Because my boss says there's no such word as "unproductive"

The IT guys here at the office have been slipping, usually I wouldn't be ablt to open my blog on my office computer. Well, now that I'm here I might as well let the lot of you know that I'm not actually working at this point.

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To be fair, I can't really say I've been working the whole week. Sure, I've been able to churn out what's been expected by way of reports and answered emails, but nothing has been at par with what I have been doing the past months. Why? Can't say, really. Must be the really crappy weather we've been having lately.

Or maybe it's my vision, I've scheduled myself a check-up with the optometrist (or opthamologist? I can't really figure the difference) tomorrow. My right eye has been bad at focusing, forcing me to either squint or read stuff skewed sideways. You can imagine how awkward it's been when reading lengthy emails or blogs about eating salamanders. It's been going on for a time now, but this week has been particularly bothering. During a meeting last Monday, people actually chuckled each time I closed my right eyelid when reading through my presentation. I had them all fired, of course.

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I'm kind of excited to have my vision checked. My bet is that there isn't really anything wrong and the eye-guy (which could be either an opthalmologist or optometrist) will attribute the recent termination of my staff to stress or a psychological preconditioning of sorts. If this happens to be the case, I've kept my trusty lighter and a gallon of kerosene handy to burn down the clinic. I've always been suspicious of doctors who cite such nonsense as cause for illness. To me, that just seems lazy. Plus, it breeds a whole generation of crybabies who whine about just about anything that is slightly inconvenient for them.

When I was a kid, it was all simpler. If your vision was impaired, it's because you are an old geezer with cataracts or you watched Captain Planet too close to the television screen. The flu was because you were dumb enough to play in a thunderstorm. And what is now known as carpal tunnel symbol was a mark of distinction for jerking off excessively. These days, it's never anyone's fault. It's because the man rode you hard at school or the office, causing you all sorts of physical and mental turmoil ultimately leading to stress-induced what-have-yous.

Don't even get me started with the whole EQ/IQ thing. Anytime spoiled brats want to get their hands on dessert before dinner, some parents have attributed it to their built-in EQ levels. And if the kids are slow with their schoolwork, they've been unjustly dealt with lower IQ's so a medal for everyone is a good way to compensate. Back in my day, if you got your hands caught in the cookie jar, you got yourself a red bum. If you got bad grades, you were lazy. No one ever screamed that they needed to have their cookie right now because they had low EQ, you want it pronto... you face the consequences. And a month without the playstation was a month with more time to catch up with your studies.

Am I the only one who thinks that not spoiling kids and teaching them all about the consequences of their actions when they did bad is okay? Maybe its because I'm not a parent yet, but I just can't understand it. I've paid my fair share of pain and suffering to be what I am today. Granted that I may be a total loser with nothing better to do than write this blog, but in general I think I'm doing okay for myself.

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Come to think of it, though, I've heard my parents talk of the same gripes with my generation throughout my life under parental control. The "In my day, we had to..." speeches ran twice daily. The "You kids are so lucky these days..." thrice, and the "You ingrateful son-of-a-bitch..." rants every 30 minutes. I always counter with the "It was different back then because..." rebuttal, which is kinda whiny, isn't it? So are we just running full circle here?