Evil Is As Evil Does

or
I’m Just A Real Bastard

And not just by definition. As Brooklyn can attest to when left unchecked my temper can cause me to lash out unexpectedly. It can be particularly shocking to people. By which I mean me. Though it is a truly rare thing to behold it has been known to happen on occasion.

Today, I momentarily flipped on a co-worker today. And it was mostly uncalled for. I won’t bore you with the details but basically it started with a call I got earlier. I tried to resolve it and sent it to who I thought could. After lunch I returned to my office on the phone. Sat at my desk, still on the phone and my co-worker proceeded to talk to me from across the room as though I wasn’t. Though, it was technically about the earlier issue, that is not how she came at me. Basically it was getting close to her time to leave and she wanted me to go up to the see the people in question. Mostly because other people were getting involved. Particularly because she was getting ready to leave. But instead of asking the guy sitting next to her. Who, to my knowledge, wasn’t on a call she coyly calls to me to tell me about this. While I’m already in the middle of a conversation. Even though I was pointing out I was on the phone.

And for a moment I lost it. Detroit rose up in me with an icy stare and flared nostrils. A snide remark about my cell phone and how it was in use and then my co-worker sitting next to her was volunteering to go look into this issue. At this point I collected myself and told my friend I would call her back (earlier in this same conversation she jokingly asked if my co-workers would vote me most likely to go postal because I’m so quiet, and of course I laughed and told her no, yeah right). I calmly walked over and sat beside my co-workers so she could tell us what the hell she was talking about. So she explained to us both what the deal was. This is when the phones started ringing and the guy left to go check out the issues.

That next call I think I was extra polite. As I was still in shock at how my demeanor had changed. I certainly didn’t want to have any misdirected anger at the caller. Especially since they were nice. Tell the truth I don’t know what happened. I had a relatively smooth day. With nothing crazy other than this incident. Maybe I just hate my job. What ever the case, the first chance I got I apologized as profusely as she would allow me to (which wasn’t much) for snapping at her. She didn’t deserve that. We get enough shit from this place with out giving it to each other. Thankfully, she was understanding. Almost to a fault. She’s an older woman. I can see her throwing hot grits on a brotha after convincing him everything is cool. Ok, I’m exaggerating. She is cool and she was cool about it. I’m still gonna keep my eye on her though. Maybe I’ll buy her lunch just to smooth things out. Hell, I still feel kind of bad about it.

Guilty Conscience

After this whole thing I told 2 of my co-workers about it. One being the guy that dealt with the issue. Expressing to them how bad I felt about what happened. The both laughed it off. They both seemed to think the coolness of our co-worker was such that she would ultimately be understanding. And that I pretty much shouldn’t worry about it. On another note the guy that handled the issue pretty much confirmed the cluster fuck of the situation. He gave them a quick fix but ultimately this is beyond us. Some shit just isn’t in our job description.

Adventures in Back Pain

"I am not a Prophet though I do have prophetic dreams.“ - Huey, The Boondocks

Ok, that’s probably not an exact quote. But considering the title of this entry you get the idea. Because this time last week I was having some real back problems. Through no apparent fault of my own. At least I’d like to think that. I was fine until last Sunday evening. Then my back started to ache. For the life of me I can’t figure out why. I didn’t pick up anything heavy or move in some awkward way. But it got progressively worse such that Monday morning I was ready for a new bed in the hopes that this might alleviate this issue. Well I was half right.

Oh and for the record I broke down and spent the money for a new bed. It’s great and I love it but I digress...

I lounged around most of the day last Monday hoping as I searched the web for an elusive deal on a new mattress that my pain would slowly subside. Considering I popped about 6 Motrin I was sorely disappointed. So by that afternoon I went back to the mattress store got the mattress I really liked and thankfully it was delivered that night. Laying on it was great as my back pain went away and unlike my old one it wasn’t a painful chore to roll over. So long story short by Tuesday my back was worse so I was out from work that day and the next. By Thursday I was still in pain but I could at least get my socks on to go to work. So as I suspected the decision was made for me and slowly but surely I have been recovering. Unfortunately I’m not at 100% but I figure 85-90% is better than the 37% I felt like last week. And, hey, now that I have a queen size I'm officially an adult, right?

Apart at the Seams

Not to keep harping on Seattle (which is a beautiful city by the way) but my friend had a great bed in the guest bedroom. I slept like a fuckin’ baby. And yeah I had to say ‘fuckin’ in order to emphasize how well I slept while I was there. I can’t remember when I was that comfortable or well rested. No achy back or waking up feeling like I need to go back to sleep. Not to say that my bed sucks. Though I realize now that it does. But it was adequate for the purpose of not sleeping on the floor. After this trip I now realize I am really missing out on a good nights sleep. I even went bed shopping over the weekend only to become jaded and cynical by the experience. Who knew a decent (as in good quality and comfortable) bed would be $800 plus. Forget the fact that a couple I really liked were about G.

So now I have a dilemma. Go deeper in debt for a better nights sleep or go the cheap route like I did when I was sleeping on the floor of my Apt. My current bed cost me about $200. Roughly. In part, I believe, because the guy felt bad for me. He seemed to relate to my situation. Hell, he even strapped the bed to the roof of his car and helped me move it in. The delivery guys were out making deliveries for the day. But now I’m better off (relatively) so it shouldn’t be that big a deal. But it is. I want to upgrade but damn. I found a $400 queen that was, again, adequate. Did I mention I currently have a full size. Moving up to a queen is a step unto itself. Let alone something in the $1000 range. Ultimately the decision may be made for me. I was sitting on the edge of my bed this morning and I noticed... it’s coming apart at the seams. And yes I noticed this through the bedspread. Not to mention I pulled it back to look and it was worse then I thought. Much worse. Between this and the occasional achy back (the one I forgot I had while I was away) I’m going to have to do something sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to sleep on it... no pun intended. Seriously.

The Revolution Will Be... Animated?

Apparently the revolution will be televised. And it's on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim no less. For those who don't know, that's when they show the more mature adult oriented programing from like 11pm to 5am Sunday through Thursday. And this past Sunday was the day they decided to have screw whitey day. Because between the Boondocks, Minoriteam, Squidbillies and to a lesser extent Robot Chicken it was all about how the white man was holding us back. Or in the case of Squidbillies just hatin' in general. It was an interesting evening of programming to say the least. Not to mention Boondocks used the N-word 18 times. I heard it was supposed to be 15 but I counted. Interesting indeed. I just wonder how long they can keep up this level of subversion before the real 'MAN' says, "WTF are y'all doin'?."

The Boondocks

Aaron McGruder can't escape controversy. The show hasn't even aired yet and people are already talking shit:
The Full Story

Windows Sucks...

As if you didn't already know. But I bring this up because iTunes no longer works for me on my Windows XP machine at work. Why? I don't know. And I do tech support for a living. Recently I upgraded to version 6 and I'm pretty sure it worked after the upgrade. All I even use it for is internet radio. But not I get some strange memory error. To be specific:

The instruction at "0x0000b7a4" referenced by memory at "0x0000b7a4". The memory could not be "read".

And that's it. Sure I have the option to terminate or debug. But no further info is available. So I'm frustrated and annoyed by this. A co-worker thought I should reinstall. I did. Same problem. I uninstalled rebooted. Searched for everything iTunes and deleted. Reinstalled again still no good. Next I will probably uninstall, deleted everything again, then delete everything in the registry. If that doesn't work I might look online. But shit, man, should I even have to go through all this?

Can't Win for Losing

or

The Universe Enjoys Laughing at Me

A couple months again I visited a friend in Seattle. In there guest room was a very nice lamp with a touch base to turn it on and off. Not only that it had a dimmer feature built in. You touch to turn on a dim light. Touch it again for a little brighter then again for the brightest. Fourth touch and it was off. I thought it was cool and found out you could get it from Target. Came back to Cali and went to 2 different Targets. Of course they didn't have it.

Target online apparently can be cooler than my local stores. Because of course they had it. And it was in stock. Cool. Order it and a about a week later I got it. Picked it up from the apartment manager before work and left it in the apartment. Get home ready to unpack it so I turn on my one other lamp in my apartment. Of course the bulb pops. As in goes out. As in dead as a doornail. I chuckle to myself. No big deal. I have bulbs. Hmm, wouldn't it be something if I only had one left. But of course I have at least 2 left right? No, of course I don't. I have all of one light bulb left in the pantry. So I put it in the one lamp and unpack the new one. Only to be bummed out by the fact that my other bulb went out the same day I get a new lamp. The next day I bought some new bulbs. Though the coincidence of the whole situation was hilarious. It almost seems to be a metaphor for my life...

To crease or not to crease...

BACKGROUND
I go to a very good dry cleaners in Burbank. I know they are good because they made my 7 year white oxford shirt from the Gap like new again. Whereas another cleaners made the ring around the collar worse. Like really really bad. Shirt was clean the collar wasn't. Even after making them do it again. So I found a new spot. Randomly selected on my way to work, nice sized, clean looking place. Damn if they didn't make my white shirt like new again. Even better they sent me a coupon for my birthday. Then another on GP. So yeah I like my cleaners.

EVENT
Lately, they were pissing me off though. See I have a lot of flat front khaki's. Cause I don't like pleats on just anything. I purposely buy the flat fronts because I wear casual boots alot. I can kinda get away with it at work. So no big deal. But do you think my cleaners can get it through their heads that flat front don't need creases. They did for a while but the last couple times they couldn't not give me creases. Such a small thing but annoying none the less. Considering I get my clothes back with a big bold "NO CREASE" written on the tag. But they still have creases.

RESOLUTION
I gave them 3 strikes and they came through for me on the 3rd. I was really ready to give them up. Over some damn creases. I wonder if I should reconsider the whole 3 strikes thing. It seemed kinda silly at this point to give up a great cleaners. But then I think what if I had gotten those damn creases again...