Thursday Night Ruminations

On a typical cold-ass Thursday night in Toronto, I was watching my typical anti-testosterone slate of TV, and being ever-so-glad I'm not a sports fan in Philadelphia (the Flyers just traded Forsberg and got pounded by the Leafs, the Sixers suck, and if spring training and Ryan Howard weren't around the corner, the cold weather - it's about as nice there as it is here, from what I understand - would just be the capper...). Yet, through all this, a whole whack of stuff seemed to be coarsing through my head.... such as:

I really think that Bill Simmons called it when he said way back in Season 1 of The OC that they were just pounding through story lines too quickly to be able to sustain it for very long. Well, next week is the series finale, if I'm not mistaken, and it seems that The OC was like one of those cool summer fling relationships that burns brightly, only to fizzle out quickly, come fall...

The running theme on Grey's Anatomy of "if you disappeared, would anyone notice?" kinda creeped me out, as since I've mostly been living alone for the last few years, it has often crossed my mind whether anyone would notice before the smell became suffocating if I slipped in my shower and died, or something. Like, obviously people at work would notice, but for at least a few days, I think they'd just laugh it off, or be pissed off that I was AWOL (having kinda done it before, there's a track record for me just randomly not showing up... oops!). Anyway, I was quite content to have those little thoughts rattle around in my brain without seeing the light of day. Then TV betrays me. Grr...

In other GA news, I have officially moved on from Izzie to Addison. Maybe this is a Mrs. Robinson thing I'm trying to live vicariously through Karev, or maybe I just really did find her cool when I saw her on Kimmel a few months ago, but seriously....

Oh, and as a side note... who can possibly be stupid enough to believe they're going to kill off the TITLE CHARACTER?!? Do they really think people are going to buy that? It would be like burning the bar down in Cheers....

Also, there was a funny theme in various conversations I had today. This morning I found myself discussing the moral ramifications of a holocaust denier, and their rights to free speech (imho: any reasonable person knows what went down... if you're loony toons, that's your business, I guess you're entitled to your insanity? something like that...). Then this afternoon, I was speaking with a Persian dude I work with (we actually work really well together, as he is very detailed and organized, whereas I am very calm... he keeps me on track, and I keep him from stressing out too much). We have been having trouble with one of the inspectors for a tank we're trying to put together a repair package for. Without getting into any details, this guy basically speaks to my co-worker like he's a moron and doesn't understand anything. This is clearly evident in his emails, and while this prick tends to talk down to most people, he is particularly condescending to my friend. Now, while I realize I just said that I keep my buddy from stressing, he doesn't often show a temper. In fact, he more often than not talks me out of snap, invective-laced emails that I'll likely regret an hour later. But in the last day or so, he has really been getting agitated with the responses he has been getting. Finally, this afternoon, as I said, he and I sat down, and he laid it out as to why he was so pissed off with this guy... (obviously paraphrased, but this was only a few hours ago.. so it's close enough)

"You see, let me tell you where this guy is coming from. Earlier this fall, around when the Indians were having some dispute up north, I forget the details, but I think they were barracading a road, or something.... I was at site with him and [another contractor], and over lunch, he says, just stating it as fact, that, 'We (meaning white people, of course) should have killed off all the Indians and French when we had the chance.' Now I know where this guys is coming from. Disregard that the only reason the white people didn't kill off the Indians and French was because they lacked the capacity, but then he looks as me, someone who has only been in the country for 10 years, and says, 'Wouldn't that have fixed everything?' I could barely get out, 'Well, that would have been one way.' So now you know why he speaks to me like he does, and I'm not going to take it from him. I had to leave Iran because I was treated like an immigrant in my own country once. In fact, you'd probably be treated better there, but that is the kind of thing that I will not stand for.

That kind of thing just gets me furious. The idea that somebody in fucking 2007 (well, I guess the conversation was in 2006) could possibly think they can say things like that, just matter of factly. Like, I know I generally put way more thought into what I say and do than most people, but holy shit.... think for 5 seconds before you go sounding off. It's amazing how quickly you can lose respect for an otherwise personable and knowledgeable guy.