Another fun day on the Metro (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Today was a terrible day on the Metro... for other people. I was okay, but feeling uncomfortable as this sunny weather and what I considered happy weather seemed to anger everyone on the way in this morning.

I am reading my book, when suddenly I hear a voice scrape across the air, "You know, other people don't want to hear your phone conversations." A quick glace showed a confrontation between two men. The man on the phone looked like a distinguished businessman with a very low voice; so low, I didn't even register he was on the phone even though he was maybe 3 feet away from me or less. That's the Metro for you. But sitting in a seat a foot away was the kind of guy you just want to punch on principle. An older guy with a bike helmet, a "Northern Face" jacket, shorts, and a messenger bag. But it wasn't how he looked that bothered me, but his patronizing tone to the businessman standing up in front of him.

The business man said something which sounded like a gracious apology, but the older man just kept talking like he was condemning an errant teenager who just said the F-bomb in front of his small children. "A lot of people have to share the Metro, you can make that call at some later time." I wanted to stand up and go, "What the FUCK? How would YOU know? He can use his damn phone all he likes, and I wasn't even aware he was talking until your irritating anal-control voice slithered into my ear like oily barbed wire." But I didn't. I am not sure what the man said next, because again, he had a quiet, low voice. But the old guy kept shaking his head, "No. NO. You can make that call outside the Metro. Now hang up that phone." The business man decided to do so rather than fight, but the old guy lectured him for another minute or so. It took me a while to calm down in sympathy. What a prick!

Then a little later, another guy started hassling this young woman sitting next to him. "Move your pointy elbows!" he said. The way he was sitting was seriously encroaching into her space because he had a rolling suitcase, a duffel bag, and was holding onto all of it instead of keeping it on the floor. The woman said something back, and his response sounded like, "Well, some of us weren't born rich and privileged." Finally, he moved to an empty seat, but when he made eye contact with me he shook his head and said, "Women can be so self-centered."

Yeah, so can asshats with luggage.

Then there was a really bratty private school kid with possibly his older sister. I see a lot of private school kids on the Red Line, and many of them are rambunctious and rude. In this case, the younger kid who looked about 7 or 8 was climbing all over the seats while he teenager sister was yelling at him to stop. All he did was mock her, laugh, and generally act monkey-like in his taunting. Finally, one of her attempts to grab him worked, and she pulled him across the seat, pulled down his pants, and spanked the hell out of him. The kid just said, "Oh yeah. Uh huh. I like dat! Smack my ass!" Her blows were weak and ineffective, and finally the kid wiggled away, even more hyper. He started doing a dance out of her reach, and then started jumping on the seats. Not two seconds after I thought, "God's going to take care of this one," the kid slipped and fell ON HIS THROAT over a handlebar on the back of the seat.

His tune changed quickly. He started to cough and then cry. His sister came over to look at him, but he jerked away, gasping. Then they got off at Fort Totten, so I am not sure how badly he was hurt. But as they left, she was saying, "I told you not to do that. I told you you'd get hurt, but you're such a stupid ass you don't even listen to anything!"

Fun day! Posted in: angst , bad moods , metro , rant

Things found in the office printer (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

It amazes me, that people send stuff to the office printer and then just leave them there. I am not sure what goes through the mind of these people.

This is how I roll:

1. I need to print this item
2. I send the document to the printer.
3. I go to retrieve it.
4. Task finished.

This is the part I don't understand:

1. Someone says, "I need to print this item"
2. ????
3. ????
4. Punk finds it in the printer tray or next to the printer.

If it's something generic like printing out a mail with directions to an office meeting, or a snippet of public code, no big whoop I guess. But far too often I encounter things in the printer tray that are far too sensitive for what I'd define as "public knowledge." And it's not like they were *just* printed, I have passed by the printer for days to see some of the following left out, waiting for someone to pick it up, at the various companies I have worked at:

- Personalized medical instructions for some ailment ("Living with chronically draining pus...")
- Gaming stats or scores ("Red wizard needs food badly; Valkyrie has shot the food!")
- News stories of some random local event ("Local woman with wooden leg marries woodpecker")
- Porn (usually pictorial, but also erotic literature, "Softly, he grabbed her hot thighs...")
- Confirmation receipts of some on-line purchase ("Confirmation of your order from Dominatrix4Cheep.com: please keep for your records")
- Personal identity info (W4, credit apps, bank statements, etc)
- Sports betting pools (isn't this illegal?)
- E-mail I wouldn't have shared with anyone else ("John, my doctor has informed me to tell my past few lovers to please go to a clinic right away...") Posted in: angst , printer , work

Awwww... crap (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, Fresh Fields had a sale on Icelandic chocolate. I loved Icelandic chocolate when I was last there in 1996. So I got a bar from a box labeled "Milk Chocolate." When I opened it back at my desk and bit into it, it tasted terrible. That's when I looked at the wrapper and it said, "Baker's Chocolate: Bittersweet."

See, I dislike bitter chocolate. Don't debate with me about it, either, because every time I say that, I meet some dark chocolate aficionado who tries to convince me it's superior to milk chocolate until I pummel them with my meaty fists like a gorilla on a gas can.

It's apparent I didn't read the wrapper when I pulled it from the box, and this variety has a plain butcher paper wrapper where almost all the bars look the same except for small text below the logo. I hope the asshat who put the wrong bar in the milk chocolate display box eats some spoiled food and spends the rest of the day wondering if they are going to throw up.... no wait, maybe not... oh, yes yes yes... OH MY GOD... maybe not, okay... if I just sit here...

As a closet wiccan, I feel the curse must match the crime. Posted in: angst , chocolate

FW:Mother-f$*king tourists on the subway! (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Man, like I know tourism brings in money to our fine city, but all these people visiting for the Fourth of July are screwing up rush hour flow something fierce. Gawk somewhere else, Zeke and Betty-Lou! Not at the top of the escalator! MOVE!!

[TxtLJ doesn't like my phone]

I posted that with TXTLJ, which rejected the first entry I tried, and then split the second into two posts.

People walking into metro cars and then STOPPING IN FRONT OF THE DOOR SO NO ONE CAN GET PAST THEM also seems to be the new fad among the flip-flop elite. Some out-of-towners seem non-plussed they have to stand, and look around at the various seats trying to find empty ones so they don't have to sit next to someone whom they don't know. I am so sorry Granmama had to sit next to the colored fella, Mr. Buzzcut with the "Kansas is God's Country" shirt, but can you get your skinny-assed preteen daughter's sweatshirted arm off my face as she presses against me to read the map? Maybe if she didn't wear soccer shorts that say "SWEETIE" across her ass, and had some meat on her bones, she wouldn't be so damn cold all the time. Posted in: angst , metro , subway , tourists