24: A nuclear attack on American soil?

We were glued to the television last night as we saw the second installment of the two-part four-hour season premiere of 24.  We can’t wait for the next episode airing next Monday.  (Drats!  That’s a week away..)

America is besieged again and Jack Bauer is out to save the world.  He flinches, he seems softer — but towards the end of this premiere, we see him killing Curtis, backing out, and then the nuke explodes.  In the preview of the next hour, he actually returns to the fold as the nuclear explosion enrages him anew.  If only they could take Jack out of that locale and bring him to DC or even New York. 

While we are well in touch with the fact that this is just television, the twists and turns of the plot of each season of 24 sometimes gives us pause to think about how it would be if the threat were actually real and it was known to the public.

Perhaps it’s my maternal instinct which makes me think about how things would be in the grimmest of scenarios, and how I would protect my son.  I pray we will always be safe, but we know it’s not a perfect world we live in.  And yet I know we have those unknown Jack Bauers who help keep this world safe — even if we don’t know the risks they take.

tick.. tock.. tick.. tock..

 

"How do you spell that?"

Perhaps it’s because I am back to work after a long holiday that I’m not in a very chipper mood — more so when the person occupying the cube next to me prefers to ask me to spell words rather than scour her dictionary.  Then again, if you didn’t  know that “hors d’oeuvres” began with “ho,” you wouldn’t hit it even if you opened your dictionary.  Or that “bruschetta” was began with  “bru” and not a “bre.”  Okay, those words are typical “confusing” words — but if one had a dictionary, you’d think that person would have the dignity to look through it instead of calling out for everyone to hear that you didn’t know how to spell.  Random tip as Jayred would say: You can always google a word, and lo and behold, google will actually ask you if you meant it as it should be spelled.  Voila!  And as I always do when I’m not sure, I go to webster.com.  You can’t go wrong with that.

Then there’s this other associate who is neither above nor below me — she is a colleague but doing a different job, who would call me to her cubicle which is not far but which is not beside mine either, for me to teach her how to do something in Word or Excel.  I’m beginning to think now I’ve been too generous with my knowledge which I might’ve done better to keep to myself.   I’m usually a very patient teacher, but not when I’m being asked to go out of my way to answer a question which one can research through various resources online, and if only one tried to do their job in a more diligent manner.

I guess you can see I’m not in a very good mood.  It’s one of those days I’d rather not be bothered with trivial requests.  I haven’t chewed anybody’s head off.. maybe it’s time I did if only to send a message to those who take advantage of my “generosity”.    After all, I have my own work to do..