General 'rambling"

General “muse” and views…

Posted on February 28, 2014. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

If you are going to “count” registered members correctly, at least “cull out” the sock puppets from your statistical base, before planning your “x million user” mark.

If you are going to criticize your peers at work for “not following procedure”, please apply for the correct job title (i.e. supervisor) before doing so.  Acting like a boss when you are NOT a boss does not earn you any respect or love from your peers.  In fact, it just makes you look like an ass.  You keep telling us you are going to retire soon.  Please follow through with that promise sooner rather than later:)

If you ARE a boss, please remember, those you supervise are your team members, NOT your personal “slaves”.  Take their feelings into consideration, if you are going to discipline or criticize, be kind.  Just because YOU are under stress from YOUR boss does NOT entitle you to be an ass to those who work under you.  Go find a gym and hit a punching bag, don’t punish your team.  You might find that making things easier on them will make them work harder for you.

Sign up for a “real blog”, other, topic specific forums are not your blog and you are not free to rant, rave, hate and spew garbage there.   Also, unless you are the group owner / moderator / administrator, don’t “call out” your peers for rule breaking, flag the post, let the moderator deal with it.

You are not entitled to board / leave first.  You are not the sole creature in the universe.  Be respectful, life works out nicer that way.

online friending vs in real life friends

Posted on July 8, 2011. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

An online community for knitters, crocheters, spinners, dyers, etc.  (http://www.ravelry.com) in simplest terms, Facebook for the knitting and crochet community as well as other fiber “junkies” of all descriptions, had an interesting thread about “friending” people online vs your IRL (in real life) friends, how different are they?

I have a couple Facebook friends, we also share membership in some Yahoo Groups communities, I used to also be a member of their “real” monthly group meeting.  I made the major error of posting to our common Yahoo Group (what I thought) was a simple and reasonable request on behalf of a local friend who was interested in attending the next monthly meeting.  Next thing I know, the (well, that oft mentioned biological waste material) “hits the fan”.

On one “side” of this issue I was told, “well, you should have consulted the group leaders prior to posting that request” (OK, mea culpa, I can agree with that, in hindsight, it would have avoided the entire debacle.

On another “side” of this issue, I got a private email from the member who most strenuously disagreed with my request, giving me details of how horrid their life had been, etc., the sheer tone of the email made me delete it instantly, lest I accidentally disclose anything that would compromise their privacy to anyone else, plus, to be quite frank, it alarmed me); I neither required, nor wanted that level of personal disclosure from someone I barely knew.   Plus, they never comment on my posts or respond to my emails.

On yet another “side” of this issue, another member, who I am pretty sure by now is also mad at me, hasn’t ever bothered to respond to any of my replies to their post in other Yahoo groups we share, or ANYTHING.

On yet ANOTHER side of this issue, the friend on whose behalf I made the request is majorly annoyed with this group, and confronted them at a local event (quite by accident, neither knew the other was in attendance to the same event), and essentially, they opted to confront the group members openly about the hostility they “generated” towards me initiating the request.  THEY claim the group member they confronted accused ME of being a troublemaker.  It is hard to know who is telling “more of” the truth here, as both have fairly confrontational personalities to begin with.  I kind of feel I wish I’d never joined the group AND never met the friend I tried to bring to the group.  (someone have a box big enough for me to crawl into please???)

Now on a similar tangent, I have at least one family member, who in all other respects I am close to, but have decided based on what’s been NOT said and NOT done (and some things that HAVE been said and HAVE been done) that they are angry with me and have been for several years.  They would rather suffer the various medical and mental anguish one suffers when “swallowing” anger rather than confronting me and “getting it out of their system”.

I would just assume they say what they need to say, even if it hurts my feelings, so that they can be healthy again and me not be left “wondering” what the *&^% is going on with them exactly.   That is what love is, isn’t it?  Being willing even to be hurt if it will help make someone you care about feel better.  Their spouse is not helping things, they have a way of “expressing themselves” that doesn’t come across well, let me keep it at that.

In short, I value HONESTY above anything else in a friendship, a family relationship, work relationship, or “other” relationship.  If I can’t receive that, it ain’t much of a friendship, a family relationship, or anything else kind of relationship.  Even if that honesty hurts sometimes.  I know all the people involved above will probably recognize themselves and send me angry emails, I don’t care.

My union is having us vote to either strike or not strike, my boss has a skin cancer issue he is dealing with, I’ve been an epileptic for two years (doctors have no clue why), and the floor I work on is in turmoil due to contract negotiations, so if anyone is pissed at ME, go ahead, make my day…  do you feel lucky, punk?

NOT in the mood for the holidays…

Posted on December 14, 2010. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

The city of San Jose “started” my bad mood by towing our car on Thanksgiving.  We were sick for a few days and unable to go out to the car for a few days, we weren’t able to go out until Saturday, so they’d had it a couple days already at that point.

It cost us close to $600, in CASH, to “ransom” our car back from those vultures, who opted to end an annual “turkey trot” foot race where our car was usually parked.  We now pay a monthly fee on the lot right behind us, so most nights, we can actually park the car with in sight of our living room and/or kitchen windows.  I am hoping this means no more car being towed in the future.

I’ve also opted to discontinue my membership in one of the  groups I’ve been a member of which also really darkens my mood.  Most of it is my own fault, I should have discussed things privately with the group facilitators first rather than post to the group as a whole on my own, which “really” opened a can of worms, in a way which really blows my mind and was quite unexpected on my part.   They are not the people I thought they were, and I guess, in a way, I am not the same person I thought I was, which I know makes little sense to anyone.

However, the end result is that I do not feel it is appropriate for me to continue to be a member, I am sorry to have to make that decision, it makes me very sad, I like these people, and have been a long time group member, have even helped them out financially when possible, but how making what I viewed as a simple request to accommodate a guest I wanted to bring to a meeting was responded to quite simply made me realize this was not the group for me.  Rather than face continued negative feelings (which are my fault since I (somehow and unintentionally) opened a big old can of worms, I opted to “bow out”.   I wish them the best of success, and bear them no ill will.  I just cannot handle the negative feelings all this has caused right now.

I don’t just need extra stress in my life right now.  I have been a grand mal epileptic since May 2009, work has been extremely stressful, several staff have retired, several new people have come on board, family members have had medical issues over the past several months…  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

I know that part of the reason the holidays “suck” is that I miss my parents.  My family  usually have other committments on major holidays so I can’t be with them when I feel I need them the most.  Christmas we usually spend with his family, but it is such a LONG DRIVE to where they are that it takes a LOT out of me to go up there.

Home sick with a cold on my birthday; no fair:(

Posted on April 28, 2010. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

Not only did I miss Stitches West due to a bad cold (that one took my voice), NOW I’m home sick on my birthday.  Only difference is that is one is more sinus, less voice issues.  Plus the weather is iffy outdoors anyway.

There is NO justice in the universe LOL  Of course, it IS easy to be cranky when I can’t go 15 minutes without running for a Kleenex.  Just brewing a pot of tea and hoping to “drown out” the cold bugs.

When I was younger, I was hired briefly by my church at the time to be on site for insurance purposes while another church rented the facility for the evening, I had a bad cold then and just brewed pot after pot of tea (while working on my college homework), and it REALLY did help move the cold “out” of my system, so I am a believer in pushing a lot of herbal (thus decaf) tea (soup, etc., anything WITHOUT caffeine or a lot of sugar) through my system while I’m sick.

Open letter to You Know Who You Are

Posted on March 18, 2010. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

You “know” how to “get” your way in our work place. You cozy up to our boss, and our boss’s boss, (and so on up the line) and you think the rest of us who share your job title are stupid and do not know. Your prior employer, thankful to get rid of you, was more than happy to pass you along to us. For which we are eternally grateful (NOT). You even bully YOUR OWN FAMILY MEMBERS.

You critique our work, and leave little “notes” telling us what we did wrong, and they are not kind words you write. You pull apart our work product in front of our face and criticize every step we took. God FORBID we put the wrong printout in the wrong order, or write something down in the WRONG COLOR pen or pencil.

Yet you run to us when ever something won’t print, or something else goes wrong with your computer workstation despite the fact that NONE of us in this work unit work in IS/IT and there IS a help ticket “protocol” we ALL are trained to follow. You even come to us for personal legal advice, even though NONE of us in our work group are attorneys. You also take personal cell phone calls at work you know that NONE of us are allowed to do. You make tactless comments on our personal appearance or habits, just rudely “blurting it out” for all to hear.

You “cling” to the old rules and refuse to accept the modernized rules we follow. You constantly “run” to management when someone says or does something YOU don’t agree with. And THEN you have the nerve to believe we all are “against” you, and you don’t “understand” why we don’t LIKE you, when YOU do ALL in your power to drive us completely and totally insane. You KNOW your criticizing “ways” drove one of us completely out of the office one day crying because your comments were so mean.

You act as if you are the hired “lead” even though you do not hold that official title nor do you get paid the wage differential to do it. Nor are you our supervisor. And: nor do any of us WANT you to be our supervisor. If they MAKE you our supervisor for ANY reason, ALL of us in the work group will do a “sit in” style protest (and REFUSE TO WORK) until they restore our existing supervisor (the new guy who you are probably taking advantage of, because he is new and does not know your EVIL WAYS.)

Plus, you use our employer’s time and computer workstation / network / internet connection for personal business most of your shift time (not just on your legally allowed lunch and break times). You keep a “journal’ log of everything we all say and do that you disagree with. You gave a COPY of this to one of us so I KNOW IT EXISTS. Just be aware: IS/IT can READ ALL OF THAT if they WANT to. It WILL blow up in your face. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But SOMEDAY.

NOT the time I want to be home sick….

Posted on February 27, 2010. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

I WAS going to be at Stitches West last night (Thursday, 2/25/10), helping one of the Crochet Guild chapters I’m a member of (Men Who Crochet of Oakland, CA, see my blog roll) staff the Warm Up America booth (#115). I ALSO was scheduled to work that booth tomorrow afternoon (Sat 2/27). But there’s a problem. I’m home sick. No voice. Would have to “play charades” to communicate with people. As for work (I was off Thursday and am off today) I would have to install closed captioning for anyone to understand me talking, either over the phone or in person face to face. NOT an option at this time.

Stitches West, for those who don’t know, is the annual knitting convention (classes and vendor marketplace) run by Knitter’s Magazine the last four days of February every year (http://www.knittinguniverse.com) there are OTHER Stitches in other areas of the country, Stitches West is the ONLY one that is local to me.

The ONE TIME my federal tax refund would direct deposit in time for me to ENJOY Stitches West (the last two years, it posted later in March) and I CAN’T because I’m sick (off work, which isn’t the end of the world, but unable to attend Stitches like I’d really prefer to do.)

Excuse my negligence (subtopic: work, someone’s gotta do it)

Posted on February 12, 2010. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

My job is fascinating, it really is. Being an OCD analytic personality type, it lets me run amok:) The reason this is a subtopic of the prior post is that it kind of continues on with what I deal with at work every day, in case you have that burning desire to know [NOT])

Also posted in same aforementioned knitting forum I’m a member of (same day too, I’m on a roll:)

Lawyers. Title companies. Owners that record their own deeds.

My favorite people (and our local building departments, county included but I won’t go there LOL)

Some scenarios:

Husband, angry at soon to be ex wife, records a deed from himself, to himself in an attempt to remove HER from title. Legal description is fine (its’ nature, a metes and bound description (“beginning at the…”) locating property descriptions of this nature is my department’s ‘forte’, it is our job to locate which piece of real property (= dirt, at least in my department, another department evaluates the grass shack / outhouse / chicken coop / condo unit / high rise / mansion…) Well….sorry, Charlie. Doesn’t work that way. Said WIFE must grant out and be NOTARIZED as such to YOU for YOU to own 100% of your property.
————
Lady (in wheelchair, I sympathize and am NOT heartless) is assisted by my co worker and tells her, “MY (now deceased) mother OWNS this piece of property here, how come YOU aren’t sending me a property tax bill???” My co worker goes to our “working” Assessor roll maps, pulls the pertinent recorded maps, deeds, etc. and comes back to tell her, “Ma’am, that property is actually located in….the middle of Highway 280 at (one of its’ major onramp / exits).

Lady: “that’s wrong. It’s MY property. I INHERITED IT FROM MY MOTHER!!”

Indentured public servant (oops, public EMPLOYEE): Document# ___
recorded on (date) is an order of condemnation issued by the Director of California’s Department of Transportation (eminent domain) taking (said property) for freeway use, giving said owner fair compensation (statutory lingo follows)

Lady: “You made that up! I’m taking you to court!!”
————–
Deed showing up in our batch: (grantor) hereby grants to (grantee) the following described property, located in the city of San Jose, in the County of Santa Clara, in the State of California:

cemetery plot #/letter/#

I know Ben Franklin’s quote about death and taxes but THIS takes the cake

(to calm your nerves, we do NOT assess cemetery plots; we prefer our victims (owners, sorry) to be living beings:)
————
My own front counter experience, answering incoming calls, etc.

Male realtor on phone (attempting me to release data we ONLY tell the owner to THEIR FACE when they show us ID and proof who they are, and we SEE that they are currently on title): “Put a MAN on the phone, then I’ll get the data I want.”

ME: “Have a nice day, Sir. Thanks for calling.”

Excuse my negligence in posts lately. LIFE has intervened.

Posted on February 12, 2010. Filed under: General 'rambling" |

I know I haven’t posted here in a while. Well, a LOT has happened; 2009 was NOT a year either me, my older brother or younger sister wish to repeat. Suffice it to say all three of us have had “medical” fires to put out.

As to how 2010 is starting out (for me at least) does NOT bode well, as I posted in one of the online knitting forums I’m on lately:

I’m doing a LOT better, thanks for asking, Susan:) EDITED

February has been the “month of doctor appointments” (they’re ganging up on me, I swear:)

the 4th was the neurologist, but he got sick so they rescheduled me for the 24th,

the 8th was a re-do of part of my mammogram, because the film didn’t show a portion of the left breast (they were having “technical difficulties” with their new computer system; about 8 of us were gathered, gowned from the waist up, watching the Spanish version of Judge Judy, El Caso Cerrado (Case Closed) I think it was called (quite interesting when you only speak about 5 words of Spanish LOL) An hour PAST my scheduled appointment they FINALLY called me in to film me; I insisted on staying until they checked the film and determined it took “all” of the left breast they wanted to see. I’ve remarked (both on finishing up the original mammogram, and on this last “retake” that if MEN had their (Ahem) delicate regions “squashed” like a breast is during a mammogram, we would get a technology “upgrade” so fast it would make your head spin LOL)

The 19th will be dermatology; the skin inside my ear canal gets very dry, itchy, flaky, and eventually bleeds and infects (canalitis, infection of the ear canal). I have had at least 5 trips to my primary care and/or urgent care (when my primary care is unavailable) to get ear drops (10 drops in one ear, lie on my side still for 5 minutes, same routine on the other ear, all of this once in the morning once at night) and antibiotics. They have given me a topical steriod (a liquidy gel) to put just a small amount of in each ear before I go to bed, in a DRY ear (not wet like after a shower). It has held the infection at bay, but my ears still flake, itch and bleed just a little.

Work: (don’t get me started, whoops, too late LOL) our assessment roll manager retired in Dec (one of our dept sups is serving in that position as interim until they get a permanent hire), one of HER staff is acting sup of that department. Another dept sup also retired; we “abducted” a sup from one of our other floors (we take up 3 floors of my building) to interim fill that position. One of our dept sups got sent down to HER floor to interim fill. Anotehr sup from our OWN floor was “abducted” to fill HIS position on our floor, she is now on medical leave, and another staff is filling THAT position on an interim basis. John Madden, I need you to draw a picture of what the *%$# is going on here LOL

MY Dept, thank goodness, FINALLY has a permanent sup (I’m just praying we don’t scare the stuffing out of this poor man and send him screaming out the door in sheer terror LOL, Gary IS a nice guy, I’d like to keep him if possible) OUR original sup retired the end of last July, the aforementioned roll supervisor temporarily served as our sup (she retired at the end of Dec), SHE then went on medical leave and the sup that recently went on medical leave replaced her until we finally (whew) got Gary. Again, paging John Madden….

My department has a diva (NO, not me LOLOL), who was also a diva where she worked before so they happily gave her a good recommendation and passed her on to my (unwitting and unfortunate) department. She and I had “words” a few weeks ago, when of course, we were both immediately pulled off into one of our side conference rooms to further (more privately?) air our “respective opinions” of one another (NOT pretty, the Chinese symbol for trouble is two women under the same roof, remember LOL) I essentially told Diva (a title that oft times describes ME, if you listen to Ed “I resemble that remark…” LOL), you are NOT our lead, you are NOT our supervisor, STOP ACTING LIKE ONE.)

So that’s my life; how’s yours? LOL