Survive this.
Apparently there's a television program called Survivor, and somebody won.
Apropos of my old man and the impending (or not) Writer's Guild of America strike, I found this article on Salon to be kind of interesting. That this guy seems almost proud to be a scab is repugnant, but he does succeed in cutting throught the rhetoric and laying out what's actually at stake.
On Wednesday I spent seven consecutive hours in meetings. No shit. Seven hours. Four-hundred twenty minutes. From 10 AM to 5 PM, straight. That can't be good.
Even a quick calculation — an average of 10 people per meeting, at ridiculously inflated new ecenomy salaries, plus overhead, and figure in lost productivity for not being able to do what it is they pay us for in the first place, and that's ... a lot of lost revenue. An hour-long meeting has to cost the company like ten grand. It's absurd. (If anyone knows of a calculator that will actually help me figure this stuff out for real, I'd love to know about it. Please drop me an email.)
I did get my new (old) computer up and running yesterday. And I take back all the nasty things I said about our MIS guys. They don't suck that bad. They gave me an Ethernet card, at least.
The best part of looking at my Webalizer reports, apart from telling me who's linking to me, is looking at where blawg has come up as a search result. Here are the results from April, in order:
Funny.
Scoop Casey filed what may be his final News Roundup last night. As those of you in the know know, he's been working in stealth mode on a new sports blog, tentatively entitled sportsblog. He claims it will be live on Monday. Be sure to check it out. He's a great writer, and even if he was writing a corn blog, I'd damn sure read it. I anticipate that he will be so busy working on his blog, dealing with the deluge of fan mail, and fending off corporate raiders that he may not have time to continue with his News Roundup duties. So the Lucky 13th Edition may be the last. But I hope not.
Scoop Casey's News Roundup: Yesterday's News, Today
Yahoo! mistakenly divests itself of 93 percent of its revenue.
Beer + Big Macs x fulfilling relationships with couch and television = Enormous Ass.
It's OK, Tom. We believe you.
I know San Francisco is a free-thinkin', hip, liberal kinda town, but c'mon.
This just in: Water tends not to vary much in composition. ßßß
Ranting, raving.
It turns out that I am getting too old for this shit. The RftC/(I)NC show last night was sold out, so we milled around the Tenderloin for a while, then went back to my job and picked up my new refurbished computer. We got it home and I was all excited about setting it up, and about the prospect of telecommuting today. Of course, the MIS guys at my job fucked up again. Shock and dismay.
They took the Ethernet card out of the new computer, so I had to cannibalize the one from my old computer, which was kind of a pain in the ass. And they didn't even finish installing the OS, so it was completely worthless. And, adding insult to injury, they left a Sting CD in the CD-ROM drive. And that's just not right.
Since I had removed the Ethernet card from my current computer, I was fucked for Web access. I spent the next two hours reinstalling the card and reconfiguring everything so I could get back online. So I wasted several hours and am in the exact same situation I woulda been had I done nothing at all. There must be a lesson in there somewhere.
WTNH, the ABC affiliate out of New Haven, Connecticut, interviewed my dad [RealMedia clip] about the impending writer's strike. The clip's kind of jittery, but definitely worth checking out. It explains a lot about how I turned out, anyway. ...
And now my Sprint Broadband is down! So much for this telecommuting thing. No 'Net connection, no fast computer ... it's almost like being at work, except that I'm in a T-shirt and boxers. Which really wouldn't even be that strange at my job. There are guys who wear flip-flops and shorts all the year 'round, so it's not much of a leap to get to wifebeaters and briefs, right? My coworkers would probably just assume I was some genius computer engineer and revere me. Or something.
I had all kinds of cool stuff bookmarked for the blawg today, but it's all at work. And I'm here at home, about to make some espresso and wait for my Internet access to magically reappear. If you're reading this, then it has. ... ßßß
Get this chip out of my head.
Saw Jets to Brazil last night at Slim's with my friend Betsy. We decided Blake looks old. But they rocked, and, contrary to what someone told Betsy, none of the songs they played reminded us of Billy Joel. They played my favorite Jets song of all, the sappiest of sappy, cheezy, emo love songs: Sweet Avenue. It was pretty comical: During the quiet passages you could hear all the 16-year-old girls — and me — singing along. Oh, how the hardcore have fallen.
The bad news is that I got less than five hours' sleep. Had to get up early and drive in to SF so we can go to another show tonight: Rocket from the Crypt and (International) Noise Conspiracy at the Great American. Ugh. I'm gettin' too old for this shit. ...
Radiohead has announced some U.S. tour dates. They're gonna be in the Bay Area on June 27, at the heinous Shoreline Amphitheatre, just two days before Ozzfest. Decisions, decisions. ... But seriously. Tickets will probably be astronomically expensive, and I'll probably get no closer than 100 yards from the band. What's the point? I should just pocket the money and buy a bunch of bootlegs, or sit home and watch Meeting People Is Easy.
Some full-fledged DVD reviews are forthcoming, but if you get a chance, check out Tigerland. I promise you won't be disappointed. Unless you don't like riveting movies about Viet Nam and the human condition. Or if you don't particularly enjoy movies which arouse pathos, even when they are really good. Ugh. ßßß
Mayday! May Day!
In case you were wondering, the Monday Morning Mix isn't just for Monday mornings anymore. It's equally good on Tuesday mornings, Wednesday afternoons, and Sunday nights. But never, never at dusk. And if you haven't already, be sure to check out the brand-new blawg music section.
The high point of this past weekend, apart from getting Sprint Broadband installed, was watching a drunk girl get 86'ed from the restaurant we were eating at and then get arrested.
After we waited all damn day for the Sprint installer to show up, we went out to Spettro, a groovy neighborhood Italian place.
Once we finally got seated, we noticed some strange goings-on at the table behind us. It was a party of 8 or 10 rock 'n' roll-looking people, one of whom was incredibly hammered. This young lady was walking around the restaurant, talking to all and sundry, with a glass of wine in one hand and the wine bottle in the other. She was swigging liberally from the bottle, and she eventually wandered back into the kitchen.
At this point the staff notified the rest of the party that the drunk girl was no longer welcome. So they eventually gathered her up and dragged her outside. She musta done something though, 'cuz next thing you know, four cop cars and a paddy wagon rolled up. Apparently drunk girl assaulted the cops, and the next thing we saw was her handcuffed ass getting dragged to the paddy wagon. The cops were all laughing their asses off, and I bet she was the talk of the precinct that night. Dinner and a show. Pretty sweet.
Yesterday, on my lunch hour, I went downtown and registered for extra work on the Matrix 2. They're looking for "very fit, athletic people (tattoos a plus) who are comfortable wearing very skimpy clothing." Uhhh … I have some tattoos. ...
I went over there and got some head shots done, and they told me they thought they had all the Caucasians they needed, but that they'd call me if they liked my look. If you promise not to laugh, I'll post the link to my online actor's portfolio (hah) when it goes live.
I also finally followed up on auditioning for Metallica. I don't presume to think I could get the gig, or that I'd even want it if I did get it (which I won't), but it would make a hell of a story, don't ya think? They want me to send a video to be considered. Oh yeah, I just happen to have one right here. Whatever. Any video I have would be several years old, so I might just forget it. Man, but what an experience that would be. Can you imagine the mulletude of a Metallica audition? Unprecedented. ßßß
Viva la revolucion!
Well, I've finally joined the broadband revolution. And I couldn't be happier.
You'd think that living in the cradle of Silicon Valley, everyone and their monkey would have T1 lines, but that ain't the case. I tried getting Pac Bell DSL for almost a year before I finally gave up, and my ghetto-ass cable company doesn't offer cable 'Net access, so when I heard about Sprint Broadband, I jumped on it.
I wasted my entire Saturday waiting around for the installer guy, who was supposed to get there between 11 and 2. He showed up at 4:30 and wasn't done 'til 7:30, but when he left, I was surfing the Web at unheard-of speeds. The downstream speed is actually faster than my T1 at work, and upstream ain't half bad either. And I don't get logged off every minute and a half like I did on Earthlink dialup. Plus, unlike Pac Bell DSL, I have a static IP, which means I can access my employer's VPN from home, which means telecommuting is actually an option. Oh joy.
I saw Mike Dirnt at a diner on Sunday morning, the day after he had won eight Bammie awards. He didn't look too thrilled about it. And he was eating breakfast alone. Apparently eight Bammies don't get you a brunch date.
Ahhh, Monday
I got the cure for what ails ya on another gruesome Monday morning: the blawg.com Monday Morning Mix. Click here to go to straight to the show, or click on the Blawg radio link in the left sidebar to get to the brand-new music section. The Monday Morning Mix has close to two hours of tunes to keep you from harming yourself or others. Enjoy.
A real blog entry is forthcoming. Carry on. ßßß
Don't miss last week's brilliant insight.
