To bowl or not to bowl ...

It would appear that if I’m not moaning about one air-conditioner, I’m moaning about another.

Today being Sunday, we set off for All Star Bowl at 11:30 as we do every Sunday.

The moment I walked in I could feel that the air-conditioner was not on. It has been like that in the past and it absolutely infuriates me.

The staff has to work and run around in the alley and moans that the environment is too hot for them, but it is even worse for the bowlers.

You try chucking a 14 pound (6.3 kg) ball down a 62 feet (19 meters) lane a couple of times, see how you feel.

Anyway, since the side door was open and we had come all the way, we decided to have a couple of games.

Halfway in the first game I saw Luba, one of the daughters of the owner of the alley, walking in and switch on the air-conditioner.

See this really ticks me off. When Luba, or one of the other members of the family are in the bowling alley, the air-conditioner gets switched on. When it’s just the staff and the bowlers, they have to cope with the heat. Why can’t the A/C be on all the time?

After three games we had to give up. Even with A/C it was too hot. Too bad really because we started off really good: 175 for Dieter, 172 for me.

And the heat isn’t the only problem, the lanes are far from perfect. Sometimes the lanes are bone dry, sometimes they are drenched in oil. As for the machines ... sometimes a ball comes back, sometimes he doesn’t.

In an attempt to fix some of the problems, management hired ‘experts’ to come and have a look at things. The machine of lane 1 was taken apart and the bits and pieces were all over the lane. It was quite funny as it looked like they were having a sale.
Not so funny was seeing the experts at work ...





One guy was looking at the bits and pieces like he didn't have a clue how to put things back together again. The other walked up and down the lane, looking at things, but didn't pick anything up. Three weeks the lane was like that.

Were they waiting for a part or were they waiting for their fairy godmother to wave her wand and say "Bibbedi babbedi boo," so everything would magically fly into place.

This is what happens when people, who are not bowlers themselves run a bowling alley ... it’s a slippery slope and the only way is down.

Maybe it’s time to look for another bowling alley.

The good news - the bad news

The good news ...

The A/C in our building is on again. In the beginning it was still a bit of a struggle, but now 14 hours later, everywhere is nice and cool again.

Looking back I don’t know how we managed. I think I’ll always remember how I sat in the living room with a cold wet towel around my neck and my feet in a bucket of cold water.

The cats are fine too. For the first time in days, they chased a moth. The knocked over a lamp in the process, braking the bulb and getting the lampshade a little skew, but I wasn’t at all upset with them. For too long I saw them sleeping on the floor with absolutely no energy. So it was good to see them running around again.

Now they're sleeping or just relaxing.




The bad news ...

While browsing Workopolis today I noticed no less than four ads from a well known employment agency. One for an EA and three for an AA.

I instantly sent off a message to my consultant drawing her attention to those ads.

Within five minutes the phone rang and she told me those were generic ads.

“In case one of our clients is looking for an EA or AA we need people on our books,” she told me.

“I would imagine with the current unemployment rate and the way people are desperate for work you would have enough people on your books,” I replied.

I can understand that agencies place generic ads, but then the ad should be worded as generic.

Why give people hope where there is none?

It finally happened

Well they had to get it right eventually.

Yesterday they predicted rain for today and it finally happened, it rained.
I didn’t actually see it raining, but when I got up this morning the streets were wet.

With the rain came cooler temperatures.

And guess what ... on this cool, gray, supposedly wet day, the A/C in our building came back on. For the first time in nearly three weeks I feel comfortable again.

Looking back, I don’t know how I managed.

Do I have moron written on my forehead?

It would seem that with the high unemployment rate, scammers come out of the woodwork left, right and center.

A while back I was contacted by Marek Polonski, a Polish business man who needed someone in Canada to receive and send payments for his business via Western Union. I was to keep a percentage of the fee and on top of that I was to receive a generous salary.

As it turned out, Marek Polonski had a little money laundering scheme going on. I was lucky not to have gone along with this scheme because, if found out, not only would Marek Polonski be prosecuted, I would have to pay back all the money that I received in my account. Roughly about $1,000 per week.

Three weeks later I was contacted by one John DeMoor. He offered me more or less the same ‘employment’. Receiving and sending payments for his business + salary.

Today I received an email from John Mullins. Apparently he saw my resume on Workopolis and offered me employment as a financial adviser. To use his words ...

Most of our top Financial Security Advisors have joined our organization from totally different career backgrounds and they have taken our company's slogan "the freedom to choose, the power to get there" and applied it to their own career goals, to give them a satisfying and rewarding career.


Hmm, people from different career background that become financial advisers ... can’t say that I would trust them with my money or investments. Don’t you need some sort of university degree to give financial advice?

I also found it a little weird that a director of a financial company would contact me at 8:00 p.m. from a private email address. You would think that doing business would take place between business hours from a business email address, not from jmullinsf55financial@rogers.com

Still, never one to just throw away an opportunity, I replied to the email and asked how people from different background qualified as financial advisers.

I received the following response:

I will not reply to your questions because it does not seem that you are really interested in pursuing this career opportunity. Please do not be offended if I do not respond to any further e-mails from you.

Hm, touchy isn't he?

It just ticks me off. The unemployed have it bad enough, they don’t need scammers to take advantage of them.

R136a1

I read an article today on the discovery of the R136a1 star in the Tarantula Nebula galaxy. The article described the enormity of the star giving its size, weight and brightness.

It made me wonder how these so called scientists come up with these figures. I mean, it’s not like they can go up there and measure the bloody thing.

I also wondered why. Why does anyone need this information? So now we know the size of this star and that it’s brighter than the sun and that it’s seen in the Tarantula Nebula galaxy, so what? Who cares?

I find it simply stunning that some people study other galaxies. What, they became bored with our own galaxy? To saw everything there is to see, or know everything there is to know?

If they were to report that they found life on another planet, here or in another galaxy, that would be of interest, that would be a breakthrough, but it’s a star for heaven sake.

Seinfeld once worked the ridiculous findings of scientists in his stand up comedy. He stated that some scientists concentrated on growing the pitless melon. “Never mind,” he said “that people are suffering and dying from illnesses nobody has a cure for. These scientists devoted their life to growing a pitless melon.”

What does this have to do with the discovery of a new star? Well, I’m sure you can put two and two together.

A bit of this and a bit of that

If anyone is considering a change of career ... weather person might be an idea. No knowledge or experience necessary. Just say what the people want to hear and you’ll be fine. Should there ever be a complaint, say that there was a wind change and nobody will hold it against you because, one cannot control the wind, right?

Take today for instance. For today we had a temperature prediction of 23 degrees C (73.40 deg F) with rain all day. I can’t tell you exactly how warm it was, but it was more than 23 degrees, I can tell you that. If I have to guess I would say it was 27 deg (80.60 deg). As for rain ... if you saw a drop of water, so did I.

We had blue skies and white clouds all day. I kept waiting for the gray clouds and hoping that some rain would come, but it wasn’t to be.
Now rain is predicted for tomorrow.

The way I see it, there is a good chance of that happening. Tomorrow I have an interview and with my luck I’m gonna get wet. You know how it goes with interviews ... when you have to look your best, you end up looking like something the cat dragged in.

Anyway, I spent the best of my afternoon doing tests for an employment agency. What a pain that was.

The first test was an office behavior test, 60 questions with answers such as:

Strongly agree
Agree
Neither here nor there
Disagree
Strongly disagree

Next up a Windows 97 test. Oh my, that was an adjustment. At home I have been working with Windows 2000, Windows Vista and Windows XP. What do I remember of Windows 97 ...

Next a legal terminology test. Good Lord, the words I came across there ... I think a lawyer would frown from time to time.

Then an editing test. A series of letters and numbers to match up with another series of letters and numbers. After looking at that for fifteen minutes I didn’t just see letters and numbers ... I saw stars.

Finally a two minute typing test. Okay a typing test is tricky for me. Usually I’m a very fast and very accurate typist, but mention the word ‘Test’ and my brain short circuits and my fingers tie into a knot.
Gradually I relax of course, I can feel that as I go along. Unfortunately, in this case, by the time I started to relax, the typing test was done.

Oh well, let’s hope my results are acceptable.

Then tonight it was bowling. Every Tuesday night is league night, remember? Not much to report there. Didn’t do particularly good, didn’t do particularly bad, just played average.

It was nice to be outside though. Get some exercise, get some fresh air, talk to people ... I think I’ll sleep good tonight.

Irish luck

This morning I received an Irish luck email from a friend in Wicklow, Ireland.

The email stated that the message had to be forwarded to several friends for the luck to work.

I don’t usually forward chain mail, but today I made an exception.
I need some luck and I figured maybe so do others, so I sent the message to ten or fifteen people, can't quite recall how many.

Within minutes I received a call from a company inviting me for an interview.

Luck? Coincidence?