Reaction > Situation

"This job would be great if it weren't for the...customers" - Randal Graves

That is a slightly edited quote from the Kevin Smith movie "Clerks" and while it's not 100% accurate (no, my job would still be a damn sight short of 'great' by anybody's definition), it's pretty damn close sometimes.

Like last night, for instance, when a customer used the word "unconscionable" to describe what most people would consider a relatively minor annoyance (a magnetic key card was somehow voided and had to be re-programmed, which, seriously, takes less than 15 seconds). The Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines that word as follows:

un·con·scio·na·ble
Pronunciation: \-ˈkän(t)-sh(ə-)nə-bəl\
Function: adjective
Date: 1565
1 : not guided or controlled by conscience : unscrupulous

2 a : excessive, unreasonable b : shockingly unfair or unjust

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he punctuated his tirade by throwing the stupid key at me. Now, I have a short temper, very little patience and an excessively low level of tolerance for things that don't go right (ie: my way). In all likelihood, I would have been highly irritated if the roles were reversed. But "unconscionable"? And throwing things? At someone??

If you're using words that most people would use to describe something like the holocaust to express how you feel about an inconvenience that would be filed under "S" for "Shit Happens", you probably need to settle down a little. And if you're throwing things at people, you'd better be either under the age of five or a chimpanzee, lest you run into someone with even lower tolerance levels than me (like, say, someone like you, because they/you are out there) and they stomp a mudhole in your dumb ass.