I’ve been wondering how Monday’s got such a bad reputation. My current place of employment has weekend hours, but 99% of the employed work the standard M – F, eight hours a day sort of shift.
Today, being Monday, my place of employment is rife with something that is being easily shrugged off. People are in bad moods, going home early and in some cases, not even showing up.
And, when it’s not actually Monday, I’ve had people in a shitty mood explain that in their work world, today is their Monday—meaning they just started the work week.
Now, there are some people who will tell me it’s not the fact that it’s Monday, they’re just having a bad day—any ill effects are coincidental with the day of the week.
I like the Monday Factor because it really demonstrate how willing we are to shrug off any and all accountability. Maybe you hate your job and you need an entire day to muster up the energy to deal with the impending week’s worth of work—but not liking your job is hardly a unique condition. Even people who love their jobs don’t love everything about that job.
I’m not confused by all the bad things being more obvious when there are no days behind you. Current day work conditions don’t help much either—most places I hear about not only don’t offer vacation time, if they do you can count on the fact that it is NOT paid time off.
Some of you do though! And good on you—I try not to begrudge other their good fortune, but it’s hard not to be resentful, especially if you look at the distribution of wealth. We’re not, though. Not in this one.
My favorite people who rage on Mondays are the people who seem to be completely blind to the fact that they have some input on their own lives. They spend the last half of Friday dicking around and then big surprise! The following Monday doesn’t just roll out nice and smooth for them and suddenly the universe is conspiring against them—they’re just that important to the Grand Scheme.
When it comes down to it, none of us enjoy the fact we spend the making someone else rich and paying taxes while we do it. But don’t blame Monday—especially since it’s such a good night for sports.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Strangeness Afoot (50th Post!)
I love bizarre news. The tendency for negative events to get fierce coverage lend the stories documenting all of the weird things that happen to us in our misunderstood existence a welcomed appeal.
That said, a foot has washed upon the Canadian shore of Vancouver, near the Campbell River, again. This is the sixth time this has happened.
Think about that for a second. Walking along the beach, hand in hand with your lover, friend, escort--whatever, when the thoughts you've been savoring along with the view are jarred away as you stop and do a double take at what is normally a mundane event (oh wow, a lone, dirty shoe!), and notice that rather stiff looking sock...
"Is that fuckin' foot?" You wonder. After a few of what I would hope are the strangest seconds on this particular day, you would get close enough to confirm that oh yes, that is indeed a severed foot you have stumbled upon.
That happened six separate times in the same area. And, like a rape statistic, that's just reported events (I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I could resist having a foot in a jar on my coffee table, that's a jackpot in my book).
The latest foot, it looked severed, but not all of the six do. One commonality is they were all in shoes. While police are refusing to speculate, but facts are facts. Shoe soles create enough buoyancy to float and keep the meat away from most of the oceans feeders (Should that feeters or is that not punny?). And going one step back, any body in the water--never mind how it got there, eventually begins seperating.
However, how the foots achieved their infamous severed status is all speculation--crime syndicates, boating accidents, medical waste disposal gone wrong, not loving Jesus enough--really you can fill in the blank however you like. My current favorite for the small fleet of feet is they're from victims of that 2004 Tsunami. I like the image of Mr. Foot drifting about the currents for 4+ years.
But, I'm a romantic.
That said, a foot has washed upon the Canadian shore of Vancouver, near the Campbell River, again. This is the sixth time this has happened.
Think about that for a second. Walking along the beach, hand in hand with your lover, friend, escort--whatever, when the thoughts you've been savoring along with the view are jarred away as you stop and do a double take at what is normally a mundane event (oh wow, a lone, dirty shoe!), and notice that rather stiff looking sock...
"Is that fuckin' foot?" You wonder. After a few of what I would hope are the strangest seconds on this particular day, you would get close enough to confirm that oh yes, that is indeed a severed foot you have stumbled upon.
That happened six separate times in the same area. And, like a rape statistic, that's just reported events (I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I could resist having a foot in a jar on my coffee table, that's a jackpot in my book).
The latest foot, it looked severed, but not all of the six do. One commonality is they were all in shoes. While police are refusing to speculate, but facts are facts. Shoe soles create enough buoyancy to float and keep the meat away from most of the oceans feeders (Should that feeters or is that not punny?). And going one step back, any body in the water--never mind how it got there, eventually begins seperating.
However, how the foots achieved their infamous severed status is all speculation--crime syndicates, boating accidents, medical waste disposal gone wrong, not loving Jesus enough--really you can fill in the blank however you like. My current favorite for the small fleet of feet is they're from victims of that 2004 Tsunami. I like the image of Mr. Foot drifting about the currents for 4+ years.
But, I'm a romantic.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Slick Bastards
I don’t know how many lawsuits any given mega corporation is involved in at any given time, but it seems to make sense that any institution with global size operations has a near constant present in so many societies is going to also constantly be in legal battle.
One of the shadier cases I’m not seeing reported while the vultures are all abuzz over Tim Russert dying involves Exxon Oil, who recently appealed to the Supreme Court to halt a human rights lawsuit that was filed against it in 2001.
The Indonesian providence of Aceh has 11 villagers from various villages who suffered rampant human rights abuse at the hands of the Indonesian military. Exxon has been doing all they can to get the case thrown out by appealing their way up the judicial ladder. The secondary effects of this seemingly expensive and futile maneuvering is it prolongs the start of the actual trial. But why would that be desirable?
Could it have something to do with the name of the case? It’s official legal reference is “Exxon Mobil v. John Doe, 07-81.”
The Acehnese plaintiffs’ fear for their safety has been recognized as legitimate, permitting their identities to be listed as John and Jane Doe. I’ve admitted to being a cynic (which I in turn blame on my bad habit of paying attention to the world) so I can’t help but see Exxon’s dance as a move that hopes that their employees, aka the Indonesian military, might dig out a name or two, as the dead can’t sue.
Maybe the multiple appeals is fairly standard practice, maybe it’s generally better for any company getting sued to have the case take as long as possible to get to trial to wear down the not-so-wealthy, and my mistrust is misplaced.
Wait, who are we talking about? Oh yeah! An oil company. Assuming the worse in this case is nothing but sound. I mean, did you see “There Will Be Blood”? That guy was a jerk! I don’t know what other proof you people need about oil companies being bad.
And for the record, the heiarchy of corporated evil empires goes: Oil, tobacco, Wal-Mart. Write that down somewhere, it’ll be on the test for sure.
Also, am I the only one raising an eyebrow about Indonesia renting out their military?
One of the shadier cases I’m not seeing reported while the vultures are all abuzz over Tim Russert dying involves Exxon Oil, who recently appealed to the Supreme Court to halt a human rights lawsuit that was filed against it in 2001.
The Indonesian providence of Aceh has 11 villagers from various villages who suffered rampant human rights abuse at the hands of the Indonesian military. Exxon has been doing all they can to get the case thrown out by appealing their way up the judicial ladder. The secondary effects of this seemingly expensive and futile maneuvering is it prolongs the start of the actual trial. But why would that be desirable?
Could it have something to do with the name of the case? It’s official legal reference is “Exxon Mobil v. John Doe, 07-81.”
The Acehnese plaintiffs’ fear for their safety has been recognized as legitimate, permitting their identities to be listed as John and Jane Doe. I’ve admitted to being a cynic (which I in turn blame on my bad habit of paying attention to the world) so I can’t help but see Exxon’s dance as a move that hopes that their employees, aka the Indonesian military, might dig out a name or two, as the dead can’t sue.
Maybe the multiple appeals is fairly standard practice, maybe it’s generally better for any company getting sued to have the case take as long as possible to get to trial to wear down the not-so-wealthy, and my mistrust is misplaced.
Wait, who are we talking about? Oh yeah! An oil company. Assuming the worse in this case is nothing but sound. I mean, did you see “There Will Be Blood”? That guy was a jerk! I don’t know what other proof you people need about oil companies being bad.
And for the record, the heiarchy of corporated evil empires goes: Oil, tobacco, Wal-Mart. Write that down somewhere, it’ll be on the test for sure.
Also, am I the only one raising an eyebrow about Indonesia renting out their military?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Smart Bastards: Not Your Friend
They say one should never discuss sex, politics or religion in polite company. So, I figure we gotta knock out the other two.
I'm all for spirituality, but not much beyond the rawest sense where much is hard to to put into words. Religion on the other hand, is a lot harder for me to get behind. Let's get back to that though.
Humans are believed to exist in such numbers that we have more or less taken on a relatively consistent pace of existence. One of the consequences is the thing we call intelligence is normalized which creates a bell curve.
Chris Rock has a great analogy for this. I'm too lazy to find the actual bit, but the gist of it goes like this: In school, there were five smart kids, five dumb kids and twenty of the rest of us!
Basically, most people are of an average intelligence (between 85 and 115 IQ's) with just as many unintelligent people as there are above intelligent people. Keep that in mind while I jump to the next point.
Historically, looking at the oldest religions--never mind the council of Versia or any of that, and how the religions initially treated the faithful (and god help you if you weren't counted among the faithful)--they discouraged literacy and education in general, dissension of thought,
Never mind the Lords of the town. Stick to the thankless holy toil that provides their riches and know that you WILL be rewarded in the Kingdom of God! You know, after you're dead. And if you don't, well kids, gather around while we riddle you with stories of where all your worse fears and nightmares are birthed.
Divine is obedience. To question is to endulge in the blasphemous. Tool might not have said it best but they said it well, "There's no love in fear."
And who ruled these common folk? The privileged, who tended to be the educated, who tended to be intelligent.
I don't want to end on a sour note, so let me just say religion can be really good for a lot of people and their communities, and I know many people out there are good hearted folk who feel better about the world after their once a week meeting.
And, just like anything it only takes a few bad examples to leave a bad taste in ones mouth for quite some time. It's unfortunate that many of those bad eggs rise to the positions of power, and they are the ones taking advantage of what should be a good and true institution.
I think problems, social friction if you will, have something to do with an underlying message behind many religions--that there is but a single way to correctly live ones life, which means anything differing from your core beliefs is a threat. Which for me is counter intuitive. Anything true and powerful should stand all the taller and all the straighter to opposition in whatever form.
I'm all for spirituality, but not much beyond the rawest sense where much is hard to to put into words. Religion on the other hand, is a lot harder for me to get behind. Let's get back to that though.
Humans are believed to exist in such numbers that we have more or less taken on a relatively consistent pace of existence. One of the consequences is the thing we call intelligence is normalized which creates a bell curve.
Chris Rock has a great analogy for this. I'm too lazy to find the actual bit, but the gist of it goes like this: In school, there were five smart kids, five dumb kids and twenty of the rest of us!
Basically, most people are of an average intelligence (between 85 and 115 IQ's) with just as many unintelligent people as there are above intelligent people. Keep that in mind while I jump to the next point.
Historically, looking at the oldest religions--never mind the council of Versia or any of that, and how the religions initially treated the faithful (and god help you if you weren't counted among the faithful)--they discouraged literacy and education in general, dissension of thought,
Never mind the Lords of the town. Stick to the thankless holy toil that provides their riches and know that you WILL be rewarded in the Kingdom of God! You know, after you're dead. And if you don't, well kids, gather around while we riddle you with stories of where all your worse fears and nightmares are birthed.
Divine is obedience. To question is to endulge in the blasphemous. Tool might not have said it best but they said it well, "There's no love in fear."
And who ruled these common folk? The privileged, who tended to be the educated, who tended to be intelligent.
I don't want to end on a sour note, so let me just say religion can be really good for a lot of people and their communities, and I know many people out there are good hearted folk who feel better about the world after their once a week meeting.
And, just like anything it only takes a few bad examples to leave a bad taste in ones mouth for quite some time. It's unfortunate that many of those bad eggs rise to the positions of power, and they are the ones taking advantage of what should be a good and true institution.
I think problems, social friction if you will, have something to do with an underlying message behind many religions--that there is but a single way to correctly live ones life, which means anything differing from your core beliefs is a threat. Which for me is counter intuitive. Anything true and powerful should stand all the taller and all the straighter to opposition in whatever form.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Excuse Me, I Was Promised A Hand basket
The end is near! And has been since we humans have been explaining the cosmos away via deities of varying malice and temperaments. Which, as near as I can tell went hand with the development of agriculture.
You have to wonder if there is a collective end though, at least I do. Armageddon is all the rage, which shouldn’t really be a surprise after the fun the world had when the year 2000 was coming up on us. I kind of miss that Y2K frenzy. I’m a fan of all the learning channels, but I’ve noticed and irritating trend of the doomsday shows in heavy rotation.
But, lucky for us, there are many doomsday scenarios for us to worry over. They Mayan calendar ends in 2012, which apparently many people interpret as time ending rather than the Mayans coming to the inevitable conclusion that their calendar is going to have to either end or keep going and going. “Why project our calendar more than 2000 years ahead?. Does that make sense to anyone else? Let’s go sacrifice something!”
So, 2012 is the new Y2k. I think it ends December 20th(ish).
How far ahead do historians really expect ancient calendars to go? One would think that a cut off line is more or less a necessity. For all we know the calendar not going past 2012 could be an arbitrary result of some ancient practicality.
What I love is how centered we are on ourselves. Our definition of “the world” ending usually equates to humans being wiped out…probably because of something humans did.
But, if your trust in humanity is just so thorough you can’t entertain the wonderfully ironic notion that we will be our own undoing, there’s plenty of other ways for the world to still end!
I’m kind of a romantic. The idea of our planet having an energy or inner life force seems like a thing of fiction, but I like it. So the notion that the earth could possibly be cleansing itself via earthquakes, tornados, floods, wildfires, tsunamis, etc is really appealing.
I've noticed this “weather” thing has been around for awhile and the natural cycling patterns might be so complex and long lasting we might not even be observing what we think we are.
If the Gaia thing isn't doing it for you consider the current global climate! How many wars are going on? How many violent deaths are occurring daily? And in front of who?
And if you’re still not happy with your world ending choices, I’m afraid your last option is as classic as it gets—Jesus coming back, to both love and judge you. Repent—or else!
You have to wonder if there is a collective end though, at least I do. Armageddon is all the rage, which shouldn’t really be a surprise after the fun the world had when the year 2000 was coming up on us. I kind of miss that Y2K frenzy. I’m a fan of all the learning channels, but I’ve noticed and irritating trend of the doomsday shows in heavy rotation.
But, lucky for us, there are many doomsday scenarios for us to worry over. They Mayan calendar ends in 2012, which apparently many people interpret as time ending rather than the Mayans coming to the inevitable conclusion that their calendar is going to have to either end or keep going and going. “Why project our calendar more than 2000 years ahead?. Does that make sense to anyone else? Let’s go sacrifice something!”
So, 2012 is the new Y2k. I think it ends December 20th(ish).
How far ahead do historians really expect ancient calendars to go? One would think that a cut off line is more or less a necessity. For all we know the calendar not going past 2012 could be an arbitrary result of some ancient practicality.
What I love is how centered we are on ourselves. Our definition of “the world” ending usually equates to humans being wiped out…probably because of something humans did.
But, if your trust in humanity is just so thorough you can’t entertain the wonderfully ironic notion that we will be our own undoing, there’s plenty of other ways for the world to still end!
I’m kind of a romantic. The idea of our planet having an energy or inner life force seems like a thing of fiction, but I like it. So the notion that the earth could possibly be cleansing itself via earthquakes, tornados, floods, wildfires, tsunamis, etc is really appealing.
I've noticed this “weather” thing has been around for awhile and the natural cycling patterns might be so complex and long lasting we might not even be observing what we think we are.
If the Gaia thing isn't doing it for you consider the current global climate! How many wars are going on? How many violent deaths are occurring daily? And in front of who?
And if you’re still not happy with your world ending choices, I’m afraid your last option is as classic as it gets—Jesus coming back, to both love and judge you. Repent—or else!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Serious Discussion, Please
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy,
Was he?
Discuss.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy,
Was he?
Discuss.
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