<rant>
You know what pisses me off?  The fact that I can’t get my work done because the person I NEED to talk to to proceed with my work is chatting with the woman who just got back from a three week vacation in Italy.  They’re talking about the longest chair lift she’s ever been on, and the hikes they took, and the sights they saw, and they’re back to the chair lift.  They’re on the other side of the "wall" from me, so I can hear everything they say.  I went over there and interrupted them – by that I mean that they hushed up and looked busy when I came in their cube – and I told the woman I needed to talk to that I needed to talk to her about the next step in my work.  She looked very concerned and assured me that she’d be right over.  And as soon as I sat down, they went back to talking about Italy.  Aaahhh!!   Look, I got no problem with you two sitting around pissing away the company’s money while remember what it must have been like in jr high where you got to gossip with your girlfriends in hushed tones about what you did over the weekend.  BUT…  when your screwing around interrupts my productive work, you have to realize that you need to get over yourself, help me with my problem, and then go back to your conversation.  Real work comes first.  After that, it’s no longer my problem, and I don’t give a flying care what you do with your time, again, provided that it does not impact my work. 

Is it considered wrong to walk over and just say "I’m sorry, but I have something work related to ask you about, and Italy will still be there when we get done?"  this is seriously pissing me off.   And as I sit here, slowly adding sentences, and listening to them talking, it’s just pissing me off more…   this can’t be good for my health.  If I die of a stress induced heart-attack today, please blame them.

</rant> 

I find it interesting that someone could win a Nobel Peace prize for advocating the theory of global warming.  This boggled my mind until I heard someone this weekend say that he won the peace prize for this work in the War on Global Warming.  Oh, really?  Hey, let’s launch a nuke at it.  That’ll show ol’ global warming. 

But seriously…  a peace prize?  And for what?  It’s not like he’s the lead researching on the topic.  It’s not like he’s the one who made the world aware of the theory.  He’s just a stupid politician who advocated throwing money at the problem.  And this wins him the nobel peace prize?  I mean, I guess they couldn’t give him the prize for physics, since he didn’t really do anything scientific.  Chemistry?  No.  Medicine or literature?  No.  Hey, why not economics?  I mean, that’s really what this is all about, right?  Yes, give him the nobel prize for economics. 

So I think I’ve lost my belief in the objectiveness of the Nobel committee.  How else could they have possibly come to this conclusion unless they started out by saying, who do we want to give a prize to, and how can we justify it?

Nice…   company just announced their new money saving plan.   Company is saving money by "adjusting" our medical benefits.  It goes a little something like this:

- double deductables
- double copays
- triple copays for specialists
- increase employee cost by 50% across the board.

So, we pay more, and get less.

But, hey, the company did offer us this little piece of savings:  $0.20 per week savings on the cost of optional long term disability.   Yes, you read that right.  20 cents per week.   On optional insurance.   Yeah, thanks. 

Oh my goodness, I’m so jittery today.  I’ve switched to drinking pretty much nothing but propel (water) over the past few months.  Even when I’ve drank cokes the past two weeks, I’ve had root beer, which has been caffeine free.  So, today, I had to come to work at 1am, after only 3 1/2 hours sleep, so I thought I’d grab something to help me stay awake.  I’ve had three 20 oz mountain dews now, and I’m completely wired.  I’m basically vibrating in place.  I’d try to stop, but I’m pretty sure that grabbing on to something right now would have that cartoony effect of just making whatever I grab also vibrate.  I’m having visions of me grabbing my desk and stopping moving for a second, only to then have the whole desk start shaking and all my books fall down on me, etc.  I’m sure you get the point. 

Let’s see…   what else has been happening.  Got a blackberry.  I love it.  I’m now tied to my work email and calendar 24/7.  and while some people may say that’s insane, it’s really helped me stay organized and avoid those panic attacks where I can’t remember if I’m missing some important meeting that I forgot about. 

In other news, Best Buy took Deedee’s laptop in for a warranty repair and returned to us a plastic bag of about 100 parts.  No, I’m not kidding.  Plastic bag.  No padding.  All parts.  And I’m not even sure that all of the parts were there.  There’s no way all of the microscopic screws survived travelling in a plastic bag.  And then the manager wanted to tell us that it’s our fault because they found corrosion in the laptop, which voided our warranty, and so they weren’t responsible for what happened to it.  The manager actually started yelling at me when I insisted that this was unacceptable.  Then the little geek squad manager brat cocked an attitude and started loudly spouting off that corrosion was an obvious sign of cat urine, and so it was all our fault anyway.  ((At this point, I have to say that I really wanted to pop him in the face.  It’s horrible of me to say this, but what saved him is his stupidity, thus making him not worth my full wrath.  Either that, or chemistry is wrong, and the largest conspiracy/cover-up in history surrounds the fact that the government has been sneaking into people’s garages and driveways, opening up their car hoods, and pouring cat urine on their battery connectors.))

I’ll stop ranting and say that Best Buy corporate found them in the wrong on this issue, and is going to replace Deedee’s laptop.  Yay, Best Buy corporate.

In other, other news, we’re in the second month of getting our 11-month warranty work done.  They have replaced the floor in our master bathroom 3 times now, and they’ve re-caulked it another 3.  I’m putting my money on them never getting it right.  They also had to completely cut out one of my door frames and replace it, after they couldn’t fix the door that they broke in my garage.  Everytime they come in, I find paint in my carpet, scratches on my walls, paint on my clothes (did I mention they painted one of my suitcoats?).  I’m really starting to wonder whether it’s worth it.  Besides the fact that it’s what they owe me, another main reason is what the supervisor told me — that if my house had been cleaner to start with, they would have been more careful and would not have created such a mess in my house.  I’m sorry, but dirty clothes on the floor is a LOT different than latex paint in the carpet.  I refuse to believe that I am an inferior customer because of the fact that I work so much that I don’t have time to keep a Better Homes and Gardens quality cleaned house. 

Ok, done ranting.  I can’t think of any other, other, other news to report…  I mean, I can think of other, other, other news, but not really to report here.  Besides, I’m convinced that no one really reads this anymore, anyway.      It’s just a semi-private record of all the times in my life (since 2001) when I’ve been so bored that I’ve resorted to typing to myself.   Sad, no?

I normally don’t buy into overhyped tv shows, but I couldn’t help but try to watch Cavemen last night.  If for no other reason, the idea of a commercial becoming a tv show seemed interesting.  I was curious if they could make it funny.  The answer is no.  Apparently, the entire premise behind the show was "hey, if we make people look like cavemen, then anything they do is automatically funny, right?"  It was horribly boring.  I couldn’t stomach more than about 10 minutes worth.  During that time, they had cavemen playing squash, cavemen talking on phones, cavemen playing Wii…  normal, everyday things, and not with any meaning, and definitely without any comedy. 

With the way that networks work, I’d be surprised if they don’t cancel that show this week sometime.  Either that or what society accepts as "tv worth watching" is spiralling downward at an alarming rate….  Then again, look at all the reality shows that do well today.  ::sigh::

Today, I’m annoyed.  I’ll try to save you the long rant, and just give you the short version. 

Thing one:  guy getting tasered in FL.  They were talking about it on the radio today, and the DJ was saying that it was totally justified since the guy was annoying.  If you’re not familiar with this, google it, but the short version is a student started asking questions to a US senator at a forum on campus, and refused to relinquish the mic and kept asking questions.  Six security guards eventually picked him up, dragged him halfway out of the room, threw him on the ground and (after him screaming for them not to) they shot him with tasers.  The DJ said that it was justified because he was annoying. In that case, I think it’s totally justified for me to drive up to the radio station and taser the DJ.  And gas station attendants, and mcdonald’s cooks that put pickles on my hamburgers, and… well…  most everyone.  But I don’t.  Because stupidity and drama do not constitute justification for using a taser, which was developed as a lethal force substitute, not an everyday use toy, and which actually carries a very real lethal threat, as many people have died from the shock.  Ok, any more on that, and it’s no longer a short rant…

Thing two:  the new mistflu spray flu vaccination spray for 2 year olds.  Two year olds.  They’re talking about this on the radio and news and internet as a wonderful way to vaccinate your two year olds.  But hey, did they bother mentioning that this spray actually uses a live virus?  (Actually, according to the CDC, they use three live virus strains, just to make sure they get you with a couple of potential mutations).  Shots use "dead" virus, and I know people develop the flu from the shots, sometimes.  Why in the world would you want to intentionally give the flu to your two year old?  People are stupid, and generally way to trusing of our official government agencies who are looking out for our "well being."   (read, the pharacuetical company’s best interests.) 

Moral of these stories:  People are stupid.

today was a good day. started off with a rarity. (no, not my alarm clocks going off 30 minutes early… we’ll forget that). saw a full rainbow on a blue sky background. I think it has something to do with the clouds in texas and how they can throw rain 16 miles away from where the cloud actually is. anyway, it was cool looking.

then work. worked yet another 15 hour day. I’ve worked several 14-16 hour days in the past few weeks. and I’ve enjoyed them all. today I got to go to a script meeting, where we decide how evil to be to the flight controllers, and I presented a pretty intensely evil case, and didn’t get shot down, so that was good. Then I got to go do a simulation which was pure, concentrated evil. it’s normally 8 hours worth of evil, but we crammed it into 6 hours today… it was pretty intense, and we stayed very busy throughout the sim. I left work around 11:30, and I left with a smile on my face, so I guess that means I still really enjoy this job.

and you know what the best part of my day is? going to sleep next to my wife.

now, on to the best part of my day…

Quote of the Day:

"Ok, you’ve lived up to your reputation of being awesome…" – coworker

In other news…  I left work last night at 1:36am.  Got home around 2:30am…   work day of something like 14.5 hours…  and enjoyed it all.  Isn’t that odd?  Who enjoys working that much? 

… It’s really not lost on me how amazing it is to have a job that I really enjoy. 

From this article:  “Besides the lightsaber, [the shuttle's] primary cargo is the station’s second Italian-built U.S. multi-port node named Harmony.”

so, basically, the next shuttle flight’s main payload is a lightsaber…  and then there’s that node 2 thingy…