One Who Is Lost

I don't even know where to begin discussing the continuing evidence of FOX's stupidity in that they broadcasted the address of a California home as being that of a terrorist...as opposed to the five-member suburban family that actually lives there.

For the last 2 1/2 weeks, the lives of the couple and their three children have been plunged into an unsettling routine of drivers shouting profanities, stopping to photograph their house and — most recently — spray-painting a slogan on their property.

Their house, a suburban fixer-upper the Voricks bought three years ago, was wrongly identified in a cable news broadcast as the home of a terrorist.

"I'm scared to go to work and leave my kids home. I call them every 30 minutes to make sure they're OK," Randy Vorick said.

"I keep telling myself this can't be happening to me. This can't be happening to my family. But it is. I want our lives to be normal again," he said.

In what Fox News officials concede was a mistake, John Loftus, a former U.S. prosecutor, gave out the address Aug. 7, saying it was the home of a Middle Eastern man, Iyad K. Hilal, who was the leader of a terrorist group with ties to those responsible for the July 7 bombings in London.

Hilal, whom Loftus identified by name during the broadcast, moved out of the house about three years ago. But the consequences were immediate for the Voricks.

OK...first of all...why broadcast the address? Even if you were right and Hilal did live there, I'm pretty sure innocent until proven guilty still applies here. All you would have managed to do was send a bunch of idiots to harrass the guy clueing him into the fact that he'd been identified. Which, would you look at that, totally undermines your excuse of doing it "to help local police." Ummm no....helping local police would have been calling them, saying "I have ____ info that links this guy to London and the best I know is you can find him here," not broadcasting it over the air where any idiot with a TV can hear you and act.

Now let's get to the fact that you GOT THE INFORMATION WRONG! Now, instead of sending the idiots (who apparently can't even spell terrorist) after somebody who you have evidence showing they might be guilty...you sent them after a totally innocent family. Now you've basically arranged for a family to be harrassed and vandalized and...oh, again, would you look at that... terrorized in their own home.

Now, having made such a monumental error, do they recant it on the same show, reaching the same audience and thus making progress towards at least attempting to fix the situation? Nah...why do that? Much better to just send a quick, private email of apology and a one line note in the local paper and call it a day. Things will sort themselves out in the end, right?

Yeah, FOX really needs to go away soon...I'm not even going to start in on certain members of their viewing audience (though the phrase sycophantic sheep does come to mind at this time).

I'm sick of it.

I've been reading all day. Hopping from the flist to the Boston communities where they're updating about weirdness on the T (evacuations, derailed trains) and back to the flist. A little worried, but fine.

See people on the flist asking to hear from their Londoner friends (most with London ties on my list are far enough out not to have been affected and have all checked in). Reading about the concerns, reading about the people checking in and who is looking and who is still MIA...friends of friends and even more distantly related but it still hurts to read.

And just...yeah, tears, for no real reason other than I'm sick of this. I'm sick of the fear. Some of it's pointless, but some of it is quite real. Just last night saw an ad for the local news with a story about how there's no guarantee that the Coast Guard can fully do their job. Mindless fear-mongering, cause guess what? There's no guarantee anywhere. Coast Guard, harbors, cargo that isn't x-rayed, the border between the US and Canada, last week's story about bioterrorism and the milk supply, and on and on and on... there are no guarantees.

And then we have today. Yet another mindless attempt by mindless, heartless, soulless people to send a message in blood that, yes, heightens the fear, but also heightens resolve. After a week of Wimbledon and Olympics, sportsmanship and brotherhood, a nation is knocked back into fear by hatred and yet the world turns. Sadder, bleaker and a little darker, but still moving on and still rising up and still yelling "screw you" at the top of our lungs cause fear only works for a little while but the resolve is hard to break and you may paint the world a darker shade today but tomorrow the sun will rise and yours will not be the message that lasts.


Doubt any of that made sense, but here's something that does, for those that need the info:

People who have checked in A-M
People who have checked in N-Z
People still unaccounted for

When I came home from work a little before 5, the man next door was starting his sprinklers.

I just let the dog out now (10 o'clock) and they're still going.

Five HOURS of watering?! What part of drought is hard to understand?

'Cause I know you guys just can't get enough of these.

Anyway, last week, the boss decided he wanted to compare our weekly revenue trends to the DOW. So he has me place it in a spreadsheet then subtract this amount, multiply by this amount, shift it over by a few weeks and, I quote, "manipulate the data until it fits." And four years of science education reared back and hissed. He was so proud when a correlation showed up. I tried to tell him that if you fix the data, yeah there will be a correlation, but he didn't want to hear it. So after he left I ran a correlation test on the undoctored numbers. It was almost statistically significant, but not quite, and close just doesn't count in statistics. I think he just wants to use anything to calm himself over the fact that business sucks right now because the economy sucks right now. THere's a correlation for him.

Then, I took Friday off because my grandmother's out and she, my mom and I were going to have a girl's day. At 8:30 I wake up to our answering machine beeping away. I try to roll over and ignore it, but it's hard to ignore incessant beeping once you've been made aware of it. Sure enough, it's the office needing help finding something. SO I call in. "Oh, it's ok, we found it." "What were you looking for?" "Oh the labels we use to label the inventory." Now anybody who has read my journal can guess where they found these supplies. Yep, you got it, in the supply closet. So basically they called me sometime between 7 and 8:30 on my day off when any normal person would be asleep, to find something that should be (and was) in the first logical place to look for it. These people are too dependent, they need to grow up and learn to function on their own!!

OK, rant over.

Coworker standing right by the creamers - "I think it's time the coffee creamers that expired Feb 2 were thrown out." Looks at me, walks upstairs.

Coworker standing right by the box of paper, which is where it has been since I started working here - "Where can I get a ream of paper."

Coworker trying to mail some bills at the beginning of every single month- "Can you give me an envelope?" And every single time I show him where the envelopes are...suprise, in the supply closet.

I do not understand this inability to do anything for themselves. It's really not that hard. Maybe it's too far "beneath" them. Whatever it is, I hope they enjoy a week of self-reliance cause I'm not going to give them ANY way to contact me while I'm gone *insert evil cackle*

There is no food IN my desk, I have no food ON my desk and I am drinking water...so why, oh why, is my desk full of ants?? It's very disturbing to be typing away and then have an ant crawl out between the keys of your keyboard. I just have psychological itches all over.

And at the same time, I've accomplished quite a bit today. It just seems that time is moving so sl-o-o-o-o-o-ow. Probably because yesterday I was IMing Kim and Jay from school. Much more entertaining. Especially as I was planning a visit at the same time. I NEED to get out of this town. I have been in Colorado for almost a year straight now. Gah! For somebody who hasn't spent more than 3 consecutive months in the same state for the past 4 years, it's a little confining. I want to go someplace!!! I want to see all my NY friends!!! But most of all I want out of this town for a little while. Nothing really important to say, just needed to rant.

Hmmm, I have, yet again, met a person whom I can not please no matter what. Had this issue with a college "friend" who, from my point of view, one day decided I could do no right and from that day on went out of her way to find things to get pissed about. Well, joy of joys, it turns out one of my coworkers has the same personality!!

Today, I asked one of the girls up stairs (there are two, one is nice, one is the person who I cannot please, I asked the nice one) if she wouldn't mind covering the phones tomorrow morning so I could watch a family friend run with the Olympic Torch. She said sure. A little later she emailed to ask when I would be in. I said I'd take a half day and work 12 to 4 (my normal hours are 7-4). She replied saying that both she and the other girl (hates me) were leaving at 2 so somebody needed to cover the phones 4-5. I said sure, I'll work from 1 to 5 instead. About an hour later the girl who dislikes me so comes stomping down the steps and says "We'd appreciate it if you gave us more than one days warning when you're going to be gone!" and then stamps upstairs.

OK, wait a minute, yes, I admit I should have talked to them sooner, but I forgot, but did they give me any warning that I would have to cover 4-5? NO! Had I not emailed them about my schedule change I might never have found out. Screw her!

Really, I'm not being as petty as this seems, I swear. There is a lot of history here, but this was just the final straw. Part of it, I'm sure, is that I am not losing my job while she is though she's been here longer. So on the one hand I'm sympathetic... and on the other I can't WAIT for her last day!

So my boss tells me that as manager of my department all staffing decisions are up to me. I tell him my decision and "Well, what I was thinking was..." and he describes the exact opposite of what I had decided. If you are going to tell me to make the decision, stick by my decision damnit. I did talk him into it, rather reluctantly, after explaining why I thought my way was better. Of course now if it backfires I'm completely screwed. And I wanted to stay here how much longer?

I'm here at work, waiting for the Fed-Ex man. What joy!! I have all my work done and should be on my merry way home, but no, the fed-ex man is almost an hour late and as I am the only one left downstairs, I get to sit on my ass and wait...and wait and wait and wait. It's Friday afternoon DAMNIT!!! I want out of here!!
Sigh, I don't even have a good book with me because we had a lunch meeting so I knew I wasn't going to be able to read at lunch.
There's all sorts of minial little tasks I could get working on, but eh...
So instead I will babble away. Never mind. He's HERE!!!! Let the weekend begin.