(no subject)
so today was my last shift at work. i have somewhat of an intersting story to tell... in case any of you are unaware, i have spent the past two months working at maple leaf pork. it is a huge meat factory and houses a slaughterhouse and barn. i think it might be the largest factory of its kind in ontario. anyways, i saw some pretty terrifying things when i first took a tour of the place in late june. let me tell you... to be the guy who works on the kill floor, in 35 degree, thick, rank air... slicing pigs' carcasses with a circular saw, sometimes shit spraying in your face from the intestines... or the guy who is in the slaughter next to the barn... slashing pigs' throats all day, having warm blood pour all over you... all while pigs are screaming in a connecting room where they are herded.
luckily, i only had to deal with this once. fortunately, they put me in the shipping department, so i didn't even have to deal with meat at all. just boxes. this is where i first met tom: an old, pissed off dude with like, three teeth. i first met him when me and another student had to get labels from him. "you guys students?... good. stay in school. don't you ever work in this place. it's a fucking shithole." he then asked me where i was going to university and what i was taking. when he heard that i was in a graphic arts program, he told me to talk to him about something later. he would later tell me that he had been working there several years, and that the place pissed him off so much he started writing a book about it. he needed someone to design the cover. i agreed to help him when i got back into school.
tom would talk to me almost every day... sometimes about the progress of his book, sometimes about stuff or people he was pissed about in the factory. he was really deep into his shit... he told me about all this research he was doing.. all these people he was calling... these high up conferences he was trying to sneak information from... he seemed to work effortlessly to dig deep for this book. people kept telling me to be careful about him... that he had a few screws loose or something. one time, he came up to me and we had this wierd conversation:
"hey ryan."
"oh, hey whats up tom?"
"did you hear about what happened down in kansas?"
"um.. no."
"some guy in a meat factory. brought in a gun to work. went into the cafeteria and started blowing people away. it was all the people who fucked him."
"man, that's horrible."
"yeah. see ya."
he then walked away from me. it's true, maple leaf is a fucked up company. the guy who runs it... mccain... really doesn't give a shit about the people who work there. and they get paid shit. i understand why people who work there are pissed. but tom was fucking pissed. as the weeks went on, i could tell that tom was really coming to the end of the rope. he looked really distressed all the time and he stopped talking to me. he would just yell random things at me when he saw me, like "WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE!!" or "THIS PLACE IS A SICK JOKE!! A SICK FUCKING JOKE!!".
so anyways, tom had told me to make sure i gave him my email before i left so that he could contact me. today, being my last shift, i wrote it down and planned to give it to him. however, he was nowhere to be found. so near the end of my shift i asked this dude (who was one of the people who told me to watch out for tom) where tom was, and he responded "oh, tom got arrested this morning."
apparently, the day before, he had indicated that he was going to bring a gun into work the next day and shoot a bunch of people he had on a "death list". the cops went to his house in the morning and arrested him. there were also cops at the plant, asking questions and such.
i guess it's a good thing i never gave him my contact...
luckily, i only had to deal with this once. fortunately, they put me in the shipping department, so i didn't even have to deal with meat at all. just boxes. this is where i first met tom: an old, pissed off dude with like, three teeth. i first met him when me and another student had to get labels from him. "you guys students?... good. stay in school. don't you ever work in this place. it's a fucking shithole." he then asked me where i was going to university and what i was taking. when he heard that i was in a graphic arts program, he told me to talk to him about something later. he would later tell me that he had been working there several years, and that the place pissed him off so much he started writing a book about it. he needed someone to design the cover. i agreed to help him when i got back into school.
tom would talk to me almost every day... sometimes about the progress of his book, sometimes about stuff or people he was pissed about in the factory. he was really deep into his shit... he told me about all this research he was doing.. all these people he was calling... these high up conferences he was trying to sneak information from... he seemed to work effortlessly to dig deep for this book. people kept telling me to be careful about him... that he had a few screws loose or something. one time, he came up to me and we had this wierd conversation:
"hey ryan."
"oh, hey whats up tom?"
"did you hear about what happened down in kansas?"
"um.. no."
"some guy in a meat factory. brought in a gun to work. went into the cafeteria and started blowing people away. it was all the people who fucked him."
"man, that's horrible."
"yeah. see ya."
he then walked away from me. it's true, maple leaf is a fucked up company. the guy who runs it... mccain... really doesn't give a shit about the people who work there. and they get paid shit. i understand why people who work there are pissed. but tom was fucking pissed. as the weeks went on, i could tell that tom was really coming to the end of the rope. he looked really distressed all the time and he stopped talking to me. he would just yell random things at me when he saw me, like "WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE!!" or "THIS PLACE IS A SICK JOKE!! A SICK FUCKING JOKE!!".
so anyways, tom had told me to make sure i gave him my email before i left so that he could contact me. today, being my last shift, i wrote it down and planned to give it to him. however, he was nowhere to be found. so near the end of my shift i asked this dude (who was one of the people who told me to watch out for tom) where tom was, and he responded "oh, tom got arrested this morning."
apparently, the day before, he had indicated that he was going to bring a gun into work the next day and shoot a bunch of people he had on a "death list". the cops went to his house in the morning and arrested him. there were also cops at the plant, asking questions and such.
i guess it's a good thing i never gave him my contact...