Rave: So happy to be back in the USA. I can just get in my truck and drive places. I never anticipated a trip to South Africa. It was very interesting but I didn't do anything except work while I was there. Rant: I will probably be gone again at the end of the week. I hope the next trip is a little closer to home.
Rave(?): My girlfriend and I noticed this weekend that someone mistook the half-melted ice dildo in our freezer for an ice cube, cause that shit is gone. Absolutely no way to know who it was or when it happened, but one of my friends unknowingly had a gin & tonic & pussy juice.
Rant: My car started pulling to the left super hard and shaking this weekend, figured it was an alignment issue and took it in today. It was that, and I also had to replace the 2 front tires. Awesome. $350 for a car worth less than 3k that I am trying to sell. FUCK. Can this be someone else's problem already?
Rant: Finally got around to getting the infant seat out of the basement so I could wash the cover and get it cleaned up and ready for baby boy. I had put it in a big trash bag thinking it would protect it from the elements (said basement is of the house we're remodeling so there's more moisture down there than there will be once everything is finished.) I was mistaken. The thing is nasty. I've got the cover in the wash but I'm not sure the best way to get the straps clean. Ugh, I so don't want to deal with this right now.
RAVE: Just had great quality weed delivered right to my door by two nerdy Asian dudes. I gave them a 10% tip and they thanked me over and over and told me to have a great night and to call them any time.
Re: Rant & Rave Thread Rant: Needlessly overthinking shit. Rave: Doug Stanhope Thursday night. Never been to a comedy show before, so don't really know what to expect, but it should be fun.
Rave: Got VIP tickets to see Delain, Kamelot and Eklipse tonight, then have a meet and greet with the bands. Rant: The coffee works, and this is a rant because the nearest bathroom to my desk is also nearest to the (nearly entirely Indian) IT area. I don't know what it is in their diets, maybe the curry, who knows, but between 8 and 11 once the said coffee starts working it's a rare day to not go in there and have the whole damn place smell like someone set fire to a wet sheep dog.
Rave: Awesome day today. I've been working on this shoulder guy who's a smartass and hardly says anything else outside of a handful of snarky remarks. Today he came in saying that he always feels amazing on Wednesday mornings and that the only reason he comes in is for my "magic hands". My instructor thought he was being sarcastic, but he insisted that he's serious and that he prefers me over my instructor (she worked on him the first week or two). Anyway, he started freaking out today because he heard that I'm leaving in 2 weeks. He wanted to know where I'm going next (school, sorry bro) and booked an extra appt each week to get as much time in with me before I leave. I know that even a blind squirrel finds a nut and probably anything would make this guy better, but it's still nice to have a good review from an unlikely source.
RANT Unemployment has run dry. I'm back in school so there is an end in sight, but trying to help support a wife and 9 month old on what is now next to nothing is kind of freaking me out.
Rave: I'd guess I spend about 90 out of every 100 minutes of jujitsu practice getting dominated by stronger, better men. That's useful in and of itself, given how easily I default to arrogance; it's a timely reminder that as far as I've come from the fat guy who couldn't jog to the corner shops, by rest of the world standards there's still a lot more work to do. There's something to be said for measuring yourself against other other people and just getting steamrolled time and time again. Sometimes, though, those other minutes... There's one guy at practice who's an even match for me, and we usually have back and forth battles. Yesterday I landed a nasty front windpipe choke and submitted him in 4 seconds, beating my previous PB by about a minute and a half, and it didn't get any better for him from there. Just this rapidfire succession of head and arm triangles, keylocks, armbars, and rear naked's. For 3 glorious minutes, I was unstoppable. Then we rotated partners and I returned to getting violated for the next quarter of an hour. There's nothing quite like like that feeling of physical helplessness when you can see what's coming but aren't physically strong or technically sound enough to stop it. Humbling is a delicate understatement. But just the memory of those 3 minutes... I've had a smile on my face a mile wide all day.
Rave/Rant: Having something very similar in Muay Thai. On the daily I'm getting myself beaten to shit and handled. This is standup and they are gentle but fuck me running is it not hard. Before we even start there is a 3 mile run across the beach (best part is that in Spain tits roam free on this beach in front of crystal aqua water). Then the pain starts. One of my training partners is the World Champion of Muay Thai for Spain. The guy couldn't be more humble and he couldn't be a better teacher but humility is the name of the game. It is utterly frustrating to be hit and not be able to hit, to be fast but just not fast enough, to see and not be able to react fast enough but its coming and I get a little better every day. I am utterly hooked. Catching someone, setting something up for two rounds to see it be reaped in the third. Brilliant
Rant Train service is suspended into Grand Central and the only way to get to the office is a seriously annoying and complex series of buses and god only knows how many transfers. Rave I learned this right before I left the house to catch my train. I turned around, sat on my couch, and wrote my boss an email saying I would work from home until service is restored. I'm not driving myself to the brink of insanity and wasting hours of my time when I can easily work from here.
Rave: Kamelot/Delain/Eklipse show was fucking excellent; probably the most fun I've had at a concert after Primus and Dethklok. Charlotte Wessels has some pipes on her, no doubt about it.
RANT: Work related as usual. Spoiler'd as usual. Spoiler The one goddamn time I chose to be kind and merciful. THE ONE GODDAMN TIME. Two weeks ago one of my addicts is on the jail roster. I received his case while he was in warrant status so I'm not 100% familiar with him. I thoroughly read through his file. Addiction to meth, but will use any and everything to get a high. Currently 23 years of age, facing a fifth revocation of probation. Has three open cases that are all drug related. My little black heart beats for a half a second. Maybe me, the hardass that is all about prison for fuckups, should reconsider. He needs treatment. He needs a very long term inpatient treatment. Against every single instinct I have, I dial his mother and ask about a long term treatment center for her child. And all fucking hell breaks loose. In order, she said that my office doesn't do enough to get him a job (when I pointed out that the majority of rapists and child molesters in our office are all gainfully employed* she screamed "YOU ARE LYING! THAT CANNOT BE TRUE!"), my office doesn't do enough to help him with his addictions, and the police/probation do nothing except lock up innocents. I ask about the new DUI charge, the answer is "Well, he took too many pain pills. It was a minor fender bender and no one was hurt. I don't see why he needed to be hauled off to jail." My reply: "You don't? What if he had killed someone because he was impaired and then YOU get sued while he faces 8 years for vehicular manslaughter? Then what?" My response is met with silence. By this time, the little voice in my head is screaming "YOU STUPID FUCKING WHORE! THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T BE NICE TO PEOPLE! YOU BROKE THE CARDINAL RULE!" Somehow I get the raging shrew calm enough to tell her "Listen! I'm trying to help your kid! I don't want to put him in jail! I want to put him in rehab!" Finally, I get the mother to acknowledge that yes, the program I'm recommending is a good idea. Somehow, later on that day, I sell the kid on a 10 month inpatient program followed by 10 months of aftercare. While I'm waiting for the order to be signed, now Mom's blowing up my phone again. Twenty months is too long! The program is too expensive! The rehab is religious! (Lady, we live in the fucking south. OF COURSE IT IS FUCKING RELIGIOUS.) The order finally comes back from the judge signed on the day he says he will not go to the rehab I have picked out. He calls them and says he will not go to the program, which is enough for the center to tell him adios and good luck. Now he's facing prison time due to defying the judge's order to go to rehab. No, he doesn't want rehab. He obviously doesn't want prison. No, he wants out. Like, yesterday. Mom came into the office this afternoon, sat down with my supervisor and as I stood by the door eavesdropping (I thought it best I wasn't in there because I was ready to strangle this woman) she came right out and said that I was rude, disrespectful, all I wanted to do was put her child into prison and that I deliberately put him in a position to fail. My supervisor finally said "Your son is an adult, he is the one on probation, I don't want to speak with you again. He is the one we deal with. Not you. And PO Pink showed your son a side of mercy I have never seen before. In the future, I suggest you step aside or your son will wind up dead from an overdose if you keep this up." Mom left the office, slamming the door behind her. Baby boy is headed to jail for not showing up to rehab as required. I shouldn't be pissed. But I am. I went into my coworker's office and said "Remember when the defendant at the jail asked you why I'm so mean? Tell him what happened this afternoon is why!" Bad. Fucking. Day. *this is actually the honest to God truth. Almost 85% of the sex offenders in our office (men and women that have to admit in job interviews to molesting children/raping women/having child porn on their computer) are gainfully employed despite that dismal background. I think an addict with a few meth charges should be able to find a job if a kiddie raper can find one.
RAVE: Just bought a house (fucking finally) and was negotiating up until 10 minutes ago, 1 am my time. Going to bed now, after a celebratory shot
Rave: Accepted new job yesterday. More pay, an actual 401k with employer matching, low healthcare costs, yay! Rave: Wife came home and said, "I have a surprise for you." Rave: Sex! Rave: Yesterday. Rant: Current job requires a suit and tie every day, so I have amassed quite a few. New job requires blue khakis. I like wearing suits. Rave: Who fucking cares. I can't wait until tonight when I get to give my current manager my two weeks notice.
Rant: I feel myself burning out on my job. I find myself just staring blankly at my laptop screen without the will to do anything. This is not a good feeling.
Rave. Played some good old soccer today. Rant. Going to the gym and not ever doing any cardio, I was beat. Rave. Still one of the quickest out there. Rant. Going to be sore tomorrow. Rave. Still of the boat.