Binge Watching – #freewrite 37, Day 1123
I don’t have a lot of time for binge watching these days, because I’ve gone back to work full time.
It’s a good thing. I’m finding that the reduction in free time has focused my attention onto the things that I really care about accomplishing, like keeping up with the blog, though lately I’ve been mostly just keeping up with the curating.
But this freewrite is about binge watching. When I do have loads of free time, I definitely indulge. The shows I watch can be just about anything, ranging from things like Black Mirror to comedies like the IT Crowd.
Wait. Those are both British productions. I think I do prefer British drama and sometimes comedy to the American TV; I know that I prefer British crime or mysteries to the American version.
In general I would recommend that Americans give British TV a chance. When you go back to the American version I think you’ll find it seems superficial and poorly put together.
Back to work
As I said, I’ve gone back to work full time. It’s not the dream – the dream is making a living as a blogger on Hive – but I’ve been able to see it as working on the dream, because now I’ll be able to put some more money into the blogosphere, and bump up my passive income.
I’m working for a seafood processing plant called Ocean Gold in Westport, Wash. It’s all fish right now; were at the end of hake season, in a somewhat slower, in between time before crab season starts in a few weeks.
Last night I spent ten and half hours ripping the guts out of salmon. It’s pretty basic work, and thanks to Washington state’s generous minimum wage ($13.50 an hour) the checks add up nicely. Of course, the ten hour shifts help too.
This is my second season at Ocean Gold. It’s a fascinating place to work. For one thing, the sheer volume of fish moving through that place is downright awe inspiring. During hake season, they run that place seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day from May to right about the middle of October. There are two buildings going full blast day and night, with roughly 100 to 150 people working on each shift … and they never run out of fish!
How vast the ocean must be to sustain so many fish!
Perhaps the most interesting part of the job, though, is the workforce itself. Only about a third of us are American. Another third of the workers are Hispanic (which of course includes some who are American, but many are visiting workers; I don’t have a clear sense of numbers there), and then there is the final third composed of contract workers from Eastern Europe, places like Serbia and the Ukraine.
It’s certainly a multicultural experience. I especially enjoy the din at lunchtime, when the break room is filled with languages from far flung areas of the globe. And communicating while working together is entertaining; we all practice the art of mime. Probably everyone’s favorite sign is steepled hands to indicate “casa” or “time to go home.”
All in all I count myself lucky, though I do still have an idea in my head that I’d rather be locked away in my ivory tower, working on the next great American novel.
Perhaps I still need to have an adventure to inform my story.
At the entrance to the harbor in Westport, Wash. That’s an ocean liner, though, not one of the fishing boats.
One year later
I quit Ocean Gold at Thanksgiving last year, and returned just a few weeks ago, so it’s been about a year. Many of the faces are new, but some are familiar, and it’s been good to see them. Seeing one lady in particular inspired the following haiku, which we’ll end with today.
Now I am again
a moth to the flame.
Nothing like a work crush, right?
The Pacific Ocean, seen from the beach in Moclips, Wash.