Xpinionated

An Anti-Anniversary

One year ago today, in about 2 and 1/2 hours, an event occurred in my life that really scared me. And pissed me off. And still pisses me off every now and then. Due to some corporate politics, I was laid off. During my damn annual review no less. There was one person responsible for it. Wait, I take that back. There were two people responsible. I was responsible for not kissing the ass of the other person who kissed ass to gain leverage in our department. When the ‘new’ head of our department needed a name of someone for cost cutting purposes, it was nothing for the butt cheek chaser to give out my name.

My name! Despite being the only person on the team who had worked on every system for which the team was responsible. Despite being one of the senior members of the team. Despite never receiving a negative annual review. Despite being in the good graces of everyone on the team and countless people in the company as a whole. Despite being the lowest paid member on the team which I know I was (how do you call yourself cutting costs when you cut one of the most valuable and least paid members of the team?). Despite being the trainer and oft-times saviour of the person who replaced me. Despite these facts…..

When have you ever heard of people outside of your department being contacted by HR to let them know that another employee was being let go just to ensure there wouldn’t be any issues. Well it happened when I was laid off, twice!

Yet, I must take some of the blame. After all, I could have simply sucked it up and kissed that trick’s ass or the very least played the role as others did in my department. But that’s not me. If I don’t like you, I won’t go out of my way to make it known and at the same time I won’t play nice either. Ah, but perhaps it was the best for me. I’m making more money than they ever would have paid though I still have no health insurance (thank you God for watching me over the course of this past year). Though I’m out of town most of the time, I feel like I will eventually find a full time gig in the ATL and probably for more than they would be paying me if I were at that hellhole now (including any annual increases).

But all I want in relation to that former employer is to be in the mall, and to see the butt cheek chaser. Have her come up to me with that fake smile and fake accent (which I think she uses to her advantage as well but no need to get into that). And then I lay into her like crabs into a crack whore…..oh one day it will happen…and I won’t be the bigger person for it…..and I won’t care.

When I have children, I hope I don’t become one of those people that talk about nothing but my children. I find that to be overly annoying. I want to be the best parent I can be but I don’t want being a parent to define who I am. I don’t want to give up hobbies, or doing things I enjoy to be a parent. I understand that I will have to sacrifice things but I don’t think I should sacrifice everything. I work with someone now whose whole personality seems to be defined by her being a parent. Granted, it’s her first child and the child has had some rather serious problems but she still seems a little overboard. Almost every other conversation anybody has with her has to do with labor, pregnancy, or some other aspect of babyology. Her child is like 8 months old and she sometimes acts as if the child was born yesterday. Maybe I’m just finnicky and not fit to be a parent.

I need to work with some people that have no kids and\or don’t use the fact that they have children as an excuse for doing nothing else.

Cee-Lo green is the soul machine! Seriously hot album….deep fried chicken soul for that ass!!! Okay, I don’t know where that last statement came from but I meant it.

Usher’s album starts off well but then kinda loses me the further I listen.

Fight Night 2004 is off the chain for PS2. I’ve had it a couple of weeks and I still haven’t gotten a title. Or even beaten a real boxer yet for that matter. See that’s what video games should be like.

So I’m trying to decide if I am going to go to the Georgia Force game this weekend. If I do, the weekend will become quite busy. I leave Winston tomorrow around 4:30 (assuming I get here by 8:30 which is a big assumption based on the assumption that I don’t venture out to the fox and hound tonite which is an assumption that I don’t go play basketball which is a 50/50 shot right now). That get’s me to Atlanta by 9. The fiance lady doesn’t have to work tomorrow night so I may be forced to watch the 9:30 Lakers game at the house. That’s bad because the Lakers never win when I watch it in the comfort of my wonderful abode.

Saturday morning we wake up and drop my truck off to get it looked at for this rattle sound it’s been making for a few years. Yeah, better late than never. After dropping the truck off, we go workout. Then we head out to buy yard stuff for the day of yard work ahead of us. Saturday night, we go to the movies or do something lovey dovey because she doesn’t have to work that night either.

Then there’s Sunday. The Ga Force game is at noon. The Lakers play at 3:30. I also have to drive back to Winston at some point. And I should probably wash my dirty clothes as well. L-Boogie (the fiance lady) doesn’t want to go to the Ga Force game, so I’d probably being going solo which is fine by me. But I also can’t put 4 brews down during the game which is my modus operandi. But if I don’t go to the game I won’t see the Force for a good 3 or 4 weeks. And I missed last week’s game while I was in VA visiting the parentals. There’s also the risk that the game runs long and I miss the tip off for the Lakers game. One thing I could do is drive back to Winston early Monday morning and that why I can enjoy tasty brews for both events while having a chance to wash clothes etc and so on.

Yep, I think that’s what I’ll do. Thanks for listening!!!

It’s official!!! ESPN.com is now officially better than cbs.sportsline.com. For years I have been loyal to the cbs site. But the past year has been a disappointing experience for me. Besides the fact that their reporters have become ho hum to say the least, or the fact that they either started charging for features or simply dropping them, now no matter what page you click on in the site you are bombarded with an advertisement for something or other. It’s horrible.

Plus, ESPN has Page 2 which has slowly evolved into my morning paper with that first cup of coffee. Entertaining, funny, dynamic in it’s various viewpoints, controversial, off topic, oh the joy of sports journalism like it should be. And to top that off, they have Page 3 which is a serviceable if somewhat less entertaining alternative/follow up for Page 2.

So I’m sitting here waiting for a report to run that is taking a long time. My current task is to figure out what’s wrong with the report. Only two problems, everyone says the data is inaccurate but no one can tell me exactly why, what, or how it’s inaccurate. And number two, I’m still learning the business so I don’t even know exactly what the damn report is supposed to show. But as I’ve stated earlier, I’m good so I will persevere.

Have you ever noticed that in the four major American sports, the referees are never former players? They are never even big enough to be former amateur players. I don’t like referees at all. They are the little guy who didn’t get picked as a kid who is now power tripping on being able to ‘rule’ over the jock. I wasn’t a jock as a youth but I wasn’t a little guy either. Referees suck in general. They are rarely held accountable for their actions. They expect respect while barely ever earning it. I’m not quite sure how you become a ref either. Is there a referee school or something???