My head is an absolute whirlwind of crap right now and ordinarily I'm pretty good at staying on top of things, but I really am feeling like every time I accomplish one task, twenty other tasks take its place - so I subconsciously wind up feeling like I'm just better off not tackling ANY of my little chores, 'cause then 'they' can't pile more on me (whoever 'they' is). Of course, that's completely counterproductive, but what can I say? I have my limits.
Right now I've got major career issues that require massive amounts of time, energy, money and attention - it's like juggling chainsaws... I've got some sort of nonsense to deal with about my stupid car and the DMV that I don't really understand... I've got a pile of insurance-related paperwork that has needed my attention for ages now... the list goes on...
Come to think of it, my biggest beef with this modern world in general is how deeply embedded bureaucracy has become in our everyday life.
Despite what my family and friends may say, I'm not a stupid person... I have a college degree... I'm generally a good troubleshooter... my thought processes are generally very logical...
And yet, any time you put a pile of paperwork in front of me dealing with any kind of insurance, legal documents, medical documents, credit statements, registrations, 401K, etc. I feel like I'm two years old.
When did everything get so friggin' COMPLICATED? Every time I fill out one form, I get ten more in the mail saying I did it wrong and now I've got to fill out a new pile of forms explaining why. This makes me paranoid about filling out forms at all. I just want to move to the mountains and hide away and eat roots and berries for the rest of my life when I get this crap in the mail.
And, naturally, it's all written in this completely bizarre language that NOBODY actually speaks in - designed to cause as much confusion as humanly possible. I'd be less upset by it all if I wasn't utterly convinced that somebody out there got paid (oftentimes with tax dollars) to devise these completely ass-backwards systems.
It seems to me, the key role of beaurocracy is to feed itself and keep growing until it chokes the life out of everything simple and good in the world. And we all simply accept it and whenever we screw up, we assume it's our fault. How many times have you had to call some sort of support line or help desk and been made to feel like a jackass for asking a question that was ENTIRELY legitimate? Never? Well, it happens to ME all the time.
One time I called the Macintosh tech support number for a question that most people would find extremely simple... now, I am the first to admit that I am NOT very 'tech-savvy', and I stated that to the douchebag who 'helped' me right away... he went on to explain what I needed to do in the most complicated way possible, and I kept having to stop him every two seconds to have him clarify everything because he was using terms that - while I'm sure are very common if you're the guy from 'PI' and surround yourself with a million computers and can calculate the time of day on Mars when the sun first rises on the northern hemisphere in the year 10,000 - BUT I AINT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE! THAT'S WHY I'M CALLING TECH SUPPORT!
And this guy has the gall to become impatient with ME!
I finally say to him 'Look - I'm not a computer guy... I'm an animator... I'll bet if I started jabbering on and on about putting a twist-truck-out with a blur pan on ones you'd have no idea what I'm talking about... that's how I feel with YOU... so just cut me some slack!'
This just made him more snotty and I wound up talking to his supervisor who explained to me what I needed to do to fix my computer in about two seconds in a very calm, friendly and understanding way. But by this time I was so ragged that her competence was overshadowed by his massive incompetence.
I'm tired of ranting now... have a nice day...
3 comments:
JF-
Don't you wish for the "Good ole days?" when things where simpler? But then again.....
...go back a few thousand years ago where a caveman named Urg lived in a cave with his wife and five kids. Urg constantly complains to his wife how life is increasingly getting more stressful. Suddenly the ground rumbles as a wooly mammoth trudges through his neighborhood causing all sorts of havoc. He bravely defends his clan with his state of the art wooden spear but sadly, two of his kids gets trampled to death. Oh well, Urg will bury them with the others. The mammoth trudges away and things are back to normal.
Meanwhile Urg's wife is constantly pointing to her head while grimacing. Some red liquid stuff keeps running out of her nose too. "Wish I knew what that was" says Urg. Just then he gets a tug on his fur skinned loin cloth. It's one of the kids. She wants a snack.
"Damn! out of dead animal already!" Urg complains. Urg heads out into the wilderness to search for a snack. Suddenly a bunch of spears whizzes by him! it's some other cave dudes hunting and it seems Urg's in their turf. Off goes Urg as he barely misses falling into some pit with oily goo in it...
Urg ends up in a shrubby part of the wilderness and sees a slithery little critter on the ground coming out of a bush. "it's moving... we can probably eat it"
Urg picks it up and the the tubular critter turns around and bites him in the neck. Urg pulls it off and stomps on it. He starts off back towards home dragging the dead snack but he starts feeling a bit woozy. "Was my house left after that rock or right after that tree?"
It doesn't matter. Urg drops dead and dies.....on his nineteenth birthday.
Dude, take a deep breath and everything will be cool.
Yeah, but at least Urg didn't have to draw storyboards...
(kidding... I get your point, Louie - and of course you are right... but your correctitude doesn't stop the pounding anvils in my skull)
He didn't have to deal with tech support either... fight the good fight man!
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