Work has been INSANE lately.  I was on a team of three people, two of which have quit over the last few weeks.  Thankfully one person has been hired so far to help out, but it takes some time to bring someone up to speed.  I swear it's felt like I've been doing the job of three people the last few weeks...along with trying to bring the new person up to speed.  Plus, there are a TON of deadlines right now because our clients want to get things wrapped up this month considering so many people take time off in December for the holidays.  I bought the new Xbox 360 game "Call of Duty 4" a few days ago, and I haven't even really been able to play it which is KILLING me.  Oh well...Friday is almost here and I plan on turning my phone off, locking the door, and playing this game all night.  So here's this week's installment of my life...written in between testing various bugs while logged in at home waiting on new builds of code....

I got an interesting email at work today.  It was about the NSPA...at least that's what the subject stated.  I was thinking "What the heck is the NSPA?" only to open the email and read something about as stupid as Al Gore.  NSPA stands for "Non-Smokers Protection Act"...which went into effect here in Tennessee on October 1st.  Now I knew that this ridiculous smoking ban went into effect, but I didn't know it had a cute little name like NSPA.  So I read the email attachment outlining what this is and what it means at work.  First off is the usual - no smoking in bathrooms, hallways, etc.  I knew that...it's been that way at most places for years.  But then it went into the regulations about smoking outside.  Because of the NSPA, we are no longer allowed to stand within a certain amount of feet of the door to the building.  So now, instead of standing several feet away to the side of the door, we have to stand several feet away in front of the door.  Serious, that's what we have to do.  Violations of it can mean we get fired.  Do you see how ridiculous this is?  I could get fired for smoking too close to the back door.  For whatever reason, me standing an extra foot or two away just completely nullifies any chance of a wisp of smoke entering the building.  If I stand too close, smoke just billows inside...like someone dropped a smoke grenade and you need a flashing beacon to know where you're heading.  So much smoke would pour in that the people on the first floor would launch into gigantic coughing fits where tumors start flying out of their mouths.  Also, the name "Non-Smokers Protection Act" almost makes it sound like non-smokers are CONSTANTLY accosted by gangs of ruffian smokers every day who pin them to the ground while blowing smoke in their faces.  Every office is a giant haze of smoke, and the non-smokers live in fear of being cornered in the bathrooms...encircled by a group of smokers who push them around and force them to second hand smoke.  A protection act...what a friggin joke.  So now I have to stand a little further away from the back door as to not offend anyone and give them an instant case of cancer.  I can't stand when a bunch of do-gooders make laws like this because they think they are SO much smarter than the rest of us and know what's best for us.  I don't smoke where I'm not permitted, and I don't smoke around kids or if someone I know truly has a problem with it like an allergy or asthma or whatever.  Something like this protection act makes it sound like I'll go to someone's house that doesn't smoke and light up.  If they ask me not to, I scream at them "TOO FRIGGIN BAD!!!!  I WILL SMOKE WHERE I PLEASE!!!" while they cower in the corner as their house is infested with poison that will give them instant tumors.  Or I go into a club and light up and everyone around me is dropping like flies while I stand there puffing away and laughing.  I know a lot of people don't like cigarette smoke, but when did so many people turn into a bunch of wimps and crybabies?  I swear man, every single day I see all these ridiculous stories on news sites where someone is suing because they get offended, or some city is banning Christmas lights so no one will get offended, or something is deemed hate speech and blah blah blah.  What ever happened to having a set of balls and some backbone?  Whatever happened to having a thick skin and not letting every single little thing offend you?  As a Christian, every single day I am bombarded with stuff that I could take offense to...so what do I do?  I deal with it.  I am a mature adult who doesn't run around suing people or protesting every single time I get bothered by something.  You choose your battles, and there are only a small handful of things to really get worked up about.  What are they?  Oh I don't know...how about Muslim cockroaches sawing people's heads off and posting videos of it on the internet?  How about the millions of people who break the law by sneaking into this country and leech off of all the taxpayers?  How about being ruled by a government that CONSTANTLY violates the Constitution by using money for programs and special interest groups that they have ZERO authority to do?  Yeah, those things are items I get worked up about.  When I see a TV show mock my faith, I don't take to the streets threatening to kill someone like that religion of "peace" would do.  I might mention it to others, vent what I think, and let that be that.  One other thing I'll do is pray for them.  Like when that one woman comedian won an Emmy and mocked Jesus when she got her award, I prayed for her to hopefully one day be exposed to the truth like I was.  Oh I know...I'm such an intolerant zealot by doing that.  And I'll also say this...there is truly one thing that annoys the crap out of me - when someone makes a production out of helping a cause.

For example, can I watch football without being sold some bs agenda?  I guess not.  Sunday night I switched my TV to NBC for the Sunday night game, and the pregame show was in a very dark studio and the analysts even had candles on the desk.  At first I thought some timer got screwed up with the studio lights due to daylight savings time because that happened earlier in the day with the Cleveland game.  But then I was told the reason...green is universal.  Yep, NBC is showing everyone how much they care about the environment by pledging to conserve energy this month, and to set some stupid example, the pregame and half-time show were done in minimal lighting and CANDLES.  Oh sure, some might see what NBC did as being so noble and wonderful and blah blah blah...but it's just stupid.  Even the analysts were laughing about it because it was so friggin dumb.  And behind them the whole time is a scrolling marquee stating "Green Is Universal" to let everyone know how much NBC cares about us cooking to death.  I wonder how much electricity that worthless scrolling marquee wastes?  I am so friggin sick of this Chicken Little "The Sky Is Falling" crap.  During that same half-time show, they cut to the Today Show's Matt Lauer who was at the North Pole to report about some glacier that was turing into water as we speak.  When he was asked about how cold it was there, because he was obviously freezing beyond belief, he said it was ZERO.  Gee...I may be wrong here....but isn't 32 degrees the freezing mark?  Tell me, when was the last time you saw ice melt when it was zero degrees?  But what really showed me how ridiculous all of this is was when the next morning, The Today Show spoke about how they flew someone to the North Pole, the South Pole, and the equator to speak about global warming.  Gee, I wonder how much fuel they burned flying these people to those locations.  Oh, but they can just buy some carbon offsets...something that I still don't get.  Or could it be that it's November sweeps and all they care about is ratings?  Silly me, that's just me being cynical...they are only trying to help!  Just like the latest bag of Sun Chips I bought (which I do love) and the bag said that they buy carbon credits or whatever.  Wow...they care...they really do.  After all, only the most cynical person would think it's a marketing ploy.  It's like every single thing I see in the grocery store that claims it has zero trans fats.  Wow...I'm really impressed that these companies are looking out for the public good by doing all of this with NO thought of increasing their profits by marketing to the lemmings who buy into every latest hysteria.

I have a couple of causes I support that I contribute to, but do I ever mention them?  No...I don't need or want any praise for doing it.  As Jesus once said - "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.   But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." - Matthew 6:2-4.  I know, I'm quite intolerant for cramming my religion down your throat.  But this is exactly what NBC is NOT doing.  They are only doing this "Green Is Universal" because it's sweeps, and they want you to think they really care.  And you know what?  I LOVE Sun Chips...but screw them...I'm sticking with baked Cheeto's unless they try to flaunt their carbon offset garbage.  Man baked Cheeto's just rock!

And just when I thought things couldn't get more ridiculous, I saw Meryl Streep on Good Morning America today.  She was on there talking about her new movie opening this week, "Lions For Lambs"...the latest communist Hollywood anti-war movie brought to you by Robert "I'll move out of the country if Bush is re-elected" Redford.  During her interview, they showed a clip from The O'Reiley Factor where Bill O'Reiley said "Do Democrats want to win the war?  We'll explore this next after the break".  And then a clip from the movie was shown that I'm sure you've seen in the trailer where Tom Cruise, who plays a Senator, is asking Streep's character, "Yes or no, do you want to win the war on terror?"  First off, take a minute and answer that question for yourself.  Do you want to win the war we are currently in...yes or no.  So what does Meryl say in her interview about this?  First, she said that Redford used that clip from O'Reiley as the basis for that scene...and then she said something that has honestly had me baffled all day.  She said, "How can anyone really answer that question?  That's like the 'Have you stopped beating your wife'...it's a no-win question".  WHAT?!?!?!  Oh, and then Diane Sawyer was just sitting there like a brain-dead dummy going "Oh I know...I know..." because she was just so in AWE of Meryl's intellect.  So Meryl Streep can't figure out a yes or no answer to the question about wanting to win this war...HOW STUPID CAN SOMEONE BE???   I don't think I have ever wished I could switch places with someone more then when I was watching this.  If I had been interviewing her, I would have said "What???  Are you really that much of an idiot???  Holy crap!  How in the heck can you even remember your lines seeing how much of a moron you are!"  I'm still just completely baffled at her response...and the really sad thing is, that's Hollywood.  If an actor was asked something like this in World War II, I can guarantee that almost every single one of them would have said "HELL YES I WANT TO WIN!"  But today we have a bunch of communists, socialists, traitors, and anti-America dipshits in Hollywood that people actually look to for "answers".  "Well if Meryl Streep said it, then it must be true...after all she played a farmer in a movie and testified before Congress about the plight of the farmers".  Yeah, she really did.  She plays a farmer in a movie and goes before Congress about hardships farmers endure.  Gee, how about getting an actual farmer to do it and not some millionaire who has no CLUE what these people go through daily.  But she played on in a movie, so she must be an expert.  Now I bet someone might be thinking "Well she would at least command more of an audience with Congress because of who she is" and I would say you don't think too much.  She could have easily gone in front of Congress, say that by making that movie she learned a lot about farmers, and then turned the microphone over to REAL farmers to explain things.  Instead she did her little feel-good thing and went home to her million dollar estate.  Do you still hear her championing that cause?  No...and do you know why?  It's because she never really cared in the first place.  And don't tell me "Maybe she's doing things that aren't being made public" and I would say "bull crap".  That's because someone like her, along with most of those Hollywood idiots, just LOVE to flaunt how much they "care" about various causes.  Yet the ones who have supported things that line up with American values like Chuck Norris, Tom Selleck, and Bruce Willis never get any mainstream coverage.  Bias?  Oh no...the media isn't biased at all.

And now for my Halloween costume.  I said it would kick some ass...and it did.  Did I win the costume contest at work?  Heck no.  I work for a computer software company and the person that won came dressed as a computer bug.  Wow...how clever.  Basically she looked like a bug with a printout of computer code hanging around her neck.  Couple this with the fact that several people had NO idea what I was dressed as, and it was a recipe for losing.  It wasn't as bad as when I dressed as Snake Plissken several years ago where the girls I worked with at the time though I was Steve from "Days of Our Lives" because I had an eyepatch and leather jacket...man that was horrible.  This year I was the one and only Leatherface from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".  One guy was like "Who are you...the butcher of bakersfield?" and I announced to everyone at the judging "DOES ANYONE WATCH QUALITY MOVIES HERE???"  Hey, I enjoyed dressing this way for a day...and walking two blocks in downtown Nashville from my car to the office was pretty amusing.  Some street bum came up to me and asked "Hey man, where's the party?" and I told him "Nowhere you're going to be" as I turned to look at him.  He looked at me for a second and said "Hey...it's cool...it's cool..." and walked away...hahaha.  So here's me in front of my Texas Chainsaw display....until next time, sportsfans...