Well, they may have the ventilation issues fixed. People were over in the building yesterday, randomly throwing switches and banging on things, and it's cooler now.

And, at any rate, it's cooler outside. It's supposed to be 20 degrees cooler today than it was yesterday - which is still slightly above what it's supposed to be, but at least you don't feel like you're going to pass out when you walk around outside.

It was hard for me to settle down and work on anything last night - partly I was just so tired, partly because of various other things (meetings and transfer day) I didn't get home "for good" until later than normal. I did work some on the Cascading Leaf sock, and added a few rows to the bottom band of Samus.

I also was thinking - because of two incidents yesterday, one in which I was involved, and one I observed at the local Megalomart, I wonder if maybe people are losing their sense of correct prioritization in their dealing with people.

The first incident I will not recount (but there is one individual who reads this blog from time to time who knows it as I e-mailed her in frustration after it happened) because it involves a student and I don't like to paint the students in too bad of a light.

The second incident I was a witness to. It happened at the local Megalomart (or Mart of Wal, if you prefer). A woman was checking out, holding a cheery conversation on her cell phone, but alternating that with verbally abusing the checker (who was having trouble with her machine; it wasn't that the checker was incompetent in any way - it was an equipment malfunction.)

And I thought of my personal Rules of Engagement:

1. A true emergency (where risk of life or limb, and POSSIBLY risk of data is involved) takes precedence over the other cases.

in non-emergency situations:

2. The person I am talking to AT THE MOMENT takes precedence over the person who has just shown up. I will expedite my working with the first person so I can help the second, or will try to find a lull in working with the first so I can acknowledge the second.

3. Work-type business takes precedence over fun-type business. If I'm shooting the breeze with a colleague, and a student shows up, I can cut the conversation off to help the student.

4. If there are students lined up, I help them in order. People just have to wait.

5. The person who is RIGHT THERE takes precedence - always - over the phone or the internet. If the phone rings, I'll let it go to voice mail unless the person asks me to go ahead and answer. If I get incoming e-mail, it waits.

6. If I am being waited on by someone (waiter, checker, store clerk), talking to that person and giving them my attention is more important than giving my attention to the person I am with.

Rule 6 was the one I saw being violated yesterday. (Well, also the "Waiter Rule*")

And I got to thinking: If I ever became Supreme Dictator (Dictatrix?) of this nation, I wouldn't impose that many picky and capricious rules (although I'd argue that being able to impose picky and capricious rules is the fun of being Dictatrix). But I would impose one:

If you insist on speaking on a cell phone while in a store, when it comes time for you to check out, you have two choices: End the conversation before getting in line, or go wait in a "holding pen" until you have finished your conversation.

I do not know why it bothers me so much to see people gabbing away on a cell phone while waving their hands dismissively and imperiously at the checkout people, but it does. (And it also slows up checking out for those of us who prefer to focus on one task at a time.)

(*The "Waiter Rule" - I knew this mostly as a dating rule, as in, if the guy you're out with is nice to you but rude and condescending and mean to the waiter, he doesn't deserve a second date, but it's also recently apparently become a business rule, as in, if a job candidate treats anyone in the service industry with contempt, he or she is not worthy of the job and should not get it. It's a good rule for life. I tend to be very suspicious of people who are nice to those they regard as their "equals" and contemptuous of those they regard as their "inferiors." Because, you know, America is supposed to be an egalitarian nation and there really aren't supposed to be "inferiors." And I see this SO egregiously at the Mart of Wal, particularly, I'm sad to say, among women my age or close to it, in the way they treat the cashiers. Just because they're waiting on you doesn't mean they're your servant, and even if they were your servant, you shouldn't treat SERVANTS the way you're treating the cashier.)


Incidentally, another rule were I Dictatrix: If you are verbally abusive to someone in the service industry, they get a week of paid vacation. And during that week, you must do their job. For free. (In other words: the money they would make goes to them, not to you, but you do their work.)

and another rule: if you permit your garbage to blow into your neighbor's yards, not only do you have to clean it up, you get 100 hours community service cleaning up trash off the highway. That's another thing I'm having trouble with right now. I have some neighbors down at the end of the block who can't seem to grasp the concept that leaving full trash bags on the ground (especially trash bags containing the remnants of KFC) is an open invitation to the local dogs to rip them open and let everything blow in the wind. And it's just flat unpleasant, on a 100* day, to arrive home, tired and ready to just SIT, and have to pick someone else's leavings out of your yard.