I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks; getting ready for and attending the Baltimore Comic-Con, trying to get some things together for our annual Halloween party, work, work and work, various odds and ends, working on comic scripts and trying to fit some “Me” time in there wherever possible. Add to that the fact that I have been sick pretty much all of this last week and you have a recipe for neglecting things like websites and what not.
I also wanted to make sure I posted something here that thanked everyone for coming out to the Baltimore show and for stopping by the table. I got to see some old faces as well as some new ones and that’s always cool. Nothing feels better at a con than having someone flip through one of your books and then buy them all! So, “Thank you, everyone”.
I promise I’ll try and be a little more active in the coming weeks. In fact, I’ll be posting the photos I took of the Halloween coffin as I built it, if for no reason other than to serve as a “How NOT To Do It” primer.
Until then – be excellent to one another.
So, for what seems like the hundredth time in the past five months or so, Domain Direct is having problems with getting their e-mail to people.
Frankly, this is totally unacceptable. A lot of people rely on e-mail these days for some pretty important shit and without it can miss jobs, work and money. For all the person on the other end knows, the lack of response comes from apathy towards the contents and NOT the fact that the intended recipient was getting fucked by the company that handles their e-mail.
So, I am done with Domain Direct. Once the service is up and I have my e-mail (which was supposed to be 10pm tonight, and then 11pm and now here it is AFTER 11 pm and the last delivered message I have is from 12:59am today. That’s close to 24 hours ago (in case figuring out time differential is tough for you).
I don’t need a lot; POP e-mail and a re-direct service that re-routes URL requests for imboden.org to this-here Blogger blog.
Simple, yeah? You’d think.
Anyway – fuck you, Domain Direct.
Take your pick. Crappy or Happy. It could be either, or… both.
One thing I know is that it’s GOTTA be better than last year ended.
I feel really bad these days. Not like I’m sick, or naughty, just… bad.
I hate bitching and complaining about the same shit over and over and over, but sometimes it helps to “put it down on paper”, as it were. It gives me something to look at and a way to purge it all from my mind.
So far, 2009 has been sort of… just… sort of here. It feels like everyone is holding their breath and waiting to see what happens when Obama takes office, despite the fact that that isn’t going to cast a magical spell on everything and bring back the glory days of the late 90s. But, I hope, it will be a step in the right direction. Everyone will look around, see that shit isn’t all that different, give one giant exhale and get back to what it was we were doing before everything started going to shit.
Me, I just want a FT job that pays what we need to get by. Outrageous property taxes are pounding us – it’s like Frederick County is just saying “Ahahahahah! Fuck you all!” to everyone that doesn’t work in the Technology or Medical fields. I mean, really – how can your average Joe make ends meet when his mortgage goes up nearly 19% because of increases in taxes which results in an escrow shortage?
I kind of feel like George Bailey these days.
Where’s my Clarence when I need him?
I’m not in the greatest of moods today so I figured I’d go ahead and get this off of my chest. I’ll probably get some people mad but at this point, right now, I just don’t care. With that said…
This whole “sanctity of marriage” thing that the Religious Right keeps trotting out is a pile of shit, plain and simple. To say that allowing same-sex marriages will destroy the “sanctity” of marriage is about as accurate as saying feeding totrtilla chips to dogs will make it rain.
I’m not going to start quoting scripture and providing examples of this or that from the Bible. I’m not an overtly religious person and since the Bible can be interpreted in numerous ways it doesn’t even seem worth the time to quote anything. Besides, by providing a quote to help us define or understand the sanctity of marriage I’d be damning my opposing view right off the bat. But, hey, you know what? What the heck, let’s look at a short snippet I found on the website for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Why them? Why not. They came up early in my Google search and, I mean, the Bible is the Bible, right? Shouldn’t matter WHO is quoting it. Anyway:
Because God has created and instituted marriage as a lifelong covenant (Matthew 22:23-30) and because the marriage covenant is to reflect the strength of God’s covenant love for His people (Hosea 3:1), any variation from His ordained decree is harmful to the participants and in violation of God’s mandates for all people (Mark 10:11-12)
So there’s our baseline. Prior to what I quoted they clearly quote that God intended for marriage to be between a man and a woman. Fine, we’ll take that.
BUT…!
Shit has CLEARLY deviated from what was written to what is practiced today. Nearly 50% of marriages will end in divorce. That’s not a hard fact, but a fairly accurate assumption. Now, take those two people who got divorced and let them re-marry. There’s a 60% chance that those marriages will end in divorce. Let one of those folks marry a third time and you’re looking at a nearly 75% chance that another divorce lawyer will be making some money.
Now, looking at those numbers and it certainly seems to me that there’s a shitload of heterosexual people totally pissing all over God’s word. Remember, “any variation from His ordained decree is harmful to the participants and in violation of God’s mandates for all people”. So much for the sanctity of marriage.
So, what I’m seeing here ISN’T so much that same-sex marriages would harm the sanctity of marriage but that it’s… something different. And that’s what it boils down to – gay people are “different”. Just like black people are different because they are a different color. Why, maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to marry, either. OH! That’s right – we’ve already been down that road. But, thankfully, we realized what bullshit that was. And now not only can two black people get married, they could each marry a white person if they wanted! What an understanding, open and loving society we are.
It’s not about ignoring God’s word. It’s about being afraid. Being afraid that something different might effect the way of life that you’ve grown accoustumed to. Afraid that allowing gay people the same right to marry that straight people have will “cheapen” or “lessen” what marriage means. Just like, y’know, letting blacks marry. And that’s just an ignorant way of looking at things.
Dear Scammers and Spammers,
Fuck you.
Do not try and bait me into falling for one of your tired-ass, fuck-wit schemes. Do not waste my goddamn time with your bullshit lines about having “an opening on our sales team that [I] may be interested in”. I’m not. Why am I not? Because you’re full of shit.
Maybe you’re lucky enough to fuck a person over here and there, but save yourself time when you consider sending your crap to me. See, I’m smart enough to realize that when the e-mail you sent your shit from doesn’t match the e-mail you’re listing in the body of your message, that you are a fucking turd with nothing better to do than waste my time.
Wake up, douche bags. The same thing you are using to try and dick with people is the same thing I can use to do a simple Google search on and get what info I need to know that you’re probably more of a cock-juggler than a “Division Sales Leader”.
What makes it worse is that you’re doing this crap at a time when a lot of people are desperate, myself included. People that are days away from foreclosure or eviction. People that just want a decent paying job and can’t get them because there simply aren’t enough of them anymore. You’re NOT dumb, I’ll grant you that. You’re smart enough to know that the time is right for nailing some dumb schmuck for $34.95 on the promise of a list that they can use to find a recruiter or a packet containing “all [I] need to start my own business”. No, you’re not dumb. You’re just assholes.
So take your fucking scam bait e-mails, your PO Box mailing addresses and your phony 800 numbers and shove ‘em up your ass.
Sincerely,
Mike Imboden
Time to rant a little, this time about people I hate. Not specific people, mind you, though there are a few out there. Just in a general kind of way.
For the past 10 to 12 years my jobs have hinged on my ability to connect to a customer. Back then it was over a phone, nowadays it is in person. I’ve always prided myself on my ability to get along with vastly different types of people. Not 100% of the time mind you, I don’t think that’s possible. However, a great deal of the time, I am able to. And that is because I am good at developing a fairly quick and personal relationship with the customer. I rely on this ability to make sure each customer leaves the store and feels good about having spent some money.
But there are two types of people who make this impossible.
The Cell Phone Talker and the MP3 Player Listener.
Both of these types walk in and are already in their own little world. Maybe it’s that important call to Ralph about the files that were left on Pete’s desk. Or maybe it’s really important to listen to some depressed emo dickweed sing about how shitty his life is. Whatever the case may be, these people are cut off from me and I can’t do my job to the best of my ability.
And it pisses me off.
Look, don’t come into “my” store and then make me feel like a fucktard because I am interrupting you to tell you I need $8.19 for your comics. Hang up the phone when you walk in; turn the music off when you walk in. We have music and I’ll gladly change the staton for your visit if you ask (nicely). And to be honest, the MP3 player people aren’t THAT bad. If they’ve mastered the use of their opposable thumb they can usually hit “Pause” and interact with me for a few seconds. It’s those goddamn cell phone users that make me mad enough to punch a kitten.
1) I don’t give a flying shit what your business is, so don’t talk on your phone loud enough for me to hear it. If I make a comment about your conversation, such as answering a question you just loudly asked (“I want motherfuckin’ spaghetti for dinner!”) , don’t shoot me an evil look. Christ, as loud as you were talking I thought you were talking to me.
2) Don’t try to settle up with me while still on the phone. Blindly handing me a credit card without lsitening to your total makes it tempting for me to go ahead and ring up the NEXT guy’s purchase on YOUR card. I mean, you obviously don’t give a shit or you’d be watching what I’m doing with your plastic, right?
3) Don’t say “Sorry about that” when (if!) you do hang up. Apology not accepted because you aren’t sorry. If you were, you wouldn’t take/make the call while walking into the store.
Look, if you don’t give a shit about getting the best of me and my ability to make your shopping experience a nice one, then at least consider what a rude fuck you are being and realize that if there were less jackasses like you we’d all be a little happier.
I’m probably going to rankle a few feathers with this, but so be it.
I’ve noticed during the past few weeks, and even more so lately, that the Republican party fits into two categories; The affluent and well-schooled on one hand and the middle-class less-educated on the other.
The smart ones don’t bother me so much. While there are many issues I have with them, it’s the fucking idiots that scare me. The ones who think Obama is a muslim. The ones who hear a sound bite and are suddenly experts on the topic of who or what Obama has supported in the past, despite the fact that said sound bite is entirely out of context.
These are the same dumb fucks that bought shit loads of duct tape and surplus gas masks. The same ones who believe Saddam Hussein masterminded the 9/11 attacks. They peer out through their curtains at their neighbors and call the police when someone with brown skin is taking photographs in a public place.
The democrats, on the other hand, all appear to be… average. They aren’t loaded with cash and have a diploma instead of a G.E.D.
Naturally there are exceptions to the rule, like anything. But in general, this is what I see and it makes me nervous. Despite all of the technological and social advancements we’ve made as a country, we are still young. 233 years, right? Look at how long other countries have been around and how many times they’ve dealt with social upheaval and civil wars. Revolts and revolutions dot the timeline of many countries. All except ours. And some people will say “But Mike, we know more now than those countries did back then. We’re more civil and accepting.”
And in response, all I need to do is point at the McCain/Palin supporters and shrug.
