Let me start by saying system 10 is the stuff of the devil. Apparantly they're updating all of our programs (Photoslop and the like) at work after we're all running MacOS 10.2, and then they will take away our ability to work in Classic mode where things make sense. Aarg.

So my boss is back in the office today, which is seriously cutting into the slack time. It was funny, because he wanted to know what each of us saw when we went out shopping last week. Very undercover spy, covert mission type stuff. Unfortunately for us the bad guys got the microfilm. Fortunately all that was on there was scandalous pictures I was going to try and sell to Playboy.

I don't have a lot to say today, I'm all sleepy and shit thanks to Nikki's 21st birthday party. Happy Birthday to Nikki! Happy Birthday to Ann! Happy Almost Birthday to the zillions of people that have birthdays at the end of the month!

What else is there... I'm starting on juvenile hall xmas cards tonight, which is pretty fun. It's basically cut up a magazine and add crazy funny messages. A couple of my friends back home go to a church that is hooked up with this community service type thing where they go talk to kids in juvenile hall once a month. (This superlong sentence brought to you by Crest!) I didn't go because I wanted to get involved with church (y'all know me better than that), I went because I thought it was a good cause. I'd like to think it helps the kids in there to have an hour of normal conversation with someone who does understand and hopes they'll deal with their lives better when their sentence is complete. I didn't get to go too much, but the times I went were really interesting and sad. They would line all the kids up against the wall when we came in, and then have one or two kids sit down at tables with each churchy person that came.

It seems like every kid in there has the same story about a seriously messed up family that doesn't care too much. Most of the kids I met were in gangs, where they felt like they had real family that they would do anything for. One told me about his friends who were R.I.P. because of the gang, which weirded me out a little - maybe it was just he was used to the slang, but why couldn't he just say his friend had died? Lots of the kids I talked to were into drugs, some heavier than others. Some were in for drug dealing. One guy was a very tiny 14 year old that was in for murder. If they were lucky they'd get picked to go to specialty camps for the remainder of their sentence. From what I understand they had things like sports camp and firefighting camp - they'd work the kids tails off but it was still better than being locked up all day.

The funny thing is that for the most part they weren't bad kids. There were a few that obviously didn't give a shit what happened to them after they got out. But some of those kids, you could tell it was a front. Others really didn't want to go back to Sylmar ever again. One boy in particular was in juvi for staying out late. Months and months earlier he had been picked up for shoplifting; the judge put him on parole instead of sending him to juvi because it was his first offense. He was staying at his grandma's temporarily because his mom got evicted for not being able to pay rent... he stayed out past his curfew with his girlfriend a few times and grandma turned him in because it was a parole violation. From what he told me he had plans to finish high school and go on to community college, and things were going to be really different. He could've been making it up just to sound good, but I'd like to think he's doing better for himself now.

To make a really long story short, the same group makes xmas cards every year and passes them out to the kids. It's a really really sad thing, a lot of them don't have family that comes to visit. So that's that, I started writing this earlier this morning, and had more to say on it, but fuckin' whatever. I'm at work, time to go do what I'm supposed to.

Today's been a weird day.