The Dentist

I just got back from the dentist's office for a checkup and my teeth and gums have that healthy, pulsating, fresh feeling. The inflammation tells you your teeth are clean!

I think it's good to go to the dentist every once in a while. It reminds you of how good life is when someone isn't jamming a steel hook into one of the most sensitive areas of your body.

And speaking of double-standards, I love the one most physicians and dentists pull on you: If you are more than 15 minutes late your appointment will be cancelled and you will be charged a $75 fee.

Yeah, how many times do you find yourself actually meeting with the doctor or dentist within the first 15 minutes after your arrival? Don't you hang out in the waiting room for at least 30, trying to convince yourself to be interested in that 3 year-old copy of Field & Stream or Better Homes and Gardens? At my last doctor's appointment I waited an hour and a half before seeing the all powerful Oz. Yet if I had shown up 15 minutes late, I'd have deserved punishment.

So how can they make it up to you? I know it's unreasonable to expect them to pay you $75, but maybe they could cancel the co-pay, or at least let you play around with that cool metal water and air gun they have.

That's all I'm asking.

Showing up late for an interview

So if I send a job applicant to one of the managers and that applicant shows up late for their interview, that's major points docked off them right? I mean, you gotta be on time, be punctual, reliable. Such blatant disrespect for other people's time shows they aren't a responsible employee. Tardiness won't be accepted, Costanza, not in this organization!

This is the mindset of nearly all managers, VPs, and supervisors, and rightfully so. Which is why I am constantly amazed at how many of them show up late for their interviews (or even forget about them altogether). I'll arrange with them a time to meet with the finalist for the job they've asked me to fill, confirm that time with them, remind them of it, that candidate will drive for an hour and completely rearrange their schedule to be here, and then when I bring them up to their office I find it dark and empty. Just this morning I actually had to call a manager at home and remind her she had someone waiting to meet with her.

In other words, if you show up 10 minutes late for your interview it's evidence that you don't respect other people's time and lack professionalism. But if I show up 30 minutes late, it doesn't mean that.

This is one of the many management double standards I've noticed in the workplace. Some of the others are cell phone use, showing up late for meetings, and coming to work late/leaving early.

The Onion on Campaigning

I've given this a lot of thought, looked deep inside my heart and....YES. I do like The Onion more than the real news.

Thank you Cheeth for introducing it to me via the Jewish Elders Lift 6,000 Year Ham Ban article lo these many years ago

Mysterious Traveler Enters Town With Utopian Vision of the Future

Name Dropping

Quite a few people drop names in interviews, hoping to get an "in" because they know a member of the family that owns the company. And when that family is relatively large and has inhabited the area for over a hundred years, you get quite a few nephews of the founder's best friend or second-cousins on the mother's side hoping to cash in on their obscure relation to score some points with the HR guy.

But I just had by far the most random, obscure, entertaining one yet.

"My stepson's sister-in-law is the daughter of the sister of the CEO's wife."

I'm pretty sure that's what the connection was, anyways. It was kind of hard to follow. At any rate, it was the first time I've had someone try to make a claim to the company through their child, let alone a stepchild.

The best part was that he followed it with:

"So I don't know if that helps me out or not," and just left it hanging...

The whole name dropping thing is ridiculous, really. The best way to get a job, believe it or not, is to actually be qualified for it. Which this guy wasn't. Amazing how many people seem to miss that.

That's our Jazz...

"We're number one! Oh, unless we're playing against a really, really crappy team."

Gotta love the Jazz. They pull out wins against the toughest teams in the league (Dallas, Phoenix, Detroit, Denver)...then get blown out by the worst teams like the Clippers and Chicago. If you don't follow basketball, that's like America winning wars against China, Russia, terrorism, and drugs...then getting trounced by Ecuador.

Ok, I took a little liberty with that metaphor, but still...

The Jazz are so upredictable that I'm more worried to see bottom dwellers like the Knicks, Seattle, and Milwaukee coming up on their schedule than I am for the Lakers, Celts, and San Antonio. Here's hoping we don't play the Cavs if we make it to the Finals; they're crappy enough to absolutely wipe the floor with us.

Obama vs. Clinton

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/dems.campaign/index.html

Is there any way the Democratic nomination doesn't end in an absolute trainwreck? I mean, is there even the faintest possibility at this point that the Dems aren't headed for a disaster of epic proportions?

Between the Florida and Michigan debacle, the oligarchy that is the superdelegate system (you got to love the irony and abject hypocrisy of a political party who claims to champion the common people, yet bestows a select handful of their "elite" members with the power to override the collective will of those people), Bill and Hill willing to say or do anything it takes to win, the press having nothing better to talk about for the next 9 months, and a confusing, antiquated primary/caucus system, I don't see how the Dems come out of this without major egg on their face (or at least a black eye as big as the Straight Talk Express.)

Let me just say here that I am pulling for Obama. I expect Hill to win though. Not because it will be the will of the people or because she's the better candidate, but simply because the system isn't designed to comply with the will of the people or to choose the better candidate.

Which means by the time this whole fiasco is over with (should be sometime in August; please shoot me now) it will be Hillary vs. McCain. By that time all the independents and people who had hopes for the new type of politics embodied by Obama will be so disgusted with the system they will either go back to not caring about politics or vote for McCain. I plan on doing the latter.

So here's to Colonel Mustard/Veep Yet to be Named in 08!

This is fantastic

STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE


This is one of the best blogs I've seen in a long time. I heard about it on NPR (which, incidentally, is number 44 on the list). It's geared more towards the yuppie type, but is still very funny and insightful. I would recommend "Graduate School", "Japan", and "Threatening to move to Canada".

It's also very entertaining to read the responses of readers, many of whom don't quite grasp that it's satire. The man who writes the blog is in fact, white.