2003-07-20 - 11:39 p.m.

Bunch Of Stuff

It just has not been a high priority to update my diary lately.  I have been very busy.  And, to tell the truth, I started this on line account of my life as a creative outlet because I felt so bound and constricted mentally.  I just wanted a voice and Diaryland just seemed like an easy way to be creative.

But lately my mind has been moving so quickly it is just a bore to sit down and document it.  By the time I get home from work or whatever I am not in the mood to write.

So here are some recent events I will want to remember later.

Ben quit and did not show up for the last week of work.  I thought he might do that. Everyone was puzzled and had no idea why. No one seems to remember that he was dicked over for an entire year and why would.

I talked to him and he had started a new job selling sports packages.  About a week later I spoke to him again and he had quit that job and is now selling cars.  He feels he can make more money this way.   He is extremely glad to be away from our company and is starting to feel better about his life.

Viarum is now under scrutiny.  The president will probably fire him soon. Viarum tells me that he expects they want to get rid of him.  I told him that he should start looking for another job as hard as he can.  I can see that they are not happy with his productivity and now they are going to pick on him until he leaves.  Poor guy.

I have talked to the president about him, tried to explain Viarum's situation but he just doesn't want to hear it.  He says it's just business and there is no good reason to keep someone on who can't pull his weight.

I think the main problem is that Ben and Viarum should not have been hired in the first place.  But there you are.  They didn't ask us.  They just did it. They had some weird scheme in place that they would not tell us about and it just didn't work out.

All the women in my improv class keep flirting with me.  Or trying to, anyway.  The stalker has completely given up on me.  Now there is another woman who keeps looking at me and striking up conversations about dates and sex.  I like her.  She is interesting and very creative, but I'm just not in the mood for it. There is another woman in our class who does not flirt with me.  She is a peachy skinned very loud woman.  Very expressive in a nervous way, with an explosive laugh.  She is amazing to watch. She is in major self-protection mode.

Some of us went out after the class, as we often do, and the conversation went, as it always does, to relationships and dating.  Peachy girl does not believe in going into a relationship unguarded.

The interesting woman was sort of frustrated because she kept trying to move the conversation back over r to me, but the other guy there at our table would not shut up about all of his dating woes.  Every time she asked me a question I would just pause for a few seconds and Dave, the other guy, would assume she really was asking him and he would just go on for about 10 minutes.

The interesting woman tried to get some information out of me, trying to figure me out, and Dave just wouldn't let it happen.

That's fine.  At this point I don't want to destroy the mystery element I have with them all.  It makes it more interesting on stage.

I finished reading Terrible Lizard by Deborah Cadbury.   It is a narrative about the first women and men who found fossils and bones of dinosaurs and how they struggled to make sense of it.  The British and French scientists in the 19th Century made incredibly accurate assumptions based on a fragment of vertebrae or a part of a tooth.  There were a few men who realized how important the research was and did all they could do to politically maneuver themselves into history.

But one of the major debates was how these gigantic lizards fit into the biblical account of how God created the world.  It states clearly in the Holy Bible what God did and when he did it.  Now scientists come along with proof that flies in the face of God.

It is incredible that there literally were sermons in churches about how the faithful should ignore the lies coming from these new Undergroundologisits.  And it seems quaint, but then I remember I was in High School in the early 1980's and in one of my science classes we were all told very plainly and over and over again that Natural Selection and Darwin's Theory of Evolution was just one of many theories to be studied.  The school board and the principle and the teachers were very careful to avoid any controversy so they would not advocate any one theory over another.

This was in 19 fucking 81!  It boggles the mind.  A controversy that should have been settled in 1881 was still going on (in some places, anyway).

I am now reading Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth.  Joel gave it to me and told me it is about a Jew who complains non stop.  This book has been around since I was a kid and never had much interest in it.  But it has grabbed my attention and held it.

I am also reading Bless Me Father by Neil Boyd.  It seems to be the novelized version of the BBC television series from some years ago.  It is pretty enjoyable.  I didn't mean to read two books at once, but it just worked out that way.

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday with Kay.  I resisted this film because it is based not on a novel, nor a story, nor another film, nor a television program, nor even a video game, but on a Disneyland ride.  I did not want to watch a movie based on a ride, but everyone else was so excited about it and it is a Disney film and they don't go halfway on their summer blockbusters.  And Johnny Depp can save even a mediocre film so why not.

Kay had already seen it, but she wanted to see it again.  We went to the beautiful theater near my house and it was in one of the large auditoriums.  The crowd was nice.  And I enjoyed it.  It was a perfect mindless summer blockbuster that was not offensive in any way.  It had some funny moments and a lot of action.

Since I have been waiting for the Master And Commander film and they don't seem to be in a hurry to release it I just wanted to see some ships.

I bought and watched the dvd of Eddie Izzard's Dress To Kill.  I had such high hopes for this extremely funny man, but so far it looks like he just wants to be in movies.  He does not want to do his act on the road or do more HBO concert films.  Too bad.

This actually happened.  This is a real story.  I say this because I still find it hard to believe and I was there.

A few months ago there was some brouhaha in Congress about President Bush's proposed tax break.  There were a lot of debates and a lot of back and forth and the Democrats were saying it was just a tax breaks for the rich and the Republicans were saying everyone needs a tax break immediately for the benefit of the economy.  I think Bush is just trying desperately to get his approval rating back up since Soldiers are dying daily in Iraq and his war against weapons of mass destruction has been a debacle.

So I hear about this tax break and then pretty much ignore it because I figure it has nothing to do with me.  I mean, I held out until the very last moment on his last money give away until I had the $300 check in my hand.

About a week ago Matthew came around the office handing out our paychecks, as he does twice a month, and as he handed me my check he said, "You may notice that your paycheck is a little higher this time because of President Bush's tax break."

Really?  Let me have a look at it.  When I looked at my check I was amazed.  There was quite a difference there.  Then I realized I was looking at the pre-tax amount and then I remembered I got a big raise recently.  Then I looked at the take home amount.  I checked my last paycheck and compared them.  My take home pay had increased by $8.

Eight fucking dollars.  That was it.   I have never been so disappointed by a paycheck in my life, and I have been working since 1980.  I went down to Matthew's office and told him there had been a horrible mistake.  The tax break had netted me only $8.  He explained that I should look at it as getting $16 per month.  And over the course of the year, why, it adds up to $192.  Doesn't that make me happy?

No.  No it does not.

Tax break?  Thanks President Bush!  I'm gonna vote for you for sure!

And then the very next day, the NEXT DAY mind you, I see an article in the paper saying that the US is facing one of the worst budget deficits ever.  Even worse than what President Reagan and former President Bush were able to accomplish.  And, get this, they sited the reasons as being the extremely expensive war in Iraq, the crappy, crappy economy and the recent TAX BREAK.

You see, this is why I vote Democrat.   This is why I don't vote Republican.  It is like some sort of joke.  With a Democrat in office the country prospered and we lived in relative peace. With Republicans in office the economy tanks, the nation is divided and we are at war.

Hmmm…  Gosh, which one… let me think….

And the sad thing is when a Democrat is elected and the country pulls out of the depression or recession or whatever we are in, all the Republicans say it is thanks to the recently departed Republican.  And when a Republican takes over and the economy starts to crumble they start making all kinds of excuses about why it is not their fault.

And all the guys I work with are all conservative Republicans and they are very smug in their opinions.  Tommy brought up the subject of the tax break and I went on very loudly about how much I was getting back and he kind of slinked down and changed the subject.  I asked him how much he was taking home and he kind of mumbled something.

The thing that makes me so angry about it is that it is all so damn arbitrary.  It is all made up numbers.  It is all compromised adjustments based on absolutely nothing!  The tax code is not fair and the tax break is purely political and now we will have to rely on a Democrat to come in and fix it and be criticized for raising taxes.

And it makes me angry that the field of potential Democratic Presidential candidates is about as anemic as it can be.  And I thought Al Gore was weak.  Fuckin Dick Gephardt has been running for President since I was in college.  Joe Lieberman is leading so far.  I don't want a conservative social commentator as a President.  But then I would take anyone of them over the incumbent any day.

Jimmy
 
 

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