Doing a little channel flipping last night, I caught a few minutes of ‘Office Space.’ It never fails to get a chuckle out of me – especially the printer that looks suspiciously like the HP LaserJet 4 that I got for $25 (including spare toner cartridge and extra 500 sheet capacity tray) from the SU Law School junk sale back in about 2001. Like the one in the movie, it seems to think there’s a paper jam when there isn’t one (at least when the HC tray is pushed in). I should really get a new one, but I rarely print anything (at home, anyway) and can’t see spending the money on it.

Anyhow watching Office Space (“Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements!”) was rather appropriate, because today is the day of our office Christmas Party Holiday Gathering (not to be confused with the Holiday Happening, where the important people show they’re just like the rest of us little people by serving ice cream. That was yesterday. Being lactose intolerant, I did not attend).

Yes, they scheduled a holiday party on Friday the 13th. Seeing as I’m working from home today, the odds of me driving a half hour to go to a bar and not drink (not only would I then have to drive home, there’s always the chance that after a few beers a little “truth” might slip out) while feeling obliged to eat pizza and wings (not that I don’t like pizza and wings – let’s just say that when I do eat that kind of stuff, I really don’t want a bar bathroom to be my only option) were quite slim to begin with. Add to that the fact that I already see the people that I’d care to hang out with every day I’m at the office and therefore have no real need to see them “out in the wild,” and, well, I guess I just don’t see the point.

We were supposed to RSVP for this by Tuesday, but on Monday the upper mucky-muck’s assistant called around for a head count, and I sadly had to tell her that I would be unable to attend. Much to my surprise, a spreadsheet was soon distributed to the manager-level folks, detailing who would be coming and who would not (with the reason why not). Apparently, only my office mate (who had some lame excuse about having to pick up her kid from college) and I are not going. Had I known we needed to provide an excuse, I’d have had my wife write a note explaining that I had to wait for a previously scheduled appliance delivery.

So, I guess I’m on the shit list. Personally, I consider this harassment.

Just got an e-mail from “BJs” the shopping “club” I belong to (hey, it’s a union perk and they have pretty good gas prices, plus if you need a pallet of toilet paper it’s the place to go), and they’ve got a good deal on a Keurig coffee maker. I’ve been lusting after one of these for a while now, having first encountered one a few years back when I went to a training thing in DC and they had a commercial Keurig at the training center. It was plumbed to water, so all you had to do was put your pod in and put your cup down, and whoosh – a cuppa Joe in like 15 seconds. And it also magically whisked the pod off to parts unknown so you didn’t even have to deal with that (I’m a bit chagrined to admit that, not being one to read the directions, I didn’t realize you weren’t supposed to peel the foil off the pod before you put it in – makes a but of a mess).

Anyhow, it wasn’t long after that I started seeing them for the home, and I’ve wanted one ever since. But then I quit drinking coffee, and while I still inexplicably wanted one, it seemed silly to get one and not use it. But now I have one cup in the morning, and it seems like that would be perfect. Not that I’d be throwing all those little plastic things into the landfill, of course. I’d get the reusable one and fill it with my own damn coffee.

But seeing as I already have a coffee maker that I bought to use during my summer in hell (aka, Washington DC) and my wife has her own coffee maker that she uses, and we actually have at least one more around here someplace, I can’t see spending $100+ on another one. And I don’t get how they can have three different cup sizes. I mean, it’s the same amount of coffee, no? You either get a small strong cup or a large watered-down one. Not sure I get it.

We have one at work. I’ve never used it, but they “coffee club” folks do, and for some reason, even though I don’t use the thing (frankly, I’ve only been in the break room where it’s located about two times in the past five years) I’m subjected to the e-mails about new coffee flavors and how people aren’t paying the $1 a cup or some people are bringing in their own pods but goddamn it are slopping up the supplies (supplies? What, like cream and sugar? Bleh – what a way to ruin a cup of coffee), and they need to pay, too, damnit!

This is why I don’t go to the break room – I’m afraid I’ll be frisked for contraband on my way out.

Oh well, time for a cup of :joe:

Be careful out there today.

Wow, been over a week so I feel compelled to put something up here – though I don’t really have much to say (what, you don’t really wanna hear about the weather or the “Texas Bowl” do you?). I guess I need to start titling these posts with something other than the day of the week.

As was mentioned in the comments on the previous thread, I didn’t watch any of the live “Sound of Music” on NBC. Mostly because I’m not a musical kind of guy (I like music, just not musicals). I just have a hard time suspending my disbelief. In my experience, people don’t spontaneously erupt into song and dance numbers. And, I mean, a bunch of “street tough” gang members bursting into song and snapping their fingers and dancing? I don’t think so. I never saw that happen on “The Wire”. I will give credit to NBC for at least trying to do something different in this age of “American Idol” bullshit teevee. Along those lines, I liked this Simon Pegg tweet earlier this morning:

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is a preëmptive satirical critique of X Factor culture in which social misfits are imbued with sudden fame.

— Simon Pegg (@simonpegg) December 11, 2013

Congratulations to Uruguay, which has legalized (and nationalized) the pot industry. Apparently every adult will be able to buy 40 grams a month, and if you get a license you can grow up to six plants. Let’s see, 80 grams for me and the wife to split a month, 28.3 grams in an ounce, that’s a bit less than three OZs a month. Yeah, I think we could make that work.

I guess everybody heard that Nelson Mandela died and (horror of horrors) Obama shook Raul Castro’s hand at the funeral. You know what that means, right? John McCain reminded us that Neville Chamberlain shook Hitler’s hand, so clearly that means that we’re going to cede Florida to Cuba. I’m trying to think of the downside to that, but can’t really think of anything. For one, it’ll mean national healthcare for all our NY retirees down there – gets them off our books, and they won’t need insurance anymore. Plus we probably won’t be hearing much more from Marco Rubio.

OK, I guess I’ll give in and talk about the weather. It got cold again here (not super cold, considering it’s December, but colder than it’s been), but we more or less got nothing from the big killer storm that worked its way across the country. I’m starting to wonder why it is we’re supposedly known for shitty weather around here – we’ve become the Miami of the Northeast. Our friends to the east of Lake Ontario aren’t so lucky, though. They’re currently in the midst of Lake Effect snow where the accumulation is being measure in feet. Like a foot or more yesterday and another couple of feet today. Sucks for them, but they’re used to it.

Oh well, time to get going for work. I guess we’ll have to talk about the Texas Bowl next time.

I’ve gotten to the point where reading the words “Black Friday” literally nauseates me, and now “Cyber Monday” is doing it to me as well (might also be slightly hung over from having so many days off in a row). It could also be just the thought of going to work this morning also has me a bit queasy. My wife has the week off and I’m trying not to resent her for it, but I’m having a hard time with that.

Today is an especially crappy day for work because I have the “support” duty this week and today is the second day of the month following a holiday weekend. This means everybody will be logging in straight away and trying to do their beginning of the month type stuff. The system will be slow and everybody will be especially cranky and bitchy and I’ll have to hear about it. Not a big thrill for me.

On the bright side, it was a relatively good sports weekend. SU mens basketball won the Maui Invitational, the women won the “Paradise Jam” tournament in St. Thomas, and of course the football team won and has a chance (though it’s not certain) to go to a relatively meaningless bowl game (the main benefit to this is that they’ll get an extra 15 practices, which, let me tell ya, they definitely need). The only real positive on Sunday was that the Giants beat the Redskins, but, hey, good enough.

I was just looking at the Woot-Off today, and they had a Gourmet Mandoline for like $25. I’d like to get one, but I’ll be damned if I can tell how to string it (never saw Dave Grisman play anything that looked even remotely like it).

Oh well, much as I dread the thought, I suppose I’d better get ready to head out to work. On the bright side, I think we have enough leftovers that I don’t need to actually cook anything for lunch.