Buses

I think I'm getting fat again. I dropped two pants sizes in Katimavik, and now the smaller sizes are getting uncomfortable. Oh well.

I think I'm getting stupider, too. I think that guy in the last post rubbed off on me. When I came home, at one point I actually said this,

"Wouldn't it be cool if Santa came down and totally just messed shit up? Just like, ripping people's heads off and shit."

I actually thought I was leading up to something witty when I was saying that. Oh well.

On the buses around here, every one of them has a different seating arrangement. I can see why you'd want to mix it up from the standard rows a bit. There are ones laid flat against the wall at the front and point to the centre of the bus. These are good for elderly people and people with a physical disability. They fold up or down to make room for wheelchairs or baby strollers. Then you've got your standard seats. These are good because it allows a greater quantity of total seats in the bus. Then some buses have a part at the back which is at an elevated height. Seems pointless, but it's kind of cool. Back there, there are seats that face toward each other. These are good for if you want to have a conversation with someone. Gets a little awkward if the bus fills up and those are the only seats left, so you wind up facing a stranger. It's less personal to squash in next to someone than it is to look at them. Looking is more invasive than touching, I guess. That's weird.

But then there's sometimes this little setup, where there's two chairs, one facing to the inside of the bus, and one facing forward. That means someone is staring at someone who is turned to the side. I don't see what situation this would be useful in. It's like, if you're at a restaurant, and someone at the table next to you is staring at you, and you can see them out of your peripheral, but you don't want to look back. I think that's the situation the bus is trying to recreate.

Guelph bus drivers are pretty friendly. They will sometimes try to draw the attention of the bus. Usually they have a circle of friends who travel this way regularly.

But for some reason, they can never draw the attention of the entire bus. In another situation where a lot of people find themselves lumped together for some random reason, it's not difficult for one person to draw attention to themselves. On a bus, though, people seem to just want to keep to themselves.

I've been using a bus pass this month. It's the first time I ever have, but it's not worth mentioning. You just flash your pass, wait for the driver to give you a nod, and go to your seat. I don't have any... bus pass anecdotes.

Yo... I'm doing pretty awesome financially. Mom's Disability gives something like $500 a month more than Welfare did, and with me working, they do something like, they cut out half the pay from my weekly 40 hours out from the Disability cheque, but nothing is deducted for overtime pay. Then, I pay $500 month to household expenses.

End result is, the only thing that comes out of me is that $500. That's only about one quarter of my monthly wage. I'll definitely take that.

We're not rich, but you don't need to be rich to be happy. If you've got a solid financial footing, that's a beautiful thing. I don't even know what I'd buy if I had more money than this. Okay, well, maybe a car, a Kindle, a cell phone, an iPod, a new chromatic harmonica....

...Yeah, okay. Whatever.

I think I know why the agencies liked my resume so much after coming back... I worked two jobs for the duration of what would be the length of a temp contract. I also was working, like, 16 hours a day, for $3 a day. That tells them you're willing to work long hours, get paid little, and you can complete contracts.

Although, when I was working, a guy was explaining something business-related to someone else, and he said,

"That's because last year was recession. Everyone was poor. This year, everyone have money."

That would explain why all my friends are working. So it didn't have anything to do with my credentials, the world just turned in my favour outside of my control. Great.

Well, I guess I'll be happy for my country, but a bad part of me would rather think I just got really cool.

Science Centre, Some Guy

We went to the science centre in Toronto on the weekend, and I found out that I am capable of folding my tongue, which only one in 500 people can do (not to be confused with tongue curling, which two in three people can do). In the behaviour patterns section, everything was made to be unsettling. There was one point where there was a sign in front of a door, which said that, due to the nature of the exhibit, they needed you to stand in front of this camera and let it take a picture of you. Then it asked you to slowly turn around until you faced the camera again. When you went through, in giant letters written on the wall, there was this:

THINK ABOUT WHAT JUST HAPPENED
YOU WERE SORTED
WAS IT SCIENTIFIC?
WAS IT FAIR?

There was another section where there was a black-and-white checked floor strip. A sign asked us to walk only on the white tiles. When you reached the end, another sign asked if you really only stepped on the white tiles, asked why you would do that, since there's no reward, but chances are, you did it anyway. Wanted you to look back and see if other people were walking only on the white tiles, which people are obeying the sign's commands.

Okay, sign, you want to know why I only stepped on the white tiles? Because it's the science centre and I thought I'd learn something cool if I did, like a neat little mind-screw, but apparently not. Apparently the science centre's just a bully.

Toronto's science centre's worlds better than Montreal's. In Katimavik, me and three other people got stranded in Montreal for a day, so we went around trying to find free stuff to do. We watched a street performer, climbed a clock tower, and went to the science centre. The science centre there was basically just entrance attractions that would normally be meant to lure you into the area you have to pay for,but we couldn't find any indicator there was anywhere different. Basically, it had some facts, a black hole simulator, some paintings, and a water fountain. It was actually closer to being an art exhibit. At least it was free, unlike Toronto, but saying the two are even comparable is a joke.

Two people have passed out in my work station in the past two days, and today I had to work with one of the most annoying people I have ever met. All day it was,
"You like banging prostitutes, buddy? I do. I banged like, fifty of 'em."
"You smoke weed, buddy? Did you smoke weed before coming in today? Why not?"
"You see that guy? That guy's a fucking bobble-headed bastard. That guy's a fucking billy goat from Narnia. HEY YOU! Yeah, you fucking billy goat."
"You think you're better than me? Fuck you, buddy."
"You like whores, buddy? Everyone likes whores."
"You see that guy? That guy's a fucking Jack-o-lantern. He's a fucking pumpkin-headed bastard."
"You see that guy? That guy's a crazy fuck. He's like, hardcore Christian. Like, I'm Christian. Like, Catholic, you know? But that guy... He's the bad kind of Christian. The kind that doesn't look at porn."
"See that chick? I need you to bang her for me, buddy. I will pay you, buddy. I work with her, and she pisses me off. She just needs to get laid."
"There's this guy who just totally harasses all the girls. He just stands there, hardcore staring at them, saying which one's he'd bang. This one girl got really scared and started trying to avoid him. You'd be scared too if you were a little girl and this big guy came over to your work, just staring and licking his chops. Man, I love that guy."
"I love porn. Those girls are such whores, it just makes me laugh."
"I think a lot of people around here hate me. It's because I embarrass them by being so much better than them at their jobs."
"I like you, man. You're a good guy. We make a good team."

He ditched us for a half hour to take a nap and look at the lunar eclipse, insisted he do the harder of the two jobs, even though he's inexperienced at this and wound up getting swamped and begged for mercy inside fifteeen minutes, said he didn't want a chair when I offered to get him one, then, when I got up, stole mine...

I got my chair back and put him on the easiest job.

One of the guys I work with regularly is not going to come back after Christmas break. He got a new job. He's the insane worker, who's been doing two full-time jobs, with one 22-hour shift per week. I'll be sad to see him leave, but his new job is part of his other job, so he'll be working way less, and really, that's for the best.

Tim Hortens

Aw, man. I stopped at Time Hortens on the way to work today, which, if you non-Canadians don't know, is a coffee and donut shop we're obsessed with. There are literally more Time Hortens' in Canada than there are Starbucks and McDonalds in the US combined. Seriously, I read it in a book of statistics.

I don't know why. I mean, it's not a bad chain, but it's nothing all that special either...

Anyway, people at my work get coffee there and bring it in. I always envied this, but my bank only gives out money in $20 bills, and I never buy anything except cab service, and I always give the remainder of my $20 as a tip, so I never have change. I didn't want to be all, "Yo, I want coffee. Here's $20. Give me change"... I don't know why. My understanding is I'm the only person who feels pressure to hand in an amount similar to what you're purchasing.

Anyway, so I get there, and three people from my work stop as well. When we get in, one of them asks me what I take in my coffee, and he buys it for me, along with the other two guys.

Afterward, two of the guys sit down. There are four of us, they're sitting at a two person table. I don't know if I'm obliged to hang out with them, I don't know if I do, I'll be stealing the other guy's seat, I don't know if he'll sit with them or not once he gets his order, and can't stand around like a moron until I find out.

So I say seeya and head off to work.

But now I don't know whether or not to stop at Timmies again today. I don't know if the guy who buys only felt obliged to buy me coffee because he buys it for the others, and if I show up, I'll sort of be taking advantage of his services by taking and leaving without hanging out with them, but then there's the chair problem...

I know! I'll go, and I'll sit at a nearby table! That way, I'm neither being intrusive nor antisocial. I'll try to angle myself so they won't feel obliged to include me, but I can still contribute without having to raise my voice.

A friend that I hung out with every day in high school, and one of the people who I was hanging out with every Tuesday to play Dungeons and Dragons works at that Timmies, doing that shift. When I got in, he saw me, waved at me, and shouted "Hey, Gryphon!" from the other side of the store.

Well, I would've settled for the hand wave, but since he went thatfar for me, I wasn't about to leave him hanging, so I shout "Hey, Danny!"

So a guy from my workplace turns to me. It takes me a little while to realize that HIS name is Danny too!

With the inclusion of high school Danny, that's FOUR Dannys I communicate with on a daily basis! Too many Dannys!

There was so much to think about just from Tim Hortens that day, I was so busy thinking, I was barely bored all day!

Sickness, Misc

Last Sunday/Monday (my first day of the week), I was feeling horrible. I felt like I could sense every one of my organs not quite working up to par. I had zero energy, my shoulders ached, and I had a throbbing headache. The day previous, I had slept for eight hours, stayed awake for eight hours, slept another four hours, and was awake for four hours. So sleeping half the time. I still went to work, but I wasn't worth the $12 an hour the company pays me. I was passing out at my work station, and My mind drifted across all the major events of my life, like my life was slowly flashing before my eyes, or at least drifting. When my workmates goaded me about passing out or looking at the clock, I just growled at them and they didn't keep at it long. I felt like I was perceiving things through a filter. It became difficult to imagine ever feeling better. When I got home, I slept for ten and a half hours straight. I got up, played a handheld videogame. After a bit, the stress of concentration caused my shoulders to hurt, then my headache came back, then I lost all my energy and had to take a nap.

I went to work again, this time feeling slightly better than the previous night. By the end of the workday I was feeling kind of stable. Next night, I was better. Sometimes, you just need to give your body the options of "heal or die" and you will heal faster.

Did I tell you guys that the "spinning" job at my work, which I learned on my third day when I was on Days, I avoided telling people on Nights that I knew how to do it, because it's a job you have to do standing up? Well, I got retrained. Today, our spinner kept alternating between spinning and machining as needed, and we had an extra worker on our team, so we were falling behind, and eventually I felt obliged to step up.

It wasn't bad. It gave me the adrenalin rush I had for my first assignments when I was on the job. I was so obsessed with keeping pace and doing everything right, I forgot to be dying from monotony.

Also, spinners get stools now. They had to stand before, because you need to be at an elevated height, but now there are tall stools.

I swear, this job has helped my Karate. On endurance holds, I'm far superior than I used to be. I can easily do a round without breaking. Why? Because, when we're doing large parts, everyone at work has to stand, and while it's not as excruciating or intense a test, standing for eight hours a day with nothing to think about certainly gives you time and reason to be figuring out pain-distraction methods. Almost feels like cheating, though. Like, in Karate, I should embrace and find my way through the pain, not distract myself from it. Whatever. Sensei's always said to find distractions.

Also, doing a task over and over an over, learning how to execute it as fast and as accurately as possible, teaches you how to execute that kind of learning for any movement, which also translates to Karate. It's like Karate Kid!

When I was on the bus, some lady was like "Christopher?" to me. I said, "Gryphon". Apparently, she knows someone named Christopher, who looks exactly like me, talks exactly like me, and acts exactly like me. She told me he was 21 and asked me how old I was. I had to admit I was 21. He lives in Waterloo, a nearby city.

Funny... I've been mistaken for a "Christopher" before... But in PEI!

The cab I last used was being driven by a guy I'd lived in the same building with for like, 16 years! I did not bring this up, but I wish I had.

I made bread again. I thought my bread-making days were gone when our oven broke, but Mom's found some weird method of getting it done.

I'll probably be gone this weekend to visit my Dad in Toronto. Then it's three days next week and then.... Christmas vacation!

Christmas Stuff

Last Friday, we had a Christmas dinner at work. They called us up early. The whole breakroom was decked out with decorations. All the tables had tablecloths and poinsettias, there were wreathes, and a decorated Christmas tree. There was a long table, with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, pasta, and salad. All the higher-ups served us. There was our supervisor, the head of HR, the plant manager, and the head of Guelph's Linamar! They served themselves lst, and afterwrd, ate among us. We usually get a ten minute break, and a twenty minute break down the line, but they gave us a 45 minute break! They offered everyone a second serving, which I took them up on. I was so stuffed, I felt like dying! I worked for an hour, and was hungry again!

The food was good. It wasn't like, cafeteria food or anything. They gave us our regular twenty minute break, too, and with it, cake for everyone in the factory.

I came home, and found that I had received a package... A Christmas package from some old Katimavik friends! They'd sent me a couple of Christmas gifts!

I deposited my cheque, found that my chequebook had come, and I got put on direct deposit at my agency.

Everything's pretty good right now! I feel the Christmas spirit and I feel like I am in love with the world!

Work Team, White Stripe

I don't sit alone through break and lunch anymore. All the temps plus one regular worker have assembled at my table as the regular hangout. It's like in high school. I'm quiet, don't want to get too personable with people, choose a place to sit where I don't have to look at anyone, and next thing I know, everyone's sitting around me.

I hope I don't get greedy for power again, and vie for leadership in a situation that doesn't particularly need it. That's a habit I'd like to break.

I don't think I mentioned that, on overtime shift, there were only three of our usual six, which means that we only had enough for one team. So they brought in three other workers from a different area and made them a team doing what we do. By the end of the day, our team had produced three times as much as the replacement team.

I got my white stripe in Karate yesterday. I failed the test for this stripe twice previously, the only stripe test I'd ever failed, and spent three regular kata classes specifically training for this s tripe, the only time I'd ever specifically trained for a stripe that wasn't kata or self-defense.

The group of moves you need for this stripe are: middle block, cross body block, reinforced cross body block, hammer fist, and knife strike.

Both times my main failing was the cross body block. The first time, I didn't really know what it even was. Second time, I'd been practicing it almost exclusively and had some confidence in it's execution, but this happened:

Teacher: Interesting. I've never seen this before. That was a good, powerful move... Uh... have you ever attended another school?
Me: No, never.
Teacher: How many kung fu movies have you watched? Haha, well, anyway, your move was an effective cross body block, but you modified it to fit the curriculum of another school!

Yeah, so I had to relearn what the move was in our curriculum. I haven't watched many Kung Fu movies, if you were wondering.

But when I finally got it, I actually felt like I was at the level I should be, and wasn't just getting it out of pity.

Back Online

So the problem with the computer was that the one that was working was a laptop, and the charger stopped giving juice. That's how I managed to make my farewells. It wasn't the COMPUTER, it was the charger, and it would keep working, but only as long as it's batteries held. When I was using it to say goodbye, I noticed the percentages were acting crazy... I started out with 20 minutes remaining, then 31, then 14, etc. It just kept bouncing! When I told the rest of my family about this, my brother inspected, and, turns out, the charger just decided to randomly just come fully back to life.

Today, I was in work for overtime. Remember how I once accidentally didn't show up for work when I was supposed to? Well, yesterday, I came to work when I wasn't supposed to. And, like before, I was the only one who made this mistake.

Well, my supervisor was far more surprised to see this mistake then the last one, and by today, it had been spread over the entire factory, which couldn't have been easy, since these are overtime days, with one being very exclusive. Apparently, the mistake of showing up to do work is far rarer than the mistake of not showing up. It wasn't a negative thing, but it was confusing exactly how astonishing it was to them. The higher-ups who let me into the building (Apparently just getting into the building was an impressive feat) apparently automatically assumed that I had been exclusively requested to come in that day, and until my direct supervisor saw me, I'd made my way all the way to my work station unquestioned. I guess that is kind of funny...

There's a meeting tomorrow, an hour long, and everyone who shows up gets paid for it. It's a little depressing that, since that's the day buses don't run, the extra hour's pay wouldn't cover the cab fare to get there.

They've had a meeting once before since I've worked here... That was a really trippy morning. First my bus went down a different route than it usually does, which made me feel suspicious but I didn't feel concrete in my decision that it was wrong, and I confirmed I was on the right bus, so I held tight, knowing that, at that point, the fact I could be wrong was my only hope to get to work. When we neared my workplace, I got off, and walked for a bit, only to realize that I was walking in the opposite direction than I usually do to get to work. I turned to go in the opposite direction, but as I turned, I saw that I was in front of my factory.

I walked through the parking lot, seeing no one, which is definitely weird I worried that the different bus route had caused me to take a longer time, but I usually arrive 20 minutes early, and I couldn't conceive that I was 20 minutes past the time I usually show up.

So I ring the buzzer, and some guy lets me in. He gives me a crazy look. When I go up to walk through the area to my normal station, I see him looking over his shoulder at me. I move along, and the factory is completely dead. Never seen it like this before. I open the door to go into the breakroom, and everyone in the plant is staring at me at once.

This is because there was a meeting, supposedly mandatory, that was never reported to the temps. It was held in the breakroom, and I appeared right behind the woman who was speaking.

I just moved to the nearest empty seat without saying a word and listened to the remainder of the presentation (I actually showed up ten minutes earlier than I usually do).

After the meeting, immediately, one of m temp friends came in. I asked him how he managed to dodge the meeting and he said "WHAT MEETING?!"

Almost immediately after, two more temps came in. Nobody knew about the meeting.

Despite strong encouragement frm my fellow temps to put the extra half-hour on my timesheat, I didn't. I felt like it would be saying "I showed up whenever I felt like it and interrupted your meeting. Pay me for it!"

At least no one could depute that I was there, since I drew attention to myself.

Yo, there's this guy I'm working with, who went to the same highschool as me, while I was attending, and for several years, he hung out in the same area that I did, and we saw each other on a daily basis, and he remembers my group, but neither of us remember each other, because we both looked completely different back then, and neither of us know anyone that the other person does, outside of teachers. I know he's not bluffing, because I told him a bit about where I used to sit, and he described my group in detail.

Can't Update

Sorry, both computers busted, no time to get access anywhere else because of the schedule. In a hurry now... Will post when I can!!!

Today I submitted my article for Secondchance's newsletter. You guys were a completely relevant aspect to it. In fact, I was requested the link to this blog, which I dodged. Probably, they'll get the link, see the blog, see me say I dodged their seeing it, and my dodging technique will only come back and bite me.

That's okay. I only dodged speaking on this blog to avoid the knowledge that, while I aim to update everyday, I actually don't.

So today I figured out what the high-tech people's slang-name is. They're "spinners". We have rockers, springers and spinners. Isn't that fun?

Spinners have the toughest job. I always make sure not to take a chair when we're doing small parts, because there isn't enough chairs for everyone, and I always seem to get one. I feel obligated to give everyone their proper chance. And spinners never take chairs.

I always assumed this was an aspect of machismo. People who can handle the toughest job aren't going to deprive any weaklings of their precious chairs. I always thought that I had nothing to prove... That if they insisted on standing, after I gave them their proper chance to sit, it was their problem. But today, I wasput with two people who don't use chairs. I explained to them my philosophy, and they encouraged me to take one.

A spinner complained that he was the only one who wasn't sitting. I offered my seat, and he denied, saying that to do his job, he required an elevated level. Well, that explained a lot. Those spinners aren't standing because they want to, they're standing because they have to!

Want to know a secret? Today someone was required to learn how to spin because the regular spinner wasn't there. I know how to sin, because someone who wasn't a suervisor trained me on my third or fourth day!

I didn't want to stand all day, so I didn't mention my proficiency,while someone else on my team had to be trained and production was ultimately slowed. Is this a bad thing?