5:43 p.m. - 2003-10-21
Odds Bodkins
I was going through some of my rooms looking for books today, trying to locate a manual on Kabbalah for my number three son's friend in Vancouver. I promised to send it along with "Letters From Earth" by Mark Twain for his edification. I also meant to pack up a box - or ten - of them up for our local supermarket. They sell donated books at a low cost, then the proceeds go to a children's charity. Win-win for everyone. The problem, of course, is that I've rediscovered books that I haven't read, but really want to go through before I give them away or ones I want my sons to go through first. For example, my youngest loves comedy and I found Bill Cosby's book "Fatherhood". It was a Chrismas gift years ago. I recall that I took it to bed one night meaning just to read a chapter. Well, I didn't put it down until I'd finished it some time in the wee hours of the morning. Some of his material might be considered politically incorrect now (to one of his children: "I brought you into this world and I can take you out" for example) but the challenges of parenting and the need for spouses to collaborate is well limned and handled with both compassion and good humour. I also found a book that might explain the mystery around Agatha Christie's play "Chimneys" that just surfaced and had it's successful maiden performance this weekend here in Calgary. No one yet has been able to account for it's long disappearance and recent rediscovery in a pile of manuscripts sitting in a theater company's library here decades later. I found one book I'd picked up for a quarter in a second hand store. It was a novel - "The Rose and The Yew Tree" - by Ms. Christie published under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. I've also come across a couple of "risque" novels published under a pseudonym used by Louisa May Alcott in the same second hand store. I knew that she had written some adult material, but had never heard the name she was published under. I imagine for authors who want to publish outside their genres without having their name influence the assessment of their writing, it would be a good route to go.
Interesting article in one of the Human Resources e-newsletters I receive. It's called "The Five Finger Bonus" and it details the many ways companies are embezzled by their employees. It discusses the most common ways theft occurs and has a lot of good suggestions as to how a company can protect itself. One of the things it makes very clear is that all companies will be affected at some point in their operations. The amount and severity is a function of how willing the company is to follow through on their security measures. For example, they profile one company that required all employees to undergo an ethics training workshop then subsequently encouraged employees to be proactive in protecting both their employer and their own jobs/wages.
Sounds great, but one company I worked for did that, then never follwed through. When I and, later, one of my co-workers informed our supervisors about missing data and other anomalies that were happening, we were yelled at and told to ignore what we were observing. We were told we had no right to accuse any employee of the company of theft. We hadn't - we had just raised a concern about the missing, very expensive, and confidential material that was continuously disappearing. In one company I pointed out some anomalies and it was obvious management already knew. It appeared that they were just trying to gather enough evidence to catch the crooks. Another company knew it was experiencing serious security breaches in their IT and computer networks but again refused to follow up with examining the evidence I and another co-worker supplied in that case. There are probably a number of companies where it is known exactly who is doing the actual thefts, but non-action when reported, would almost suggest to an employee like me that someone higher up must be complicit in the crime - especially when you are chastised and harrassed from then on. Anyway for those who actually care the link is FiveFingerBonus.
Big news in the city the past couple of days. I wrote about the fiasco at City Hall around some questionable land deals and the resulting uproar about one year ago. Today the CEO of our city was fired as a result of that and a number of other problems that were occurring at the same time.
One of our Provincial geniuses has decided that people who are homeless should be charged for being allowed to sleep on a mat on the floor in one of the warehouse-like buildings that exist as shelters for them. This, notwithstanding that our winters can feature temperatures of -30 degrees C and that about 75% of the homeless are on government allowances because they are mentally or physically ill. They are homeless because they aren't given enough money to rent their own place to begin with. To just rent a room in this city requires about $1200 upfront and a monthly rental not lower than about $600. The maximum total allowance for those same people is $835 and they have to purchase their monthly meds from that, as well as food and clothing. No getting away with a t-shirt and shorts in this climate either - not if you want to live more than one winter with all your fingers and toes intact. The "Alberta Advantage" - yes indeed. To some it means when some poor soul is down and out, someone else holds them down while the government kicks them repeatedly and publicly just for good measure. As you have probably guessed, dear diary, I am rarely rendered speechless about anything but this one has left me in shock for several days now. I've been waiting for someone to yell "April Fool's" even if it is October.
On the British Columbia coast, the fires are out but torrential rains (369 mm/15.4" over a three day period) means flooding that occurs only once a century now. Bridges washed out, people drowning, and communities that are completely inaccessible except by air. Don't know why Mother Nature is so cranky in their corner of the world, but one wonders how much the population can cope with in such a short period of time - four months of unremitting natural disasters.
Us? We have temperatures in the mid 70's F/mid 20's C - however back to seasonal at the end of the week. The weatherman just uttered the "S" (snow) word on tonight's newscast. Guess I'll have to break out my "White Christmas" video, although my youngest and I just raked up all our leaves, so that we could stuff plastic bags, stencilled with Hallowe'en characters, with them to decorate our front yard. Hopefully they won't be covered with snow next Friday. Who knows.
Went through my box of material from Elections Canada. Notice of training in Ottawa in January or February. I've always wanted to try the two day boat trip down the Ottawa River on the weekend in between classes, but so far I haven't been there when ice hasn't been a factor. Oh well, our classes tend to run 9 to 12 hours per day for one or two weeks with homework assigned for the evenings. I guess it really might not matter anyway. However, given that the last assignment I had was supposed to be distributed in September 2002 and I didn't receive it until the end of March of this year, maybe things will work out somehow. In my weekly horoscope from my favorite astrologer Astrofish, I'm told that something impossible that I've been chasing will be secured by me this week. The question was "what will I do with it when I actually catch the critter" - Kramer usually speaks in parables. My immediate reaction was fear, followed by laughter and the thought that I'd probably thank the "critter" for the game and ask them what they'd like to play next. I drew a blank on what impossible dream he was referring to. My favorite is the one where I get to settle into the university to research, travel, and write on any subject that fascinates me, while still running elections at need and having the chance to try out the job I interviewed for on Friday that I've never tried before (the good interview). Come home to a nice English style cottage with a wonderful garden and maybe someone who actually likes me the way I am. Hmmm, well my family and friends do, guess that's good enough. None of that is impossible of course except for that one small issue of cash flow. Never know, if there's ever a Nobel-like prize for at-home-moms/community-work rabble rousers I could be in line - right?
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