Quarter Inch Piece of Plastic

STOP MAKING EXCUSES.

No one wants to hear them. No one. Not your parents, not your partner, not your boss, NO ONE. I know we all have a natural instinct to try and excuse our behavior, but NO ONE FUCKING CARES.

If you fuck up at work, do you think your boss wants a long list of reasons as to why it's okay you fucked up? No, not one bit. It's not going to make a difference. You still fucked up. Your boss is pissed, and it's not doing a thing to resolve the situation.

What it DOES do is make you look like someone who doesn't know how to take responsibility for her own actions. You're trying to pawn the fault off on circumstance. You can't take the heat; you can't handle the job and you're showing that to the world.

What people want is resolution. Resolutions are stronger by far than excuse. They make everyone happy, and they make you look good. You look on the top the situation, like a take charge, fix things attitude, and that's really good.

For example:

DUDE 1: You ate the last cookie! I didn't get a cookie! Asshole.
DUDE 2: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't have a cookie yet. *blank stare*
DUDE 1: Yeah? Well your apologies don't bring my cookies back! *runs away, crying*
DUDE 2: I am now filled with shame and guilt that I will carry around for the rest of my life.

Dude 2 gave an excuse here, and now everyone is unhappy. What should he have done?

DUDE 1: You ate the last cookie! I didn't get a cookie! Asshole.
DUDE 2: I'm sorry, but here, I have a squashed brownie in my purse. Will that do?
DUDE 1: Dude...you carry a purse...?
DUDE 2: Take the fucking brownie, dickweed.

Now see how everyone is much happier in the second scenario?

So, I say agaim: STOP MAKING EXCUSES.

I am so sick of all the flack Dollhouse is getting. Mostly because I don't understand it. I really like that show. I've seen it called lame and contrived, and while I admit that the episodic plots have been somewhat typical to start, it doesn't mean they're not entertaining. I think, more than anything, I'm just taken aback that in a country where we have too many CSI and Law and Order clones to count, not to mention year after year after god fucking damned year of Survivor and American Idol, Dollhouse is being called contrived. It makes me want to bang my head against a wall until I'm too brain damaged to even watch tv.

I am so sick of good shows getting canceled without being given a chance. Firefly and Pushing Daisies only being the latest in a long line of brilliant shows that never found their niche. If The X-Files came out in 2009, considering how poorly it did originally, it would get what? Half a season? What does it take these days to compete against the dribble that's reality tv? Does it even matter? Because you only have 10 seconds to impress your audience and then they're changing the channel. Maybe if more people would sit down and read a fucking book, then they would understand that a good story story needs to build up before we get to the nitty gritty.

I've been really into Agatha Christie lately...and, you know, I wouldn't even try to get one of my friends to read her because they wouldn't. I mean, they're thinking books, like you're working out a nice, long, complicated puzzle. Add to that the "action" part of the book being old people sitting around talking. Which, believe it or not, is actually really exciting when you're going at it with the right mindset. But today's audience? They want masterful storytelling but only when it's flying at them at a hundred miles an hour raining explosions and bullets and sex. Ah well.

Anyone watch Castle last week? You want to talk about contrived drivel. That show was utterly underwhelming. That's not to say that I didn't like it; I did. It was very entertaining, but it was also exactly what you'd expect. I don't know if I'm going to keep up with it. I'm going to watch it tonight and probably follow it for a little while, feeling it out, but it's a typical man/woman, love/hate, sexual tension & fighting filled, buddy dramedy. Like X Files or Bones or any number of exactly the same show with a slightly different twist....and those are both good shows, but I think it's the actors and therefore the characters that drive the shows rather than the plot. Nathan Fillion is good, but he's not enough to carry a whole show, and the girl doesn't do anything for me. But I'm willing to give her a shot. After all, a good story needs a good build up, right?