2004-11-29 - 7:17 p.m.

back to work, back to co-worker trashing

By the way - I'm not mad at Midge. At all. I was super super hypersensitive at that moment and although I do still think it was kind of rude, I also know it wasn't her intention to be rude at all, and if she knew it bothered me a bit, she would have apologized all the next day. Which is one reason I wouldn�t dare let her know it bothered me, because, please - leave me alone and let me do my work. And I don't think there's a mean bone in her body. There are, however, a good number of "flake" genes.

Hey, I never said there wasn't a mean bone in my body.

She says to me this morning: "For windows whatever the latest version is, there's that code thing you have to enter when you install, right?" Right. "Is that one code just for the one computer?" Yeah. Those of you out there who may know how to hack around that - whatever. I'm not getting into that with someone when I'm not prepared to go to their house and get my own hands on their machine. So, right, one code, one computer. She says, "Great, then I'm screwed." She's got a corrupted something and a bad the other, and tech support told her she pretty much needed to re-install (which is what tech support often says, for much the same reasons I'm not going to get into code-hacking: there might be another way, but it's way too complicated to explain and might not work anyway).

Her problem is that she bought the computer from the place we work. Sometimes when they're replacing hardware, they sell the old stuff to employees at a big discount. Well, it came with Windows installed, and she says they didn't give her the CD. Which if that's true - just wrong. She should own that copy of Windows and she should own the code. Unless... possibly... remember that hacking around thing? Maybe she doesn't own her own copy of Windows... which also - just wrong.

Ah well. I told her she should ask the folks in our IS department. She'll ask them innocently what they can do. If they've done anything "odd" with the systems the company sells employees, they'll know, and they'll fix it so their cover won't be blown. If they haven't, then they can do something to get her the code she should have.

It's annoying but nothing I'm going to get all militant about. If I were going to get all upset over things that are being done, but not to me, I'd get all righteously indignant over the way MH refers to Midge by her nationality all the time. That bugs me. I guess it's "okay" because she's from a country that most people would think of as interesting and exotic. Maybe MH wouldn't do it otherwise. But it just bugs me. If you worked with someone from Spain, would you constantly refer to her as "our Spanish girl" and "the Spanish one" and ask her to invoke her "Spanish weather gods" and say "don�t they have _____ in Spain?" Once again - is it me? Or is that just really insulting?

Midge doesn't seem to be insulted in the least. She laughs at the fact that it took MH and Betty three months to learn to pronounce her name without stumbling (it isn't really Midge - shock!) and she laughs when people make fun of her accent. Yes. They really do. I don't think it's an act, I think it really doesn't bother Midge. Boy, it would bother me. But then she is a bit flaky, and I am a bit touchy.

MH doesn't see it as the least bit offensive. That stuns me. But I know if she thought it was the least bit bothersome to Midge, she'd stop. She wouldn't get why, but she'd stop. These people though. This area is so non-diverse. So homogenized. The fact that we have "a little Spanish girl" in the department is such a cause for comment. The fact that anyone is the slightest bit different is a cause for comment.

Good thing I'm so much better than everyone else, isn't it?

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -