Ok so its not a leprachaun, but Jose is short, stereotypically mexican folks are a little shorter than the world average. Anyway, the neighboring business to us is a furniture store. They get a lot of furniture in boxes that are unconventionally big. Well in the trucking business we recycle cardboard by using it in between above around and under shipments during the loading process that protects it from damage. So we cut a deal with the furniture folks. Tell you what, you put cardboard only beside your dumpster, we’ll take it away for you. So everynight we send a guy or two down the entrance to gather this stuff up. One night, they threw it in the dumpster and this particular evening we were low on cardboard. So Jose going above and beyond decides to dumpster-dive for this stuff. Well he didnt realise how deep this thing was and he hopped on in to find he was way in over his head! So.. now the good part as if that wasnt funny enough, he is out there yelling for help to which no one comes to his aid, and yes, he has his cell phone! He is saved! So he calls up to the office from inside the dumpster and explains the situation. The supervisor on duty allready purple from not breathing because of the laughter.. asks him to repeat his situation and then turns the phone over to speakerphone and uses the next desk’s phone to broadcast what the poor man is saying over the facility intercom. Thank god he has a sence of humor when we still bust on him today about it!

I think it was my second year as a dock supervisor and everything was a bit hectic it seems. So I’m talking to a driver and Jose who I stumbled upon bullshitting for no apparent reason. Jose gets a mean look on his face and he leans up on the post with both hands in his pocket like a vagrant and says “Hey Chad, look at those fucking guys down there, they aint doing a fucking thing!” I just laughed my ass off and apparently the other guy seemed to get it too because he started laughing. At this point I stuck my own hands in my pockets and said “I dunno Jose, but what the fuck are you doing?” 

My favorite co-worker who has been with us since not long after I was hired is Jose. Jose is mexican but born and raised in chicago. Imagine that accent… Anyway a little background on the fella. He was hired in early february which in the northeast is downright fucking cold, and usually windy. We work on a dock which “can” be closed like a warehouse, but typically just on the weekend when we shut down. So Jose’s first day he comes in wearing a sweater, a flannel coat and jeans. If you’ve ever had a job you work outside in, this is the type of clothes you wear on your lunch break, inside. So after an hour I check in on him and he is standing straighter than a popsickle stick shivering his ass off and yes, I ask him: “Are you cold man?”, but to my surprise through his shaking and clenched teeth he says “Nnnoo”. Yeah tough guy….

And I awake today to find my teams website is a hit with the critics. Have a good read and note the 100% positive review we have received. Jewel Of Indra has finally gotten some of its deserved recognition for the hard work and energy we have put into it. I came home today and spent 3 hours helping new members who found our site due to this splendid article by Regina Lynn (see her blog here: http://blog.wired.com/sex/ where she also generously notes our site). After a few beers though my helping mind may become clouded and more likely to just have fun with the new folks!!

Link: http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71284-0.html?tw=wn_technology_2

I am infatuated with Clair Danes. I think she is the most beautiful woman in the world, with a timeless beauty I beg to touch… So much for humble satisfaction but I have to admit that she stirs a fire in me I never can describe or seem to understand. What do they call this? Envy? Lust? Coveting thy neighbors wife? Whatever it is, I’m just happy someone as beautiful as Clair Danes is happy to smile at the camera for fans like myself. Now if only she would think the same of me the world would be perfect.

Well I been addicted to a wednesday and Saturday webcast called the Rat Radio show hosted by DJ TezlaratX7. He kicks out a great collection of the very best tunes you WONT find on your FM Idiot box…. Great commentaries, hilarious commercials, sexual regression and a cool ass voice bringing it all to you live from The depths of chinatown San Fransisco! Give it a try you will Likey-Likey!

I been listening to Tool’s latest release now for about 3 weeks straight and I can’t get myself to take the disc out of the drive. Its intense stuff. Its not nearly the hard rock Tool we knew in the past if you are a Tool fan. There is still some anger and leftover angst in the lyrics of Maynard James Keenan involving the state of the world as we know it, but the title track 10,000 days is about something more personal. The singer’s mother recently passed away after spending 27 years (appx 10,000 days) in paralysis. Maynard finds spirituality and peace it seems in this time of his life, and the band he fronts finds powerful inspiration in this. The intriquite scores and deep harmonies prove that once again, we can call a song “heavy” even though it doesnt shatter your eardrums. The cover art for the disc shows us there is depth and meaning when we look at things the right way. There is 3 songs on this album that you can edit to overlap and play (wow, what a great clue with the album art!) Wings for Marie (part1) , 10,000 days , and the filler track 11. Some people call it the “megatrack” when you combine them all, it is a very pleasant surprise. Reminiscent of Doors Riders on the storm, and Zepplins No Quarter, Blue Oyster Cult Dont Fear the Reaper…. with the balls of Iggy Pop

Another great work tale… And it went a little like this. We used to employ a driver who had recently left the company. Turns out 3 weeks after he left he and his girlfriend were enjoying a weekend ride on the motorcycle. Coming around a turny section of the road they encountered,….. yes, a cow. Unable to maneuver in such short notice the bike collided with the livestock. Unfortunately he was banged up a bit and she was in intensive care and the poor guy had just left us and therefor had no type of insurance to fall back on at all. Hearing this story the one blonde who was in the office exclaimed “The cow is in intensive care?!”, which in turn brought everyone to tears in ear-shot..

I woke up that day in the small 2 room apartment to dry air. I turned on the television and started playing Resident Evil, where I was on the return to the mansion from outside. I just defeated the spider tree thing and I decided to take a break and grab a soda. It was about 7am by now and I closed the door behind me uncapping my Mt Dew and unwrapping a Whatchamacallit candy bar. God I used to be able to eat anything. I flipped the TV back on and before I could roll out the console to turn on my game, the words pierced through me and my chest fluttered. Every muscle in my face, my body,.. everything seemed frozen. The announcer on the news story had just finished saying that they have confirmed that the former Princess was dead, her boyfriend as well, and the driver in critical condition. I have never seen anyone type a dramatic pause into a story or written document. But what I felt at that moment seemed like an eternity, that frozen state of confusion. I mean, this was a humanitarian, they don’t die. I felt my fingers get cold, and my cheeks were on fire. I watched dust in my unkept room float through the sunlight that creeped past the cracks in the curtain in the morning light. It seemed suspended in the death of the air. I recognised myself breathing again, and felt the blood in my fingers again while the tears came down my cheeks. A startling lesson to me what kind of world I lived in, had to tolerate and had to find joy in. I spent the next few hours just staring at this television in faith there was an error somewhere. Somehow the facts weren’t straight. I listened to all the reports and looked at all of the pictures. I listened to the stars and their almost instant attack on the photographers around the world. Eventually I accepted it. Soon it was history and there I was, ashamed of my life, my house, my world. That was one of those things in my life that changed me. . . .

So, It’s about 2 in the afternoon and I’ve been holding my piss since 8am dying for a chance to go. We hit a slow break in the afternoon and I go. As I enter the bathroom I hear Barry saying “Pssst, Dave!” and in a few seconds I hear the sound of moving furniture, boxes, and clanks and bangs, right at the bathroom door. I shake my head and start grinning as I am trying to imagine what will happen when I open the door. I shake, wash my hands, take a deep breath and open the bathroom door. At first I am literally in awe, these fuckers jammed a sofa, a chair, 3 office chairs and every box and mini-cabinet in the place up against the doorway. It was litterally a wall. All I could see through was some of the chairs legs where they couldnt fit anything small enough into the gaps…