Day 612 of the library lockout. ... Okay, maybe it only seems like day 612. At least, today it does.

In reality, we are closing in on the end of the second full week of the library board and the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association's depriving the city of their libraries. And, so far, an end to it seems awfully far in the future.

I've mostly been pretty positive during all this. Certainly not happy, but generally hopeful that things will turn out, especially given the overwhelming public support. But, for some reason, today... Today, I felt cranky and just generally annoyed at the world. Lynn says it's probably because I didn't sleep well last night, and she's probably right, but I was still grouchy. I hope the mood passes.

A random thought about the situation:

While spending four hours walking back and forth in front of the library, I'm reading a bit here and there, working my way through The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson. It tells the story of, well, the last days of Krypton: the events leading up to Krypton's destruction. Superman's father Jor-El, as the story has always gone, tries to convince his world's ruling council of the danger threatening them all. The council refuses to listen, burying their heads in the sand, desperate to maintain the status quo. Gee, sounds like a certain library board I can think of...

A little after 3 PM on the second to last day that the library is open before a lockout...

"It's a madhouse! A MADHOUSE!!!!"

Just a little on the busy side, then.

Today's my last day at work for what could be a very long time. Actually, nearly all of us at the library are having their last day today or tomorrow. We're being locked out.

I've mentioned our labour problems here a couple of times and now things have come to a head. After 5 months of asking the library board to return to the bargaining table and trying to not strike completely, they've decided they'd rather shut us down.

What's really got a lot of us pissed off is that their official press release has this passage:

“We do recognize and value the contribution of employees and would urge employees to ask their union representatives to return to the negotiating table to work out a fair collective agreement that meets the needs of all parties.”

Um, what?? They're doing their best to make it look like we are the ones who don't want to negotiate, despite telling them repeatedly that we would stop any and all strike actions if they would return to the table. Dickweeds.

Lynn and I expect to be okay, as long as the lock out doesn't last more than a few months; we've got a decent amount saved up right now. But a lot of folks are going to suffer because of the board's petty and small-minded actions.

Now, back to that last day.

DISTURBING LIBRARY FINDS #4

Hey, it's only taken me until February to make my first blog post of the year! To make up for the long gap, I'm presenting a new Disturbing Library Find!


Yes, the adorable little tale of an adorable little mole in adorable search of "whodunit". That "hat" on his head? It is what you think it is. A co-worker originally found this in its original German format and passed it on to me, thinking it ideal for Disturbing Library Finds. He was right. Everyone I show this book to, whether in German or the above-pictured English translation, tends to sit with their mouth gaping open in disbelief.

The little mole pops his head out of his hole one morning and, yes, suddenly has crap land on his head. Understandably pissed off about this, he goes from animal to animal, asking if they are the perpetrator. On each double-page spread, each animal proves their innocence by letting go with their own, unique feces. There are thuds and splats all over the place. Wherever these animals all dwell together is obviously to be avoided if you care about your footwear at all.

I won't spoil the ending for you by revealing "whodunit" but I will let you know that the mole clearly believes in "an eye for an eye" and gives as good as he gets.

Well, I certainly had an interesting day at work.

Yep, lame-o bomb threat. I guess to match the one they had on the ferry last week. Probably some pinhead kids who don't have the brains that God gave a troglodyte.

Or possibly someone disgruntled at our on-going job action. If so, this was a stupid way to go about it. We didn't suffer. Hell, we got an double-long lunch hour, hanging around at the nearby Tim Horton's waiting for the all clear. The only people truly put out by this would have to be (A) other patrons and (B) the police, who had to waste manpower (and bomb-sniffing dogpower) making sure the public was going to be safe.

I repeat... pinheads.

So, famous Science Guy Bill Nye has had to file a restraining order against his former fiancee, who apparently tried to poison him. On hearing this news, my brain immediately went into flashback mode, remembering Bill's days on "Almost Live!". Along with every other male cast member, he had his turn playing a suffering boyfriend of... "The Worst Girlfriend in the World".

Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.

Oooooh she's the worst girlfriend in the world!
A psycho bitch from hell, yeah, that's the girl!
She's the worst girlfriend in the world!
The worst girlfriend in the woooooorld!

Time for a little catch up. And, yes, I've been bad about keeping up this blog. It will almost certainly continue that way. But I think we'll live.

Much work relief. I now have a full-time permanent position with the library. Whew! It's at the Emily Carr branch, which is really my first choice. Not too far from home, not too crazy (although by no means dead slow).

We are still in the middle of job actions, however. We have shut down the public internet terminals, are closed between 12 and 1 everyday as we all take lunch simultaneously, and have stopped collecting overdue fines. We've also had a few strike days here and there, some involving picketing and one where we all went to a "study session" at strike HQ, where we spent four hours listening to talk about pay equity. I drifted off for about ten minutes during hour three. Nobody noticed.

Still, at least I do have that new position. If I play my cards right, I'll never have to go through another job interview again.

I will try to post something half-way interesting next time.