Giant Dancing Inflatable Kangaroo

Last night, myself and four friends, all male, went to the Overture Center in Madison WI to see 'The Australian Pink Floyd Show'. Now, I'm a fan of Pink Floyd and going in to this I was a bit skeptical. I was ready for this to suck. Four things made the night not suck.

Firstly, the friends are a pleasure to spend time with. This did not suck. Secondly, the band was technically talented and nailed some very difficult Floyd, specifically, Great Gig In The Sky, One of These Days, and Money. Thirdly, I think during One of These Days, there was this huge (20 feet tall) blow up kangaroo that, I swear, was dancing. Once I started laughing at this I could not stop. It's nice when you go to a show and you see something you haven't seen before.

Fourthly, there was this woman in our row with a vast and tightly clad chest. She danced, she clapped, she ran, she jumped. This became extremely funny in the later parts of the show because you could see this entire row of guys heads turned ninety degrees to the right to watch this woman. I have to wonder if the band was thinking, 'What the hell's the bloody deal with the third row?' I think it was Tall G (not his real name) who said that looking at her was like some kind of drug. Or like a drug and a car accident mixed together. It was hard not to look, but then again, why try not to look? As a heterosexual, I must admit, fully ashamed of my humanity, that I do like to look at good looking women. There. I wrote it. Now I'm going to go to hell.

Thank God I'm an atheist and don't believe in Hell.

Pick Good Friends

So, I fired this guy Friday. There was a moment in time, a division between him not knowing he would be fired and him knowing he was fired, that pains me. I know, I know, it pained him more. I'm sure. His life changed radically in a moment, and I saw the thunderbolt register on his very controlled features. He was a nice guy, polite in the extreme, professional; all of which made it more stomach churningly awful. He was not good at the job and he had been told improvement was necessary. Improvement was not forthcoming. Hence, Friday. Some well meaning folks said that he must have known it was coming, but I disagree. I saw his face in the moment of recognition.

So. My brain is now frothing with rationalizations. It needed to be done. It's for the better. People are strong, he'll be fine. He was not good at the job. Period. He was not going to get better at the job.

Then my brain settled on this: any of my friends, if they were unexpectedly fired, would do just fine in this situation. They would be shocked, they would move on. They would excel. Ahhhhhh... The glory of picking only the finest of people as friends. So, it follows that if No Job is a person of quality, then he will do fine. If he is not a person of quality, well, why would I wish him to be employed by my company?