But you know what *didn't* end AIDS? The approach we took. We now have millions of people infected with a disease that is being held in check with drugs. And now, look, oh goodie....Drug-resistant HIV is emerging, because people are idiots.
It's not just the fact that some people will stop taking the drugs that keep their HIV under control, for whatever reason; it's that the ability to control the effects of the disease have made people just as complacent as they were before HIV became prevalent. No one worries about it, because it can be controlled.
--which is to say that the a-number-one risk group, homosexual men (that category includes "'heterosexual' men who have sex with men", by the way) don't seem particularly worried about being infected, and some subset of that group actively courts it.
Stupid, yes. But the disease is as big a problem as it is because we acted stupidly after discovering it. We close down a hot dog stand if someone gets sick after eating there, but the gay sex clubs and bathhouses in the cities weren't even after we discovered they were how and why HIV/AIDS spread through the gay population so quickly.
Water under the bridge, I guess. If an airborne strain evolves, though, you can expect the kid glove treatment to end posthaste.
* * *
Mr. President Trump, please get government out of the way of private industry. NOAA doesn't like people muscling in on its bailiwick, and you must have a permit to launch a camera into orbit.
Government flexing its muscles because it can. Shut it down.
* * *
Man, today was another slow Saturday. I spent most of it reading Order of the Stick (start here) because there were absolutely no incoming contacts for hours. I didn't even count them as I normally would.
It was nice and quiet, though, particularly since the guy who is usually there on Saturdays was not. Call him "Sam"; he's been there for 14 years and all he ever does is complain about just about everything about the job there.
Okay: they started a new call center in Fort Meyers FL for retailer and consumer calls. Occasionally they take other calls too. "Sam" complains about it, and carps and kvetches, especially whenever one of the Fort Meyers crew asks for help in the chat room. "Why can't their supervisors help them?"
He complains that he can't write too much about it in emails to management for fear of someone higher up saying, "Well, that's a nice letter of resignation you gave us, have a nice life." And then of course he won't get severance or unemployment! "They have us over a barrel, and they know it!" He complains, several times a week.
On Monday, when I got permission to leave half an hour early? I hit the can before leaving, and when I got back he was complaining about me leaving half an hour early. He was trying to make it sound general, but of course it's kind of hard to apply that to his main bugaboo (Fort Meyers) when it was so obviously about me.
My patience for his nonsense has worn thin. At this point, every time he winds up I want to tell him to STFU because at least if they were to downsize him he would get a severance package, which is more than I--as a contractor--could expect. And before they cut him they'd cut me, because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to lay me off than anyone who actually works for the company itself.
And around all this worry about losing his job, he also talks in glowing terms about how he's going to go to the west coast to be with his daughter when his employment ends, however it may happen.
Asshat, you have a nice, cushy job where the biggest assholes you have to deal with are impatient people from warehouses who need to get technical problems fixed soonest so they can get their work done and go home. You get to leave the office when your shift is over; they don't get to leave until the trucks are all done. You might want to bear that in mind when you're complaining about someone's attitude. And, meanwhile, look in the fricking mirror and consider the old saw about the pot and the kettle.
That penis wouldn't last ten minutes doing my last job, if he gets all offended when someone says "boo" to him. Holy shit.
So, yeah--hardest part of the job, for me, is dealing with an asinine coworker, which is par for the course in any job. And the irony is not lost on me that this guy's asininity is (at least so far) considerably less intense than some of the stupidity I put up with at the last place.
But damn--just relax and be thankful for your job, douchebag, because jobs like this one are few and far between. That's what I'm doing; I'm enjoying the hell out of it precisely because my last few jobs were so difficult, one way or another. Relax, worry about how you're doing your own work, and quit being such a pain in the ass. Really.
It'd be nice if they moved him one row over and got him out of mine, though, and have him sit next to the woman he commiserates with.
* * *
Well, it's Saturday night, and I can relax. Hooray!
