On a less pissed-off note...

Since it's getting a bit cold to be dragging guitars around while hopping buses, this past weekend's jam in Hull was probably the last one this year.

It's been a blast doing this (mostly) bi-weekly if not weekly. Trying out different guitars, teaching each other riffs, and just plain messing around much louder than we could elsewhere.

Not to mention all the beer and poutine.

Anyhow, some heavily edited guitar goodness:

The Last Straw/Perfect Timing

I get to work today, sit down at my desk and my (former) manager comes up to me

Him:"Oh, I got an e-mail from Operations, you have a shift change next week!"
Me: "Uhhh...to what?"
Him:"Starting Monday, you have 5pm-1am, Thursday and Friday off"
Me: "...Well, I can't do that....
Him:"Oh, you bus don't you?"
Me: "...yeah..."
Him:"Well, I'll pass on that concern to them, but you really should speak to your manager - Tom" <- not Tom's real name
Me: "Wait a minute - since when's Tom my manager?
Him:"A week and a half ago - you didn't know?"
Me: "No! No one told ME! That's why I've been sending YOU e-mails!"
(he hangs his head)
Him:"So he never came up and introduced himself as your...well, I'm sorry. And I don't mind dealing with the e-mails, but you need to talk to him about this issue"
Me: "Wait so you said my shift changes monday? Today's Wednesday. I should get a week's notice"
Him:"You're right, so it'll be Wednesday"
Me: "Wednesday..."(I smile)"...I'll be in Cuba Wednesday - for two weeks. Yeah, that's cool, my shift can change then" (we both laugh) "Thanks for the heads up, I'll talk to Tom when he comes in, if the shift change is non negotiable, I'll be giving my two weeks notice on Tuesday "


So I spoke to Tom, and he'll be speaking to Operations on my behalf, but it "doesn't look promising", though I "Shouldn't panic" - I'm not exactly panicking here, I'm just saying that 5pm-1am ain't gonna happen. But in any case, even if someone in Operations wakes up and realizes that someone without a car has no way of getting from Kanata to the West End after 1am, I've lost too much faith in my workplace. As soon as I come back from Cuba I'm job hunting.


Let me explain:

I had another position in the same company, where
I worked 8am-4:30pm, with weekends off - this shift was pretty much guaranteed as long as I stayed in this department as those roughly were the hours of operation.

I was asked to switch to another department with hours of operation between 9am-1am. I was assured that I would be among a group that would get first pick at shifts, and the fact that I bus would be taken into consideration. I accepted.

Well, I never got to pick a shift, but the first week I had 11am-6pm, weekends off. Pretty cool.

Halfway through that week, I found out my shift would be changing to 12pm-8pm. Weekends off. Not shabby, I didn't even complain about getting less than a weeks notice.

Two weeks later, I get 4 days notice that my shift will change to 3pm-11pm, weekends off. Well, I'm not a morning person, and I still have my weekends - I let it slide.

...But now this...yeah, this is the last straw...

...Or perfect timing, what better way to spend my last two weeks with the company than on a paid vacation in Cuba?

More Gretsch Goodness

Been having a lot of fun with an overdrive pedal a friend lent me - going to have to get my own when I'm forced to give it back - I can't go back to playing Purple Haze without it.

That is all

New Obsession

I've recently received a raise and a promotion at my current job, as well as a nice lump sum payment from a former job (long story, but it made my month of October :D ), so I went out yesterday and bought myself a little present to celebrate:










Gretsch G5245T Double Jet.

Time to start Rockin in The Free World :)

The No Redundancy and Sore Throat Blues

This last week at work a new computer system was rolled out at work that was supposed to make our job simpler. It was supposed to consolidate about 5 different applications we use into one in order to make everything a lot more seamless - It looked great in theory, but in practice - it was DOA. Monday morning I signed on to my computer, and instead of simplicity, I'm greeted by a mess of javascript errors, and the realization that the 5 applications this new one was supposed to replace had been completely killed off - so for the short while I worked Monday (being a holiday I got the option to go home early and heartily took it) - my job mainly consisted of telling people I couldn't do my job.

Tuesday I come in, and am assured the new application is up and fully operational. I begin working on my first case, and for the first 5 minutes I'm thinking "wow... I think they actually got it right...." - and then I get a whole new mess of javascript errors. So Tuesday (a much busier day being right after a long weekend) was also spent mostly telling people that I couldn't do my job - and every 30 minutes management would come around with updates on the new tool "it's up - it's down, it's up - it's down..." Until the third time I finally blew up and told them "Fuck that, it's down, and if it just happens to be up, I know damn well it's going to go back down while I'm in the middle of something".

I just couldn't believe they would roll out something this crucial to our job, without making damn sure it worked before locking us out of the tools we had available earlier - even if they were a bit clumsy at least they worked - ok, not all the time but at least 4 days a week. Why did they not keep them as backups until the new system mproved it's worth? Was it because they were afraid we were just goint to stick to what we knew and wouldn't use it? But the whole point of it was to make our lives simpler!

Redundancy can be a very good thing, especially during an experimental stage!

Anyways, this actually went on until at least Thursday believe it or not - going to work mainly to tell people I could not do my job. I saw at least one person get up and walk out because they found it too stressful.

Friday morning, I wake up with an incredibly sore throat, which REALLY sucks since my stats are being monitored in anticipation of a new contract next week, but I simply couldn't work like that, so I called in. It's actually the second time I've been (legitimately) sick enough not to come in in a few months, and both were due to throat infections, maybe it's just me but I think it tells me something about the air quality at work.

Being sick and it being so cold outside, I also forewent my weekly Friday night binge/jam session in Hull, but I did find this amazing website http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.phpAnd I spent the evening learning part of the Blues Scale in E - I then started messing around with it and actually came up with my first own guitar riff. I don't have anything to record it with, but I did tab it in Guitar Pro (one of the few reasons I still have Windows installed on my computer). But anyways, here is a screenshot of my first "masterpiece".

...I think it may be a sign...

So I was pretty much unable to sleep Sunday night - you might think that three straight nights of partying would have tired me out - and tired I was, but I guess I was also wired because I tossed and turned till the early hours of the morning, and then had some very vivid dreams which made no sense 5 minutes after waking up and were pretty much forgotten within 15.

I'm not sure if 'waking up' is the right term when I had 2, maybe 3 hours of sleep, but my alarm goes off, and I stumble out of bed. I consider calling in sick, but decide I can't at this point without an obvious pattern emerging - 'Gee, he's always sick either Friday or Monday...' - so I head out, suck back a bus station coffee, and try to stay awake on the bus, figuring it'll only be worse for me if I have to 'wake up' again. I walk into the office thinking it will be the worst day yet...somehow I'm absolutely mistaken.

I'm totally not there the entire day, but by sheer nerves and willpower I manage to keep up a facade of wakefulness - moreover it seems I'm truly productive - I go home with the second highest number of sales in my team, and at one point a supervisor complements my performance in dealing with a case. I'm so out of it the day flies by...and I begin to understand why there is a secondary smoking area out of sight behind some bushes.

It all makes me think - now that I've had some time to recuperate and can actually think - It takes lowering my mental capacity to the point where I'm temporarily lobotomized to really shine at work - I really need to start getting my resume out there.

It's amazing what you can find on the internet

So I've had a hell of a bad day, hardly any sleep the night before, called in sick to work so I could get my passports in order and instead got stonewalled by red tape and a certain embassy that is not open on monday - so I'm calling in sick again tomorrow - screw it, I haven't gotten so much as a verbal warning for absenteeism yet, and one way or another I'll be in Cuba for New Year's. My paycheque is going to suck - added with the fact that it will cost me close to $500 to get a Canadian passport and a Cuban passport - and I'm not even looking into airfare yet. But anyhow, enough complaining.

I guess that my conviction that this time I'm really going back, no matter what it takes, has made me more homesick than ever before, and I started remembering some TV shows I watched as a kid - and then - I wondered - is it possible that any of those may be found on the internet? Well, since I'm posting this entry the answer is obviously yes. On youtube, I found more than I could imagine - I figured maybe I'd find 2 minute clip at most, but instead I found a good number of full Elpidio Valdés episodes - my favourite Cuban cartoon!

Not only that, but it seems that some fellow Cubans have also been longing for the cartoons they grew up with, because I found a couple of other cartoons - these Russian - but with spanish descriptions. 'The musicians of Bremen" - Part one here and Part two here, and last but not least, an episode of the mighty Cheburashka - Part one here and Part two here

Wow, talk about blasts from the past - that stuff really brings me back. I began remembering all the Elpidio episodes as I began watching them - and the musicians of bremen - hell I'd forgotten all about that one until I heard the theme song. This definitely made my day a bit better. Now if I could only find (or remember the name of) the Cuban cartoon with that cat that used to yell "¡Guayába!" *edit* Haha! Found it!

P.S. wow - sweet, even found this old educational short on aerodynamics

Belated Guide to having a Great Weekend

First, realize that the weekend - even the long variety - is never long enough. Every second away from the daily grind is precious, so economize your time. One suggestion I can make is, shave a few minutes from your morning routine by shaving your head. You will not need to worry about combs or hair gel, will experience a peculiar light-headed sensation without the assistance of any substance, and the reactions are priceless when you go from "getting a bit shaggy" to "just got back from chemo" (to maximise said reactions, wear a hat).

Secondly, use this recipe for an amazing party:

- 1 fine Friday evening
- 1 house in Hull with a Depaneur two doors down and a bar a block away
- 1 Large group of people, preferrably those who own and/or can play a musical instrument. Try to make this group of people grow during the week. Be as enticing as possible - mention the girl with the nice maracas. If they are still unsure, assure them that she will let them play with her maracas.
- 1 stereo system with good music to play along with - 'Lighning Crashes' is a prime example.

Raid the depaneur for beer, drink, play music - in the words of Bob Dylan, play fucking loud. Take a break at some point in the late night/early morning to grab some poutine or drop by the bar for a bit. Return to the house and drink and play some more until the sun comes up. Repeat this whole process every second friday if not every friday.

Thirdly, take Saturday to recuperate from the hangover, the guitar playing (finger picking) related blisters, and the insanely sore right knee ( how the hell did THAT happen?). Have a movie night with a few friends. Watch 'Harvey Birdman' Volume 1 and 'Waiting'. Do yourself a favour and skip watching 'Syriana' - you'll likely just end up slightly confused by story lines which never seem to converge, bored by cliches, and two hours older.

Fourthly, given that Saturday you took it easy, Sunday is once again a good time to have some drinks with friends, though definitely not in such a grand way as friday. Have a beer and pizza night. Watch some more Harvey Birdman, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and listen to some live George Thorogood. If the weekend if of the long variety, you'll have time tomorrow to clean and do laundry. If not, you always have that 'Slacker 101' shirt you can wear to the office until you get a writeup saying otherwise.