Big Science

3 Replies

It’s a cold and rainy Friday and it’s also February 1, Groundhog’s Day Eve and also the day before my brother in law Rex’ birthday. So happy birthday Rex. I guess they’ll be watching Groundhog’s Day tomorrow in Arcata as well as all over the US. I’ve seen it, I’ve enjoyed it but not like the Arcata Three. They watch it every year and why not? A tradition that has been going on for a number of years and I wish them many more years of watching together. Cheers to them!

Last night, came home feeling somewhat dreadful as you could have probably seen in the previous entry. Once I wrote about it I felt better, no longer bitter. I settled in for the evening, really looking forward to Lost. I appreciated the first hour recap, set things up nicely it did. The actual season premiere was very good, a return to form almost. Some things I had forgotten that were briefly touched upon in the recap where explained further as usual.

But as good as it was, I was left to wonder whether or not it was good because it was actually good, or was it good because there was nothing on lately that wasn’t a reality show? And the fact that it’s going to be on Thursday nights opposite the NBC comedies could pose a problem. Already there is Ugly Betty opposite Earl and 30 Rock. Oh such dilemmas. If only everyone’s problems could be as serious as what to watch on TV and what to record.

I tried watching the new show after Lost, Eli something, but the George Michael gimmick wore off quickly and I watched Will Arnett and Chi McBride in Let’s Go To Prison, which is raunchy but still funny. I must make a confession here, a few weeks ago I watched a little bit of Jackass 2 and it was pretty funny.

I turned it off once the guy was piercing his face with a fishing hook, I do have some limits. I had enough TV for the night, so I decided to go to bed earlier than usual, which caused me to wake up a little bit earlier than usual but I was able to snooze it off and that was very nice. I found myself laughing whenever I could and there was a noticeable effect so thanks for that tip Anne!

Finished last week’s New Yorker on the bus so now I’m ready for this week’s. Got to the office at the same time as Greg Stevens. I wasn’t expecting him to come in today, we had some pleasant chit chat before the office started up and after I set the office up for the day he called me into his office. He asked me to find a restaurant in Long Island for some function. I’m sort of his personal assistant.

He also decided to do the employee review right then and there. First off he started by saying he hates employee reviews and so this review was over. He told me I would be getting my bonus at the end of the month and that he was happy with the job I’ve been doing. He knew it would be this way since we both worked at Wanker Banker. It’s good when the president of the company you work for likes you.

He also mentioned that Tom Chin has a problem with me sometimes, but then again Tom Chin has a problem with everyone at one time or another. He drives Bill crazy sometimes as well. That was reassuring. He made it a point to shake my hand as I left his office, feeling like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I emailed Anne and Bill to let them know that everything was alright. And it was alright, Tom Chin was staying in Connecticut today. It was almost like a three day weekend.

It’s always darkest before the dawn
2108-groundhog-days-eve-002a.jpg

and something funny

Quicksand

2 Replies

It’s Thursday and it is to laugh. My sister took a Laughter Yoga course last weekend. Apparently, laughter IS the best medicine. If you laugh you feel good, and even if you fake laughing you can still get the benefits. With the day that I had today, I got some laughter in this afternoon and it really helped my mood. You know, last Thursday when I was sick, was a better Thursday than today. One of the things Tom Chin said, as a warning perhaps, that this week would be employee reviews, to determine the mythical bonuses.

A few people were called into closed door sessions, but not me. Neither was one of the Stooges, Moe. He’s been on the outs with Vivek who smiles in Moe’s face, while sharpening a knife. Last month Vivek asked me to find out how soon someone could be expelled from the network. The answer was, it could be within minutes, depending on where the IT was, if he was available or not, or he would send his assistant into the office to do it. So that could all be tomorrow. Getting rid of myself and Moe would save the company some money. I’d prefer it doesn’t happen, but in the event that it does happen, I set about cleaning out my desk.

I admit I was disappointed it didn’t happen today, I was on pins and needles all day. I did get a lot of work done, which means if I don’t get fired, I will have very little to do next week. Already some tasks hat I used to do have been reassigned to Lydia. I talked to a temp, Peaches, who works for another company that sublets office space from us while having a smoke.

She told me about how she was once let go from a company that gave her six months salary as a severance package. That would be nice to have. She called it shut up money, whereas other people or companies would call it hush money. A tidy amount to keep one’s mouth shut. I do have things to shut my mouth about. Monkeys in trees eating bananas while singing dirges in the original Latin. Things like that. I think Tom Chin who was more than likely bullied when he was growing up 50 years ago might see this as an opportunity to lord it over me. I see that mentioning those two things might give me some leverage. Dirge singing monkeys banana smeared mouths spewing Latin. I’m fucking Matt Damon.

It was an odd day. The only people that spoke to me was Moe, Curly and Lydia. Greg Stevens said hi in passing. Vivek totally ignored me after saying hello to just about everyone else in the office. Tom Chin didn’t say anything either. Whatever it is, I did my best. I tried to create a system in the office so things would run smoothly. True there was that file that was on my desk last week, though to my credit, I did phone in and tell them where it was.

Not good enough I guess. If I didn’t get sick last week this all could have been avoided, but I got sick and that’s that. Nobody got hurt, no rules were broken, no information or identities stolen. So this is where I stand. Not feeling secure in my job, but able to laugh, and that’s what’s important. I guess that’s why I’m feeling pretty positive, not the negative person I could be and have been when in situations like this. And so I laugh! Like so…and I’m not being sarcastic