With fronds like these, who needs anenomes?

Well, isn't that wondermous! I actually DID get written up for breaking a rule that wasn't even a rule until my boss got pissed off and made it a rule! Retroactive punitive measurements FTL!

Long version: We had two days of furlough, meaning we don't come into work, and we don't get paid. Unfortunately, those were 8 hour days, and we work 12 hour shifts. So, we could either take four hours of vacation and not come in at all, or work for four hours. I decided to work four hours. I came in for an hour, then left to catch a movie, then came back and finished my time. Apparently I was supposed to read my boss's mind and know that that would piss him off to the point that he'd write me up for a rule he'd yet to create.

Arguing with him revealed even more of the hypocrisy. His argument started that it was "common sense" to know that he meant that those four hours were supposed to be contiguous. I then asked if it would have been okay if I'd come in from midnight to 4AM (which I pretty much did, I was actually at work for nearly 5 hours in total). He then revised his argument to say that no, that wouldn't be okay because my supervisor didn't know about it and that I knew he meant I was supposed to come in the first four hours or the last 4 hours of the day. At that point, I asked "If my supervisor mistakenly thought I was going to come in the last four hours and I came in the first four hours instead, would I still be here standing in front of you getting written up?" He wouldn't give me an answer for that, so that pretty much confirms my suspicions that he's writing me up simply because he's butthurt.

I about jumped out of my skin and throttled him when he offered up the classic, "You can choose to enjoy your time here, or you can choose to be pissed off" while conveniently leaving out the fact that management has been little by little raising the temperature of the water and hoping we frogs don't notice that we're being boiled slowly. God I hate that choice argument. It's nothing more than a modern version of scumbag Clayton William's so-called joke: "If rape is inevitable, then relax and enjoy it." Mind you, I'm not saying my job is in any way similar to rape. Don't try to tell me I am. What I am saying is that while the premises of the argument are different in the two different scenarios by an order of magnitude, the logical arguments in the two scenarios are identical. One could just as easily tell a depressed woman to eschew anti-depressants and choose to enjoy clinical depression or tell someone that no, no, it's not that you hate eating fertilized and mostly developed duck eggs , you choose to not like balut and you can just as easily choose to like it.

To assuage my annoyance, I decided to spend a bit of money. I picked up a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes CD that I didn't have and the most recent Owl City for research on whether I should get tickets for him and Brooke Waggoner in October. Yeah, I totally should. Funny how I came to buying an Owl City CD. I heard of Brooke Waggoner only because one of her songs, Daylover, is in the iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge and I really really liked it. So I hear of the headliner through an iPhone app that happens to have the opening act in it. Talk about convoluted.

Ahh, and before I leave, check out this video from local Dallas band Giggle Party:

Giggle Party's "Jason Bought A Hatchet" from Jason Reichl on Vimeo.

And be sure to check out the short web series Anarchy For Breakfast. The videos are typically less than 3 minutes, and there are only 6 of them, so it's not a lot of time lost.

Something creepy this way comes

Yesterday was productive.

I got my inspection done on my car, picked up my comics, and got my tickets for Mastodon and Dethklok (Holy crap nearly $40—That's like $10 more than it was to see them last year).

Snags? I wasn' t able to pick up tickets to Brooke Waggoner. It turns out she's only opening for someone, and I didn't know for whom at the time. Apparently she's opening for Owl City, a one man synthpop/electronica band. Does anyone know anything about him? All I know is that the cover of his most recent CD has a pic of the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai, something halfway around the world that I've actually seen with my own two eyes (It was built but not yet open when I was there in late 1998). Synthpop piques my interest as I love me some Freezepop.

Second snag? After all this, I treated myself to Café Brazil. The food was fine, but I got the distinct impression that I was not wanted there. Upon entering, I was immediately asked if I was getting something to go by the girl who would be my server. It was only after I asked for a menu that I was allowed to sit down. This alone I could have shrugged off, but not when combined with what followed. As I was waiting for my bill, one of the male servers nonchalantly leans on the bar near me. Again, by itself, not so bad. After I paid my bill and went to leave, nonchalant guy picks that exact moment to go up to the front of the restaurant, making me seem as if he's following me out to make sure I don't try something with my server or the college-age girl she was talking to (who I had to pass to get to the door). WTF? Eating alone and minding one's own fucking business doesn't make a person some kind of sexual predator. Seriously, am I so creepy that going someplace to eat a salad in peace triggers some kind of Pervert Alert in people? I think I'll go back there sometime next week (preferably in the morning as I know those servers a bit better) to say how unwelcome I was made to feel and also to ask up front if I'm really that creepy. It doesn't help that this article has made me hyper paranoid about these sorts of things.

Brighter side? Derby is this weekend, and it's the ACRD Championships. There's the barbecue/tailgate party beforehand and then the afterparty, well, after. I don't own a grill, but I do wish to contribute to the merriment and whatnot. Which would be better to bring, plenty of hot dogs, bratwurst, and traditional grilling noms in exchange for allowing me to use someone's fire to cook OR make some Carolina style pulled pork and share with everybody? I also have strawberries and rhubarb in the refrigerator, so a homemade pie is also looking pretty likely as well. Why yes, this certainly does look like I'm trying to bribe people into being social with me using food. Don't you judge me, I'm a damn good cook and I need the social encouragement after that crap I talked about above.

Regardless of which route I go, if you've got nothing going on, I highly recommend you come out to see it. Tailgate is at 5:00, doors open at 7:00. $15 for tickets at the door, kids under 10 years old get in free, BYOB (no glass), 3022 Moon Dr, Mesquite, just off of I-30 and Gus Thomasson Rd. You don't want me to keep talking about this, do you? I'm gonna drag at least one of you Dallas-area people to a bout one of these days if it kills me.

Mystery Music Theater 2600

Sometimes I really like the way fortune occasionally smiles. I decided to hit up Café Brazil, as I wasn't feeling like cooking up anything. Fortunately for me, I'd forgotten my iPhone so I was relegated to getting a copy of the Dallas Observer to occupy my time while I waited for my food. Lo and behold, guess what I found out? Available starting today are tickets for


MASTODON AND DETHKLOK

at the House of Blues on Wednesday, November 11th. Say what you want about the House of Blues being corporate trash, but it's no more corporate than the Palladium Ballroom considering the House of Blues actually allows you to buy tickets at the box office with no 30% "convenience" fee. Sure, it's no Granada, but there haven't been any concerts I've wanted to see since Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm.

I've not seen Mastodon in concert, so I can't speak for them, but I have seen Dethklok in concert, and they put on one hell of a show. Just like Metalocalypse, their live show perfectly blends comedy with melodic death metal insofar as the audience is pretty much put into the plot of a Metalocalypse fic that unfolds during the concert. Anyone who wants to go, give me a heads up because I'm sure as shit going to be there.

Shifting gears sort of abruptly, I put down my pre-order for Rock Band Beatles today. Holy crap. I was going to get the full set so I could get some new wireless equipment. Unfortunately, it isn't $180 as I thought it would be, but rather $250. Forget that noise. With that $70 markup, I'll get the game alone, thank you very much. Oh, speaking of the game, it was $65 instead of the $50 or $55 I was expecting. That must have been one hell of a price Harmonix paid to get the first digital versions of Beatles songs. No, seriously. Apple doesn't have their stuff on iTunes and Amazon doesn't have their original stuff in their MP3 store either. Eh. Until the game comes out next month, I'll be busy with new downloadable stuff that I'd not seen. Another Weezer pack (with My Name is Jonas and Pork & Beans), a Rancid pack (2 songs off of ...And Out Come the Wolves and one off of their new album), and a decent Spinal Tap pack that has classics such as Stonehenge, Big Bottom, and Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight.

Finally, for those of you who are fans of MST3K, on Thursday, August 20, the three guys from Rifftrax will be broadcasting a riffing of Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's kind of similar to how This American Life occasionally broadcasts a live show to theaters throughout the country. Only, you know, MST-ified.

Holy moley! An entire post where I didn't mention roller derby.


...crap.