Everyday Stupidities

Hey there, I'm back from the City of Roses... and I'm drained. I had an awe-inspiring time downstream, visiting friends and sight-seeing. I wish it could all last longer (said while singing Styx' "Don't Let It End" – the only commercially acceptable song from 'Kilroy Was Here' though not the biggest hit; this is an extention of a conversation Obie and I were having over hashbrowns) but vacations have to end sometime so we'll know that they were vacations. I ate hamburgers at every meal, got through two days without Mountain Dew, and took a bunch of swell pictures. A big thank-you to those who gave me bright moments and warm places; hugs & lix0rz to you more than I can say or do. And Jeff M. is still a steaming bag of douche. One correction/edit to make to the previous entry: I was a little off by the visitor timeline. Sharona spent Thursday and Friday nights here, mother and her friend did not stay over, and mother and her sister woke me up this morning... so I'm happy to have missed some people but wound up not missing everyone.

Today's stupidity comes from one Shirley Phelps-Roper, who is one of Fred Phelps' thirteen kids. I heard a radio interview with her on some radio station while browsing a Shell minimart for snacks, and right before the man and woman in the station brought her on they called her "bat-poop crazy". She came on (via phone) and left no doubt that she was indeed both the daughter of the man who claims God hates queers and America, and that she was out of her ever-loving gourd. Her claim is that the Amish children who were slaughtered deserved it, because this was God's will and that God is turning his back on the Amish because the Amish have turned its back on Him. (There I was in the chip & candy aisle of a Shell station, hoisting my jaw off the linoleum.) I was surprised that she didn't credit one nutcase who felt the need to harm innocents in an insular Christian community on gays, the occupation of Iraq, or any of the other God-hates-America stuff her dad ejaculates. She says that they're hypocrites because while they won't own a car they'll gladly be a passenger, won't get a phone but will happily borrow one when they need to call someone, and that being an inward-facing community goes opposite of Jesus' command to "go ye into all the world and preach my gospel"... that they're self-pious, not pious to the Lord. She spoke of the protests she would be conducting outside the girls' funerals. I have no [further] words of judgement to cast upon her, I'm just too floored in amazement by her point of view and actions. I already pity her for being the child of a latent homophobe, which she had no say in, but now I really feel bad for her for having been brainwashed by him into hating others while calling it an action of love.

There was one stupidity that I witnessed myself during my stay: a man decided it was time to check out of the material plane and plopped himself down in front of a MAX electric trolley, with a hundred witnesses and however many passengers right there. By the grace of God (wow, am I feeling spiritual today?) and the quick-wits of the driver, plus the fact that this was a few yards from a terminal so the vehicle was decellerating anyway (good choice of location to dive, dude), the man was not crushed or sliced, just jarred under the body of the trolley and was easily removed from underneath by the fire department, very much alive, and taken to the hospital. The article in the Oregonian the next morning didn't say whether he was "treated and released" or treated and detained for 72 hours, but I'm guessing it'd be the latter. Here's one of my photos; click for bigger.
I'm at work right now and stinging a little from a wee bit more unhappiness... I got my monthly review, and my quality score is STILL in the basement, despite all efforts. I'm hitting the script items more but they think I don't sound sincere enough. You mean I gotta be convincing? Do you teach soft-skills so I can meet your expectations? Also, it seems that rediculous concept of making teamwork scores have nothing to do with teamwork and be merely a duplication of the quality score (as said earlier, I do great on teamwork and not-so-great on quality) is going to stay, rather than be a test for September. This new system brought my score down to 2.3 cumulative average out of 5 (because a 4 in teamwork arbitrarily became a 1), and this fact is rather demotivating. The quality score, or some quantity of that, is my own doing, though they're now splitting hairs it seems, but screwing with the overall score by rendering one metric [that I'm good at] completely ersatz... that's really pretty stupid. But I shouldn't be surprised, management manufactures stupid.

Something not stupid: An electric car that gets 250 miles per charge and can go highway speed, available now. Check out Tesla Motors and be amazed.