iPaperweight

There's a proposed new bill here in Canada that, to me, makes absolutely no sense. Due to pressure from recording companies the government is trying to pass a bill that makes it a *lot* tougher to put music and video on to mp3 players.

That is to say; impossible. One major example that springs to mind is that they want to make it illegal to rip a cd onto your computer and then upload it onto your iPod. That raises the question; How then, legally, are we to get the music to put on our mp3 players? I don't trust online music paysites and it's my understanding that the iTunes store only works on a Mac.

What bothers me most about the entire thing is that the government was planning on creating and passing the bill in secret. Information about it was leaked and that's how we found out. Is it just me or are the shining beacons of democracy of the world slowly becoming more and more like corrupt dictatorships and police states?

If this bill passes it looks like we're going to have to go back to Walkmen because, lord knows, celebrities like; Gene Simmons and Lars Ulrich are starving in their mansions. Poor them.

There's a happy medium, but affordable music isn't being made readily available and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $25 for a twelve song cd all for one song that I want.

-Wraith

Stressed to the *max*

Right, so, I'm definitely abusing my position of power, that is to say, my ability to post articles few people will ever read, by using today's rant to vent, mope, and scream at the sky.  So maybe I was a tad melodramatic, but I *am* slowly going crazy here... er... crazier.

Put simply I need something to snap and just go right... if I can solve one problem I can solve, or overlook, the others. There's something amiss in all facets of my life and if I could clear up just *one* I'd have an escape to help me cope with the others.



Work;

We are overstaffed.  We all get like eight hour work weeks (well, except for those that have worked at the Superstore for like fourteen years and the managers) and I often find myself working with three other people despite the department only needing two people at a time to function properly.  

Ready for the interesting part? *Somehow* I always end up the only person actually *in* my freakin department! How does that happen?!  Take today for example; I was working with both my managers (we're two departments in one... yet we're the worst paid department.  Gotta love how that works)  my photolab manager like *never* comes downstairs to electronics because she doesn't feel it's her job... which also kinda bugs me... I mean us peons are all photo/elec, Electronics manager won't touch Photo, Photolab manager won't touch electronics (unless necessary)... Anyway, despite there being little photolab work I saw her for a total of maybe 35 seconds in a four hour shift.  My electronics manager wasn't much better.  For some reason our store's assistant manager (second in command) can't seem to *breathe* without the Elec manager there to help him, and then there was my buddy Joel.  He actually stayed in the department with me. He deserves a medal.  

Like, of the... one sec, counting... eleven people that work in my department I can think of four (including myself) that don't just randomly take off for half hour to hour long periods.  It's driving me insane that I keep having to do three people's worth of work while everybody else just maxes and relaxes.

So where's the politics in all this? That I don't *blame* my coworkers.  We get paid eight bucks an hour to run two departments at once... I don't think any of us *really* care if we do our job well.  Well, that's a lie, *I* care, but that's only because I'm crazy.  The company doesn't pay us enough to be loyal, we're treated like peons by upper management and "the customer is always right"... What they don't tell you is that nine times out of ten the customer is also an uninformed, angry, drunk mutant that insists it's your fault that an item in the flier that isn't released until tomorrow isn't magically on the shelves when they want it to be.  I had four people get pissy with me today because I couldn't sell them a game that doesn't release until tomorrow. How is that my fault?

On top of that upper management seems to have targeted me as a whipping boy (yay).  I'm the *only* person that gets reamed out for dress code for minor infractions.  My shoes had white on them so I got yelled at, meanwhile my buddy Sparky was wearing his shirt half unbuttoned with a batman shirt prominently displayed underneath, half white shoes, a Pink Floyd belt buckle, and his name tag was on his pocket... He directly spoke to the man that reamed me out dressed as such and not a word was said to him.

Enough about my minimum wage job, at least I have one right?



Entertainment;

I have spent the last 3 weeks fighting with my ISP (Internet Service Provider) because my Internet has been *mega* on the fritz.  Now I was born and raised with computers, I practically breathe technology, and yet my ISP comes nowhere close to taking my word for it that the problem is *not* my router.  He had me run a gamut of useless tasks (bypassing my new $200 router, turning the computers off in different patterns) before he'd believe me that it wasn't on my end... YET HE STILL INSISTED IT WASN'T ON HIS END.  I'm out of things that could be wrong here!  I tried it with both computers entirely off and my xbox plugged DIRECTLY into our WiFi router (which is theirs, it runs to my normal router) and it did nothing.

So he finally "fixed" the problem... which made things notably worse.  I hold nothing against him, I mean the man has taken his own personal time to try and help with this... however I wish he'd at least listen to what I'm saying seeing as how he owns the business, yeah, that's right, I'm dealing with the freakin CEO.


Friends;

Oh how this one's a doozy.  Put simply; Has nobody an ounce of consideration?  My two best friends happen to be dating... One of them, my full blown best friend, has also been my less than secret "crush" (for lack of a better term) for the past two years.  I hooked them up.  I convinced her to give him a chance out of the goodness of my heart.  They both knew how I felt. I think he naively believes I moved on at some point but I *know* she knows.  So I hang with them right... and they're making out right in front of me... Like that is the *last* thing I want to see.  Even if I didn't want to be with her, they know I'm still reeling from Kelly and I don't take relationship stuff well. (I can't even watch love movies)

I don't want them to break up, they're happy, and it's good to see.  But a little courtesy to me would be nice.  Everybody I've talked to about this tells me I'm wrong however so... Suppose I'm the bad guy for not wanting to see the girl of my dreams (literally) being cute and cuddly with my friend.


Home;

I nearly got kicked out a few weeks ago because I was angry that Mom went behind my back and signed me up for classes I didn't want without warning me or asking me... 'Nuff said.



Stuff just keeps blowing up in my face these past few weeks... I know it's not exactly life or death, however it's taking a huge toll and it's driven me back to a few daemons from my past.  I don't want sympathy, I don't want pity, I just want to be heard and respected.  I want to be thought of *without* my having to demand it... and I'm just not seeing that.


Thanks for bothering to read 90% of my issues, next post, hopefully, will be more positive,
-Wraith