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C'mon in, take yer shoes off, and set yerself down. Here you will find comics, cartoons, musings, rants, . . . whatever strikes my fancy, or "Spins my Plush", so to speak.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

My Stupid Rant

Okay, Seriously!?!

Look, I don't offend easily. I'm a heterosexual white male. There's arguably not a "repressed-minority bone" in my body. But one thing that does offend me is stupity. And more and more I am being regularly offended.

I'm not saying that I don't do stupid things . . . I'm well-known to be as boneheaded as a petrified dinosaur skeleton, but at least I'm willing to accept my mistakes and apologize . . . probably too readily. Society has come to not only accept, but to worship stupidity! Homer Simpson is an idiot, and I love the character for that . . . BUT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LAUGH AT HIM NOT USE HIM AS A ROLE MODEL!!!

As of 9:30 a.m. this past Monday morning, after already having been yelled at and lectured for being a "stupid engineer with no common sense" (and, yes, I get that a lot; and, yes, it may or may not be intelligent to publicly state that), I found this sign on a Chinese Food Take-Out in Truro, NS--where the mayor has publicly questioned why some residents are less than pleased with the community's acceptance of those who are "different".

The next day I was lectured on how to design a fibre-optic communications network "when [I] get around to it" by the contractor who had already submitted a price for constructing the fibre-optic communications network I had designed for him to price.

The next day I received a lecture for not having drawings suitable to construct a wind farm; drawings clearly labelled "For Review", or, in other words, "Not For Construction".

Then, for lunch, after the first business-suited individual walked straight past the rest of the line to look at what was in the food trays and ordered straight-away, I waited as the second individual--who had clearly been standing in line for at least the past 5 minutes--reached the counter, looked up at the menu, and proclaimed, "Now, what do I want?"

The next morning, I watched as a lady walked into Tim Horton's through the opposite door from everyone else, which she apparently felt must be the "secret" entrance that allowed her to bypass the line.

Thursday and Friday brought us the Dexter Government's $42,000 "Renewable Energy" announcement, and the, at last count, 72 comments of Nova Scotians on the Chronicle Herald website, either upset at the expense, cheering the announcement, or simply cursing the fact that our province has an NDP government. Not ONE mentioned the hypocrisy of spending $6000 to BUS media and VIPs 400km to hand them 200 copies of a 38-page PAPER document espousing how they are going to single-handedly save the environment.

This morning (i.e. Saturday), I nearly popped a blood vessel as the car in front of me at the corner of Jubilee and Oxford started to roll backwards at me as the driver suddenly realized the light was not in her favour and she wasn't going to be able to move forward. Then I arrived at work to find every light in the building left on from the previous day. Then I heard someone in line behind me remark that, "the queue is awkward"; a reference to the fact that HE decided to line up to the left when EVERYONE ELSE CAME FROM THE RIGHT!

And that has, with exceptions to protect the innocent, not even been a full week. I didn't even get into the restaurant review I read with alternating comments saying, "The beer was completely undrinkable by anyone!", then, "The beer was fantastic!, then, "The beer was the worst thing ever!", then, "The beer was undeniably the best in Atlantic Canada!", etc., etc., etc., . . .

It has been my experience, in my limited lifespan, that everyone generally views the world through their own eyes, and it is only exceptional individuals who actually try to place themselves in the minds (not just the shoes) of those around them. I believe that my point, and I do have one, can be summed up best by Jane Fonda: “You can do one of two things; just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast which is what I tried to do.”