Michael R. Barrick

Is conformity so ingrained now that whenever someone does something outside of the bounds of acceptable creativity the refrain "they must have too much spare time" is sung? What does that mean? What is "too much spare time"? And how is using it creatively anything but laudable? The fundamental underlying premise is there there is something more valuable to do with one's time than be creative, and that one should not have "spare" time. What is spare time? I presume that is time where one is not required by necessity to slave for a pay-cheque, serving and producing wealth for someone else (i.e. working at a job.) And it seems people who spend all their "spare" time consuming mass culture aren't chided for it. I've yet to see anyone interrupt a water-cooler pow-wow about the six hours of television everyone watched the night before by yelling, "You people all watched all those shows? You must have way too much spare time!" I've never heard anyone accused of having too much spare time after spending their long weekend drinking beer and grilling burgers. I've never heard anyone accused of having too much spare time after spending thousands of dollars on their vacation to fly to some far away beach and drink rum for two weeks...

As long as you are producing for your masters or consuming their soma, it's all good. Take one moment to do something for yourself outside of the prescribed boundaries, and you have "too much spare time."

Whereas eating the last doughnut is fine since it is inevitably a really good one that everyone politely leaves for someone else, eating the last chocolate left in the box is not recommended. Middle-aged women do not leave a chocolate without good reason. It was the most vile confection ever. A vomit-flavoured All-Flavour Bean would have been a step up. Lesson learned.

As of the first frost last week there's been evidence of rats at work. A trap was placed under my desk since I had noticed some pellets on my desk. It wasn't effective Wednesday or Thursday, so Friday I moved it to the surface of my desk near where I had been seeing the pellets.

This morning there was a very dead (read: starting to smell) adolescent roof rat (rattus rattus) in the trap and evidence that her last meal was licking the sugar residue from the bottom of my coffee cup.

Now there are entertaining shrieks from around the office as a larger adult, probably male, is making the rounds.

At least we can rest assured that the ship is not sinking ;-)

I signed my official letter accepting my new position at work and my cards are on order. It's mundane, but it is a foundation. After having the rug pulled out from under me once the hostile take-over started two years ago, and subsequently not even certain I was going to stay in the country, this represents a paradigm shift. I haven't even been enthusiastic my houseplants because of the possibility of having to chuck them all, let alone putting my weight behind substantial projects.

That is changed now. Now I have the inclination to put my hooks into bigger projects. I have some interesting things up my sleeve.

I'm positively giddy about this. I got my new, improved three days a week job. My new pay rate (roughly a $10/hr raise) becomes effective tomorrow for three days of the week. For the time being I will still be working five days a week with the other two days at my current rate to cover for a new position that will be handling the routine content management stuff. That position goes in the local paper and on the website today and closes next Wednesday. Depending on when the new person can start, my new hours will kick in sometime in September.

This will bring in enough money to ensure the rent and vital bills are paid. Elaine can continue to work at Art of Adornment full time with no worries about variations in the size of her income stream. I've got four days a week to work my own endeavours. The reduced hours don't affect my benefits — Elaine and I are still covered by extended medical and dental.

I can't overstate how excited I am about this. I've never believed in the all-or-nothing "day job vs. starving artist" binary opposition. I'm firmly opposed to starving.

After going downstairs and lending my body to the softwood tariff protest outside the US consulate I'm all riled up. Kinda makes the corporate chains feel a little heavier.