I had an uncle who got a penile implant just like Pumpman. He was in his 70's when he did it. Medicare paid for it. Our tax dollars at work. Forever more, I called him my Uncle Pump. I post this cartoon in his memory. He died two years ago at the age of 93.
BTW Rob, he was in Dallas once and pumped it up and couldn't get it down for about four hours. Panic city! I gotta admire the old goat. He used it until his late eighties.
Last Friday we had our annual mandatory diversity meeting at TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name). Fortunately, it was an e-meeting. What is an e-meeting you ask? You dial into a number on your phone and you point your browser to an intranet site. It's all the rage. Saves on travel expenses. The nice thing about this was I didn't have to be in the same room as my manager. Why would that be a problem?
Two years ago, we had a diversity meeting and my manager asked the question, "What does diversity mean to you?"
Unfortunately, he was looking right at me when he asked the question and I replied, "Racial preferences, quotas, and affirmative action. Hiring and promoting people by skin color and sex rather than ability."
Wrong answer.
You'd think that after over 28 years at TCIDNN that I would have learned to keep my mouth shut. Last year I did a lot better, altho', if they would have made me sit through the Ruth Ellis video again I would have gotten up and walked out. I can retire anytime I want, so, some of the bullshit just rolls right over me.
Back to this year's meeting. Half of our department had never attended an e-meeting before, so fifteen minutes was spent telling them how to blow up the screen so the graphics could be displayed properly. I just opened up another browser window and checked out some blogs.
He finally started going through the bullshit presentation. I put my phone on mute and continued to check out stuff on the web. His presentation lasted about fifteen minutes. Fortunately no one asked any questions. I was surprised that we didn't see the graphic that had the buying power of all the various groups.
What stood out was the concept of protected groups and how no one was supposed to fuck with someone who was a member of a protected group. And just who is in a protected group? Near as I can tell, anyone who isn't a white male.
Needless to say, since I am a shit disturber, after the meeting, I had to stop in the office next door that contains two white males, and cautioned them against fucking with me, because I am a cripple and therefore in a protected group!
What a crock of shit! Can't we get around this bullshit and just rate and hire people on merit? I have never used my disability as a crutch (pun intended). I have worked with black people, gay people, females, and whatever else you might find in the workplace, and I do not care about any of that shit or whether or not they are in a protected group. All I care about is if they can do the job and carry their fair share of the load. Period!
This crap makes me sick!
Today, I had a periodic review with my manager. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Blah. Blah. Blah. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.
That was a wasted 45 minutes. We talked about the German project. Apparently it's a go. I pointed out the weak point, the network, as the network guy, who is a contractor is pissed and is leaving in November. His designated replacement is a dipshit who doesn't know shit. Guess who the only person in our group is who knows anything about SNA (Systems Network Architecture)? Yep! It is I. Guess what the Germans' network runs? You got it! SNA. I just have this bad feeling that I'm gonna be the one who has to bring the German network over intact. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That oughta be a lot of fun.
This was my periodic update on TCIDNN. Tomorrow, I hope to post sumpin' interesting.
See ya then.
Posted by denny at July 21, 2003 09:27 PM