1. Sycophants and "yes men" (or women). It absolutely sets my teeth on edge when people continually kiss the ass of someone in a position of power. I have seen people doing this even when the person in charge is very nice, reasonable, and neither requires, expects or falls for that kind of behavior. It is just not in my nature to be that way. I'd have a hard time doing it even if I thought it was a good idea. I'm sorry but if the boss takes a dump I'm not going to tell her it smells like flowers, if you get my drift. It drives me insane when the boss could come in and say, "We're going to start lining up the customers and shooting them in the face as soon as they walk in the door," and twelve people would say, "That's a GREAT idea" Now, I'm not saying one should walk around work (or wherever) blasting every decision made and trumpeting every single disagreement they have with the higher-ups. A little prudence should always be exercise, in the interest of self-preservation. But I'm more of the school of thought that, if I don't like something, I may not tell the person in charge, "I HATE THIS!" but I also am not going to smile and bob my head excitedly and lie through my teeth about it. If it's in my best interests to keep quiet, I will, but I also won't pretend I think it's an awesome decision, and, if asked, I would be honest. Also, there are other times when something is a fine or at least okay idea, or a point of clarification is made and people fall all over themselves in a rush to praise the bearer of the news, as though the entire point of the information was a test to see who would make the effort to brown-nose over it. (One specific person at a former job really sticks out in my mind for this.)

I am not sure what's more irritating: people who suck-up and glad-hand a person in authority who really has no desire to even be treated that way but is too nice to say so, and therefore it's completely unnecessary, or situations where the guy in charge is a pompous blowhard and thinks he deserves to have his butt smooched (a la Donald Trump) yet the people under him are so intimidated and so desperate to make money that they continue to stroke his already grossly inflated ego by kowtowing.

2. This is a close relative of #1. It drives me completely up the wall when people say things they don't mean. If someone has an idea and it doesn't interest you, fine! But don't tell the person how great it is and how much you look forward to it when you have no intention of ever participating. I'm not saying you should spit in the person's face and tell them their idea sucks. I'm just saying, if you aren't on board with something DON'T pretend that you are! The old adage goes, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it," NOT "If you don't have anything nice to say, lie." Just be quiet, for crying out loud. You are NOT winning friends and making people feel good by lying to them about being interested in something and then blowing them off later. That causes a LOT more upset than someone not showing interest from the start or, heaven forbid, actually being honest and saying, "I can't participate right now."

This YouTube business is beginning to aggravate me very much.

I tried uploading a video clip the other night. It took till the following morning to show up (which I understand is normal). Okay, fine -- but when it did show up it said the transfer had failed because it was an "invalid file format." Now, the video is an .AVI file, which YouTube's FAQ explicitly states is an accepted file format.

So I email the people. First it took them about three business days to get back to me. Then, when I did get the response today, it was some bullshit form letter about how it takes a long time for videos to show up as available. Which has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I was asking. I am sick unto death of these so-called tech support departments. They don't actually READ what you've written. They scan it for keywords and regurgitate some pre-composed response based on that. If a real, live person would've just glanced over my email (which was one small paragraph; it's not like it was frigging War and Peace) they wouldn't have had any trouble understanding what I was trying to say. But, no, these companies don't give a crap about decent customer service. Why let your customers get in contact with actual human beings when you can link it all up to a computer system that enables you to ignore any problems?

If this was an isolated incident I wouldn't be so steamed. But I would hazard a guess that a good 75% of the times I have ever emailed any sort of tech support or help desk this has happened. I am always VERY specific in describing an incident and the answers I get sent back have absolutely no relation to what I was asking. Even when I specifically say "I read this part in your FAQ and I attempted to solve the problem using this method" they STILL send back a damned form letter telling me to try the solution I JUST TOLD THEM I TRIED ALREADY!!!!

This is where greed and avarice have gotten us in this country, folks. Customer service has been sacrificed on the altar of the almighty Profit Margin. The new corporate slogan is "Screw you.....but give us all your money first."

You might notice there's nothing under the "Photos" category over there on the left. It is in the works and will be up and running soon. Bear with me.

I have shamelessly stolen this idea from Zoot. In my defense, I had no clue about the existence of YouTube until I read her most recent entry with the twee videos of her baby.

I went and checked it out and it is the coolest thing ever! I can upload video to the site and post a link. People click on the link and it plays the video straightaway, from the site. Nobody has to download anything or open the video player on their computer. This is going to be awesome. I can put video on here and also upload things to share with family and friends.

In browsing my current videotape, however, I realized I really don't have much of anything to post. Tomorrow I will try to capture some up-to-date cuteness. Until then I will post a link to my test snippet.

Okay, actually, I won't. I have tried to upload the video twice and it keeps telling me it's an invalid file format when it very obviously isn't. The file type is one that their literature specifically claims to take. So now I'm waiting to hear back from them about what is exactly the problem.

Stay tuned, folks.

So what do you think of the new duds?

All the credit goes to Zoot, of course. I did pick out the graphic, but, hell, a trained chimp could do that. I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at this. Have I mentioned blue is my favorite color? Blue is my favorite color.

Now, if I could just think of something interesting to say, I'd be all set.

I'm here! I'm alive!

We arrived home safely last night. I will write a proper update soon. I totally flaked while I was in CA....which is not necessarily a bad thing.

My new design is very close to being finished and I have to say (because I have absolutely no part in creating it) it ROCKS.

More later....

Copied verbatim from the paper on which she originally wrote it (after I told her I wasn't going to sit there and spell a bunch of words for her, which is what she prefers. She's a perfectionist).

Keep in mind she's not yet five-and-a-half.

red the cat

be Madalyn be JZ ("be" = by. She and JZ were the "illustrators" as she told me.)

Apparently the lack of vehicle has started to get to her, too. Both stories she wrote with the help of my mom yesterday also dealt with the main character getting a new car.

California is great. It's lovely and cool; a nice change from the unseasonably stupid-warm temps back in OK right now.

I've bought two pairs of shoes and a purse already.

The trip out was uneventful except that we had to rush to make our connection in Phoenix. But we made it and everything else was easy.

I lucked into a super-cool rental car. Check it out. (The one I'm driving is silver.) I guess they were all out of the Intermediate car I had reserved. A perk of not picking the car up until later in the day.

Kids are doing well. JZ is, surprisingly, not giving us any trouble his first time sleeping in a "big boy bed."

I'm doing well. The crazy pills are doing their job. I'm enjoying just relaxing and being in the moment of being here.

I will update more later but now I'm off to enjoy some Thrifty ice cream (rainbow sherbet and Chocolate Malted Crunch) and watch a movie with my mom.

It doesn't get much better than this.

I have been so wound up all day today, ever since it hit me that I have less than 3 full days until we leave for California. It's ridiculous. I'm sitting here at the computer with my shoulders continually scrunched up. The perpetual shrug. I keep having to remind myself to relax and then I'm scrunched back up again within ten seconds. I need to do something to unwind but I'm not sure what that would be. I think I'm most in a dither about packing. Even though I have two full days left after this I have had the nagging feeling all day that I should be getting everything together TODAY. Perhaps it's because I have some other things I have to do the next two days (doctor's appointment, Madalyn's school program, parent/teacher conference). Probably the best thing I could do would be to go ahead and throw most of the stuff in the suitcases today and maybe that will soothe my psyche enough to where I can relax.

You would think I'd never traveled before! Honestly!

Cor blimey, I'm tired. Also I seem to have turned British during my nap, which is never a good sign. Did you ever have one of those days where you are tired and so you lie down and doze on and off and then wake up with your throat and mouth absolutely parched and you are still nearly cross-eyed from exhaustion? That would be me right now. The only reason I'm upright (and clothed, I might add) is because it's Thursday. Thursday (as you may remember from my krazee day last week ) is dance day. That means I have to be ready to receive Madalyn off the bus and be ready to go, as she arrives at 3 and dance starts at 3:15.

Everyone chant with me: car car car car car car. If you have a spare chicken you want to sacrifice to help things along I'd be most obliged.

On a plus note: keep watching this space. There's a new design coming soon. I'm thrilled to bits about it because I have no life. At least it doesn't take much to keep me happy.

I asked Robert this morning if I bought some outfits for the kids off eBay, could he get me money orders for them? And he said yes! Duuuuude. After 9+ years he should know better than that! He has unleashed the unholy shopping power of DUM DUM DUM.....

The Gymboree Junkie! [insert dramatic reverb here]

So it looks like I'll be dividing my time online today between posting and shopping. First, though, I'm off to take a shower. I hate having that not-so-fresh feeling while I'm trying to buy excessively expensive children's clothing.