Block stump(ed) stupid.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Elivs Had one
So did Hank
They don't look look like money
They look like the bank
I think Fred Eaglesmith is completely overlooked. He fill this gap between Tom Waits and Bruce Springstein. He is quirky and pop like, but dark and not for the radio. but country. maybe that's why you have never heard of him. because he is real country. he sings about a real america (via canada, heh) but about a real world just the same. it's grit for sure, about dogs and gasoline. and of course love.
His career and his music make a great parallel, an even keel, a true line, a straight track. nothing fancy, but a nice turn of phrase.
Friday, March 26, 2004
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
[Green Pastures; is the place to be! ]
After miserating for a couple of days, I wake up to this email from a past co-worker:
Subject: QA job @ [company-name].com
Nick:
What's your work situation these days? Still doing QA? Looking for greener
pastures? Lemmie know, if so. There just might be a QA position coming open here
very soon.
-F
And just like that everything turns, the mood lifts and I can be nice again. are we always so carried around by our fickle feelings?
Monday, March 22, 2004
This is my last week at work.
Sunday night I went in and cleaned out my desk.
I was feeling pretty weird abou that; I wish it would end quickly. I have nothing to do. but sulky i guess.
Something sad about cleaning out the desk, i mean what do i do with the "one year pin" they gave me?
Well, I guess the only thing to do is to take some office supplies, and go enjoy my new life of unemployment!
Saturday, March 20, 2004
[Beautifully Morbid]
This from blogofdeath.com:
Mercedes McCambridge
Carlotta Mercedes Agnes McCambridge, who Orson Welles once called "the world's greatest living radio actress," died on March 2 from natural causes. She was 87.
She is known for her amazing voice. I heard her last night on the radio being interviewed by Terri Gross. This woman was amazing, as *so* serious about what she did.
By the way one of her starring roles was the voice of the Devil in the Exorcist.
She talked at length, and gave eerie examples of this work during the interview. amazing. She describes at length how, in order to get the famous "vomit scene" she would actually partially ingest raw eggs and other nasty stuff and actually wretch and vomit onto a tarp covering microphones.... don't belive me?
Don't let that pretty face fool yah.
update: You can listen to the interview here: NPR.ORg
Thursday, March 18, 2004
On Wednesday I found out who my new next door neighbor actually is.
He is a "Contractor" from India, here for a month. To do what you say? My job.
Interesting, no?
My boss's boss was heard going on and on about how great offshoring is because "you only have to pay them 12 dollars a day!"
Do you think it's weird that they put this guy right next to me, when they didn't have to? There are other cubes available down the hall.
Yesterday I was really pissed about all this. I could not believe how classless it was to put this guy right next to me. I can't exactly find it within me to be friendly with him.
I asked my boss who this guy was sitting in [MIA-boy's] cube. He said it was a contractor working on [the project I was going to work on when I was first hired 18 months ago]. I had to specifically ask if he was "part of our group." Meaning, doing the same job as me, and yes he is.
Boss could not get a budget for a full-time person, so this is an experiment for a month.
Amazing that you hear about all this offshoring and what-not, well, here it is, sitting right next to me, as I move to the unemployment line.
Should I call HR, or write a piece for the local paper?
Monday, March 15, 2004
I came into work today.
There has been some debate in the house as to wether this is a good idea or not.
There are exactly 12 work days until my final day here at Hell-on-earth. I think it is against my contract to say anything "disparaging" against said company. so i won't. instead I'll just give you a little realistic scenario.
My cube neighbor, essentially the only person that I can see while sitting at my desk is actually the guy who never comes to work. this complicates my tale somewhat, but let me explain.
He just celebrated, though very quietly, his one year anniversary since he last stepped foot in the office.
Maybe i should repeat that in case you are reading too fast: my cube neighbor has not been in the office for a verified (by me alone) *year*.
Still, i belive it to be wrong when i came into the office this morning (yes, eleven am is still morning) and found that they had re-assigned his cube to a contractor that wil be here "for about a month."
How would you feel if you were being laid off, and your boss assigns your cube to some random person. oh, and by the way there are two open cubes not even two cubes away, set up and ready to go. it makes no sense.
But worse than that, and maybe this is what the story is really about, is the anger; self righteous and indignant that was sparked off in me. too close to home perhaps? how dare they. it's just rude and it makes me want to year and kick up some dust.
It continues to amaze me that people will stand for just about anything. i ask a couple of people about this, one other neighbor and the IT guy who is setting up the new guy. 'yeah that's messed up.' is the shared comment.
Ultimately i believe that no one cares. after-all it's not them.
So i fume quietly for a while, wondering why "i let it affect me". i know that if i came into the office and found some little innocent contractor sitting at my desk with all my belongings stacked up, i would go totally ballistic, and i believe that just about anyone would.
So why does no one care about this one? cause the dude has not been here in a year? maybe.
I resist the temptation to send the email that says "don't even think about doing this to me" to the manager and the boss, and his boss.
The severance package should include anger managment or at least boxing classes.
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
By the way if you are attempting to create a lesson plan based on the movie "Ghandi" your online resources seem somewhat Limited.
Hrm, I have had some complaints that the comments are not working properly.
Please help me diagnose this by adding your comments and letting me know if they do not show up, ok?
nick[at]adjective[dot]com
thanks
--N
