Justin’s Corner

Here it is…the Ultimate Steal, or so its called. Basically you save HUNDREDS of dollars on Microsoft Office and Vista through a special deal they have setup for students. Office is $64 canadian, and Vista is $70. Like I said, save hundreds of precious dollars. Here’s the link. All you need is your student email and be able to prove you’re in school!

Ultimate Steal Logo

http://student.theultimatesteal.com/z/15/CD2322/

School is a coming, again. Nearly everyone that asks me what I’m doing has the same reply after I say ‘going back to school’…”Really?”.

I was thinking the other night about maybe the choice to go back to school this year wasn’t the best choice. Maybe that job in Windsor was the better choice. At the time there was just too much going on to get me pumped to take the job. So here we are. I’ve been here before. Looking for somewhere to live, buying all the stuff to live on your own, so much to do and my heart just isn’t that into it right now. I haven’t worked, full time anyway, all summer, which is surprisingly depressing. I’ve made some idiotic decisions in the last couple months which make me lay in bed in the mornings thinking about what the hell happened to something I thought I was in control of. But enough of this downer stuff…September means, new people, new experiences, new restaurants/bars/movies/parties/exercise/and a new location (hopefully).

There have been some opportunities which have come across my desk in the last two weeks which may be highly lucrative, or at least they make themselves out to be. Once OSAP gets in, which I hope it does, some investments are going to happen and some seriously risky chances are going to be taken. Should be a good first couple months.

Lastly, have you heard of the “Ultimate Steal”? Microsoft is giving Office and Vista away for super cheap prices. They’re giving us students a break! Its like sixty odd bucks and if you’re a student you can take advantage of it. I know I’m going to buy it as soon as I get my email from Humber. I’ll put a link to it very shortly!

Keep on rockin,
J

After only 2 hours of sleep last night I realized something.  I am quite sick in the head these days.  I get fixated and it takes very small triggers, like a name in passing, to get everything firing in the right sequence to set me off.  Someone mentioned a name yesterday.  I had a dream, couldn’t have been more than 10min long, but I was up all night after that and filled with some serious rage.

When I woke up I was sweating, heart was pounding, fists were clenched, and something very interesting was noticeable.  I woke up lying on my back.  This is out of the ordinary for me because there has only ever been one situation where I am able to fall asleep and wake up on my back.  That is the part that kinda spooked me.  I have to be completely relaxed or exhausted to be able to do this and neither of those situations occurred yesterday or last night.  The dream basically consisted of thumb wrestling, crying, and ill-advised reconciliation if that that means anything to you.  Imagine someone apologizing for you when what  you did was done to prove a point in front of others around you.  Then some other party takes every bit of trust and credit you earned while doing it away.  It boggles the mind.  I could see why it would happen but how do you respond to that person?  Thankfully it was only a dream because in reality I believe the consequences would seriously disrupt some friendships…some really good friendships, or at least I think they are really good.

Maybe I was cracked out from the number of brownies I ate before bed and it was all one of those, “if you eat chocolate before bed you’ll have nightmares” dealies.  I wouldn’t call it a nightmare because I wasn’t afraid or anxious, just full of rage.  It took me about 20min to bring everything back to normal levels, then I couldn’t sleep so I wrote a journal entry.  6 pages double spaced to be exact.  The only option next was to get up and start the day at 5:15am, or turn on a movie and hope to get another bit of shut eye before some meetings I had scheduled.  So I turned on Step Brothers and listened in hopes I could shut my eyes and be taken to a place of nothingness where I could find rest.

Let’s say hypothetically, that, you know of a girl who is engaged and runs around with another guy, ie. has lunch daily, has big hugs and kisses in the morning and before she goes home, and then one day he showers her with chocolates, candy, and clothing store gift certificates.  Now you don’t know her fiancee, and you only see what’s happening from the outside.  First, what do you think the guy’s intentions are?Two, What are the girl’s intentions?Three, should you do anything?All opinions welcome. 

I’ve had many experiences in the last month and a half to give me reason to express myself, but one sticks out above the rest.   While riding the TTC last week, someone came on who looked like any other rider going from point A to point B.  The funny thing was when he came on he had that “on a mission” look.  Immediately, he started looking on the floor of bus.  He walked a couple of steps, bent down, and picked up a transfer someone had dropped or discarded.  That isn’t very uncommon, people looking for valid transfers to save them a couple of bucks.  I’ve done it plenty of times myself.  But then, the interesting part happened.   He turned around, like 180 degrees, and picked up the filthiest looking piece of newspaper I’d seen that day.  It was all wet, brown and dirty, and very gritty looking.  He grabbed it without hesitation.  He then proceeded to the back of the bus to pick up more garbage on the floor.  After the first pass he came back to the front and asked people to move their legs so he could pick up the garbage under their seats.  He did this until there was not a scrap of litter in site. Now at first some snickered, some laughed, some whispered at what he was doing.  I was thoroughly intrigued.  I thought, wow, either this guy is getting paid to do this, or something has given him this mission to make the bus that I ride clean.  He never spoke, never showed disgust that people would throw trash on the floor, just went about his business and politely asking people to move their feet or to pick the garbage for him.  A bunch of ideas started going through my head, almost similar to what happened in that song the Black Eyed Peas put out where people just ran around sticking flyers with a question mark on it wherever they went.As I write this it reminds of the various clubs in high school that all the “nerds” were a part of.  The key club, the interact club, etc.  Kinda wish I had done SOMETHING other than make fun of them.So now that I’ve seen this it almost demands some kind of response inside and/or outside.  What that is I don’t know, but it will at least remind me when I go to throw a newspaper or something of the like on the bus floor. Has anyone ever seen this guy or seen something similar this happen in front of them? 

By tomorrow night, ie. thursday 11:59pm, a year in review will be posted.  Reading Dalton’s inspired me. 

 PLUS, don’t miss out on new happenings at my Colborne area workplace.

Here’s a quick glimpse, if you haven’t heard enough, of the lack of professionalism, and utter daftness of my boss.  While counting inventory one night, myself and a highschool girl were counting the usual crap you find at gift shops. He proceeds to tell me about when he was in the phillipines and chatting with a german at some bar.  He said, “This German guy was telling me that if you want a girl you have to pay to get her out of the bar and any food or drinks the rest of the night and you can do whatever you want with her”.  He went on with graphic details from what this supposed German told him, which he ‘clearly’ pointed out he wasn’t into, and tried to show his worldliness to me.  Now this was guy talk to say the least, and the fact he was saying it in front of this young girl pissed me off.  So I left about halfway through his story hoping he would stop.  I went back to the other side of the workplace and told another employee what he was saying.  She told me he says that kind of stuff around the highschool girl because she has told him she’s a virgin and is saving herself for marriage.  Thank goodness there are some morals in that place.

Other than that, the boss wants me to get on a video project for information screens at the place.  I ordered a couple computer parts, we’ll see if they work out.  And I’m telling him I’m going back to school in january.  Hope he doesn’t get too upset!

take care folks

j

are runnin through my head, runnin through my head, RUNNIN THROUGH MY HEAD.

Quelle est ton nom pour le group that sang that?  I remember there’s two girls kissing in the video, but that’s about it.

So it’s been over a week and I apologize for not filling you with my editorial home cooking goodness.  But let’s keep this plain and simple for the time being.  So, thinking back to the last post I remember speaking of my workplace and how manipulation can be deemed appropriate.

It was one of those things that I was waiting for someone to call me up and say, “how can you say manipulation is ok, it is never alright to control someone for personal gain”.  But then reh came along and gave me the verbal pat on the back.   That’s all I need to write some more.

So this week at my workplace, the manager went to a convention in Florida with two other staff.  High school students to be exact, both male.  I was kinda hoping he would have taken the female student along with him because that would lead to all sorts of allusions and allegorical references about an old divorced karate instructor taking a high school girl to an amusement park convention in Florida for two weeks, of which the convention only lasts one.  But I digress.

The day before said supervisor left, he came to me while I was checking a customer through and kind of leaned back in a relaxed manner like he was going to tell me some inside information.  I finished with the customer and I leaned back as well and crossed my arms to give off the I’m cooler than you’ll ever be vibe.  He opens with, “you know, after 90 days you’ll have supervisor status”. I raise my right eyebrow, much like the rock did after his mantra “If ya SMELLLELELELELELELLL, what the ROCK is cookin”, and wait don’t say anything giving him the opportunity to shower me with more of his “you’re doing a great job” behind the words speech.  So he continues, “So after a 5-day testing period where you have to do everything EXACTLY right, and after a written test, you’ll be a supervisor”.

So what was I thinking while he was saying this…”I love hearing you say how great I am without actually saying those words”…”Do you realize you don’t actually look people in the eye, it’s more of a kitty corner stare”…”I can’t wait to see your reaction when I quit to go back to school”…”I’d love for you or your old man to scream in my face and tell me how stupid I am and that I have no brain like you do to other employees”…”What have I done in my life to get to this very point of listening to one of the most insecure people I’ve met tell me about being a supervisor at my workplace that if someone had written a book about it, it would be found under the fiction section”.  Those are just some of the thoughts that pass through my thick skull as I stood there smiling and acting genuinely enthused about being a supervisor.

Oh, somethin else that came up at work, which I thought was a little interesting, was…I’d better give some previous information first.  About 2 weeks ago now, there was an all team practice at the church for singers, and techs.  There was a devotional on worshiping outside the church and one of the take aways was “in your workplace, how would you perform differently if you were doing it for the Lord”.  Simple enough, I’m sure you’ve all heard or pondered this before.  So anyway, I was slicing pies one day, not a particularly fun job, but it has to be done.  Sometimes if the pies are fresh, they are VERY hard to slice and make look like nice slices on the plate.  So I cut a few pies and everything was fine, then it hit me, “what if I was slicing this pie, this very slice, for the man upstairs Himself?”.  A quick smile crossed my face and I actually started to enjoy slicing the pies.  Making sure the slice looked delicious and perfect on the plate.  And with that one thought, my whole internal insight to slicing pies that day changed.  Made me feel good to be there.

That made my day a little better at my workplace.  Another thing, I talked to the person who made the schedule and she asked if there were any days I really didn’t to work.  I told her Wednesdays because I like to do things on Tuesday nights.  They said ok.  So this past week I had Wednesday off.  Great, things are looking up.  Then Friday shows up.  The 2nd in command of the place left me a note to do some things on Friday morning.  She ended her note with, I’ll see you in the morning.  So I’m the only male in the restaurant and gift shop.  There are two women in the gift shop side and one is being trained.  So I expected to see my supervisor come in early, maybe 9ish.  Around 10:30 the women start asking ME for their breaks.  Now let’s get things straight.  I don’t mind responsibility, BUT if it is DROPPED on me instead of given with instruction, after all I’ve been there less than a month, then I don’t take to kindly to it.  So all the employees are looking to me for some guidance/leadership.  So I dealt with it as best as possible.  Around noon, the HR person comes and gives me my schedule.  I was too busy at the time to have a look at it so I threw it in my pocket.  A cashier came and talked to me after the lunch rush and I pulled the paper out of my pocket.  I noticed that I had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off.  That was kinda weird as I’m supposed to be full-time.  Then I look at the next week… Monday: 8:50am-6pm, Tuesday: 2pm-9pm, Wednesday: 7:30am-4.  Read that again VERY SLOWLY.  I call shenanigans on the idiots they have writing the schedule.  First of all, 8:50-6?  Who works that?  I’ve never heard of that shift before in my life.  Then 2-9, the reason this one is weird is they told me they wanted me to be an opener, not a closer.  THEN 7:30-4.  Now come on here.  You want me to work until 9pm, then get up and open at 7:30?  My drive to work is between 15 and 20min, so if I get home at 9:30pm, then go to bed at 10pm, get a full 8 hours  of sleep and get up at 6/6:30ish I could do it.  HAHAHAHA, what kind of person with a working heart and soul would do this to me?  Not only do I not get a full 10 hours away from the place, I SPECIFICALLY TOLD THEM I DO THINGS TUESDAY NIGHT.  If anyone can explain or give a theory why people are stupid and not nice to me even after I go out of my way to be nice to them, like make them lunch which they don’t ever pay for, or make a joke to lighten their day, feel free to let me know.  Anyway, around 3:50, ten minutes before my shift is over, the supervisor strolls in, doesn’t even talk to me, and then sends someone to tell me I can leave, at the same time the restaurant got kinda busy and no one came to relieve me and take over, so I had to stay 13 minutes after my shift, which of course I don’t get paid for.

So I leave mad and look forward to driving west at 4:30pm, right when the sun is in your face and it’s hard to drive.  I’m entering the on ramp to the 401 and my foot I realize is on the floor on the gas.  My car would not kick into passing gear for some reason.  So I think to myself, “it still gets the job done, but under the hood needs a tune-up”.  And the funny thing with how my mind works, is no matter what though enters my head, I immediately apply it to myself.

Ya I can do most jobs reasonably well.  I’ll get it done, but for the most part, my heart just isn’t into it.  And I don’t know what kind of tune-up I need to kick my emotional drive into the next gear.  Or do I need to at all at the moment.

I received an email from the school I plan on attending in January.  It had a phone number and address of someone who is renting out their basement.  So my father and I drove up there tonight to have a look see.  We had already been in the city to check some other places on Wednesday, and I had a place picked out that I was going to apply for on Monday.  When I got to this home, nice lookin place, somethin you’d find on westwood drive in Cobourg, I rang the door and a nice, humble, mid-late 40s lady wearing a hijab opened the door and instructed me to meet her at the side of the house.  She took my father and I some stairs to a small hallway.  She opened up one door and there was a good sized room in it with a nice closet.  She then showed me a small kitchenette and then led us to another door.  She opened up what I expected to be another room of similar size to the first, but when she hit the lights I couldn’t believe my eyes.  This was the mother of all sweet rooms I’d ever seen!  It was like half the size of a soccer field!  We walked in and with the three of us in there it felt to me like the room had swallowed us.  So as we left I was super pumped.  I want that room BAD.  As we were talking about what all is included she asked how I got her number.  I told her a lady at the school gave it to me and she asked if it was Donna.  I said, “Yes it was, do you know her?”, then something surprised me, Raoual, the house owner, said, “Sure, I teach there in the labs.  You’ll see me quite a bit there and I can help you with work if you get stuck”.  Are you kidding me?  I’ll be living in the basement of a teacher at the school I’m going to?  Needless to say I’ll be calling her tomorrow to book the room fo sho.  Oh, and did I mention it’s HALF the cost of the other place I was looking at?  Everything except phone and internet is included for, get this….$450/month, in TORONTO!

So I’m kinda psyched now.

That’s about it.  I KNOW something is going to happen at work next week so stay tuned.

J