The Road to Hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs

Thank Ernest Hemingway for another jewel! The road to Hell is also probably paved with reams of miscellaneous unsorted ITS cards, which I would inevitably have to sort. I began my new life in a different department to which I had been transferred, yesterday. The "Rite of Passage" in the new area in which I find myself, is to sort International Travel Cards by hand, sitting basically in a hallway, with CFRA & Lowell Green blaring at you for 7.5 hours a day.

Hell indeed!

If Data Capture is the equivalent to Dante's Limbo, then sorting ITS cards is definitely on the edge of Hell; possibly in the 1/2 level between Pergatory and level 1. Maybe.. At least I can listen to my MP3 player, sip coffee, nibble on apples and fibre muffins and let my mind wander into happier pursuits. Like how to escape!

Thankfully, I think the Half-Acrage of Hell should end by next Monday. I was told that I would be back at keying by then, instead of sorting cards. I think that the sorting part of the job is to make you inordinately thankful when you finally get transferred back to keying. I mean, keying HRSDC is mind-numbing, repetitive, painful etc etc.. Catherine L. refuses to do overtime if it involves this (to give you an idea of how unappealing it is!) So, I figure by the time 5 days of sorting goes by, you are so desperate, bored, hopeless and depressed that the thought of keying HRSDC becomes instantly appealing (& even exciting. Good Lord!)

But, it must be all a mind f*ck.

I was going to go to bed, but I think I'll rant instead.

Two weeks ago, I was doing overtime for HRSDC because they are really behind. I've been keying this crap forever, and it is not a brand new thing for me. Now, if you had someone transferred into your department, who not only had keyed plenty of HRSDC but did it accurately and well.. AND you were really really REALLy behind...would you.. stick them in a hallway sorting ITS cards?

Or.. would you get them to the nearest computer, do-not-pass-Go, and get them keying your already overdue work?

Oh, and regarding overtime: Basically, because I'm "new" to the department, I'm not allowed keying HRSDC as overtime. Even though last week I was doing 3 hours of it after my regular shift each night. So, instead of getting back to Kanata at 7:15pm after 11 hours of work, in the dark, I got to come home early this week. Instead of crippling myself typing, I went to the gym, began reading Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys", baked muffins, cooked fish, made a whole wheat pasta dish, drew new art, inked & coloured things on the computer.....

Ok ok, I enjoyed my little bit of extra time.

But does all this make a lick of sense to anyone? It's nuts. It's Government, mostly it is my bizarre division (OID) at Stats which has some pretty crazy ideas about How To Teach Discipline To The Zombie Work Force.

I'm not even going to start IN on Lowell Green. Except that I might send him an off-colour drawing of several dyke feminists showing him what fists are really for :-) Nahh, probably too high-brow for the right-wing, redneck, troglodyte. I was going to call CFRA C--cks--king, F--king, Rectal, A--hole Radio.. but then I thought I might offend some of my gay friends. So, I'll just be sure to ram my MP3's headphones firmly in my ears before Theresa cranks Lowell and drives me to impromptu suicide via unsorted ITS card paper-cuts.

ACK.

Ooh, and I get to do more of it tomorrow!! WHhheeeheeeeeee!