Hot and bothered

I have this tendency to get worked up over small things.

Exhibit A for the prosecution: I’m going to a concert tomorrow (the only band playing I really care about is Anberlin, but I don’t want to miss Acceptance who’s playing also). Doors are at 6. Show starts at 6:30. We meet in the late afternoon, and head to the place around 5:30ish. Simple, right?

But then today the plans changed. I’m sure Brad thinks I was angry at him, but in reality, it was just that the plans I’d set out were changing. That, and the fact that I can’t stand being late to places (yeah, I’m one of those freaks who leaves my dorm like 1hr before class on the first day of the semester, just to make sure I can find the room…). But anyway, flashback to when I’m on the phone with Brad [paraphrased, “because my memory isn’t what it used to be”]:

In truth, I couldn’t care less if we miss the warm up bands, but I know I kept harping at Brad that we *had* to be there at 5:45 like we originally planned… Sorry buddy

Exhibit B: I work for the people that make a certain online community system happen. I noticed that on one of the BBoard threads, a lot of people had posted their email addresses and screennames in plaintext. Yes, this is the best way of getting people to see your contact info, but it also is the best way to have a ‘bot harvest your info, leading to massive amounts of spam (both email and IM spam). The same thing happened last year, and we dealt with it the same way I suggested this year - by editing the posts to remove the sensitive information and to include explanations of how to find people’s contact info in a ‘bot-safe location, and alerting the poster that their post had been edited.

I get this email back saying, essentially “screw you for messing with my data”, “why did a student employee do this?” and “how do I know you didn’t just do this for fun?” The email asked for proof from one of the higher-ups that I was authorized to do this (he asked for this person by name, even though he doesn’t work in this area of the department). I FLIPPED out. “Oh no, somebody hates me now”, “How can I make him like me again?”, “Why am I such a bad person?”, etc (yay for self-deprecation!). Again, it was just the small things - the chutzpah (definition for my non-Yiddish-speaking friends) this kid had to be pissed that I was *helping* him to not get spam. He didn’t trust me because I wasn’t a full-time staff person doing a menial task? If this kid goes to a restaurant, does he want the manager to take his order, cook his food, and deliver it back to the table?

Sheesh.

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