Trainee no longer

[spacealien_vamp]

Today is the official last day of my passenger baggage training period. Starting next week I will be on the regular schedule. I have already had my introduction to the wonderful world of shift-swapping. That is, the supervisors don't care who works during each shift, as long as someone does. So if a person is assigned an unfavorable shift, the challenge is then to find out who would be willing to swap for a more convenient one. For example, one of my co-workers comes in a carpool with another person, but that only works if they both have the same shift hours and the same days off. When the times or days don't match, she has to swap around with other people until they do. I helped out a bit by swapping one of my Thursdays off with one of her Mondays. The problem with all this swapping is that you have to be careful to remember which days you are actually supposed to be working...

There was a bit of excitement last week when we had a group of people come through with 50 cartons of cigarettes each. Now, everyone is allowed ONE carton of cigarettes duty-free, but any more than that and customs charges just under $5 in duty per carton. For one or two extra cartons, it generally isn't worth the effort to collect the money, but when the amount of duty owed is over a thousand dollars, you better believe they are all over it. A couple days ago a routine search uncovered an entire (taxidermy-finished) sea turtle in someone's carryon bag. We can't seize such items for destruction under customs authority, because they don't have any diseases or pests that would damage US agriculture, but we have to detain them until someone from Fish and Wildlife can examine them to see if they are endangered. No endangered animals, or any body parts thereof, are allowed into the country without proper paperwork.

On Saturday I went to the Ferry Building as kirbyfest suggested to see the farmer's market. That was pretty neat, and I wound up purchasing several flavors of jam and olive oil, plus an awesome vegetarian cookbook.

On Sunday I went to mangaroo's place to watch more Avatar, which turned into an overnight marathon to finish the series. It certainly does get exponentially better with each season. Here was a fun excerpt from the marathon session:

Me: Argh! I know I've heard Toph's father's voice before...

mangaroo: You'll never guess where.

Me: ??

mangaroo: He's the voice of Malygos from World of Warcraft.

Me: !!

It was definitely entertaining.

Comments

[nooddlez.livejournal.com]

Your job sounds so exiting! All the best!

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

Yay! Avatar was definitely one of the more entertaining shows I've watched recently; not perfect, but what is? The only downside to watching it all at once though, is you missed out on all of the fabulous shipping wars that went on (you have to work at it to come up with any slash pairings :p). I don't remember a fanbase that was as passionate about pairings since back when people cared about Naruto.

Are you planning on doing a write up on the series any time soon?

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

you have to work at it to come up with any slash pairings

Ohhh, I beg to differ. ;)



But then, I don't have to work at it to slash inanimate objects, so make of that what you will.

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I admit I come from the school that likes at least a little evidence to back up a pairing :p I mean, even one ambiguous glance, or a heated rivalry is enough, but especially in a series like this, where the shipping is so hot and heavy, I need at least a tiny bit to work with^^

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

See, I think Zuko/Aang is really obvious, and though as noted above my slash goggles are stronger than some, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this, given there's a community devoted to it. There are a couple other pairings I noticed, too, but that was more of a "Hee, Jet's obsessed with Zuko!" giggly sort of thing.

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

Jet was so unrequited on Zuko. Poor Jet. (I don't really see the Zaang because I have such a hard time seeing Aang as a romantic figure AT ALL, but I do see the circumstances and scenes that support that pairing.)

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

"Was Jet...in love with Zuko?"

"You know, that was never really clear..."

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

Best episode ever =)

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

My slash goggles are weaker than most, and they get even weaker when I don't care about one of them :p (I can't stand Aang, honestly) So when Zuko, whom I like, has an obvious match with another character that I like, I tend to ignore all but the most obvious other choices. But I'll admit that you're right; there's enough there to make it work.

(I'm better than some though, I have a friend that to this day refuses to believe that Haku from Naruto was really a girl :p His acrobatic rationalizations are kind of fun to listen to)

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

bah for no edit - he refuses to believe that Haku was actually a guy

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

My interests lie more in seeing Zuko be with ANYBODY other than Mai, but I hate to beat dead horses, so I'll leave it at that. :/

(I'm not that up on Naruto, but I've encountered a similar situation trying to convince somebody that those gay robots from Chobits are, in fact, totally gay, and not a boy and a girl (That would be one flat-chested girl!), so I definitely understand.)

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

The only downside to watching it all at once though, is you missed out on all of the fabulous shipping wars that went on

Dragon Dance FTW. Once dragons enter the picture, there is no turning back.

I'm just sorry we didn't get to see that golden egg hatch into a baby dragon. Then I would have been all about Zuko + dragon.

Are you planning on doing a write up on the series any time soon?

I hadn't intended to. Partly because I've been discussing a lot of details with mangaroo and wednesday_10_00 already, partly because I don't want megory spoiling herself before she gets to see it.

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

The last is an excellent reason for not posting more avataria here; the first is not. We will clearly glomp onto any Avatar thread we can find. (Is she gonna watch soon? You should marathon when she visits. I had so much fun watching with you.)

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

Is she gonna watch soon? You should marathon when she visits.

She has, in fact, said she will watch when she visits. You're certainly welcome to join us for more marathoning.

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

You might want to indicate that I was on imdb at the time; otherwise, I sound pretty awesome at voice recognition.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Yay Ferry Building!

::is jealous::