Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Continuing from the last post with the miscellaneous jobs I’ve held:

Movie theater usher/concessions/projectionist – The spring of my senior year of high school they renovated the old Wal-Mart and made a movie theater with 8 screens (the previous movie theater in Warrensburg only had 2 screens – how small town is that). My mom worked with the wife of one of the new movie theater managers so she was able to get me an interview (and probably the job as well) when the new theater opened. It didn’t have stadium seating or anything fancy, but it was still a much better job than Burger King. I started out as an usher/concessions attendant, but then was promoted to a projectionist after a few months. Working at the theater was awesome. I loved watching movies and you worked with college kids. New movies would be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday in 6-8 film canisters. As a projectionist you would splice the 6-8 film reels together and had to watch it on Thursday evening after the movie theater closed (you watched it to make sure you didn’t accidentally splice reel 2 with reel 5 and miss 45 minutes of plot in the movie). If it was a movie people wanted to see other employees would stay with you to watch it, you could invite friends, people would bring in drinks and it would be a good time. On the flip side though, you also had to stay (usually by yourself) and watch the bad movies you put together that nobody wanted to see, like Harriet the Spy or The Horse Whisperer. My boss at the movie theater used the perks his job provided to the fullest extent. He would barter movie passes or invites to the Thursday night projectionist sneak-preview to the local dry cleaners, Domino’s & Pizza Hut, Jiffy Lube oil changes, etc. I don’t think that man paid for anything in Warrensburg. I didn’t mind though, because the Domino’s & Pizza Hut people always brought over a lot of food and weren’t too rambunctious. Working at the movie theater the summer after graduating high school was really fun. My schedule was really messed up; I’d work until midnight or so, go out with coworkers and stay up until about 6AM, then go home and go to bed and sleep until noon and then turn around and to it all over again. Another perk of working at the only movie theater in town was that you always saw people on dates and you sometimes saw people going to the movies together that you didn’t realize were together or shouldn’t have been together (at least in public due to personal commitments). You also had the usual situations of people making out in the back of the theater and you had to break that up. As a projectionist it was always fun to go up in the booth and shine a flashlight on the offenders in the back row right when they were really getting into it.

Window scraper – The summer after I graduated college I needed a temporary job just for the summer because we were moving to Alabama in August. A friend told me I could work with her husband doing some painting in some new duplexes that were being built. No problem. I was thankful to have a job and looked forward to making a little money. What I didn’t realize was that I was hired on as a windows scraper. Here’s how it would work: the construction company was building duplexes very quickly in the summer in order to get them ready for the college students returning in the fall. Once the apartments were ready to be painted (interior), they would paint the walls quickly with a spray and move on to the next room. Paint would splatter on the windows so they needed someone to scrape the paint (with a razorblade) off of each window in the apartment. I’m not kidding – hand scrape the paint off of windows with a small razorblade. And it wasn’t just a few drops of paint – those windows were covered. After scraping just 2 windows I asked if it would be easier to have me go before the painters and tape off the windows so paint wouldn’t get on them, and then remove the tape and covering afterwards. That seemed logical to me. That plan wasn’t accepted; I guess it was easier, cheaper and faster to paint the walls quickly and then pay me to scrape off the paint from the windows. You quickly realize how expendable you are and how crappy of a job you have when it’s easier to pay you to scrape paint off of windows all day than to take the time to tape off the windows. My fingers hurt so badly after the first day that I had to quit that job. I really do appreciate my friend getting me the job, but that sh!t was depressing; fresh out of college with an IT degree in the year 2000 and I was scraping paint off of windows.

Bartender – Ok, the term bartender may be a bit of a stretch. After my quick stint in the construction business (1 day as a paint scraper), I needed to find another summer job after college graduation. Another friend hooked me up with bartending at the local Elk’s Lodge. It wasn’t too mentally taxing; the job consisted of basically using a bottle opener to open the beers for the Elks Lodge members. Surprisingly, Elks Lodge members don’t really order wild drinks like a Flaming Dr. Pepper or an appletini – pretty much just drink Miller Lite. On Saturday nights there would be wedding receptions or high school reunions at the Elk Lodge, so I did get to bartend those. Those were entertaining because they’d have a DJ and it was pretty busy and you’d actually serve drinks other than just beer.

I’ve held other jobs during my tenure in the workforce, such as working at the college library and various computer-related jobs, but those were pretty standard and not very interesting. I do appreciate the various jobs I’ve had because I think I learned something (maybe not job-related) at each one of them. One recurring theme at each one was to stay in school and get a degree I could use so I wouldn’t have to do the job I was currently doing for the rest of my life.


Song/Album of the day: BB King’s “Live in Cook County Jail.” People always talk about Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison album being the definitive album recorded at a prison, but BB King’s is just as good (at least to me). You know it’s going to be good when, during the 1st track as they’re introducing everyone to the audience/general population, the inmates boo loudly when the sheriff is introduced. If you like blues, you’ll like this album.

I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom

I was talking to a coworker the other day and they told me their daughter had just gotten her first part-time job. That got me to thinking about the jobs I’ve had over the years. After writing them all down I realized that I’ve had at least 10 jobs that I can remember in my 31 years. These are not 10 different adult careers; these span from when I was 14 to present day. I thought that if I’m going to take this trip down memory lane, why not invite everyone along for some of the highlights? Here we go:

Mowed lawns – like every suburban teenager I mowed lawns in my neighborhood. There were a few elderly ladies and an apartment complex that kept me steadily employed as a “landscape artist.” It wasn’t too bad; it provided cash that allowed me to buy toys and clothes that I wanted.

Red Cross swimming lessons instructor – When I was 14 years old I taught swimming lessons for the Red Cross. It was a pretty fun job, although it paid horribly – minimum wage and you only worked a few hours a day. It did provide the opportunity to hang out with girls who were older who were in swimsuits. The only thing I really remember about this job was riding my bike home really quickly after the night sessions so I could watch the 1992 Summer Olympic USA Basketball team (The original Dream Team) play in the Barcelona Olympics. This was pre-DVR days and I never really trusted the VCR to tape things when I programmed it. That team was amazing. Random fact – they never called a timeout during any of their Olympic games.

Grape picker for a winery – When I was 15 years old a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to help him that Saturday pick grapes for a winery in the area. He said that it’s easy money and I didn’t have anything else to do that Saturday so sure, why not. He said to be outside of my house at 6AM in long sleeve clothes, jeans and a pair of gloves. No problem – 6AM is a little early on a Saturday, but I can do it. A little after 6AM that Saturday a truck pulls up to my house – my friend’s father is driving and there are a few other grown men in the cab. I get in the back of the truck and sit down in the truck bed. We then proceed to pick up 5 or 6 Mexican gentlemen along the way who apparently don’t speak much English at all. I didn’t realize this at the time, but I was to be a day laborer for the winery. They paid me in cash and dropped me back off at my house at the end of the day. The only thing missing from the situation was that they didn’t pick me up in front of a Home Depot. It wasn’t very interesting work; you had to watch out for wasps and snakes and just pick the grapes off of the vine. It was tiring though, filling up the baskets with grapes and loading the baskets onto the truck. They did take us into the winery and give us a tour at the end of the day. The last part of our job that day was to pour the baskets of grapes into the giant grape-crushing machine. That was neat to witness, although I saw spiders, snakes, and other bad things go down the grape-crushing machine and the winery owner stated that was not a big deal at all. I guess crushed up snakes and spiders add flavor to the wine.

Painted a house – When I was 16 the superintendant of the public school district hired me one week during the summer to paint one of the houses on his rental property. It was a really easy job. I did a good job, but it’s a totally different feeling knowing that you’re painting a house that some college kids are going to live in and trash (didn’t do a lot of detail work with a small brush). Again, a cash job.

Burger King sandwich artist – My parents told me that if I wanted to drive one of their vehicles when I turned 16 I needed to pay the additional amount of auto insurance it costs to add me to their policy. Not a bad deal at all for a 16 year old. So on my 16th birthday I applied for a job at Burger King. Please be aware that there aren’t an abundant amount of part-time job opportunities in Warrensburg for a 16 year old. I chose Burger King because I knew some people who worked there. Working there was definitely an education. Working weeknights after school wasn’t that bad because it was mostly other high-school kids working there. Working there in the summer or working the breakfast shift or closing shift was a different story altogether. I once worked with a girl who decided that she no longer wanted to wear her braces, so she took it upon herself to remove them (on her own) with pliers. She was only able to get the wiring off though; she couldn’t get the “tabs” that were glued to her teeth off so she just left them like that - awesome. I also worked with an older guy who asked me on his first day, “Are there any ugly girls who work here?” I proceeded to ask why (I don’t know why I asked; I guess I figured the conversation could kill some time while we were there), and his response was, “I’m looking for an ugly girl because they don’t have the opportunities to cheat on you and they’re more appreciative when you’re nice to them and show them attention.” Words to live by. For being a fast-food job, it wasn’t that bad, although my hands would smell like pickles and onions all of the time.

That’s all for now; I’ll finish up with the rest of my previous jobs in the next post. My own To Be Continued . . .


Song of the day: “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” by Vampire Weekend. Another fun song for the summer that I frequently find myself humming (I’m sure my cubicle neighbor at work hates me). Vampire Weekend’s self-titled album is pretty good; you should check it out.

Cheap Shades and a Tattoo and a Yoo-Hoo

If you ask people what their favorite season is, you’ll probably get answers like “I like the Spring because that’s when everything comes into bloom and it’s like a new beginning” or “I like Fall because I like when the leaves change color and the temperature drops to sweater weather.” For me, seeing the leaves turn color in the Fall is just a constant visual reminder that another summer has died. I love the summer; I would say that it’s my favorite season. I’m noticeably happier in the summertime. Ok, yeah, it gets hot. But most public places, modern vehicles, homes, etc. have air conditioning so quit whining.

For me, summertime has always represented a season of freedom of sorts. When you’re a kid it meant 3 months away from school. The days are longer and the nights are more fun. It’s like a 3 month party. Here are a few more reasons why summer is the best season:

Memorial Day Weekend – The official start to summer. This might be my favorite holiday. Depending on what date in May the holiday falls on, all of the following could possibly take place during this extended weekend: Women’s College Softball Super Regionals or World Series (Laugh all you want, but it’s entertaining. I realize it’s not as visually stimulating as women’s beach volleyball, but a few of the girls are “softball pretty.”), the NBA playoffs, the early rounds of the French Open, and possibly a UFC event. Combine all of those with good friends and family, barbecues, and that’s a recipe for a good time. I’ve been known to take the Friday before off of work to extend this party to 4 days. I invite anyone and everyone that’s looking for a good time to come hang out with me the next Memorial Day weekend. If you do plan to hang out with me and my entourage, please be prepared; you’ll need to stay rested, hydrated and have plenty of sunscreen. I’m a compassionate person, but you’re on your own if you do something ignorant such as forgetting to apply sunscreen on Friday afternoon and can’t participate in the rest of the weekend.

Summertime Fashion – People aren’t walking around wearing 3-5 layers, looking all puffy in the summertime like they do in the winter. Granted, it takes some planning in the spring to get summer ready and shed the winter weight. But a little bit of consistent work started in March goes a long way by June, and is definitely appreciated. It’s also an opportunity to get some color on my skin so I can temporarily get rid of the trademark “IT Paleness” that almost everyone in my career field has. Between Memorial Day & Labor Day it’s acceptable to wear linen and also white pants. The linen thing is my own personal rule. It’s a lightweight, breathable fabric – it just looks out of place in the middle of winter, at least here in the Midwest. I understand the “white in summertime” rule is outdated and has been refuted, but I’m a traditionalist and think it still applies. It may be ok if you live in a warmer climate or on the coasts, but it just looks silly to be rockin’ white pants in January in Missouri. This mostly applies to ladies because white pants on men just doesn’t look quite right ever, no matter the season. I’ve seen white shorts for men that work, but they’ve got to be longer or of the cargo variety, not the pleated, polyester white shorts that old men wear that have the crease down the front (I think these are sold and Sears and JCPenney). One final personal pet peeve I’d like to mention (call it my Public Service Announcement or my own “The More You Know” commercial that they play on NBC) and this is targeted at the ladies: if you wear white pants in the summer, please be aware of your undergarment situation. Nothing kills a great pair of crisp white pants like blatant VPL (visible panty line) or a black thong that can be seen either through the pants or hanging out above the waistline. Many men may not agree with me about the black thong thing and say that it’s hot, and it might be if you’re at a NASCAR event, a monster truck rally, or in Independence, MO., but it’s just not for me. There are many alternatives available these days to resolve the white pants/underwear issue – I’m just asking that you consider them all and choose the one that you’re comfortable with.

Music – It's always fun to see (and guess) what the "song of the summer" will be each year. This year it looks to be "Boom Boom Pow." Anyway, the music that comes out in the summer seems to be catchy, fun party songs. It’s also acceptable to have some reggae in your playlist during the summer and people won’t assume you’re a stoner, slacker or a Rastafarian. Summertime is also the only season I catch myself listening to a little country music.

Food – Barbecues, watermelon, and lemonade. I don’t even need to elaborate.

4th of July – Our nation’s birthday. Fireworks and more barbecues. How can you not like this holiday . . . unless you’re Al Qaeda or Taliban. Are you?

Pool/Waterparks – When I was a kid, the pool was our summertime babysitter and I didn’t mind this at all. This started the summer after my 5th grade year and continued until 8th grade. Mom would take my brother & me to the pool during her lunch hour if we did our morning chores, which were usually really simple chores like fold the towels or clean our rooms. There were 2 public pools in Warrensburg: the nice one at the golf course (Pertle Springs) that was ran by the college, and then there was the other one that wasn’t so nice (Nassif Pool) that was ran by the city. The pool at the golf course was the “it” pool to be seen at; there were high school and college girls there (both as lifeguards and as patrons), and that’s where the upper middle class kids went to swim. Anybody who was anybody went to Pertle to swim. Unfortunately for me and my brother, my mother’s work was only a block away from the other pool so we were chauffeured to Nassif. At first I was a little upset about this, but I got over it quickly because it was still a pool with a diving board and girls (who weren’t as uptight as the girls at Nassif and more “friendly” – that’s a nice way to put it). Looking back, I’m glad I went to Nassif because I got much more of a “worldly” education there than I would have at Pertle. The clientele at Nassif was different than at Pertle; it was more “urban.” I didn’t mind this at all; I’m a friend to all and fit right in and hung out with everyone there. I remember on Fridays the older Talbert brothers would come into town from KC and hang out at the pool – that always kicked the excitement up a notch at Nassif. I was hanging out with the youngest of the Talbert brothers at the pool so I got to tag along. It was on a Friday at the pool that I witnessed my first real fight. Not the weak, juvenile fights that happened in the hallways or after school in middle school; I’m talking about 2 big guys going toe-to-toe. It was also on a Friday at the pool where I saw someone pull a gun on someone else (actually it was at the basketball courts next to the pool where you’d go during the hourly 10 minute break/adult swim at the pool). That was a little scary. After that incident I decided to stay in the pool area and just lay on my towel during adult swim. I was there when Jermaine had fireworks go off in the back pocket of his pants and had to go to the hospital for a skin graft. I could continue to regale you with more Nassif pool stories, but I’m not sure if the statute of limitations has expired on some of the things I witnessed, so I’ll stop here. Every time I go to an outdoor pool I think of those summers fondly. Warrensburg has since closed the pool at the golf course, leaving Nassif as the only outdoor public pool. The city has renovated the pool, adding a lazy river and some other cool stuff. It looks to be a reputable place now.

I could go on-and-on about my love for the summer, but this post is long enough as is. I’m going to try and enjoy this summer as much as I can, before the dreaded holiday of Labor Day arrives and singlehandedly kills my joy.


Song of the day: “P control” by Prince (off The Gold Experience album). A song about female empowerment; it could possibly be the “I Will Survive” for our generation. Ok, maybe not, but still a classic Prince beat that makes me laugh every time I hear it. Skip the 30 second intro though, it’s a little boring. Be warned, this is an adult song so be aware of your surroundings when singing it aloud.

Another dimension, new ga-la-xy

I went and saw the new Terminator movie the other day. It was ok; not great but somewhat entertaining. It follows the premise of the original Terminator story: Skynet (a computer software-based artificial intelligence military defense system) becomes self-aware and sees the human race as a threat to its existence. It starts a nuclear war by firing nuclear missiles at Russia; Russia in turn fires nuclear missiles at the United States. This nuclear exchange kills billions of people in just minutes. Skynet then utilizes robots and machines to hunt down and kill the remaining human survivors, the end goal being the extermination of all mankind.

I left the movie thinking the following: what would happen if Skynet won the war and eliminated the entire human race? What would Skynet and all of the Terminators do next, throw a huge party to celebrate their victory? I’m sure they’d have a Lee Greenwood-type Terminator robot sing some cheesy, patriotic robot song in honor of the day they killed the last human. After the party ends I can see them just looking around at each other and giving a shrug, like “what now?” Since inception, the terminators and Skynet had one goal; to destroy the humans. Once that’s been completed, they wouldn’t know what to do. It’s not like the T-600 model would go find a new career in middle management once all the “people killin’” had been completed. They’re robots; they wouldn’t have the desire to start a normal, suburban family life. They wouldn’t go on vacation to the beach to clear their head or take the red-eye to Vegas with a bunch of their Terminator friends for an extended weekend. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t all just shut down once their objective had been completed – a successful completion to an end of job of sorts.

I don’t know; this was just what I thought about on the way home from the movie theater. By the way, this is the type of thing us nerdy IT guys stand around the water cooler at work and talk about.


Song of the day: “Here (In Your Arms)” by Hellogoodbye. I admit it’s a cheesy song. If you listen to it through headphones though it sounds pretty good. I actually prefer to listen to music through a decent pair of headphones; you hear pieces and instruments in the song that you miss when listening via speakers. A lot of tracks that Timbaland produces have “layers” within them that I never noticed until listening via headphones (FYI - Timbaland did not produce this song).

Say hello to my little friend

I read a news story a few years ago that I still think about now and again so I thought I’d share. This is they type of thing I think about when I have free time.

Two spider monkeys in Bangladesh were found by authorities selling drugs out of a house. The owner had trained the monkeys to recognize the different colored currency from the customers. Here's how it would work: you approach the house/shack and go inside and one of the spider monkeys would "greet" you at the door. You give one of the monkeys the money and he would place it in a locked box (similar to a "comments" box at restaurants, offices, etc.). The other monkey would then run into the back room to get the appropriate amount of drugs (based on currency given to the first monkey) and bring the drugs back to you.

At first I thought this was a simple, ingenious plan – the monkeys do all of the day-to-day work, which frees up your time for back office duties such as accounting and other management tasks. If the authorities should ever raid the house, the only people to get arrested are the monkeys. And we all know monkeys don't snitch - the detectives can have a monkey in an interrogation room for hours with the lamp on them, blowing cigarette smoke in their face, slamming their fists against the table while yelling at them and the monkey will never finger you as the ringleader (wait, did I actually just type that last phrase? I guess I really do want to get on a watch list).

After thinking about it for a while I realized that this original, entrepreneurial plan would eventually fail, and here's why:

1) After buying drugs from 2 monkeys in a shack a few times, I’m sure someone would get the idea of “Hey, why don’t we just go kill the monkeys and take the drugs and the money?” Not a bad idea. As the CEO of this operation you have to think of a way to protect your investment. We’ve all heard the infinite monkey theorem that states if you gave a million monkeys a million typewriters they’d eventually write the works of Shakespeare. Well, if you give 2 monkeys 2 pistols and teach them how to shoot then it’ll just get crazy. So now you’ve got 2 drug-dealing monkeys that are strapped and looking to get some, because a monkey with a gun on his hip has a completely different swagger. Spider monkeys are kind of little, so I’m sure they’ll have a Napoleon complex, and with that comes an itchy trigger finger. You’ve now introduced an element of danger into the work environment and at some point the police will surely be called because of random gunfire coming from the shack at the end of the street. You need an equalizer to stabilize the situation: a gorilla bouncer at the shack to be the “muscle”. He answers the door, greets the customers and carries the heater. That would bring stability back to an otherwise potentially stressful situation. As a backup you could also have an orangutan chillin’ in a rocking chair with a shotgun (and maybe wearing a straw cowboy hat to give him that intimidating, small town Southern sheriff look – that’s at least how I picture it). With the gorilla and orangutan that’s 2 more salaries you’ve got to pay, but it’s probably worth it for the peace of mind they provide.

2) Now there are 4 primates hanging out in the shack, slinging dope and making bank for you. I doubt they will be busy all the time selling drugs; they’re going to have some downtime and will get bored. You don’t want them to fall asleep on the job and be vulnerable to a shackjack (when someone attempts to jack your shack), so you’ve got to provide some entertainment in the shack – a home entertainment system, cable TV, pool table, poker table, etc. Furnishing the shack and providing these amenities are additional overhead expenses that you didn’t originally budget for. You can’t make the shack too fun though, because then the monkeys won’t be focused on the task at hand. With 4 males hanging out all day in a shack (whether it be monkeys or humans), conversations, poker games, arguments over what to watch on TV, etc. inevitably escalate to physical violence without the presence of females around to keep everything chill. So you let the monkeys invite their skanky, stripper ho monkey b!tches over to the shack to hang out while they work. Although this could potentially branch off into a decent monkey prostitution side business, that’s a dicey move that introduces more risk to the company, especially at this early stage. I say for now you focus on the original business of pharmaceutical distribution and evaluate the prostitution opportunities as a possible subsidiary for 1st or 2nd quarter of next year.

3) It’s common knowledge that those who deal drugs usually end up using drugs as well; this is bound to happen. Now you’ve got your 4 monkey employees and their b!tches all strung-out, laying around the shack all day getting high on your sh!t, which is eating into your profits. It would be ok if they only smoked your weed, but we all know that’s just a gateway drug that leads to the harder, more expensive stuff. As a good employer you’ve got to now organize an intervention to get your employees off of smack and send them to rehab, which increases the company’s health insurance premiums. Also, I’m fairly certain that one of the monkeys will eventually knock up one of his girlfriends and then come to you asking for a raise because he wants to do the right thing and provide for his new family blah blah blah. What can you do? You created the situation that led to this and you’d look like an @$$ if you didn’t help him out. More money to keep the wheels of business turning.

4) In order to stay competitive with other local companies you’ll need to provide a benefits package that is appealing to current and prospective employees. This benefits package will need to include onsite day care for the children of your employees, profit-sharing, paid vacations, a retirement plan, an onsite gym, etc. (all of which costs even more money). Pretty soon your original profit margin has been reduced to that of a stay-at-home Mom’s who hosts Tupperware parties.

As you can see, what was originally a simple, creative business opportunity quickly blossoms into a complicated, stressful situation with operational costs spiraling out of control.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this post. In no way did I mean to infer that all female monkeys are skanky, stripper ho monkey b!tches who would eventually participate in a prostitution ring. I was just making a broad generalization about the ones who would hang out with their drug-pushing boyfriends all day in a shack. I’m sure there are a few “diamonds in the rough” in that crowd who are just dancing to work their way through law or med school.


Song of the day: Three 6 Mafia – “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)”. A club banger. I heard this while in the Chi’ last fall visiting my brother. The original version sampled the theme from the movie Halloween but they didn’t pay to use it so they changed the piano sample just enough to get away with it. I enjoy listening to it while jogging. I like the 2nd verse when he stutters on the first few lines and also the line about Barack Obama.

"You’re not single, so . . .?"

I joined FaceBook a few months ago. I tried to fight it as long as possible, but I finally had to give in because it seems that is the only way people communicate with one another these days. I caught some flack when I finally joined because I may have once said something to the effect of “the only people my age who should be on FaceBook are single people & pedophiles.” Just so you know, I’m not a pedophile (although do pedophiles actually admit it when they are? I doubt it. “No Chris Hansen, I wasn’t here for anything like that, I just brought a Happy Meal, a 6 pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade and condoms to this house for a tutoring session” ) Just out of curiosity, I wonder how many times having the word pedophile in your blog gets you put on some sort of government watch list? I guess we’ll see if 4 is the magic number.

Anyway, I like the idea of FaceBook; it’s allowed me to reconnect with a few old friends and communicate with people I would’ve never called or emailed. With that said, I don’t know if I’m just getting old or what, but here are some things about FaceBook that really annoy me:

1) I hate getting friend requests from people I either A) have no idea who they are, or B) people I didn’t talk to when I went to school with them or worked with them. I guess it’s just a numbers game for them; trying to accumulate hundreds of friends. I’m just the opposite – I’m content with my 15-20 friends (I know, quit bragging). I feel bad turning them down, so I’ll just let the friend request sit out there for a while. More often than not I’ll eventually end up accepting it. I’ve never had the nerve to defriend someone; I guess I’m afraid that it’ll make me look like a FaceBook snob or I’ll run into that person sometime and they’ll confront me on why I defriended them on FaceBook. I don’t have a problem telling them why, but then I’m sure it’ll get around that William is an @$$hole (if it hasn’t already). Besides, with more FaceBook friends comes more stupid updates, which brings us to

2) Those dumb quizzes people take. I understand that if you see one or two quizzes that look interesting, but taking every quiz out there, 5 or 6 at a time? Really?! I really don’t care what type of Starbucks coffee you are. What’s even more annoying are the ignorant comments people leave to these quiz results “OMG – that’s’ crazy! I totally see you as a mocha latte!” What does that even mean?

3) Stop “poking” me – it’s dumb.

4) One last thing: it’s not that annoying yet, but it’s getting there: when married couples comment on each other’s statuses. I guess that’s more of a pet peeve of mine. Couldn’t that have been a conversation you had at home with one another? Why do I need to be made privy to this conversation?


Song/Album of the day: TRVS DJAM “Fix your Face” Mixtape. It’s Travis Barker playing drums to DJ AM mixing well-known songs from the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Johnny Cash, Run DMC, Prince, Michael Jackson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Led Zeppelin, etc. I highly recommend it. If you listen to it, play all of the 15 songs back to back because it is a mixtape – there is no break between songs. This was what they were out promoting when their plane crashed. It’s not on iTunes; the official site to get it is http://www.trvsdjam.com/downloadpage/download_box.html, but it may not be available there anymore – try here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ljg1zjzgtzt