11:56 p.m. - 2003-12-23
Newsworthy
The train ride was interesting this morning. Less than half the regulars on board either bus or train. At the first downtown station a number of the homeless people board every morning to go to whatever work they can find or the activities they have planned during the day. A man from the shelter that is just around the corner from the station came and sat across from me. As I've mentioned before, dear diary, it is estimated that about 75% of the single-adult homeless population suffer from mental illness combined with addictions. The gentleman this morning was obviously struggling. From the years of volunteer work I've done in the mental healtlh community, I would guess either his medications weren't at the right dosage or he had opted not to take them. He would have to pay for them himself and I'm not certain a homeless person could come up with the cash. Anyway he was really struggling with impulse control this particular morning. I'm not sure what the impulses were, but I'm glad I didn't find out either. He seemed very pleased with himself though by the time we reached my stop. He must have seen the mastery of them as a personal victory.
At work today, I found a lot of documents "hidden" in the files that hasn't yet been incorporated into the electronic database. A lot of it is a year old. Many of the scientists show high levels of frustration when they are in the records center, because they can't find the data they need to complete their work. It isn't surprising and I can't blame them for feeling angry. If key tools are withhled from you regardless of your work situation, you can't do your job as well as you wish.
R came by and gave us each a gift bag. Mine had gourmet rice in it. The two co-workers who are verbal sparring partners seemed to have called a truce today, but it was a bit distracting. Either they were chatting together or one of them was in the stacks talking with me. I like to visit on occasion, but the visits to me each in their turn were continuous and extended, so that I found it hard to get what I needed to do completed. Oh well, tis the season and it is much better than them scrapping by far.
A lot of the talk centered around some news stories today. The Securities Commission is going after a company that one of the two worked for about three years ago. She said she only stayed eight working days then got out because of what she was seeing. She was glad to see them caught. I was in one company like that when I first started with the data management company three years ago. The client wanted me and the co-worker I was with, to sign off on the documents we had been brought in to review. I told my supervisor at the time that I wouldn't, because of the liabilites that were all through them. I suggested to the liaison at that site that they needed to have a lawyer review a lot of the material they had just purchased from another company and quickly. The executives for the company that sold that material have also being charged by the Securities Commission in the past few months. Sometimes there is justice.
The co-worker who brought the story up said that there was evidence of significant drug use in the company charged and that there appeared to be a lot of money being sent to offshore accounts through Germany. That was no surprise - except the German connection. There are such large amounts of money flowing through this industry, that it is known that the drug and arms trade launder money through it. It's about time the regulatory crackdown began in earnest. Wonder if they'll be able to cut the veil that hides the political connections that provide the opportunities to the street dealers. Big campaign contributions by a lot of silence and blindness it seems.
Next topic was power deregulation. The interesting thing was that as we talked the links started going back to the companies that we discussed because of the news stories. Hmmmmmmmm. The other chatting was about holidays. One co-worker spends a few monhs every year in Mexico, and is preparing for that now. She has some great stories to tell of the culture and the people there - it is obvious she admires the arts there greatly. She also gave me another lesson in Welsh today. It is very close to German, which I took for one year at school, in the use of gutterals. I don't find that difficult to mimic. Yet, at the same time, there is a strong influence of both the Celtic and Romance languages in terms of the roots of the word development. Interesting that.
Anyway, got home and turned around to go out the door with my youngest. One final trip to the store for last minute gifts and groceries. More baking underway as I arrived and even more tonight. Sugar cookies - and dough of course. Tummy aches too. Oh well. I am going in to work tomorrow. A check of my bank balance made that a necessity. In addition, I can't afford to lose the holiday pay that would also have been forfeit. I had forgotten until this morning about our laws on stat pay. We have to work the day before and the next working day after. No rest for the weary, but at least I can pay my bills. That's something I'm grateful for, dear diary. Night.
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