Way Too Responsible

The power went out for the entire block while I was at work. As we were told it might be hours before they get everything back on, they sent people home.

As I was literally at the door, my foot outside of the building, the lights kicked back in. I could have left, nobody would have stopped me and there was no way for my boss to know I hadn't left yet. But me being me I walked back into the building and went back to work.

Am I a sucker or what?

Am I Trying to Hard?

Performance reviews are due today. I had mine done several weeks ago as I believe in putting a lot of thought into them.

The thing is that I seem to be in the minority. I always give full and detailed explanations for my ratings for each of my employees. Whether I'm going to evaluate them as superior, average, or below average I give my reasoning for each in full detail and with relevant examples of why I view them as such. I sit down with each of them for about 30 minutes or so to fully discuss it and give them a chance to give me any feedback and to also allow them to evaluate me.

Now, at least in my company, I seem to be in the clear minority. Most reviews give one or two lines for an explanation like "He performs his job well" and leave it at that. I know a lot of managers that never sit down with their people to discuss it.

How about you other people? What are your reviews like? What do you prefer them to be or do you even care?

Training for the week

I have been stuck in training all week which is the reason my blogging has slowed down.

The class is boring but at least it is well taught. Much of what is being covered are things I already know so it really isn't all that interesting for me. It's always been a problem for me. Most of life is a "one size fits all" type of thing, no matter your skill level, competence, or ability to learn you must sit through something just to say you sat through something. The worst part about it is that I'm not allowed to have my laptop in class so I find myself, literally, just staring at my notebook trying to think of something, anything, else besides the class.

Oh well.

Relationship Advice

I think it is odd the amount of relationship advice other people feel they need to give you. I am probably guilty of it myself but I think it is odd how much people are willing to offer up when they themselves aren't in good relationships.

If I ask for relationship advice, then by all means give it to me. But if I didn't ask you, please don't give it to me unless you yourself are in a happy long term relationship with no drama to speak of. This applies to very few people, so in other words don't give it to me.

I am by no means a relationship expert, nor do I pretend to be. But so many people I know act as if they have all the answers to all the relationship problems of the world yet they themselves are single or otherwise miserable. For those who I have offered relationship advice when none was asked for I apologize. From now on feel free to tell me to shut my pie-hole whenever I give you unsolicited advice. No offense will be taken.

Blockbuster Late Fees

Some people just amaze me. I saw an article today about a bitter former Blockbuster renter. She did not care that Blockbuster eliminated its Late Fees. She saw it as a last-ditch attempt to woo back customers it is losing to Wal-mart and Netflix. She was upset at Blockbuster because it would charge her a late fee for returning a movie one day late.

The audacity! I mean really. Imagine the nerve of someone charging you a fee, which you agreed to in your contract, for basically taking advantage of their business. I mean it was only a day late right? What is one movie one day late? Please people. If you don't like late fees I have an idea, DON'T RETURN YOUR MOVIES LATE. Novel idea I know. I've rented lots of movies at Blockbuster, I don't think I ever returned one late. I rent a movie, watch a movie, return the movie the next day. If I happened to not get to it and need to return it late so be it. I would be happy to pay the late fee; I would not expect Blockbuster to pay for my change in plans.

New Best Friends

Here is a picture of the two new best friends, Bandit and Milo. OK, maybe they are not best friends, Bandit just tolerates Milo and Milo seems scared to death of Bandit, but they are getting along, which is a big accomplishment for Bandit.



And just in case you wanted another picture of Milo, here is one that my girlfriend took that I thought was particularly cute.

No Blog Today

Only have time to say that I don't have time to blog today. Silly to post just to say you can't post huh? Might not post the next few days but we will just have to see how the week shapes up.

Dodger Fans Are the Worst

I swear, Dodger fans are the worst fans on the planet. They can't stop complaining.

Let me remind everyone of something. The Dodgers have won EXACTLY ONE post-season game in the lsat 16 years. Yet for some reason all the Dodger fans are upset because the Dodgers have basically completely rebuilt the team in the offseason. They let most of their popular players go including Adrian Beltre, Sean Green, and Jose Lima and have added players like J.D. Drew, Jeff Kent, and Derek Lowe.

This is a team that last year was expected by most to finish dead last in their division, and they actually came in first! Give the new team some time. Besides, what are you holding on to? It isn't like this was the Yankees or Red Sox who have won something. ONE GAME! It isn't like the Lakers who tore apart a dynasty. Quit holding on to your mediocre team.

Hollywood Couples

With the breakup of Jennifer and Brad that got me thinking, are there really any Hollywood Super-Couples that have been together for a long time? I mean SUPER couples. couples where each person is as famous as the other and BOTH are pretty famous. I know Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have been together for a long time but she is not nearly as famous as he is. Here are the few I can think of where both people are relatively famous and they have been together for more than 7 years.

Jada Pinkett & Will Smith
Kelly Preston & John Travolta
Tea Leoni & David Duchovny
Catherine Zeta Jones & Michael Douglas
Kyra Sedgewick & Kevin Bacon
Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick
Robin Wright-Penn & Sean Penn

And that is it. Most of these relationships are under 10 years though and to me that really isn't all that long. Further, in most of these couples one of the two has kind of taken a back seat while the other person's career has done better.

Any thoughts?

The Wonder of Drugs

I use to be the type that would never take a drug no matter how much pain I was in. Oh the follies of youth.

This morning I woke up with a terrible pain in my left shoulder and back. I quite literrally could not raise my head up to get out of bed and could barely raise my arm I had to come into work so I said screw it and dragged myself up. I popped some advil and went off to work. I feel almost 100% better.

To all those tough, macho guys out there who refuse to take drugs. Get over it. I use to be you. Believe me, its much better to be pain free.

Saddest Little Puppy

This is a picture of Milo, my girlfriend's dog. It might be one of the saddest things I have ever seeen in my life. Milo broke his right front leg about two weeks ago. On the way to the vet he was dropped and broke his left front leg. Now he has two cast. If you know how pomeranians are, you know they are full of energy and very excitable. So now Milo hops around on his two back legs in what might be the most heartbreaking thing you will ever see.

Traditional New Year Gym Rant

I think I complain about this every year so I'm going to do it again. I hate going to the gym after the New Year. For the first few weeks in January there are always more people in the gym than usual trying to fulfill their New Year's pledge to get in shape.

Then February rolls around and all of a sudden people realize that going to the gym is real work and that you actually have to be committed to going. Just doing it on a whim doesn't really work.

For all you people who crowd the gyms in January, only to disappear by February, why don't you save everyone some time and come back when you are truely committed to getting in shape. You can start by putting down that donut.

Why I Don't Make New Year's Resolutions

No offense to those of you that do, but I actually really don't understand why people, at the start of the calendar year, make New Years resolutions.

First off, I attempt to "improve" myself throughout the year. When I notice I have some problem I attempt to correct it immediately. What if I thought I was overweight right now? Would I wait the 360 days until the New Year to do something about it? Of course not.

Second, I think a lot of people set themselves up for failure. New Year's Resolutions are often very lofty and ambitious. Soon people realize that they can't quite make it and they get discouraged. Failure breeds failure. That is not to say that you should not set your goals really high, I would be the last to say such a thing, but you should have a realistic way to achieve said goals. Just saying something like you are going to "find the love of my life" and hoping she is the next girl to walk down the street isn't a very good plan. People make lofty goals, don't create a plan to achieve it, and then when faced with failure become very discouraged. This only adds to the problem the resolution was attempting to solve.

Of course this isn't me trying to say all New Year's resolutions are bad. I can see value in creating a new chapter in life with the turning of the calendar. It just has never worked for me that way.

Los Angeles Angels

So the Angels have decided to change their name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A lot of Angel fans from Orange County are up in arms declaring "We are not part of Los Angeles!". I say get over yourself.

Now I'm not an Orange County resident so I will say that I don't fully understand the situation nor can I appreciate what it is to be part of the O.C. That being said I can understand why the owner of the Angels, Arte Moreno, is doing what he is. There really is no name recognition for the city of Anaheim. Nobody else outside of California knows where Anaheim is. He can potentially increase his fan base by making this move. Does it matter to me that they don't really play in Los Angeles? Not particularly. What about these sports teams?

Auburn Hills Pisotons (Detroit Pistons)
East Rutherford Giants (New York Giants)
Arlington Rangers (Texas Rangers)

The list goes on and on. Yes, I agree that O.C. is not part of L.A. in the traditional sense but it really is in terms of the metorpolitan area. I guess I just can't understand why someone from O.C. hates being identified with the L.A. area. What a bunch of snobs :)

My favorite suggestion was to rename the Dodgers:

The Western United States, Except for San Francisco, Dodgers at Los Angeles.