So I'm taking a short break from work (which is starting to become busy and looks as if it will really pick up in the next couple of weeks) to post a link to the webcomic Combustible Orange which I found through moviepoopshoot.com because the character Action Datsun is the star of a comic over there that I found funny. I've been reading the Combustible Orange comic while waiting for simulations to run and I'm finding it fucking hilarious. Besides, you can't go wrong with a character like Super Demolition Christ.

FUCKING PEOPLE!!!

So I have this "co-worker", we'll call him That Fucking Asshole Cocksucking Dickhead (Not to Mention Ashamed Closet Homosexual) Dave for Short. I put co-worker in quotes because, well, he's not actually a co-worker as he's not an employee of the company. He's one of our contract workers currently acting as our "Analytical Chemist." I put Analytical Chemist in quotes because the fucking moron doesn't know dick about analytical chemistry (yet, he has a PhD in the subject which just goes to show you that the value of an education can be equivalent to a "Hot Cup of Jack Squat!" at times)!

My disgust at this poor excuse for an employee can be traced back to his entrance into my company but I'll start you a little later than that...

This past spring, the company that I am currently employed with was going through some financial problems and as such I was made to lay off all of the contract people under myself. Now this fucking sucked! Sure a couple of them needed to go as they weren't working out very well, but I also had to lay off a few people that were quality workers, some of whom I had become friends with. So all contractors are gone... but not Dave (nor myself, as I was contract at the time, but I actually do work dammit... granted, I'm blogging right now but... Fuck You for Judging Me!)

Anyway, the next step was to staff all of our operation necessities internally. So the deal was that I relegated myself and Dave to the night shift as everyone else in the company had seniority over the two of us. Now, during the two weeks we were together on nights, I had been having a conflict with another co-worker over some procedural issues that aren't worth getting into. Dave takes it upon himself to talk with me about how I should be gentler in the handling of the situation so as not to cause strife within the company. "For the Good of the Company" is his reasoning.

A week later he tells to our boss he can't work nights anymore because it conflicts with his personal schedule... FUCKING DICK! He fucking gets away with it too! I would have said, "You can't work nights... bye." When you're on contract you can't make demands like that (at least you shouldn't be able to). I know, because I've been layed off as a contractor before. Your job is never secure so you take what you can get. Arrgghh!

Also, Dave is single (and a suspected closet-queer) and has no life that I can discern except he stays her on Fridays until midnight sometimes to work on his motorcycle. I, on the other hand, am married and have friends that like to go out for drinks during the week after work... and his social life is affected?

So, because of his refusal to work, we hire one of our former contract employees back. Now, I am glad we did, because he's a good worker and a friend. But the point is, Dave, a bastard who, less than a week earlier was talking to me about what's "Good for the Company," is now costing the company more money by refusing to work a night shift! Fucking hypocritical dick (did I mention he's a devout Christian, maybe that's where the hypocrisy came from).

So flash forward to tonight (ignoring all of the other shit: milking the company for overtime every week, spending our money on shit he doesn't need just to look like he's doing something, doing nothing most of the time he's at work but talking to vendors all day, etc.). I had sent out an e-mail that stated that we would be stripping and waxing the floors for all of the offices in the lab (where Dave's, as well as mine, are located). He comes back with the following response:

While I appreciate your cleaning and waxing the floors ....

Since this is affecting the work of others, wouldn't it make sense to check with them to see if it is OK before planning to do it ? While this is a "down" week on the schedule for the reactors, I have plenty of work to do involving the lab and my office.

I don't want to empty out my office completely just to have the floors done. I'd rather leave the floor as is or just do the "traffic areas".

If this is going to take 2 days to do and will tie up the lab and control room, could it be done on a weekend so as not to disturb the work of others.

You know what... fuck you. This is something that needs to be done, and this is a good time to do it because it's right before New Year's vacation which will give the wax time to dry after it's applied. And the other thing is, if I asked everyone when would be a good time, it would never get done. And The Other Thing Is, you don't get to decide if your office needs waxing or not because, as you are not an employee, you do not have to deal with the long-term consequences. AND THE OTHER THING IS, if you're so keen for weekend work, maybe you should do your shit over the weekend. AND THE OTHER THING IS, YOU DON'T FUCKING DO ANY WORK HERE ANYWAY!!!

The main thing that pisses me of is it all comes down to Dave looking out for his hours. That's the truth of the matter. He just wants hours to guarantee he gets paid. Well, other contractors aren't guaranteed shit, and he shouldn't be either. You know, it would piss me off so much that he's just looking out for number one, if he didn't try to manufacture the appearance that he gives a shit about anything else. I have no conclusion to this story at the moment so I will simply grumble as I shuffle off begrudgingly.

So over at Fe I found this link and I've got to say, I'm fucking addicted. This Natalia is one screwed up Russian girl and I'll be damned if that doesn't make for a good read. (BTW, I mean screwed up in the best way possible, I mean, look at the people I hang out with.) I actually went back and read all of the posts on this blog within two days of first checking it out. I'm not sure what it is (maybe the reflection on college, maybe the fact that I find it refreshing to hear a woman talk about the guys she'd really like to fuck), but I really foud it an enjoyable, and highly addictive read. Ok, I'm going to shut up now so you can take the time to look at it for yourself.

Man, I am an Updating Machine

I mean, isn't it amazing that I've had between 5 and 10 updates everyday for the past week and a half. Where do I find the time to write almost continuously, not to mention the skill to update with such eloquence. I mean, I don't mean to sound pretentious or anything, but I'm really fucking good.

Alright, now that that faux, self-aggrandizing is out of the way, I actually do have a real update.

So for the past year or so I've become addicted to talk radio. I especially enjoy this station because they actually do have hosts on both side of the spectrum. Most of them are even willing to listen to the other side when good points are presented and only a few hang up on callers when there is disagreement. If you live in Colorado, give it a try and if not, give the webcast a listen if you are so inclined. Greg Dobbs and Doug Kellett are my personal choices (a liberal and a conservative, respectively, if you care to label).

I must be a glutton for punishment though, because my addiction has mandated that I also listen to the ultra-conservative talk show hosts as well, which tends to lead to my screaming at the top of my lungs whenever the asinine bullshit starts to spew forth. I'm sorry, but Christians have no right to be complaining about discrimination, much like white people, ok O'Reilly.

Last Friday, my drive home after a night of work listening to America at Night and my drive back later that afternoon listening to The Radio Factor both yielded whining about this subject. I mean, nothing pisses me off more than the way these Radio Talk Show Hosts, people who get paid to exercise their first amendment rights, want to whittle away the first amendment rights of people with views contrary to theirs. BTW, this was before the SS got involved just in case you were wondering.

Now, I can understand the limits on free speech so as not to endanger the lives of others (disallowing yelling "Fire!" in a theater makes sense to me... even though that could be a fun way to weed out some stupid motherfuckers). I even understand the principle behind it being illegal to say "I'm going to kill the president." I mean, this is a threat against the head of our body of government and the Secret Service doesn't have the time to investigate who's joking and who's serious. I get that.

But the thing is, in his song, Eminem didn't threaten the life of George W. All that he said was that he'd like to see the president dead (the line from the article that says, "The reference to seeing the president dead does not specify the president of the United States" is bullshit however, we know what this Marshall Mathers kid meant). I'm sure a lot of the public dissatisfied with Dubya' would like to see him dead and has espoused this before. (I'm not with this camp, I don't want to Cheney in power and Bush martyred, as would be the result, see Fe) So why can't Eminem, espouse the same view publicly?

Well, these Hosts' complaints were along the lines that because he is famous and has a large, dedicated following, one of his fans may take this as a call to arms and actually attempt the assassination. The America at Night host actually declared that this was Slim Shady's intention. (See how I've referred to Eminem by all three of his monikers... I'm such a fucking jack-off). Sorry guys, even if some fan did take the lyric this way and attempt an assassination, Eminem's no more culpable than Pac-Man when some video game nut loses it and guns down three kids dressed as Pinky, Blinky and Inky for Halloween. As our yellow hero says, "That kid was fucked up when I met him." And you'd have to be too, to kill anyone because Eminem told you to.

This brings me to the next point that O'Reilly and friends brought up. That we need to stop this type of free speech so that our children don't get hold of it. I've got a little bit of a different view on this point. You see, I think that maybe we should try a little thing that you may have read about somewhere, IT"S CALLED PARENTING YOU STUPID FUCKING MORON!!!. When kids are young, parents actually can, influence their children with respect to their belief system and value system. I know that this is a novel idea, but you might actually be able to see this in households where parents don't use the TV as a babysitter and just ignore their kids because they just had them "to get it over with." That's how you're going to end up with kids that would kill the president because "Eminem told me too." They're going to pay attention to the person that raised them and, if they watch nothing but MTV 24/7, who do you think raised them?

I grew up in a household where both of my parents dedicated a lot of time to raising me. They helped develop the values I have today and gave me the skills to make judgments, not based on rhetoric, but logic. When I was a kid, they regulated what I saw based on their values, and as I grew, they started letting me make the decisions and lo and behold, I kept a lot of their values. Yes, I did get hold of some things, as a teenager, that at least my mother wouldn't approve of (see Adam Sandler's first CD) but because of their parenting I know that while beating the shit out of a Spanish teacher, in theory, is funny, in reality it may be funny, but I shouldn't do it.

I guess my point is that if you parent, you can dictate what your kids see and hear and value. Yes, some stuff they may want that you don't want them to have, and they may hear some of it from friends (I always knew where to go to watch Child's Play despite my parents' anti-gore flick stance). But the fact that you are paying attention is going to have a positive and stabilizing effect. So if you don't want your children to have access to something, do your best to limit it and explain your views to them, it does work.

Finally, the last point that these hosts made was that there should be a Boycott of any store that sells Eminem CDs. Good idea. If you agree that Eminem is a foul-mouth, antichrist, boycott. If you want to tell him that declaring that he wants the president dead is wrong, boycott. But protesting is all you can do. This isn't illegal and it sure as hell shouldn't be! In addition, here's an idea: get off the "liberals'" backs for protesting against things that they don't like if you're calling for the same thing. It looks a little less hypocritical.

Ok, I've run out of steam now, but I wanted to end it with this thought. Marshall Mathers is brilliant. Dumb as rocks in some ways, but still brilliant (or he could be like Bush and the people he surrounds himself with are brilliant). This song is supposedly from a (possibly forthcoming) EP entitled "Straight from the Lab." Now record companies, traditionally don't promote EPs as the major cash isn't made in that arena. So how do you get publicity for an un promoted album? Maybe, leak a controversial track and let the conservative assholes that are pissed off promote it for you. Sounds like a good idea to me to. In fact, I put the ETP guarantee on the fact that if this ever comes out, the sales will go through the roof in part thanks to the religious right. I reinforce this fact by stating that, even with all of my musical wisdom, I wasn't aware of this until Friday, but now I plan on buying a copy (in addition to getting the downloads available).