The Morning After: Pretty. Odd. By Panic at the Disco

Title: Pretty Odd.
Artist: Panic at the Disco
Review: So I picked up Panic (sans the exclamation point) at the Disco's new Album Pretty. Odd. (periods required). Being a fan of Panic's first album A Fever You Can't Sweat out, I figured the new album would be more of the same. Now let it be known, I typically do not buy Album on the day they are released. I fully believe in waiting until i know I'm going to like an album before i buy it, typically that means i like at least 2 songs off it. Some Bands, however, i assume i will like because i liked there previous album. Thats what happened here, but i digress.

Pretty. Odd. basically sums up what i thought on the first run through of this album. It was not at all what i expected from the Panic boys. That doesn't mean it was bad it was just very different from Fever. Gone are the verbose song titles which i both loved and hated. They were a pain to talk about, but there is something poetic about naming a song "The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage." Also gone is the guyliner and the hard rock sounds that i loved in songs like Camisado and London Beckons. It's been replaced by softer more melodic sound. Many music critics are comparing this album to the Beatles Sgt. Pepper and while i have never heard the Sgt. Pepper album, i can hear the Beatles in Pretty. Odd. For anyone who loved the fast-paced heavy drum beat induced sound of A Fever you Can't Sweat out, I'm not sure your going to love Pretty. Odd. But if your a fan of the band the CD is worth picking up. Sure, it's more Beatles than FallOut Boy, but thats not a bad thing. The band has matured and with that so has their sound. Just be prepared to hear something very different than what you were used to from the Panic Boys.


Songs to Download: Nine in the Afternoon, Pas De Cheval, That Green Gentleman

Songs to Skip: She Had The World, Behind the Sea, Mad as Rabbits

Grade: B-

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Top Ten Reasons It Sucks To Work in Customer Service

So we've all had to do it at one point in time or another: work in customer service. If you are one of the few lucky people who have never had a job in customer service, well i have to wonder how you ended up reading my blog. Even if you are one of those lucky ones chances are you've been to a store and had to deal with some of this crap. So the Definitive list of the top ten things that suck about working in customer service.

10. Scams- we've all seen them. One of us might have tried to pull one once or twice. The guy that takes a 2 year old used VCR into walmart for a full refund, or the guy who swears the bank shorted him a hundred dollars. These people make it so hard for honest people to get a break. Cynics rejoice.

9. People who take forever - We have all gotten behind one of these people in line before. They can't make a decision on what they want and the hold up the whole line. Or they decide to write a check for a fifteen dollar item and can't find their checkbook. They forgot something and instead of letting people pass while someone runs to get it they make everyone wait while they call up a stock boy to go find it. These people are only mildly less annoying than....

8. People who are in a rush -Now i admit freely i have been one of these people often at walmart on my lunch break. They come in already flustered and in a hurry and then get mad when you take thirty seconds longer than the time they have allotted. Then they get angry which doesn't make the situation better because as someone who has worked many various customer service jobs, angry customers get two reactions: a. they get the person who does whatever they want because they want to get them out the door as fast as possible or B. they get a person who doesn't want to do them any favors because they don't want to be yelled at and treated like shit. In my case i often end up behind...

7. People who can't use technology -It never fails that i end behind this person at self-checkout. If you cannot use technology then don't. If you have 50 items and have never used self-checkout before than i'm thinking today is not the day to start. You are slow. You have to drive the assistant nuts because they have to come over every 3.5 seconds to put in their passcode to unlock the system you screwed up by not knowing how to use the machine.

6. Repetition- this has to be the single most annoying thing about working in customer service. After the first couple months your job becomes so ingrained that you don't even have to think about doing it. Trust me, waiting tables is down to a science. I don't even have to think about it my body goes into auto-pilot when i walk into work. People are always telling me to smile at my non-waitressing job. What they don't understand is that my mouth is taking a break from all the auto-smiling i do waitressing. I get excited for days when i get to do something else because it's like hey brain you still work up there? I know if things that get old for me, then people who have to file paper work must really go nuts.

5. Cell Phones- You know it's not the actual cell phone that is the problem it is the person holding it. Nothing is more annoying than trying to ask a customer a question and they are on their cell phones like their conversation about Britney spears is sooo much more important than you actually trying to help them. What worse is the look they give you like how dare you interrupt me to try to take my food order/ cash check/ assist in buying something/etc. You ever got stuck behind one of these people in a line before. It makes you want to cut their ears off so they can't hear anymore. The worst part is in this day and age when everyone and their brother has one that people don't realize how rude they are being. They seem to think it's perfectly acceptable to walk around talking loudly on their phones in the bank/ walmart/library/ fast food establishment.

4.Non-Tippers- Now i personally believe that their is a special level of hell reserved for these people already. I also know that that only a specific group of customer service workers has to deal with these people but who cares. These people should be banned from public places entirely. I think most of it is chalked up to stupidity but really if you go into a restaurant and sit their for 30 minutes while some poor person has to wait on you (for typically 2.13 an hour) and then you don't even think the clean-up they have to do for you is worth a dollar. How cheap are you to not even leave a dollar? If your that broke you shouldn't be eating out/ordering food/ getting a haircut/ etc. If i placed a gypsy voodoo curse on all the people who stiffed me it would make up the entire state of Wisconsin.

3.People who don't understand the rules- these people just baffle me. How hard is it to understand that its a rule and you can't do anything about it. If there is a 30 day return policy than don't get mad when you can't return it on day 45. If you don't have any money in your bank account then you can't cash a four hundred dollar check. If the restaurant doesn't serve ham and cheese sandwiches don't order it and make the cook scramble to find something. Thats like asking a cop to give a ticket to the guy who stole your parking lot. You are wasting our time and effort. Whats worse is when they try to argue the rules with you or say that "such and such" does it this way. I don't give a shit if "such and such" does it that way. If they are so good why are you at my store giving me a hard time. Please take your business elsewhere. That is why it is captialism. You have the right to annoy someone else!

2. Coworkers- This is all jobs not just customer service related ones. Coworkers can be your best freinds and your worst enemies. They can make your day so much better or they can make you dread going in at all. We all have one coworker that drives us up the wall. Whether they constantly undermine you, or they steal your clients, or they just talk too damn much about nonsense. It's enough to make you want to bang your head into a wall for hours. But you can't work without them, so if you have one that makes you want to go to insane asylum i suggest taking perkeset before you go into work.

1. Stupid People- yes this may seem repetitive because stupid people are often unable to use technology, can't follow the rules and are unhumanly slow. But they are so much worse than that. These are the people who just don't get it. No matter how many times you tell them something they are back again in two days asking you the same question. They never learn and they never will. They test your patience and your resolve and they make you wonder what is going on with the education system in america. Lets face it, a person is smart. People as a whole are dumber than rocks. Thats why the founding fathers instituted the electoral college (although they had it set up differently) because the masses of america would vote a Monkey into the white house if they had the chance. These people are the real reason working in customer service sucks.

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Clubhouse Cancers

In Baseball there is such a thing as a "Clubhouse Cancer." These are a particular member of the team that basically is miserable to be around and breaks the morale and chemistry of the team. If you need examples Google Terrell Owens, A-Rod and Coco Crisp. Anyways, in my world there is such a thing as a Workplace Cancer. In fact i have three of them at two different jobs. But the three of them do the same annoying things that piss all coworkers off. So if you do any of these things and/or you can't figure out which coworker is the workplace cancer (because every job has one) you could be the workplace cancer.

~First: they all think they are the boss. Nothing pisses a coworker off more than someone who has no rank or authority who thinks they can tell you what to do. Especially true if they have been there several years and you haven't even been there 6 months. Nobody needs to be told how to do their jobs unless they are being trained. The vast majority of people will ask if they need help. So stop telling us what to do or trying to help us. Most of the time they don't really want to help they just want to look like they are better than you.

~Second: They are Nosy as hell. They have to know everything going on with everyone. If two people are talking in the corner they immediately have to come over and join in on the conversation or they immediately think you are talking about them (more often the case). They have to know everything going on with everyone. If your out sick a day at work they go around asking until they find out why. The worst part of this is not only do they have to know everything going on, they feel the need to tell everybody as well. They can't keep secrets at all. The love to tell everyone else's business. If you have big news to make don't bother telling these people because they will the steal the wind right out from under you.

~Third: They will tell the boss everything you do trying to make themselves look better. Whether it is true or not, the cancer will tell the boss anything they think might be true to make themselves look better. One particular coworker told the boss that i was giving extra bread to one of my tables without charging. Another coworkers at a different job tried desperately to find out if i was moving while i was at lunch,(she had badly overheard me talking about a city i was going to on vacay) so that she could position herself to take my job . They will resort to making things up just so that they have something to tell the boss to make themselves look better.



If you are guilty of these three things you are a work place cancer. The best thing to do is smack yourself every time you go to do one of these things or get a new job where you can start over fresh. Because let me tell you, all of your coworkers can't stand you. Cancers make your life miserable to the point that you don't want to go to work, or you cheer the days the Cancer has off. Feel free to share your worst workplace Cancer stories.

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Who Are You Kidding?

I saw something recently i hadn't seen in awhile. It was a girl wearing one of those shirts that said "Cheerleaders are Dancers who have gone retarded." The quote is from the movie Bring It On, if you have been living under a rock. Now having been a dancer, i can understand the concept of that quote. But lets be honest Cheerleading and Dancing are two very different things. What bothered me was the girl looked like the picture.


Not exactly like that but you get the point. If you are seriously overweight you have zero right to be walking around wearing a shirt slamming cheerleaders. Now i am in no position to talk about your weight. I am not a size 2 by any means, let it be known i am also not a size 28 by any means either. But really wearing that shirt? You should just be smacked. You are by no means a dancer in fact you probably couldn't spell pirouette let alone tell me what it is. You might have years of pent up anger from being teased by cheerleaders in high school. I was a cheerleader for all of one season before i realized how vile, shallow and bitchy most of them were (not all just most). And i understand what its like to be ostracized, but really you are not doing any favors by wearing that shirt. You basically just look like a girl whose still pissed off about getting picked on in gym class (not better if your still in high school). Get over it. On the bright side most of the girls go on to get pregnant right out of high school and marry their loser boyfriends who end up cheating on them with their new secretary. Either way lose the shirt.

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Dancing on the Bar of Life

Life isn't easy, nor is it fair. At least nothing in my life has ever come easy and very few times has anything been fair. Not to say that my life sucks, parts of it suck sure; parts of everyone's life suck. Which is why i opt to dance on the bar of life. Sometimes it's great: I'm the center of attention, everything is going right, the drinks are free and the guys are cute. Other times its awful: I'm upstaged by a hot blond with fake boobs, my heels are killing me, I can't get the bartender to pay attention, or I'm too drunk and i fall off the bar. For the record this is a metaphor, if you don't know what that is go look it up or better yet go back to 10th grade English. I have never actually fallen off a bar. Either way I'm going to dance through it, because life is way to short to not have fun with it. I suggest grabbing your dancing shoes and hitting the bar with me.

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