The Double Date Weekend!
Monday, October 31, 2005Hey all, sorry about the long absence yet again. The next three days will busy busy though, so tell all of your friends! :O)
Today: Update
Tuesday: Companies are like Bad Boyfriends
Wednesday: Weds Wist
Anyway, on to the juicy stuff!
Friday -
How's this for a full day: Work, Run in a 6k, break a foot, play football and have a date. That's ONE DAY, not the whole weekend. Yes, I am indeed crazy. Especially since the second, third and fourth items are, indeed, in order.
So yeah, came to work Friday did the normal busy work in the morning. In the afternoon we had our annual 6k. This was well and good except for one thing, when I grabbed my stuff in the morning to change into, I was thinking only of after-work football, not of the 6k and didn't bring proper footwear. Sketchers may be comfy everyday shoes, but running shoes they are not. I completed the race in about 33 minutes, and was making my way back to the building, "OW! Fuck!" *thump* Losing control of one leg due to blinding pain is not all it's cracked up to be. Having had two stress fracture and many other foot injuries running cross country in high school, the pain was very familiar. Hello stress fracture #3. Oh well, eat post race snacks, go back to work for an hour.
Friday is always after-work football around here. Since the time was changing Saturday, and our field has no lights, it was the last day. In a temporary suspension of my guideline of it being better to be a smartass, than a dumbass, and a little bit of stubbornness mixed in, I played anyway. Did well, running was no problem. Stopping hurt like a mofo though. Went home and showered for my date with The Hot Friend.
THF mosied on over and we hunkered down with some tasty cheese pizza and the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Good flick! And yes, we did manage to watch the whole thing, so pffffft! :O)
Saturday -
Ever volunteer for something, then later wished you had accidentally super glued your mouth shut they day you did? Yeah, same here. I said earlier in the week that I would help at the Open House for our brand new third building. I'd give tours and such. I did not consider at that point that A) It was four hours on a Saturday, B) Starting at 10 (be up by 9) and C) this would follow day day of massive physical exertion as well as D) breaking a foot during said exertion and E) having to tear myself away from a very cute bedbug. Yes, Bad Plan. Very, very bad. I mad it through though and promptly headed home and passed rightthefuckout. Yes, that quickly. I did manage to come away from the thing with two pumpkins and a bunch of other fun fall stuff though.
Got up and headed to the meeting point for a per-party and then a beer loaded party bus trip around The Cities. Ironically enough the first stop on the Bus Trip, was a bar about 10 blocks from my Condo. I drove 20 some minutes to be brought back to my neighborhood. heh. Anyway we hit a couple more bars and had a very good liquor filled evening even if everyone but three of us passed out promptly on arriving back at the meeting point.
Sunday -
Got up and called The Hot Friend since we had talked about carving the earlier mentioned pumpkins. We made plans for later in the afternoon so I watch some football. It was nice to see the Vikings get humiliated yet again and unfortunate to see Favre and his practice team that is the Packers come up short yet again. Oh well
Hopped on over to THF's and we chit chatted right through lunch, but she did eventually manage to whip up some super yummy chili. G-Spot had a carvable punkin' on hand so she joined us for the orange slaughter.
We decided the seeds could not be put to waste considering their potential for tastiness so we baked them up. We got creative and decided to make them extra nummy with the following combos:
-Salt and Olive oil
-Salt olive Oil and light Cayenne Pepper
-Cinnamon Sugar
-Salt and Curry
-Mixed Herb with Garlic
-Wasabi
They all turned out very tastily with the exception of the wasabi ones. Baked Wasabi pumpkin seeds apparently equals dark brown ickyness. You've been warned.
The final result of the pumpkin mayhem (click to enlarge):
Mine's the one with the tongue sticking out. ;O)
After the carving we hung out and chatted for a while. I earned some bonus points apparently by bonding not only with Cute Puppy, but also with Cute Puppy Next Door. We made it a fairly early night in order to adjust to the time change and get a good night sleep. And thus ended the weekend. Definitely a good one though!
Ok, I'm out for now, check in tomorrow when I ponder why many companies are like bad boyfriends!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 1:34 PM,
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Wednesday Wist
Wednesday, October 26, 2005As is standard practice in the blog world, people take ideas from other people and keep using them over and over, and putting their own flair on it. Such is the case here with the Wednesday Wist. I copied the idea from Amy, she most likely stole it from elsewhere. New ideas are hard to find in the blogosphere, be long live the good ones!
Anyway, onto the Wist.
So how do you participate in Wednesday Wist? You take whatever music player you use. Put it on shuffle. Grab the first 5 songs and write what that song makes you remember. If it's a new song...and you can't relate it to a memory....do you like it? Leave a comment if you do it on your site and if you don't have a site, comment what you would leave if you did have one. Oh...and feel free to comment about my songs as well!!!
1. Five for Fighting - Superman:
This song makes me think of lots of things. Basically it makes me think of everytime I was in a situation where I felt I was doing everything I could do and it just didn't seem to be enough. The biggest of the time it makes me think of is the part right up to the time I ended up getting suspended from College. I hadn't learned yet how to deal with the ADD and things were spinning out of control. Seemed like the harder I tried to fix things the worse they got. Ended up getting incredibly sick with sinus, ear, throat and bronchial infections at the same time.
2. Weird Al Yankovich - Star Wars (The Saga Begins):
In the tune of American Pie, this song is great:
"Oh my, my, this here Aniekan guy,
May be Vader sometime later, now he's just a small fry.
Now he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye,
Sayin' soon I'm gonna be a Jedi,
Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi..."
this one makes me think of getting to see Star Wars - Episode I the midnight before the midnight that everyone else got to see it.
3. The White Stripes - We're Going to Be Friends:
This one reminds me of Orientation Girl. When we met we got along instantly and I'm fairly sure we both knew we were going to be friends.
"We sit side by side in every class.."
Yeah, that was us. We did indeed schedule all of our classes together and then proceeded to pass a notebook back and forth instead of paying full attention. Ah yeah, we had fun.
4. Extreme - More Than Words:
I don't really get a memory with this one, but I definitely do agree with the song. Word are words, they're nice, it's easy to say something you don't mean. Love is most definitely more than just saying it.
5. Roxette - Listen to Your Heart:
Apparently it's "Relationship and life Advice Day" on My MP3 player. Well, except for the Weird Al. That was just fun. Unless The Force is real and that really did happen in a long time ago in a place far far away...? Ok so who doesn't need this advice? You should always listen to it, though I'm not so sure you should always trust it. Who can't take this and apply it to at least one relationship in their life?
Anyway, there you go, the Wednesday Wist is toast. And in case you're wondering, #6 is now Bobby Brown's "My Perogative." hehe.
Later peoples!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 9:01 AM,
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Gotta Love Fun Weekends!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005Ahh yes, nice fun filled weekends. Gotta love em!
Friday -
The weekend started out with a nice relaxing evening seeing the Minnesota Orchestra in downtown Mini-Apple. Yes, indeed, this Slacker is not just another internet geek, he actually does have some culture. After G-Spot bailed on me I had to call around and eventually got Conservative Girl to come with.
It was a good performance. The opener was a short opus by someone I hadn't really heard of, but it was nice and spunky. The first of the two main pieces was Sibelius' 4th Symphony. The conductor (Osmo Vanska) himself said it was more demanding of the audience because it wasn't written with the audience in mind. Moreso, it was a very internal piece written to express the turmoil in his life. I actually found this to be very entertaining.
Maybe it's the ADD, but I love the complex classical pieces. Most people like the more standard classics where there is one underlying melody played my many voices. On the contrary, I love having multiple melodies from the different sections. I love being able to be absorbed and hear the sometimes three or four sides to the same musical story. When I got to sleep I sing songs in two or three part round to quiet the various channels of my brain, so having them all active for a musical piece if amazing.
The second and final piece was Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Definitely a very very good, standard in classical music. Not nearly as complex as the Sebelius piece, but a very good tune to spend 42 minutes on. That might seem like a long time, but it did fly by. It wasn't as complex, but it still was good.
Lotus Girl called me at like 1:20am, and invited me out with her friends for an afterbar, but then didn't call me back till almost 3 to tell me where to go. That got a little late and the will to party had dwindled.
Saturday -
I cleaned like crazy during the day, I decided it was about time Slacker Central looked good. While yes, this may have been borderline productive, I did make sure to counter that with a night full of partying.
We had our Kickball Mid-Season Party and definitely had a good time. We had a $400 bar tab and we definitely made use of it. Several of us showed up right away and started strong, I even smuggled in some jello shots! We played mass amounts of flip-cup until everyone started to get too social then just drank till they kicked up out. After that we went over to Belsky's place and partied there till about 4am.
Sunday -
Now this, which started out with a crappy hangover, turned out to be a Fantabulous day.
The plan was to have people over for a Packers-Vikings football game party. I invited work and kickball people as well as G-Spot, Hot Friend and a few other people. In all 7 people showed, but it was still good despite the fact my Packers lost.
A friend of mine from college, Indy, who I hadn't seen in nearly a year showed up with his fiancee but left at half time. Calvin, Matt from work showed and Matt brought his buddy Alan. Just after the game Hot Friend showed with her Cute Puppy (They're both redheads, how cute is that?) and a couple minutes later Lotus Girl showed as well. We all hung out and watched some TV and played some video games for a while.
About 5ish Lotus Girl headed out and about 6 the boys headed out leaving me and Hot Friend and the puppy. We decided a movie sounded like a good plan and after some chatting here and there we decided on Ocean's 12. The movie was very very good. Especially the last two thirds which we actually watched the second time through.
The roomie came home and we all hung out chatting here and there until it got to be Hot Friend's bedtime. We chatted a bit, and then she and Cute Puppy headed out. I chatted with the roomie, watched the new West Wing I had DVRed earlier and then called it a night.
Yes, indeed, Fantabulous I say.
So that's the weekend. Monday was insane at work. Gotta hate the whole revision of a revision of a revision thing. All those things were wrong with the FIRST print, would it be hard to ask for ALL of the changes at the same time? Anyway, Conservative girl went to this cooking class thing and ended up with way to much food for just herself (like 5 different multi-person meals), so, being a good friend, I volunteered to eat it. I'm telling ya, she had to twist my arm.
The bad day at work did have one major highlight: A date with Hot Friend! So far the plan is dinner, but no matter what it should be fun!
**EDIT - The Date has been postponed, apprently she has a fever and get dizzy when she walks. I offered Chicken Soup, but she's queasy too. Hopefully she feels better! :O( **
Hope you are all having a great week! Keep up the good slacking!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 1:15 PM,
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Slacker Week - The Slacking Ethos
Friday, October 21, 2005Since I began the Daily Slacker, one question has come up time and time again: "How can it be slacking if (a) you're posting all the time (b) I have to comment?" So, I believe it's about time to post about the true Daily Slacker Ethos of Slacking.
Believe it or not, slacking is a lot more than doing nothing. Doing nothing is rarely just that and almost always entails some activity. It may be veging out on the couch flipping channels, surfing the web and reading blogs or maybe just sitting under a tree watching squirrels attack innocent bystanders because they're vicious like that.
To be slacking, you simply have to be doing something unproductive and usually that is also keeping you from doing some other task you should be doing. Some people will try to claim that writing blog posts and commenting in them is being productive. Hog. Wash. Ninety-nine percent of blogs out there are wholely un productive. Try as they may, anyone not making a living wage from writing a blog trying to argue otherwise ends up with someone telling them, well, this.
I make no claims to productivity in this blog. In fact, the goal of this blog is to lower the productivity of the world, one reader at a time. We're all going to be replaced my robots one day anyway, may as well prepare the world for it. What else are you going to do while sitting at home while C3-P0 does your old job?
Now, a true slacker will be sure to delay as long as possible before returning to the land of productivity. What this translates to in the blogosphere is spending as much time as you can at each blog. Sure, you can blow through 162 blog entries on 84 blogs, but if you were to comment on each of those posts, you would spend almost twice the amount of time avoiding your TPS reports.
Yes, in order to comment you may actually have to exert some effort in order to type, but that's why they make dictation software. You speak, it types, total laziness. They're even working on eye tracking devices so you don't even have to move the mouse, it'll be like slacker nirvana!
So there you have it, true slackers post and comment. After all, a true slacker is one who follows the International Bureau of Slacking motto: To Slack and Procrastinate. Keep up the slacking people!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 3:59 PM,
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Slacker Week - NewYorkness (Visual)
Thursday, October 20, 2005Hey all, the New York City pictures are up over on the Visual Edition. Stop by and check them out. And make sure to slack off for a while and read all the other items Slacker Week has to offer!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 5:03 PM,
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Slacker Week - Belated Wednesday Wist
**I started this yesterday, but due to a two hour meeting (It's hard to slack when you're sitting next to the project head) and then being whisked away to see the Minnesota Wild kick the crap out of the San Jose Sharks (Hockey, in California? HA!) and since I didn't finish it Amy is boycotting. It's up now, you can come back yah red headed Red Sox Bat Girl you.**
The Wednesday Wist:
So how do you participate in Wednesday Wist? You take your ipod, winamp, windows media player, mp3 player, itunes player..whatever you use. Put it on shuffle. Grab the first 5 songs and write what that song makes you remember. If it's a new song...and you can't relate it to a memory....do you like it? Leave me a comment if you do it on your site and if you don't have a site, comment what you would leave if you did have one. Oh...and feel free to comment about my songs as well!!!
1. Run Rabbit Run - Eminem
"..feel like I'm surrounded by a wall of bricks..."
This song is great for giving that continually pent up feeling. Who hasn't had that? It just builds and builds till the end then just goes off. Bottle it up then BANG. And love the bell at the end, kinda leaves that echoing hollow. There's always that silence after the pent up energy explodes... What next?
2. Battleflag - Low Fidelity All Stars
This song reminds me of freshm,an year in college, getting back from class and needing to blow off some steam. What's better than to get home and crank the crap out of some music and rock out.
Though "I say haleluiah, to the 16 loyal fans." reminds me of this blog now. It rocks to know there are people out that enjoy what I write out here enough to come visit almost daily and keep enjoying it! I'll try not to let ya'll down!
3. Insane in the Brain - Cypress Hill
This is total high school here. Going to the house parties here and there. Always amazed me how many friends would get to a party whip out the weed and be totally different people. Probably why not many of them stayed friends since I was never into that.
4. Past the Mission - Tori Amos & Trent Reznor
Oh, this right here is a total Girl I Though I Would Marry. This was her music before I liked it. The one and only person I've ever thought, pictured and considered marriage with. Last I heard she was getting married and was living in Pennsylvania or something. *sigh*
5. She Hates Me - Puddle of Mudd
"Went well for a week or two, then it all came unglued..."
Heh, there are three letters for who thing reminds me of: O.C.D. This is like the OCD/Anxiety Girl Anthem. It's one of those hate-like-hate relationships that just won't go away. Though lately the talking has dropped to maybe once a week. And she got a cat. Yup.
Ok, so there you go. The second weds post because the Thursday post. What's up for tomorrow? The Slacker Ethos. You all question why slacking means you have to comment? You find out that and more tomorrow! Make sure to stop back!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 2:38 PM,
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Slacker Week - Position Descriptions
Congrats again to the new additions it the International Bureau of Slacking!
For those of you hoping to become officers in the Bureau. I ahve created Job Descriptions for each of the positions: Deputy, Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Lieutenant Chief.
The descriptions can be found here: International Bureau of Slacking - Position Descriptions
Keep up the good slacking and I'll be back later with a real post!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 10:40 AM,
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Slacker Week - New Deputies & Comment Research
Wednesday, October 19, 2005I went back and realized it's been a good two months since I added to my ranks of deputies and some of you are definitely deserving. In order to figure out the most deserving, I went through and did a little research in my comments to see who's been slacking off well.
After my thorough investigation, I have decided on four new deputies. However, since two of these deputies will be in states where I already have deputies, I have decided to create NEW positions in the Bureau of Slacking.
The positions, in order of influence, will now be the following:
-Deputy Slacker
-Sergeant Slacker
-Lieutenant Slacker
-Lieutenant Chief Slacker
Ok, now on to the NEW hires!
The first of the new hires is from South Carolina, a state with two current Deputy Slackers, but since then have been light on the commenting she will be hired directly to the Sergeant position. Get those deputies in line! She came in third for the number of posts commented on, she's funny and she gets a bonus for being a redhead: Welcome Sergeant Kira!! Blog: Wyrd.
Next of the new hires hails from Michigan has been a mad commenter lately (rock on) and even managed to steal a couple of first comments from Pieces! Half of her state is basically a part of my home state, she helps keep me slacking via AIM, and she's cute; Welcome Deputy JlyBn123!! Blog: JlyBn's Daily Adventures
This next new hire has been hanging around the Daily for a while and has always been a good commenter. Lately she's stepped it up a bit and definitely deserves to be a deputy. She hails from Colorado, loves to bitch about work like me, and ya gotta love that cuteness and wit: Welcome Deputy Amber!! Blog: Absolutely no exaggeration or sarcasm HERE!
And the last but not least for the new hires is a relative newcomer to The Daily, but she's kept on commenting! She posts like crazy as well as the commenting, likes to agree with me, and rounds out the cute new quartet; Hailing from Georgia, welcome Deputy Anisa!! Blog: Access Anisa
Now since Anisa is from GA, combined with the fact that the current Deputy commented on 20 of the last 25 posts (almost DOUBLE that of second place) and is also a hottie (I'm liking this trend of cute girls commenting) I believe my current Deputy from GA deserves a promotion. Congratulations Sergeant Pieces!! Blog: Pieces of Me
Congrats to ALL the hew Hires and Promotions! I hope you all continue to slack and procrastinate to the best of your abilities! Get me you email and you'll have a badge on the way!
The rest of you step it up a little and you can be a Deputy too!
Past post research results (posts commented on out of 25):
Pieces: 20
OzzyC: 12
Kira: 11
JlyBn: 11
Amber: 10
Anisa: 10
Captain B: 10
Marie: 10
JadedPrimadonna: 8
Sunny: 7
Taylor: 5
Wolfgang62: 5
Carrie: 5
There were 43 more of you who commented between one and three times. Thanks for coming by and stop by more often! Again, congrats to all!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 1:26 PM,
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Slacker Week - Net and LD Dating
Tuesday, October 18, 2005To any of you just joining this blog in progress, welcome to Slacker Week!
As promised here is "Net and Distance Dating Pt.2 (The Real Story)."
About a week ago, I wrote a post talking about how technology, to me, seems to be slowly killing romance. As is typical with me and my easily sidetracked mind, it devolved into a rant about Chivalry, Love letters and other things. I'll try my best to keep more on track this time. Most of the comments seemed to focus on the email and also having long distance and/or online relationships. Since the commenting about the subject was very interesting I feel it really needs it's own post, so here one is. I'm going to take some of the stuff mentioned in your comments, and also fill you in more on my thoughts and feelings on Net and long distance relationships.
First off, I love and gladly embrace technology. I'm a nerd, I'll admit it. If you're reading this you've got some nerdyness to ya too. You are surfing the net and you are reading a blog. Like it or not you're partly nerd. Technology has done wonderful things with the world. Communication, even around the globe, is incredibly easy now. We're living long enough now that we're not all that worried about doing things to shorten our lives (Anyone up for a couple Double Quarter Pounders and a Cigarette?). Technology can most definitely be wonderful.
That being said I think it also causes a couple major problems. One is since technology makes life easier, it also can make people lazier. Another is that it's easier to cheat and deceive people. Both of those can combine to completely dilute relationships.
To me, the difference between an online ("Net") relationship (this can include being mostly over the phone too) and a long distance ("LD") one is the footing of said relationship. In an LD relationship, the couple involved have a firm footing in person. They've spent a good deal of time together know the other person well. In a net relationship, they have either not met in person, or only done so in infrequent, short (less than a week) periods of time.
I really do believe that if you have that strong personal foundation an LD relationship can work. Technology can be a good thing in those relationships and help make things work. Net relationships, however, are where the problems I mentioned earlier come in. Laziness and deception can easily sneak in and hurt net relationship without ever knowing.
Email, text messaging, instant messaging and posting online can be great for quick notes. The problem with quick notes though is that they're rarely well thought out. That leaves a huge door open to misinterpretation and miscommunication. Anyone who has instant messaged much I'm sure has had that problem. Even something well thought out can be misunderstood without the proper context. They're just nowhere near as good a form of communication as speaking in person or on the phone. Even a handwritten letter and provide more personality and context that might not be seen in the others. I just have to say again that stuff like "I Luv U" and "wat u up 2?" BAD!!! Orwell may have been a little off with the date in "1984" but when I see writing like that it's all I can think of. It's Double Plus Ungood.
The bigger problem with mostly or fully online relationships is how incredibly easy it is to deceive. The deception can be one person to another, but more often I think it's each person to themself. Everyone's heard stories of of a person claiming to be some athletic hottie, but then turning out to Jabba the Hut. People can lie about themself and their feelings, they can do that in person too, but it makes it way easier online. Even if that doesn't occur, at least one of the people in the relationship could very easily lying to themself.
Even with in-person relationships, there can be a heavy dose of self-deception. How many people have gotten married and later divorced after muttering "Once we're married he/She will change." When the relationship is online, there is less information with which you can make a good decision about the person. In time you can find more and more out about the person, but at best, I think you can never really be in love with the person only the personality. Anyone who says they're in love with someone they have never really been around, is just fooling themself. There's so much to a person that doesn't come out by talking. I don't care how many emoticons someone uses, that's nothing compared to a little body language. And who hasn't dated someone who had some little personal habit that drove them insane?
That all being said this is obviously my own personal opinion, so let me give you some personal background. A whole lot of what was said above stems from one relationship I had that definitely had a healthy dose of both of the baddies listed above.
Years back, I used to work on a national collegiate online community. I helped maintain the site, did reviews, wrote articles and held chats. I also met this one girl. We chatted online a ton, and eventually on the phone a ton as well. I saw a lot of pictures and I really got to liking this girl and at the time probably would have said love. Even my parents chatted, talked with her and liked her. We sent her Christmas presents and she sent us presents. It was most definitely a relationship.
Eventually there was bad news, she had been diagnosed Leukemia. We still kept in contact online and on the phone. I talked with her mom here and there and my parents and I sent get well gifts. She went in and out of treatments and got better here and there. She eventually met someone else and of course I was upset. We did eventually get back to being friends, and in the meantime she had gotten a pretty big following in the Blog world talking about her treatments. One day I went to her blog and nothing was there but a flower and a note from her mother stating she had died due to complications with a treatment. Many people were upset and felt for her.
Many people were much more upset when they found out she wasn't real.
Her name? Kaycee Nicole Swenson. Yes, she even has her own Wikipedia entry. Make sure to read the second external link to Snopes.com. This thing made it so far as to be posted on news sites in Brazil. Luckily since I was early on in the game, I didn't get pulled into the aftermath.
After some web-savvy types did some snooping, it turned out the person who was her "mom" was really her and made up the personality. Considering how much time she spent "being" Kaycee, it was an impressive act. The pictures were of a local high school basketball star and the stories were a compilation of things she had been around in her life. She duped me, but I also duped myself. I liked the personality, but personality doesn't make the person.
Do I think people can make it after starting a relationship online? Absolutely. Can people make it in a long distance relationship? Definitely! Would I take a chance on someone who lives a long way from me? Yeah! I would love to have the opportunity to meet Long Distance Girl and get to know the person behind the personality I like so much. With OG, I know the person already, it's just trying to get the chance.
Yeah, technology has made it easier to communicate, but are we truly communicating? Quick communication only gets us so far. I really think that in the world today, far too many people are in love with personalities, not in love with the person. Which one are you?
posted by Chief Slacker @ 1:43 PM,
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Slacker Week - Tuesday!
Hey all, the Extra Turtle pics I promised are up. So wander over to the Visual Edition and check the cute little guys out.
As for the Tuesday installemnts of Slacker Week:
-Pictures of the Cubicle De Slacker are now up and goin' over on the Visual Edition.
-The Post of the day will be up by 5:00pm CST.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 12:27 PM,
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Slacker Week - Weekend Update
Monday, October 17, 2005Hey all! Here's Monday's Slacker Week post for the Daily Slacker, and make sure to stop over to the Visual Edition to check out some NEW turtle pictures!
So yeah, onto the update!
I guess I really owe ya a whole week update, but I'll keep it short! I'd like to say I spent last week slacking and that's why I didn't post, but actually I had a ton of
work to do and then was busy from Thursday night on.
Bloggable Moment of the Week
The main blogworthy highlight from last week was managing to royally piss of my Idiot Boss, and then manage to get my way with him after he tried to yell at me. We have this monthly meeting, and each person in our department takes a turn "facilitating" the meeting. Every hates this meeting because it's always a waste of an hour and a half. We only go because there's usually food at it. Being the "facilitator" really means that you just follow the agenda Idiot Boss write, and then he dominated the meeting. I decided to protest that.
Instead of bringing the Agenda, I brought nothing. When Idiot Boss asked where it was I said "IB, there's nothing on the stuff you sent me that couldn't be covered by sending out an email. How about we have everyone here talk about stuff that matters?" He got all annoyed and the meeting went nowhere because it wasn't going his way. To make him happy I went and got his agendas, though I helped make sure that we plowed through the stuff as fast as possible. Hour and a half because 45 minutes.
He called me into his office later and confronted me on "My Horseshit Attitude." I let him blow off steam for a bit and once he got to the part about the agenda and he called it "My meeting" I laid into him. It wasn't "my meeting" if he's making the agenda, and running the meeting, so don't try and say it is. After telling him how much people hate the meeting and picking apart the problems I got him to agree that we needed to find a way to make the meeting useful.
He commented on my Attitude and said it seemed poor since a coworker got promoted before me. And I said yeah, because I have been annoyed about that. Not so much about the promotion, but the fact he told me the other guy got it because "He was a flight Risk from The Company." Did he mention whether he deserved it? Nope, just that he was looking to move on. Then the day before I got promoted, another quite undeserving employee got promoted too. I told him that the way he's been communicating and running things lately just about no one who works for him respects him. I think after a pummeled him for a bit, he really wished he hadn't opened that vent.
The outcome of the meeting? Me getting what I want: More control over some stuff in our department and more supervisory responsibilities. I am now going to be doing some of the training for the department. That Conflict to Collaboration class paid off!
Thursday -
Had kickball, we lost again. It would help if we could get people to show up consistently. Oh well, the afterbar had some decent flip-cup. Most people left fairly early though, so it was a quiet night. The dozen of us there managed to drain 61 bottles of beer though. Not bad.
Friday -
OKTOBERFEST!!!! Yes, it was that time of year again. Time to travel to the land of Gashtof's and take part in their Oktoberfest celebration. They have a huge tent (well, two this year) outside with live German music and of course, actual German beer!
I played some football after work like usual, then met up with G-Spot and her friend/ex IndiKenyan. We stopped off and ate some Chipotle then headed over to Gasthof's to meet up with G-Spot's Hot Friend with a Boy's Name and a friend of her's Jo. Had a couple half liters of Paulaner Oktoberfest and we all had a shot of German Appley Schnappsy goodness.
There had been some mild email flirting between Hot Friend and I during the week (What, you don't call the NASD the Nasty? hehe. All the finance geeks out there just giggled) we picked up well that night. After the tent closed Jo headed out and the rest of us decided to move down to the Keller Bar in the basement and dropped off the mugs we got in my car. HFWABN and I took them and it suddenly and extremely quickly went from flirting, to a peck, to mild tongue humping. Yup.
After a boot was shared by all (A three liter glass boot filled with beer, passed around with certain rules) we all made our way to the dance floor. Let's just say that some of the dancing that ensued with Hot Friend possibly may have been worth of a Minnesota Vikings Boat Cruise. Will it go anywhere? Who knows.
After the place shut down and kicked us all out, we headed over to The Dinkytowner for some breakfast and then I dropped each person off at home. Nice way to start a weekend I tell ya!
Saturday -
The Pub Crawl. Yeah. The title was "I've only slept with 9." The theme was "Yuppie." Dress as 80's yuppies and hit 9 bars in 6 hours. With our popped collars and sweater vests some friends from Kickball, other random people and I had a great time at the bars. We noticed later that it totally fit the Yuppie theme that the first 3 bars were all in the same Mall. heh. We ended up only making it to 8 of the nine but it was still good. The bars hit (And the drink Drunk) were:
1. 101 blu - A Martini bar (101 Martini - Stoli Vanil, Banana Schaaps, some juice)
2. The Independent - Another better Martini Bar (After Dinner Mint Martini - Stoli & Rumpleminze)
3. Figlio - Italian Bar/Restaraunt (Whiskey Diet, Scooby Snack Shot)
4. Chino Latino - A Latin/Carribean/Oriental bar/restaurant (Liquid Sin - whole bunchs stuff with passion fruit)
5. Old Chicago - American Bar/Restaurant (Whiskey Diet, The Anthony - Some shot the bartender made up)
6. Williams Pub - A Peanut Bar (Whiskey Diet)
7. Bar Abeleine - Tex Mex Magarita Bar/Restaurant (Cherry Bomb Margarita)
8. Drink - An American Bar (Whiskey Diet)
Yes, definitely a good night.
Sunday -
Suprisingly mild hangover, watched the Vikings get embarrassed again. Being a Green Bay Packer fan, that was thoroughly enjoyable. I also loved the fact that on my money FFL league I have LaDanian Tomlinson, and he managed to not only rush and receive for touchdowns, but also throw a TD pass. I vegetated, Conservative Girl came over and we watched Wag the Dog. Watched Bill Maher's show on HBO and had thought about how right Tom Wolfe was about how the "bases" of dating are nowhere near what they used to be.
And that was the weekend. So there, I think this HUGE ASS post should make up for not posting last week. Now time to move on to the REST of Slacker Week! Stop back often and tell everyone :O)
P.S. How is it that the Blogger dictionary has the word vegetated, but not blog or Blogger? Sillyness.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 4:29 PM,
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Who stole last week? Slacker Week Kickoff!
Holy crap! So it's been a whole week since I posted? I don't know what happened last week, but the whole thing went bye in one hell of a hurry. We'll call last week my Bye week like the football teams get and move in.
This week, we'll call it SLACKER WEEK! You know you want to take part! This is hereby the first official Slacker Week. Who knows when the next will be, but there will be more.
To make up for my lack of posting last week, I am going to post EVERY day this week. And as an added bonus, I will ALSO post every day on the Visual Edition!!!
This is a week you need to be telling your friends about, spread the word, massive amounts of slacking WILL occur this week. MASSIVE!
So here's the upcoming schedule as best I can figure today:
Monday:
DS: Update on the week/weekend
DSVE: Turtley Tandem (2x the mascots!)
Tuesday:
DS: Net and Distance Dating Pt.2 (The Real Story)
DSVE: Tour de Cubicle (Slackerland Miniature Edition)
Weds:
DS: New Deputy Announcements!
DSVE: NewYorkness (Pics of Slackers Trip to NYC)
Thurs:
DS: Belated Wednesday Wist
DSVE: Kittens on Parade (Everyone Loves Kute Kitty Pics.)
Fri:
DS: TBD
DSVE: Falling for you! (Fun Fall pics from the Twin Cities)
Ok, so there, gives you something to lok forward to, now run and tell everyone you know it's SLACKER WEEK! I'll be back soon with Monday's post.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 1:32 PM,
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Wow.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005So that last post turned out better than I thought. I was gonig to post a follow up today, but just replying to the comments took quite a while. Might carry it on tomorrow...? Anyway if you haven't comemnted, feel free to chime in! thanks to those who did!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 5:59 PM,
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Internet Killed the Loveletter.
Monday, October 10, 2005So lately I've been having a bit of a weird situation. I met this girl, we talked here and there and then at some point things really clicked and suddenly we're talking every day. It's rather crazy, weird, strange, confusing (all in good ways) and all that, but it's fun. I love talking with her, more than anyone I can remeber in a while. We talked on the phone and I could have kept talking for hours more than the over an hour conversation we had. She's beautiful on more than just the outside (and lemme tell ya the outside is good!). We did hit a little bit of a wall recently as reality starts setting in that we live nowhere near each other as well as other things. So now it's kinda in sort of a holding pattern to take a breather and see what's really there. But yeah, fun!
That's two good ones now that live 1200 miles away. First Orientation Girl (Who reads every day apparently, but is to WUSSY to comment!) and now there's the new Long Distance Cutie. Why can't I find a good one that lives NEAR me? And spare me the talk about how you made it work from 3000 miles away. To me, it's just too easy to make yourself believe you have something more than you do when you're not around each other much. Some people work like that, but up to present I haven't. Does that mean I won't? Does that mean the times I've tried it wasn't that good anyway? Who knows. Eh, something will work it's way out eventually.
Anyway, now that ADD brought two extra paragraphs out, on to the topic I meant to write about...
All this chatting and thinking lately has made me come to a conclusion: Technology is killing romance. There's an argument to be had that technology is hurting society as a whole, but I'll keep this topic more narrow. I'm sure some of you will disagree and say that romance is what you make it. True as that may be, I still think Technology is giving real romance a slow death.
Chivalry may not be dead, but it's gotta be on it's last breaths. Gone are the days of throwing down a cape so a lady can cross a puddle. Removing the hat and bowing has gone the way of the dodo. Even things like a kiss on the hand and moving a dining chair are the romantic equivalent of the Celicant. Yeah, some guys still open building and car doors, but even that is being killed by technology. More and more places have automatic doors and even cars are starting to have doors that open and close themselves. Nowadays a midnight serenade is more likely to get you blinded by the motion light and a date with Bubba in county jail than it is to nab the love of your life. **Edit - yeah, maybe these thigns aren't all directly affected by technology, but I think they're a side effect of people getting lazier due to technology.**
It doesn't end with Chivalry. Actually I think that's just the start. I just think back to early on in my dating life, and the one thing that sticks out was the love-letter. I remember starting to date someone and if you didn't get to see your crush in school and have the delivered through friends you mailed it. Remember the excitement of opening that envelope to see what was inside? A little perfume added to it, or maybe a pressed flower. Don't even try and tell me you get the same feeling opening email. I really don't even wanna get start on the travesty of language that is shorthand texting. "I Luv U!" It's... That's... NO! BAD!
Email killed the loveletter, chatting and texting killed the romantic phone call, even with good care in using the off button, it's inevitable that the cell phone is going break up a romantic dinner here and there. Sure, the web opened the door to meet more people and maybe find the love of you life you wouldn't have met otherwise, but at what cost?
Maybe it's not that bad, but slowly things are being picked off. I don't see it getting any better though. It'll just be Chinese water torture until romance becomes some unrecognizable technomance. Maybe we should just blame it on MTV, as the Buggles pointed out "Video killed the radio star." Maybe that was just the beginning of the end?
posted by Chief Slacker @ 2:34 PM,
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The Tag
Friday, October 07, 2005Ok Ok, Carrie tagged me with this random thing a while back, and while I'm quite sure there's a circle of hell reserved to people who send chain mail and the like (Including Tag, Memes etc.) I'll actually do this one. It helps that I have nothing better to do or to write about. Well I do want to track down the blog where I read about the SNL Jeopardy skits so I could get that link and watch them. Any help with that would be appreciated.
Anyway yeah, on to the Evil Tag thingy.
The Rules:
- 1. Go into your archive.
- 2. Find your 23rd post.
- 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
- 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
- 5. Tag five other people to do the same.
1. It has been entered.
2. It has been found. My 23rd post was: Who Needs a Novel?
3. This causes a Problem though: There are only four sentences in the whole post.
4. Since it says or closest to, here is the text:
"Anyone know how to get that wordcount data to show up on my profile?"
That question still has yet to be answered. I've seen it on some people's profiles. Say how many posts they've written and words and all of that. Mine just tells me how many times my profile was viewed. Oh well.
5. Time to spread the evil Virus. Thus, I tag these poor buggers:
- Diana - Pieces of Me
- Amy - Rex Sox Bat Girl
- Kira - Wyrd
- OzzyC - OzzyC
- JlyBn123 - JlyBn's Daily Adventures
Ok, that now concludes this chapter of evil. Carry on.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 11:53 AM,
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Pretty Colors Day 2
Thursday, October 06, 2005Gotta love a two day storm, go to bed with the thunder rumbling and wake up to the same! The storm just kept rolling right through the night.
Here's radar for day two:
More fun thunder, more fun lightning, And of course some more rain. Apparently we more than doubled the previous record for rainfall in a day. And, actually, I heard some areas around here broke their records for the whole month of October. In TWO days. Heh.
Anyway all of this comes with a price though, a cold one. The lovely storm was caused by a big fatty cold front. Yesterday's high was 72. Today's high: 45. Welcome to fall!
A little cool fall weather is good, it was also a nice kickoff to Hockey Season here in the cities. The Wild won their first game, let hope that's a sign of good things to come!
Anyway, I have Kickball tonight, See how things go with Blondie from the other team and with Lotus Girl from mine. Wish me luck!
posted by Chief Slacker @ 9:26 AM,
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Pretty Colors!
Wednesday, October 05, 2005I love storms. Bring the Rain, Bring the Thunder, Bring the lightning, don't hurt anyone, and I'm totally happy.
Check out the beautiful radar from all of yesterday. Aren't the colors puuuurty?
(Click to see the whole day's radar all big 'n stuff)
It basically stormed on and off all day. Luckily the weather was nice enough to chill out long enough for me to drive home. It went all day yesterday and it's still going today, thunder and all. That's one heck of a storm.
Gotta love storms though. Such a beautiful part of nature. Mother nature telling the rest of us "You think you good? I'm still the shit." Crazy to think a little air moving around can turn into something that awesome.
The sound of thunder is one of my favorite sounds. The low rumble echoing through everything. You can just feel it. You can feel the beat of the thunder, The patter of the rain and the electricity in the air with all the lightning flashes. I love fireworks and Mother nature puts on some of the best of them.
I'll go out in my car and drive down by one of the lakes to sit and watch the storm roll through. I even own a CD of a big thunderstorm rolling through the Great Smoky Mountains. I swear, depending on the situation, thunderstorms can be nature's best aphrodisiac or nature's lullaby.
Yep, storms rule! Gotta Love em.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 9:26 AM,
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1153 Miles and The Weekend.
Monday, October 03, 20051153 Miles:
Thanks for your words of encouragement on the earlier post about Orientation Girl. However, I think there's one big detail you missed: 1153 Miles. That's the distance from where I Live, to where she lives. Grand Junction, Colorado, is damn near the western edge of CO and that 1153 miles makes for a 17 hour drive. While going through the mountains may be pretty, I'd have to drive through Iowa AND Nebraska to get there. No offense to Iowans or Nebraskans, but those states, like all the plains states, are B-O-R-I-N-G to drive through. Even if she moves to Denver, that only lops off about 200 miles and about 4 hours. The chances of us living anywhere near each other in the near future is pretty slim, so that makes much of anything pretty hard.
In defense of myself, I have made attempts to push things along before. If OG ever pops on here she could vouch for that. She's a tough nut to crack, but I have tried.
Anyway, just wanted to add that since several people left comments about the whole thing.
As side note on the female situation here in Slackerland, The Out of Leaguer stopped by the blog and left a comment, and I still do have plans to go out with Lotus Girl sometime this week before kickball, so we'll see how that goes.
The Weekend:
It was a simple, yet nice weekend. Friday I went out with G-Spot and some other people to Oktoberfest and had some nummy German beer. Gotta love the authentic stuff. We just chilled out and chatted, a nice relaxing evening.
The rest of the weekend I spent driving and visiting my friend D up in Bemidji, MN. I'm convinced that name was made by someone shivering while they were trying to say something else, and it just stuck. Bemidji is about 200 miles NORTH of the Twin Cities area. It's up there. I joked to D: "So have you made the drive to Canada yet? It's what? 6 blocks?" hehe.
Anyway, we chilled on Saturday and played some Playstation before hitting the local bar. Apparently it was a good night to be at that bar. Typically like most small bars, the population is usually about 2-1 guy/girl. Saturday there was a big bachelorette party and a lot of other ladies there. Unfortunately D is the shy type and not a very good wingman.
Flirted with this one girl for w bit before we mosied on over to another bar. After we were at the new place (which was freakin packed by the way) the same girl and her fiend showed up. Flirted with her a bit more. I'm fairly certain depending on the friend (Depends if she was playing babysitter, or helpful friend) that this could have gone somewhere, but I let it go. After D (Who also used to live with Big Mike) and had spent all day talking about how Big Mike is man whoring right now and also since I was a guest at D's place, I decided it would just be rude to hook up when he's still working on meeting people there. The nice guy won out because I didn't want to make a nicer guy feel crappy.
Anyway, we golfed on Sunday. I managed to get my score on 9 holes down to 60. Still pretty bad, but slowly improving. Chilled and watched some football, then I headed home.
A nice weekend, a lot of driving, but nice anyway.
So that brings us to today. I'll have to call Lotus Girl later tonight and see when she wants to get together. That and watch the Pack hopefully get a win against those little kitties on Monday Night Football. Yup.
See ya'll.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 9:16 AM,
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