Fatigue

My move to Cleveland is confirmed. I'm quite excited about it. I've been dreaming of moving to this company for a while now. It's a company I grew up with (in Nigeria), and one whose name is synonymous with excellence worldwide. I hope I have a good time and learn a lot in this position.

I will miss the guys in my current plant, no doubt. I've really enjoyed working with them over the past year, and I've learned an eye-popping amount of stuff from them. I think the overwhelming majority of them have taken me under their wing and shown me a lot of the cooler aspects of their jobs. The best part of the job was getting to know the cooker and retort operators. The knowledge these men have about making soup is truly remarkable, and the good news is that the 3 people who worked with me in this area had a great attitude: respectful of one another and me, work well together, open minded, etc. I really liked working with them! And there were many other cool operators in my plant - strangely I got to know the guys who worked in the kitchens a lot. I say 'strangely' because when I first arrived, they were the most resistant to me, and now they are very receptive of me and of any ideas that I have. I really like that, and it has been a fun year! However, I am exhausted. I cannot decide whether the sheer physical toll of working such strange hours is what pushed me over the edge, or whether it's some of the lackluster salaried people I had to work with, or the absence of any training for me, but I must confess that by the 6th month, I had become absolutely exhausted with the plant and all the seemingly insurmountable bottlenecks we faced.

In any case, I'm about to move off to Cleveland, and I am incredibly excited about the opportunity. I will see my (soon-to-be former) boss tomorrow and start packing the day after that.

In other news, it appears Pope Benedict is in a bit of hot water because he apparently did not crack down on some priests who sexually abused young boys a few decades ago. Word on the street is that Pope Benedict was aware of the situation, objected to the abuse, but fearful of the disgrace a scandal would bring to the Catholic church, decided not to make a fuss. And that takes me rather nicely to a quote by Monique, the Oscar-winning actress of the movie Precious (which I haven't seen), who said as she received the Academy Award: "Sometimes you have to forgo doing what is popular in order to do what's right".

Benedict did not make the right decision. Instead he made the popular decision - he was afraid of an 'event', a confrontation, a scandal. Well, now he has to face the music.

There is shock and horror in the Catholic community about this, but for me - a long-time atheist and life-long cynic of anything to do with Christianity, none of it surprises me. You elect a Nazi for a pope, a man who looks as creepy as Hannibal Lecter, one who makes controversial comments about Islam within 3 years of becoming pope, and for some reason you expect him to be a saint? Give me a f*cking break!