Words, and There Are words.

I actually wrote this on Tuesday, but haven’t been able to post until now, so here it is.

I’m having a really hard time concentrating today on the things I’m supposed to be doing. I take one extra day off for the weekend and I’m totally wasted. Besides, I’m having a bad hair day. It’s raining and humid and my hair looks for shit. So here I am sitting and thinking about really stupid things. Like the sound of words.

Onomatopoeia is 'the formation of names or words from sounds that resemble those associated with the object or action to be named, or those associated with the object or action to be named, or that seem suggestive of its qualities: atishoo, babble, cuckoo, croak, ping-pong, sizzle'.

But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m referring to words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Or are spelled differently and sound the same. Take the little word be as in, “To be or not to be.” And then there’s bee, which is an insect that packs a nasty wallop, but makes a sweet treat.

Add “r” to bee and you get beer…change the “b” to a “d” and you get deer, or change the “r” to “d” and you get deed. But if dear is pronounced exactly the same why isn’t it spelled the same. If red and bed sound alike, why isn’t read (as in I read the book yesterday) red? But, read and bead are not pronounced the same way as dead. Dead is more like bed or red. Tears (sounds like ear) slid down his face, could also be don’t tear (sounds like air) the book.

I think I just hurt my brain. My powers of deduction are a legend in my own mind. Besides it’s time to go back to work.

Stupid Cow

Have you ever been in a meeting where there is one individual who thinks that he/she always has to be the center of attention whether they know what they’re talking about or not? I haven’t said much about the Stupid Cow I have to work with for a while, but I came really close to telling this woman to shut up this morning.

SC just doesn’t seem to understand that not everyone wants to hear what she has to say. She’s too stupid to know what she doesn’t know. I want to yell at her to shut up and learn something new. But when you know everything there is to know about EVERYTHING, what’s left to learn?

Besides that, she brays like a jackass at everything she says. There’s times when her “laughing” literally hurts my ears. I just don’t understand how SC can be so oblivious to those around her.

Okay, now that I’ve said my piece, I’ll shut up.

Funny or Weird?

Last night while I was waiting for Jimbob to get home, I was watching one of those really obnoxious programs, that I normally don't bother with. "The World's Funniest Commercials" was definitely not my first choice of entertainment, so I was dividing my attention between that and a rather insipid book (to remain unnamed), until the very last commercial came on.

Jimbob came home about that time and thought I had lost my sanity. Not much makes me crackup, so I found it on the Internet and replayed it for him. His consensus was that I was weird. Here's the link for those of you who are curious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMwZYZmxQko

Oh, Well

My meeting with da boss was to be expected. I wish I could say it went well, but that's never gonna happen. So I wasn't surprised when he picked apart the numbers I gave him.

I quit letting this bother me some time ago when I figured out that the reason he does this is because he's insecure and terrified of making a mistake. I've also learned that if you let him fluster you, he goes for the throat.

So, oh well. Just another day in the dungeon.

Oh, My Aching Brain

I have an assignation with the boss in the morning. He's putting together numbers for his "Blue Book" (cost per square foot for building a new store), and he seems to think I have numbers that will help him. I just deal with fixtures, decor and building equipment cost, not construction.

Yeah, I know it's all part of the same recipe, but it's not rocket science. And neither is it an exact science. It's not even an inexact science. I don't care what anyone says, these numbers are moving targets. Although most stores are "prototype" no two are exactly the same.

We also have to decipher what the tax and freight is on the millions of dollars worth of equipment that we order. You might think this would be easy, but it's not. There is no bottom line anywhere in our ordering system that says "T&F". We are forced to subtract the total spent as shown on one report from the total spent as shown on another report. The difference is allegedly the tax and freight. And our system is very temperamental. Some days we might come up with a million plus for T&F and others it could be a minus quarter of a million. Talk about confusing.

You may ask, how did I get picked to work on this project? Just chalk it up to being too stupid to say no. You'd think I'd learn.

Spring In North Texas

There’s nothing quite like spring in north Texas. This first picture is one I took last Saturday. I just thought the flowers were pretty, so I snapped a picture from the car.

The remaining pictures are from this morning. We had 2 to 3 inches of snow and 30 degrees. That’s not to say that the temperaturesl remained frigid. it was 54 when I got home this afternoon and most the snow was gone.

Did I Write That

I was just sitting here reading a chapter of the book I’ve been working on since the year 1. At the time, I thought it was pretty good, but now, many years later, I’m embarrassed to say I wrote it. I can't help but think, "Oh my God. Did I write that?"

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been rewriting, cutting and adding to the story and the comparison between my recent work and that which hasn’t been touched in a long time is miles apart. At least I hope it’s miles apart.

Out of 35 pages, at least 34 are going into the dumpster. I can’t believe I wrote such twaddle (how’s that for a good word?) even in my fledging author days. But if I don’t read these unedited chapters, how will I ever know if there’s anything to salvage? Even if I do gag every so often.

Well, I suppose I should get back to work. At this rate, I may finish by the year 2012.