Business World Tip #148

Calling the woman or man who answers the phone "hun," "sweetie" or any other pet name is 1) disrespectful, 2) demeaning and 3) will get you treated like crap (in my office anyway). Generally speaking, anyone who answers phones for a living is only being nice because they have to. No one's main joy in life is talking professionally with strangers and taking messages.

The excuse, "she knows I don't mean anything bad by it!" is no excuse at all.

You expect to be treated like a professional. Treat your administrative staff like the professionals they actually are.

This relates to Business World Tip #96:
Do not tell the person who answers the phone that he/she has a "sexy voice." This is wrong and you should be made to feel horrible about it.

realization

I just realized that Elton from Clueless is also Billy from Six Feet Under and that guy from May.

I am freaked out.

WHAT.

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Essentially, college students that want to be able to carry concealed weapons on campus under the guise of "safety." I guess no one in this group has ever read that you're more likely to shoot a family member/friend than an intruder/violent person when you carry a gun to protect yourself.

Apparently this group is important enough to be spoken about on the nightly news.

Well, this just in: millions of people go to college and don't get shot at. This isn't the Wild West anymore, and you're not going to accidentally come between a mother bear and her cubs on a college campus.

Shouldn't there be fewer EDPs with guns out there? Anyone who thinks that a 21-year-old student carrying a gun to class is safer than a classroom full of unarmed students is clearly disturbed.

Thank metaphorical god I live in one of the most liberal cities in this country.

Bill Gates probaby uses a Mac. Or runs Linux, at least.

It seems like every morning when I show up to work my PC needs to install some updates. As someone who has been using Macs pretty much exclusively for the past 4+ years, can someone explain why the hell Microsoft can't just use a better platform for their OS? Presumably, XP is so bad that I need a new security update every day? OSX is built on Unix (Apple has been using Unix since 1997), and I rarely have security updates for my MacBook.

Why can't Microsoft suck it up and say, "Okay, Windows hasn't been good for a very long time (coughVistacough). We need to build a new OS from the ground up; it needs to be stable and it needs to be secure." What is holding Microsoft back, exactly?

Prior to working here, I was interested in running Boot Camp on my MacBook for gaming purposes. Now I think I'm going to buy an XBox 360 (which is merely a hardware train wreck) so I can play Portal and Assassin's Creed.

On a completely unrelated note, this morning there was a Boston Metro guy handing out free papers (the papers are always free, but apparently being handed a paper makes someone more likely to actually pick it up and read it). I gave him a polite nod and went on my way. I'm 99% sure he's not sketchy, but I'm not taking my chances on that remaining 1%. I sure don't believe that I'm obligated to be nice to strangers, but it saddens me that the best thing for a young woman to do is to ignore any and all people she doesn't know.

On an even more unrelated note, I think I found my wedding dress. I'm not going to post a picture here yet, because I don't want to curse it; I need to try it on first.

Three day weekend! Thanks, terrorists!

My building is closed for "security reasons" on Monday the 21st because the Boston Marathon comes right by our street (and it's impossible to drive to the building between 8:45am and 3pm anyway).

For once in my life, paranoid "homeland security" is doing me a favor! All right!

Edit: More good news! BostonNOW has folded, so my train station boyfriend is gone from my morning commute. The lesson I have learned here is that if you ignore a problem, it will eventually go away.

Intolerance to religion is awesome.

I figure it probably makes me a bad person to wish that the Pope would be assassinated on his trip to the States..

But we're talking about a guy who is totally intolerant to Muslims and is praying that Jewish people "see the light" and find their messiah in Jesus. Additionally, we're talking about a religion that kept me in total fear and misery for at least a decade - and the Boston Archdiocese is currently spreading misinformation regarding sexual health to our youth. And I'm certain the Pope has no concerns about telling teenagers that having sex with a condom will still result in being pregnant with an AIDS baby. And this guy is supposed to be a moral authority for a significant amount of people all over the world.

So, yeah. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed and concede that I am a horrible, godless person. Maybe it'll be some guy from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that has three 14-year-old wives, and we can kill two birds with one stone, eh?

Save the trees and my sanity, please.

Asking my college's alumni association to cut all further contact with me: bitchy or justified? I just got some mail from them pimping Liberty Mutual insurance. Honestly, it's painful to read stuff like, "hey! look how happy our student body is!" and it's even harder to hear my dad blather on proudly that Emerson is sending me mail. These are four years of my life I would like to forget, pretty much completely. Besides, it's almost like donating them money if I ask them to not give me printed crap and spend postage on me.

Also, will they even stop if I put in a request? Even a polite one? Additionally, I saw someone I really, really hate from Emerson in my neighborhood yesterday, and I spent a couple of hours convinced that I needed to move out of my apartment ASAP. I guess I'm over it, but I am still fiercely protective of my neighborhood, dammit, and I don't want lying sacks of shit mucking it up. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a violent person, as I hold grudges like a motherfucker.

Speaking of my social failings, here are some lessons I need to learn as I, too, have my own "Bus Boyfriend." Except he's actually some guy outside the station that hands out free newspapers, and he hasn't masturbated in front of me or anything. I'm friendly to strangers - apparently too friendly for a young woman to be - especially ones that have crappy jobs. This has bitten me in the ass so badly that I ended up accidentally saying yes to "hey, do you wanna hang out sometime?"

It's actually really heartbreaking to think that I should stop being nice to people just because of the off-chance that someone will assume I'm flirting or otherwise interested in some sort of relationship (romantic, platonic, whatever), just because I'm young, female, and often out alone. Maybe I should get the biggest, most obvious wedding band in the world. Maybe it should have flashing LEDs in it.

Honestly, I think this situation is only happening because a couple of weeks ago I was lamenting to myself that no one seems to find me attractive anymore - other than my fiance, I mean. For a blissful couple of years in high school, I had a handful of guys actively pursuing me, and then it pretty much tapered off starting in my sophomore year of college. It's like I went to school and became tainted (I guess getting my tits cut off probably didn't help matters). So, to end where I started, Emerson College probably ruined me for life, recently got me into a super-awkward situation, and therefore they should stop sending me mail.

Also lame: battlestar cliffhangers. Jeez.

Lame: Being a Catholic and baptizing your infant child when you're not even actively religious. I'm pretty sure baptism carries the implication that you're going to be a member of a church. Also, I'm pretty sure the Pope finally conceded to the masses and decided that unbaptized babies go to heaven instead of limbo. It's times like these that I sort of wish I could have a child - solely to raise it correctly.

Speaking of religion, that stupid beliefnet quiz judged my beliefs as being 100% Unitarian Universalist. Why am I not surprised that I fit in so well with the wishy-washy pseudo-religion?

Another lame thing: working overtime without getting paid more for it. I hate being on salary sometimes.

No Recess!

Dear Guy Who Pulled an Illegal U-Turn and Almost Hit Me in the Crosswalk in Front of the Hospital,

...whaaa?

Cordially,
Erin Explosion

I made this really awesome Pandora station based on Soundgarden. Actually, I discovered that I don't hate Audioslave as much as I thought I did. Then I realized that Chris Cornell recorded a phone conversation with the cable company's customer service and sold the record for $20, I'd still eat it up.

I brought a bandanna to work with me so I wouldn't inhale wool fuzzums while knitting. Sitting around with a red bandanna tied over my face may or may not invite some awkwardness with the FedEx guy and/or cowboys. I'll keep you updated if anything interesting happens.

April 5

Kurt Cobain
Allen Ginsberg
(probably) Layne Staley