Dub Technology

This week at work has been a chore to say the very least. It has been disappointing in ways that I could not have imagined. Of course I've been looking for another gig, but that, my friends, won't do it. That's not enough. That is the least of my issues. I need a career overhaul.

I'm quite positive I hate people. I truly hate small talk, as has been well documented. It's manifested itself into me showing up at least five minutes late to meetings just to avoid the "pre-meeting" meeting. The little bullshit recaps of people's lives. The bigger part of my job, though, is community interaction and outreach. That's where the real idiots come out to play. Everybody in this college town is a pseudo-erudite. Daily, it has become a battle of the wits with the witless. Half researched counterpoints, entirely made up statistics, specious logic, connecting non-existing dots, marijuana enhanced paranoia, along with barely concealed contempt for Africans have made it an exhausting gig. I've found one thing. The old adage is true, "Never argue with an idiot. Someone walking by won't be able to tell the difference."

Yesterday was priceless. My boss put GPS on all the housing inspectors cell phones for tracking purposes. I'm not a fan of this shit, but my boss has a surveillance jones. He put cameras throughout the department already and this is his phase two. I know what you're thinking, and frankly I don't care. If he's watching me, he oughta man up and say something about it. So we're getting a primer on how to track the staff from this dude from Nex.tel. He's breaking down how to track people, their speeds in the cars, how long they stop someplace, et al. And I feel myself getting physically sick. I'm sitting in my seat and I'm sweating. It's getting hard to breathe. One of the reasons I'd never be good at poker is because my face tells my story all the time. I'm pissed that the inspectors, who really do have a lot of shit to put up with and are for the most part extremely conscientious and professional, now have to be concerned about being watched by this gotdamned voyeur, this fuckin' fetishist. I'm sitting here for two hours with this fucked up expression on my face. The Director turns to his Deputy Director and asks, "Zed, what do you think?" And I respond, "It does what it's supposed to do" and I leave.

I could fuckin' explode. But that's what we've come to, it's where we are. Where our jobs become more and more invasive in our personal space, places where it has no real business. It's so much bigger than that. This shit is everywhere, from banks (where it has legitimate security purposes) to the fuckin' corner of State and Main Street, the only purpose is to be nosy and violate you. You? Today, you're somebody's Truman.

Be Careful,
KZ