work is really bringing me down and there seems to be nothing to cheer me up. i am being challenged and i am not complaining about my work load, but spending the day firing on all cylinders can become taxing. even as i write this, i can’t even be bothered to hit the shift key. cloistered in my cube, it is possible for me to work a full day without speaking a single word. the constant nattering from developers popping up on my screen asking obscure questions about things that they claimed to have experience with in their skill set is wearing away what decorum i have left. i guarantee you by the time this is posted, i’ll be softly weeping into my chat-worn hands…
passive smoking no, passive racism yes
The smoking shelter is a welcomed respite for those people who are grinding away at their day-to-day tasks in the corporation that I work in. My office suite is near the loading bays for the entire building so there’s a mix of blue and white collar workers that have to share the smoking area. Men and women from different backgrounds, working in IT mixed with the hard-nosed no-nonsense inventory managers and inventory transporters.
In the wintertime, when the cold winds and numbing precipitation falls we all huddle together underneath the glowing filaments of the space heater clutching our cigarettes and cups of coffee. We all wax longingly about warm weather, vacations, and how we can get out of the cold… but when the climate changes so does the socialization. I am very sensitive to race relations and I would like to consider myself an open and accepting person. Now, it could just be me and my over-analysis but I see passive racism in the smoking shelter.
One can attribute this phenomenon to the social schism between white collar workers and blue collar workers. Furthermore, one can say that people just click with other people in their own department. People talk shop, in their own jargon, but is that a way to shun people from interaction? I could understand that people just don’t want to sit in a box of smoke, inhaling second-hand and their own first hand smoke. Mechanics aside, what is the motive? I really can’t say but from what I see, I am hurt by the turned backs and the misdirected glances. I often find myself sitting on one of the few chairs in the shelter while a group of people look at me square in the face and walk on by. Conversely, that same group could be occupying those seats and when I walk into the shelter I do get an obligatory fleeting look, but no more. Others not of the same ethnicity or culture don’t even bother and would rather stand out in the elements… passive racism?
In interest of full disclosure, I generally don’t engage people so I could be perpetuating/perpetrating this… or this could totally be in my head. I don’t particularly want to talk to these people, but I don’t want to be dismissed either.
art project: update
As testament to procrastination and the spirit of the fickle artist I bring you this posting. A near and dear friend of mine is a Katharine Hepburn fan and I thought to make her a birthday present that would be appropriate to her fandom. I’ve poured though tons of media about Katharine Hepburn to which I could manipulate into an art project.
In one of our late night chats, she clued me in on a movie, Dragon Seed, where Katharine Hepburn played a chinese woman. I considered the ridiculousness of actors playing asian characters (i.e Mickey Rooney in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rita Moreno in “The King and I“, Juanita Hall in “Flower Drum Song“), and I thought that it was the perfect subject matter. Luckily she had a picture of Ms Hepburn and I blew it up in a pdf, rasterized it to look like newsprint, cropped it, then printed it out onto photo paper.
Now for the temperamental, procrastinating artist bit. My friends birthday was in early May. I told her about an ‘art project’ that I was working on, but never said that it was going to be her birthday present. To my credit, I had it ready for her birthday, but didn’t deliver it until the 27th of May [link]. I told her that to follow up on my blog posting, I’d post a proper unveiling of the art piece and asked her kindly to take a picture of it assembled in her home. Weeks go by (June 23rd) and she finally gets some nice black board to use as a background. With the picture taken and sent to me, the ball was in my court to finish the job.
So, two months since I first talked about it I present… my art project..
confessions of a husky boy: les moules
The only Belgian feather bowling lanes in America are at the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit. It is debatable to call this joint a landmark as the people who truly enjoyed this place are quickly fading away, and there are whispers that the owner wants to close up shop and move on. We here at PublicJoUrinal try to capitalize on this establishment and appreciate it while it’s still with us. Monday’s special features an ‘all you can eat mussel’ dinner, choosing from their four preparations; plain steamed, garlic, lemon and dill, or marinara. As long as you’ve got the time and the stomach, it’s a wonderfully pleasant dinner.
I was able to get through three buckets of mussels and would gladly order more if the visages of my dining companions weren’t dripping with boredom. I am a slow eater, and when it comes to ‘all you can eat’, bring a book because it could run long. Plied with a hearty Belgian beer and spinach mashed potatoes as I sit here writing this I am wistful at all the meals and parties that took place in that restaurant.
