October 30, 2006

The Perils of Maturity

I have a co-worker who is consistantly a real pain in the butt. We shall call this person Snotty McDouchenozzle. Snotty is on a regular basis:

  • stubborn
  • contrary
  • self-absorbed
  • argumentative
  • combative

In addition to these characteristics, Snotty also rarely takes responsibility for Snotty's projects, servers and other daily tasks; Snotty even goes as far as putty Snotty's personal mail in the outgoing mail bin. Snotty also refuses to use the pain killer that is provided by the office, and insists that I get another type just for Snotty. And Snotty throws a hissy fit if there isn't any in the office. As a thumbnail sketch, I think that captures Snotty's essence.

Today, Snotty came into my office and proclaimed that I needed to do a task. In 48 hours. So I start the basics of the task. At one point, Snotty had the nerve to check on me:

Snotty: How are things going in here?
Me: Alright, I suppose.
Snotty: You also need to do this, that and the other.
Me: Well, that will make this task a lot more difficult.
Snotty: No it won't. It's not difficult at all.
Me: Yes, it will. There'll be wiring and fixing and a whole bunch of other things.
Snotty: (snottily) NO, IT'S NOT DIFFICULT. (storms out).

Now, I wasn't saying I wouldn't do the job. I was just saying that it would make things a lot harder for me -- considering my neck issues (which are acting up.) And if Snotty is so concerned about this, why isn't Snotty volunteering to help? It is Snotty's project after all. I was so angry at Snotty, it was all I could do to contain my rage and not go fish Snotty's personal correspondance out of the mail bin and throw it in Snotty's face and proclaim "I am not your personal assistant. If you insist on treating me like dirt, don't expect personal favors from me." I contained myself, barely. The problem is I keep bottling this up, and one day I am going to explode and rip Snotty a new one.

I've tried talking to my boss about this -- we'll call the boss Advoidance McClure. Avoidance says that there's nothing we can do about Snotty. That's just the way Snotty is. Even though Avoidance admits that Snotty is disruptive, argumentative and hard to deal with. A. has repeatedly asked me to just suck it up, for the sake of maintaining peace in the office. A. has also stated that if necessary, it can be arranged that I don't have to work directly with Snotty. Call me crazy, and maybe I'm just not getting it -- but if you have a known disruptive force in the office, offer to make it so I don't have to deal with them (and it was noted that it has had to be done in the past), maybe this person shouldn't be working there anymore.

Now, I'm not gunning for Snotty to get fired. What I am gunning for is a way to deal with Snotty. Defang Snotty as it were. I realized today that getting Snotty to change isn't a viable option. So I need to come up with a strategy of dealing with Snotty. I think a good first step is to stop any and all conversations that don't relate directly to work. A second step is to establish some boundaries -- what I will and won't do. A third step is probably to let Snotty know that when Snotty's snottiness ensues, it will not be tolerated. Say something like "I appreciate what you're saying, but you will not speak to me in that tone or manner." Finally, I'm going to let Avoidance McClure know of my plans, and ask for support.

What do you all think?

October 23, 2006

Annodized Pots Are Great

Last year, we were at Williams Sonoma and bought some mulling spices to be used as potpourri. The kind you put in a pan on the stove and simmer in some water -- makes the whole house smell all nice. After he killed a sauce pan last year, I figured the lesson had been learned. (He wanted to make the house smell nice before I got home from work, so he set the pan on the stove, cranked it up to 8, and walked the dog ... for 30 minutes.) Siyonara copper bottom sauce pan.

Well, the Major provided a variation on a theme this morning. After I finished my morning ritual, I was feeding the dog. That's when I noticed that one of the burners was on. It's roughly the same time I smelt burnt potpourri. The Major decided that he wanted happy smells in the house last night, so he put the pan on the stove (on low, this time) and filled it with water. However, I had already went to sleep, and he came to bed shortly thereafter. The good news is that the house didn't burn down AND we were using a calphalon pan. So, all I had to do was run the pan under some water and the baked-on caked-on was no more, and the pan was as good as new.

Of course, the Major is going to be strictly supervised while near the stove from now on. He obviously can't be trusted with potpourri. (Yes, dear. I love you too.)

It Came from Planet Claire

Up is down, and the sky is green.

It's a known fact that politicians lie, but this is Ridiculous. Come on! "Stay the Course" has become a catch phrase. It was used in opposition to the Democrats who never once said "cut and run."

W must be living in some Orwellian fantasy land if he thinks we don't remember him saying "stay the course" before.

October 19, 2006

Even More Cowbell

Here's another Evil Twin story to make you happy.

Shortly after the great car-napping, my brother decided he was going to up the ante. It was January of our Junior year of high school, and the foreign exchange student (that I stayed with in Costa Rica) was up on his half of the exchange program.

At about midnight, my brother decides that he wants to start a fire. He preps the fireplace, but it won't stay lit. Being the smart cookie he is, he went and got BBQ lighter fluid. Still no luck, no fire. Apparently not wanting to be outsmarted by the fireplace, he pulls in the big guns. That's right, the gasoline cannister for the lawn mower. He douses the logs and throws a match on the fire. With predictable results. It's truly amazing what will happen when you don't open the flue.

This caused the smoke detector to go off, which woke up my sister, mother and the exchange student. Me, I slept through it. It also burned all the hair off the front of his body. When he got home from kiddy jail 3 days later, his eyebrows had just started to grow back in. I bet he was a real big hit there.

Oh, and I had the extreme priviledge of explaining where my brother had gone to the foreign exchange student. In Spanish.

This Thread Needs More Cowbell

With the news enough to make a sane persons blood boil posted over at Neil's and Jen's , I've decided that the world needs a little more happy. Sure, that story is profoundly disturbing, and I'll probably make a post about it later, but I've decided to write a run-on sentence and post about something happy.

I went to Petco this afternoon to get dog food for the labradork, and I also ended up picking up some new toys for her. It makes me happy thinking of how she's going to get all excited about a new toy, and then I get to see her romping and being silly. I found this toy called a cuz, which they have loads of at the dog park that we take Roxy to and she loves those toys, so I bought one for her.

I got home and gave it to her, and she happily pranced around the house making it squeak. Awhile later, it was time for her walk. We walked downstairs and she got to her favorite spot. She did her business in record time, and rushed back to the elevator. I was a bit confused, until I opened the door to the condo. She ran to her new toy and she hasn't stopped playing with it since. Occasionally, she'll look out from the guest bedroom to make sure I'm still around, wag her tail at me, then squeak her cuz and disappear back into the bedroom.

Happy dogs are truly good for the soul.

squeak, squeak, squeak!

October 18, 2006

Redux -- II

Many tests were had at the doctor's office. Chest x-rays, spirographs, and some weird inhale the pretty smoke thing. The doctor was really disappointed I didn't have asthmal pnemonia. Seriously, he was very bummed out that I just have bronchitis. He even went as far to say that maybe the tests weren't just good efforts on my part. Hello?! How hard is it to blow into a tube? How can you fail that test?

I've been put on some pretty massive antibiotics, but none of the cool cough medicine, because I'm violently allergic to codeine. My boss has quarentined me to my house. He doesn't want me coming in at all if there's even the remotest chance I'll pass this along. You know, because he's like going on vacation 'n stuff. I wonder if he's going to pay for all this time off he's forcing me to take. It's not like I made the decision to stay home, I was told to stay home.

I'm going to go take some theraflu, an antibiotic, grab the puppy and kitty and curl up in the bed. There shall be much sleep and Voltron watching in my future today.

October 17, 2006

Evil Twin

As Jen and I have discovered, we both have evil twins. That's so cool. Also, I seem to know A LOT of twins. One of my closest friends from high school, lives in the DC area, and yep, she's a twin. When I was growing up, my next door neighbors were twins. The people who lived behind me? Yeah, they had twin sons. Both houses on the corner down the street? Twins, and twins. Five doors down in the other direction? You guessed it, twins too. And there were about 5 sets of twins at my high school. Must be something in the water in the greater Toledo area.

Look forward to some blogging about my evil twin brother. I'm looking forward to sharing the stories. And for those of you that have evil twins, share your stories too. Or share your evil family member stories if you don't have a twin. We've all got at least one crazy growing on the family tree.

NOTE: I tell stories about my brother as a way of dealing with it. My parents used to try to hide how disruptive he was -- you know the whole keep the family secrets thing. So, I'll respect any decisions to tell or not to tell.

APPETIZER: When we were 15, my brother stole mom's car for a joy ride. To meet a girl he met at the roller rink. He managed to drive the 25 miles to the other side of town, where upon he promptly backed the car up into a porch trying to parallel park. He then fled the scene of the crime and ended up hitting another car in the parking lot of a 7-11. Kiddy jailarity ensued. Probation ensued. Weekly visits with the parole officer ensued. No license until he was 18 ensued. And finally, a letter from my parents to the insurance company telling them that they would never let him drive one of their cars or try to insure him if they wished to keep their coverage ensued.

Guilt

I've been feeling really conflicted about my job lately. Part of me feels like I've been out sick too much lately, but then I realize that I've had some legitimate health concerns that need to be taken care of. [Yeah, I ended a sentence with a preposition: Bite me.] I probably wouldn't feel as guilty about this if we were given more than 5 sick days a year. Five days don't get you very far when you have chronic conditions like migraines and allergies. Heaven forbid you actually get sick with the flu, or do something really crazy like bust your neck.

Also, I've been really bored at work. As in I don't really have a lot to do, so I spend a lot of my time surfing the internet. I've asked for things to do, and haven't really received any direction -- although I do have a new project on tap. It's relatively interesting so far, and promises to get a bit more complicated. So, in summary, I feel guilty because I know I could be doing a lot more than what I'm doing now.

The cherry on top of this whole thing, is that my paycheck was laying on my desk when I got to work this morning. The envelope was thicker than normal, so I actually opened this one. [I usually don't open my checks, because they're really just paystubs from my direct deposit.] Turns out there's a letter in it from the CEO praising my work and telling me how much they appreciate me.

Oh, any that my base salary has been increased (by a semi-substantial amount.) I'm not complaining about getting a raise. So, maybe I shouldn't feel so guilty after all -- or maybe I should feel more guilty. Screw it. I'm going to go shopping.

Sickness Redux

I had my very first needle to the neck yesterday, and all in all, it wasn't that bad of an experience. It didn't hurt, per se, it was more of an uncomfortable thing, or a weird sensation type of thing. In terms of general health, I felt pretty off after the experience -- light headed, dizzy, nauseated, stiff and sore. In terms of my neck pain, it's been dramatically reduced. So, we'll call this one even.

I'm still fighting whatever this cold is off. I drug myself into work this morning, and upon speaking with me my boss said "I'd rather you be at home than here, because I don't want anyone else to get sick." So, I got sent home to bask in the relative comfort of my own cozy home.

I do have an appointment with the doctor at 2:30 today. I figured since it's been a week and I'm still coughing hard enough that I sometimes vomit, I should get a professional involved in the situation. More news to follow. Wish me luck, I'm hoping this is just a really bad cold and nothing else.

October 15, 2006

Pain in My Culo

I've been fighting off a nasty cold since Weds. and I have to report that it's winning. The constant coughing and snotting and draining has me totally over myself. On the plus side, the Tylenol Day and Night Severe Cold stuff is doing a good job of making me feel more or less human. On the negative, I haven't been able to take any of my muscle relaxants or pain killers because they'll interact with each other and cause the world to explode. So, I'm in a lot of pain.

Of course, as of Friday, I wouldn't have been allowed to take any of my neck meds. Part of the injection 'therapy' is that one is not allowed to take any NSIADs for 72 hours prior to the procedure. And, of course, one (if not both) of my meds fall under that category.

I'm hoping this needle to the neck thing will help with the pain, but I have to confess that I'm getting a little weirded out by it. I've been having thoughts and dreams of what could go wrong. Like, say, getting paralysed, or having permanent nerve damage. I'm sure that these are common worries, and I shouldn't be worried about it at all, but I can't help it.

I can already tell I'm going to be a real nutcase come Monday morning when it's supposed to happen. Hopefully, all will go well. At the very least I don't have to go to work. Power of positive thinking, power of positive thinking.

Watch: October

And rounding out the trifecta are things I'm watching on TV and DVD. For some reason I've been watching a lot of anime and cartoons lately, but they're good programs.

  • Howl's Moving Castle
  • Voltron: Blue Lion Collection
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 1)
  • Battlestar Galactica (Season 3 -- TV)
  • House (Season 3 -- TV)
  • Doctor Who (Season 2 -- TV)
  • Dead Like Me (TV)

I've got Charmed, Stargate SG-1, and Eden's Bowy on backlog, but I'll eventually get around to those. And the Major made me watch Lisa Lampanelli's stand up routine tonight. Oh. Sweet. Crassness. She has got one foul mouth on her -- for most of the show, my mouth was on the floor in shock that she said most of the things she said.

Play: October

If anyone's a gamer (or a gaymer, in the most crass, obnoxious, niche coining of a term I've read this year ... thanks for nothing ign.com), here's what I'm playing currently or will be shortly. Strap your controllers on and fire up the Playstation 2; it's a party.

  • Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
  • Tales of the Abyss
  • Final Fantasy XII
  • The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess

And games I've recently finished playing:

  • Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
  • Blade Dancer
  • Grandia III

Yes, I'm a huge RPG junkie -- and it's very nice of Major Man to tolerate my habits.

Read: October

This is what I'm getting myself into this month. You'll most likely notice a dearth of Literature in comparision with literature. But hey, I've got my MA in Spanish Literature, so I read all the capital L literature I'm going to for quite some time.

  • The Greatest Story Ever Sold (Author goes here)
  • Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erikson)
  • The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud)
  • Shaman's Apprentice and Forest Mage (Robin Hobb)
  • Spellbinder (Melanie Rawn)
  • State of Denial (Bob Woodward)
  • Druid's Sword (Sara Douglass)

Other books that I've recently read, and recommend:

  • La Silla del aguila (Carlos Fuentes)
  • House of Chains (Steven Erikson)
  • Ilium and Olympus (Dan Simmons)
  • The Troy Game (books 1-3) (Sara Douglass)
  • Black Order (James Rollins)

There's something to be said for having a long commute on the metro, no?


Who's the Bestest Ever?

Major Tejas did something I was completely unaware of. Something very nice. Something that made the AJs of the world very happy.

He went on e-bay, and got me a replacement battery for my laptop and it came in the mail on Friday evening. This is the awesome, because my old battery worked for about 30 minutes and then kaplutz.

Yaay for Major Texas.

October 11, 2006

It's Hard to Find Good Help

I called the PT office this morning to cancel my appointment tomorrow, because the love of my life has infected me with his heinous cold/coughing illness/whatever brand of icky that he has/had.

The salient points in that last sentence: cancel appointment, tomorrow.

I just got a call from the woman that I spoke with. It appears that she canceled the appointment I had on Oct. 5, and wasn't sure why she did that. So, she wanted to verify which appointment I wanted canceled.

It was all I could do not to say "Me. no. come. tomorrow. Me. sick. You. Get?"

*sigh* When you're coughing so hard your ass muscles are pulled, you don't need to deal with that. (Sorry, K. Jen -- I know I said I'd try to keep comments about the Greater Rear-opolitan Metro Area to a minimum, but I'm trying to keep a sense of humor about this.)

I'm off to medicate myself. You all play nicely.

October 10, 2006

Coarsening Discourse

Here at the G'porium, I strive to keep standards to a minimum and morality at low, low prices. Today's effort to achieve this end, is partially inspired by a comment I read on another blog. (I'm not sure if she knows that I periodically peek in on her site, and we only really commuicate in the comments section over at Neil's. So, I'm not going to mention the blog by name.)

AJ wants you to think of the best professor you ever had in college (i.e., the one that had the biggest impact on you -- the one that pushed you to be the best, challenged you, etc.) The next part of AJ's experiment is for you to say if they were liberal or conservative (I'm not talking merely Repub. vs. Dem., it's the whole nine yards.) Then consider the worst professor you ever had and then assess their liberality or conservatism.

Because we use only the highest quality scientfic methods here at the G'porium -- we shall naturally over-generalize the results and come to conclusions that are 100% specious true. Post your findings in the comments section.

And seriously, I think we should take time out of our days to thank and/or appreciate those educators in our lives that made us want to strive to be something better.

Sah-Nah-Sah, Sah-Nah-SAH!

Ladies and Gentlemen!:

Your TV is no longer your best friend. Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie have mended their rift and are about to get busy and film the 5th installment of The Simple Life. Something about them being camp counselors. (I wonder if they're working at a summer camp for future Porn Stars?)

Your TV will punish you if you tune it to E! in the upcoming months when this trash lands on prime time.

Strange Ads

I've been seeing these really strange ads on the metro lately. They're print ads for a cell service called Pingo. However, it took me a long time to figure this out based on how the ads are set up.

I've seen 3 different Pingo ads so far, and they all follow the same formula. For example:

PINGO

Pang in Phuket.

I've also seen one for Priyanka in Panjaka. I wondered why Pingo had ads up all over the metro in foreign languages, and thought it was really odd. It wasn't until I ran across the ad with Paolo that I figured out what they were doing, even if I'd never heard of the city in Brazil they were referencing.

Is it just me or is there a glaring problem with this ad campaign? I'm relatively educated, and can find just about every major country on a map, and I didn't get it. Me thinks they forgot to factor in that Americans don't know were Portland is on map, so figuring out that Phuket is the name of a city somewhere in Thailand (I had to google that) definately isn't going to happen. Then when you chose names like Priyanka -- well, it's not Betty or Sue, so it's not likely that your average Joe is going to figure out that's a person's name.

It's sad that Americans are that ignorant about the world. However, I'm thinking an ad campaign that uses names of people and cities that start with the letter "p" to go with the "p" in Pingo isn't such a great idea. Sure the alliteration is catchy, but I think most people are going to scratch their heads and think "Hum, what is this?"

UPDATE: A little yahoo research revealed that Pingo is a calling card comany. Presumably the only calling card you'll ever need again. I tried writing that last sentence using nothing but words that started with the letter "p" and it just didn't work.

The Name Game

I've been meaning to propose a game for everyone to play. In my recent escapades at work, I've ran into a nice gentleman named LaNile. We're not going to talk about how whoever came up with that name for their child needs to have their head checked. People name their kids stupid things on a fairly regular basis. (See: Bad Baby Names for lots of entertainment.)

Shortly after meeting him, a friend and I decided that we needed to rename ourselves using the pattern that LaNile's parents came up with. Take a body of water in Africa then add a "La" in front of it, and presto! new name. We quickly released that we only knew of Lake Victoria, the Congo River and the Nile River, so we expanded the game to include names of countries. I suppose we could have also used names of other geological formations.

I'm now LaChad, and my partner in crime is LaTanzania.

The rules are simple:

1) Boy or girl you start with the prefix "LA" (since obviously LaNile's parents didn't get that memo).
2) Pick a body of water, a country name, a place name, etc. in Africa
3) Put the 2 together.
4) If the second half of your name starts with a vowel ... say, Ivory Coast then you are L'Ivory Coast. (I had to put this in there for Neil, because he's nit-picky like that.)

Go forth and name yourselves. And share the results.

October 9, 2006

Not Gonna Make Nice

So. Very. Pissed.

Conservatives, consider this a kick upside your collective heads. It's time to wake up and realize that the Republican Party as you know it has morphed into the biggest lying bunch of corrupt scoundrels that has ever graced this once-great nation. I'm not saying it's wrong to be a conservative, nor am I mocking your political views. I am saying your Party in its current incarnation needs to go. Your leaders are rallying the wagons behind Mark Foley and trotting out all sorts of excuses for his behavior. In the face of evidence that many of the Republican Top Brass knew about Foley's behavior at least 10 months prior to the story coming out, they're playing a nice little game of cover our collective asses, deny everything, blame everyone else and my personal favorites -- blame Clinton and the Democrats knew about this before we did and leaked it to the press for poltical advantage.

Wake up! Wrong is wrong is wrong. The victims here are a) the pages b) the American people. Consider this: If a teacher were to have done what Mark Foley did, they would have been fired immediately, and full investigation would have been launched. Any school officials that were even implicated in having prior knowledge and not acting upon it would be out on their ears. These are children we're talking about people! And anyone that knew about this and sat on it deserves to be immediately removed from office. Period.

But the Republicans -- who control the House, the Senate, the Executive and the Judiciary -- have promised an investigation. Call me cynical, but I don't see anyone getting in any trouble at all over this. Remember when Bill Clinton got a blow job from another consenting adult? Remember all the investigations? Remember all the time and money spent on that? Where's your outrage over an illegal and non-consentual act? Where's your outrage over people trying to cover this up? If consentual sex (albeit gross and skeezy) between adults is immoral, then Foley's acts are certainly past immoral. You can't have it both ways.

This liberal is done. D-O-N-E. done with this load. And this liberal wants all you conservatives out there to stop making excuses for these scumbags. See past whatever smoke screen comes out in the latest talking point. I'm not asking you to become liberals -- I'm asking you to hold your party responsible, and guide them back to what your party should be instead of what it's become.

October 5, 2006

Name-a-wench

I need everyone's help in coming up with names for my 2 PT instructors.

The nice-one (who gives me massages ... but also puts me in Traction).

And the mean-one (who gives me exercises that hurt).

Any suggestions?

Bait 'N' Switch (PT, Part 3)

I'm not a morning person. Not even a little bit. So, it was with great unenthusiasm that I hauled myself out of bed at 6:00 this morning to make it to my PT appointment at 7:30. The dog was whining to be let out, and after I kick-started my morning with a nice jolt of nicotine, we were ready to walk the pup.

While I was getting ready, I realized I was really looking forward to the 30 minute massage part of my PT routine. The Evil-One (aka, the necksorcist, or as Neil calls her Mistress Domina) can give me all the nasty exercises she wants -- but I'm still getting a nice massage. I made peace with being up that early in the morning.

I get to the PT office and 10 minutes into the massage The Good-One (aka, the massager) pulls off her mask and reveals that she's really the Devil. There will be no 30 minute massage today. Instead, I'm going to put you on the traction machine for 15 minutes. Yes, the traction machine -- a vertiable modern day "rack." She strapped my head down, tightened the neck brace, activated the evil-machine-of-doom, and then walked out of the room while giving me the following warning:

Push this button if it gets to be too much. If you need anything, ring this bell. You'll be done in 15 minutes.

How am I supposed to "ring the bell" when I'm strapped into this machine?!? And I've seen one too many bad sci-fi movies to be comfortable with machines like this. These are the machines that black, hispanic, gay and the "ugly,""fat," best-girl friend characters get decapitated in/on.

But you know what: I kinda liked it. My neck felt awesome when it was all over. And I almost fell asleep a few times.

October 3, 2006

Spinning the UnSpinnable

I want to say I'm totally shocked and appalled by the whole Foley affair. And to some extent, that's true. I'm not shocked that Foley was on the Child Safety commission and helped sponsor that law to protect children from pedophiles. (That seems to be kind of par for the course for our politicians. You can pretty much bet that if they're on a committee to be doing X, Y, or Z that they will be caught commiting a crime that involves X, Y, or Z.)

When I first read about this on Friday (thanks, huffingtonpost!), I thought to myself "wow, another sleazy Republican has been caught up in scandal." With each passing day, the Foley thing just gets odder and odder. The inital story I read only said that he was IM'ing/e-mailing underage pages with sexually explicit content. Later, it came out that he was trolling for some young boy loving.

Yesterday, I found out that Hastert and other leaders had known about this for 10 months, yet nothing was done about it -- other than telling Foley to break all contacts with the page. The president of the alumni pages said that when he was a page 5 (FIVE!?!??!) years ago, all the Republican pages were warned about Foley. Obviously, someone knew about Foley, yet no one did anything to actually stop him. (Head on over to abc.com for a really comprehesive set of articles on the Foley thing.)

Now, today we learn he was having cybersex with a page during a vote. Boehner is blaming Hastert. The President says something lame about how this is just "disgusting." Where is the outrage? Where is the condemnation? Why are people like Rush Limbaugh saying the Democrats "leaked" this story close to the election for political advantage, but praise FOX News for sitting on the story for a year and refusing to air it? Why hasn't every bloody politician, pundit, and anyone else involved in this sorry mess officially condemned Foley in the strongest language possible and promised full, thorough and swift investigation? Come on people, quit trying to spin this to save face -- no one loves a pedophile, the damage is done. If you want to gain points with the Americans, condemn this man for the criminal that he is!

But, of course that's not going to happen. Because Hastert is involved and doesn't want to lose his job. Boehner too. Falwell et. al won't speak up on this because it'll make the Republicans look bad. They're all too worried about losing the election. Congratulations guys ... instead of having it be just Foley -- you've managed to drag yourselves down too.