Been writing this paper for over a week now... Brain hurts. Its supposed to be 3000 words, im at 28 something if you include refrences. I just cant go on anymore. This is the result of hours and hours of work. I predict a 62%. Its hardly university quality but i never said i was good at papers! If yall could take a gander and lemme know what you think before i hand it in id appreciate it. Here she is: WEALTH DISTRIBUTION AND UNEMPLOYMENY IN AMERICA AND JAPAN Normal 0 Normal 0 INTRODUCTION The second President of the United States, John Adams once said, “The happiness of society is the end of government”. Currently in the United States and in many countries around the world there is unhappiness and the people are looking to government for answers! I am referring to the Occupy movement that started on September 17 2011 in the Wall Street financial district in New York City. Protesters have camped out on the public property since September and will continue to do so until some changes arise. The reason for the protest and slogan of the protest is “We are the 99%”. This refers to the enormous wage gap between the people with the top 1% of income and the rest of the people. In fact according to an article on Mother Jones (Gilson and Perot, 2011) The top 1% of American households earn an average of $1,137,684 a year and the bottom 90% earn an average of $31,244 a year. There seems to be much distress in many nations around the world about this problem. Even in our small city of Winnipeg protestors gather around the legislation building. There is one place however that has not had the same response and that place would be, Japan. According to an article in Japan Realtime (Koh, 2011) Occupy Tokyo was somewhat of a failure. This is most likely attributed to the fact that the wealth distribution is among the best in the world. In fact a study done by the United Nations Development Programme (2009) found Japan to have a Gini index rating of 24.9 compared to America, which had a rating of 40.8.[1] The difference in unemployment in these two countries is quite astonishing. For the longest time unemployment levels in Japan were among the lowest in the world. The unemployment level has risen slightly over the last few years but is still at a very low number, less than half of that in the United States. According to Eurostat the current level of unemployment in Japan is between 4-5% compared to America, which is close to 10%. I believe that both the topics of wealth distribution and unemployment are somewhat linked and both major drivers in the occupy movement. The purpose of this paper is to discover reasoning as to why there is such a difference in wealth distribution and why are the unemployment numbers so different. I believe that it can be attributed to many different things, such as: The culture and history of the two nations, the way in which management treats their employees, how the employees treat management, union representation differences and finally labour laws protecting employees. CULTURE AND HISTORY[2] The first thing that should be discussed is the dominant state paradigms. In America the state paradigm is neoliberalism. With neoliberalism, competition within and between firms is seen as a good thing. In Japan the state paradigm is managerial corporist. With this state paradigm it is believed that cooperation within and between firms is much more beneficial to a strong economy than one that is competitive. In fact many companies are so cooperative that it is not rare to see companies not only sharing knowledge on business practices but also machinery and even employees. That kind of practice would not be seen as a good thing in America. When European settlers first came to America there seemed to be an abundance of opportunity because land seemed to be endless. It was believed that the harder you worked would mean the more that you owned and having many possessions especially land showed your worthiness before God. The mixture of the state paradigm and the history of the country have lead to everyone being very individualistic. Everyone only looks out for himself or herself. In Japan there is a belief in harmony, cooperation and stability. Being an individual is seen as a bad thing. After their defeat in the Second World War, it really brought the country together. For these reasons and because of the state paradigm, this has made Japan a collectivist country. Society is more important than the individual and their family. The fact that America is an individualistic society and Japan is collectivist has a big impact on the wage gap. In America everyone is looking to get ahead of the person next to him or her. Each company wants to be better than all other companies. So while people are only looking out for themselves, they don’t care about equal distribution of wealth. As long as they have more money than the next person it is okay. In contrast in Japan the company comes first, even before the individual or their family. Japanese people want to see the company do well before they see themselves do well. MANAGEMENT ORIENTATION[3] The next area that attributes to the large wage gap is how employers treat their employees. In America employees are treated as if they are only resources. Employers treat employees however they want as employment and labour laws in America are so weak. Because of the At Will Doctrine employees can be dismissed without any just cause at any time without any compensation. American managements number one concern is to please the shareholders, next would be to please the customers and finally to please the employees. Management in America will usually only focus on short-term goals. Management would rather layoff employees than cut dividends for shareholders. In Japan employees are treated much better. Management is very paternalistic over employees. The Government will provide incentives such as tax cuts for employers who offer things like health care and pensions. When it comes to dismissal of employees, According to Auer and Cazes (2003:162) there are actually laws that say the employee can only be dismissed if there is ‘just cause’ (1979 case law) and the employee must be given 30 days notice or 30 days pay (The Japanese Civil Code (Art. 627)). Japanese managements number one concern is their employees, second is their customers and finally the shareholders. Management in Japan has long-term goals. Management will only layoff employees as a very last resort. For example Gordon (1998:212) found that when Japan entered a recession in the early 90’s ‘Managers at the top five firms in the iron and steel industry reduced employment by one fourth from 1993 to 1996 without dismissing a single worker.’ When it comes to wage increases in Japan, there is a linear advancement between top executives and employees. Whatever raise the employees get, is the same raise that top executives will receive. This leads to a wealth distribution in companies of about 1/10th between top executives and employees. Compare that to America where it is around 1/400th between top executives and employees. American employers treat their employees very poorly and thus would want to give them as low of a pay raise as possible or no pay raise at all. In America if the employees are unhappy with their pay or any other bargaining issue they can strike. However management does not need to give in to their demands and can just hire new staff to replace the old ones. Japanese employers treat employees very well and will usually give employees as much of a pay raise as the company can handle. Every spring there is bargaining that occurs and it is usually about pay (called shunto). If the employees are unhappy with the outcome, they usually wont strike and instead will show their unhappiness by protesting on their lunch breaks or by wearing coloured arm bands. In fact according to the Economic and Labour Market Review the annual strike days in all industries and services per 1000 workers in Japan averaged between 1996 and 2005 were only one day compared to America which had lost just over five weeks of work due to strikes. All of these days lost due to striking in America could really have an effect on the wage gap between top executives and employers. As mentioned earlier, Japanese management is very paternalistic towards their employees. It is actually quite crucial that wages be higher in Japan for a comfortable living. According to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (2011: 340) out of the 59 countries that are looked at, Japan has the highest cost of living. If management is going to look after their employees it is that much more important that a higher wage is given. EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION Another possibility as to why there is such a difference in wealth distribution could be attributed to how the employees act towards management/ the company. In America it is becoming more common for employees to get a job, work there for a couple of years, gain the skills they need and then move onto the next company that will give them better wages, benefits etc. The term ‘life-time employment’ is becoming much more rare, especially in recent years. A study done by the U.S. Department of Labor (2006: 41) found that the amount of men with ten years or more of tenure at their current employer had decreased substantially between 1983 and 2004. For example for the age group of 60 to 64 year olds this number had dropped from 66% to 49% over that time period. In a different study done by U.S. Department of Labor (2010) they discovered that in January 2010 the median tenure for men was only 4.6 years. In another study shown in Employment stability in an age of flexibility (2003: 25), found that the percentage of labour force in America that had tenure longer than 10 years was only 25.8% in 2000 compared to 43.2% in Japan. In Japan workers orientation are much different. Japan is known for having ‘life-time employment’. When employees start their career they normally stay with that company for the rest of their life. They have very high loyalty and commitment to their employers[4]. It makes sense for the employee to stay with a company for a very long time as Japanese companies major base for their wages and promotions are on seniority. The longer you are with a company, the higher pay you will receive and the better chance at obtaining a higher position in the company. If an employee were to switch companies mid way through their career, it is likely that they would have to start out at the bottom again. It makes sense as to why Japanese management would be more reluctant to give pay raises to their employees than that of American management. The typical American worker is really only in pursuit of his or her own self-interest and their loyalty to the company is so low[5]. Why would management want to give them higher pay when they will just leave the company in a short amount of time? Japanese employees are much more loyal and the Japanese management should not have to fear their employees leaving. Union Representation[6] Union representation in each country is not particularly high if compared to some European countries. According to the OECD in 2010 trade union density in America was at 11.4% and Japans trade union density was at 18.4%, which is slightly above the average of OECD countries. The reason I believe that union representation has an effect of the wealth distribution is because I believe that Japanese unions are more involved and have a bigger role in the company. In 1935 in America, the Wagner Act was passed giving people the right to organize a union. In the last 75 years this has weakened quite a bit. In order to receive certification you must get 50% plus one agreeing to have a union. The whole certification process takes around 40 days to complete. Quite a bit can happen in this time. Because of free speech in America, management can persuade employees to avoid joining the union saying things like if a union were to form, the company may have to shut down. If a union eventually does form, the first thing that happens is the first agreement must be established. Bad faith bargaining should not happen on either side (union or management) but if it does happen, there is really no remedy for it. Because of this many times the first agreement does not even get completed, rendering the union useless. An interesting statistic is that only 25 states in America have full collective bargaining rights. The way that unions work in Japan is a little bit different than in America. In Japan they have cooperative enterprise unions such as the Toyota Autoworkers. These unions are unions only for the one enterprise. This makes there be a joint interest between unions and management because the future of the union is tied with the future of the company. There may not be a majority of firms in Japan that have unions, but about 70% of firms with over 300 employees have consultation councils. These consultation councils are involved with the future of the company in such topics as strategy and human resource management. Unions and these councils are much more prevalent in Japan than in America and it seems as if they take a much bigger role in the future of the companies and of the employee. That could be a partial cause to the wealth distribution variance. LABOUR LAW Unfortunately for Americans there is very little laws protecting their rights. As mentioned earlier there is the At Will Doctrine, which means that an employer can terminate employees for no reason at all. There are no laws against the administration of drug tests and lie detector tests. If employees refuse to take these tests, then because of the At Will Doctrine they can be terminated. On the other hand there are some labour laws in Japan that do protect employees. As mentioned earlier article 20 in the Labour Standards Act states that an employee must be given 30 days notice before termination and if no notice is given, the employee must be given 30 days pay. According to a 1979 case law and as stated in Employment stability in an age of flexibility (2003), there are four conditions that must be met in order to justify the termination of an employee, which are: · Employers should be faced with a compelling and unavoidable necessity for dismissals; · They should have made every effort to avoid dismissals by, for example, transfers, farming-out of workers to affiliated companies, terminating employment of temporary and part-time workers, facilitating early retirements, reducing overtime work and suspending hiring; · They should consult with trade union representatives and employees about dismissals; and · They should establish reasonable standards and apply them fairly when selecting workers for dismissal. (pg.162) The interesting thing about these conditions is condition number two. Employers must attempt to find an alternate solution. Employees in Japan are very well trained. Employers will cross train employees to be able to do a number of jobs within the company. If business is slow in one area of the company, instead of laying off their employees they can transfer these employees to other departments. All of this can have a huge impact on the distribution of wealth. If American companies can fire a person for no reason, it is no wonder why around one in ten people are unemployed. CONCLUSION From the findings in this paper it becomes easier to understand why these people are out protesting day and night in New York and across America. However history predicts future and it is impossible to change the past; Management and workers have norms to follow; Unions are generally more prevalent and stronger in Japan; Labour laws are just not strong and practically inexistent in America. Is there one solution to solve all this? Does this mean that one country is better than the other? Not necessarily. Both economies are within the greatest of the world. But what does the future hold? If the wage gap continues to increase and so do unemployment numbers, there could be some serious consequences. [1] Gini index is a rating of wealth distribution. A rating of zero means that wealth is equally distributed among citizens of the country. A rating of 100 means that all the wealth of the country is owned by one person. [2] The culture and history section is taken mostly from John Godard’s class notes [3] The management orientation section is taken mostly from John Godard’s class notes [4] Sourced from John Godard’s class notes, the area on Worker Orientation in Japan. [5] Sourced from John Godard’s class notes, the area on Worker Orientation in America. [6] Sourced from John Godards class notes

Its been a while since ive done an entry. I guess there hasnt really been anything noteworthy to write about. A lot of small things have happened but they dont really seem worth writing an entry on. I dont know where im going with this entry... well i do but i just dont know how to get there. SOooo its been about three/four months now since Chantal and I broke up. When we did break up, she told me im a great guy and that i would have no trouble finding someone else. Since then I have met Elly, Melissa, Jill, Courtney, Karine, Kristin, Anastasia and Hilary. With all of them, there was an attempt to date or we actually did go on a date or two. Not a single one however resulted in anything, Which in some cases is my fault, i just wasnt interested. ya ya ya they are all girls i met at the bar but i dont think thats too bad of a thing. In the last few weeks it seems everytime i go to the bar, i see chantal there. There have been tons of hints that she wants to get back together with me. I didnt know how i felt about that at first.. A few months ago i told myself that i would not ever get back together with her :/. I went on my first date with Hilary two weeks ago. The date was mediocre. After the date when i dropped her off at home i leaned in to kiss her before she got out of the car, and she quickly turned her head when i went to do so.. i kissed her cheek. She seems like a super shy girl but i just didnt really have that great of a time. The next day I just really started thinking. I am getting tired of going to the bar and meeting girls. Im just tired of the bar in general. Im tired of being 'a player' and i do want a relationship. The day after the date with Hilary i texted Chantal and asked her to go to TYC on thursday as i was going for a friends bday. She went to the bar and we spent the night together. At this point i am certain she does want to get back together with me, but i feel like i shouldnt make that first move as it was her who ended it in the first place. At the end of the night there was a slow song and we were dancing, oblivious of the rest of the world around us. It was just her and me at that moment. And i guess the music had stopped and the lights were all on, and we were like the only ones left on the dance floor still in 'slow dance stance' (if that makes sense) We were just lost in eachother i suppose.. And then these three drunk girls attack us and one of them says 'awww they are sooo in lovveee'. kinda lame... but kinda cute... On the saturday after, (Halloween) we went to stereo, she was there. Finally that night we kissed, after some mushy talk blah blah blah ha. The next day i went over to her place, and we hung out alone for the first time in months. It was then, while i was holding her that i realized how much i really missed her. The saying may be 'You dont know what youve got till its gone' But when we broke up, i felt like i got over her rather well. I felt that i wouldnt have a hard time 'replacing' her. I guess this wasnt the case. It wasnt the case of 'you dont know what youve got till its gone' but, i didnt realize what i had until i got it back. It just seemed so unreal to be laying next to her. I never thought id ever be doing that again. The last four days ive hung out with her now. Last night we went to the zellers xmas party. After the xmas party we all went to TYC as it is next door. While there we bumped into Janelle and Jackie. They asked who Chantal was and if she was my GF. Chantal didnt say anything and kinda ignored it. this kind of hurt me, but what she told me later made sense.. All this time i was waiting for her to make a move because i thought that its all up to her because she was the one who ended it. Her thoughts were the opposite and she felt its all up to me because she broke my heart so its up to me if i will take her back. Anyways after the bar she drove me home and we talked for a long time. She says she doesnt think she deserves to have me back after all that has happened. I can tell she has changed though. We decided to start over. We are back together. Already i hear people saying that getting back together with your ex never works out. I have no idea if its going to work this time or not but i do know that she means a lot to me.. More than i even knew. I feel like the break we had will turn out to be a good thing, because i now realize what i lost, and i dont want to lose her again. And i think she feels the same way. Dang this entry ended up sloppy. Final thought tho, I wonder what my parents (mom and grandma) are going to say when i tell them that Chantal and I are back together. I think thats going to be quite interesting.

Wow, its been over a month since i have written. A lot has happened, just nothing seemed sitdiary worthy. This entry is hardly worth it, im just bored and dont want to go to bed yet. I just have a few thoughts, ill get em down and then hit the hay First off for some reason ive been really angry and all the synonyms related. I have no idea why. Just like everything pisses me off lately and im not taking shit from anyone. Thats another thing, im swearing a lot now too. I used to be like butters 'awh hamburgers'. What is wrong with me? I feel really aggressive lately too. I wish i had a punching bag so i could release all this built up stress before i hurt someone (physically or mentally) or hurt myself. I feel like the only thing that can make me feel better is if i break something. I invision myself with a sledgehammer or a baseball bat destroying absolutely anything. On to thought number two, which envoked quite a bit of anger today. Last night at the bar Chantal and Allison were there. I let them do their own thing, as i know Allison wasnt comfortable with us being there. They danced with a lot of guys, or just the same ones a lot.. I wasnt creepin to confirm that but everyonce in a while id see em dancing. I thought this was a good thing, cuz i know Allison had been depressed lately so i was glad to see her having a good time. Anyways the whole night i gave them their space and let them do their thing. After the bar we were outside and i saw them exit, so i wanted to say hello. When i did say hi they kept walking. Allison completely ignored me and Chantal didnt put in much of an effort to talk to me, she said hi and kept speed walking with her. Im assuming they didnt stop to talk because Mike was near by (sorry to call you out bro) but i really wanted to talk to them. This didnt anger me that much. What did anger me a lot was Allisons status the next day. 'I love you Chantal :) 'At least we got something out of thoughs relationships'. No her grammer was not what angered me. It was the fact that Chantal said that. Like the only good thing that came from our relationship was that she met Allison. Was our relationship that terrible? That just really pissed me off because I really cared for her and wanted the relationship to work, shes the one who ended it. I could understand it maybe if i treated her poorly, but i didnt. At least i hope i didnt. On a completely unrelated note, my third thought. Im taking my first fourth year course this semester. It is HRM 4520 Comparative Human Resources and Industrail Relation Management. Every class is so fast paced and its an incredible amount of information to absorb. The marks will come from 6 tests worth 10% each and a paper worth 40%. Im papers scare me so im hoping to ace these tests. I just have to say that so far this class is incredibly interesting. For once i feel like when i study, i actually want to remember the material past the test, not just keep it in my short term memory long enough to get a decent grade on a test the forget it all. The course is about comparing how Human Resources is done in different countries. In order to do this we have to look at the history of the political and economic sides of things in different countries. For the first two weeks we learnt all about capitalism and the history of things were run since the second world war. I remember in grade school i hated social studies, and i hated history.. I dont know why! This stuff is super interesting. The rest of the course we will be comparing America and Canada to other countries like Germany, Sweden, China and India. For the paper we have to do the same thing, but comparing Canada to a country not learnt about in class. Another thought... I realized about a week ago that if i were to take International Finance next year (which i could take as a business option because i need only one more) then I will graduate with the qualifications for a degree in A) Human Resources B) Marketing C) International Business AND a minor in psychology! Holy the quadruple threat. However there really is no point in doing that as you can only have a double major, not a triple even if i have all the courses required to hold that major AND with a honours in commerce degree you cannot claim a minor :(. So I hold 24 credit hours in psych and the minor is 18 credit hours.. I want to have a double major in HR and MKT and since i hated Corporate Finance, i think im going to take a business option more interesting than International Finance. However if it was possible to declare a triple major, id totally take that class.. ohhh wellll. Final thought. This week starts up all my sports. Ive got Floor hockey tomorrow night and Water Polo and ice hockey on Thursday night. I am slightly afraid that my aggression will take over. It usually is heightened during the sports i play, and being that its current level is already high, this could be bad.

Not too sure where to start with this entry. I know what i want to say but how to start it hmmm. Well for starters a week after i witnessed Chantal at the bar I went back to that same bar and met Jill. Our first date was last Sunday and weve been on 3 other dates since. So thats 4 dates in a week. Plus she came out to a Goldeyes game while i was working on Wednesday with her friends, if that counts 5 in the week. I really want to take things slow, and so far thats what we are doing. Last night we went out, went for a walk at the forks and then saw a movie. We went to see Crazy Stupid Love with Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and a Trevor look a like- Jonah Bobo (google the kid, i swear its trevor). The movie is a romantic comedy. It was pretty long but not too bad of a movie. When i was driving her home after the movie, she hesitated to tell me something. I guess she hesitated because it was quite the bold statement. She said something along the lines of 'You seem to be the type of guy i thought only existed in movies, the guy that every girl dreams of but doesnt actually exist. I cannot find a single flaw with you'. I was really surprised, I mean thats what i aim for. I want to be that guy that no girl thought existed, but it left me speechless. Im surprised she feels that way about me though. I have been completely honest about everything with her. The things that normally shouldnt be said during the first few dates... were said. I told her i play video games, I enjoy bingo, that i used to be pretty emo and love that music and now im into techno, that i once spent an hour in the fish tank at the casino and made up jobs for each of the fish in the tank... and she still thinks im cool? wtf. Those things are usually super turn offs. Then when i got home i got some texts from her and she said she really enjoyed the last week of us hanging out and that girls in my past have been crazy n what not, but she assured me that she is not like those other girls. She told me that she didnt think she would be interested in someone again for a long time but apparently theres something about me. Hmmm. This may all sound like a sure thing, but the only thing for sure in life is that nothing is ever for sure. Ive been burnt many times in the past so imma be cautious. Now normally i wouldnt go into this much detail about a new girl. but theres a catch. Last night while hanging out with Jill i could not stop thinking about Chantal. My theory is that you are over someone only when you can go at least one full day without thinking about them.. Well that day has still yet to come. Everyday i think about her and how much i miss her. But with her being away in Alberta for a week and us not talking for like 2 weeks i was moving on. Just for whatever reason last night i kept thinking of her. I guess it didnt help that we went to see a romantic comedy.. I still remember the first time we met. The second i saw her i knew i needed to talk to her... eventhough she was dancing with another guy. Everything was different with her. It felt right. But ya... when the movie ended everyone left the theater pretty quickly and it left Jill and i in there alone. Thats what Chantal and i used to do, we would wait until we were the last ones in the theater. I didnt do that this time by choice... just happened. So ya, i dont know how to get over her. After the date i texted her, we haddent talked in about 2 weeks at that point. Tonight we met up at Tim Hortens, first time seeing her since i saw her at Wiskey Dix. I was hoping this would help me get over her. We talked, caught up. It was nice. I think we are going to stay friends. I think that talking to her every now and then and meeting up every once in a while will help. I told her all about Jill too. I could definitely see myself with Jill eventually. Just gotta continue taking it slow though.

Tonight i went to see the movie 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'. I went in with extremely low expectations. It did not seem like the type of movie i would like. However two hours later and i was convinced otherwise. It was a really good movie. Then when Matt told me about the other planet of the apes movie,it blew my mind. Im sure everyone has had one of those experiences. Where they read something or watch a movie and then when they find out the end it gives them chills. The fact that its so well written and everything just comes together. Its like the story goes full circle and you may wonder why the story started how it did but you understand it all once its done. Or maybe it will take a few watches or reads to finally figure out the meaning. And it when you finally reach that moment of understanding you have this 'mind blowing' experience. For example the Devil and God cd by Brand New has provided me a few of those enlightening experiences. Two songs in particular would be Degausser and Limousine. I still get shivers from limousine when i listen to it. If you are unfamiliar with the song listen to it. Then find out the story behind it. I could tell you what its about, but im already planning on this to be another long entry. It is that that inspires me. When I write, i want my writings to be the same way. It would be nice to blow the readers mind. Yes i am aware that i put waayyyy too much details into my stories all the time. Its pretty much what im known for. In my mind however i feel its all necessary to tell the story correctly. I really wish i was able to write a masterpiece like planet of the apes, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings etc. But that could never happen. Im a terrible writer. English was by far my worst subject in school. Im a terrible speeler, grammer is sucks, my vocabulary is...hmm whats the word im looking for.. bad? and punctuation? Dont get me,. started on that.! I suppose it doesnt help that ive only completely read ONE book my entire life. That being Harry Potter 2. I have no answer to why i was never interested in reading. Book reports in school? I either read through a goosebumps choose your own adventure and died after 15 pages and made up a report on it pretending it was a whole book, or read the back of a goosebumps book and wrote the report on it.. Does that make me a cheater? Should i have never had passed grade 5? Well thats a totally different topic. Really what this entry is leading up to is a dream that i had months ago. This dream managed to give me this previously mentioned 'mind blowing' experience. I woke up and couldnt believe how good of a dream it was. How it all came together. Usually in dreams its just random events put together that make no sense, but this dream was different. In essence i guess i am the writer of this story, yet im not sure what the meaning of it all is. I dont know the meaning of something i created! I think thats what made it so memorable. But anyways enough of this philosophy stuff, time to get to the dream. Im telling it in dream form so it may not 100% make sense but if tweaked around, i think is an awesome story: It begins with me in the hospital. I am there because I hurt my wrist while skateboarding. Since the injury is not at all serious I have been waiting for three hours so far to see a doctor. Needless to say I am getting pretty hungry at this point. Luckily there is a McDonalds in the mall right near this hospital. I decide to leave and figure my wrist isnt that bad. On my way out I bump into my cousin Jared. He seems to be just leaving the hospital as well. Not entirely sure why he was there. My guess was he was there either because he Overdosed on some drugs or too much alcohol, pretty much some kind of substance abuse. He decides to come with me to the mall to get food. We leave the hospital and this hospital is completely surronded by flowers. It looked very nice, they were yellow and orange. The quickest way to this mall was to cut through this garden of flowers. So we hopped on our skooters and went straight through (thats what i mean by it doesnt make 100% sense... skooters? who still does that). People started to get angry with us and it seemed people were vastly overreacting. We even had the police after us. Luckily the police officer was on foot and we had out skooters so we got away. Plus he got held up because he caught some other guy taking the short cut through the flowers. We make it to the mall now and are about to get food. I bump into Kathryn while there (girl i dated back in 08ish who is studying science at the u of m). Havent talked to her in a few years now. She looks very excited to see me. She starts talking to me about seeing her in Cancun... but i dont remember this happening at all. Apparently we spent a night together in Mexico and i guess i was too drunk or something to remember. We didnt have long to talk anyway because she was only on break. Turns out she works at the hospital now. Sounds like she is a scientist there working on an alergy relief medicine. She wont give me any details though and she quickly runs back to the hospital. This is where things begin to get a little weird. We find out that something went wrong over at the hospital and now there is like a zombie outbreak. The zombies have made it to the mall already but their numbers are still small. It is difficult to tell who is a zombie and who is still fine. The zombies didnt look like the stereotypical zombie. You could kind of tell if they were a zombie by the way they acted and by their eyes. Their eyes would glow a yellow color in the dark and they were much faster moving then the stereotyped zombies. We tried fighting them off as their numbers increased rapidly. My cousin and i found this huge muscular guy who stuck with us and was protecting us. We did have guns but the bullets hardly effected the zombies. We held them off for as long as we could but their numbers kept increasing as they took more and more humans. We decided that our only option now was to hide. We found what we thought was an excellent hiding place but in no time at all the zombies had found us! We thought for sure we would be safe. In disbelief i shouted 'How could they find us so quickly!!' The zombies all replied to my rhetorical question with 'The seeds'. Turns out the pollen from the flowers, when breathed in by humans was implanted inside the human like a seed. It was possible for the zombies to track the humans as long as they had the seeds inside them. We managed to escape these zombies by running away. Over the PA there was an announcment made saying they have a solution and for everyone to go to a particular store in the mall. So all the humans made their way towards this store. On our way there i felt something touching my back. I looked behind and realized it was the big strong guy who was 'helping us'. He was trying to steal from my backpack. Because he did that he was shunned from the rest of the survivors and he was not aloud to come with us to find out 'the solution'. Everyone had now made it to this store and we went to the back stock room. There were quite a few people here. The guy who made the announcement about the solution was a well dressed man. He looked like a confident business man. The strange thing was that he was standing next to a zombie. The zombie wasnt attacking anyone however. The man told us that our answer was behind this door! It was like a huge safe or something. He put in a code and began to open it as we all anxiously awaited. My original thought was that it was going to be a way to escape, to a place where there were no zombies. However it was not like that at all. Behind the door was two sepereate compartments or shelves. They were extremely large and one was up high and the other was at the bottom. I was kind of like a massive filing cabinet. The mans proposed 'solution' was to have everyone climb into these shelves (men in the top, women in the lower one). These shelves would somehow keep people alive and we were supposed to stay in there possibly forever or until the zombies died out from lack of food. Like sheep everyone piled into this thing. The zombie was helping the men into the top one. He was apparently a friendly zombie. As the people got in this man just watched with a smile on his face, completely calm. Then all of a sudden someone tried getting in the door to the back room. I ran and grabbed the door to keep it shut. On the other side was the big muscluar guy trying to get in. He was screaming as 3 zombies attacked him. I tried my best to keep the door closed but he pulled so hard that the door ripped right off the hinges. The zombies had ripped his legs off now and started on his arm. By now everyone had gotten into the vault except for the business man, the friendly zombie myself and my cousin. The three zombies came after my cousin and i now. We treid holding them off by fighting but it wasnt doing anything. I then noticed some scissors on the ground so i grabbed them and started stabbing the zombies. It didnt effect them at all. The scissors would make holes in their skin but they would just laugh. They didnt bleed or anything. So i started stabbing their eyes. I carved out around their retnas of all of them. They just smmiled but left us alone now. They turned around and walked out. It seemed like these zombies had the ability to regenerate so they knew that in time they would get their sight back. Now it was just the four of us again well and i suppose the dead corpse of the muscle guy. The business man told me to hurry up and get in the vault. My cousin hopped on the zombies back and went in. The man then inserted a disk into this vault. I asked why he did that. He said that it will cause the people to go into a dream like state and live out thier lives 'normally' in the vault. I told him that was bogus I didnt want to be part of some pseudo life in some altered stated of mind for the rest of my life. I would rather face the zombies! He replied with... How is this any different then the way people are living their lives now? Then i awoke. It really gave me a lot to think about.. but before you read ahead about my thoughts, I would like to hear yours. I mean if you even managed to read this far into it. The first thing i wondered was what he meant by the last thing he said... I think he means that people drink and take drugs all the time in order to escape reailty so how would this be any different. Which then made me think of my cousin and the possible reason for him being in the hospital.. My cousin Jared used to be my best friend and weve really grown apart. Thats fine and all but what i dont like is what he has gotten himself into. He was brought up in a good home that taught him good values so its tough to see him gettin high and drunk all the time and getting in trouble with the law. I fear that he is going to find himself seriously injured or dead if he keeps up what he is doing, but this is all drifting away from the dream i suppose The Second thing i wondered was why was the zombie friendly and helping us.. Could it be because this business man was actually going to use us as food for the zombies? Was he going to breed us like a farm to feed them? hmmm that would explain why men went in one part and women in the other. Another thing that I wondered was, how the outbreak even started. I think it started at the hospital becasue of the aleregy testing. Throughout the dream i kept having these flash back moments, just quick memories of that night spent with Kathryn in Mexico. Putting the small flashbacks together I think what happened was we were just careless in our drunken escapade and accidently / unknowingly altered the alergy prototype. So ya that was my very vivid dream. Not exactly the most polished awesome story ever but it was definetly the best dream i have ever had.

Last night was somewhat of an adventure. At first I regretted having embarked in said adventure. It had left me very disappointed and upset. Now I feel like maybe it is best that it turned out this way. My original Monday night plan was to work at the goldeyes and then go to Whiskey Dix after because Devins Girlfriend Santana (awesome girl btw, happy for the two of them) got her Arts Degree last week. I was stoked to go out but on Sunday night Devin informed me it had been canceled. I had invited a friend from the GOldeyes to come with me so i told him that it was canceled too. The next day (monday) i saw my friend at work and told him i was kinda disappointed that we werent going out anymore. He then told me that him, a few ppl from the Geyes and a few PLAYERS were gonna go get some drinks at Hus on First after the game and then go to Whiskey Dix.. So clearly i was totally down for that! So after work i went home and got ready, I started heading over to Hus when my friend let me know that they werent going anymore.. After Hus they were gonna go to some lame place i never heard of. I hate when that happens! When you get ready to go out and then its canceled. However turns out when they got to this place it was closed so they decided to go to a house party. Well my friend (Rance) didnt want to do that, so me him Brett R and Lizzie decided to go to the pal. The Pal is a very strange place i must say.... damn i gotta go to work now, i hope my inspiration will still be here when i get back... Well im now back... 9 hours later from when i started this. I feared my passion and inspiration would die and it has but imma finish what i start. Back to the Pal: There are some strange people that hang out there on a monday night. About 15 minutes after entering, the booty shake competition began. woo~. There was some kind of competition going on and there was to be 7 rounds of this. We made it through two and couldnt watch it anymore. After the second two girls 'booty shook?' the MC is like 'give these girls a hand, they deserve it, they deseve to be respected'. Really? Youre in a competition to see who is better at shaking their ass. And it is judged by the crowds cheering. Anyways enough about that embarassment. I was not about to call it a night already. I came out and was still not satisfied with my night. I talked the rest of the crew into going to Whiskey Dix. We showed up pretty late, some time after 12. We get into the club and its paaacked and the music is super good, like the best music ive heard in a club in a long time. I was pretty excited to be there. First thing i had to do was hit the dance floor. Like i said there was a lot of people in the club. We didnt last long in the area where we were because it was hard to move so i suggested we move to the other side of the dance floor. We did so but when we got to the other side i noticed that Chantal was there.. Dancing.. With a guy. I saw this and i was pretty choked, my heart sunk. I thought i was over her but seeing that really hurt me. After seeing that i didnt feel good at all, i had to go sit down. So many emotions came to me. Anger thats for sure, Jealousy, Sadness and also confusion. As i sat there wondering what i was going to do, her and this guy come and sit RIGHT across from me. Im talking 10 feet away from me. They sit on this couch and in no time start making out. Which eventually led to her straddling him and still making out. This brought even more emotions out. Somehow i composed myself and i did not confront them. Not too long after i left. I was so angry. Yes i did go to the bar this weekend and yes i did want to meet girls, so why cant she do the same thing. Well I may have gotten two numbers but, i didnt nor did i have any intentions of dancing with or kissing these girls. Just didnt feel right. Its not because i didnt find these girls attractive, i thought both were very cute, but it just didnt seem right. I still missed Chantal. There wasnt a day that i didnt think about her and miss her. Part of me had hope that one day when she gets her 'life figured out' that maybe we could get back together. It was still on my mind when i got home, so i sent her a facebook message asking her whether she was intentionally trying to hurt me or if she was just extremely oblivious... cuz like really I was sitting right across from her. She asked me why would she want to hurt me.. thats when i realized yes she was just that oblivious. I told her everything i had witnessed. Her response: '... no idea you were there and i was drunk. i thought we were done'. Which was true, yes she was now a single girl and could do whatever she pleased, but this was all so inconsistent with her reasonings for breaking up with me: 'I need to get my life figured out before i can focus on a relationship; I just need some time alone; We were moving way too fast etc'. After a bit more talk i asked her about those reasons. She told me it was more than that, which all sounded like she just wanted to have some fun before she settled down, in which she replied 'ya. it just seems so shamful to talk about it'. Very true. I understand why she didnt tell me the real reason why were breaking up, that is a rather shamful thing. The truth would have hurt i think a lot more. However it is nice to know now. This completely changes my view on everything. Any chance we had to get back together is goooone. If i wasnt good enough now, if she feels the need to find other guys, why would i be good enough in the future, and why would i even take her back for that matter. She keeps telling me im a good guy and ill find someone who will treat me better, the same regurgitated crap i hear after every break up. It all kinda hurts, but now i can move on. I dont think i want to be in another relationship any time soon. I might as well have my fun too.. At least for the rest of summer anyway. I just checked my emails and apparently she sent me a message while i was at work..*checks email* Well its pretty much her trying to explain herself, that she has only been in long relationships and that she needs to know what its like to be alone and not always have someone there, she needs to learn to put herself first for once instead of someone else. Thats probably a terrible summary of it all and i made it sound like she is selfish and conceited, but thats not the way it actually sounds in the message... I dont want to put the whole thing in but the last few lines read: 'im sorry. don't put yourself down for this. its not you. you were great to me. you are a great boyfriend. you will find in time it won't be hard to get over me. you prob hate me for saying that but i know you will take care. i wish i met you when i wasn't this way...'

Its portrayed in many movies and tv shows but of course at the moment i cant think of a specific example. Human finds young animal separated from their mother, human raises the animal, they become best friends whatever. Then in the end the human takes the animal back to the wild and lets it go eventhough deep down the human doesnt want to but knows its best for the animal. Im sure you get the picture by now. Thats the way i feel at this moment. I am the animal. Chantal and i just broke up. For those of you who didnt know, we actually broke up at the beginning of the month. Only for 2 days though. She has an intense amount of family drama. The reason why we initially broke up was not because we didnt like eachother but because she didnt think she could handle a relationship right now with all this stuff going on. Her family means a lot to her and she just really wants things to be how they were but it doesnt seem like they are anywhere near that. Anyways we had a long talk 2 days after we broke up and to sum it up i pretty much told her that she shouldnt push away the one person in her life who actually cares about her. We ended up getting back together and everything was really good. But as stated early we broke up again. Mostly for the same reasons. Some new family drama came up to add on to the already existing drama and she claims she cant handle a relationship right now. She doesnt want to hold me back. I dont know how to feel about all of this. I cant force her to be relationship ready. But this really puts me into an awkward position. What do i do now. I fought so hard for this girl already. On the one hand i do want to fight to keep this alive but on the other is it really worth it just to possibly go through all of this again in a few weeks? To me its such a bazzar breakup. We both like eachother thats for sure. Yes her family is pretty messed up, i knew this from day one. But how can i hold something against her that is totally out of her control? She is an amazing person making the best out of the circumstances life has dealt her. I dont feel like this is complete but at this moment i cant think of anything else to say.

There really is no specific reason for writing this entry, i am just that bored. I thought this summer was going to be great. I didnt take any summer courses and with the new position and the Goldeyes i am working way less than i have in like the last 4 summers. Lots of free time = lots of fun? Not really. I wish i would have been working more. I am bored almost every night. There used to be something going on almost every night, did we all just become so busy this summer and now we dont do anything? So now i sit here currently listening to Tiestos elements of life cd. I prefer it over the more North Americanized Kaliediscope. This one is more chill and actually will put you in a trance. I find Kaliediscope is more of a dance cd. This one is kinda nice if you just wanna relax or reflect or just want background music for the sake of having music on.

I worked at the Geyes tonight. Today they retired the Great Max Poulins Jersey #6. You dont even have to be a baseball fan to know this guy. By far the most popular goldeye of all time. This year we have a new boss. His name is Brian. Ive seen him around but never talked to him. Today was the first day that i talked to him. He asked me to go to the liquor mart to pick up Tequila. He gave me his Jeep to drive and this card that got me the booze. I was sketched out to drive his jeep. It is really big and high up and ive only driven cars before... Its also sketchy cuz its the big bosses vehicle. He always has his jeep parked in the dock where the trucks drive into deliver food and what not. This area is on a slope. He had his Jeep backed into this spot. I figured he did this to have an easy drive out. So i took the jeep and went to the liquor mart. Made it back safe and sound. There was lots of traffic in the parking lot as the game was pretty much sold out (over 7000 ppl). I couldnt back into the spot because of all the traffic and i didnt want to hit the sides either. (its a tight squeeze) I brought the tequila in and took the elevator up to the sky suites. I got to ride with Max Poulin. Hes a super cool guy. He was very nervous because he had to speak in front of all the fans before the game started. He had his speech written on a piece of paper. I wished him luck and delivered the booze. The energy was high when he delivered the speech. Everyone loves this guy. I kinda look up to him too as we play a similar style. We both arent big guys and we both play the same position (short stop). We both arent big hitters either but we are quick and know where to put the ball. Anyways enough about that... At about 9 pm as you all know, it poured outside. Well Brians Jeep didnt have a back window or any windows in the trunk area.. THe way i parked his car (not backing in) had the back up in the air (because of the slope). I now fear that the reason why he had it backed in was so that rain would not get into the vehicle because it would have been slanted the other way. Im not sure if my explanation makes any sense, but the way i had it parked the rain would have fallen right into his jeep. He should be finishing up at work around now... Hopefully its not a flood in his Jeep, and hopefully i still have a job tomorrow.. I guess ill find out in 8 hours :/

Is it just me or does everyone have a problem with this site. Its wicked frustrating. Half the time i try to get to the main page it says 'webpage not found' or 'internet explorer is not working'. It makes it tough to read friends entries or write my own. Or even to find new friends. I just get fed up after a while since the back button doesnt work on this site ever.... Takes like 13.5 refreshes until the page comes up.

This is my first published entry. I started another one back in February but did finish it and probably never will. Just got bored of writing so much. Anyway, Mike and Matt insist i write an entry. I have nothing to say however. I do have this little note sitting over here. Got it from one of the guests i served at the OG. I've now been written up 3 times yet still have not been fired :o First time i was written up was because i took dirty dishes from a table into the kitchen without using a tray. I would never dare do that again in fear of being written up again yet i see sooo many other servers taking dishes around the restaurant without using a tray. The second time i got written up was because i didnt shave before my shift. Ridiculous IMO. I shaved about 10 hours prior to my shift, guess that was not good enough. Its not my fault my facial hair is so dark and its not like it looks bad when there is a tad bit of scruff. Anyway i got sent home until i shaved. I went over to Zellers bought some shaving accessories came back and shaved. Awesome now i have like 10 cut marks bleeding everywhere... READY TO SERVE! The third time i got written up was because i didnt 'ring it before you bring it'. Which means i didnt punch into the Dash terminal (computer) the food and drink for a table. It was really busy and i was running around and forgot. Its not like i was going to let them eat for free, i just grabbed their food and drinks got it out to them and then was going to punch it in later when i had a free moment... Wont ever do that again. One of the guys got caught doing that twice and he was fired. He was the happiest most optimistic person i had ever met, and they fired him for something as stupid as that. Oh and i just remembered a fourth time i was written up. Apparently a table complained about me once so they got a free meal and then the manager gave them a 25 dollar gift card... So it was my fault that i cost the company 50 bucks. Sorry i didnt notice you needed a drink refill. For obvious reasons i believe im not on the best terms with the managers. I dont think they see me as one of their favorites. Its too bad because i know that i have served some people and they really liked me, however the managers are only going to hear the complaints. It would be nice if someone would tell a manager that i've been doing a good job. Which leads me back to what inspired this entry. Over the past month or so i've been getting some interesting guests at the o g. The first incident was when i served two girls. They were older than me, probably mid twenties. I walk up to the table to introduce myself and before i have the chance one of them says 'how you doinnn?' She was rather.... rambuncious? Probably the worst adjective ever but if you want to know what she was like pull out the ol thesaurus. Anyways i put up with random comments like that, and she kept flirting and such. In the end she tipped me 26 cents :/ Later i was told there was a note left for me at the front. It was a note from the friend that said 'sorry about my friend :)' and there was also a couple bucks too. The second incident I didnt even see coming. It was two girls once again and i didnt serve them any differently than i would any other table. After they left i noticed some money on the table, which i thought was weird because they had already tipped me on debit. When i grabbed the money underneath was their bill and written on it said their two names and their phone number. The third time something like this happened was when i served a group of 4 girls. They were a lot of fun to serve. We took jabs at eachother the whole time. At one point someone thought there was a problem because i guess we were getting a little loud. They were probably my most interesting (in a good way) table ive had. At the end once they all paid they thanked me and what not and was asked me where their dance was. I told them not on company time, so they told me to meet them at Area later that night. Now to this note i have here. This happened the last time i worked. Another table of two girls. They were my last table of the day. When they left there was a note under one of the cups that read 'Thank you for being our waiter today. You are Magnificent :) youre beautiful' Sweet, not everyday i get referred to as magnificent. That may be the best adjective ever. The best part of it all was that one of the girls at this table was the General Managers Niece laawwwwllll Hopefully she puts in a good word for me. Tis all so flattering, however im in a relationship now and quite happy. I did not go meet those girls at Area and the other two notes have already been disposed of. This most recent one is on the way to the garbage itself however it still makes me smile :)