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Journal Entries for December 2000

December 21, 2000

Everyone at work seems to hate this one guy namd Steve. And I have been trying to figure out why that is. Personally, I like the guy. Sure he can be annoying with his dumb jokes sometimes, but then again, I'm not one to talk against that trait. But more and more I' realizing, as I watch him and the others, an underlying theme arises. Its something that is rooted in human nature. Steve is a hard worker. He accomplishes a lot in his day, and for the most part he does a respectable job. He takes a lot of risks to get the job done, risks that a lot of other people would flatly refuse. So I wondered why everyone criticizes him for doing a bad job. It is not because Steve is a bad employee or because he is a slacker or anything else, other than the fact that the amount of work he accomplishes in any given day makes (the rest of us) look bad. Instead of working harder (ourselves,) everyone simply puts Steve down. Its kind of like the old saying. "If you and I were out in the forest and a bear started chasing us, I wouldn't have to outrun the bear, I'de just have to outrun you." Steve is not perfect. Like every one of us he has his faults. But he definately does not deserve all the flack he gets at the shop. There, that was my aggrivated discussion for the day. And now for something completely different.

My Christmas plans this year are comming together. So far this is what my holiday looks like:

Dec 24, 2000 Christmas dinner & presents at home in the morning, Christmas supper and presents with my parents at their house.
Dec 25, 2000 Christmas diner & presents with my parents, grandparents and my auntie Susan at her house.
Dec 26, 2000 Christmas dinner with the extended family at my Auntie Becky's house.

In case you were counting, that is 4 Christmas dinners and get-togethers. Its looking to be a very busy Christmas. Worst of all I don't even have my shopping done yet! Bo and I are going out tonight and I'm really looking forward to it. Last time we did something together we had a blast, we went and saw Charlie's Angels. He is going back to Lethbridge on Christmas Eve so we're getting together tonight. If we go to a mall I might be able to pick up a few more presents. -- MERRY CHRISTMAS!--

December 20, 2000

I love small towns. Today I had the privilidge of working in Drumheller, which happens to be the town where I was born. Our jobs included a CIBC, IGA, and Winks store, all in Drumheller, and I noticed something I found very different. Especially noticible in the IGA was the familiarity among everyone. I heard more people greet others today in the two hours we were in the store than I hear in an average week in Calgary. Everybody was smiling, helping each other out, reaching stock on higher shelves for those of us less vertically gifted, I even helped one little old lady carry some pop to her cart. Only the manager was out of spirits with us because we arrived later than he would have liked. For some reason IGAmanagers don't seem to like us. But we fixed all his lights so I don't think he can really complain. Although no doubt he will. Its pretty frustraging when people take their frustrations out on us. We simply go where Ib tells us, when he tells us to go. We have nothing to do with the timing of our arrivals, most of the time we don't even know when the store phoned for service. But we are on our way back to Calgary at the moment and the sun is setting in a nearly clear sky. Christmas is fast approaching, too quickly for my liking. I still have some shopping to do and its not going to be easy. Last night Becky and I went to Sunridge and got some of my shopping done. We also had a good talk and discussed a lot of things. I just realized she hasn't invited me to do anything with her this Christmas. Last year I remember we had quite the party. I went to her house on Christmas day and then her and Courtney came over to my house forma few hours that night. I don't know if I'm supposed to do anything with her this year. Actually, speaking of which, although Jessica is comming to two of my four Christmas celebration get-togethers, I have not been invited to even one of hers. Hmm. One thing I've observed recently is that everbody has a story to tell. I used to sit down town on my lunch breaks and watch the swarms of people, and I couldn't help but wonder where each of them were going. Were they looking forward to it? Did they have a deadline to meet? Were they delivering something or going to pick something up? Did they have good news or bad news? Undoubtably, the answer to each of these questions would be unique for each individual observed, and it made me wonder the same questions about myself. Where am I going? What am I doing? Do I bring with my good news or bad news? Will people be glad when I get there or will they be reluctant to recieve me? Life will always have more questions than answers. I heard on the radio today a good little quote, a little off topic, but if I don't write it down soon I'll probably forget it. It is this: If you got what you paid for, you'll forget what you paid. We usually only remember the price tags of the things that aren't working correctly or have broken down, though those things that continue to give us enjoyment from continued use become worth whatever we paid for them. As we pass countless snow drifts and watch the sun fade behind the white horizon, I can't help marvel at the beauty of the untouched snow all around us. The world is such a beautiful place, it never gets boring or dull. Even the simplest scenes can provide peace, serenity, and a sense of wonder for the God who designed all that is. The mind ponders some complex things sometimes. Its getting too dark to write anymore, so I will end off there. Maybe you ytoo have found something to think about in reading all this.

December 12, 2000

Another day, another dollar. And although each day I typically come home with the same ammount of money, today I earned that money far more than most days. I say this because today I was sick. Very sick. So sick, in fact, that when I got home from work at 1:00 in the afternoon, I lay down and went to sleep until about 9:30, when I discovered that either I, or my room, was unbearably hot and I had to get up. Turns out it was a bit of both, for I had stuffed some clothes in the crack in my window and with both computers running in this small 8x8 space, it got very warm. Within the period of the last 7 days, I am convinced that I have had two separate illnesses. The first one, which caused me to take two days off work, occured at the end of last week, and involved sickness to the stomach, fatigue, and a dry cough. I thought I had it beat when I went to bed last night early, knowing that I would be up at 4:00 am to go to work this morning. But when that dreaded time did come around, I suddenly felt a different kind of sick. Now it would seem that I have a head cold, complete with all the symptoms. Stuffed nose, sinus pressure, headache. I can't move my head without feeling like someone is shaking my brain around inside the skull and every time it bumps up against one of the sides it sends waves of pain through my whole head. Its quite a misrable feeling. I'm hoping the rest I got today and will get tonight might help to combat this second bout of ill health, but I'de be lying if I thought I'de be back to normal by tomorrow. Why do I have to get up at 4:00 am you ask? Simple. Our company has been charged with the task (ominous task it would seem) of Washing & Relamping every Safeway store in southern Alberta. I believe there are some 30 stores in all, the ones we are going to be working on anyways. Jason and I had the wonderful task of beginning this project today. In a store with some 2,700 lamps in the ceiling alone, today we changed 480. That number could have been a lot higher granted, if both of us hadn't felt under the weather, and there were some other political reasons for not working at full steam today. But it is projects such as this that make me long for another job, something a little more computer and less light bulb. Ironically enough, today was the anniversary marking one year with Sylvania Lighting Services. December 12th, 1999 we started working for the company, and Jason and I washed and relamped nearly every 7-11 in Calgary. (Almost 70 stores in total) Now here we are, a year later, still doing Wash & Relamps just on a much larger scale. We honestly believe that the two of us could have done at least 660 lights today. I'm going to start looking around at study-at-home courses so that I can get some more computer tickets and maybe get a job that doesn't involve 4:00am starts and 12 foot ladders.

On a brighter note however, I bought some Christmas lights today for my room and put them up this evening. They aren't quite the way I would have liked to have hung them, but considering I'm about to get a wall knocked out of my room I didn't want to go all out just yet. We put new carpet in the basement here and it looks and feels great! We just need to apply the heat-tape to it to lock it all together and then we can start knocking down this wall and making my room bigger. I'de like to turn this place into a bit of a studio, make it a little more soundproof and get some nice speakers in here so I can do my mixing in here rather than on the couch with headphones. I fixed a few more glitches on my web site resulting from the change of servers. I'm slowly learning how to code in Perl. Someday I'de love to write a Perl version of the old "Empire 1.0" game that we had on the Commodore 64 BBS's. I know if I could ever find some of the old players, it would be a big hit once again. Of course, in this day and age with all the 3D action-adventure games out there, a little old midevil text-based conquest game would probably get swept right under. Then again, I know I would certainly play it. Who's to say others wouldn't. My brother probably would, I know he enjoyed it before. Anyways, that's a project for when I have some serious time on my hands, although I doubt that will be happening any time soon. As for Site Fixups & Updates: Added my latest mix to the files on the music page, the link was always there but it didn't work until now. (There you go, Chris!) There are also some other new files on the rejected list. You have to click on the drop down box to see which files are there and click on a file to download it. I have also started another project, something I've wanted to do for a long time but like so many other things, I just never had time until recently. I am slowly but surely putting all the Christian music I have up on a direct-download page. With Christmas fast approaching, I figured it was a timely project. I wouldn't say that I listen to all of the songs on that page, but certainly some of the music has been very encouraging to me. I am continuing to add more and more songs to it on a regular basis. Once I get my scanner working again, I plan on scanning each CD-Cover and putting them up on the page as well so anyone who might be interested in buying one of the CD's can get a good look at the cover so they know what to look for in the store. On another note, With all this cold weather, snow, and ice, we were thinking about renting a hot tub again. I can't wait, there's nothing quite like going out on a freezing cold day and sitting down in a nice hot tub and watch all the steam rise out of the water. Its almost as good as summer, and I suppose in some regards it is. That's what we need at Pine Lake, a hot tub! That would be great! We should get one for up there. Hmm. Time to start saving... Anyhow, I need to get back to bed. I'm really tired. I just took some pills of some kind. I'm not sure what they were but I think they were for headaches and stuff. I hope I can fall asleep again. Better yet I hope I can wake up in the morning. Later.

December 11, 2000

Another childhood joy has been washed away by the waves of change. This weekend Jessica and I went to the Village Square Liesure Center, and had the worst time I've ever had there. First of all, I got in trouble from an apparantly disgruntled security guard for being up on the lookout balcony. Apparantly I had crossed a "baracade" of some kind. When I told the guard quite politely that I had seen no such baracade, he became more enraged and stated that I had to have crossed a baracade if I was out on the balcony. How I could have not seen it was incomprehendable to him, and I was told to "Use my brain" and to leave the area at once. Meanwhile, 4 Pakistanie ladies were kindly escorted out the door of the balcony behind me with nary a raised word spoken to them. The security guard with the twisted mustache was also of the same nationality. Do I detect a hint of rascism? You tell me. So then, Jess and I both paid our $8 entry fees and went and got changed. Immediately upon leaving the change rooms, we noticed the cold air in the pool area, and decided that the best place to start our day off would be to go to the hot tubs. When we got there, we found one of the tubs closed down, and the other one was being carefully guarded by a life guard, continuously counting heads in the tub and administering a lineup of shivering swimmers. "Please note that the maximum stay in the hot tub is 15 minutes," she says to all within earshot. We waited about 5 minutes to enter the craved heated water, and the first sensation was wonderful. We had just walked to the pool from Castleridge in -24 degree weather so our bodies were quite starved of warmth. However once we became used to the temperature we noticed that the water really wasn't more than warm, and just like in a bath that has cooled to room temperature, you are faced with the tricky choice of whether or not to get out. We looked at the lineup and decided to stay a bit longer. Now I was sitting on the bench of the hot tub, and she was standing in front of me and we were talking to each other, face to face. The lifeguard leaned over and told us that "We were too close" and had to distance ourselves because it looks bad to parents. "You've GOT to be kidding!" was the thought that crossed my mind, but not wanting to be removed from the water that was warmer than the air, we complied with her request. Finally we did leave the hot tub, to try and have some fun in the waves or on one of the waterslides. We went up to the blue slide and found another lifeguard sitting there, instructing swimmers to wait for the slide to clear before proceeding, and to only go down on their bottoms. At the bottom of the slide I noticed there had been another lifeguard tower erected close to the wall of the pool between the slide and the diving boards, with a lifeguard sitting there blowing her whistle at young kids who swam to the 'wrong side of the pool' following their dive. We decided to leave that area as well and try and get back to the hot tub. This time we were lucky and the lineup wasn't nearly as long. We got into the tub in a matter of minutes, and were quickly joined by two ladies, probably in their late twenties who were also discussing the rude treatment they had been getting from the pool staff. We offered our stories and they could not believe how much the quality of the facility had dropped and the oppression by the staff had been increased. They too found the air cold and the water lukewarm. Interestingly enough, the patrolling lifeguard left the hot tub area for a few minutes, and almost immediately everyone waiting in line or around the tub jumped in. The lifeguard came storming back a few minutes later and demanded in no friendly tone that everyone who had entered the hot tub since she left get out at once. The general feeling of those in the hot tub, legitimate and not, was "Watch us!" We could not believe the treatment we were recieving, and for $8 a piece, it was simply not worth the money. After about an hour and a half, if that, we left the pool. Looking back now, I should have asked for our money back, but we were so disgusted by the staff there that we literally could not leave the building fast enough. Needless to say, I highly doubt I will ever return there. I noticed too in the rental room, all the tubes for rent were small, bright, easy-to-grip dingies, no longer the big, black, tire- tubes that they used to rent. Half the fun was trying to hold onto those things, and I remember more than one occasion when a group of us would gather 6 or 7 big black tubes in the middle of the waves and link them together, making a huge floating platform of tubes and kids, rising and falling with the waves. We learned to always point the stems down or they could scratch our legs, and they were the funnest things in the building. You'de never see those there anymore. I was thouroughly disgusted by the changes they had made to the building and the policies. Other than that however, I must say that I did have a good weekend. Jessica and I went to Becky's house on Saturday and spent the afternoon there, mostly with her dad as Becky "went to bed" at about 6 but really snuck out her window and took off somewhere. Not the greatest cover. A fresh set of footprints leaving her window in her size of shoes told the story to a tee, so her dad cut the lock on her window bars and put a new one on. I never found out what happened when she discovered the change and that she had been busted but I bet it would be an interesting story. Better luck next time, Beck. After that we made our way over to my parent's house where we watched Air Force One. Well actually, I watched, Jessica slept through. Today we moved everything out of the basement in our house here and ripped up the carpet. The new carpet is mostly laid but we still need to stretch it out and then Clayton is going to wash it for us. Its nice to have connections in all sorts of industries. Its quite an improvement over the stuff that was in here before. My room is also going to be expanded which will be great! I plan to turn it into a bit of a studio where I can do my mixing and even some recording of my own hopefully in the near future. So many projects on the go! However, it is now 2:19 am on a sunday night and I have work tomorrow! Am I crazy? You be the judge! I still need to have a shower tonight!


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