THE LAST FIVE ... Closing up shop It may be time for a change Entry in the air Still here Music of the moment Or ... BE RANDOM! GOOD READS 101 in
1001 OTHER PEOPLE Chupatintas THE BASICS |
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2002 - 9:37 p.m. I'm still hereYep, third time today. It bothers me that the annoying prima-donna bitch whines out of work because it's snowing, never comes in on Fridays (she got a "deal" when she started working here that gives her Fridays off) and always leaves no later than 7 p.m. even on nights she's the lead editor on pages that are closing when the protocol is that you stay until your pages are shipped. She came by my desk earlier, saw the red-and-green peanut M&M's in a bowl on my shelf and asked, "Can I have one of these?" With a smile and in a lighthearted tone so as not to completely give her the brushoff, I said, "Only if you can spell it." And then ��and she is blond, people, I'm just saying ��she goes, "M&M?" With a question mark. No lies. And then there's our editor in chief who comes in at 2 p.m. because he was here late the night before and then leaves for a two-hour dinner and we're all thrown into a holding pattern because our workflow includes the EIC signing off on everything. I still don't understand how things go around here. Text gets submitted as late as 6 (or later) on days when the pages are closing; layouts and photos get changed after 6 when most of us were under the impression that the page was all set to go. Some people don't seem to understand that their tediousness, their laziness (though I don't know that there's really anyone who's slacking off) affects half a dozen or a dozen people. Part of the reason tonight might be my first post-midnight night is that tomorrow's the office Christmas party (yeah, I'm not calling it the "holiday" party, not tonight) and, because it starts at 6:30 and ends firmly at 11:30, we're sending more pages tonight so we can all be out of here by 6:30 tomorrow. Fuckin' A. I really should head right into the EIC's office tomorrow, around 3 when he gets in, and tell him I want a raise because I was hired as an editorial assistant who would also happen to do some fact-checking. I know for a fact (HA!) that the new fact-checker makes $10,000 more than me, and the head guy probably makes more than that (SHIT!) and because I'm basically doing all fact-checking responsibilities and no EA duties, I think I warrant a little something extra. I'd take $3,000 but I think I'll go in and ask for about $8,000. And so I'm not even motivated to hunt down the pieces we still need to see before they're closed. At this point, 15 minutes isn't going to do much, you know? That's just too much of a hassle for me. Besides, in the meantime, I can continue my Six Degrees of Diaryland journeys. In today's travels, I found a few Kerouac aficionados I'd not previously discovered and plenty more diaries that have ended or moved (I don't bother following them to their new locations). I also found that the whole thing about Christmas catching people by surprise, about the holidays "sneaking up" on us is more reality than second-hand story. In fact, Christmas just popping up is the norm. (It's two weeks away!) So here are today's Diaryland journeys. The second, the one that starts with miss-edith, started because she left me a note saying how much she loved my idea. I think I'll make a diaryring, if I can figure out what the point would be. So here's where I went today: brkfstfnys to jeffy to elisabeta to dweezil to yay and miss-edith to wicked-sezzy to bytwilight to agamemnon81 to angelicagirl to halfsorry to frequencies to mzauberman to lisse to ladiebug too traumatease to dharmabumgrl. I particularly liked Traumatease's layout, where the photo at the top gets covered when you scroll down. And MZauberman has a great little diary review form here. It's pretty funny. And check this out:
BOO-YEAH! You all want 95s.
Next page: Setting the record straight
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