17 September 2012

dear yahoos

I posted this on my Facebook page.  Some folks need to start living in the now world and not in their so called "honorable" holier than thou world.

Dear Yahoos Offended by a Stupid YouTube Video:

I'm sorry you were offended by the YouTube video; even though I've not watched it, I'm certain that I too would be offended. But this is the USA and we do have freedom of speech. You may not like what some Americans have to say, (hell at times, even I don't) but that i
s OUR right as Americans. When we're in your country, we'll play by your rules, but when in our country we play by OUR rules.

*I'm* offended that you think killing innocent people, burning our flag, and threatening "Death on Americans" is the way you choose to voice your displeasure at ONE man's opinion. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find a gazillion other "Anti-Prophet Mohammed" videos. You probably won't have to look very hard and you might find some Anti-Jesus Christ, Anti-Buddha, Anti-Insert-Religion-Of-Choice-Here videos. Most people are intelligent enough to know that just because one man says or does something, it doesn't necessarily mean the entire country in which he resides believes the same thing. We all have brains and, for the most part, can think for ourselves and form our own opinion.

Maybe you should worry about the evils within your own countries, and quit worrying about what those in other countries might or might not think about your Prophet Mohammed. Frankly, the majority of us really don't care one way or the other about your religious beliefs.

Sincerely,
An American Who Is Offended By Your Barbaric Actions

29 June 2012

bike racks and man-parts

Wowza!  It's been a LONG time since I wrote a blog, but I just had to share this story.

So here goes...

I work in Boulder.  The land of saving the world one granola bar at a time.  They're all into "alternative" transportation, which basically means for Boulder, "Don't drive your car in OUR town; the roads are for Boulderites only." 

The CU-Boulder campus has dramatically increased the number of bike racks so those who are so inclined, or suicidal, can be all feel-goodie and ride their bike.  By the way, by all outward appearances, there is some rule that if you're a student at CU-Boulder then you must drive a ginormous SUV.  Unless you don't live in the City of Boulder.  If you live outside Boulder city limits and own a car, you should own something electric or peddle powered.

Anyway, I digress.

So after driving my ginormous SUV from the town in which I live, which is not Boulder, into Boulder – take that you do-gooders – I park in my parking lot and start walking towards my building.  In front of me is some kid walking along the newly redone sidewalk where they've put in motorcycle parking (guess motorcycles are OK by Boulder standards) and bike racks.  As per the norm with anyone under the age of 30, he has his nose permanantly affixed to the screen of his phone doing the text thing, or playing Angry Birds, or Words with Friends, or something.  Whatever he was doing, he was most definitely NOT paying attention to where he was walking. 

Remember how I said they installed more bike racks on campus?  They're everywhere, including in the middle of sidewalks. 

As I fully expected, Mr. Whatever-I'm-Doing-On-My-Phone-Is-A-Gazzilion-Times-More-Important-Than-Watching-Where-I'm-Walking slams his crotch full tilt into one of the ubiquitous bike racks.  BLAM!  He lets out a bit of an "OOF" then a couple of small whimpers and stands there looking completely and utterly stunned.

I so wanted to say something to him about how I hoped his text message was important enough to disfigure his man-parts, but I figured he was suffering enough.  I can be nice like that sometimes.

See the triangle doo-hickies?  They can do harm to man-parts.

31 January 2012

Dear President Benson

Dear President Benson:

I read the article in today’s Daily Camera in which you defended the raises awarded to the top administrators at CU.  I’ve been an employee of the university for ten years now.  My take home pay is currently $400 LESS than it was four years ago.  The 3% one time non-base building “raise” I received last year was more a slap in the face than anything. 

In your interview you state, "I've got to pay for good people, I want quality. You're not going to have quality if you don't have quality people working for you."  Every year during my annual evaluation, I’ve been scored in the highest tier, yet as a member of the classified staff I’m not seeing the “pay for good people” that seems to be a given among the faculty and upper administration.

I understand that classified staff are in a different job classification than faculty or professional exempt; however, I am still an employee of the University of Colorado and would appreciate it if the upper administration, including yourself, would be more supportive of our hard work and dedication. 

Somehow I don’t think you, or any others in the upper administration have a realistic appreciation of what it’s like to be a single parent with a child in college, a mortgage, a car payment, utility bills, grocery bills, medical bills, etc. trying to live on $1900 a month.  Chancellor DiStefano’s raise alone is $10,000 more than my total gross salary.  I hope that gives you some perspective on my situation.

Kind Regards, 

Ruth Covington