I don’t usually give up so easily

Well, my computer is starting to act up, and it’s almost time for me to depart for the weekend.

This is my new desk. Sit at the intersection of two desks, monitor stacked on computer. False light

from above, nowhere near a window. They give me a headache. Along with the fax machine that is taking up desk space right now, sitting to my left. At random points throughout the day the thing chimes on, and runs for about two minutes at a time. Four times something actually was printed out; and three out of four times it’s some kind of fax-spam. Today is jeans day, and people walk around in dressed down mindsets. They discuss their apartments instead of sit at their desk, hover over the copier (stopped working this morning), and peek up over cube walls. It’s hard not to hear their discussions sometimes, below the churning of the fax machine and the hum of the light.

The woman in the cube behind me, who has frighteningly mannish features, narrates her day.

Before she eats something she tells herself about eating it. Before she prints something out she debates the waste of paper. When her phone rings she responds with, “I’ll need to answer that now.” On the board before entering her cube maps out her plan for work. Right before being phased out, that is. For the past two days she’s answered emails from home, and won’t return to the office until the 28. With the first being her last day. I wonder if they’ll through a party. Purchase a pre-made cake from Tom Thumb or Kroger to bring it in for her. Upon receiving it she will appear happy, but she’s not. Her demeanor suggests that she hasn’t accepted that she’s leave. She still trudges away, when here, answering calls like the rest of the call-center staff that surround me with white noise never would. She hammers on her keys, subconsciously disappointed that she couldn’t stay.

Water from the tap here tastes funny, and the filter on the dispenser they have downstairs seems out

of date with caked dust. The other day one of the staff scientists, whose name I can’t recall, complained about it. He stood in front of the machine with a cup, showing everyone the contents. “See how cloudy it is,” he explains, “water shouldn’t be like that.” That it’s “unhealthy,” and that he is going to make “calls about it.” No one who hears him gets water, including me, and walk back to our cubes downtrodden that we can’t have our water. He’s right though. We shouldn’t drink it, but what else do we have. The vending machines downstairs are proof that price gouging exists, and that pop shouldn’t cost a dollar-fifty. The next day I’m downstairs pouring water into my bottle from the dispenser.

My current rant about baseball

"Because Babe Ruth is one of the greatest baseball players ever, and Babe Ruth ain't black, either," he said. "I'm black. Blacks, we go through a little more. ... I'm not a racist though, but I live in the real world. I'm fine with that."

No, Barry, see you are a racist. The fact that you would even bring race into this either proves that

you’re a racist or so nervous that you found something to say that will take attention away from you (didn’t work either). See, there’s this other thing it’s called history. You, Barry Bonds, are not the first black man to go up against Babe Ruth’s record. Remember Hank Aaron? The all-time homerun champ? Yeah. He’s black and he destroyed Babe Ruth’s record. And sports writers, fans, everyone is and will forever be excited about that. He did it with a humble flare that made everyone love him. He was a respectable player who beat Ruth’s record by a lot, and should always be remembered as such. You don’t hold a bat to him. As well, you won’t be the first black man to do something amazing either. Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson; they were just a few of the amazing athletes who broke records and just so happened to be black. They went through a lot in their careers, in their lives that warrant every sports fan to regard them as great. You’re a baby. What Aaron went through was “a lot more” than anyone would ever have to go through. Death threats? That was his life. I could only imagine how relieved Aaron would have been if his only issue was that the media pegged him as a cheater for using steroids.

You will never be regarded as that type of player because you’re a jerk. A jerk who cheated playing

baseball, a game you claim to love so much. You cheated, and you should be penalized for it. Frankly, I don’t think you deserve to be in the record books for anything, but I’ll be happy with an asterisk; because, you’re the jerk who cheated.

P.S. - Just saw this. Sometimes I actually agree with Jayson Stark about baseball matters, never about the spelling of his name.

He was crazy as hell, but still an amazing writer.

Hunter S. Thompson, you will be missed you S.O.B.

Come arrest me, my words are poisoning the country

Me? I’m a pacifist, but if the government asked me to join the army to attack people, I guess I’d have to do it. It’s frightening but true, and sad.

Article

Interestingly enough, Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that Iran has no intention of

pursuing a nuclear weapons program. He should know, after all, his government is currently assisting Iran in the building of a nuclear reactor. Just one. They’re not building multiple reactors one of which could possibly, and at great expense, be retrofitted and engineered into a uranium enriching, bomb making facility. They are constructing a nuclear reactor. You know, to power things like light bulbs. Sure, after the process of building the reactor the Iranian government could turn around and build more, but everyone in the world know; and, the cost would be far more then they could handle, they’re already trying to quash a mass revolution among the youth of the country who believe that the government is corrupt and are full capable of doing things correctly this revolution around (like that? I came up with that on my own). Countries all around the world have a careful eye on Iran and other countries (Korea and Pakistan being countries who already have the bomb if not bombs) who are currently building such reactors. If any of them decided to re-engineer one of those facilities it would be around the world in a matter of seconds. At that point governments will step in to stop them. Preemptive strikes are only warranted when the nation you’re attacking has the ability to do ‘something’ to someone else or their own people, not that they may have the ability to do something ten years from now. There’s such a thing of being too paranoid, and the U.S. is nowhere near paranoid. This isn’t the Red Scare. We’re not arresting people because they could corrupt the fabric of this country. This is just the pursuit of global domination by way of restructuring the rest of the world in accordance to how we do things. It’s the forcing of democracy on people who “aren’t free.” But to what end. The Vatican isn’t democratic, are we going to impose our structure on them soon too because they don’t believe in our same mold. Their leader wears a funny hat, he could house bombs in his hat for all we know. It really has nothing to do with “freedom,” that’s just the smoke and mirrors. The real magician is poised to control everything because they believe they have the God-given right. And they’re wrong. They’re just dooming themselves further.

I wonder when the U.S. will figure out that we don’t have the best government in the world and

that we should probably restructure ourselves soon before we start having problems here, among our own people.

There's something frightening about such an event taking place even as far away as 50,000 light years.

Sorry, it's a huge deal though.

"She's a witch!"

This is the actual headline

Vatican offers exorcism lessons

So, this is basically an invitation for a new form of witchhunts. Hooray for progress through regression.

Be advised, this is probably really mean.

Remember that SNL skit with Pat, the ambiguously genderless person? Well, although she may not look like the Pat we all remember, there’s a person who sits in the cube directly next to mine. She has a near mullet, is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, walks like a dude, has a deep voice with a Southern drawl, etc. Could it be possible that Pat was based on this…individual who sits directly behind me at the AHA? I sure hope so. I would feel more comfortable as she ogles me as I walk out of my cube.

The US Vs. The Middle East

A few weeks ago an article was printed in the New Yorker about the US’ plans to attack Iran. The

article was meant to alert the US population to the activities of its government, and to allow us, the people, to do something about it. Instead, it would seem that Iran was affected far more. Since the article they have been pegged as searching for nuclear bomb making materials, trying to work out agreements with different governments to acquire such materials for use against, you guessed it, us. The Iranian government has denied the claims, explaining that the nuclear material will be used for energy productions as they attempt to create nuclear reactors and generators. Oh, and let’s not forget Iran being listed among the countries in the “Axis of Evil” a few years back. We obviously don’t like them, for some reason. Even though they have done nothing to us what so ever, and they’re only a threat to themselves as the youth of the country are brimming over with revolutionary fervor; towards democracy.

Now, conveniently, a couple days ago the former Lebanese Prime Minister and his posse were killed

horribly in a blast. The government immediately blamed the Syrian government for executing the attack. The Syrian government has denied that it had any part in such a blast as it would effect them the same way it will prove to effect Lebanon. What does this have to do with Iran and the US? Well, today the Iranian government has decided that it is backing their “Syrian brothers.” As well, the US has been considering applying new sanctions against the Syrian government for their refusal to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and because of some random issues “we’ve” had with them for the past ten years or so. See what I’m saying? This blast has conveniently drawn Iran and Syria into the ill-light of the American “Axis of Evil stage”. Not North Korea or Saudia Arabia, who have both had citizens who has attacked us several times, but Syria and Iran. Iran would have another black mark on their record for assisting a government that has been against the US.

So, now you have an attempt to procure nuclear stockpiles for use in weapons building and an

alliance with Syria who has “obviously” just attacked their neighbors to the west, Lebanon. Does that sound like enough of a reason for us to invade them? Almost as ridiculous as when we went in to Iraq to “disarm a radical dictator”…I mean, “liberate the people from tyranny”…I mean, “bring freedom where there was no freedom before.”

I sweat I’m not a political person.

There is a Chess Club here at the AHA. Three times a week in the cafeteria. Kinda weird.

It’s hard to concentrate with all the cackling

They’ve shoveled me into my new desk on the third floor; my boss and those whom I work with

are on the second floor. My desk is cluttered, and I want to just sweep everything off it as if in a fit of passion. A fit of organized, anal-retentive passion. But most of all, I want to tear this keyboard standoff and throw it on the floor. Not only just because it’s a bitch and driving me crazy, but also to cause a scene. Perhaps then the women in the cubes behind me wouldn’t be laughing so uproariously, and with an almost aimed vigor. Of course, they’re not actually aiming their jeers and comments about other women in the office’s large posteriors at me but at each other. Their comments aren’t conversations to be shared or dialogues regarding a project they have been working on but jabs and attempted maiming words in the form of barks and blurted out monologues. Like the Sondre Lerche album, “Two Way Monologue,” but far more dispassionate and with a degree of teeth you don’t usually see in an office.

I think I’ve just rambled for a while there…hmm. Maybe I should be looking over these journals

and various materials for tomorrow’s meeting.