When Is A Good TIme?

A couple months back I was talking to my mom and somehow our conversation touched on work. I told her I was going to quit (only being half serious at the time) and she told me that now was not a good time to quit. That got me pondering if there ever really was a good time to quit.

Now for one who has a plethora of skills, talents, papers hanging on the walls from various institutions of higher learning, and the ability to bullshit their way through an interview, I am sure anytime would be fine for them to quit, maybe not ideal but they would get on just fine. But for one who has very limited skills, only one paper from one of these higher learning institutions that is starting to brown on the edges, and the lack of bullshitting skills that will easily get them through an interview, I doubt there is ever really a good time to quit, especially when that said person is getting paid far too much to do nothing for seven hours a day all while losing any knowledge acquired at any learning institution (including elementary school). Finding a job to maintain their standard of life would be almost impossible.

There is never going to be a perfect time for anything in life, let alone quitting a job, but the first group of people should have little trouble finding employment elsewhere in the event they are unhappy at their current employment no matter how poorly the economy is doing. The only hindrance will be the qualities of the new employment these people are looking for (an extra week vacation or a parking spot close to the doors or a corner office or just an office with a view or maybe even the ability to work from home on occasion). The second group of people, on the other hand, will always struggle to find employment no matter how well the economy is doing, with perhaps the exception of low paying and low experience type jobs (working the fryers at McDonald's for instance).

While people in the first group sometimes have great jobs fall into their laps, so to speak, (via headhunters) the people in the second group will never have jobs come to them. Instead these people need to work endlessly to find new employment that will maintain their standard of living or at least one acceptable to them. They need to constantly be aware of their current sitaution so they can get out before they become stuck at a dead end job that would make them even less appealing to other employers. The people in this group who find themselves unsatified with limited opportunities have to decide: remain unhappy at their current job and keep their standard of living or leave the place of dread and lose some comforts of life in the hopes that they will find another job that will be, at the very least, tolerable.

Unfortunately for me, I fall into the second group. I am short on skills, lack knowledge needed to advance, am terrible in formal interviews and selling myself, am miserable and bored at my current job, and may have stayed at my current job too long to be appealing to others. It appears that I have come to my fork in the road: should I stay or should I go? Some would stay and some have left to become much happier than those that stayed. The main obstacle in my way is my financial obligations. Do I remain unhappy and overpaid or do I trade that financial security for happiness and perhaps sanity? For me the answer is obvious.....

Ask and You Shall Not Receive

While strolling to the washroom I hear this indecipherable voice behind me. After a prolonged moment of contemplation, I decided to find out who was behind me and turned to see my coworker John coming towards me and I slow down (which was hard because I was walking so slow I’d lose a race with a snail) to make it easier for him to catch up to me.

“Busy, busy,” John commented. Or was it a question?

Unsure if it was a comment or a question I remained silent.

John tried again, “are you busy?”

“Not at all,” I replied.

John continued the conversation with “I’m crazy busy.”

“Let me know if you need any help.”

“I should be okay,” John concluded before I turned towards the washroom.

It is no wonder why I am so freakin’ bored at work when I flat out ask for stuff and, despite everyone else being “crazy busy”, I receive nothing. There is only so much message board idiocy one can dull their senses with before they go insane. Ah well, back to the never ending debate on whether field lacrosse or box lacrosse is the “real” lacrosse. Maybe it’s time to switch sports and find out how many Jays fans think Hallady got shafted at the All-Star game lat night by only pitching one inning. Better yet, time for food and a 4 hour nap......

Say It Ain't So

The brief two days of freedom have come to a quick end and the beginning of another five long and agonizing days of the mundane are upon us. I so need a vacation.

Close Enough

I'm outta here! I will just have to walk slower en route to the train.

Only 10 Minutes Left...

After wasting away over seven working hours in a day, one would think wasting a mere ten minutes would be a simple task. Unfortunately, that ten minutes feels like a century when it is the day ten minutes of a workday, before a weekend. I thought today was going to be easier than most as I had a late afternoon meeting but the meeting did not last as long as I had hoped and I had to find ways to amuse myself for the last hour fo today. There is nothing as painful as staring blankly at a computer screen waiting for time to pass one by.

Now down to 6 minutes and it is not getting any easier...

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

June 2008 Quotes

the Creator made women so men would not find life too easy. - Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

Panic is highly contagious, especially in situations when nothing is known and everything is in flux. - Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

...we're all in our private traps--clamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. We--we scratch and claw, but only at the air--only at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch. - Psycho (1959)

Some said that turnabout was fair play, but she had never believed in fighting fair. Either you fought, or you did not, and it was never a game. Fairness was for people standing safely to one side, talking while others bled. - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

I guess that’s what this maturity thing is about, growing up and being able to face being what you are. - Claude Brown (Manchild in the Promised Land)

Patience is a virtue that must be learned, but we must all be ready for the change of an instant. - Robert Jordan (The Great Hunt)

Only fair treatment can make men friendly and of one mind. - Francis MacDonald Cornford (The Republic of Plato)

I have every reason to give Him thanks because, never having any obligation to me, He has nevertheless given me those few perfections that I have. - Rene Descartes (Meditations on First Philosophy)

From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork. - J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

If you go out alone you’re a hero. Take somebody else with you and you’re dogpiss. - Stephen King (The Body)

Lost within my plans for life,
It all seems so unreal.
I'm a man cut in half in this world,
Left in my misery.
- Pantera (Cemetary Gates)

And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
- The Eagles (Hotel California)

That's the thing about women...If one says no, there's always another will say yes. - Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

Complex plans had many ways to fall apart… - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you're alive… - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Change what you can if it needs changing, but learn to live with what you can't change. - Robert Jordan (New Spring)

…and that even when our life is harsh and inexplicable, we may still make it into a worthy and heroic destiny, provided we maintain the invincibility of the mind. - Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

But the heart must call for its rights, too, and a man or woman who doesn't listen is a fool. - Stephen King (Wolves of the Calla)

You needn't die happy when the day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end… - Stephen King (The Dark Tower)

A man did what he could. What he had to. - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Maybe it's better not to brood…Sometimes-especially when you know a thing's going to be hard-it's better just to get on your horse and ride. - Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike… - J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

There's a moment in every man's life
When he must decide what is wrong and what's right

You could wait for your dreams to come true
But time has no mercy
Time won't stand still for you
- Bryan Adams (Into the Fire)

Whe'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes,
Oh! how I long with you to pass my days,
Invoke the Muses, and resound your praise!
- Alexander Pope (Summer)

We weep from our eyes, it’s all we can do, but on that evening I felt as if every pore of my body were weeping, every crack and cranny. - Stephen King (Bag of Bones)

There’s always a choice. That’s God’s way, always will be. Your will is still free. Do as you will. There’s no set of leg-irons on you. But…this is what God wants of you. - Stephen King (The Stand)

Duty was a mountain, death a feather… - Robert Jordan (New Spring)

Short Fuse Anyone?

Here’s one of those stories that should leave you shaking your head and shows you the true nature of the idiots that use public transit (I am not implying that everyone who uses public transit is an idiot, just to be clear on that).

Leaving the Oshawa GO station last night was horrendous. They are doing construction on the only street the station is accessible from and apparently the day had not ended for the work crews so the traffic was more reflective of the traffic on the DVP. It took several minutes longer to get out of the lot than normal much to the dismay of everyone (I was not impressed myself as I had an hour drive ahead and was tight for time as it was). For those who have not been to the Oshawa GO station (I envy you) it is on Bloor St and there is a short street on the east side of the station that mainly serves the lot. The street conveniently has four lanes, a right and left turn lane in each direction. I’m working on a diagram but I doubt I will get it done so just picture it in your head if you can.

The majority of cars that use the side street turn right onto the main road so the smooth flow of the left lane relies on courtesy of other drivers exiting the parking lot at the various exit points. Sometimes the left lane gets blocked and the cars have the option of going around the car. If the driver decides not to go around the offending car, they are usually still able to make their turn on the green light. Usually people are smart enough to realize this and wait patiently for their path to clear. Yesterday was not one of those days.

The car exiting the lot in front of me was unable to merge with the right lane traffic so it blocked the left lane where two cars were waiting. Once the light turned green I edged into the road, stopping well short of the blockage, and waited for the traffic to move. While waiting my eyes met with those of the driver of the first car in the left lane and she started shouting at me through her closed window. WTF! I was just sitting there waiting for traffic to move. I tried to illustrate that I didn’t have a clue what she was saying but that didn’t seem to work as she kept screaming. I tried to calm her down by using hand gestures one would use on a child when they get over excited but all that got me was the finger and a “fuck you”. I showed no indication of cutting in front of her in my attempt to merge into the right lane but after her assault on me I edged my car up some just to make her more irate. I think it worked.

On a side note: while waiting to enter the road a car coming from the main road practically stopped in front of me to pick up her wandering passenger. I really wonder what goes on in some people’s minds.

Anecdotal piece: This morning on the train I was zoning out while looking out the window of the train when we stopped at a station and some lady decides to sit in the four seat section I was sitting. The way she stuck her ass out it appeared she was going to sit in the seat across from me on the outside (I was on the inside) but instead of sitting down there she lead with her ass and wiggled her way into the seat directly opposite me. Now just picture that for a minute. A person sticks their ass out and, as if reaching for the cookie jar that mommy has cleverly put just out of reach, extends themselves backwards towards a distant chair all the while shuffling their feet inch by inch until finally reaching their destination. It was both the oddest thing I witnessed and perhaps the funniest.

Driving Lesson 1 - Correction

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about driving.

I have come to realize it was I who had it all wrong when it came to stopping at stop lights and stop signs. I had fallen victim to the government propaganda of a calm and orderly society where rules are meant to be followed. I now know that stopping at stop signs is optional, done only when traffic is approaching from any direction. Stopping at stop lights is a little more complicated. If one is turning right, they must first stop, or at least slow down before turning regardless of approaching traffic. If one actually comes to a complete stop they must only wait a preset amount of time (based on their specific patience level) before completing the turn.

I apologize to anyone who actually put my earlier post into practice. It was based on information that one can ignore once they get their full license. Checking mirrors before changing lanes, signaling, and driving in the right lane except to pass are also items that one can forget once they get their full license too.
(Can you tell I'm bored at work?)

(Picture from The Post Standard off syracuse.com website)

Where'd They Go?

I saw them here last week but now I can't find them anywhere. Where'd they go? Surely they didn't just get up and walk away. Oh wait a minute. Where did those tacky display boxes come from? What is behind them? I bet those nasty 'ole cigarettes are back there.

If you happened to stop into a corporate run convenience store in Ontario this past weekend, you might know what I am talking about. As of Saturday, the famous, or infamous, wall of cigarettes has been forced under cover as Ontario's new rules on tobacco came into effect preventing the open display of tobacco products. For those smaller stores that cannot afford the ugly and expensive display cases, they are forced to use alternate methods to erase the image of DuMaurier, Peter Jackson and Benson & Hedges, to name a few, from our minds. Some have had to resort to using cardboard to hide the legalized cancer sticks. Very inconspicuous!

Normally I wouldn't care about this type of silly legislation (if that is what it is) as I never really paid attention to the cigarette wall in the first place. I knew it was there and know in most cases it still is there. The curiosity these secret compartments will raise in children will only be intensified when the answers their parents give to their questions are not satisfactory enough to diminish the curiosity. And isn't curiosity one leading factor in children smoking? That's what lead me to lighting my first cigarette and choking back a few drags before figuring them out.

Okay so the above situation may not happen anymore than it already does; it may not happen any less though either but that is not why I'm writing. I recently went to a Macs convenience store to by a froster (and it was quite tasty too), at the time unaware of the implementation date of this display ban. (I had heard something about the ban previously but shook my head and forgot about it). After filling up my cup with the slushy goodness I proceeded to wander towards the front cash wondering if there was something else I needed. Chips, no; gummies, no; chocolate, maybe; mike and ikes, sure why not; beer, nope.

Wait a minute, did I see that right? Beer in a convenience store? When did that happen? I had to check that out again. Lucky for me it was right by the front of the store, in the middle of a candy aisle, in full view of the entrance. Had I not made a b-line straight to the froster machines at the back of the store (i.e. if I was a kid and was trying to decide on the best item(s) to rot my teeth with...and maybe even my gut) I would have seen the display of beer right away. The beer turned out to be dealcoholized beer but at a quick glance it looked like real beer.

At least the cigarettes were hidden.

May 2008 Quotes

A person don’t hardly feel right unless he’s looking forward, you ever notice that? - Stephen King (The Stand)

…a completely tame man was no use to himself or anyone else… - Robert Jordan (New Spring)

Teddy and Vern slowly became just two faces in the halls or in three-thirty detention. We nodded and said hi. That was all. It happens. Friends come in and out of your life like bus boys in a restaurant, did you ever notice that? But when I think of that dream, the corpses under the water pulling implacably at my legs, it seems right that it should be that way. Some people drown, that’s all. It’s not fair, but it happens. Some people drown. - Stephen King (The Body)

An ignorant woman who keeps her mouth shut will be thought wise… - Robert Jordan (A Crown of Swords)

A man who can't bear to share his habits is a man who needs to quit them. - Stephen King (The Dark Tower)

... greed in a good cause is still greed. - Stephen King (Wolves of the Calla)

It's not good for a man to be alone
But a women needs someone that she can count on
- Brooks & Dunn (When She's Gone, She's Gone)

Wildfire did not run through dry woods as fast as gossip ran through women. - Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

...in order to understand anything, you must impose an order on it so it becomes meaningful to you and so you can interact effectively with it. - William W. West (On Writing By Writers)

Some women don't ask for land, or gold. Just the man.
And the man who would ask her to accept so little would not be worthy of her.
- Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World)

…a man just could not do without a woman to take care of him and keep him out of trouble. - Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World)

Games have a way of turning serious sometimes. - Stephen King (The Stand)

God gives life and then takes it away when He wants. - Stephen King (The Stand)

…I was half-past sober, going on drunk. - Stephen King (Bag of Bones)

There is nothing that is so self-consuming as generosity: the more you practice it, the less you will be able to continue to practice it. You will either become poor and despised or your efforts to avoid poverty will make you rapacious and hated. - Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince)

And when there was no choice, hesitation was ever a fault. - Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

hope is like a piece of string when you're drowning; it just isn't enough to get you out by itself. - Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World)

The more who speak of a thing, the more will learn of it who should not. - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

The universe…offers a paradox too great for the finite mind to grasp. As the living brain cannot conceive of a nonliving brain-although it may think it can-the finite mind cannot grasp the infinite. - Stephen King (The Gunslinger)

There is no word for failure in the bright lexicon youth - Darryl Brock (If I Never Get Back)

I'm never alone
I'm alone all the time
- Bush (Glycerine)

...one human being can never know everything that is in another human being’s heart - Stephen King (Apt Pupil)

Always plan for the worst child; that way, all your surprises will be pleasant ones. - Robert Jordan (The Dragon Reborn)

Women lied to get a man into bed, and they lied worse once they had him there. - Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

For some who swear an oath, whatever is not forbidden is permitted, and whatever is not commanded can be ignored. - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)