I can’t make this shit up

19: Disconnected

November 19, 2018 filed under: blog stuff, I can't make this shit up, NaBloPoMo

As briefly mentioned in my previous post, my blog URL had been hijacked on Saturday and I am still dealing with the repercussions. However, since you’re able to read this, at a bare minimum my URL is functioning again.

I am only semi-happy with the support I received from my hosting company, because they basically told me I had to delete my WP installation and not re-use any of my database (← which is where my blog content and comments reside), and then they weren’t really responsive when I inquired about a more “reasonable” option.

I then took to the Internet (as one does!) to find a work-around, because the original suggestions (in proper tech-lingo, as you can imagine) were not a viable option. It would have basically meant to start my blog from scratch and lose all my content (from 14 years, mind you). Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

I found that my hijacked URL was most likely caused by a vulnerability in the popular WP GDPR Compliance Plugin (that probably many of us installed to comply with the recently implemented General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws in the EU. Go figure!)

It was a relatively “easy” fix and I probably didn’t have to wipe out my WP installation completely (which at this point I had already done, while also manually searching my database for any “suspicious” files), but at least, I am tech-savvy enough to take matters into my own hands. A follow-up scan by my hosting company didn’t find any other “malware” in my account.

Of course, this couldn’t have happened at a worse time with NaBloPoMo going on and all. But rest assured, I’ll be catching up on my daily posting (it was truly out of my hands!). If you see anything wonky on my site, please let me know. I am still in the process of installing and updating plugins one-by-one and some info on my sidebar got wiped out that I have to bring back.

The silver lining: WordPress has finally started sending me emails again when I receive new comments. This feature hadn’t been working for me for a while and even though I could have done without a complete new re-installation, I guess sometimes a fresh start has its benefits! Comment away!

12: Health insurance woes

November 12, 2018 filed under: I can't make this shit up, NaBloPoMo

Photo by @rawpixel on Unsplash

Remember how I said last week that I recently had a health insurance claim victory after being on the phone with them on and off for 15 months and that the next claim I submitted (same service, different date), they declined.

Yeah, I take everything back.

Turns out: these people still don’t know how to do their job, because I thought we had worked everything out. They’re now claiming that the initial reimbursement was issued in error and they want that money back and they also won’t reimburse any of my other claims.

Fan-freakin-tastic.

I won’t bore you with all the details but what this comes down to is this whole thing about in-network and out-of-network providers. I think that’s one of my biggest pet peeves about the healthcare “system” in the U.S. (and we already have a PPO plan for that reason).

We had multiple instances in the past where certain services by a provider were covered in an inpatient setting, but then not covered in an outpatient setting. I don’t understand why insurance won’t cover the same doctor in different circumstances.

(This is a rhetorical question, I understand why, but I don’t ‘comprehend’ it, if that makes sense.)

If you receive care in an in-network facility by an out-of-network provider, shouldn’t you be able to continue care with that provider in an outpatient setting? Why would they make you go to a different provider for aftercare? Working with a doctor/counselor is hugely a matter of trust and comfortability and the fact that they don’t allow you to continue working with the person that you’re already comfortable with is just ridiculous. It disrupts the whole process of continuing care and recovery.

I was told that we could get a partial reimbursement if I upgraded to a higher health care plan. BUT the catch: The next tier up would be an increase of almost $200/month and a $350 deductible on top of that, which, if I do the math, makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER (the monthly out-of-pocket costs are <$200 right now). Why would I pay higher premiums AND a deductible before I get any benefits? I can’t see a scenario where that would make sense (although I guess, maybe it would if we anticipated higher annual expenses than we currently do.)

Right now, I am just furious because they make us choose (once again) between the provider we feel comfortable with and covering any of the expenses.

Does this kind of sh*t get you all riled up too?
Can I ask how much you pay for health insurance every month?

10: California fires

November 10, 2018 filed under: I can't make this shit up, NaBloPoMo

I am sure you’ve heard it on the news. California can’t seem to catch a break from the wildfires. New fires broke out again in Northern and Southern California and they’re devastating. I feel so heartbroken for the people that are threatened by – or have already lost everything – in these fires. 11 people have been reported dead. The Camp Fire is about 100 miles north of Sacramento. It has grown to 100,000 acres and is only 20% contained. The town of Paradise, CA was lost completely. The Woolsey and Hill fires are raging in the Santa Monica Hills and threaten thousands of people and (million dollar) homes.

It’s been super-smokey outside since yesterday because all the smoke from the Camp Fire has been pushed down the valley by the wind. You can smell the fires, you don’t even have to open the window, and I had to skip my run today because the air quality is so, so bad. The sky looks ashen.

Look at these smoke plumes.

Wondering about the #CampFire smoke? Here is an animation showing how it was flowing statewide today.

Posted by Anthony Watts on Friday, November 9, 2018

So here we are, and our “president” has nothing better to do than blame the hard-working public servants for the fires as if they could have prevented them. This is not how fires work!

I mean, what are they supposed to do? Cut down all the trees in California? Make it rain? Stop the winds?

I feel like he just randomly spews out messages that are not based on any facts and moreover, do NOTHING to help the situation. He should have talked about how he feels for the people of California and how the federal government can help, not just threaten to take away funds. But yeah, I guess California has fallen from favor a long time ago, if we ever were in favor with him in the first place. It just pisses me off that he doesn’t believe in climate change and that he constantly seems to blame the carelessness of people for natural disasters. But I mean, what else is new?

Please don’t listen to this nonsense. Don’t buy into his rhetoric. Wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, flooding are in the future for (if not) all of us, at least most of us, based on where we live. Our leaders should think about how to prevent and deal with these types of disasters, not just play the blame game after the fact.

I am currently hoping for the winds to die down, for some serious rain (we haven’t had any so far), and for our firefighters (and all evacuees) to be safe.

Make it stop

June 20, 2018 filed under: I can't make this shit up, politics

{Photo by John Moore.}

Do you feel exhausted? I feel exhausted.

Not from the long days at the office, the early wake-up calls on gym day, or the weekends that fly by way too fast for my liking, but rather all the news – bad news – lately.

It’s not enough that Trump decides to meet with Kim Jong Un (and brags about it, although at this point, he hasn’t exactly accomplished anything), or that he makes up news (no, Germany’s crime rate is not up because of migrants), but now we’re separating kids – babies! – from their mothers and fathers on the Southern border. Under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy, we’re ripping families apart that cross the border to seek asylum. (FYI: there is no other legal way to seek asylum other than being physically present in the United States.) What the eff is wrong with this administration?

I am sorry. I don’t have kids, I can’t possibly know what it’s like to be separated from my own flesh and blood, but I do have a functioning moral compass and it screams that “this is wrong on so many levels”. Can you imagine your baby being ripped out of your arms and taken away?

I was a very shy, very attached child and I can only imagine what it would have done to me to be forcibly removed from the arms of my parents. It would have been extraordinarily traumatic.

It IS traumatic for the thousands of children that have been taken away from their families. And the most cruel thing is the misleading and uncertainty both the children and parents are subjected to. Not knowing when – or if – you’ll be reunited with your family will do a number on you. Inevitably.

Dan Pfeiffer, former Senior Strategy and Communications adviser to President Obama and host of the podcast “Pod Save America”, said “sad tweets are the new thoughts and prayers”. I couldn’t agree more. He was referring to members of Congress (mostly GOP), who continue to send sad tweets but aren’t doing anything to keep ‘check and balances’ on the Trump administration.

SAD TWEETS ARE NOT CHECKS OR BALANCES https://t.co/lPyDK379EH

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) June 10, 2018

THIS would be (one of) the (many) time(s) to speak up and not be complacent in this madness.

I feel (angry and sad and anxious and) helpless on so many levels, but there is stuff we can do and I hope you will join me.

WHAT WE CAN DO:

1. CONTACT YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS.

If you need to find out who your senators and representatives are, and how to contact them, find the information here.

You can call – use the script below – or you can also use Resist.bot (I’ve been using it for multiple actions in the past. It’s super-convenient and takes less than 5 minutes.).

Hi, my name is [YOUR NAME] and my zip code is [YOUR ZIP]. I’m urging the Senator/Representative [NAME] to denounce Trump’s family separation policy and use all of Congress’ authority to stop it immediately. This is very important to me, and I will be keeping it in mind when I vote in November. Thank you.

2. DONATE MONEY.

This really is an easy thing you can do, if you have some spare change, that will go a long way and there are many, many places to which you can donate. J and I have gotten into the habit of frequently donating to the ACLU.

More specifically to the immigration issue you can support The Florence Project, an Arizona organization that offers free legal services to families in immigration custody, RAICES, is the largest immigration nonprofit in Texas offering free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children and families, and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. A ‘catch-all’ is ActBlue, which divides your contribution evenly between 14 organizations (including the ACLU and some others that were mentioned above) and works to protect migrant children from being separated from their families at the border.

3. PROTEST.

Families Belong Together is coordinating protests around the country. To find marches near you, search your zip code here. Indivisible is a great resource with local chapters as well.

4. VOLUNTEER.

If you speak Spanish, Mam, Q’eqchi’ or K’iche’ and have paralegal experience, the Texas Civil Rights Project, The Florence Project and RAICES are looking for volunteers. You can also get involved locally. Look up immigration-related organizations near you by entering your zip code and see if they are looking for volunteers.

5. MAKE IT HARDER FOR ICE* AND ORR** to disrupt these families by hitting the companies they contract with.

Sleeping Giants has been on the trail of these companies and a friend of a friend has created a spreadsheet of all the companies that are contracting with ICE or involved in some way. Email addresses, twitter handles and scripts are included for each, making your job of copying & pasting easy! This list will be updated when possible, so check back for new entrants, too. (Via my friend Nilsa.)

6. VOTE.

If you’re not registered to vote, register TODAY. Primaries, midterms, elections 2020 – make sure your voice is heard. Now, especially NOW, is not the time to be complacent.

No matter what your politics are, separating families is inhumane and simply unacceptable. Please don’t look away but stand up to this nonsense.

* ICE = Immigration & Customs Enforcement

** ORR = Office of Refugee Resettlement

Here we go again…

January 23, 2018 filed under: f*ck that, I can't make this shit up, real life

Photo by Nathan Bingle on Unsplash

** Disclaimer: I am getting a little political here. You probably know where I stand. If you can’t handle politics being discussed, politely click away now.**

If you followed the news over the weekend, you know that we were in a government shutdown situation again. If you recall, I was affected by that the last time that happened in 2013.

I’ve been glued to the TV over the weekend. First, trying to figure out if the government was going to shut down or not, then if it was going to reopen before Monday morning. As you know, it didn’t, so we were officially furloughed yesterday. We had to report to work, accept our furlough notice, shut down our computers… just before the Democrats caved and voted to reopen the government again yesterday afternoon. While it’s never fun being in limbo, I would have preferred for the Democrats to show some spine. I am not sure what the three-day shutdown was for because they haven’t really gained anything in the negotiations. DACA was not dealt with and I am not sure how much I trust any half-assed promises from the GOP at this point to bring it to a vote (which still doesn’t mean anything will be voted onor passed in the House), especially when – on top of all this – we have a very indecisive president who refuses to lead and/or take a firm position.

I consider myself fairly well informed, I follow the news, do some independent reading, discuss the news with my family overseas (to see how things are portrayed over there), and try my best to understand the US political system. Over a decade later, I still don’t understand a lot of things. For example, how is it possible that we’re 4 months into the fiscal year again and the government doesn’t have a budget but continues to operate under continuing resolutions? How can they attach other legislation (like the CHIP program and DACA) to the spending bill and shut down the government over this?

It’s like signing a lease for a house and at the same time agreeing to cook dinner for the landlord on Sunday nights. Those two things don’t belong together and shouldn’t be voted on together. But I understand, it’s politicial leverage. I am just wondering, how is that even legal?

We’ll be at the exact point again in less than three weeks when this CR (continuing resolution) runs out and if the Republicans haven’t put DACA on the table like Mitch McConnell promised.

As Rachel Maddow likes to say, ‘Watch this space’.

What is happening to this world?

August 16, 2017 filed under: I can't make this shit up

A few weeks ago, two Chinese tourists posed in front of the Berlin Reichstag and snapped pictures giving the nazi salute. They were arrested. I’ve seen some people on Facebook comment on the news article expressing that they thought that arresting them was a bit harsh, that they were just joking around. Well, I didn’t find the punishment harsh, and I didn’t find their behavior funny. Not by a long shot.

If you’re German, you live with the perpetuated guilt of what happened during World War II. We’re not allowed to take these things lightly and nazi salutes and any other signs or gestures referring to the Nazis is forbidden and punished in Germany. We know and understand why, even 75 years later. The rest of the world still doesn’t let us ‘off the hook’ for something that happened two generations ago (most of the people who lived through it are mostly gone now). We, as a society, still pay for what happened before most of us were born, but we recognize that this is only because we can never let something like this happen ever again.

And yet, fascism is on the rise again, most recently evident in this country. You guys, the news out of Charlottesville, VA has left me kind of speechless. How is this kind of stuff happening in 2017? Have people learned nothing?

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. #resist Click To Tweet

Americans (excuse the generalization) seem to have an obsession with World War II. You just have to turn on the History channel where 90% of content is related to Hitler and the Third Reich. Yes, of course, history needs to be remembered and teach a lesson, but the emphasis is on ‘teach a lesson’, never ever letting something like this happen again.

There is a fine line between teaching and educating about historical events and making sure that nobody glorifies them or portrays them as something to strive to repeat.

What is wrong with people? Specifically, what is wrong with mostly young (white) men? Where does this hate come from? What are they afraid of? What are they trying to protect?

“We won’t be replaced…” is what they were yelling. Replaced by whom? By what?

The white supremacists with their hate and bigotry have been allowed to step into the spotlight and they’re not even covering their faces. They feel legitimized by a president that has spewn around hate, bigotry and racist remarks himself just to appeal to a certain group of people. Now he can’t even publicly renounce what happened in Charlottesville because he’s afraid of losing his base. Worse yet, he might actually believe what is coming out of his mouth, bascially standing behind white supremecists and telling them that what they’re thinking and doing is ok.

This is what being caught in the middle must feel like. How does this work out for someone who’s conveniently tried to swim with the tide at all times?

I tell you how it works out. Not at all. You can’t conveniently flip-flop on every single issue while standing for nothing. This is not what leadership is about. What the president said in yesterday’s press conference is all you needed to know about this man. He has no integrity, no moral compass, no feel for right or wrong.

I don’t know if there were counterprotesters who engaged, even initiated, confrontation. I’d wholeheartedly condemn this. But the fact is that one group was protesting rascism and hate and the other was promoting it. Which side do you think our president should be on?

Please excuse the rambling. I am afraid I am not really eloquent in putting all my thoughts together coherently. There is a lot I still don’t fully understand and it’s hard to stay on top of everything that is going on, but I’m trying hard to stay engaged and educate myself.

Regardless of how much I have to learn, I do know this: This is NOT OKAY. Nazis are NOT OKAY. The KKK is NOT OKAY. Racism, hate and bigotry, or whatever you want to call it, is NOT OKAY. Violence is NOT OKAY.

In this country, free speech is encouraged, even protected, but the Constitution also doesn’t give you a blank permission to say whatever you want. Free speech and hate speech are two different things. You can’t go around spewing hate and expect to be respected. These two things are mutually exclusive and there will be consequences.

The Constitution protects the right to peaceably assemble, but does showing up with torches and guns really send the message that you’re peaceable? Does using a car as a weapon send the message that you mean no harm? That you “just want to state your opinions”? I strongly disagree.

Still, I believe most people are inherently good. I do believe that love and compassion can conquer all. I am convinced that most people agree that we’re all equal and deserve the same rights and freedoms. Not one person should be allowed to suppress another. Equality doesn’t take anything away from a person, it simply gives rights to someone else who hadn’t been so privileged before.

Equality doesn’t take anything away, it gives rights to s.o. who hadn’t been so privileged before. #resist #nohate #equality Click To Tweet

I have no idea how to wrap up this post in a neat way, but may I suggest some reading material.

So, you want to fight white supremacy.

8 ways to help after Charlottesville

Syllabus for white people to educate themselves

These are scary times. We can’t look away. We need to stay engaged. White supremecy has been around for a long time, but we can’t under any circumstances let this fringe mindset become mainstream.

Another chapter of the never-ending story of the U.S. Postal Service and me

January 19, 2017 filed under: f*ck that, I can't make this shit up, nuisance, postalservice

Yeah, it was about time that I wrote another chapter of my upcoming book “The Never-Ending Story of the U.S. Postal Service and me”, wasn’t it? (← Just kidding about the book deal, but I seriously have enough material to write a book. But then again, who wants to read about the failings of the Postal Service.)

You know, I love the postal service, I love the idea of the postal service, I really do. I mean, how awesome is it that you hand them a piece of paper in an envelope and they transport it half way around the world? Pretty amazing, am I right? I’ve been a good customer. I’ve been sending tons of letters for years. I make sure they stay in business (well, not single-handedly, but you know what I mean) and I appreciate their profession. However, repeatedly, they’ve been treating me as a (both sending and receiving) customer and my mail like shit and I am really – slowly-but-surely – getting so tired of it.

I’m almost ( nah, NOT REALLY!) getting used to the fact that I receive a small percentage of my Christmas cards returned every year, a sticker on it claiming that the card couldn’t be delivered because of a wrong address (which, in all honesty, is NEVER actually the case, because I check back with my peeps). I get it, sometimes a letter gets lost, sometimes it gets missorted or simply overlooked. I know how it goes, I worked for the postal service in college.

But, I really had more than my fair share of BAD experiences with the Postal Service (and have blogged about it before) and I am really, really getting pissed off by their audacity lately.

I had been (more or less) patiently waiting for my Mom’s Christmas package. She had sent it of on December, 1st, but I understand that Christmas is a busy time and that it can take a bit longer for things to be delivered when there is such a huge volume of mail. I am not complaining about that.

What I am complaining about is the nerve of the Postal Service to return a package WRAPPING (not even the actual package!) with a note on it that says a) that the package couldn’t be delivered because there is “no such street” (when my address on it is, in fact, CORRECT!) and b) a note that apologizes for the package being damaged (when the actual package + contents were not even returned).

I mean, WHAT THE HELL??? Who returns just an empty wrapping? It’s like a big slap in the face and I don’t appreciate it.

If they determined that there is “no such street” in Sacramento, does that mean it made it to the Sacramento post office and they were incapable of figuring out that there is indeed a street with that name in Sacramento? Are there no people with a little bit of common sense working for USPS?

To be completely honest, I discovered that my Mom used my “old” zip code, but with our new (correct) street address. You’d think, since we didn’t move out of town (in fact, only a mile away from our old apartment), they would be able to figure this little mystery out and simply verify the zip code, instead of trashing the package (or stealing the goodies) and sending the wrapping paper all the way back to Germany!

I mean, isn’t it their duty to at least cross-check the address + zip code (a simple Google maps search will do!) before they just declare a street “nonexistent”? In fact, I googled that and it says that this is what should happen anyway. I acknowledge that this might take some time and delay a package further, but clearly, nobody has even tried here. “Unable to forward” is simply INCORRECT.

To be frank, I am beyond FURIOUS. And I am going to the post office this weekend. I already feel sorry for the person who has to deal with me.

9: What have you done, America?

November 9, 2016 filed under: I can't make this shit up, NaBloPoMo, USA

I wish I could say that I went to sleep last night and woke up to a historic moment in American history. That finally this gruesome, infuriating election cycle was over and we elected our first female president.

But that didn’t happen. I didn’t sleep and I didn’t wake up to good news. I was glued to the TV last night when the election results trickled in. I started feeling physically sick. I couldn’t go to sleep. I stayed up all night and witnessed what nobody thought possible – Trump winning in pretty much all the swing states and clinching the election. I cried over an election that should have never happened. I cried that a man that openly promoted hate, racism, bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia during his campaign actually got away with all of it and was elected president. I cried even more about the fact that people are either full of hate and actually support what this man stands for, or indifferent to the consequences of their vote just because they wanted to give the middle-finger to the establishment. I honestly don’t know what terrifies me more.

Then the anger set it. It grew like a pit in my stomach and I am afraid it will be there for a long time.

Hillary Clinton was never my first choice for president, not by a long shot, but in the end, I was proud to support her. As a woman, I can only imagine the hoops that she had to jump through to even get the foot in the door of a largely ‘old-white-men’s-club’. And in the end, she still couldn’t overcome the double standards that have been applied to her. She was scrutinized for every misplaced word, called crooked and corrupt, while Trump went on spewing hate and (proven) lies and people didn’t blink an eye. What is wrong with this picture?

The hardest pill to swallow: Hillary won the popular vote. More people voted for her than for this pathetic excuse of a man and she still had to concede (and oh-so-graciously she did). I don’t think I could have mustered her grace and composure (or Obama’s, for that matter, who must have felt like he was slapped in the face hard). It’s heartbreaking and frankly unfair.

But there is another unfairness to this: 47% of eligible Americans decided that it wasn’t worth their time to cast their vote. This means that less than 1/4 of the population decided on the fate of this country. I know that voter turnout has always been poor, but I honestly don’t understand why people here seem to care so very little.

This is a sad day for America. This is not the America I signed up for when I became a citizen. During her concession speech, Hillary said, “This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it. It’s always worth it.”

I agree, we need to fight for what is right. The alienation and oppression of women, minorities and immigrants is not. This is not what the United States stand for. There is so much I want to say, but I feel like I can’t string a coherent argument together. My thoughts are honestly all over the place.

I just want to say this: I know many people are hurting right now. To my black friends, my Latino friends, my LGBTQIA friends, all the women in my life and everyone I know who – like me – is terrified of what this presidency could mean not just for us, but for the world: I feel your pain and fear. I am afraid of what we might have to endure before it gets better again (and trust me, I am fully aware that I still am privileged, even though I myself belong to two groups that Trump has repeatedly belittled and offended. But I know that for other minorities things will probably be far worse.) We need to listen to each other, unite in our shared beliefs, and talk about our differences to move forward into a better future.

We might not be able to control much of what happens in Washington now, but we can control what is in our hearts. I believe in love, kindness, and compassion. I believe that most people are inherently good and we have to make sure that we bring that out in everyone around us. We need to stand together and work together to turn this country around again. We can’t let hate win.

Here we are yet again

June 14, 2016 filed under: f*ck that, I can't make this shit up, making things better

By now, everybody must have heard about the mass shooting that occurred at a gay night club in Orlando over the weekend (or you must be living under a rock). These things are happening way too frequently now and at first, I debated if I really wanted to post about it or not, because honestly, I am at a loss of words. But I think it’s important that people talk about it and even more important that we do something about it.

50 young people lost their lives, 53 more wounded in this senseless act of hate. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that a person can carry so much hate inside themselves that they would go out and try to harm or kill people.

The tragic thing is that there is going to be 24-hours of outrage and finger-pointing and stereotyping and then the sad and frustrating, yet at this point predictable realization that nothing will be done about gun control in America to prevent such crimes.

Where were all the concealed weapon carrying gun men that always insist that crimes like that don’t happen if ‘responsible gun owners’ are around? [\sarcasm off]I have yet to hear about a mass shooting where a gun owner has killed the assailant and thus prevented senseless killings. The odds are that these people will have their backs to the assailant and will be just as surprised by the assault as everybody else, because frankly, nobody expects to experience something like this… and yet, here we are again. 176 mass shootings (with 4 or more victims) in 2016. People, this is crazy. I am sure President Obama is sick and tired of speaking about such events again and again and again without any real change happening as a result of it. Is this the kind of country America wants to be? Apparently so.

It’s impossible to not feel paralyzed and helpless in light of these events. But, what can we do to stop this madness?

... to actively do nothing is a decision as well. - President Obama Click To Tweet

There is something wrong in a world where people grow up to hate other people and think they have the right to go out and hurt, stigmatize, oppress, or worse, kill those who are different from themselves. I do not understand that people can’t let people be people. It’s still under investigation if this massacre was terrorism or a hate crime (or both), but I still need to ask: what’s two men kissing each other (that’s what apparently upset the shooter) doing to you personally? NOTHING. Nothing at all.

I don’t understand how people don’t support sensible gun laws in this country. I can’t come up with any sensible reason why any civilian needs to own an assault rifle (or any gun for this matter, unless you live in rural Vermont and need a shot gun to scare off bears).

There is proof that stricter gun laws work in other countries (and please, don’t tell me “America is different”. Different how? Different that we’d rather be ok to see people slain than give up a slice of our so-called freedom? Give me a break). We can sit around and just be onlookers to more violence that is – without doubt – going to happen, pretend outrage and secretly cross our fingers that we and our loved ones might be spared from such a tragedy (good luck with that!), or we do something about it. At the very least, let’s get assault rifles out of the hands of civilians. NOW.

If we can’t stop people with crazy convictions from thinking what they’re thinking, we can at least make sure that they don’t have access to the tools that allow them to commit these horrible mass murders. I don’t know if petitions really do anything, but here are two petitions that you can sign (click on the images). It’s a start, and we gotta start somewhere.

We have to do something… anything … to show that we won’t stand for hate and violence. Write or tweet your elected representatives. Be someone who other people can turn to by showing that you’re kind, loving and compassionate, that you don’t judge others by their gender, skin color, beliefs or lifestyle.

Be that someone who doesn't judge others by their gender, skin color, beliefs or lifestyle. Click To Tweet

Treat others as you‘d like to be treated. It’s a rather simple concept, really.

A lesson in patience

April 22, 2015 filed under: career stuff, I can't make this shit up

Are you a patient person? Most people say that I am and they’re probably right. I have a lot of perseverance, I don’t give up easily and I can wait for things to fall into place. I am an eternal optimist and always believe that things will work out. Eventually.

Although sometimes, I wish that ‘eventually’ was a little sooner rather than later. I’ve done my fair share of “waiting things out” in my life and sometimes I wonder if that was always the right thing to do.

I know, waiting is usually not a good strategy. If you want things to happen, you have to make them happen (or so they say). But what if you’re pushing and working hard and things get within arm’s reach just to be dangled in front of your face always an inch or two too far to grab? When do you stop reaching?

The last few months have just been mentally exhausting. Actually, the last year and a half has been mentally exhausting. I have talked a few times about this “limbo state” at my work that I have been in for (dare I say it? years!) much too long and after being on the brink of almost being let go at the end of May last year and my head spinning out of control with worry about “where am I going to look for a new job?”, “where are we going to move?”, “what are we going to do?”, things turned around (somewhat) last minute and now it looks like we’re here to stay after all.

However, my job situation is still not resolved. It’s frustrating to say the least.

I’ve been working here for almost 8 years. I have had my citizenship for 3+ years now (the ONE requirement that prevented me from being hired directly by the government agency in the first place), and yet, my contractor status has still not been converted to a more permanent position. I’ve missed out on regular raises, job security and the general feeling of being an equal to my co-workers and I sometimes wonder how and why I have “stuck it out” for eight freakin’ years.

Like I said earlier… “the ‘carrot’ was always dangled right in front of my face” and I have a lot of patience and general optimism, or else I would have quit here a long time ago.

More importantly: I love my job (most days). I like my co-workers. I like my physical work place. These are hard things to let go of when faced with decisions you don’t want to make. I know so many people who don’t like what they do or have horrible co-workers and just dread going to work every day.

That is not me. I enjoy my job and I work hard it. But I also think that I finally deserve some appreciation, too. I honestly can’t believe for how long I have been talking about this.