Dumbest Things I've Read - For Now

I was perusing the Google News feed this a.m. and I came across this article about a baby born without any ocular tissue at all. The part that got me wasn't that the mom was 15 (pfft, babies having babies - old news, but rather the following line from the article: "Brielle was born without any eye tissue at all, a condition called anophthalmia that leaves a person irrevocably blind."

Can I get a "no shit" from the peanut gallery? Of course a person with that condition is going to be blind; there's no FUCKING EYE TISSUE. This isn't like having cataracts, OK? This is a complete lack of the tissue that makes up the things with which one sees. Can't fix something that does not exist.

Gah!

Someone please explain this new Google Docs thing to me.

It used to be that when you wanted to open a new document, you clicked on "Create New" and there was a drop down menu with options for "documents", "spreadsheets", etc. Now you click and get "From template..." WTF Google? Now I have to choose from dozens, nay, hundreds of Google and user generated templates? When all I want to do is bang out a story before the idea withers and dies? I'm not OK with that.

OK, scratch that. All the blame lies squarely on my browser here at work because I just went back to my Google Docs page and it was business as usual. The regular options were there. Obviously I started screaming before the damn browser managed to finish opening the page. So let's make this post officially about how the IT equipment at work is tempermental, at best. And about how I make assumptions without having all the facts, as it were. Please continue with your regularly scheduled day and try to forget about my stupidity.

Rabbit, Returned

Well, the car stuff has been all wrapped up and thankfully, there is a happy ending. Here's the rundown:

I did get to pick up my car on Monday. The work looked great (Team Toyota body shop) and they armor-all'd my tires - shiny. The small amount of crap that I had left in my car was crammed behind the driver's seat, but it had to go somewhere, right? The inside smelled (still smells a bit) of primer and grease and assorted garage stinks, but that will go away.

The first not so great thing I noticed was the haze on the windows. The front is the least bad, but the rear window is more translucent than transparent at the moment. Good think I have a large quantity of Windex at my disposal.

The second not so great thing I noticed was the metal shavings on the floor in the backseat. I understand that my car wasn't in there for detailing, but clean up your mess for pete's sake. Not only were there the shavings, but my entire interior is coated in a fine layer of dust. I didn't notice how bad it was until I crawled in the backseat to look for an item that was missing. Which brings me to...

Roger. Roger was missing. The 3-inch tall vinyl Roger Rabbit figure that JR had found for me. The one that was velcro'd to the back deck. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I went through my car's nooks and crannies (mmmm, english muffin craving), kicking up dust and avoiding slicing myself on random metal shavings, but he was nowhere to be found. This is unacceptable. Time to take action.

I sent a message to the body shop via their website. A few minutes later, I get a call. I had to let it go to voicemail but was giddy with anticipation. I finally go on break and check my messages. An exceptionally fast talking girl, Jacqueline, said that Roger had been located and he was waiting at the front desk for me! Huzzah! Now I just need to figure out when I'm going to fetch him because I work until 7 and the shop closes at 7. OK, I checked the shop's hours, and they open early enough that I could fetch him before work tomorrow.

Summation of experience:

1. The people at Geico are too nice. Apparently they have a rating system (1-10) where anything below an 8 is considered failing. Poor souls. The one guy I talked to thanked me for every tiny piece of information I gave him. While I'm partial to the polite and efficient way of doing things, some people must really like being fawned over. If I get a survey, I'll give them high marks.
2. The body shop at Team Toyota is crazy huge. It's a collision center, parts department, and a service center. There is a theater room (which I didn't go in), a kids' playroom (got to watch Animaniacs when I dropped of my car), a cafe, and )I'm assuming here) wireless. I did see people on laptops.
3. While the work on the outside of my car was flawless; I have serious issues with the detritus left inside. As I said, I know my car wasn't in for deatiling, but Clean. Up. Your. Mess. Now I have to spend a couple hours this weekend making the interior sparkly again. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding random metal shavings for a while.
4. People aren't automatically thieves and I"m a little ashamed of myself of jumping to that conclusion right off. I mean really, who is going to steal a 3-inch vinyl Roger Rabbit? Perhaps another Rabbit owner, but I have this odd feeling that most body shop dudes don't drive Rabbits. Maybe a Golf, which is the same damn car, but doesn't have the cutesy name. But what do I know?

All in all, this wasn't a terrible experience. Obviously, I would have preferred that none of it had happened, but it mostly went smoothly. I don't know if I would send people to Team Toyota - hard to get past the mess - but the work was solid. And guaranteed for the life of the car. Still, if I find the person who hit my car, I'm gonna take a sledgehammer to their kneecaps. Don't fuck with my Rabbit.

1 is the Lonelist #

As anyone with a calendar knows, today is MLK, Jr Day. A day for reflecting upon the strides that were made by one great man and the people who believed in him. A day to remember how hatred can cut a life short. A day...ah, who am I kidding? For most people, today is simply another day not to have work or school. Alas, I am not one of those people. The perils of working in the medical field, however tangentially. Or at least, it is to me. My podmates had the option to take the day off because their subcontractors are off today, and without them, not much work can be done. You know, I have no idea if my subcontractors are off today. I was just told I had to be here. The point of that is this: I am all alone in my pod. Seriously, there isn't anyone within a row of me.

OK, I'm making this sound like I'm more isolated than I am. There are several people within (not my) spitting distance, but I still feel like I've been separated from the rest of the class so I can't be disruptive. Not that I would ever be disruptive...

In nothing to do with anything I've already written about news, I'm supposed to get my car back today. I've left a message with the adjuster to confirm this. I really want that good news or I'm gonna be unhappy.

In additional NTDWAIAWA news, I saw Sherlock Holmes yesterday. There was definitely more fisticuffs than people expect from Holmes - well, Holmes had this sort of slap-fighting thing going on. I'm sure there's an official name for it, but you can't tell me that the mental picture of a scruffy, dissipated Robert Downey Jr doesn't entertain you. I've only recently started reading the original stories, so I'm not going to make a big stink about how it wasn't true to the idea of Holmes. I don't know nothing about that. The only thing I noticed was that Watson made far more Holmesian observations than I've noticed in the source material. I don't know what it was in particular; the 'stache, the hat, the sideburns, but I found Jude Law really attractive in this movie. Which squicks me out for some reason. Maybe because he's a known philanderer. Whatevs. The movie was silly and entertaining and that's all I was really expecting for my $10.

Pointless Post

boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored. boredboredbored. bored.

That is all.

Not All Bad, I Guess

I gotta hand it to GEICO. Once they got my claim to the correct department, everything happened quick enough. I get to take my car in tomorrow morning, and with any luck, will have it back before too long (dare I hope for the weekend?). I still have to pay the deductible, but that's definitely better than paying for the whole shebang. Poor Roger. Who thought he'd need cosmetic work at so young an age? Don't get hooked. I plan on this being a one-off.

As a bonus, I get free dinner tomorrow. Hooray!