bzap

What would happen if an ant walked into an area charged with static electricity? Maybe nothing, but how would the ant perceive it, I wonder? (the thought in my head upon seeing the odd daily ant visitor)

Candelaria is an interesting name, but I wouldn't want to be named it. Kind of ditto with Darwin as a first name (never really liked the Marvel character of the same name, either). Veronica Bravo and Venus Fallen sound like awesome heroine names, on the other hand. Or porn stars. Whatevs.

It's funny to see women lying about their age on cards they turn in (seeing how the age shifts over time to younger dates, on multiple cards). Seems silly to me, no one will ever really notice it, but I get that it's important enough to do, for them.

Bonk!

Starting with names, Altagracia is pretty, and Honguisie just sounds kind of queasy. Royalyn is a nice variation on Carolyn, and Qualynn reminds me of old Dragonlance novels. Pastora is interestingly bucolic (is that a pun?), and Van De Ven as a last name just seems greedy - three different words.

Never liked having my back to a door, but I suppose it is vaguely amusing to have people zoom by and say hi before I get any chance to spin around. So I just don't bother and vaguely wave over my shoulder.

An error message started popping up, but not just any generic error message; this program throws in little commentaries, like, "I can't do that, Dave." Or, "Whoa, nellie." I liked also, "Take a deep breath," and, "Things could be worse." "Bonk!" and "Leaping lizards!" were also funny - I was torn between trying to fix the error and seeing what other comments might pop up.

Few more names - if there's a Mr. Whitehat, in the tradition of Buffy and Westerns, is there thus an evil bad guy Mr. Blackhat? Krystle has good intentions but reminds me too much of gristle. And Giselle Cryslin as a first-middle combo has some of that chewy-fatty action going on, too.

late night, but noted

It was rainy this morning, but alas the little concrete enclosures didn't fill up like I'd anticipated; I hadn't noticed the hidden openings to other courtyards. Ah well. It did get cold enough that the tiny pirate girl brought in a heater, though. Which amusingly would rev up and down once it hit a temperature threshold. It was almost like listening to an excited kid perk up and then sigh.

Wow, phone lists are incredibly boring to update, but allow for finding lots more odd names. Otoniel sounds vaguely angelic, I suppose. Lurissa sounds more like someone slurring, and it's odd there's more than one with the same last name, even. Vullen, Herschella, Narda, and Javette are just odd, and I can't say they have much ring to them. Valley is interesting, though, as a first name, as is Rustiene (a really fancy form of Rusty?) and Senorita. Dulciana had the best ring to it I read out of those, though.

I wonder if anyone is named Zima

Family history seems to play a big part in some people's response to organizers. It must be quite a switch to live say somewhere with auto factories or steel where unions are hugely more prevalent, as opposed to this state where they're almost nonexistent.

Are Jehovah's Witnesses against unions? That was another odd reason for a randomly strong reaction.

More names! Alzetter is a weird first name. Also Zulma, and Etrulia. I do like Verity, though, it has a nice ring in sound and meaning.

Total Eclipse of the Heart is still hilarious in Spanish.

Working with gals from Mexico offers interesting insights into Mexican culture and situation, like prevalence of drug violence, fading of ranch culture, and living on ranches.

tubbatubbatubba

Some interesting names, to start off - Urso makes me wonder whether the person looks like a bear. And just odd/interesting: Berlinda, Waleska, Penafrancia (does that mean, 'free penis'?), Jacquetta. Bigbee and Mothershed are interesting last names, I picture a woman named Littlebee or Honeybee (actually, Honeybee sounds kind of hot....yes, I'm weird), and a shed shaped like a mothership UFO. What? Yes.

Every afternoon around the same time, this tiny tiny black any appears and crawls around my desk. Keeping in mind my dad's theory of black insects and dead relatives, I've left it be. Odd little visitor.

And some interesting organizer statements:
"This gentleman came up to me + said, "10,000 people get laid off tomorrow, what are you going to do about it?" Nicely played, sir, helluva challenge question.

"I yelled and asked him if it's ok to try to catch him at a different time his answer 'if you can catch me'" - heh, makes me imagine the organizer suddenly running and tackling him

"Gave her flyer, said she will read & think about it." - I initially read that as an imperative b/c of the handwriting, imagining an aggressively commanding organizer

"Said we are wasting our time trying to talk to him, that he is going to go a different way." - is he going to blow up something?

Oddly, the only English song they play on the Spanish radio station is "Disturbia" by Rihanna; it is catchy, I'll admit. They also have a song that reminds me of J-pop in inserting an English, "One Two Three Go!"

not as popular as Argyle

And yet more names! A popular, and surprisingly consistent entry here. Like, I keep thinking I'm going to run out. But nope.
Paizely is kind of a hipster-fun first name. I wonder if Mr. Halfpenny will ever meet Mr. Manypenny and feel insecure. And what if you're a woman with the last name of Bridegroom? Awkward.

The room gets so bloody cold. Dang open-to-air enclosures and glass walls on either side. I accept horribly bad coffee to fight off the chill, hard to type when your hands freeze.

I noted the tiny pirate girl co-worker will often dart half into her chair, creating a perfect supported warrior pose. Inadvertent yoga!

And because it reminded me of Kim's mom's phrasing, a fun way to write a time for a follow-up - "Whenever's clever!"

woo busy

More fun names! Purificacion - imagine calling that out in bed. I think Giovanna and Dulce are pretty, Vontella is odd, and Chica Mala is just funny. And Quackenbush: best last name of the day.

Everytime I see the F/U abbreviation for "follow up," I feel vaguely offended, as if it stood for something else, all angry in capital letters and whatnot.

And more fun names! Because today is just busy, so hardly thinking much. Rayman - obviously named after a video game character. Earline - you go girl, still working at 76 years old! Kellahnitta....right. Ditto with Dericka. And Telemachus, if your mom is named Penelope, that is awesome.

darting tangents

The Spanish radio station we listen to apparently plays songs from novelas (soap operas), which is interesting, I suppose it must invest an extra layer of meaning from the conversation that comes up, compared to regular songs on the radio.

Sometimes in mistyping a date I make it so someone is 1000+ years old, in the field next to where I type. Tempted to leave it there and make it seem like an Antediluvian works for the state.

I wonder whether anyone has ever used a teleconference for something raunchy....hmm...like, phone sex times a hundred, say? Or been accidentally caught on it?

More interesting names! Danisha, Artemiza, Siboney, and a fun last name, Bigthumb!
Henceforth, my last name shall be, Big...ohh, one can assume, I'm sure.

It's awkward to look up some webcomics on break, as they sound like other kinds of websites...Sinfest, Questionable Content, etc....

whoa, there, Mormons

Man oh man, do not go knocking on people's doors in Gilbert on a Sunday. They will cut you. Ok not really, but just about, they really do not like being bothered on a Sunday, from what I can tell from the organizer reports.

Interesting names of the day: Valicity, Yatasha, Toneilia. Also, a last name: Limongello. My last name will henceforth be Raspberrygello.

Funny: hearing an IT guy make a "Make it so" joke and no one getting it.

Also, from an organizer report: "FYI - both nudists & the spaceship in the front yard is art - does metal to relax."

Monday, Monday

Cool names: Aguinindoc (what the hell nationality is that, MexiWelsh?) as a last name, and Exilee (cool sounding) and Cenobita (I wonder if she loves or hates the Hellraiser movies, where the demons are called Cenobites).

Apparently since Arizona is seen as a kind of wasteland by much of the country, the union thinks if they can accomplish something big here, then the rest of the country will really notice. Which I kind of scoffed at till I remembered my cousins imaginings of the desert when I was younger, and even Xuemei's encounters in Boston with people with outlandish ideas.

Spanish music sometimes sounds incredibly like Arabic music. I wonder if that's coincidence or carryover from the Moors waaaay back when.

It's funny that a given group putting information down, say, people all from the same office, will put the same information down - phone numbers, but no address, or email, but no phone numbers or birth dates, or the like. I wonder whether it's hive-mind stuff or coincidence or planning of some sort.

ugh, Nico's + staying up late = bad for data entry

Seriously, was all tamasic and inaccurate and slow all morning. One thing I will give state employees, as their pay goes by pay grades, the only way you get an increase is by promotion; otherwise, you could go years without a raise, unlike most other employees that get annual raises, say. That could potentially suck, huh.

Interesting last name: Rainbolt. Like a superhero or something.

What's a "straight-forward New England approach"? It was noted by an organizer.

Every time I type in "Maricopa" (ie, the county), an internal voice melodramatically goes, "mea culpa, mea culpa..." I may have issues.

Some of the organizers capitalize random nouns in their statements. At first I thought it might be that they're from Germany, maybe, but I think they're actually kind of trying to guess when one should and shouldn't capitalize words, which makes sense from my literacy tutoring, if they're having some trouble in that regard.

so done with alphabatizing.

Seriously, it was a stack of paper almost a foot high, that had to be sorted, and then filed amongst other stacks of paper. If filing something takes more than an hour, your brain will melt.

Interesting last names: Trueblood, Truelove. Cool name: Candy Lord.

I've taken it upon myself, knowing wages and addresses, to see what kind of houses people live in courtesy of google maps's streetview. And there are some big houses that come with big salaries. But what's more interesting is to see where people live, according to their income, throughout the various metropolitan areas; you get to learn a lot about the given city. Or notice other cool details, like this lake to the south that I didn't know existed that I want to visit this weekend.

In pulling people into a union, there seems to be an interesting balance to be found between finding "leaders" and people who just want to bitch. Completely unrelatedly, I love it when I can sense attraction or tension between an organizer and an employee, it's very cute.

tues.

I sometimes get to listen to some NPR in the afternoon after our quasi-supervisor leaves, but the internet stream is sighingly repetitive in its news-briefs, alas. But the quasi-supervisor's Spanish alt-rock station that she plays most of the day is fun, at least....it's just like an alternative rock station, but in a different language; most of the songs have catchy beats and melodies, though, unlike a lot of English alternative rock, heh.

I put in someone with a name of Imperatrice. That is so awesome, but what did they call her as a baby? I guess Imp would work if she was mischievous. Another cool name: Clarinette. And Araceli, meaning, apparently "altar of the sky," pronounced nicely, ah-rah-THE-lee (Euro-Spanish accent).

I noted a family, also: Angelisa, Zekiel, and Gabriel, and one of them works in child welfare. Angels, maybe?

new week

I can't figure out what the building, just south of the convention center, used to be (that the union offices are in). It looks like it might have been a kind of townhouse complex, in some areas, but in other areas has odd long hallways and oddly placed bathrooms...and the best/weirdest part are the tiny internal courtyards, some just empty concrete, some with bricks and pyrocantha, open to the sky. It's a puzzle.

A statement I typed in made a good point - the employee had worked with the state for 17 years, and noted, she's seen things come and go. The union has a lot of enthusiasm, sure, but in terms of years, it'll be interesting to see what happens in the long run.

And there are competing unions? Not only are they all clandestine-seeming (using words like "infiltrate" when talking about soliciting for new members), but they're competing for support by approaching people's houses or hanging out in parking lots? Like Jehovah's Witnesses, but for career and employment...

end of the first week

In no particular rhyme or reason -
Some guy had a last name of Gandolph. Another, Pinkstaff.

An amusing statement I typed up: "Husband answered door - very anti-union; wouldn't go get wife, says she's 'tied up at the moment.' Literally?" I couldn't tell if the organizer was joking, or actually suspected some BDSM.
----also: "Still dead - please remove from system"

We got to work with a somewhat strident video conference going on directly behind us...there was a definite feeling of, don't do anything dumb, don't do anything dumb, don't turn around and look at the camera. Interesting to see a place that uses video conferences so much, and in different rooms concurrently, even.

There was an email that started with, "fleshdryver@..." Yikes.

Cool names: Danisha, Amandalyn (sounds like an instrument to me)

I'm not sure how I feel about the union getting people who pay dues to do some of their organizing work for them, however pyramid-scheme effective it is.

Filters are awesome for managing lots of raw data. Like, wow, I heart you, filters.

One of my co-workers often leans close, touching shoulder to shoulder or the like; I think it's just purely unconscious, but I don't mind at all, she wears soft sweaters and smells nice. Also, an impressive assortment of pirate-jewelry, all with massive beads.

union thoughts, II

I can see the wages of all these random state employee people. There's nary a low wage, either, at least by any standards of most people I know. Not sure how I feel about that...though it is educating, in a way.

It's kind of nice to work as part of a team after several very solitary jobs; I was always kind of a liaison or had to use connections, but it's been a long time since I've worked in a small room on the same project with other people pulling their weight. Hence, my wanting to work in an ambulance, in part, I suppose.

first union thoughts

Learn some more English, people. I can understand a little Spanish, but I also feel like the proverbial monkeywrench in the language gears....and I'm not even sure if that was just a pun in that.

With uncanny resemblances to Elizabeth Pena and Judy Reyes, the people in my immediate area are creeping me out. It's like a kind of cognitive dissonance, I expect different voices to come out of their mouths.

I dunno...so far, the intentions of the union people seem nice, but I can't hold with the kind of groupthink necessary for a union to function well, you can tell from statements you input that lots of people are put off by them, or are being pressured to join or come to meetings or work in a kind of pyramid-scheme sense. Good intentions, but the things necessary for it to work....not so great.