Currently, lethargy or writers block or blahblahblah <insert excuse here> prevents me from expanding these thoughts into semi-articulate articles, so here they are in basic form. Do with them what you will.
If children are the future then maybe we should stop setting them up for failure. Greed, corruption, and general selfishness finish the job that shitty parenting started. This is my “College is a sham” rant getting started, or maybe its a “lack of parenting skills in those most likely to breed rapidly” rant. Either way, look for a full version in the future. But for now, read this all too true article on Consumerist.
Bugs are horrible invaders from the outside. These evil menaces break into your house uninvited and creep around like ninjas. It’s unsettling, and I will napalm my house as frequently as necessary to make sure they stay out.
That song Reach Out (I’ll Be There) by the Four Tops…. Yeah, that’s a Jesus song. Seriously, listen to it. But instead of some lame love song, think of it as a church song. It’s better than most hymns and every time I hear it play at work it makes me smile. Almost makes up for not playing any Christmas songs that mention *gasp* Jesus.
Which brings me to my next grievance…
Christmas. What a sad joke. I’m sure all of Heaven weeps with the travesty we’ve created. This deserves a full article, and it will get one. I don’t even call it Christmas anymore. It’s Greedmas. That’s what we worship now. Greed. Don’t believe me? Tell me why we had “holiday merchandise” out in July. Tell me why a multitude of working class people have to put up with adult temper tantrums because little Susie HAS TO HAVE A TICKLE ME F$%#ING ELMO OR CHRISTMAS WILL BE RUINED.
Bosses suck. Seriously. How do some of these people get promoted? Heartless, evil, incompetent and pointlessly cruel. Were you always like this, or did the evil corporations grind you down and suck out your humanity through years of “leadership retreats” and SOP memos?
…and by you I might mean me. Sometimes lyrics come screaming out of the speaker, and regardless of the other words that surround them they cause an emotional reaction. The following songs contain lyrics that shine a light on job dissatisfaction.
Specifically, my job dissatisfaction. These are 5 songs that play everyday on my workplace music system. Here’s to being a disgruntled employee!
Piano Man by Billy Joel
Offending lyric: But there’s someplace that he’d rather be
He says, “Bill, I believe this is killing me.”
As the smile ran away from his face
“Well I’m sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place”
Rocket Man by Elton John
Offending lyric: It’s just my job five days a week
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Offending lyric: They let you dream just to watch ‘em shatter
You’re just a step on the boss-man’s ladder
But you got dreams he’ll never take away
You’re in the same boat with a lotta your friends
Waitin’ for the day your ship’ll come in
‘n’ the tide’s gonna turn and it’s all gonna roll your way
Let’s be honest though. This whole song is about being unhappy with your job.
Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees
Offending lyric: Life goin’ nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin’ nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin’ alive.
Footloose by Kenny Loggins
Offending lyric: I been working so hard
Keep punching my card
Eight hours, for what?…
You’re yearning, burning for some
Somebody to tell you
That life ain’t passing you by
I’m trying to tell you
It will if you don’t even try
Notable mention: Disqualified for not actually being played at my workplace
Take this job and shove it by Johnny Paycheck
What songs sum up your feelings about work? Are you one of these mythical creatures that love their job? Is your list better than mine? Share in the comments.
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” ~Dr. Seuss
I know someone who speaks in a false accent. At least we’re all pretty sure she’s faking, because every now and then it vanishes entirely and she sounds like a bland mid-western. No one is sure why she tries to pass herself as a prim Brit. Maybe she thinks it makes her seem more important, or special, but it manages only to make her look silly. She’s trying too hard to be someone she isn’t.
While I hope none of you are faking an accent, we all wear social masks from time to time. We pretend to be something that isn’t quite true to fit in with others. We conform to what we think others want us to be, and we hide our true self for fear that we would be rejected. And lets face it… sharing yourself with others openly, honestly and being rejected…. sucks.
So we project false traits or persona’s to protect ourselves. Many times we have several different persona’s that we wear in different circumstances. We repress opinions that might offend others, or smile when we really don’t mean it, and unfortunately in our society, we have to.
It’s unlikely you’d have a successful job interview if you were truly yourself. Showing up in pajamas without combing your hair isn’t going to impress anyone. So you dress up, you look nicer than you would for a night of playing Smash Bros with your friends. When the interviewer asks you what your greatest weakness is you have some cookie cutter response like “I work too hard, I’m a workaholic.” When the truth is “I procrastinate too much and most of the time I’ve finished a project minutes before the deadline.”
Social masks are a necessary evil. I don’t think you’ll lose your identity by wearing nice clothes to impress an interviewer, or laughing at a joke you don’t think is funny. Hopefully you can recognize yourself in your masks. At the core, your values and personality should still exist. Hopefully, you haven’t abandoned too much of who you are just to fit in.
Hopefully you aren’t from Iowa pretending to be British.
It never ceases to frustrate me how many people in “leadership” positions penalize the people who work hardest for them. Why disparage those who work for you? Does that ever work? What could you possibly be thinking when you so diligently set out to destroy morale of everyone around you?
But the question that I most want to ask bad bosses and leaders is: Have you never seen a movie?
Or read a story? Tv even? Seriously. It’s really irritating to see such blatant ignorance. The tyrant always loses.
Does anyone ever root for the heartless tyrant?
Lets look at the well known story Robin Hood.
The sheriff of Nottingham is evil, mean, pretty much without redeemable qualities whatsoever. His greed and selfishness are undeniable. But above all, he treats everyone around him like dirt. He yells, he screams, he blames others for his mistakes. Nothing is ever good enough, all he sees is failure in his people. As a result, he fails. His soldiers and men fear him, but they don’t respect him. They work for money, or for lack of options, but they are anything but loyal. Belittled, broken people will do just enough to stay off the radar. When no one is looking, productivity ceases. The sheriff stands around ordering people to do his dirty work and, at the end of the day, you can’t expect people to do things for you, that you wouldn’t do yourself.
Whereas Robin’s men are loyal to the death. He treats his people as equals, he is kind and obviously a generous person. People are inspired by his leadership to the point that the very idea of Robin Hood is what has power, the man is no longer necessary. Robin Hood stands side by side with those who follow him, fighting and bleeding and sacrificing as much if not more of himself… and that is why he always wins.
Inspiration is a far stronger motivator than fear. Fear is temporary. Inspiration has a life of its own.
So again, why do “leaders”, “managers”, people in charge resort to acting like tyrants?
More importantly…..how do these people get promoted in the first place?
If you are a particularly observant reader you may have noticed that there have been few changes over the weekend. The most obvious is the color scheme. We’ve changed it up from the brown to this tranquil blue. The brown hues did work thematically, but weren’t very eye pleasing.
In addition I added an article slider at the top that will rotate through some recent posts.
Finally, the categories have been updated to fit the direction my writing has taken, which hopefully will be a little less random. On second thought…no promises there.
This week I will finish tweaking the design and colorization, re-work the about page and give a further break down of the new categories.
Hopefully no one violently despises the new look, but I’m open to feedback.
Do you like the new colors? Do you miss the thematic coffee colors? Love the article slider? The comment box is just below, waiting for your opinion.
I try to keep a Gratitude Journal, though many days I fail to use it. I forget about it, or am too tired (lazy) to pick it up and write. I think gratitude is important in trying to maintain a positive outlook. Try to be thankful for small things as well as big blessings in your life and you’ll find yourself more content with what you already have.
With that in mind I’d like to take the time today to thank readers of this blog for linking to Not Enough Coffee from their own blog or on Facebook, re-tweeting links for articles, mentioning @enoughcoffee in a Follow Friday and just general support.
As always, thanks to my friends and family for love, support, comments and link sharing!
Thanks to:
Awesome blogs you should check out, who were kind enough to link here.
My random and awesome co-workers who frequently inspire article ideas and listen to me ramble on until a workable thought is formed. I’ll not name names, (to protect the innocent) but you know who you are.
Jon of Awesome By Default- who helped me learn WordPress and all the shenanigans that are involved in getting a site running and gave me a place to start writing again.
If I have forgotten anyone, I apologize. If you’ll just let me know in the comments how awesome you are I will edit and rectify the situation immediately.
This is a Holiday weekend/Monday morning cop out, but it made me giggle with idiotic glee, so enjoy. Happy 4th of July. Hope you didn’t have a fireworks malfunction.
Yesterday I free form ranted about the lameness of the ever controlling, ever psychotic Edward Cullen. At the end I left you with this little gem:
Edward Cullen is an allegory for Heroin.
Bella is a tragic drug addict who eventually overdoses. Lets look at some of the classic signs of drug addiction.
Feeling that you have to use the drug regularly: This sums up Bella’s feeling towards Edward pretty accurately. She gets nervous when he’s out of sight. Anytime he disappears for an afternoon she spends the time wallowing in whiny self pity.
Feeling that you need the drug to deal with your problems: She pretty much abandons all idea of a future without him. She is unable to make any choices without Edward’s approval. Anytime anything happens she has to consult her drug for answers.
Focusing more and more time and energy on getting and using the drug: Face it. All of Bella’s time and energy revolve around finding ways to spend more time with her drug.
Other symptoms include, isolation, impaired judgment, panic, depression ect.
So, basically if you wanted to describe someone with a drug problem, just describe Bella Swan. She constantly lies to her father and to a lessor extent her mother. She has no friends outside of Edward’s family. This isn’t romance, its addiction.
The entirety of New Moon is Bella going through a LONG drawn out detox. When the movie shows Bella sitting in that chair while the months pass, I see that creepy detox scene from Trainspotting with the baby on the ceiling. I’m serious. Its the same thing, pathetic screams and all.
compare to…
After Edward leaves and Bella goes through detox, she starts to get her shit together again. She still harbors some suicidal tendencies, but she is forming a semi- normal bond with a long time friend. Until she goes back in for another hit. She becomes a desperate addict again and it kills her. Yes Bella is eventually overcome with so much stupidity that she overdoses on Edward.
This is a story that only holds a shred of romanticism because it is told from the perspective of the junkie. Of course a junkie will tell you heroin is awesome, they’re a friggin junkie! Told from, perhaps, her father’s perspective this entire saga becomes a very sad tale of a girl who couldn’t just say no to drugs. So if you drop away the angst and the prepubescent glamorization, we have a bland, lifeless, boring girl who gets tangled up in drugs and dies as a result. Yes. Yes I see why everyone is obsessed with this. makes perfect sense to me now….ugh.
Can we collectively stop making this “character” a role model? She has no redeemable qualities. Twilight is a terrible example of everything. Relationships, growing up, decision making…. even the writing….everything is just awful.
Please J.K. Rowling, write some more books now so we can leave Stephanie Meyer far far behind us.
For an awesome f-bomb filled synopsis of the last book proceed to this link.
Ok, I’ll admit that title might be a bit extreme, but Twilight is seriously misleading and damaging to a person’s perspective on relationships.
I wrote a little about my dislike for the scourge of literature that is the Twilight Saga when the teaser trailer for Eclipse first hit the internet, but now that every other Tweet or Facebook status update I read is about this stupid movie, I feel I can stay silent no longer!
They are awful books and its horrifying that little girls are idolizing them. Though I really wish it weren’t the case, I have read all 4 books, each a bigger train wreck than the one before. I kept hoping that the worst was behind me. Maybe the end was worth all this ridiculous melodrama, but no. Nothing of value ever popped up, it just kept getting worse.
Bella and Edward have, maybe, the most unhealthy relationship ever. The relationship is a classic example of abuse. One could argue that his controlling behavior is all in Bella’s best interest and within the confines of the story they’d have a case. A weak case, but there is some evidence to support such a thing.
When listening to someone insist that Edward’s controlling (psychotic) nature is only for clumsy Bella’s benefit I can’t help but think she’s trading her practically absent biological father for a over-protective supernatural one.
It is outside the confines of the story that Twilight has danger. This poorly written series has become a cultural phenomenon. Little girls, teens, grown ass women are idolizing Edward and Bella as if this is the perfect example of what relationships should be. If this is what a relationship should be like, then I guess sign me up for an Ice pick lobotomy RIGHT NOW.
He constantly keeps her from seeing a childhood friend to the point where he disables her car. He encourages her to lie to her father, repeatedly. He “nonchalantly” mentions that if she leaves him that he will kill himself. It goes on and on. If you want a good list of the examples of controlling behavior I09 had a nice article about it
But no, I get off topic….control is not the real issue at hand. My point is that…..
Edward Cullen is an allegory for Heroin.
This got a lot longer than I’d planned so more on that tomorrow….
Currently, lethargy or writers block or blahblahblah <insert excuse here> prevents me from expanding these thoughts into semi-articulate articles, so here they are in basic form. Do with them what you will.
![cat and birdies bento [explored]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4270807168_1db23eec89.jpg)
