Perks Month

"A real job is about the fringe benefits. That's where the power is."
~Mr. Sharpton, from Stephen King's "Everything's Eventual"

This seems to be the month for it, by some coincidence. Many, many of the goodies about my work are happening this month. To start the month off, my first check had the overtime bonus for the past year on it. I had all but forgotten that happens, but there it was, a little more gravy for your enjoyment.

Another grouping of pluses that is happening is lunch and learns. Every once in a while they have them for something or another. A few months back they had one on biofuels, where I learned almost nothing new about biodiesel brewing, and considerably more about ethanol production. I wondered why anyone would bother making ethanol afterwards, it seems quite energy intensive to make. Last month they had one about the artwork at our branch, which was really quite good (hosted by a delightful lady by the name of Xillary Twill... I have a suspicion that wasn't her birth name, but who knows). I didn't know that some of the Warholian prints that we've got are, in actuality, Warhols.

Anyway, last Thursday our department hosted a lunch and learn about what was learned by some of our crew's visit to the Chicago branch (which was a paid "working" trip for three fillers and two supervisors. I had put my name in running for the trip, but wasn't selected). Most of these I've attended have seemed to be not long enough, and this was no exception. On the 21st, there is another one about our job benefits, and then at the end of the month there's one about our company's connections with many movie productions.

Next week, for the second time since I've been there, we're having a bowling night. Cool, I'm there. They've got notices posted for sign ups for "Fear Factor" on that night. I glanced at the sign up sheet the other day, and only a couple of the slots were filled, probably because it's so unknown what they've got in mind. I might just throw my name on the list...

Sometime next week I've got to turn in my picks for the Spring ticket giveaway. My first choice is always for the NASCAR at California Speedway, but those are hard to come by. Many Dodger games available, even a few against the Cubs this time (last time there were no Cubs games listed). Angels tickets in there, too, but I'd far rather go a couple miles to Dodger Stadium versus to another county to Angel Stadium. There are tickets to concerts and shows at the Greek Theatre and Hollywood Bowl, but they are mostly to be announced or of little interest to me. Oh yea, there's a few tickets for LA Galaxy soccer games, X games, Xtreme sports. Something new is membership certificates for a year at Children's Museum of La Habra. Once again, La Habra isn't too close, and I can't imagine going to one museum more than a couple of times in a year. One I'll probably put in my choices is the Circus tickets, a plus to those being that it's for four instead of two.



Last night I enjoyed the tickets I'd won in the Fall ticket giveaway, Lakers versus Clippers. It was the first live pro basketball game I've ever been to. Pretty decent seats, too bad the game wasn't very evenly matched. The Clippers kept it within 10 points for most of the first half, but lost it completely in the second half, culminating in a 119-82 slaughter. One of the things I found interesting was, at the end, they brought in the other Coby, Coby Karl. He sunk a couple of three pointers, which the crowd responded to with more enthusiasm than almost any other part of the game.

Life is good.