Retail vs Corona 2021-pt.1

Hello everybody, 

I've decided to write a perfunctory post about what it's been like working retail at a grocery store during the corona virus pandemic in early 2021. If you haven't been up to date with my blog, I've been documenting everything since the day before the pandemic began, when I went to a punk rock show at the Sugar Mill Saloon. You can find all that information here.

First of all, the pandemic has been tough for retail workers, especially at the grocery store I work at. The employees are dead tired and more of them are catching the virus. They don't have the energy to really put in quality care and work ethic, so in many respects, the store manager gets what they get. Most, almost all of the emergency new hire employees have quit. The ones that have stayed are very part time workers.  

There's been a few more cases at my store but all in all not that many. We have window barriers in front of the cash register to help enforce social distancing. We are no longer limiting the numbers that can come into the store, exchanging safety for more sales, unfortunately. 

There's very little cleaning if there is any that takes place. In the beginning of the pandemic the cleaning was nonstop. At this current juncture, cleaning is a mere afterthought. The cleaning people that come to clean at night don't do a very good job. Instead of cleaning surfaces, they instead focus on waxing the floor mostly. 

Middle management is stressed to breaking points sometimes because of how short staffed we are at night. Upper management seems to be oblivious to middle and lower management needs. The grunt workers have never been at a more all time low morale. Most people don't like to work retail, but you know, if you actually put in a little time, effort, and care into the work, you will be awarded and appreciated by management, coworkers, and customers. 

I've moved into a strictly cashiering role at the moment which makes my job a lot easier because I don't have to clean, take out the trash, or push carts, all of which involves touching surfaces that could've been tainted by covid, who knows? My hours have been all over the place. I've been switched from my usual closing shifts at 1 am to instead mid shifts and mornings. It's quite a change for a night owl. The one thing that is unfortunate about it is that sometimes there are many more customers in the store in the earlier parts of the day, which makes masking up and gloves and social distancing much more important than working the closing shift. 

Now that Biden is President the world has calmed down some. The death of George Floyd brought about a new class consciousness. People my age aren't doing that great in life but now that there's true leadership in office, perhaps the young can get back on the right track, getting back to work, finding housing and moving out of their parents, getting married, starting families, having goals and dreams being fulfilled within the vicissitudes of the worldhood of the world. Things always seem bleak at the darkest hour. The truth is that covid will get a lot worse before it gets better and perhaps it will get a lot worse working at the market within the next few months, but its better not to think about that too much, for in the end, I've still got a job and I'm still making money while others are out of work and stuck relying on their parents and unemployment. 

The workers really deserve that $2 return to hero pay!

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

Spirit is Artist. Hegel describes daesein and spirit. Difficult but not if you've already read Kant, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger. The world is what it is, this being the case, Hegel is a true philosopher of dialectic. This is one of the most interesting philosophical works.

Tower of Glass

Tower of Glass, a terrific Robert Silverberg 1970 novel that includes android sex, their relationships with humans, equality for all androids, interstellar space travel, and more.

Terrific early new wave science fiction writing. Watchman and Lilith are androids written to be, and are, real human beings. A lot happens and there's a grand crescendo, ironically, the Godhead that screws everything gets what he wants, a true Voltaire, a true cosmic joke in the universe.

Pride and Prejudice

Wow, just wow. From the very first couple sentences I was captivated by this book. The way the men are characterized, the way the girls are portrayed emotionally, the weariness of the mother to marry off her poor three daughters. The father who has to deal with them. You begin to see that this isn't a novel, it is rather much very like real life. If you're single, then you know that your mother is wondering if you have a girlfriend when she calls.

That's where Jane Austen captivates me. This work of fiction is rather like real life. The way the characters say things but they really mean the exact opposite of what they say, that is what happens in real life too! This was one of my favorite aspects of the book.

What do girls want? To be loved and married and all that good stuff, to marry a man of good looks, status and prestige, of wealth and land ownership, of upright jovian bearing, who will treat them right and love them, that's what Jane Austen says.

But how to they achieve that, being but a girl of low social status, no money, and possibly not even the best looker? Well, that's where things get complicated, and the devil is in the details. It turns out, that sometimes, even if a man and woman like each other, they might love each other too, but only if they can truly find each other, I know that sounds corny but it's what happens in this book. How does a couple find each other? Turns out just by talking to each other. Sometimes it turns out that they loved each other upon first meeting but sometimes it doesn't click instantly, and their love only intensifies from there. You had me from the very beginning, you really got me.

Girls just want to get married and then have fun.

Pavane

One of my favorite last moments with this book was the warm hearted story at the end where the young man seeks refuge in a old world town. Him, being a new worlder, has no one to help him, but a girl sees him and decides to show favor upon him. That's heart warming. 

You only get to see a few glimpses into the world Roberts has created here. The Church runs everything, they're using technology that is pretty much steampunk aesthetic but won't share it with the rest of the world. 

A heretical Priest forms his own faction and becomes a leader. A Queen forbids technology from entering her country in order for her people to have more time to believe in Truth and Reason, a Renaissance of sorts, that could have actually happened in an alternate history timeline simulacra. 

There's train haulers that know every nook and cranny of their machines. There's a lot of mini stories in Pavene, but in addition to interesting story lines and narrative development, there's also a lot of very well written sentences, sentences written in an elegant, stylistic way. Roberts is a stylist after all. And he never failed to deliver. In some ways I could compare this with some of William Gibson's stories from Burning Chrome or Neuromancer, but that wouldn't do it justice, it's simply a thing  entirely on its own, it's Pavane: 

a stately dance in slow duple time, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and performed in elaborate clothing.

a piece of music for a pavane.

"the repertory consists mainly of pavanes and galliards"