Oh my.

I missed a whole slew of relevant stuff in the past week or so, starting with this:

Nicco Mele, the CEO at my old company, EchoDitto, recently posted this gem on his blog:

I have long admired Sen. McCain’s work on campaign finance reform and his independent streak. If Sen. McCain runs for president, he’s got my support.
…
I like Sen. McCain — I think he should be president!

Let me just say this. Nicco, who was one of the driving forces behind uber-liberal Howard Dean's internet campaign, is supporting a GOP candidate.

What the hell is this world coming to?

Not just "Oh, well, he's a moderate GOP candidate and bats for the Democrats frequently." No, McCain (who I embarrassingly admit that I once drunkenly said he might be a good alternative if the Dems didn't get their act together for the '08 election and regretted it the moment I said it), should NOT considered to be a progressive, green, Dean supporter's first choice for a presidential candidate. Good god. Especially one who is the CEO of a dedicatedly progressive political/internet consulting firm.

It's like he's giving the finger to the company's core values… because as I remember, when I first started back in June 2005, the issue on the table was whether to boycott Convio because they had recently adopted "Alliance for Marriage" as a client - which is considered to be an anti-gay foundation. But barely a year later, here's our CEO advocating McCain, who SUPPORTS a gay marriage BAN in his home state. Hypocrite, anyone?

Just because McCain is behind campaign finance reform (one of EchoDitto's passions) doesn't mean he's really a Democrat in elephant clothing. He's still the one who supports Bush's foreign policy. He thinks we should send MORE troops to Iraq. Blah blah blah. This guy does not even remotely represent EchoDitto's values, and Nicco should know better than to piss all over them by supporting McCain… because it sure as hell isn't going to help ED gain new clients.

I once saw a bumper sticker in 2004 that said "Someone else for President." I agreed with that to some degree, because at the time ANYONE would be an upgrade from Bush. But now it's not to the point of where I'm going to vote for someone because they match only some of my values but have a 60% chance of winning the presidency. If people want their elected officials to represent the values they stand for, they should not go for someone who's going to balance on the fictitious partisan fence. But that's another story…

I never wanted to blog about this, but a certain incident has now occurred two times and is now worth posting. Every day, I bring the following items for snack/lunch/snack at work (or a slight variation thereof): applesauce, yogurt, carrot sticks, pretzels, Diet Coke/Pepsi (whatever's on sale), and two gala apples. Sometimes the yogurt is replaced by leftovers or a sandwich or what have you. But the one item that I never fail to bring is my cherished mid-day caffeine boost (aka diet cola).

I should mention that EchoDitto is currently renting office space downtown, so we share this huge floor with whole bunch of other companies/individuals/loud people.

A few weeks ago, on an ordinary Thursday afternoon, I went to the "Village Green" (gag) fridge to get my lunch. I grabbed my yogurt and carrots, but left the soda behind. About 20 minutes later, I returned to find my Diet Pepsi missing. Okayyy… I just saw it 20 minutes ago when I got my lunch. Did it grow legs and walk off? No. Did someone move it from the spacious door shelf to another part of the fridge? No. My can of cola had been pilfered.

I was livid. It would have been one thing if there were 20 other cans of cola sitting in the fridge and I wouldn't have noticed if someone had accidentally taken my Pepsi and left their Coke, but no, there was only one other lonely can of regular Coca-cola. What the hell? We share this office space with what feels like hundreds of other people, and someone had to decide to be cheap and take my Pepsi rather than put $0.75 in the soda machine 2 feet away.

Always being one to make a statement, I scribbled the following message on a post-it note and stuck it to the fridge door: "To the person who took my can of Diet Pepsi: GET YOUR OWN!" It stayed up for a few hours before one of the Regus Nazis (office space leasers) took it down.

Anyway, a few weeks passed and there was no further soda larceny. Until today. I went to the fridge and found that the can of Diet Pepsi I had placed there a few hours before had gone missing. Again. Fortunately, I had an extra can from Monday that I forgot to drink and imbibed that instead. Still, this makes me think: Why the hell would someone want to take my soda, other than the fact they forgot to bring change for the machine? Are people that desperate for caffeine? Or are they just idiots that don't realize that the can of Pepsi they took from the fridge really belonged to someone else? That, or they're just delusional and thought it was up for grabs.

From now on, I fear I'm going to have to write my name on every can I put in that fridge. Either that, I'll have to suck it up and drink it at room temperature.

Totally hot… no, more like "totally possessed."

I'm a bad blogger, I know. Three weeks without any sort of update - you may as well think I'm dead, right? Well, I'm very much alive, thankyouverymuch. A little zombie-like at the moment, as I stayed up late watching I, Robot, but otherwise doing just fine.

Anyyyyyway. I'm going to do a shameless promotion of EchoDitto's newest site, known as SinceSlicedBread.com. (Or, "How to win $100,000* by helping the working world!")

Basically, the rules are as follows: in 175 words or less, come up with an idea to help bolster the economy, create new jobs, and generally make the U.S. a better place. Any Joe Schmoe can send in his/her idea - you don't have to be a Nobel prize winner to come up with a winning idea. As long as you're a legal (21+ year old) resident of the U.S., you can enter as many ideas as your heart desires.

So… what are you waiting for? Get crackin'!

*courtesy of the Service Employees International Union

About 10 minutes ago, I had a mini heart attack as the fire alarm went off in the office. Having not been subject to the screaming wail of a pulled fire alarm for about 4 months (last time was at school - some schmuck pulled the Hansen fire alarm at 3 AM), it definitely wasn't music to my ears.

Anyway, after several of us picked ourselves off the floor, we looked around confusedly. "Um… now what? Oh yeah, go outside." We do what's natural - pick up our laptops, and scurry down the stairs. I, being the smart one, left the important stuff like my wallet, sunglasses, and cell phone behind. Duh.

To our delight, we were still able to access the WiFi in our office from the parking lot:

Notice my squinty look from lack of eye protection.

Fortunately, the fire department arrived 15 minutes later, the building did not burn down, and we trudged back upstairs when they gave us the all-clear.

Just another day…