Ants are Awesome

I came home from something Saturday morning and found a huge pile of ants on the sidewalk in front of my house. Upon closer inspection, they were mauling a half an oreo that someone had dropped there. I went inside, and came out a couple hours later to find the oreo chewed up a bit, but completely deserted. I left and came back again, and the ants were back to work, as if they had stopped for a little siesta.

I kept an eye on it for a few days, and this pattern continued. The ants would make the journey from their hole about 15 feet away, grab a chunk of oreo, and walk back, then take a lunch break... possibly to greedily huddle in their own secluded corner of the colony and eat their harvest.

The final result?


Completely destroyed. You can't even tell that it used to be an oreo. Pretty amazing, huh? I mean, sure ants are annoying when they bite you, but think how sweet it is that they could cause such catastrophic destruction to this poor, helpless oreo. I can't help but wonder what it might have looked like if I was their size. I have to believe that it's somewhat analogous to witnessing Godzilla and Rodan completely level a city, as shown in my artist's depiction:

My Job Rocks.

I was thinking not long ago about how awesome my job is. It is the sole anchor in the grease fire that is my life. Seriously, I think it might be the only thing keeping me sane lately. What about it is so special?

• It makes me think. Seriously, there are some mornings where I sit there and just ponder for a few hours the obstacles that stand in my way. I think, "What's the best way to password-protect this?" or "Why isn't it finding all the records it's supposed to find?"
  
  
• It lets me be creative. Part of the fun is that it isn't just writing scripts, but finding pretty ways to display the information. Everyone in the back will get all irritable if I make something that isn't easy on the eyes.
  
  
• No customers. When I worked at U-Haul last year, everyday I would die a little inside whenever someone pulled into the parking lot. I knew it wasn't a given that some sort of fight would break out, but it was very, very likely. Now, I just hang out in my cubicle and listen to my radio. Alone. Every once in a while someone will come and ask me to do a favor, or I'll talk to the other IT guys for a bit, but there are certainly no customers that want to complain about how their truck ran and demand a refund.
  
  
• I essentially work whenever I want. I'm instructed to get 15-20 hours a week, and as long as I do that, and get my projects done, no one cares when I'm there. I have a meeting every Friday from 10-12ish to discuss my week's work, but I can even miss that if necessary. What, you need a ride somewhere at 9:30 in the morning? Sure, I can be late to work. No one cares. Oh, we're going to play roller hockey at 2:00? Yeah, I'll just take off for a few hours and come back. I've ditched entire days to go snowboard.
  
  
• My boss is rad. As for the aforementioned snowboaring excursion, I poked my head in my boss's office on Tuesday morning and said, "Hey Todd, I'm going snowboarding. I'll be back Friday." His response? "Excellent, have a great time!" And I left. Granted, it was Spring Break, and he expected me to miss a couple days, but I didn't have to negotiate at all. Shoot, I probably could have gotten away with not saying anything and just not showing up.
  
  Even when I'm not ditching work, he's great to work with. He adds things to my to-do list, I have him explain things to me if necessary, then I go back to my cubicle and he doesn't bother me. If I make progress on my list, then he feels no need to micromanage.
  
  
• Really, though... No customers. Theoretically, I HAVE customers, but it's not the same as Harkins, which made me hate humanity as a whole. You know what? I was a real jerk when I was 16, now that I read that thing. That actually gives me hope that I'm progessing in my compassion and patience. .....Anyway, every customer service job I've had has taught me that customers are generally very angry, impatient people, just like I apparently was when I was 16, and at Able I don't deal with that.
  
  
• I can actually put it on a resume. The bus yard was a circus everyday, but, really, is that going to impress anyone in a job interview when I graduate? Which leads me to possibly the best thing about my job...
  
  
• It's kept me in school. A year ago at this time I was struggling with my future. Should I stick with computer science? Maybe being an auto mechanic would be a lot better? No, I'm in by far the worst semester I've ever seen, but having a job in the field that I love going to everyday makes me realize that this is definitely the path for me to be on.
  

I apologize if your job isn't as sweet as mine. Take comfort in the fact that it's the only thing I've got going for me these days that's sweet.

A Riddle

If you go on a road trip, and your back seat doesn't look like this when you're done, did the trip actually happen?