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Monthly Archives: December 2014

• 2014 We Hardly Need You

  Posted at 3:08 am by kayewer, on December 28, 2014

  Another year is in the can. I’ve been looking back at my posts the past year to see what idiocy I’ve been publicizing, and I guess I’m no better or worse than the next guy.

  I started the year talking about snow, and we had more than our share to start with. That sucked. So did online games (difficult Windows8) and movie trailers for just about anything with a hint of action in it. I brought up the murderous activity of cyber bullying, dressing decently even if you’re going to Wal-Mart, jeans at work every day and trying to work with tech support.

  In 2014 I got a new clock radio, a new television, a new cable box (thanks to Brutus the Cable Guy, who did what Cletus the Cable Guy did not do: replace the #@! box) and a new DVD player, so it appears that my entire electronic family died at about the same time, and none could live without the others. I also got a battery-operated clock because the new-fangled cable boxes apparently don’t have clocks.

  And yes, I did manage to write a bit. A group for which I read actually liked a quick chapter intro I rolled off in record time one afternoon simply because I wanted to get it written down and I had twenty minutes to spare. Since then I have expanded it and hope to have a full chapter completed soon.

  A friend gave me a needle felting kit for Christmas, so I can devote time to my felting in 2015 as well as my crocheting.

  2014 introduced my mother and me to the Chapman Stick (a musical instrument). We also spent over 80 hours without any television when it went on the fritz. The dry sink in the kitchen hit me in the eye, and I injured my shoulder somehow and was in pain for nearly two weeks: fortunately the doctor says it’s just a mishap related to a type of bone spur and it shouldn’t happen again.

  Here’s hoping that 2015 does not start out like it did last year, because I don’t want to have to write about snow again any time soon.

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• Merry, Merry? Quite Contrary!

  Posted at 4:03 am by kayewer, on December 21, 2014

  We wish people Merry Christmas, but we know it’s not that way for everybody. Still, we try to make one day in the calendar seem better than the others, and we set aside time for humanitarian good deeds and such, but the world will go through the same tumultuous 24 hours on Christmas Day as any other.

  Births and deaths go through the same paces. People will get into mishaps at home and on the road. Stores will run out of milk and bread (especially those that don’t close on Christmas). And people do go to work on the holiday. I happen to work at a 24-hour operation, so somebody will bring food in to the workers (and they get overtime). I have the day off, but the day after is Friday, so I’ll have double the work (and don’t mention what has to be done on January 2).

  Hospitals and police departments and 24-hour operators deal with some horrendous stuff on holidays: no wonder they eat, drink and smoke too much on average.

  Some people will still have the same problems on Christmas that they had the day before, and on the day after Christmas, some seasonal employees will find they have been fired.

  We close out another year of 365 days with much the same situations in place as the year before. It may not be merry, but you can predict that some things never change. All we can do is try to make a few bad situations better. Wish somebody a peaceful holiday: sometimes that trumps merry.

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• It’s About Time

  Posted at 2:24 am by kayewer, on December 15, 2014

  Life is full of exercises in bad timing. My company decided to institute a new timekeeping software program now. There is no time like the present, the old saying goes, and there is never a good time to get people used to new software, but it’s the end of the year and we have two holidays coming up. Just when everybody is on the same page with a routine, the rules change.

  The timekeeping gods are dancing a jig now.

  Also, the decision was made to start using the new software at the start of a new pay period, which for us starts on a Saturday. This means that, for the majority of us who do not work Saturday or Sunday, we will start right in with a new way to account for our daily hours first thing Monday morning. I’m anticipating lots of spilled coffee and four-letter words shouted at the height of desperation.

  Either that, or a manager will come around and tell us that the software crashed the system over the weekend.

  In addition, we can’t sign in until we receive our logins and passwords. Usually new logins are complex URLs which take up two lines of type on your computer screen. Passwords are born as a string of unintelligible garble which you must change into something you won’t forget the minute after you devise it. Having gone through family names and birth dates and names of pets from 1965 who were alive ten household moves ago, most password reminders now ask us for ten characters for a new password. Even a birthdate only contains eight. And what if you gave your kids and pets names of only five letters?

  You might try stringing together four-letter word patterns with an exclamation point at the end for your “special character.”

  I often have to dig deep for passwords, because my life is dull and missing exciting things I could use for passwords. That must be why the most common passwords are 1234 and such. Who has the time to figure out a new password before you’re one minute late clocking into the new time clock system?

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• The Gifts That Ain’t Giving

  Posted at 2:51 am by kayewer, on December 7, 2014

  Every year there is a list of what to (or what not to) give for the holidays. Those lists are too general to matter, but overall I think there are some common sense points to consider before you break the rules.

  This year it’s recommended* that you not give candles or anything with a particular scent, because those tend to not match a person’s taste and more likely to be re-gifted, unless you actually know that the person wears that scent or likes the aroma of pine in a flaming pillar. There is also the issue of allergies to contend with: there’s nothing like opening a gift and going into hacking or sneezing fits which effectively put an end to the present opening for the day. I followed this one.

  Also, don’t give men leather goods, because if a steer can wear his hide for years, your man isn’t likely to plow through another wallet after only a few months. Besides, the softer that thing gets against his bony buttock, the less likely it is to annoy his backbone from having to sit crooked all his life. I pity men, so I give pens (they go in the breast pocket).

  Calendars are also considered a no-no, along with picture frames and holiday decorations. Again with the personal preference thing. Your photo frame may clash with the complete set your friend spent months putting together to make their picture wall in the great room worthy of a magazine cover photo shoot. Besides, those generic photos inside are creepy.

  Finally, don’t give a hat and scarf/glove set. These kinds of items are best designed for one to buy for themselves. Or, if you must, avoid the pompoms and funny color schemes, or don’t expect to see them walk around one day in your gift items. They’re more likely to go to the donation bin.

  So I broke some of these rules, and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I have. Folks are going to see some of the forbidden items when the present swaps go on in a week or so. I did take the time to pick things with particular individuals in mind, and it is the thought that counts. That is the true key to gift shopping: consider the person, along with your wallet.

  *http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/01/pf/bad-holiday-gift-ideas/

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