So here I am again after a very long hiatus, and I have to admit that I have just about run out of ideas. But here goes.
After my last post (about five months after) I was asked by my boss if I was 'alright'; without boring anyone with the precis of the ensuing conversation, I ended up taking four weeks of "unofficial stress leave" starting that day to recover from the incredibly excessive overtime and over-working that I had, up until then been putting in. I now work very much to the clock and I have decided that if the job suffers... TOUGH.
A month off to get my headspace was, if not what the doctor ordered, then at least what I needed to ensure that I didn't suffer a full-blown psychic meltdown. When the people that you work with say that you seem to be less stressed out after watching your daily fight with an impending psychotic break and really nasty mood swings, you wonder just exactly how bad it got. I still wonder, mostly because I don't ask. I really don't want to know.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Good Times, Better Memories
RIP 
Isis
Isis Born: Sometime in 1997.
Deceased: Sept 3, 2008
Sometimes a man's best friend isn't a dog.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Workin' Overtime
If you've never worked unwanted or unpaid overtime, then you can stop reading now... If you are still reading this, then I am going to assume that you are either incapable of taking directions or have, indeed, worked unwanted or unpaid overtime.
It just so happens that I've been doing a lot of both just lately, and I'll be honest: I think I'm starting to like it, and that worries me. "As it should" you say; a little hard work never killed anybody, and most of the people who look at me like I've taken complete and total leave of my senses when I tell them that I am putting in - yet another - 12 hour day, should be thankful that I do. To be really fair, most of them are. Problem is, that they are ground level grunts in the Mincing Machine that is my workplace, and while I appreciate their sympathy and occasional thanks, it's not enough to offset that casual neglect that comes from higher up the ladder.
That's the kicker. The neglect (perceived or real, you take your pick) is never out of malice or ill-will, it is truly casual. There's no real drive to it, it's just there. It would be a lot easier for me to take, I think, if it did have some intelligent design behind it; I'd feel more justified about 'working to rule'. But every day takes its toll, and time is coming when my desire to be professional is going to dissipate, and all that is going to be left is a razor-sharp desire to work to the clock and not the job. When that happens I truly do worry that I am going to become the kind of miserable prick that, right now, I am desperate to avoid becoming.
Advertising genius David Ogilvy once said "Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine". Right now, I'm still aiming for remarkable, but it's a question of 'when, not if', I am going to start settling for routine.
It just so happens that I've been doing a lot of both just lately, and I'll be honest: I think I'm starting to like it, and that worries me. "As it should" you say; a little hard work never killed anybody, and most of the people who look at me like I've taken complete and total leave of my senses when I tell them that I am putting in - yet another - 12 hour day, should be thankful that I do. To be really fair, most of them are. Problem is, that they are ground level grunts in the Mincing Machine that is my workplace, and while I appreciate their sympathy and occasional thanks, it's not enough to offset that casual neglect that comes from higher up the ladder.
That's the kicker. The neglect (perceived or real, you take your pick) is never out of malice or ill-will, it is truly casual. There's no real drive to it, it's just there. It would be a lot easier for me to take, I think, if it did have some intelligent design behind it; I'd feel more justified about 'working to rule'. But every day takes its toll, and time is coming when my desire to be professional is going to dissipate, and all that is going to be left is a razor-sharp desire to work to the clock and not the job. When that happens I truly do worry that I am going to become the kind of miserable prick that, right now, I am desperate to avoid becoming.
Advertising genius David Ogilvy once said "Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine". Right now, I'm still aiming for remarkable, but it's a question of 'when, not if', I am going to start settling for routine.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
2008
Just a little thing I found. I like it; it kinda says it all at once...
Seriously, though, I hope you all had a relatively good 2007, and a 2008 that is at least no WORSE.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
The Christmas Perils of the Salary Man
Colourful lights, decorations, and bad music: Bah Humbug. There I said it. The more time I spend in the world of salaried retail management, the more I begin to wonder why. Hunter S. Thompson once wrote: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." I would like to say that also applies to retail sales in a BIG way. The Christmas season is supposed to be a celebration of new life, a time of giving; but what I seem to see is a time when all of the nation's retailers go absolutely bug-fuck nuts trying to make as much money as possible, and ordinary people will trample each other for knickknacks and gewgaws.
Why?
I suppose it all comes down to one thing. Conditioning. We have been programmed to believe that we have to prove our love for friends and family by buying as much as possible in the shortest span of time. Act NOW, Save BIG, or the people closest to you will be unhappy. What a crock. If only life were so easy, but watch just one hour of TV and count the number of commercials that play on these sentiments. It'll shock the hell out of you. Most of us don't notice it, they just see it and their brains file it all away. You don't even think about it, but you go out, you act now, you (supposedly) save big, and you come away feeling that you are making people happy.
Here's the funny thing: You are now a little poorer, and someone (several someones probably) are now a little richer. All so that you don't have to feel guilty about the slim possibility that you might not have appreciated people enough. I have a better idea. Give people who have nothing (or next to it) something; donate money in someone else's name and save the tax receipt, give the tax return to someone you love and tell them that they've made a difference.
Hey, it's Jesus' birthday, so ask yourself: What would He want for Christmas?
Why?
I suppose it all comes down to one thing. Conditioning. We have been programmed to believe that we have to prove our love for friends and family by buying as much as possible in the shortest span of time. Act NOW, Save BIG, or the people closest to you will be unhappy. What a crock. If only life were so easy, but watch just one hour of TV and count the number of commercials that play on these sentiments. It'll shock the hell out of you. Most of us don't notice it, they just see it and their brains file it all away. You don't even think about it, but you go out, you act now, you (supposedly) save big, and you come away feeling that you are making people happy.
Here's the funny thing: You are now a little poorer, and someone (several someones probably) are now a little richer. All so that you don't have to feel guilty about the slim possibility that you might not have appreciated people enough. I have a better idea. Give people who have nothing (or next to it) something; donate money in someone else's name and save the tax receipt, give the tax return to someone you love and tell them that they've made a difference.
Hey, it's Jesus' birthday, so ask yourself: What would He want for Christmas?
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Where Did My Summer Go?
It is now mid August and I have to wonder: What happened to summer? After a crippling heat wave that destroyed the front lawn (and will probably guarantee me a few skin tumours later in life for all the time I spent in the sun), I find myself going out at night with a sweater on just to stay warm. I would like to point out that I'm not complaining, just sort of idly curious, I may not like the oppressiveness of the 30+ Celsius degree heat that lasted almost three weeks, but I am even less enamoured of the biting cold that I have to guard myself against every winter.
When I look back over the last two months, I can't even remember anything I did that screams out 'hooray'. I worked, that's it. Ok, ok, I nearly broke my ankle at a friend's birthday party and was in so much pain I blacked out for a couple of minutes (which freaked people out enough that they called an ambulance), but that hardly qualifies as a good time; although working my way through the last four bottles of beer from the six pack I brought made up for it - a bit.
Summer is viewed by many as a time to relax, and I have no idea why. I only used to like it when I was a kid because it meant I was out of school, which I can now say that I hated with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. I find now, however, that my favourite time of year is the fall, and if I can arrange it, I am going to use up the five weeks of vacation time that I have banked up to enjoy it to the best of my ability (and as my budget allows). To that end I have decided to spend a week in Montreal this year, my sister lives there with two of her friends, and as such I will have three potential tour guides who can steer me around the town and help me maximise the enjoyment of my stay there.
Here's hoping, at any rate, that the last of the reasonably good weather holds until the first week of September.
When I look back over the last two months, I can't even remember anything I did that screams out 'hooray'. I worked, that's it. Ok, ok, I nearly broke my ankle at a friend's birthday party and was in so much pain I blacked out for a couple of minutes (which freaked people out enough that they called an ambulance), but that hardly qualifies as a good time; although working my way through the last four bottles of beer from the six pack I brought made up for it - a bit.
Summer is viewed by many as a time to relax, and I have no idea why. I only used to like it when I was a kid because it meant I was out of school, which I can now say that I hated with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. I find now, however, that my favourite time of year is the fall, and if I can arrange it, I am going to use up the five weeks of vacation time that I have banked up to enjoy it to the best of my ability (and as my budget allows). To that end I have decided to spend a week in Montreal this year, my sister lives there with two of her friends, and as such I will have three potential tour guides who can steer me around the town and help me maximise the enjoyment of my stay there.
Here's hoping, at any rate, that the last of the reasonably good weather holds until the first week of September.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind
Been watching the news lately? You should - OK maybe not CNN with its wall to wall coverage of Paris Hilton - but seriously, watch the news, because if you pay close attention, you find out what your Canadian citizenship is worth; right now you can sum that up with three small words: Not a lot. If that didn't piss you off, then I worry about you, because it should. In fact it should enrage you. Why? Simple. If you've gotten the same picture of the current government of this (once?) proud nation that I have from the available media, you begin to realise that Steve and the Gang up on Parliament Hill will hang us all out to dry if it serves their own (party or personal, take your pick) interests.
Where to begin? First off, Omar Khadr: Picked up by the US Army in Afghanistan at the age of fifteen, and locked up in Guantanamo these last five years, he is a Canadian citizen. His crime was throwing a hand grenade at a US soldier and killing him. What were you doing at fifteen? I don't even remember, personally, but I'd bet that it didn't involve being shot at by a bunch of foreigners. I didn't even see the Soviet Union as a threat back then (I just didn't see the point - they couldn't make decent cars, for God's sake). To be fair, Omar is believed to have been raised in close proximity to Osama Bin-Laden, and who knows what that did to his young - and likely impressionable - mind. My point? This was five years ago! The man is now twenty and if the US government has its way they will keep him there until he's dead; of old age or due process is one and the same. Where the HELL has the Canadian government been? Do they even care? Where is their accountability? This Blog alone probably means I should avoid travel to the US, although I get the feeling that being white and English-speaking would get me better from the Conservative government. Not that I think for a single second that they are bigoted in any way, but they are politicians, and that does make them pathological.
Moving on to the environment. The government's stand: We'll just sit it out until the US tells us what to do. Like the planet will put Global Warming ON HOLD! Deep breath. Count to ten. Canada could have shown some true leadership on the point at the G-8 summit in Germany this year, but no, Your good buddy and mine, Stephen Harper, decided that signing his name to something that would be good and decent for the world was too much effort. Christ only knows why I expect better from the man. Citing the notion that our drive to meet Kyoto targets would place Canada at an 'economic disadvantage' if no one else (read: The U.S.) does it too, the government has basically chained our hope of having a planet worth living on to the environmental policies of the world's biggest polluter. It's probably just as well I don't have kids.
Domestic Economy. The 2005 Atlantic Accord let both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador keep all their offshore oil and gas revenues, with no clawbacks from the federal equalization program. This year's federal budget, though, increased the equalization pot, but put a cap on payments. Naturally the provinces are mightily annoyed about this. They feel (not without cause to my way of thinking) that this constitutes a breach of contract at best, at worst, a betrayal. Harper's response - and I don't make this up - "Sue me." And it was done. Saskachewan's Premier has decided to do just that, and he is likely to be joined by others soon. What really shows Stephen's true party colours is that veteran Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey was expelled from the Conservative caucus after voting against the federal budget after being told that the party members had the freedom to vote their conscience. Probably be a while before that political character flaw gets the better of any one in the Conservative Camp.
Mark Twain once said "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." Well I don't see the conservatives as being smart, so that pretty much narrows things down. I intend to hang on to my citizenship, if for no other reason than to keep voting against Stephen Harper and his Band of Merry Twits. Right now, that's all the worth it has.
Where to begin? First off, Omar Khadr: Picked up by the US Army in Afghanistan at the age of fifteen, and locked up in Guantanamo these last five years, he is a Canadian citizen. His crime was throwing a hand grenade at a US soldier and killing him. What were you doing at fifteen? I don't even remember, personally, but I'd bet that it didn't involve being shot at by a bunch of foreigners. I didn't even see the Soviet Union as a threat back then (I just didn't see the point - they couldn't make decent cars, for God's sake). To be fair, Omar is believed to have been raised in close proximity to Osama Bin-Laden, and who knows what that did to his young - and likely impressionable - mind. My point? This was five years ago! The man is now twenty and if the US government has its way they will keep him there until he's dead; of old age or due process is one and the same. Where the HELL has the Canadian government been? Do they even care? Where is their accountability? This Blog alone probably means I should avoid travel to the US, although I get the feeling that being white and English-speaking would get me better from the Conservative government. Not that I think for a single second that they are bigoted in any way, but they are politicians, and that does make them pathological.
Moving on to the environment. The government's stand: We'll just sit it out until the US tells us what to do. Like the planet will put Global Warming ON HOLD! Deep breath. Count to ten. Canada could have shown some true leadership on the point at the G-8 summit in Germany this year, but no, Your good buddy and mine, Stephen Harper, decided that signing his name to something that would be good and decent for the world was too much effort. Christ only knows why I expect better from the man. Citing the notion that our drive to meet Kyoto targets would place Canada at an 'economic disadvantage' if no one else (read: The U.S.) does it too, the government has basically chained our hope of having a planet worth living on to the environmental policies of the world's biggest polluter. It's probably just as well I don't have kids.
Domestic Economy. The 2005 Atlantic Accord let both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador keep all their offshore oil and gas revenues, with no clawbacks from the federal equalization program. This year's federal budget, though, increased the equalization pot, but put a cap on payments. Naturally the provinces are mightily annoyed about this. They feel (not without cause to my way of thinking) that this constitutes a breach of contract at best, at worst, a betrayal. Harper's response - and I don't make this up - "Sue me." And it was done. Saskachewan's Premier has decided to do just that, and he is likely to be joined by others soon. What really shows Stephen's true party colours is that veteran Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey was expelled from the Conservative caucus after voting against the federal budget after being told that the party members had the freedom to vote their conscience. Probably be a while before that political character flaw gets the better of any one in the Conservative Camp.
Mark Twain once said "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." Well I don't see the conservatives as being smart, so that pretty much narrows things down. I intend to hang on to my citizenship, if for no other reason than to keep voting against Stephen Harper and his Band of Merry Twits. Right now, that's all the worth it has.
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