Something Awful

Bob Mackey is funny.  He’s a local internet writer who just graduated from Youngstown State University and will be heading off to graduate school this fall.  In this piece, the world of temping and the world of Youngstown buildings that haven’t been kept up meet and marry like an internet version of Kafka.  Call it The Castle Lite.

There is both a satisfying and depressing quality to quitting your job because it’s too boring. It’s satisfying because you live in an age and place where this is possible, and depressing for the same reason. Sure, infants in Bangladesh often get their hands torn off by the giant weaving robots they assist in making Old Navy sweaters, not complaining to anyone for fear they will lose their precious pond water money. But me? YAWWN. *smacks lips* My job is boring. Sitting in a comfortable chair for eight hours a day is more strenuous than the anguish of all Chinese railroad workers combined. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this hellish existence is similar to Orwell’s 1984, except with a new date indicating the future!

Make sure to read the whole thing.  The last page has a wonderfully funny dialogue.  I wish I could just think Bob is making this stuff up, but unfortunately there are also pictures linked (again in the last page) and also I have temped in years past and come across many of these same creatures he describes.