Elitism

For some reason people really enjoy joining a group that is percieved as being elite. Specifically, I am talking about my rugby team being INVITED to join the SUPER League - just typing that seems so pretentious. Our team accepted the prestigious honor and now were are going to fly all over the country to play teams that aren't much better than the good teams we were supposed to play. And to top it all off we are now in the same league as our cross town rivals (who have been in the elite league for some time but lost to us by ten points when we played most of the game a man down) yet we do not play them. But we are flying to Seattle for a game. I think that the thing that bothers me most is how everyone jumped on the bandwagon right away and does not see it as a bunch of elitist crap. Meanwhile we abandoned our goals in our own league to pretend to be better than we are. Personally I enjoyed being a team in the lower league that beat up teams in the higher league and bring them down a little. To think that people will be thinking about us that way is just disturbing.

Da Frauded

While I was doing some routine checking on all of my accounts I noticed some askew, very askew. My checking account was debited $1,080 for a Western Union online withdrawl, which caused my account to be overdrawn. Now I don't ever recall using Western Union for anything, so I figured that there must be some sort of mistake ... or worse. So I headed for my bank after work to see what was up. The teller called Western Union and the first thing they asked when the teller said there had been an unusual charge to my account was, "Is it fraud?" Ah fraud, a $400 billion industry. So after jumping through some hoops and enduring a week without cash I should get all that money back. When I got off the phone with the Western Union rep she told me that I could contact my local authorities. I am still thinking about this. I feel like I should but I know that 98% of fraud cases end with no conviction. I don't know if that is because it is hard to catch con artist, people don't report it, or if the police just don't give a damn and end up throwing the claim at the perpetual botttom of an ever growing pile of cases. Then I started thinking about the ways that people could get my debit card information. And i came up with several ideas. Two opprotunities arose during the simple act of ordering a pizza. First I had to give my card number over the phone so they could run it through. At this point the person on the other end of the phone may have written it down and either used it or threw it away and into the hands of some garbage hunter. Then another opprotunity appeared when the pizza arrived. The delievery person made a rubbing of my card which again could have been used or discarded and later picked up. I don't know if either of these senerios is how my debit card number got out but the fact that the simple act of ordering a pizza could lead to you being defrauded is a little unnerving. Perhaps from now on I'll pay cash.

Da Bears

Well it has finally happened... Chicago Bears fans were right. As predicted in week two when the Bears beat the Detroit Lions (the second worst team in the NFL this past season), the Bears are headed to the Super Bowl. I never thought that the Bears fans would be right but I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day. The worst thing about it is that I have to hear about it for two full weeks since there is an off week before the Super Bowl. I would root for the Bears if not for the Saturday-Night-Live-esk behavior of almost every Bears fan in this city. The thing I find most interesting about any psycotic fan base is how so many lives seem to revolve around professional sports. I guess that the most important thing in the world is SPORTS.

Role Ambiguity

At this point I go into work everyday with no clue as the what I am going to be doing that particular day. I hear statements such as, "you can do this for a while," but then the day after I find myself doing something completely. For the most part I'm easy and I go with the flow but it certainly is challenging. When you don't get into a routine and have a defined role at work you can go through role ambiguity which results in extra stress. I learned about this concept in 'Organizational Psychology' in college and am getting a renewed lesson in real life. Last night after a surprise role change at work I felt physically sick. The fatigue and headache I experenced last night was due at least partly to stress at work. I didn't feel stressed in the way most people think of it but my mind made my body stress out. Hopefully someday I will have a consistant routine.

Cutting Throught the Clutter

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, so we got the day off. I spent the day honoring the good Doctor by cleaning out a good deal of my house in preparation for our move ... in May (you think that I am excited about it?). As I went through all the junk sitting in my room i realized that I am a bit of a pack rat. Not as bad as those people that you see on Cops who live in trash, but I save a lot of things that I think I may use later but really won't. I guess that I generally think that it is better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it. But once you get past the point where you know that you won't need something you don't think, 'hey, I saved that and now I have no need for it so perhaps I will find it and dispose of it.' Instead these items sit in drawers, closets, or under the bed until you do massive cleaning. I think that the most interesting of a desire to hold on to things is how much of a pattern I built. Hours after I finished cleaning I picked a recipe off my desk and then put it in an organizer, only then I realized that I was falling in the same pattern and threw it out. In most likelyhood I will end up needing it.

Delivery Made

(See Failure to Deliver)
Over a week after my package went missing it turned up on my front steps opened. I was shocked when I saw it there. It was like someone stole the package, opened it, didn't know what to do with the computer chips within, and then decided to return the package to where it was stolen. This sound ridiculios but it is all I can come up with.

New Year, New Nothing

I think that New Years Day is one of the most worthless holidays that we celebrate. I was kind of been looking forward to 2007 and now that it is here I realized that nothing really changes after the new year. It is really just restarting what is quickly becoming the same old. Along with this repetition comes time speeding up. The more you get into a routine the faster time flys. Then you start looking forward to other events that are coming up on your calendar. Like now I am excited for Easter, which falls one my birthday, and then shortly thereafter moving out of our crappy house. I think that moving out of our house will actually make things different. So that will help break the routine.