Gender equality. It is kind of the holy grail of the american workplace. But there is no possible way that this will be possible at any point in the near future. I am saying this with a certainty that comes from first hand experiences. There is a big difference between words and their actions. I hear from women [in general] that they want to be equal in the workplace. I see equality in the workplace as the same pay between both genders that are in the same position and/or job level. I also see it as a man and woman being able and being responsible to preform the same tasks. I hear from co-workers that a man should not be forced to clean the women's restrooms. But when it comes to actually cleaning the restrooms, a female worker will not touch them. Not even when it comes to replacing toilet paper, replacing the soap, or changing the air freshener. This morning was a good example. Last night, someone's child dropped some raisins or gummy bears, or something else that is sticky. So instead of cleaning it up the prior night at closing like it should have been, it was left there. So this morning I was called by a coworker to come up and clean the mess up. Normally, this wouldn't faze me. But I am training in the frameshop, and I need all the help I can get. I nicely told the coworker that I was training in the frameshop. So I get called by the store manager to clean up the mess. So I ended up cleaning up the mess. But I don't understand why another worker couldn't clean up the mess. There was at least 5 other workers there that were capable enough to get the mop and clean up the mess. I feel that I should not be taken away from some very important training to deal with this matter when there are capable people available. Now don't get upset about the whole "what is good for the whole" or in the words of Spock: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or one." Yes, yes, yes I understand. But why am I the one who is specifically targeted to do anything that others seem to see as "below" them? I understand that I was responsible for these duties in the past. But moving forward in the future I will be a framer. A very welcome change to my current position at Hobby Lobby. Don't get me wrong. I don't see anything as below me, at all. I just am tired of having to clean up after others and cover their ass all the fucking time. I also feel that all workers should be held responsible and everyone should be held to the same standard. This means that if one department is held to a standard, then people from other departments should be held to that same standard. For those who don't know, I work in the stockroom at the Great Indoors, alongside my other job at Hobby Lobby. We are being asked by the store manager to do our best to keep the main isle of our stockroom clear. We keep it clear, it makes it not only look better, but who wants to work in a trashed place? No one. But then there are others who come in and leave a fucking mess in the main isle of the stockroom. We [We, being the men of MPU] have decided not to clean up their mess. Why? Because they wouldn't clean up a mess if we left one in their store department. It is by the people who come into the dock area with a cart full of trash and cardboard all mixed together, leave it, and grab an empty one; all while trying not to be noticed. But if we were to try something like this, we would be held responsible for our actions and be made to sort through the trash and cardboard, and empty our cart. A worker should not get away with this "man's work" just because she is an attractive female.
I would like to move onto a different subject at this time. For those who do not know, I am a nerd. I would like to define the term. I am going to be using Gordon Mah Ung's definition: "...being a nerd was never about pocket protectors, the math club, or poor fashion decisions. It was about having an intense passion for a subject matter." In this sense, I am a nerd about many subjects. I want to direct this towards the PC aspect of my nerdom. I personally own 4 currently working PCs. Three of these computers are rocking Windows 7 Home Premium, and the last one is my trusty workhorse, my Mac G5. I love my computers. I have named two of them: Charlemagne, and Athena. Athena is my laptop, named after the Greek Goddess. In traditional Grek mythology, Athena is the "...goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, female arts, crafts, justice, and skill"*. My laptop has been through a lot with me, and is my mobile work station with Photoshop CS4. She is also used for my web design and editing through Dreamweaver CS4. My desktop [the one I am currently tuping this on] is my baby, Charlemagne. Charlemagne is often described as a tall, strong Frank with red hair. The tower for this computer is a very large tower, and the shipping weight was over 50 pounds. He has be painted red and black, to match the historic man. Charlemagne rose to power as the Holy Roman Emperor, and revided the Western Roman Empire. This computer started out as a mederately speedy one with two words in mind: budget build. It was my first building. Since then He has evolved and beomce more powerful than I could have ever dreamed of when I first placed the Dual-Core Athlon CPU into the Biostar motherboard. This computer is used for playing games [though not so much lately] to encoding movies and dvds into files for the HTPC. The HTPC currently lacks a name. S/he is white with a key lime green trim piece. I am more inclined to use historical figures in my names. The Mac G5 also lacks a name, but I am currently thinking of one for her. Like I said, I like historical figures. Cathrine the Great has always been of interest to me since I first learned about her. For those who are unaware, Catherine the Great was a ruler of the Russian Empire. "Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine's rule re-vitalized Russia, which grew stronger than ever and became recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. She had successes in foreign policy and sversaw sometimes brutal reprisals in the wake of rebellion."** I am choosing this name because this Mac is a powerhouse that cannot be stopped. She was recently revitalized with a nice new paint job, and soon will be given new fans to cool her beyond what the factory fans could ever dream of. And to top it all off, the outer shell is painted blue, the color of royalty! I am getting to my point, I promise. My point is that I am a nerd. I am proud of it. I have a passion, and I love that passion. Not many people name their computers. Many people name their cars, because we expect to drive them until they fall apart, if permitting. I don't put my computers out to pasture. I revitalize them. Maybe a new hard drive here. A new paint job there. A fresh OS install. If they become too slow for me to use how I want them, I will clean them up, get a mint install, and find a new home. I don't want used computers to be put out to pasture. I want them to be used and loved half as much as I loved them. They can be used as a learning tool. In the ending moments that I owned my last laptop, I installed Ubuntu and experimented. Linux really improved the experience, but I was relegated to installing Windows XP [as much I protested] so my father could use it in favor of the crash prone Pentium 4 Dell he was driving. I think that when the Mac is replaced or I get so far behind the OS X cycle, I will look for compatible software to turn it into a server. I mean, all I need to do is replaced the 400GB drives with a couple 2+ TB drives to give it a lot of storage for my visual media. And who doesn't love a good home server? It can be put in a corner, maybe out in the garage, the basement, or a storage closet. Doesn't need a monitor, mouse or keyboard. Doesn't need to be high powered, and power save mode with a LAN wakeup enabled will help give a nice central spot to host your media. And if you set it up correctly, if it is in a accessable place, pop in the that brand new CD and it will rip the tracks and add it to your library so everyone can listen to it. As you can see, I'm rambling now. But it is all because of my love for what I am talking about. So if someone calls you a nerd, tell then thank you. And be proud of it. Don't hide your passion. Let it shine out, and help educate others.
*From Wikipedia: Athena
**From Wikipedia: Catherine the Great
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