life imitates art

So I'm sitting around and playing Deus Ex*, and I began noticing things about the game. Before I start, I'll point out that this game came out in the happy, frivolous days of late 2000/early 2001. Democrats were calling for the recall of the false president, the 'true' millenium was just beginning, terrorists were busy not hijacking aircraft.

Without giving too much away and also because I'm lazy (yes, even at typing), I'll give a short a description. The game itself is set in 2052. The UN has set up UNATCO - the UN Anti-Terrorist Coalition, creating a world-wide peace-keeping army after French terrorists bomb the Statue of Liberty (or so you think). A new disease is cutting down thousands throughout the world - the Gray (grrr, should be Grey, IMHO, but that's just me) Death. There is a vaccine, but currently it is only made in small doses by one company (a huge multi-national) and distributed to the cream of the crop - the president, all the important businesspeople, the mayor of NYC, etc. You are a nano-augmented creation working for UNATCO to help eliminate a group called the National Secessionist Force (NSF), a 'terrorist' group who are now trying to steal a shipment of the vaccine (known as Ambrosia). That's all I want to say.

Now that you have a small frame of reference, here's a few mental notes I made while playing yesterday (I like making lists):

• over and over, the cries of "Terrorist!" I take out guys using non-deadly force (I know it's just a game, but I still try and act ethically in this game. It actually appeals to your conscience.), get caught once, and the first cry was exactly that. Keep in mind - early 2001. Happy-go-lucky government.



• a public email (there are public terminals everywhere that can be accessed by anyone) that discussed the need for skycams at every intersection, the monitoring of all communications - electronic, snail mail, telephone, etc., and the creation of a completely electronic economy so that a record of every transaction can be created and data-mining for suspicious activites can be done (my emphasis). Does this sound like any proposals you've heard?



• Another public email, entitled Be Safe, Be Suspicious. In part:
  
  

  ...A terrorist may exhibit the following characteristics:
  
  

  • They are a foreigner.
    
    
  • Argumentative, especially about politics or philosophy.
    
    
  • Probing questions about work, particularly high-tech.
    
    
  • Spends a greater than average time on the Net. [well, shit]
    
    
  • Interest in chemistry, electronics, or computers.
    
    
  • Large number of mail-order deliveries. [Amazon is a major terrorist provider, I guess. "Earth's Biggest Little Shop of Horrors"]
    
    
  • taking photographs of major landmarks. [the scariest part is that this one is true. Remember when tourists used to do this instead of terrorists?]

  
  
  ...
  
  
  You and your neighbors will sleep more securely knowing that you're watching each other's back.

  
  

Remember when these things were a) normal, b) healthy, c) not suspicious? Just a video game you say (well, probably not, since you're here)? I don't think so.

And personally, I combine that with my personal awakening to the fact that corporations are getting larger and larger (Emily just linked to a long, but excellent article on Rupert Murdoch that described how News Corp. has set the standard for other media conglomerates, and that the only solution in their eyes is Get Bigger), and it, um, kinda blew me away. Kinda depressing. Well, the good guys do win in the end, the good guys being the little guys fighting these powers.

The arguments in the game are pretty deep, too, arguing that business and economics that are bigger than John Q. Public can comprehend never help John Q. Public, showing the illusion of double-speak, that corporations own the government, and making me consider what the work will be like in 50 years. I'll be on my way out then, but hopefully we won't allow ourselves to get that deep.

*For like 12 hours out of the 24 composing September 1, 2003. This is why I share a love/hate relationship with video games. I have an additive personality that coincides with a decent willpower. If I can resist, I'm good. If I get in, I'm dead. Good video games are the worst - Deus Ex, Half Life, Max Payne... all of these had excellent stories to them. That's what attracts me to video games - it's like a great book that I get to participate in. That's why I generally don't play sports games, driving games, even puzzle games - I lose interest.

two wrongs do make a right

I think the Russian Mob should get mixed up with reality TV and the entertainment industry. Here's my take: Kind of like Comedians (or whatever that TV show was - I didn't watch it, but this is how I imagine it), but actual established acts. They do a bad show, or if they suck in general (a different show each week! There's literally hundreds of bad shows out there!), a mob person meets with them after a taping or post-coke-snort-in-the-alley-behind-the-bar, and the fun begins. For example:

[Scene opens in a dirty alley behind some semi-cool Hollywood bar. You know, those ones that stars on the way down hang out at. Tom Green is doing a line off a stack of cardboard boxes. A big guy of vaguely Slavic descendence approaches.]

Russian Mobster [in thick slavic accent]: You are Tom Green.
Tom Green [in thick idiot accent]: Hey man, I'm busy. And I don't do autographs. Unless you've got some roadkill, and it had better be good. I've had enough with the deer.
RM: You make funny show...
TG: Yeah, thanks.
RM: ...that isn't funny. I watch. I not laugh. You treat people bad, then laugh at them. Treat parents terrible. You are nekulturny.
TG: What is that, Russian mouthwash? Which you could use, man.
RM: Now you make me laugh. [pulls out shotgun]
TG: Whoa...whoa! You can't kill me!
RM: Yes, we can. Is Fox. Special bang bang ha ha license from your FCC. God bless America and guns and TV violence! Powell is Russian Mafia's new best friend. We even allowed to fill shotgun full of nails!
TG: FCC? What the [bleep - we are on network television here] is this?
RM: You Fired! It witty, in-your-face reality smut with a hint of schadenfreude that Fox looking for now. You're on tonight! [bang] Or were. Ha! Now that is funny. That is all for tonight, folks! Join us next week for 'elimination round'! Ha ha, rapier wit.

Now that's reality TV that I would watch. Maybe you could even have an audience vote each week who could be nominated for next week. Fox's newest big hit!

then and now

So I watched Victor Victoria a couple nights ago (it was OK, didn't blow me away, and it was much more recent than I thought - only 20 years old). What did interest me (as does any study of time periods) was the portrayal of the characters. One of the main characters is gay, another secondary character comes out, and because the main female character is disguised as a man and starts dating an actual man, that man is considered gay.

It's the first time I've heard the term 'fag' used for it's actual meaning AND as an insult - I've heard it as either separately, but never together, especially in a movie. And the funny thing, amongst all of the talk these days of gay being the new lesbianism, is the fact that the stereotypes have held out. The gays in the movie were seen as entertainers, concerned about appearance, promiscuous...just as they still are viewed by the media today! (Well, with a little justification, but not much more than, say, h0t coll3ge girlz who wnat [sic] to show you their tits!)

I loved Kramer vs. Kramer for the same reason. It was a good movie on its own, but the snapshot of society it gives was much more enticing for me. Single fathers are still in the minority, but they are not the ogle-the-freak rarity that they were twenty years ago.

Movies from the fifties and sixties are interesting too, before the women's lib movement. I haven't watched enough movies from the seventies yet to gain an appreciation for that cultural depiction (though there are movies from now about that era), but look forward to it.

uneducation

And so begins another year of school. New cliques formed, old ones reformed, losers rejected, popularity lorded. It begins again.

It isn't the same now as it was, though (ha ha, and we did it uphill through the snow, too!). Reading articles about just how bad the system is now (granted, this was summer school, usually composed of those who didn't care enough to put in the effort during the year) makes me believe the theory that school was not meant to be what we think it is - rather, a way to create drones, break spirits, and kill creativity and a questioning spirit (both articles sounded similar - surprise, they're the same guy! But they have slightly different focuses). Some still manage to make it out, but they are the exception rather than the rule.* I know at my high school, drugs made a heavy appearance right after I left. I mean, I'm not so naive as to say they weren't there while I was (though I was pretty thick in my more youthful days), but not with the arrogance and influence that there was afterwards. There were dealer wars between the dealers at my school and the Christian separate school five blocks away for ownership of the territory.

A change must happen, and happen soon, or one of these days (and it looks like it's approaching faster and faster), something's going to break. And it ain't gonna be pretty.

*The ending of the article is my favourite part. It reminds me of a choral clinician we had once, Mr. Richard Nace. When he was trying to help a student with a singing concept, if the student couldn't grasp it, Richard would see the frustration starting to come out and would alleviate it by telling the student that, "it's not your fault, it's mine. The ability to do anything, including this, lies within you, it's just up to me to find the right words to unlock it. I just haven't found those words yet." He always would, eventually. But I've taken that advice to heart and use it to live my life. Thanks, Mr. Dr. Nace!

political splat-trum

A few years ago, a friend passed on a quote she had garnered from a mentor in the past:

"In general, if you're under 25 and not liberal, then you're heartless. If you're over 45 and not conservative, then you're stupid."

(He was an aging liberal himself.)

For some reason, I have always kept this in my mind. Not any particular reason that I can name. But it's always bothered me when I try and place myself.

In high school, I thought of myself as slightly left of center. We took one of those self-tests to see where you sit on the spectrum based on your views. I ended up scoring slightly left of center.

In university, I didn't know where to sit. I didn't support the conservative party in provincial elections, the left wing caucus on campus was a bunch of crazy wackos that I loathed (for good reason, better left to another post) whose protests usually developed into plenty of yelling and cursing with no logic. I was in engineering, and the faculty was accused numerous times by said wackos of being right-wing facists* (fueled by the practical vs. theoretical usefulness debate). I was a Catholic who held both views of world creation. At one time, I thought that corporations should be left to their own devices, as long as they weren't doing anything wrong (wait, has that changed? Or have I just discovered that most corporations are doing bad stuff?).

Getting out of school and away from the crazies, I started exploring on my own. This did wonders for confusing me further. It sucks when the facts aren't what you want them to be. I strongly believe in a sense of ownership of acts, which is happy when it sees articles like this. On the flip side, I believe that corporations do horrible things, and they're only getting worse. I am an optomist, I believe individuals I meet are generally good, but that mankind in general is basically evil. (Thank you, Thomas Hobbes) I agree with left-leaning organizations and government control, but think that the government is bloated, useless, in some ways worse than industry, and that said organizations can and do (at times) exaggerate. Also on the other side of the mirror. Back to the basic evil.

Welcome to Dichotomy. Population: 2. (heh heh) And yes, I do realize the difference between ideology and politics. Sometimes they mix, which is why they do so here.

It's confusing. Good thing I keep taking in more to try and help it (though, ironically, it only seems to make it worse).

The only really good thing is I can more easily understand both sides of an argument in politics. Most of the time. Still think the war was wrong, especially since America the Beautiful wants everyone to chip in, but still decide decide what kind of pizza it'll be and who'll get some, if any.

However, the old (? - is it?) saying puts it best:

"Assholes are not confined to any particular ideology."

hey, look. mars. let's fuck.

There really is nothing like doing hard labour and having your efforts come to fruition. Standing back and admiring a newly-refurnished cabin, knowing that next summer, kids are going to see it and be a little more happy at camp. I found that I love roofing, too.

When said accomplishments are accompanied with much boozing, excellent (if a little overly meat-intensive) food, gratuitous use of the words 'fuck' and 'cocksucker', and plenty of barbershop singing, such an event cannot be referred to as anything else other than a fucking great time.

Unfortunately, due to a poorly set-up ladder (my own fault, natch), I sort-of fell (fell to the side of the house, not the ground) and now have a fist-sized bruise on my ass, which led to the comment, "So, how're you going to explain that to your girlfriend? 'Oh, this bruise on my ass? Yeah, I got it at a weekend camp with a bunch of men...'

Next year: more booze.

Oh, my favourite joke of the weekend:

A older gentleman visits the doctor for his yearly physical. The doctor comes in at the end with a solemn look, explaining, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but I have some bad news. You have cancer and Alzheimer's disease."

The patient is mildly shocked, saying, "Wow. Yeah, that is bad news. Oh well, can't let the bad get you down. I guess I'll just look on the bright side - at least I don't have cancer!"

Oh, plus the sky rocks that far away from the city. Nothing but net stars. And Mars!

a simple comparison

The Globe and Mail, Friday, Sept. 5, 2003. (Ignore the date, it's todays, as I visited the site today)

The National Post, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003.

Who's reading what? :|

a note on notes

Dear America,

I know that many times in the past you have called our money "monopoly money", due to the multi-hued bill distinction. One can understand the comparison, as we currently have blue, purple, red, and brown, having gotten rid of our green bill almost fifteen years ago. However, at least we have never adopted peach. Your new attempt to copy us by making your bills harder to copy and easier to distinguish can be described as foppish at best and horribly monstrous and loathsome at worst. If you ever make fun of our money again, I will come over there and punch you.

Regards,
Ryan Bird

a light discourse on the petty annoyances that agitate me

My kitchen smells like a garbage dump. Times two. No, like three. Condensed into my kitchen.

It is the garbage, but I've never had garbage smell that bad before. Changing it alleviates it for a day or two, but it doesn't need a lot to get started again. I've even cleaned out the can itself AND watched it out with bleach. I often wonder if it's the food my roommates cook.

Anyway, this morning it almost made me sick. Half of me debates cleaning it out tonight, half of me argues leaving it for my roommates to clean up when I go away for a week, teach them to clean up after themselves.

Also, the message light on my phone is blinking incessantly and there is no message and it won't stop and WHY DOES IT KEEP BLINKING PLEASE MAKE IT STOP I'M GOING TO CLAW MY EYES OUT IF IT DOESN'T QUIT OH GOD IT'S SO SMALL BUT SO TERRIBLE IT'S BURNING INTO MY BRAIN.

ah good, a cheering of the up sort

I found the presenter rather smarmy and irritating, and he was trying to demo the new "life planning" website feature. (Virtual life planning! For your virtual life!) Then he said, "What kinds of life experiences could impact* your financial future?"

*(Don't get me started.)

No one was saying anything, so I piped up from the back: "A debilitating cocaine habit?" Lots of nervous laughter from the room and the presenter, who said, "Ha ha ha, there's not a module for that...how about college?" Same freaking difference, I thought, but I kept my mouth shut for once.

God, do I love mimi. And she's got a huge surprise at the end of this issue! (No peeking)

anything essential is invisible to the eyes

Stealing from a great movie, as of today, I am a concert pianist (just a fancy way of saying I'm unemployed, don't ya know). And so, I will enjoy my newfound freedom.

And with that, I'm out for a week to emjoy friends' hospitality, sleep, and the beautiful evils of liquor. Posting will be spotty, incoherent, and a little too detailed. So things will stay pretty much the same around here.

from the t to the oh my god

Preceding a disappointing game that included plenty of jeers afterwards (I mean, cripes, it was like they had won the Grey Cup here), I had a short stopover in Accordion City. It was, um, quite the shock.

Toronto is not Ottawa. Ottawa is not Toronto. Despite the fact that they are 4 hours apart, they might as well be in different countries. Almost.

The crass commercialization - commercials, billboards, ads everywhere. (Keep in mind I was downtown.) The people. The action. My thoughts as I walked through the Eaton Center, listening to bits and pieces of conversation centered around how depressing it was that we have developed a whole society around this. After reading most of The Design of Everday Things, one point hit a chord during this - free market conditions cannot exist when marketing has become the sharply-honed tool that it is now. When MTV and Guess and News Corp. and Microsoft can now tell us what we need to survive, and we spout off what they want without any provocation, we're screwed.

I think I could handle Toronto, it would be a blast, but it would require attitude adjustment for this prairie boy.

Also, I saw a restaurant today that offers Family Style Beer & Ice Cream. Central Ontario is a strange and mysterious place.

shh, i'm not here

Still on vacation, can't seem to collect my thoughts enough for a proper entry. I tried blogging from the Toronto Public Library on a computer provided by a generous donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for Buying Your Childrens' Minds*, but it caused pain beyond description. Worse than dialup. Let us never speak of it again.

*Ever wonder what happened to Melinda Gates?** If you do a search on just "melinda gates", there is only one entry out of the first 160 results that mentions her, but not the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There is a wikipedia entry that is about her, but (of course) makes mention of the foundation and Mr. Gates. However, add in +"hot sex"***, and you narrow down the possibilities from 127,000 to 2 - one is a newsletter/minutes from some rotary club, the other is some other newsletter. Not really all that surprising. Useful? No! Interesting? Hardly! Creating useless links? You bet!

**Her and Bill have three kids now. Three! Like you cared anyway.

***OK, last one, I promise. Actually, you know what? No. I've already wasted way too much of my life googling melinda gates +sexy.

Toronto is still a horrible, soulless city built on image and perspective. I still think I could handle it without it consuming me.

I'm still a bum. Had the best peanut sauce ever today. If this is unemployment (and I know it isn't), I don't want a job.

ha ha.

Maybe I'll go see some Tex Avery pieces this week. The world is my oyster.

P.S. Did you know that the definition for felch is only available to registered, paying users of dictionary.com? Why? Good thing we have the urban dictionary and the Glossary of Perversion around for all of our smutty arguments. In the end, I was not as perverted as I thought I was, or at least incorrectly perverted. I'm on the road to righteousness now.****

****Whatever. I just realized after writing this: a) it's regulation entry length and b) I'm looking up all this stuff on a friend's computer where I'm staying. hahahahahahaha. Don't worry, other friends where I may stay, this is highly irregular. Oh. Wait. This makes it two places in three days. Well, I had permission at the last place.

kids these days

Spent the day exploring York University while LK was studying and going to class. It was weird being on a campus again, filled with hot, young, nubile....minds. The tension was palpable, and it was nice to look, but these were all kids. It was nice while I was there, six (uh oh, counting. that's bad) years ago, but now, well, these kids were 12 when I started university.

So, instead, I spent the day walking around campus, wandering, going where I wasn't really allowed to go, and drawing pictures of Trogdor. Oh, and sleeping in the library. It felt like undergrad days all over again. Minus the booze.

oo oo oo me me pick me!

today i slept in and had a dream about launching a missle but i didn't launch it because i got woken up then we went and picked up a new friend carla who was really cute but married then we went to some town and got a tour of a small brewery and some free beer and some not-free beer and then went and had lunch and i had a turkey burger and it was really good and then we went hiking on the bruce trail which was the best trail i have ever been on and there were sorta caves but they were really just deep holes with lots of rocks and exploring them was great i got lost but found my way and the view was great here's a picture there's more coming when i got home then we went to carla's house and i saw her wedding pictures and met her guy and talked about bikes and wow does he have cool bikes and he likes kayaking then we went to jack astor's for supper and it was super good but there aren't many vegetarian alternatives on the menu and then it was home and now i'm really tired good night.

the unconscious entertainer

Dreamcatchers.

I always thought, "OK, they're nice and all, whatever." I've been sleeping underneath one for the last four nights, and the dreams I've had...

I've been chased (a lot of them seem to have me being chased; funny, that) by reptilian priest figures, people from Krypton (a la Superman), and regular old thugs, just to name a few. I've been close to launching a missle. There was eating in a few of them too. And more weird stuff, but I don't recall any more.

I'm not so good at remembering my dreams, but I do know that I've dreamt more in the past week than I have in the past six months. It could have to do with the fact that I'm actually getting good sleeps now, I guess.

to the kid asking for a couple of bucks to make up bus fair in Toronto

The first time you ask, fine. I don't mind. Obviously you need it more than I do. Maybe you're even telling the truth, though warning me about the security guard doesn't help your credibility. Dude.

Remember who you hit up, though, kid. The second time was much less amusing, especially since you didn't remember me. I understand you try and pass that story on dozens of people a day, but when someone gives you something, then you try and finagle him again, well, it's a good thing I was in a good mood.

book reviews galore

Since I have time now to, um, upgrade my skills, I have also found time to read (and sleep, thankfully). Suffice to say, I've read a few books, and I will now present them in a unique, hereby undiscovered summary format, herein called a 'review'. (Post-writing, I've found that I don't have the attention span to write a full review, so these summaries are it.)

My rating system here on in will always be base 10 of an arbitrary unit, relavent to the book.

The Little Prince: I think this was written as a child's book, but I recommend that everyone read it. Return of child-like innocence and the like. Teaches a good lesson, well-written, only takes a short time to read, and fun. What more could you want? This book is pure poetry - "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." 8.5 flowers

The Design of Everyday Things: An excellent, if slightly dry, book on, well, the design of everyday items. Plenty of pictures and explanations (which aren't technical at all, bonus) on why things today are poorly design (aesthetics, for the most part), and a general discussion of proper design techniques (use constraints, make things visible, use feedback, and use natural mappings).

The author discusses numerous basic items, such as doors, stoves, keyboards, cars, and more. While I'm not a designer, and don't aspire to be one, this definitely awoke my consumer consciousness in terms of usability and what to look for when I'm shopping in the future. 8 door handles

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People: This wasn't a bad book per se (I mean, it's kinda mean to call someone's memoirs sucky), but it didn't really seem to have a point. It's about a writer's descent into infamy for essentially pushing his luck and being an ass in the world of glamour mags in New York. It was basically a bunch of gossip columns. Some of it was funny, the guy is certainly no David Sedaris, that's for sure. Though he did inject de Tocqueville into my reading list. 6 bottles of scotch

Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News: I first saw this book after it had come out in paperback, and I had good expectations of it. It took me a long while to actually get ahold of it, and to say I was disappointed would be putting it mildly.

This book was like someone telling you one good idea (not great, just good), promising you more, possibly better ones, then beating you over the head with a baseball bat for 15 minutes before giving you another idea. I agree with the author that the media carries a liberal bias, and that a more balanced view is needed (he asserts that Fox is more balanced, which I don't agree with, especially since they can make up news now). But the man doesn't know how to develop an idea - he just keeps repeating himself. And his use of italics - my god. I enountered numerous pages where seven (or more) different phrases or words were italicized*. Seven. (ha ha) Sometimes it was the same phrase, repeated over and over.

The book, despite denials, still reeks at times of bitterness and a certain smugness. The author is simply an ex-liberal-turned-conservative whose writing style is best suited for writing columns (he includes the original column that started the fiasco, and it is the best-written part of the book). Yee haw. I've got What Liberal Bias coming very soon to see how the liberal media defends itself. It just baffles me how an author who starts out with me agreeing with him (in principle, anyway) and manages to lose me by the end of the book. If you're looking for a well put-together dissection of the liberal viewpoint of today's media, you won't find much here except a couple of good ideas, a few unresearched assertations, and ritual abuse of italics. 4.5 conspiracies

taxes may be confusing, but not that confusing

Unless, apparently, you live in Alabama.

Or Oregon.

Or maybe even here in Ontario. (We'll see on that one in a week)

Now, I'm two weeks behind on this because I took a small hiatus from the news while I was on vacation. I only got this news because I was watching an old episode of The Daily Show. (*amorous sigh* Jon Stewart. The one reason I would own a TV. Well, maybe TLC too.) The skinny of things was that Alabama voters voted against a $1.1 billion tax hike. Fine, you say? People do that all the time? Well, maybe you're right. However, this is my blog, and I say you're not.

That isn't the point, however. Not this time, anyway. The point is the consequences. I can't honestly comprehend how people can do this. I mean, I don't really like being taxed. I swear when I get my paycheck like any good Canadian, I still believe that Brian Mulroney was evil for bringing in the GST and Chretien lied about removing it (even though I sorta approve of it more than income tax, because it's a consumption tax, and therefore optional).

But when you're told that there would be cuts to school funding, law enforcement, that more criminals will be paroled early, and government services will be cut (not to mention funding to services needed more and more by those suffering from the cruel edge of the worst turn of the economy since the 30s, though experts say this may not hurt Bush), well, I would think that enough people would bite the bullet and take the hit.

Apparently not.

You'd think they'd learn from Oregon, with their 15 day cut in the school year.

Jon put it well the other night (this is not an exact quote, as my memory fades fast): "32% of the voters said 'Yes' to the proposal, while 68% voted 'No'. And, according to the Alabama-state-school-system educated vote counters, the remaining 23% said that 'Soap Tastes Funny'".

You think you're living it up now? Maybe you can use that extra money you saved on taxes to buy another gun, what with the extra five or six thousand parolees running around your state now.

Enjoy.

P.S. This is only tangentially related, but it'll probably be a long while before I write anything economics-related again, so I'll pop a quick props to an article in the local alternative paper here about the movement for a re-examination of the current understanding of economics. You know, the one that holds that we are all "nothing but self-serving, optimizing" consuming machines (though I do know people who are). The key word here is all. It's new, it's developing, it's recommended reading.

P.P.S. This has nothing at all to do with any of this, but the new matrix trailer is up. If you are still reading this....why are you still reading this?

for the record

Pumpkin is the worst movie I've seen in a while. Horribly predictable plot, stereotypes galore. a car exploding in midair for no reason, yes, Pumpkin has it all. Oh, plus a redeeming, wholesome lesson to learn from in the end.

However, if people act in real life like they do in the movie (and I know they do, as I've told people who act like that to go fuck themselves), human nature in and of itself is slowly (or, in the relative scheme of things, quickly) degrading.

credence

Having just left my stint at Environment Canada, it struck me the difference in working environments between that and my time at Homesense. I mean, of course, there were obvious issues - responsibilities, security, technology, personalities. But one issue that I found worthy of comparison was one that intrinsically involved me: trust.

In Fast Food Nation, there is a chapter specifically on the employees of the fast-food joints discussed. It spoke of their early hours, of the lack of respect, and of the transitory nature of the work force (both imagined and real aspects). Since I was working at Homesense at that time, I looked around and noticed something - that I was working at the retail equivalent. The majority of employees kept at just below full-time hours (I actually worked full-time hours, though, to my knowledge, I was never classified as such) to avoid paying benefits, low wages, and little respect. We had nice managers, but only two I had out of six would actually go to the wall for employees. (that puts them as real managers in my books)

And, of course, a strict adherence to the rules. One minute late was too late, managers were not to be too friendly with staff, and GOD FORBID if you broke the dress code. One could say this was understandable, as a large portion of the work force for retail stores and fast-food joints are kids. Kids generally need some structure, as they don't have the experience to guide them. Plus, most of these chains are large corporations - they need to standardize in order to profit.

Psychologically, however, these rules sometimes produce the opposite effect they set out to create. By regulating every last detail (literally, in some work environments), they create an air of distrust. Employees feel resentful that they aren't trusted, managers are impatient with those pegs who don't fit properly in their respective hole. Ironically, however, today's schools, no longer hotbeds of much of anything, create the perfect worker for this environment - the unquestioning, complacent consumer, only there for a paycheck. They don't care about the fact that the job cannot sustain those who may need it - they live at home, or have other things to worry about, such as school (which may later screw them even harder, possibly bringing them back here).

Um. Anyway. Back to the workers. Or rather, me. I found little trust in my experience. Everything was locked down, I couldn't leave anything open, even if it was just me around - I had to find a manager each time. Every supply was carefully inventoried so nothing was missing at the end of the day.

Flash forward to my last couple weeks at EC. I'm headed out of town for something, go to show some pictures first to my boss. I discover that my batteries are dead. She suggests taking some batteries from work, no problem. (this is what inspired this entry).

I was the same person in both settings. Both of my bosses thought I was a great worker, and said so in performance reviews. I never did anything to violate their trust, and in fact tried to work to increase that trust in me. Yet there were two very different trust levels experienced from one employer to the other.

There are tonnes of questions and reasons that could be postulated to explain this. Does education equal trustworthiness? Or is it more attributable to self-preservation, in the thought of getting caught - you would if you could, but you can't so you won't? Is that why office supplies disappear, but computers don't? What's the limit?

I want to question the other side, though. There are lots of occurences of breach of trust in the retail environment - hell, there was one, um, 'opportunist club' broken up while I was there that involved an Asst. Manager and numerous employees at one store. My question is one that I'm sure has been asked a million times - are the rules needed to discourage these people who cross the line, or are we creating rebels by regulating everything that they can do? It's funny, I've known a lot of people get fired from big box stores, but not one who's been fired from a local retailer. Maybe I just know the wrong people to draw far-reaching conclusions. I'm pretty unscientific that way.