Burn This Mutha Sucka

Come’on son! This is some crazy shit. Are you going to tell me that to the followers of Islam, it makes
perfectly good sense to merk someone becasue they burned the Koran? Really? I am not here to dispute whether or not the Koran is the inspired word of Allah. Nor do I wish to entertain arguments about respecting things that are sacred. What I do want to point out though is that the Koran, Torah, Bible, the name of the Hindu text alludes me at the moment and any other religious holy text in of themselves have no special power.

The words contained within these texts were penned by men. Blokes, dudes, mates, homies and regular folk that
are just like you and I. There is no text in those books that is worth killing another human being for regardless
of how they express their contempt for the text. Those muthafuckas that killed those men need to be apologizing to the families of those men. So what that they burned your fucking book. It is nothing more than paper and ink. All your actions did was confirm what most people believe about your religion anyway. That it is an ass-backward, archaic, extremeist way of life.

Again let me reiterate this. The book only has as much value as you assign to it. The alleged source of the text
has nothing to do with its value. Your response was way over the top. Perhaps you need to read another book. A book that will help you with your anger management issues. Obviously the one you are defending is not working. Assalamu alaikum.

Inside Out

Tear me from inside out
Alive to bare witness
To the pain
Changes remain
All things the same

Redemption never arrived
Calvary got lost
Tears of acid flow
Spirit darkened
My light no longer aglow

Trampled and defeated
Crumpled mass lifeless
Bloodied and dismembered
Carrion for the feeders

Melting away to ooze
Returned to sender
Case closed
Toe tagged

Management and Self Replicating Bullshit

Bullshit bag

Perhaps you can relate to this and if not maybe you will just catch a glimpse at what I suspect is not a new phenomenon just one that is being cleverly packaged and marketed to unsuspecting workers.

It seems today in order to do business and especially in corporate America one has to find a way to create and perpetuate bullshit. I suspect that this is accomplished by hiring one asshole manager that has become proficient in generating copious amounts of bullshit which in turn affects everyone else down the ladder. For you see, those beneath the asshole now perceive that the way to get to the upper rungs is by producing enough bullshit to fertilize a small agricultural nation. Perhaps not a rule but the perceived path to advancement appears to require the ability to shit and shit as often as possible. Thereby  the entire corporate culture is polluted with foul, nasty bullshit.

You see the problem with this approach is that eventually management is up to its ears in bullshit and the only way to get themselves out of it is to remove not only the bullshitters they helped to create but themselves as well. Fat chance of that happening! What else can they do? Reality is about perception. If you can control the environment then you can easily convince those around you that the bullshit is actually the proper way to conduct business. That bullshit is necessary and valuable. That ridding yourself of those who do not want the bullshit is actually better for all.

Ah yes the sound logic of management. Lets accept the bullshit because its the only thing that hides our own ineptness.

I’m tired of all the “how to increase productivity ” bullshit. Do want to know how to increase productivity? It’s simple, have zero tolerance for bullshit. People are happier with the less bullshit they have to deal with at work. Happy people work harder.

I’m tired of all the “analyze, strategize, synergize, align,…” (add any other corporate jargon bullshit word to the list) bullshit. The mission is clear. Work hard so we and hopefully you can make more money. Whats wrong with saying that? Why do we need these grandiose mission statements that are really bullshit dressed as manure?

I’m tired of you creating bullshit because you have nothing else to do. Yep, we all know busy work or work based on not having a clear direction. The, “Hmmm what can I ask my staff to do on top of their existing workload that might me look like I have a vision for…”. Just stop it. See point one.

The greatest insult to the modern worker was saying that management was a discipline that was to be separate from the labor force. If managers continued to do the work of their subordinates they would be less inclined to heap on piles and piles of bullshit. Productivity is easily measured and does not requires bullshit to analyze it.

A Shade of Pain Then We Die

If pain could be could be painted what color would it be? I think Seal hit the nail on the head with that lyric. Well thats how I feel today. I really do not want to talk about it. I think I will just bitch and moan to myself. I am really starting to believe, or should I say beginning to adopt in its entirety the concept of 100% self reliance. “I live with me, I’ve got my back tonight”. You see the choice is mine. I think the problem is in part lies in the fact that I never have truly embraced myself as my own savior and redeemer. Du Mhan Yhu! When you get right down to it know one can do it like I can. Without a doubt, I am the shit! I finally said it and I feel so much better. After taking a long hard look at myself and admiring what I have seen I have come to the conclusion that my facade of easy going kindness should be dispatched and immediately replaced by the true nature of man. Who am I kidding other than myself. Should I bridle my thoughts and exercise restraint in order to spare the feelings of those who could not even capable enough of handling my urine. I think not. If there is going to be pain then then I say let me be the first to draw blood and the last to draw breath. “But Mooda, want you be isolating yourself from those around you? Want you be causing conflict where there is none?”, you ask. Perhaps but as I noted before I’ve got my back. I have yet to let myself down and I seriously doubt that I will now. Be for real, if I strategically realigned my resources with personal objectives I foresee a very nice return on my investment in myself. Really thats what it all boils down to, a realignment of resources to meet personal objectives. Yeah thats the spin I think I will put on this. A strategic realignment. Objectives. Investments and goals. Somehow I just seem to be able to make shit happen for myself. I do not know why, how or what but it just happens. Like bird shit dropping from the sky.

It is crazy and I can not really explain it. I was talking to my boy Kyle and he was explaining some really deep shit to me. It totally blew my mind but he was right as he often is. I have to say Kyle is my boy, my absolute best friend. He is the flip side of the coin.

This is going to be the last post for this year. It’s done, it’s a wrap. I got mine now get the fuck out. Next year is mine bitches. Do not get it twisted. I am officially declaring 2008 the year of fire. If you do not want to get burned then stay out of my way cuz I am gonna be blazing like napalm.

On that note I’d like to give a big fat, super sized, “Ho ho ho and fuck you too!” You know who you are, rat bastard.

You Only Know What You See (Publicly Private)

It strikes me as odd that folks are continuing to gripe about the invasion of privacy and the intrusions upon their personal space when it appears that the so many are willing to share so much of their lives with strangers. Often matters that are better discussed face to face in the privacy of ones home are being discussed openly at work on some kind of phone but always in ear shot of others. Let’s not forget about the booming trend of amateur porn. Amateur porn sites where your next door neighbor can produce and promote their most scandalous of liaisons are as abundant as Chinese take out restaurants in NYC. Yet these same people will bitch and moan about “Big Brother” violating their privacy as well as Big Business, brick and mortar as well virtual ones, maintaining to much personal information about their habits. If you want privacy then be private. If you do not not want intrusion then do not invite it. Otherwise, thanks for the show jackass!

The Irrational Rational

If something is irrational, that means it won’t work. It’s usually unrealistic.
Albert Ellis

Sorry guys I know its been a while. Well not too terribly long but long enough. I am not going to waste time setting the stage for this entry, instead we will just jump in and see what happens. This is all a true story about the past year with my father-inlaw and his deceitful, irrational behavior.

So recently, yesterday to be exact, I had the extreme pleasure of witnessing the most irrational behavior. What makes it even better is that the person has such a high opinion of himself that he often boasts about how cool he is and how much of a smooth operator he is. Well that facade was totally ripped apart by yours truly. I take great joy in knowing that I got inside this mofos head and was able to invoke the same feelings that he has caused others. The same pain and hurt. Yes and in my typical Mooda fashion I had to take it one step further. I was always taught that it is not necessary to win every fight but at least let the other guy know he was in a fight. That is exactly what I did. Although there were no physical blows thrown, it did get tense like a cold war stand-off, I accomplished my objective of getting inside my opponents head and illicited a response that only revealed even greater weaknesses. Vital intel for the next battle.

Let me asks you folks a question. I will try to ask as objectively as possible. Ahhhh freak it. They are not objective why should I continue to be? You can not deal rationally with irrational people. The best thing is not to deal with them at all. In the event that you do just remember to keep your head and realize that conventional lines of reasoning should be replaced by the unconventional. Without further adieu here are his arguments and mine:

Him: I do not owe you money for your kitchen cabinets because I did extra work in your house that I did not bill you for. So that extra work nullifies the money you gave me to purchase the cabinets.
Me: Yes, you did extra work. However I gave you, at your request, half of the cost of the cabinets before moving into the house (hence before work began) and the other half when you said it was time to pick them up. Extra work has nothing to do with misappropriating money. Money for materials is separate from money for labor.

A little back story. What had happened was. Sorry, I could not resist. We ordered the cabinets before we had even closed on the house, a bit risky but we were confident in the deal. We were told by him that to order the cabinets the dealer would need a 50% of the balance. Fair enough, we give him $2300. This is about 3-4 weeks before we move in. The rationale being order them early this way the cabinets are here when we need them. Cool. 4 weeks later we move in and begin remodeling immediately. 8 weeks later we are told the kitchen will take about another 5 weeks to complete. He was going away on business, which we were aware of. Let me back up a step, he told us about 4 weeks prior to this that cabinets had been delivered to the dealer. Great! So as soon as he returns he will finish the kitchen. Just to be fair yes during the remodeling extra work was done. This extra work needs to be clarified though. Extra work as in, while working on agreed upon items he noticed that something else was broken and would fix it. Not extra work as in, “Oh can you do this too?”. We were working with a limited budget and knew there would be no splurges on gadgetry, fanciness and extreme coolness.

Back to the story. So he returns from his business trip in February and we did not expect him to come directly back to our job. We do not really hear from him until March. One evening he comes over and drops this on us. “Well you are probably wondering whats going on with your kitchen. I spent the money for the cabinets. (He pocketed it) Give me a couple of weeks and I should have the money to pick up the cabinets.” We were speechless. He assures us that everything will be OK. April comes and goes and still no cabinets. We speak to him in early May, just before Memorial Day. He tells us that a piece was missing and that it should be in by Memorial Day. Memorial Day comes and goes and the piece never shows up. June comes and goes and still no cabinets. In July I ask him what is the balance owed on the cabinets. He says $1700. Hmmm that less than $2300 I was expecting but close enough. I say to him hey,”I have the balance lets go down and pick up the cabinets.” “Yeah I will call them tomorrow.”, he says.  Fine let me or my wife know what time and one of us can meet you there. “I’ll call you, I will be all over the place and do not know what time I will be in the area.” OK no problem we can meet you after work. (You see I am already on to him but was hoping that he would just say great I am off the hook for the money) Anyways, we never got the call to go pick them up. However he did call and allegedly there was a problem with our order. Mind you, we are in July and the cabinets were allegedly in the dealers warehouse back in December/January. Hmmmm. OK whats the problem? “Well there is a piece missing, some of the cabinets are wrong and they (the dealer) are working on resolving the problem.” OK so where does that put us. “Another few weeks”. Long sigh, OK. July passes into August. “I don’t know whats going on, your order is not that only one that was affected. The guy that took the order is not there. I am working on it.”, he offers as his latest explanation. September rolls around. “Your cabinets are in. I will put them in when I get back (another business trip).” He returns, “There was a problem with the cabinets”. October comes and goes still no cabinets. My wife finally gets him to take her down to the dealer. Dealer is very apologetic and allows us to upgrade to a nicer style for the same money. Seems as though that our cabinets sat for so long that they were sold to someone else. He pays the balance on his credit card. The dealer will have the manufacturer do a special rush delivery. Should have them by mid November. Super! Seems like our patience is paying off. November due date comes and no cabinets. Now we are really really mad. WTF is going on!

Him, “Well the guy did not order them and he has been fired.” What? “Yeah the salesman never finalized the order so there are no cabinets.” This is when the irrational behavior begins. “Well you know a lot of things have happened and I did a lot of work at your house that I did not bill you for. I was doing you a favor out of the kindness of my heart. You should be more grateful.” Ummmm, OK we are not ungrateful but we would like a kitchen that we can use. You did say “I spent the money you gave me for the cabinets.” So how do we have a share in this SNAFU? What did we do to contribute to this quagmire?

Time for plan B. Go to Lowes and Home Depot to price out cabinets. Its obvious there will be no resolution through him. So during plan B we meet someone that knows him. Really you know him? “Yeah, he looks like…and the name of his company is…and he has this characteristic….” Whoa you do know him. “Yeah he’s an asshole! I did business with him and after that business was concluded I told him I would never work with him again.” Nice guy, also gives us some insight into how the dealership works. Had the cabinets been at the dealer back in December and they were not picked up he would have been charged storage fees and his account would have been frozen until he paid for the cabinets. Bottom line, the cabinets were never ordered. Nice guy says, “You don’t have to take my word for it I know someone there that can check for you.” He calls and what do you know, “We do not see an order on his account in the past year.” Holy cow! From that point on he is cut off.

Fast forward to now. We get our kitchen installed by someone else. Once he found out we got cabinets he had the audacity to ask if we wanted him to install them. NO! You lying sack of shit. Anyways as is the nature with horrible experiences you share them with others like I am sharing it with you. He by circumstance encountered one of the many people we shared this with and somehow rubbed this person the wrong way and well they in very clear terms told him what they though of him and why. We broke his cardinal rule of speaking badly about him before speaking to him first. Fuck you asshole. I made it clear years ago I don’t play by your rules. So now it becomes an urgent matter that he speak to us about “somethings that have been said.” Yeah jerky somethings have been said. Without a doubt all who here this come to the same conclusion, you are a lying thief. Sorry I digress into my rage.

So jerky wants to speak to us about the things we have said behind his back that are allegedly untrue. Hmmmmm I have not distorted the facts of the events. We have even gone so far as to give him credit for the “extra” work he so proudly holds claim to. However even with hearing about the “extra” work all agree on two things: 1) He should not have taken the money for the cabinets for himself. 2)He should have asked for compensation for the extra work. (Just quick side note. Wifey and I had already agreed between us and had not disclosed this to him, that we would give him a lump sum of money somewhere between $10k-$15k when all the work was complete. It was supposed to be a surprise and a thank you for his hard work.)

Anyway this clown decides that he needs to set us straight. More his daughter than me. So he comes over last night to “talk” to her. My attitude is this. This is really between them. Although I have told folks about this saga he has never heard about it from any of them. So he only has the right to address what he has heard to the person that said it. Besides I am already heated and do not want to inflame the situation. So I tell my wife she is not obligated to speak to him. She insists though. So be it. Right away he starts in trying to bully her. Not listening to what she has to say. He only wants to make her feel bad. After a few minutes of this and his threatening manner I go over. I stand quietly and listen to his broken record, “Out of the kindness of my heart…”, “I did extra work”, “I did not bill you” on and on and on. He keeps moving in closer and waving his hands and cursing. I have had enough of this tactic. This menacing style of discussion. So I stand in between he and her. “Are you going to listen or just yell?”, I say in calm but authoritative voice. He stares me down. Trying to decide what I am up to. Then starts the broken record again. I interrupt and address his “extras” issue and calmly and very clearly state that our only complaint is that he took the money for the cabinets and we did not get cabinets or our money. Pretty simple to me. Broken record starts again. Now he tries to intimidate me. LOL fat chance, I’ve dealt with worse than him. I tell him if he does not want to listen to us then he can leave. “Or what” he says. I’ll call the police. Simple enough. Now he really pours it on. I stand nose to nose with him like to boxers in the prefight weigh in. I calmly tell him you don’t intimidate me so stop trying. His lip is quivering, face is red . I’m in his head. He has lost control and he knows it. I remain calm and steady and keep talking. Not backing down. Taunting him with my presence not words. His frustration is showing his words have become fragmented. His thoughts incomplete. He vacillates between thoughts often contradicting himself. Making admissions of guilt. Digging a deeper hole. What I lack in brute strength is made up in determination to break you mentally, emotionally. My carefully chosen words have gotten to him. Now he feels the frustration and anger we have had to deal with for the past year. Now he knows what is like to want to explode but realizing that it is not in your best interest to do so. Now he has come face to face with what is better than an ass kicking. Having the pain and hurt come back to you. Come back to you so subtlety. Subversive. Not realizing that is the purpose of this encounter. You lost as soon as you called us. You invited us in thinking you were going to run the show. Silly wabbit. Tricks are for kids.

Enough gloating. It really is a shame that things escalated to this point. I do not like the fact that they did. Nor do I like the fact that more than likely this will be it for this relationship. From my point of view it ended the same way it began. With tension and strife. No dramatic fade to black here.

“If something is irrational, that means it won’t work. It’s usually unrealistic.”

That is so true. This dude is unrealistic in his expectations of others as well as his inflated self worth. He has successfully conned some into thinking he is the greatest. As things begin to unravel we are beginning to see just how many people are not fooled by facade. It took yesterday to really bring out his true nature. What he hides from the world. Granted there was some prodding but not the kind that one would consider warranting a violent outburst.

Irrational people are better left to themselves. Do not enter. Enter.

You Have To Be Kidding Me?

Uh oh people I have a bee in my bonnet. Some wackos, of course they originate in the “Bible Belt”, are complaining about a Starbucks campaign being anti-god.  Read about it here.

I dare someone attempt to boycott anything just because they do not agree with the position held by that person, group, organization or business. Haha now you see why I say religion needs to be banned. These wackos totally pollute the concept of spirituality in favor of some totalitarian and draconian society that lives in fear of falling out favor of those who are the gate keepers to your salvation.

I am so tired of these friggn’ people and there friggn’ hyper-sensitivity to everything that they feel is an attack on them and their so called Christian values. How asinine are these people? Would not Jesus want to open a dialog with non-believers? Would he not have preferred to encourage others to freely express themselves without fear of condemnation? Or would he call for the immediate punishment of all those that disagreed with him. As I recall did not Jesus inflict great hardships, pain and suffering on all that did not receive his message? Was not that the point of his mission?

Stop worrying about these trivial matters. If Jesus spent all of his time fighting those who disagreed with him he would not have had time to give you the values that you allegedly adhere to. Get over yourselves, you are not that important nor are your sniveling tirades and rants. Why don’t you do us all a favor and go home and read your friggn’ bibles and wait for whatever it is you are waiting for. While you are waiting for it, do it in silence. The rest of us do not want to hear about how your wait is being affected by our debauchery.

Drop dead go to heaven and leave the rest of us alone!