Please, keep your germs!

Why do people constantly grab stuff off of my desk? My pen, my stapler, my phone??? If they ask at all, they ask after they have already taken whatever it is they wanted. (And besides, how could I tell them no?) The problem is that especially the last few months colds and flu and all kinds of nasty "bugs" have been passing back and forth through the office. It's bad enough that I have to use the same fax machine and copier and pick up little germies from that, but I really wish people wouldn't touch the stuff on my desk.

Last Thursday, one of the girls in my office stood by my desk coughing everywhere and complaining about how sick she was. Then she grabs my pen and says can I borrow this? (As if I could say no- and why would it matter anyway since she had already touched it) Then she puts it back in my pen container, spreading her icky germs all over the rest of my pens. And then she was out sick Friday and Monday. She returned today, but she has no voice. *sigh*

I can't figure out a good way to get my co-workers to stop touching my things without sounding like a complete germ-o-phobe. I just don't want to get sick, simple as that.

Of course, I could have fun with the germ-o-phobe angle. Get lysol and spray it on everything someone touches right in front of them...hand out bottles of hand sanitizer to everyone. Rotate taking Airborne, Zicam and Emergen-C every 30 minutes. Put a big sign over my desk that says "GERMS" with one of those red circle with a slash over it. Heck I could even wear rubber gloves and a mask!

Music

I listen to many different types of music. One of my favorites (surprising as some of you will find this) is Death Metal. Typically, you don't hear much of this played on the radio- however I had found two great ways to listen to it: Death.FM streams it over the internet for listening while I'm at work or home and XM42 (Liquid Metal) for listening in the many hours I spend driving in my car.

About two weeks ago XM decided to discontinue my precious XM42. I turned it on one day and there was a looping message to check the website for information. Then about 2 days later, XM42 was no longer there. :(

They said they would play it for a few hours a day on XM48 (Squizz) (of course those are hours that I am never in my car) and that XM42 would be available all day long on their internet broadcast (available for an additional monthly charge). Well a whole lot of good that does me. I already have a great internet broadcast to listen to while I'm at work, and an internet broadcast really does not do me any good in my car. I can understand that there is limited satellite space at this time, but the only stations they have added lately are Major League Baseball. There's only like 20 of those, and I'm sure MLB needs to be on 20 channels 24 hours a day. *eyeroll*

So now comes my plea. For any of you (regardless of whether or not you listened to XM42) who want to help little Pixie out, please sign this online petition. Thanks for your support.

Reality T.V.

Many years ago "The Real World" came on MTV. Now I don't know if this was the beginning of the reality T.V. boom, but it is the first one I remember. A few years later it seems like the networks all picked up on this idea and suddenly there were reality shows out the wazoo. (Have any of you read "The Running Man"? creepy...) At any rate, some of them were good, some okay and, some were just plain awful. A few of them would get cancelled or run their one season and be over-with and others would run season after season.

I only checked out a few of these reality shows, but I have noticed a trend: they seem less and less like reality and more and more like staged crap. I just find it really hard to believe that more all new exciting never been seen before events keep happening week after week. I'm sure part of it is the producers "nudging" the participants and part of it is just the contestants trying to draw more attention to themselves. Quite frankly it has gotten boring. I've quit watching all but one reality show, and I'm about to give up on it as well.

I miss the good old days of "The Cosby Show." Most of the sitcoms on these days are unbearable. And then there are shows like CSI, ER and Third Watch which have become so filled with violence and gore that I am too repulsed by them to watch them. I often wonder what there will be to watch with my child when I become a parent someday.

So what do I watch, you ask? "The Apprentice" (which I have about had it with), "Smallville", "Enterprise" (which very sadly is cancelled at the end of this season), "Crossing Jordan", "Scrubs" and "Joey." My TiVo often records old episodes of "The Cosby Show," "Friends," and "COPS" also. I do check out some other shows from time to time, but those are about it. Next month the F1 Racing season will begin, so I'll be tuning in for that, as well.

For now, I anxiously await some good T.V. writers to get back in the scene and get all of the "reality" garbage off of my set and replace it with some good sitcoms.

In the meantime, I guess the lack of good T.V. gives me more time for other things like playing "Animal Crossing" on my GameCube--er I mean reading, cooking and cleaning the apartment. ;)

The Pledge of Allegiance??

Why does the Pledge of Allegiance say "One Nation, under God"?
Why does US currency say "In God We Trust"?
This country was founded by people wanting freedom from religious persecution. There is this little thing called "separation of church and state" So then, why was all of this "God business" added to things like the pledge and our currency?
To make matters worse, a few Christians find it necessary to continue the religious persecution by making an issue out of people who disagree with their personal beliefs. Just because a person thinks that the church should stay separate from the state, doesn't mean that they are a person without morals. It doesn't even necessarily mean they are not a religious person.
I read an article this morning about a man who serves as a trustee on the Town Board. He has for 12 years. He refuses to stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the meetings (a recent addition to the town meetings this year) because he disagrees with the statement "under God." The board is moving to spend several thousand dollars to have a recall election to remove this man from office because of this.
I guess everything that man has done for the last 12 years means nothing because he somehow no longer represents the people of that area. *rolleyes*
I applaud this man for standing up in what he believes in, and I hope that more and more citizens of the United States continue to do so in the coming years.
This country was founded on freedom. It seems to be a lot of groups, particularly Christians, are very intolerant of anyone else's views. So because of a few loud-mouths and a bunch of weak minded followers, we get stuck having "God" in our pledge and on our money; we can't learn about the possibility of evolution, even in public schools; many cannot speak openly of their religious views (or lack thereof) because they will be called immoral people with no values.
Open your mind for a minute. Think logically; weigh all options. You don't have to accept what you have always heard, unless you truly believe it. But please, don't go around acting intolerant of others. It makes you look ignorant. Besides, aren't Christians are supposed to be tolerant of everyone, forgiving of everyone and loving of everyone?
I consider myself to be Patriotic. I love this country. I wish some of my fellow citizens would also love this country for what it is. It is our Great United States of America, not the United Parishes of God.

Perpetual State of Agitation

Sometimes I think I just can't stand the stupidity any longer. People who don't bother to read details and then make mistakes. People who walk in front of my car [as slow as humanly possible] in a parking lot. People who talk on their cell phone EVERYWHERE: a restaurant table, in the movie theatre during a movie, in the freaking bathroom, for chrissakes! People who drive like half-asleep grannies in front of me. People who don't know when to just shut the fuck up.

I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being in a perpetual state of aggravation because of these people. Half of them are so stupid, they don't even realize that they are doing something that annoys others. It is unbelievable.

I have recently come to the revelation that there are many, many people in this world who do not have the mental capacity to be intelligent enough to realize things that seem like common sense to me. (quite possibly a result of the advances in medicine and technology that halts the process of natural selection)

Being that I am intelligent and capable, I have decided that I need to find a way to come out ahead in this race of aggravation. I don't need the added stress from these oblivious and careless people. So I'm not going to tolerate it anymore. I'm not going to be nice or polite. They don't care about my feelings, so why should I care about theirs? I'll bitch them out, I'll have an attitude, I'll honk my horn, rev my engine and do all I can to turn my aggravation into theirs. And then, I'll sit there with a giant fucking smile on my face just to rub salt into the wound. I'll thrive off of their negative feelings. I'll point at them and laugh. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more nice, sweet little Pixie sprinkling Pixie Dust about. Meet the nasty, evil little Pixie who taunts and torments you and then flies away laughing at your misfortune.

*Grin*

Broken, Missing, Incorrect or Otherwise

Today I clicked on the start menu of my computer to get to the "Open Office Document" tab, but it wasn't there. There was some other tab in its place. (Okay, so I deleted the new tab and I forget what it was now) So I'm sitting there wondering: what happened to my tab? Why is this other mysterious tab there? The "New Office Document" tab is still there. I don't think anyone else was on my computer since I was last. Everything else seems in order. So what the heck happened? And how can I fix it?

So, like I said, I deleted the mysterious tab. I guess for some reason I thought my missing tab would pop up in its place. (Okay, I admit, that was a pipe dream) When it didn't, I started poking around to see if I could find a link to it somewhere so I could recreate it in my start menu. Now I'm not the most computer savvy person around, but I know a trick or two- so I thought I might be able to fix it. After searching high and low, I found nothing helpful. It's not so much that I cannot function without that tab, but I liked it. That's the way I liked to do things. And now, no more tab. The only thing I can think of to replace it is to re-install Office. Yeah. Riiiight.

So this incident gets me thinking about a few things.

First: uh-oh does this mean my computer is crashing? Do I have a virus? I ran the scan Friday, but perhaps I'll run it again today.

Second: I think computers fall into the category of things that are wrong, don't work or break for no reason yet we accept them because we need them.

You know what I mean. Your computer gets the Blue Screen of Death every hour or so. You call your IT Department. When they find it convenient to come visit, the look at the computer for a few minutes, open up explorer, maybe run a virus scan, open up MS DOS and pretend they are doing something savvy, then look at you, shrug and say that nothing is wrong with it. You continue to have the problem daily for months until you finally convince them to buy you a new computer. Then a few months later, the new computer starts to do strange things like take away your "Open Office Document" tab. :P

Other examples include:

Printer/Copiers/Fax Machines: Can these things possibly function for a whole week without jamming, needing toner/ink/drums, feeding pages out randomly, printing wingdings, sending only 3 of my 4 page fax, etc.? And it can't just be one machine that malfunctions, it's like they are interconnected and they all act up at the same time. Ever see "Office Space"? That scene with the fax machine in the field with the baseball bat is going to be happening in my office very soon.

Cell Phones: dropped calls, bad reception, etc...while this seems to be improving, there are still lots of problems that people accept and move on. Whoops, I lost him, he must be on his cell, going through a bad area, can you hear me now? Nevertheless, we all have our cell phones, and we feel lost without them. Have you ever forgotten yours? I forgot mine one day and I felt completely lost. I was so worried that I would need it for something. (And I was at work all day, where it sits turned off in my desk) Heck 10 years ago practically no one even had a cell phone, but today we all have our phones with intermittent reception.

Weathermen: It's not so hard here in SoCal, but in other parts of the country I really wonder. They seem to predict the weather somewhat close about half of the time. Yet many people still tune in daily to get that weather report. Heck, there's even a whole channel dedicated to weather. And it has been on for many many years, so people must be watching it. What's next tuning in to the Psychic Friends Network for your daily prediction. (Okay, I know, some people actually do call those, but that's a whole different issue)

Some Runners-Up who aren't too bad, but are worth mentioning:

Cable Television: I have DirecTv, but I remember the days when every time it rained, or the wind blew wrong or the sun came out the cable would go out. It was really annoying, yet we all kept right on paying for our cable. (Though they would give you a credit if you called- I guess that is something)

Post Office: I have several issues with the post office. We are stuck with them, as they are the only way to mail something. If they screw up or make you mad, you can't go anywhere else. They are it. And the postal workers behind the counter know it. Many of them are nasty and unpleasant a good bit of the time. But what are you going to do about it? Additionally, I don't know how true this is, but I hear that a good bit of our mail never makes it to us. (Of course our bills always get to us though :P) I also see a lot of mail in my box that is not for me, has a different name or address on it, etc... The good news is that you can minimize using the post office these days because of e-mail and online bill paying.

Caller ID: Now don't get me wrong, I like my caller ID, but why is it that half of the calls either say: Restricted Caller, NO ID or it solely lists the state the call is coming from (like California Call)? I just want to know who it is calling me. The number would at least be helpful...

The Police Department/911: This obviously depends where you live. I have experienced excellent service in some communities. However in the majority of places it seems that the response is not quite speedy. One time I tried calling 911 for about 5 minutes straight and I kept getting the message that all lines were full and to try again later. Now in that case no one was bleeding to death, but it really makes you wonder what would happen if it was a life and death situation and minutes counted. I've also encountered situations with officers and detectives that really make me wonder about the functionality of fighting crime.

Conversely, I was thinking of some other things that I wish didn't work most of the time: The Beep Beep backing up truck noise, the annoying noise Nextel 2 way radios make after someone speaks, the annoying loud and vibrating car stereos blasting bass, lighters to light cigarettes, etc..

Those are just a few of the things that don't work but should, and do work but shouldn't. If any of you have any other ones to share, feel free to post a comment.

Hummm...maybe my lost tab is hanging out with the sock I lost in the dryer...

To Own or Not To Own? Guns are the Question.

Back when the United States of America was becoming a country, it was common practice for most people to have guns. Then at some point in history people stopped carrying their guns with them, stopped having so many in the house- if any at all. With the way our society seems to be shaping itself today, I’m wondering if there will be a comeback to the days of owning several guns for protection.

With the downfall of our society comes an increase in robbery, burglary, hate crimes, etc. I’ll save the downfall of society rant for another time. My point is: do we need to get back to the time of carrying weapons, specifically guns, to feel safe? And not only to feel safe, but to actually be safe?

If you had asked me that a few years ago, I would not have thought I would ever need to/ want to own a gun. As I watch where our society is headed, I have rethought that issue. It’s unfortunate that we have gotten to this point, but let’s be realistic. If some big scary looking gang member is on drugs, or heck, even if some scrawny little twirp is on drugs: THEY LOSE ANY INHIBITIONS THEY MAY HAVE HAD. Their adrenaline rushes and they become stronger than usual. They don’t know or care about any consequences. All they know is that you have something they want, and they are going to take it from you: no matter what. They don’t care if they hurt you or kill you in the process. They will kill you for your car or even the five dollars in your wallet. Now do you wish you had a gun? What if the car they are stealing from you has your six month old baby strapped into the back seat? Do you really think they are going to let you take your child out before they take off? And we’ve all seen those police chase shows on T.V. How many times does the drug induced robber total the vehicle? Now do you want a gun so you can stop the son-of-a-bitch before he harms your child?

Personally, I’d like to have several guns in my home, one in my car and one in my purse. (After all, my gun at home would not do me any good if someone was trying to carjack me.)

I have to point out an issue from the Presidential Debate last night. They were asked about reauthorizing the assault weapons ban. I just have one thought for Sen. Kerry: He spoke about how the police force wanted this reauthorized because “They don‘t want to go into a drug bust and be facing an AK-47.” Okay, let’s think about this for one minute here. They are typically busting drug-lords. They have illegal drugs. Hmmm…do you honestly think that they have legal, registered weapons??? Do you honestly think they don’t have access to get illegal weapons? So if you ban AK-47’s, then you or I can’t get one, but Mr. DrugLord and his gang members can. And so when they break down my door to steal what I have, I won’t be able to own a weapon that competes with theirs. Gee, that makes sense.

Okay, so here’s what it comes down to: our society is taking a downfall. Honestly, I don’t see a turn around from this anytime soon. People are getting worse and worse, more spiteful, have more hatred and less morals. (unfortunately with our advances in technology and medicine, Darwinism hasn’t been allowed to flourish as it should) Those of us who do have morals and are bettering ourselves and are successful need to be able to protect and defend ourselves and our possessions from the underachievers.

I don’t think guns are for everyone. I do think guns are for people who can handle the responsibility of owning them. I believe in a screening process. I believe in proper training. (What good is a gun if you are too afraid to use it and Mr. Robber takes it right out of your hands?) I believe in owning guns.