In a recent conversation, I revealed that I got my first credit card when I was 16 because my dad wanted to teach me the value of good credit. It had a $600 limit and I had to pay it off each month with the money that I earned from babysitting or whatever other teenage-type job I had at the time. This was called somewhat into question at first because getting a credit card at 16 sounds like a luxury of being a Daddy's girl. However, when compared to this situation, wherein Madonna's 8-year-old rugrat gets a credit card with a $10,000 limit, my experience seems pretty normal and, well, NOT so spoiled. SERIOUSLY, Madonna, it's a good idea in THEORY, but HOW is giving your daughter $10K per month in free money going to teach her anything she doesn't already know? She knows that her momma is retardedly rich. She doesn't need a lesson in it. Even if she's expected to be responsible and pay the thing herself, WHERE is she going to get the money? Last I checked, 8-year-old can't work in the U.S. and they haven't been able to work in Britain since the Dickensian age. And if she gets $10K/month in allowance then she DEFINITELY isn't learning anything valuable about money. Way to go, brainiac. Why don't you stick to POP-ularizing world religions and leave the fiscal lessons to Sesame Street.
This argument in no
I don’t believe it! It’s moments like this that keep me an agnostic because it really feels like there’s some unseen force that is really enjoying fucking with me. This morning, my boss called me into his office for a “brief chat”. He prefaced the conversation by saying that I was doing a great job and that he was really pleased with all the hard work I was doing. Since he’d mentioned before that he was going to try and get me into some profit sharing, I assumed this was where he was headed. But then he said that he wanted to get me a raise. A VERY SIGNIFICANT raise. In ADDITION to profit sharing AND a larger quarterly bonus. He said he couldn’t guarantee anything but that when the PTB came up next month, (4 days after I had scheduled to put in my notice) he would make a case to get me this raise. This VERY BIG raise. It’s 33% of my current salary. If I were to get such a raise and continue to spend at my current level, I would be able to put over $1000 a month into savings. I know, I know, money isn’t happiness and I’m certainly not happy here. But if I did get this raise and stuck it out for a little while, it would make it easier to quit for less money when we start shooting Plight. It would also allow me more opportunity to travel around the country promoting “Snow Day”. I’m still not sure though. I really do hate it here. But would I hate it less if I was being handsomely compensated for it? I don’t know. Comments? Opinions? Help!
If I DON’T get offered a raise, I am definitely still out of here, though. Of that I am certain.
Keeping iit Like a Rock
WEEKEND RECAP
I know the weekend isn't over yet but a)I have a feeling I will be too bushed to update after yoga today and b)I have many things to gush about and I feel like gushing! Soooooooo…
FRIDAY
After an emotionally harried work day, I was ready to do some drinking. Though, when am I not, these days? That sounds pathetic, but really, I think that once I take care of my work situation, I will be in a much better head space. Earlier that day, I found out Roxy got into the A.D. program (or is it P.M.?) down in L.A. and will be leaving us. She was celebrating at Linda's so we headed over there for dinner and drinks. There were a LOT of people who came and went. I think there is a large chunk of Seattle that is going to sorely miss the Brunswicks. Meep and I used to hang out at Linda's all the time, despite the unoriginal selection on the juke box (Strokes and White Stripes over and over and over again) and the horrible wait staff. But we tired of it (go figure) and hadn't been back in a while. Very little has changed. It's still packed to the brim with hipsters (Meep and I actually invented “Hipster Bingo” back in the day because of Linda's), the juke box was playing The Strokes, and our waitress forgot about every other thing we ordered. She accidentally brought Dom and rum and coke instead of just a coke and he took a sip! So Dom had his first taste of alcohol (and hated it). He's a man now. Around 11:00 we were sick of Linda's but still keen to hang out so the Trio, krk and Borgia went to Bill's. I love that place! Our waitress looked like an older, dark haired Lily Taylor (I thought) and was enjoying herself. They ALWAYS play great music on the juke box (Ive never seen the selection because the music is always so good that I've never been compelled to go and play something) and their food is delicious. Best of all, they have Blackthorns on tap! Since we were the “Retard to Retard” crew, we finalized our game plan for the next day. krk told some more great stories about his metal days and we talked about Anthrax (which was one of my favorite bands in high school. That's right. In 8th, 9th and 10th grade, I was a little metal kid).
As per usual, I checked my email right before bed and lo and behold, I had one from the San Diego Comic Con. My heart stopped as I clicked to open the email. The first words “Congratulations! Your film has been scheduled for the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival!” HOT FUCKING DIGGITY DOG! I had just been telling Meep earlier that I'd resigned myself to the fact that we weren't getting in and that I was ok with that. But we ARE in and let me tell you, I am MUCH MORE ok with THAT! It was kinda hard to go to bed after that.
SATURDAY
Woke up around 10 and immediately started looking for tickets and hotels. ALL of the hotels within walking distance to the con were (not surprisingly) sold out. I am kinda pissed that they waited so long to tell us. They are very generous though. We get FIVE free passes (plus guest) for a short film! We also get our own slot (instead of having it lumped it with a bunch of other shorts) and we get to introduce the film and have a mini Q and A after. There is MUCH to do. We need to get our postcards together, press some more DVD's and Meep and I need new outfits!
Anyway, we didn't have a lot of time to mull things over because we had a stupid movie to make! We met at Dom's sister's house in West Seattle around noon. We got a late start because we were playing with their dogs. They have a HUGE dog named Shackelton who always has these stuffed toys he carries around. They have noise makers inside them. He likes to just chew the hell out of these toys and tear out their stuffing (in the most loving way possible, of course) but because they have noise makers, while he's chewing, they are making noise and the noises get more and more horrifying as he chews. It's funny and sick at the same time. We dove into shooting around 12:30 and were OUT OF THERE by 1:30. That's how retarded it is. But we were laughing the whole time so I think we really have a winner on our hands.
We parted ways so that The Trio could go make some travel arrangements. Jacob is going to meet us down there, but The Trio plus 1BenDur are going to fly down together. Anyone else want to meet us down there? It's going to be a BLAST and we have guest passes! we'll even sneak you into our Ramada hotel rooms (which we are cramming into because all the affordable hotels were booked. It will be like summer camp!).
Once we got the travel stuff out of the way, we headed down to the noc noc (which I love, despite the goth decor and the dodgy patrons…Wait. Who am I kidding? I LOVE dodgy patrons!). They have $1 PBR's and High Life's and cheap food (including tater tots! The perfect bar snack!). We downed as many beers as humanly possible in an hour and a half and then went to Pacific Place to see Batman Begins.
Batman Begins is awesome.
Christian Bale was pitch perfect. Absolutely. Michael Kane was a fantastic kind, gentle and sassy Cockney Alfred (his performance was exactly how I'd always read Alfred…without the Cockney bit). Cillian Murphy was creepy and hot. Liam Neeson was amazingly unirritating. Morgan Freeman was super cool and delivered the sweet burns. GARY OLDMAN IS ALWAYS FLAWLESS. He really is the greatest working actor. It was so great to see him not be evil. And Ahe pointed out that somehow he made that mustache sexy. Amazing. Katie Holmes still sucked but she didn't ruin the movie. (Although Meep and I couldn't help but laugh out loud when she said “I'm a Gotham city District Attorney. Let me pass!”. Is she supposed to be the same age as Bruce Wayne? Because there's no way she can pass for 30). There were some flaws to the movie, it's true. But the cast was so good that you really had to look for them. And Christian Bale sold EVERY WORD he uttered. He was THAT good. Even when he was channeling Patrick Bateman. Which is still a perfect choice because Bruce Wayne IS a borderline psychotic. He just doesn't have the business cards or the affinity for Whitney Houston.
After the movie we had the HARDEST time finding a bar to go to. All of our usual late-night, guaranteed a table establishments were packed to the hilt. We finally ended the Crocodile which would have been fine had there not been a monotonous emo show going on in the next room. Ahe recognized all of Death Cab for Cutie in attendance. (I have seen pictures of them, but am so bored by them that I can't be bothered to remember what they look like). We had a few more beers and gushed about the movie, among other things and then walked home around 1:30.
SUNDAY
It is still Sunday morning. My plans for the day include calling my father, yoga, dishes, possibly buying some milk and watching The Crow. Glamorous.
Live from my bedroom
FUCK YESSSSSSSSSSSSS! WE ARE GOING TO SAN DIEGO!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently, all it took was a panicked blog entry and a lot of drinking to make it happen.
Please confirm everything
SERIOUSLY, San Diego Comic Con. FINALIZE YOUR GODDAMNED FILM SCHEDULE ALREADY. If “Snow Day” DOES get in, at this point, it will cost us almost $400 to fly down there. And we can't NOT go if we get in. So if we're in, PLEASE tell us soon so that we don't break our banks on a weekend trip. Thanks.
is that better than
I have officially resigned myself to putting in my notice. July 5th is the day. I have yet to decide how MUCH notice I'm putting in. It will be between the standard, Sandra Bollock-approved two weeks and the karmically sound end of July. It really all depends on how much shit I have to put up with before the day of reckoning. If July 5th is anything like today, I will be wanting to get out of there as soon as humanly possible. What is it about crying in the middle of the day that gives you a hangover? Who needs a drink? I'll tell you. I do.
Congrats to Roxy for getting into that program (specifically WHAT program, I still don't know) that will allow her to train for two years in L.A. and eventually become a bonafied Production Manager. She has worked on every Gadzook project, pretty much since the beginning and Meep and I have been fortunate enough to have had her on Snow Day. She will be sorely missed for being both fun and extremely talented. And don't think we won't try and steal her back from L.A. when the program is over. If we can afford her, that is.
Who wants to play hooky with me sometime in the next three weeks? I have some vacation days that are burning a hole in my pocket!
Confidence is back
Well, fuckety do.
This afternoon the PTB send an email to the Seattle office which I will paraphrase below:
Dear Seattle Office,
I am not a fan of micromanaging but when severe abuse is occurring, I need to step in. This is why I am implementing a policy on personal internet usage effective immediately. Personal internet use shall be limited only to breaks. Each employee who works 8 hours is entitled to one one-hour lunch break and two ten minute breaks per day. These breaks may not be split up. (e.g. four five-minute breaks and two thirty-minute breaks). When you take a break you must let someone else in the office know. At the first sign of infraction of this policy, a verbal warning will be given. After that, the penalty will be assessed. This policy has been implemented to prevent animosity amongst employees and to prevent the dropping of morale.
-The Powers That Be
So, let's forget the fact that the true intended recipient of this email was very thinly disguised. While this “new policy” is, in theory, better than what my immediate boss had originally come up with (no personal internet at all ever), putting this policy in place means one, very debilitating thing: My computer will be watched like a goddamned hawk. Dom mentioned that IT people have a way of downloading internet traffic from computers on the network so that despite my impeccable daily deletion of history and cookies, they can still see exactly what I'm doing at all times. That is probably what has been happening. Every day, the brown-nosing spy has been reporting my comings and goings and no doubt having a blast trouble shooting ways to keep me in line. I recently caught wind of a little gossip that this guy was going to quit but then got a raise. So now he is probably kissing ass so as to keep the raises coming. No longer is he part of the underpaid proletariat. He is working his way up in the world by selling out his former equals. Now, more than ever, I want no part of this. But I talked it over with Dom and he suggested that I stick it out till the end of the month. That will put me at the end of our quarter so I can (provided they aren't COMPLETE bastards) collect my quarter-end bonus (which is contingent on whether or not I complete x, y and z throughout the quarter. And I always do. Because I'm a GOOD GODDAMNED WORKER). Then, in early July, I put in my notice. Whether or not I have anything lined up, I'm going to leave because I just can't fucking take it anymore. I have said this before but this time I REALLY REALLY mean it. I'm on the verge of becoming a really angry, joyless, bitter person (as opposed to a delightfully snarky person) as a result of working here and I that is something that I definitely don't want.
In the meantime, my work day is officially joyless. Tomorrow, I'm going to check out how hard it is to get on a computer at the library.
He clean go inclusive launder
With all my email fun taken away at work, I had to make my own fun so I decided to google the new interns I hired. Turns out the one that I got the major gaydar from is a member of the Willamette Republicans. Hmmm. I’m not discounting my gaydar though. I was disappointed to find nothing on the other one. And that’s the end of THAT timewaster.
Last night was an eventful night for the cats in the Zookster household. Marilyn usually sleeps with us at night, but for some reason last night she was out wandering so Tobe took the opportunity and mustered the courage to move in. In the wee hours, Marilyn came back from patrol and was PISSED to find Tobe sleeping in her spot. She kept trying to jump up on the bed and attack him but he didn’t budge. She gave up for a little while and then, as punishment to me for letting Tobe sleep there, she vomited on my pile of clothes. (I guess it serves me right for being a slob). Then she started attacking Tobe again about 30 minutes before our alarm was set to go off. (A pet peeve of mine is being woken up FOR ANY REASON that close to alarm time). Marilyn really knows how to be a brat. When I finally got up, Tobe came with me. Probably because he knows that he’s mine and Marilyn is Dom’s. I never thought Tobe would have the courage to try and sleep with us so I’m interested to see how this is going to play out in the future. But it better not interfere with my goddamned sleep!
On the job front, I must say I’m VERY tempted to just put in my notice and charge full speed ahead on the job search front. Andrew still thinks he might be able to get me into a temping situation at Amazon and let me tell you, that sounds more and more appealing every day. I need to time it perfectly though. I wants to stay here till the end of the month so that I can get my quarter-end bonus but leave before the crappy all-day seminar that they want to make me attend in July. Tricky.
operationaly Acetaminophen-Mag Salicylatel
I'm sure this work drama is getting boring so I will change the subject. Dom's laser disc player arrived today so that means that sometime in the future, we will have a party (or three) to celebrate the fact that we can watch Star Wars as god intended.
Also, there are MANY highly anticipated (by geeks, anyway) movies being released soon including Batman Begins (tomorrow), Land of the Dead (the 18th) and The Devil's Rejects (the 22nd). If time permits after R2R this weekend, does anyone wanna see Batman Begins at Pacific Place? And who's on for seeing the other two on their respective opening nights?
Deeeeeeal of the week
So I was not blacked out of email at work today. But I am DEFINITELY still under close scrutiny. And whatever the little spy did to keep me in line was backfiring like crazy today. The internet just kept going out and I'd have to email him to get it back on line so it was making it hard for me to do my real job! When I asked him why it was doing that, he said “well, did you just dump your temporary internet files? Cos that would reset the security that I've put on there”. Of course, that's what I do every day before I leave the office (to no avail, apparently) but I hadn't done it yet so I could honestly say “Nope. That's not the problem”. Still, after that I was so paranoid about what he had done to my computer that I waited until he left at 2:30 to try and log into my email. I was still able to get in but I know for DAMNED sure now that it may not last long. So I will probably be fairly incommunicato, only checking my email once or twice and after 2:30 for a while. At least I can still look for another job while I'm there. So far I've only gotten one call back and it turns out that the company was in Shoreline, even though their ad said Seattle. So I had to say no to that one. I am NOT busing to Shoreline every day. I have applied to quite a few jobs at this point so SOMEBODY has to be calling me back, right? Damnit, I'm a fucking PRIZE! Get me out of here!
Effed by the Wind 