My Nephew

I'm now an uncle. This is my nephew, Brendan Lee, born last July in Chicago, Il. My cousin, Brendan's father, sent me this picture and I had to put it up. He's a very handsome boy. I'm sure when he's older, he's gonna have a lot of girls chasing after him.

Peace.

Frustrated And Angry

frustrated v. To cause feelings of discouragment or bafflement in.
angry adj. a strong feeling of displeasure or hostility.

Every so often at work, my co-workers ask me, "How do you do it?" And I say, "Do what?" They say I deal with angry customers and the garbage they give me so well. They say I'm calm, cool, and collected. Even my friends tell me that. But it's not always the case. I do get frustrated and angry at customers, but I keep it internal. I guess I have always tried to maintain a professional appearance and not take it personally. I also say it's Jesus man. Which we laugh, but has led to some interesting discussions. When I applied for FedEx Kinko's, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I remember in my interview for the company, my assistant manager asked me what frustrates me. I didn't really have an answer.

Dealing with frustrations is a process for me. I usually vent my anger by talking about it. There has to be some outlet for sure. I also think how my getting angry is beneficial for the situation. I think to myself, this is dumb and not going anywhere. I acknowledge my mistakes and own up to them. I also think of the broader picture and try to discuss a way that will help the situation rather than aggravate and try to prove my point.

My philosophy in life has been take it easy, step back, think, and look at the bigger picture. There are more important things to think about than argue about petty things.

Peace.

Vending Machines

These boxes that plug in and give you food are found everywhere at schools, malls, workplaces, washrooms, and recreation centres. On my break at work today, I was looking at all the goodies in the vending machine. Sometimes it's an easy decision and sometimes it's a difficult one. Panic sets in when I take too long to decide because it takes up valuable break time.

Vending machines are unpredictable. Sometimes it will eat your dollar and other times it's smooth sailing. Then, you have to make sure you press the correct code or else you get some nasty Ritz mini cheese sandwiches. Lastly, it's a 50/50 chance that the goods will either get stuck or drop into the bin. Today, I selected a bag of Maltese and it got stuck. After much kicking and screaming, the bag dropped. It wasted 5 minutes of my 10 minute break. So I extended my break for another 5 minutes goofing off with my co-worker eating chocolate round projectiles.

This got me thinking of how we react to inanimate objects in our lives. I started to laugh thinking how say a box will sit there doing nothing and a person trips over it. The person will then kick the box and say a few words to it to serve it right. The same goes for a TV. For example, when it starts to lose its picture, a person will hit the TV to straighten it out. Or when a twig hits a person in the face while hiking, the person will grab it and snap it in half. We are violent people.

Let's keep the peace.