ya know?

you know the feeling when someone is making a complete fool of themself and you can't even look at that person because you're too embarassed for that person? its kinda like those bachelor parties and you see the groom walking around downtown vancouver in a woman's dress and everyone looks away because they can't believe that theres a person out there capable of inflicting such embarassment on themselves?

well, that person might be me. as most of you probably know our union has issued 72 hour strike notice. thats today. so as the saying goes the sh*t hits the fan today. so apparently, that means that we (the employees of the company) are legally entitled to take job action. (ie. stop work and picket, wear shorts to work, scream "sanctuary" up and down the hallways... whatever you get the picture.)

in this case, our union has asked us to do a few things. some things i'm a bit iffy about, to say the least.

• overtime ban - this i can kinda understand. it's not a strike unless there was some, "hey i don't want to earn anymore money. even tho my union is only going to give me $200 for picketing 4 days a week, 7.5 hours", right?
• changing the voice mail message - first of all, the telephone system here is probably the most complicated i've seen. i don't even know how to change my voice mail. mine still says, "hi i'm ritchie i will be on vacation from march 1st, 2000 to march 19, 2000. please leave a message and i will return your call when i get back. thank you"
• changing your email signature to "Good people deserve a good contract" - no comment really i don't have a comment. at least i don't have one that i can say say without getting killed by an angry mob of "good" union people.
• buttons err... flares - this is just too office space for me. i wonder what the minimum amount of flares i can wear is. the phrase, "bare minimum amount of flares" comes to mind for some reason.
• the lockout emergency survival kit supposed to (1) assemble items into a bag, (2) label bag as lockout emergency survival kit and finally (3) put under desk for all to see. of course, the only people who come to my desk are really me and.... uumm... me.
• the cyber picketline - oh lord, must.... not.... make.... fun.... of.... blog.... fodder.

i'm not quite sure exactly how to react to it. honestly.

free time!

wow, all of a sudden. the amount of free time in my life has turned from none to a lot. i'm at a loss, i don't know what to do. so many fun things to do so little time.

maybe i'll just train for the rock, paper scissors championship. <link via=ted>

strike! strike! yay!

yes folks, its almost there. labour relations in my office has gone from already kinda bad to really really bad. apparently our union is going to serve strike notice to the company on monday if nothing happens to improve the proposed contract.

this dumb feud has been going on for a while now. its been: talks and wait, talks bicker and wait, talks more bickering and waiting. its really quite frustrating to watch. i personally will keep my opinions of this whole thing hidden from the public (ie, won't write it in this blog entry). But there is something i do want to voice my opinion out on.

what has anyone done to prepare? i mean, there really is no excuse to being unprepared for this. these talks started months and months ago. i'm still quite baffled at the fact that i'm still hearing people say, "i'm dipping into my line of credit, or taking out a bank loan to support myself and my family" when i ask them what their contingency plan is. i don't think theres any excuse for not being prepared and being prepared doesn't mean the "i'm planning to go into debt" approach. its already been a few months since all this strike talk has been going on.

maybe its just me but i don't have the stomach for debt.

the last leg!

my teacher once told me, be careful what you wish for. it might come true. i have a tendency to set goals every year. this year, i've worked on building myself up and my business into something profitable. i've also set some personal goals for myself: like teaching, losing weight and other smaller goals. be careful what you wish for indeed.

kill bill!

i saw kill bill! although i didn't like pulp fiction that much. this one was great! quintin tarantino, can i have some of that stuff you're smoking? must be some good -ish!

there is something about chiaki kuriyama. i think it might the school girl outfit. maybe its that killer ball and chain. maybe its just me.

my job...

so i've been thinking alot about my job. i wonder if i could survive anywhere else, maybe in a non-computer related field. i know a few environmentalists, graphic artists and non-techie people but i really want to evaluate if i can survive somewhere that doesn't involve computers.

i mean, don't get me wrong. i like replacing old people with automated technology but i'm curious. so i took a quick look around friendster and saw that there were some club promoters.

that sounds like an interesting job, i don't think i can handle it tho. it takes a certain type of person to be a club promoter. someone who can handle rejection quite well, rebound and keep going. somebody who can be very friendly (which probably explains their 200,000 friends) and outgoing.

i can just imagine...*begin dream sequence*

me: hey buddy! theres a big party at that nightclub on friday night. theres a bunch of scantily dressed women and much alcohol to be consumed. could i also interest you in this flyer to show your friends and family?
big asian body builder guy: ...
me: big ... party?
babbg: no.
me: *runs away scared* aaaaahhhhhh!

i think i'll stick with computers.

on buzzwords...

god, i love it when inepty people throw out buzzwords. i should monitor a certain person from my work place and see how many times i can count the use of a buzzword.

this person seems to think that by throwing certain buzzwords around he can raise his credibility when in the overall picture he actually lowers it.

latest buzzword used in an email: blogs.

should i start a buzzword count from this person? what rules should i have around counting the buzzwords?

ahhh the loser cruiser

yes folks, i woke up yesterday to flat tire. my day off to run errands and do the various tasks associated with doing a home and my car was unusable. i hate my car. i really do hate it.

which forced me to take the loser cruisers aka skytrain and seabus. named accordingly because commuters might get scared of a train running on a track 50 feet above the street and a passenger vehicle operating on water! thats unheard of!

the good thing about it was that while standing squished between the smelly construction worker and the non-morning person businessman sans morning coffee, there was a cute mom baby-daughter duo which were completely caught up in themselves. the little girl looked at me and my reaction was to smile and make a funny face in which she laughed quite loudly.

thats when i realized that everyone was looking at the yuppie looking guy with the funky glasses, mp3 player (listening to justin timberlake), palm and backpack looking like a complete idiot crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue. oh well, babies and the things they can make you do.