Welcome To Part 2 Of Our Torrid Tale
I need to recap, as this is being written on Wednesday for a Friday publication and we need both a dramatis personae and establishing background. So, the setting is a mid-sized plumbing company, and we are dealing with the admin that runs the business behind the scenes. Art!
ANYWAY we had the narrator, ADAM (Able DispAtcher Man), Older And Foolish, (OAF), the owner, and SOB (Sadistic Overbearing Bottomhole). There was also Henry The Ancient One, who had it graven in stone that He Never Worked The Weekend. When we left them, SOB had just permitted ADAM to work overtime, which realllly offended SOB, as he was trying to cut out OT in order to look good to OAF. This happened over several weekdays, with ADAM making sure to copy in OAF and HR, as SOB deliberately avoided doing so. Art!
Later in the week ADAM sends an e-mail to SOB, HR and OAF detailing that he'd done 44 hours and had thus hit his OT limit, so he'd have to stop as of 12:30 that afternoon.
Entirely predictably this caused SOB to explode in a fit of apoplectic rage and he, entirely predictably, shouted and ranted and tanted at ADAM. However, and you knew that word was coming, Henry finished at 14:00, so if ADAM departed at 12:30 SOB would have to handle all calls until 19:30. Wisely, ADAM got it in writing. Art!
ADAM also provoked SOB to the point of a heart attack, by quoting 'It's The Letter Of The Law!' (I added the exclamation mark for sheer wickedness) which SOB had rashly and gleefully quoted once, leading to ADAM hitting him over the head with it whenever possible. He also quoted employment law about having worked the last Sunday and five more days, so he wasn't working that Sunday.
I put the illo above because SOB had to work the Sunday and thus -
- missed his kid's sports tournament. Har har!
Don't forget the Mystery Object that ADAM purchased previously. This comes into play later.
Come Monday the 26th November (no idea what year this is) OAF, HR and SOB were all waiting for a meeting with ADAM. Oooo-er Matron!
Sorry that they look so jolly and amused. Imagine them upside down, glowering. The first thing that came to light was that OAF had NOT authorised cutting back on OT, which embarrassed SOB enormously.
ADAM proceeded to give all three a sound lecture in employment law, which may have been Canuckistanian as it seemed both sensible, logical and moral. He pointed out that he had 3 weeks of leave outstanding, that the company policy for leave was use it or lose it by December 31st, and he was going to take that leave come what may. Art!
Who found this unacceptable? Why SOB! Unlike every other employee, they had mysteriously amassed sufficient leave to be able to go on holiday after only 3 months, when everyone else needed a whole year before accumulating leave. Conrad smells the interfering fingers of OAF at work, pulling entitlement strings. Henry, for your information, had already got his Christmas vacation approved.
So, SOB had booked a holiday in Florida at Disney World - except they now had to abandon it in order to cover the dispatch board, blowing thousands of dollars, and causing them to whine and swear for the next two weeks.
When ADAM returned from holiday, SOB was waiting with a newly-hired colleague and termination paperwork, armed with a malicious grin.
As well he might, he didn't know what was waiting in the wings. Art!
Here Eric the attorney friend of ADAM turns up again. He contacted SOB, saying that he'd been interviewing ADAM for a new job and SOB was down as his last employer. Did he have anything to say about hiring ADAM?
SOB, predictably, went off on a foul-mouthed rant, castigating and slandering ADAM - who then joins the phone call along with two other attorneys, who are witnesses to SOB breaching employment law, which states that an ex-employer can ONLY state previous job title and dates employed.
Which leads to a wrongful dismissal suit. ADAM, Eric, OAF, HR, OAF's lawyer and SOB are all present. Pride of place goes to the recordings that ADAM made on his 'spy pen', the gadget that Eric recommended he purchase to record SOB, and which we referred to yesteryon without comment. SOB's face went pale and sickly when the recordings started to play. Art!
This leads to an offer of 3 months severance, so ADAM plays back SOB's refence rant, backed by Eric and his colleagues offering to make a sworn deposition.
Net result: 15 months severance and SOB was fired. Not only that, thanks to ADAM and OAF they were essentially unemployable.
I love a happy ending!
Derivation DNA
Conrad has been listening to various Youtube music soundtrack vlogs, which help sustain the creative process without intruding. I am unsure if they're generated by AI or flesh and blood Hom. Sap. or other hideous magics. Art!
If you know anything about anime, then you ought to know of the film 'Akira', which is set in Neo-Tokyo, and which was, according to the blurb ' - about to explode - ', which is where the creators of the above have sought inspiration. The general dampness, darkness and endless neon cityscapes all echo 'Blade Runner', especially underscored by a synthesiser-based soundtrack. It may be quite derivative, but those two are good sources to derive from. Besides which, it's free. Always a good selling point.
Guess Who's Frothing Mad Again?
Art!
Whom but our old chums Sovereign Support Services, this time at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. The inundation of froth brought out the local fire services, who rapidly determined there was no fire. Unlike the Californian incident, here someone had the wit to close the hangar doors, so there was little release of foam beyond the hangar. Unlike the Californian hangar, there were three aircraft being serviced inside this one. Ooops. Art!
They didn't come to any harm, the foam is created specifically not to corrode or erode or otherwise be inimical. The news item I cribbed this from states that these foam malfunctions occur once every six weeks for the past 20 years, over 137 incidents. Sounds like 'Be Amazed' might have been right about engineers getting it wrong.
A Life On The Ocean Grave
Ever since the orcs invaded Ukraine and occupied their Black Sea shoreline and ports, they have been stealing grain, Ukraine being one of the world's biggest breadbaskets, or bringing in supplies, weapons, equipment and orcs. Not having a navy, the Kozaky were hard put to prevent this from happening.
Until now. All of a sudden they have hit 5 freighters in the Sea of Azov that were running into Mariupol and Berdiansk, using Firepoint or Behemot drones, rather than the naval equivalent, the dreaded Sea Baby.
'Jake Broe' goes into some detail about this, with a series of photographs showing the damage. Art!
The Kozaky seem to have decided to take a very hard line here. Previously they've hit these vessels in the stern and engine room, where the possibility of casualties was low. In these instances they've hit the bridge directly with a drone, which has opened this Azeri tanker up like a tin of dog food, killed 5 crew on the bridge, started a fire and made the survivors abandon ship. It's now a floating derelict on the Sea of Azov. Art!
Down by the stern and liable to sink in the first heavy sea.
Rubbing It In A Tad
Ol' Putinpot has had a solid losing streak of other countries where he'd previously been sticking his scrofulitic talons in to meddle maliciously. Romania, Moldova, Hungary and now - Art!
"One - two - three - Putin Khuilo!"
It's very rude so I shan't translate it.
So, Armenia becomes another nation to defy Mordorvia, which has been spitting venom that it's ineffectual interference efforts didn't bear fruit.
Possibly because the FSB agency responsible for subverting ex-Sinister nations got massively purged by the Puffy-Phaced Petrol Pimp back in 2022. Turning it from the Fifth Service to the Filth Service.
Finally -
New car ahoy.
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