Shitty Shitty Bang Bang

I have been feeling rather shitty lately. Not the kind of bummed-out-that-my-team-didn’t-win-last-night type of shitty, but the kind where your wife asks you, in a light-hearted way, if you are going to pick up again or worse, harm yourself. The type that duct tapes a black garbage bag over you while submerged in alien snot-slime…

Bones In The Backyard

A few years ago, there was a young man who I supervised at work.  He was intelligent and well spoken.  But his performance wasn’t up to par.  He was very much involved with union politics and tried to leverage it and any sort of loopholes attached to them to his advantage.  He didn’t work very…

The Pity Patter Of Little Defeats

“Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality” John Gardner Self-pity. The word itself (or compound word, at least) alone sounds desolate. The hyphen plays for dramatic pause. Looks wise, the hyphen resembles a metal bar between two heavy weights. A…

Making Right, Not Making Nice

I am in the hospitality trade.  Where I work now, we host many functions – tour groups, weddings, post-convention get togethers, corporate gigs, holiday parties and a slew of other special events. That is on top of several dining outlets that we have in the building.  At this time of year, we do more of…

I Expect You To Read This

I’ve done it again. There you were,  seamlessly switching between The History of The Stapler on Discovery, playing Mega Extreme Chinese Checkers online and munching on your fourth tepid tofu taquito, when BOOM!  There it was – I put an expectation on you.  Huh?  Where did that come from, you ask, licking the lumpy guac…

Ones and Zeros

Binary code. What does that have to do with your latte? Nothing, except that the barista ringing in your order used a computer register, and computer registers, like all other computers, uses binary code.  (Unless you go to a shop that embraces the abacus still and employs a posse of Howler monkeys in the back…