v20.0 - Al-san is Sick

Good morning folks,

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Al-san is sick today.  I was sick yesterday too, but today I had to come to work which only makes me more ill.  I also had a commute of over an hour this morning due to accidents and traffic so that didn't help my mood either.  Luckily I had my friends at CBC Radio 1 to help me through the long gruesome commute.

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A funny thing happened this morning as I was going through the hundreds of emails I missed because I was out sick yesterday.  Since the company I work for is global we tend to get requests coming in from all corners of the globe.  I was assisting some people in Japan earlier this week and I noticed an email from them this morning in response to my assistance.  The response wasn't what caught my eye though, it was what they called me that surprised me; Al-san.  Never in all my years have I ever (seriously anyway) been called Al-san.  This, of course, sparked my interest in the word so I just had to do some digging to find out what kind of "title" this actually gave me.

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Unfortunately my research was quick as my Google skills are great.  The san is an honorific showing respect.  Similar to the way we would call someone Mr. or Mrs. here in the "West".  Of course, when someone refers to themselves using San, it is considered childish or vain.  I also found out that the number 3 can also mean san (since san is 3 in Japanese).  If you ever see an internet handle with the number 3 at the end, it is the same as adding the san.  For example, Al3 is the same as Al-san.  Interesting!

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As I mentioned earlier, I'm sick.  I have this wicked head cold that has infected my nasal cavities and is causing this intense pain.  I've taken sinus medication, pain killers and various other drugs to combat this thing; nothing seems to work.  I took yesterday off sick from work because I was weak and my joints and muscles all ached.  Today I am feeling the same (with a cough this time) and had to come into work because my employer decided to enforce a new policy only allowing a certain number of sick days per year.  I've used up my "quota" of sick days this year and in order to take any more it would have to be unpaid.  While losing 1 day pay isn't going to kill me, I came into work anyway to prove a point.  The policy SUCKS!  Sometimes people get sick and have to stay home, sometimes people get sick and SHOULD stay home.  I hate those self righteous bastards who come to work regardless of they're sick or not.  They bring in a box of Kleenex, some meds and setup shop at the desk next to you.  You then have to listen to them sniffle, cough and all the other symptoms sick people exhibit.  Not only is this a serious distraction, it is also a health hazard to everyone else because they are spreading their germs around.  Seriously folks, the only reason I'm sick today is because of people like the above.

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Now I have an excuse to be sick and come into work.  I have no more sick days and don't want to take a day off without pay.  These other people who came into work sick anyway, have quite a few sick days left they can take this year.  Why did they come in?  Personally, I'd rather sit home, recover and not get others sick which is why I'm out of sick days and these people are not.  Who is the bad person here?  In fact, I was even pulled aside at work a few months back to let me know that I was approaching the limit on my sick days.  My response was simple, "So?".  If I'm sick, I'm taking a sick day, it is easy at that.  I don't use sick days to stay home because I don't feel like working.  This is supposed to be a professional working environment where we work with other professionals yet we are treated like school children and when one person abuses something the rest of us get punished for it.

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I digress and never intended to go off on such a tangent there.  Bottom line, I'm sick and I'm at work and I'm that asshole that everyone hates because I came to work sick and now stand to infect everyone around me.  Sorry guys, but I'm here because I have to be and if things were different, I'd be home in bed resting right now.

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Now that I've got that off my chest, it's time to go :)  I'm not sure if you've been watching the stock markets lately but things are getting fairly bad out there.  I'm about to go and watch a webcast by the CEO for the company I work for to talk about this.  Should be interesting.

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Until next time folks.
Cheers,
Al