Weekly Log - 13 through 19

Monday Jul 13

Monday 13th, boy does this promise. Last Friday I told my super I wouldn't mind working there past my contract, this meaning, staying there after the promotion's over, probably at the register or restocking. Why did I do this? I could use the money. All things considered, being unemployed again is something I am not looking forward to at all. Even if they only hire people part-time. It's still better than nothing, and if I can get another part-time job elsewhere, I'll be making more than with a full-time job.

Co-workers do suck mostly (some people are cool though), but they'd suck just as bad elsewhere. And here, I already know who sucks, how much and with what determination. Might as well stay at a place where I already know the corners. Spares me a second reconnaissance. I recall some people talking about an odd feeling they experienced after reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - the feeling that it was actually a parabola for the pussified old world. Whenever I think of my co-workers, I sort of get the feeling I've read this before... around the time I was reading stuff in D&D books about drow society. The only way for these guys not to stab me in the back is being absent.

Tuesday Jul 14

A day has 24 hours, 8 of which are spent sleeping and eight of which are spent working, ideally. Take 2 hours, more or less, spent in traffic or public transportation and 2 more for meals. In my case, it adds up to 20. This means that if I don't do anything else (house, body and belongings maintenance, for instance), I have a total of 4 hours of free time every day. 4 hours is half my shift. If you think it flies by fast when I'm working, you reach a conclusion it flies by faster still when I'm having fun.

You do have weekends, of course. 48 hours a week. Subtract 16 to 20 hours for sleep (because everyone likes to sleep in on weekends) and 4 for meals. You get 24 hours of free time if you forsake the aforementioned house, body and belongings maintenance. Puts things in perspective, when you start doing the maths for your time. In a week of 168 hours, only 40 are spent exactly however the fuck you want to, with luck!

Wednesday Jul 15

This place is apeshit. It could be a bloody sitcom. I honestly think a sitcom could be easily set in this very place with these very people as characters. Yesterday, the security guard (who by the way is a walking horror movie cliché character: big, black, sassy, and named Eddy) had to run out of the store chasing a woman who tried to get the five finger discount. Today, another woman nearly gave birth to her six-month old in the middle of the supermarket.

In an emergency, I wouldn't trust the best of these folks. Everyone was running back and forth, nobody had a bloody cell phone with which to call emergency, and since the main phone needs a code of sorts before it allows you to make a call outside, and nobody fuckin' knows what that is, if the sub hadn't finally decided to go dial it herself we'd have to ask the cellphone from one of the customers. Frankly, why the fuck is she obsessed with keeping the code to herself? I have free SMS, I'm not gonna call outside, who would I call anyway if everyone I know is working or at school? We all belong to the Internet generation, lady, half of us has a hard time recalling what a wire telephone looks like.

Anyway, an ambulance came for the lady and to the best of my knowledge, she was okay. She left the place walking. I complained a few days ago I was bored. This week seems to want to prove me wrong at all costs.

Thursday Jul 16

I got news a guy who entered the ranks of the cashiers last week just gave up. Said he couldn't take the pressure. Which sent me in stitches: he can't take the pressure working the register? If he was in my shoes for a day, he'd commit suicide.

It's amazing how many assholes out there want a job, a career or employment, but how very few of them actually want to work. I'm glad just to be getting paid! Nine months going back and forth between home and job agencies would teach him a thing or two. Spending a while working phone sales would also be advisable. Because as far as I'm concerned, compared to a call-center, what I'm doing is heavenly. And then again, I don't know. Some people were born to work call-centers.

He actually had spoken to me once about his experience working at the register of a different supermarket chain. Oh wait... a hypermarket chain. The difference is that the hypermarket has some thirty registers, down where I work there are six. And a hypermarket has some eighty to ninety people among their staff, while here we have what? Forty, maybe less, and not all are here at the same time. He used to tell us he didn't like the fact he had to do his own price checking, for instance, because in his last job there was someone paid to do it for him. And he blames that on the store's lack of an organization and strategy. Oh. Well, I agree with him, the store has problems as work division goes, as staff scheduling goes... but this is also a small store. I'm pretty damn sure there is no way this can work as a major space. He had seen the place before applying for the job, so... why did he even come here?

Brother, when I remember they put this guy here within a week's time, and I applied for some five different supermarkets within the past year and none of them ever called me...

Friday Jul 17

I worked like a beast all night, like a bloody beast. Running up and down those stairs every fifteen minutes will either do wonders for my legs, or finish wrecking them. But that's in the past: ah, Friday night! The tradition of going out and having fun in this day is older than me. And while I have some coins in my pocket and a breath in my chest, I intend to honor this noble custom. I've been preparing for it all week: the sheets were set, the dice were polished, the calls were made both for the people on this side of the river and the people on the other one. Let us join together two of my favorite things: bar going and D&D.

I drank seven shots in a row against a friend (won by a two shot advantage, go me) and we laughed and rolled dice until the bar closed. Then we walked our way to the electric car station and sat there for nearly an hour chatting, until the first car ran by. By the time I finally walked into the house, it was morning - and even so, I still made myself breakfast, took a long shower and took time to welcome the weekend before dragging my tired and happy tail back to bed. This is what all Fridays should be like.

Weekend Jul 18 - 19

Woke up late on Saturday, as would be expected, seeing as I came back well into the morning. Sleeping in feels delicious when you have to get up early every morning. My contract also arrived yesterday, so everything's oficial until September. I signed that bastard and will send it as soon as possible. Downloads for the week include El Orfanato (2007) and Inland Empire (2006), as well as The Pick of Destiny (2006) so I can take a few chuckles into next week.