7-4er.

Just a quick one because I am super busy today catching up on my Google Reader. Oh yeah, and working.

I work 7am - 4pm.

It's an arrangement that I worked out with my boss and company when school started last September and it took me over 2 hours to get to work one morning.

A lot of my work needs to be done before noon, and I work with our East Coast office often enough that it was beneficial all around to work 7am - 4pm.

So, anyway. 7am - 4pm. I love it. I love being here early, I love working by myself, and I get SO much done before other people start trickling in around 9am. By 9:30am, I have most of my daily crap done and am available for the troubleshooting that is the majority of my job lately.

But the problem? Leaving at 4pm. People who don't work with me directly and know the score are always like, why the fuck does she always get to leave at 4pm? I have to be here till after 6pm!

BECAUSE I GET HERE THREE HOURS BEFORE YOU DO. That's why. Mind your own damn business. Don't be all giving me stink eye because I made an arrangement that works for me and everyone I deal with directly!

It bugs me SO much. You don't know what arrangements I have. You don't know my life!

Just an opinion.

It bothers me when Americans don't vote.

There are lots of reasons why, but nothing I could write would be better than how it was put in a comment over on Cleveland's A Plum.

Cubby wrote:

"The citizens of Iraq literally risked being shot or blown up to vote freely for the first time in their lives. The people of Zimbabwe that didn't support the current president were beaten or killed for trying to vote against him. Hundreds of millions of people around the world reside in countries that don't allow them the opportunity to speak for themselves. It's no wonder people around the world scoff at our apathy. Not voting may easily be the most ignorant act someone can commit. The signers of our Declaration of Independence risked being executed by choosing a chance to give everyone that came after them a chance for freedom; instead of being thankful we have a chance to decide who leads us, it's so much easier to not offend anyone and not vote. Don't like your options? No candidate can every completely embody everything you stand for. Find the one closest to your views and help push things in your direction. "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all" - John F. Kennedy."

I agree with this on many levels. I think it's vital for Americans to get up off their lazy asses and vote - vote for SOMETHING, vote for anything, show up and leave your ballot blank for all I care. But show that you appreciate being an American enough to do what thousands of people fought long and hard for us to be able to do.

Oh, and also? If you choose to be a lazy ass and NOT go vote? Don't you DARE complain about the outcome of the election you decided wasn't worth your time.

There were actually a lot of awesome comments on Alexa's "What Would Dumbo Say?" post - I would check them out if I were you.

Social networking.

I have a love/hate relationship with social networks. I love them because I get to connect with people I don't talk to all the time. I hate them because they often create a false sense of familiarity that really irritates me.

I get it. We're "friends." But that doesn't mean you can ask extremely personal questions. It doesn't mean that you should assume that I want to hang out with you.

I'm sorry. That sounds harsh.

But it's true. If I want to hang out with you, I will cultivate a relationship. I will take the time to listen to you, see how you're doing. To call. To email. To converse. I will not invite myself to things, or put pressure on you to take time out of your busy schedule to pay attention to me.

If it's impolite to do it in person, why is it ok to do it online?

Not so appropriate.

Why do people in offices insist on making inappropriate and annoying comments when someone's significant other stops by?

Coworker: Was that your boy that just dropped you off outside?
me: Oh, yeah, it was.
Coworker: Ooohh, a little afternoon delight?
me: Um... no. We just went to lunch.

I shake my fist at you, License to Wed!

I hate this movie. And, I hate that I hate this movie. I had high hopes for this movie. I usually love romantic comedies. I absolutely adore John Krasinski. I enjoy Mandy Moore. I can even tolerate Robin Williams. It was directed by Ken Kwapis, who is a GREAT director. But this movie? One of the worst movies, ever. And it's been on HBO for the last couple weeks, where I am unable to look away!

I think the biggest deal breaker for me? You feel so sympathetic to John Krasinski's character that you want to jump into the movie screen and tell him to run. Run far away, and never look back. Because that chick? SHE IS INSANE. All Mandy Moore's character does is whine and moan. She gets angry with him for the dumbest things, and the worst part is that at the end of the movie, HE is the one who has to apologize. HE is the one who has to make the grand gesture to get her back. WTF? All HIS character did wrong in the film was want to marry a selfish and obnoxious woman.

The entire movie is based off of the fact that this stupid woman (1) set a wedding date for 3 weeks away, and (2) also agreed to a ridiculous "wedding course" without even TALKING to her fiance! WHAT? No one would do that!

Plus, she's so hung up on the wedding vows, what the shit is that? Him not writing anything down in a freaking notebook doesn't mean that he doesn't want to marry her! UGH. He proposed, didn't he?

And Robin Williams' character? Bothered me so much that I wanted to scream. I was literally sitting in the theater about to pull my hair out because he was driving me that crazy. No reverend would be that invasive of privacy, or put people through anything like that.

I'm all about suspending my disbelief, but this one is WAY too over the top. Do yourself a favor - if you haven't seen this movie, SKIP IT.

Badly done, License to Wed, badly done.

Note to self: Finish writing screenplay, because if that shit can be produced, I should be a millionaire by now.

Is there anyone out there who actually liked this movie?

Screw off, Manny Ramirez!

WTF is wrong with Manny Ramirez? I'm sorry - how bad could you have it making $20 million a year? I guess I just don't understand how ungrateful someone has to be to want so badly to leave the team that made him into a sports superstar... Come on, do you really think you'd be as popular as you are if it weren't for the Red Sox? The Red Sox "don't deserve" you? THEY MADE YOU!

Good riddance, ass.

But one more thing, why did you have to come to LA?

You know what sucks?

When someone steals your boyfriend's debit card number and uses it to drop $1,500 in San Francisco. Eight days before you're supposed to move.

Quit poking your nose in!

I hate when people send useless emails about things that have no concern to them.

You're copied on that email because the person who sent it is a lazy ass who didn't want to spend an extra 0:30 seconds trying to figure out who to go to, and sent it to everyone he could think of instead.

Obviously, that promo is being scheduled. Obviously, it's not being delivered and then sitting around. If you weren't responsible for it in the past, what makes you think that you suddenly have to waste valuable time annoying the crap out of me for something that has nothing to do with you?

Fuck off, people. Do your jobs, and stay out of mine!

I SHAKE MY FIST AT YOU!

Excuse me, lady?

Just because you don't like the parking spot that has been assigned to you, it's not cool to park in our spots. See, our spots are "first come, first serve." And there are four spots that seven people get to take their shot at getting. So, you taking one of those, instead of your own? This is not really ok.

Also, you would argue that one of us can just have your spot. Only our security? They don't like when we do that. In fact, we've all received emails that specifically tell us we're ONLY allowed to park in our four spots.

So please. Park in your spot, even if the tree gets stuff on your car. Because it's yours. It has your name on it. It's nicely in the shade. And then? We won't shake our fists at you as you walk away.

Blogger.com, why do you hate me?

I have my comment settings set up so that I should be receiving an email when I am left comments. I like getting comments, and I like knowing that I got comments.

But guess what I'm not getting? Comment notificiations!

I shake my fist at you, Blogger!!!

I have tried researching the problem, and see that it's not just me. On the Blogger Help "Known Issues" page, I found this entry that says "Some comment notification emails are not being sent. We are investigating this issue. Update, 12/6: This has been fixed. — latest update on Thursday, December 06, 2007" Well, it may have been fixed, but it's back again!

Then I looked on the Blogger Help Group pages. And I found several posts about this issue. One of the things they say to try is changing your email to a different host. So, I switched mine from my Hotmail to my Yahoo. This **seems** to be working, but the issue is still making me mad!!!!!!

Why did it stop working in the first place!? Grrrr. And argh.

**Update: Hmm. Maybe the title of this post should have been "Hotmail, why do you hate me?"**

American public education fails again...

This morning I was copied on an email from a co-worker to a client we work with often, and it literally made me cringe. We're super busy and overworked, so I'm going use that as an excuse for this email. But honestly, there needs to be some sort of course kids take in high school to teach them how to use correct grammar in a work environment.

From the email I received:

"The log for Monday (7/14) is being a work on and completed today..."

"There are no instructions that have been fax over in regards to the spots..."

Little mistakes, but still. They went to a client, and we should be at the point where we review emails before we send them.

Hi, co-worker, me again.

I understand that you have a busy schedule - with small companies, everyone does. However, leaving a third of a cup of coffee in the coffee pot is still a largely frowned-upon, dick move.

If you want to finish the pot and not make a new one, fine. That's rude in itself, but sort of understandable. But leaving just enough to tease someone into thinking they're getting a cup of coffee is just plain mean.

Thanks a lot, ass.

Best. Bumper sticker. EVER.

If only you'd paid attention.

The boyfriend and I went out this weekend with the hopes of finding a good camera store with a friendly salesperson to answer a few questions for us. (Little did I know boyfriend was fully ready to buy me a camera right there and then!) We drove around for a while and ended up at this place in Woodland Hills called Woodland Hills Camera & Telescopes. Looking back, it seems like they are much more a telescope place than a camera place, but hi, their name has "camera" in it, so we went in expecting to talk to someone who knew something about cameras.

Here's how our experience went: We go into the cramped store. There's a middle-aged man helping a guy at the back counter, and an old man, a teenage boy, and a middle-aged woman working in the store with several customers. I head back to back counter, where the middle-aged guy is helping a guy choose between two point and shoot cameras. Since neither of them are a Nikon or a Canon (or even an Olympus, for that matter), I start to wonder. There's a lady waiting after him, and I approach and start to look at the SLR and DSLR cameras they sell.

I make eye contact with the guy to let him know we have some questions and stand patiently for at least five to ten minutes while he helps the other two customers. The guy who is weighing his options between the point and shoots asks for a minute to think about it, and we are finally helped.

Or, should I say, not helped. This guy was a complete asshole. He was rude, he was standoffish, and most importantly, he didn't seem to give a shit about the fact that the cameras we were looking at were at least TWICE the price as the guy dilly dallying about the point and shoots.

We were ready to buy! We were ready to say, ok, wrap it up and let's go! If only he had paid attention to us, and given us the quality of service you'd think would keep a mom and pop place like that open!

I asked about the D60 and the D40X. He completely brushed of me asking about the D40X, even though he had at least four of them in boxes under the counter. I had to ask him to see the physical D60, which he did very begrudgingly. At that point, I was already put off by this guy. I was playing around with the D60 when he went back to help point and shoot guy. While he was helping him, the older man in the shop came up and asked him if anyone needed any help. He looked at us, and said NO.

What? Obviously I have questions about a Digital SLR. Point and shoot guy then need MORE time to think (I don't know about you, but this tipped me off that he wasn't quite ready to drop $400 on a camera). The dude finally paid attention to us again, and I took the opportunity to ask him about the D80, and about whether or not I could use my old Nikon lenses on the Digital SLR. He told me to forget about the D80, because Nikon was going to announce the new version in a month at the European trade shows. What if I still wanted the damn D80??? I made him give me the one he had on the shelf so I could hold it and see how I liked it anyway, but I was totally over it by then. And the lenses? He could not for the life of him give us a straight answer as to if they would work or not. No way was I going to allow Sean to spend money in this place.

We left shortly after that, totally pissed off that this guy had totally blotched the opportunity for his store to sell a camera to us.

You have to be a special kind of stupid to completely alienate two customers who are actually ready to buy a $700 camera and make them never want to go near your store again.

So, the moral of this story? Don't shop at Woodland Hills Camera & Telescopes. And also, if you ever own a company of your very own? Don't mistake a young couple as "browzers" when they very well maybe be dropping large amounts of cash in your store.

This is what we have to deal with? Really?

I am really starting to hate the location of my office. I used to think it was kind of cool to get a taste of not-ritzy Los Angeles. Then, we had to start locking our car doors and avoid driving on certain streets because of gang violence. Then, we were put on lockdown for hours one day because there had been an officer-involved gang shooting down the block and one of the suspects had escaped into nearby apartments with an AK-47. As in the assault rifle? Yeah.

Then today, a co-worker called me when I was about 10 minutes from work to ask if I was there yet, or if I could get in. Because once again, our neighborhood had been put on lockdown while numerous law enforcement agencies were completing a sweep of the neighborhood, serving warrents and making arrests.

I don't think it's cool anymore. Now it's just a waste of my time. And a little ghetto.

I might just start pulling out my hair.

Co-worker: Hey... I'm just going to grab this copy of (movie) so I can make you a new DVD.
me: I've already delivered it, that one is the old one with the profanities.
Co-worker: Oh... Can you get the new one back?
me: You guys should be able to pull the file off the server, right?
Co-worker: Um, yeah, I guess. I mean, it takes a little longer. (pause) Are you sure this isn't the tape?
me: Yes. I delivered the tape. That one is the old one.
Co-worker: Because that one looks exactly like the one I gave you.
me: You gave me two. One before the profanities were fixed, and one after.
Co-worker: Can I take this one and check?
me: I told you, I delivered the good version, please make the DVD off the server file.
Co-worker (lingering by my desk)
me: Look, this one says it was output on 6/4. The one I delivered was output on 6/12. Just let me know when the DVD is done, ok?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

It's called checking your work.

You should try it sometime!

Once again, here is something that highly irritates me. It's a lack of respect for the work you deliver. We have a department at my office that continually screws up projects. It sucks, too, because I dearly and genuinely like all of the members of this department on a personal level. But at the same time, I am constantly kicking projects back to them for fixes - a misspelled word, incorrect numbers on slate, no visible time code when there should be, or just a sloppy job overall.

And it never gets better. I should know by now by the number of times I've been burned by them that I need to personally check everything before I send anything out. But where's that time supposed to come from? And my point is that I shouldn't HAVE to do that! I should be able to rely on my departments to deliver something worthy of the standards we demand.

I really wish they would get their shit together, check their work, and have pride in their work so that the projects they deliver are correct and complete.

You have to follow through.

I dislike it when people complain and complain and complain about things, and then never take action to change them. I will listen to you endlessly - but don't get mad at me when I tell you things are never going to change unless you follow through with some kind of action!

Don't like how your life is going? Find a way to change it!

Don't like the behavior of your employee? Tell them, and then make sure they fix it.

Don't want your child running wild all over the place? Discipline them, and follow it through.

I know it's much easier to give advice than to take it. I do. And there are times where my own behavior annoys the hell out of me for not making changes. But in the end, you're never going to be happy with a situation if you're not willing to do SOMETHING to make it better.

Did you not take English classes?

I hate that people feel that it's ok to have incorrect spelling and grammar if they are writing on the Internet! My sister is particularly guilty of this, but I run into it everywhere - including places that should know better. Now, I know that I don't have perfect grammar ALL the time, and there are many occasions where my spell check catches a few words. Typing quickly, or being in a rush, can often lead to spelling and grammar mistakes. But seriously, people? Get with it. Because someday, your lack of grammar skills is going to catch up for you.

Biggest offender:
"I" instead of "me" when describing a photo. Ex: "This is Sarah and I at the zoo." NO. It's "Sarah and ME." You wouldn't say "This is I at the zoo," so what drives you to write "I"???

1st runner up:
"Your" instead of "you're." Ex: "Your beautiful." Your beautiful what?? It's YOU ARE beautiful! Get it right!

2nd runner up:
"There," "their," and "they're." Suggestion: Take the extra two seconds it takes to make sure you're using the correct version, so that you don't look like a complete and moronic asshole.

I shake my fist at bad grammar!

National average? I think not.

AAA claims that the national average price of gasoline is $3.97. Stupid California hasn't seen gas that cheap for WEEKS.

Gas in Woodland Hills on Ventura Blvd. And yes, that is an off-brand "cheap" station. 5/28/08

Gas at my "secret" cheap station finally goes over $4.00. 5/28/08

I shake my fist at you, California gas prices!!!