The other issue I see a lot is the hatred of something someone doesn’t really understand or even know that much about. I give you this particular post in a thread asking about running Mac OS X virtualized. The comment:

Who cares if its illegal, now folowing a guide it might work, but i have never had it work for me though i did run my PC as a hackinto** oops hackincrap for 2 days. Mac os X is way too simplified and basically only for idiots, i mean who would pay $2000 for $500 hardware just because it runs mac os?

So apparently all OSX users are idiots. I responded, and outlined things I could do with OSX that Linux could also do, and never got a response. Two days is not nearly enough time to get to know OSX, and I didn’t buy Apple just for OSX. I ran OSX on the Dell laptop my Macbook replaced, and I have to say my Macbook feels more solid and well-built. Everyone likes to target Apple products since they seem to be overpriced, but they do not take into account the total cost of ownership, the durability or usability. I have a generation 1 iPod, that if I found a Firewire cable I bet would start right back up.

It’s okay to be passionate about something, but have all of the facts before calling someone an idiot, saying something doesn’t work, or trashing something. Just use what works for you.

The first person I get in the customer care center totally misunderstood my request. They thought I was trying to locate the product key for my machine. I had to tell her three times that I knew where the key was, I had it written down, and that all I’m looking to do is to get the 64-bit edition sent to me. She tells me to contact Microsoft. The product key doesn’t work in their little web app because the Vista I have was an OEM edition, which I told her. She again tried to tell me where the key was, and I was getting upset at this point. I told her fine, I’d try Microsoft but guaranteed that in an hour I’d be calling back. I hang up, and an hour later, I call back in.

The second person I get, once again in the customer care center, was still misunderstanding my request and didn’t have a clue as to what I was asking. He told me that I could call back in an hour, or he could transfer me to technical support. I took the tech support option, because I knew I’d have to go through all of these hoops yet again. I hit tech support, and finally… finally… someone understands what I’m doing. The tech checked with his ‘manager’ and said that since I was a first time caller (I never had to call tech support, ever), that he would send the CD out, but that they typically aren’t doing this for customers (bzzt, wrong, I have documented proof that you are), and I got a dispatch number and a few confirmation emails.

The end result is that the 64-bit media is on the way to the house, but I had to fight tooth-and-nail to get it. According to the site, they’re overnighting it, which is a nice touch. I had mentioned to the tech that I had gone through hell, so I guess that’s how they’re making it up to me. At any rate, I really hope nothing else happens to this box before it goes out of warranty, I dread having to call Dell Hell again.

I had a long diatribe here, but I broke a promise to myself that I wouldn’t get too darn political on this blog, so therefore, I edited it.

It’s amazing the things you overhear in the office. I leave you with this gem:

“Well, they took the thermometer and stuck it up my butt”

The following week, some people from other offices were onsite. My cube is right near the door, so people tend to congregate around it. Again, not too bad when done in moderation, but on this particular day someone once again decided perfume was a better substitute than water. If the fragrance weren’t so bad it wouldn’t have been too unbearable, but the odor was just so sweet and ungood++ that again, I found myself almost choking. The group of people were standing around talking with no end in sight. Finally, as I was about to begin a round of well-timed coughs, the crowd dispersed and along with it the odor.

I could go on about the lunchtime odors around here, but there’s far too many to mention. I am a culprit as I do eat at my cubicle and work through lunch a lot, but usually anything I eat is not as odorous as some of the other more ethnic offerings around here.

My Stress is not a Comedy
I came into work this morning and dove right into emails only to find a lot of confusion and frustration. Being it’s pretty early in the morning, I tend to just vent to the monitor and get it out of my system. A co-worker wandered by and asked how I was doing. “Not good”, I replied, “I’m tired of people not reading what I write”. “Well, you should just relax and get happy!” Look, you might not be dealing with idiots first thing in the morning, so you don’t understand my frustration. It’s not hard to copy/paste commands from an email into a terminal. At any rate, the co-worker annoyed me to no end with the “You should get happy” mantra. Let me vent, let me get it out and I’ll be fine, but ten minutes later, the same co-worker stops by and asks if it’s getting better. “No, it’s not” I respond. My response got a laugh from the co-worker who again told me I should be patient and understanding in these matters. Patience and understanding is one thing, but laughing at my stress just serves to aggrevate me more. I guess if this person were in my department they’d realize what we deal with here.

Just because you’re old school doesn’t mean I am
A few weeks ago I brought Bethany into the office with Emma for a visit. The visit went fine, and my coworkers were happy to see my love and my child, which was cool. A couple of days later, I came across my boss in the hallway and got to talking about him and the upcoming trip to get married. He turns to the receptionist (whom we shall call OnE for Old and Evil) and mentioned that I was getting married to her. Her response? “Well, I guess they don’t have a choice since they have a child together”. It took me back a bit and I went to sit in my cube. I thought about that comment for a while, and it upset me a bit. Ok, so we had a child before we were married. Nevermind the fact that we were getting married anyway, or that maybe.. just maybe we loved each other and that was why we were getting married.

Religious implications
Here at the office, I have some rather religious co-workers, a couple of which are in my group. I have no problems with people believing what they want to, but I do have a problem with people trying to sway me to their side, or trying to ‘show me the power of Jesus’. I used to go to church when I was younger, but I eventually got tired of it and outgrew it. Since then, I haven’t really searched for a religion as I don’t feel I need one to be complete. At any rate, one morning I’m sitting in my cubicle when one of my co-workers begins a speech about ‘how God has a plan for everyone, how great God is and how powerful he is’. Unfortunately since I’m the first one on the team in the building, I usually get to hear it first, then I get to hear another rendition later on during the morning. I smile and nod, giving the occasional ‘uh-huh’ in hopes that it would soon be over. Part of me wants to sit in my cube and utter “hail Satan” every once in a while, but the last thing I need is to start a holy war.