politics
i am offended that you are offended
why is everyone so offended all the time? the sweet lil old lady at work was chastized at work for spreading a “racially and politically insensitive email” in which “many did not find humor.” why does everyone take everything so personally?
first of all, the woman at work meant absolutely NO harm by what she forwarded. yes, it was a bad call on her part, but honestly was someone SO offended by what someone like her sent along that they felt it necessary to report her to HR? (granted, they probably needed something to work on other than the health fair…)
i am the only woman in my department. in fact, there are days that i do not see another female for the entirety of the work day. there are plenty of “woman” jokes that i hear that if i were even remotely sensitive may in fact bother me a bit. there are also georgia tech jokes, white jokes, short jokes, blonde jokes, (the list goes on) jokes that i could easily take offense to, but i do not because of the INTENT.
i think that the most offensive “jokes” are the ones that are malicious since most “jokes” have a hint of the truth in them. but when did the world become so politically correct? i offended someone the other day when i referred to MYSELF as “mankind” and i heard someone else correct another person when they said “colored” and not “black.” when i was in high school, i half-heartedly asked my english teacher to refer to me as “european american” if he insisted on continuously saying “african american” while referring to a jamaican (he didn’t get it).
i figured i’d try to pin down why being politically correct was so important. this is from wikipedia:
According to Edna Andrews, using “inclusive” and “neutral” language is based upon the idea that “language represents thought, and may even control thought”; per the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, a language’s grammatical categories shape the speaker’s ideas and actions,although Andrews says that moderate conceptions of the relation between language and thought are sufficient to support the “reasonable deduction” of “cultural change via linguistic change”.
so does that mean that if i am not politically correct, my language defines my perception of culture? and i am, in fact, a male chauvinist because i do not acknowledge “female” PC terms? damn, i thought i had the independent woman thing down. Edna Andrews is an idiot. in some instances, sure, language defines cultural perception. in others, language is part of regional dialect, life experience, and communcation skills. i wonder if i just offended edna andrews. i sure hope so.
the second important thing i’d like to mention is that it is NOT ok to have a double-standard for political correctness. it is NOT ok for a black man to call a white man a “cracker” (the term “cracker” comes from the sound a whip makes…) but it is not ok for a white man to call a black man a “nigga” (”can a nigga borrow a pencil?”) ! it is not ok for jews to make priest jokes, but for catholics to not retort with a joke about being horribly cheap. it seems that in our society, it is ok to pick on the majority, but God forbid you poke a little fun at a minority.
beyond race, i am offended that people are offended that they should stand or say “God” in the pledge of allegiance. this country was founded on the principles of a christian base of politicians. it is because of those people that you have the RIGHT to NOT stand for the pledge, or the national anthem, or anything for that matter. you do not have to respect the symbols of your country, and if you choose not to, you are not punished, nor asked any questions. you have the right to say whatever you want, to write whatever you want, to do (within reason) anything your heart desires. but you cannot respect the country that gave you those rights? why should we change our money? why should we change our pledge? why should we cut out songs like “God Bless America?” we shouldn’t. this is national history, people, not the imposition of religion on every person in this country. if you think it is, you are an arrogant jackass.
are you that easy to offend? are you THAT sensitive to every little nuance and cultural or religious difference in society that the second it is even mentioned that you have to scream like the little kid who got picked on in elementary school? grow a pair. life isn’t easy, and you will not always get your way. plus, most people don’t mean anything being politically incorrect it in the first place, unless of course they down-right, flat-out hate you personally to begin with.
my dad attended a church meeting about five years ago where the elders of the church wanted to add that “diversity” was an extremely important mission and to establish such diversity would be a part of the mission/vision statements for the year. dad’s remark was that by bringing attention to a lack of diversity, the moment that an opportunity presented itself to embrace a member of a minority, so much effort and emphasis would be placed on integration that it would actually be nearly offensive. in a nutshell, here is the scenario: 97% white church has a latino family walk in the front doors for the first time. white church vultures who need to ESTABLISH and CELEBRATE their “diversity” swoop in and shower the latino family with all kinds of attention. latino family leaves thinking “damn, what a bunch of crazy white people. we’re not going back there…” there is a difference between accepting diversity and forcing it. you cannot force diversity. ironically, everyone thought my dad was an ass for saying something like that. turns out he ended up being right.
another situation is actually even at work. all of our engineers are white. all of our lab techs are not. our lab techs think our engineers are a bunch of racists because our engineers try so hard not to seem even remotely racist. isn’t that ridiculous?!
i have no intention of being politically correct. the world is what it is. i am deliberate in my words, and i am pure in intent. i hold no prejudice, i couldn’t care less what color or religion you are. i am angry that it is such a big deal. i am angry that if i voted for mccain then i MUST be a racist. i am angry that racism and politics are now holding hands and are suddenly the same thing. you’re either a democrat or a racist, right? left and racist? white or democrat.
ridiculous.
i am offended that everyone is so offended. get over yourself.
since pacific standard time
first of all, i wish damarius thomas could catch. that would be phenomenal.
secondly, i hate pacific standard time, if that’s even what it is officially called. i feel like i am somehow cheating time, and i refuse to succumb to the clock because when i’m there, i live in the future (eastern standard time). the only thing i love about traveling to the west coast and my time deception is that i get ridiculous amounts of rest. i also dislike the fact that every guy there looks one of two ways: a dark haired emo guy or a hillbilly. i may contemplate moving to seattle, but the true drawback of that is that i dislike the following things:
1. emo men
2. rain
3. cold weather
i unfortunately was not afforded much tourism time in downtown seattle. most of my time was spent either traveling, or 35 feet in the air on a scissor lift in a 35 degree (or less) warehouse cooler. i also realized that i did not come into contact or converse with another person of the same gender as myself in 3 days. such is the joy of being a mechanical design engineer in one of the most male-dominated industries in existence. i don’t mind being around a lot of men - oftentimes i prefer it because men’s lives seem to be must less drama-filled, unless of course a woman enters the picture and drags him down with her. i guess i shouldn’t complain, i’m in a unique position. i just miss having someone to relate to a lot of the time. plus hanging out with contractors and installers all day isn’t exactly a high-society experience. i will say, however, that it is an “experience.” i learned a LOT of new dirty jokes.
i had a very interesting conversation about obama winning the presidential election.
Creative Loafing cover
the comment made was that the election of obama aligns with the prophecies of the book of revelation and the coming of the anti-christ. This stems from an email that circulated in the spring of this year.
The e-mail reads: “According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal….the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything is it OBAMA??”
as a mccain supporter, i’m not entirely sure what to say about this, other than to chuckle a little bit and reaffirm my lack of faith in human-kind. plus, isn’t saying that a politician is deceptive sort of a given?
i’m reading a book called “another bullshit night in suck city” by nick flynn. i’m about halfway through it, and although i’m not a huge fan of the actual story line (it’s a memoir), i am in love with the writing style and somehow cannot put the book down (the fact that i was stuck on a plane for 5 hours also helped me keep on reading). if you like well-written prose, i’d suggest picking it up - unless of course you are easily offended.
by Nick Flynn
damarius thomas just made up for his incomplete pass on the past drive.
while watching the game, jonathan and i have come to the conclusion that georgia tech must be renting it’s dance team. we are fairly convinced that the entire campus does not have a population of attractive females that large, therefore, we must be shelling out some serious cash for these girls - promotions girls from some firm downtown. 
part of this conclusion is based on our assessment of the past 7 years of georgia tech dance team (we attended from fall 2001 (2002 for me) to fall 2006). the overall weight of the team has been reduced likely 30-50% in the past half decade, and i doubt it is because tech is requiring photographs on their freshmen admissions applications.
i lack any further inspiration to write, because georgia tech is up 21-17 with :03 to go. we won. b-e-a-utiful. 6-1, baby, against a bunch of crappy teams! doesn’t say much for us, but i’ll take it, i guess.
we’re off to a corn maze in canton tonight. i hope i don’t freeze to death. i should be used to it, though, after this past week. however, this time i have no control over the temperature.
i would rather be a garbage man than a patent examiner
part of my job is looking at IP (intellectual property), licensing, protecting, and negotiating it. i have a patent on my desk that i’m evaluating and determing if it infringes upon any other patents or has semblance to existing drawings related to the topic. reading patents is what one should do when they cannot fall asleep at night and need the most unstimulating reading material known to human-kind. i, however, take shots of bourbon because falling asleep to patents and waking up to them is no way to live. the military should consider forcing terror suspects to become patent examiners as a form of torture as opposed to water boarding. i have never been water boarded, but it might be more stimulating than reading patents - i’m really not sure. alright, i’m getting ahead of myself. can you tell i love reading patents? i’ll stop now.
in true torrell fashion, jonathan helped salvage my spirit between 9 and 9:30am by sending me quite possibly the most hilarious comment made by a political spokesman thus far:
On television today a Democratic operative pointed out that when Obama
holds a rally 25-30,000 people show up, whereas when McCain holds one he
only draws 10-15,000. The Republican spokesman replied, “That’s because
McCain’s supporters are at work.”
immediately, i forwarded that to the one person who i knew would love it more than myself: daddy.
all morning i have been conversing with my counterpart at our tifton plant. we were discussing the art of designing a standard piece of high volume equipment and the many possible ways that people somehow mess it up every time. as we always say, whenever we find a way to idiot-proof something, we find a bigger idiot. i love talking to this engineer. he has this extremely deep voice and he speaks very slowly, so when he answers the phone it goes a little like: “This…. is…. Runako.” and a little part of me giggles every time because the way he says it, i feel like i’m calling a 1-900 sex hotline. i feel so rebellious. plus, runako is great: he’s only 25 so we usually have tons to talk about, work and non-work related. he says he’s going to take me to club dreamz, and i said that any club that alters the spelling of their establishment to mimick the spelling of a 12 year-old girl with a glitter pen wasn’t really my cup of tea. i’ll let you know how it goes.
i walked downstairs a bit ago and was banned from all future play in company online fantasy sports by the guy who organizes all of it. the reason? i am 4-0 in foxsports fantasy football - the only undefeated team remaining, and i won the ncaa bracket challenge in march.