Making It Up As I Go Along #258

MONDAY...
— Hectic evening at work. I’m asked to write another staff evaluation... and then discuss the whole evaluating process with some fellow supervisors/former supervisors. In the end, I do an hour and a half in AFIS and spend the rest of the night on evaluation stuff.
— Some groceries on the way home from work.

TUESDAY...
— Off work today for a night at the hockey game. Go see Edmonton vs. Ottawa with Nick and Melissa... there, we meet Laura, Sheila, Steve and a couple of non-work people. It’s a fun night with Ottawa winning 4-3 in the stupid shootout. Although even for a gimmick ending, it was a fun night.

WEDNESDAY...
— Little sleep again... get a new pass before work today. I lost my old one at the hockey game. Work is fine... we eat Greek food.

THURSDAY...
— Sort of frustrating day. They call from the hockey stadium to say they found my pass... it’s already replaced but I’ll have to drive out there and get it anyway. Left hanging on a work issue with management. And just feel out of it with several people. I’m getting looks that seem like people know something I don’t.
— No sleep isn’t helping. I fell asleep, in my bed, at almost 6:00 AM this morning. Slept until close to 11:00.

FRIDAY...
— Work in TC AFIS for the second straight night. Last night was with Mike... tonight with Laura. It’s better in there... quieter.

SATURDAY...
— The old pass is found and picked up. They got it at the stadium and I make the drive to get it... not that it’s useful anymore but better I have it than someone else.
— Shannon comes over to help with my wireless network and the laptop. Seems good now. We get pizza and watch hockey at his place to end the night.


Insecure Security
Security. What is it? How important is it? Does it really keep us safe?

Since September 11th, 2001 (I still refuse to go with that 9/11 silliness... it seems too stylish in describing a terrorist attack... like EMERGENCY, call 911! Would they call it 4/23 if the attack happened on April 23rd?)... anyway, since September 11th, 2001, we’ve had security beaten over our heads. We’ve been convinced that all people in the western world are no longer safe. Each day could be our last. Who knows, some post office in Gander, Newfoundland may get a letter filled with anthrax.

I actually got my job largely based on September 11th. Shortly after that attack, the RCMP went on a hiring spree and my position was one of those that opened up. Sometimes... I’m not sure that’s been a good thing for me. It’s been a good job that I’ve had for these past three and a half years... but there are a lot of crazy people in that office of mine. Actually, I’m not sure if the people are the crazy ones or if it’s the atmosphere of that office that drives us to nutty behavior. Either way, it’s not the place for the most timid and sensitive people.

Again, I veer from the point.

Our country is one of many in the world today that has gone security crazy. Airports are one step away from strip and body cavity searches. Make the wrong joke at the wrong time and you’ll be tossed into jail.

Some argue for a little common sense... to leave the little old white grandmother alone, she could never be a terrorist. But then that steers us towards racial profiling and the possibility of an innocent man of Pakistani descent being thrown in jail for three years without ever been told why.

America is doing it on a more extreme level, but Canada is also a nation of fear.

Yet how safe are we? I have driven into parking lots of government buildings that are guarded by seventy year old retirees with a wooden plank that’s lowered to stop cars. If a terrorist wanted to bomb that area, there’s nothing stopping them.

I’ve even heard of people being let in to such complexes with pictures of famous people taped over their own ID badge. The guard never looked close enough to tell that the young girl who was just let in had a picture of the Queen looking up at him.

Our office is pretty good. You need a badge that’s programed to let you into our building. Otherwise, you get no further than the front lobby... everything else is stuck behind thick glass.

Airports have become insane. I’ve been asked to take a sip of the water I’m bringing in... to remove my boots... to remove my belt... and to help track down a strange device found in my bag by x-ray. In the end, that device turned out to be a strip of magnet on a book.

Now, I don’t even bring the water... I wear boots with no metal on them at all... and I am wondering if I should go beltless from now on. I mean, I was scolded by this person in Montreal airport. She seemed to think I should have known better than to wear a belt. Slippers and jogging pants will soon be the only proper outfit to wear on the planes. Wow... we really are getting closer to that image of the future you see in so many sci-fi movies... where everyone dresses exactly the same in some sort of one piece body suit.

Of course, maybe to appear less menacing, these body suits will be made in the form of giant pink bunny rabbits, complete with tail and ears. And we can all walk around like young Ralphie Parker from the movie The Christmas Story. But at least we’ll be safe at the airport.

This week, I lost my office badge. I lost it at a sold out hockey game. If the wrongs hands got on that badge... well... I don’t like to think about it.

(Note... in honesty, if such badges are lost, they need to be reported quickly. If someone found it and knew were it belonged, they’d get access to everything I work at... so it’s not a good idea to lose those things).

I called the hockey stadium and left a message. When I heard nothing back, I went to work, reported the loss, and got a new badge. The next day, the call came... the old badge is found. So it’s road trip time. Back out to the stadium on the edge of the world.

That’s Ottawa. In a world where sports facilities are all placed in the middle of the downtown core... where they do the most for the economy of the city... Ottawa built their hockey stadium in the middle of nowhere. It’s a half hour drive for me to get there with no traffic. I’ve driven home from a game in an hour and a half once. It’s just dumb.

But again, I veer off course. On Saturday, Shannon and I go to the stadium to get my pass back. The girl at the parking lot gate asks why I’m going to the loading dock. Explaining my loss, she brightens and says... “ohhh, lost and found. Very good, head to the left and you’ll find it.”

Terrorists take note... if you want to gain access to a building that’ll hold 20,000 people in a few hours, tell the person at the parking gate that you need lost and found.

Once we reach lost and found, a guy gets up from his desk to greet us. In this case, by greet I mean interrogate. He’s puffed up and very proud of the uniform he has on. He’s there to kick some butt! And if we don’t say the right things... that butt will be ours!

I explain how my badge was found. He asks “what does it look like?” As I’m about to explain, I look down to see it on the desk. “That’s it there.” I say.

Suspiciously, he picks it up. I guess since I didn’t describe the badge, only pointed to it, I may be looking to grab any old thing I can find.

Finally, before the guy gives me the badge, he asks me for ID. I even confirm with him... “You want to see ID?” “Yes”, he says... more puffed up than before.

I take out my RCMP member ID and show it to him. He brightens and wishes me a nice day... even calling me by name. But as I get my badge back, I look at the picture of myself staring up at me. And I wonder... wouldn’t that have been ID enough? The snotty me was even tempted, when asked to show ID, to simply point at the pass in his own hands. But that would have possibly landed me in jail for a year or two. This is security we’re talking about after all!