"What fresh hell is this?"
GeneralThat line was delivered, if I recall, by the amazing Brent Spiner in an episode of Big Bang Theory.
It's far from the only place it's ever been used, but it's the one that sticks out in my mind.
And that's what I was pondering as I sped down the highway into work this morning.
New guy continues to scoot his arrival time to the left by a minute or two each day—sometimes resetting, but mostly not—which forces me to move my arrival time to the left to counter it.
To be clear: I don't have to beat him here.
And I'm not trying to beat him here.
I'm trying to maintain a routine that I've had in play for the better part of a decade now:
- Show up when nobody (or as few bodies as possible) is around,
- Break out my small breakfast and consume whilst also catching up on the news, and
- Contemplate the reason I'm here
I do absolutely appreciate our conversations, because he meshes with me on a lot of my views while challenging some of them, but...
I desperately need that morning buffer time.
Away from people.
Even away from the pups.
So I can gather my thoughts and fortify myself against the onslaught of the coming day.
Also.
Imagine a world...
Where not only do you operate on a virtualized platform emulating technology from a decade ago, but that you're going to have to set settings you'd already set yesterday.
And the day before.
And the day before that.
And then also imagine that there's a chance—however slight—that your entire profile gets blown away and you have to set every single one of those settings all over again.
A simple web search becomes instantly jarring when instead of the calming UI of Google, you're thrown at Bing.
Because fuck you, that's why.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm fully aware that almost every single (if not every single) one of my complaints is first-world in nature.
But the complaints stand because the fixes are simple.
But I don't have the power to implement them.
And some asshole in a box somewhere is being paid way more money than I am to implement these changes that have no bearing on their life because they're using their own bespoke machines.
Circumventing these security measures we're forced into because nAtIoNaL sEcUrItY.
The concept of "rules for thee, but not for me" works.
When we're talking parents and their spawn.
Not for when we're talking about grown fucking adults.
Loosen the noose.
Hang them if they get out of line.
Metaphorically, of course.
Yes... metaphorically.
Jesus I need a long sleep.