StressedYesterday was a red flag day. The calendar in my cubicle has thick black strokes crossing out the days as if I were counting down to something. In actuality, I just feel it's easier to spot today's date if I diligently cross out the previous day. Yesterday was a day I hashed out a thick red line with a bold sharpie marker. It was a trying day at work.
I'm accused of wanting to know everything to the point of coming across as someone who thinks he can run his own library. The city doesn't pay me enough to even want to run a library; so, how's that? I'm curious, it's true. In fact, after the tragedy of nine eleven, I was impelled to check my old newspapers for clues as to how something like that could have been foreseen, but because I didn't have a subscription of anything worthwhile, I only keep a copy of a LA Times supplement called TV Times. In big yellow gothic print the words THINGS LOOK DIFFERENT NOW overlays a photograph of Rock Hudson and Natlie Wood. It's dated Sunday September 2, 2001. Mind you, I am not 100% that the western clad actors are indeed Rock Hudson and Natelie Wood on horseback, but they sure are splitting images.
One may not have captured the full essence of the caption, but if these actors are relevant to the paradoxical turn of events, perhaps one needs to look more deeply at the ways two people affected the ideology quality of life.
I've gradually grown an interest to Russia too, since lj transferred ownership to one of their blog servers. What may have lead to the bombing there? Let's see what the headlines read for Thurs. 9 Sept 2010:
- US takes an urgent tone on Mexico
- Clinton likens drug war to an insurgency and says a massive, multinational aid effort is called for.
- by Paul Richter and Ken Dilanian
- Vernon officials traveled in luxury at city expense
- Some trips took place this year, amid cuts in jobs and benefits.
- by Sam Allen and Hector Becerra
- Laughter turns to whispers in China
- A crackdown on vulgarity drives fans away from comic Guo Degang, once beloved for joking about sex, corruption and greed
- by Megan K Stack
- Powerful business group aims at Boxer
- by Tom Hamburger
- Torture suit tossed on secrecy grounds
- Sharply divided panel says national security trumps other concerns.
- by Carol J Williams
There was a time I could care less about any of these news stories but I realize there are a great many types who would take an interest in them despite their immediate affect to their lifestyle if for the purpose of having something to read during their morning coffee. Regardless of the reasons I find these news articles interesting, I believe instead of hearing accusations made by my boss that I'm being manipulative and demanding as though to dictate ideas to the proper manner of running a library, I should be given credit for taking an interest in my road-to-nowhere job. I have a quirk about working at Cypress that juxtaposes historical events taking place around the time of the Inquisition. It is the establishment of credit by the Knights Templar, who were given certain exemption from taxation by statutes ordinated by the Pope. Plus, their dealing involving transportation to and from Israel included stops at the island of Cyprus.
I couldn't help but expand on this idea when I learned my new boss had been at one time a translator for Chinese/English because of the enormous debt the US is calculated to have accumulated with their oriental counterparts. Perhaps some insight to the predicament may help in understanding my rant. I've often compared a library card with Visa and MasterCard credit cards when explaining to the public how investigations of erroneous charges are dealt with. For instance, the 45-day process of disputing a charge on one's credit card is equal to the 45-day process of claiming a book had been returned. Just as a major credit card company would waive the charge on a credit card during the course of an investigation of the disputed charge, the library too would exempt a library account so that a patron might still be able to borrow materials. However, although the rules and regulations us workerbee clerks are expected the follow according to an official union approved manual, Cypress no longer recognizes this exemption. It would seem, too, that the other Los Angeles Branch Libraries are conducting business as usual where situations involving a prospective error commited by staff against a patron are not held against the patron, until at least a full investigation has been conducted. You know, like being innocent until proven guilty type of thing. So I'm at a crossroads where on the one hand, I must find a way to convince the public that their local library here in Cypress Park does not recognize the explanations which other affiliated branches give them concerning computer/clerical errors, and the claims return process which would indefinitely put me at risk of being subject to complaints by patrons complaining that I'm incapable of conducting my job, or, on the other hand, take measure to overturn my boss' decision by seeking clarification from a higher source, which again, would place me at risk. I really have to try to read that book Catch 22 again.
That is why I feel that, as paranoid as I know I am, conspiracy to entrap me in some crazy plot to lose my job during the vast layoffs taking place in L.A. is getting the best of me.