hope that i get old before i die…

they have a pretty strict dress code at work for someone in my position, and that is to say business semi-formal. meaning i have to wear slacks and a collared shirt, no tennis shoes, etc. basically dress like a professional, but i don’t have to wear a 3-piece suit to work every day. those who know me know how much this bothers me that i don’t get to wear my usual blue jeans every day. i never really thought about the dress code too much though, until the other day when i was leaving the bathroom. we have a metal shop as part of our operation and they all get to wear the jeans and t-shirts because they all have uniforms that go on over their normal clothes. well, one of the shop workers was heading down the hallway and said “hello, sir” when he passed me. i was completely taken aback because i am not the kind of person that *anyone* says “sir” to. if it were up to me, i’d be having a beer with that guy at some dive bar instead of caviar and brie with the executives at the 5-star resorts. but my position puts me closer to the 5-star people than the dive bars, so i have to dress the part. (not that i’m having caviar and brie with anyone here, just making the point…)

but it got me to thinking about the whole situation of wearing a certain uniform to identify your position with the company. and then i started thinking about how our entire operation is basically dividing itself into separate classes all based on the mode of dress. if you are required to not wear jeans then you are considered “upper class” as far as the company is concerned. the amount of contempt that some of the “upper class” workers display for their co-workers in the blue-collar jobs is amazing to me. as if a blue-collar worker is somehow incapable of thinking coherently or of such staggering concepts as those of us who wear the slacks-and-collars. there is *some* respect given to the supervisors and managers of the shop employees, but i think they are still seen as lesser employees sometimes.

it all strikes me as a microcosm of the society as a whole that we’ve constructed for ourselves. occasionally someone from the “lower class” can rise up and become not quite “upper class”, but they will almost never have the opportunity to become part of the “elite” of the company. maybe i’m just being overly cynical, but this is something i observe happening almost every day, so i know it’s been established as the norm when it comes to employee relations. i even hear some of the “upper class” referring to the shop workers in less than flattering tones when they’re in private conversation with each other. it makes me wonder if i will be allowed to reach that “elite” status since i don’t feel contempt for my fellow man…..

i have spent the last week and a half in withdrawal from the internet because my roommate got behind on the bill. it’s been since the monday before last that i’ve been able to do my normal surfing, and it has completely affected my life. from the quick check of my gmail to the furtive glances at myspace at work, it’s been largely unsatisfying to me to have to limit myself to what i can get away with during the times i should be doing actual work. plus i don’t like getting busted for doing things at work that might come back to bite me in the ass — like surfing myspace or playing solitaire — when i’m supposed to actually be working every day. but for the time being i am back, and it feels so so good to be back in the saddle again. i would love to sit here and chat, but i’ve got almost two weeks worth of back surfing to catch up on…..

well, it’s been almost a week since the election has ended, and my thoughts on the results have been requested. first of all, i think it was no surprise that the election turned out the way it did. bush’s approval ratings have been in the toilet for quite some time now, so it’s hard for the republicans to gain much support when most of the country is disappointed with how they’re handling things. then you factor in the foley scandal and realize that if the democrats had *not* gained at least the house, then they should just hang things up and disband.

but this election was less about voting *for* democrats as it was voting *against* republicans. the dems still have no solid leadership and no real credibility against the republicans when it comes to most of the pressing issues of the day. most of the dems who coasted a wave of anti-war support were very vocal hawks when they decided to vote away their constitutional right to wage war to bush, paving the way for the iraq invasion. but they’re all too willing to define themselves as against the war when it allows them to beat the repubs at election time. if it suddenly becomes popular to like the war again, i’m sure they’ll all come back out for the war when election time rolls around again.

see, this is the problem the dems have had for quite some time now. they seem to have lost their ideology and are only running as “not republican”, refusing to stand up for issues that have been core democrat beliefs for over 60 years for the sake of trying to come across as “centrist” to the voters. i have a friend who works for a high-ranking dem senator in washington dc and tried to explain to him once how there is no such thing as “middle” voters. moderates win a lot of races because they can appeal to so many people. but that does not mean that there is a huge market of moderate voters out there just waiting to be catered to, for the most part people are issue voters. issue voters are not in the middle with their ideologies, they are made up of all walks of life and political leanings. the point here is that instead of running on the issues that make dems what they are known for, they have been trying to run as “not republican” but it hasn’t been working because when there is a choice between a republican who has a clear stance and a dem who is “not repub”, the vast majority of people are more willing to trust the person whose views they know.

my biggest problem with all of the people who say that we are looking at better times ahead is that they fail to remember that these are the same dems who voted almost unanimously for the patriot act, the war powers act, helped write the bankruptcy bill and in general have not been living up to their history at all. so even though it seems like there is a power shift in washington, it still remains to be seen if the dems are actually going to do anything differently now that they have the power again, or if they’re going to just continue to roll over and play dead for the repubs. i’m not going to hold my breath to wait for the dems to get back to their roots and start championing the causes of the average american again. they’ve been proving time and time again that they no longer care about their core constituency anymore….

unfortunately it’s even better when you remember to bring your camera with you