On Replying All...

UPDATE:

The current reply all email frenzy is now on its approximate ohh 20th email?

Here' are some favorites:

enough is enough let's get back to work ya'll

Please stop "replying to all."

I count 14 emails so far. Thank you everyone! :-D

I love how this happens every year. This whole Reply to All thing really makes my day.




INCOMPETENT!




A current office email was sent to a large contingent of employees. This email required employees who were out of scope on a certain "project" to let the contact know that they in fact were not to be included in this email. The instructions asked for a reply telling the contact of the situation.

Now, if I fit this criteria, I would have clicked "Reply" and shot an email over to the correct contact. Instead of doing this, the fucking retards that I work with decided instead to click "Reply-All" when sending this email back to the contact. My inbox is now full of stupid responses when this could have easily been prevented by clicking "Reply" instead. Funnier than this is the email to all saying "Lets hit Reply to All so everyone gets a response". This response was also followed with other "cease and desist" emails, telling people that click "Reply-All" to STOP.

Case in point of being able to be aggressive via email as long as you drop an "Ok, Thank you!, Best! (insert your name)".


Thank you internet for making hostile and passive aggressive communication possible.


Best!

PS: The funniest part was that one of the people clicking reply all has, not only an MS, but a PHD...guess it doesn't teach you common sense. Oh well

On being a stupid boy...

Dear reader, this is a purge:

Since an early age (ok, probably only a handful of years ago) I decided to fall in love with the female persuasion. No, this does not mean that I didn't love the ladies before, but now its uncontrollable. I feel like I walk down the street, go to work, drive around town and fall in love with everyone I see.

Now, I'm obviously using love here in a "not actually meaning love" kind of way. The fact of the matter is, however, the whole idea of actually doing the "in love" thing sounds good again. I must say, though, the process of allowing yourself to become attracted or emotionally involved with someone is far more difficult than I remember. While I may have some feelings currently, I find myself second guessing these feelings. Its funny to think that the fear of hurt is worth more than the feeling of love, like, or infatuation. So when all doesn't go as planned, what do you do? you distance yourself. This is natural. I don't want to do this, I don't want to think about pulling away but it seems to keep coming up in my head, "don't hurt yourself" my brain keeps saying.

I envy those who are in love, serious relationships, or married. Would I envy them if I were in those situations? no, I'd probably want the hell out, but from the sidelines....it looks pretty good.

On Party Invitations...

I've currently invited a group of individuals in the metropolitan area to my house for a soiree.
I am a big fan of the "party" and would hate for this to ever be an idea of the past. In college, I believe myself and my group of friends, were known for throwing some kick ass ragers, if you will. These parties were typically themed, decorated according to theme, and including the finest foods and drinks.

Here are a few examples:

Seafood party: This included steamed, old bay crab and oysters on a half shell. These were decorated with some lovely newspaper covering the table as well as drawn butter and cocktail sauce. We served a lovely pilsner and drank and ate til our hearts content.

Pig Roast: Thats right, a whole pig was roasted in the back yard. Nuff said.

Graduation Party: This included some fine bar b q as well as the now famous invention of the game Pelopenisian war. If you don't know it, tough.

Some other parties included the Christmas party, super bowl party dorm style (2005), the "Preemptive we caught osama bin laden" party, as well as many more thrown between Manning and Woodale...our party palaces.

Now, since moving to DC, I have been to about 2 handfuls and some toesful, "house"/"apartment" parties. These have been alright by in large, most have fallen far short. My own party, at one juncture, totally failed. I am hoping to revive my trend of hosting with a Beer Tasting on Friday. I invite you all to come. This will be Beer Tasting part 2, the first, MAJOR success.

Here's hoping for the best, the guests, and people staying long enough to do odd things/puke/hook up/fall asleep on my floor.

On Being School Teachers...

When I look back at Elementary school, I can recall some clear teacher to teacher friendships. These friendships likely blossomed after each respective teacher was employed by the school district, but what if you entered as a congregation of friends...follow my lead, could end up as a TV program someday.


Here's how I see it:

There are a lot of young minds out there that need molding. I can think of no better people (read: worse) than me and my friends instructing these children. Think "Its Always Sunny" with a teaching impressionable youth, twist.
Am I advocating doing this in real life? Yes, I kind of am. What a great way for friends to see each other everyday, eat lunch, work few hours, and have summers off to hang out. We could all live next door to one another and find ourselves shooting the shit and drinking ourselves silly in the local bar, trying to avoid our children and their parents.
Ok, I admit, this sounds like a better sitcom than real life but I propose by making this a sitcom, it becomes similar to real life.

Long story short, I think we should consider this idea. I invite the script for this or the first move at making this a reality. I know we all have our skills and interests. We could shape young minds while having the same amount of fun that we've always known being together would bring us.

To the children...or the actors who someday may play these fake kids!

...picture this we were both buck naked, laying on the bathroom floor?

I was just thinking, after reading a lyric...trying to decide which words came next, about that show with Wayne Brady. No, I am NOT thinking of "Whose Line", but I am thinking of the "Do You Know the Lyrics?"...pretty sure that's the name.

Anyway, the title of this post gets at my point, I do not know 100% of every song. Do you? I think we have this interesting, "lets make up the words" mentality. I enjoy this, however, I have been going through my typical "listens" of the day and looking up the lyrics. I'm happy to report, I'm pretty much 80-90% right with each and everyone of these. This Shaggy lyric title of mine, here, definitely is 50% right. Damn you Wayne Brady! You run a pretty difficult "game show".

Now, you are probably wondering, am I going to go back through every beloved song and relearn lyrics? Likely not. However, this brings me to my next rant. Remember, for a second, when you used to buy CD's? Ok, some of you still do...including myself. That's beside the point, remember reading the inside "booklet"? Way back when, before lyrics.com was so easily accessible (read: 56k modem), I (maybe you as well) used to listen to the newly purchased CD and make sure I had the lyrics down PAT to the song I had purchased the CD for. Some of you will claim you listened to the whole CD all the way through this, however, is likely after you listened to the "hit" at least 5-6 times. Regardless of how many times it was, you then (likely), listened to the whole CD. I used to listen to the CD, read the lyrics, and go back through to make sure I had memorized them. For these albums that I did this, do I still know all the words? Pretty much, across the board, yes, yes I do.
As time went on, I think many of you can agree, this method became more archaic. For me, I would go through the same "listening" routine but in a far different manner. My newly purchased CD became a "listen while driving" CD. I failed to take the time siting in front of my stereo for an hour, listening to the whole album. This is where I started to slack, in a lyrical sense. I think sense then, I have retained less lyrics and have made far worse mistakes than before. For instance...lets look at a few of my "sethism" lyrics:

From an overall perspective, any Coheed and Cambria CD features at least 5-6 of "my own" lyrics. Take the use of "Ryan Abel" in one of the songs as lyrics when the actual lyrics are "call when enabled". Ok, yes, these two sound VERY similar...I'm not too off. This proves my point. Will I ever sing this the right way now? No.

Ok, more examples...this one is for the younger generation: Fall Out Boy...that song, "Sugar We're Going Down", in my opinion, has no lyrics at all! I have never looked up the lyrics and I will forever just makeup words while singing it. Pete Wentz doesn't know the lyrics.

R.E.M - Whats the Frequency Kenneth? This is a favorite, "Whats the Frequency Kenneth? is shopping a joke, uhhuh", or something like that is how I sing that song. Real lyrics: "Whats the Frequency Kenneth? is your Benzedrine, uhhuh". WHAT THE HELL does that mean?

So, I've kinda lost my thoughts on all the good songs that I do this to, but the point is, I do this and so do you. It makes me feel good that I can come up with lasting, though incorrect, lyrics. However, being on that show....in the spotlight, trying to finish a lyric has got to be incredibly difficult! Am I bummed about not knowing the lyrics? Not really, its a great conversation piece and a testament to a little bit of my quirky side. Maybe the move from the "lyric books" to the picture books in modern albums is a way for the band to let us decide our own lyrics. This may take the meaning out of what they want us to hear but it gives us our own take on the song. Not seeing the written lyrics has made me more aware of what they might be trying to say, it also allows subtle words or the way they say something have a lot more meaning.

So, though in my past life I would have advocated reading every lyric before, during, and after a good CD listen, I don't think I'll be going back to that method. Things are more fun when we put our own stake in them. While seriously messing up a song lyric might not be that big of a stake in music, it makes it individually yours. When your lyrics stick with other people, it makes it a hysterical mistake that won't be lived down.

So continue "going down down in a be bopping round" and calling "ryan abel" (or any other friends name that fits the sound of "call when enabled"), also remember regardless of the frequency Kenneth, make up your own line because theirs just sounds like shit!

A conversation, if you please

Lets talk for a moment about right and wrong, common decency, and doing the right thing...I guess that's right vs. wrong but just go with it.

Each one of us has a distinct understanding, or at least I hope we do, of the proceeding ideas listed above. When we argue politics, we get at the issues that surround those issues. It is typically a lively debate amongst scholars, friends, scholarly friends if you have these two as one distinct person...however, when these debates come to a peak, without some sort of conclusion, we typically find ourselves using personal attacks to try and break the other person down until they have "lost" the battle.

The reason I bring this up is because I find a similar parallel with friendships. Most of our friendships are not beneficial to us, like these personal attacks are to a scholarly debate. When someone I knew was down in the dumps because of her friends, she cried and was upset because of what had transpired in their friendship. Her remedy? Well, it was merely to blame herself and try to find a way back in their good graces and back into the friendly comfortable territory that had been their friendship since a young age. Now, we measure some of these friendships with time, "I have known him since I was 4!", or, "Ya, we don't really have a similar lifestyle, but we are still close friends, after all, we went to 1st grade together!". Lets also compare friendships with their more mature cousin, marriage/serious dating relationships. We use the same excuses to stay with people that we can't get rid of quick enough, "We have been together for 5 years, we are going to get married, no relationship is perfect". This comment could come from the most miserable person ever! We are convinced, however, that relationships are just that, not perfect, and we cannot just bail on them.
While its true, small time issues shouldn't cause life altering decisions, constant unhappiness and disappointment should make you start thinking about your life choices. Back to the friend mentioned previously, she decided, instead of putting herself out there to make new friends and "dump" the old ones, that they were too important, they had too much history. This is hysterical, considering history implies the past. The future and present are controllable. While the history may have been in your control back then, the fact that it has past means that nothing can be done. Except...now, in the present and future, you have the option of not making the same mistake. Recently, when finding oneself in a similar situation as this old friend, I decided that the present afforded me the luxury of learning what I knew from the past and making wise decisions into my future. Has this worked out? yes! If this hadn't worked out, would I revert to my old ways just so that I had someone to "talk to", to hang out with? Likely, not!
While not everyone believes in the vicious cycle of history, personal histories, I believe, are doomed to follow the way of history in general. Now here's the problem, we build ourselves sooo far up on the "time" factor and forget that, regardless of the time spent, we DO NOT have to continue. I found myself in a relationship that was being held together by this idea. We had been together for a long time, it was reasonably good, but was it going anywhere? Was the friendship with the out of touch friend going to lead me anywhere? Was it going to make me better? The answer to both, was no! We must learn that we do not have to settle. Regardless of how old we are, regardless of the fear of being alone, I fear being unhappy and miserable continue things that I have the ability to change. Do I value long term friendships? Of course I do! However, I will not lead my life down a path with a friend, lover, etc. if I know its a waste of my time. This, in my opinion, is why we buy houses, get dogs, have babies, get married, stay at our dead end jobs and later complain that we wish we could go back. I would prefer not to wish I could go back, I would prefer to take action and live with those consequences now instead of when it is too late.

On a completely different note, I was pissed at someone recently for ruining my "hope" in this world (in the relationship realm). Its funny, not only is this post to appease myself for tough decisions I've made, it is also for him to know that I do understand, regardless if its the right decision or not. I understand that these decisions must be made in order to sustain. While I may not have agreed at first, if I were in his place, feeling all the many things he likely was, I don't know if I wouldn't have done the same thing. The point is, we are aware (or most of us are/will be) of who we are, what we value, what equals right and wrong. Deep down we understand what makes us tick. If someone or something is taking that away from you, IT MUST GO! We cannot afford to stop our beating hearts just as we cannot afford to stop our lives by being unwilling to make a change, even if it means living with the consequences. You must allow yourself to prevail. This is more important than any relationship you will ever have. You must prevail, no one will prevail for you, this is uniquely selfish and of utmost importance.

This is the code that I follow.

Learned Behavior

"Boring people were born that way".


Now, do we believe this? or perhaps, are boring people caused by their environment? Well, I have a theory that includes both perspectives.

Take "Sam" for instance. Sam was an excellent college student, was funny, had friends, and a plethora of other things going for him/her (depending on what type of "Sam" you want to be). Sam graduates and finds him/herself in one of the most boring places ever. Sam starts to go downhill, losing that charm and personality which used to be so alive. The people around Sam are dull at best, lacking any kind of substance that he/she could want. Did all these people get this way because of their surroundings? Well, Sam and others like him/her did! Though, these people were likely born to live a life of boredom, to be lonely and miserable for the rest of their meaningless lives. Yeah, this is pretty harsh! However harsh it may be, people who get a kick out of getting married at 23 and buying a house that they will live in for the rest of their lives, immediately make the list of boring and terribly pathetic people. What is there to live for? When will you go out with your friends? When will you make friends? When will you have the adventures that will shape the rest of your adult life? Sure, you can read about them. Or, perhaps, take a one week vacation after little "Sally" is born.

The point is, some people subscribe to this lifestyle. It is, after all, likely all they know. People who were born, raised, went to college, and now work within a 10 mile radius from their birth place, are missing out on all of life's mysteries. Sure, my life hasn't been full of these, but I at least have experienced. I have left home, I've grown up, I've allowed for myself to experience discomfort and complete changes in my life. While it is easy to keep your life as still and unchanging as possible, you truly miss out on what the world has to offer. You have your moments, but by in large, you are stuck in a rut that you have accepted. I used to be of this very mindset. If I wasn't so adamant about leaving Florida for college, I may have fallen into this same trap. The adventure of experience and change is one that I have embraced. I never would have pictured myself having the experiences I have had. I used to be the most unwilling person to change any aspect of life. I thought it was about getting on a path and just following it, regardless of the obstacles.

Opportunity is knocking, I know I cannot remain still and let my life pass me by. Thats why its time for a new experience. Could that be a new job, new friends, a new place? It could be all of those. Its time for, not only me, but everyone to truly examine where they are in their lives. Are you happy? Really? Truly happy? Our limited lives make me desire living every second that I have to spend. I encourage everyone to live the same way. Make a change, do something that you will regret! Whats the fun in life if we can't make mistakes or do things that we can't take back? (to an extent)

Carpe Diem

Sup

I wish I could have taken a picture to express how cool rain falling from atop a scoreboard looks but I didn't have a good enough camera.


Saw the Reds play last night, though to my dismay, they almost blew it after a 2 hour rain delay (which I didn't stay around for...unfortunately!)
While the Reds are one of the only consistent things in my life right now, I was reminded today that I also have a love for free stuff, regardless if its good free stuff or not.
I got a free lunch and a bunch of pens and other useless trinkets thanks again to this place I call work. I will probably spend tons of money just to go somewhere to, you guessed it, get free stuff or shit, if you will.
The driving force in my life hasn't changed that much, I guess. I still want to watch the Reds, still want to eat good food, listen to good music, get free shit, and do as little as possible that is not fun so as to maximize fun.
I guess that is truly the vein of my existence, to maximize fun.

That being said, let me tell you whats not fun. Calling something, that isn't fun, fun! Enough on that, but still.

Juices aren't flowing right now, quitting while I'm attend I suppose.

Strange Decisions That I Make Daily

So, played soccer last night as per my usual Tuesday night. However, we played the farthest away from our usual spot as possible, this will be important later.
All of the softball/kickball kids get to the Mall to stake out a "field" at approximately 3:30 (this according to Milano). That being said, a suitable "soccer" field is hard to find.
Our first failed attempt at a field was between 2 softball games and had about foot high grass. We tried to go to our second usual spot but were told that we would get "hit with softballs" if we played there. Side note: they could have easily bashed in windows of passing cars behind them but I suppose they had not thought of that when they chose the field.

After quite an extensive search of the Mall for another suitable place to play, we found a group of soccer playing hooligans. Now, typically, we are all packed in like sardines when we play soccer so I half expected this of this soccer group. We asked to join and we all showed up, ready to play. Only to be turned down because it was too packed. Note to people who try to come and play with us, we are now going to turn you down because of this one experience.

So, with Obama helicopters circling the sky waiting to pick him up, we found out own field and had maybe the best soccer game in recent memory. I guess it all worked out in the end.

Now, back to the positioning of this final "field". I decided, after we finished playing, that I would walk over the 14th st bridge to get back home instead of walking to L'Enfant. Here is the first mistake. Let the record show, the walk to L'Enfant - .9 miles, the walk across the bridge to where I ended up - ~3 miles.

This was obviously a terrible life decision. With dress shoes on, backpack weighed down, and pure exhaustion setting in, I begged for salvation and was picked up near the end of the Reagan runway where I watched planes, one of my favorite past times.

The story gets better. Despite my stupidity, I felt accomplished. So, after sitting around the apartment after my 4 hours of exercise, I said screw it, went out and purchased an Ipod Shuffle because of my accomplishment.

That is where the story ends. No, nothing really exciting happened (except for maybe the hot dog I bought at the Jefferson Memorial) but this just goes to show the terrible life decisions I make.

Role model? Probably not.

Injustice

So today is just providing fodder for this new little blog of mine.

Lets talk about messed up spending. Buying office chairs instead of sending people, who would benefit from a class, to class. Yes that is correct! Denied a class while someone gets a new office chair, absolutely brilliant!




In other news, I believe I just spent $7 and got back $5 in change for items that cost $6.37.
This, has made the chair incident less important because I just "bank rolled". I do not know what that means, but it sounded right.

Damnit

I wanted this "Inaugural" post to be happy, creative, slightly cynical, but mostly just entertaining. Entertaining to whom, you ask? ME! While most things I do in life are meant to please myself, I also plan on making a few of you happier, glad you aren't me, or envious of my life. These are my hopes...

However, Firefox feels the need to close every time I try and do anything. This, is unacceptable!

While I have you, I will not complain about my computer here at my office, instead...I hope to inspire you. Here goes!

Ok, it wasn't going to happen right away. I'm uninspired so you can be too.


Good Day!