Everyday Stupidities

I always know when it's time for me to get to bloggin' when I get a surge in comments from folks who have already commented before. This often means it'll be several more days before I ever get a new comment on my new entry because everyone has given up for the week. But hey, I have four readers; the impact of my tardiness is minimal upon the world. It's when other Blogger sites like Not So Motivational don't update in a month, then post a note saying it'll be another five or six weeks before there'll be another entry, that things get ugly. But in happier news, I have just posted the December '08 update to Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul, half of which is on a birthday theme (courtesy of a bunch of pictures I scanned for a Flickr group a few months ago), and it ends with a brand new Christmas fable. Enjoy!

The stupid of the moment is par for the course but pretty damned annoying. I got a call last Friday morning from an employment agency, asking if I was interested in a helpdesk position with the local rail transit authority in Seattle. She described it pretty much like what I'd been doing at PleaseGoAway dot caaaaaahm -- answering questions and helping people with issues on their computers and cellular dildos devices. She emailed me same information and asked me to get back to her about scheduling an interview after I'd read it. I'm not sure why she didn't offer to schedule an interview right then, but whatever. I got up once my sinus headache loosened its grip, wrote her back, and waited awhile. Around 3pm I called the number in her email to respond directly, and the front desk told me she'd already gone home for the day. That person took a message and I was told she'd get back to me on Monday, which seems reasonable. Today is Wednesday, and not a word. I'm unclear of why it is employment agencies play that game of tag... what is there for them to gain by teasing folks like that? You have an offer or you do not have an offer, you want me or you do not want me. You say 'jump!', I say 'how high?', then you tell me!... that's how it's supposed to work.

I am trying to get myself motivated to start a new craft. I've been gathering spare or broken computer parts for awhile (among other things, my room is a mess!) and I have seen artistic uses of technology around. [I won't add links; just Google "computer part art" and there will be nice image galleries.] Someone at the Sumner Arts Festival a few years ago was selling wall-hangings and other cool stuff made from old computer mainboards and parts, and I have plenty enough pieces laying around to do something swell. Or at the very least, I've been meaning to make a whole lotta keychains out of memory sticks. As a Libra, I know art when I see it but don't find it easy to create it... That's one thing that's holding me back, I need some ideas and inspiration. I was always the kid who saw the curvey line on the paper and made a snake out of it, not a clown's forehead or the profile of a woman reclining in a chaise lounge.

The image of this paragraph is from a special swell thing that the local power company did: They sent each of its customers five compact fluorescent lights, and good ones too (two 60W-equivalent, two 75W-equivalent, one 90W-equivalent)... click on the image to read the attached letter. But you will notice in that letter that they make no mention of how you're supposed to discard or recycle them; they contain mercury so they are not to go in the household waste, and if every house on the block gets 5 bulbs that quantity of quicksilver does add up. The letter should have told where to go to recycle them, and I can only think of one waste site on the other side of town that takes them. The monthly newsletter came with the bill, and it did have an article about what to do with them -- which only said to call the local waste removal company (which happens to be across the street and up three blocks) or check the EPA's website for what to do. That's not a direct answer, and how many people read that usually-meh newsletter? I went into their office the other day to thank them, pay my bill, and then give them a piece of my mind about not closing the loop (they care about being good corporate citizens and helping people lower their energy bills by sending items out, they need to continue this by providing proper information about recycling those items) and the woman at the counter seemed nonplussed... "I think they take them at Lowe's and Home Depot," she said like it was common knowledge. (I have yet to verify that data.) I replied, "And THAT is what the letter in the box and the newsletter needed to say," as I exited.