Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Monthly Archives: July 2010

• Know Your National Organizations

  Posted at 1:48 am by kayewer, on July 25, 2010

  Sometimes a person can learn something in the strangest places.  While sitting in traffic in my neighborhood, I came across a bumper sticker on the vehicle ahead of me which claimed membership in something called the International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association.  The what?

  You better believe I looked it up.  It’s an entity founded in 1989 to provide professional and safety code quality professionals who can clean and maintain restaurant kitchen exhaust equipment.  According to the information on their website (ikeca.org), many eatery kitchen fires that could get out of control can be prevented by having a clean exhaust system.  The organization trains and certifies technicians to do this job.

  This is a country full of clubs, organizations and groups (I don’t even have to mention politics, religion or Lady Gaga), but in our world of micro-tasking is it so unusual to separate the kitchen exhaust from the appliances it supports?   When a repair technician arrives at a restaurant, would (s)he go the extra step to check the exhaust, or would it be ignored because an organization like IKECA exists and it’s “their job, not mine” to do that?

  It’s good to have specialists, but throw in too  many and it can look like the Monty Python “Gas Cooker Sketch,” with umpteen people in your kitchen discussing your exhaust while your risotto burns.

  As in the world of medicine, it’s good to have general practioners and specialists in many other fields.  A stove repair technician should have some knowledge of a kitchen exhaust, and a direct dial to somebody from IKECA in case of emergency.

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• The Writer’s Little Lightbulb

  Posted at 2:39 am by kayewer, on July 18, 2010

  Writing can be painful sometimes, especially when you’ve decided to move away from a part of your manuscript because you’ve realized it isn’t meeting your expectations and you’re spending too much time trying to make it right.  As in many things in life, sometimes you have to put it down, walk away and get back to it.  Approaching a problem with a fresh mind, and after a looooong break, can help bring the solution to light.

  In the case of my manuscript, I had this particular pivotal chapter down on paper for quite some time, but it wasn’t what I really expected it to be.  So I put it on the back burner and got tied up in other chapters instead.

  This afternoon, in an aisle at Staples, an answer came to me, as if an angel of creativity whizzed by my ear and delivered a kernel of hope.

  It’s a brilliant solution to a problem that stopped my drama dead in its tracks.  The problem had brought the entire story to a halt like a sledgehammer to the kneecap, and by some miracle the idea came along like a knee surgeon and fixed it like new.

  Now, revitalized, I can stop blogging about it and go get that pivotal chapter back on its feet and marching toward the end like a true Marine fresh off the disabled list.  Oooh-Rah!

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• The Four-Day Work Week Blues

  Posted at 2:20 am by kayewer, on July 11, 2010

  We spend a lot of time working at our place of employment.  This past week I feel like I’ve spent 80 hours working what is supposed to take about 37 1/2.  A holiday weekend doesn’t help matters, but any cubicle dweller knows the feeling of cramming an extra day of work into a four-day week.

  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that men worked about an hour more than women in the workplace in 2009.  I don’t know how they figured that out, because it seems men dole out many responsibilities to women on the job.  Maybe doling counts.

  My job includes meeting the demands of several people at once while I am only endowed with two arms.  I’ve learned to juggle file folders with my feet and mentally shut down any hunger pangs until I’m within five feet of a vending machine.

  They really needed me at work this week, because like a fool I didn’t put in for vacation, so the others grabbed the chance to bail for the beach while they had the opportunity to escape.  Strangely, on Tuesday (the day after our and many other business’ holiday closure), things were calm.  Wednesday everybody apparently came to life (or used Tuesday to recover from the three-day weekend) and business overflowed.  I was bombarded from three or four people at once, all wanting something that was due, overdue or just needed yesterday.  And they all needed me to give them my attention.

  It was comforting to know that, elsewhere in cubicle land, another person was cramming 80 hours into a four-day week.  They also called me toward the end of the week for feedback.

  The only thing worse than the four-day week is the week before and after a week’s vacation.  I put in for one, like a fool, knowing I’ll have to deal with cramming 75 hours into two weeks book-ending the down time.  At least there is no holiday coming up that could make it worse.

  I keep saying I’ll never take vacation again.  Why do I do this to myself?

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• Freedom VS Anarchy

  Posted at 12:53 am by kayewer, on July 5, 2010

  234 years after a group of officials gathered in a tiny room in Philadelphia and decided to turn the newly minted colonies into one big land of free agents, our country has gone up and down in popularity and effectiveness.

  We keep building and breaking down what the founding fathers tried to do.  Sometimes we take a step forward and other countries hate us.  At other times we take a step backward, and other countries laugh at us (and still hate us).

  We really shouldn’t base all of our decisions on what other people think.  We started the country because we wanted to worship in our own way and make our lives without looking over our shoulders to find somebody coming our way wanting to take it from us.  That hasn’t changed, only now the monarchy in England sends envoys instead of redcoats, and the true enemies come from other places that should know better than to mess with the American democracy.

  Now that we’ve been here for awhile, we have established, challenged, and modified our documented rights to modernize our lives and try to maintain guidelines by which almost everybody can co-exist without much turmoil.  Naturally some people don’t like rules, and some have their own rules which, within the confines of their own physical and psychological boundaries, may work for them but not for others.

  People who don’t want to live by the rules have the choice to conform, deal with any consequences of not conforming, or leaving and finding someplace in which they can live by their own rules.

  Even anarchy has rules, though they may differ with each person.  The problem is, nobody knows anybody else’s rules, so everybody must break rules frequently in an anarchical society.

  If we want to have co-existence, some rules are inevitable.  Our original document–the Declaration of Independence–simply made it official that we weren’t going to abide by the rules of the place we left behind, and the Constitution set up the first of our own set of rules.  They are not perfect, but they are necessary.  If the people want to alter the rules, they can do so in a democracy with the popular vote.  Those who don’t like the rules have the choices already mentioned.  Anarchy did not get us to where we are 234 years later.  Forgetting what we went through to get here won’t help either.

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