Crewe’s Song
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 18 2008 | Comment now »
You’ve got to judge the empty spaces
Before you slip between their sights.
Chattel sometimes feel you coming.
They sense the breath before the bite.
So if you need a valid reason,
Keep in mind the need to feed.
Something always has to suffer.
Something always has to bleed.
Rise up!
Take hold!
White heat!
Take souls!
Those are lyrics for a new song. It’s been playing on a maddening loop in my heard for the past three or four days. Right now it doesn’t have a title, but I’m calling it “Crewe’s Song”, because that’s what it is. If you don’t know (and you probably don’t), Crewe is the central character in a book I’m writing. He’s a vampire, and he’s nothing like Lestat or Dracula, much less any of these newly popular pasty teenagers (Twilight, anyone?) for whom blood-sucking is a metaphor for sexuality and not draining the girl you hunger for is a metaphor for abstinence.
Crewe definitely gets his freak on. But he doesn’t drink blood. Doesn’t need to. In fact, everything you thought you knew about vampires is wrong. Especially the parts about liking black clothing and bad haircuts. In fact, if you passed one on the street, you wouldn’t know it. And that’s just the way they like it.
I’ve blocked out the Crewe novel and had started working on it almost exclusively, when I got waylaid by the necessities job hunting. However much I’d like to crawl into a corner room somewhere and not come out until Crewe is finished, I’ve grown rather fond of eating and having air conditioning. So for the moment Crewe is on hold. Technically speaking, anyway. Both the book and the music are still writing themselves in my head.
I just hope one day I have the time and the means to get it all fixed in a form the real world can experience. It does no one any good in my head. Well, except for keeping me endlessly entertained. There is something deliciously demented about standing in a line at the supermarket humming the rhythm of one of your songs and getting stern looks from people who think you’re insane when you start mumbling the lyrics under your breath. Does that constitute hearing music that only I can hear? And is it okay as long as it’s music, and not voices?
Anyway. Crewe is still tormenting me. These lyrics fell into my lap just as I was about to go to bed. I thought maybe I’d jot them down somewhere so I wouldn’t forget them. This is as good a place as any.
Wrath of the Lich King
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 14 2008 | Comment now »
I’d be remiss if I didn’t write a few things about Wrath of the Lich King. For those of you who might not know what that is, it’s the new expansion for the online game World of Warcraft (which some of you may know that I play - mainly on Aerie Peak, with my warlock Saphiri).
Well, you may or may not have noticed that the expansion was officially released yesterday. You may have brushed past a report or two on the news where the reporters were sort of snickering at the people they referred to as geeks; those who had stood in long lines waiting for the doors of stores to open so that they could buy their copies of Wrath of the Lich King.
Okay, before I go any further, let’s talk about that “geek” thing. I’m not obsessed with World of Warcraft. I have a life outside of the game. So don’t dismiss me as a geek without a life who lives in his mother’s basement. It always pisses me off that people who sit on the couch every night, scratching their asses and pissing away their free time by watching television, are so quick to dismiss me as a geek because I play an online game. Forgive me if my brain craves more stimulation than professional wrestling or celebrities dancing.
Look, I’ve known a lot of geeks in my life. I knew people who were building their own computers before most people knew what a computer was. People who were writing their own operating systems long before Microsoft ever released their piddling Windows franchise. You know what those people are doing now? They’re highly paid programmers and systems analysts at Fortune 500 companies. They’re the people who are living in those big houses in the rich section of town. And you know what? They play computer games. So bite me.
With that out of the way, I want to mention how much fun Victoria and I had last night. When she got off work we went over to Gamestop to pick up our copies of Wrath of the Lich King. Then we spent the rest of the evening playing.
The first thing we did was take our main characters over to the new zone, Northrend. We did a quest or two, but I think both of us were sort of overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people who were there. You could hardly move in any direction. You could barely see quest givers sometimes because so many people were gathered around them. A lot of them sitting on their damned mounts. What is it with people on some huge mount parking right in front of a quest giver (or sometimes right on top of them)? I mean, if you think some people are assholes in the real world, deal with them when they’re playing a game in which they’re a huge Tauren riding around on a kodo the size of a mini-van.
Well, we expected Northrend to be a mess. After all, World of Warcraft has over 11 million subscribers, and it was the day of the launch of a major expansion. So I suggested that we bail on Northrend and go tinker with the new Death Knight class. Which we did.
We both created Blood Elf females to be our Death Knights, and launched into the service of the Lich King. We had a blast. But it was intense in ways that I never expected. Mostly because we were in the service of a guy who is essentially leading an invading army that raises bodies from the dead to serve as his soldiers. Hell, our Death Knights themselves are literally fallen warriors who have been resurrected from death and forced into the Lich King’s service (that’s sort of what Death Knights are).
Some of our quests we had problems with. On one we had to go into a village and kill the citizens. It was fine if the citizens fought back. But some just covered their heads, quivered in fear and begged us not to kill them. But we were supposed to kill them anyway. We had a problem with that. As much as you can tell yourself “it’s only a video game”, if you have a strong moral code, it’s hard to do stuff like that without feeling at least a pang of remorse. But we killed them. It was the quest, after all.
The one that got me, though, was when we were sent to kill Lady Eonys. I’ll describe this one in a way that’ll be a little easier to understand to someone who hasn’t played the game (taking some of the dialogue from the game).
Knight Commander Plaguefist told us that when our forces had taken over the area from the Scarlet Crusade, they found a bunch of Argent Dawn prisoners in the prison house. He said;
“I was about to go in there and execute the rest of them, but I think you should have the honors. In particular, there’s a real feisty Blood Elf in there that I think you’ll take great pleasure in executing.”
In we went. We found Lady Eonys. She was kneeling, weak from her torture. For some reason, she spoke to me instead of Rayvia.
“Come to finish the job, have you?” Lady Eonys asked defiantly. “You’ll look me in the eyes when …” She paused, staring at me. “Sabelae? Sabelae, I’d recognize that face anywhere … What… What have they done to you, Sabelae?”
I said nothing.
“Think, Sabelae. Think back. Try and remember the majestic halls of Silvermoon City, where you were born. Remember the splendor of life, sister. You were a champion of the sin’dorei once! This isn’t you.”
I said nothing. Watched her. Waited.
“Listen to me, Sabelae. You must fight against the Lich King’s control. He is a monster that wants to see this world - our world - in ruin. Don’t let him use you to accomplish his goals. You were once a hero and you can be again. Fight, damn you! Fight his control!”
Knight Commander Plaguefist yelled to me from outside: “What’s going on in there? What’s taking so long, Sabelae?”
Lady Eonys, weak and kneeling before me, pleaded; “There… There’s no more time for me. I’m done for. Finish me off, Sabelae. Do it or they’ll kill us both. Sabelae… Remember Silvermoon. This world is worth saving!” She watched me, stared into my eyes as I hesitated. “Do it, Sabelae! Put me out of my misery!”
I killed her. What else was I going to do? I killed her. Then I returned to Knight Commander Plaguefist for the armor he’d promised me as a reward.
“How does it feel?” he asked me. “Felt good, didn’t it? You’re not one of them anymore, Sabelae. You’re Scourge. You’re one of us. Forever…”
Yes. I killed her. It was, after all, the quest objective. It was what I was supposed to do. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I’d read where people had been greatly affected by the encounter. But because of the number of people online (and the general lack of civility in culture in general), there were a few players who were trying to jump ahead of us, just wanting to kill her to get their quest credit and move on. This sort of ruined the moment, because for us it was really all about getting the quest credit before someone came along and stole it from us (which they did - three times). Each time she was killed, it took a few minutes for her to come back. Then we had to sit through her dialogue all over again before we had another chance to kill her.
This meant that I had to listen to her entire dialogue three times before I finally killed Lady Eonys. When it was done, I mostly felt relief that I’d finally managed to kill her before someone could steal the quest credit from me again. Victoria and I both got quest credit, and we moved on. But later on, as I was laying in bed and thinking about our experience with Wrath of the Lich King, I kept finding myself thinking about Lady Eonys. Much like my character Sabelae, her words didn’t sink in much at the time. But the more I thought about them, the more they bothered me.
What do you care, right?
The reason I went through so much effort to relate this experience to you is that I want those who’ve never played a game like this to understand at least some of the appeal. While some of you were sitting there in your living rooms with your eyes glazed over, staring at the television and whatever images were flashing across the screen, I was standing in a small building near the Chapel of the Crimson Flame in south New Avalon, getting ready to execute someone I didn’t know, but who clearly knew me. And though I was only finishing a quest for the credit, something deep in my soul felt like I was committing some great wrong. So much so that I lay in bed later thinking about it.
So. What’s my point?
You can call me a geek all you want to. That doesn’t bother me. I contend that what I experienced last night was far richer and more engaging than those television programs you watched. Was it life changing? Well, no. Of course not. However much I might have enjoyed my overall experience last night, it was still just entertainment. I suppose the difference is that my experience left me with a deeper understanding of the evil that the Lich King is supposed to represent, because I actively participated in his crimes. And wherever I got from here in the game with my Death Knight Sabelae, I’ll remember these moments of her past, when she was in service to the Lich King and was murdering villagers and executing old friends.
So … yeah. It’s just a game. But it’s a damned good one, in my humble opinion. If that makes me a geek, then so be it. I’ll offer no apologies to anyone. Except, maybe, Lady Eonys.
Jobs & World of Warcraft
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 13 2008 | Comment now »
I had a pretty good job interview this morning. I didn’t get the job yet. They guy said he had two more people to talk to, but he said “I like what I see” (talking about my resume, not my sexy, sexy denim work shirt). He also said that it’s “a big plus” that I live within 10 miles of the plant. My fingers are crossed. It’d be a great job. Basically, I’d be driving a tractor-trailer, but in the context of making deliveries within Florida, and I’d be home every day. Not bad pay, either. $14-15 an hour “depending on experience”. I like the sound of the job, and hope I made a good impression. Hopefully I didn’t forget to dot an “i” or cross a “t” somewhere.
At the moment I’m mostly waiting for Victoria to get off work. We’ll be going downtown to pick up our copies of the new World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I already told Victoria that I think it’s a little sad that the recent event that got us most excited is the release of an expansion to a video game. But ya’ll can kiss my hairy white butt. While ya’ll are laid up on the couch watching Deal Or No Deal or Dancing With The Stars, I’m riding across the tundra on my flaming horse, smiting evil-doers and helping to push back against the invading hordes. And to all those who might say “but that ain’t real”, do you really thinking what you’re watching on television is any more real?
I say my entertainment is cooler than yours.
Check out the video below. If it’s too small, click on the next to last button on the bottom right of the player to make the video full screen.
Foghat & Cheeseburgers
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 12 2008 | Comment now »
I went looking for a new song for my MySpace page this morning, and stumbled across Foghat’s Slow Ride. This isn’t a song that is ever foremost on my mind, so I don’t know how I dug it up, but I did. As I was sitting there listening to it, for just a moment I was thirteen years old, sitting at the counter at Peggy’s Restaurant (which belonged to my family) in Kings Mountain, NC and listening to Slow Ride on the jukebox. Slow Ride was popular at the time, and I played it every time I came into the restaurant.
What amazes me about how the brain connects things is that to this day when I hear Slow Ride, I can almost taste the cheeseburgers from the cafe. When I’d get out of school, I would come to the cafe, which was a few blocks away, to wait for my mother to get off work. Usually when I was waiting I’d wind up eating a cheeseburger and some fries. I’ll say unequivocally that those were the best cheeseburgers ever made (there are plenty of Kings Mountain residents who would agree with me), and to this day I haven’t found any even remotely as good. Although the burgers you can get today at Blackwood’s in Kings Mountain come real close.
Mostly, I’m just marveling at how one random song can dredge up so many memories and sensations. I’m thankful for it. Somehow on the those rare occasions when I play a song like Slow Ride, for a moment the restaurant still exists, I can still taste those cheeseburgers, and my aunt Loretta is alive and joking with the customers, and my aunt Sis is alive and sitting at the far end of the counter, smoking a cigarette and shaking her head at the conversations near her (that she can’t believe she’s hearing).
I enjoyed the moment. But I’m still amazed at the flood of memories that rushed through me because I played one random song. The brain is really an amazing thing, isn’t it? Somewhere in our heads everything we’ve ever known or experienced is still alive and breathing.
I guess all I’m saying is that it’s nice that we’re allowed to visit on occasion.
Gays Marriage, Propositions 2 & 8
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 11 2008 | Comment now »
I’ve been sort of watching the whole gay marriage thing with the appropriate amount of eye-rolling. All throughout the campaign season here in Florida we had cheesy commercials on TV that were ranting about the Florida Marriage Amendment, also known as “Proposition 2″ and “The Marriage Protection Amendment”. The ads were designed to scare the hell out of the so-called mainstream by raising the specter of gay men in ass-less pants having sex in public parks.
No, I never saw any such thing in any of the ads. But the people in the ads were so squeaky clean, upstanding and, by implication, Christian that clearly anyone who disagreed with them was a dirty pedophile. Not surprisingly, a majority of appropriately frightened Floridians voted the amendment into law.
Personally, I don’t see this as a gay issue. If any of the idiots who voted for this would have taken a moment to inform themselves, the language of the amendment actually reads;
“This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”
Please note the part that reads “no other legal union”.
You know what that means? These idiots not only banned gay marriage, they banned any form of civil union. That means that one man and one woman who live in a long-term relationship have no civil rights whatsoever in regard to their union. This means that the idea of “domestic partner” has been thrown out with the bathwater. So if I get sick and have to go to the hospital, my girlfriend could make no decision whatsoever regarding my care. I’d lay on my deathbed until my ex-wife could fly down to Florida to pull the plug and carry off all of my worldly possessions.
This is the big lie that so many people have bought into. In the great, hate-filled fear of gay people getting married, they’ve essentially screwed anyone who isn’t married. This is a theological argument, hammered through by uninformed idjits whose hatred of gay people was manipulated through propaganda and feat-mongering. The delicious irony is that many of the people who voted in favor of Proposition 2 were voting against their own interests. Many of them will find later on that they have no rights whatsoever where the lives of their domestic partners are concerned, because these idiots thought they were only voting to keep gay people from getting married. Doh!
It’s amazing, really, that in the 21st Century, in the year 2008, we’re still arguing about this crap. Who the hell cares if gay people get married anyway? You can only object to it from a theological perspective. There is no practical reason that gay people should not be allowed to be married. You can only defend such a prohibition from a religious perspective. There’s no secular argument that could possibly stand up to scrutiny.
I look at it simply, from a realistic perspective, as with everything else. If you expect gay people to have to same responsibilities and obligations as straight people, they should have the same rights. Every single one. If gay people are expected to pay taxes just like everybody else, they should be allowed to get married like everyone else. Simple as that. You know, it wasn’t so long ago that it was illegal for a black person to marry a white person. Did that make any sense? Well, obviously, it did make sense to some racist individuals or it would never have been law. This prohibition against gay marriage is driven by the same kind of hatred.
Whether or not gay marriage or gay sex is wrong is not the argument here. If there’s anything wrong about being gay, I figure that’s between that gay person and God. It’s certainly none of my business. And it’s none of your business, either. I don’t see how two men getting married is any worse than a Catholic marrying a Protestant, or Democrat marrying a Republican, or yes, a white marrying a black. It’s none of our business. And by God, if someone is born with a certain set of rights because they had the good fortune of being born an American, they should not have some of those rights taken away from them because they turn out to be attracted to people of their own sex.
And don’t you dare come back on me with that tired old argument about “if we let gay people get married, the next thing you know there’ll be people marrying dogs and goats”. Shut up, you knuckle-dragging dipshit. A dog or a goat can’t consent. We’re talking about two consenting human beings who know full well what they’re doing. Don’t insult me by insinuating that two men getting married is the same as some guy marrying a dog, just because your first sexual experience was probably with your sister. We’re not all as twisted as you.
In the end, what it all boils down to is religion. There is no secular argument here. As I said, the only argument you can have against gay marriage is a religious one. Therefore, in my book, it’s an invalid argument. My experience has been that religion (and by that I mean all religions) has brought the world nothing but bloodshed and pain. Therefore the equation is simple - Religion = Misery.
We’ll all be better off when human beings grow beyond this genetic predisposition to believe that whatever rock or ghostly spirit that they’ve chosen to worship is the One True Manifestation. Someday we might overcome religion and have a chance of finally getting down to the business of loving our neighbors, no matter their race, creed, sexual orientation or political affiliation. It’s our religions that give us the capactiy to hate. It’s our religions that allow us to justify killing those people across the valley because they’re different from us.
You might think I’ve gotten off-track with this argument, but I don’t think I have. I think it’s all the same thing. Simply put, there are some Americans who are being denied the same rights as other Americans because they’re different. And those differences are being defined by a hatred that comes from religious ideology, not practical necessity.
To all those who voted for Proposition 2 in Florida or Proposition 8 in California, I’d like to say that you should enjoy your moment in the sun. Your hatred has led you to stifle the rights of other Americans. That makes you an enemy of freedom. I can only hope that at some point in the hopefully not too distant future, human beings may grow beyond such knuckle-dragging idjits such as yourself.
Who’s Crazy?
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 10 2008 | Comment now »
Was just reading an article in the St. Pete Times titled “Don’t Rely On Sites Alone”, which talked about how job seekers shouldn’t just do their job searching online. They made some valid points. It’s very easy to send your resume to dozens of different potential employers, and so those employers sometimes drown under a deluge of applications from people who aren’t remotely qualified for the job. It’s very easy to get lost in the shuffle. I understand the points that were made in the article. You should use online searches in tandem with putting in applications in person, and not just hope that the Internet will bring you work while you sit there in your underwear checking your e-mail.
But …
I put in five applications yesterday online. I didn’t go on the Internet intending to submit online applications. I was looking for real world businesses that I could visit this morning in person. What I found was five positions that I was qualified for and interested in. What I did not find on any of the posts was a real-world address that I could visit or a phone number that I could call. In short, I had no choice but to submit my applications through the online submission process at Monster.com, because that’s what those employers wanted.
So …
Who’s crazy? Am I crazy for looking for work online (I’ve already hit about every real-world place I can think of)? Or are they crazy for posting “help wanted” on the Internet and not providing an address or a phone number? What are they really saying by not posting an address, anyway? It would seem to me that they’re saying they don’t want a bunch of unwashed job seekers bugging their office workers.
I’m coming up with nada here. Now when I look for jobs on Monster.com, my searches keep coming up with jobs that I’ve already applied for. And when I look in the paper, there’s very little there. What little is there are the very same jobs that are listed on Monster.com. In fact, the Jobs section of the St. Pete Times leads off with “JOBS - tampabay.monster.com”. There’s an incestuous loop going on here.
I suppose I’m just sitting here scratching me head because the Jobs section of the St. Pete Times is tied to Monster.com, and yet they lead off that section with “Don’t Rely On Sites Alone”. Um … isn’t that what the St. Pete Times is doing?
Hatred
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 08 2008 | Comment now »
Given the fact that America just elected its first black president, a lot of people have been talking about how it represents us moving forward as a country and how racism isn’t as much of a problem as it used to be. I’d love to buy it, but I just don’t see it. What I get in my inbox every day is various amounts of unhinged hatred. I’m having a hard time figuring out how we’re supposed to be gaining ground on hatred and racism.
The latest filth I got came in this morning. It supposedly shows what the White House will look like with a black president. There’s a gorilla sitting on top of a KFC sign. Thugs and rappers standing around. Graffiti on the White House. Trash all over the yard. The message came in with an audio file of the theme song to “Sandford & Son”. Yup. That’s Barack Obama, all right. I’m sure he’ll be staggering around on the front porch of the White House during his weekly barbecue, holding his chest and crying out “This is the big one, Elizabeth!” because someone finally explained to him what it is that the president does.
Another one came from a cousin of mine, who is a preacher and a minister of music at a church in North Carolina. He sent out an e-mail to around 70 people titled “A chilling view of Obama”, which was about how Barack Obama supposedly suffers from narcissistic personality disorder and shares a lot of similarities with Adolf Hitler. Two names that reportedly supported and confirmed this report were Dr. Sam Vaknin, who states on his own web site, “I am not a mental health professional” (so much for his expert opinion), and Navy Vice Admiral Earl “Rex” Rectanus, whose claim to fame seems to be nothing more than his involvement in the discredited Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. The report was written by a phantom called Dr. Ali Sina, who runs an anti-Muslim web site called Faith Freedom International, upon which he puts forth such bits of wisdom and Christian love as;
“Like Adolph Hitler, Barack Obama was born to a communist father who worked as a government employee who had several other children with multiple women.”
“You are Satan worshiper. There is no hope for you. You are destined for hell fire because you are not able to think.”
“Donkeys in comparison to Muslims are philosophers. It is just disgusting to know we have to share the air in this planet with such idiot animals called Muslims.”
So much for moving forward. This filth was sent out by someone who calls himself a preacher, distributed to around 70 people. Who knows how many people they sent it to? What kind of country could we possibly have when religious leaders are sending out this kind of hatred?
But it’s hardly only misguided Christians who are sending out this crap. During the presidential campaign, a California political organizations, the Chaffey Community Republican Women, stated in a newsletter to members that if Barack Obama was elected, his image will appear on food stamps instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement was followed by an illustration of “Obama Bucks” - a phony $10 bill featuring Obama’s face on a donkey’s body, labeled “United States Food Stamps” and showing a bucket of fried chicken, barbecued ribs, watermelon and Kool-Aid. Please note that this was from a Republican organization in California, not some KKK group in Bumfuck, Alabama.
On a personal level, the worst for me came from one of my uncles. He’s a die-hard Republican whose e-mail I don’t accept anymore because of the amount of Right-Wing crap he was clogging my inbox with. After the elections, my uncle, who himself has a bi-racial grandchild, asked one of his sisters, a Democrat and an Obama supporter, “You didn’t vote for that nigger, did you?”
What can you really say to that? While I think we should all celebrate the election of America’s first black president, only a fool would think that it represents that we’ve somehow won the fight against hatred and racism. I love this country and I have high hopes for what it might some day become, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the battle is over. I’m a Pagan who finds myself dancing delicately around the easily up-ended sensibilities of Christians just to get through each day, so I’m constantly faced with hatred and the discomfort of deeply ingrained discrimination. I may not be a black man, but I’m certainly a member of a minority religion. Nearly every day I’m somehow reminded that I’m not a part of “our country”.
I won’t try to make a fancy speech here. All I’ll say is that I think we can do better. But if you think that we’ve solved anything by electing Barack Obama, you’re kidding yourself. He’s represents a hope and a promise that things can change. But the battle is far from over. In fact, with the Republicans shifting even farther right and general consensus being that Sarah Palin (a member of the Third Wave of Christians who believe in literal spiritual warfare as well as Christians’ responsibility to bring about the End Times) will be the Republican nominee for President in 2012, we’re just getting started.
The Culture War that the Far Right has been aching for these past few decades is finally kicking into gear. And from the looks of it, some of them are already getting started. I suspect that it’ll get far worse before it finally begins to get better.
Staffworks
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 06 2008 | Comment now »
I don’t know why I keep going back to Staffworks. I just sat in their waiting room (such as it is) for about half an hour, determined that I was going to talk to someone today instead of getting brushed off by the receptionist. Well, when I got in, the lady seemed irritated to be talking to me. She said “sometimes these things take time, Mr. Lovelace”. In short, “don’t call us, we’ll call you”.
Oh, well. I can’t make them find me work. Although I did identify potential hostages. Who knows? If I’d toss a few bodies out the door, screaming “Who’s old now, you fucks?”, they might start taking me seriously.
Okay, special note to the FBI; That was a joke, okay?
Job Hunting & Mystery Meat
Posted by Wicasta on Nov 06 2008 | Comment now »
Having a mystery meat burger that I picked up at a gas station off of Central Avenue. About to head over to Staffworks to see what I can scare up there.
I just came from Yellow Cab. I looked up their pay package for the first time before I left today, and it pretty much changed my mind about driving a cab. But I came down here anyway. I’d decided against stopping and was going to do a fly-by, but the guy I talked to last time was standing out front smoking a cigarette, and he recognized me. I felt like I had to stop then.
Wound up standing out there shooting the shit with him for almost an hour. Not sure what that says about his job. But it’s not my place to ask. I told him about my concerns about the money and the way drivers get paid (a meager base salary plus tips - kind of like a waitress). As much as I like the idea of driving a cab (anything but a 9 to 5 job in a building somewhere), I don’t like the idea of part of my pay being contingent upon getting tips from customers. My years at the family restaurant taight me what cheap fucks most people are. Sure, some people tip well, but most people don’t (if they tip at all). So I guess it’s warehouse work for me.
Well, I finished the cheeseburger as I was writing. Now it’s off to annoy Staffworks. They keep telling me to check back in, but seem genuinely surprised when I do. Not sure why. And they never call me. I keep thinking about what the guy at Aaron’s told me; “I think we’re looking for someone a little younger for this position.” Is that why I haven’t gotten an warehouse nibbles? They think I’m too old?
As much as I hate to admit it, they might have a point, what with my neck, and my shoulder, and lately my hip. But I’m a tough old bird. Just give me a chance, dammit. You young bastards and bitches with your effervescent energy and your tight skin. Kiss my ass!
Okay, so I’m putting this off. Time to scoot over there.