Life As I Know It

Don't mind me, I'm just doing a tremendous amount of grumbling behind the scenes in posts that I write and know will never be published. I'm not dumb enough or angry enough to open that can of worms.

My life is, apparently, not my own to choose what to do with as I see fit. And my happiness is not even secondary or thirdary. Maybe its top five but that's debatable.

I wish somebody had informed me of this before I signed the contract.

I Know Why They Call It A Break

I officially went on winter break yesterday. Unofficially I went on winter break on Thursday because I called in sick because of an acute lack of sleep and the fact that I'm fighting a sinus infection or something that packs my head full of snot every night. It probably isn't an infection but it certainly does a bang up job of ruining my sleep.

The only thing breaking here is me.

When does life ease the fuck up and get a little easier? What can I do to facilitate the process because I'm so thoroughly sick and tired of battling through each and every day and still falling further and further behind.

I know I should look up at all the good things in my life but sometimes you just want to get right down and wallow in the filth and bitch and moan for a little while even if it does no good.

Of course, I can't be completely open and honest here because the real life repercussions would make my life suck even more. And that would be a difficult feat these days. And I'm not quite stupid enough to intentionally make myself more miserable than I already am.

But I'll probably get a rash of shit even for posting this.

Words I Can Live Without

Here are some words that are the verbal equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard and I'd just as soon slipped out of the lexicon altogether. Why yes, I am a word geek, what's it to you?

Remarkable - well duh, if you're talking about it then its obviously remarkable.

Extraordinary - this always strikes me as a backhanded compliment (i.e. an insult). Its like calling something superbanal or extramundane.

Zany - I'm not sure why I harbor such an intense dislike of the word zany. But I do. Thankfully the use of zany has waned in recent years. I guess my disapproving looks have paid off.

Turbo - when applied to an internal combustion engine, I have zero problem with the use of the word turbo. When applied to something that has no generated exhaust gas to recycle for additional power delivery to an engine, it is incredibly stupid and inappropriate.

Irregardless - this isn't a word. No really. But that doesn't stop people from trying to use it. Wikipedia defines it as a double negative conjunction of irrespective and regardless which cancel each other out. Kind of like saying "ain't not".

Do you have any words that make your skin crawl? Let me know in the comments.

How NOT To Work With Me

The old saying "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" holds true when it comes to working with me. I do not respond well at all to demanding, rude and annoying people. More so when they are asking me to do something for them and being rude about it. Even more so when the asker can't be bothered to follow my department's established procedures.

If this is an obtuse post then I apologize as I'm really just venting some frustration in having to deal with people that don't see manners as anything but a waste of their time.

If you are asking me to do something for you and you actually want it to get done then you'd best put on a happy face and use your manners. Otherwise you get nothing from me.

And I should note that I'm not the only one that has a bit of a problem with this particular teacher. Her colleagues stopped trying to help her out years ago because she was so ungrateful, demanding and downright kind of nasty about it. And I have plenty of other things on my plate from teachers that can follow procedure.

Some Mornings

You know how there are some mornings when you wish the coffee maker was in your bedroom and not all the way downstairs in the kitchen? That's about how my day started.

The coffee goes in, the eyes start to crack open and the day starts to really begin.

I'm finding that my formula of late nights and early mornings isn't working as well as I might hope. One of the two is going to have to change and I don't see the mornings flexing very much so that means I've absolutely got to get to bed earlier.

I've now got a thermos full of coffee in me, ready to get cranking on my big list of tasks to try and tackle today. Funny, I don't see a nap listed on there anywhere.

Bummer.

At least the commute was painfree and fast. Now I just need to do a little wardriving at lunch today to find a non-firewalled Wifi signal to keep on top of a couple of other projects.

No more kvetching for now, time to put feet to pavement and resolve some problems.