Kids and Fear and the Lord of the Rings

The soon-to-be 2 years old Princess Boo-Boo stayed up last night during part of the Two Towers viewing experience. Trying to decide if it was a good idea for her to see all the fighting and carnage, I thought back to all the things my parents watched while I was in the room growing up and decided "what the hell" and let her play with her Lego while we watched the movie.

And then along came Gollum:



and just as I'm thinking that maybe this character might be a little too scary for my little girl to see (this was the same little girl who a year ago had nightmares that 'toto-head - Mr. Potato Head -




- was chasing her God-knows where) I hear a screech of delighted laughter and Boo-Boo runs up to the screen and points at him:

"Dada?"

"Yes Boo-Boo?"

"Monkey?" Another delightful shreik as Gollum starts to fight with Sam and Frodo...

"Well, I guess he's a kinda monkey..."

"Monkey Monster?" ...said in the same reverential tones saved for Elmo and the Cookie Monster.

"Sure, He is a bit of a monster..."

"MONKEY MONSTER!! MONKEY MONSTER!! MONKEY MONSTER!! MONKEY MONSTER!! MONKEY MONSTER!! MONKEY MONSTER!!" she laughed for 20 damn minutes straight.

Enemies? Yay!

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
- Sir Winston Churchill

I did try to get back into my old company that I worked at from 1993-2001 but was told that despite the fact that even though "you could do the job", some people thought that the job "wasn't right for me." Further pressing revealed that of the people who were still with the company, some thought I was brilliant, many were non-committal and a select few hated me so much that there was no way back in as long as they were alive and kicking and could stop it.

The poor bastard I was having the conversation with was a guy who had joined after I left and was obviously chafing about the fact that he had no say in who would be reporting to him. He was obviously uncomfortable talking to me about this.

Granted this is my interpretation and summary of a 15 minute conversation but the gist of it is that a person or persons unknown have strong enough feelings about me two years after I've left the company to balk at any suggestion of my returning, even though I would be the natural candidate for the open position...

Wow.

Somebody on this planet hates me THAT much.

And I didn't even know it.

And now they think they've got their vengeance.

Hope it was worth all the venom...

Back to work Flintstone.

2 years later...

...and 8 years after these photos were taken.



My buddy Chris and I took a roadtrip to NYC in 1995. I remember looking around for the Statue of Liberty in the harbour from atop the tourist lookout of the World Trade Center...

"THAT'S it?" I cried, spotting the tiny speck in the distance. It seemed small compared to the massive structures we were standing on.

Lady Liberty is still standing though, and in the opinion of this humble Canuck, is the true symbol of America's strength.

The fact that the bastards of two years' ago missed that distinction shows how little they know about who they picked a fight with...

America is not buildings, not money, not technology: it's an idea. You can't kill an idea. You can only replace it with a better idea...

Islamofascism is not a better idea.

They'll lose. It's only a matter of time.

Thief

They stole my MUG!

Off my desk.

No warning...

I get to work and no magical coffee mug with magical coffee powers. I was then told that the cleaning crew habitually takes used coffee mugs and puts them IN THE DISHWASHER!

With all the stupider mugs.

Where any troglodytic SALESMAN can put his grubby paws on it and stupidify its powers!

I went searching, but to no avail. Someone has scooped it. I shall go down again to see if it has returned...

This is a LOUSY start to my day...

Late Night Blogging...

Well, the whole "new job" thing has really cut into my entry writing...

There's an election in Ontario. My prediction: Bye-Bye Ernie and the Conservatives. I'm not saying that with the glee that others in this province are...The Liberals and NDP have not reached beyond their core constituency to impress me at all (and we all remember the disaster of Bob Rae's NDP government and the idiotic Liberal government before it that called the early election that led to the disaster of an NDP government...You don't remember? Well lucky you!)

Warren Zevon's dead. Shit. I'm going to haul out my dusty copy of "Exciteable Boy" and play Werewolves of London over and over and over again...

Kelowna is still burning. Damn.

A CNN article about our friends the Saudis...

Doug Gilmour retires from the Leafs. Well he is 40. I thought it was a mistake, but the Leafs seem to like to bring back former star captains to trot them out for the clapping seals with money that are this town's hockey fans...Remember Wendel Clark's triumphant return? No, I thought you didn't.

Well that's it for now. I'll try to get more things of interest (beyond my stupid job worries) up for you to snipe at.

Loyalty

Is there a place in the 21st-century career for loyalty?

If, in fact, the course I have set in motion comes to pass, then my current employer, who has done me no wrong, will suffer for it by me leaving for another job.

Is the company man dead?

Are we all ruthless individuals all acting in our own ruthless self-interest?

Am I the last person to think about these sorts of things? Why do I feel guilty about wanting the best deal for myself and my family? Is the devil I know truly better?

Crap

Week One results:

I HATE THIS JOB. THE TECHNOLOGY IS OLD (OR NON-EXISTANT!) THE SYSTEMS ARE MANUAL (FOR GOD'S SAKE I'M DOING JOURNAL ENTRIES!) AND PAPER, PAPER EVERYWHERE!

There.

I feel better.

Hopefully this is not indicative of the rest of my time there...

1st day: Pt 2

Last time on Raging Kraut-

Our fearless hero has somehow warped himself back in time to an accounting office of the early 1990s, complete with the clackity-clack of tractor-feed printers spewing out several trees worth of paper at all times of the day.

It's lunch at Jack Astor's (Ontario chain restaurant) and my boss can't stop yapping. It's not like I'm trying to stop her at this point. That would be futile. And not as entertaining.

I now know who has cancer, who's incompetent, who hates who, who slept with the boss, etc. etc.

It's an amazing display of a complete lack of professionalism! And my beliefs regarding smaller companies and the pointless turf wars that go on there has just been confirmed.

God, this'll be entertaining.

And my boss is paying for lunch. The private sector is so very cool!

The rest of the afternoon was more of the same. All in all, I'm not completely sure I fit here yet.

I'd be worried if I felt too comfortable...

Fight or Flight

I've always felt like leaving every new job within the first week.

That first week is NEVER what you expect it to be, nor is it a good indicator of what the job WILL BE.

I just have to keep telling myself that.

1st day: part 1

8:45

Well here I am.
Waiting in reception.
First Day-New job.
Hurry up and wait.

9:15

New boss.
The last boss was calculating and anal. The new boss is a flake. She can't stop talking a mile a minute.

And my friends think that I drink too much coffee!

10:00

She's still talking.

10:30

Still talking.

11:00

Finally stopped. She's stoned me with words.

To my machine. Same as the old computer, except it's a desktop. Oh-oh. Not liking this.

A cubicle with an exposed back so everyone can see my screen. Wonderful. So much for daytime blogging...

Oh dear God we're using Outlook! Virus alert! Virus alert!

What's this? G/L printout? 200 pages? On tractor feed paper? Does the parking lot contain some kind of time portal? Am I back in 1993?

To be continued...