Hurt my back...

Last night I hurt my lower back at work. I was carrying some boxes and my foot got caught between two pallets. As I did not notice right away and I was in full movement, my body turned and went right on cement floor. I knew this job was not too good but now that I hurt myself, I will do my best to get another job. Until then I will go see the doctor and see what he has to say about my back.

Gaming can be addictive

There was a news report on CTV news about how addictive games can be. As a gamer myself, I can attest that playing games can be addictive. I currently play a game called World of Warcraft. It is what you call an mmorpg. It is basically an online game that you have to pay to play. You get to create your own avatar, which in some way goes into the part where you wish you could do those "special abilities" in real life. Gaming addictiveness is only recent in the west, but rampant in Asia. Maybe some might remember that in 2002, a young Korean named Kim Kyung-jae died after playing over 86 hours straight! Korea is the leading country in online gaming, but addiction becomes easy at one point. You want to get a new item, gain another few levels, socialize with virtual friends, etc. As a billion dollar industry grows, companies do not account for the lack of physical exercise kids get, they become unsocial with others and keep to themselves. For me, it is only an entertaining tool that keeps my mind off frustrating things that can happen and I wont be willing to play once my wife arrives in Canada! Just remember that is only a game and you can turn it off, but life can be turned off just as easily if you're not careful.

Just another number to them!

Have any of you ever felt that you are nothing more but another number to your company? I work at Metro and I assemble boxes on a pallet. It is not exciting work but it gives a good pay every week. Well, a good pay compared to minimum wage which is about $8.75 in Quebec. For a job that just makes you run around the warehouse freezer all night long, the supervisors are so very annoying. I got called over the other night because I did not wrap my pallet with enough wrapping plastic at the bottom. Not only was he rude but he told me not to waste any more time as it is! Since he was rude, I asked him to repeat what he had told me but in a polite and confident way. He noticed that I wanted him to say something, but he held himself since he is at the end of the whip of the union. It just goes to show you that no matter what you have a right to be respected whomever his speaking to you!

Shortage of nurses

Recently, there has been a debate about the shortage of nurses here in Quebec. I can remember since I left College 7 years ago that they were talking about the same thing. At that time, there was a huge influx of nurses that entered the system. It helped to stabilize our fragile medical system for several years. However, nurses are going on an exodus. They are not able to work 70+ hours a week without making some kind of mistake. As a professional, they are responsible as to what they give as medication or how they treat their patients. If they make mistake they are responsible even though the employer is the one who is making them work 30+ hours of overtime per week. Young students do not want to work as nurses anymore seeing their older counterparts having no social life nor able to have a family life! We should employ more nurses from other countries who are willing to move all the way to Quebec. We should not oblige them to speak French as the need for nurses is so great that it does not make much of a difference between English or French. Hopefully, if I ever seriously hurt myself that I wont have to wait hours, days, months or years to be treated.

Bayot

I saw something on the news last night about gays. I used to have a pretty strong opinion about gay people, but that had changed a lot recently. I do personally know a friend who is gay; however, I will not disclose his name for friendship sake. When I was in Cebu, I saw so many gays! People do not say gay they say bayot...the Filipino word for gay. Many times I would make fun of them at any chance that I had. Anna never really said anything about it at first, but at one point she did mention to me that they are nice people that do deserve as much respect as I do. She was totally right! I come from Quebec and giving your opinion even if not needed comes naturally in any conversation. I have become less opinionated as of late because I realized that no good comes from judging others. I tried my best to not say anything when we saw a bayot, but sometimes I gave a quick comment and just smiled. What I said was never really mean actually, but I did notice that it bothered others that I did so. Although I do have opinions on certain points such as: they go to Church and the church accepts it! In Canada we let gay people get married, which I do not agreed with. Times change and so the people around the world. We just have to learn to accept others as they are and live side by side without too much judgement.

The person in pink is a bayot by the way!