The Overtimes
2005-05-19,

It's only 730am, yet I've been at work for an hour already. This, my friends, is The Overtime.

Sure, it's only an hour, but any extra money is good money. No to mention, people here seem to think that what I'm doing is so important and immediate that they're letting me come in for the extra hour to get it done. Thus, my employment is validated. I still find it pretty scary the level of effect that my actions and decisions in here have on pretty much the whole of the company. I try not to think about that too much. I have enough to worry about without fretting about my job performance. I think I'll just pump out data and see how things go from there.

I fear that I may be losing my geek, or maybe letting too much of my childhood get away, because I find that I'm only the tiniest bit sad that Revenge of the Sith is out and I haven't seen it yet. Were I still sad and single, surely I would have been one of the ones braving the lines of nerds, freaks and fellow geeks to see it last night. Assuming of course that I would not have killed myself out of loneliness and ennui by that point. Sometimes I wish that I had an Alternate Reality Viewer, so I could take a gander at some of my would-have-beens. Then again, after looking at all the places I wouldn't want to have ended up, I'd start looking at the ones where I manage to become rich and successful and otherwise live up to my potential, and it'd make me angry at myself and send me into a Superspiral of Ultimate Implosion (+4, casts Phenomenological Phantasmagoria 1x/day as an 12th-level caster) from which there would be no coming back. So let's just avoid that, eh? Yes, let's.

Boy, I tell you-- Democrats could learn a lesson or two from this guy. "Oh, those crazy foreigners, all like, defending themselves and whatnot. Whooda Thunkett?" Better yet, I think that there should be some kind of exchange program between Congress and British Parliament-- though I have no idea what MPs might learn from our system, other than that it's increasingly dysfunctional with only two parties.

Hopefully Mr. Galloway did his thing in time to help Dems grow enough ballage to deal with this impending 'nuclear option'. I'm hoping they'll stage a walkout and start picketing the White House. I'd love to see them all arrested for unlawful assembly. Then one of them, as they're getting stuffed into the paddy wagon, will point at the Capital building and yell, "There's the unlawful assembly!!" (You go, boy/girl!) Looking down from one of the White House windows, Darth Cheney, snarling, will grab himself and say, "I got yer unlawful assembly right here." (He'd have to speak loudly to be heard over the bleeps, chirps and whirrs of his robotic android innards.) After that, Barbra Boxer will light herself on fire on the Capital steps (which will cause the eternal "Free Tibet" booth attendants present to comment, "Show off."). What an awesome day for Democracy that would be.

And then there's Newsweek. As in, Newsweek As Scapegoat. If there's any evidence needed of government control of media via discrediting, this is it. Poor Newsweek took the word of an anonymous military source on the atrocious conditions in Guantanamo Bay and the desecrating of holy books - something that's been known about and reported on since 2002, only it's been from the 'dubious' source of actual torture victims - and, surprise, the anonymous source rescinds his story, giving the opportunity for the rest of the military establishment and the White House a chance to wallop another media source into submission. Can you say, 'bait and switch'? I knew you could. Thus I conclude my rant on that.

Fun With Visio, Vol 1., Ep. 9-- "Events":

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