Life's Simple Answer: You're Crazy!

I was flipping through the morning radio shows this morning, when my regular station when to commercial break and came across the area's Top 40 POP station. Their morning show is AWFUL, in my opinion. I can't stand the hosts and I just think it's really crude that their idea of a good morning show is to have people call in with their problems and the show hosts getting involved. Like - a girl calls in because she knows her boyfriend cheated on her and she wants to confront him. So what do they do - the show hosts call the boyfriend and make him confess on air. How stupid is that?

Well this morning should've been a < 5 minute segment with one particular caller. It was an older woman - I would've put her in her mid-late 40s. First of all, it's pretty pathetic that you're that old and calling a Top 40 POP station. She called because her former business partner used to be her fiance. Well, he called off the wedding and she is now selling her business and because she stands to make a good profit, she wants to know if he deserves any of it since he helped start the business? That seemed like a question for Dear Abby, really. But that is beside the point - that was only one of her burning questions. Her other question was why he called off the engagement. He apparently had kids that came to visit her a lot and the kids seemed to really like her back then. But since the engagement was called off, she doesn't see the kids very much and they don't seem to like her all that much anymore - she has a feeling that their real mother is brainwashing them.

Ahh - paranoia. But it's not paranoia that is this woman's problem.
It's so simple, actually - I don't understand how she doesn't get it.
Dear Abby first - does he deserve any of the profit you stand to make off selling your business? It would definitely be a nice gesture to give him something since he helped you so much.
Next - You wanna know why he called off the engagement? It's because you're 40-something years old calling a Top 40 Morning Show to air your grievances.
And why don't the kids come see you or seem to like you anymore?
For one, because he called off the engagement - why would his kids come to see you anymore? And secondly, because you're 40-something years old calling a Top 40 Morning show to air your grievances.
In a nutshell - you're crazy!
Deal with it!

Logo Loco

Logos are everywhere - they're on webpages, billboards, buildings, tee shirts, coffee mugs - you name it, a logo can probably be placed on it.

There are logos that make sense - probably the ones that make the most sense are just those ones that are made out of the company's initials like the 'B' for Blogger or the 'Y!' for Yahoo!. Then there are name logos like Google written in different colors or the oval with 'Post' written in script. Finally - there are the graphic logos - like the circular fox for 'Firefox' or the white outline of an eagle on a blue backdrop for the United States Post office. All easily identifiable - all make sense.

But then you get some logos that you just can't make heads or tails out of. On my way to work today, I passed a commercial van - the company was 'All Kinds of Flooring' and their logo was a cityscape coming out of a suitcase. I didn't get it. At first, I thought it was rolls of carpets coming out of a suitcase - which would've made sense. But then I was wondering if they provided hardwood and how they would depict that. Upon further inspection, however, I saw it was a city - and that led me to thinking - what do skyscrapers have to do with flooring? AND when do you see a flooring person with a suitcase? I'm wondering if they only did commercial flooring - hence the reason for the cityscape coming out of the suitcase - that's the only logical explanation I can think of.

In conclusion, I feel that if I have to think about what it all means, then your logo is no good.

Just How Far Do Bridezillas Go?

They are the craziest of the crazed. They are oftentimes under extreme stress and confronting uncooperative peers. They even have their own show on cable. They are....BRIDEZILLAS!

I haven't watched the show -I always pass by it on the Channel Guide thinking that I don't need to watch that kind of dra-mah. But what made me think about Bridezillas was actually the final challenge of Project Runway - creating a bridesmaid's dress to accompany the wedding dress each finalist had to design.

I actually thought all three finalists' dresses were very nice however, only one of the three, in my opinion, could be versatile enough to fit women of various sizes. That one was Korto's. I feel like halters could work for any person and I really didn't think it was as bad as the judges made it out to seem - but their negative feedback was probably related to the "mess" that was her wedding dress.

The other two bridesmaids dresses, by Kenley and Leanne - although beautiful - not very versatile for all body types.

Which leads me to this question about Bridezillas - have there been bridezillas that have gone so far as to leave out a family member (sibling), close friend, etc from their wedding party because they didn't fit the 'skinny' mold of what their wedding should look like? I mean how does that talk go if you have an overweight sister - 'Umm, hey sis...you're practically my best friend but my wedding party needs to look glamorous so I can't have you in my wedding - unless you can lose 50 lbs. in the next 10 months.'
I'm sure there are brides like that all over the place - and I know there are brides that struggle when they do have their closest friends/relatives in the wedding party and they just span the whole range of the size chart. I knew one bride that had three bridesmaids - they were a size 6, 10 and 16...talk about a range. So I suggested she go with a halter dress - as those seem to be flattering on all sizes.

I know there are Bridezillas out there that go crazy for a pluthera of other reasons, but I think this one - leaving out siblings/family members from the bridal party because they are overweight, would be an extreme. Then again, it's been awhile since I was a bride and none of my friends (thank goodness) are/were Bridezillas....so maybe I'll just to tune in to see how far these Bridezillas actually go in their ranting, ravings and demands.

Chopping For a Good Cause

This weekend will have me under the scissors - I have been growing out my hair for over a year in order to donate my locks (not for love) to one of the organization that collects hair and makes wigs for children/women with cancer. I am not going through the very popular 'Locks of Love' because they have a lot of requirements that I could not meet...the biggest being a minimum of 10 inches of hair. I do think I have the 10-inches but it's not all 10-inches - my hair is kinda layered.

Therefore, I am going through Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program (the same one Hillary Swank went through). Their minimum length requirement was eight inches and it didn't really specify if it had to be all one length. So I am cutting off about 10-inches on Friday in hopes that a bulk of it falls between the 8-10 inches mark - which by the looks of my mirror, it should. Besides, wigs need bangs and that's what they can use my shorter pieces for.

People have been donating/selling their hair for years. My first exposure to hair selling came from the movie classic, 'Pretty Women' where Jo sold her hair in order to raise more money for her mother's trip. Sure she did it on impulse and knew it was for a good cause, but I'm afraid my reaction will be much like hers in the end- where she's crying later that night because she has no more hair!

I'm trying to feel good about it though. My original plan was to cut it in the spring (2008) but my hair grows pretty slowly - I only get it cut 3-4 times a year. So I had to wait it out for a year to get it to this length. I'm not going to lie - my hair hasn't been this long since I was in elementary school and I'm not going to miss it. As it gets longer, I just shed more (because it's so heavy) and it takes longer to air dry. However, I am not really looking forward to having my hair uber-short - which I haven't had since the 90s.

We will see how it goes - I have complete faith in my hairdresser that I will come out looking good. If I don't - you'll hear about it. I also have to keep telling myself that this is all for a good cause. I'm glad to be able to do it.

For more information about the Pantent Beautiful Lengths Program, read about it here:
http://www.beautifullengths.com/en_US/requirements.jsp

Seized By Frustration

We all get frustrated at some point in our lives - it can happen practically any time, anywhere. I find that most of my frustration happens at work. And I have been able to diagnose the root cause of my frustration however, I have not been able to do anything to prevent it in the future.

I get frustrated at work when co-workers don't perform at an above average level - I feel like there are those that 'just get by' with what they can and would not think twice about going above and beyond their usual tasks.
There are times when I get frustrated when the system runs like crap and developers can't explain why - but tell you that it's not happening to them. Ummm- that's not the point...it's happening, do something about it.
There is one person (in a sea of many) that frustrates me any time I hear his voice, see his name or get an email from him - because he just doesn't do his job - plain and simple. He's been with the group longer than I have, yet he doesn't seem to be able to answer simple questions....afterall, he's production support...it's his job to answer simple questions...but instead, he sends an email to me or someone else from my team to answer the question for him - and then he just copies and pastes what we've responded to him with and passes it off as his own.

So what is the root cause of my frustrations? Stupid people. But it goes beyond people being stupid, because there are stupid people everywhere.
I have realized that my expectations are too high.
I have always received glowing reviews from my higher ups. I perform my tasks and many things beyond my job scope. I train new people that come onto the team and I try to help them as they begin to learn the ropes.
Fast forward two months - I am now repeating the things that I said to the new person a week ago. We keep talking about the same thing every week cause you can't seem to grasp the concept; yet you never ask questions.

Yes, folks, it's me. I have set my standards at, supposedly, an unattainable level. When someone older, with the same industry experience comes in, I feel like they should catch on rather quickly and hold to a certain professionalism. But apparently that's too much. It's too much to ask for a new person to show up to work by 9 am and be on time for 9:30 meetings. Shame on me for being upset with new person for showing up to two out of three 9:30 meetings 10-20 minutes late because she either 1) went to the cafeteria to get breakfast or 2) just wasn't in the office at 9:30 am.

So how does one work on this? How does one take a 'who cares' attitude? How do you keep emotion out of the workplace? That has always seemed to be my downfall.