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Am exceptionally tired. When that alarm went off this morning it shocked my body something awful, so I think I must have been quite deeply asleep. It's been busy at work, and just killer between 5:15PM and about 6:30pm - we lose half our work force right in the middle of the biggest push of the day. I wish to heck the scheduler could find a way to fix this, but he doesn't have to deal with the rush so he has no motivation. Oh, it's so difficult! he moans. Well, maybe it is, because there's so many ridiculous directions about who can work when and who can be hired and how the schedule has to have 'peak times' and that all comes from Washington, so it would probably literally need an act of Congress to let us move people around to when they're needed, and by then the need would be over because we're an airport which is very affected by seasonal travel.
And we're short of women, so most women are getting only one day per week to work in baggage, downstairs, and limited time on x-ray or exit. Down in baggage you can decompress a little from dealing with the passengers and management, and it's hard work, but it's coveted for the freedom to sit down when the hard work is done. And of course on x-ray you don't have to deal with passengers much, and sometimes you get to sit, and on exit you get to sit and barely talk to anyone at all. Which, you know, I understand busting my butt for a little while for the summer, I've been doing this a while, and I understand being short of females, but we haven't had both situations at the same time since the very beginning, eight years ago, and we kicked up a fuss about getting our vacation requests denied and not getting enough x-ray time and they got more women in right away. This time, at this moment, I've heard there are NO women hires on their way. Even with the economy like it is people don't want this job because the limitations Congress has put on what hours can be offered have made it extremely undesirable - for new people coming in it won't pay enough for someone to live on. I mean, unless you're retired and just doing it for benefits, and how many elderly women want to start a new job that's so physically strenuous? Or unless you have an amazingly understanding other part-time job who will let you switch your hours around as TSA jerks you around - lets you be gone for two weeks for classroom training and then work morning hours for a couple of months while your doing OJT in the afternoons and then allow you to move to evening hours if 'operational need' says you have to go to mornings for us.
Oh, but I do have a trainee coming in, a guy. Having a trainee usually means less downstairs time, but I'm getting so little there's no way I can get much less or I'd lose my certification. I like him so far, and he seems smart, but I'm not feeling the love for teaching at the moment.
Going to go out and check the trap. If there's anything in it I'll be going to drop whatever creature it is near this: http://www.delorme.com/about/eartha.aspx Someday I'll go inside and see the thing up close.
Meanwhile I'm procrastinating by picking up "Fix Bay'nets" again. On being carried into the fort, injured, after the victory: the poor fellow sat up as high as he could upon the little Ghoorkas' shoulders, threw himself into one of his favourite nigger minstrel* attitudes, with left arm outstretched and right hand seeming to thump with all his poor strength upon the imaginary banjo held against his breast. GEDGE IS PLAYING AIR GUITAR!! The 1800s version of air guitar, which might have been called 'invisible banjo.'
Is there something about musicians that makes them always be considered cool, no matter what? Even though they had that casual racism running through everything in that time period, still there's something magic about music, what it does, that us normal people can't seem to understand. (Maybe I'm just making these connections because my brother was laying down a conga rhythm for me this morning and trying to explain exactly what gave it that swing that makes you want to dance, but I can't hear it, and it's frustrating.) But also Fenn has Gedge express great admiration for the 'Ghoorkas;' he says he never saw anyone fight so well.
Crap, must go - if there's a squirrel out there I'm making it wait for far too long for rescue just so I can make this giant ridiculous post. :(
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*It's difficult to type out that phrase even though I'm only quoting the text! For anyone who isn't already conversant with this most excellent fandom, it's "Fix Bay'nets, or The Regiment in the Hills" by George Manville Fenn, who wrote boy's adventure stories in the 1800s.
And we're short of women, so most women are getting only one day per week to work in baggage, downstairs, and limited time on x-ray or exit. Down in baggage you can decompress a little from dealing with the passengers and management, and it's hard work, but it's coveted for the freedom to sit down when the hard work is done. And of course on x-ray you don't have to deal with passengers much, and sometimes you get to sit, and on exit you get to sit and barely talk to anyone at all. Which, you know, I understand busting my butt for a little while for the summer, I've been doing this a while, and I understand being short of females, but we haven't had both situations at the same time since the very beginning, eight years ago, and we kicked up a fuss about getting our vacation requests denied and not getting enough x-ray time and they got more women in right away. This time, at this moment, I've heard there are NO women hires on their way. Even with the economy like it is people don't want this job because the limitations Congress has put on what hours can be offered have made it extremely undesirable - for new people coming in it won't pay enough for someone to live on. I mean, unless you're retired and just doing it for benefits, and how many elderly women want to start a new job that's so physically strenuous? Or unless you have an amazingly understanding other part-time job who will let you switch your hours around as TSA jerks you around - lets you be gone for two weeks for classroom training and then work morning hours for a couple of months while your doing OJT in the afternoons and then allow you to move to evening hours if 'operational need' says you have to go to mornings for us.
Oh, but I do have a trainee coming in, a guy. Having a trainee usually means less downstairs time, but I'm getting so little there's no way I can get much less or I'd lose my certification. I like him so far, and he seems smart, but I'm not feeling the love for teaching at the moment.
Going to go out and check the trap. If there's anything in it I'll be going to drop whatever creature it is near this: http://www.delorme.com/about/eartha.aspx Someday I'll go inside and see the thing up close.
Meanwhile I'm procrastinating by picking up "Fix Bay'nets" again. On being carried into the fort, injured, after the victory: the poor fellow sat up as high as he could upon the little Ghoorkas' shoulders, threw himself into one of his favourite nigger minstrel* attitudes, with left arm outstretched and right hand seeming to thump with all his poor strength upon the imaginary banjo held against his breast. GEDGE IS PLAYING AIR GUITAR!! The 1800s version of air guitar, which might have been called 'invisible banjo.'
Is there something about musicians that makes them always be considered cool, no matter what? Even though they had that casual racism running through everything in that time period, still there's something magic about music, what it does, that us normal people can't seem to understand. (Maybe I'm just making these connections because my brother was laying down a conga rhythm for me this morning and trying to explain exactly what gave it that swing that makes you want to dance, but I can't hear it, and it's frustrating.) But also Fenn has Gedge express great admiration for the 'Ghoorkas;' he says he never saw anyone fight so well.
Crap, must go - if there's a squirrel out there I'm making it wait for far too long for rescue just so I can make this giant ridiculous post. :(
---------------
*It's difficult to type out that phrase even though I'm only quoting the text! For anyone who isn't already conversant with this most excellent fandom, it's "Fix Bay'nets, or The Regiment in the Hills" by George Manville Fenn, who wrote boy's adventure stories in the 1800s.
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Did you read Daegaer's "A Walk In The Karakorum"? I actually think it's better, and not really influenced at all by reading the first one, and I prefer the way she writes the characters. Still, Gedge is pretty cool in the original the way he only obeys Bracy's orders if he feels like it. ;) And then Mrs. Gee, also, gets her kick-ass scene in Fenn's story, and now I know why Daegaer was obviously fond of her even if she didn't manage to fit her into "A Walk..."
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From:
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http://daegaer.rulesthe.net/
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http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/27908
Hm, I just realized I didn't make a link back to Daegaer's journal for "A Walk in the Karakorum" so that people could look at or leave comments. http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=daegaer&keyword=My%20fic%20-%20Fenndom&filter=all