..:S...P...I...D...E...R...B...I...T...E...S:..

Thursday, July 14, 2005

"We don't think you're challenging him enough..."
-Office Space

that last exchange on my comments has to be expanded upon, just so i can make one last point. i need to attack this "rape isn't about sex, it's about power!" statement that's been passed off as truth for about 20 years. here's all the things wrong with this statement:

1.) it was repeated endlessly in the 80s, parrotted by people who watched shit movies like "Disclosure" thinking they were blowing the lid off something and not just quoting a Michael Douglas movie.
repetition + amateur sociologist = nonsense.

2.) it is almost always said to me as if the person saying it came up with it themselves. with the exception of my mom, of course.

3.) it suggests some sort of "battle of the sexes" mantra and this can EASILY be destroyed with one simple example:

imagine a woman standing in front of her eager young class of wide-eyed females saying, "rape is not about sex (annoying pause) it's about POWER. it is about a man controlling a female, it is about a man taking away the self, it is about a man purposely trying to control that which makes a woman an individual, it is about a man trying desperately to erase all the progress that women have made in society throughout history. it is about...

suddenly we cut to a slobbering half-wit with his cock in one hand and a pile of his own shit in the other, standing outside of a elementary school playground. i'm sorry, i meant nursing home.

you see what i'm saying? hard to imagine it as a political statement instead of the animal reflex it is.

epilogue:
another idea to be attacked later (sure to anger and hopefully generate some readers, which is all i really want): the idea that pedophiles are mentally ill and not just horny as shit.

okay. if you work with me you might want to change the station at this point. if you do read the following, remember, "what happens in the blog stays in the blog." because this thing is here to keep me from saying some of this shit out loud. anyhow, i am now going to complain about losing a promotion at work. so here's the chronology of events:

i fill out a "career path" form saying that there is a job there i'd be interested in. while i'm doing it, my co-worker who i'll refer to as MMM (because he's going to be "making more money" than me) who was drawing pentagrams and dragons on his career path worksheet to pass the time, is not really interested in filling his out correctly, i say, "hey dude, you should put THIS job (the one i want) because it's the only one here we'd probably excel at." he writes it down, me never thinking that i'd ever be in competition with him. fast forward a few weeks, the person with this job that i want is going on leave to have a baby. i request to be trained to take over while he's gone, even though i've done the job before (while his predecessor was on vacation) but i figure it will show that i have an interest in this position. MMM also requests to be trained because, what the hell? it's a nice break in the routine. when the man goes to have his baby, it turns out that my regular duties are in a constant state of chaos (like always) and no one even considers putting someone on my old job (because it is by far, THE HARDEST in the joint and people treat it like it's dipped in shit) so i have to stay back and do that crap and MMM takes over the coveted job while the baby is born. when the proud father comes back, MMM and him trade stories about "their" job and become friends. then the bomb drops. the new daddy has decided to stay home with his new baby for good and his job will be opening up. i'm thinking sweeeeet. what a stroke of luck. "career path" was shorter than i thought! then him and MMM spend a week talking about what HE (not me) will being doing when he takes over. i'm scratching my head in the corner. how can they decide who gets the job? i mean shit, don't they interview for that kind of thing? isn't it this looooooong process that involves interviews and phone calls and finally congradulations to me all around? i stay quiet because i have a tendency to overreact and wait to see what happens when the proud poppa finally leaves. then i'm called into the bosses office. i'm told that the job is going to MMM because the dude who was leaving gave HIM his recommendation??? wait a minute. i didn't realize that we got to pick who replaces us. when is that the procedure? if that's the case, things should be so much quick and easier on the companies every time i left a job. i'd just say "HIM!" and point at the guy i liked the most. maybe he's not the most qualified but hell, it's real quick and i talk to him the most! yeah, real quick. quick enough to make my head spin. the other times i saw people trying to get promoted there were open conversations, phone calls, interviews and a couple days of waiting. with this someone got "knighted" during some secret ceremony. so i'm left without this raise that was sorely needed while the guy who gets the job i SHOULD have had is:

a.) 13 years younger than me
b.) living at home with his parents
c.) driving a car that is paid for
d.) newer at this company
e.) coming off a MUCH easier position in the store
f.) going to be working all morning shifts with weekends off
g.) going to be paid more while working less than me

like i said, i can maybe see how someone could say to me that i'm not ready to be promoted to this new position (even though there's NO question that i'm qualified) maybe you need to be there longer? but i can NEVER accept the fact that this dude was a better choice than me. because the guy leaving decided? am i the only one confused by this decision. and you want to know why the dude with the baby gave this other guy his recommendation? seriously? this is 100% true. because their jobs are about 5 five apart and naturally they can talk more AND because the guy who was leaving was into Star Wars and MMM went and bought a bunch of Star Wars figures that he hadn't got yet. i'm not joking. he had a checklist. i saw it. and if someone bought me toys shit, i'd recommend them over anyone else. the point is, why does this recommendation mean everything? so maybe everyone's behavior isn't a surprise, but i am surprised that all it takes is the opinion of the person that is leaving to decide who gets what. what am i missing? time to maybe state the obvious here:

sometimes i can't help but think that a cloud still hangs over my head from beating the shit out of a former co-worker.

okay, enough of that. i wasn't going to say anything because i have co-workers who read this site and i don't blame them. i just had a shitty day where i covered about 3 different positions while my nemesis (not MMM, i actually like him quite a bit) sat in the back all day drinking coffee talking about what she was going to do TOMMORROW. you know, this nemesis has talked shit about me for a long time (this is not paranoia because the people she says shit too always tell me about it and they gain nothing by lying) because when i first got there i called her out on about a half dozen LIES. not just exaggerations but outright lies. like she'd say "do this" and i'd do that and then her boss would ask about what i did and she's say "i never said that!" and i kind of got used to her nonsense thinking she must have Alzheimers, even joking (half joking) that i was going to start tape recording all our conversations, but now that i have this good news about my promotion i'm thinking about her again. is she poisoning the minds of any new people? i know that some people that have come and gone told me later that they were "warned" about me BY HER. how unprofessional is THAT fucking shit. they told me about it later because they were like, "don't know what the hell she was even talking about." well, i'll be paying more attention to her work habits because if someone effects my career path, i think i'd have to affect theirs. wait, i said i had said enough of all that. let me force...myself...to...move...on.

okay, the good news is that besides being broke as fuck i'm very excited to be finishing the climax of a script i've been working on. i was trying to make it 100 pages and STOP there because the last one i tried would have been over three hours. hold on, i have to watch this show...

sorry but godDAMN the end of the movie "28 Days Later" is good. they're playing the music and he's got his thumbs buried in that dude's eyes? what is that music?

anyway, i'll post the excerpt from my script separately so that i can bury this with another post. i feel like i've purged some resentment and i'm ready to talk about anything else.

::: david - 8:42 PM [+] :::
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