digitalBush

 

Courtesy of Photography by Chris

People will promise you the world if they think it will get them what they want.  Those promises are worth nothing.  Promises won't put food on the table, they won't buy you medicine when you are sick, and they won't protect your family from bad guys.  At the end of the day, the only person that can do those things is YOU. I know that I care a lot more about the welfare of my family than anyone else.  It's my responsibility to take care of myself and my own, not yours.

I don't want to come off as selfish, but I do want to express my priorities.  Me first, then you.  I want to help everyone that I can.  I love my friends, and I'll go damn near to the end of the world for them.  I hope they would do the same for me, but I know that I can't gamble my family's future on that.  So, if I can't 100% depend on my friends who are very much aware of my needs, how the hell can I depend on my government to service my needs when they only know me by a 9 digit number? I can't, I won't, and I will never put my future in the hands of someone else.  You shouldn't either.

Bailouts, stimulus packages, universal healthcare, blah blah blah.  It's all just empty promises servicing the needs of a few.  I'm not downplaying the state of the economy.  It sucks, and I'm hunkering down and riding it out.  I'm taking care of my family and trying to move in a direction that makes me much less dependant on others.  You can walk away from my needs, but I can't.  

Everyone is looking to the current administration to "fix" things.  Umm, I thought we were supposed to be independent and free.  Just suck it up and do what you need to do to take care of your family.  It's not the government's fault that you bought a house that you couldn't afford.  I must have missed that part beside  "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" where it says " (oh yeah, and free mortgages and health care too)".  Our country seriously needs a reality check.  Learn a little moderation and stop spending money you don't have.  Live within your means and try to put some money back for a rainy day.   Just be responsible.

This is my favorite waffle recipe.  Like all of my recipes, it's a mashup of several recipes I found around the Internet.  I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

courtesy of Dave-F

This whole rush thing really drives me crazy.  I can understand a push every now and then, but lately it's become an everyday occurrence, and it's getting old.  People don't understand that good stuff doesn't happen by accident.  Good design isn't easy and bad design doesn't come cheap.  In the end you are creating more maintenance overhead when you don't plan accordingly.

This post could have easily been called "Your bad planning is not my emergency."  Unfortunately, it is when those making the bad planning are in management.  It's my job to make things happen. Luckily, I haven't made any major mistakes while rushing around doing these things.  But that's all it is, luck.  I'm dreading the day that I end up rushed down some path and I make a HUGE mistake that costs my company an important client or loses us a lot of money.

All I want is to do a good job.  In order for me to do that, I need time to think things through.  That's it.  I'll come up with a good plan and make it happen.  When I've been given the opportunity to work on a reasonable timeline, the results have been outstanding.  Those projects (I can count them on one hand) are easy to maintain, configurable, fast, and generally painless.  Design it, develop it, refactor it, test it and roll it out.  That's what makes me tick.

So, here I am with 4 or 5 "ASAP","Important","Urgent","Now Now Now" projects on my plate.  People will say things like "I know you're busy, but I need this thing done tomorrow."  Great!  Thanks for your consideration.  It's okay that you knew about needing this thing 4 weeks ago.  I'll just add it to my never ending list of shit that needs done tomorrow.  All I can do is smile and keep going, while on the inside I just died a little bit more.  No one cares about how this is affecting me.  All they care about is that I get their stuff done so they don't look like a slacker.  I get to do more work so that you can look adequate.  Awesome.

Last night I went to bed at 6:30pm because I was just mentally exhausted from the stress.  It's an uphill battle that I'm losing.  Will it all get done?  Is it all going to work?  Am I going to die an early death from the constant stress and the associated high blood pressure?  Or will I just snap one day and tell someone off?  Only time will answer these questions.   So, dear reader, is this just my unfortunate situation, or do you share the same pain that I do?

I was recently tagged in the stupid 25 Random Things About Me Facebook meme that has been sweeping the interwebs.  Those who know me in real life know that I am jovial and generally just a "go with the flow" kind of guy.  But my wife and closest friends know the ugly truth that I just bottle up my cynicism.  The fact is that while I'm smiling to your face, I'm judging you and evaluating your injustices to me and the rest of the world.

I know some of you will think I'm a terrible person for my drearly outlook towards humanity.  All I have to say in my defense is that at least I'm releasing my frustrations in a controlled manner and not calling out people by name.  So, take my pent up anger and tag me on a list and this is what you get. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the top 25 things I hate about people:

1. I hate when people lie.
2. I hate when people have hidden agendas.
3. I hate when people have unreasonable expectations of me yet continually fall short themselves.
4. I hate don't like when people are late.  I hate it if you do it all of the time.
5. I hate when people procrastinate and expect me to pick up their slack.
6. I hate when people refuse to learn.
7. I hate when people whine and cry about things they brought upon themselves.
8. I hate when people drive 5 under in the fast lane.
9. I hate when people steal.
10. I hate when people cheat.
11. I hate when people give nothing, yet expect everything.
12. I hate when people put others at risk.
13. I hate when people are selfish.
14. I hate when people don't have their facts straight and accuse others wrongly.
15. I hate when people are arrogant.
16. I hate when people repeat rumor without knowing the truth.
17. I hate when people jump to conclusions.
18. I hate when people tell me how to do my job.
19. I hate when people think everything is an emergency.
20. I hate when people don't work hard.
21. I hate when people don't think before they act.
22. I hate when people beg.
23. I hate when people constantly make excuses.
24. I hate when people refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.
25. I hate when people attach me to top 25 lists. Sorry for my petty attempt at humor, I thought all lists ended with a reference to the list itself.

There, I feel better.  I know that my list covers basically every human at some point in their life. I know I'm guilty of some of that every once in a while. Am I a hypocrite? I don't think so, because I really don't hate you for it (I suppose it depends on what you did and to the degree you did it). I just hate when people have these recurring traits.