updates (powerpoint), the email program he uses for inter-office and personal mail (Outlook Express), and the corporate email system (lotus notes).

Let's just say that I came a bit unglued this morning, and I used my best judgement in allowing someone else to talk with this specific manager...

I put a call into my supervisor's office, and sent them the entire details of what happened.

This was about 2 hours ago, and I still haven't seen or heard from him since the call was put out that he was needed for a phone conference in the front office.

I hope he learns his lesson!

More next week on things you really shouldn't do to the office computers!

2-Fer Tuesday Post #2

Well, I'm kind of curious about y'all.

Yeah, I said "y'all".

Sue me, some of my family have spoken like that for years, and there are some "country" phrases that just say it all, so there!

Anyway, back to my question..

Do you look forward to, or do you fear, the company Christmas dinner/party/whathaveyou.

Me? I can't stand it.

Why?

Because we've got an absolutely CLUELESS HR person, and she doesn't understand a thing about the employees.

Each and every single function we've done these past 5 years has been a complete and total FLOP.

She picks events, food, entertainment et all to her personal preferences, and not to the general consensus.

If she wanted to do something like that, why not put on her OWN party, and invite us over? Don't use the company money and time to make the associates grumble and gripe over what they're not getting, and how silly the theme is, or anything of that nature..

I'll give you a couple of examples of her style.

First, we've got the company gift-giving process we do each year.

Before we even got started on this, the warehouse personnel decided to save up funds to help the "Make A Wish" program for kids with, or recovering from, cancer.

What this program does is give the child, and their close family, the chance for a vacation of a lifetime. The only request from the foundation? $5000 for each child you want to try to sponsor.

If your facility is able to make that goal, you get to "adopt" a child's family, and you usually will get a visit from them once the trip is over.

If you make more than that, but less than enough for a second child, then the extra is put into a pool fund to help out causes who are falling short.

The last 4 years our facility has been able to support 4-5 kids per year. That's between 20-25k a year to a charitable cause.

This last year? She stopped it. When questioned why, her answer was this:

"I feel that we're putting WAY too much funding towards these kids, and not enough of it towards our own goals."

Translated, it means that she was hoping that the cash that we'd generate for the kids would then be diverted towards her coffers, where she could delegate the spending.

Sad to say that this year's Christmas gifts are going to seriously be lacking compared to the last few years. All because of some selfish reasoning.

Another example is the picnic we tried to plan for this year.

We tend to try to take pride in being a family-oriented business. Healthcare is paid for in full by the company, and that policy is blanketed to cover not only the associate, but his entire family of dependants as well.

Because of the family focus we have, the picnic planners decided to try to hold a carnival-type of cookout. Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Corn Dogs, Fries, Pizza, Clowns, a couple of trick pets, and some games were in the works.

Enter in Ms. HR.

The picnic ended up like some kind of school fair, with cash being REQUIRED to be able to play the games.

What kind of games?

A cakewalk, that cost $5 per entry. It made exactly $0.

A water balloon toss. $2 per entry. It made $4.

A "Dunk the manager" contest. $1 per entry. This made $10.

No clown. No pets. No bounce house. No fair or circus-type of attitude anywhere.

Only 25 out of 300 employees showed up for it, once it was announced that games would cost cash to play.

There were 20 gifts to be awarded, and 10 were returned because they were things like $1 sun visors, or Water bottles that could be bought for less than $.50 each.

Needless to say, there were plenty of outraged folks over this.

And now we're hearing the plans for the "banquet" we're supposed to be having for this Christmas dinner.

Are we having anything traditional?

No.

Chinese Take-out is the menu.

Sure, it's being catered. However, Chinese food for a CHRISTMAS dinner?

Where's the ham? Roast Beef? Turkey? Mashed potatoes?

Wherever it is, I know you're not going to find it at my dinner.

And the prizes?

Well, like I said, 300 employees, and there's only 15 gifts to be given out.

Odds are that there are going to be some serious rumblings about that one.

Oh, and also add to that the news that the Christmas bonus program that everyone looks forward to this year has been decided upon (by HR) to be diverted towards a disaster relief program for this area in case of flooding or severe weather.

Last time there was something that severe around here, the employer I work for was just buying their first storefront back East!

That was 35 years ago!

So yeah, I'm pissed, I'm disgruntled, and I know that I'm going to hear about it from other workers.

What can I do about it?

Well, you're reading it.

Hope yours isn't as bad as mine's going to be!