I Got Money

Yo, I got both my cheques deposited! I am now a man with almost $900!!! Turns out, my first cheque DID go through... I just misunderstood the machine and thought the bar saying how much I wanted to withdraw was how much money was in my account, which is by default nothing. I also got my second cheque deposited... and I ordered cheques so that I can do direct deposit with my agency.

I took a taxi today, since it's the day buses don't run. It cost me, like $20. And I thought the $2.75 for bus fare was a ripoff. It actually cost me $16.30, but I knew I was supposed to tip, and that a tip is usually 15%, and I'm not too quick with math, and I'm not going to ask for $1.70 back or something like that, so I just told her to keep the change.

I guess two hours of my work week go into that ride. I've spent $140 so far, between that ride and living expenses.

There was a lot of things I wanted to do today. I particularly wanted to write my article for 2ndchance, but I slept until 6:00, which halves my day.

Long Weekend

There was no overtime this weekend and we got a day off. Also, my agency called me and told me that night shift was canceled last Tuesday, but it wasn't, and I'm the only one they screwed up with. So I wound up missing a day, without calling in. I explained it to my supervisor and he was really chill about it. I told him I'd work twice as hard that day to make up for lost time and he thought I was being hilarious. The other people were surprised he was so cool about it, because apparently he was real pissed about it the day of. I don't blame him. Last Sunday night, I was late for work, because no buses run that day, as I've said, and my ride forgot to pick me up. Also, I screwed up my timesheet when I was filling it out... Turns out Sunday night/Monday morning, the first day of the week, is put into the last day of the week on the timesheet, Tuesday is the first slot, and builds from there until Sunday. The hours were still right so he signed it anyway. It was also a day late, because I gave two timesheets away, thinking I had more.

That's three screw-ups in three days. Take into account the day I couldn't get into the building near the beginning, and that's four screw-ups in ten working days. That's like, a screw-up every other day. Honestly, I wonder why I'm still around.

I've been neglecting my emails and Facebook, as well as this blog. I haven't checked in like, four days and I'm nervous about it. Here I go...

Okay, so I missed out on seeing Dad this weekend and a few people asked me where I was working over Facebook.

I still don't have any money! I've worked three weeks and I haven't made a penny! I've spent buttloads on bus fare, though. I guess the bank decided not to process my first cheque and then never notify me. I got my second paycheque today. My first one was worth $260. This one hs the first two numbers reversed: $620. Too bad I only did three days this week, so it'll be another $260.

Second Wind

So, after being told that laptops create infertility risk, I hit up a search for "laptop sperm" (using Mamma, though, not Google, so it doesn't reach their archives) and I found out that... it's true: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/17664.php

Well, that's horrifying.

Anyway, here's a couple of pics of my new beard and suit: http://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2010/11/suited-me.html

So, yesterday I kind of hit the wall regarding work. Today I got my second wind, and it just flew by. Everything all of a sudden seems tolerable.

Although I entered my last cheque into a machine because I didn't want to wait until the bank opened after I already waited for the temp agency to open to get my cheque, and it was Friday and I wanted it to clear before the weekend, but now I realize it will probably take like, a week for it to clear because I didn't just see a teller on the coming Monday, and it probably won't even clear, because I forgot to sign it!

And not only that, but I thought I had four timecards. I used one last week, then I gave two away to people who forgot their timecards, but now I can't find my last one, and I need one tonight!

It feels like actually receiving money for my work is out of reach right now...

Although I'm still not in as bad shape today as I was yesterday. Yesterday I really hit the wall, but today I got my second wind.

Turns out, the reason we keep being put on these parts is because we broke a company record! Turns out, we're the company's team of elites! For Night Shift, there is no Mission Impossible!

I don't think I need to worry about getting fired. They'd put me on Afternoons, with the semi-hardcore if I couldn't cut it with Nights, and then they'd stick me on the wimpy Days before they fired me.

There's one guy on my team who works two full-time jobs. He worked 22 hours in a row and got three hours sleep last I talked to him. He makes the 12-hour people look like slackers.

There's another guy on my team who sticks two springs in one shot. I'm fast enough to make a person cry for mercy if I wanted, but this guy's almost twice my speed!

After I learned how we broke a record, I volunteered for the tougher job. It's not financial stimuli that motivates me. Greed isn't very high up on my list of Sins. But Pride is.

One thing I hate about my job is, there's clocks everywhere. You keep looking at them, and it makes the time crawl! You count it down by percentage... half a day left, one quarter, one eighth, one sixteenth, one thirty-secondth...

I think that guy found out my name's not Jason. He didn't refer to me by name all day, even though we talked... Awkward.

Work work work...

Hey, so on night shift, Saturday morning and Sunday night shift is mandatory... Thurs-Fri and Fri-Sat are overtime days... There are no buses on Sundays. So, we'll see how this turns out.

I got my first paycheque today. Just for three days last week... $260.01. I'm not on direct deposit, because I didn't have a cheque, and I couldn't order some, because I'm broke. So I needed to collect my cheque and deposit it, which meant I needed to wait outside the temp agency for 45 minutes until it opened after I finished my shift.

My left foot has one blister on the middle toe, and my right has two on the middle toe and one on the pinkie. Is my right foot weaker than my left?

The factory is about 50% male and 50% female. Factory work seems to not by any means be a male-exclusive trade. It's interesting, how, in some areas, the glass ceiling stays intact, while in others, it has broken.

Oftentimes in factories, they put males on tasks requiring heavy lifting, while they put females on work that requires repetition and dexterity. In my opinion, the females have it rougher. Since our tasks are dexterity and repetition, I guess this is a kind of feminine job.

Today was considered overtime, and while on days, very few people came in, on nights, there was only one person on our team who didn't come, and I didn't really notice a difference in the general population size.

There's a guy at work who thinks my name is Jason, and I let him think it too long, and now it would be too awkward to tell him that's not my name.

I got some ties from Secondchance! Now my suit is full.

I have this pocketwatch that got disconnected from it's chain, so it still works, but I can't open it. In Katimavik, I was always playing with it, and managed to open it only twice, never finding a consistent solution. The other day, Mom found a solution: she pulled the cotton swab off a Q-tip and stuck it through where the chain was! I can't believe it, all this effort, and a Q-tip shaft was all it took! The shaft stays in place when it's in my pocket, and it doesn't even take any effort more than that of pressing a button to make it open and close! And if it breaks, what does it matter? It's just a Q-tip!

I have pocketwatch because somebody got one for me for Christmas, because I told that person I don't wear a watch, because having something on my wrist bugs me, and I always wind up carrying it in my pocket, and then it breaks.

I got my blue stripe in Karate the other day! There's a Saturday class at 8 AM that I thought I would never attend. I was like "There's no place I will ever be on a Saturday at 8 AM other than in bed!" But now I'm working Saturdays, I get off at 7 AM, and my bus goes right by the dojo...

My batteries are running low... 6 hours sleep today, 5 the day before, 5 the day before that. Having difficulty adjusting, and I don't have any free days to catch up. At least one more week I have to do... Every day is cumulatively more difficult. It feels like I haven't stopped working since the day I started. Time off feels like little more than my 20-minute lunch break.

It's difficult to say what's so hard... I'm in there, and I wonder if it's my legs hurting, but they're relatively okay. They hurt, but not more than I'm used to putting them through. I wonder if it's sleep deprivation, but it's the same way for that.

And when I get off... Waiting for my cheque felt only slightly better than working, and when I got home, even sleeping felt like a chore, even though I was tired... Food doesn't taste good anymore...

First Night Shift Experience

Night shift wasn't so bad... I think it might become my favourite shift. You're awake and free while the world is working, so you've got the best options for activity, you have you're largest meal (everyone else's dinner) when you wake up, which is healthiest, and for lunch, you can just pack dinner leftovers, which is better than me gorging dinner and scraping some cruddy thing for lunch when I'm tired in the morning, having procrastinated packing it the night before. There are a lot fewer people on nights, and the pace is more relaxed, but it has a reputation for being for people made of sterner stuff. See? All positivity.

I hope the fact that there are less people on nights doesn't mean there's a lower percentage time each individual spends on nights as opposed to the other shifts.

Again, I was the only person to be transferred. When I was doing inspection today, they gave me gloves. We always have gloves on, but usually, they're these thin, blue, disposable gloves you throw out every break and lunch. The ones I got today are black, reusable, and you can use them for everything, and the people who have them do use them for everything. It's like a status symbol. I'm not some scrub newbie that uses disposable gloves. I've moved up in the world.

They call the break we get at 4:30 AM "lunch break". Well, I guess it's lunch according to our biological systems, but it doesn't fit the clock system, so it's funny.

I haven't been reading my book at free time. I'm still feeling out the environment. The people who aren't talking generally fold their arms and stare into the distance, so I've been doing that, too. I'll probably do more reading once I feel my presence has been better established. Right now, I've just been keeping my eyes and ears open at all times.

I didn't go to Karate and instead took a nap before work because I'm a pansy. Now I'm going to Karate. I have to walk all the way there, because I don't want to waste bus fare, now that I'm working and I use so much of it. Won't be a problem with time, because I should make enough money to be pulling in profit in comparison with my bus fare output, but right now, I haven't yet gotten paid, and we've been struggling to keep me in bus fare.

It's an hour walk both ways to and from Karate. That's two hours of walking for an hour and a half of work. I'll have half an hour before I have to take the bus to work, which is about 40 minutes. So I'll be able to have a cup of coffee before I leave.

There's a guy that commutes from another city to work, and it takes him half an hour. It takes me 40 minutes by bus.

Our stupid oven broke. Me and Mom managed to bake bread, but it takes greater improvisation than it did before. I hope my baking days aren't done. I may be a working man, but I'm not too macho to have a love for baking.

Also, I lost like, five shirts and a belt, and nobody can find them. That is so annoying.

My old W2W counselor got me some ties to go with the free suit they gave me, but when I got downtown after work, it would still have been 45 minutes of waiting in the rain before they opened, and I wussed out. I'll do it today.

Switched to Night Shift

So I worked for three hours today and then I got switched to night shift. He said I had two options: either go home now, get some sleep, come back at 11:00, or do my shift and come back the next day at 11:00. He phrased it like, "Come in at 11:00 tonight... if you think you can handle it", so of course I was like "WROOARGH! I can handle it!"

Today they put me on a new task. I check parts, mark them if they have the right stuff, take them off a conveyor belt and put them on a platform, and put another part from another platform on the conveyor belt to replace the part I took off. I don't know what these parts are. It's more challenging than springing and rocking. Is it a good sign that I was the one selected to do this? Or is it a bad sign that they keep rotating me? It could have been any of the springer/rockers.

Anyway, he said to get some sleep, but here's my plan:
-Bake bread
-Go to Karate
-Go to work without having slept at all

11 hours in one day... That's coming in on 12. I'm a little like those 12-a-day workers I was talking about.

Car Clutch: Whole Process

So, it looks like the organic restaurant wasn't ready to aim that part-time. Looks like I'm not a vegetarian again! Hey, I know that makes me sound like I have no integrity and like I'm whoring my values based on environment but... Hey! That's.... Not a nice thing to say....

Today I learned how to do the more high-tech job. You know how I said there were three jobs: rocking, springing, and high-tech? Well, today things were pretty slow, to the point where, people were producing at a rate that was just making things congested. So, the woman I was working with decided to train me on the third job, because we basically had some time to kill.

It goes: Put on metal ring. Put big cog over little cog. Spin. Pop out different kind of metal ring. Mark. Put on a third kind of metal ring. Mark, mark, mark.

There you go. A little more complex than the other two jobs. Now I can do the whole process by myself.

We have to wear earplugs, but there isn't all that much noise. I feel it just makes it more difficult to communicate.

I wonder if my steel-toed boots are too small. They're the same size as my regular shoes, but maybe the steel takes away some space, so you should go a size larger. The first day I wore them, they blistered up my feet pretty bad, but I kept wearing them anyway, because I didn't have much else in the way of options. I've been doing okay recently. I don't know if that's because of the shoe getting worn in (is it likely to wear in steel?) or because my foot got tougher. Also, these stupid shoes wear in my socks at the heels.

Today, my boss and the person I was working with complained that I was too quite. Aw, man. It's my fourth day. I'm feeling out the environment. I don't know how to communicate with you guys.

...Now I have to concentrate on not just being a good worker, but also a good companion. What a pain...

At lest that means they want more of me, not less, which is kind of positive.

There was another two temps today. They seem to be flowing in two per day. One of them asked me to get more material, then asked me for advice with springing, then she asked my name, then she asked how long I'd been working there.

I told her three-and-a-half days. I wonder if this can be interpreted positively, meaning I seem at home in the environment, or competent. Probably over-analyzing.