Silence

My mother used to say, “It’s better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” It would seem to me that this advice might be embraced by many, if not most, in congress. Those who spew forth opinions as if they were facts and end up calling others names simply because their opinions differ clearly should learn that silence is the best and surest way to hide ignorance.

The Corporate Costume

I was guilty of caving in and wearing the attire or costume inflicted on people living in corporate America.

After going to business casual, I had a dark blue, collared, pullover shirt that was a favorite. Unfortunately it developed a small, ¼ inch, hole over the heart. I was wearing it one day when my manager noticed the hole and promptly mandated that I ought NOT to wear shirts with holes, no matter how small.

Now, given the fact that I don’t do orders well, every once in a while I’d forget and wear the shirt. I’d never realize it until I was at work. Having a fairly well-developed ability to consider alternatives, the first time I wore it I thought of my options.

The first was to go home and change. I immediately rejected that as not practical. Therefore I needed an alternative.

It took about a minute to realize that if my manager couldn’t see the hole, it wouldn’t morph into an issue. So I set out to find a dark blue marker, one of those with the thick tips. I proceeded to place a ½ inch dot behind the hole, thus masking it from view.

My manager never noticed the hole so I used the background dotting with that shirt from that point on. It worked well.

"You", not "I"

Have you noticed that when folks are interviewed by a reporter after some disconcerting event, they describe their feelings with the pronoun "you" and not the first person singular pronoun of "I"?

I can't help but wonder if, by using the "you" the person being interviewed prefers to describe their feelings from a group perspective so that they aren't alone in experiencing them. It seems to me that anonymity is broader in a group and personal responsibility is lessened.

Spam and the Do Not Call List

I have 2 intruders in my home and can’t seem to get rid of them. I suspect that most everyone else has the same 2 intruders. I’m speaking of telemarketers and spammers. I’ve figured out a way that seems to lessen the numbers of each that intrude upon my quietude.

I introduce the telemarketers to the spammers. I take the phone number of the calling person and do a quick Internet search to find out where they are so I can get city, state and zip code. I then open the email spam and press the inevitable link to some web site with a form . I have firewalls and anti-virus apps to protect myself. Once at the spammer’s site, I fill out their form using the telephone number and derived information from the telemarketer. I always use a street name of 2nd, or Main St., or 1st because towns almost always have one of those streets. I then submit the form.

It’s amazing how the frequency of phone calls has lessened. Another benefit is that the whole thing tickles me. I picture the telemarketers leaving me alone because they are busy responding to the spammers.

Goals and Objectives

Didja ever run into corporate America’s penchant for setting goals and objectives on a regular basis. They were to be SMART goals. SMART is an acronym (Annoyingly Cryptic References Or Names You Make) standing for Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Timely. Every time I got traded to a new manager I had to go through this nonsense.

I know that some people find usefulness in this goal setting exercise. I find doing so to be terribly limiting. I have an insatiable wondering that is constantly outside the boundaries of some set of predefined goals or objectives. Besides, the minute they are set every manager I ever had checked my name off the list and neither of us ever looked at them again. When I had a manager that would dredge them up later, I always made sure that my hallowed list of objectives either just listed what I was already doing or listed things I had done that I hadn’t mentioned to my manager so that they didn’t affect me.

I never hid my feelings about them to any manager, telling each that the whole exercise was a load of CRAP (Completely Ridiculous And Problematic). I’d then point out that unless I was specifically given the wherewithal to meet those objectives I was being set up for failure. I never found anyone who could definitively tell me how limiting my options to a predefined list benefited me or them. BTW, my way resulted in the development of productivity tools that were used across EDS when I got tired of repetitively doing the same things all the time. Had I been tied to a finite set of objectives, the productivity tools would not have been developed and shared.

‘Course maybe this resistance to structured crap was probably partially why I got traded to other managers so often. LOL

Standing In Line

It seems to me that we'd have FAR fewer people who needed help if we didn't have so many people standing in line to help them.

However, since we do have so many standing in line to "help", I may decide to join them by starting a self-help group for Female Gay Whales with Aids. I may never have to work again if I can get this group off the ground.

Rampant Outrage and Paradigms

It's interesting to me how quickly people embrace outrage at the drop of a syllable. Generally, in my view, if said outraged busy bodies, who's heads are so porous that there's no place for any convictions, would just keep their mouths shut whatever happened that caused them to press their outrage button would quietly blow over.

On the contrary, rather than quietly allowing triggered events to blow over, these selfish, inward looking people immediately foist their preferences upon others without ever realizing that they are inflicting their stilted paradigms on them. All too frequently their outraged anger just serves to violate the freedoms of others.

Talk about "optical rectosis"!!!!!!!