only in Texas…

Tell me… if you can’t see what you’re shooting, then why, oh why, do you need to shoot something living?

So today was a good day, which is good, because it offsets yesterday being such a bad day. I don’t particularly want to go into detail about yesterday being a bad day. It has to do with businesses, and partners, and indecisive people who think they want to be a business partner up until their fun and games gets to real, so they back out of the business only to decide the next day that they really want to start their own business doing exactly the same thing that the first business was doing and with one of the original people, so they think they can steal said person away from the original business by making comments to try to convince said person that the other partner is holding them back and that if they go with them, everything will be much better and their business will be better, and the world will be a happy fuzzy place, and they can steal the creative ideas that the original partners spent over 6 months developing and that the business partner who left put in writing that he relinquished all rights to when he left. So now I have to sue him. (if he actually does it)

Good day because of two reasons. 1) my go-for-cert run was bumped to a cert run, which I passed, which means I’m qualified to teach one lesson at NASA now. 2) (and far more importantly) I got my name tag. So now my cube has my name on the outside of it. Now I exist!!! ((Descarte really said, “I have a nameplate, there for I am.”))

(Mis)Quote of the Day:

"It’s overkill… Like killing Russians with a shotgun."  – said inside the mockup of the international space station. 

So, he actually said, like killing roaches with a shotgun..  But I don’t think I was the only one to misunderstand, because there was a gasp and silence afterwards.  I didn’t even realize what he had actually said until later, when he said it again, but added "instead of a fly-swatter."  so, yeah.  Was relatively interesting. 

In other news, Christmas-time has officially started, methinks.  I’ve started actively seeking crimma gifts.  I probably should have started sooner, but up until last week, it was like 75 degrees out here.  I could not justify crimma shopping in 75 degree weather.  But then last week, it got cold.  All at once.  Seriously, it dropped 35 degrees in two hours, and stuck there. 

Ok, have to get back to work.  Later.

I should have known something was up when I was walking into my building and every single person except for me was carrying a coat. But I thought, hey… it’s 73 degrees outside. Why do they have coats? 30 deg drop in temp in a little less than an hour. That’s why they have coats and I do not. Now I feel like the stupid one. Even more stupid by the fact that my lovely wife tried to warn me today that it was going to get cold eventually, but I was still partially asleep and didn’t remember until after I had left the house, and I didn’t feel like going back, and… yeah. Not so smart.

I had something else I was going to type about… but now I don’t remember. But I’m stuck at work for another 20 minutes, so I guess I better go find something constructive to do. Like talk about the weather with my coworkers…

Oh yeah… Was going to talk about how my business fell through at literally the last second. As I was getting ready to pay for the LLC filing, one of the guys backed out. Said he didn’t want to work with me because he thought I might not be available enough. Yeah. He’s the one who had been causing problems all along, and my best guess is that with no more excuses left, and with everything getting real and him about to be committed to a real business, he freaked and backed out. Sure, blame it on me. Fine.. But which one of us was actually ready to plop down a substantial amount of money for the business? Hint: me. You know, maybe I won’t rant about it too much, but it really does annoy me. I mean, even if the guy just didn’t like me enough to go into business with me, you’d think he’d figure that out prior to the zero hour. I mean, we’ve been putting this together since February. And he backs out now? Anyway…

I have two things to rant about…   

First…  I think it should be taught to every male child on the planet that it is perfectably acceptable for one man to challenge another man to a fight to the death in some archaic, ritualistic fashion if the man in question violates bathroom ettiquette.  Case in point:  if we’re in a room with five urinals and nine stalls, and I come in first and choose the urinal against the far wall, you may choose any place you want, except the urinal next to mine.  This is accepted man-law.  If you do choose the urinal next to mine, it is within my right to challenge you to a dual by slamming your face into the plumbing on the wall.  I will assume that your bleeding on the floor is your way of saying you accept. 

I don’t understand why this is a difficult concept to understand.  It’s been ingrained in me since birth.  Half of all the urinals and stalls in any (male) bathroom are there for decoration and should never be used.  Now, my biggest problem with this is a culture issue, I know…  Oriental men for some reason feel the need to be close to another man while they do their business.  I don’t know why that is, but it always irks me.   (that’s a gross over-generalization, and I don’t apply that to all oriental men… just the ones that frequent the bathrooms around here).  However, if you’re american and you pull that crap, expect to be face-planted into the wall.  Your old age is no excuse, either. 

Second, and on a lighter note…   TV land released a list of the top 100 catch phrases ever heard on TV.  Many of which, I agree with… I mean, I think "Where’s the Beef?" should probably be #1…  however…   How is it that some phrases from brand new tv shows made the list?  I’ve never heard reference to the line "Suit up!" in context of the show How I Met Your Mother.  Has anyone?  I don’t hear people repeating it in every day conversation?  "No soup for you!"  yes… no reference needed.  Heard on every street corner for months.  Still heard today.   However…   "Denny Crane"  from Boston Legal?  That’s a catch phrase?  It’s a character’s name.  It’s not something that works its way into daily life. 

I can’t believe that in the history of television, there aren’t greater catch phrases than those lame excuses to work modern television shows into a top 100 list.  Are you really going to expect me to believe that "Denny Crane" or "suit up."  has more staying power and more influence on our society than "to the moon, Alice!"  (which did not make the list). 

Anyway.   yes.   people are stupid.   but we all knew this, already. 

Quote of the Day (thus far):

"I love dragons.  If I could be anything other than me, I’d be a dragon…  or a vampire!  I love vampires… "  

etc, etc, etc. 

Quotes of the Minute:

“what? don’t feel like nibbling on your UPS person?”

Saw this bumper sticker on my way to work:  
Support faith-based
missle defense systems.

I’m not even sure what to make of that.  I can’t tell if it was meant to be random humor, or some sort of statement?  There’s no context?

And speaking of questionable things… I got a memo at work…  it’s telling us that our health benefits are going to be cut back AND cost more in the future, and to prepare for it, we should "increase our wellness."  no lie.  Increase my wellness?  Is wellness a word?  (I think I’ve ranted about that word before.)  To help increase our wellness, we’re encouraged to complete the Total Wellness Survey.  They then follow that by a bunch of stupid anecdotes that are very obviously made up, since the survey was released after the memo was delivered.  Here’s my favorite:

"Someone I work with found out they had high blood pressure and they never knew it."    Why do we have doctors, when you can diagnose chronic health problems by filling out surveys? 

You know, on second thought…   it makes sense.  This stupid memo has definitely raised my blood pressure.  The survey isn’t diagnostic… it’s part of the cause. 

And the quote of the day today is kinda paired with the first quote above, since I’m not going to give you any context for it…  but then again, do I ever?

Quote of the Day:
"Never mark your toys unless you want people to know you play with them."

Other than the fact that I can’t get rid of this annoying space between the date and the entries, I think it’s fixed (it being my template).  At least you can see comments now…  now if I could just fix the formatting of these email posts…

Bobbing for french fries… It’s like bobbing for apples, except you
replace the apples with french fries… and you replace the water with
boiling oil.

Yes… bobbing for fries… a game for managers everwhere.

In other news, I want to go fishing. Yes, fishing.

I have lots of interesting stuff to say about politics, myspace, and
dying friendships… but I do not have the time to type it up. Oh
well… no one wants to read it anyway