Category: Generic

Meet the New Stress, Same as the Old Stress

I wrote a little yesterday evening about getting stressed out at work over something that didn’t deserve to be stressed out over. It happens now and then, you know? It’s work.

I was working on a project yesterday and this morning I reviewed it with the person I submitted it to and it was fine. No problem. Helpful. It did what it needed to do. All is well. Nice, huh?

Unfortunately, 60% of my group is out either on vacation or sick today. We are going to be seriously short handed. Oh good! Hello, work stress. Nice to see you again, my old friend.

Heh, what can you do, right? Just roll with it, babie.

Complain

Bloganuary writing prompt
What do you complain about the most?
View all responses

I complain about a lot of things. I will give you a list and you will see that the things I complain about the most all boil down to pretty much one thing.

  • Fascists and fascism
  • Nazis and nazi-ism
  • Maga
  • Trump and trump supporters and trump sympathizers and trump collaberators
  • Americans whose words and actions are anti-american and anti-democracy
  • Insurectionists
  • Treasonists
  • Anyone who helped or supported or sympathized with the attempt to overthrow the democratically elected president on January 6, 2021
  • Anti-science
  • Anti-vax
  • Anti-evolution
  • Climate change deniers
  • Misogynists and/or incels
  • Bigots
  • Qanon
  • People who abuse children
  • People who abuse their spouses

You see the trend there? That’s the serious list. That’s the real response to the question. Now I’ll give another, shorter (I hope) list that’s more sarcastic and more in the spirit of kidding around and lowering whatever tension I just built up with my real list.

  • People who drive too slow in the fast lane on the highway
  • Winter weather
  • Traffic jams
  • Morning commutes
  • Evening commutes
  • Country music
  • Television commercials, especially the ones that pimp drugs with awful side effects
  • Did I mention snow?
  • Websites that autoplay video, especially when the audio is not muted
  • The New York Yankees or the Montreal Canadians

There… that’s a good lighten-the-mood kinda list… though I should probably delete it and let the serious list stand on it’s own. I feel a bit like a coward leaving the second list, but what can you do, right?

Stressed Out

I got really stressed out over work this afternoon. I am not sure why. The project I was working on did not warrant that level of stress at all, but for some reason it really got to me. Weird.

I was afraid I would be working all night tonight but I think I got it wrapped up enough that I am all set, and there are still four whole minutes left in my shift.

Last night Jen had a great idea. She suggested we watch a Star Wars movie. I am always up for that! First she said she wanted to watch The Force Awakens. Then she changed her mind and suggested The Phantom Menace. That was odd. One really only ever watches Episode One when they then plan to watch all of the movies in order. Was that what she wanted to do? Why yes, yes it was. Wicked! Epic! Awesome! I asked if a rewatch would include Solo and Rogue One and she said yes! Wicked! Epic! Awesome! 

Now that I won’t I will not be working all night tonight (at least I don’t think I will be working all night), we can move on to Episode Two: Attack of the Clones. Another one that is generally only viewed as part of a wicked epic awesome full rewatch. I’m so ready!

Fantasizing About the Lottery

Bloganuary writing prompt
What would you do if you won the lottery?
View all responses

We have all played this game, right? I mean all of us who live somewhere that holds money in high esteem, of course. 

You hit a big lottery, what do you do with the winnings? Before my wife found her calling as a software engineering genius she was an accountant. My father was an accountant too. My brother is a CPA. Why are these things important? Because all of us would work together to come up with a plan for dealing with the money that would not involve blowing it all in the first few years the way a lot of big lottery winners do. 

Here are a few things we would do……

  • Pay off any outstanding loans including student loans, cars, and the mortgage
  • Upgrades to the house and the cars and the general living situation
  • Figure out a way to use the money to generate an income, either through an endowment or a trust or something that will let us live as well as we can off of just interest. 
  • Make sure my step kids are set financially including a home and some sort of endowment or trust fund so that they are in a position where they won’t have to worry about money ever again
  • Make contributions to our extended family. Our parents and my brother and sister would get a chunk of the winnings to do with as they pleased, but the reasoning on our end would be for mortgages and college funds and healthcare and such. It’s doubtful we could set any of them up for life, but we can help as much as we can
  • Make similar contributions to a few close friends. Again, mortgage and college funds being the hope, but it will be their money to do with as they please. The trick would be figuring out how many friends we can help. It probably won’t be many, but we will do what we can
  • Research the hell out of charitable foundations and establish relationships with organizations working toward some of the things that are important to us. Diabetes research, cancer research, dementia research. Things like that. Find organizations that are doing good work and not screwing over their donors or their targets and donate as much as we can to them
  • Buy a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard

That’s the gist of it. I’m sure if we did hit a honkin’ big lottery we would make significant changes to the plan based on the amounts in question and the general situation as it stands in the moment, but this feels like a good plan to start with at least.