Well, we got our puppy... and here he is. His name is Farley and he is a big bundle of energy. It was very difficult to get pitcures of him because you'd click and he'd already be gone from the shot.

But he is very cute and he loves people... and other dogs... and eating dandilions... and attacking leaves... and sitting on shoes... and pulling at shoelaces... and...

On the up side

We're getting a puppy... The rest of the family went out to look at puppies while I was at work and fell in love with a little black and white spaniel puppy... So we're getting him... we think we're going to name him Farley so far...

And that also means we will (probably *crosses her fingers*) be getting a kitty soon as well...

This is a good thing... I need something fuzzy to cuddle...

Growling is Rampant

My day can be summed up by one word: Argh!

In other words, not fun... the reason, also one word, work.

Work was fine for the first bit...I mean we had the usual "Gah! who opened two bags of Sumatra!" and "growl why can't people look at the dates on the syrups and use the ones expiring first" but that's just every day stuff...

However things went to hell two hours before the shift is over...when the new girl we had working with us went home... when we realised that she hadn't done anything she was supposed to do on brews... in fact we realised she hadn't thought she was on brews....

So we have no rows, and no grinds... not good... and of course it is at this point, after a mildly slow day, that things start to get hectic (ie. line ups to the door that won't go away and drinks piled up on the barrista machine so there isn't any more room). So, as we desperately attempt to help customers and get rows made and grinds done not to mention keeping enough coffee made so that we don't run out, time goes by and our two hours of time quickly becomes half-an-hour.

And of course to make things worse I'm HCIC... meaning that I still have to do cash out... I've done cash out a grand total of two times before so I'm none to quick in the first place...

...But if things seemed like they had gone wrong before let me tell you... they hadn't... The first till I, stupidly, changed to clerk 3 before doing voids and printing the x-report... meaning I had to go back enter things into the till under clerk three to cancel out my voids then redo the voids under clerk 2 then reprint both the clerk 2 and clerk three reports to make sure they were both fixed. Then change the till back to clerk 3...

Luckily that till didn't take me long to actually cash out and was almost spot on (Couple cents over)...

Unfortunately the second till was a living nightmare... I counted it a total of four times... it was under by $100! Not good! So I counted the safe... twice! It was, unfortunately, on. So by this time I'm strained, stressed and unsure what I'm supposed to do... luckily both Cass and Bree were there both of whom are experienced and know what they're doing(though Bree had been on shift with me so she was also a wee bit strained).

We thought perhaps someone had done something wrong on the closing shift so that I had the total for two days on my x-report... unfortunatly the debit and visa totals added up properly making that option very unlikely...

So the only thing we can think of is... either someone deposited $100 too much in the morning, or Kate took too much when she came in to take the extra weekend money out...

and so by the time I was out of there it was half-an-hour after my shift ended...

Anyhow I left multitudes of notes for people explaining the stupidity and stumbled home... and now I'm tired, emotionally, physically, etc...

So that is why growling is rampant

Obligations and Possession (Subject pilfered from the journal of Arianthrax)

As an offshoot from Ari's train of thought on the subject of possession (I started musing on it in her comments then decided I shouldn't fill up her space with my meandering drivel). Do we possess people? Can we? Should we? Why do we attempt to do so.

Now there are several different interpretations of the possession of others and all of them are valid topics for thought and in a way they are all related. There is, perhaps the strongest of them, slavery. Outlawed in Canada but still rampant in much of the world. I certainly won't defend it or its practitioners. But even in slavery does anyone truly possess a person... they may treat them as property but does that make them property?

Do I have an answer for that? No, I don't. I don't have an answer just my ponderings.

And my ponderings lead me to think that in the deepest sense of the word (perhaps more acurately the concept) the only one who can completely and totally posses you is you, yourself.

The only one who can create/keep/break the network of obligations and relationships that we carry with us, is ourselves. We reach out to other people, yes, we sometimes feel we have to do things for other people, or even that others should do things for us... and that's OK in my opinion... but these feelings of having obligations are created in our own minds...

Anyhow, I have to leave this train of thought as muzzy and confused as it is, because I'm babysitting and Jacob just woke up. I'll check back later.

~Em

Unitarian Jihad

Egad! Two posts in one day! What is dear Em coming to? But I read this and it must be shared

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.

Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.

We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.

Brother Gatling Gun of Patience notes that he's pretty sure the world is out to get him because everyone laughs when he says he is a Unitarian. There were murmurs of assent around the room, and someone suggested that we buy some Congress members and really stick it to the Baptists. But this was deemed against Revolutionary Principles, and Brother Gatling Gun of Patience was remanded to the Sunday Flowers and Banners committee.

People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution. Startling new underground group spreads lack of panic! Citizens declare themselves "relatively unafraid" of threats of undeclared rationality. People can still go to France, terrorist leader says.

Michael row the boat ashore, and then get some of the local kids to pull the boat onto the dock, and come visit with jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.

Relayed to you by Sister Machine Gun of Patience (no relation to the band)

http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html

My Unitarian Jihad name is The Sabre of Sweet Reason

Over and Out

~Em

Disjointed Randomness

Well, I promised Ari that I would update my blog and I'm certainly not going to go back on that promise. Besides I'm in the sort of melancholy mood that facilitates such ponderings as I usually pen at hours far and late in the night... though its actually just the afternoon here...

I don't have anything in particular on my mind at the moment, just the urge to write which will probably result in this entry being more disjointed and difficult to follow than most of my others. Ye gods is that even possible! I find myself vaguely horrified at the thought... Ok now I'm simply being silly.

I hate being stuck in the city again. For one glorious week I was free out in the open not caged by bloody walls, fences, streets and sidewalks all damn day. This is one reason geology appeals to me... give me a job where for the duration of field season you sleep in a canvas tent and spend your whole day outside whatever the bloody weather... Yay waterproof notebooks!

I got no bloody sleep last night... that could explain my state of mind.... have I mentioned how much I hate cramps! They make me want to curl up in a little ball around the pain and whimper but that just seems to make it worse. It seems to take hours for any pain killers to kick in when they get really bad too... it makes me wonder if they help at all or if the cramps just ease off on their own... They hit me at work the other day... yay having a store of painkillers in the cupboard there... sadly I used them up... we'll have to get more... In any case I was working with a good team yesterday: Bree, Arden, and Sandra. Great people. Funny people.... I also drank a shitload of tea and two extra large blended Chais.

Wow this blog entry is slightly journallish... what's happening to me... anyhow I'm off now.


Over and out

~Em

Field School (a more light-hearted journal entry)

Well, I don't have any photos yet (seeing as my friend was the one with the camera and I have to wait until she sends them all to me).... But the trip was awesome... if all school was like that... well lets just say I wouldn't have any trouble getting up at 6:30 in the morning for classes!

Our professors (Creaser and Froese) were completely awesome as were the TAs... not to mention great people to hang around a bar with. The mark was basically based on all the assignments and your field notes you took, the final exam was worth only 30%.

Other than that how cool is it to be hiking through back country looking at rocks, rock formations, outcroppings etc all day and getting credits for it!

Our route was basically Edmonton - Drumheller - Lethbridge - Waterton - Fernie - Radium (hot springs) - Jasper and then back to Edmonton

But we stopped at so many places in between...

At the hot springs, actually, we were looking at all the calcite formations, calcified leaves, bacteria drapes, tree trunks etc... and guess what we found? A calcified sock! It was completely coated in calcite but still recognisable as a sock. That gives an idea about how quickly things can be preserved in areas like that... Creaser took it back to the UofA as an excellent sample, of course.

The only bad thing on the trip was that we had to miss one of our planned stops because our bus broke down and it was dark by the time we reached it... I was very dissapointed that we didn't get to see the Crows Nest Volcanics... which are alkalic volcanic rocks (rich in alkali minerals such as orthoclase feldspar) But that are also the only type of volcanic rocks in which garnet forms (Garnet is normally only found in metamorphic rocks)

We still got to see a sample because there was a boulder of it at the Frank Slide... the stop at which our bus decided to break down... but I would have liked to have seen it on a larger scale... not the least because the garnets apparently just erode right out of the rock being more resistant to weathering than the rest of the minerals in the rocks' makeup.

Not only was the trip cool... the field notebook was awesome... its waterproof! Completely waterproof! it rained a bit one day (and of course that didn't stop us from going out ) and the water just beaded on the page and you could just wipe it right off! But pencils write on it just as if its normal paper!

Anyhow now I just have to wait for the pictures

Over and Out

~Em