A Midsummer Night's Malaise

Work is wearing on me.  But it's not the "work" that is driving me insane.  It's the people.

I'm not sure how some of these people dress themselves.  Let me run through some fun facts for you:

-Not being able to type quickly is a computer issue.  Not being able to find the letters at all is not.
-Not understanding where to type your name is a computer issue.  Not knowing how to spell your name is not.
-Not understanding how to change from lowercase letters to capital letters is a computer issue.  Not understanding the difference between them when they're printed on a page in front of you is not.

Also, when did "auwruh" become a letter?  Apparently it comes right after Q now.

Don't get me wrong, I love the physical part of my job.  I love fixing computers and playing with new hardware/software.  I get geeked when a new piece of software comes out and it's my job to play with it and see how it works.  And I love working with an overwhelming majority of the people at my company.  But some of the people that I have to deal with make me question whether it's worth it.

Notice how I said some of the people.  I don't dislike people who know nothing about computers.  In fact, these are my favorites.  Give me a 50 year old man who's never touched a computer any day over a guy who skims Lifehacker once a month and thinks he knows everything about computers.  I have issues with the people who either refuse to listen or are entrenched in what I call Willful Ignorance.  And this adherence to their ignorance has nothing to do directly with computers.

I get it though.  Nobody wants to call me.  I'm PC Support.  I'm the Helpdesk.  No one calls these people by choice.  Has any tech ever gotten a phone call saying "Everything is working great here.  Keep up the good work."  Of course not.  It's the same reason why I don't call my cable company to say the same thing.  That's our job.  Make things work and fix them when they don't.

But for anyone who's ever been on the other side of the phone when someone calls for help they know exactly what I mean.  Every time you talk to someone is invariably one of the worst parts of their day.  And as long as they can hang up feeling better than when they first called then I feel like I've done my job.  Even if the problem is not something that can be immediately solved, the person should leave the conversation confident that it will be resolved.

And once I'm no longer concerned with this positive outcome then I'll know the malaise has won.

But until that day I will remain the honest, friendly, helpful nerd who helps you fix your internet connection so you can tell your Facebook friends how lame I am.

America the Ignorant?

What's that?  You would like my far-reaching generalizations about America?  Well you're in luck.  I just so happen to have this blog post sitting around for you to nod your head/wag your finger at.

Here is my issue with America as a whole:  We are a country of willfully ignorant people.


I don't want to learn how to change my password because then it will be my responsibility to do it.  


I don't want to  learn a new skill so because then I'll have to get off welfare and get a job.  


I don't want to research the candidates.  Can't I just vote for the Republican?  Or the black one?  Or the one that takes her kids to hockey practice?

And the worst part?  We reward this kind of behavior.

When is the last time you heard of a person being denied their welfare check because they failed a drug test?  NEVER would be the answer for me personally.  Let me see if I can wrap my head around this:  A man has a job working 40 hours a week bringing home just barely enough money to feed his family.  On the weekends he meets up with his buddies to smoke a little weed.  One day he fails a drug test and gets fired.  Now he's on welfare and can collect money comparable to his former salary AND he can smoke anytime he wants to.  Why get another job?  There's absolutely zero advantage to it.

Somehow we have transformed into a country so caught up in its own hype that we can't see how we're destroying ourselves.  America is the "greatest country in the world".  I completely agree with this.  But we could do MUCH better.  

We give billions of dollars to other countries to help feed their homeless and give relatively nothing to our own.  We go on mission trips to Belize or some trendy Florida city to build/repair houses but our neighbor three streets over has a garbage bag for a living room window.  We adopt babies from Malawi but won't adopt babies from Milwaukee.  Was there anyone clamoring to help the New Orleans residents living in glorified shacks before the national news was covering a hurricane?  

There is such a malaise over the entire country that even the people who genuinely want to help are drowned out by PR firms pushing celebrity endorsed Twitter hash tags.  90% of politicians are nothing but a perpetual reelection machine (completely quantifiable and scientifically researched statistic, of course).  Don't make a scene by standing for something new or different or you won't be reelected.  

Then get out there and run for office yourself you may say.  But I'm not sure I could handle the game that would have to be played.  I don't have the connections, lineage, military experience, or wealth required to even get started.  Some may say that's a bullshit response.  Some of you are probably right.

But honestly, I can't decide whether I want to run for office, work my way into the government, and try to make the changes I crave, and the changes I think America needs, or whether I want to give away anything with a battery or a power cord and buy a farm in rural Wyoming.  My desire changes daily.  And for that reason, I cannot allow myself to get involved.  If you're going to do something as important as serving in our government then do it with 100% of your being.  If you can't give 100%, then get out of the way.  

I freely admit I'm a cynical bastard, but am I really?  Do I look for the worst in people or do I just rail against willful ignorance?

I used to pity the poor bastard who trudged through life, paycheck-to-paycheck, never paying attention to the world crumbling around him.  But the older I get the more I crave the simplicity of here and now.