I’m at an all-day work related course at the SIAST Kelsey Campus. Back in the hallowed halls of academe. I was dreading it, butI’m enjoying the atmostphere. Going back to school, if I ever make that choice, wouldn’t be so bad.
I thought I’d have to hunt down a computer lab to do this, but as it happens we are doing this course in a computer lab. It’s a training course for online land titles submissions. It has limited capabilities at this point, but those capabilities are what we specialize in.
I keep trying to squeeze stuff in here, but I can never find a moment after coffee or lunch. Go go go. I will update as I can. I should have sat in the back.
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Just finished my exercise…
I was up at 6a.m., on the road by 6:35ish and at the Kelsey Campus by 7:50. I drove by it. Quick U-turn. Between locating a parking space and finding the room it was another 20 minutes. Someone told me, “Always go to the information desk.”
“I don’t know where that is,” says I. Catch-22.
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At each of our computer stations there is a “Tangle” stress reliever, a highlighter/pen, a small Post-it Notes pad, and a sticky page marker pad. The Tangle and highligher/pen are mine. The Post-its and page-markers must remain. Dang.
I’ve been taking a few notes with the felt-tip pen on the highlighter/pen. It has nearly run dry already.
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There was also a blue Sharpie on the desk. It stays, too. I used it to write my name on this desk’s place card.
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tickety tickety tick… We all work with keyboards.
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If the Saskatchewan election had been called any earlier they would have cancelled this class. I guess it could be seen as unfair partisan promotion or propaganda, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The election was called too late to make cancellation reasonable.
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One more thing on my computer desk: a lunch voucher. We took an early lunch at 11:30 (only an hour after coffee break). In the line-up I asked one of the course leaders what this lunch voucher gets me.
“Anything you want.”
“Anything?! Wow.” I looked up in wonder. There was a large glass-doored fridge stocked with a 7-11 variety of drinks plus sandwiches and salads. There were soups, buns, muffins and other treats, chips, entrees, various coffees and teas, bagels and so on. My instincts would drive me to load up my tray and take full advantage of our tax dollars at work—take enough for lunch and then some. I chose to ignore my instincts; get this: I selected a bowl of some kind of corn chowder, a coffee, a small caesar salad (it was actually called “Caesar Salad – SMALL”), a fruit salad and a bagel. Well done, me.
It occurred to me that future online submission features won’t sway my vote, but they can’t say a thing about them. What is more likely to sway me is the free items on my desk and this lavish free lunch (along with muffins and tea/coffee/juice for coffee break), but they can spend as much on that as they want.
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I was listening to the news on the way to Saskatoon. Lorn Calvert, our premiere, is sending out this message: Things are booming in the province, so this is a bad time to vote for change for the sake of change. (The NDP has been in power for 16 years.) The problem with this is that people are not rushing into Saskatchewan not because it’s so economically wonderful here now (at least that’s not the only reason). It seems to me, from talking to some of this summer’s clients, that what a lot of people are doing is running away from something. Specifically, people are running from the prices and hustle and bustle of Alberta.
I’m not telling you to vote out the NDP. But it’s something to consider when listening to campaign propaganda.
Now for coffee before it’s over…
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I just remembered that blogging standards have the newest items at the top of the page, so I should have done that with this post. I started fixing it, but I can’t squeeze it in between stuff. Sorry.
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Just read Dixie’s new post, which backtracks here. If I think about it too much, it could make me cry or at least choke me up, because I know what’s she’s talking about specifically. No crying at this workshop, please.
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I was thinking the other day that maybe I should find a career where there will be more testosterone in the work environment. There’s nothing wrong with working with women, mind you, but it’d be nice to interact with a variety of genders over the course of a work-week. Here I am at the course—me and 12 other women.
I continue to blaze the trail in the fight against gender stereotypes.
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Of all the questions asked today—and there have been many—I’ve asked at least half of them. I was worried that this would annoy everyone, but it turns out that questions are a good thing.
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I’m also helping the people in front of me. I wonder if that’s annoying?
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4:06p.m. Done. And none too soon. I’m tired. Now for a quick stop at the bookstore and then home.