Author: Karel Kerezman

  • Tired of being tired.

    I’m tired of being tired of being tired.

    There’s always something. It’s my allergies. It’s a work emergency at 2am. It’s a disturbance outside. It’s the weather. It’s the temperature. It’s my brain being all fired up and unable to settle.

    Usually it’s more than one of the above, and sometimes it’s something entirely different. But I. Am. Tired.

    And I’m going to bed now. Maybe I’ll even sleep through the night this time.

  • What do you have to say for your shelves?

    In a fit of inspiration the roomie and I trekked out and bought some shelving, after I remarked this morning that I’d intended to replace my rickety old CD rack shortly after moving in. (That was a year ago, mind you.) Hooray for A/V shelving being on sale at OfficeMax.

    Now I have one entire shelf unit devoted to storing nearly all of my music CDs, and the other unit is where most of our individual collections of videos sit. Before today, about 1/4 of my music was in a cardboard box, and very little of my video collection was on display.

    Yes, I know it’s silly to be so excited by something as simple as having moved my audiovisual material around. It’s just one of those things, you know?

  • Join the Book Club!

    If you haven’t been reading Unshelved this week (and why not, eh?), you should definitely check out the current run. It’s all about something as simple as a book club. Eat your heart out, Oprah.

    I recommend starting with the specific strip linked below. Trust me on this.

    Unshelved 4-4-2005

  • It’s pretty bad when…

    Gah. For some reason, for a few minutes there, I thought today was Monday.

    Please, somebody, shoot me now?

  • Pampering and Entitlement

    There are some things I occasionally lose track of in my idealistic fervor. For instance:

    • Managers get flatscreen monitors and their own color printers simply because they want them. Common sense and solid business reasons have nothing to do with it.
    • Computers are allocated by snap decisions of middle managers. “Resource limitations,” “sensible priorities” and “budgetary constraints” are just so many meaningless phrases.
    • Appreciation is best expressed, after an overworked and underpaid lackey has just moved heaven and earth to accomodate your poorly-conceived whims, by a simple “Thanks, I really appreciate it” and not, say, in crisp clean bills of reasonable denomination.
    • The people doing the bulk of the work should under no circumstances have the gadgetry necessary to do so. Gadgetry is too valuable of a status symbol to be wasted in that fashion.
    • Kiting off for the day less than five minutes after you’ve called your computer tech over to your office for support is a perfectly reasonable practice. It’s not like he’d need you to actually demonstrate the problem in question when he arrives, after all.
    • And last but most assuredly not least, nothing is ever up for discussion. Being decisive means flattening all opposing viewpoints. This is, after all, a zero-sum game we’re playing.

    I love my job. I even like most of the people I work with. I hate, however, the general corporate mindset. I hate it a whole lot.

  • Unexpected Day Off

    Due to wanting someone present at home for the inspection that the property management company notified us about, I took the day off. (Paranoid? Us? Why, yes, thank you.) Of course, I already had a hair appointment scheduled, so I took care of that and then came straight home.

    The day was spent mostly downstairs, reading and waiting, waiting and reading. (By the way? C.J. Cherryh’s “Foreigner” books are outstanding. Just so you know.) I rather dislike sitting and waiting, mind you, but at least I got in a lot of quiet reading time for my trouble. The cats loved having a captive lap, too. (Yes, I did take my Claritin.)

    So, the inspection turned out to be the maintenance guy installing new toilet-tank flappers in an effort to deal with a perceived water leak. Ho, hum. Mind you, I approve of the thinking behind it: Instead of wasting time hunting around for the source of the problem, just go after the most likely sources with a bit of new equipment. I’m all for the idea of lowering the water bill, too.

    To cap the day, I had a nice early dinner out with Lil’. For once, I elected not to have a breakfast-type meal… I think I’m sort of burned out on eggs and hashbrowns for a while.

    Tomorrow, back to the grind and the backlog of chores that need doing…