My job sucks more than yours

[Drunk Monk]

In the spirit of the season, Fuck you.

[Drunk Monk]

tc's xmas gift bag this year had a mario bros pez dispenser (wth?) and xmas sox.  xmas sox?  what good are those after xmas?  i have some xmas sox from the last time tc gave us xmas sox.  i had taken to wearing them in the off season, and forgot i had them until just now, when i got this new pair.  they fell to the bottom of my sox drawer.  now i have two pairs of xmas sox.  what am i supposed to do with these damn xmas sox?  i'll wear them in the off season again, hoping they will wear out soon, and that i remember to wear them when xmas actually comes next year.  

my kid also gave me some got sox.  those i will wear proudly.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Yer old when you get sox and you think “That’s great — I needed sox!” *


* Does not apply to seasonal sox

[Drunk Monk]

right?  i do luv sox.  

but i gave my tara's friend some sox and she luved them.  and my mom gave tara a bag of odd clothes and she took the sox.  there were three pairs and she thought they were all cool.  millennials have cooler sox then we ever did.  well, we have them now too.

---

but back to tc weirdness.  today our it guy (totally millennial slacker) started screaming fuck and running about the office wildly.  i thought it was a rat or a skunk.  we had a skunk family living under our building, really close to the front door, so the lobby was all skunked for a month or so until we got rid of them.  i was minding my own business - literally working - when the culprit entered my space.  it was a tiny sparrow.  the whole office was freaking out, running around like scared mice, closing office doors, as if it was a rabid bat.  they closed my office door effectively trapping the sparrow in my office.  needless to say, i put an end to that nonsense.  i got out my trusty bodhidharma cane and gently guided it out.  i swear, my workmates are a bunch of simpering wimps.  the it dude came out with a stick, as if there was anything he could do with one, and basically cowered on the other side of the room whilst i got it done.  the rest of the office, all the chinese women, were freaking out behind him.  such fraidy cats.  i couldn't believe it. now i know when the ninjas really attack, i'll be the only defender of tc.  typical.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Jeebus. I once went 4 rounds with a hummingbird, but I prevailed and ushered the flighty idiot out the door. Is it videogames that makes them all weird?

[Drunk Monk]

tara's cat used to catch hummingbirds.  never quite figured out how she did that but she was damn good at it.  hummingbirds are another matter entirely, like flying hypodermic needles and so freakin quick.  a tiny sparrow ain't no thing.

i think it's the culture clash at tc that makes it weird.  a third chinese, a third korean, a third mexican.  great spicy eats but a wildly pungent lunch room.  and the clients, not too far from fencers perhaps.  lots of nutjobs, some genuine renaissance peeps, and some cold-blooded killers.  why they all acted like the sparrow was rodan razing tokyo, i'll never know.  i was shocked to see such wimpiness.  actually, maybe it was a finch.  i don't really know birds.  but it was small and scared and in no way a threat.  it just wanted to get out too.  you know me - any excuse to whip out any of the weapons at my desk side is good.  and it was a bonus to use my bodhidharma cane - i designed that, you know.  i never realized what a good small bird chaser it is.  i should really re-learn that form.

---

a tiny little bird is no match for dm and his bodhidharma cane.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

bodhidharma sparrow cane. the marketing materials practically write themselves

[Drunk Monk]

bodhidharma sparrow cane.

luv that.  totally renaming my desk-side cane.

[Drunk Monk]

So we're doing this online tournament. I confess, it was my idea. A bunch of tournaments are doing them in the age of covid and getting competitors. It's low hanging fruit so I proposed the idea because I do want KFM to live on and no one there seems to be doing a thing to deal with declining business beyond wimpering. It's like that puny sparrow again, discussed in the posts above. No one can man up. TC is full of fraidy cats. 

I told them to get masks in back in March. They still haven't figured it out. TC has everything needed to screen logos on masks. All the schools need masks to reopen. Low hanging fruit. 

I designed the tournament to grab eyeballs for our declining YouTube channel. There's no tournament to get vids. There's no crew to make internal vids. We had several in production because I was starting to find time to develop a vlog. I got one vlog off and it was very well received. Two more were in pieces and those pieces are lost now. Jason has access but no one can access his files. 

But back to this online tournament. So I designed it so it would glean eyeballs from Black Friday to Xmas, spread across 5 weeks. That would dilute the uploading load, which falls on me. Most online tournaments just gather the vids, declare a winner, send them a trophy, and maybe post that vid somewhere on their site. We wanted the vids for content. That was the point. More eyeballs. 

It's had its hiccups. The location issue with YouTube upload jammed me, effectively ruining my vacation with Tara. Instead of spending the day devoted to my beloved daughter, I spent it cursing this mess I had gotten into and the fact the TC couldn't help. I had to call in a major favor from Patrick, who saved the day and I owe him one now. He and I have been through so much together with TC. I miss him most of all. We chat on the phone for an hour or so every couple of weeks, just to stay in touch. A dear friend and brotha - he's almost DOOM worthy - our connection is that deep.

Today, I went in the office to pick up a handmedown PC which I'm very very grateful for and touch base about the tournament. Gigi started going off about how we need to award more trophies and various issues she had with the rules (these are the same rules we've had all along, just truncated). She thought we needed to award more trophies. For years, I've tried to explain to her that the point of a competition is to declare a 1st, 2nd & 3rd, and everyone else has to lose. But no. Everyone needs trophies. Give more trophies away. There should be more winners. Everyone should win. 

Gigi thinks she knows better even though she doesn't play any sports or follow any sports. She listens to the coaches, who know she is easily manipulated because it's not hard to tell she has no real understanding of martial arts. They play her. They've always played her. She's easy to play that way. Then she tells me the plays like they are gospel. I used to try to clarify, but I don't have the energy for it anymore. 

In the end, for the first round, she decided that in one of the divisions (there are 4) there was a tie and both get a trophy. 

It's a tie for 3rd. 

sigh

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

If it makes you feel any better, fencing always shows a tie for third now, giving two bronze medals. We have not fenced for bronze in many years. In the Olympics, we still fence for bronze, everything else, tie for third.

I think it was done purely to give another medal; there is no logistical reason not to fence that bout. The Olympics is having none of that nonsense, however.

[Drunk Monk]

Really? That's silly. 

I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or not. 

I came to the realization that Gigi doesn't want to run a tournament at all. She wants to throw a party and give trophies out as party favors. That's why she's been insisting on calling the tournament competitor gifts 'goodie bags' like at kid's birthday party. 

It's not really my call anymore, so I'm letting it go.

[Greg]

Let it go. Let it go. Can't hold it back anymore.

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah, you guys are right. After two decades of working to maintain TC's martial integrity, that ship has sailed. It's all about modern wushu and cheap planned-obsolescent merch now for them and MartialArtSmart is nothing more than a clearance house. 

I just hope they can maintain KFM's online presence, mostly because it's such a deep archive of work and notes... kinda like DOOM for the notes. 

Plus they do pay me a retainer fee. And they just gave me a handmedown PC.

[Drunk Monk]

Today is not a good day. 

I just lost a major file for YMAA. I was working in it last night but this morning, it's just gone. Didn't even say 'goodbye.' I have no idea where it went and it had not backed up to the cloud. I can rebuild some of it. Some is lost forever, but hopefully that's inconsequential stuff because it's already been completed or backed up elsewhere. 

It's very disturbing because now I'm not so trusting of my Surface Pro. It has weird quirks sometimes. This is the weirdest and most troublesome. My Surface Pro has been my main axe since I lost my job. 

I did get the handmedown PC from TC - the IT guy was kind enough to load me up with Windows 10 & MS Word. I just need to get it home, add a wifi antenna & web cam (both on order) and I should be up and running. Fingers crossed.

[Greg]

Crap.