Ugh..

What a god damn day it's been.

This morning I wake up after a nice 8 hours of sleep only to remember we still haven't replenished our coffee supply and that I'll need to make a quick stop at the store on the way to work to feed my dreadful caffeine addiction. If I don't have a good sized cup of coffee before about 11am then the rest of my day my head feels like it's being eaten by zombies and the pain doesn't subside until late in the evening. Needless to say, coffee is important. So I get dressed and do my usual morning routine and then at 8:25am I realize I forgot to move my car last night. I needed to move it because I parked in a spot that had street cleaning starting at 8am this morning. Monday nights are near impossible to find parking so I had planned on going out late and moving it when less people were around. Alas, I forgot. I run out to my car to see a lovely $35 ticket on my windshield. Nice.

I drive to work normally, with a bit of a sniffle and a brand new cough brewing in the back of my throat. I arrive to work on time after a brief stop to grab a cup of French Roast coffee from Ralph's. And then...

Ok I'm already tired of typing this, so here is the abridged version.

I taught 5 classes today and my kids were being annoying as hell. By mid-morning my small cough and sniffle had evolved into the plague. I feel like death, my throat is killing me, I'm coughing my lungs out, blowing my nose every second, and I'm really freaking tired. I get home ready to relax and dive into some animation only to get a 15 minute critique and half credit on the assignment I spent a million hours working on last week. Majority of the things he crit could have been addressed weeks ago but he either didn't mention them before this week or changed his mind, so now my motivation level to work on it is like nil. Then he critiques my planning for my next shot and doesn't want me to do it so I basically have to do it all over again. Awesome.

Not a terribly bad day, I just feel like shit and it's amplifying everything, turning me into a crabby old man.

Drivers Education - My Way.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read, "In the big picture, it really doesn't matter if I'm a good driver or not. Leave me alone."

Luckily this car was parked, or I would have been following them around watching and waiting (not very long) for them to undoubtedly pull off the terrible, irresponsible and dangerous driving maneuvers that so spawned this article. I wanted to leave a note on their car that read, "Hi, you are an idiot."

This made me think of all the things that make somebody a bad and dangerous driver, and here is the big picture as I view it:

If you switch lanes or turn and don't use your blinker, you are a moron.

That is the absolute truth.

If you are thinking to yourself, "I have years of driving experience, I've never used my blinker and I'm fine." Then congratulations, you have been an idiot for years and never knew it. I'm happy that I was able to help you learn something about yourself.

If you are thinking, "LOL BLINKER? THIS IS LOS ANGELES NOBODY USES THEIR BLINKER HERE." Then I hope you die.

So why does it even matter? Because every single turn you make without moving your hand THREE FUCKING INCHES to click on your blinker puts every single car around you in danger because they have NO IDEA what you're about to do and could potentially not see you SINCE YOU DIDN'T ALERT THEM. Sort of like when people don't put on their lights until it's completely dark out. "LOL I CAN SEE FINE I DON'T NEED MY LIGHTS." It's not for you you moron! It's so OTHER PEOPLE SEE YOUR CAR. If you are so lazy, and feel so entitled that you think you don't need to drive safely because you are too fucking cool then seriously I hope you get into an accident and get injured badly enough that you can never be behind the wheel again. If I were a judge I'd hand out the maximum fine and sentence for every single person who got a ticket involving not using a blinker. People in California seem to think their entitled to drive like mentally retarded people simply because the CHP has better things to do than bust people for not using a blinker. NEWSFLASH: YOU STILL NEED TO USE IT.

When you're sitting at a green light waiting to take a left but you can't turn yet because there is a car coming. Suddenly that car takes a right without his blinker on, and you are saying, "GOD DAMN IT I COULD HAVE TURNED 5 MINUTES AGO IF I WASN'T WAITING FOR YOUR ASS TO DRIVE BY THEN YOU DIDN'T EVEN DRIVE BY YOU TURNED YOU FUCKER."

Or when you are almost hit by a car speeding up behind you who decides to switch lanes without blinkering at the same time you are switching WITH your blinker on, and then they give you a dirty look. Are you fucking kidding me? Where did you get your license, Ebay?

I won't even get into the guys driving their busted pickup trucks 80mph with refrigerators and lawn mowers tied into the gate-less truck bed by 5lb. twine.

I feel bad for people who grew up here in L.A. and have no experience with real driving. If you grow up driving here and then travel ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE COUNTRY you are going to be so eff'd. Places where you get a $100 ticket for not using your blinker, or places where they actually use the algorithm for calculating speeding ticket costs. i.e. $50 starting fee, plus $10 for every MPH over the speed limit you are.

Anyway, don't drive like a moron. I have no intention of getting off my high horse on this one, and I'll be wiping my ass with any argument you conjure up because IN THE BIG PICTURE...it's illegal, dangerous, and I win.

There comes a time in a man's life..

Work Ethic. Diligence. Integrity. Perseverance.

What are these things?

They are moral values that build character and make you a good and strong person. If you suck at life, it's a good chance you are missing at least one of the above, most likely all 4. You can't be given these things, they have to be learned, earned, taught and gained through life experience(s).

People without work ethic piss me off. You are not entitled to the things you have, they need to be earned. I don't give a shit what you've done in the past or who your daddy is, or how miserable your childhood was. If you suck at your job because you feel entitled to laziness and giving a lackluster performance then you are a waste of space. I'd rather work twice as hard and do the job myself than be stuck with people who don't know the meaning of a hard day's work. (i.e. 99.9999% of Californians).

People who aren't diligent piss me off. Oh my god! Something is difficult?! You're kidding! You mean.....*gasp* I'm not entitled to just be given everything in life? I actually have to work hard and put forth effort to obtain things? So you are actually saying that in order to be successful in life I actually need to do more than complain that society hasn't given me everything already? I actually have to put forth monumental levels of effort? No, say it ain't so! Yeah. If you happen to have missed the dripping sarcasm in this paragraph, I feel sorry for you.

I love ranting. I need to do it more often. There is so much shit that pisses me off that I have no control over. Like for instance the overwhelming abundance of morons surrounding me constantly. And people who don't know how to drive even though California has some of the toughest laws in place to prevent idiots from obtaining a drivers license, yet they have the fucking worst drivers in history. GAH!

If you are my friend then you are most likely not who I'm complaining about, so don't worry. But if you are around me and start hippy bitching about the system bringing you down because you would rather smoke pot than get a job and actually benefit the world somehow, I'm going to go super-saiyan and bust some heads.