2AM Traffic

The man I'm "replacing," Murray, is retiring in January and he's been showing me the ropes, letting me know how things work in the Chamber and how parliament business proceeds. A really nice guy. We sat down and watched a debate tape and he walked me through the published transcription step by step. Occasionally he'd clear his throat and explain that he wasn't used to talking so much.

At the top of the morning I sat down with a guy named Michel in the Verifications Centre, a guy who's also retiring, and he told me about some of the things he's had to verifying, including the spelling of "Jiminy Crickett." He actually PHONED DISNEY and asked them how to spell it, and now it's in the House of Commons verifications database.

The Chamber gets crazy. Politicians hoot and holler at each other like they're kids in a sandbox fighting over plastic shovels and toy cars, cracking painfully bad puns and reciting song lyrics and quotations with abandon. I'm just in awe of the entire thing and can't believe it works the way it does.

Less about the job, eventually. I've never really liked blogging about work.