Random Access

Another mish-mash of various stuff, opinions, events & opinons

First... according to one of those quizzes that are always more time-consuming & annoying than you think they'll be, I am ( under here )

Now... this latest shooting tragedy in the US. As I commented to a friend on Flickr earlier today... "It's a huge question... how much can you blame this terrible event on society, gun laws, games/movies/TV... & how much on the plain fact that we're not too far removed from animals ~ if we're mistreated, we react violently. I don't know the back-story of the young perpetrator, but that he killed his parents before anyone else, including himself, hints at a troubled home life, rather than a 'thrill kill' inspired by any form of violent 'entertainment'

Here in Australia, we tightened our gun laws after the Port Arthur shootings (don't follow the link if you don't want to) & we haven't had anything like it since... But we'd never had anything like it before either...

I think it's all too easy to assign blame to exterior factors like laws, games & TV, when it's really more of a psychological problem which speaks of much more troubling issues than just what videos we watch. I've seen plenty of 'action' movies & feel no compulsion to buy a gun & wreak violent havoc on the world...

My feelings & sympathies lie entirely with the victims & families of today's horrifying events. But I fear that the backlash will be misguided & will focus on easy targets instead of the real, hard questions we need to ask ourselves

Please take care of each other"

On the Work front, here's a quandary: If you were offered the role of Sales Manager with a company that's just starting up in your city & they wanted you to do two weeks work ~ which involved car travel & associated expenses & you didn't look for other work during that time, believing that you were 'employed', only to be told that you wouldn't be paid for what was termed a 'training' period, then had to take three weeks off, also unpaid, to start actual work on January 7th... & your salary was dependent on achieving a target, would you stay with the job??

A long question, but only a short answer is requested

Some background:~ The money's (potentially) good, the targets not unreasonable & it's a huge step away from accursed Retail Sales, which I've been stuck in for the last few years. My co-workers are the usual mix of enthusiastic-but-inexperienced, to completely & utterly unsuited, but we are headed by someone I'd consider a Master sales agent... confident, experienced... albeit a little overworked & whelmed by his task of setting up shop in a new territory (NSW ~ they are already in VIC & SA). I like him, have some confidence in some of the staff, but am a little rankled by donating two weeks of my time & scarce money for no recompense other than rosey-smelling prospects

It's a Leap of Faith, my dear Reader & I'm inclined to take it... in the absence of any other reasonable offer... but any input or opinion would be welcome at this stage, as I have three unpaid weeks to think about it


There... now you know as much as I do... Well, maybe not, but this is as good as it gets for now