Rules.

These are the rules. It does not matter how dumb they are, we will follow them because they are the rules. You cannot question them because they are the rules.

It sounds stupid, but how many times at work or dealing with the government have you ran into that scenario? This came to my mind last night while I was reading a book titled The Rest Of The Best Of Baker, Vol. 2. It is a collection of newspaper columns written by Rick Baker, who was a columnist for The Peoria Journal Star. He died in 1988. My Mom loaned me that book as well as Vol. 1. She told me that both she and Dad had enjoyed them and reading the books I know why. He was an interesting man.

2 of his columns dealt with this kind of stupidity. The first involved a requirement in Illinois that you had to pass Drivers Education to get your diploma. I do not know if they still require that but in the 80's they did. What makes that a stupid rule? Because of that rule a blind girl had to take the course. She had no desire to drive and the state admitted she could never get a license. They did waive the behind the wheel portion of the class, but she had to take the other part. They came up with several reasons why she had to take it instead of saying, "You are right. A blind person has no business in Drivers Ed." It took him 2 months, but he finally convinced someone to waive that requirement.

The second rule does not exist today. It concerned a girl who wanted to play basketball. At that time there were no girls teams. She did play on the team, but when tournament time at the end of the season came, she was banned. She could not even dress with the team and sit on the bench. She was not a great player, but good enough to play in most of the games. When Rick contacted the person responsible for that, he said he wished the girl had contacted himself so he could have told her why she couldn't play. The reason? It was against the rules. He didn't try to defend it, it just simply was that way. Now schools are required to spend equal amounts of money on both boys and girls sports, which is only fair.

News Time

I love reading news. I follow current events but what I really like is the strange stories out there. In the last two days three stories have caught my attention.

The first comes from the city of Batman, Turkey. The mayor plans on suing the makers of the Batman film for using their towns name without permission. He claims he will come to the United States to file this suit. I did a little research on the town and they adopted the name Batman in 1955. Since DC Comics started publishing Batman stories in 1939 I don't think he will succeed.

The second story concerns a young man from England. He is claiming his name is now the longest in the world. His parents christened him George but he has changed it to Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined. He is having fun with it now, but I bet he ends up back to George before too long.

The final story comes from Finland. They have just released the DVD of the television series Little House On The Prairie. It is banned for anyone under 18 years old. To get a rating in Finland they charge so much per minute. When dealing with a series like that it would be very expensive, so the producers took that rating. There may be some very disappointed viewers if they are not familiar with that series.

One thing I have noticed in reading odd news stories. I always thought when it came to weird you could not top us Americans. I was wrong about that one.

52

52. For some reason that number keeps sticking in my head. Maybe I will do an in-depth review of the DC series 52? Of course that would present a problem because I haven't read it yet. It came out during the time I couldn't afford comics. I do have the first trade paperback, but I still haven't read it yet.

Let's see. 52 years ago it was election day. Dwight Eisenhower was re-elected, defeating Adlai Stevenson. But I don't think that is why the number 52 is going through my mind. You know as you get older you tend to get a little absent-minded.

Oh yeah, I remember. 52 years ago today, at 12:18 AM, in Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln, Illinois, I was born. The world collectively yawned, and it continues to do so today. To show just how exciting of a life I live this morning I went to Taco Bell and worked from 5:30 until 9:00 AM. I will finish the day by going to work at Wal-Mart at 10:00 PM. I tell you, James Bond is envious of my life. (Of course I will tell you anything. Whether or not you believe me is up to you.)

Since we are both working tonight Vickie took me out to lunch yesterday. We went to Red Lobster. I had never ate there before. I am not a big seafood eater, but I am adventurous when it comes to food. Vickie ordered the lobster tail and she gave me a piece of it. It was not bad, but nothing I care to eat again. We also had a shrimp cocktail. The only way I had ever eaten shrimp before was fried. I liked it better than the lobster but still nothing I want on a regular basis. Vickie also gave me 2 shirts, 2 pairs of blue jeans, and a bottle of Eternity for men. She is spoiling me and I like it.

I am very satisfied with the way my life is going. A little over a year ago I was extremely unhappy, but things are now working out and looking up. I enjoy my job, I have a beautiful woman who I enjoy spending time with, my health is good, I like my hobbies and I am enjoying telling you about it here.

Major News Story.

You would have thought that Barack Obama becoming our president would have been the lead story in every newspaper across the country. Had you thought that, you would have been wrong. The Rockdale Citizen, published in Conyers, Georgia felt that a local story about a dog attack, The county board, and the sheriffs election was more important.
I went to their website to see if there were any letters to the editor complaining about that, and I found one of the least helpful newspaper websites that I have seen. I love newspapers and I like checking out new ones. This one has the least amount of news I have seen. I guess they simply want you to buy a copy, which is admirable from a business sense, but in this day and age it is an old fashioned attitude.

License Renewed.

Great picture, huh? That was taken about 2 hours ago when I renewed my drivers license. As soon as i did that I went and did my patriotic duty and voted. I am not going to say who I voted for, but I will say I have tried again to get our county coroner out of a job. I hold a grudge against him. I spoke to him the afternoon after my wife died. He told me he would be issuing a death certificate in a couple of weeks. About 6 weeks later I was at the funeral home making a payment. I asked them about the certificate and they told me it had been issued. They made me a copy. He had listed the cause of death as morbid obesity. That was not what killed her. She was overweight and had that been listed as a secondary cause I would not have had a problem with it. But to list that as cause of death, and then not being man enough to tell me personally, was unforgivable. He has been re-elected twice since then but I continue giving my vote to his opponent. If he would ever be unopposed I still would not vote for him.

Deja Vu.

For the third time since I started working at Wal-Mart I am going to stock dry grocery. I was asked about doing it last night and after thinking about it awhile I agreed. I keep moving around. I started in dry grocery, went to frozen foods, went to produce, back to dry grocery, back to frozen, then to what I am doing now, frozen and dairy. Is your head spinning yet?

Getting out of produce was a sore spot. I was set up to fail and they succeeded admirably. The person who had been the produce lead was removed from the job. The new lead and the perishable assistant manager wanted her to stay in produce but someone had to go. Instead of asking me to step aside they made it look like I wasn't doing the job. When I did everything they wanted, they raised the bar. They finally raised it so high there was no way I could do it and I got pushed out. I said at the time if certain meteorological conditions took place I would return to produce. A couple of months after I was put out the new produce lead hinted to me they needed some new help. He was hoping that I would take the hint and apply. Before I agreed I had to check something out. So I went to Google and checked and found out that the temperature at the theological place of eternal punishment had not dipped below zero degrees Celsius, so I had to turn the job down.

As for my current decision, I will lose 20 cents an hour because pay is based on levels, and frozen is one level above grocery. However, the frozen department lead is one of those people no matter how much you do you cannot make her happy. She also is very good at making herself look good at others expense. So it actually will be worth that just to not have to listen to her anymore. Also my evaluation is due at the end of the year and I will get it back then.

I am not sure what day this will take effect. It may be next Saturday. I will still post my entries about it not being easy in frozen and dairy, I just am not sure when.

Silver And Gold.

Silver was arrested in Las Vegas yesterday for driving under the influence. Details can be found here.




















Gold was arrested in July of 2005 for abusing harmful intoxicants. He was arrested at a Dollar General store where he was attempting to buy a can of spray paint. He had been huffing the paint. He was in need of a refill. Instead he was arrested. Details are here.