Changes

I wonder, how many of you like change? And how many of you are like me, and hate change with a passion.

I thrive on routine. I like to do the same things, every day, in the same order. It's comforting. When something is different, it throws me off and I don't feel "right."

I got to thinking about change because of my job. I work online. Well today they attempted to change the interface we use, and boy did people freak. I personally was not pleased, not just because of the change, but because it was poorly done.

It caused such a riot that it wasn't long before they removed the changes. Good thing too, because what they had done was really slowing me down, and that's never a good thing.

You'll notice animals like routine as well. Goodness forbid if I am late to feed or let them in or out. They prefer things to be done at the same time, every day, just like me. So it really works out well.

Our herd queen, Hope, is a real stickler for it. If things aren't going properly, she will scream as if being butchered alive. It's terrible to hear! It never fails to get me up and running to solve whatever problem she has imagined.

Changing the subject now. Do you ever come across people who continually play the victim? Well of course you do, we all do. But it really grows wearing when you consider such person your friend.

I recently had to experience a bit of a temper tantrum from someone. I play several online games, and in one of them, I've known a person some nearly ten years. She's been a great person, but lately I had gotten the idea she was no longer happy in the game and I wondered why she stuck around. She eventually gave up her position in the game, moving to a "lower-ranked" one, but was still sticking around.

In this position she managed to make trouble by trying to be a leader when she was one no longer. It caused quite a rift in the game, and took some smoothing out. She stopped playing and was offline for a long while. During this time, I was commissioned to make a new website for the game, and we changed some rules and did some work on it.

When my friend returned at long last, she was very upset, threw a temper tantrum, and left, saying it was for good this time.

My personal opinion is that she was looking for a way out; a way that would make her look like a victim so should could cry to others how we "pushed her out" and didn't want her.

Of course anyone who had been there would know we had done our best to be supportive, but things needed to be done and we couldn't sit around forever waiting for her to either do them, or give us access to them. So what was done was done.

I have to admit I'm pretty disappointed, but that's just the way it is sometimes. People don't always live up to your expectations. I learned long ago there's no point in dwelling on it, and I move on.

So, do you have any "toxic" friends? People who play the victim? How do you handle them?

Be sure to keep checking back for more from the Goat Whisperer. Eventually something interesting will happen, you can be assured of that!