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A pleasant change
Jul. 17th, 2009 09:04 pmThe girl at the desk across from me at work has left (she'll be back later but will be working on the ARMY OF TEACHERS floors), and the people upstairs (the part of the 'assembly line' before us) have finished up all of their work, so half-Finn got sent to my floor. And he got the desk across from me. He's leaving on vacation soon, but hey... F-energy.
And Timo called me "our dear editor." This is starting to sound vaguely communist? :P
And Timo called me "our dear editor." This is starting to sound vaguely communist? :P
Finnish Naming Fail
Jul. 14th, 2009 09:14 pmSo at work I've been secretly keeping a little slip of paper with a tally count of how many Finnish names I've seen. They're not that common, and I consider myself decent at picking them out. Only thing is, it's usually very very disappointing, because I might see a Finnish surname, and then the given names will be English. The other day I saw someone named Lehtinen, and he had, I think, three given names. And none of them were Finnish. I mean, seriously, they had THREE chances to get it right and they blew it. SO disappointing.
But finally, today, after 20+ disappointments, there was FINALLY someone with a completely Finnish name. I've already forgotten what the surname was1, but Kai is a totally awesome first name, because of ...that movie.
__________
1 Actually, it might have been Pitkänen.
But finally, today, after 20+ disappointments, there was FINALLY someone with a completely Finnish name. I've already forgotten what the surname was1, but Kai is a totally awesome first name, because of ...that movie.
__________
1 Actually, it might have been Pitkänen.
Yes, I am very annoyed and frustrated.
I really hate to be a tease, but I also really can't write more about the specifics in public, for my own protection.
But what I can say is this: For practical purposes, I'm actually working two jobs right now. The one that actually requires thinking is the informal one, and it requires so much thinking that it's the kind of thing that requires much more energy than I have at the end of an eight-hour day endlessly flipping through exam papers (not to mention that it would probably pay at least twice - no, three times - as much because of that requirement of actual thinking). It's a massive linguistic headache of epic proportions - to the point at which I'm doing much more than simply editing, but it's not translating either because the writing is, strictly speaking, already in English.1
__________
1 If anyone can think of an appropriate 'job title' for this kind of thing, please let me know, so that I can put it on my CV. Thanks. It feels a bit like technical writing but I have no idea what that actually involves.
I really hate to be a tease, but I also really can't write more about the specifics in public, for my own protection.
But what I can say is this: For practical purposes, I'm actually working two jobs right now. The one that actually requires thinking is the informal one, and it requires so much thinking that it's the kind of thing that requires much more energy than I have at the end of an eight-hour day endlessly flipping through exam papers (not to mention that it would probably pay at least twice - no, three times - as much because of that requirement of actual thinking). It's a massive linguistic headache of epic proportions - to the point at which I'm doing much more than simply editing, but it's not translating either because the writing is, strictly speaking, already in English.1
__________
1 If anyone can think of an appropriate 'job title' for this kind of thing, please let me know, so that I can put it on my CV. Thanks. It feels a bit like technical writing but I have no idea what that actually involves.
It's just another summer day for us Finns
Jul. 1st, 2009 06:33 pm
Every time I see a "Mathématiques pures" (Pure Mathematics) exam paper I read "Mathematics purée" and imagine pages of math exercises going into a blender.
Somebody (I think it was one of the various supervisors) brought this in for the floor today:
On the way home the city transit was quite busy, with a lot of people going downtown with their kids and dressed obnoxiously in red and white with little flags and maple leaf fake tattoos. I really do find it quite obnoxious. The headline in one of the newspapers said something about getting some fireworks shells bigger than ever before in Canada. Whoop-dee-doo.
Somebody (I think it was one of the various supervisors) brought this in for the floor today:
On the way home the city transit was quite busy, with a lot of people going downtown with their kids and dressed obnoxiously in red and white with little flags and maple leaf fake tattoos. I really do find it quite obnoxious. The headline in one of the newspapers said something about getting some fireworks shells bigger than ever before in Canada. Whoop-dee-doo.
Restless (work update)
Jun. 29th, 2009 09:27 pmThere hasn't been clean water in the plumbing at work since Thursday, so there's lots of extra jugs of water by the water coolers so that they have clean water to make coffee with, and bottles of hand sanitizer gel in the bathrooms. I don't like that stuff; it smells annoying.
I woke up on Friday morning in such a horrible mood that I didn't eat or drink anything until sundown, when I got to my parents. There were lots of chicken and rice at work but I had the resolve not to touch it. Surprisingly enough I was able to take the fasting quite well and didn't really feel anything. I don't know if was just the particular circumstances, or if it's a tolerance that I've developed through the last few years. It's both a product of lethargic/depressive episodes and a (circumlocutory) way of coping with the same - by keeping tabs on how hungry (or not) I am over the course of the hours, I distract myself from thinking about what's depressing me.
There was still no clean water at work today. We're more or less done *beep*ing the long answer booklets for the high school exams, and they are all in the process of being graded. So we're *beep*ing the machine-scored bubble sheets for those exams now. Most exam papers have name stickers on them for the student who wrote in that booklet, and these are usually applied by the teachers or the student him/herself at the time of writing. The stickers have the barcode that I *beep*. They're kind of really cheap laser-printed, but they should go on okay as long as you don't screw up and try to peel it off or curl the sticker, or the print all cracks off.
And most people are able to put the stickers on properly. No issues there.
Except that this year, the printer for those stickers really really sucked, and a whole lot of stickers have a sliver of the barcode cut off, so that they can't be scanned. What happens when these appear in the packets of exam papers is that we *beep* everything else that can be, and separate the screwed up ones, sending them back to the previous step in the assembly line. This is the "registration" section - the people who make up stickers for students who registered for the exams at the time of writing rather than at the beginning of the course. They have dedicated label printers and so their barcodes actually turn out properly, 100% of the time. And since a packet cannot proceed down the "assembly line" until everything in it has been *beep*ed (scanned), Registration was overwhelmed with massively massive stacks of exams requiring replacement labels and Scanning was sitting around with packets of exams - in some which more than half of the papers could not be scanned - waiting for said replacement labels.
The net result of this is that I wasn't terribly busy today but a number of other people were. Registration stayed late today to catch up with those stupid labels.
It was cooler and raining this morning and through lunch, and it was a bit cold in the office, so I wore a sweater to work, but right when I left work in the evening it was sunny and so I really really super warm in my sweater and felt like I was going to melt into a little puddle of sweat. Eeew.
Wrists hurt quite a bit on Friday, but not much today (not enough that I needed to bandage), despite them hurting significantly over the weekend also.
I woke up on Friday morning in such a horrible mood that I didn't eat or drink anything until sundown, when I got to my parents. There were lots of chicken and rice at work but I had the resolve not to touch it. Surprisingly enough I was able to take the fasting quite well and didn't really feel anything. I don't know if was just the particular circumstances, or if it's a tolerance that I've developed through the last few years. It's both a product of lethargic/depressive episodes and a (circumlocutory) way of coping with the same - by keeping tabs on how hungry (or not) I am over the course of the hours, I distract myself from thinking about what's depressing me.
There was still no clean water at work today. We're more or less done *beep*ing the long answer booklets for the high school exams, and they are all in the process of being graded. So we're *beep*ing the machine-scored bubble sheets for those exams now. Most exam papers have name stickers on them for the student who wrote in that booklet, and these are usually applied by the teachers or the student him/herself at the time of writing. The stickers have the barcode that I *beep*. They're kind of really cheap laser-printed, but they should go on okay as long as you don't screw up and try to peel it off or curl the sticker, or the print all cracks off.
And most people are able to put the stickers on properly. No issues there.
Except that this year, the printer for those stickers really really sucked, and a whole lot of stickers have a sliver of the barcode cut off, so that they can't be scanned. What happens when these appear in the packets of exam papers is that we *beep* everything else that can be, and separate the screwed up ones, sending them back to the previous step in the assembly line. This is the "registration" section - the people who make up stickers for students who registered for the exams at the time of writing rather than at the beginning of the course. They have dedicated label printers and so their barcodes actually turn out properly, 100% of the time. And since a packet cannot proceed down the "assembly line" until everything in it has been *beep*ed (scanned), Registration was overwhelmed with massively massive stacks of exams requiring replacement labels and Scanning was sitting around with packets of exams - in some which more than half of the papers could not be scanned - waiting for said replacement labels.
The net result of this is that I wasn't terribly busy today but a number of other people were. Registration stayed late today to catch up with those stupid labels.
It was cooler and raining this morning and through lunch, and it was a bit cold in the office, so I wore a sweater to work, but right when I left work in the evening it was sunny and so I really really super warm in my sweater and felt like I was going to melt into a little puddle of sweat. Eeew.
Wrists hurt quite a bit on Friday, but not much today (not enough that I needed to bandage), despite them hurting significantly over the weekend also.
Back to the grind
Jun. 29th, 2009 06:29 amI wish that I was still at my parents'. It's just so much more lively there and there are silly laughs and tons of plants and my piano and good food. I remember crying a lot during break at work on Friday because I was writing email to Timo about what I was going to be doing on the weekend and I just couldn't help it. I can't control these things.
My parents are helping my relatives to throw a massive yard sale in Vancouver to sell off the junk (and stuff) from my late uncle's estate, so my sister and I quickly went through our childhood stuff and the junk in our house to take there to sell also.
I know that I want to be out of my job by August; it's not because of the people or anything, it's because it still hurts my wrists and hands - more than my sitting here at my own computer all day does, strangely enough - and this makes my movements significantly more laboured and heavy. They hurt quite a bit on the computer at my parents', too, but I think it's because the table's just not quite set up at a good height.
My parents are helping my relatives to throw a massive yard sale in Vancouver to sell off the junk (and stuff) from my late uncle's estate, so my sister and I quickly went through our childhood stuff and the junk in our house to take there to sell also.
I know that I want to be out of my job by August; it's not because of the people or anything, it's because it still hurts my wrists and hands - more than my sitting here at my own computer all day does, strangely enough - and this makes my movements significantly more laboured and heavy. They hurt quite a bit on the computer at my parents', too, but I think it's because the table's just not quite set up at a good height.
Head-first into the tank
Jun. 25th, 2009 11:45 pmSorry, folks. I know I told a bunch of you that I'd have this post up a bit earlier, but I've been held up for a little while being a bit upset about this, so please excuse me.
I did more *beep*ing this morning, but work slowed to a crawl after lunch and then some lady from another floor flipped out over the fact that me and my *beep*ing partner were freaking DOODLING because we had nothing to do and took us to one of the ARMY OF TEACHERS floors to sort out grading sheets. I don't know why she was so STERN and UPSET that we weren't doing anything - after all, my scanning supervisor had said yesterday that we didn't need to go GET work from anywhere; she brings it to us. It's not like she knows what the other floors need extra help for.
Yesterday I was asked to stay until 16:30, and I didn't have anything planned, so I said sure why not, but today I was asked if I could stay until 17-ish and well heck no, I have arrangements to meet someone at 17. How about this weekend?
O.O? I'm going HOME this weekend, and NO ONE is bullying me out of that. Don't give me that "you should have known this" look because I just started yesterday and I had never been talked to about this before. And if everybody has to work on 1. July (Canada Day) and I don't get stat pay because I haven't been here long enough, then THIS is MY weekend WITH MY FAMILY and THAT IS THAT.
You know, I was told that work was going to be weekdays, with the occasional overtime on weekends. But in actuality we're being expected to work more like 56 hours a week, and it isn't overtime until it's more than 44h/wk or 8h/day (but normally each day is actually only 7.25 paid hours, so I'd have to stay until at least 16:45 for overtime to kick in).
ARE YOU SERIOUS?! (And were I to work this weekend I wouldn't get overtime either since I started in the middle of the week, nor do I work long enough hours to qualify anyway. DANG YOU GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS.)
But given that this IS peak time for exam processing, and that it seems like things are moving a bit slower than they should, I'm supposed to expect extra hours every day and weekend shifts every weekend. DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN EXTRA LIFE I CAN BORROW?
During afternoon break, the leftovers from the catered lunch that was served to the ARMY OF TEACHERS is brought up to our break room and we are allowed to pick at them. It's been pretty good stuff both days so far, but that's really about it.
I did more *beep*ing this morning, but work slowed to a crawl after lunch and then some lady from another floor flipped out over the fact that me and my *beep*ing partner were freaking DOODLING because we had nothing to do and took us to one of the ARMY OF TEACHERS floors to sort out grading sheets. I don't know why she was so STERN and UPSET that we weren't doing anything - after all, my scanning supervisor had said yesterday that we didn't need to go GET work from anywhere; she brings it to us. It's not like she knows what the other floors need extra help for.
Yesterday I was asked to stay until 16:30, and I didn't have anything planned, so I said sure why not, but today I was asked if I could stay until 17-ish and well heck no, I have arrangements to meet someone at 17. How about this weekend?
O.O? I'm going HOME this weekend, and NO ONE is bullying me out of that. Don't give me that "you should have known this" look because I just started yesterday and I had never been talked to about this before. And if everybody has to work on 1. July (Canada Day) and I don't get stat pay because I haven't been here long enough, then THIS is MY weekend WITH MY FAMILY and THAT IS THAT.
You know, I was told that work was going to be weekdays, with the occasional overtime on weekends. But in actuality we're being expected to work more like 56 hours a week, and it isn't overtime until it's more than 44h/wk or 8h/day (but normally each day is actually only 7.25 paid hours, so I'd have to stay until at least 16:45 for overtime to kick in).
ARE YOU SERIOUS?! (And were I to work this weekend I wouldn't get overtime either since I started in the middle of the week, nor do I work long enough hours to qualify anyway. DANG YOU GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS.)
But given that this IS peak time for exam processing, and that it seems like things are moving a bit slower than they should, I'm supposed to expect extra hours every day and weekend shifts every weekend. DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN EXTRA LIFE I CAN BORROW?
During afternoon break, the leftovers from the catered lunch that was served to the ARMY OF TEACHERS is brought up to our break room and we are allowed to pick at them. It's been pretty good stuff both days so far, but that's really about it.
At almost 8AM, I followed an army of teachers and students out of the LRT station, into an office building, to a queue for the elevator. Most of the teachers got off on different dedicated floors for grading, and I continued to follow as the students queued to sign in on a hand reader.
This is the Alberta Education "Marking Centre". It's where all of the provincial school exams go to get, well, graded. The massive army of teachers does the actual marking, but there's another regiment of people who unload the papers off trucks, then sort, tag, label, and otherwise prepare them for said marking.
I get to scan - *BEEP!* - the barcode on each exam paper to register that it has been received. After each packet (representing usually one exam subject from one school) I print off a checklist thing (then go to the printer to get it - this means I have to stand up and walk just about every 30 seconds, sometimes) and attach it to the packet, then pass it off to someone else to check the names on the papers. The lower-level standardized tests require some additional input so I'm not doing those; I'm just doing the diploma-level exams since those are easier - and are a higher priority (students need these grades to get into university and stuff!).
I keep *beep* *beep* *beep*ing through the piles of paper pretty quickly. The whole processing... uh... process is very linear, and so while my supervisor brings me new stacks of packets, she doesn't always do so fast enough and I have to get up and go bug her about MOAR WORK PLZ.
It's definitely really mindless and so generally time passes quickly, but the room is well-lit and there are windows and lots of people milling around doing their things, so it doesn't feel just like a factory assembly line. And given that I managed to get the cozy sit-down job, I don't need to wear old, worn-out t-shirts to work, either. I can dress up a bit. Yay! It's also nice that the job is downtown during office hours, so there's LOTS AND LOTS of people going to/from work via bus/LRT at the same time as me, so I don't have to feel like such a loser, being the only one taking the bus while everyone else has their own car. And that it only takes me ~20 minutes to get there.
I asked some of the people who started earlier whether they knew how long this job is expected to last. It sounds like probably 4-6 more weeks. Which means I still can't go home and relax and play piano all day for a while. My dad says that he's willing to drive me home on a Friday night and drive me back on Sunday night if I want a little weekend escape. Maybe even this weekend.
I almost really want it.
Okay, I want it.
<kyrasantae> work was slightly entertaining
<kyrasantae> another one of the guys who started today is half-finnish :P
<kyrasantae> his generic north-western european blood shows a lot more though
<kyrasantae> but my finn-radar went off nonetheless :P
His task is earlier on the assembly line, though, so I only get to see his initials on packet labels. Oh well.
Note to self: Special attention to the left hand. Find way to perform scanning / booklet-flipping operations with both wrists flat.
This is the Alberta Education "Marking Centre". It's where all of the provincial school exams go to get, well, graded. The massive army of teachers does the actual marking, but there's another regiment of people who unload the papers off trucks, then sort, tag, label, and otherwise prepare them for said marking.
I get to scan - *BEEP!* - the barcode on each exam paper to register that it has been received. After each packet (representing usually one exam subject from one school) I print off a checklist thing (then go to the printer to get it - this means I have to stand up and walk just about every 30 seconds, sometimes) and attach it to the packet, then pass it off to someone else to check the names on the papers. The lower-level standardized tests require some additional input so I'm not doing those; I'm just doing the diploma-level exams since those are easier - and are a higher priority (students need these grades to get into university and stuff!).
I keep *beep* *beep* *beep*ing through the piles of paper pretty quickly. The whole processing... uh... process is very linear, and so while my supervisor brings me new stacks of packets, she doesn't always do so fast enough and I have to get up and go bug her about MOAR WORK PLZ.
It's definitely really mindless and so generally time passes quickly, but the room is well-lit and there are windows and lots of people milling around doing their things, so it doesn't feel just like a factory assembly line. And given that I managed to get the cozy sit-down job, I don't need to wear old, worn-out t-shirts to work, either. I can dress up a bit. Yay! It's also nice that the job is downtown during office hours, so there's LOTS AND LOTS of people going to/from work via bus/LRT at the same time as me, so I don't have to feel like such a loser, being the only one taking the bus while everyone else has their own car. And that it only takes me ~20 minutes to get there.
I asked some of the people who started earlier whether they knew how long this job is expected to last. It sounds like probably 4-6 more weeks. Which means I still can't go home and relax and play piano all day for a while. My dad says that he's willing to drive me home on a Friday night and drive me back on Sunday night if I want a little weekend escape. Maybe even this weekend.
I almost really want it.
Okay, I want it.
<kyrasantae> work was slightly entertaining
<kyrasantae> another one of the guys who started today is half-finnish :P
<kyrasantae> his generic north-western european blood shows a lot more though
<kyrasantae> but my finn-radar went off nonetheless :P
His task is earlier on the assembly line, though, so I only get to see his initials on packet labels. Oh well.
Note to self: Special attention to the left hand. Find way to perform scanning / booklet-flipping operations with both wrists flat.
Is your name Ben?
Jun. 8th, 2009 09:56 pmI got to witness the birth of a pretty epic ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
linguaphiles meme. Of course, as with all memes, it's funnier if you were there. And here's the meme in action dealing with a suspected troll.
I don't know about you, but I find that trolls are a bit like trainwrecks... can't help but watch as the comments become more and more inane...
The world is like a nightmare to me right now - IKEA furniture and screw heads draw my unnecessary attention wherever I go :s
linguaphiles meme. Of course, as with all memes, it's funnier if you were there. And here's the meme in action dealing with a suspected troll.I don't know about you, but I find that trolls are a bit like trainwrecks... can't help but watch as the comments become more and more inane...
The world is like a nightmare to me right now - IKEA furniture and screw heads draw my unnecessary attention wherever I go :s
Day 5.2 Foresight
Jun. 2nd, 2009 10:21 pmIn the end it wasn't SHE who defeated me, it was my hands. My fingers began to feel tingly very early on, but not badly so.
SHE made a big deal about getting a list of what was missing from our toolboxes. "Grab the box in front of you and tell me what's missing." Mine was complete, but it wasn't "mine"; it was just the one in front of me. When everybody had checked their box, SHE said, "okay, now that will be your box from now on," despite the veteran crew already having an assigned box written on the note board. I had some random extra stuff in my old box so of course I protested. Why should everything change around arbitrarily just based on what we happened to be standing in front of?
We're still working on the same room but things are finally coming together now. But overall, I felt that there was still a sense of massive wasted potential: wasted intelligence, wasted space, wasted time. So much more efficiency and organization could be accomplished with just a little foresight -- to think ahead to potential issues and then adapt and adjust to minimize such contingencies. Example: building a cabinet combination upwards one level at a time means you're not wasting space stacking completed parts somewhere, and the time to maneuver and place the parts together. Example: once the second batch of parts came in and got labelled, to have stacked them into the appropriate stacks made from the first batch of parts -- saving time spent looking for the parts and people having to tiptoe and step over other people and other boxes trying to get to the parts that are needed.
Breakfast got awkward with the drinking talk so I kept my eyes on my eggs and said little. By lunch my fingers had mysteriously gotten to feeling very tingly and numb (almost as though asleep). I knew that was going to be the end of it. I sent a message to my boss saying that this was the last straw and that I was quitting. He let HER know (I was going to tell HER anyway but couldn't find HER), and SHE let me go home.
The tingling went away after a few hours -- I wanted to think that maybe I had my braces on too tightly, but I've done that before and it didn't stay numb for so long. Plus it hurts more at rest than it usually does.
Yeah maybe it wouldn't have come to this if I'd used the electric drill from the outset, but there's no point in having regrets. Consider the past, live in the present, think of the future.
I guess it's back to square one. I think I'll see a doctor on Thursday and ask about getting a detailed diagnosis and appropriate treatment. My right wrist is currently just compression bandaged, but it is becoming easily sore, unpredictably sore. On and off, both hands feel shaky and a bit numb-ish. Give me a week of rest, but I know it wasn't like this before.
I just feel defeated, when I know I shouldn't be. It's not like I quit because I couldn't take it psychologically. If it was just HER, I could have pulled through. But this is physiological, and it's serious (there can come a point when I would never be able to play piano again), and not something I can just pretend isn't there and carry on.
SHE made a big deal about getting a list of what was missing from our toolboxes. "Grab the box in front of you and tell me what's missing." Mine was complete, but it wasn't "mine"; it was just the one in front of me. When everybody had checked their box, SHE said, "okay, now that will be your box from now on," despite the veteran crew already having an assigned box written on the note board. I had some random extra stuff in my old box so of course I protested. Why should everything change around arbitrarily just based on what we happened to be standing in front of?
We're still working on the same room but things are finally coming together now. But overall, I felt that there was still a sense of massive wasted potential: wasted intelligence, wasted space, wasted time. So much more efficiency and organization could be accomplished with just a little foresight -- to think ahead to potential issues and then adapt and adjust to minimize such contingencies. Example: building a cabinet combination upwards one level at a time means you're not wasting space stacking completed parts somewhere, and the time to maneuver and place the parts together. Example: once the second batch of parts came in and got labelled, to have stacked them into the appropriate stacks made from the first batch of parts -- saving time spent looking for the parts and people having to tiptoe and step over other people and other boxes trying to get to the parts that are needed.
Breakfast got awkward with the drinking talk so I kept my eyes on my eggs and said little. By lunch my fingers had mysteriously gotten to feeling very tingly and numb (almost as though asleep). I knew that was going to be the end of it. I sent a message to my boss saying that this was the last straw and that I was quitting. He let HER know (I was going to tell HER anyway but couldn't find HER), and SHE let me go home.
The tingling went away after a few hours -- I wanted to think that maybe I had my braces on too tightly, but I've done that before and it didn't stay numb for so long. Plus it hurts more at rest than it usually does.
Yeah maybe it wouldn't have come to this if I'd used the electric drill from the outset, but there's no point in having regrets. Consider the past, live in the present, think of the future.
I guess it's back to square one. I think I'll see a doctor on Thursday and ask about getting a detailed diagnosis and appropriate treatment. My right wrist is currently just compression bandaged, but it is becoming easily sore, unpredictably sore. On and off, both hands feel shaky and a bit numb-ish. Give me a week of rest, but I know it wasn't like this before.
I just feel defeated, when I know I shouldn't be. It's not like I quit because I couldn't take it psychologically. If it was just HER, I could have pulled through. But this is physiological, and it's serious (there can come a point when I would never be able to play piano again), and not something I can just pretend isn't there and carry on.
Day 5.1 Brains versus brawn
Jun. 1st, 2009 10:01 pmOn Friday, when the missing parts showed up, SHE immediately stopped what she was doing and went to sort out the parts into their appropriate places. Since I had just finished putting something together, I was asked to finish the thing SHE had been building. >_< It's not like I don't know how to sort parts either, and it certainly wasn't like PE-Guy (being in charge) was sorting them last week (it was me and Rich).
Finish what you start (and especially so when you are able). Like even on the phone with my boss last night with an update about my wrist, I stressed to him that before doing anything else I was going to finish the cabinets I was working on on Friday. The set of cabinets took me until lunch today.
I was wearing my braces on both of my hands, so I had taken off my watch, and working alone in the cabinet area. Eventually I looked at what time it was and it was already 9:45, and I wondered why no one had come to get me for break/breakfast (we normally go at 9:30). Next thing I knew, I saw a couple of the guys walking by... on the way back.
When I had a spare moment:
"We looked for you everywhere," Artsy Guy said. "We didn't find you, so we figured we'd just go ahead since you know we go at 9:30 and stuff."
SHE brings in the new guys, and tells them that if they have any questions they can come to me because I've been building this stuff for a few days. They set themselves up with a box of cabinet stuff each and start building. I make note that it's best if one finds the package for the base of the modular cabinet and build that first, then work upwards from there. SHE insists that "not all of the bases are here yet" (nearly all of the parts are here now) and so they should just put together the modular parts and then get a buddy to help lift and stack them onto the bases later.
This was what we had been doing last Thursday, and when I had to go install the cabinets onto the bases (once the bases arrived), it was awkward and a slip or slightly-off placement would lead to damage to the veneer finish. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but the placement still isn't trivial even with people who can lift them more easily. Especially when you're trying to lift the filing cabinets, each of which has a massive ~20 lb. counterweight in the back of it.
I recommended looking for a base kit first, then, if failing to find one, then do the above. It takes less effort to look for a box with a number on it than it does to a) find a buddy to help, and then b) lift and place the thing. It's much easier to build upwards and there are some instances in which screw holes get covered up by the hardware installed inside the cabinet part, which means you'd have to unscrew something anyway just to screw the cabinet to the base.
SHE continues to insist on just building all of the parts first and then popping them onto the bases. Whatever.
I notice that the bases that the guys needed right then at the time had arrived and were available, so I just brought them over and gave it to them.
Whenever the new guys had any trouble with how something went together or how to interpret the parts list/diagrams, they came to me. I had to show one of them how to build one of the bases because it was missing an instruction book.
PE-Guy called in sick this morning. After afternoon break, SHE was trying to chat things up with me and casually remarked, "Guess what I told [PE-Guy] when he called in this morning? ...'you having a hangover?"
I was not amused. I said that I really don't want to hear all this talk about alcohol around me, and it's something that really fires me up.
"But you come out for drinks with us after work on Friday"
"I'm not saying that I don't drink, it's just that I don't want to hear about people's excesses because it makes me really angry and want to strangle people"
"I'm not excessive about it"
"All this 'oh I was at this party and there were really cheap drinks' or 'oh I was so drunk last night' and how many drinks you had, etc"
"I don't drink to excess"
"Sure you do"
"You haven't seen how much I drink"
"I don't need to. It's what you say about it"
"You haven't seen it"
"..."
Just can't reason with these people, ya know.
The boss brought in a box of new screwdriver bits he bought at a hardware store, i.e. they're made of actual cast steel and are durable. This actually relieved quite a bit of the stress on my wrists, because I'm not pushing on the screwdriver to force a stripped bit into and turn each screw. Still gonna take things slow and steady though, despite the tradesmen having caught back up and us being behind now.
Finish what you start (and especially so when you are able). Like even on the phone with my boss last night with an update about my wrist, I stressed to him that before doing anything else I was going to finish the cabinets I was working on on Friday. The set of cabinets took me until lunch today.
I was wearing my braces on both of my hands, so I had taken off my watch, and working alone in the cabinet area. Eventually I looked at what time it was and it was already 9:45, and I wondered why no one had come to get me for break/breakfast (we normally go at 9:30). Next thing I knew, I saw a couple of the guys walking by... on the way back.
When I had a spare moment:
"We looked for you everywhere," Artsy Guy said. "We didn't find you, so we figured we'd just go ahead since you know we go at 9:30 and stuff."
SHE brings in the new guys, and tells them that if they have any questions they can come to me because I've been building this stuff for a few days. They set themselves up with a box of cabinet stuff each and start building. I make note that it's best if one finds the package for the base of the modular cabinet and build that first, then work upwards from there. SHE insists that "not all of the bases are here yet" (nearly all of the parts are here now) and so they should just put together the modular parts and then get a buddy to help lift and stack them onto the bases later.
This was what we had been doing last Thursday, and when I had to go install the cabinets onto the bases (once the bases arrived), it was awkward and a slip or slightly-off placement would lead to damage to the veneer finish. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but the placement still isn't trivial even with people who can lift them more easily. Especially when you're trying to lift the filing cabinets, each of which has a massive ~20 lb. counterweight in the back of it.
I recommended looking for a base kit first, then, if failing to find one, then do the above. It takes less effort to look for a box with a number on it than it does to a) find a buddy to help, and then b) lift and place the thing. It's much easier to build upwards and there are some instances in which screw holes get covered up by the hardware installed inside the cabinet part, which means you'd have to unscrew something anyway just to screw the cabinet to the base.
SHE continues to insist on just building all of the parts first and then popping them onto the bases. Whatever.
I notice that the bases that the guys needed right then at the time had arrived and were available, so I just brought them over and gave it to them.
Whenever the new guys had any trouble with how something went together or how to interpret the parts list/diagrams, they came to me. I had to show one of them how to build one of the bases because it was missing an instruction book.
PE-Guy called in sick this morning. After afternoon break, SHE was trying to chat things up with me and casually remarked, "Guess what I told [PE-Guy] when he called in this morning? ...'you having a hangover?"
I was not amused. I said that I really don't want to hear all this talk about alcohol around me, and it's something that really fires me up.
"But you come out for drinks with us after work on Friday"
"I'm not saying that I don't drink, it's just that I don't want to hear about people's excesses because it makes me really angry and want to strangle people"
"I'm not excessive about it"
"All this 'oh I was at this party and there were really cheap drinks' or 'oh I was so drunk last night' and how many drinks you had, etc"
"I don't drink to excess"
"Sure you do"
"You haven't seen how much I drink"
"I don't need to. It's what you say about it"
"You haven't seen it"
"..."
Just can't reason with these people, ya know.
The boss brought in a box of new screwdriver bits he bought at a hardware store, i.e. they're made of actual cast steel and are durable. This actually relieved quite a bit of the stress on my wrists, because I'm not pushing on the screwdriver to force a stripped bit into and turn each screw. Still gonna take things slow and steady though, despite the tradesmen having caught back up and us being behind now.
Day 4.5 Agony
May. 29th, 2009 06:54 pmSHE thought it was pay day, so SHE came in right on time. But it's not. Pay day is technically the last day of the month - which is Sunday - so we get paid on Monday. SHE quickly got caught up with what we're doing.
Most of the missing parts from yesterday showed up today.
The guys were working in a different area, so it was just me and HER in my space. Which actually wasn't so bad, because she managed to talk about other things and I managed to give her some tips on how to build some of the stuff and how we had organized it.
But...
My right hand and wrist and arm are in total agony, even with my brace on. Even using the electric drill doesn't help since just putting weight on my wrist makes it hurt really really bad - and even drilling requires applying pressure to push the screw into the wood. SHE has tendinitis so at least SHE could sympathize.
I sit on the floor working on my lap when I can, like a little child playing with Duplo pieces. I thought of life and fragility, and whether I should just quit this. SRSLY.
Pushing myself towards entirely losing the use of my hands for $12 an hour isn't sisu, it's stubbornness. And it's totally not worth it.
Fortunately my boss came in today and he said he'd look into some modified duties for me, like taking out garbage, instead of building. I told him that I really wanted to stay with this job, but I just can't do this building stuff and heavy lifting anymore.
(As much as I'd like to be at home during the day so I can communicate with my Finnish friends, it'd be incredibly hard for me to call home to say that I quit my job. I don't want to be seen as that kind of quitter. Also this is an odd time to try to find summer jobs because I'll end up being stuck with high school kids. Ugh.)
I suggested also doing merchandising and assembling racking. Despite racking pieces being quite heavy, they can generally be carried around in carts. I just hope he doesn't have me clean up the racking storage area. That would suck, because racking pieces in bulk become really heavy.
Most of the missing parts from yesterday showed up today.
The guys were working in a different area, so it was just me and HER in my space. Which actually wasn't so bad, because she managed to talk about other things and I managed to give her some tips on how to build some of the stuff and how we had organized it.
But...
My right hand and wrist and arm are in total agony, even with my brace on. Even using the electric drill doesn't help since just putting weight on my wrist makes it hurt really really bad - and even drilling requires applying pressure to push the screw into the wood. SHE has tendinitis so at least SHE could sympathize.
I sit on the floor working on my lap when I can, like a little child playing with Duplo pieces. I thought of life and fragility, and whether I should just quit this. SRSLY.
Pushing myself towards entirely losing the use of my hands for $12 an hour isn't sisu, it's stubbornness. And it's totally not worth it.
Fortunately my boss came in today and he said he'd look into some modified duties for me, like taking out garbage, instead of building. I told him that I really wanted to stay with this job, but I just can't do this building stuff and heavy lifting anymore.
(As much as I'd like to be at home during the day so I can communicate with my Finnish friends, it'd be incredibly hard for me to call home to say that I quit my job. I don't want to be seen as that kind of quitter. Also this is an odd time to try to find summer jobs because I'll end up being stuck with high school kids. Ugh.)
I suggested also doing merchandising and assembling racking. Despite racking pieces being quite heavy, they can generally be carried around in carts. I just hope he doesn't have me clean up the racking storage area. That would suck, because racking pieces in bulk become really heavy.
Day 4.4 What's not going on
May. 28th, 2009 08:12 pm
* I need the weekend badly! My wrist is seriously giving me a bad time. I have to be very careful. Like, SUPER careful - as in I-will-resign-from-this-job-before-I-hurt-myself careful. (And then when I do, I should find some nursing student who wants to practice casting to put one on my arm :P)
* Unpacked and sorted FOUR epic large pallets of office cabinets. Still missing approx one pallet's worth of stuff. Building what we can, but I'm taking it nice and slow so I don't hurt myself.
* Instead of HER commandeering all of the diagrams and HER having to tell us where things go when they're done, we have been making the diagrams accessible to the whole group for consultation at any time. It's a good system and keeps things going smoothly, because we can try to resolve any discrepancies or even just find out what something's supposed to look like by ourselves without always having to go to some other person.
* There are a few mistakes on the current diagrams. I figured out that they are with regard to the number labels for each of the merchandising "walls" - the correct numbers are on the materials list and the floorplan, but wrong on the elevation sketches. To get the correct elevation sketch for each "wall", one needs to ignore the numbers printed on the sketches and look at the elevation map corresponding to the letter of the viewing direction labelled on the floorplan.
* I wrote the correct numbers onto the sketches, but I've got a good feeling that SHE won't figure this out tomorrow and insist on materials-not-matching-sketches being some kind of packing mistake or inconsistency. And that SHE won't listen to me when I explain it.
* More joking discussion on what pranks to play on HER (e.g. somebody starts saying "ohhhhh I was at this party last night and I was sooooooooooo drunk..." to distract her so that we can take the diagrams away) and wondering at what time SHE'll show up for work tomorrow.
* Seriously, though - all of us are college/university-educated - except her (apparently she failed out of something in college?).
* And no, the new guys next week are just that - guys.
Items assembled
* Unpacked and sorted FOUR epic large pallets of office cabinets. Still missing approx one pallet's worth of stuff. Building what we can, but I'm taking it nice and slow so I don't hurt myself.
* Instead of HER commandeering all of the diagrams and HER having to tell us where things go when they're done, we have been making the diagrams accessible to the whole group for consultation at any time. It's a good system and keeps things going smoothly, because we can try to resolve any discrepancies or even just find out what something's supposed to look like by ourselves without always having to go to some other person.
* There are a few mistakes on the current diagrams. I figured out that they are with regard to the number labels for each of the merchandising "walls" - the correct numbers are on the materials list and the floorplan, but wrong on the elevation sketches. To get the correct elevation sketch for each "wall", one needs to ignore the numbers printed on the sketches and look at the elevation map corresponding to the letter of the viewing direction labelled on the floorplan.
* I wrote the correct numbers onto the sketches, but I've got a good feeling that SHE won't figure this out tomorrow and insist on materials-not-matching-sketches being some kind of packing mistake or inconsistency. And that SHE won't listen to me when I explain it.
* More joking discussion on what pranks to play on HER (e.g. somebody starts saying "ohhhhh I was at this party last night and I was sooooooooooo drunk..." to distract her so that we can take the diagrams away) and wondering at what time SHE'll show up for work tomorrow.
* Seriously, though - all of us are college/university-educated - except her (apparently she failed out of something in college?).
* And no, the new guys next week are just that - guys.
Items assembled
- JULES visitor chair
- about half of another (in)EFFEKTIV combination
Day 4.3 Open spaces
May. 27th, 2009 07:37 pm
We're finally pretty much done with the dining room and kitchens stuff and now moving on to office furniture. I think that everybody else is slowly starting to catch back up with us, so there was at least enough flooring done that we could work closer to the space in which the office stuff is actually going to go. And we really need that space. It's too cramped in the back, and some IKEA people have been building stuff in the back, borrowing our tools, and SOME OF OUR TOOLS HAVE BEEN GOING MISSING. (Our boss will hear about this tomorrow.)
I wore my wrist brace minus the steel bars, and it definitely helped to prevent my wrist from lashing out in pain all of the time, though I still had to be careful and needed to use the drill a couple of times.
Ate an IKEA cinnamon bun. It was certainly delicious. Not too buttery and not too sweet.
I've really enjoyed my week at work so far and I'm going to really miss it come Friday. It turns out that SHE actually chose PE-Guy to the acting leader while SHE is gone and not the boss who did. Honestly, though, PE-Guy is a good fit for the role. He doesn't try to boss us around, talks well, goes with the flow depending on what the manager wants us to do, and gets down to build stuff too. Rather than always running around trying to figure out what we have to do next while the rest of us work, he works with us and when we're out of things to build, he'll call the manager to find out what our next task is while we clean up and get ready for it.
We're quirky people who have actual interests in common. Rich has been eating $0.50 hot dogs for lunch almost every day and started a tally on the whiteboard to see if he can eat 100 hot dogs by the end of this job. PE-Guy has sort of joined in the game.
Interesting discussions today included religion, origins of the Universe, life on Mars, ambidexterity, quantum and astrophysics, Windows 7 (no wait, that was yesterday)... I may not have much to add to the discussion but at least it's stuff I'm curious and have some ideas about. PE-Guy(?) also jokingly came up with the idea to, when SHE comes back, have each of the rest of us spend a period of time inspiring chatter about each of our educational fields (or, in my opinion, any other obscure field that we're an expert in that doesn't really have a point of reference to the common person)... I dunno, to "blind her with SCIENCE!" or something:
* Anthony: Aircraft maintenance
* Artsy Guy: Industrial design (or obscure punk/noise music, maybe)
* PE-Guy: Education / Phys Ed
* Rich: Economics
* Me: Chemistry (how about x-ray diffraction? Maybe Finnish or German grammar, classical music)
It's not a bad idea, but maybe a bit too... mean.
We also joked about how we're going to... "initiate" the four new workers next week. Artsy Guy hopes that there might be another girl, but I doubt it. This isn't exactly the type of work that attracts girls, unfortunately. But I agree that it would be much more interesting with more females on the team, in order to divert some of the unspoken tension that I know exists between me and HER. (It's actually quite noticeable).
Artsy Guy's noted that there's been less talk about drinking and partying this week (though it's still mentioned from time to time; just not excessively) and our breaks have been a bit more regular. He said that in the future he's just going to keep busy and ignore HER, and take orders directly from the manager.
After all, it certainly seems like the manager wants to work with all of us. Artsy Guy thinks that the "leader" role is less than SHE is making it. It's mostly that SHE is the contact person for the group because she has the phone. On the original job description (and I think at the interview) it was said that we'd sometimes have to go down to the warehouse and get some of the stuff to build by ourselves. But SHE insists on doing as much of that by herself as possible, and if not, then overseeing us do it.
While we were cleaning up stuff, at one point I found myself holding two rubber mallets, and I couldn't help but think of the epic hammer-fight from Jadesoturi (I wish the sequence was on Youtube, but it's the climax of the movie so it'd be too much of a spoiler):
P.S. re. the smoky smell yesterday.
Items assembled
I wore my wrist brace minus the steel bars, and it definitely helped to prevent my wrist from lashing out in pain all of the time, though I still had to be careful and needed to use the drill a couple of times.
Ate an IKEA cinnamon bun. It was certainly delicious. Not too buttery and not too sweet.
I've really enjoyed my week at work so far and I'm going to really miss it come Friday. It turns out that SHE actually chose PE-Guy to the acting leader while SHE is gone and not the boss who did. Honestly, though, PE-Guy is a good fit for the role. He doesn't try to boss us around, talks well, goes with the flow depending on what the manager wants us to do, and gets down to build stuff too. Rather than always running around trying to figure out what we have to do next while the rest of us work, he works with us and when we're out of things to build, he'll call the manager to find out what our next task is while we clean up and get ready for it.
We're quirky people who have actual interests in common. Rich has been eating $0.50 hot dogs for lunch almost every day and started a tally on the whiteboard to see if he can eat 100 hot dogs by the end of this job. PE-Guy has sort of joined in the game.
Interesting discussions today included religion, origins of the Universe, life on Mars, ambidexterity, quantum and astrophysics, Windows 7 (no wait, that was yesterday)... I may not have much to add to the discussion but at least it's stuff I'm curious and have some ideas about. PE-Guy(?) also jokingly came up with the idea to, when SHE comes back, have each of the rest of us spend a period of time inspiring chatter about each of our educational fields (or, in my opinion, any other obscure field that we're an expert in that doesn't really have a point of reference to the common person)... I dunno, to "blind her with SCIENCE!" or something:
* Anthony: Aircraft maintenance
* Artsy Guy: Industrial design (or obscure punk/noise music, maybe)
* PE-Guy: Education / Phys Ed
* Rich: Economics
* Me: Chemistry (how about x-ray diffraction? Maybe Finnish or German grammar, classical music)
It's not a bad idea, but maybe a bit too... mean.
We also joked about how we're going to... "initiate" the four new workers next week. Artsy Guy hopes that there might be another girl, but I doubt it. This isn't exactly the type of work that attracts girls, unfortunately. But I agree that it would be much more interesting with more females on the team, in order to divert some of the unspoken tension that I know exists between me and HER. (It's actually quite noticeable).
Artsy Guy's noted that there's been less talk about drinking and partying this week (though it's still mentioned from time to time; just not excessively) and our breaks have been a bit more regular. He said that in the future he's just going to keep busy and ignore HER, and take orders directly from the manager.
After all, it certainly seems like the manager wants to work with all of us. Artsy Guy thinks that the "leader" role is less than SHE is making it. It's mostly that SHE is the contact person for the group because she has the phone. On the original job description (and I think at the interview) it was said that we'd sometimes have to go down to the warehouse and get some of the stuff to build by ourselves. But SHE insists on doing as much of that by herself as possible, and if not, then overseeing us do it.
While we were cleaning up stuff, at one point I found myself holding two rubber mallets, and I couldn't help but think of the epic hammer-fight from Jadesoturi (I wish the sequence was on Youtube, but it's the climax of the movie so it'd be too much of a spoiler):
P.S. re. the smoky smell yesterday.
Items assembled
- BERNHARD chair
- EFFEKTIV combination similar to this but both levels are with the roll front filing cabinets. Did you know that this thing has a large iron counterweight at the back of each level to balance the weight of the paper you'd put into it?
- GODMORGON sink cabinet with 1 drawer with GRUNDTAL legs (well good morning to you too!)
Day 4.2 Pain
May. 26th, 2009 07:03 pm* My wrists are giving me a lot of grief today. I know they're weak enough already but it was just getting depressing. There's just no strength left in them. Just give me a weekend to wear my splints 24/7 and pop Naproxen pills or something.
* I had no other choice but to use the (large) drill for a few seconds today - the thing is unwieldy but I'll probably get used to it.
* I'm liking the relaxed atmosphere this week. The manager is interested in and willing to speak to and be in contact with each of us and we have no reservations against bringing to her attention any concerns we may have with our work.
* You know, not like having HER acting like SHE's our mouthpiece to the manager.
* The two girls who had invited us to the bar last Friday were trying to play Truth or Dare with some of their male coworkers while building chairs. "Want to play?" asked one. "No, thanks," I said.
* The wind was picking up, heavy rain clouds on the horizon, and the air outside smelled of wood smoke as we left work. Grass/forest fire?
* My edit/rewrite of the Zanziar rulebook is/was about half-done before I started this job, but it's come to a standstill because I've just been too stressed out from work.
* It's not that I don't have time (i.e. weekends), but I'm so frustrated from work and feeling so disconnected from my "world" and my friends that I'm not motivated to edit - instead futilely messaging my few friends and not getting any responses, and trying to find something to enjoy.
* The rulebook is a commitment that I have made and I will finish it because I want to see it completed and I want to work on it, but it takes honest effort and patience and I'm just totally drained of that after work.
* Especially patience. There's an incredible amount of patience that I didn't know I had, from taking 45 minutes painfully screwing together a chair when a drill would have gotten it done in 10 minutes painlessly.
* It's rather masochistic (especially the pain part) but it's a kind of meditation for me, because there's very little else I can think about when I'm pondering the effects of my suffering. It distracts me from any stupidity that may be happening in the vicinity.
* There's nothing to look forward to going to work, and nothing to look forward to coming home. Every day is a daze - a daze in which I struggle to remember who I am.
Items assembled
* I had no other choice but to use the (large) drill for a few seconds today - the thing is unwieldy but I'll probably get used to it.
* I'm liking the relaxed atmosphere this week. The manager is interested in and willing to speak to and be in contact with each of us and we have no reservations against bringing to her attention any concerns we may have with our work.
* You know, not like having HER acting like SHE's our mouthpiece to the manager.
* The two girls who had invited us to the bar last Friday were trying to play Truth or Dare with some of their male coworkers while building chairs. "Want to play?" asked one. "No, thanks," I said.
* The wind was picking up, heavy rain clouds on the horizon, and the air outside smelled of wood smoke as we left work. Grass/forest fire?
* My edit/rewrite of the Zanziar rulebook is/was about half-done before I started this job, but it's come to a standstill because I've just been too stressed out from work.
* It's not that I don't have time (i.e. weekends), but I'm so frustrated from work and feeling so disconnected from my "world" and my friends that I'm not motivated to edit - instead futilely messaging my few friends and not getting any responses, and trying to find something to enjoy.
* The rulebook is a commitment that I have made and I will finish it because I want to see it completed and I want to work on it, but it takes honest effort and patience and I'm just totally drained of that after work.
* Especially patience. There's an incredible amount of patience that I didn't know I had, from taking 45 minutes painfully screwing together a chair when a drill would have gotten it done in 10 minutes painlessly.
* It's rather masochistic (especially the pain part) but it's a kind of meditation for me, because there's very little else I can think about when I'm pondering the effects of my suffering. It distracts me from any stupidity that may be happening in the vicinity.
* There's nothing to look forward to going to work, and nothing to look forward to coming home. Every day is a daze - a daze in which I struggle to remember who I am.
Items assembled
Day 4.1 Boys will be boys
May. 25th, 2009 09:30 pmI was so tired last night that I went to bed around 20:30. More like tired and sweaty, actually. The weekend has been really warm and so my room has been quite stuffy, as the window doesn't catch a draft and my electric fan has been pressed into service to cool my computer, as much as it is able to.
* A variety of stuff to do kept us busy and helped time pass quickly.
* Communication between IKEA staff and us is still pretty flaky at times but there was no one to be overpoweringly bitchy about stuff to us.
* Guys still talk about stuff that interests guys, but I didn't find it as annoying as when SHE is around.
* Maybe SHE's annoying because SHE's trying so hard to assert her masculinity (and overdoing it?)
* This doesn't excuse the fact that SHE really IS a really heavy drinker and SHE revels in it.
After work I went to be a test subject for a psych experiment. $10 for poking a few buttons for half an hour was totally worth it, instead of being underpaid and "socializationally" stressed.
P.S. Re. alcohol-obsessed youth: It's one thing to encounter them and have to deal with them from time to time; it's another altogether to have to spend 42.5 hours a week with them.
Items assembled
* A variety of stuff to do kept us busy and helped time pass quickly.
* Communication between IKEA staff and us is still pretty flaky at times but there was no one to be overpoweringly bitchy about stuff to us.
* Guys still talk about stuff that interests guys, but I didn't find it as annoying as when SHE is around.
* Maybe SHE's annoying because SHE's trying so hard to assert her masculinity (and overdoing it?)
* This doesn't excuse the fact that SHE really IS a really heavy drinker and SHE revels in it.
After work I went to be a test subject for a psych experiment. $10 for poking a few buttons for half an hour was totally worth it, instead of being underpaid and "socializationally" stressed.
P.S. Re. alcohol-obsessed youth: It's one thing to encounter them and have to deal with them from time to time; it's another altogether to have to spend 42.5 hours a week with them.
Items assembled
- GREGOR swivel chair (WTF? A wicker office chair?!)
- VÄRDE glass-door wall cabinet
- BESTÅ shelf unit/height extension unit
- BEKVÄM step stool (It's like a rite of passage. EVERYONE has to build one of these eventually.)
- ANTILOP highchair with safety belt
Day 3.4 Hunger management
May. 22nd, 2009 11:59 pm
[CSG],
Grr, coworkers. They make me want to run away to Finland, or at least to live closer to you so I can have Nordic energy and values around me.
~tuuli
SHE still can't stop talking about being excited for Vegas. SHE counts down the day and hours. SHE also can't stop talking about getting drunk. i.e. SHE was drunk last night too because she gets free drinks at one bar where SHE knows the owner. SHE is one of those people whose only idea of a good time is one of total intoxication and only pride is that SHE doesn't get hangovers. In fact, SHE is upset that her mother won't let HER sleep in while they're in Vegas because her mother has planned every day out already. As for herself, SHE already has plans on how to get drunk in Vegas because she's only 20.
If you're looking for your typical Canadian redneck, complete with Canadian redneck values - beer, hockey, conservative, masculine in deportment - perfect specimen right here. That SHE has worked quite a lot of jobs, all of which (as far as I know) are male-dominated, only serves to reinforce that.
This week I've only really spent morning break with them for $1 breakfast, and a couple of times I sat with them for lunch, but afternoon break I always spend alone sitting in the workshop. I don't recall even eating anything for lunch all week, opting just to buy a glass of juice if I consume anything at all. Partly because I spend too much eating out in the evening, and partly because I'm just not in the mood to eat. In fact, today I made it through the entire workday on one cup of coffee alone.
And then at the little "gathering" with a couple of the IKEA girls at the bar after work, we all sit down and BAM! guess what they're talking about: DRINKING and the different kinds of delicious drinks and stuff. SHE gets a Kokanee (eeew! I told you about her redneck-ness!). SHE plans to get drunk with her friend here and then go to a movie after. By this time I just wanted to strangle HER. GEEZ, EVEN THOUGH YOU GET FREE DRINKS AT A BAR, MAYBE THIS IS WHY you had to go pick up college money from your estranged father??!??
I knew that something like this was coming (SHE had already been talking about this movie date a couple of days ago), so I actually wore my sword necklace to work and kept it in my pocket as I was working, because this drugs/alcohol talk and failure to communicate was really getting to remind me of those days back in first-year and the VERY REASON I used to carry a hunting knife with me under my shirt (which my necklace later replaced). It's a symbolic ornament for me and I feel vulnerable in this kind of situation without it.
I don't enjoy drinking alcohol either for the taste or for the, uh, "fun"/"entertainment" or for the uninhibiting effects (I admit that it helps a little with keeping my knees from shaking with nerves when I sing solo, though). It's just something that happens and is done and is not a centerpiece. After I said something to that effect and the response was "you just haven't been drunk enough," I just gave up and wanted to go home, but I had to wait for Artsy Guy to drive me.
I gave the server a freaking $1 tip for a less than $3 coffee because a) I didn't have any change; and b) I felt I had to make someone happy since I felt like such an outcast at my table.
Since SHE is going to be away until next Friday, I'll be the only female on the crew next week, aside from the IKEA people. I'm not sure yet whether it'll be more or less awkward, though while it's more expected that guys talk about drinking and guns and that sort of thing, that content itself may still trouble me just as much.
Who wants to bet that SHE will come in Friday morning saying how drunk she was before she got on the plane back from Vegas?
It's one thing to not let workplace stuff affect me, but this is like for 9 hours a day I'm stuck in a room where I don't want to listen to people talk, people don't want to listen to me talk, and I can't even entertain myself with Finnish songs in my head because of the v*tun pop music, which in return gets stuck in my head so I can't even sing Finnish songs in the shower when I come home (not that I actually sing in the shower). It's 9 hours a day that I'm forcibly reminded that I'm stuck in redneck Alberta with nowhere to run, even in my imagination. And the forcible deprivation of my imagination was the root of my depression after The Sundering in junior high school.
Right now I'm just going to sit here angry and frustrated, like my German teacher (with whom I had my kind of socialization later in the evening), listening to Trio Niskalaukaus (not that it's angry music - it's mostly just pessimistic but it sounds angry).* Geez, this REALLY IS LIKE FIRST-YEAR UNI ALL OVER AGAIN.
My German teacher says that someone she knows managed to get a job teaching math for two years in Sweden at an international school. Sweden wouldn't be half-bad, I guess. It's pretty close to Finland, but I'd make neither head nor tail of the language. Plus I'd probably end up on a booze cruise-ship crossing the Gulf. Gah! :p
Items assembled
- UDDEN wall cabinet x2
- some other small UDDEN shelf that I can't find anywhere online
- BRAVAD glass-door wall cabinet
- ARHOLMA table with 4 chairs
- GASELL highchair
* Fun fact: I'm taking a liking to the song "Surupuku" again. It's one of the first songs I ever heard in Finnish (this would have been in Summer '02, I think, close to when its album was released). But now I can actually figure out what it says, and it's still good in that way.**
jos oikeutta enemmän vain nähdä saan / voin verhoutua vaikka lumenvalkeaan** It always happens like this: often when I suddenly have an urge to post random Finnish lyrics and then I go translate them for the benefit of my readers, it ends up being something actually kind of relevant.
mutta jos maailma jatkaa pimeän matkan taivallustaan / ylläni on surupuku ja surupuku on musta
[If I could only see more justice / I would dress in snow-white
but if the world keeps going in this dark direction / I wear mourning-dress and mourning-dress is black]
