babiegoose.com

so I just spent a week at training, learning about things that are supposed to make me a better manager or whatever.

so I learned a bunch. neat.

I think another major point for brining everyone from all over the world to train at the same place is to expand everyone's global network.

this is accomplished by forcing them into groups made up of people from different countries, making sure that they can handle cultural differences, and then encouraging them to drink. a lot.

this is all well, and good, but I find it amazing how easily I can work with people for extended periods without really using their name. and then when I have to use their name I struggle to find their name tag.

also, it doesn't help that my roommate from my current project was out here with me, and he's not much help when it comes to temperance. in fact, he was more of an encouraging factor to get "black out drunk"

so that's what usually happened - every night - after dinner and before training... this week was mostly rooting for the pistons get to the eastern conference finals and watching the western conference fight themselves to death... all that on top of getting wasted. we made good acquiantences with the bartenders btw - so much that we ended up drinking with them last night.

in anycase... if I met anyone during the period after dinner and before the next morning, chances are, I did not remember what your name was. the fact is, though, that for some reason, everyone else has a memory like a steel trap - or they just don't drink as much (which I'm thinking is possible, although not quite likely given the group of people with whom we work) and painfullly brings up the details of how badly I made an ass out of myself the night before. fortunately, those antics are immediately erased by the next night's foolishness... and I don't have quite big enough an ego to think that anyone will really remember anything for much longer than a few days after returning to their "normal" lives in their own countries.

but, for the record. I convinced a number of people that I was still 18 and from not the US. I did this by using a crappy non-descript accent that could only be used on americans or asians. anyone from a european country or from australia or south africa could easily see through the non-accent that I have. it was easier just to pretend that I had a stutter (which made everyone feel sorry for me for about a day, until I revealed that I'm an ass and didn't really have a speech impediment.)

hey. I get bored easily.

really.

so I need to find ways to make myself laugh. and laughing at people who look at me in confusion is quite funny.

but hey.

that's just me.

meaning I'm a lush.

dude. seriously. I am not an alcoholic. I might talk about drinking a lot, but I think that it is because that is almost part of work. no, really. the work culture promotes drinking. not so much because we drink to forget, but because I think the people I work with can't loosen up without it. it would be nice if we could loosen up without the drink because I think we would be saving a lot of livers. I honestly think though that some people couldn't possibly let other people in without it... really, because some people are sooooo guarded...

I am hearing something dinging right now. I think it might be the chair.

yeah its the chair.

I am not going to post this right now because I think that i will wait, because I am actually drunk right now.

I will go to sleep and think about posting this at a later date.

it will just appear.

peace.

I'm out.

played at laserquest last night... fun time... the trick to a higher score is quantity as opposed to quality - your hit ratio suffers, but you score way more hits. also, when playing teams, it is best to be surrounded by the other team in a tight area because you can light them up and score crazy points while they all fuss with you and score a scant few from just you while the rest of your team cleans up elsewhere. sure, you get shot like crazy, but you score way more points than you lose...

in any case, we had to pick code names, so every time you get shot by someone, it tells you where you were shot and by whom.

in my case, everytime I shot someone, the name they saw was:

SPARKLE

because there is probably nothing more annyoing than being lit up by a person with a code name like that.

::: ::: :::

Now listen up, you primitive screwheads. See this?

This...

is my BOOMstick!

never heard of it... but I came across it when I was browsing through imdb.com...

apparently, they have been working on this project for over 5 years now... I only noticed it because it is Anne Bancroft last film, and Val Kilmer is a voice in it as well...

I was surprised at the number of names attached to it... Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Kattan, Louis Gossett Jr., Eric Idle, Kelly Ripa, Michael Clarke Duncan, Malcolm McDowell, Burt Reynolds... and since it shows a release date of this year, I was surprised that I had never heard of it...

apparently you can go to http://www.delgo.com to look at the digital dailies... I think that's neat, seeing things progress... but given the length of time they have been working on this project, it would be upsetting and disappointing if it were a flop... i do see the marketing potential and all, and it is supposed to be a very beautiful and detailed movie...

I guess we'll see...

it looks like a colorful romeo and juliet meets enemy mine...

sorta.

it truly is the anticipation that kills you...

the drop from the roller coaster... the moment right before you go on stage... the ring in the phone right before you talk to someone... the moment right before giving a speech...

those little moments can be over saturated with stress, good or bad, that I think they account for 99% of stress.

when you are in the middle of doing something, once you are moving with your head down on a task, everything is cool... work work work... go go go...

the instant you pick your head up and think about something more than two steps ahead... BAM... anticipation/stress/worry/excitment/whatever...

you need to pick your head up though, because being unprepared is worse than being stressed out... which inevitably leads to being stressed out anyway, so you would lose either way...

I had to give a review last week... it was probably the worse review that I've had to give someone face to face... the good thing is that I had everything I needed documented, the bad news is is that I had to tell him and he is much bigger than me.

[I imagined, at one point during my meeting, that he would reach over the table and pound my face in an emotional outburst... of course that didn't happen, but it was lurking about in the back of my mind... but then again, there are a whole slew of things lurking back there that are probably not rated PG]

in any case, the whole two hours before the meeting I was a wreck... although I was composed and attentive at first glance, I was dreading having to tell someone how bad their work was...

it's not fun, I have been told it is the next worse thing to actually kicking someone off the project, which is the next worse thing to firing someone... and I mean this from a professional perspective, because obviously there are worse things in life than firing someone, but in the context of this coversation... well, you get the idea...

I had no expectations... or rather, I had every expectation, which is the same thing as having no expectations... essentially. in any case, it actually went rather smoothly, although there were very, very tense moments, and I think I gave a short chuckle because something he said was funny to me in context and he didn't find it so amusing... but then again, if you are being told "you suck" (not in so few words) I am sure you wouldn't be laughing either... whatever.

(2pm) I debriefed my boss, told a few other people how horrific the experience was, and promptly went to the airport to board a plane and get intoxicated.

I think I called a few people too... so by 7pm (when I had stopped drinking) I was properly wasted and sufficiently hungover by around midnight or a little later... dunno... I slept most of that evening away...

I'm just glad its over and will be over... since we are kicking him off the project...

now the trick is to avoid him for the next two weeks...

in the world...

imdb.com has listed the top grossing movies of all time... the list consists of 283 movies which have all grossed over 200 million dollars internationally.

I have not seen only 15 of them.

they have also listed the top 250 movies of all time, based on people rating movies through imdb.com...

I have only seen 102 of them...

of course, what people critically call a great movie, does not necessarily mean the movie will reach a broad audience... nor does that mean people will actually enjoy the film...

kind of like art - you can appreciate it, the genius and beauty of it and behind it... but would you want to decorate your house with it?

nope.

so as I am sure many people can appreciate the inner and outer working of good films, they won't want to spend their time thinking about a film when they can easily enjoy a mindless film...

there are a handful of critically acclaimed movies that I have decided that I will not make an effort to watch... if they happen to be on and I have nothing better to do I will probably watch them... (this is the reason why I have watched an exorbitantly large number of terrible movies - the fact that they happen to be on when I have nothing else to do and the remote is too far for me to reach... :-P)

there are a handful of critically panned movies that I have decided I am going to own...

just because people think you are culturally deep, doesn't mean you are and it doesn't mean you have to be...

... ... ...

and Galaxy Quest and Starship Troopers were AWESOME!

bbbbblllllppppppttttttt!!!!! :-P

it's not pretty outside today... nothing but clouds and low 60's...

not that I mind the weather, but I do appreciate when the sun comes out to play...

it's just nice.

too many clouds for too long isn't fun.

so there are about 25 actual hours left until my weekend begins.

you know... I think maybe that I shouldn't sleep for the whole weekend and then just work and sleep during the week while I'm away...

but I'm thinking that the weekends wouldn't be as much fun if I was tired and cranky...

so sleep is good.

k.

that's it.

if you wear shoes for a long time and your feet sweat and they have been in the shoes for a long time then it's very possible - no, very likely - that your feet will stink.

stinky feet....

yuck.

it is may.

it has been for a week now.

it is 2006.

it has been for a little over four months now...

here are a few things that have become "normal", although I do not remember when they became so...

my body doesn't heal nearly as fast. since I've stopped working out I've noticed an increase in several vital statistics. since I've stopped stretching [period] I've noticed a decrease in my flexibility.

I can't drink heavily four nights in a row and expect to function correctly the following mornings... of course, I'm not sure that I could ever do that because during the time period that I thought I was capable, it probably was more the fact that I didn't have to do anything [like work or school] the next morning, so essentially I could have just slept through the mornings thus avoiding noticing how bad they would have been...

I enjoy not going to the bar and not coming home smelling like smoke and not having an $80 plus bar tab...

I enjoy sleeping with my spouse. I enjoy not having the alarm wake me up in the morning. I would like very much to not talk to neighbors who like to complain about noise, about the lawn, about blah blah blah because they have nothing better to do than take care of their lawn or sleep.

I enjoy home cooked food, spending time with my family, and not paying for gas...

I enjoy vacation. I enjoy zero stress.

... ... ...

on that note.

later!

Your results:
You are Batman

Batman 60% Robin 60% Hulk 60% Green Lantern 60% Catwoman 60% Iron Man 60% The Flash 55% Superman 40% Spider-Man 40% Supergirl 30% Wonder Woman 30%

You are dark, love gadgets and have vowed to help the innocent not suffer the pain you have endured.

so we all know someone whom everyone - everyone - just tears apart when they aren't in the room.

of course you are usually civil to the person when they are around, and given a long enough absence, even friendly towards...

but man - I get paranoid - because I'm present during many conversations about those individuals whom no one really cares all that much for and who annoy them to no end - I sometimes wonder if I am ever the topic of such loathsome discussions... you never know... I think everyone talks about everyone to some extent, although probably not to the degree of disgust about whom others are discussed...

but we will talk about the talkers in a second... let's talk about the targets.

these are the people who usually talk a lot about stuff they think they know and usually get in trouble because they don't know nearly as much... they also think they can talk their way out of any situation, when really their mouths act as shovels - digging them deeper and deeper in to humiliation to which they are blissfully unaware.

or worse... they are completely aware and they are unable to stop because something compels them... and that's a physical condition which sucks for them, but hey - what can you do.

anyhow, these are the people that clear conversation killers. any group gathered discussing anything at all will be immediately dispersed once this individual begins talking. these are also the individuals whom no one will talk to unless absolutely necessary. People do not stop by their desks to chat.

these are the people that come up during bar conversations and are laughed at, cried over, and vented about... (which was the case last night for me an several co-workers... at one point, my judgement was not nearly as sound as it should be - due to my love-him/hate-him friend jagermeister - and I ended up playing bloody knuckles with a 300lb 6'6" 10th degree black belt... fortunately for me, he missed a bunch of times and I escaped with nice bruise on between my middle and ring knuckles.)

anyhow - these people are important - most day-to-day work becomes repetition and these annoying people are the glue that unites all other co-workers...

well, aside from other shared interests and common bonding topics...

but whatever.

so about the talkers... gossip is normal. everyone does it, but I guess it should really be done less than it is, but some times getting into other people's business is the only thing to do.

why?

because it is impersonal - you can talk about it for hours without having to invest all that much personally. you can also talk about while only revealing the tiniest bits of information about yourself (like you gossip about people, and you wouldn't do x or y or z so you disapprove of things)

because you just need to vent - sometimes the things that other people do just piss you off that if you didn't have any kind of release then you would probably go insane (which is why humans do rememeber exactly everything at all times) and other people are there to help you release that frustration.

because you are a jerk. well, this isn't always the case, but face it - some of the things that come out of your mouth aren't of the model of the upstanding citizen types...

the fact is, there will always be that person that everyone talks about when they aren't there, and truthfully - someone will have something to say about something you did no matter who you are - and what they say won't always be pretty.

buck up.

the only thing you can do is to do what you think is right at the moment you make the decision to do something - forget what people will think and forget about whether the thing that you thought was right turns out to be wrong because you thought it was right and now you learned something. worrying about what other people think will just make you miserable.

if you do that, at least when people talk about you behind your back and you find out, you can always say "I did what I thought was right at the time" and that's the best anyone can do...

no matter how much they talk, they have to respect that no one knows everything and it takes a lot to do the right thing... even if it turns out to be the wrong thing because no one is perfect.

oh... another thing you can do is to try and not talk about that someone and maybe talking to that someone... I tried once. it wasn't pretty.

there are things that just typically happen, over and over and over...

... ... ...

it is typical for kimmie to pick me up from the airport, and when we are on the way back to my house, around exit 22 she will accuse me of burping or farting in her car, when every time it is the landfill we are passing...

... ... ...

it is typical that I will snooze from 6:35am to 7:45am. The hope is I get up at 6:35am to get the day started early, but I am typically too lazy and wake up at 7:45am in a rush to get to work on time.

... ... ...

it is typical that my leftovers from lunch become my dinner.

... ... ...

it is typical that I find myself thinking that I would rather be at home with lorie than be platinum elite anything

... ... ...

it is typical for me to fall asleep to adult-swim when I am away. it is typical for me to fall asleep to nbc when I am home.

... ... ...

it is typical for people to blog about superficial, yet amusing things or rant about thing that are upsetting them. those things are easy to give away... it is very hard to put yourself out there on a deep level when you know the people who are reading...

... ... ...

it is typical for me to veg out on friday morning because I just like to "be" and be home...

... ... ...

it is typical for me to make sweeping generalizations about many things, because intimacy requires effort and effort leads to stress and stress...

well... stress sucks.

... ... ...

I'm into meditation now. I support any belief that says nondoing is the best thing you can do for yourself. My mom's been saying I'm lazy, but it turns out I'm just Buddhist.

HAHAHAHAHA!

So SUCK IT!

Thats not very Buddhist, but I only read the first chapter...