So last weekend, we were all sitting around trying to think of the original sayings or phrases that we as a collective use. And one of them was "OOC" created by yours truly.
Well, to my unfortunate surprise, I stumbled upon this snippet from an interview w/ Mariah Carey about her new album: "Jay-Z said something to me that was really interesting, and I don’t even know if he really remembers this. He’s known me for a long time, and he’s like, “You need to use some of your phrases in your music.” I have my own little slang that I make up and say stupid stuff just for laughs. (On) the song “O.O.C.” — that’s a Swizz Beatz track — it means, “Out of control.” So me and my friends will say that to each other, like, “OK, you’re a little O.O.C. right now, tone it on down.” Da Brat, who’s a really good, close friend of mine since we worked on “Always Be My Baby” — we wrote the lyrics together, and it was so fun. By saying (sings), “I get so O.O.C. / So out of control, baby,” we could explain it. When somebody was helping me type up the lyrics, and they wrote “Out of Control” in parenthesis (by the song title), I was like, “Get rid of that. It’s ‘O.O.C.’! Let them figure it out! It’s not that tough! I say it in the next line!”"
ugh.
I've said it once, and i'm sure i'll say it again, but Mariah Carey ruins everything.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Don't be cross!
I just remembered what my favorite part of Easter weekend is.........the people of the Philippines who get crucified!!!! Every year I get to see a story about how those crazy flips either ask to be crucified with real nails hammered in their hands and feet, or how they whip/scourge themselves until their backs are all cut up and bloody in order to atone for a year of sinning. Religious extremism at its best. I also highly enjoy the irony of the situation that the bishop of that area does not condone it and publicly speaks out against it and then the people go and do it anyway. But since the bishop is supposed to be channeling god's word, then the people who crucify are essentially going against god's word..... I wonder if they think about that.....
Friday, March 14, 2008
union or die? DIE!
So for the fourth week in a row i was out of the office for two days on a business trip. This business trip was a re-do of last week's disaster of a business trip. It was a total Katrina last week. Last week, myself, along with a field service engineer, were on site to receive the shipment of three huge pieces of equipment and a bunch of smaller other stuff. We're talking about equipment that needs huge-ass cranes to pick up and set down in place. Two weeks prior to last week we had been on site to figure out where all the equipment was going. Unfortunately it was crazy freezing outside and snowing and so the decision-makers were not making very good decisions and they quickly settled on places and then we all ran back inside without fully exploring all the options. Why settle for the one hole when there are two others that are just as good to stick your equipment into, right?
So after putting down the first two things, the plant personnel realized that the place that was to house the third piece of equipment was not going to work. It was right next to a transformer that apparently produces electrical arcs and can cause crazy problems and deaths and power outages and equipment failure and whatnot if the crane gets too close to it, let alone if it touches it. I don't know, i'm not an electrical engineer. So between last week and this week, they re-figured out where to put all this crap, so lucky me i had to go back out to the site! I was told it should be a day-trip, so i packed accordingly. I also drove with a co-worker who is the most annoying talker at times. He is always asking questions, but when he asks questions they are more like statements, and he just wants to be assured that he's right about what he thinks is happening or going down. For instance, here is a typical example of one of his questions/statements:
so we are in the trailer and we discuss that they are going to unbolt the plate, lift it off of the bin with the crane and then put on the filter. 5 minutes later, while the workers are starting to do the work, he walks up to me and says "so, after they unbolt the plate, they're going to lift it off the bin with that crane over there and then they will put on the filter.?" and i say "yep, just like we said 5 minutes ago." that is not an exaggeration. that actually happened. and it's fine the first or second time, i just respond with "yep." but after seriously, 20 - 30 times a day of questions statements, I start getting snippy. It gets to the point where towards the end of the day he would come up to me and say "so.." and i would turn to him and say "what?!" and then he would recoil and say "nevermind." i really don't mean to be mean, but OMG, the constant asking of questions that you already know the answers to just drives me bonkers! it's one thing to ask questions if you have no idea what's going on, but I made sure to keep him informed on everything, so there's no need for constant reassurance. don't get me started, don't eeeeeven get me started. but i digress.....oh wait, one more thing. He's Indian (red-dot, not woo-woo) and once in a while i'll say something that he totally doesn't get, and i try not to say anything he won't understand, but i forget sometimes. Like while driving to the plant, he was saying something about how all the construction on the toll pike really slows down traffic and i said "word." and he said "what word?" and i didn't know how to explain it, so i said, "Oh, it's just something you say that means that i agree with you. like, "it's a nice day outside." "word." it was something that people said a lot in the early 90s, but i still say it cause i think it's funny." I don't know if my explanation is even right, but that's the best i could come up with. i've never had to explain something like that before. Oh, our silly American ways!
so getting back to the story and the title of the story, the plant hired out contractors to re-position the equipment, and do all the other miscellaneous contracty labor that I, as a salary employee, would never dream of doing. I am not one of the hourlies. ick.
So the main work consisted of picking up three different pieces of equipment with a crane, and one at a time, putting each on a flatbed, driving it over to someplace else, moving the crane, and then picking it up off the flatbed and then down on the ground. With a 6 person crew, it took them the full 8 hour day to do this. You see, union workers have to take many breaks within the day and they also like to stretch out the work since today they are working, but tomorrow, if they don't get a call, they don't work and then don't get any money. so one-day jobs can become two- or three-day jobs. They were all really nice and all, but i'd rather have surly and crass and gets things done rather than nice and slow and lazy. Also, it takes them so long, because it takes 6 people to something that only needs about 3 people. So only half the work is getting done that could. So while i'm on site, i'm mostly supervising the positioning of the equipment, because i know the orientation of it all and where it needs to go and what needs to happen, i just can't do any of it. So mostly all day i'm standing around in the cold getting agitated at how slow everything is going. mostly. So at 3:00, the day is over (union = 8 hours....) and there is still much work to be done. So yay, one-day trip is becoming a two-day trip..... this means that the next day i have re-wear all my gross dirty clothes from the power plant all day again and then get to wear them for the two-and-a-half hour drive home! So needless to say, I am not pleased. And i decide to become the whip-snapping take-initiative project manager that i have to be in order to get shit done. So since i know what all needs to be done, i go to the contracting group's manager the next morning and i tell him i need one or two people to do this today, and while they are doing that, two other people can be working on this, while the others can get started on this. i tell him that this is getting all done today. I allocate his resources for him and i constantly supervise everyone making sure to see what everyone is working on and I make my presence known so that they know that i'm watching them and that this IS getting down today. I hate to take off my kid-cap and put on my boss-hat, but everything got done by 2:00 that day. that's all i gotta say abouts that.
oh, and about the title, when you go to power plants, you get safety trained and a lot of times you get stickers from the plant, so your hard hat ends up being decorated with all these stickers. but the contractor's manager also had a sticker that was a giant skull and around it, it read "Union or Die." and i chose DIE for him.
So after putting down the first two things, the plant personnel realized that the place that was to house the third piece of equipment was not going to work. It was right next to a transformer that apparently produces electrical arcs and can cause crazy problems and deaths and power outages and equipment failure and whatnot if the crane gets too close to it, let alone if it touches it. I don't know, i'm not an electrical engineer. So between last week and this week, they re-figured out where to put all this crap, so lucky me i had to go back out to the site! I was told it should be a day-trip, so i packed accordingly. I also drove with a co-worker who is the most annoying talker at times. He is always asking questions, but when he asks questions they are more like statements, and he just wants to be assured that he's right about what he thinks is happening or going down. For instance, here is a typical example of one of his questions/statements:
so we are in the trailer and we discuss that they are going to unbolt the plate, lift it off of the bin with the crane and then put on the filter. 5 minutes later, while the workers are starting to do the work, he walks up to me and says "so, after they unbolt the plate, they're going to lift it off the bin with that crane over there and then they will put on the filter.?" and i say "yep, just like we said 5 minutes ago." that is not an exaggeration. that actually happened. and it's fine the first or second time, i just respond with "yep." but after seriously, 20 - 30 times a day of questions statements, I start getting snippy. It gets to the point where towards the end of the day he would come up to me and say "so.." and i would turn to him and say "what?!" and then he would recoil and say "nevermind." i really don't mean to be mean, but OMG, the constant asking of questions that you already know the answers to just drives me bonkers! it's one thing to ask questions if you have no idea what's going on, but I made sure to keep him informed on everything, so there's no need for constant reassurance. don't get me started, don't eeeeeven get me started. but i digress.....oh wait, one more thing. He's Indian (red-dot, not woo-woo) and once in a while i'll say something that he totally doesn't get, and i try not to say anything he won't understand, but i forget sometimes. Like while driving to the plant, he was saying something about how all the construction on the toll pike really slows down traffic and i said "word." and he said "what word?" and i didn't know how to explain it, so i said, "Oh, it's just something you say that means that i agree with you. like, "it's a nice day outside." "word." it was something that people said a lot in the early 90s, but i still say it cause i think it's funny." I don't know if my explanation is even right, but that's the best i could come up with. i've never had to explain something like that before. Oh, our silly American ways!
so getting back to the story and the title of the story, the plant hired out contractors to re-position the equipment, and do all the other miscellaneous contracty labor that I, as a salary employee, would never dream of doing. I am not one of the hourlies. ick.
So the main work consisted of picking up three different pieces of equipment with a crane, and one at a time, putting each on a flatbed, driving it over to someplace else, moving the crane, and then picking it up off the flatbed and then down on the ground. With a 6 person crew, it took them the full 8 hour day to do this. You see, union workers have to take many breaks within the day and they also like to stretch out the work since today they are working, but tomorrow, if they don't get a call, they don't work and then don't get any money. so one-day jobs can become two- or three-day jobs. They were all really nice and all, but i'd rather have surly and crass and gets things done rather than nice and slow and lazy. Also, it takes them so long, because it takes 6 people to something that only needs about 3 people. So only half the work is getting done that could. So while i'm on site, i'm mostly supervising the positioning of the equipment, because i know the orientation of it all and where it needs to go and what needs to happen, i just can't do any of it. So mostly all day i'm standing around in the cold getting agitated at how slow everything is going. mostly. So at 3:00, the day is over (union = 8 hours....) and there is still much work to be done. So yay, one-day trip is becoming a two-day trip..... this means that the next day i have re-wear all my gross dirty clothes from the power plant all day again and then get to wear them for the two-and-a-half hour drive home! So needless to say, I am not pleased. And i decide to become the whip-snapping take-initiative project manager that i have to be in order to get shit done. So since i know what all needs to be done, i go to the contracting group's manager the next morning and i tell him i need one or two people to do this today, and while they are doing that, two other people can be working on this, while the others can get started on this. i tell him that this is getting all done today. I allocate his resources for him and i constantly supervise everyone making sure to see what everyone is working on and I make my presence known so that they know that i'm watching them and that this IS getting down today. I hate to take off my kid-cap and put on my boss-hat, but everything got done by 2:00 that day. that's all i gotta say abouts that.
oh, and about the title, when you go to power plants, you get safety trained and a lot of times you get stickers from the plant, so your hard hat ends up being decorated with all these stickers. but the contractor's manager also had a sticker that was a giant skull and around it, it read "Union or Die." and i chose DIE for him.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
i would have rather not voted
Since the voting poll is a minute's walk from my place, i got there right when it opened at 6:30. I was already in a line of 8 people. The four people who were working there had a combined age of over at least 300 years. The one who looked the youngest (that means he'll probably die in 3 - 5 years, not 1 - 3 years like the other three workers) and was probably the most competent was working the electronic machine where you insert your completed ballot. i felt this was a smart move on their part. the other three people each had one task. The first person would ask your name and find it in a list. the second person would write down your name and address and what form you got. the third guy gave you the form.
Here's an excerpt from the happenings with the lady who was in front of me.
Worker 1: "What's your name"
Lady: (states name)
Worker 1: "Democrat or Republican"
Lady: "Democrat."
Worker 1: (to Worker 3): "Democrat."
Worker 1 then proceeds to take 2 minutes to find her name in a book that lists everyone's name.... alphabetically.
Worker 1: "Ok, please get your form"
then i step up, and give him my ID and he starts to look for my name. then the lady turns around.
Lady: "Aren't i supposed to sign my name somewhere?"
Worker 1: "Oh yeah."
since he had already lost her page since he was now looking me up, it took him a minute to find her page again. seriously, a minute.
She signs her name and then goes to grab her form, but it's the wrong form.
Lady: "I'm a Democrat."
Worker 3: (to worker 1) "I thought you said republican?"
Worker 1: "No, i said Democrat."
Worker 2: "but i already wrote her form number down. now i'm going to have to cross it out!"
Worker 1: "just cross it out!"
Worker 2: "ok, i'll just cross it out."
this is about the time i reached my boiling point and wanted to turn around and leave. 20 minutes had already passed by since i got there.
I finally got my form (actually i got two of them, when i went to start filling it in, i noticed that both forms were the same and returned one to the guy who was now so confused as to how i got two forms. maybe it was because he GAVE me two forms....)
it then took me less than a minute to vote, and then i left.
the end.
ugh.
at least i picked the winner!
Here's an excerpt from the happenings with the lady who was in front of me.
Worker 1: "What's your name"
Lady: (states name)
Worker 1: "Democrat or Republican"
Lady: "Democrat."
Worker 1: (to Worker 3): "Democrat."
Worker 1 then proceeds to take 2 minutes to find her name in a book that lists everyone's name.... alphabetically.
Worker 1: "Ok, please get your form"
then i step up, and give him my ID and he starts to look for my name. then the lady turns around.
Lady: "Aren't i supposed to sign my name somewhere?"
Worker 1: "Oh yeah."
since he had already lost her page since he was now looking me up, it took him a minute to find her page again. seriously, a minute.
She signs her name and then goes to grab her form, but it's the wrong form.
Lady: "I'm a Democrat."
Worker 3: (to worker 1) "I thought you said republican?"
Worker 1: "No, i said Democrat."
Worker 2: "but i already wrote her form number down. now i'm going to have to cross it out!"
Worker 1: "just cross it out!"
Worker 2: "ok, i'll just cross it out."
this is about the time i reached my boiling point and wanted to turn around and leave. 20 minutes had already passed by since i got there.
I finally got my form (actually i got two of them, when i went to start filling it in, i noticed that both forms were the same and returned one to the guy who was now so confused as to how i got two forms. maybe it was because he GAVE me two forms....)
it then took me less than a minute to vote, and then i left.
the end.
ugh.
at least i picked the winner!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Movie Musts
After much deliberation and a strenuous list-making procedure, I have whittled down the candidates to 10 movies everyone not only needs to see, but needs to like in order to be my friend.
It's a mixture of award-nominated films, feel good movies, nostalgia, comedies, dramas, and movies starring Warwick Davis.
In particular order:
1. Ghost World
2. Bedknobs & Broomsticks
3. Willow
4. Spellbound (2004)
5. Clockwatchers
6. Sister Act II
7. Traffic
8. I Heart Huckabees
9. Wet Hot American Summer
10. Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
I hope that this list sparkles with everyone.
It's a mixture of award-nominated films, feel good movies, nostalgia, comedies, dramas, and movies starring Warwick Davis.
In particular order:
1. Ghost World
2. Bedknobs & Broomsticks
3. Willow
4. Spellbound (2004)
5. Clockwatchers
6. Sister Act II
7. Traffic
8. I Heart Huckabees
9. Wet Hot American Summer
10. Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
I hope that this list sparkles with everyone.
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