Holy shit, this game is fun!
Happy Hapcp
I am in such a good mood today because of the Serenity trailer and Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day almost being done (tonight!! knock on wood, etc), that I wanted to share one of my favorite pictures ever.
It’s Jonathan Lipnicki! Blinged out!
Panda finds herself a mate
So…Tobe is doing really well. He's a quiet, gentle sort who just loves belly and head scratches and sleeping in dark corners. (Could it be that his blue eyes are hurt by light?). I honestly can't imagine why anyone would have given him up. He has pretty smelly farts and he does spray a bit, but if those were the only reasons to get rid of someone, Dom would have been history ages ago. Haha. I kid, I kid.
But seriously, he's awesome. I'm very happy with him and he seems to be pretty happy with me. He's a very good lap cat and he only slightly hinders my computer work when he decides he needs my hand to scratch his head right then and there.
Marilyn is doing ok with it all too. I think she's figured out the drill. She will meet him tomorrow night during Tobe's Coming Out Party/screening of Robocop. Things might get hairy for a little while but, given how mellow she's been so far, (not mellow for some cats, but for Marilyn who is pretty high strung, VERY mellow) I think she'll be ok.
Enough talk about my cat. I promise I will not become a crazy cat lady and start throwing tea parties for Tobe and dressing him in his Sunday best. On to more important topics like how excited I am for Trashy TV Thursday and how we are so close to finishing Snow Day that I can taste it! We just might make the San Diego Comic Con deadline after all. That has little bearing on whether or not we get INTO it, but if that happened, I would have a little geek orgasm. Can't get ahead of myself. No sir.
In work related news, my boss got himself a shiny new computer so I inherited his old one. It's very nice. It has 37 gigs! (As opposed to the 5 gigs that my old computer has). I also got me a flat panel monitor so I have a whole foot between my face and the screen now (instead of the 4 inches I had before). It's fantabulous and it's distracting me, temporarily, from how much I don't like being here. Hopefully the novelty won't wear off for a while due to my recent revelation about my indentured servitude to this company.
That is all.
barren augusta dutiful spotlight
The depressing half
Fuck. I recently realized that my brilliant idea of quitting this demeaning job to go and get a different one is, at this juncture, but a mere pipe dream. I have been very good at saving money and have a nice little cushion (not a WHOLE lot, but enough to keep me afloat for 2-3 months of unemployment). However, it has recently come to light that I must use that money for film stuff. It's probably going to be a lot for the sound mix (and Gadzook can only pay for half of that). It's going to cost a ton to send the movie to festivals. It's going to cost a ton more to print postcards, posters, stickers and buttons to promote the film. Not to mention the fact that, should we actually GET INTO any festivals, I will want to go to them. That's plane tickets and hotel cost. So all that money will need to be spent. Every job I have looked at cannot even pay me close to the what I'd thought was the meager salary I get now. So I might as well stay here. Hopefully my boss will be just as nice about letting me change my mind as he was about letting me take my time in leaving. That will be an embarrassing conversation. Damn me and my expensive dreams. Why couldn't I have wanted to be a fry cook?
The happy fluffy kitty half
Tobe is doing well. He was stoney baloney yesterday having gotten his bawls clipped. (I don't know what they did though cos he still HAS them…Maybe they just disconnected them? Weird) He napped for a little while on my lap and then a while longer in the corner of the office. I think he was slightly terrified of his freedom at first. (Insert Oz joke here). But by the end of the evening he was ready to come out of the office and explore. Unfortunately, we couldn't let him do that because we are supposed to keep him and Marilyn separate for 5 days. I also gave him a sponge bath because he was stinky and his tail was matted with dirt. He was very well behaved and I think he actually enjoyed the massaging properties of the scouring side of the sponge very much. I could only get about half the dirt out of his tail though. Ms. Faye will open her kitty salon later in the week and try to tackle the rest of the dirt. He still smells a bit though. It's that pesky boy spray smell. But theoretically, the snipping of the bawls should take care of that in time. ANYWHO, is he definitely a fantastically behaved cat and he loves being held and pet and put on laps so I think we are going to get along just fine. The best part is that Marilyn has been so weirded out that she hasn't even been meowing at us. She let us sleep right up until the alarm went off this morning. Awesome. Today, Tobe is allowed to explore the rest of the apartment whilst Marilyn stays in the bedroom. Let me tell you, she was none too pleased about that arrangement. She actually hissed at Dom. I will probably post pictures of his adorable orange fluffy self later in the week. Hooray for kitties.
New 'Marathon Mice’ outrun rodent peers
Remember this newsletter that I posted about a while back? The one which is put out quarterly by one of the partners of the company I work for? The one which sounds like the ravings of a mad man? Well, the new “marketing specialist” in our office has just read the letter and despite all the rambling about mosquitoes and taxi cabs, the thing she feels makes it a bad letter that she keeps harping on is the fact that he used the word “ubiquitous”. She claims that this word, which she pronounces “ubiquious” is not only a word that she has never heard before, but also one that “people just wouldn't use in normal conversation”. Maybe so, because we live in an anti-intellectual society. But don't you want your investment adviser to be able to craft a sentence better in writing than in “normal conversation”? Apparently, she'd prefer the letter say something like “Dude, the market is rad!”. I can't wait to see what she churns out for the company.
soul leaps momentarily into
This morning I realized that a LOT of people live in a vaguely Groundhog Day-like existence. This came to me this morning when I was walking my usual 5-block route from the bus stop to my office. The guy who sits outside of Rite Aid and tries to sell you cookies? Check. The young man with the Ricki-From-American-Beauty hat who works in my building and always catches up with my route two blocks from our destination? Check. The little girl with the backpack and her mother who stand on the kitty-corner from the library waiting for something (a bus, the father? I never find out)? Check. The man in the big red coat who sells Real Change outside my building? Check. If my make the 7:45 bus, I see these people every morning at the same moments without fail. On my way home, it’s a similar story. The bald Goth (I really want to know where he works) who is perpetually on his mobile gets on the 5:05 #10 bus with me every day. Our bus driver is a surly (but funny) black man who takes shit from no-one. In a way, knowing I will see these things every day is comforting. I feel a vague connection to all these people, knowing that even though we are in somewhat of a daily rut, we are in it together. In another way, I find the whole thing creepy and off-putting.
Regardless, when I leave this job, I will have to work my way into a different routine. Wonder who I’ll meet then…
aftermath
It was an amicable breakup conversation. Boss Man actually retracted his statement from last week about how he “wouldn't have hired” me in retrospect. He said he knows I do a great job and he always raves about me to other people we work with. He also said he was saddened by the fact that we were having this conversation but that he thought I had some good points. I think I caught him off guard because he said he needs to speak with one of the Powers That Be to give him “another perspective” on what to do. He also said that he was concerned about me just taking another job that isn't as good for me or doesn't pay as well just because I'm desperate for work. He said he'd rather I seek employment in my own time frame rather than just setting an abstract deadline for my departure. So I guess that means I can start looking for a job now and, if one comes up that is too good to pass up (i.e. equal to or better than the situation I'm in now), I can take it, but that I don't HAVE to leave June 1st if I'm not ready to go. He also said he wished he knew people in the film industry that he could hook me up with. One of our clients apparently has her own commercial production business and he said he could talk to her to see if she needs any help. He was very sympathetic and very eager to make sure that I do what is best for me. He also said he really appreciated the fact that I had the company's interest in mind whilst making this decision. He doesn't necessarily know if The Golden Child is an easy replacement for my job. The end result of today's conversation: He will speak with the PTB and he and I will speak again on Friday. No one is mad and no one is out for blood. I feel much better about things now. We will see what the PTB says though because she has a history of not liking me (or anybody) very much.
In the meantime, I need to start making some doctor's appointments.
workmanlike
I'm breaking up with job today at 12:30. Wish me luck. I spoke with the intern yesterday and she is definitely still uber-keen on having my job. So hopefully it will be as easy all as that.
I think the Boss knows that we're going to be having a serious chat because he suggested we do it over lunch.
My plan is to suggest that I train the Golden Child for the next two months until she is ready to be hired full time. Meanwhile, I will be saving whatever money I can and looking for new employment. And then, in June, I can cash in my remaining vacation days and get out of here. This is the best case scenario. Obviously, the worst case scenario is that my boss can tell me to leave now.
I will update later with some (hopefully) happy news of the first scenario.
steeplechase abuse downs billion belief commune
I think I may have just turned a corner.
I just had a very long meeting with my boss. First, he explained the nature of our arguments last week. I guess he had tried to lecture the other two monkeys on coming in late and working on other stuff during work hours. (I guess the Lil’est Dictator had done her taxes during work hours.) In their defense they said, “Well, Jessica checks her email during work”, to which he replied that he doesn’t want that either. This prompted him to have the PTB do the Big Brother Block. He didn’t mean for ALL the sites to get blocked. Just hotmail, yahoo and gmail. So he ammended that and the rest of my internet is free now. But not gmail. I still have my one secret email reprieve, thankfully, or my film career would be significantly stalled. And whatever. That's all fine. I can understand him wanting people working while they get paid (even if most companies don't seem to be bothered about email use).
But here's the part that's fucked. That topic led us to another discussion wherein he asked me how my movie thing was going. I guess, going forward, he doesn’t want to hire any new people (reception included) unless they want SPECIFICALLY to work their way up in an investment management firm and work their for the rest of their lives. He said that in hindsight, he probably wouldn’t have hired me. Nothing personal, just that he knows my heart isn’t in it and he would hate to keep promoting people around me. I told him that wouldn’t bother me but that if I was unable to get pay raises based on long-term commitment, that WOULD bother me. Unfortunately, it turns out that my salary is basically capped. He said he might be able to adjust with inflation or bonuses whatever, but that he can’t promise that my salary will ever go any higher as long as I’m here. This is apparently based ENTIRELY on the fact that I don’t want to do this job for the rest of my life. So no matter how hard I work, I can’t get rewarded. And even if the other monkeys don’t necessarily work very hard, they CAN get rewarded just for enthusiasm that I can never muster. So…fuck this. If I have to keep a day job (which, for now, I do) I want to work for a big faceless corporation that doesn’t care if I want to be here or not as long as I do my work. I want raises based on work quality, punctuality and general attitude, not based on whether or not my long-term goals are in line with my bosses. So if any of my big corporate monkey friends have any openings in their firms, PLEASE let me know. Seriously. $30k to start would be really nice as I don’t want to have to take an immediate pay cut. But I WILL if it’s, say, Amazon (especially IMDB). I would also require benefits. So this is it. It’s decision time. And I’ve decided not to be the black sheep of this fucking farm anymore.
christen backside
WEEKEND RECAP
Friday
After one of the worst weeks I have ever had at this job, I was ready to burn off some steam through song. I really wanted to sing some Violent Femmes (“Kiss Off”…But, barring that, “Add It Up” would have done). After a brief pre-funk at Faye’s, Dom, Sherrard, Faye and I headed off to the Mandarin Gate to meet Chris and Ben. We got there pretty early to assure ourselves a table. That was, unfortunately, our downfall because having that much time to kill before singing time allowed Faye and I ample opportunity to try (literally) every fru-fru drink on the menu. Now, when I say fru-fru, I mean in taste only. Because while these drinks had fruit juice a-plenty, they also contained a large amount of hard alcohol (some of which was 151 Rum). After several hours of consuming drinks such as “The Zombie” and “The Suffering Bastard”, we were ready to sing. My heart sank when I saw that there were no Violent Femmes in the book. There was also no Oasis. I had to regroup and, for a while, every brilliant song idea I came up with was met with rejection. Their selection was really pissing me off. Furthermore, their “by artist” list had different selections than their “by song” list and I can’t, for the life of me, choose songs by title. My eyes always glaze over after the first page of songs starting with “a” or “the”. So anyway, I found some Billy Joel and picked “You May Be Right” (but I’m getting a little sick of needing to use BJ as a backup during desperate times). After a while, I finally found a song that I felt would sufficiently alleviate some work stress. I was going to sing “One” by Three Dog Night. I had been wanting to do this song for a while. (In fact, I had practiced a couple of times). I was ready to wail on it and give it the angst it so required. But by then the place was packed to the gills with American Idols. It was hours before I was called up again. And when, at 1 in the morning, I was finally called back, the DJ took liberties and skipped to a song I had put in JUST IN CASE I had a chance at 3 songs. I wasn’t prepared to sing it at all because I thought I would have been lucky to be called again. He said “sorry, I switched things up on you”. And when I saw “Man-eater” by Hall and Oates show up on the screen I knew I was in for a crappy performance. I just wasn’t ready for that one. I know it pretty well, but my heart wasn’t in it. Damned karaoke DJ’s and their liberties.
But despite DJ’s with god-complexes and pretty bad service (I don’t think we ever would have gotten served if the waitress hadn’t fancied Chris) and despite WAAAY too much fru-fru rumminess, a good time was had by all. Once again, Andrew blew us away with his Foreigner. This time it was “I want to know what love is”. I am convinced that Andrew should start a Foreigner tribute band. The man has a gift.
Saturday
Faye and I were supposed to do some hardcore baking in preparation for Adam and Eva’s wedding next Saturday (for which we are meant to bake cake for 200 people). I was trying cake recipes and Faye was going to try some frostings. Well, somehow I managed to avoid the wrath of the hangover fairy. But Faye was not so lucky. We were in contact all day, but actually baking did not start until around 4:00 when I decided I’d better not wait for Faye to start feeling better. I baked a chocolate and then Faye and I got some supplies from the store. Faye was still feeling atrocious and even had to rest her body on the cart a few times. Yikes. Once at Faye, I made my banana cake while we watched 21 Jump Street and ate Thai food. The banana cake turned out pretty good. I then started in on my very complex “Death by Chocolate” cake. Turns out it was too complex, however. Because even though I thought I followed the directions to the letter, and set the oven timer for 10 minutes less than the recipe called for, it was still a rock-hard brick of charcoal by the time it came out. My cake from earlier had inexplicably failed too. So I’ve decided to nix the complex chocolate recipes and just go with my standard chocolate from my Joy of Cooking. That one has never failed me. Around 9:00, Kayobi, Matt, Andrew, Dom and Borgia showed up for tasting and “Ginger Snaps Back”. Faye managed to stop being nauseous long enough to make a quick chocolate whip to put on the banana. People liked that one so at least my baking endeavors weren’t a TOTAL failure. I don’t know what went wrong. I wasn’t even hung-over!
“Ginger Snaps Back” (the pre-quel) wasn’t nearly as good as “Ginger Snaps”. Those two angsty girls, cute as the are, just aren’t convincing at 19th century Canadian ladies. Let’s hope “Ginger Snaps II”, which places them back in a modern setting, isn’t as much of a disappointment.
Sunday
Sleeping in is lovely. Truly a luxury. Thank you, Marilyn, for not crying until 9:30. At 10:00 my mom called and I surfed the internet while she talked at me about things. I spent the rest of the morning sitting on my ass watching special features and trying to get motivated for yoga. It has been almost a month since I last went so I knew it was going to be hard. But I HAD to go. (Seeing as how it had been almost a month since I last went). And hard it was. For about the first 15 minutes, I felt like I was going to throw up. But once you’re in there, you’re in there for the duration. So I tried to just breathe and get through it. By the end I as, as always, glad I came.
I relaxed some more when I got home and tried to prepare myself for coming back to work. Not easy considering how my attitude underwent a huge shift last week. More on that later…
Effed by the Wind 