So, today at work we are having the annual Thanksgiving pot-luck. This is not held at our corporate office, but rather at our Virginia Square (OVS) office, where I started out, and enjoy visiting from time to time. Since I was bringing funeral potatoes (per request, mind you), I decided to drive in and spend the day at OVS rather than ride metro to Rosslyn with said potatoes, then have to trapse them back again.
I get here, make my rounds, and am getting settled in, what what to my wonderin eyes should appear than flashing lights on all of the fire alarms and the most obnoxious chirping sound coming from them. Luckily I am on the third floor here rather than the 31st.
I guess this means that I'm not due for another fire drill for some time now. In my humble opinion, fire drills can be fun, but there is a toss-up between where they are more fun. At corporate, you have to go down 31 flights of stairs, but you hear the soothing voice of a talking fire alarm. At OVS, you only have one-tenth of the stairs, but you nearly go deaf from the blairing, shrill chirps emitted from fire alarms. But in both, the give you a few minutes out of the office.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Things that Must Go!! (11-19-2007)
Hi all,
I've been out of town on travel for the past week (I'll write about that soon), and as such didn't blog much. However, I am back now, and would feel terribly amiss if I skipped out on my only weekly feature on it's third week. So here goes, the following must go:
1). Christmas music before Thanksgiving (FYI this was on my list before I heard Radio From Hell's)--It's bad enough that we are innundated by the stuff for the whole month of December. Now, it seems that Christmas music is being played earlier and earlier. The day after Halloween does not signify the offical beginning of the Christmas season. The thirty or so days from Thanksgiving to Christmas are plenty of days to celebrate. Maybe I am jaded from working in retail for four Christmases, but I do believe this over-abundance of Yule-tide joy must go.
2). People who still drive around with Bush/Cheney '04 stickers on their cars. I can understand the Kerry-Edwards folks a little more 'cause it's not hard to wonder how things could have gone differently in the past three years but they should get over it too. However, the people who were proud Bush supporters last election who don't at least question him enough to remove the stickers from their cars must be oblivious to what has happened to this country over the past seven years. If you can't get rid of that sticker, you #1, should pull your head out of the sand, and #2 you must go.
3). The watery juice on mustard and ketchup. I've heard it referred to Condirrhea. Eww. It's gross. I don't think that I should have to shake up the bottle to not have a soggy sandwich or hamburger. There must be someone out there who can invent something to rid the world of this nasty stuff.
4). People who come to the door, and rather than knock, say "knock-knock"--Just knock on the bloody door. It never really bothered my until my office neighbor pointed it out. Now it drives me nuts, and as such, it must go.
5). Men who wear baseball caps with business suits. I never noticed this in Utah, but now, everyday, on my ride to work on the Metro, I see multiple men in business suits heading into the District. When I see one of these guys with a ball cap on, I just want to rip it off and throw it out the door. I don't really know why, but I don't like it. I think these guys look like weenies, as such they must go.
I've been out of town on travel for the past week (I'll write about that soon), and as such didn't blog much. However, I am back now, and would feel terribly amiss if I skipped out on my only weekly feature on it's third week. So here goes, the following must go:
1). Christmas music before Thanksgiving (FYI this was on my list before I heard Radio From Hell's)--It's bad enough that we are innundated by the stuff for the whole month of December. Now, it seems that Christmas music is being played earlier and earlier. The day after Halloween does not signify the offical beginning of the Christmas season. The thirty or so days from Thanksgiving to Christmas are plenty of days to celebrate. Maybe I am jaded from working in retail for four Christmases, but I do believe this over-abundance of Yule-tide joy must go.
2). People who still drive around with Bush/Cheney '04 stickers on their cars. I can understand the Kerry-Edwards folks a little more 'cause it's not hard to wonder how things could have gone differently in the past three years but they should get over it too. However, the people who were proud Bush supporters last election who don't at least question him enough to remove the stickers from their cars must be oblivious to what has happened to this country over the past seven years. If you can't get rid of that sticker, you #1, should pull your head out of the sand, and #2 you must go.
3). The watery juice on mustard and ketchup. I've heard it referred to Condirrhea. Eww. It's gross. I don't think that I should have to shake up the bottle to not have a soggy sandwich or hamburger. There must be someone out there who can invent something to rid the world of this nasty stuff.
4). People who come to the door, and rather than knock, say "knock-knock"--Just knock on the bloody door. It never really bothered my until my office neighbor pointed it out. Now it drives me nuts, and as such, it must go.
5). Men who wear baseball caps with business suits. I never noticed this in Utah, but now, everyday, on my ride to work on the Metro, I see multiple men in business suits heading into the District. When I see one of these guys with a ball cap on, I just want to rip it off and throw it out the door. I don't really know why, but I don't like it. I think these guys look like weenies, as such they must go.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
11-12-2007 Things That Must Go
Today's things that must go are the following:
1). Spam--Not the emails (though they are annoying too), the ambiguous meat product. Actually all ambiguous meat products are quite scary. Well, there are some who really like Spam, so maybe it shouldn't go entirely. But, the worst part about Spam is that awful-looking jelly on the top. That is just vile. It must go!!
2). Manipulative emails--Everyone gets them from friends or co-workers, the type that push a political point or a religious agenda. The worst part about them is when they say something along the lines that "if you don't forward this to everyone you know..." either, you hate Jesus, you don't support our troops, or the terrorists have won and they are going to force us to marry people of the same gender. Sorry, I don't buy it. I think that I can love my country, or my Lord and Savior just as much much as the next guy without clogging up my friends' inboxes. However, people who know me and my political leanings have, on occasion, forwarded funny political emails to me, and I appreciate them from time to time.
3). Football Players with Long Hair Coming out the Back of Their Helmets--It just looks ridiculous. I always want someone to just grab those flowing locks of hair and just pull the guy down.
4). (Suggestion from a friend, but I support it) Grocery Store Discount Cards--They were fun at first, now every store has them. And, if you don't have one of your own, they will swipe the card that they have at every register for customers who don't have a card. It would save time and money and a lot of hassle if they would just do away with them and give me the freaking discount without my needing to have a huggin' card.
5). The "Obsession" with Brittney Spears--Sure she's a train wreck, but I don't need to hear about every minute detail of her life. She's trashy, and has a lot more money than I likely ever will have, so it kinda makes me smile to think that she's such a mess. But really, I would be fine to never hear anything about her again--positive or negative. But, she is living proof that you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl. The media's obsession with her must go!!!
And those are today's things that must go. Please provide comments and suggestions for future lists. On that note, I must go to sleep.
1). Spam--Not the emails (though they are annoying too), the ambiguous meat product. Actually all ambiguous meat products are quite scary. Well, there are some who really like Spam, so maybe it shouldn't go entirely. But, the worst part about Spam is that awful-looking jelly on the top. That is just vile. It must go!!2). Manipulative emails--Everyone gets them from friends or co-workers, the type that push a political point or a religious agenda. The worst part about them is when they say something along the lines that "if you don't forward this to everyone you know..." either, you hate Jesus, you don't support our troops, or the terrorists have won and they are going to force us to marry people of the same gender. Sorry, I don't buy it. I think that I can love my country, or my Lord and Savior just as much much as the next guy without clogging up my friends' inboxes. However, people who know me and my political leanings have, on occasion, forwarded funny political emails to me, and I appreciate them from time to time.
3). Football Players with Long Hair Coming out the Back of Their Helmets--It just looks ridiculous. I always want someone to just grab those flowing locks of hair and just pull the guy down.
4). (Suggestion from a friend, but I support it) Grocery Store Discount Cards--They were fun at first, now every store has them. And, if you don't have one of your own, they will swipe the card that they have at every register for customers who don't have a card. It would save time and money and a lot of hassle if they would just do away with them and give me the freaking discount without my needing to have a huggin' card.
5). The "Obsession" with Brittney Spears--Sure she's a train wreck, but I don't need to hear about every minute detail of her life. She's trashy, and has a lot more money than I likely ever will have, so it kinda makes me smile to think that she's such a mess. But really, I would be fine to never hear anything about her again--positive or negative. But, she is living proof that you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl. The media's obsession with her must go!!!
And those are today's things that must go. Please provide comments and suggestions for future lists. On that note, I must go to sleep.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Fire!!
Today at work, they had a mandatory fire drill. This is all good and well, but you may not know that I work on the 31st floor of my building. Sure, having the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in Arlington makes for some great views, including yesterday's sun-set, which was one of the prettiest that I have seen. However, when there's a fire drill, you can't use the elevator. So, we had to go down 31 flights of stairs. By the time we made it there, everyone was complaining that their legs felt like jell-o. That wasn't the worst, though. I was getting dizzy by going around and around. This is a picture from the bottom of my building looking up at the top after we all got out.
In my humble opinion, going down 31 flights of stairs is not fun, but I am certainly glad I wasn't like some of my female colleagues who were in 3 inch heels.
In my humble opinion, going down 31 flights of stairs is not fun, but I am certainly glad I wasn't like some of my female colleagues who were in 3 inch heels.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Vote for Lola
Hi All,
A friend of mine is having an online poll on her blog. She is looking for a name for her fantastic new Kitchen Aid Mixer. I believe it should be named Lola Falana, after the 60's and 70's dancer, singer, actress extraordinare (I really don't know who she is, but I like her name). I would appreciate your vote for that name. You can vote for and see a picture of Lola here. In my humble opinion, a mixer named Lola would be awesome!!
A friend of mine is having an online poll on her blog. She is looking for a name for her fantastic new Kitchen Aid Mixer. I believe it should be named Lola Falana, after the 60's and 70's dancer, singer, actress extraordinare (I really don't know who she is, but I like her name). I would appreciate your vote for that name. You can vote for and see a picture of Lola here. In my humble opinion, a mixer named Lola would be awesome!!
Electile Dysfunction
Okay, so the title's not original, nor is it all that classy, but it makes me smile a bit, so that's that.You see, Tuesday, November 6 was election day. And like all other off-year elections, there wasn't a lot going on. However, in the races of which I am aware, my Dems performed rather well.
Nationally, Mississippi's republican governor was easily re-elected (no big surprise there), but in Kentucky, the Democratic challenger unseated the republican governor. Could this mean anything for Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell? Here's hoping so. Those were probably two of the bigger races that were going on in the country (see, off-year elections are pretty boring).
However, on a local note, here in the Commonwealth of Virginia the entire State Assembly was up for re-election. What does this mean to me? Not a lot, considering I live in the Democratic bastion that is Fairfax County--more specifically "Falls Church" (in parenthesies because of the whole un-incorporated Fairfax County/Falls Church propper rigamorole), where opponents of the repug-type are hard to come by. However, there were key races in the State Senate that needed to be won by the Democrats to wrest control of the chamber from the reps., and they did it. They needed, and won four. There is a fifth that has not been decided yet since there is only a 90-vote difference, and there will likely be a recount. So now, my Dems have the governorship, and one of the houses of the State Assembly here in the Commonwealth--Hooray!
Since I am a native Utahn and was a student of Politcal Science, how could I possibly not mention all of the fun that happened in the Beehive State yesterday. Ralph Becker (D) trounced his opponent, Dave Buhler (r) in the race to become the next mayor of Salt Lake City--see Dave, people don't like you (click here if that doesn't make sense to you). I want to give a shout out to Bianca and Curtis and the other Young Dems who worked hard on the campaign, good job guys.
More importantly in Utah yesterday, the proposal to take money from public schools to give a tax break to parents who have their children in private schools went down in flames. The Voucher proposal was defeated in every county in the state.
I personally have been opposed to this since I heard about the bill that was in the legislature when I was an intern there in 2005. It's never made sense to me that taking money from schools would help them to improve. The bill finally passed the legislature in 2007 but the people of Utah, in their wisdom, did not want it.
My reasons for not liking the vouchers include (but are not limited to) these:
1). Vouchers will ultimately take dollars from public schools.
2). Private schools don't even require licensed teachers.
3). Vouchers are another tax-break for the wealthy.
4). Private schools are not required to accept all students, and as such, vouchers can leave many students behind.
5). (and very importantly) Public funds from vouchers would be going to private, religious institutions. That, is not constitutional, and would likely end up costing the state a lot of money in court costs.
So hooray!! Vouchers in Utah are dead (for now at least--just wait until the nasty pro-voucher people find a way to resurrect the issue). Of course I am not naive enough to believe that there isn't need for change in the public school system. In my humble opinion, however, vouchers are not the answer. Way to go Utah--voting progressivly for a change.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays--My List of Things That Must Go
Dear Readers,
I have been wanting to add a weekly feature to the blog for a while. I have seen others' blogs who have a "Wordless Wednesday," which I like, but I don't think I should do because I have seen it a couple of times, and fear that my adding it would make it cliche (sorry I don't know how to make accent marks here). Now don't you be thinking that this idea of having a pet peeves list titled "Things That Must Go" is a Darin original. No, I will give credit where credit is due. I am ripping the idea off from "The Radio From Hell Show" (Kerry, Bill and Gina, X96, KXRK, Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City). Their segment on the show happens every Wednesday, having the hosts' lists one week and a list from listeners the next week.
I decided to make it on Monday since that seems to be everyone's least favorite day of the workweek. Oh, and bare in mind that these will not exclusively be mine, but rather, I hope to have a conglomoration of various sources, including the aforementioned radio show whose podcast I listen to faithfully, friends and coworkers. I would invite anyone who wishes to add their things that must go to make a comment and I will try to incorporate them. So without any further ado, I give you my debut list of things that must go:
1) Mondays--As I previously mentioned, this is the least favorite day of the work week to many people. It means the weekend of fun and revelry are over, and we must return to our respecitve places of employment for 40+ more hours of hell. Let's face it, even if you love your job, everyone must admit that their secret wish is to be independently weathly, not having to dread the alarm at 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning. However, I do have to say, that if Monday wasn't the first day of the work week, we would all hate Tuesday. This brings me to number two...
2) Tuesdays--Tuesday, in my humble opinion, is the most worthless day of the week. It turns out that Monday usually ends up being a productive day, and it goes by rather quickly. Before you know it, it's already Tuesday. Three days of the week have something significant, Monday is the beginning of the week, Wednesday is hump day, and Friday is, well Friday. This leaves Tuesday and Thursday without any significance in the week--filler days really. Thurday is superior to Tuesday in that it is only a day away from Friday. Ergo, Tuesdays must go!
3) Toupees--Sorry men, you're not fooling anyone, except yourselves. If you don't have the self-respect to let nature take its course, you should get counseling. Speaking as one who is thinning up top, Deal With It!! Even a comb-over, as rediculous as comb-overs are, looks better than a man with a white, pencil-thin moustache wearing a (theoretically) perfectly-coiffed, oily-looking rug on his head. I saw that today on the Metro ride to work. I had to take a picture and I will post it later today, so check back.
4) People who say supposably--It's SUPPOSEDLY!! Oh, and it's ambulance, not amblience!
5) Oprah Winfrey--I hate her!! I work in the building that houses the local ABC affiliate for the Washington DC area. So when I was walking in, they were showing Good Morning America on the giant screen outside, and guess who was on--none other than Ms. Winfrey. It pissed me off instantly, just her air and arrogance that showed through. I think the reason why I don't like her is the same reason I heard a comedian once say she likes her: "She thinks she's Jesus." The woman seriously has delusions of grandeur (not to say that she doesn't do a lot of good things). I rememeber hearing her say very matter-of-factly "I always knew I was destined for greatness." I can't hardly stand her anymore. One last note is that I loved a line that I heard on an 80's sit-com when one character thought she saw a UFO, she said, "Airplanes aren't that thin, or that bright." To which another character responded, "neither is Oprah Winfrey, but it doesn't make her a UFO."
So, there they are, today's things that must go.
I have been wanting to add a weekly feature to the blog for a while. I have seen others' blogs who have a "Wordless Wednesday," which I like, but I don't think I should do because I have seen it a couple of times, and fear that my adding it would make it cliche (sorry I don't know how to make accent marks here). Now don't you be thinking that this idea of having a pet peeves list titled "Things That Must Go" is a Darin original. No, I will give credit where credit is due. I am ripping the idea off from "The Radio From Hell Show" (Kerry, Bill and Gina, X96, KXRK, Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City). Their segment on the show happens every Wednesday, having the hosts' lists one week and a list from listeners the next week.
I decided to make it on Monday since that seems to be everyone's least favorite day of the workweek. Oh, and bare in mind that these will not exclusively be mine, but rather, I hope to have a conglomoration of various sources, including the aforementioned radio show whose podcast I listen to faithfully, friends and coworkers. I would invite anyone who wishes to add their things that must go to make a comment and I will try to incorporate them. So without any further ado, I give you my debut list of things that must go:
1) Mondays--As I previously mentioned, this is the least favorite day of the work week to many people. It means the weekend of fun and revelry are over, and we must return to our respecitve places of employment for 40+ more hours of hell. Let's face it, even if you love your job, everyone must admit that their secret wish is to be independently weathly, not having to dread the alarm at 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning. However, I do have to say, that if Monday wasn't the first day of the work week, we would all hate Tuesday. This brings me to number two...
2) Tuesdays--Tuesday, in my humble opinion, is the most worthless day of the week. It turns out that Monday usually ends up being a productive day, and it goes by rather quickly. Before you know it, it's already Tuesday. Three days of the week have something significant, Monday is the beginning of the week, Wednesday is hump day, and Friday is, well Friday. This leaves Tuesday and Thursday without any significance in the week--filler days really. Thurday is superior to Tuesday in that it is only a day away from Friday. Ergo, Tuesdays must go!
3) Toupees--Sorry men, you're not fooling anyone, except yourselves. If you don't have the self-respect to let nature take its course, you should get counseling. Speaking as one who is thinning up top, Deal With It!! Even a comb-over, as rediculous as comb-overs are, looks better than a man with a white, pencil-thin moustache wearing a (theoretically) perfectly-coiffed, oily-looking rug on his head. I saw that today on the Metro ride to work. I had to take a picture and I will post it later today, so check back.
4) People who say supposably--It's SUPPOSEDLY!! Oh, and it's ambulance, not amblience!
5) Oprah Winfrey--I hate her!! I work in the building that houses the local ABC affiliate for the Washington DC area. So when I was walking in, they were showing Good Morning America on the giant screen outside, and guess who was on--none other than Ms. Winfrey. It pissed me off instantly, just her air and arrogance that showed through. I think the reason why I don't like her is the same reason I heard a comedian once say she likes her: "She thinks she's Jesus." The woman seriously has delusions of grandeur (not to say that she doesn't do a lot of good things). I rememeber hearing her say very matter-of-factly "I always knew I was destined for greatness." I can't hardly stand her anymore. One last note is that I loved a line that I heard on an 80's sit-com when one character thought she saw a UFO, she said, "Airplanes aren't that thin, or that bright." To which another character responded, "neither is Oprah Winfrey, but it doesn't make her a UFO."
So, there they are, today's things that must go.
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