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I went employment exploring today. I had to take my record of employment to the employment office in order to apply for employment insurance. Here's hoping I qualify, because it will get me some much-needed cash until I can find another job. The employment office is on the 400 block on Weber Street, so I decided to go for a walk and find it.
After locating Weber Street without any difficulty, I checked the numbering order on the street. I was on the 100 block, and the numbers went up to my right. So off I trundled to the right. The blocks are quite large, and it took me twenty minutes to finish the 100, 200, and 300 blocks. And then they skipped from 300 to 500.
What?
I went into a used car dealership on the corner. "Where is the 400 block?" I asked.
And that's when I found that Weber Street was apparently designed by the Elder Gods. It has a sort of crazy geometry, and a numbering scheme that may make sense only to Cthulhu and his vile cohorts. The 400 block was way back behind me, somewhere behind the 100 block.
So after about another forty-five minutes or so of walking, I began to feel weak and faint. I passed numerous streets bearing funny signs: "This street will be closed for five months on or around April 17." None of these streets were closed. However, Weber Street had turned into an excavation site for part of one block. I wended my way between front-end loaders and bulldozers, climbed over a big hill of dirt, and through a shallow, dirty ditch to find myself in front of a little Turkish café. I went in and ordered myself some bacon and eggs.
The café was a real dive, with reluctant employees and two hard-looking cases at the video lottery terminals. One was asking the other which games were the best to play. I ate my greasy food to the beepboopbeeps of money squandered.
And then, thus fortified, I was off again.
Another ten minutes or so passed, and I finally found my destination. Now I had to wait in the neverending line of doom. A couple of dozen people queued up, and only two people at desks to help them. Luckily, I somehow beat the rush, and was third in line. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, I finally got to speak with someone.
It was quite painless. I handed in my record of employment, and the woman at the wicket made a copy of my doctor's note saying I quit because my job was hauling the health out of me, hand over fist. So it looks like I just might get that EI, after all.
And then I was sent to yet another agency. I've an appointment tomorrow morning to find out if I will also qualify for subsidized training. Maybe the government will pay for my certification. That would rock....
I rode the bus home, afterwards. I was home in about five minutes.
Tomorrow, I'll either bus or bike to the employment place. Hopefully, the geography will not change, but I wouldn't put it past Weber Street to do such a chthonic thing. Evil Weber. Wicked, naughty Weber....
In other news, I've applied for a position at the local library. The pay is great, and I'd be working a scant ten-minute walk from home. Although I'd prefer the gym position, if I were offered both, I'd have to go with the library job. The pay is just that good.
Here's hoping!
And yesterday, I went to Toronto as an academic tourist. I went to York University to check out a talk by Sarah Pike on Satanic panics, from Salem to the Columbine massacre. She's an engaging speaker, and I found myself rapt throughout the talk, which is practically unheard of for me. I usually zone out a few times, but it was almost as though the topic were designed with me in mind, personally. I could really see myself getting into similar studies, and I look forward to her forthcoming book.
One little funny bit happened: during one of the times when she opened the floor to comments and questions, a crazed-seeming woman took issue with the word "hysteria" being used in conjunction with Satanic cults. According to this woman, Satanic cults are very real, and all those stories of ritualized abuse at the hands of Satanists are very real. And she claims that she is a counsellor, and that 95% of her clientele have experienced abuse at the hands of Satanic groups.
Now, I'm not going to say that there aren't groups out there who do some nasty, nasty shit. But I do not believe that there is a huge conspiracy, an international, Satanic network, of people systematically raping, torturing, and sacrificing babies. This is the same shit that went down during the witch craze.
She said if someone had something to say, then obviously the thing they said had a basis in reality.
I guess some people just lack the power of imagination, and can't recognize it in other people. It must be a scary, scary world for the people who believe Stephen King and Clive Barker's stories are pulled from real life.
After locating Weber Street without any difficulty, I checked the numbering order on the street. I was on the 100 block, and the numbers went up to my right. So off I trundled to the right. The blocks are quite large, and it took me twenty minutes to finish the 100, 200, and 300 blocks. And then they skipped from 300 to 500.
What?
I went into a used car dealership on the corner. "Where is the 400 block?" I asked.
And that's when I found that Weber Street was apparently designed by the Elder Gods. It has a sort of crazy geometry, and a numbering scheme that may make sense only to Cthulhu and his vile cohorts. The 400 block was way back behind me, somewhere behind the 100 block.
So after about another forty-five minutes or so of walking, I began to feel weak and faint. I passed numerous streets bearing funny signs: "This street will be closed for five months on or around April 17." None of these streets were closed. However, Weber Street had turned into an excavation site for part of one block. I wended my way between front-end loaders and bulldozers, climbed over a big hill of dirt, and through a shallow, dirty ditch to find myself in front of a little Turkish café. I went in and ordered myself some bacon and eggs.
The café was a real dive, with reluctant employees and two hard-looking cases at the video lottery terminals. One was asking the other which games were the best to play. I ate my greasy food to the beepboopbeeps of money squandered.
And then, thus fortified, I was off again.
Another ten minutes or so passed, and I finally found my destination. Now I had to wait in the neverending line of doom. A couple of dozen people queued up, and only two people at desks to help them. Luckily, I somehow beat the rush, and was third in line. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, I finally got to speak with someone.
It was quite painless. I handed in my record of employment, and the woman at the wicket made a copy of my doctor's note saying I quit because my job was hauling the health out of me, hand over fist. So it looks like I just might get that EI, after all.
And then I was sent to yet another agency. I've an appointment tomorrow morning to find out if I will also qualify for subsidized training. Maybe the government will pay for my certification. That would rock....
I rode the bus home, afterwards. I was home in about five minutes.
Tomorrow, I'll either bus or bike to the employment place. Hopefully, the geography will not change, but I wouldn't put it past Weber Street to do such a chthonic thing. Evil Weber. Wicked, naughty Weber....
In other news, I've applied for a position at the local library. The pay is great, and I'd be working a scant ten-minute walk from home. Although I'd prefer the gym position, if I were offered both, I'd have to go with the library job. The pay is just that good.
Here's hoping!
And yesterday, I went to Toronto as an academic tourist. I went to York University to check out a talk by Sarah Pike on Satanic panics, from Salem to the Columbine massacre. She's an engaging speaker, and I found myself rapt throughout the talk, which is practically unheard of for me. I usually zone out a few times, but it was almost as though the topic were designed with me in mind, personally. I could really see myself getting into similar studies, and I look forward to her forthcoming book.
One little funny bit happened: during one of the times when she opened the floor to comments and questions, a crazed-seeming woman took issue with the word "hysteria" being used in conjunction with Satanic cults. According to this woman, Satanic cults are very real, and all those stories of ritualized abuse at the hands of Satanists are very real. And she claims that she is a counsellor, and that 95% of her clientele have experienced abuse at the hands of Satanic groups.
Now, I'm not going to say that there aren't groups out there who do some nasty, nasty shit. But I do not believe that there is a huge conspiracy, an international, Satanic network, of people systematically raping, torturing, and sacrificing babies. This is the same shit that went down during the witch craze.
She said if someone had something to say, then obviously the thing they said had a basis in reality.
I guess some people just lack the power of imagination, and can't recognize it in other people. It must be a scary, scary world for the people who believe Stephen King and Clive Barker's stories are pulled from real life.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-26 10:44 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-27 12:45 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-26 11:23 pm (UTC)From:but the employment office or the cafe will be gone.
Why didn't you simply tell them that you had moved,
and were thus unemployed? Is your story more likely
to give you an advantage? I knew a guy in Vancouver
who was a pot-smoking wellie for a while, and he
received subsidised network administration training,
and, when I met him, was rolling in the dough. And
the cannabis. And the hot goth girl with the Smeggs.
(They don't even make Smeggs anymore, do they?)
a crazed-seeming woman took issue with the word "hysteria" being used
That's hysterical.
Perhaps she was a shill.
Being afraid of Satanism is so 80s.
GangsTerrorists are the new Black.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-27 01:06 am (UTC)From:General rule of thumb: Pick the route that seems least likely to go where you want it to - it generally turns out to be the most direct way to get where you're going.
Good luck!
hehe
Date: 2006-04-27 07:00 am (UTC)From:*glee*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-27 12:48 pm (UTC)From: