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Sometime last week Jeremy saw a building that had "PLAZCRAK" tagged on the side in huge typically graphiti bubble letters. Since then we've gradually started to joke about it more and more. For example, upon finding that the gas station we'd pulled into didn't have a bathroom, one would exclaim "where must one go to take a plaz crap around here??" or today I got the plazcrap stung out of my hand.
There wasn't even a bee involved. I've been stung on the job four times so far and only once has it been personally delivered by an angry bee. Today I was picking up one of the five gallon buckets we put honey and comb from destroyed colonies in and apparently there was a stinger on the handle. Not even a dead bee, just a stinger. And I don't think I've been stung so hard in my life. At the time it hurt more than usual, I think I got all the venom. My finger looks sausage-like and my hand is inflated like a balloon. But hey its not as bad as the (former) technician that got stung near the eye and his eye was swollen shut (incidently he quit like a day or two later).
The one bee that stung me in person got me in the eyebrow, but I think she barely nicked me before I delivered an annihilating defense. The other stings I received were while squeezing water out of a wet rag I'd been using to clean equipment, I squeezed the stinger right into my hand (this was in the garage, like today); and my first sting was while I was taking off the bee suit -- I foolishly removed my gloves first and then as I reached behind me to pull my suit from the back I grabbed a bee that was on me.
Our owner (who my paycheck reveals is actually named Theodor D. Marder III) often deals with bees in just shorts and a t-shirt. He is more or less accustomed to being stung, although purportedly the obvious concern for doing this in shorts once proved true, and he was stung on the member. You'd think he must be on plaz-crack to continue bee busting in shorts.
Today we actually had time to sit down and eat lunch (though otherwise the day was pretty busy), and were conveniently nearby, so we stopped by a Pizza Hut near Jeremy's house in Huntington Beach, and his girlfriend Katie met us there. This Pizza Hut you see has a lunch buffet on Tuesdays of all you can eat of any of their pizza, breadsticks, and cinnamon sticks. It was pretty awesome "and that's a plaz-fact." It was a bit cold in there, but I was okay because my stung hand was radiating heat (=
In other news, Alexis and I went to the OC Fair on Sunday. We saw the rodeo that was going on there, among other things. Ran into my friend Irene, who introduced me to her sister as "the male version of Hannah"
Also, Diedrichs has been under a fumigation tent and they cut down all the large trees in the nearby gully. It looks like they're on a sprucing up frenzy over there. Hopefully its not in preparation to bulldoze the whole complex and replace it with a parking structure.
Previously on Emosnail
Two Years Ago Today: A Double Rescue & Other WR Shenanigans - and a brief review of who at Diedrichs is homeless.
Year Ago Yesterday: Rating Ratings Communities - The idea behind ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
ratecommunities is born! Man I just checked up on the community after neglecting it a bit and sure enough people have tried to promote their communities there. Unfortunately it appears I hadn't disabled the ability of just anyone to make entries so there are promos as regular entries, which wasn't the intention at all. I ought to clean it up and get it running like it was intended with asapness, so I can plaz the crap out of these community promoting fools!
Unidentified Flying Objects
Jul. 21st, 2005 12:37 am Today Jeremy and I arrived at an RV sales lot to fight purported wasps. What we found were things that looked kind-of like wasps, but had bright green eyes and lived in little burrows in the ground (little holes they'd excavated themselves, as evidenced by the fresh dirt mounds around them). We had no idea what they were. So we blasted them with chemical weapons. Then I capped one with the wasp spray (stuff's vicious, kills on contact) to take back to central command for identification. Unfortunately the wasp spray blackened her body (it previously had black and yellow stripes) but here you can see the pictures I took of our little model, on top of an aerosol can lid (from a bottle of the wasp spray no less). Our fearless leader Dave later identified it as a "metallic sand bee." I searched wikipedia and google for this term and came up with nothing.. if someone can help me out (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ashael?) I'd like to know what the dealio with these kids is.
Shortly later we came across yet ANOTHER unidentified flying object. Another wasp-like creature was coming in and out of a vent on a building. Its abdomen was much longer and slenderer than the typical paper wasp one is used to. Unfortunately Jeremy was a quicker draw with his death ray than I was with my camera, and none could be found after his assault, so no close inspection could be made.
Jeremy and I roughed up an EZ Lube today where an employee made off with his gas card last week and spent $200 in gas. Actually the manager was as enthusiastic as possible about prosecuting the responsible employee (who is already on suspension due to the occurance) to the fullest extent of the law.
Today Alexis, the French exchange student staying with us for a few weeks, went with me down to Diedrichs. It appears he had a splendid time there and got along swimmingly with Villem.
I think I had much more to report for today. It seems to me I kept going through the list of things I wanted to write about in my head today and it was much longer than this. Hm.
I got paid today for last week's work. $410 for four days of work. Man that used to be most of a month's pay at Wild Rivers.
Because I spent the evening at Diedrichs after work (the weather was too pleasant this evening to hide inside!), no progress has been made on reporting on this weekend.
Picture of the Day
Another from this past weekend. This is right next to Santa Cruz (Capitola I think?)
Previously on Emosnail
Two Years Ago Today: Robin Kivlin Has a Party - and Eric from The List, AKA
citizene, comes into town and goes to Top of the World with the Diedrichs crew and IYear Ago Today: Photo Essay: Kristy & I go to the San Diego Zoo - and a giraffe tries to get jiggy with it. As usual photo quality is better on flickr, though I haven't put all the pictures from the original photo essay on flickr.
Also, I think the colour might be slightly off on this monitor (or more accurately, the brightness or contrast), so editing pictures here is perilous because what looks good on this computer may not look good on others.. but there is no more reliable computer here for these purposes )=
44 of 45 - Exterminating Sweatshops
Jul. 14th, 2005 11:58 pm We were looking for 114 Cabrillo, Costa Mesa. On one side there was a gas station, a completely uninhabited looking square building, an empty lot, and cheap houses. On the other side there were some businesses, and then cheap houses. We drove right past the uninhabited building at first because it looked, well, uninhabited. Looking at the addresses though we concluded 114 was either that or the empty lot. I was beginning to think it was a crank call or something. We called the contact information and a woman confirmed that it was the uninhabited looking building. Despite this we still felt incredulous. The building was small and square, all the windows were closed and shuttered and didn't look like they'd been opened in awhile. There were no signs of life anywhere on the building.
Bobby went to the door and talked to a lady inside. When he returned he reported there were "numerous asian women making purses inside," and that when he asked the lady who'd come to the door if it was a business or a residency (you get the picture yet that it REALLY didn't look like a normal inhabited structure?), she seemed to have to think about it before hesitently saying it was a residence.
We removed a swarm of bees from a tree right outside its entrance.
Needless to say, I think there's a fairly good chance its a sweatshop. I seriously think I just might make an anonymous tip to the cops.. maybe in a week so it isn't obvious it was one of the bee guys that came today. Someone remind me in a week, if you think I should.
As I mentioned the other day, I've been riding around with Robert "Bobby" Wagner. "Robert Wagner" as it turns out is also the name of the actor that played "Number Two" in the Austen Powers movies.
This morning we removed bees from the chimney of an elderly woman in Newport Beach. After we'd done the paperwork and were just preparing to leave she came running out signalling us to come back. She handed Bobby a peice of paper with the actor Robert Wagner's signature on it. She gave it to him.
If Bobby was MY assistant I'd totally call him "number two."
I guess the other two new assistant technicians had also noticed that $2000/mo will probably be less than the same hours at $10/hr. Consequently the boss, David Mardner, told us today he'd keep us at an hourly wage rather than the monthly salary ... but he doesn't want to pay the time and a half that is required for hourly wage-earners working more than 40 hours a week, so we'll all be capped at 40 hours a week.
That means I'm done for the week today after four days of work. That also means we can't earn more than $400 a week, whereas the salary would've been $500 a week. Even if it means I'd likely be frequently making less than $10/hr with the salary, I could earn 20% more. I really don't mind the long hours -- so far its seriously been kinda fun out there. So I think I might ask if I can be put on the salary when I get back on Tuesday.
On that note, I will be heading up to Santa Cruz for the weekend (Friday evening through Monday evening) for my cousin Chelsea's wedding (her and her fiance: figure 1, figure 2)
Picture of the Day - (more relevant to the year ago today than to today)
Year Ago Today: Photo Essay: The Irvine Spectrum - once again I recommend viewing the pictures on flickr over photobucket. See also: the satellite view.
43 of 45 - Some Characters
Jul. 13th, 2005 11:13 pm Back on the tarmac today, but this time we were at the airport fuel station. And the airport lackey who showed us the swarm totally had an employment-stiffy for our job. I think he's really going to apply.
This is kind of ironic because Bobby, the guy I've been riding around with, had just been telling me that when he was younger he had applied to work for these people, Signature Aircraft Services or something. He didn't get the job, but now the guy who did wants HIS job.
I rode around yesterday and today with Bobby, the technician who got run off the road the first day. He's my age (23ish), lives in Huntington Beach (HB) (NW OC), recently bought a BMW, and in addition to the 14 hour Bee Busters workday he has a set design company with six employees. He had to leave work early yesterday to go to a meeting in LA with MTV suits. He recently designed the sets for MTV's new show "the 70s House."
The first day I rode around with Dave Mardner. He looks maybe a little bit like a really gnarled Harrison Ford... or maybe I was just around toxic chemicals too much by the time I had that thought. He owns the "Bee Busters" company, he is the bee buster himself. He's been doing it for thirty years. Ironically he loves honey bees, but bee busting is where the money is if you want to work with bees around here. He recently bought himself a second roadster for $25,000.
He told me more than once the first day "I may be an asshole but I'm fair." This caused me some trepidation at first, but my conclusion at this point is that he's the opposite of an asshole, and his referring to himself as such is merely a reflection of feeling guilty whenever he does snap at people. He snapped at some other technicians and the dispatcher when I rode around with him on Monday, but for the most part it sounded like they deserved it at the time, and he was stressed out. The whole enterprize is 100% his investment, one can't blame him for being easily stressed out about it. When he works on bees he works in a t-shirt and shorts.
Today once again I was off work early. And by early I mean after only 9 hours. Our workday is officially from 7am to 9pm. Bobby's last few jobs were in HB though and he didn't want to have to come back to HQ in Laguna Hills again to drop me off and then return to HB. When you're expecting to work 14 hours, 9 hours really does feel short.
With my copious extra time I visited The Frenchman, who worked literally three doors down from me in the same building, at Water Ventures. There I learned some interesting "inside" information on Wild Rivers I hadn't even heard from my Wild Rivers contacts, via the water entertainment industry grapevine.
In Unrelated News: Blehtahepdakorum rules right now! "The government snoops on private internet connections, poets and writers are regularly rounded up and shot for entertainment, the government is cracking down on subversive groups, and citizens are regularly shot for parking on the double-yellow line. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Blehtahepdakorum's national animal is the saber-toothed snail, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the bogon. Blehtahepdakorum is ranked 1st in the region and 8,358th in the world [93rd percentile!] for Largest Defense Forces (per capita)."
Previously on Emosnail
Year Ago Today: Photo Essay: Top of the World - Wow the picture quality from photobucket hosting is a lot shittier than I remember. I'm inclined to think their service is continuing to slide downhill. I recommend viewing the photo essay at flickr instead. In fact, I ought to replace the current pictures in the entry with the pictures as hosted from flickr... but not now because then there'd be no point in complaining about it. So someone remind me later and maybe I will.
41 of 45 - Looking Sloth in the Eye
Jul. 11th, 2005 11:50 pm So today I found myself in the middle of a rainforest, looking a tree sloth right in the eye from about a foot away, while a Brazilian Agouti scampered around and a toucan lurked about.
Today you see, I started work as a bee removal technician. There were bees in the rain forest exhibit at the Santa Ana Zoo, and monkeys are very allergic to bees apparently, so we had to get in there and take care of it. So I ended up actually climbing over vines inside the exhibit.
The evacuated most of the animals they could from the exhibit first. Seeing the tree sloth up in the tree, head bee herder David Marder asked if they should try to remove it, to which the zookeeper responded "do bees sting inanimate objects? because thats all it does right there"
It actually climbed down while we were working though. I thought it was funny that the zookeeper was fixated on David working on the bees, and I was fixated on the sloth. We're standing there facing opposite directions, to each of us what the other is watching is totally mundane and what we're watching is unusual and interesting.
Otherwise, it was an interesting day. Full of new adventures for me and full of angst for David (who owns the company). One person had called in to quit this morning. Apparently our shady competition had been spreading saucy rumours about us so David bounced some calls back and forth with his lawyer... turns out the shady competition doesn't have a real address and is operating under two names or something crazy. Of our four bee removal trucks that were supposed to be out and about, one's driver had a dental appointment (because someone had thrown a brick at him awhile ago?!) which delayed him for an hour or so, and another truck was run off the road by a big rig.
We roamed all around North Eastern Orange County today. Like the city of Orange and Yorba Linda and crap.
We start at $10, but then go "up" to a salary of $2000 / mo, but considering the long hours we work (David works 14 hour days!) I suspect that is well below $10/hr. \=
Previously on Emosnail
Two Years Ago Today: A Day in the Life of Kris - by this point that summer I'd been to at least three beach bonfires and one awesome party, and many other miscellaneous adventures. At this point this summer I've seen a sloth.
But yea, so a year ago today (featuring Matt Morgan (of yesterday's interesting hair), Shalane Christie, Croat, Jessie Lawson, Alberto Hernandez, and many more!), risky endeavors, fear and loathing at the beach, unlikely coincidences, predictable behaviors, being emo, being interrogated by the police, and depositing things for others to pick up later, just a typical day.
Year Ago Today: Mission: San Juan Capistrano - And source of the best Mexican food ever, Pedros.
