The District

Last week I started my new summer job at the School District. After a couple years as a lowly serf, I have upgraded to being a "team leader," whatever that means. As far as I can tell it just means I get paid more to be responsible for shit. But that doesn't even matter. I'm not here to tell you about my job or my responsibilities. I'm here to tell you about the soap opera/Jerry Springer episode/fuckfest that is the District.

To start, let me tell you about a guy I work with named...lets go with the initial M. Now M's father works at the District, and has for a long time. Since knowing someone at the District is all you need to get hired, M got a job. The first two summers I worked with M, we had similar positions. For one of those summers I worked on the same team as M, but rarely with him directly.

Now, after two summers MIA, I come back to find out a lot of juicy drama about M. Basically, this shitfuck should have been canned back when I was working with him 3 years ago. Instead, he got promoted to a team leader. I, like other team leaders, wear just regular T-shirts to work. M had to be issued a "blue shirt" (aka the button down, blue work shirts that the full time/year round employees wear) in order for the employees working under him (and making much less than him) to respect him and listen to his orders.

Since "rising to power," M has been fucking off more than usual. It used to be that he'd just call in hung over once in a while. Now, apparently he calls in once a week or so, if he calls in at all when he skips. He shows up late and hung over a couple times a week. He got in trouble for driving a District vehicle, along with several of his underlings to Banks, a town which is several towns over from any school in our district. While there, he ordered a pizza and ate it out of the back of his clearly marked school district vehicle, and had the misfortune of being spotted by a District employee who was on his way to the coast for vacation.

Last summer, while driving one of the trucks the District had to rent from Enterprise, M backed into a stationary object, wrecking the back end and effectively destroying the hydrolic lift gate on the truck. In total it cost the District about $10,000 in insurance. On another occasion, he went to the office of his bosses boss, closed the door, and started bitching and calling names.

Now most people who have ever worked know that this kind of behavior usually gets you fired. Not only does it get you fired, but it gets you fired on the spot. Yet he has had his job for about 4 5 years now. Obviously this has a lot to do with his dad, who on one occasion got M rehired when he was blacklisted. M is scheduled to be fired this summer, but still gets to work for almost all of the summer before that is scheduled to happen.

My supervisor, lets call him R, used to have M working under him, but has since refused to work with M, which is why M now heads up a crew of 1 for the remainder of the summer. This kid is such a fuck up that not even the biggest slackers the District can employee want to work with him.

My job is dramatic, and I hope to bring many more installment. Next time, the clepto janitor who picks up women online.

Stories

So I've been trying really hard to write more, but before that, to think creatively more often. I've always been a people watching enthusiast. I like watching strangers and basically writing a brief little bio in my head about them, and if they are with others, I try to imagine what the dynamics of the group are. So on a very small scope, I have that down pretty well.

On a larger scope, I can, with effort, think about a larger universe in which to set characters, or a large challenge/threat they must over come. Now my struggle is combining the two into the middle where they can create a story.

I'm trying to read more and expose myself to different creative influences. I hope this will help, but ultimately I know I need to just write all the time in order to make something out of the ideas bouncing around in my head. It's almost as if I feel I need to create the whole story in my head before a drop of it spills onto paper. It would be better if I just let what's in there spill out so I could look at it all at once and try to make sense of it.

Oh well, hopefully with time I'll get better at this.

Know Your Meme

Wiki: The term Internet meme (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with "cream"[1]) is used to describe a concept that spreads quickly via the Internet.[2]


So a Meme is the kind of thing you get in an email from a friend, find on your FB news feed, or Stumble Upon. Notable Memes include:

David after the dentist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs
Charlie bit me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM&feature=related
Starwars Kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU


There are millions more. I have enjoyed memes for a long time but usually know very little of their origin, or even how I first came across them. Now, our problems are solved thanks to knowyourmeme.com. This site catalogs memes, which is nothing new, however it also has rather detailed information about the meme origin, it's evolution in internet pop culture, and even some info on how/why it is so popular.

So if you missed a good meme and want to catch up, or want to know some more about that weird youtube video you saw, check it out.

Back?

So I'm going to start trying to blog again. I've always had a distaste for blogging without a focus (school project, specific topic etc), but I'm going to do it anyways because I know I need to keep writing. So what posts follow from this point on will be purely self indulgent. Whatever topics strike my fancy are what I will be hurling myself into, and then regurgitating onto the inter-webs.

My goal is to write at least once a week, hopefully more often, regardless of the content. As many amateur bloggers know, even this can be a lofty goal. Why, even as I type this, my short attention span demands that I also play video games and try to switch between the two. Damn, this is going to be a challenge.