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Excellent points here about international market competition and the Harry Potter takeoff books. I'd like to read the Tanya Grotter stuff - too bad I'll probably never see an English translation.
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What an odd day. I hardly ever work downstairs, doing checked baggage, and generally I take it as a pleasant change from working in the checkpoint all the time, but all this week I've just had a huge case of the "I don't want to BE here" illness. I didn't really come close to calling in sick today, but it did cross my mind. Especially after![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eor's Mum said they're waiting for me to have time to go out to eat. I could have just made time, dammit. And I really wasn't needed there, today. For some reason we're usually shorthanded, but today I felt like I was a totally superfluous body. And I HATE feeling like I'm slacking. So, it wasn't like I had a bad day, but everything was getting on my nerves. Okay, not quite everything - I was actually quite pleased with one particular element to the day...
First you have to realize that when we're working checked baggage we generally work in much smaller teams, and have more time to talk (since for some stupid reason the government thinks it looks better to have their screeners sitting around talking, they forbid us to read anything but the training manuals). Today I worked with Casper (and for Casper - do you mind me using that as a screen name for you? I know you're pretty unhappy about people calling you that at work.), and two people who I will call Mr. Intensity and Mama Perv, for reasons which shall soon be apparent.
Mama Perv - I like her, let me start out being quite plain on that. She's energetic, talkative, outgoing and friendly. And we've all become quite used to the fact that, given the freedom, she will turn every conversation to sex, in a most ebullient, robust and loud fashion. She likes to see people flustered, and will go to just about any lengths to pull the reaction. (Which is a much more common trait at PWM than any place else I've ever worked.) And much as I like her, that can get on my nerves a bit when she's got the freedom of most of the day.
Mr. Intensity - I hate to give away this title, as it's one of my brother's old nicks, but it suits this guy quite well. He got going today about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn sodomy laws. He began his argument stating that, "historically" we constantly erode our morality; that this is only the most current domino in a series of losses of morality that we have suffered and will suffer; that as we become more used to each step along the way we'll allow more and more immoral things to become normal. He leapt to the conclusion that, as soon as the "shock value" of guys having sex with guys has worn off, we'll next decide that it's okay for adults to have sex with children or animals, or that polygamy is okay. (You can imagine that mentioning polygamy as if it were an inherently bad thing really thrilled me to no end.) And he went on about this with all the energy which can be focused by a person who's hobbies are body-building and singing - taloned fingers gripped the air, muscles stood out on his neck, and his voice carried with a volume and timbre reminiscent of the politicians of a bygone era. He went all Mr. Intensity on us.
I would have completely lost my cool if not for Casper. He obviously detached himself, emotionally, from the conversation as soon as Intensity proclaimed that there was Black and White and Right and Wrong in "his" world - I could tell that, for Casper, the conversation would have been over at that point, if I hadn't been there. As it was he calmly dropped sarcastic replies with such good humor that Mr. Intensity couldn't really be angry with him. When Intensity invoked the supposed higher moral tone of times past, Casper asked if we were going as far back as Greek and Roman times. At the statement about how we're only getting less moral as time goes on Casper mused that at one time we thought owning slaves was moral, but that seems to have changed. Intensity actually was set back on his haunches by that one - his response (much quieter) was that now we simply have paid slaves. I know there were several more excellent zingers that Casper got in, there, but they slip my mind at the moment.
All I could argue with was the consentuality point (animals and children not being considered to be able to meaningfully consent, that's an entirely different issue from talking about what two consenting adults choose to do, and dealt with by different laws). I felt as though my contribution to the conversation was lame - mainly encouraging him to rant more, which could really have been my downfall, seeing as he was getting on my nerves so badly. But apparently between Casper's thoughtful comments and my encouraging him to rant, that gave him time to work through his thoughts and decide to backpeddle. By the end of the whole thing he was saying that he would never support laws which define what people can do in the privacy of their own homes, even if he personally thinks that guys having sex with guys is wrong. And this might be exactly what he thought all along, I'm not saying it isn't.
I've heard that Casper would like to be a lawyer, and I think he's really got the ability to follow that career, it'll be a shame if he doesn't. Although he did later say that he doesn't get why people continue to debate about gay sex - seems his take on it is that it's completely normal. He hasn't got much patience with people harping on used up themes... so maybe that's not a good trait in a lawyer, as I suspect a good deal of law has to do with drumming on deceased equines.
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What an odd day. I hardly ever work downstairs, doing checked baggage, and generally I take it as a pleasant change from working in the checkpoint all the time, but all this week I've just had a huge case of the "I don't want to BE here" illness. I didn't really come close to calling in sick today, but it did cross my mind. Especially after
eor's Mum said they're waiting for me to have time to go out to eat. I could have just made time, dammit. And I really wasn't needed there, today. For some reason we're usually shorthanded, but today I felt like I was a totally superfluous body. And I HATE feeling like I'm slacking. So, it wasn't like I had a bad day, but everything was getting on my nerves. Okay, not quite everything - I was actually quite pleased with one particular element to the day...First you have to realize that when we're working checked baggage we generally work in much smaller teams, and have more time to talk (since for some stupid reason the government thinks it looks better to have their screeners sitting around talking, they forbid us to read anything but the training manuals). Today I worked with Casper (and for Casper - do you mind me using that as a screen name for you? I know you're pretty unhappy about people calling you that at work.), and two people who I will call Mr. Intensity and Mama Perv, for reasons which shall soon be apparent.
Mama Perv - I like her, let me start out being quite plain on that. She's energetic, talkative, outgoing and friendly. And we've all become quite used to the fact that, given the freedom, she will turn every conversation to sex, in a most ebullient, robust and loud fashion. She likes to see people flustered, and will go to just about any lengths to pull the reaction. (Which is a much more common trait at PWM than any place else I've ever worked.) And much as I like her, that can get on my nerves a bit when she's got the freedom of most of the day.
Mr. Intensity - I hate to give away this title, as it's one of my brother's old nicks, but it suits this guy quite well. He got going today about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn sodomy laws. He began his argument stating that, "historically" we constantly erode our morality; that this is only the most current domino in a series of losses of morality that we have suffered and will suffer; that as we become more used to each step along the way we'll allow more and more immoral things to become normal. He leapt to the conclusion that, as soon as the "shock value" of guys having sex with guys has worn off, we'll next decide that it's okay for adults to have sex with children or animals, or that polygamy is okay. (You can imagine that mentioning polygamy as if it were an inherently bad thing really thrilled me to no end.) And he went on about this with all the energy which can be focused by a person who's hobbies are body-building and singing - taloned fingers gripped the air, muscles stood out on his neck, and his voice carried with a volume and timbre reminiscent of the politicians of a bygone era. He went all Mr. Intensity on us.
I would have completely lost my cool if not for Casper. He obviously detached himself, emotionally, from the conversation as soon as Intensity proclaimed that there was Black and White and Right and Wrong in "his" world - I could tell that, for Casper, the conversation would have been over at that point, if I hadn't been there. As it was he calmly dropped sarcastic replies with such good humor that Mr. Intensity couldn't really be angry with him. When Intensity invoked the supposed higher moral tone of times past, Casper asked if we were going as far back as Greek and Roman times. At the statement about how we're only getting less moral as time goes on Casper mused that at one time we thought owning slaves was moral, but that seems to have changed. Intensity actually was set back on his haunches by that one - his response (much quieter) was that now we simply have paid slaves. I know there were several more excellent zingers that Casper got in, there, but they slip my mind at the moment.
All I could argue with was the consentuality point (animals and children not being considered to be able to meaningfully consent, that's an entirely different issue from talking about what two consenting adults choose to do, and dealt with by different laws). I felt as though my contribution to the conversation was lame - mainly encouraging him to rant more, which could really have been my downfall, seeing as he was getting on my nerves so badly. But apparently between Casper's thoughtful comments and my encouraging him to rant, that gave him time to work through his thoughts and decide to backpeddle. By the end of the whole thing he was saying that he would never support laws which define what people can do in the privacy of their own homes, even if he personally thinks that guys having sex with guys is wrong. And this might be exactly what he thought all along, I'm not saying it isn't.
I've heard that Casper would like to be a lawyer, and I think he's really got the ability to follow that career, it'll be a shame if he doesn't. Although he did later say that he doesn't get why people continue to debate about gay sex - seems his take on it is that it's completely normal. He hasn't got much patience with people harping on used up themes... so maybe that's not a good trait in a lawyer, as I suspect a good deal of law has to do with drumming on deceased equines.
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Let's say someone (oh, hypothetically, let's make it my husband) is travelling by air, and there's a huge and potentially really dangerous security blunder at the airport, involving checkpoint screeners as well as airline gate personnel.
In addition to writing a letter to the airline in question, who else should I report it to? Is there a particular agency, or contact, set up to handle things like this? We were searching around on the web for a while last night, but didn't have much luck.
I'd appreciate any help you can give me... I think you've got my email address, but if you need it, just holler.