Are you sure this isn't Monday?

Sometimes I get tired of complaining about work. I've heard of people who won the lottery, but continued working at their jobs every day because they liked it so first much.

1. First - what a waste of lottery money.
2. Second - why can't I have a job like that? Do you suppose it's their job or their attitude that makes the difference. My attitude stinks, but, honest, it's not my fault.
3. Third - why can't people at work just be (1) nice, (2) professional, and (3) helpful? I don't expect much more than that. Except not be stupid. That's seems to be really hard for a lot of people. I'm really tired of stupid. It's hard enough for me to tolerate when it's me being stupid.

Everyone has the right to be stupid. ... anon

r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-i-p

When I got in the car today at Target's, I thought I heard my pants rip along the seat seam. Then I realized that because it is very cold in Indiana today I was wearing my heavy winter coat, the one that zips AND closes with velcro closures. It was the velcro parting not my pants!

That's a funny feeling when you think you've split your pants.

I hate cold weather.

Don't take it personally

I was really busy the past week. The only way I got anything posted here at all was because I had written several drafts last weekend so all I had to do was publish them.

I have an excuse for being busy. One of our co-workers walked away from his job without telling anybody. By the time management realized he wasn't coming back, his work had piled up and an important deadline was looming. By working 10 - 12 hours a day, I got the job done.

I don't know why he felt he had to leave that way. We have a small unit of less than 10 people and most of us have worked together several years. When he didn't show up for work, I was worried that something had happened to him. Like many young men he has a penchant for speed and reckless behavior. I was afraid he was laying in a hospital somewhere thinking his co-workers didn't care. When I found out his arms weren't broke and there was no discernable reason why he couldn't call or send an email to at least one of us, I was mad.

But I don't have a right to be mad about that. Afterall, we weren't friends, we were just co-workers. Just people who were forced to know each other by mere chance.

Then why do I feel I failed him somehow? I'll never know the whole story, but I heard he plans to follow his dream so I wish him well.

This one's for you, Dumas.

Mein bratwurst has a first name, it's F-R-I-T-Z

Mein bratwurst has a second name,

it's S-C-H-N-A-C-K-E-N-P-F-E-F-F-E-R-H-A-U-S-E-N.

(Rainer Wolfcastle, The Simpsons)

TV Critic - day 4

(Boy, I really know how to get my money's worth out of a topic, don't I?)

Big Day

The Big Day show is kind of funny. Probably funnier than it ought to be. Maybe not as funny as it could be. One fellow critic described it as "intermittently amusing" another as "a laugh-free comedy".

The entire season takes place during one day, the wedding day of Danny and Alice (or maybe it's Alyce).

The characters are "zany".

The wedding planner has a perpetual silly smile plastered on her face - except when she's frowning because something has gone wrong. Like when the father of the bride finds the real invoices for the wedding, not the fake one that the mother of the bride has been feeding him.

The groom, Danny, is a perpetual camp counselor. A nice guy, but not possessed with either a brilliant mind nor an outstanding personality.

The bride, Alice/Alyce, is young, sweet, and pretty. A typical bride except she seems to take everything in stride until she decides to elope with the groom. The bride and groom go together like weddings and cakes.

The groom's friends include (1) a jerk who has the hots for the bride's sister. (2) a guy who has the hots for the bride, and (3) a guy who has the hots for the groom.

The groom's father is an old hippie.

The bride's sister perpetually wears a long knit scarf around her neck. I think it's suppose to be a fashion statement, but I'm waiting for somebody to strangle her with it.

The bride's father is a well-heeled doctor who's purpose in the show is to annoy his wife, dislike his future son-in-law, and get in the way of the wedding planner.

The mother of the bride gets high just before the wedding and plasters chocolate hand prints (from the chocolate fountain) all over the tent, obsesses about every little detail, and ignores the bride. One weird scene shows the wedding planner picking chocolate out of the stoned mother-of-the-bride's teeth with a straw.

It's probably a good thing that the Big Day only lasts one day. I can't see this show making it to a second season. So catch it while you can - Tuesday at 8:00 on ABC.

TV - Critic Day 3

Some recent surprises on the Television Screen.

That made me think of "the big screen" (aka movies) vs what "the little screen"? I don't think I've ever heard it called that. That led me to remember the piece on an electronics convention I caught on some show Sunday morning. They displayed a 108" television screen. That's almost as big as some movie screens in those little movie theaters in little malls, don't you think?

Back to topic.

The Knights of Prosperity is kind of funny. I thought it would be a really stupid show, which it is, but in a funny way. It's about an odd assortment of blue-collar workers who want their share of the American dream. You can't get live the dream without money so they create a "criminal organization" for the sole purpose of robbing Mick Jagger's New York apartment. Eugene, the leader, fancies himself a modern Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Mick's rich. They're poor.

While these wantabe criminals are odd, they aren't quite that odd. At least not yet. (An aside: I'm not a fan of characters who are too stupid, too annoying, too absurdly anything, etc. That's just distracting and not amusing to me.)

There is some typical sit-com type casting that doesn't show too much creativity, but it doesn't seem as obvious in this show. It's a little politically incorrect if you know what I mean, but I think it's intentional (though I might be giving the show too much credit on that one).

The show has a quirky kind of humor that not every one can appreciate and, therefore, may not last past the first 1/2 season. For example, the leader had t-shirts made up for everybody that say "The Knights of Prosperity". For another example, to distract the doorman at Mick Jagger's appartment house, one of the Knights runs up to him (from half a block away) and says,"Hey, man, can you help me find my contact?" then falls to his knees and begins searching the sidewalk.

This show airs on Wednesday nights at 9:00. Watch it if you're in the mood for something different and - a bit of type-casting: eat a pizza and drink a beer to create the right ambiance.

The TV Critic - day 2

Have you seen the new version of the Apprentice? It's now set in LA (A classic jump the shark move) and has some of the stupidest changes ever seen on televsion. What were they thinking: The losing contestents have to live in tents for a week. They don't change project managers on the winning team. Next week the winning team doesn't even have to participate in the stunt. That's going to give them a distinct advantage, don't you think? There had better be some kind of twist to that or it's just plain stupid.

And the Donald and Rosie and Barbara feud? Just grow up already. It reeks of a pathetic publicity stunt to promote The Apprentice and The View starring Rosie O'Donnell

Talk about jumping the shark - Barbara, what were you thinking when you hired Rosie to be the hostess of The View? Not that I care one way or another - I don't like listening to three self-importent and one why-is-she-even-there/who-is-she women.

The TV Critic

- this and that about the state of televsion in January 2007

Is it just me or is this the worst television season ever?

Back when I was young (Yes, thank you, we did have television then!), the season lasted from September to May now it seems to last from about September 15 to November 15 and January 7 to March 1, with re-runs in-between.

So the second schedule has started for some shows, but not others. Now mind you I'm too cheap to pay for cable so the number of shows I can view are somewhat limited, but still I can get around 10 stations (depending on the direction the wind is blowing.) But still there are days and nights when there is nothing on worth watching.

The station where I watch westerns replaced Gunsmoke with Bonanza just at a different time slot. They had been advertising the change for over a month, saying it was coming in January and it happened January 1st. Unlike shows on major networks which were coming in January and still haven't started.

It's only been two weeks since Bonanza started back up and already one of the Cartwright boys has fallen in love with somebody they couldn't marry because she was dying. Death was a plight that befell every poor girl that fell in love with Adam, Hoss, or Little Joe. That started with the father, Ben. He was married to 3 different women and they all died before the show hit the airwaves.

I have seen some shows like that - you know, they should have died before they hit the airwaves.

Oh, goodie

Read that as sarcastically as possible.

According to Jonathan Cainer my horror-scope for this week is bleak.

That's it! You are stuck, scuppered, stuffed and stranded. There is no hope. I officially resign as your astrologer because I can see nothing bright on your horizon. No, no, no, no. Not REALLY. Of course it is not that bad. As a matter of fact, it is not even a bit bad. I just thought I would begin the week by painting a negative picture. That will make the positive picture look even brighter by comparison. You can change a great deal about what you now dislike. All it takes is courage.

Regading "That will make the positive picture look even brighter by comparison." Sounds like it's kind of like how it feels good getting smacked repeatedly up side the head because it feels so good when it stops.

Damsel in Distress

I don't know what to write. My mind is empty.

It has been a traumatic week.
A week where nothing really went wrong, but nothing really went right.

You know.
The kind of week where just getting out of bed is a chore.
The kind where there doesn't seem to be enough chocolate in the whole world.
The sun is shining over there - but you're over here.

Oh, well,
There's always tomorrow.
There's an 80% chance of rain tomorrow.

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday. The week is half over. If you planned on getting something done this week, you'd better get off your duff and do it. I'm just saying. No pressure. Just because somebody built a sandcastle doesn't mean that's your dream.

Nice Day for Ducks

Yesterday, I tried to blog about the rain, but my computer shut down just as I was about to finish so I lost it. I need to buy a new computer, but the rain and gloomy weather have me depressed and filled with ennui so I can't seem to find the ambition to do anything. Even a task as simple as dialing the phone seems overwhelming.

Anyway, while I was looking for a picture to accompany my "rain whine", I found a site called The Duck Pond. Lara, the owner of the Duck Pond, also owns 409 rubber duckies. Here are examples of her ducks:

Sometimes one goes through life so uninformed.

I never knew there were so many different types and designs of rubber duckies and I wasn't aware that so many people collect them. (Actually, I didn't know that anybody collected them. I should have know though because just about everything is collected by at least one person.)

If you want to start your own collection:

You need to visit Rubba Ducks. They claim they'll have a duck to fit any personality. That's probably true because some of their ducks are really weird.

You'll want to visit Duck Planet. A website just for rubber duck collector. They held their 4th annual Duck Fest in Illinois last year.

Don't know where to start? Jodie Davis wrote a book about her rubber duckie collection called Rubber Duckie.

Don't go quackers with your collection though. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest duckie collection in the world floats over 2,500 rubber ducks.

And to think I almost never knew.

Rubber Ducky, you're the one,

You make bathtime lots of fun,

Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you;

...... Sesame Street (Sung by Ernie)

The Same Old News . . .

Just different fish.

I heard something disturbing on the radio this morning. A recent poll showed that more people are dissatisfied with their jobs, more are looking to make a change in the new year, and more are fearful of losing their jobs.

That echos the sentiments I've been hearing from across the country. For example, I got a letter today from a nurse in North Carolina who mentioned she is looking for another line of work, a co-worker who recently quit, another one who has a stress related illness, several who are worried that they are losing their contract, and a manager who is driving them all crazy.

And so it goes........

Happy New Year!

May God grant you and yours many blessings in the new year.
May you have a sense of peace in your heart and home.
May you meet each day with honor, dignity, and grace.
May you be showered with love in abundance, both in giving and in receiving.