Procrastination!

We all do it at one time or another and I am no exception.

HOWEVER.....
I have little or no patience with people who procrastinate when others are waiting on them - especially at work!

It is inconsiderate in the extreme to sit on projects for days - even weeks - knowing that once your part in the process is done someone else will have to work on the next step(s) while facing an ever looming and unadjustable deadline.

I don't care if you are the GD King of the Universe, your selfish - me, me, me - attitude makes you the King of A_holes too! Some of us have jobs to do and they are more important than you catching up on your social life instead of completing what you are getting paid to complete in a reasonable time frame.

Yes, there are delays when data or resources are not available ( I am experiencing that right now thanks to the person inspiring this tirade), and even personal emergencies intervene. But YouTube and company gossip can damn well wait till you supply what I need to my work.

I can honestly say that my own instances of procrastination rarely impact anyone except myself and my own comfort. I wish those I have to deal with daily could say that!

What was I thinking?!?!

Or could this even be called thinking?

In a moment of unrecognized insanity or stupidity (still not sure which yet) I made a purchase on the net whose arrival was met with serious angst. But having paid good money that is not available in abundance, I decided to put the merchandise to use in a personal "grand experiment".

I purchased customized license plate holders. Nothing too odd about that. Its even less vain and less expensive than personalized license plates. One of them is fine. "MTSG" with "Taln's M6" is pretty tame. For those of you who might actually want those explained, MTSG are my initials and M6 is for my 6th Mazda.
You snoring yet?

The other plate, however, which should have had this blog's address, has my personal email address on it! Eeeek! Spam alert! Death threats from road ragers here we come! And worse - it was MY mistake, not the vendor's.

To reduce the glut of harrassment publicizing this information on a vehicle I trek through traffic in daily could incite, I have at least put it on the front bumper. I really don't want email from every tailgater in Texas! Let's see who is so determine to contact me that they can read a mirror image behind them while doing 70mph down the highway. I am sure someone will manage.

Cartoon Character Flashbacks

Though my childhood memories are filled with mostly with being outdoors, or at least active, its amazing how quickly an odd turn of phrase can bring vision to mind that I can only explain has having watched many strange cartoons as a child.

My generation was not doled out the pretty pabulum that seems to be children’s entertainment today, unless they are allowed access to the other extreme – violence and gore laden video games.

We did not have pretty pastel colored ponies and fluffy, pudgy, purple dinosaurs. Warner Bros. gave us roosters, coyotes, rabbits (hares, not cute bunnies) and my all time favorite – skunks. Disney gave us a goofy looking hound, dour ducks, mice and many humans that were fairly attractive villains (evil without the CSI level crime scene). I also remember the drunk mouse who had a singing electric razor for a pal (what a way to calm little boy’s fears of their first buzz cut!), a moronic but comical vulture and the owlet who became the crooner of swing dance against his family’s instance on opera. It seems a few studios, like Pixar, have attempted to continue the tradition of dancing and singing bugs and other amusingly distorted real world entities in order to bridge the chasm between sickeningly sweet cuteness and nightmare inducing horror.

But what got me pondering all this was not another session in front of a TV, which I apparently did more often than I realized, but a visit to my office by the maintenance crew.

They were on a pest control mission to rid of us some uninvited, non-musical ants. During the discussion it was mentioned that another office was experiencing “German roaches”. Now aside from never having bothered to learn the nationalities of said species of vermin, I really didn’t pay much attention to the comment until colleague asked what are German cockroaches. I chimed in with “They are the noisy ones in the corner going for the beer and bratwurst.” My quip may have been on the pitiful side of witty, but the vision in my head was straight out of a 1960’s black and white cartoon. It may be a good thing for my office that my drawing skills are even worse than my jokes.

Damen und Herren, presenting the Deutschen Shaben! The lights go up and the band starts as a line of cockroaches standing up on their hind legs, wearing lederhosen, and each carrying a stein of beer, dance their way onto the stage in a multi-legged version of a Rockette’s line.

And they say video games are corrupting the younger generations?!?!?!
I think I need one of those beers instead of my morning coffee!

More money than brains!

That's my usual explanation for bad drivers. This afternoon at lunch it was really true.

On my way to get my car out of the repair shop I am flying low on an interstate highway with traffic all around. Passenger cars, 18-wheelers, delivery trucks, SUVs - all kinds. Suddenly brake lights are everywhere and quickly I find myself fast approaching a rather bright and shiney new Hummer3 ..... STRADDLING two lanes and slowing down even more! As I pray no one behind me tries to turn me into the filling of a vehicular sandwich, I see a small dog in the window of the driver's side of the H3. Finally the problem child decides on a lane and as I speed past for my own safety I can't help but shout a few obsenities - even if only to vent my own consternation.

This idiot woman had a chihuahua on her shoulder AND was talking on her hand-held cell phone while driving! Or maybe she was only listening while holding the phone for the damned dog to take the call; I really couldn't tell.

I really think auto dealers should be required to qualify buyers according to an intelligence test instead of their credit rating! But then again most intelligence tests don't measure common sense, do they?

Bandwidth Noise

Having used the internet since before the ubiquitous “ www” became part of human communications, I am a veteran of flame wars, people who do not know how (or refuse) to edit what they quote/copy, and a myriad of other aggravations of communicating with strangers in public, text based forums.

There are days when my tolerance for those who have not progressed emotionally or intellectually over the last two decades become exhausted. I know this is my penance for succumbing to the temptation to participate in any forum labeled “Soc.(anything)”, but this also my blog and my place to rant if I so choose. And yours to read … if you so choose. (Here ends the warning)

As a regular reader and sometimes commenter on soc.culture.korean@googlegroups.com once in a while it confounds me as to why people will quote 3 screens full of a post to follow it with one sentence or question about what is often only one sentence from the piece they quote. Do you not have a DELETE key?!?!? The only thing more irritating is to read several of these inane posts in sequence. Today’s was capped off by having someone ask a question that was clearly answered in the material they quoted – if only they had bothered to read past the 1st sentence they copied.

I guess you can sum up my tirade as a general angst over people cluttering bandwidth with laziness. I truly hope it’s not a matter of ignorance if they have the income to finance an internet connection and the hardware & software to use it. It reminds me too much of the major television networks in the U.S., and I won’t even begin to address how moronic much of that is these days.

Be careful what you wish for ....

it may come back to bite you."
I can't be the only person who grew up with that saying, and like most of us I don't always heed it's message. But I usually recognize it's presence when I get bitten.
I am not sure whether the past week has been a case of this or just some minor karmic payback.
Unlike most my age I usually embrace change. The constant shifting of my environment and interests is something I have grown accustomed to over a lifetime and would probably miss if stopped. Even the caption on the signature line of my checks stay "That which does not change STAGNATES!" Well, they did say that before I stopped using them.
No everyone is fond of changes, even when an update or revision could enhance their situation.
I can understand insisting on the status quo when some something new clearly hasn't addressed the full range of its potential impact. Change just for the sake of change is just disruptive, and often nothing more than someone stroking their own ego.

My karmic payback? Well after being very willing to revise work material I found myself bombarded this week with changes to the previous changes for the last five days! Alright people! Think it through and decide what you REALLY want, before you ask to have it changed!!!

Once again it has been proven to me just how cyclical our habits and interests can be.

In the late '80s I was very active on the internet discussion boards - back before we really had pictures and "w.w.w" had taken over modern life. But sometime around 1994, I overcame my addiction to online political and sociological debates and scaled back my use of the internet to employment and mercantile pursuits.

However, in the last month I found myself unable to ignore my old haunts and before long my signature was seen on responses to discussions as widely varied as Korean table manners, Japanese airport security measures and speculations on FDR's moral conscience.



So far this has not interrupted daily living or even hindered my watching BBC America, IATV, AZN or History International. But I am wondering if the addiction to socio-political discourse is creeping back in to my life, or what may be even worse ..... writing essays and editorials again.


Oh, I hope this is just fueling another spate of novel writing!

Or maybe its just the mind warming up for blogging to come.