Very soon my television viewing life will enter a dark and terrible phase. Due to family additions, the budget must be cut and the first two things to go are cable and tivo. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, not having 70+ channels to surf on will keep me away from the television much more but the loss of the never having to remember when the shows I like are on is going to be hard to deal with. Granted, without the cable, I’ll only have broadcast shows to watch but there are several that I do enjoy watching. Heroes, My Name is Earl, and Bones to name a few. Anyway, I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head what days those shows are on so I’m either going to have to do some creative programming magic with the shell that is my Tivo box or I’m going to have to learn what nights those shows are on. Sigh..

On the plus side, I am adding another dvd to my out-at-a-time limit with Netflix. Hopefully that will keep my TV needs sated for longer periods. I’m planning on using 2 for movies and 2 for televison series (I’m watching season 5 of 24 right now). Hopefully it won’t be too bad. Of course, with the new little one, I may not get the chance to do a whole lot of TV watching but you never know.

Anyway, I’m going to go start my search for info on how to maximize the usage of my brick that was a connected Tivo service. Technically speaking, you’d think I’d be able to overhaul it somehow. I’m just not sure my technical skills are up to the task. I’ll keep you all posted on what I find…

So, this year so far the wife and I have only gone Christmas shopping once. It was yesterday as a matter of fact and overall it went rather well. Unfortunately, I’ve been sick for the past few days so that made the experience a bit less than to be desired but as far as shopping at this time of the year it went rather well. We only ran into two overtly rude people and we were able to laugh at them without to much issue. Both individuals were at Toys ‘R’ Us.

1. Crazy Woman with son – this woman was pretty funny. First though, I have to set the scene. Toys ‘R’ Us was a madhouse yesterday. There were people everywhere and there was almost no room in the aisles. You had to be stoked up on patience or you’d blow a fuse. So, this woman with her son. I had noticed her on a previous aisle because she was snapping at the boy over and over. He was probably nine or ten and couldn’t stop picking up the toys. Honestly, not surprising. They were in the matchbox car aisle and he just couldn’t help but look and touch. Now, it was obvious this woman was at her limit. She was completely ready to blow. Every two feet she’d snap at the boy “Put it down!” and he’d calmly set it down only to pick up something else a foot down the row. Five minutes after seeing her, crazy lady ends up behind the wife and I. Now, we’re completely stuck. There’s no where to go and nothing to do but calmly wait for things to start moving again. Well, CL decides we’re standing there doing nothing for our own amusement and barrels out into the aisle next to us in the “oncoming traffic” lane. She soon has to stop though as there’s a cart sitting there stuck waiting to get into another aisle. It takes all my self-control not to make a snide comment to the woman but I somehow manage to avoid the temptation.
2. The other crazy lady was not as bad but was far more rude. She came barreling around a corner into our aisle. She went to our side as the side she should have gone to had people in it and nearly ran into us. She actually glared at us and then spouted “Sorry” and zoomed on. Later, in the checkout line, she came zooming by slammed her cart into ours, didn’t say a thing and practically attacked the cashier at the station she zoomed to. Very rude, and fat I might add, woman.

Again, overall it wasn’t a bad day. I didn’t have to yell at anyone or call anyone names or crash my car into anyone. I just had to calmly hold in my snide comments. Yes, things would have been more interesting if I hadn’t but when I don’t feel well and I start talking, things go downhill very quickly.

Someone asked me the other day what one of my pet peeves was. Everyone in the group laughed uproariously. Evidently I have a lot of pet peeves. Oddly enough, the only one I could come up with was stupidity. Now, there’s lots of things that fall into that category so I suppose I do have lots of pet peeves. Just for fun, I thought I’d outline a few of my all time stupidity pet peeves.

Parents who always give in

Okay, this one may seem a bit vague. Let me put it in detail for you. You’re standing in line at the grocery store, Wal-Mart, Super Target, etc. and the parent (father or mother) behind you has a screaming child. The child is saying something along the lines of “I WANT IT!” over and over. The parent keeps saying “No [insert child’s name here]. You can’t have [insert product here]!” This goes on until you’re about to pay. Then you suddenly hear from the parent “Fine! You can have the damn [insert product here]! I swear! I don’t know why you can’t just accept no for an answer!” This is the point where I always want to say “He won’t accept no because he knows you ALWAYS give in.” Of course, that’s how fist fights start at the local Wal-Mart so I never do.

Customers who treat cashiers poorly

Most of the time, there’s no call to be mean/rude to the cashier at whatever establishment you’re at. Yelling at the cashier for price issues, the length of the line, the fact that your favorite brand of hair remover is out for the third time in a row, etc. All those things have nothing to do with your friendly cashier so quit treating them like trash. I used to do that job, damn it! There’s no call for abuse for those people. That said, if they’re being rude, nasty, etc. Have at it.

People who ask and then refuse what they asked for

One of my most irritating issues at my job is a group of individuals who constantly ask for more power/rights within our environment. The kicker for this is that the moment you give in and try to grant them those rights, they start screaming “That’s not our job! We can’t handle that extra responsibility! We’re not staffed for that!” I think those are the times when my foul mouth filter is pushed to the limit.

The self appointed group conscience

There’s one in every group. It’s the person who decides they need to be the moral compass for everyone within whatever group you’re in. The one who participates in the conversations until they remember they’re supposed to be a good Christian and then condescendingly tells everyone to stop being bad. Generally speaking, those people get a whole mouthful from me…

People who won’t tell me when I offend

I tend to be a foul mouthed ass who pushes the limit of what’s acceptable to say in any situation. That said, I always let everyone know if anything I say or do offends to tell me. I am very conscious of the people around me and will always be respectful (to a point) of their issues. However, if they don’t speak up, I can’t modify my behavior. One of my biggest peeves is hearing from Person A that Person B is upset because of the things I say.

Okay, this list could go on and on. I think I’ll stop for now. By the way, if anything I’ve written here offends you, too fucking bad. This is my own goddamn blog and you don’t have to read the thing so you can just fuck off.

_{This post was edited on 2022-11-02 to remove a questionable pet peeve that I no longer agree with and really didn’t age well. -mdc}

Somewhere along the path of my life so far, the word Christian has come to be a negative word to me. It’s a word that pulls up distasteful associations in my mind. It’s rather an odd thing too as until a few years ago, I considered myself to be Christian. So, background…

I was raised in the Association of Unity Churches, which is a Christian church. It’s definitely not a traditional Christian church though. Almost New Age in its beliefs. All in all, I think I received a decent Christian education through my Sunday classes as a child. I know the bible stories, the ten commandments and all the Jesus stuff. I think the main difference is that it was taught from the view point that all people are inherently good. Original sin is not part of the Unity belief. I won’t go into the details of it all but suffice to say, we were taught to believe in the goodness of man, which I still do.

About the time I was 19 or so, I became very disillusioned with the Unity faith. As I moved into adulthood, I started seeing things I missed as a child. There’s a massive level of insincerity in the Unity membership. I’ve reflected on this much over the years and I believe it’s because the faith is easy to participate in. There’s no guilt and no “Thou Shalt’s” associated with Unity. All you’re really required to do is love everyone. The problem that comes with that is it makes it a great place for the Sunday Christians and such. I’m sure you know the type. It’s a “just in case” type of deal. Now, I’m not saying all Unity members are like this. I’m fairly sure you have a good amount of these people no matter what church you go to. It’s just that at that time in my life, I couldn’t ignore it. In fact, it bothered me so much I stopped going. I’ve tried over the years to go back but whenever I do, the moment the service starts, I start feeling irritated and uncomfortable. I just don’t like being preached at. My relationship with god (if there is a god) is my business and noone elses. So, currently, I’m a non-church-going, non-christian. Huh?

Right, what’s that mean? In essence, I believe in many of the supposed teachings of Jesus but I don’t agree with orginized religion in general. I find the religious right to be intrusive and offensive most of the time and unfortunately, it’s this small percentage that the world in general thinks of when they think of Christians. So, I refuse to associate with the word. A good friend has told me often that even though I profess to not be a Christian, I’m more Christian than most who do. Considering who it comes from, that is a tremendous compliment but not something that I agree with. Overall, I’m not Christian. I’m not anything. I only pray when I get on an airplane. I only give when forced to (which calls into question whether its really giving at all). I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead after three days. I don’t believe his death on the cross meant anything other than a man being crucified. And I certainly don’t believe the bible is fact. Having said all that, I do believe the Christian bible carries a good message. I believe all the major religions of the world carry a good message, I just don’t want to affiliate with any of them.

Not wanting to be a part of a religion in our times can be an intensive thing. Most people in my little corner of the bible-belt (Kansas) are conservative Christians of some form or another. I find myself insulting people by my mere presence more often than not. It’s amazing how touchy the religious majority is about their religious freedoms but how quickly mine can be stripped away because Christians know what is best for the world. Again, I’m speaking of the conservative right but that’s what Christian has come to mean to me. There are still many Christians I respect as individuals but I just can’t respect the religion as a whole. It just feels unclean to me now. I listen to the hate filled, judgemental words and I find myself wondering when Jesus told these people to hate. I don’t remember those bible stories. Maybe I wasn’t listening that day…

Anyway, in the end, I have no religious affiliation. What’s funny is that I have yet to decide if I have a problem with that. If someone figures it out, let me know.