I-95

So why are most managers assholes?

Are their bosses assholes so they feel like they have to "pay it forward"?

Or do they think if they are big enough jerks they'll get promoted and be able to be jerks to more people?

So what brought this thought on was I stopped at Sheetz last night for a soda.

Now I don't think most of the people working at a Sheetz on the night shift are looking to move up the corporate ladder there. I'm not saying they aren't hard working, honest people. But I bet if they could find a good paying job elsewhere they'd jump at it.

Anyway, there are two people working at 7pm. One guy making the food and one girl working the counter. They were probably both in their late teens or early 20's.

There were about four or five people in the line checking out and I was at the end of the line.

From behind me I heard the unmistakable voice of a woman who has made poor career choices her entire life.

She was yelling at the girl working the cash register and asking why there was only one decaf coffee made.

There must be two at all times!

While still checking out the line of customer, making change, bagging items...the girl responded that she wasn't sure why since she did not remove the other pot.

Not satisfied our decaf dictator continues to inform the younger girl of the appropriate supply of pseudo-fresh decaf that must be available according to the Sheetz handbook of all things super important.

Our check out person was visibly nervous and I wondered if she was even giving out the right change anymore at this point.

Luckily for her our chief or coffee turned her attention to the young man cooking. Demanding he drop everything and get her a decaf pot...STAT!

At that point I checked out and left...shaking my head.

I've worked for quite a few good and bad bosses in my day.

I've learned that you have to be tough sometimes, but situations dictate your response and how you handle your employees.

Hopefully these two kids learn fro the psycho and someday get the chance to treat employees better.

Of course they'll probably turn out to be assholes and take out their bad memories on a whole new bunch of kids.

~ Glenn

(PS: I have a history of using song title for my posts...if you don't know what I-95 stand for you probably don't want to Google it and listen.)

Time is on my side...

Where the heck has a year gone?!?!

When I started this little blog with the intention of writing something every day for one year I did understand the immensity of that task!

So now, with less than a month left until the year is up I need to make an effort to at least post more regularly!

As part of that I'm going to start the Friday night music scene. A selection of videos that may have nothing in common other than I got a kick out of them!

I do something similar every day on facebook with my mid-day musical interlude...a song (or two) every day that can break up the monotony!

Tonight we'll go LIVE and start of with something a little more mellow:

And now some more sweet harmonies:


And while we're telling stories about bands how about a little life on the road:



And one more about life on the road:

So there ya have it!

If you want to see a set of particular songs let me know!

~ Glenn

Where were you?

This is a copy of a blog I posted on MySpace September 11th, 2007

Since I'm sure everyone else in the world has done this…

September 11^th, 2001 started off as normal for me as did for everyone else in the country save the hijackers. I got up, dropped the kids off at their respective places and went to work.

At that time I was working out of a smaller office than I have now and the way it was situated in our building I got very poor radio reception. I had a small boom box on the floor of my office just to have some sound in the room and every day the first thing I turned on in the morning was that radio. It really only got a couple stations. I like to listen to AM radio in general and talk radio in particular. Too many years in radio has turned me off from listening to music and the all-sound-alike DJ's that permeate the airwaves. Since I could not get AM in my office I usually had the local (and closest) FM station on just for background noise. The day before, however, I had switched to the oldies station in Pittsburgh (94.5 WWSW).

On 9/11/2001 I didn't turn the radio on.

I have no idea why. I wasn't any busier than normal. I didn't do anything to change my normal routine (thank you OCD!) or have anything interrupt my morning.

I just didn't turn the radio on.

I remember quite clearly that we had a flatbed truck to load that day with product being shipped out. I was in and out of the building checking on the tires we were shipping and it was a simply beautiful day. Clear blue skies, cool temperatures, no humidity. You could not have asked for a better day.

At one point our secretary told me as I walked into the front office that her sister had told her a plane hit of the world trade center buildings and I shrugged it off. I knew planes had hit the Empire State building before so it always possible.

Then she said her sister (who was at home watching television) called and said another plane had hit the tower and the news was saying we were under attack!

Surprised, I flipped on my radio and heard ABC news pouring out. I've been into radio for a long time…major music stations don't play the national news feed after 9am if they do it at all anymore.

This was big.

I jumped on the computer and found that all of the major news sites were jammed. I was able to get on the Japanese CNN site and see some images and print some pictures to show the guys at work.

Our boss, the owner, was outside with the truck being loaded. When I went out next I told him what was going on and he seemed more interested in getting the truck loaded! LOL! I knew he cared, but business had to go on no matter what.

All I wanted to do was to go home and watch the news, but that wasn't an option. I listened to the radio all day and all the rumors that were out there too.

At one point it was reported that one of the hijacked planes was in Fayette County airspace. We had a rouge county commissioner who loved to hear his own voice on television and radio who announced that to the world. People were calling our office because we are near the county airport. Not surprisingly we were not a target, but the plane (Flight 93) did apparently pass through the airspace as it was heading to turn around before it crashed.

Heading home that evening I was struck by the fact that there were no planes in the sky.

Obviously I had heard that all flights were grounded, but where I live we have a great view of the southern sky and to see ZERO planes all night was a bit disconcerting.

My wife was two months pregnant with our son at that time, and after consuming as much television as humanly possible I went to bed that night with my wife and wondered out loud what kind of world we were bringing another baby into.

In the aftermath I fully supported our attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan…but argued strongly against invading Iraq. I still hold those two views to this day.

Six years later I still wonder what kind of world we brought our son into, but I hope that the majority of us are trying to make it a better place.

~ The Glenn

Here We Go!

I put it off long enough.

Every year I dread this, but I HAVE to do it.

Please forgive me..



Here is my Pittsburgh Steelers Preview for the season!

Offense:
Of course the question is whether Ben can recover from the horrible season he had last year...wait, no. The question is whether he'll LIVE through the season because of the offensive line.

The short answer is Yes.

You don't need the long answer, but to sum up the line will be better. They will have had the advantage of playing to together for another year and they will feed off the success they had in the playoffs.

Ben is Ben (to quote Coach Tomlin) and will do what he does. No worries.

Parker is in a contract season and has something to prove. Mendenhall wants to show that he's no bust.

Ward and Holmes are stars and watch for Sweed and Wallace will stretch the field like we have seen in this town in a long time.

Defense:

Is this really a question? Injuries aside they should dominate much the same way they did last year.

If I have to pick on one thing its that the defensive line is still getting older, but Big Snack Hampton is also in a contract year and should continue to dominate and Ziggy is gonna get some looks too.

Special Teams:

Another player in a contract year and one of the most consistent players in the Steelers organization is Jeff Reed. He'll be fine and he'll be here next year too.

Sepulveda is healthy so fans don't have to hold their breath and cross their fingers every time the Steelers have to punt.

And you may have heard that they signed Stefan Logan:

So while anything can happen look for another great year. The schedule is easier than the famous "toughest schedule in the history of the NFL" from last year too.

But remember no matter what happens week to week the goal is to make the playoffs and then to get to the Super Bowl and then to win it all.

That never changes and I don't expect the Steelers chances to change either!