Cookie Factory

Yeah, so the cookie factory position didn't pan out. I worked for three days, and then I got a call from the agency congratulating me on completing my assignment. Kinda mystified, since it had an estimated length of one month, and I was told that I should keep working past that estimate unless told otherwise. I didn't have a fallout with anyone, and I didn't receive any criticism.

A brief description of my life in the cookie factory. I was worried because my job title was Oven Room Worker and since we just hit seriously hot weather here in Guelph, I was concerned about temperature. Still, I was on night shift, which is the best shift for it, and since I've done manual labour in sub-Saharan Africa while taking medication that made me sensitive to sunlight, I figured that if anyone could tough it out, it would be me.

First day, I was working in the oven, and I was assigned to watch large sheets of wafer cookies come down through a machine. I was asked to remove and dispose of any defective sheets. They provided unlimited free water as well as something similar to Gatorade. They suggested that I alternate between the two for maximum hydration.

 Second day, they put me in Packaging. Other than the supervisor, I was the only male in that line. Kind of like when I was being trained to be a Machine Operator, and I was put on the Ladies Line. It was doing their only heavy lifting position though. I took boxes of wafer cookies off a conveyor belt, stacked them on skids, labeled them, wrapped them in saran wrap, and wheeled them out to a place where they were picked up by a forklift. It was less hot on that line, but I didn't get any free Gatorade. Third day, I was asked to go on Packaging again, and since it seemed like my job was pretty necessary and consistent, I was wondering if they were going to shift me there permanently, but then I got a call from the agency telling me not to return.

Oh well, I got three full days in, which is tied with the Order Picker position and the box factory position for my longest stints of work this summer, and that's combined with the $13.40 an hour, the highest wage I've ever worked for, so next paycheque should feel pretty good regardless.

And I'm working again next week as an Order Picker at the same place. I've only been asked back for a day, but that's what they do there. A number of temps have been working there full-time, at first being called back on a day-by-day basis, and later on a weekly basis. I ran into someone who had his first day on the same day as myself, and he's been working consistently like that. So hopefully I can fall into a similar routine.

I'm going to Kitchener to look at a house tomorrow that I might be living in next year.

Brother Graduated High School

My brother graduated from high school, and he had his ceremony and got his diploma last Friday. He didn't get a graduation cap, and he didn't get a liripipe either, but he did get his diploma handed to him on-stage, instead of trading it for his robes after-the-fact like I did. Also, since his high school is small, each of the graduating class got to have a small piece said about them. They said of my brother that he was clear-thinking and a deep person, or something like that.

There were sandwiches, pizza, cookies, cake,  and punch, among other things, available after-the-fact. The graduating class got to share in the cutting of the cake. It was a more personal but less formal ceremony than mine.

His diploma has his name spelled correctly on it. Somehow, my certificate has me put down as "Gryphon S. Sibbald". My middle names are "Walter" and "Barent" there is no S in either.

...And now this will be the post that shows up when you Google my name, since I just said my first and last names in succession. Well, I guess I haven't said anything too weird for awhile, so I guess that's alright.

We made an extension to the garden a little while ago, for zucchini, onions, and some more flowers. We got some kind of bug problem, though. The only plant that's really looking healthy at this point is my sunflower, which is looking better every day.

I didn't get called back to the order picking place, but I scored a full-time, ongoing position at a cookie factory. Pays over $13 an hour, it's night shift, and it starts next Tuesday night. Apparently it will require heavy lifting. I had to go through an additional training session at the agency, and they requested references.

More Grad and Work Stuff

Expanding on my graduation post from yesterday, here are some stats I observed.

HSF started with 100 members, was left with 77 after first semester, and wound up with 49 grads. Of those 49, 28 showed up for the ceremony. I noticed that SSW, the program I'm going into, had 33 grads of the about 60 that they started with. So my previous program and the program I'm going into wound up with about 50% of their class graduating, although with SSW, it's stretched out over a longer time period.

I remember there was a class called "Rec and Leisure for Older Adults" that was called after the regular Rec and Leisure class was through. Just like the other classes, they were brought in with "It is my pleasure to present the graduates from the Rec and Leisure for Older Adults program". But the class only had three graduates and only one of them showed up. So they probably shouldn't have said "graduates" in the plural.

Today, the place that I'm working at filled its millionth package, so they gave everyone free cake. When they gave me my slice, they said "Thank you for all your doing". Felt kind of bad being involved in the celebrations when it was only my second day. Today they played music during work, which was nice. I'm going in tomorrow, too.

They have unorthodox shifts. They go 10 AM-6 PM, 9 AM-5 PM, and 12 AM-8 PM. 9-5 is a standard office day, but 10-6 and 12-6 are unique. In the factory world, there are usually three shifts, 7 AM-3 PM (Mornings) 3 PM-11 PM (Afternoons) and 11 PM-7 AM (Nights). I kind of like these new shift ideas, though.

The place that I'm working at is in a really new location. This is only it's third week in the building I'm at right now, although it was pretty well established at it's old location.

I used to apply at this company, and for this position, all the time. I almost laughed when the agency sent me here.

HSF Graduation

Sorry for the blog lull guys. Here's a recap of the past almost two weeks.

I had my graduation ceremony for HSF last Wednesday. We got to wear robes and liripipes, but not caps. I think there's some kind of health concern about sharing hats. We didn't get our certificates/diplomas/degrees respectively when we walked onstage. We got them by exchanging our robes and liripipes afterward. Seems like there's been past issues with people running away with their graduation garb.

If you don't know what a liripipe is, it's kind of a sash that you wear over one of your shoulders at graduation. I never heard of the word before, and I have no idea if I'm remembering/spelling it right. Either my spellcheck doesn't know the word or I'm off-base.

The actual ceremony consisted of us taking turns going up, shaking hands with various people, and getting a liripipe put on us. Lots of people dropped their liripipes, so I was very proud when I didn't.

The ceremony was shown online. I would have tipped you guys off and maybe you could have watched it, but I had no idea that that was happening until it was announced at the ceremony.

It was a really formal ceremony, but when we were making our exit, we were played out with an orchestral take on Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. It was really slow and without lyrics, so I thought that maybe Gaga had taken a tune from a classical piece, similar to how people are always using Pachelbell's Canon.

Here's a comedian complaining about that.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

But then they got to the "Rara romara" bit and they put on this raunchy brass. Nothing but Bad Romance.

I didn't take any photos, but somebody tagged me in one. Here you go.

I had some work the following Friday. An agency was willing to bus me out to Aberfoyle to help put up a plastic dome for some festival. I thought it was going to be low paying, since they were bussing out people without cars en mass. People without cars are generally poorer and will settle for lower pay, and jobs requiring tons of people won't inspire a good wage, and since they were already paying for the bus, I didn't think they'd be in the mood to give out more than they already were. But it turned out to be $12 an hour, my best wage this year. Turns out, they were willing to bus out minimally-skilled workers en mass for a good wage because they were only taking the most physically powerful workers available.

Flattered that they thought of me, but it's a humbling experience being among your peers. I managed to keep up, but I wasn't the team strong man for once. Very gratifying work being able to physically exert yourself, and it's good to be outside in the fresh air, although I wound up getting a bit of a sunburn.

This week I got more work, this time as an order picker. I take lists of customer orders and go around filling boxes with the items listed. It's not really a factory, more of a warehouse. No machines, no need for any PPE such as hearing, hand, or eye protection. Only steel-toed boots. Got more work tomorrow and Wednesday, and it looks like this could go further.

Lost Some Electricity

I got called back to work at the place that I was doing Quality Control for earlier this summer. Same job, and they'll probably have me in tomorrow, since they have more bolts needed to inspect, but probably nothing after that.

Some electrician was in our house because of the construction being done for the new neighbors.  He knocked out the lights in both bedrooms and we've been like this for a number of days. He's coming in tomorrow to fix it. Today, we had a powerout and assumed that it must be connected to our other problem with power, but nope. Coincidental legit powerout that only lasted two hours at max.

We got our garden going. We dug out a plot of land and our plants that we were growing indoors have been growing outside for a number of days. IT turned out to be a decent-sized garden.

Oh, and I just wanted to mention that according to this blog's stats, there was a huge viewership spike for "Didn't get Called Back for Work". Too bad it had to be for my only recent submission surrounding a disappointment. Oh well, I kind of did get called back at this point, so it's all good.