Employees Must Wipe Hands on Pants

The last time America boycotted an Olympic Games was in 1980, over ironically enough, the Soviet invasion of Afghanastan.

Well, if America has any balls or international credibility left, the time has come to do it again. This stuff CANNOT be tolerated.

Of course, given how in debt we are to China, the chances that the current administration will do anything but sweep the current “unpleasantness” under the rug and gloss it over is slim-to-none. (Thanks a lot Nixon. Whatever happened to hating Those-Damn-Commies like any decent right-wing zealot ought to? Oh wait, the second they became HYPOCRITICAL commies, then you found something in common, eh?)

I guess while we’re there, we can pick up all their tips on proper internet censorship, and government spying. We wouldn’t want there to be an OPPRESSION GAP, now would we?

Jeremy says:
there’s a cnn article, ‘man on dive trip bitten by shark’
Jeremy  says:
why the fuck should anyone care
Jeremy  says:
people get bitten by sharks left and right
Jeremy says:
it’d be funny if they were taking an ironic approach to getting people to read stuff,
Jeremy says:
making article titles so supremely mundane that readers go ‘what the fuck’ and open them up
Jeremy says:
not that I actually did
Jon says:
“Toast thoroughly buttered”
Jeremy says:
yeah or ‘Person with a gun, fired it’
Jeremy  says:
“Breaking News: White girl is hurt.”
Jon says:
“Fatty foods found to cause obesity in some”
Jeremy says:
“Overweight people outraged.”
Jon says:
“Religious Fanatics Outraged”
Jon says:
“News Censorship Continues Due to Efforts of ######.”
Jeremy says:
“Iran rattles their sabers.  America brandishes things in response.”
Jon says:
“Arabs declare Hatred for Israel”

I’ve been doing a lot of OT lately. This is very good for my finances, especially in regards to my new video entertainment equipment, but not so great for my sanity levels. I’m planning on putting in 9 hour days every day this week, and will likely go in again for 4 hours of overtime on Saturday, as well.

Not to change the subject too abruptly here, but there’s a tenet of Zen philosophy (At least, I think it’s Zen. I’m a bit fuzzy about the specifics.) that says that the things you own end up owning you. I have always believed in the truth of this statement, and my current state hammers it home even further. I have to work twice as hard to pay for the things I acquire in my life, making my fancy toys and do-dads cost me more than just money. Or, rather, the money I pay itself has a price in my spirit that comes from the sweat and labor and effort and energy that I put into my work.

The Zen teacher would have you chose to forsake earthly goods for true ethereal bliss. However, this is, perhaps, where I take exception to the wisdom of the Bhudda. I find that the kind of material goods that I tend to gather gives me back a spiritual quantity as well. This might not be true if I was just buying gold, or jewels, or real estate, or such. But in purchasing tools that allow me to express myself, and achieve some sense of artistic satisfaction (my musical gear, for example, or my computer to write these very words) there is a redemption in spirit that transcends the material value of the goods themselves.

I’d like to think I come out ahead at the end of things on this score. Realistically, however, it’s probably more like a draw. Oh well.

So… I don’t generally complain about my work these days, being, as it is, so incredibly much better over the last year than the preceding six before it that I find little to gripe about, however, today’s events perhaps deserve special mention.

It’s really not so much a gripe. I really can’t gripe too much about having a day mostly free of talking to idiots who are so mind-numbingly stupid that they do not know that not backing up their hard drive might one day end up corrupting or losing all their ultra-precious data that they care so much about.

You see, today we had “Customer Service Training”, which involved being locked in a small room listening to an incredibly perky Texan woman with far too much amateur dramatic background, and far too little common sense, lecturing on ways to make our various idiot customers feel happy about their self-inflicted wounds, rather than mad at us, the messengers, for informing them of the errors of their ways.

Now, I normally see this as rather harmless. Perhaps she might even have some remotely useful nugget of wisdom to share with the newer, less-experienced-than-I technicians in my department. Very well. I resolved to be on my best behavior, and not let any of my cynicism ruin what might be a positive learning experience for someone else.

I realize now, I need not have bothered.  There was nothing of any practical value whatsoever forthcoming, merely a cavalcade of buzzwords, completely removed and isolated from any grounding or foundation in reality. What little information there was that might be classified as “wisdom” is the kind of thing that a month on the phones in any call center in the world should net you. (Or else you really ought to be looking for other work, since you won’t last a week beyond that without picking this stuff up.)

The really annoying part was when I had to bite my tongue and choke back tears as this Paid Mercenary of Customer Service Bliss ™ went merrily off on the History of the Hundred Years War, a subject I have studied in passing, and know tolerably little about; however, her blatant disregard for anything even remotely resembling historical accuracy was about to get me into trouble when I tried to correct her on one or two points… Then I suddenly realized that all I was doing was potentially drawing her ire, at which point I graciously dropped it. Diplomacy being the better part of valor, in this case, I allowed her to continue with her point (which turned out of be as laden with logical fallacies as her historical accounts were with factual inaccuracies).

I am very much glad we don’t have to sit through this sort of thing very often. Although, I suppose in some ways, it made me  almost more appreciative of our customers. At least these people don’t pretend to knowledge or experience they haven’t really earned. Oh, wait. Yes they do. Damn.

50 years ago today, humanity began the so-called Space Age, when Russia launched Sputnik.

I’ve read a ton of articles on this recently, and think that it’s pretty cool that we can finally talk about this event without the nationalistic fervor of the Cold War coloring our perceptions about it.

At the end of the day, we humans are pretty clever monkeys. Putting an object in orbit, launching the advent of the space science that has evolved in fits and starts over the last half-decade, is a milestone for human development that shouldn’t really be tied to any one nation or culture, but celebrated as an achievement of our species.

I really think we need more of those if we’re going to continue to develop as beings.