Saturday, May 1, 2010

Trust With My Life

As with everyone else, I have worked with my fair share of assholes and morons. Luckily for most of us, with the exception of the military, I do not need to trust these assholes and morons with my life. I only need to maintain a "professional" relationship with them so chit can get done and we all collect our paychecks at the end of the month, or bi-weekly, or weekly, or cash at the end of every day.

I used to know this one guy, who was in his early twenties, who would always want to be the driver whenever we go somewhere, because he didn't trust anyone with his life. He also insisted on sitting at the seat with his back against the wall whenever we went to a restaurant. No, he was not an immigrant from a war-torn country. Not as far as I know. Born and raised in US to the best of my knowledge. Well, perhaps he was from a bad neighborhood.

Back then I just thought he was a little strange, after all, his liking to drive and restaurant seating arrangement did not bother me that much. As I get older, I am starting to see his theory. Well, no, I don't think anyone will want to try to take me out in a restaurant, but I definitely would rather drive myself if I don't trust a person's driving -- same criteria insurance companies use -- single males in their early twenties. As much as I love you, guys, you just cannot gamble with my life.

Neutral

Once upon a time when I was young, innocent, and naive, I used to assume that everyone I met is a nice person, until proven otherwise. After way too many disappointments, I learned to withhold my judgment until the person has done something to convince me one way or another. Every new person I met starts with a neutral score of zero. Zero not as in on a scale from 0 to 10 and 10 being the highest, zero as in the point of origin (0,0) on a graph. I neither like nor dislike a person until he or she has convinced me of one way or another.

Religious fanatics - automatic 40 points deduction on their IQ chart. If I work with you, that's highly unprofessional, I do not need to know your religious viewpoint. If I do not work with you, our conversation ends right here, and hopefully I will never have to talk to you again. Amen.