I’m going to open the floor up for discussion.  As most of you already know I work for what can be described as an abusive boss.  This is someone that screams and yells all day to the point of creating a demoralizing work environment.  I’ve wrestled with the thought of moving on to greener pastures or sticking out the situation and seeing where it leads.  So at this point, I’ve felt I’ve seen the best and the worst of my boss’s many moods.  Now I’m determining what other opportunities may be out there that offer a better risk/return profile than my current position. 

I recently walked on an interesting book at Barnes and noble.  The title of the book is called “The Dip” The author Seth Godin essentially creates a guide to determine if bad situations are merely short term dips during a long up-trend or indeed dead-end situations called “cul-de-sacs.”  I think the premise of the book is interesting since we’ve all been in situations where we thought that everything is going bad but going to turn around.  Sometimes it does and other times it just gets worse.

What are your impressions of psycho bosses, is it just a stick it out type of situation?   Have you ever been in a similar situation?

I’m going to dedicate the next few postings to the fine art of quitting.  If you’ve worked for a few years, you’ve experienced quitting a job at least once in your life.  I personally have only one quitting story, but I’m thinking collectively the contributors to this blog probably have some interesting stories to tell.  Here’s a story someone told me this weekend.

A friend of mine just quit a public accounting job last week.  He had joined an associate program that was supposed to last two years. After one year, He walked into his bosses office and declared that he was leaving the company.  The boss blew up and stated “You know this is a two year program, If I ever hear of you doing this to anyone else, I will crush you.  You will never work in this industry again!” 

He replied “I barely worked for you all year and I took what little you taught me and leveraged it to a better position at a better firm”

His boss goes “Bullshit”

Then he replied “I have the offer letters sitting in my cube right now”

The boss was floored and said “You don’t want to work anywhere else, all those other guys fucking suck”

He stared at his boss and walked out.

Got a story to share?

After moving to a city that openly embraces smoking I’ve begun to get more negative on the subject.  People can be found smoking in every bar and many restaurants in Chicago and its bad.  Whereas in California, people are social smokers outside of bars or in special rooms at clubs or just something that happens once in awhile between friends.  I’m not retarded I know smoking is bad and seeing it all over the place really makes me feel sorry for people who are addicted to something that could kill them.  If tobacco wasn’t such a large part of the founding of America we would have banned it a long time ago.  It really has no redeeming quality to offer society.

Also what’s the deal with so many chemicals in cigarette smoke?  I know just burning anything produces a lot of chemicals regardless of what your burning, but cigarettes reportedly have what, 4000 chemicals?  What the fuck is up with that ? Are they spraying the plants with all that shit or is it just the composition of the leaf?

Here’s a question for the Japadamus loyalists, what would you do for a living if you didn’t need to earn a living?  Would it be to run a restaurant?  Have a retail store?  Make art?  I’ve been thinking a lot about this question and I think it would be fun to own a restaurant or attempt to become a real writer.  Just something simple to pass the time while sharing some of myself with others.  So fellow readers what would you do?

Allow me to stand on my soapbox for a second.  One thing that particularly upsets me when shopping at grocery stores or drugstores are the use of customer loyalty cards.  I’m so fucking sick of being asked if I have my Safeway/albertsons/CVS card in hand when I’m shopping.  What is the purpose of this other than to lock you into shopping only at one store.  If you want to do me a favor, just keep your prices low all the time and save me the charade of raising prices then lowering them when I present your particular card.  I know I’m not really saving $5 on that box of Triscuits (don’t even get me started on how fucking weird is the name Triscuit, its the combination of  biscuit and what? Tris?  what the fuck is that!) I know that Albertson’s isn’t charging $7 for a box.

Seriously! who has the time to collect these fucking cards and carry them 24/7 just on the off chance of stopping somewhere to purchase something.  Should I keep them in an baseball card holders and file them in three ring binders?  Don’t even get me started on the follow up question when I explain I don’t have the card on me.   “What’s your phone number?”  Like its that simple, Hmm.  Let me think, which number did I sign-up the card under?  Could it be the home phone number for one of the 8 different places I’ve lived at in the past 8 years, or maybe the number for my cell phone, or work blackberry, or work phone number, or grand central number, or one of the two burner numbers I’ve used when my cell phone wasn’t working.  Hold on, let me just manually try each of these 14 numbers (if I can remember them) just to get 1.50 off that laundry detergent.

Cut the bullshit already.

 I just finished my second week at my new firm.  How was it?  Well, things are definitely getting more interesting.  I think the first week my boss was on his best behavior, now the lunatic is starting to emerge.  He screams all day for people to get him information about this or that and he asks me to do things I’ve never done before (and he knows that) then yells and patronizes me when they are done incorrectly.  Pretty awesome.  What do I make of the whole situation?  I don’t know yet.  Its definitely not a pleasant situation and I do have some other options to pursue if I didn’t want to continue with this position.  I do think it makes sense to give the job some time to settle.  I’m sure that there will be an adjustment phase and maybe the constant abuse becomes second nature, like riding a bike. I can always hope for Stockholm Syndrome.

For those that know me personally know that I just made a large move to a new destination.  I always thought that I would be someone that could easily hope from one city to the next without any remorse. After completing this hop, I feel uneasy.  Granted I still don’t know anyone and haven’t ventured further than a 5 block radius, I’m still left asking myself,  What have I done? and Why did I choose to do this?

For the first question I guess only time will tell.  For the second question to put it plainly, I did it to hopefully advance my career.  I guess we shall see on both those accounts.

New York Times is reporting today that the former director of Chinese Food and Drug regulation has been sentenced to death following a series of scandals as a result of substandard drugs being sold abroad.  In light of the recent pet food scandals it appears that industry in China is left to manufacture and sell products without any oversight.  This poses a big problem globally as China emerges as a world power.  In most cases it seems that a Chinese drug maker added a dangerous chemical to some product either to cut costs.  The United States really should step in and begin testing these imports from China to issue safety before allowing these products on the market.  I’m currently worried that purchasing a food or drug product in China might kill me down the road unless someone steps in to ensure its safety.   Maybe this is a great idea for a private business?

The Nene goose is a darling of the Hawaii media, any time something happens Nene related, The Starbulletin is there to cover it.  Check out the results for this search, 181 mentions of Nene on Starbulletin.com?  Give me a break, who cares about these birds.  The just strut around Hawaii, telling people what to do.  I’m writing a letter to the editor in support of a blackout on all Nene related news, its too much.

The thing about political movements is that most of the time they really let anyone in.  Ghandi could have joined the NRA, MLK could have became a republican, and so on.

This has become a problem for leftist environmentalists, it seems, because now every tree-hugging idiot around is opening their mouth and trying to help.  This is no so bad with college know it all hippies, who spend their saturdays on street corners protesting the Iraq war and brewing coffee with solar energy.  However, it is a problem for idiot celebrities who have no idea what they’re talking about, but try to jump on the chic environmentalist bandwagon.

Case in point, Sheryl Crow.

I’ve heard waaaay too much about Sheryl Crow this past weekend in general.  First, there was the spat between Crow, her friend Laurie David, and Karl Rove.  And I’m no Rove fan, but I must admit, it’s classless for these two girls to pick a fight with Rove during dinner.  How would Crow like it if I walked up to her in a restaurant and told her to try writing an album with her head removed from her ass, or to tell her boyfriend to lay off the ‘roids.

But what came next was more disappointing than anything.

As you may know, Crow and David are touring the U.S. to raise awareness for environmental problems.  Like most useless hippies, Crow thinks she can solve the problems of global warming herself.  She is afterall, a musician with a degree from the University of Missouri.

Said Crow, “Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating…I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting.”

And this is where environmentalists around the world hang their heads, their cause once again made laughable by ignorant, publicity hungry ‘artists.’

Really, if this global warming thing is happening, I would like someone to do something quickly - it takes at least 30 days for flood insurance to kick in.  And it’s not helping with idiots like Crow and her theories for saving the planet getting headlines making all environmentalists seem like ignorant, big mouthed celebrities.

And the thing is, there is no centralized management of the environmentalist movement - at least none that will take Crow aside and tell her to shut the fuck up.  I mean, ok, Cameron Diaz driving a hybrid - that’s hot.  But someone needs to shut up these idiot celebrities before they totally counter any progress made within the last decade.  If drug dealers can silence witnesses, can’t the well-funded environmentalist moment get someone to shut of Crow?  Please?

I’m not a big myspacer by any means.  I have no friends actually.

However, I’ve been getting friend requests in the last month constantly.  Not from real friends, but from random hot girls that want to be my friends.  Kind of like how when you first sit down in a strip club, every girl wants to talk to you.

Not only that, but I’ve been getting tons of random messages from people too.

Like this message from Steeeeeeeve:

“i usually hate spammers but they sent me this free ringtone site and it actually works. the ringto