"Professionalism--Look it up."

"Professionalism--Look it up." A wonderful quote, by a wonderful woman who goes by D.

Drama. What is drama?

Drama:
–noun
1. a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character, esp. one intended to be acted on the stage; a play.
2. the branch of literature having such compositions as its subject; dramatic art or representation.
3. the art dealing with the writing and production of plays.
4. any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting, or striking interest or results: the drama of a murder trial.
5. the quality of being dramatic.
-- Dictionary.com

How is drama related to professionalism? It isn't. So why did I just quote a dictionary entry for drama? Because while the two are not related, people can correlate the two...ok, I won’t kid myself. People can "correlate" get the two mixed up very easily when it comes to professional issues and personal. I associate drama with "personal issues." For example: Baby Momma Drama. That's one giant set of personal issues and I feel very sorry for those of you who have it, including my brother. But as I have lost my train of thought for where I was going with this example, I will simply say learn to separate your personal issues from the rest of the world. Chances are we don't care or you are going to make an ass of yourself because you can't get over X issue and put that burden on everyone else, which becomes [unnecessary] drama. In short, don't be a Drama Queen.

What is Professionalism?

Professionalism:
–noun
1. professional character, spirit, or methods.
2. the standing, practice, or methods of a professional, as distinguished from an amateur.

-- Dictionary.com

Allow me to translate: Grow the heck up. Be mature(coincidentally, those two are not the same thing). And remember how to do/be those two things when people around you can't. That's about what it sums up to. I know we all have our moments where we just forget how to be mature, professional, and act how we know we should, and those times are usually forgiven. But when it is repeated enough times where it becomes habit, that makes you a drama queen, immature, extremely childish(again, not the same as immature), attention whore and possibly even a sadist. These are the kind of people that get trolled, told to go fuck themselves, or even tolerated by some and even attempted to be helped by others, when the only thing they do in return is use the very same thing people tell them as a retort.

That's how you know, ladies and gentlemen, if you are dealing with a previously defined drama queen--when the only thing they can throw back at you is your own words in an attempt to be hurtful and cruel. So why exactly did I write this? Well, I could say nothing at all, that I just had a passing random thought, but that would make me a hypocrite. Maybe this will shed some light on the purpose of my borderline troll attack:

"I hate people that think the world revolves around them and their needs, when a situation has nothing to do with them or their dramatic issues. I further dislike people that cannot separate personal from professional issues, especially when professional issues are the ones feeding the overly dramatic ego issue."
-- D

(Originally, this was said in the third person point of view. Example: D hates people that think the world revolves around them...etc. But for the purpose of quoting, I edited it to be first person.)

***NOTE: My intentions are not to bash, degrade this individual, nor is it to make her look bad, like an ass or a complete drama queen. Truth be said, she does all of that on her own. I am merely expressing my opinion and thoughts on how immature, stupid, and badly handled the situation was. If any of this appears to be offensive, learn how to separate personal from professional issues.***

It all started this afternoon over a name. Wait...did she just say name? Yes, I just said name. It was over a name. Indicator number one on how to flag attention seeking drama queens. Here is the dialog to further prove my point. Names have been edited as to not point fingers.

* Person X will always want to call so-so bob.
Person X: ftr
Person X: Jet likes Bob.
* T'Ford wants to call so-so Jeff
* So-so is not Bob
* So-so is not Jeff
T'Ford: but I like Jeff
T'Ford: fine
T'Ford: I'm going to call you Atticus
T'Ford: :P
Person X: Do not
Person X: Not Atticuss
Person X: Ohm
Person X: Atticus
T'Ford: 0_o
T'Ford: why?
Person X: No!
Person X: No.
Person X: Just no and accept it.
T'Ford: no thank you
T'Ford: There's a story behind the Atticus thing
Person X: Yep.
--Content deleted due to irrelevance--
T'Ford: I wasn't asking, I was saying there was.

...a few moments later...

T'Ford: I'll call him Atticus, Kakashi Sensei, Gibbs, Popsy, Pops, or just plain ol' so-so.
T'Ford: and Jeff
* Person X glares
* T'Ford shrugs
Person X: Because the guy who I know with the persona of Atticus is the father to the two children I lost last year.
* Person X has left channel X (Happy?)

1. How the hell am I supposed to know that? It didn't mention who he was in a journal entry she provided me after the conflict about why she doesn't like the name Atticus
2. How is that my problem, anyway? Am I supposed to stop associated that name with so-so because someone else has an issue with that name?
3. Am I supposed to feel sorry for you because of that situation you can't keep separate from harmless fun and your personal problems?

Sure, you could say that I could be considerate enough not to call so-so that name around her since there are many more. I wouldn't have had a problem with doing so had I known ahead of time before I was demanded to not call him that and just accept it (without a reason to accept it, I might add). This, I was able to shrug off and say whatever, not a big deal. But then I log back onto Twitter and see Person X's latest tweet:

" Person X hates people who think they can do anything and have anything and who don't seem to give a flying shit about others."

Good to know I don't care about others. You know, I don't care about anyone other than myself, that's why I am enlisting in the military, that's why I make sacrifices everyday for friends, offer time I don't have to listen to people and their problems, talk to them and give my damnedest attempt to uplift them even just the tiniest bit. All because I really don't care about others. I think before you try and talk about me, disrespect me or whatever you wish to call it, you get to know me so you don't get the details wrong.

At this point, I'm laughing. Laughing so hard I enter troll mode, a trait I get from my lovely Padre, and post this on Twitter: "TFord --It's funny to see some things people post, when what they post is making them a hypocrite. Irony or stupidity?" And only moments later, I am deleted from Facebook and Twitter and Person X tweets again. This time, I am personally called out.

"Person X: I find it funny how the one calling others a hypocrite is one of the biggest hypocrites going. Grow the fuck up, T'Ford. Grow up."
(T'ford is actually taking place of my real name)

I'm rotfling* so hard now, I just go with the natural troll instinct and keep on adding fuel to the fire. My reply: "TFord: Right, now I am a hypocrite. So says the person who deletes me from Facebook and Twitter, yet still checks my tweets and responds to them." After this, she finally blocks me from following her on Twitter and tweets yet again with: "Person X: this life is crap. Give me another one. I'm done. The world can have it's own way, I want out. I want to die."

Drama. Queen.

However, it isn't over yet. I finally calm down and quit laughing long enough to PM her and tell her that I wasn't intending to disrespect her or offend her, but I'm not just going to stop associating a name with a person I am close to because she demands it (...and acts like the world revolves around her <-- didn’t actually tell her that). I would provide logs for this, as well, but sadly I closed out of the window and don't exactly feel like searching the thousands of lines of logs from channels and PMs for that. I continue to tell her that it would be the same thing if a kid came in whose father had just passed away and wanted me to stop calling my Pops "Pops" because they called their father than and it's personal to them (um, hello? It's personal to me as well). I tell her I'm not just going to stop calling someone a name I give them because they don't like it, unless of course it is the person who I am calling by that name. She says that it isn't anything like that, and when I ask her what is it like, I get told fuck you. I then I tell her she is just being whiny because I told her no and she didn't get her way. I then get another fuck you, and something along the lines of 'FUCK YOU! I LOST TWO CHILDREN AND I'M BEING WHINY? GO ROT IN HELL!'  **Edit: She did lose two children to misscarriage last year, which is a very, very unfortunate event that I apologize for.  However, I was not aware of this knowledge at the time and apologize for the content previously said.**   Please note this edit comes after I finished this blog,  posted it, then updated my twitter and Facebook  (which I was deleted from by her),  and IMed about, by her, with this information.  She did, however, do some charity work for a little girl with cancer who ended up dying a little later.  Note that the two children she lost were last year, I had no knowledge of, and the young girl with cancer was more recent.  So just out of the blue, I was called out on a mistake, came back and edited to get the facts straight.  What does that say about me?  I am willing to admit I was wrong and fix it.  Example of professionalism.

Yes, people can get attached to the kids they work with, but how long ago was it that they passed away and you are acting like it is the complete end of the world? Now, not to get confused, I did feel for her, the child that was lost and her friends and family. I still do. It's hard to deal with. But still using it as an excuse or reason to get attention and people to feel sorry for you, to get your way on small things such as the Atticus thing is ridiculous. You are telling me to grow up, yet you fail to take your own advice. You call me a hypocrite yet have nothing to back up that claim. Even other people I have asked can't find anything to call me out on. Are they biased? Probably. Does that make you without bias and not wrong? Not in the least bit. Also, I would like you to notice my lack of profanity, unless quoted, in this blog. There are a few words here and there that you could perceive to be "profane" but I'm not saying "fuck you/fucking grow up/rot in hell/etc" because that is immature, unprofessional, uncalled for, unnecessary and of course, not the type of person I am.

So hopefully this is a lesson to you people reading this, or at the very least provided the same lulz I got out of it. And for the record, Person X has a history of causing a lot of drama and I have witnesses to back me up on that. How many people can she get to back her up on her claims? Probably only those who fall for her drama and feel for her. I on the other hand have no respect for her as a person anymore. Didn't after the last incident where she hurt one of my good friends, but I at least made the effort to put up with her. She doesn't even get that anymore.

Now I will let the people reading this decide for themselves who is really the hypocrite, the "wrong doer" in all of this, or even the drama queen. Because while I am writing about it for the whole interwebz to see, I'm not name calling, calling you out personally, bashing you trying to degrade you. I am in fact doing the opposite--I'm keeping your privacy(save for the people who witnessed this), I'm simply giving my thoughts on the situation and also ranting at the stupidity of it at the same time. In and of itself, this is a little immature because I'm putting it out there, but at the same time I'm putting it out there so people know the truth on the situation and can decide for themselves who to believe. This is an example of separating personal from professionalism.

I rest my case.

*rotfling = rolling on the floor laughing, but using the acronym as an actual word, thus adding -ing to it.

I'd like to thank D for the quotes and giving me ideas on how to express myself, Person X for providing me with epic lulz today, the English language for having this wonderful thing called Satire which contains irony and sarcasm, Jesus for giving me a brain, my Mops and Pops for teaching me how to use said brain, my Padre who passed on his trolling genes to me and taught me the ways of a troll, and my pet rock, Hippie, whom without cheering me on, I would have never finished this 2,405 word blog.

-T'Ford

Hyper Activity

This past weekend I accompanied my best friend and her boy friend at the movies to see Paranormal Activity, the big hype of this month. Personally, I thought it was one of the best movies I have ever seen, especially a scary/horror type. You just don't get the good quality horror movies anymore like you did back in the days of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface and so forth.

Of course, this is not to say there aren't those who think differently than me. I like the style. Sure, it followed the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, but the scary-horror part of it had different style with the slow build-up. Not to mention, things unknown yet experienced in everyday life such as paranormal activity just messes with your psyche. But I will leave all of the critique stuff to the several reviews being put out there. I want to focus on what all the hyper activity about Paranormal Activity is about.

There are very few movies that actually make me scared, jump, or paranoid afterwards and those generally tend to be ones with a realistic story to them, such as Signs and Paranormal Activity being about unknown things that do happen in reality as the "unexplainable." PA was one of those movies that had me scared during it, but I was fine once the movie was over. Classifies as an "in the moment" type of scary, until some friends started taunting me with ghost stories and whatnot to make me scared right before I was headed to bed that night. Then I was a little paranoid. I'm sure I am not the only one in America who felt the same, however. Actually, that is even a major part of the big hype about it. The fact that this movie has made so many viewers scared, paranoid because of the style is was made in: from first person perspective, slow build-up in the plot, and even went as far as following a very logical outline of a haunting and paranormal activity.

Another reason why it is such a hype is because the writers really got viewers thinking this was indeed real footage salvaged and formed into a movie for the big screen. Is Paranormal Activity a true story? Some say it was "based on a true story." Now, I don't know enough about the movie to tell if the writers based it off an old story or thought it up out of thin air, but either way I can tell you this: it is not real footage. It was a low budget movie that used about $15K, a week and renovations to the director's house which became the set for this movie, recorded day and night until complete. The characters in the movie, Katie and Micah are the actors who even went by their real names. No script, just an outline in which Katie and Micah got to audition for, then improvise on that outline after nailing the audition together.

As far as I can see, there are only two main things that make this movie such a gossip and number 1 Box Office holder--The style of the movie including plot line, story line, climax and the fact that it is about the paranormal, the unknown, and of course the fact that most people believe it is real footage from an ordinary couple. I'm sure it has inspired many people to pick up a video camera and start filming while they sleep just to see what happens. Good for you. I however and going to enjoy sleeping nice and comfortably back in my bed, in the dark and quiet of my room...as quiet as it can get with an armadillo taking refuge under my house, a noisy fan and space heater, cell phone going off randomly from texts or calls or the times where I put music on.

...ok, so maybe not so quiet but peaceful for me. Aside from the one night I couldn't sleep because my imagination got to me, Paranormal Activity has a lot of hype for a movie theater setting, being in the same situation and place with a lot of people. Seeing it at home may not be as good, though you never know. It could have the opposite effect and make you check your back 15 times in 5 minutes. Either way, I give PA two thumbs up, ten out of five stars and at least hope its viewers are not idiots and know that it is just a movie. So when someone asks you what all the hype and glory about this movie is, you can point them here and show them what all the hyper activity is about.

Also, another shout out: Pops, you are a big meany face for taunting me with all that ghost stuff the night I saw the movie before bed. I did not get any sleep and I blame you...can we still go on a ghost hunt, though?

-T'Ford

Correction...Make That Political

Have you ever wondered who and/or what determines the standards for "politically correct" terminology? Or being more general than that, why people change the name of something and call the new phrase the "scientific" name for it when it was just as sciencey before. This is one of the reasons society is stupid, people change everything so damn much we can't keep up. Go ask your parents or someone older what the word epinephrine means and see if they know (unless they're like a doctor or something, not as effective). Afterwards tell them it is just a fancy word for adrenaline.

That is only one example of how words have been changed to be more correct, or politically correct. Adrenaline hormones are epinephrine, blacks are African American, whites are Caucasian, doors on Wal-Mart have officially been labeled Enter and Exit and are no longer just doors. What is the world coming to?

The notorious CPS, or as it was once known, is now FPS. It went from Child Protective Services to Family Protective Services. While that is probably a more appropriate name for it now days given all the domestic affairs they deal with other than children, it is still just a random change. Everyone knows who CPS is and what they do, why a need for the change? But even more ridiculous was something I heard today. I am not sure when it was changed it, but STDs are no longer known as STDs. Sexually Transmitted Diseases are now known as Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) because it is more politically correct and does not discriminate or portray a negative image on someone who has an infection that can be treated versus those who contract a permanent disease such as Herpes or HIV (which HIV technically isn't a disease until it advances into AIDS, same difference though). Seriously? We moved a couple of letters down from a D to an I to make something "politically correct"?

My question is how in the hell does this solve anything? Do we pay people to sit around and do this? What about medicine, vaccines, research for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s [etc] cures? Hell, let's get away from just the medical field and even throw out the economy. Everyone talks about the recession and the economy. First, why did we pay $79 million to send a missile to the moon to blow a hole in it? $79 MILLION. That's s-e-v-e-n-t-y-n-i-n-e million dollars we spent to blow a hole in the moon, and why? Why do we need a hole in the moon? Why do we need to spend that much money on a missile when there are children and adults out there starving, homeless, without shoes, socks, a jacket to keep them warm in the winter, the available products we take for granted that keep us clean and healthy. Or even when there are people working, struggling to get by to take care of their families and their own self. We see that hope flying away into the sky to the moon just to explode and shatter. I can't help but wonder if these are some of the same idiots who changes STD to STI or set the standards for what is "politically correct." I also wonder if these are the ones who are in charge of defining the norm of society, what normal people are supposed to be like, label and classify us because something we may have or lack.

With our economy like it is, we could definitely use some of those people who think those things up, like Adrenaline and Epinephrine, to start thinking up ways to help our economy. We need to kick our nation's leaders in the butt and keep stepping on their toes to do their part while we do ours. I think this economy is like it is because the American people started slacking and relying too much on the government when our government is what? A democracy. Ruled by us. So we can only blame us. I'm tired of hearing things go back and forth about the government being the problem, or lazy Americans being the problem. It's both, and since it has obviously been pointed out that our government's concerns are not in our best interest right now, we have to do something.

The only thing that needs to be changed because it is politically incorrect is our politics. Let's not worry about if it is more polite to say STD or STI, more scientific to call it Adrenaline or Epinephrine, or if CPS serves more as a FPS. Let's worry about what the people worry about. Let's worry about ourselves.

-T'Ford

Stumb Laws, Dupid People

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Jigsaw of The Game

Greetings my fellow inhabitants of the interwebz.

I have called you all here today to inform you that you just lost The Game. I know, I can see the fury, the hate, the anguish in your eyes for losing yet again, but fear not! As I finally have the answer to this game.

Everyone knows The Game has three simply rules:  

1. Once you know about the Game you are always playing


2. Every time you think of the Game, you lose


3. Loss must be announced

Who's to say people break the rules and say "I'm not playing"? Or the many different versions to the Game, such as resuming play 15 or 30 minutes after announcing loss. Well I have decided to add my own little twist to it, to make it much more fun. I have chosen 10 people from forums, social networking sites, IRC to irl to earn a chance at "eternal immunity." A once in the life time chance to finally, and ultimately win the Game. The 10 people I selected have each been notified by me that they were chosen, individually, so any other person that is playing doesn't know who else is, just that they are 1 of 10. I called this a "fight to the death" earlier, though I don't intend for any killing to go on. For you 10 people, it simply goes like this:

You already know you are 1 of 10, but now you must figure out who the other 9 playing are. That's just step 1. As you figure out who else is playing, it is your job to make them lose the game with me as your witness or provide evidence you "assassinated" them first. For example, if Sam knows that Josh is one of the other 9 players and Sam says "Josh, you just lost the game" then Josh has been assassinated by Sam and there are 8 players remaining(assuming none have already been assassinated by other players).  

But there is more strategy involved in this than you might think. Given you don't know who the other players are, you never know when someone could be suspecting you. So say Sam assassinates Josh in a chat room, where another player, Sarah, now suspects Sam is playing and says "Well you just lost the game, too, Sam." Now two players are out just like that. But how do you know if someone who lost the game is actually one of the 10 players? Two ways, 1) When one of the chosen players loses, he/she must admit that they lost the game and where one of the 10 players or 2) come ask me and I will tell you, but only if you show me that they lost before I confirm.

Confused? The dummies version of it, then:

1. There are 10 chosen players. No one else who is playing knows who is in play with them.


2. Object of the game is to find out who the other 10 players are and assassinate them.


3. Assassinating someone is knowing they are in play and making them lose the game. If assassinated, you must admit your loss and announce that you were 1 of 10 players.


4. If you are assassinated and removed from play, I must be notified. Commenting on Facebook is the ideal place, but I will accept texts, messages, IRC, PMs, etc.


5. The only survivor (aka the last one standing, who didn't get assassinated) wins and gets the immunity from the Game.


6. Assassination is the only way to eliminate a player. You can use any strategy you wish to learn who is playing before a direct elimination, such as randomly making one lose and how they react, etc. You may assassinate at anytime, though.

***NOTE: The phrase for assassination is this: "I just won the game." Contrary to my examples, this is how the players must assassinate one another, to distinguish assassination from outside losses among players.***

So good luck to you 10 people,   Have fun =]

-T' Ford