Category: Rants

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Ms. Manners asks How Rude are you?

How rude are you when commenting on someone’s blog, or on an article you’ve read?

I remember some of the FLAME Wars that would erupt on the IRC channels. Those would get downright vicious and sometimes so brutal the IRC channel would be killed because people simply got tired of reading one venomous message after another.

I’ve seen Flame emails start and persist for DAYS at some companies where I’ve worked.

The best of these usually revolved around someone accidentally sending a message to “ALL” then all hell would break loose.

Often some “Kind” soul who knew much better than anyone else how the email system was to be used, volunteered to tutor the miscreant who dared to send to ALL.

I actually looked forward to these events because they were a great way to figure out who in the company to avoid at all costs. I mean if people are wrapped so tightly that they over-react to a simple mistake, it’s probably best that I not interact with them EVER.

The funniest part of these flame wars was that inevitably the “Kind Hearted” superior soul would chastise the miscreant and would do it BY REPLYING TO ALL.

This would lead to a furball where a bunch of other people would get really snippy and hostile. Particularly if they were part of the effete corporate Blackberry class. Apparently, the folks the company provided with Blackberries were simply TOO important to turn the machine off when they went to bed.

The strangest part of the intra-corporate flame war is that there is no anonymity.

A corporate directory will tell you exactly who someone is and who they work for. And yet all sense of decorum would fly right out the window.

At one company, the CEO sent a message to ALL that said simply, “This is the last email about this subject, the next one of you that hits REPLY ALL is fired!”

I’m sure some idiot hit REPLY ALL after the CEOs message.

If people in a corporate setting where there is no anonymity are willing to flame each other publicly I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the verbal violence we see when people can comment anonymously.

I used to think that rude comments and flame wars were a function of the “newness” of the media being used. All of us have sent one of those ill consid

Angry old woman 1

ered emails at least once. Usually we learn

Lately, I’ve been reading lots of blogs, and newspapers online lately. People not only HAVEN’T changed, I think they’ve gotten worse.

A blogger that I read with some frequency posted a very eloquent article recently about this issue.

His blog describes events in his life. These events are in his past, EVEN if the event he writes about happened only two hours ago.

He’s apparently received highly caustic comments regarding his life choices, relationships, and sexual proclivities. People feel the need to sit in judgement of him while they’re reading HIS blog where he’s voluntarily sharing his life with the world. It’s not like these folks don’t know what they’re going to read about. They’re not being coerced in any way to read what he has to say.

This blows my mind!

I’ve occasionally opened my mouth metaphorically in newspaper or blog comment sections. I have also attempted to refute some of the most hateful statements others made.

Most recently, I opened my mouth on a newspaper in Miami. The article was about Marine kiss in Hawaii. I was astounded at the things people thought were appropriate to say. Then as I read further, I couldn’t help myself… I opened my mouth. Several people took offense at what I has to say and I responded politely to their concerns.

I’ve been wondering lately if this really is getting worse or if its my perception.

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GET A FUCKING CLUE AMERICA!

This society is increasingly becoming what can only be characterized as nothing less than a Theocracy.

Our politicians are pandering to this small group of venomous, treasonous, despicable people, at the exclusion of more mainstream centrist positions.

Venomous due to the vitriol spewing from their mouths in a never ending stream.

Treasonous because they seek to create exceptions in the constitution and bill of rights that exclude specific groups.

Despicable because they seek to hide the true nature of freedom from many today, and all of our children and grand children tomorrow.

And while many of you sit thinking “I’m not a Woman, Single, or Gay, this doesn’t matter to me”

SingleBoot2 hiRez

This Theocracy isn’t just about oppressing one group of people. This group is about oppressing everyone with differing beliefs.

Take a very good hard look at the recent spate of proposed reproductive controls. Women were in the NOT TOO distant past considered chattel. If just a few of these reproductive controls gain ground due to religious fervor, then we could easily be on the slippery slope to “the good ‘ol days again“

What happens when for religious reasons your company refuses to allow your insurance company to pay for birth control?Your wife ends up pregnant at least once every 18 months.

How about refusing to rent to you because you’re not a member of their church in good standing? “Oh, you’re going to have to rent from the Lutheran down the road a piece”

Removing anti-discrimination protection only works if every single member of a community is treated equally AND enjoys equal protection under existing law.

We know that isn’t the norm. Differing ethnicities, genders, cultures and sexual orientations fought to put anti-discrimination law on the books BECAUSE they didn’t enjoy equal protection.

A womans right to choose. A womans right to vote. African Americans right to marry. A single womans right to rent or own property. A gay persons right to live un-molested. All these rights came about because someone fought to codify them in law. Technically these rights existed already but abuse and narrowing definitions of the Class that enjoyed these freedoms forced legal precedents that resulted in law that specifically and unequivocally said for example; “A Woman may VOTE.”

Right now a brutal, cruel Theocracy is trying to undermine the freedoms that we all are entitled to.

Kansas and Arizona are two states where this Theocracy is winning

Few people ever think about how discriminatory laws might be used to affect them until they find themselves out of a job because their boss saw a picture of their 3rd boyfriend or girlfriend in a month on Facebook.

How about being fired because your girlfriend tweets “God, he was such a gentle lover, despite his large size, I sooo want to sleep with him again.“

Guess what? You’ve both sinned in the eyes of the High Minded religious wonders.

You’ve committed Adultery! The Taliban in Afghanistan will stone a woman for that. That’s after all, the Old Testament punishment right? “The wages of sin is death“

The point I’m belaboring is this:

When you allow “Moral” judgements from Religion to dictate the law of the land. You’ve destroyed everything that the founding fathers sought to create.

It wasn’t freedom of religion… It was freedom FROM Religion if that is your choice.

Thanks to Michael in Norfolk for the priceless image of the boot with Uncle Sam.

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I am sick to death of the hate

Why the fuck is it so difficult for the average Joe to wrap their paramecium brain around the concept that Gay people are strong?

Lets think about this shall we?

Gay people, once they realize they are in fact Gay have to overcome fear, persecution, and outright hatred, just so they can live their lives honestly and honorably.

If they are married when they realize they’re gay. They face legal and financial ruin.

In some states they may be forbidden from seeing their children.

In other states they face discrimination in business and housing that is sanctioned by the state. See the recent rulings in Kansas.

Gay people become “HALF CITIZENS” simply by admitting they are gay and yet still have to pay the FULL measure of TAXES.

Gay people still have to face the ridicule that is sanctioned, and in some cases demanded by the rules of the society.

It’s OK to publicly joke about gay people.

Apology after apology notwithstanding, public figures still get away with joking about gay people. Public figures do this in ways that would never be countenanced by the society if the joke was about Black, Latin or any other group of people.

Would Carson Daly have even THOUGHT about saying something like “The Jet Blue Pilot is lucky the passengers of that plane weren’t Black, if they were he’d have been robbed and killed instead of just subdued.” NOPE! Why?

Because it is unacceptable! Well folks it’s just as unacceptable to say gay people are cowards.

Even after dealing with the shit listed above… You still have to find a comfortable place within the gay community.

The Gay community is a place where youth is worshipped and in many cases age is isolating. This community actively seeks to homogenize it’s members.

I’ve met gay men that won’t admit in public things like;

They like sports

They can fix a car

They don’t identify with pride parades.

They’re Republicans (There are Personals ads that commonly say no republicans)

They own or like shooting guns

They like hunting

They’re religious

It takes more than a bit of courage to be gay, admit you’re gay, and build a decent life in spite of the obstacles set before you.

So before you make a stupid comment about gay people being cowards. Stop for just a moment and consider, could you take the heat every fucking day of your life?

 

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I’ve been looking for a job.

I’m looking for a job.

This already stressful endeavor is made all that much harder in the Southern California region because of intense competition.

No, Not competition among job seekers. It’s from Competition among Job Placement agencies.

Yes, Job placement companies have muddied things so badly that in applying for a job in my field and then seeing another position and applying for it, can result in my being disqualified from both positions.

Why? Because what appeared as two distinct positions were in fact the same position.

The Placement agencies take on things is this; Since I applied through two different agencies I’m obviously trying to create a problem about who gets the placement fee.

This hasn’t happened just once, it’s happened a number of times.

It PISSES me off!

Let me be clear.

If I apply for a position through a damn headhunter I’m pretty sure that I am qualified for the position. I take the time to fill out the headhunters little survey, I answer all the questions, I play their little game. I’ll write a cover letter, and make sure that I submit my resume to the fucking headhunter in Word format so the lazy fuck doesn’t have to do anything except press the send button on their computer.

Then I’ll keep searching the want ads. If I see another position and that position is listed in a different city with a different job description, I’ll apply for the second position in the same way. Even if the position is listed by another agency.

I’m looking for a job. That means that I need to get my resume in front of as many hiring managers as I can.

I don’t need the added complication of having to pander to some fucked up placement agency who isn’t going to do SHIT to market me to ANYONE that I don’t point to and say, “I’m a match for this open requisition”.

After I’ve applied for several positions, a few days go by and then I get either a nasty phone call or I get a hostile email saying that I’m an evil fuckwad and my resume has been pulled from client consideration. When the screaming stops, I ask “why?”

It’s usually then that I discover that one or both of the fucking headhunters were inaccurate in listing the city that the job was in.

Often these MORONS will list the address of the job placement agency INSTEAD of the actual city that the hiring company is in. In Southern California this means that you might be looking at a commute that increases from 45 minutes to an HOUR and 45 minutes. Aside from the commuting issue this makes it impossible for someone looking for a job not to innocently apply for the same position. But the agency believes they’re doing you a favor and most choose to be assholes even in the face of facts.

Usually these so called “professionals” have changed the description the hiring company sent, into something almost, but not completely different. Often the description is re-worded through a filter of shitty 3rd world cesspool English which not only misrepresents the position but serves to obfuscate any similarity between two different headhunters ads.

BUT I’m the fucker! I’m the one that is trying to be dishonest and cause problems. Yeah well FUCK YOU!

I’ve decided not to apply to ANY position that is represented by a “Job Placement Agency” if I can  help it.

After all why the hell should these bastards get 15% for doing absolutely nothing? I prefer to have that 15% as a negotiation tool.

Below is  a funny example of the sloppiness and stupidity I’m experiencing. Here is an email solicitation from one of these jerks.

I’ve redacted most of the personally identifiable information just so I don’t find myself in legal hot water.

 

Do you have Mobile Devices OR Embedded devices experience

Obviously, my name isn’t “Pcl III”.

If he’d actually read the contents of my resume he would KNOW already that I have the mobile testing experience that he’s requesting and the embedded testing experience that he’s looking for.

He’d also know my visa status and that I’m willing to relocate.

He also had an email address I haven’t used for anything in almost 6 years.

I’m not picking on Rob or his company per se. But this is the third fucked up email that they’ve sent me and the SECOND email after I got them on the phone and sent them updated information.

So it begs the question, just how efficient or real are these agencies?

A resume contains some sensitive information. By putting that information in the hands of people who obviously aren’t thinking do I expose myself to identity theft?

There are a couple of things that I need to point out.

I’m a suspicious fuck. Some might even think that I’m paranoid, so when I receive unsolicited emails I do look at the header information. Alternatively, if the email is something of no interest I just delete the email without ever opening it.

In this case since the email was about a job, I did verify that the email originated from a domain that was associated with a real company.

Rob, sorta screwed himself because he identified the company and the city that this requisition is for. Which means that I can go to the company web site and apply for the position directly. “Thanks Rob”

Since he’s not using my correct email, and thinks my name is Pcl I could apply for this position and dear ‘ol Rob will never be the wiser.

In the last five sentences of the email he makes a couple of grammatical errors that make me think Rob isn’t who he says he is. He signs his email with a typically American First and Last name. However upon further examination of the return email address in the signature line, I find rakumar@XXX.com is the “REAL” person who that would be receiving my response.

How am I supposed to feel about this?

Robs company has approached me demonstrating that they are perhaps not all that reputable.

They haven’t corrected the incorrect information they have on file about me even though they’ve been given the corrections and assured me that they would update their database.

They obviously aren’t reading the emails that they’re sending out. Which leads me to wonder how they’re perceived by the companies they’re presenting me to.

They have been untruthful about WHO I’m actually going to be dealing with.

Since their first contact is dishonest, what basis do I have to begin to believe that Robs’ company will be above board? Answer is NONE! That being said, I’m not responding to Rob, and I’ve placed his company domain name in my SPAMMER folder.

There are those who might say I’m over-reacting and I might be. Before you judge me too harshly please consider the following;

In a 30 year career, Only ONE headhunter has actually placed me in a permanent position.

Most of the placement agencies seem to hire disreputable kinds of people. Used car salesmen types come to mind.

In every job search, and especially those during economic turmoil the headhunters and placement agencies have been more of a hinderance than a help.

I’ve been told to write a cover letter, edit my resume, and write a justification for why I should be PRESENTED for a particular position by a supposedly honorable agency. The placement agent in this case used what I wrote as a justification for ANOTHER candidate. I know because that other candidate was a friend of mine. He got the job!

There is one headhunter that commonly sent emails to me which said, “You’re not a fit for this position. But pass this job description around to your friends who are…” That’s another guy that goes directly to the SPAM folder. He’s interesting because in the late ’90s and early 2000s he had his name on a building in the heart of Irvine, after 2005 his name disappeared and he’s now working for another agency as a recruiter. Karma sometimes is a wonderful thing.

If i’m going to be doing all the work anyway, I don’t want to get into a position where I’m negotiating away 15% of my annual salary just because some headhunter got his or her finger into the pie.

If you want a really scary view of todays headhunters, cruise over to Cybercoders. When you get to their web site start browsing jobs and on the left hand side to the screen you’ll be treated to a picture or pictures of the representative working to fill the position. Some of these photos are of professionals. Sadly a larger portion of these photos depict the representative in less than professional situations. I’m looking for a job, not a facebook date, and that’s exactly how the Cybercoders web site comes across. They’re another one that I typically won’t deal with. The exception being if the job is just cherry and I’m in a mood to put up with Cybercoders B.S.

Perhaps I’m just out of date… But I’d rather control who, how, and when someone receives my information. I’d prefer to have my resume placed in front of a hiring manager instead of having to be written to get past someone whose English proficiency isn’t above the 7th grade.

I’m funny about that kind of thing.

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I’m smoking hot. (Updated)

Smoking MfTD6 28802

Got Pissed off the other day (I know what else is new?)

In this case I was first annoyed, then irritated, then flat out pissed off and I really wasn’t sure why.

Part of it was that I was watching Television. (Almost always assured to make me mad)

Then it hit me… it’s the never-ending series of anti smoking commercials that play hourly in Los Angeles.

The first series of commercials were annoying…

They almost always showed a White person smoking. The first one showed a White man smoking in his apartment dressed in a wife beater reading the sports page. Then they follow the cigarette smoke through the vents in the building to another apartment where like an ominous demonic fog it surrounds a child of indeterminate (but clearly not white) ethnicity.

This commercial is an attempt to demonize cigarette smoking but it also does a wonderful job of re-enforcing the image of  a stereotypical White man. The subtext is that the White man is evil, he doesn’t care about who he hurts and he’s in cahoots with the demonic cigarette companies to kill all minorities.

This one annoyed me on a couple of levels.

A) The portrayal of the White man. If a similar stereotypical portrayal of a Black man, or Mexican man were to be shown on TV, there would be screams of racism from the ALCU, NAACP, LA RAZA, Jesse Jackson, Lou Sharpton, and god only knows who else. But for some reason White stereotypes are allowed. Just as gay stereotypes and gay people are still allowed to be denigrated on stage in comedy routines or in your local bar as a matter of common conversation. (You can’t have a person of Polish origin as the butt of a joke anymore but change Pollack to Fag and all the sudden it’s ok.)

B) Typically vents aren’t directly connected between apartments so it’s unrealistic to portray that smoke is going to move so easily between dwellings. You’d have the smoke cycled into a furnace or A/C unit so while I’m sure there would still be some particulates identifiable from the cigarette, I’m equally sure that you’d have far more pollutants from cars and busses driving by on the street outside the apartments. Those pollutants actually being sucked in by the A/C or Furnace air intakes.

The second commercial in the series shows a white woman, (although in later iterations of the commercial she is less white. It looks like her skin tone was changed digitally)  standing on her balcony smoking a cigarette. In this one we’re treated to the same demonic smoke effect. This time the smoke is  flowing down into the adjacent apartment where we see it pause over an ethnic baby in a crib. Once over the baby the smoke takes on a claw like menacing appearance. The tag line was something like “there are some people that can’t escape cigarette smoke”

This second commercial was as annoying as the first because anyone who smokes knows that smoke typically rises and dissipates.

Yeah… I used to smoke. I finally quit smoking in about 2000. It was tough, but the combination of beginning a workout routine and drinking water like a fiend really helped me make it permanent. I’d quit before for a couple of years but then I was in a bar, with a friend and one of his Benson & Hedges looked really good. That was when I found out the true meaning of “Slippery Slope“.

I still miss one aspect of smoking…

Images

It’s that post fuck cigarette. I miss laying in the dark an ashtray perched on my sweaty chest and the rush of the first drag from a cigarette. I miss the glow of the end of the cigarette and knowing that my partner & I are going to fuck some more and I’m going to get off a couple more times before we crash for the night.

But I don’t miss it enough to start smoking again,  while I can write about it fondly I like breathing easily better.

The most recent set of commercials from LAQuits (Los Angeles Department of Health) are the commercials that really got me fired up and took me from annoyed… to PISSED off.

These commercials show people with emphysema. They’re on oxygen and they’re wheezing and clearly in a great deal of distress. I don’t know if these are real people or actors and I don’t care.

I find these commercials offensive in so many ways I can’t see straight. If I had to pick the top reason for my annoyance it’s this…

Lucky strike usa

I visited my Father in the hospital when he was very much like the people being portrayed. I loved my Father, but I don’t appreciate watching TV and being taken back 20 years to my Fathers death, every 16 minutes.

I watch local TV for the News, and some entertainment (4 shows)… The rest of the time I’m watching DVDs or Netflix. So it’s surprising that a commercial like this would rise above my annoyance threshold.

The other night it seemed like every other commercial was of these people suffering for their next breath. All I could see was my Dad, lying in that hospital bed and knowing that he was going to  die soon.

Oh I’m not asking for pity. Nor would my Father. He smoked and he drank, and most importantly… My Father accepted responsibility for his own actions and the consequences of those actions. My father smoked pretty much every day of his adult life, and possibly well before he became an adult. He smoked Lucky Strikes, to this day I can’t see a package of Luckies without thinking of my Dad.

Yeah, I agree Smoking is bad. I say that as an ex-smoker myself, But… and this is a very important but. I believe that each and every one of us should be allowed to choose to smoke or not to. Moreover all of us must accept responsibility for our choices.

I think putting offensive ads like this on TV doesn’t put people off smoking… I think these shock tactic ads serve no purpose other than to offend some of us, and add to the desensitization of the rest of the population.
If, as it’s been postulated seeing violence on TV makes us more violent then doesn’t it follow seeing suffering on TV makes us less compassionate?

For those of you outside the Los Angeles area…

The small cities that make up LA have become little gestapo headquarters.  You can’t smoke in a bar, on the beach, within 1000 feet of a public entrance or exit to a building. There have been moves to prohibit smoking in apartments, and even within the confines of YOUR OWN HOME in certain cities.

Is this freedom? NO… This is a socialist state.

This is a small group of people deciding “For the greater good… we appoint ourselves messiah and will enact laws to protect you poor ignorant savages from yourselves.”

This kind of thinking is offensive for a whole bunch of reasons. The biggest deals with my belief in minor things like the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. I know these are foreign and archaic concepts to a lot of people, but they’re important to me.

I went to the LAQuits website. I was going to post a simple little message asking them to stop airing the latest commercials and explain why… That was when I found that their web site didn’t even have a way to contact them.

And then… I GOT REALLY MAD! Which led to my writing this blog. I needed to get it out of my system before I tracked down the numbers for the LA County Department of Health. Where I plan to express my concerns without being emotional about it…

Hopefully!

—– UPDATE —–

After writing a polite letter explaining that I was offended and why… The Los Angeles County Health Department hasn’t responded (4 weeks now) . Not that I’m at all surprised. After all I’m just another evil White Man trying to oppress someone, somewhere, right?

Apparently I’m not alone in being offended. When I tweeted about my annoyance over these adds There were a few responses expressing the same feelings. These were folks that like me didn’t want to relive their loved ones passing.

Of course these anti smoking commercials are “For the Greater Good” So it doesn’t matter that people like me just aren’t watching TV anymore. I’ve seriously been considering discontinuing my satellite service for a variety of other reasons anyway. Being terrorized every fucking time I sit down to watch TV is just another reason.

Those of you in the rest of the country, are soon going to know exactly what I’m talking about. Apparently, the Federal Government is going to spend 54 million on a nationwide campaign. I figure that should help KILL the rest of public television in this country.