Read Between the Lines

I had this today from the office and it actually had been sent to everyone, in regards to business travels. For a company like this that has being managed like a corner convenience store, it sounded like a wake up call. As far I know there has never been much control over the way people travel around. Now that the company has come to a shitty position, they realize that there has been a hole that caused them losing some though and are trying to patch it up. I have not been to many places so far and if I have,  never spent too much. At the same time there has been many who went as far as the US and Europe without having any valid reason and did nothing but slacking.

This is a summary of what the e-mail said:

1- The cost of the travels should be kept to minimum.

2- Every trip should be pre-approved before any ticket is bought.

3- Only certain individuals have the authority to but tickets.

4- All of the tickets should be purchased under Economy Class.

5- Worldwide trips should also be performed in Economy Class unless  the situation is different (I do not remember what the situation was and I do not care because it does not apply to me).

6- Etc.

There is no doubt that the owner of the company is getting kicked in the balls and is trying to keeping himself above the water. I believe it helps a bit but sooner or later everyone will be kicked out unless other work is presented to the firm.

Meat Pie

We had an amazing Meat Pie last week, in three shape and sizes. It had a few advantages that you never find in any other Meat Pies bought in the supermarkets:

1- Made out of Whole Wheat flour.

2- Fresh out of oven, not made frozen months ago and thawed in a stupid microwave.

3- Herbs, vegetables and spices and fresh extra lean ground beef and grated Mozzarella Cheese were only the ingredients, meaning minimum preservatives.

When it comes out of the oven just have it cool down and service immediately. The rest could be simply stored in refrigerator or freezer for as long as weeks or month.

(Photo: This is the biggest and deepest Meat Pie made, decorated with Whole Wheat heart-shaped biscuits on the top. Healthy and delicious, a true work of art by F. F.)

Idle No More, Assholes Far More

I have not had many experiences with Native people here but a few that I had was pleasant. There was this guy that I worked with for a short time and he was an OK guy. Once saw him outside and we said Hi. Then a few times I ran to a few people how were all nice people. This lady that I have been to a few times for my banking needs is a Native and has been OK.

Nevertheless this new Idle No More has not impressed me a lot. First of all why are they thinking it is the time that they should be more involved in the country's management. And if they think they should be, do they also believe that they are qualified in terms of education, experience and expertise? A found a couple of interesting comments about this new movement called Idle No More that I would like to share with everyone:

 

1- Attawapistat received nearly 80 million dollars last year to support its 1500 residents. nearly half came from the Canadian taxpayers and the other half came from 51 million in contracts from a nearby diamond mine. In addition, 20% of the employees in that mine (likely in well paid union jobs) come from, live and take their pay cheques back to Attawapistat. And before you say it, the situation is the same or strikingly similar on most reserves in Canada.        

The city of Edmonton, population over 800k, has 12 aldermen and 1 mayor. Why would a community of 1500 people need 12 counsellors and 3 chiefs? As well, each of which has a higher salary than the aforementioned Edmonton city counsellors by at least 50%.

INM: I don't doubt your claim of rampant illiteracy and poverty on reserve. But here's a simple question. If you feel you need more money, where did last year's money go?

The time has come to realize that the people that are screwing you is not the rest of us; it is YOUR OWN LEADERS. They live in mansions, own vacation properties and drive BMWs. THAT is where your money is.   

 

2-

This is how a conversation of proper questions would go if someone with quizative questions were talking to a “suppressed Native” individual:

 
Individual: How does it make you feel that your chief makes over $300,000.00 a year and you are living in a rundown shack on the reserve?
Native: White people stole our lands and raped our woman for hundreds of years.
Individual: OK?? So don’t you think the chiefs should put some of the money back into the reserve communities and provide proper support to your people?
Native: White people pollute the air and used to beat and kill our people
Individual: Umm that’s not what I’m asking…. Don’t you wonder where millions and millions of dollars went that the Canadian government gave to your small reserve of only 2000 people? 
Native: The Canadian government and white people don’t respect our traditions and our people
It’s unfortunate but it seems like the SOME native people have been brain washed to blame all their problems on the white man.

   

This is sad that people with thousands of years history and tradition has turned mostly to homeless, akcoholics and drug addicts. But I think that is the cas ewith many other nations although they are not as bad as the Native people of Canada. Look at the Greeks, Egyptians, Iranians, etc. They all inheret civilizations which goes back thousands of years ago but are struggling really had these years.

(Photo: Chief, a work displayed in Glenmore Museum)

Very Knowledgable People

Sometimes you think you know someone and then you lose the contact with him and after a while you find out something about him and you realize he was not really what you had thought!

This just happened to me last Fri. about the guy who used to work with us. He was an elderly guy in his mid. 60s, Caucasian. Our relationship was good and I learnt things from him but the Caucasian-Non-Caucasian relationship of any kind which barely works here, did not work out! He left the company and before leaving he gave me his telephone number and e-mail address. I stayed in touch through e-mail because it's more convenient for most but after his last response that he said something and never did it, I stopped e-mailing.

What I found last Fri. was a printed copy of an e-mail that he had sent to the Client asking him for an advice on a welding issue! He is supposedly an individual with over 25 years practical experience in welding and welding inspection field and he did not know that! And if we assume it was OK that he did not know it because not everyone is expected to know everything, even though they have worked in the same field for over 25 years, he should have contacted authorities, other individuals in the field or do a research himself. You never go to the Client for a question like that because that is oxymoron. Client's hired you to do the job on his behalf and you go back to him to get the answer? I lost all the respect I had for him after seeing that e-mail. What he did not only proved that he is not as knowledgeable as I thought but also was very unprofessional. It's good that I never e-mailed him after he didn't do what he had promised. I have another reason not to get to him at all!

My 2 Years Tanure with the Company

I finished my second year with this company yesterday. Am I happy here? I must say no. There are lots of ups and downs and looks like we are going down now! All the way down! Until we hit something hard and break!

I have to find a new job of the year and it depends on different factors including my title. But when I think deeper I think of moving out of this province and even the country! I know it's not easy to do but this life sucks here! We need to get to a better place or we suffer more because the weather is disgusting here! I can move to any country now and even F. F. will be ready in a year but what would I do with Mom  and F. D. I was thinking of Australia where the weather should be nice or the US if i can get a job but with that issue I have to forget about them.

The First Trip of 2013

I went to Edmonton with a colleague to visit a supplier yesterday. Such a tiring trip. I had to wake up at 05:45 AM to pick him up at his place which was at the other end of the city and I had a little difficulty at the end to find him. So I called and found the place after a few minutes of conversation and driving around the neighbourhood.

Then we got a little breakfast and hit the Queen Elizabeth Highway. I was fine and the vehicle was really comfortable except for a few times that we had issue with the heat. On the road a few times I had to slow down because of the thick fog. We reached our destination with almost half hour delay and another reason was the supplier's premises. I really like the guy who runs the place and according to the documents he has been doing that for quite a long time but when we reached where the company was supposed to be, we didn't see any sign or logo which says the company is here. Then we called the guys we realized that the were hiding in between may be two other businesses, one of them a distribution centre for Pizza ingredients and the other one, I don't even know what! It was a messy place, old with items all over. I realized the guy and his aids they all work in that rubble. It's quite understandable that this company is trying to save few hundreds or may be thousands every year but renting a dump beside a Pizza distribution centre! The funny thing is if you look at the company's website which is well-designed and then read the firms title, you'll say: Wow! These guys are good! But in reality all they do is they import shit from China, from many other companies like that and distribute it with a percentage of profit!

This time they screwed big time but I don't think it will such a big deal for them. What they had done was the order that we were supposed to checked comprises 4 major items and 5 less critical ones. 2 out of the first 4 types were found completely off! Apparently the guy just had picked up the telephone and told his toilet sub-supplier that he had needed 50 more of item C and 80 more of item D, not looking at the new drawings and knowing that there are slight differences in both items, in terms of one or two dimensions which change the items significantly! One of the items has a measurement of 21 mm in the old version of the drawing and 51 mm in the new version! This actually made our job much easier because we realized that we did not have to even touch those two items! The other 2 items were in kind of crappy like metal boxes and since we wanted to randomly select samples from the top of welded box, one of the guys, a receptionist/document controller/floor worker (Jack of all trades) had to use a grinder and cut the damn boxes open which was extremely noisy and irritating for us who had no ear plug or ear muff on, at the time.

Then it was lunch time but we were not very hungry. One of the guys, another multi-purpose fella, invited us to Pizza (It was not clear at the time if they wanted to get Pizza from the guy next door, it was a daily deal coming with the rent or lease or what!) I said I did not want to have Pizza and liked something a bit lighter like a salad. He said that he would get it for us. We were busy with work and I regretted that we accepted his offer because although I was not hungry I really didn't want to eat any shitty Pizza and that was what I was sure he would brought us!

He showed up after almost 45 minutes but before that we saw a squad of people all working for the great company. I saw guy with a large Pizza and a box or salad stepping in right after them. He opened the Pizza, and crap, it was white dough, Pepperoni and ham Pizza with most of toppings burnt or dried! I could imagine what kind of shit Pizza these type of fellas would it and it because a reality! The salad was not much better: a few leaves of a kind of vegetable (not lettuce of any kind), pieces of cut apple, fake dried cranberry, grated cheese and halves of pecan socked in some sort of sweet dressing! I took a few spoons and that was my lunch and the rest enjoyed the healthy food.

After the so-called lunch we got back to work and although we had planned to finish work between 04:30 and 05:00 PM, we realized that we were exhausted so much that we wanted get the hell of the shit place before that. Besides we had a long drive back home ahead of us. There was nothing special on the road when going home. My colleague drove. The big problem commenced when I had to return the damn car. It was after hours and nobody was in the office. I filled up the tank and drove around the block 2 times until I found the entrance to the parking! There's absolutely no sign for this rental's parking and the hassle does not just end there: You have to go up 7 freaking floors, park the car, write the information on a piece of paper and drop key with it. I only noticed after I drop the key. So I say screw it! I walked then to damn train station and it was really cold. I was barely able to walk. I got of my stop and again walked in the cold for about 25 minutes until I had my corpse-like body at home. I could not even feel my hands although I had a damn pair of Columbia useless gloves! Then I had to stay under hot shower for almost 15 minutes to be able to feel my organs! I was dead tired so I just laid down and tried to relax a bit.
(Photo: The new Dodge Dart was very comfortable and reliable in this short trip)

Glenbow Museum

We went to Glenbow Museum today. That was my second time. The first time I went with Mom back in 2004. The main entrance and gift shop has been changed. I am fine with the main entrance but the gift shop has been pushed sort of back and is not in your way when getting in and out. So might not be very good for their business. When I was there in the first time the entrance was from the gift shop or very close to it so you had the opportunity to see what's available.

Anyways the sections for Asian and African history, as well as Aboriginals, Mining and War and war was the same. I guess the only part changed was the History of Albertathat I realized changes in it. I think different items were displayed but still good. There were also paintings which were nice. We started at about 12:20 and finished at around 16:30 but got too tired and I missed the photography of the War section because I ran out of battery on my camera! But I spent very good time in Asian history which is the best as well as the aboriginals. I might go again for the third time and this time I will start from the 4th floor and come down and will make sure that I finish the War section completely and then I will spend whatever left on the rest.

(Photo: Artist has tried to give the reader how the creatures of the sea looked like 375 million years ago! According to the geological studies Alberta was a big sea on that time period called Devonian and creatures like these used to live in it. This is shown in the museum and looks like a terrarium)