Sudafed - I am now a registered Drug Fiend

So I've been sick for a few days. Nothing major, just the yearly head cold thing. I went through a bottle of Nyquil and a few alka seltzer cold packets and not much helped.

I wasn't sick enough to go to the doctor, but enough that I would go to the store to get something a little stronger. Sudafed came to mind as something I once took that seemed to help. So off to Albertsons I go.

So far, so good.

I walk into the store, tired and with a headache but ready to make my fast easy purchase of an over the counter cold remedy (as seen on TV).

I get to the drug aisle only to find that most of the cold medicines are gone and in their place are little pieces of paper with a picture of the actual product on them. The sign says take this to the pharmacist to get it filled.

Huh ?, this is over the counter stuff, it doesn't need a pharmacist. Whatever, so I take the card to Mr. Chang the pharmacist. I figured he must be an actual pharmacist because he had a name tag and a white lab coat.

He looks at me and asks how old I am. I reply over 18. For the record, I am well past 18 and don't look anything even close to being 18. He asks for my driver's license as proof of age. Trust me, im over 18 I say. That doesn't work, I still need to show him my drivers license.

He asks how many boxes of Sudafed I have purchased in the last week. I reply, truthfully, none. Mr. Chang appears not to believe me. He asks how many boxes of Sudafed or similar medicine I have purchased in the past month. Again, I truthfully reply, none. He gives me the evil eye, but that's it. Evidently I've passed the first test.

He gets the actual pharmacist to come over and initial some form. He gets out another form and shoves it in front of me and says I need to fill it out. I ask why, cause I'm stoopid like that. He says I need to register as someone that is purchasing Sudafed or any other similar product. I say, seriously you're kidding right. Mr. Chang does not kid I find out. Mr. Chang is to sense of humor as Hillary Clinton is to Super Model.

I fill out the form. I print my name and sign my name. I initial in the box that says I am in fact me. Mr. Chang signs the form and initials in the box that says he asked me my age and verified that I am me based on my drivers license.

Mr. Chang gets the pharmacist to come over and sign the log and initial the box proving that Mr. Chang is in fact Mr. Chang and I am in fact me.

But wait, there's more.

He enters all this information in the computer. He prints something out. He files that something in the special box and staples the carbon copy of the form that we all signed and initialed to the something he prints out.

He actually gets the Sudafed out of a semi locked area behind the counter next to the real drugs that require an actual prescription and puts it in a bag. Mr. Chang staples the bag closed with the receipt. He initials the time and date that he stapled the receipt to the bag with the Sudafed in it.

He hands me the bag.

Because I have found this experience so entertaining, and such a valuable use of my time, I decide one more time on the humor route with Mr. Chang. I ask him since I can only buy one box, if I can buy 100 more for a friend that is sick and just got out of rehab for meth addiction, but has a bad cold...

Mr. Chang does not smile. Mr. Chang says no I can not. Mr. Chang says I am allowed to purchase one box of 24 easy-to-swallow Sudafed per week. Mr. Chang says I am now registered with all pharmacies nationwide that are under the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Agency and that all purchases of Sudafed or similar product will now be on my permenent record.

I gasp, Not My Permenent Record. Oh Noes !!!!!111

As I walk away, I ask Mr. Chang if I can buy 11 kegs of beer and 42 quarts of cheep vodka for a party I am throwing at the local high school. Mr. Chang says he will call the liquor manager and see if they have that many kegs in stock.

I leave the store, one more victory in hand and a box of easy to swallow over the counter Sudafed, as seen on TV.

Work Travel - an old story

---(from 2007)

I started a new job and wrote this:

So the first day is long (Salaried, not hourly). No big deal. Then the boss decides that some random client in some random other place needs to meet me, tomorrow. So he drops this on me (btw, i live in california).

and tomorrow you're flying to Memphis, then Atlanta and the next day Chicago and then back to the west coast...

Well like she said it's been an interesting trip. I write this from the Marriott Courtyard somewhere near Toledo, Ohio. I don't know where it is simply because I have either been eating, sleeping or walking to the local office max at 8:00 am local time to get copies of stuff for people we are meeting today.

My flight from LAX was a disaster. I was scheduled (first class mind you) to fly out on NWA (which is either Northwest Airlines or African Americans with Tenacity, Prescience of mind and Forward thinking-projected self esteem, not sure). The flight was great until we got on the plane. From there it went now where (to which downhill would have been an upgrade).

We hit the tarmac and the Airbus 320 computer broke. We sat in the plane for an hour. The computer was eventually fixed (rumor has it they did a ctrl-alt-del). However after sitting on the plane for an hour we burned enough fuel that we had to go back and get more. Note to self: make sure you have gas before you fly the big old jet liner.

We go back and get more gas. We wait. Dick head the long haired hippy wants to get off the plane because he will miss his connecting flight. As we all will. He argues and debates with the flight attendants (note: I didn't call them sexy stewardesses (because most were dudes)). Dick head burns up ten minutes of time. Dick head eventually sits down. The plane eventually gets out of the gate and rolls back to the place we were like an hour ago. The plane stops. The passengers all let out a well uniformed and coordinated sigh of anguish.

Fifteen minutes later the captain says the computer that was broken, and is now fixed is broken again (Should have got a Linux server CEJ would say). It's been two hours since we left the gate. The captain says the plane is not going anywhere today, apologies for the inconvenience and we roll back to the gate.

As Johnny Lydon would say - Anger is An Energy

We de-plane, confusion sets in. There is no one from NWA at the gate; none of the monitors are listing other flights that we can take.

Me and Tim (the guy I am traveling with) call Valerie (the proverbial super woman administrative assistant) and have her try to find us another flight to get us to Chattanooga. Minutes pass. Valerie says there are none.

Plan B

We ask Valerie to book us on Delta to Atlanta. Cause as you well know, when in doubt go to Atlanta on Delta...

We begin our walk from one side of LAX to the other. Because the NWA terminal that fly's us to Chattanooga is in the International terminal and the Delta gate that fly's us to Atlanta is in the domestic terminal. Like duh, who didn't know that...

We walk to Delta terminal, avoiding the random gunfire from the Inglewood pointed at LAX.

On our way to Delta Tim realizes his luggage is still on the cancelled NWA flight. He calls Valerie to attempt to track it down.

We get to Delta, wait for a bit in the bar (Note: Jack and Coke made a visit). Our plan is to take Delta to Atlanta, get in at Midnight local time, rent a car and drive to Chattanooga and make our meeting at 10:00 am the next day. Somewhere in there we were going to find a Marriott and sleep, but I don't think I was advised of that detail.

The Delta flight goes fine. Even though I'm in first class, I refuse (/cry) all the hundreds of free drinks they have to offer. Simply because Tim has now drunk his body weight in red wine (odd How I can Relate to that one) and I might have to drive.

We get to Atlanta. I have a jacket, Tim does not, but he has had like three bottles of red wine. Oh yea, its 20 degrees and there is a strong wind blowing.

Tim has a message from Valerie that NWA can't locate his luggage and he needs to put in a claim ticket. Tim utters something about getting a drink and running out of smokes. I translate and say "You're Screwed". Tim nods. It's cold.

We follow the sexy stews to the Marriott shuttle bus. Why you ask, well because Valerie booked us in the Marriott Airport inn for the night because she was smart enough to know either 1) Tim would be wasted or 2) See #1.

We take the shuttle (sans the sexy stews) to the Marriott Airport. It's now like 1:00 am local. I'm tired, Tim is still wasted and out of smokes. But the good news is he is soon to get more smokes.

We check in. Tim mutters something about 8:00 am and Bob. I assume this means I have to be in the lobby at 8:00 am and someone named Bob is picking us up. This of course means two things. I have to get up at 4:30 am my time to be up and ready and in the lobby at 8:00 am local time. Secondly it means Tim will legally still be drunk. I look forward to this.

I don't sleep well because my time sense is all jacked up and I dread being up at 4:30 am my time.

Whatever...

The alarm goes off and I get my automated wake up call.

I am really tired and know that at least a hot shower will wake me up.

Funny how life is, I often say.

I get into the shower, turn on the water thingy and find out, there is NO F*CKING HOT WATER. Seriously, none, as in there isn't any. There is cold water, but very, very low pressure. There will be no shower today. Thoughts of changing careers to mass murder at a hotel flash through my mind. Had it not been for the stock options, I would have changed at that moment.

Later I find out that the hotel had a convention and my entire wing was booked. Hence every moron in the building was attempting to use the shower pretty much all at the same time.

I ended up using a washcloth and the sink like a homeless person to clean off. Think of washing a small dog or something, then you get the picture.

I leave my room, do the red eye stumble to the lobby only to realize I haven't eaten in nine hours and know I won't be able to eat for another eight if I'm lucky.

Starbucks in the lobby has some microwave surprise, so I go that route.

More later, I have to go back to office max to pick stuff up

The second to last chapter

The Waitress

Well I finally made it home to Orange County, CA last night. We were the last flight of the night. As you may not know the Orange County (aka John Wayne) airport rolls up the sidewalks and closes at 11:00 pm at night. So if your plane isn't on final approach five minutes before you land, you will be going to LAX and taking the middle eastern shuttle back to Orange County.

Let us back track, shall we.

I finally got to sleep the night before around 9:00pm local time. We went to eat at "The Brewhouse" based on the recommendation of the Marriott shuttle bus driver and part time maid. A nice woman that knew every local restaurant and shop in the greater Toledo area, and made it a point to impart this knowledge to Tim and myself when she picked us up at the airport. She talked non stop for 30 minutes about life, living in Toledo and how her prescription for "stop smoking now" costs $117. But it was worth it since she spent $300 per month on smokes. Sound logic if you ask me.

I digress…

She convinces us that the best place (and closest) to the hotel is the brewhouse. So we go. Nice place, they sell beer and have a bar, so Tim was happy. They had food, so I was happy.

We go in and sit down, its 40 degrees outside and warm inside. Life is good I think.

We get a table in the bar, not sure why, but perhaps Tim's reputation proceeds him. I don't care, I just want to eat.

The table is close to this older couple that is eating ribs in some tribal frenzy. There is rib sauce every where and the lady continues to elbow me in the back as she takes full swings at the full rack of ribs on the plate. Her husband makes strange gutteral sounds as he gnaws on the bone while eating his ribs. They scare me. However, they eventually leave and my back stops getting her elbow shoved in it, so things are looking up.

The bar is all wooden. There are the odd pieces of sports lore on the walls and a few video games in a corner. A few college basketball games are on the tvs over the bar and a three year old world series of poker is playing near our table. The place has that "local bar" feel to it. You know its a local bar, because when you get the menu the stains from various food products served can be carbon dated back to the turn of the 19th century. I actually kind of like the place. It has character.

Tim and I go over the events for the next day and wait around for our server.

A few minutes later this totally hot 21 year old waitress comes up and advises us she will be serving us tonight. How do I know she was 21, well, duh I asked. Her name was Charlotte and she was a sophomore at University of Toledo. She also had a very nice solid B rack brown hair held up with a pen behind her head, five feet five or so, curves in the best places, green eyes and a smile that would melt the strongest of men. She had a hint of Asian buried somewhere in there, some strange kind of Scandinavian thing going on and the rest was solid Heartland US of A. She also screamed of "Life of the Party".

Did I mention that the cold air does wonders for the scenery when it blows in the front door, into the bar and all over Charlotte. Well it does.

Charlotte explains this is her first week and she is still kind of nervous.

There are two version of the story. One is true the other, well, isn't so true. I'll let you decide. I know which one I like better.

Tim has to make a few calls and leaves the table for a while. Evidently I'm not privy to the entire super secret goings on. By the way, I don't care that much anyway.

Charlotte smiles and takes my beer order. A moment later she brings me a Tsing Tao (that's Chinese for beer, Mate). She butchers the pronunciation of the beer and I smile and let her know how it is pronounced. We make small talk about work, college, living in Toledo and stuff to do in this part of town. I must have said something funny because she laughs a few times. She comments that I am a really nice person and she doesn't know too many people since she transferred from the junior college in her town to the U of T. She rents a small apartment near college and works part time to help pay bills.

I don't think much of it as I am having trouble concentrating on multiple syllable words when she is standing so close. The front door opens and that same cold breeze blows in. She notices the effect it has on her and becomes embarrassed as it is now visible to me and she is standing so close. I smile and let her know that I have no issue with this and she seems to like the attention anyway.

Tim comes back and the food is eventually delivered. Its ok quality but it does the trick. Tim says he has to get back to the hotel and will wait outside having a smoke and waiting for the shuttle bus. In short, I am paying the bill. No big deal, so I wait for the bill to be delivered from ever so hot Charlotte.

She brings over the bill and says she is getting off work in and hour and asks if I know any place around here to get a beer. I explain that I don't really know where here is and I am from California.

Her face lights up and she says "Really". I say yea. I explain I am out here on business and have to leave tomorrow. Her previously lit off face, with that perfect skin and seductive smile recedes a bit.

I explain that I am staying at the Marriott just on the other side of the street and if she wants to get a beer, I would be more then happy to go with her. The smile comes back and she says she would call me. She say she has a car, so its all good.

Wow, did the room get hot all of a sudden.

I pay the bill, go outside and Tim is in the shuttle bus. We make the nine minute drive back to the hotel. Tim says he has stuff to do and that we will meet in the lobby tomorrow around 10:00 am local.

I think, damn"… I have lots of time to go out and have fun.

I go to my room and get my stuff ready for tomorrow.

Then it hits me. I never gave Charlotte my last name. She won't be able to tell the hotel people which room to call. Oh, the Humanity. I am such and Idiot. I see the tight green shirt that was soon to be coming off in my hotel room blow away down the freeway, never to be seen again no matter how hard i reach out for it, it is gone. That smile, that hair, those legs, those jeans and how they fit every 21 year old curve of that body.

I die a little inside at the loss.

I go back to cleaning up and preparing for tomorrow. A shell of the former me, empty, hollow, less will to live...

There is a knock on the door. I don't think twice, I go over and answer it. Not knowing what to expect I open the door.

It's room service with my order. I explain I didn't order anything and the guy with the cart says, whoops wrong room. The door closes. For a moment, only for a brief moment, hope it could have been someone else at the door.

A minute later the phone rings. I am assuming I am going to get a call from the lobby room service people apologizing for bothering me. I mentally prepare my "don't worry about it response".

I pick up the phone and don't hear anything. Ok, that's odd. I repeat the universal phone phrase "Hello". I hear this voice on the other end "Is this {insert my name here}". I respond yea, who is this. The voice says "Charlotte". My heart skips a beat, my mind flashes to the boobage attached to that voice, among other things. I ask how did you get my number. She responds, well you did pay with a credit card that had your name, and you did get picked up in the Marriott Airport shuttle bus, so I just called and asked for your room.

Wow, not only is she hot, but smart.

Before I can ask why she called she says, come on out, I'm in the lobby. I brought some beer and got off work, let's go some people at work just told me this great place to go. She asks "Are you still interested ?"

or the other version...

The waitress was hot. Her name was Charlotte. She went to college at the U of T. She smiled at us she was very friendly. We ate food. There was a cold wind that did wonders. We paid the bill. We left. I went to sleep early and was awaken at 8:00 am to go to office max to get stuff printed.

The Expense Report - another work story (long)

---(From 2007)

Disclaimer: I actually like my job and the people I work with.

Modification to the disclaimer above: It's just that some of them are total FN anal retentive idiots.

I started my current job in January this year. The second day I was here I was off on a plane with the head of marketing Tim, (title is actually CEO of the marketing company and Executive Vice President of my division). I went to far off exotic places like Memphis, Chattanooga, Chicago and Toledo. 

Typically I assume most business travelers pay for stuff on their personal credit card and later file an expense report to get reimbursed. This is how I have known things for quite a while. The way I figure it, as long as they pay me before I get the bill, then no harm, no foul.

So I go on this trip, spend money on stuff for the trip that's work related. I get back to work and gather up all my receipts. The administrative assistant Valerie does the expense reports for all the executives and volunteered to do it for me because I was new, and honestly I didn't know how to fill it out. Not that I couldn't have figured it out, but she did volunteer.

For those of you losing interest in the story, Valerie is 27 years old, Long blonde hair, 34Bx24x32 and around five foot three. She fills out a pair of jeans and a tight shirt that would make a grown man cry.

Back to our story.

So my expense report comes in at around $3600. The whole thing had been floated on my American express card, so I kind of needed to get the reimbursement before the bill or I had to pay it. I have the money to cover it, but prefer that it stays in my bank.

The policy on expense reports has a few sections that will become relevant later

1) Expense reports turned in from the 16th through the end of the month will be available the 15th of the following month. Reports turned in from the 1st through the 15th will be available on the last day of the month.
a) I don't really like this because I don't think it takes this long, but whatever. Mine was turned in prior to the 15th, so I should only have to wait two weeks. That would play out fine with American express.

2) Alcoholic beverages are not a covered expense
a) Makes sense, but if you take a client to dinner, it's not like you tell them "Sorry, I can't allow you to order a beer, it isn't covered."

3) First class travel isn't covered
a) So far this is bad, but I have an out later

4) All computer hardware purchased must be approved by the CIO prior to purchase
a) I'm going on a business trip, so this is fine with me.

5) Office supplies will be ordered by the designated clerical person in each department
a) Uh, ok, I wasn't thinking I would need hanging folders or 1000 paper clips

6) If approved by senior management, exceptions to the reimbursement policy can be made based on business necessity
a) You always need an out !

Valerie filled it out and I basically forget about the expense report and go on my merry way. Around the 1st of the month my American express bill arrives and has around $3600 of work charges on it. I send an email to the guy in accounting asking him if my check is ready

Dear {accounting guy} is my expense check available?

He replies, just like this

Your expense report has been Declined.

There was nothing else on his reply. I seriously said WTF is going on here.

I don't know this guy personally. I have heard he is a very By The Book kind of person that is in the locked, secure, Finance Employees ONLY section of the office up north. Hence I don't have the ability to walk over and ask him what is going on.

I look up his name on the employee intranet phone directory so I can call him. I dial the number and it goes immediately to voice mail. That means he has his phone on "Make Busy" or "Forward to Voice Mail". This is not a good sign. I figure worst case scenario is he must be at lunch or at a meeting (its 9:00 am), so the meeting is a plausible option. I listen to his voice mail as he drones on. After the usual salutations the autobot from finance says

"…if you are calling about accounts receivable, accounts payable, expense reports or check requests all communication needs to be in email format"…"

Ok, so I get the idea to make sure things are covered to ensure there are no problems. I don't like this, and think I could have been told earlier, but I will roll with it.

I go back to my office and hit the email.

Dear {accounting guy} please explain why my expense report has been, as you stated "Declined"

He replies a while later

Your report and the explanation for reimbursement denial along with the applicable polices and procedures has been sent to you via interoffice mail.

Well this just sucks, I'm not in that office. Interoffice mail goes like this, anything not received by noon isn't sent until the next day. The receptionist is better at myspace.com then she is at getting the office mail out to us. So it usually takes two days.

I get a package from him two days later. It has my expense report, all the receipts associated with it, a copy of the entire policy and procedure for expense reports and an excel page with sections checked off telling me why I won't be paid on this.

I am starting to not like him.

Whatever, so I sit down with the excel sheet and see what I need to work on. Not bad only seven items on my crimes against humanity list. That puts me below Pol Pot but slightly above Pinochet

1) No signature. Expense reports must be signed by the requestor
a) Valerie signed this for me. She does this for all the executives and they get paid. But I'm not at that level, so ill sign it. One down.

2) First class travel is a non covered expense
a) I know this. My flight was booked sitting next to the marketing guy. He requested it, they pay for his, I didn't book the flights. I send off an email to him asking for his approval on the exception to this rule. I don't see this as a problem

3) Alcoholic beverages are a non covered expense.
a) If you read the other thread then you understand this one. In short Tim said buy me a drink, or I paid for dinner, and alcoholic beverages were on the bill. I add a section to my email to Tim asking him to have this waived also.

4) Duplicate flights are a non covered expense
a) What happened was one flight was cancelled and we had to book another flight to get there. I am waiting for a refund. I am not totally sure what to do about this, so I write an email to {accounting guy} explaining that I am waiting for a refund, but that I shouldn't have to float the money when I traveled for business. In essence, why do I have to be sadled with the charge.

5) Computer hardware purchases must be approved by the CIO and are not eligible for expense reports unless a purchase order is not accepted by the vendor.
a) What the hell is he talking about? I didn't order any computer hardware. I add a section to my email to him letting him know I didn't order any computer hardware

6) Air travel expenses are not covered if they do not match the itinerary
a) Now he is being a dick I figure. My original flight was cancelled, it won't match the itinerary. I add more stuff to the email explaining how one flight was cancelled and we got on a different airline at the last minute to get to Atlanta.

7) Office supplies are a non covered expense.
a) OK, guilty, I bought a set of pens and a notebook in Toledo to write things down for a meeting. It was like $12.00 and I bought one sitting in the discount bin.

I sign the expense report. One item down six to go.

I send off the email to Tim and copy Valerie on the first class travel and the cancelled flights. Tim responds and says I was booked first class to go over the next day's agenda and this was a business necessity. Tim adds something about a client meeting and that drinks were authorized. He doesn't outright lie, but he bent the truth about as far as he could. Note to self, Tim kicks ass ! Valerie responds that the second flight to Atlanta was made because the first flight was cancelled. She forwards and updated itinerary to me. Cool, four items knocked out quickly. Two to go.

I don't like it, but ill punt on the office supplies. I don't really want to argue about $12.00 so I'll sacrifice this one and move on. One item left.

I send him an email saying I didn't buy any computer hardware. He responds an hour or so later with a line number on my expense report. I look at the entry and it says "Printing Supplies – Office Depot ,Toledo OH."

I spent $250.00 on getting 40 or so brochures copied and bound for Tim to present to the clients. This isn't hardware. This guy is either being a dick or he didn't read the receipt to verify.

I respond to him this was a request by Tim to get brochures printed for clients.

Ten minutes later he replies, "Copying services are considered office supplies and must be ordered by the department clerical person. If you would like to remove this item from your report and submit it for a purchase order to be completed by the clerical person please do so."

Seriously, this guy is really being a dick now.

I respond in email and copy Tim. I indicate this was a request from Tim to get client brochures made. We were in Toledo there was no clerical person available, it was a last minute request.

Tim replies in typical Tim fashion "Please pay this without further question"

I have to assume that shut him up.

Well all my items have been taken care of. Cool.

I send him back an email, asking if the check will be ready today?

He responds

Expense reports turned in from the 16th through the end of the month will be available the 15th of the following month. Reports turned in from the 1st through the 15th will be available on the last day of the month.

This is getting ridiculous. I forward the email to my boss, give him a brief explanation of things and ask him what he can do.

He sends an email to the CFO and copies {accounting guy} asking if they can put a rush on my check as I have addressed all of the listed concerns.

By the time all this had transpired it was time to go home.

I get a response the next day from {accounting guy} he says he will rush this, but it wont be ready until the 15th due to other pressing issues.

My boss asks, if I can wait or if this is a financial emergency. Well it isn't a financial emergency, I don't want to be a whiner, so I say, I can wait.

This of course means I have to pay the $3600 out of my money and get paid in a few weeks. Whatever"…

The 15th rolls around, I don't get a check. I email {accounting guy} asking him if the check was processed. He says yes [color=red]a check for $2800 was sent interoffice mail to me today.[/color]

Wait, what ?

I respond that the amount of the expense report was $3600, which is more than $2800 by around $800.

He gets back to me later in the day and says that [color=red]duplicate expenses that a refund is pending are not expenseable[/color]

The duplicate expense was from the cancelled flight to Atlanta that I had to pay while I wait for the refund to be processed from the airlines.

I reply and tell him this. He replies and copies my boss and the CFO and re-explains how the company does not pay for expenses where a refund is pending and expected.

Which means I have to float the money for a business expense until I get the refund from the airline. No deep pockets here it seems.

Valerie had previously called the airline and they said they were investigating this, but it could take 30 ~ 45 days. Yea, like they don't know that they cancelled a flight.

At this point I was done with the process, it just wasn't worth it. I have a platinum American express card. I called them and explained the duplicate flights. They saw I booked two flights from LAX to Atlanta in one day and put a hold on the charge until it was resolved.

I got my expense check of $2800 three days later.

40 days later Northwest airlines issued their refund to me.

Accounting guy is still there, waiting for my return with a rubber "Decline" stamp in hand.

Another Work Story - The "Problem" with "Problems"

-----(This is actually a story from 2997, I just thought it was funny)

So as part of one of my many job duties I get to meet with various departments and check their compliance to and their performance to defined goals. Most of this involves a fairly simple formula

If I were Johnny Lydon, it would be "This is what you want, This is what you get."

In my case it goes like this, "Your goal is x and you did y. If y is greater than x, then you are exceeding your goals. If x is greater than y, then you did not exceed your goal."

The one thing I know about the goals is they are based on a business model that says we have to make more money then we spend to stay in business (with a little pad added for unknown costs such as HIPAA implementation, as an example). Are goals are pretty standard for the industry.

So yesterday I had to talk with one of the billing departments. They send a {claim} to another company for payment (think medical bills to insurance companies). To make this really easy to grasp, there are 1000 claims that need to be sent each month. They range from $50 ~ $10,000 each. We have five people, so they each should send 200 per month. In a perfect world all would be sent, all would be received, all would be processed, all would be paid and all of this within around 30 days..

Shocking Update: It isn't a perfect world.

The following is an overly simplified example of the process.

Historically we know that 10 ~ 15% of them will never pay (the reasons are varied and require lengthy explanations). We know 25 ~ 50% of them will pay a reduced amount. We know 25 ~ 50% of them will pay outside of the 30 day mark (and these claims may pay a reduced amount). A claim that pays a reduced amount needs to be researched and lots of other {stuff} needs to be done to get it to pay the expected amount. It takes people calling various companies to get these paid. We know 10 ~ 15% of them will pay within the 30 day period, the expected amount and no follow up will be required.

We hope that the claims that never pay are the smallest dollars. We hope that the claims that pay without intervention are the largest dollars. It almost never works this way.

We also hope people get their 200 claims out and follow up on anything that needs additional work effort. We hope they don't spend time on the small dollar accounts when larger dollar accounts need work to get paid. We also know the smaller dollar accounts that need additional work are a lot easier to get resolved than the larger dollar accounts that need work. For the record there are defined policies on all of this that the employees see as part of their job description.

So yesterday I spend time with people to get information on how things are going. I run reports on productivity for the individuals and the department. I compare them to other departments and to last year.

This is what I find:

Not all staff are getting their 200 claims out.
Not all staff are working the claims based on the proper dollar amounts.
A percentage of claims that pays with no interaction has remained the same for a long time, and in line with industry standards.
A percentage of claims that don't pay has remained the same for a long time, and in line with industry standards.
Phone activity logs are much lower then usual

It goes like this

1) I am here today to figure out ways to make sure we hit the department goals and get the claims out the door and paid in the timeframes in the policy manual. Are you hitting the individual claims goals now?

a) No

2) Why is that?

a) We're too busy

3) Doing what

a) Working claims

4) Which ones, and in which order

a) The ones that don't pay

5) Are you working the large dollar (good ones) or the small dollar (bad ones), tell me what is being done now.

a) We're working both of them, and it takes all day

6) Well my understanding is that you work the large dollar claims until you get to {dollar amount} then you work everything that hasn't been sent. Is that what you're doing now?

a) We don't have time to do that

7) OK, well I'm not sure that is the policy, so let me help. Work everything that requires follow up as long as its over {dollar amount}. Then work everything that hasn't been sent. So don't work any account under {dollar amount} until all claims have been sent. Does that make sense ?

a) Yes.

8) So do you think you can get all the claims out now?

a) Not sure, we'll have to see.

9) OK, then make sure you tell me and your supervisor on any day you cant get anything out, is that fair?

a) Sure, if we have the time.

10) Well you need to make the time if you cant get this done, its important that we get these things done in a certain order. If you cant get something done, this really needs to be forwarded to the supervisor.

11) So does anyone have any questions ?

a) No

12) Do you think you can get this done in the order its supposed to be done?

a) We'll try

• At this point I think I am beating the dead horse, so I attempt to move on.

13) OK, next question, {person} mentioned that you cant get to the claims for {government agency}, why is that?

a) They are never open

14) What, I don't understand, when you call them, they are closed.

a) No, their lines are always busy.

15) OK, well i'm not sure that means they aren't open, it means they are busy. So you need to call back probably, I suggest calling at other times, as in off peak hours. What times are you calling

a) When we are at work

16) I realize that, what times during the day are you calling them

a) The morning

17) When you first get in at 8:00 am ?

a) Sometimes, usually later in the morning.

18) OK, then if their lines are busy in the morning, then call back later in the afternoon.

a) They are closed when we call then.

19) When you say closed, do you mean their lines are busy or you get a recording that they're not open

a) It can be either one

20) OK, do you know what hours they are open

a) 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

21) What time zone are they in

a) What do you mean

22) Where is the office you call located

a) Los Angeles

23) OK, then that is the same time zone we are in. So if they're lines a busy a lot during the morning, and you know they are open until 4:00 pm, then call after the morning and before 4:00 pm when they're open. Can you do that?

a) Sure, if I have time.

24) OK, so I am guessing that there is some other reason you cant call them, can you tell me what it is?

a) We're really busy and don't have time. We have to work all the claims that didn't pay

25) We went over this already. I think I clarified it. So is there anything else

a) We'll try it this way and see if it works.

26) Well it is the policy, and it should be done this way unless a better way is determined. Since things aren't getting done the current way, and it isn't the way the policy is written, you need to do it the way the policy is written. Does that make sense

a) Kind of, but there are too many rules and it doesn't allow us to make decisions on the claims that we are working.

27) I appreciate that, but each person needs to prioritize their day to get the 200 claims out per month and to make sure they work the large dollar accounts in the order the policy says. If you have any questions on the priority, please ask your supervisor before you deviate from the policy. This is really important to the company that we get this done. Its how the company makes money and pays the bills.

All of a sudden I feel like one of the Bobs. I changed my mind, this part of the job sucks.

If "Work" logic was applied to my personal life

We have an 8:00 am staff meeting to go over the prior weeks house cleaning results. It looks like we fell behind in the clean dishes being put away and really missed the mark on the vacuuming. There was a slight increase in the 'cleaning up after yourself' but we had a large spike in the xbox hours that we havent been able to nail down the root cause.

I have a teleconference with my wife to go over the capital expenditures year to date to evaluate non allocated funds being spent without Finance approval. We received the invoice from Visa and noticed the discrepancies early but we will need to work on a plan to offset Q3 costs to make up some ground.

I would like to schedule some time to get a scope document for arrival time after social events for some of our staff. It appears we dont have clear policies on checking in and arrival after hours. I will contact HR on this to see if we need to document this as a corrective action or just give a verbal warning this time.

I would like to review the email from your mother about November travel plans. I had thought we had agreed to remain in state this year and invite the other divisions to our office. We have a month or two so this isnt urgent, but we need to make sure we are working with the other divisions to make sure we have continuity.

I received a request to use the company car to transport non company staff to the mall and wanted to make sure it was understood that there is a strict policy on usage of the vehicle and cell phones and returning before 10:00 pm. I dont want another incident like last week when the car wasnt returned until the next day

Finally, I checked with IT and it appears that we lost the data stored on the DVR for 'my shows' and somehow several staff members changed the program priority to save 'their shows' as a top priority. I have a meeting with jack daniels and dr. house tonight and dont want to miss this

Costco and racial profiling

Disclaimer - the usual, really long post, sarcastic, please try really hard to get offended

I had to go to Costco today.  Really I have many mixed feelings about this.  I used to go and was buying for three or four other people or I was not getting out of there for less than $500. Or in some cases $750.  Yea, some of that was alcohol, but it wasn't always.

My world is really different now.  I rarely go to Costco and if I do I have to be mindful of what I buy that doesn't expire.  And since I am buying only for me and my mom, the junk food fest of the past is gone.  Frozen burritos by the ton and gallons of sour cream are truly a thing of the past.

Much of my life was a series of screw ups intermixed between good things, but that is next weeks post.

Really the thing I noticed in the Costco in Boise as opposed to a few of them in the Seattle area and Southern California was the make-up (or demographic) of people shopping.

What is the same is how people are.  Stereotypes exist for a reason, the main reason is they have more than a shred of truth to them.

It is important to remember that your acceptance of a truth has no barring on it or not.  The fact is the truth is still the truth, and given sufficient anecdotal and empirical data, your opinion, eventually becomes like dust in the wind, or rain on a wedding day, I forget.

If you are easily offended, back out now.  If you don't grasp sarcasm, go look for Pokemon and you should probably delete me, as I live in the sarcasm world.

So now it's time to play the game of people profiling and stereotyping in such a way that if you agree, you will put up a feigned attempt at finding me wrong, but you know it isn't.  Also, we are playing this in such a way, that ideally you don't know who the hell I am talking about.  I probably don't either.

Mostly because the politically correct police in our new world are offended by everything.  Unless you are a North Korean, trans gender, Lutheran, hockey player your demographic is fair game.

I have found sexual preference and religion rarely play a part in this slice of stereotyping.  Which honestly, I wish they did, it would be more fun for me.  And of course I would be able to potentially offend a few more of you.

I digress...

The following are my scientifically proven facts that have no room for error or debate.  Or I am wrong, same thing.

1

Racial type or country of origin: A

Biological gender: A but sometimes A and B

Age bracket: 4

Are not only typically terrible drivers, they are in fact the worst people to be stuck shopping around.  Their sense of personal space is almost nill.  I attribute this more to their age than the gender bracket. Best part is usually their kids are well behaved. They tend to go shopping in numbers, no idea why.  This doesn't need to be a family event.

2

Racial type or country of origin: B

Biological gender: A or B

Age bracket: 3 or 4

Usually just a pain to be around because they have to talk through every purchase.  Seriously.  We don't care what you read or heard about the product, shut up, buy it or get moving.  You have TV to watch or something.  Their kids should be in kennels.  Also, get off your cell phone.  Wait until you are outside to talk about nothing of value to someone that is probably two aisles over.

3

Racial type or country of origin: B

Biological gender: A or B

Age bracket: 2

Other than typically being smug and self centered, they go in, they buy stuff, they get out.  They don't like people. Rarely do they have kids, it cuts into their time.  They also don't like to shop at Costco, it's too common for them.

4

Racial type or country of origin: C, D or E

Biological gender: A or B, but usually A

Age bracket: 2 or 3

Why do you people just stop in the middle of an aisle.  Like seriously. WTF.  Get off to the side, drive on the right, and for the love of god, get your kids out of my way.  No one cares what the ingredients of that product are and debating this with each other is insane. No Costco doesn't sell obscure stuff, it's a bulk store.

5

Racial type or country of origin: Any

Biological gender: Any

Age bracket: 1 or 5

You shouldn't be in Costco.  You don't understand it.

Racial type or country of origin: B

Biological gender: B

Age bracket: 2

Who are you kidding, you are there to buy beer, vodka and jack Daniels.  Maybe pizza.

6

Racial type or country of origin: A or B, sometimes C. But always A and D

Biological gender: A

Age bracket: 2 or 3

Summer, shorts, thin top, please go to the ice cream aisle or the cold produce section, please.

The Religion of Dessert

Alt title. How to craft a poor metaphor of religion using dessert.

It's unlikely you will like this, it's probably a waste of time, and most of my statistics are overly generalized.

It's also way to long and verbose.

If you know me, it's rare I have dessert, I have seen far too many bad examples of what it does to people and I know myself well enough that it is easier to avoid it and believe in the concept as opposed to the specific thing.

In all likelihood, 95% of the planet believes in dessert in some form or another.  Around 05% of the planet doesn't accept the concept of dessert, and that's ok.  The downside is there are people in the dessert believers and non believers that go out of their way to shove that dessert or lack thereof down your throat.

Don't be like those people.

It is probably healthy for what we are as a mostly modified monkey with a smart phone to accept that concept that dessert is valid and also just as healthy to work on that belief internally.  It's ok to find people with like or similar dessert proclivities and share in that revelry.  It brings us closer by doing so. I think that is a good thing.

Personally I find those that refute the acceptance of dessert as rather smug.  Same with vegans, they love to give you their opinion when you didn't ask for it.

Of the 95% of people that believe in dessert, probably 75% of them spend most of their time focusing on ice cream as their favored type of after dinner treat.  That really isn't to say that pie or cake are bad or wrong, but in the dessert spectrum, it's just less people.  Ice cream has many varieties and off shoots, but overall it is a road that goes east and west regardless of the flavor.

In the western world the prevalent belief is that vanilla ice cream is the only true dessert and all others are mistaken in their preference.  I tend to think this is rather limiting, but I also don't like to get involved in the discussion and lack of tangible facts to back up my belief over anyone else's.  Vanilla ice cream is kind of boring, but it's safe and easy to palette.

There is a very large segment of the planet that believes chocolate ice cream is the only true dessert and all others are wrong.  Within this sect there are some purists that believe that the only way to even accept chocolate ice cream as the only true dessert is if it is made by hand, outside, with only one process to make it, that is not subject to change or cannot be updated based on technology or the evolution of our species.  Many of these people are very militant about their chocolate ice cream and become very angry if their version of the receipt is questioned.

I think that is unhealthily on many levels.  Many of those same believers in chocolate ice creams are also really good people that get a bad name because of the more militant and less flexible of their group.  They also need to deal with this internally and rent really doing so. But that is a story for another day, or never.

Within the vanilla world, there is some chocolate chip, some French vanilla, some dairy free vanilla and even some things added to the vanilla to make it more interesting.  But ultimately, vanilla ice cream is still vanilla ice cream.  At one point a long time ago someone updated the recipe and that caused a split with the various vanilla factions.  Out of that came mint chip and it's still ultimately ok as a dessert.  For some reason a whole lot of the rest of the planet hates those that prefer mint chip.  I have never figured that out.  I actually really like mint chip.

A few people in the vanilla and mint chip groups are purists also and demand things like dairy free ice cream, all natural ingredients and some other things that complicate it as a way of life in a modern world.  There are even those that refuse to allow their ice cream to be made by machines as it dilutes the purity of the belief.  I think that is extreme, but no one listens to me.

Again, fine.  As long as you balance out your desserts with other parts of your life and diet, it's probably a good thing.  Moderation seems to be a prevalent theme.

In the last 50 or so years there have been some strange pie factions. A few fruit cup factions and some things that are hard to classify as dessert.  But I don't really get involved as long as there is balance and they cause no harm among consenting adults.

The problem being is when we get different people of different dessert preferences in the same place, they can't agree on the concept of dessert being valid, they have to fight, and in some cases to the death that their version is the only true dessert and to question that is asking to die.

I truly don't understand that at all.

Because of that level of inflexibility, we currently don't coexist well when mixing me matching our dessert talk.  It will eventually be our downfall.  I have a lot of thoughts on that.

The leaders, or self proclaimed leaders of the various ice cream movements are also not flexible at all.  They love to preach there is but one and only one true dessert and only They know what it is, hence you are wrong.  And for some reason, we sit back and let them hijack our after dinner sweet feast.

I don't think it's important to be so specific as to which dessert you believe it, be that ice cream or pie, I tend to think if you use it for positive thing, helping others and finding a way to better yourself and your world, then it is just overall a good thing.

You also can smile quietly with your belief and let the world turn as it does.  All the time knowing that what awaits you after dessert is a good thing and not a horrible thing.

Captain America - Civil War

When watching captain America civil war I noticed one important thing.

None of the bad guys can shoot a gun to save their life and Kung fu is a great technique to learn to dodge bullets. And of course, jumping from moving cars to other moving cars is quite easy.

Don't get me started on the dumbnosity of ant mans suit.  It breaks a few rules of mass and science and stuff.

Is Thor an actual god, or is he really more like superman and just derives his powers from a white sun or something?

Because if he is an actual god, I suspect he would win more fights.  And of course how can he be a god with our very restrictive Judaeo Christian mind set and lack of flexibility thereof.

And speaking of Natalie Portman... I'll be in my bunk.

Diversity on TV

If people actually cared about the statistical relevance of representing diversity on TV we would need to change out around 40% of all current people and add in someone from china or India.  We would also need to change out 90% of everyone else because they are at our below their body mass index, unlike 90% of the rest of us watching the show.

And everyone on TV has perfect skin and teeth.  Unlike reality.

TV and the movies are about entertainment, so I get it.It's just a bit of a lie and pandering and has nothing to do with actual statistical diversity. Like duh.

How the Electrical College works, kind of...

And sarcastic and way too long

And a really poorly framed explanation full of typos.

I want to spend a moment and try to explain why the popular vote and people that continue to say that the guy with the strange hair didn't win the election or because he didn't get more popular votes that makes him not the president, and why that is stupid.

First off, our system of how we elect the president has been around a long time.  That doesn't make it right.  What that makes it is real and if the people we elect haven't changed it, we are guilty vicariously by doing nothing about it for it being in existence.

Which means, stop electing people that don't represent your needs.  But that's another story altogether.  It's like saying "it hurts when I go like this", and you keep going like that.

The second piece is that to change how we elect the president it takes a constitutional convention and that means a lot of other crazy stuff that 94.2% of you have no idea how much crazy could really happen.  Again, but that's another story.  Look up prohibition and the repeal of prohibition. It's a fun read.

So for a moment, assume the electoral college process of how we elect a president has a bunch of rules, which it does.  So does football (go raiders).

When you play the game, you play based on these rules.  Some of the rules are simple.  The field is so many yards wide and so many yards long and there are goal posts on either end.

Ideally you all grasp this concept. And the rules functionally don't change in this regard and never have as far as any of us remember.

The teams strategy is based in part on the size of the playing field.  It doesn't matter who plays, or where they play, the field doesn't change dimensions.

When the teams play their strategy is based on getting the oblong leather thingy from one side of this field to the other with a set number of attempts and consequences for doing or not doing this.

If one team scores and the other doesn't, the number of fans in the stadium doesn't matter and the time of possession of the oblong leather thingy is irrelevant.

No matter how good your team is, or who cheers for you or has an opinion on your merits, the game is decided by rules and determined by the players strategy given those rules.

If one team makes lots of field goals and the other team makes touch downs, again, the number, or net of the points determines who gets to pour sugar based water with electrolytes onto their coaches head after the zebra looking man shoots the gun into the air ending the game.

Hence, the entire game is predicated on a series of strategies based on the rules and the strategy within those rules to make more numbers appear on the electronic thingy than the other team.

The electoral college is the same basic concept.  It has rules.  The candidates know these rules and they base their strategy around the rules and then they campaign to get more points than the other team based on these rules.

This is an important distinction to remember.  It isn't the type of points that it takes to win, it's the total number of points and these are based on how the team is able to get across the fake green grass quickly.

If the football people tomorrow said they didn't like the outcome of the game and randomly said tomorrow the field is 10 yards wide and 500 yards long and having more fans in the stadium than the other team was a factor in winning; guess what would happen?

You guessed it, the teams would change their strategy.  The game would change.  The entire perspective of the fans would change. In essence, the outcome may be the same, but the plays would be different.

The same goes with politicians.  If the election was based on the popular vote they would campaign differently.  Realistically this means they would spend 80% of their time campaigning on the west coast, the east coast and the southern coasts of the country.

Why you ask?

Well it's simple, that's where the majority of people are.  No one would care about Iowa or Kansas because there aren't enough people to make a difference in the popular vote. So they would be ignored.  Two cities on either coast would be worth more than five or six small states.

And herein lies the rub, then the candidates functionally ignore around 60% of the country because it's a waste of resources to campaign there.  This is also 60% of the country that is farm land.  And it turns out farmers make food and we eat food.  So we don't always want to ignore them, unless they are vegan organic kale farmers, we can ignore them.

For a moment, ask yourself what makes up the senate and what makes up the House of Representatives.

The senate is simple.  Two senators per state, regardless of the states population.  This way every state has an equal say in part of how laws are made or not made.

The house on the other hand has x number of representatives from each state based on population.  Which means it's a popularity based system that makes states with lots of people have more say than smaller states for the stuff the house does in regard to how laws are made.

And the really smart people that came up with this system decided that to get stuff passed you needed a certain type of agreement from the people in the senate and a certain type of agreement from the people in the house.  In this way laws would be based on part to what each state has an opinion on equally and what each state has an opinion on based on the number of people in the state.

I realize I lost almost everyone at this point.  But it's important to grasp this.

The campaign for president is won by a system that already exists as a model in congress to a certain extent.  It is intended to ensure that all states have a say and that places with lots of people don't dictate terms to everyone else.

In a place like California democrats control the electoral college.  It's mostly a waste of time for a republican to campaign there.  This is further proven that the few million popular votes cast for the old cranky white guy made no difference what so ever because all of the electoral college votes went to the angry old white woman. So when you complain about votes not counting, a few million people in California and even in New York voted we're completely ignored because of the system.  Yes, that means millions of people voted and had zero representation in our current and most recent election.

If you don't like the rules, you change them.  You also must grasp the concept of unintended consequences to what it means to open up a constitutional convention. Which no one really ever thinks about.  Some day I will go into that, because it would be fun, but no one would actually read it, just like no one is reading this now. I like kittens and boobs.

Then take a moment and ask yourself why you keep re-electing the same people into congress when they are never really held accountable to you or anyone else and they make the rules.

So you end up blaming the Russians, the media, a monkey and an organ grinder that sings fake news and you never look to yourself as to what you are doing to change it.

Hence, the president is the president, doesn't matter if you like it or not.

The campaign was won and lost based on existing strategies on how the game is played given rules that exist that we don't bother to change and the politicians don't change because it effects them also. 

And claiming that the president isn't the president because of the popular vote is kind of stupid because it assumes some really lame fallacies about how the election works and doesn't work within the given set of rules.

In in summary, micro robotics are the future.

Implementation Story: Reality vs. A Great Presentation

A long time ago when I got my first real promotion that allowed me to actually make decisions and influence projects and people I found out the hard way the difference between reality and a great presentation.

I worked for a large company that did healthcare stuff. My particular area was more non-clinical patient focused. This translates into billing, customer service, scheduling and other stuff that deals with the patient.

We used a few different computer systems. One for billing, one for scheduling, one for follow up, something to route inbound calls and something to make outbound calls. There was a lot of other stuff done and the detail should be included, but I don’t want this to get too technical or boring.

A computer system we had been using for a few years was going to be replaced. We had a few hundred people on the system and we had been doing this process for many years.

The CEO and IT director found a vendor that had a product that would solve all of our worldly problems for around $500k. Services were discussed, hardware defined, contracts sent, edited and sent back for a few months. I found out this was pretty typical for the time.

During those few months myself and around eight other people from various parts of the company were tasked to come up with how we actually implement this and integrate it with what we did. The end result was to be a colorful slide show, user documentation, policies, procedures, charts, graphs and generally speaking a lot of paperwork that would be handed out.

I was kind of excited about this at the time. It was my first chance to do something that would not only make a difference, but would be a thing, that if it worked, I would receive some form of acknowledgement for my contribution.

I went out of my way to learn as much as I could about the new product, how it worked, what it could do, what we did now and why we did it. I spent a lot of hours researching this.

Eventually we get down to the last week before our presentation was due. It would be for pretty much all executive management, senior management and for the most part all operational management for all of our offices nationwide.

The eight of us got into our conference room with stacks of paper surrounding us. We had the last nineteen versions of the documentation out with all the redlines and revisions. In our minds we had created a better mousetrap than had ever been seen before. We knew the CFO at the time demanded high quality color slides as handouts and didn’t care about the cost. They just had to be perfect. No typos, all the same color and printed on a specific bright type of paper. We spent hundreds of dollars printing and re-printing things.

On what we thought was our last final-final version of this we sent out for more stuff to be printed and brought back to us for review.

The clerical person at the time, Mayra came back into the conference room with our final batch of paper and put it on the table. A few of us in the brain trust were talking about how this new technology was going to enhance what we were doing and push us into the 21st century. We kept saying how this technology was going to change our results and improve everything. We were going to be heroes.

We had taken all of our existing processes and worked the new technology into them.

Mayra starts passing around the stacks of paper and colorful printouts and asked me one question “What are you doing different {with the new technology}?”

I sat there for a moment and wanted to tell her about all the new pretty lights the computer had. I wanted to tell her about the real-time monitoring of staff we could do. I wanted to tell her about the auto chart function that would print out really nice charts every morning to show what we did the prior day. I was really excited to tell her the screens were larger and you could move windows around because it wasn’t the old AS400 green screen. But I didn’t say anything. I just sat there looking at her and looking at the piles of paper we had lying about. We probably were responsible for the clear cutting of 42 acres of the rainforest with all the paper we printed and were going to throw away.

Mayra gave me this strange look and said one thing that I will never forget “If that’s the way you have always done it, then it is probably wrong.” And she walked out of the door.

The lightning bolt from mount Olympus struck me. It hit one or two other people that heard her also.

We sat there dumbfounded with the simplicity of what she said and how utterly completely off the mark we had been.

Time stopped for me. I didn’t hear anything but the echoes in my head of Mayra saying “If that is the way you have always done it, then it is probably wrong.”

We had taken a $500k investment, the time, energy and collective brain power of eight different people and had managed to replicate what we were already doing for years past just with a new machine.

Nothing was going to change other than our charts, graphs and big monitors on our desk. Nothing at all.

Our entire presentation was based on the concept that we were going to do the same thing we did yesterday and expect a different result. A definition of insanity comes to mind as I recall that moment.

I didn’t really say anything that day and the people that had the same feeling as I did also remained quiet. We went home and just wondered what happened and how we missed this. How did one random clerical person have the forethought to ask this and none of us did.

The next meeting a few of us decided to broach this subject with the rest of the group. As expected there was a lot of resistance from a few people because so much work had gone into this. I pulled out our old processes and paper work and taped them to the wall. I put up our new colorful processes and paperwork on the wall and in the middle I wrote on a piece of paper “What Changed?”

After a short amount of debate on our various states of denial we all agreed, nothing changed. We didn’t re-create the wheel, we just shined up the old one and called it new at the cost of $500k.

In essence what we did was take new technology and we made a really great presentation that had nothing to do with reality. We made no improvements in our processes, we didn’t change any staffing expectations. Our work flow was almost exactly the same. Other than shiny pieces of paper and new computer monitors we were going to do the exact same thing. There is more detail behind this, but you probably get the idea.

Ever since that time I have made it a point to start out any meeting that I was part of with the quote from Mayra. If you don’t start the implementation conversation with the basic question of “What changes?” then you may end up doing the exact same thing you did yesterday.

“If that’s the way you have always done it, then it is probably wrong.”

Some take away points

• Ask what is changing. If the answer is nothing, then why are you doing this?
• Start with the end in mind. How does this look when it is done?
• What are the current benchmarks and what are they going to be six months after implementation?
• Accept that you will make mistakes and bad assumptions along the way, but learn from them.
• Listen to everyone about the process. It might be the one clerical person that shows you the light.

When did we lose track of how to hire qualified and available people?

Alt Title: Your applicant screening process is probably causing you pain, and you don't know it.

Long ago in the dark ages when people applied for a job they filled out an application or sent in a résumé’. It was a simple process that involved paperwork and time. It wasn’t efficient for the most part; but it involved human interaction. 

Someone applied. Someone looked at that application and someone made a decision and ideally we communicated that to the person that actually took the effort to apply with us. We interacted.

At some point computers came into the world and we collectively found that efficiency was a good thing and we embraced the concept of it. It was a means to an end. After that we created systems and programs to accept electronic applications and we built data bases to store people in an electronic format.

We reduced staff from the overhead needed to hire people and in some cases we retained new vendors to outsource this exciting function to.

We celebrated our successes and didn’t notice that our interaction with applicants dropped substantially and all of a sudden we no longer had our finger on the pulse of the labor pool of qualified candidates. Whoops!

Overall it was a good move; it just got out of control and no one knows how to stop it now.

What grew from our good intentions were layers and layers of application processes, knock-out questions, screening questions, data gathering items and a plethora of other things that we thought made it better for us. Or did it?

What we forgot was how difficult we made it for a person to apply for a job. We made it difficult to fill our own positions.

We love to tout our Human Capital, our Employee Appreciation Programs, our Living Assets, or Most Prized Gifts, our Staff. What we don’t do is make it easy to get new and energetic applicants because our screening process has ruled out qualified people if they click the wrong button, if one of their answers doesn’t fall into our black and white database of acceptable responses. We closed the door before they could knock.

We tend to forget that the average applicant has to complete one of these arduous online applications for each company they are interested in. They have to create a new account, new user names, new passwords, fill out the same information and usually complete another application, again and again. We force them to spend time and they know that it is unlikely anyone will ever tell them what is actually going on outside of an emotionless and canned email the system sends them.

Yes, I am aware, some companies use the same vendor so the repetitive nature of this does not apply in all cases. But, go ahead and test this theory and ask someone in your next interview how much time they spent just filling out applications online to never actually hear from a real human. You probably will be more surprised than you think.

There is some analogy about the forest and the trees that may apply. Who knows…

I know this wave is the moment and of the future. It can also be fixed if we take action.

But we control how we use the tool. We control how we accept or reject online applications, and if you don’t know how it is done now, you simply aren’t seeing all of the qualified people applying for your positions. This is a problem waiting to rear its head.

Take a risk, contact people. Network through human interaction to locate qualified staff. By-pass some of the technology you have embraced. The upside is simple, your success can only improve.

If nothing else, the above rambling should be some snack for thought.

Why your Employer of Choice Program Fails, Again

Pretty much every company I have worked for has gone through that phase where someone goes to a seminar or hears some speaker talk about being the employer of choice and being the best you can be or some other inane catch phrase.

Usually the CEO or HR director hears about it and listens to how great and wonderful it is and uses his executive power for the good of everyone and starts the program without any clue of what it really means and how to make this a positive impact to the employees and the company.

For around 95% of you within six months it has been forgotten or it simply failed and was left to rot next to the TPS reports, never to be seen again.

Why does this happen you ask yourself? If you don’t ask that question, please stop reading now. This isn't for you.

Simple, in short it is a stupid idea.

Don’t get me wrong, in some cases it works and it works really well. Those companies are also all of the case examples given and the other 95% of them are hidden away like last year’s dirty laundry.

Now before you click next or bail out on me, let me give some disclaimers and perspective.

First off, if you are in any level of management you need a healthy level of cynicism. I said a healthy level. If you have too much, you shoot down any new or progressive idea. If you have too little you accept anything new and shiny as the next best thing blindly running into the light with no regard for fact, reality or impact.

In theory if you have any common sense you should use it to evaluate everything that is coming down the road or will be implemented soon. Who are we kidding, no implementation goes 100% smooth but if you learn from your mistakes they tend to get better to the point where the problems or issues are negligible. This is growth.

Second point, you really are part of the problem or part of the solution. There is no standing by when someone is paying you to do a thing and ideally improve on that whenever possible. When you hit a plateau what you don’t realize is through entropy alone you are sliding back down.

A boss of mine a long time ago (Bill Specht) told me some fantastic advice that I try to teach everyone I can. It was basic; “Do at least one thing better today than you did yesterday and understand why.”

Brilliant.

The hidden subtext to that logic is to constantly evaluate what you do, why you do it and the tasks you undertake to get the results you are paid to complete. If you don’t like that version, than this works, activity equals tasks, tasks equal results, if the activity doesn’t equal the results you are doing something wrong or you are inefficient or clueless.

Back to the point. Long ago I worked for this rather large company that had a new program called Target 100. The essence of this program was everything should be at 100%. Employee satisfaction, 100%. Customer satisfaction, 100%. Employee retention, 100%. You get the idea. It sounded fantastic on paper.

So what did the company do? Pretty much the opposite of anything logical or anything that made sense.

They hired marketing people. They created focus groups. They created committees that would report to other committees. They had the CFO go to a committee of customer service staff so he could take notes on the results of the questionnaire from another committee and bring it to the executive management committee that would review the progress of all the committees and set up new agendas and tasks for them for their meeting next month and new questionnaires.

They made signs. They made banners. There were branded coffee mugs, shirts were made, stickers printed, flyers sent out, memos written and edited and re-written. They went crazy selling a product that didn't exist.

At the time I was lower-mid-level management and I just sat on the sidelines and watched and participated in my various committees. I was cynical and didn't know it until later.

We had bagel day, employee appreciation day, wear your Hawaiian shirt day. Monday was free coffee day. You get the point. We celebrated days. We celebrated Posters. We celebrated memos.

A few weeks into this the employee surveys came back glowing. People loved their job. Their boss was wonderful. The banners were printed and would shine like a beacon of hope. The coffee mugs were brimming with fresh brew and not that old cheap stuff they were buying for years before.

And then reality struck. Some rocket scientist decided to check the outcomes (I don’t officially want to say that was me, but it was me). For some of you this is sales, for some it is units moved, for some it is patient’s admitted, or calls processed, however it comes down to one thing or another. What was happening with production, efficiency and cost?

Guess what changed. Very little. The key metrics went up, don’t get me wrong. There was positive movement at the line staff level. But it really wasn't very much. Something that wasn't measured was not only the actual cost of this, which was a lot, not the extra time spent by management that could have been allocated to anything better, it was really the ROI on the short term versus the ROI on the long term.

Basically, to get a 04% improvement in things it would cost x dollars and require y commitment from management that would be OK, if, and only if the improvement increased or stayed the same and the cost and commitment decreased over time to compensate for the rollout of this panacea.

Fast forward a few months later. Performance not only went back to its original number, it was below it. No one in any of the executive committees could figure this out. What was wrong with the employees? Why did performance (or key metrics) get worse after the rollout of this program? It was viewed as impossible. The talk at the executive committees was basically that the employees were flawed as a group.

I laughed to myself for weeks about this. They missed the forest through the trees. No amount of committee meetings, banners, handouts or corporate cheerleaders were going to alter one undeniable fact that all of them missed.

When you looked at the entire program from the point of view of the employee this is what they saw.

They got treated really well for a while. Bagels and coffee were brought in. There were lots of shiny new banners. People asked them lots of questions. They were happy. Then it stopped. So they reverted back to their usual habits with just enough bitterness to equate to a reduction in performance for a short period of time that would eventually go back to where it was. Or there was a net loss of performance compared to the cost of the program.

Net of the story. The program failed for one reason and one reason alone. In the mind of the employee nothing changed.

Guess what. This is what most companies do. The colors may change, the bagels may be gluten free, the coffee may be a different brand and the banners may be written Comic Sans.

Some take-away points about why this failed.

1) The process wasn't about the employee it was about statistics, meetings, committees and questionnaires

2) Communication wasn't real. It was propaganda and cheerleading. People see through that really quickly

3) No amount of bagel, coffee or random handout is going to change anyone’s perspective much past that day

4) Management was burned out with all the required follow up and it was clear to everyone

5) The culture of the company didn’t change. So the program was destined to fail.

I could leave you with the reality of this and no advice, but that would be rather boring. I will try to summarize some advice on how you can make these types of things successful. Now it is up to you to figure out what you want. Success versus really nice Power Point presentations and shiny banners.

1) Any company that needs to advertise to internal staff that they want to be the best employer around and they start a program like this has missed the forest through the trees.

2) Communicate honestly with people. Stop the propaganda. Stop the news letters that are thrown away as soon as they are sent. Be honest.

3) If your senior management isn’t 100% behind this and willing to leave their ivory tower to go out among the unwashed masses, no program on the planet will work.

4) Get rid of negative employees. It doesn't matter if they are top performers, management or the director of HR. Get rid of them. Negativity is always much worse than you know.

5) Don’t be afraid to get rid of people that do not fit the culture, the corporate need, the customer need or whatever. You lose more by keeping them around then they are worth.

6) Reward people with genuine and honest appreciation when they go above and beyond the call of duty. For you senior management people, take someone out to lunch that you have never met that is a star employee once per month. Don’t talk, listen. You will gain more credibility here with the staff than probably all the casual days combined.

7) Don’t be a hypocrite. Your reputation is destroyed if you live in the Do As I Say, But Not As I Do World. You deserve your earned accolades, but keep them quiet. If you spent 01% of your bonus (or that equivalent of company money) on buying name brand bottled water for your employees (and not the cheap knock off stuff) and had it waiting on their desk in the morning with a card that said “Thank you” I guarantee you would get substantially more back than your 01% cost just in the performance improvement of your staff.

8) Walk amongst the people. Spend a few hours per month and walk around and talk to people. A great CEO from long ago (Arnie Robin) used to do this. He was loved by the masses and all he had to do was be friendly and listen.

9) Remember people like money, but are motivated by loyalty and will stay in a job they love for less money than go to a place that basically ignores them for a 10% raise.

10) Ask people that do the activity that equates to the task that yields the result that becomes a piece of your bottom line how to improve things. For the love of all that you are or are not, talk to the people that do the work every day.

An Ancient Riddle: Is it Red Meat or White Meat

Sometimes you need to find humor at work. Sarcasm warning.

So me and Dave (not his real name to protect his true identity) are installing computers in the area across the hall. In my new job as flunkie boy / clerical / mail merge expert / paper sorter / wanna-be-IT-guy, I get to do lots of stuff (read: because they pay me dirt and its the only job I can get that even pays this much).

Anyway, so Dave and I are installing computers, patching them up, loading software, deleting old dead accounts from the machines, removing roaming profiles that we don't know what they actually do to begin with other than take up ram and slow things down, and other related things that involve crawling on the floor, plugging in cables and avoiding the trash people let accumulate under their desk. This was clearly not our ideal job of loading those ultra spy web cams they advertise on the interweb to take secret pictures of supermodels that work in your office, but it is what it is.

When out of no where we over hear Bob say "Sorry, I gave up red meat for lent".

We both snicker a little at the ancient ritual and make some comment about sacrificing a virgin would be so much more fun. And by sacrifice I mean just attempt to find one, fail at that, then go get beers at a strip club and look at chicks would be a better ritual than whatever this lent thing was.

We get done with the first phase of the computer stuff and Dave says to me, "Dude, what is red meat and what is white meat?". I say, you know, I don't know, lets go ask Bob. Dave and I are thrill seekers as you can already tell. We are like Chuck Norris of the IT world.

We find an excuse to go ask Bob some inane question about computers and his departments needs for software which we have no intention of actually doing anything because all of these issues are decided by someone else to begin with. (sorry we have a cruel streak some days).

So we walk over towards Bob's general direction and drop the bomb "Bob, you know, I've always wanted to know what is the difference between Red meat and White meat?" we asked.

Bob being very proud of his convictions, and generally being a nice guy says, "well...Red meat walks the planet, as god intended it to do and White meat flies in the air or swims in the oceans". For the briefest of moments we pause at the pearl of wisdom just bestowed upon us. The sun shined brighter, the clouds opened up, the universe revealed itself to us.

We thank Bob for his time and input on the computer needs and slither back to our side of the building. We decided that Bob meant any body of water, either moving or not when he said oceans, because if not that would rule out lakes, rivers and fjords. And we cant have that. No one puts Fjords in the corner!

Some time passes and Dave says to me. Well didnt they call pork "The Other White Meat" (TM) in some advertising campaign a few years ago. I said, I believe that to be true. Dave says, but pork is from a pig, and a pig walks the earth, as god intended, so doesnt that make it Red meat?

We had a conundrum on our hands, and it could blow the top off of this whole issue. This was serious business now. We needed some serious answers. It was time to put our collective brains together and get to the bottom of this fiasco. We were on a mission. With our combined brain capacity, no problem was too small, or too large, but that doesnt matter. The mission was all that was important.

I countered, with chickens. Chickens, technically have wings, but they really don't fly. They kind of flap around, but they walk the earth more than anything else. We both decided that perching in a tree did not constitute flying, so clearly chickens walked the earth, as god intended. Or at a minimum used to fly and either got lazy and decided to walk and their wings stopped working or god punished them. Regardless of the religious ramifications or our personal dogma, we declared that chickens walked the earth, as god intended. Which in turn requires they be red meat.

Clearly this was a problem. Chicken is either white meat, dark meat, or buffalo wings with lots of hot sauce (and ideally served by 21 year old college females in Orange shorts, but that is another story all-together). We were taken aback by this new perspective. Chicken is Red Meat. Which was tantamount to saying Soylent Green is People. How can this be...

Dave, being the ever quick one replies to my chickens with Ducks. He says, they fly, they swim and they walk the earth, as god intended. So what are they?

Wow, that one stumped me. Is their meat color determined by a majority percentage of which domain they spend the most time in. And from there, if they migrate, from one lake to another does the flying time during migration really count towards flying, because their intention is to go to another lake to swim. We briefly mentioned Canadian geese, but decided that if we cant nail down ducks, there is no way we can get to canadian geese. There could be ramifications with international law for even attempting to involve the canadian geese. Immigration reform did not account for Canadian geese. We didn't want to mix our religion with our politics, especially at work.

After many long seconds of contemplation, we voted that ducks swim the oceans (or lakes to be specific), which would make them white meat and flying was an incidental aspect of their need to be in the oceans (or lakes). And walking was only a by product of getting out of the water to eat so they could go back in the water. The closer for ducks was the aged analogy "like water off a ducks back". Clearly, ducks swam the oceans and were thusly white meat.

This seemed to be a huge problem as we had previously thought of chickens and ducks as equals in the grand scheme of things. It was a sad day when we realized that was no longer possible. Segregation and discrimination was also part of the animal kingdom. We hung our heads low with shame.

Well, not to be undone, I said Manatee. Dave said, sorry, clear cut answer, white meat, swims in the oceans. I knew in my heart, that manatee (the sea cow) should be red meat, but the logic would not break, they swim in the oceans, hence, they must be white meat. We didn't even go into the part where the manatee is truly an aggressive creature and attacks recreational boaters just trying to have a good time.

Dave gleefully dropped the bomb, Platypus. I was like a deer in the headlights, stuck in a space time continuum, the matrix was failing, blood leaving my head, i felt faint. They swim, they walk, they lay eggs. My god (no pun intended), what are they. I was stumped. Even Dave didn't know what the answer was. It has probably taken scholars hundreds of years to figure this out, but since Dave and I only had 10 minutes before lunch, we went into overdrive. We decided that the sole determining factor for the platypus must be flippers. No one in their right mind would walk the earth, as god intended with flippers, so by default, they must be white meat.

It was approaching lunch, and we had successfully wasted a solid 15 minutes and felt proud of our vast knowledge base of world facts, animal husbandry and theology. Later in the day we would attempt to resolve other creatures to ensure they were properly categorized. We had to have answers. This was one rock that would be overturned and the light of the truth would shine on it until it relented.

It was issues like this that upper management paid us what they did so we would gleefully return each and every day and crawl under desks to check cat5e cable and remove viruses from the accounting guys computer.

Our short list for future discussions included

Emus
Penguins
Those crazy monkeys in Japan that sit in the hot water springs with snow on their head
Those lizard things on the island where that Darwin guy went that swim and walk the land
Lobsters and crabs (because they don't swim, they walk)
and snakes

epilogue: We still haven't figured out snakes, because they have no feet to walk the land, and they can swim and some actually live in the oceans.

Work Stories, or how to survive in middle management without going insane.

---(from 2007)

So in my new job I need to evaluate a few departments to see if they are doing what they are supposed to do.  I kind of like doing this, it’s like getting paid to solve problems.  The downside is you have to then actually deal with the people that are the cause of most of the problems.

Three ways to figure this out what a given person or department is actually doing:

1) Walk around and get an idea of how it looks and what they are doing.

This one works only so much as people are on their best behavior when I walk around and go back to facebook when I am gone.

2) Ask the supervisors and managers what is going on.

Kind of like #1, this one only works part of the time because as soon as I walk away, they go back to facebook, twitter, pinterest or something even less interesting.

3) Ask the department that does report writing and data mining for statistics of what people did the prior day.

I like this one because I know the system, I know how to write the code to get the information. I can read the code and ultimately it provides more objective information on staff performance.

So I do #1 and #2 a few times and get what I expect. Smiles and lies as I like to say, smiles and lies (mind you I am somewhat cynical).

So to get the reports done I send an email to the person in charge of the report writers and say I need a report of all the "Stuff" people did yesterday.  In this scenario stuff is like moving the dreaded widget from the left conveyor belt to the right conveyor belt.  The code is pretty easy to write, but time consuming enough that they have dedicated people that do.

So I send the email out and the day starts with the glass being half full.

Dear report writing manager, please get me a summary of the people in department x and all the stuff they did yesterday (I will omit the technical jargon, it’s really boring).

No response for a few hours.

I walk over to the office of the manager in charge of the report writing people, she isn’t there. I am told she is gone for a while, with no definition what-so-ever as to how long “Gone for a while” actually means.  No big deal, I’m management, so I’ll just forward the request to the person that actually does the report and copy all the people that need to know, including the manager that is gone for a while on an extended coffee break; she loves her coffee. 

Seems pretty basic in my overly simplistic mind.

I forward the email to the guy that does the report writing.

Dear guy that does the report writing, your boss isn’t here, can you run me a report of the stuff for the people in department x for what they did yesterday, as you know this information is only good for one day.  Thanks, signed me.

He responds, sure, I’ll get on that. I respond thanks again.

Life is good I say to myself.

An hour later the person that is in charge of that department sends me a terse little email, she evidently just got back from her second coffee break.

Dear Dickhead {not my real name}, please send all report requests to me directly. I don’t want to bog down the people that do the reports.  I need to evaluate all requests and prioritize them.

I respond, sure, you weren’t there and I need it for a report for our mutual boss and a few others (and I have the right to get it without having to ask permission is kind of a larger unsaid truth).

An hour goes by.

I get my report, it isn’t really what I asked, it’s half of what I asked.  It answered the question of how many widgets were taken off of the left conveyor but didn’t say anything else. It’s half valid, so it’s worthless to me.

So I respond back to the guy that sent it to me, and copy all the other people he copied. I say:

Dear guy that writes reports, can I get the other half of the information I asked, thanks I really appreciate your help.

A few minutes later I get a terse little response from the manager of that department

Dear f*cktard {again, not my real name}, as I stated previously, please send all report requests to me directly to review.

I'm not so happy about this one.

I respond:

Dear person that runs the report writing department, I copied you as you can see, I simply asked to get my original report completed nothing new here, as you can tell by the email history below.

I sense a disturbance in the force coming...

She responds

Dear Asshat {you know the drill, not my real name}, If you don’t want my opinion, or that of my staff, please let me know, so I can document this appropriately and follow up with the director of the place that both of us report to. We will have your information tomorrow at 9:00 am thanks (and I think there was some hidden text about me dying in a fire she omitted, not sure).

By tomorrow the stuff from today will be outdated, so I will need a new request and she knows that.

I decide that I don’t want to get into this battle and I just begrudgingly run the thing myself.  I learned a valuable lesson this fine day, never underestimate the power of angry people that are in charge of the report writing department.

Right after I got done I made sure to change her entire coffee supply for the next three months to de-cafe since I was in charge of that and she wasn’t.  A wry smile was seen as I left for the drive home.

Yellow rooms

Since as far back as I can remember, I don't like being in yellow rooms.  And when I mean yellow, I mean pretty much every shade and hue of yellow. 

I get this strange sense of unease and prefer not to be in them.

It isn't really a big deal, it's more of a preference. 

The odd thing about it is I don't know why. 

I haven't had any traumatic experience in a yellow room, I was never held hostage by pastel terrorists nor have any oomph-loompas threatened to withhold candy from me if I didn't spend an hour staring at yellow walls. 

Hence, I assume it's aliens or the CIA or the Russians that caused this. 

Politics, the New York Times and the Clintons

Politics - Disclaimer

Forgetting the New York Times article (link below) is a little slanted, they are still on point.

http://nypost.com/2017/04/22/why-cant-the-clintons-just-go-away/

I don't like the clintons and never have. I really don't like hilliary and never will. She is arrogant and has a sense of entitlement that is offensive to my common sense. She was not owed the presidency. She lost because of her abject narcissism.

She has functionally never held a non-public service job and is worth a billion dollars now, and as a democrat, I would like to know how. Seriously, I would like to know how.

You want to know something, I want to see her taxes for the past ten years. It will never happen.

But that isn't the point. The point is simple.

Stop re-electing the same people over and over. You want to know why we are in the mess we are in. Its because we, yes WE keep putting the same exact people into power. WE refuse to change what WE do and WE don't like the outcome of OUR decisions.

It truly has become our insanity to stay in an abusive relationship with someone that doesn't love us and constantly cheats on us and steals our money in the morning and promises us that they wont do it again tomorrow, and we are easily conned.

I think this of both republicans and democrats. It is just the same thing at the end of the day, regardless of who we elect. I wont lie, cheat or steal, and guess what...

So, stop. Seriously, just stop voting for the people that are not the other other people. It is beyond stupid at this point.

Get out of the idea of blame for a moment and look at cause and effect.

Example, and probably a lame one. I hope you get the point.

There is a problem in Flint Michigan. It has been there for 20 or 30 years or more. The presidents have changed. Congress has had a few minor swings, but ultimately is the same.

The local government has remained a democratic controlled entity through pretty much the entire tenure and people keep electing the same person, same people, same demographic or same party.

And the problem has gone unanswered. And it isn't a new problem

Yea, blame the president, but which one... It isnt the presidents fault in Flint. Not one of the presidents over the past 20 or 30 years.

The bottom line is the people sold themselves to an ideal. To a promise. To a solution that only worked in theory, but never in practice, because it wasn't a solution, it was a series of blaming someone else as a full time job.

It was a constant circular firing squad of who's fault is it and lets talk about fault and blame and talk about a solution, but focus on blame. Because that means the elected officials dont actually have to do anything.

Guess what, nothing changed. And now its actually bad and will cost the rest of the country a billion dollars to fix.

You want to know what the difference between a CEO and an elected official is. Simple, a CEO can get fired for not doing their job, a politician realistically cant.

The government needs to be run by people that are accountable, not by people that make a living off of talking about fault and blame.

My opinion, fire all of the politicians and hire new ones in Flint.

Now extrapolate that to congress.

We need term limits or we need to be ok with the problem that we keep re-electing year after year.

If you dont like your abusive relationship you leave.

You have free will.

If not, take a double shot of the koolaid and go back to keeping up with the cardashians.

I like kittens

Clarification

If you weren't certain about what I post:

1) Fake news as often as possible, I post based on the title or picture, with an emphasis on extra fake, kittens and scantily clad women

2) If you don't know, then it is sarcastic, if you do know, take it really seriously

3) Irony is a wonderful thing, unless you are scott

4) I may go back to lists, because I can.

5) Need more kittens, boobs and generally speaking, scantily clad women with kittens.

Double standards

I am still not a big fan of trump. I doubt I ever will be. Lets make that clear.

But assume for a moment, every time you make a negative or critical comment about him, his policies, what he says, what he does, how he acts or conducts himself that you have a problem with his actions.

Assume, someone calls you a racist.

Now you get how a whole lot of people got treated when doing the same exact thing to obama

Popcorn

Mom: Do you need anything at the store
Me: No.

Mom: Are you sure?
Me: We don’t have any popcorn, and I know how you like it. So if you buy some I will make it.

Mom: What kind?
Me: Just plain, uncooked, corn kernels. Not a brand, not a type, Nothing special about it. Corn Kernels, for popping...

Mom: Who makes that?
Me: Well kind of no one. Its just uncooked popcorn. Not packaged or sold with flavor or anything else. You know, just raw corn kernels.

Mom: Why don’t I buy the pre-made stuff?
Me: Well you can, but you like it when it is cooked better. You don’t like the fake salt and butter taste.

Mom: But then you have to make it…
Me: Yea, but it’s the way you showed me to make it as a kid. We played with boiling oil, in this archaic kettle kind of thing with open heating tubes set to nuclear temperatures. That’s how we made it.

Mom: Isnt that dangerous?
Me: Well if it is, it was a hundred years ago when you showed us how to make it. Either way, get the one you want. Its for you.

Mom: What happened to the corn popper we used?
Me: Well it either got lost in time, or child protective services took it away when the raided the house because you let us use something that is probably banned in a hundred countries now because it was so unsafe.

Mom: You're not funny
Me: That's odd, child protective services felt sorry for me and laughed at my jokes after the raid...

Mom: So, you just want corn then?
Me: Well yes and no. I want corn kernels that are intended to be put in oil to pop, hence the term “Popcorn”. I dont want anything packaged or pre-made. It defeats the purpose.

Mom: Ok.

A few hour later…

She bought some off brand of Orville Redenboker, Gluten Free-Organic-Low Salt-Dairy safe Buttered, Environmentally concerned, low MSG, High Vitamin C, Pop corn in multi packs.

Mom: I got you the low salt popcorn, you need to cut back at your age.

Me: {Blinks}