the personals meme, work rambling, and some thoughts on memory.

[derien]

Here's what I wrote for beowabbit.:) (although the time on the post is completely wrong, I don't know what's up with that.)


I'd meant to post this a couple of days ago. One of the HR people came into briefing and told us that we'll really honest and for true be getting some more screeners soon - 'soon' being probably JULY. F-ing A. I raised my hand and asked, "Will they be needing OJT when they get here?" "Yes, they will." At that point I almost responded, "Then we'd rather not have them, thanks very much." The On the Job Training is usually accomplished by pairing up newbies with already trained screeners, which means you're all tripping over each other but only half of you are working, and a LOT of time is being spent explaining why you do this and not the other and don't ever do this etc. (When somebody asks if they're getting extra screening because they're colored it's not advised to respond, "What color ARE you? Pink?!" - I did have a trainee in tow when I said that to the passenger, and I was careful to tell the trainee that I had just given an example of how not to handle the situation.) Soooo.... we're going to be getting the new trainees up to speed at about the time the seasonal rush gets over with - September. Lovely.

This Friday morning is BD(The Mole)'s going away party. Am very sad. :( He is a just a wonderful person to work with - very much a classy gentleman. He is rumored to be the mole because you could totally see him hanging with Washington insiders. He projects this feeling of never worrying at all about his job - calm, cheerful, never makes waves of any sort - the man has not once been written up. If you ask me, this is very suspicious, as EVERYONE has been written up at least once. Unlike most of the quitters, he's actually retiring.

BD's buddy, JL, is not much longer going to be with us. The two of them hang together so much that they're often called Stadtler and Waldorf (the two old guys who heckle on The Muppet Show), although nobody has ever bothered to decide who is Stadtler and who is Waldorf. I saw them start to play friendly intimidation with one of the younger guys one day, and they were hysterically funny. They set him down between them and traded off lines and smiled at him broadly - "So, how are you feeling today?" " We hope you're feeling strong." " Do you feel up on your wanding technique?" "Good, good." "No no, we haven't heard a thing about where you're going to be tomorrow." "Put the fix in? No, of course not." - poor guy looked terrified, but I think I ruined it by laughing too much.;) JL is retired military, and a socialist, and he started the rumor that BD was The Mole - he says the Airforce always has a mole in every new venture and he assumes the rest of the government would be the same.

BC, who was on morning shift and currently works overnights, is also leaving this week. He's in medical school and is not supposed to be working, anyway. Of course since he's not our shift we're not doing a going away party, but I'm not sure who will.

SS (Big Mama) says she has another job lined up, but isn't going to tell anyone what it is until she gets her start date.



Completely irrellevent to anything else - a discussion with JL (whom I shall now randomely designate as Stadtler) and Preacher got me thinking. Stadtler contends that our personalities are our memory - we are the sum total of our experiences, and that if we were to lose ALL memory, including knowledge, learned abilities and habits, the person we were before would cease to exist. It would be the same as killing the person, it would be a new person. (Yes we DO get a little bored when things get slow at the checkpoint, but at least he keeps it more interesting.:)) Now, I don't know... first of all, from all I have heard, when people actually do have amnesia they usually retain knowledge, learned abilities and habits, and it seems from what I understand that the person still has their basic personality - how they react to stimulous, their patterns of thinking. Though I suppose they might be more open to changes in their ways of thinking.

Preacher of course contends that there's a "spiritual element." I'm not sure where to stand on this, because I hate to say it is necessarily a 'spirit' in the same way he thinks of it. But maybe there's a reason why people never do seem to lose their core personality traits and learned abilities, etc, no matter how much apparent memory they seem to lose.

On the other hand, when people have Alzheimer's and the memory loss is caused by actual brain deterioration there IS a personality change. In amnesia the memory can usually be regained, at least mostly, indicating that it was still there, just stored somewhere that a person couldn't get at it consciously.

So, my question is - that 90% of my life which I can't remember... is it there, somewhere in my brain? Or is it gone for good because my brain is deteriorating, already? I wonder how long I have before all my memories are gone for good.

Comments

[derien.livejournal.com]

You have much more interesting conversations at work than we do. :(

No, I just don't report the incredibly silly ones. Like the day we were all putting a clothespin on our noses.

"Ow!"

"Does it hurt? How much does it hurt? Ow! Oh, that hurts."

"Really? Let me see... Ow!"

We do get awfully bored sometimes.:)

[luvsrimmer.livejournal.com]

and they say state employees are silly...