Thursday, November 18, 2010

What? Odd Bits Again?

Sorry… still too many tidbits rolling around in my cranium and nothing close to a coherent front to back post. 

Office Bluz
I work in a building that has a number of floors that have all been remodeled with the same design, so the layout between floors is very similar.  So it occurred to me today that every time I visit a nearby floor, it’s like going to some parallel universe.  Everything looks alllllmost the same but there are tiny differences… Extra file cabinet here, a cubby hole there, different stuff on the outside of the cube walls.  It’s eerie.

A couple months ago I got off the elevator on the wrong floor by accident and went walking in the direction of “my cube” and was all, “OMG, they put in a new row of cabinets!  Hey, where’s my bulletin board?”

Then, of course, I realized I was on the floor immediately below mine and hurriedly slunk off up the stairs, hoping that no one had spotted the intruder.  I was scared shitless that I’d spy someone that almost looked like me working in my doppelganger cube.

And what if, in the parallel universe, he was a Ratbirds fan?

I’d have no choice but to stalk and kill the Anti-Bluz.  If you kill your Alternate Universe Self, is that suicide or fratricide?  Wait, if it’s a Ravens fan, it’s Ratricide.

Mojo Fallin
It’s 9 games into the season and I just realized I’ve neglected to don one of my customary mojo devices.  I have one of those clip-on badge holders with a retractable string, with a Steelers logo on it.  I totally forgot to swap it out with my off-season badge clip.

Now with our record at 6-3 and coming off a big loss to the Patriots, do I think we’d have done better if I had the badge clip?  Or is it really bad mojo and we’d have been much worse if I had been wearing it?

I guess we’ll find out this Sunday.  I put the badge clip on, on Monday.  If we lose to the Raiders, I may have my answer.

HMO-Phobia
In my post before the election, I mentioned how the insurance companies were bankrolling Republican candidates with the goal of stripping the consumer protections from the Health Care Reform bill, while leaving the mandate that everyone buys health insurance.

This strategy was reiterated in a Newsweek article I read today, written by an insurance company insider named Wendell Potter.  He had worked on Insurance Industry public relations and strategy campaigns throughout this and previous elections. 

Congratulations, Teabaggers.  The ass-clowns you just sent to Washington to restore your “Liberty” regarding health care are going to try to do just the opposite of what you want… continue the government mandate while eliminating the ban on the insurance companies raising your rates if you have a pre-existing condition, or dropping you all together.

Fuck-ton of money going in; all new ways to keep from paying any money back out, lots of people up shit creek with staggering medical bills.  Happy now?  Now who do you think is going to go to bat for you?  Fox “News?”  The only thing they’re going to do is invent some other “outrage” to switch your attention elsewhere.

Christmas Crazy
Sometimes I have to wonder just what the hell is wrong with people.

My friend Michelle from Burgh Baby had a post today that was quite upsetting.  This year she is doing her second annual “Christmas Crazy” fund-raiser to provide Christmas presents to kids that would otherwise have none.  These are kids at a Pittsburgh-area domestic violence shelter.  Her post on November 2nd told a personal story about why this is such an important story to her.  I know when I read it, I had to kick in some cash.  If you read it, you will too.

Anyway, in her post today, she wrote about how PayPal is all up in her business making her prove that this is a legitimate charity.  You know, as if last year’s numerous blog posts and pictures of busses stuffed with toys weren’t enough.

Either someone sent in a complaint to PayPal, or they were doing some kind of investigation on their own to root out fraud.  If it’s the former, it makes my head explode that someone would be such a fucktard (the technical term)… probably someone jealous of someone doing something that’s truly selfless.

If it were a routine PayPal investigation, I’d have to think again about using them for anything.  It would take about 45-seconds of research to confirm that this is a legitimate endeavor that will benefit hundreds of kids.  To refuse to do even a token search, and instead force Michelle to provide all kinds of documentation… receipts, bank records, etc… that’s just ridiculous.  The arrogance of the whole thing got me so angry I offered to plaster the PayPal executives with email containing terminology so crass and depraved, Samuel L. Jackson would start hitting me up for tips.  They’d have no choice but to give her a pass.

Because she’s a quality human being, she waved me off.  So instead I’m going to kick in another $20. 

You should too.  I’m putting her button up on the side.  Or click here or the button to donate. 

21 comments:

Oilfield Trash said...

I agree about the mojo, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Two Sunday night games in a row my normal bacon pizza did not work for me.

bluzdude said...

Trash,
Geez, you're fast... Comment up 5 minutes after posting? Srsly...

Sometimes the mojo is never doing the same thing twice. I've been known to "out-finesse myself," from time to time.

CrackerLilo said...

Ridiculous that PayPal is all up in your friend's business when there's proof that she's running a real charity. In all likelihood, she's using more of it to actually help than most "legitimate" charities, with their administrative overhead.

My mother is a Tea Partier, and she's not admitting how badly she's been hosed yet. Then again, she thinks I should admit how badly I was hosed by Obama, and all I really hoped or expected him to be was "not Bush or Palin." Still, nobody's liberty is being protected, only very rich and greedy peoples' wallets.

bluzdude said...

Lilo,
See, your mom's believing Fox New's version of what progressives want out of Obama and the Dems.

I think what we want most is to stop trying to return to the 1940's. To stop 1% of the population from amassing 98% of the wealth. And above all, we realize that it takes more than 2 years to stop 8 years worth of backsliding and economic destruction.

Oilfield Trash said...

Bluz, I was really bored at work.

And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if you think that there is any difference in the Democraps or Republocraps than you are not thinking with your brain. They are both corrupt and only looking out for themselves and their rich pals. The only difference between the two of them is the D or R next to their name.

bluzdude said...

I have no doubt that both are rampantly corrupt.

But I'd rather throw in with the corrupt ones who at least try to push the interests of the middle class over those that are beholden to the richest of the rich. Plus, they're the same ones that are using the religious ideologues to stir up votes and where possible, ram through religious dogma as public policy.

Oilfield Trash said...

But neither party is for the middle class. And one uses religion to get their stuff through, the other uses bullshit policy to get their riches. Same coin but one is heads and one is tails.

Read some of my older posts about politics.

bluzdude said...

One group is pushing for a tax cut for 98% of the population, the other will scuttle the whole thing unless that top 2% gets the lion's share. That's enough of being For the Middle Class for me.

Oilfield Trash said...

Bluz what you don't get is that if both parties quit wasting our money, it doesn't matter what the tax rate is. They need to quit wasting money and giving money to their chum buddies corporations. If they quit doing that, we would be better off.

And that whole above 250K limit that the Dems talk about is bs. The very small businesses that they claim to care so much about and employ the middle class mostly lie above that. They aren't thinking with their right mind about the issue either.

Follow the money trail and quit listening to the lies of both sides and you will that they are both clearly full of crap.

Sandra said...

You're such a sports fan AND a philantropist...your friend and her giving nature is making a difference!

Unapologetically Mundane said...

Tiny differences between floors freak me out way less than major ones. The day that someone first got out of the elevator in Kamran's apartment building onto the floor right below his and I saw that the carpeting was blue instead of green like all the other floors? I never got over that.

bluzdude said...

Sandra,
I’m certainly no philanthropist, but I know good work when I see it. Both Michelle at Burgh Baby and her friend Ginny at That’s Church do amazing things for the kids in their areas.

Mundane,
That was what was so creepy about when I got off on the wrong floor… It was enough like my floor that I didn’t pick up on it right away, and the differences were such that they could have really been done overnight and I was actually on the RIGHT floor.

But I do like the Alternate Universe theory. Perhaps I’ve been watching “Fringe” a little too closely.

Judie said...

When I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, but still hadc a job in Chicago, I had to fly up there for a week once a month. On more thab one occasion, I came out of a chain restaurant at lunchtime and forgot which city I was in. It was very disconcerting!

If some pernicious post-pubescent prole complained to PayPal, I would so want to know just who that prat was. Don't you still get to face your accuser?

bluzdude said...

Judie,
Not when you're coming to them to handle your business, I guess.

Judie said...

Happiness is knowing that you don't have to do the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner!

Happiness is having a dog whose poop is actually a lot smaller than a tootsie roll.

Happiness is having enough space in your king-size bed to stretch your legs out and not get snarled at by one of the dogs!

bluzdude said...

Didn't you mean this to go on the following post?

I especially like #2. And is it a coincidence that #2 is really about #2?

Burgh Baby said...

You're awesome.

I'm firing PayPal forever. (That probably tells you how THAT process is moving along.)

Mrs. Bachelor Girl said...

I'm all about checking to make sure charities are legitimate, but it sucks that Michelle is trying to do something good and the thanks she gets is an assload of red tape and probably a migraine.

bluzdude said...

Burgh Baby,
I’m merely pointing out the injustice… you’re the one carrying the load. This is your (Burgh) baby and I just want to help. Sorry to hear that PayPal is not cooperating. Bastards…

Mrs Bachelor Girl,
Amen, sister. As you can see from the previous comment, Michelle is pretty sick up and fed with PayPal.

Anonymous said...

The health care situation pisses me off, and the fact that people continue to blindly believe what the far right is feeding them instead of looking at what they're doing (and wanting to do) is just nuts. *sigh*

bluzdude said...

Cristy,
How much do you want to bet that all the people yelling about repeal are those that already have insurance? If there’s anything we can’t stand is when someone else gets a hand.