The Day I Saw The Sky

This is the first time in a long while that I saw some form of sunlight. My days at the Apple Store are long and start on rainy mornings. When I emerge from the artificial environs of the mall, the sun has usually gone to bed for the evening. But tonight, I tricked dear old mother nature; caught her off guard. I quietly signaled to my boss that I was going home early and by some small miracle I saw the sun. Well not really. I saw the sky. It was a cloudy platinum color. But I felt alive this evening having witnessed it. Hell, Terry Schiavo probably felt more alive than I do on most days.

This Apple Store is not a beautiful dwelling. It is encased in an ugly mall with walls and no windows. This mall seems a modern day version of, Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle. Standing all day on hard concrete floors with no fresh air and my God, no god-damn windows. The buzzing fluorescent drone is my lifeline to death. It is my belief that Apple's gorgeous flagship stores, like the one in NYC or San Francisco are designed to lure us ignorant, yet zealous blokes into joining the ranks. Once we're in, they send us to less extravagant locales, like Cleveland or Buffalo.

I work at the Genius Bar at the store. Genius Bar is a euphemism for Tech-Support Schlepper. Calling us Genii is a patronizing term which gives people permission to walk all over us, all-the-while complimenting us. This is akin to women in the LDS church. Mormon women, ever hear the self-deprecating expression by fat white LDS (republican of course) men: "men need the priesthood to be equal to their wives"? But I digress.

It is frustrating to see the free help bar, originally intended for Mac users, misused by the mindless throng of iPod users. iPods seem to be a double-edged sword to Apple. It's brought a ton of cash into the company and lots of foot-traffic into the Apple Stores, but iPod users are commodity shoppers. They're mostly the mindless, faceless crowd that view technology in a utilitarian fashion similar to their toasters and DVD players. Macintosh customers, by contrast, are a different breed. They recognize that Apple Computer is a corporation with a heart. Perhaps the only corporation with heart. Not just with cool looking products but products that facilitate the creative process. iPod mother-fuckers don't get this. The hope is, I guess, that some of them will catch on and see the beauty and vision of Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak, but the reality is that most will just keep fucking up their iPods and expect white glove service.

On a positive note, the job really isn't all that bad. Reasonably friendly coworkers don't get to involved with my business and I reciprocate. I feel like Vincent in the film GATTACA. Just show up for work, do your thing well, and go home. All for a more ambitious goal in mind. Mon Dieu! Que J'etais ange! It is fun to work with people who get orgasmically excited about the newest Apple product releases too!

My capitalist bug of yesteryear is dead I think. Happily, my savings are piling up and I have zero desire to spend a cent. I don't know if it's my desire to not contribute to the economy while the Bush dynasty is in power or if I'm just sick of the shopping orgy that America is.

I met an interesting person at work who loves astrology. He's a dark personality but he asked me when I was born and was surprised to find out that I was an Aries-Taurus cusp. He said it explained a lot of things about my personality whatever that means. My friend Beatrice would love this guy (with blue bangs).