Books

I decided to keep track of all the books I read. I think I'm reading less. A full time job and relationship, coupled with a short commute, at least the train part of it, are the cause. Maybe I'm not reading less -- how would I know -- I've never kept track of it before? I think I am because I'm returning books to the library closer and closer to the due date and as I write this I am past the due date on the latest Neal Stephenson book.

The list.

Blood's a Rover -- James Ellroy

Wizard's First Rule – Terry Goodkind

Carrion Comfort -- Dan Simmons

In The First Circle – Solzhenitsyn

Tell All – Chuck Palliniuk

Spring Snow – Yukio Mishima

The 49^th Parallel – John Dos Passos

Zombie – Joyce Carol Oats

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – Ken Kesey

Man's Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl

The Plot Against America – Philip Roth

Running Wild – JG Ballard

1919 -- John Dos Passos

It' Can't Happen Here – Sinclair Lewis

Daybreak Zero – John Barnes

Zero History – William Gibson

Reamde – Neal Stephenson

Directive 51 – John Barnes

In future entries I may review books from this list. It would be stupid to review books I haven't read. Who knows? I'm just one guy.

Revelation of Doom

I'm starting to get paranoid.  One of my co workers who sort of reports to me acts so stupid that I fear that he must be doing it on purpose, because if he is not, he is too stupid to live. I work in what seems like a very corporate environment – a lot like the jobs you see on TV where everyone sits in a cubicle and is quiet, and since this guy who's acting stupid and helpless reports to me, sort of, I can't just ask, “Are you doing this on purpose?”  He could tell my supervisor I was making fun of him.  Another subordinate (subnormal) coworker did that.  Nothing came of it, but in this economy, I don't want to take those kind of chances.  In the old days, I didn't care.  I once burned a cross at a coworkers desk – a real high point of my work life.  If he's fucking with me, he's a genius.  But what are the chances that there's a genius in the cubicle next to mine?

Just some examples of his dumbness:

Every day he asks me the same questions.  I look in his eyes, and am convinced that he doesn't know the answer.  It's as if his mind erases everything in his mind so that every day is his 2nd day.

Almost every week he fouls up his time sheet, and emails me saying that his, “Sign in didn't register,” trying to blame the computer.  Or he calls the time sheet program by the wrong name.  Then he writes, “My Bad.”  Who else could be responsible?

Once he emailed me this, “I was with hope that working harder could use a tip.”  I wrote back “Help," and he never responded.

I could go on.  Instead writing this squeezed a revelation out of me – a sad one.  I work in a place where somebody like that is A-OKAY.  Conversely, I probably need a harder job.  But what do I know, I'm just one guy?

Girls that aren't that pretty acting like bitches

Maybe it's a defense mechanism -- that cold stare into nothing which is somehow watching you at the same time -- the I-don't-want-to-get-raped-look.  These are the administrative assistant women who work on my floor.  The ones who are at least kind of attractive are nice and so are the very attractive ones.  It's the NVAs, not very attractive's.  They never talk to me.  They talk to the gay people, but not me.  Whatever.  I don't want to talk to NVA's anyway.  But I just get this feeling that they think I want to talk to them.  Or rape them if there weren't security cameras everywhere.  I can hear them thinking, "Oh, god, please don't let him talk to me."  Really?
    Then the other day I was in Qdoba.  "Where you here first or was?" some NVA ask me.  She was ahead of me on the line -- don't know how she got past my radar but there she was. 
    "Go ahead," I say.  "I'm not in a hurry."  I try to cultivate an air of  . . . not being in a hurry.    So she does. 
    Then she starts ordering all fucked up.  These poor Hispanic kids behind the counter can't keep up with her stream of consciousness ordering and calling everything the wrong name.  They're trying to get the order right but she keeps talking.  I'd have been confused.  At one point she says, "Would it be easier to just make one at a time?"  She was ordering two burritos.  She's being a bitch.  No benefit of the doubt.  The manager  is there and he gets everything running and apologizes.  The gal says to the cashier, "Is so inefficient here."  The cashier says, "I know."  I was a little surprised, that she went against her coworkers, but whatever; it's just fast food.  As she's paying I'm just about to say, "Lady, you're nowhere near hot enough to be acting like this."  I don't.  Always better to keep your mouth shut.
    So some women, who aren't that attractive, but think they are act like bitches.  Regardless of how attractive I am or am not, I keep my mouth shut.  I just post it on a blog.

Hi

I thought I wanted to start a blog.  I have a twitter account -- a micro blog.  The thing I've noticed about twitter and other sites like it is that they show me how little I have to say but and induce a need to vomit something onto the public.  What do I know? I'm just one guy.