::snort::

Via the Grinder krewe at Grinding.be - thanks, Xutraa.

Found over at GeekAreSexy.com, don’t watch unless you’ve watched the latest Battlestar Galactica.

I’ve been sending this to everyone I know. It’s put me in the perfect mindset to write Gotham Killfiles.

I’m not lying to anyone anymore - there’s similarities between a prison and day job. Granted, I’ve only been in a jail cell and only for a day and a half, so I truly don’t know prison as some of my friends have experienced it. But the privilege of others was forefront on my mind this week.

So a bit about my work, effectively I’m a process and web architect working through the impacts of perceived improvements. And I work for a large multiple leader group and they sometimes are infected with groupthink. This week, this entire week was one long infection of groupthink after groupthink “great ideas.”

From improving the speed of the website, to let’s just call the backend through SQL, I felt it was the same conversations I’ve had for years. We’re not going to improve the speed of the website without adding extra processing of orders - the trade for automation (a one-time cost of development) is eyeballs (an ongoing cost for manual work). And, if someone is buying a large order, say 40 line items on it, it’s going to take some time to process that order correctly to save it.

In short, there’s a method to giving clients good feedback of order creation when you have a system that takes a long time: it’s called GRAPHICS. It’s the appearance the order is being created that is the most important. Appearance. I am telling my company to LIE to their CLIENT. And yet…

So, one part of privelege is the ability to participate in groupthink without punitive measures… much like everyone going along with the emperor has no clothes.

But, as I was talking technical stuff with co-workers, slightly bent down to point at some data on his screen, one leader (way above a manager position) came up behind me and put both of his hands on my shoulders. It was a friendly, man-on-man gesture of appreciation… I’m sure… but the privilege was there. I could never feel good about doing that to him… nor would he.

And this was when I thought… there’s a LOT of similarities between prison and where I work.

I’ve delayed reading Warren Ellis‘ Crooked Little Vein for some reason. Personally, I think it’s because he comes to Phoenix to sign his Black Summer comic book on the largest downpour of water I’ve ever seen in my fraggin 8 years of living in this outer circle of hell.

Ha, vengeance is mine! Take that, you published author!

Anyways, I’m on page 57 now and I demand my leagues of zombie adventurers (all 2 of you) to go buy the book. More importantly, read the fucking thing. By page two I was laughing at the rat & coffee cup, but there I was, in my way-too-cool coffee haus when I read “People who want to fuck Godzilla” made me snort my caffeine into my sinuses. Which then lead me to meeting a beautiful girl who wants to be a SuicideGirl model. We’ve been brainstorming her SG name while I write this.

So, Warren Ellis has my vote for the next pope, and I’ll pay for all of his cellphone-fetish crack hos the next time he comes to town.

It’s gonna be out in paperback eventually, so you don’t have to spend a ungodly amount.

From HyperDeathBabies comes the great comic, Anomaly

I’m so proud of you…