My boss did something so dumb today I am making a special trip to the blog to post about it. Now first some background information.
In my industry Floor work takes a lot of time and chemical. It gets very expensive very fast. It is time and labor intensive. So with that said I have to give a couple numbers to put all of this into perspective. A typical School classroom (about 400 sqf) takes about 1.5 hours with 3 people to strip down completely if you are REALLY good at it. That totals to 4.5 hours per room. I know a method that is centered around a particular piece of machinery that can bring this number down to 20 to 40 minutes and no chemical.
The piece of equipment basically is amazing, and the people that sell it don’t know that it can do it. It was made for something else, and I have been taught a method of using this machine to have a 70% plus reduction in labor. I was at a building talking to the supplier about this machine, and my boss pulls up. I had been put in charge of securing one of these machines and had just got all the specs, and I had put it all together to get one of them and not let the supplier know what I was going to use it for. Should the supplier find out about what I was really goign to do with it he would start to sell the heck out of these things to other companies. Thus giving them the knowledge and technology to do the same thing and cause my company to lose its competitive edge on them. So we kinda want to keep the method a big secret.
I told my boss this, and said that we really need to be careful about what we say to him, and that the sales rep does not know what we are going to do with it. he said ok, and then walks over to the rep and says, “We want two of them. We want to strip our floors with them.” He said the very thing we did not want him to know, and not only that he said it in plain English so there would be no confusion! My eyes got big, but I noticed that the sales guy didn’t pick up on it. Ok we are free and clear. I pulled my boss aside again and said the same thing again. “We need to keep this a secret.”
Well two minutes later we are in a classroom, my boss, the sales rep, the supervisor, and myself are in the room and my boss says. “With this new machine we are going to be able to do this classroom in 30 minutes!” He did not get away with it this time. The rep clearly heard it and then walked away to make a phone call. I had at this point already told my boss three times that we need to not say anything to this man, and I pulled him aside again and told him that was the very thing that we did not want him to hear. My boss understood me know as I could see in his face he realized that he made a big mistake.
So I don’t know if this seems as stupid to all of you as it does to me. But I could not help but see it here.
I apologize for the absence as I have been traveling across the country, and spending a lot of the time away from internet. However, I have a great moment to relay that completely encompasses the name of this blog. It is a moment were someone was truly “smacked stupid.” It reminded me of a moment when I was driving in the mountains of Colorado last week.
As the car came winding down the mountain in the dark it came around a curve, and HELLOOO there was a large deer just staring at us. Frozen with fear, and unable to move an inch. It just looked at the car forcing me to drive around it. The following video reminded me of that experience.
This is a political video to prepare you, but it is not the political nature of it that makes it stupid, but rather the absolutely classic response that the senator gave in this video. Not one, not two, but THREE TIMES!! It is great. The Senator will be asked a question, and at first he will just try to dodge it but Chris Matthews does not let it go. He asks him again, and again, and every time he just freezes and and says nothing. There needs to be Cricket noises inserted here.
Now tell me if you see a resemblance between the two following pictures.
Now I am sure that it is hard to be on the News and that at time it can be very hard to stay on your game. It is sad that one is required to do so. but this was not a hard question. It was fair, and it is not attacking. You should have had at least ONE answer prepared, something. Don’t just stair at him and then hope that it will just go away. One would think that he would have been racking his brain for some sort of a semi-intelligent answer. Nope, just stair at him. Just like a deer does when a car comes speeding down a road with the brights on.
After watching as much of the Opening Ceremonies as I could stand and by that I mean when what little restraint I had left that kept me from throwing the remote at the TV after listening to Bob Costas yap constantly for an hour, I had an epiphany. Somebody should take Bob Costas’ job because he sucks at it. No seriously, he’s really, really bad. His professional title on his resume should not be sports commentator, but something more akin to sports rambler. Throughtout the olympics thus far, NBC has privledged us with short break away moments to Bob sitting behind some desk somewhere and gives us a run down of what we just watched.
” Yes, we just saw Phelps break a world record. It’s amazing, because that was a record that had never been broken. In fact, ladies and gentlement, he hasn’t broken that record since he set it previously. I hope we all realize that what we just saw was something record breaking.”
Thanks, Bob. Never could I have pieced together what just happened as I watched it while Phelps, ears and all, went nuts over his success. Really couldn’t have figured it out, when the announcers started screaming world record over and over. The special green line that NBC superimposed over the screen to indicate where Michael Phelps was with relation to his previous world record just didn’t register with me.
Conclusion, Bob’s an idiot designed to fill time as NBC makes the switch from one Olympic Event to another. Now I’ve got to give him credit, he’s got that announcer look and sound to him, and could probably place in a John Edwards look-a-like contest, but what’s his real value other than just forcing air across vocal cords. My suggestion: we should get some of the athletes involved in the games to do the broadcasting. It might be fun, to have some of the women from the women’s swim team announce Phelp’s victory and talk about the kind of dedication it takes to do what he does. Get Diana Torres up there and let her talk about adversity and pressure in performing. That would be kind of cool. When the women’s gymanstics is up, let’s get one of the Hamm brothers in the booth and talk about how hard it is to go through a routine and remember each element while placing your feet on the right side of a white line while gyrating in the air.
America at this time more than other needs intelligent, informative commentary from TV more than ever. While reality TV shows infect the airwaves and leave many a couch potato watching life instead of living it, we should have people that make us want to jump out of our seats and follow the examples of these athletes coming from around the world to compete. We need something more than, uh, wow, that was like amazing.
Throughout history we have seen political figure after political figure go down aflame like the hindenburg due to illicit affair. Politicians and Sports stars alike that hold not only our attention, but sometimes our respect have often disappointed their fanbase or constituents through their nocturnal habits. Honestly, though, I don’t care. That’s really none of my business. This most recent revelation concerning John Edwards and his love triangle has little interest for me. I mean, yes, it’s sad that we all bought into the sweet story of his support for his wife with cancer and how he stuck by her. Yes, it’s nice that he seemed to have these boyish good lucks and played the part of the all-american family man, but in the end ended up with a woman that was not only his wife, but also played the role of mistress for one of his campaign aids. I mean, let’s think about this for a second.
Not many have taken the time to point out that last point, this woman in the short span of a year had an affair with two married men that work very closely together in very small circle of people. Is this not just an reality tv show waiting to happen. This whole thing truly smacks of stupid.
What further smacks of stupid, is the fact that any of us care at all. Has Edwards ever been a serious candidate for the presidency. Nope. Have we ever really worried how his soundbytes play. Nope. So in truth, we just have another one of those let-downs in too-good-to-be-true relationships the likes of which call to mind Brad and Jennifer breaking up, Ben and Jennifer, and Bill and Gennifer Flowers (Ok, never really a couple, but it kind of fits with the theme.). In all, if people refuse to exercise good judgement or taste for that matter, that’s wholly their decision. Don’t get upset about it, just don’t support them in their stupidity. Don’t vote for Edwards, don’t buy Brad’s movies, and don’t hold celebritiah to a higher standard that we the general population can’t even adhere to ourselves. Being stupid is just part of the human experience.
