Adulations of love from a dumbass
Nothing interesting happened at work last night. Even the Romanian was quiet.
Well, until I baited him. ;)
Although I appear to have misplaced it, I read that ten of the eastern European countries are going to launch an intensive effort (read: invest money) in bringing the standard of living up for Gypsies in their respective countries.
Gypsies make up something like 4% of the population, but their standard of living is waaaaaaay down, apparently.
The Romanian hates Gypsies, btw. Are you surprised? Didn't think so.
I found that out when I remembered that Gypsies are often called Romani, so I suggested the link to him and said he was a Gypsy. Apparently I touched a nerve.
Watching his face, you would have thought it was the greatest insult ever!
I should note that in my ignorance, when I think of Gypsies I think of beautiful dark-haired men and women, isolated wagons in forest clearing with the mist clinging to the branches, crystal balls (his writing events in his report before they happened lended itself to this) and so on.
Clearly he feels differently.
Anyway, it's Romania that's spearheading the campaign. So I told him about it.
Man, he was pissed.
That set him off about how Hitler should have finished the Gypsies off in the ovens, along with turning the rest of the thieving Jews into soap. After this familiar tirade, he veered off into the subject of politicians (he hates them all), the Canadian military (bunch of pussies that nobody respects), before eventually landing on the subject of.... China. Sigh.
No really good nuggets to report though. Just the usual.
I saw a massive hawk fly low over the building this morning though. That's a brave bird, as the 100000 crows were out flying.
As I was climbing the steps up to the SkyTrain station, I noticed a guy ahead of me wearing a jacket from my company. Not having anything better to do, I showed him my license and card that indicates I'm with the same company, and asked him where his site was.
He told me, but I didn't really recognise why he was at this station. We were in Burnaby, and he had been out guarding empty houses on the hillside in North Vancouver that had been evacuated during the recent flooding.
So I asked him for his callsign, and then I knew him. ;)
Anyway, for the next five minutes in the station, and the next twenty minutes in the train, he regaled me with all of the scams a guard can pull to do sweet bugger all and get paid. How to sleep. Who sleeps. Easy sites to work for, and hard sites to work for. How to slack off and not get caught. Et cetera.
Gosh, what a noble profession I've found myself in. Clearly I've been hopelessly naive. Bah.
Since this blog entry is not long enough (especially for Jay's tastes :P ), I'm going to end it with a little bit from a book I read a while back. Take it for what it's worth:
In the taxi on the way to the airport, Wednesday turned to Shadow. "What the hell was that business with the ten dollars about?"
"You shortchanged her. It comes out of her wages if she's short."
"What the hell do you care?" Wednesday seemed genuinely irate.
Shadow thought for a moment. Then he said, "Well, I wouldn't want anyone to do it to me. She hadn't done anything wrong."
"No?" Wednesday stared off into the middle distance, and said, "When she was seven years old she shut a kitten in a closet. She listened to it mew for several days. When it ceased to mew, she took it out of the closet, put it into a shoebox, and buried it in the backyard. She wanted to bury something. She consistently steals from everywhere she works. Small amounts usually. Last year she visited her grandmother in the nursing home to which the old woman is confined. She took an antique gold watch from her grandmother's bedside table, and then went prowling through several of the other rooms, stealing small quantities of money and personal effects from the twilight folk in their golden years. When she got home she did not know what do with her spoils, scared someone would come after her, so she threw everything away except the cash."
"I get the idea," said Shadow.
"She also has asymptomatic gonorrhea," said Wednesday. "She suspects she might be infected but does nothing about it. When her last boyfriend accused her of having given him a disease she was hurt, offended, and refused to see him again."
"This isn't necessary," said Shadow. "I said I get the idea. You could do this to anyone, couldn't you? Tell me bad things about them."
"Of course," agreed Wednesday. "They all do the same things. They may think their sins are original, but for the most part they are petty and repetitive."
"And that makes it okay for you to steal ten bucks from her?"
Wednesday paid the taxi and the two men walked into the airport, wandered up to their gaate. Boarding had not yet begun. Wednesday said, "What the hell else can I do? They don't sacrifice rams or bulls to me. They don't send me the souls of killers and slaves, gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn't that fair?"
"My mom used to say, `Lifeisn't fair,' " said Shadow.
"Of course she did," said Wednesday. "It's one of those things that moms say, right up there with `If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you do it too?' "
"You stiffed that girl for ten bucks, I slipped her ten bucks," said Shadow, doggedly. "It was the right thing to do."
Someone announced that their plane was boarding. Wednesday stood up. "May your choices always be so clear," he said.
Well, until I baited him. ;)
Although I appear to have misplaced it, I read that ten of the eastern European countries are going to launch an intensive effort (read: invest money) in bringing the standard of living up for Gypsies in their respective countries.
Gypsies make up something like 4% of the population, but their standard of living is waaaaaaay down, apparently.
The Romanian hates Gypsies, btw. Are you surprised? Didn't think so.
I found that out when I remembered that Gypsies are often called Romani, so I suggested the link to him and said he was a Gypsy. Apparently I touched a nerve.
Watching his face, you would have thought it was the greatest insult ever!
I should note that in my ignorance, when I think of Gypsies I think of beautiful dark-haired men and women, isolated wagons in forest clearing with the mist clinging to the branches, crystal balls (his writing events in his report before they happened lended itself to this) and so on.
Clearly he feels differently.
Anyway, it's Romania that's spearheading the campaign. So I told him about it.
Man, he was pissed.
That set him off about how Hitler should have finished the Gypsies off in the ovens, along with turning the rest of the thieving Jews into soap. After this familiar tirade, he veered off into the subject of politicians (he hates them all), the Canadian military (bunch of pussies that nobody respects), before eventually landing on the subject of.... China. Sigh.
No really good nuggets to report though. Just the usual.
I saw a massive hawk fly low over the building this morning though. That's a brave bird, as the 100000 crows were out flying.
As I was climbing the steps up to the SkyTrain station, I noticed a guy ahead of me wearing a jacket from my company. Not having anything better to do, I showed him my license and card that indicates I'm with the same company, and asked him where his site was.
He told me, but I didn't really recognise why he was at this station. We were in Burnaby, and he had been out guarding empty houses on the hillside in North Vancouver that had been evacuated during the recent flooding.
So I asked him for his callsign, and then I knew him. ;)
Anyway, for the next five minutes in the station, and the next twenty minutes in the train, he regaled me with all of the scams a guard can pull to do sweet bugger all and get paid. How to sleep. Who sleeps. Easy sites to work for, and hard sites to work for. How to slack off and not get caught. Et cetera.
Gosh, what a noble profession I've found myself in. Clearly I've been hopelessly naive. Bah.
Since this blog entry is not long enough (especially for Jay's tastes :P ), I'm going to end it with a little bit from a book I read a while back. Take it for what it's worth:
In the taxi on the way to the airport, Wednesday turned to Shadow. "What the hell was that business with the ten dollars about?"
"You shortchanged her. It comes out of her wages if she's short."
"What the hell do you care?" Wednesday seemed genuinely irate.
Shadow thought for a moment. Then he said, "Well, I wouldn't want anyone to do it to me. She hadn't done anything wrong."
"No?" Wednesday stared off into the middle distance, and said, "When she was seven years old she shut a kitten in a closet. She listened to it mew for several days. When it ceased to mew, she took it out of the closet, put it into a shoebox, and buried it in the backyard. She wanted to bury something. She consistently steals from everywhere she works. Small amounts usually. Last year she visited her grandmother in the nursing home to which the old woman is confined. She took an antique gold watch from her grandmother's bedside table, and then went prowling through several of the other rooms, stealing small quantities of money and personal effects from the twilight folk in their golden years. When she got home she did not know what do with her spoils, scared someone would come after her, so she threw everything away except the cash."
"I get the idea," said Shadow.
"She also has asymptomatic gonorrhea," said Wednesday. "She suspects she might be infected but does nothing about it. When her last boyfriend accused her of having given him a disease she was hurt, offended, and refused to see him again."
"This isn't necessary," said Shadow. "I said I get the idea. You could do this to anyone, couldn't you? Tell me bad things about them."
"Of course," agreed Wednesday. "They all do the same things. They may think their sins are original, but for the most part they are petty and repetitive."
"And that makes it okay for you to steal ten bucks from her?"
Wednesday paid the taxi and the two men walked into the airport, wandered up to their gaate. Boarding had not yet begun. Wednesday said, "What the hell else can I do? They don't sacrifice rams or bulls to me. They don't send me the souls of killers and slaves, gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn't that fair?"
"My mom used to say, `Lifeisn't fair,' " said Shadow.
"Of course she did," said Wednesday. "It's one of those things that moms say, right up there with `If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you do it too?' "
"You stiffed that girl for ten bucks, I slipped her ten bucks," said Shadow, doggedly. "It was the right thing to do."
Someone announced that their plane was boarding. Wednesday stood up. "May your choices always be so clear," he said.
posted by Rimmy at 15:18
3 Comments:
Whoa. Maybe I should come later when I am more prepared to read that last bit. Ouch.
I'm glad you're baiting people now, to fill in the silences. That's awesome. I say awesome too much. My friend Lisa used to have a neon sweatshirt that said awesome on it. Long, long ago. That's awesome.
Skipping aside the obvious "master baiter" joke, was it really such a Whoa thing to read?
I just thought it was a good little piece of writing.
Of course, since you sleep like I sleep, things are weird. :P
Right. Plus, there's the gin.
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