Commission is now a punishment

On the last day of every month, I'm required to stay here at work until midnight in a painful last ditch attempt to meet sales goals. In this case, it's completely bullshit and everyone knows it. Well no one is showing it, if they do know.

I'm sick of being here, enrolling 4, 5, 10 apps as they lazily drip into the inboxes. We are way way behind and its completely worthless since we aren't getting our bonuses and its pointless being here this long or at all. Anyway, I think I just heard Martin say "we're done." I hope he means that.

to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations

At work now; there's a nice lull in the workload. Nothing to do and 50 minutes until I'm out of here.

I moved my schedule up so I come into work at 10 instead of 9 by request of the goofriend. Now we can get up and have a little breakfast in the patio before I head off to work. Or sleep in. Which is what has been happening.

Layne and I saw Star Trek last week sometime and we both loved it. That was surprising because Layne had low expectations for the movie, so that's good. What's even more surprising is that she then said, "Hey, let's rent some of the movies!"

We started with Wrath of Khan (2), then Voyage Home (4), then The Search for Spock (3), then Insurrection (9, sucked). We both agree the TOS cast is way better than the TGS cast and it's hard to believe people actually like Picard more than Kirk. Really, its Riker that fucking ruins every scene he's in. Picard/Riker pales in comparison to Kirk/Spock.

We've been trying to get The Final Frontier (5), but it's been slim pickings at Vulcan, probably because others are having the same idea as us. I haven't seen The Undiscovered Country (6) at all anytime we've been there either. We'll have to keep plugging away at it, I guess.

I've got 5 minutes to write

So I'll make this quick.

Diamond fiasco solved. Got money back from Overstock, bought new, bigger diamonds for same price from Amazon. Delivered safely.

Graduation party went well. Everyone had fun. Except for the Repub group.

Birthday tomorrow, but really saturday. Tomorrow is Layne's graduation celebration.

Got a grill. Grilled. I need practice.

Conducting research session right now. 32 respondents, 11 showed up. Better than nothing.

Two minutes left. Long weekend ahead. Need to take a trip. Almost bought a motorcycle. Need to sign up for the class first, get new license.

All right, I'm calling it.

The Diamond Fiasco

As I mentioned previously, I ordered Layne a pair of diamond earrings from Overstock and had them delivered to my office. Well, I would have liked that they were delivered to my office.

The earrings were meant to arrive Wednesday, May 6th, but that day came and went with no sign of the precious parcel. Actually... I've been so stressed about this and told the story to so many people, I don't really feel like going through all the details.

They were lost in the mail. Exhaustive search. Bullshit post office workers. Last chance, spoke with Overstock. Hopefully will get my money back. Will know by Friday. The end.

p.s. I'm exhausted.

A quick thought on the soul and indoctrination

I recently read something on reddit concerning a christian Youtuber who offered up a penny for any atheist's soul, since we don't believe that it exists at all.

As an recent atheism convert, I hadn't really thought about the concept of the soul and I felt an immediate, emotional reaction to the thought of selling mine. The feeling was familiar; it was hesitant fear. It wanted to stop me before I did something dangerous. It would resonate well with the believer who sees their eternal soul at risk. Had I told this to my parents, for example, they might say that the feeling I felt is "evidence" that it exists, that my gut reaction is relaying to me an underlying truth on the existence of God, the soul, etc.

I tried to remember other times I felt that feeling and one rose to the surface: its the feeling you get when you go into a darkened bathroom with a flashlight and try to say "Bloody Mary" three times into the mirror. There is absolutely no danger there, no creature is going to pull you into the mirror or kill you, but I had been raised with that superstition floating around and it stuck. I know nothing will happen when I say "Bloody Mary," but I still feel the fear, just as I do when my nonexistent soul is threatened and for precisely the same reasons. Religion and the idea of a ghastly, immaterial object that is invaluable to you was also foisted upon me throughout my childhood and I still felt the attachment.

I came to atheism through my own general disbelief in Catholicism and through the rejection of the biases, voluntary ignorance, and inherant divisiveness religion breeds. It is a rejection fully rooted in my logical mind. My emotional mind, however, has yet to catch up.



I'll leave you with Keyboard Cat.

Nearing the perfect desktop

So I just got dual monitors at work. That along with my keyboard and I almost have a geek's trifecta. I don't know if I'll spring for it just yet, but a Logitech MX Revolution would round out this workstation pretty nicely.

Latest Obsession: Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat