I’ve started to get settled in here. not so settled that at the end of the month i won’t want to move into the unit on the third floor, but settled in the sense that I’m getting used to where things are. not that it’s really hard; red deer is basically in a line, and whatever you need is going to be at one end or the other.

yesterday I met everyone in the office and set up my user accounts and all that fun stuff. I even got to pick out pens and odds and ends from a staples catalogue. it’s important to have the right pen you know. I spent all day today on a ride along with one of our enforcement officers to see what they do and where all the data that I get to sort through comes from.

I have to say, I expected that with an MPP degree I’d get to do interesting work. I wasn’t entirely expecting that on my second day on the job I’d be helping with tractor trailer inspections out in the field and going over what simple changes to inspection forms could be made to simplify the job of the officers. there was a moment where I was standing on the highway in a safety vest beside a rig we’d stopped, it was lightly raining and I was being shown how to tell whether the pitman bars on the front wheels were being worn down too much. I had to stop and think “how many people in the program got a job and are sitting behind a desk right now looking at TBS reports and look what I get to do.”

I haven’t really been given a mandate as to what I’m supposed to work on yet. I know that there’s a shitload of raw data that CVE has that they want looked at and analyzed and made to mean something. given the broadness of that, I guess there’s a lot I can work on. I wrote a few ideas down today. I think I’ll keep a record of ideas that come up and float them by my supervisors to see if it’s something major or minor to focus on.

I get to go on a couple more ride alongs, and i get to go all over the province to figure stuff out.

so, yeah I have a desk, and yeah I’ll put trinkets on it, but you can’t really argue with having a position that keeps you going to lots of different places.

on the more personal side of things, I know I’ve only been here a few days but I’ve started to feel the ‘what do i do after work to keep me busy’ thing. the last couple of days I’ve gone around town picking up groceries or in-car iPos accessories but there’s only so much of that you can do. there aren’t really any younger people at work that I know of yet and I’m clueless as to what there is to do around here. i DID find the best instrument store in town and i DID buy a new guitar stand and i DID notice that the chick who works there is super hot and thought it was super cool that I had a telecaster signed by Gordie Johnson and that my Les Paul BFG wasn’t the Epiphone version. so I think I’ll wander in there again. apparently there’s a sheet in there where you can sign up if you just want to jam with other people for something to do. I’ll definitely have to look into that seeing as how I am now without both a bassist, and fucked off to the prairies and left my drummer with nothing to do.

anyway. sleep time.