This is (Part 3 of) a Story of a Girl

Alright, Parts 1 and 2 should be linked now...


So....this is how our (mine and MC's) “friendship” ended:

My office was on the fourth floor of the building. His was on the third, where all our classes were. Often when our last class would get out at 7:30pm, I just wanted to go home. Screw walking up an entire flight of stairs - I would just leave all my books and stuff in his office and pick them up the next day. Well, on this fine day I went to his office to get my laptop, or something. His office was open, but he wasn’t inside (this NEVER happened). I walked over to get my laptop and realized his computer wasn’t locked, either!! Mind. Blown.

I get on his IM account and message our mutual friend Cheese. I’m like “CHEESE - WHAT DO I DO?!?!” Cheese, realizing this is a golden moment that may never be replicated, is on board and suggests I rearrange his office. Brilliant idea, Cheese! As I’m chatting with her, I notice his browser is open to a page explaining the difference between the two...terms?...e.g. and i.e. I’ve never understood the difference, so I was like...whatev - he probably needed it for something and who just knows that off the top of their heads? WEIRDOS.

Since Cheese and I were in agreement, I decided to rearrange his office. All the chairs got moved to the center of the room...I put all the small items in either the fridge, microwave, or filing cabinets. And honestly that’s about it. I had no idea when he was going to show back up and I didn’t want to get caught. At the beginning of the semester he had gotten into my office and screwed with my monitors so badly it had taken me like 30 minutes to get them straightened out. We all had dual monitors - he had switched mine so left was on the right and right was on the left, turned one vertical, and I don’t know what else. I say that just so you know why I thought this kind of joke would be okay.

Anyway, I go back up to my office and log on to Facebook. And there in my newsfeed is a post by Mr. MC himself, discussing his thesis. It was some pompous status about how great his thesis was. I don’t remember the exact wording, but he used either e.g. or i.e. (I’m sure he used the correct one, too.) I was like “teehee” and commented along the lines of “Is this why you had that “e.g. vs. i.e.” site pulled up on your computer?!” See what I did there? I let him know that *I* was the culprit behind the office destruction. I’m so clever!!

Well, anyway. He’s a douche, so his rebuttal was something about how he wanted to make sure he did things right, but a good example of failure would be some of the homework assignments I had turned in. Well now. I told you before how he was pissing me off more and more frequently the last year or so we were friends....and this really pissed me off. So I cut deep (and spoke the truth) - I said a real example of failure would be his own personal life. Ooohhhhh......ouch. So that pissed him off. He deleted all my comments. (HARSH MOVE, MAN!)

I forget where he posted it, but he said that his retaliation against me would happen soon and you’d know it when I started freaking out. So I vowed right then to not let anyone know when it happened. Especially him. Later that evening (or maybe the next one), I was working on a project for one of my classes. I finished it up and a few minutes later someone asked a question, so I opened my file back up and showed them what I had done. Then I just left it up for awhile and did some other stuff...eventually went to close it and my default close was a save and close (“:wq” in VIM - took a long time to break that habit when I started my all MS all the time job). Well it said I couldn’t access the file anymore. I was like...that’s weird...but figured it was just because I had left it open so long my session had timed out or something.

The next day Little Hippo came up to me and told me MC had told him what he’d done. I guess it had been too long without any acknowledgement, so he had to tell someone. He had logged on to Ranger as root and removed all the permissions on all my files. Instantly pissed - I realized that’s why my file had messed up the day before. If he had done it 15 minutes earlier, I would have been working on that file and unable to save my work. Remembering my vow, I said not a word on FB or to MC. I got with my non-douchey-but-smart office-mate and we got it all fixed in about 20 minutes.

But....I kept thinking about it, and about how much he could have broken. And just kept getting more pissed. I had already had a bad semester with KC - reached a breaking point and emailed the head of the dept about him....so maybe I was just in a tattling mood. But I emailed the CS Lab Admin and told him the whole story. And he got super pissed, too. Told me MC could get expelled for such a serious abuse of power. Instead, he decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and removed all his privileges on Ranger.

Well, what the lab admin didn’t know was that MC had a big demo of his thesis project on campus the next day. It wouldn’t affect his thesis or graduation or anything - it was just a way for the best and brightest of each dept to show off to the uppity-ups of the university. He had won it the year before. I guess he didn’t test anything prior to his demo, though... When the dean of Basic and Applied Sciences showed up, MC tried to show him stuff his account was blocked.

MC texted the STUDENT lab admin (not the one who had blocked him) with the succinct text of “Fix my accounts - now.” And this guy (the one who is married to my photographer friend, actually) had not a clue what had happened. So he was like...f you - you’re not my boss. And ignored him. So...I’m guessing MC didn’t win that year. :D

A bunch of stuff happened after that, but none of it memorable. I had to talk to the CS Lab Admin and the chair of the dept, explain my side of the story. It was so stupid. I fluctuated between feeling bad that it had all gone down (feeling like it was my fault) to being pissed that MC had taken it that far (feeling like it was his fault). I really regret not having balls enough to break off our friendship years before when I realized he was a douche.

I finally sent an email to the chair, the lab admin, and MC apologizing for things getting so out of control. No one responded to it, but later the chair thanked me for it. The lab admin told me MC never admitted to having any blame and instead tried to push it all on me. And MC never talked to me again. So.... That took care of that! No more worrying about being MC’s friend.

Then I hear that he’s telling Cheese that she shouldn’t go to grad school. That there are some students who do well in grad school and some that just “get by”. And she’d obviously be one of the latter. Apparently he’s STILL telling her that. Luckily she’s ignoring him and starting grad school in the fall. Unfortunately, she’s still TALKING to him. He has told her that once he starts making friends at his new job (Oh, you didn’t hear - he’s working at Google now. Did you miss the hour-long presentation he gave about how awesome he was??) he’ll stop talking to her. I wouldn’t hold my breath on all those new friends, MC.

And finally...we reach the end of my tale (saga?). This is the reason I started writing this blog. Beardie, MC’s friend from before MC was my friend, sent me a FB message saying “I was talking to MC and he said you tried to get him kicked out of the department? That’s all he would tell me. I’d love it if you gave me the full story.”

Oy. Alllll that rage came back. So I told Beardie the full story. His reply?

Wow.... well I guess my original guess of "sexing up an undergrad in his office" was WAY off. That all sounds really awful.

He also treated me like sh!t. As soon as we graduated I pretty much discontinued any contact. We only bumped into each other a couple of times on campus after that... or rather... he came and found me when I was practicing in the music building... I must have still been driving my old car. How else would he have known? He would just tell me about all these things he was doing.. conferences I guess? I don't know. His friendship was a pretty toxic one. I avoided any ACM things after we graduated just so I wouldn't have to be around him...

Well I apologize for him being a tool to you. I honestly thought most people in the department liked him... Congratulations on graduating and finding a job!

lulz - everyone hates you, MC. Even your friends. Get a new personality.