Okay, Someone, don't ask me a question and then talk over me when I'm answering you. Actually, don't talk over me when I'm not answering you. Don't butt into my conversations and answer for me. And don't talk over other people when they're talking. It's rude.

Totally unrelated to the previous entry, I find myself feeling like I could have a panic attack very very easily. I just hope I don't... I f'ing hate those things.

On "The Mythbusters," they just proved, through the use of petre dishes, that the toilet seat in their shop is cleaner than any other surface.

I find myself disturbed.

So Saturday, at work, I was fighting with a serpentine belt on someone's car, trying to get the new one installed. While I was fighting with it, I happened to get my arm against a hot heater hose, thus, burning my arm.

After the car left, I went and washed my hands and arms, and I noticed a nice little blister on my arm from the burn. I grabbed the box cutter and wiped it with a clean towel (real sanitary, I know), and poked the blister with the point of the blade so that fluid would not build up.

While I was doing this, one of the other guys (I can't remember who) was standing there and let out a big, "EEEEEWW!!!", and nearly vomited in my lap while I didn't even flinch.

From this, I have determined that one or more of the following is true:

• I am one bad mother effer
• The other guy was a total whimp
• I am stupid
• I have a high tolerance for pain
• I just need to go to bed and forget I ever posted this

OMG!! DON"T DELETE THIS OR U WILL MISS OUT!!!

SCROLL DOWN!!!

If u do nawt send dis 2 48 of ur frendz u will nawt win $10000000000 dollars!!!

I am a official for Intel and I tell u that Microsoft and IBM r tracking dis email and dat u will kwalify 4 $100 per person that u send dis email 2.

IF u do nawt send dis to every1 in ur address book ur luck will b against u and u will die in a firey car crash on the third day after ur birthday.

I hope I made my point there. I can't stand the stupid forwards that people send out, let alone the way they all try to guilt you into sending it to every conceivable e-mail address on the internet.

I just got a nice story in a forward from Mom, which she doesn't usually send, but at the end of the story it said something like, "If you don't send this to everyone you know, God will turn his back on you." Okay, maybe not that extreme, but it was along those lines... OKAY! I admit, I didn't read it all... I just saw the part where it said, "If you don't send this to everyone you know..."

So yeah. Whoever started that e-mail, thanks a whole lot for ruining the nice story with the guilt trip.

So a few weeks ago, this guy I work with, no names mentioned, picked up an old junk Blazer that I got for parts. I told him that he could cut the body off and haul it off for scrap, but I wanted the dash forward, including the fenders and radiator support.

Well, today I finally got out to his place to pick it up, and most of the body was still on it. After laboring for a couple hours to get it busted loose, we loaded it up on the trailer and headed out with it.

While we were working on busting the body loose, I was in the process of swinging a sledgehammer, and I looked at the guy and said, "Here, take out some frustrations." He took the hammer from me and said, "Believe me, I already have." I thought nothing of it and we went on about the business.

As we pulled out of his driveway, I noticed the driver's side fender was smashed up. I said something to Dad about it and he agreed that it probably wasn't that way when we looked at getting the thing.

I was just in the process of organizing my pictures from my camera, and among them were some pictures from when we looked at the Blazer. In those pictures, the fenders were both just fine, aside from a bit of rust.

Due to some issues at work, this guy is pretty upset with me. Some of it is jealousy, I'm sure, but a lot of it is the fact that he doesn't like my management style, because I make him work just as hard as I do myself, and I am blunt with him about certain things.

Well, I can pretty much guarantee you that he took out his frustrations, after I yelled at him the other day at work, on the fender of this Blazer. Why? Because he was pissed at me, and because he knew I wanted those fenders.

Drive number 3 just kicked the bucket. The last two drives, I caught before they were officially dead, and I was able to retrieve the data from them. This one just happened out of the blue though. No warning signs, no prior data loss, NOTHING.

Last night the power went out because of a storm, and I never brought the server back online. This morning I needed to use it, so I went to power it up. What do I see?

WDC$WD-440FB-04FNA4 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 17.43G17

I had so much stuff on that drive, too. Most of it was web projects that I didn't have stored elsewhere, but I also had some backups and personal data on it.

I sent out this e-mail just the other day to several friends I've not seen or talked to in a while. I figured I'd post it here too, because it kinda explains recent activity. Enjoy.

Hey everyone! I apologize for sending out this mass-mailing, but it seemed to be the best way I could relay this info to you. I basically just want to let everyone know I'm still alive and what I've been up to... First and foremost, I want to apologize to everyone for not keeping in touch over the last couple of years. It's hard to believe that it's been that long, but believe me, it has. As I'm sure all of you know, I was in the process of starting my own business a couple of years ago. I had plenty of work lined up but it was getting really hard for me to pay the bills between projects, so I had to give up on that dream for a little while. Last June, I took a position in the local quick-lube as a grease monkey. It's not something I was too excited about, but it was about all I could find at the time. Probably no more than a couple of months after I started, I was approached by the owners with the subject of management. The shop here in town was suffering from a lack of proper management, and they needed someone dependable to get it back on track. I had never considered myself "management material", but apparently I presented myself in such a way that made someone else think that way. So right away, I was deemed the manager of the 2-bay shop here in town, and I became responsible for the daily operations and the actions of my fellow employees. Since then, I have acquired a lot of valuable skill, such as employee management, conflict handling, customer satisfaction, bookkeeping, and inventory management. While that may not sound all to frilly and amazing, it is. Believe me when I tell you that this business is more complex than what you see on the surface. But anyhow, within the last couple of weeks, the subject of a third shop came up with the owners. They are looking at purchasing a shop in the extreme northwest Indiana area, thus requiring a bigger management staff. The biggest concern that they had was that I could possibly be leaving for another job, most probably in the information technology field, and that they would be left with a management vacancy and would need to fill it with someone dependable and knowledgeable of automotive and this particular business. Today, I asked the "boss lady" if the third shop would be happening, and her response was something along the lines of, "Well, since you're probably going to be leaving and we'll be in need of 2 managers, probably not. We can't afford the time or the money to find someone to replace you, and we have to run this shop full time if we get it." I informed her that if they were really seriously considering this third shop and that if they wanted to take it, I would be willing to stick around until things are running a bit more smoothly. Her response was that they would very much appreciate it, and that I would more than likely take the "boss dude's" position, managing both of the current shops, such that he would be able to focus on getting the new shop off the ground. You guys are probably all wondering if more money will be included in this promotion; I sure would expect it, and I would most definitely need it to afford a new-ish car as I would be traveling a lot more. So yeah... In short, my business is on hold, I've shot up the corporate ladder in a hurry with this business, and I may be going even higher in the not too distant future. I know I've kinda moved backwards in terms of which industry I'm getting into, but I can't complain: I've got the best employers anyone could ever ask for, I know what I'm doing quite well, and I have been rewarded for my hard work. Yes, I would very much like a nice relaxed office job, but given the circumstances, I would be an idiot to move on right now. Well, that's about it. I again apologize for not keeping in touch with you guys. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail once in a while as I would gladly accept it (and hopefully reply to it)! :) I hope you all have a great Easter, and I wish you all the best! -Tim

The next person that won't allow me to finish talking, who won't give me a chance to finish my side of the story, who finds it necessary to interrupt me for something stupid but won't allow me to discuss something important with them, is going to be met with my bad side. They shall see me yell and scream and get violent, something which almost never happens.

I'm not going to stand for it ever again. If I'm expected to listen to your bullshit, you damn well better be ready to hear mine.

I'm so f'ing sick of having to be the "quiet one". I DO know how to talk. I DO have social skills. It's the arrogant pricks like the people I non-specifically mentioned above that have no social skills.

I realize that you people have things to say and do, but like I said, don't expect me to listen to your crap if you can't spare 30 seconds to listen to mine.

End. Of. Story.

I went to the grocery store today in an attempt to gather supplies to make healthy lunches for this next week.

I started my journey at Wal-Mart, and found nothing more than rude and stupid people, unwilling to make way for me to inspect the food items by which they were standing. I gave up there and went next door.

When I got to "County Market", I decided to look at lunch meats, soups, and frozen dinners. The meat section was being blocked by store employees who didn't see the necessity in allowing me to look at the products in the coolers. The soups the store had on hand were all either high in fat or high in sodium, both of which I am trying to cut back on. The frozen meals were all the same, even though they were marketed as "Low fat and sodium!"

I would have bought fruits and vegetables, but #1 - the quality of what the store had was just nasty, and #2 - I want something that is easy to prepare and that I don't have to spend hours making.

Mom suggested that fruits and vegetables would take no more than a few minutes on Sunday nights, but since anyone who cooks in this house thinks it is required to use every dish and pot and pan, I would have to spend the hour just cleaning the kitchen, another hour waiting for the dishwasher to finish, then the few minutes to clean and prepare the food.

So what's my decision? Breakfast is going to be Nutri-Grain bars, lunch is going to be whatever, dinner is going to be nothing, and in between is going to be granola bars and dry cereal. So much for variety.

So tonight, the whole family got together at a little place in the middle of nowhere to eat dinner and celebrate my sigh 24th birthday.

While we were there, in walked the former owners of a restaurant that I worked at - my first job. Seemingly not too long afterwards, I was fighting the dirty dishes and empty glasses for a spot to plant my elbows on the table while I socialized with everyone.

When I worked for these people, nearly 10 years ago, the wife would yell and cuss and scream at me because there were dirty dishes on the tables at their place. With them sitting just a couple tables away, I could hear the echoes of her ranting because our table had not been cleared. It was almost like a dream. You know, that kind of dream where you're supposed to be doing something but it turns out you're supposed to do it for yourself....or something...

So yeah, it was weird. The time with the family was really nice though. I always enjoy that kind of get-together.

Today at work, "the new guy" (who is probably reading this... Hi Charles!), was guiding a vehicle into the shop... The lady driving said vehicle doesn't like pulling into the shop, but she never mentioned it today and I totally forgot about it.

So anyhow... She was starting to rub the driver's side tires on the rails around the pit (see here for an idea of what I'm talking about), so Charles had her turn the wheels to the left. Well, apparently she didn't hear him, or she misunderstood his hand signals, and turned the vehicle to the right instead. Now, she had the driver's side front tire up on the rail, centered, and it was still in a "turn-right" position. For some reason, her instinct was to smash a pedal, and it turned out to be the accelerator. Meanwhile, "Boss Dude" and "Boss Lady" and I were all yelling "WHOA!" and "STOP!", but she didn't listen. She eventually had the driver's front tire about an inch away from going over the rail, and the driver's rear tire was centered on the rail. She finally realized she needed to turn left and stop, and she got both wheels centered on the rail, and finally stopped.

"Boss Dude" was right there when she did stop, and he opened the door and said, "Why don't you step out and I'll get this straightened out.."

"Boss Lady" freaked out, and I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She came to the back of the shop by the back door and was catching her breath in an attempt to calm down. "Boss Dude" pulled the truck out of the shop and back around to reposition it, while Charles was up front ready to guide him back in. I looked at "Boss Lady" nad showed her my trembling hand, and I said, "It's all okay now."

So yeah... We had a vehicle almost fall in the pit today, as I've had happen before, because of the customer, not the guy up front guiding. And just so everyone knows, I'll be damned if a car ever goes in the pit on my watch.

I talked with my grandmother the other day about spending some time with her on my day off, which was today. She sent me an e-mail last night, asking if I would be up for lunch or supper with her at "Kentucky Fried Chicken". I called her this morning when I woke up (11:00AM) and asked if supper would work better, and she said it would. She also said that she would like to order from the drive-through and take it back to the house so we could spend time together without worrying about other people and noise and such.

So anyhow, I went to her house, we headed out to KFC and pulled up to the drive-through, and there was "Boss Lady", ordering from the drive-through as well. She was a couple cars in front of us. After we ordered, she saw me through the window of Grandma's car, and waved. She got her food and left. When we got up to the window, the girl working the register handed Grandma a receipt and said, "That lady in the S.U.V. that just left paid for your meal. You don't owe anything... She said, 'I demand to know how much their bill is,' and paid for it."

I thought Grandma was going to cry because she was so moved by it. I too thought it was a very cool gesture, but it didn't seem too out of the ordinary for her to do that.

So yeah, I officially work for the coolest people ever. They bought my Grandma food at KFC. :)

Okay, so here's the deal:

I've realized that I have been eating nasty food for the last few years. Why? Because it's very convenient to spend a couple bucks at Taco Bell and get a lot of food.

With the history of high cholesterol in my family, as well as other health issues, I've decided that I'm going to stop eating the crap that I have been eating, and start eating "right".

Here's the problem, though: I usually work a 10-hour day, with little time to eat a normal meal, and I don't really have the convenience of a refrigerator at work. I need something that I can keep in a lunch cooler all day, have something to eat in the morning, something around noon, something in the evening just before I leave the shop, and snacks in between. I eat a lot during the day and I work pretty hard. I suppose I need a little bit more calories than the average person, and I need carbohydrates more than most people.

The last time I weighed myself, I was nowhere near being "overweight", so I don't need to lose weight. I don't want to eat foods with saturated fat, if at all possible, because that's just nasty. Sodium is good for the summertime, because I don't have the luxury of working in an air-conditioned environment, and I sweat a lot usually.

So, now it's time to work: What kind of a diet do I need to be looking at? What kind of foods do I need to be puting on my grocery shopping list?

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -Thomas Jefferson

You can take your "Patriot Act" and shove it.