Robotic Times

I'm still working in the factory.  As I've said before, I'm trying to do a positive reframe, and, at the moment, this is working.

Having a job is a good thing when I also have a mortgage.  I'd love to spend all of my time growing things, but this isn't what is happening for me at the moment.

My sh*t stirring with the awards etc can only lead to my being harder to sack.

Had a moment with the owner the other day.  Apparently, one of the people from a school didn't like the colour I'd printed the logo on their shirts (high fashion. They clearly need to be treated with the greatest respect and absolute accuracy.).  They wanted the colour 'bottle'.  I used the jar of ink marked 'bottle'.  Thought this should do the trick.  Apparently not.  The owner came in to tell me that my work wasn't up to scratch.  I showed him the jar of ink I'd used - labelled 'Bottle' (btw that probably isn't an actual colour.)

Funny really that everyone is an expert when it comes to colour.  I use the tubs of ink that are labelled a particular colour, but am often told that this is not what is required.  Sadly, I spent four years getting a degree in art, and then another ten teaching art and design.  This is not sufficient for working as a robot in a clothing factory. 

Unfortunately, I didn't develop my psychic skills to understand what random people might understand by the names for random colours.  So now I'm writing a guide for the person who takes over my job, so that they might avoid these problems.

Bottom line is that I am trying to do a good job, but the environment doesn't allow this to happen.

In the mean time, here's a lovely cat picture.  (I've decided that I cannot post without an image.)

I'm very grateful for the company of my cats.

New version

Present for a friend:

Still not quite right.

Cats?

Red Raggin'

Ah.  Couldn't help myself.

Was confronted by the owner the other day with a shirt that I had printed.  'Are you happy with this?' he said.  I replied 'Not particularly'.  Then I explained about the defficiencies of the mesh and the requirements of the ink.  High cover inks need 43T mesh, not 70T.  Screen printers will know what this means.  He walked away after telling me they'd done it effectively for 20 years and my work was not up to scratch.  Then he and his wife packed up all the shirts to send to the school.  They obviously weren't that bad.

Hennyway.. This gave me the irrits.  So the next day,  I took documents to work.  I took the National Employment Standards, the Award, the document supposed to be given to everyone within weeks of starting work  (which I'd never seen before) and the current pay scales for our industry.  I left them all on the table in the 'tea' room.  These are all required (by law) to be provided, but haven't been. So I've actually done the owner a favour and kept him within the law by providing the information.

One of my colleagues came to tell me later that she had been told by the owner that there were no longer levels for pay in the award.  The stuff I provided clearly showed that this was complete rubbish.

Most hilariously, one of the owners went into the tea room and took the pay scale page.  This was achieved by folding up the page and stuffing it up her jumper.  The page was later returned.

In the mean time, I have discovered that many of my work mates are being paid even less than I am.  I can't survive on my salary.  I don't know how they cope.  I know some of them have other jobs.  This is just wrong.

After the owners found my contribution, there was much slamming of doors and grumbling and checking of my work.  I thought (hoped!) that I would be sacked.

I'll deviate here and just say that I've come to understand that people expect from others that which they assume for themselves.  Dishonest people assume everyone else is dishonest.  Mean people assume everyone else is mean.  Idiots like me assume everyone else has everyone else's best interests at heart.  Man!  I try to be a bit aware, but I just assume kindness.  And it isn't there.

Thank Ceiling Cat (thanks Car) for the moon:

Terrible stuff for the Queenslanders

Those poor people in Queensland.  How awful to see it coming.  I know they've got years of stuff to go through before life gets back to something approaching normal.

I've put in a photo here because I know what it's like to live through a natural disaster.

This is what my family's house looked like after Cyclone Tracy.  The house was on top of the piers.  The big blocky thing on the right is the kitchen sink.  That's me in the flairs.  I'm standing in the lounge room.  And yes, I know there are no walls.  You can see a big hole in the wall of the shed under the house which was where someone else's roof came through.  It broke my brother's arm and my hand.

It always breaks my heart to hear about other people going through this type of thing.   It's hard to know what to say.

Oh.  And here's what it looked like before the cyclone.  That's dad downstairs.

Amazing how quickly things can change.

Sweat shopping

It's really funny that my friends all refer to my workplace as 'The Sweatshop'.  I suppose that's what it is, but I've decided to do a positive reframe (pardon the 1980's jingo).  I'm very pleased that I have a job, even if it does pay less than what I need to pay my mortgage and to also feed myself and the cats.

In order to help ends meet, I'm brewing my own alcoholic beverages.  Just put on a new brew of Coopers Ginger Beer.  The first lot is just about ready to drink as it's been sitting in its bottles for about three months now.  Must start consuming it, but I'm a bit worried about the possibly excessive alcohol content.  Ah well.  As my mother says "Suck it and see". This is marginally funny in this context as she is a teetotaller.  I'm sure she never had home brew in mind when she said this.

Today has been absolutely gorgeous.  Cat's and I have enjoyed a bit of outside time.  The best news is that there was only a little bit of madness from the dog next door. She still goes nuts at me every now and then but I can cope.  By going nuts, I don't mean the occasional bark.  I mean roaring, growling and snarling.  She would probably be a good guard dog if she had anything other than me to look at.  Unfortunately, I'm the only thing she sees.  Her owners don't spend a lot of time with her, so I suppose she's a bit bored and needs something to do.

Anyway, there is a distinct improvement in the ambience of my back yard.  Even got to mow today without too much fuss, but I'm still a little nervous about going to the compost heap.  Bloody tragic.

So here's a little bit of the back yard activity of late:

Dusty on the fence

Back to work tomorrow and I hope there is lots to do.