Tweeking the Time Turner
11/10/2017 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThis has been a strange time of late. There is always the present moment but the past looms larger than ever.
At the beginning of the year this Scrooge Serpent dusted off some old 2006 calendars and diaries to give them a new lease of life. Most of 2006 was rather mundane but September and October were the occasion for a grand European adventure. So since the calendar year is the same, been busy revisiting memories and quite surprised at how much is still there some 17 years on without needing any external prompts other than the day and date itself.
Wednesday 11th October 2006 I spent in the gorgeous town of Groningen in Holland. It is a university town and the inner circle of the city is pedestrian and bike only.
Then there is October from last year. Some of that would be best forgotten especially the infamous Access Hollywood tapes followed by a very bizarre press conference on the morning of the second US presidential debate on Sunday 9th October.
The Donald and minions had resurrected some women who dropped a few Bill Clinton bombshells.
I remember thinking that’s what you call Going Nuclear. If that’s how dirty Donald gets in his efforts to deflect from his own perversions and distract his rival, then he will do whatever it takes to destroy her.
Even the fact that Hillary had done her homework for the debates and he had not, could be turned into some accusation that she was cheating or taking drugs or whatever while he snorted and sniffed his cocaine addled brain off. (Of course the cocaine thing is pure serpent speculation but he certainly behaved as if he were taking some mind altering substance)
And last but not least is October 2012. It was when I was still working at the Goblin infested mad house and Dolores the head honcho had declared war on all the house elves and me in particular.
She had sent yet another of her nasty letters. This one was demanding that I turn up to a meeting at 3pm on Wednesday 11th October.
She was going for “3 strikes and you are out” and this was her third one
I was able to disprove every single allegation she made against me but this just enraged her even more.
The serpent was not following the script. Instead of grovelling, snivelling and begging for mercy, I just offered one piece of written evidence after another and it pissed her off no end.
She did not scream “FAKE NEWS!!” Of course she couldn’t have because we all know that the Donald invented that phrase only last year. But she did proclaim that all of it was irrelevant including envelopes bearing clearly visible postmarks 4 days later than when she claimed to have sent them. The point of that was that she is legally obliged to allow a right of reply but then the letter arrives after the submission deadline
It was pretty much a case of “I know that I am lying and I know that you know it too but you cannot do a damned thing about it because I am the President and you are not”
Being the calendar Nazi that I am, I did not fail to notice the screw up with the date. I was thinking that I should just be the bitch and play them at their Letter of the Law game and turn up exactly as stated on Wednesday 11th October............ 2017.
In hindsight, that is exactly what I should have done. In reality I just turned up on Thursday 11th October because dates get precedence over days and it never even occurred to me that just not turning up was even an option
Of course they won that battle in the end. I just gave up. I thought there was only two options, to give up or to fight them and they had already messed with my mind so much that I was totally exhausted and it was no longer worth the effort. Why fight for the right to keep working in such a toxic waste dump? It turned out there was a third option. Simply to do nothing.
It turned out that I was one of the lucky ones. One of the house elves - a 20 something Somali woman ended up with a serious back injury from being bullied into doing something that was not safe and that I had refused to do exactly one week earlier for that very reason. I had told the so called registered nurse that the resident should only be moved with 2 people using a special lifting hoist which of course was in the care plan and that I would not move him by myself as she demanded.
That same nurse then claimed that she had never told the Somali woman to do any such thing and that it was just a misunderstanding because “She no speak English” while the boss bitch added “Failing to follow lawful instructions from registered nurses” to the Serpent rap sheet.
I am presently reading a fascinating book called “The No Asshole Rule” and pleasantly surprised that the terrible tales trigger thoughts of the Donald and not the Dreaded Dolores.
It’s been five years and maybe I have finally gotten over it. But still searching for the answer that I have not yet found. It has become more and more important in these dark and difficult times
The question being “How do you maintain dignity, decency and self respect in a dog eat dog world?”
That of course was also one of the central themes of The Hunger Games series which I just happened to be reading in May 2012. Seriously scary stuff
I did find a small group of people to work together. Most of us were there from before the Goblin invasion and remembered when the management used to treat the carers with respect. We did little things to establish trust with each other while the Goblins were encouraging a culture of contempt, chaos and distrust where folks ratted on each other in order to score brownie points with the Boss and to keep the Goblins from the door. Neither strategy worked in the end. But at least I got to keep my soul. As for the serpent sanity - pleading the 5th amendment on that one.
So now I get to watch the train wreck as a whole country has to endure the asshole boss from hell. This is deja vu on steroids.
Some brown nose and grovel. Some stalk and snark him on Twitter (Izzie pleads guilty) others call him out for the crock of shit that he is, some just tune out or drown their sorrows while others use their influence to stand together (well actually they are literally kneeling) and show people that there are other ways of playing the game.
You have to laugh or else you would scream.
Meanwhile, still searching to see how others manage to preserve dignity and decency in this deluge of despair, destruction and distrust.
At the beginning of the year this Scrooge Serpent dusted off some old 2006 calendars and diaries to give them a new lease of life. Most of 2006 was rather mundane but September and October were the occasion for a grand European adventure. So since the calendar year is the same, been busy revisiting memories and quite surprised at how much is still there some 17 years on without needing any external prompts other than the day and date itself.
Wednesday 11th October 2006 I spent in the gorgeous town of Groningen in Holland. It is a university town and the inner circle of the city is pedestrian and bike only.
Then there is October from last year. Some of that would be best forgotten especially the infamous Access Hollywood tapes followed by a very bizarre press conference on the morning of the second US presidential debate on Sunday 9th October.
The Donald and minions had resurrected some women who dropped a few Bill Clinton bombshells.
I remember thinking that’s what you call Going Nuclear. If that’s how dirty Donald gets in his efforts to deflect from his own perversions and distract his rival, then he will do whatever it takes to destroy her.
Even the fact that Hillary had done her homework for the debates and he had not, could be turned into some accusation that she was cheating or taking drugs or whatever while he snorted and sniffed his cocaine addled brain off. (Of course the cocaine thing is pure serpent speculation but he certainly behaved as if he were taking some mind altering substance)
And last but not least is October 2012. It was when I was still working at the Goblin infested mad house and Dolores the head honcho had declared war on all the house elves and me in particular.
She had sent yet another of her nasty letters. This one was demanding that I turn up to a meeting at 3pm on Wednesday 11th October.
She was going for “3 strikes and you are out” and this was her third one
I was able to disprove every single allegation she made against me but this just enraged her even more.
The serpent was not following the script. Instead of grovelling, snivelling and begging for mercy, I just offered one piece of written evidence after another and it pissed her off no end.
She did not scream “FAKE NEWS!!” Of course she couldn’t have because we all know that the Donald invented that phrase only last year. But she did proclaim that all of it was irrelevant including envelopes bearing clearly visible postmarks 4 days later than when she claimed to have sent them. The point of that was that she is legally obliged to allow a right of reply but then the letter arrives after the submission deadline
It was pretty much a case of “I know that I am lying and I know that you know it too but you cannot do a damned thing about it because I am the President and you are not”
Being the calendar Nazi that I am, I did not fail to notice the screw up with the date. I was thinking that I should just be the bitch and play them at their Letter of the Law game and turn up exactly as stated on Wednesday 11th October............ 2017.
In hindsight, that is exactly what I should have done. In reality I just turned up on Thursday 11th October because dates get precedence over days and it never even occurred to me that just not turning up was even an option
Of course they won that battle in the end. I just gave up. I thought there was only two options, to give up or to fight them and they had already messed with my mind so much that I was totally exhausted and it was no longer worth the effort. Why fight for the right to keep working in such a toxic waste dump? It turned out there was a third option. Simply to do nothing.
It turned out that I was one of the lucky ones. One of the house elves - a 20 something Somali woman ended up with a serious back injury from being bullied into doing something that was not safe and that I had refused to do exactly one week earlier for that very reason. I had told the so called registered nurse that the resident should only be moved with 2 people using a special lifting hoist which of course was in the care plan and that I would not move him by myself as she demanded.
That same nurse then claimed that she had never told the Somali woman to do any such thing and that it was just a misunderstanding because “She no speak English” while the boss bitch added “Failing to follow lawful instructions from registered nurses” to the Serpent rap sheet.
I am presently reading a fascinating book called “The No Asshole Rule” and pleasantly surprised that the terrible tales trigger thoughts of the Donald and not the Dreaded Dolores.
It’s been five years and maybe I have finally gotten over it. But still searching for the answer that I have not yet found. It has become more and more important in these dark and difficult times
The question being “How do you maintain dignity, decency and self respect in a dog eat dog world?”
That of course was also one of the central themes of The Hunger Games series which I just happened to be reading in May 2012. Seriously scary stuff
I did find a small group of people to work together. Most of us were there from before the Goblin invasion and remembered when the management used to treat the carers with respect. We did little things to establish trust with each other while the Goblins were encouraging a culture of contempt, chaos and distrust where folks ratted on each other in order to score brownie points with the Boss and to keep the Goblins from the door. Neither strategy worked in the end. But at least I got to keep my soul. As for the serpent sanity - pleading the 5th amendment on that one.
So now I get to watch the train wreck as a whole country has to endure the asshole boss from hell. This is deja vu on steroids.
Some brown nose and grovel. Some stalk and snark him on Twitter (Izzie pleads guilty) others call him out for the crock of shit that he is, some just tune out or drown their sorrows while others use their influence to stand together (well actually they are literally kneeling) and show people that there are other ways of playing the game.
You have to laugh or else you would scream.
Meanwhile, still searching to see how others manage to preserve dignity and decency in this deluge of despair, destruction and distrust.
