Let’s just say I get enough “Whatever, tell it to your blog” looks to warrant the creation of this thing and move right along into the bitching.

Okay, first things first: I currently work for a telemarketing company that seems to be doing everything in its power to get me to swallow the loving end of a shotgun this week. The job itself is easy enough and my co-workers have been relatively normal, although considering the last call centre I worked at housed the “I collect porcelain unicorns” brand of serial killer creepster, my judgment may be a tad skewed. The thing I take issue with (surprise, surprise) is the fucking management.

Thank you, management, for forgetting I work at your call centre after my first week and forgetting to put me on the schedule.

Thank you, management, for training me on a new program every couple of days so I can barely get a handle on the one I was hired for.

Thank you, management, for making my job description so vague that I’m never quite sure which of these programs I should be dialing at any given moment.

Thank you, management, for creating a sales bonus structure that requires you to come in for an extra shift to make it to the highest and only worthwhile reward level.

Thank you, management, for showing me that my extra efforts are completely unwelcome by rejecting just enough of my sales to bump me down a grade in the bonus structure and costing me $120.

Thank you, management, for being completely unapproachable when I attempt to figure out how and why this happened.

I knew going into this job that I’d hate it, because it’s a call centre and you’re supposed to hate it. That they’re going out of their way to make this job absolutely loathsome is just confusing and infuriating. I can’t wait to go to Asia.

Speaking of Asia, watching Global News last night and reading my RSS feed brought up this little bit of racist, bullshit journalism: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/06/02/olympic-apology.html?ref=rss

To summarize, people are getting up in arms because the writers of a volunteer handbook for the Beijing Paralympic Games (occurring a month after the Olympics) has some (admittedly) offensive language in it. They basically equate dealing with the Paralympians to handling disgruntled, charity-case Gorgons (don’t look ‘em in the face!) who’ll snap at the mere mention of their disability. Yeah, the booklet was pretty stupid and it shouldn’t have happened, but the hoopla over this issue is pissing me off for two reasons:

1. Language is tricky, and writing a handbook for dealing with people who are considered “normal” (by the Beijing Olympic Committee’s standards, anyway) is hard enough. This booklet should’ve been stalled in the planning stages, sure, but the non-partisan comment tagged in at the end of the article for a weak attempt at balanced journalism says it best:

But Josephine Chiu-Duke, who teaches Asian studies at the University of British Columbia, said China doesn’t deserve a tongue lashing over this.

“This is a sort of misinformed sort of information they received, probably from some sort of old-fashioned textbook,” she told CBC News.

Seriously.

2. The media has turned this simple, misguided attempt at “people management” (which basically every customer service organization uses, from McDonalds to Wal-Mart to, yes, call centres) into an Us vs. Them issue that pegs the Chinese as some Stone Age culture that completely missed the boat when it comes to political correctness, as if that’s a bad thing. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not the type to use the term “politically correct” in the pejorative like the racist/sexist dipshits who equate being PC to being some left-wing hippie zealot, but, really, this story is just the flipside of the same coin. The Chinese, AS A CULTURE, are all being reduced to heartless cripple-haters because of one measly booklet. And what REALLY gets me is that they news outlets basically set up a paralympian to make the accusation:

Rob Snoek, a three-time Paralympian who last competed in the Syndey Paralympic Games in 2000, said he isn’t surprised by the insensitivity demonstrated in the document.

“I don’t think those words would describe me or most people I know who have disabilities,” Snoek told CBC News from his home in Bowmanville, Ont. “Their society has come a fair distance already, but I think it’s clear that there is still a fair distance to come.”

I wanna be pissed at the guy himself for saying this, but I know better. Fuck you, Canadian media, for turning the whole Beijing Olympic fiasco into an excuse to push your bullshit racist agenda. Take a look at how you portray First Nations cultures on a regular basis before your start passing off your high-and-mighty finger-wagging as real news. Assholes.

On a lighter note, please observe the dance moves exhibited by the lead singer of Images In Vogue for their brilliant video “In The House”. Finally, Ian Curtis dance moves for the lazy/narcoleptic.