So, March comes around. Here I am thinking it's the new quarter of the year. New quarters mean attendance points start over. I had gone to bed too late and slept through my alarm. I called in after my shift started and said I was sick. That meant 8 points because it was an unexcused absence. If I had called before 7, it would have been recorded as "sick" and would only be 5 points. 15 results in a written warning. 3 written warnings in a quarter results in being fired in most cases. I had 2 last quarter. Skip forward a few weeks. I called in sick on a Monday and called in before 7. Only 5 points. 5+8=13=still okay.

Well, I walked the mile walk to work on Tuesday morning to be greeted with my boss holding a written warning for me that was given to him the day before. I looked at it and it said it was a 3rd one. It stated that I had 57 attendance points for the quarter and that my absences had created "undue hardship on (my) work area". It said I was being suspended for the week. After thinking about it I realized that March wasn't the start of the new quarter but the last month of the first quarter, meaning I was adding onto the points from back in January with my vacation day episode and whatnot. Great. My bad. I looked my boss in the eye and said, "Well, looks like I'm going to be creating some more undue hardship this week!"

I signed it and clocked out and walked back home. I was called by a lady at the office from Country Coach telling me that they were shutting down the plant for a week the next week, so I should report back to work the Monday after that. Yay. And I'm creating undue hardship? I'm not being there for the company? What about them being there for us? Oh, they are having troubles? Boo fucking hoo. What if I'm having troubles and can't come in? Oh, but that's not a good reason unless they are using it. It's shit like this that keeps me from taking my ridickless "punishment" seriously. First of all, it stemmed from them giving me points by rejecting my vacation day requests. Oh, is that going to make it better? Is that going to fix the problem of me being gone? No, I'm still gone that day. Plus I have one more vacation day to use in the same fashion. He doesn't like how I used my vacation day, so he gives me another chance to use it in the same way. Bright idea, Einstein!

Then, they make me take the rest of the week off. My absence causes the company difficulty, so they increase my absence, thereby causing the company more difficulty. THEN they give everyone the week off, hurting everyone. So wait, people not working is good for the company? What about when I was gone and the crew still got done what was needed? What was that? Hmm, maybe it was the company spending less money and getting the same output. And I'm punished for that? Okay, enough about that.

So I'm part of this forum. It used to be called RPGi, but we've made a new one called Castle Grayskull with a handful of the original members. Frammy, one of the admins, has been talking about making a new forum that has quality. praymojo420 (David), the other admin, suggested we make an online newspaper or e-zine and have articles and whatnot. Frammy liked the idea and decided we need to decide on a name so we can register a domain (.com). A topic was created for the name and discussion was promoted. We started talking about it and Liam said he liked the word "contrast". Frammy liked it and said we should think of names with that word in it. I came up with just "In Contrast" and Frammy liked it. He made a poll and had people vote on it. He ended up disliking the results and claimed the whole project was his original idea and he was taking control of it back and would name it what he wanted and proceeded to stay away for a while.

In his absence, Xion joined in. Xion is a very outspoken guy with a huge ego, love and skill for debating, and habit of belittling others. Only the well-known and bold members stand up to him. He comes and says we are going about the whole thing all wrong and instead of talking about something unimportant like a name, we should be concentrating on what will make up the content. I said that while I agree the name is usually not as important as what it represents, Frammy wanted to get a domain registered as soon as possible, and that required a name, and therefore a name took priority in this case. David backed me up on it. Frammy came back, told us that Xion was right, told us to "unhinge (our) egos", and closed the name discussion topic, forcing us to talk about the content of the site in the topic Xion created for it.

I had a bit of a grudge against Xion, but it was more because Frammy backed him up against me when I was doing what Frammy started and originally wanted. Also, I was supposed to be in charge of running the radio what would be on the site because I have a huge music collection, but Frammy and David suddenly claimed Liam to have a great taste in music and gave him the job. I just took that and dealt with it, but I can't say it didn't add a little to my negative feelings. Xion came and said he didn't like the idea of the radio. I began making snide remarks about Xion whenever I'd mention him. He was going to be the editor-in-chief of the articles that would be written, meaning he'd have to approve of them before they got posted. One example of a snide remark was that I didn't know if the radio would be used because Xion objected to it and he seemed to be the editor-in-chief of opinions about the new site.

He finally made mention of it, starting his post with "Careful, Idec. I'm liking the attitude I'm getting from your references to me less and less." Careful? He's telling me to be careful? He can't do anything to me. He said he was just trying to be part of the conversation. To be honest, however, I was being unfair. I was attacking him mainly because Frammy was siding with whatever he said. I apologized and made known the source of my frustration, but made clear that I wouldn't change what I said or be "careful" just because he didn't like my attitude.

Discussion went on as usual and we had many ideas. One of mine was to actually get some articles written and have them saved so we could have a buffer of content to put up as soon as the site was up and it would be a form of perceptible progress to keep us motivated. That, along with a few other things I suggested, were either ignored, or Xion said the same thing in much greater detail and people agreed with him. I was contributing to the thinking of and discussing ideas as much as anyone. Frammy was gone this whole time. I started messing with Xion in a playful manner and after a few times, he finally realized I was trying to create a fun atmosphere and was cool with it.

When Frammy finally came back, he said he liked some of the ideas thought of (mainly referring to Xion) and said we should get some content written ahead of time so we'll have stuff already done for when we get the site up. Sound familiar? Yeah, that's because I suggested exactly the same thing. As if that wasn't bad enough, Xion commended Frammy for his idea. I calmly posted the following: "Yeah, getting some content written ahead of time so we can have stuff to put on the site when it's up is a good idea. Good to see you guys agreeing with what I posted." That, of course, was ignored and Frammy just replied to Xion. Okay, I can tell when I'm not taken seriously, but I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm going to just keep going as if everything was fine. If they can do it, why can't I?