Thanks to Casey for forwarding this my way…
Satan worship is the perfect religion. If you fuck up, you go to heaven.
— Andrew Vachss
Personal
The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.
Another weekend survived
Not that it’s usually that difficult to survive my weekends, actually….
Okay, so I guess it’s a real warning
When I made my post yesterday just before leaving work about the bridge attack scare, I wasn’t yet very sure how seriously to take it. The time is ripe for scares and hoaxes, and since the only evidence I had at that point was a printed e-mail message, I was a little hesitant to take it at face value. However, judging by reports in this morning’s news (West’s Suspension Bridges Reportedly Terror Targets), I guess the alert is real enough. No new information has developed over the day, apparently — I guess we’ll just have to pay attention to the news tonight to see if anything happens.
Whether or not anything happens, I’d say the terrorists are doing a damn good job at this point. Whether it’s airplanes, anthrax in the mail, or bridges blowing up, nobody really knows where to look next, what to expect, or who’s the next to be targeted — and everybody’s tense. At this point, I’m not sure that terrorists would even need to actually cause any more physical damage or deaths, at least for a while — just leak a threat every few weeks, vaguely worded but with just enough detail to put people on alert, and watch the United States collectively freak out. People get nervous, politicians panic, and sooner or later, we’ll become a totalitarian police state — we’ll just be doing it under the combined banners of ‘democracy’, ‘patriotism’, and ‘safety’.
The WTC/Pentagon attacks killed around 5,000 people. The paranoia after those attacks is killing everything the U.S. has puportedly stood for over the past 200 years. Yeah, I’d say the terrorists did — and are doing — a pretty good job.
West Coast targeted?
I’m not sure what to make of this just yet. Jenne (one of the ladies I work with) just handed me a print of an e-mail she was forwarded. Here’s the scoop:
Our firm has received uncorroborated information through the law enforcement community regarding the possibility of terrorist attacks. The transmission from the National Threat Warning System is as follows:
NATIONAL THREAT WARNING SYSTEM — Terrorist Threat Advisory Update
Possibility of Additional Terrorist AttacksThe FBI is in possession of uncorroborated information indicating the possibility of additional terrorist attacks against the United States, specifically the West Coast. Reportedly, unspecified groups are targeting suspension bridges on the West Coast. Six incidents are to take place curing rush hour beginning Friday, November 2 and continuing through November 7, 2001.
No further information about this alleged attack is known at this time. The FBI is attempting to verify the validity of this report. Recipients will be updated as events warrant.
Recipients who receive or develop information related to this matter should immediately contact their local FBI office.
Please note that this information is uncorroborated and may be a hoax, inaccurate, or alternatively, the parties planning this may now be dissuaded from their plan.
You may see or hear this in other media.
I’m not quite sure what to think of this right off, and it’s time for me to go…I’ll follow up on this more tomorrow.
Mullet haiku
This got handed to me at work a while back. I’m no expert on haiku, so I can’t gaurantee that these all follow the rules as far as syllables and such…but I thought they were hilarious.
Oh, and by the way, just in case you’ve not yet heard the term ‘mullet’, just let Mullet Lovers fill you in.
One very cool weekend
This weekend was all sorts of fun — about time, right? :) Not that I’ve been having bad weekends…this one just had a bit more to it.
My parents were stopping in Seattle for the weekend on their way home after visiting Florida for my Grandma’s 90th birthday. They got into town Thursday night, so after work Friday I walked down to their hotel and spent a very pleasant evening with them. We ordered pizza from Pagliacci’s, sat in their hotel room, and talked for a few hours. My family being who we are, the conversation bounced all over the place, from catching up on how the various members of the family are doing to everything that’s going on in the world at the moment.
Job frustrations
6/17/05 Update: My lord…Microsoft canned me for a photo, but this post slipped right by Xerox? I got really lucky. In retrospect, a really stupid thing to post publicly.
In other news…well, my job is starting to get on my nerves a bit, unfortunately. The job itself isn’t really all that bad — while copying isn’t what I want to do forever, I know what I’m doing, and I like the actual place I’m working — I just feel like I’m caught in the middle of a power struggle, and it’s not the greatest place to be.
I think Xerox may have made a bit of a mistake by hiring for this position from a temp agency. Basically, as the XBS Account Representative, I’m supposed to be the resident Xerox person here. However, from my point of view, I feel much more like an Andersen employee than I do a Xerox employee — I work at, for, and with Andersen at all times, and Xerox is little more to me than another level of beaurocracy that as yet, has done little more than interfere with how I get paid, where and how quickly my supplies come from, and such. I even like the people I deal with at Andersen more than most of the Xerox people I’ve dealt with — admittedly, though, I do have much more contact with the Andersen people, so that’s likely to give me some amount of bias to start with. So in the end, I almost feel like a double agent from a bad spy movie — technically, my loyalties are supposed to be with Xerox, but they end up being much more with Andersen.
Aside from crossing my fingers on the Carnival Cruise Lines position, I’m not actively looking for another job anywhere just yet, though. When I first got tagged for this spot, I was asked to make a one year commitmentment to the position, and even though there is nothing signed and I’m still a temp worker, I don’t like backing out on something like that. However, the situation here is somewhat frustrating, and I can’t say as I’d complain if something worthwhile (such as Carnival Cruise Lines, or maybe a decent job somewhere in the tech sector) fell into my lap. Just this morning, I had to tell Shelley (my Xerox supervisor) that I’d watch what I said around the office here, as Lee (my Andersen supervisor) had slightly mis-interpreted something I said and gotten the impression that I was actively looking for another position somewhere. Since Lee had asked Xerox for someone willing to make a commitment, she wasn’t too excited about that, and asked Shelley about it — who then got miffed that she was hearing news like this from her client rather than her employee. I suppose I can understand where both Shelley and Lee are coming from — I just don’t like being in the middle of it.
This is kind of why I think Xerox shouldn’t have hired me for this spot straight out of a temp agency. If they’d brought in someone from Xerox instead, then not only would that person know more about the Xerox policies, procedures, and corporate atmosphere, then they’d probably see themselves much more as a Xerox employee than I do.
Ah, well, I suppose it’ll all get resolved one way or another eventually. At this point, I’m just keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed for the cruise lines. Since they said they’ll be hiring in the October/November range, I figure if I haven’t heard from them by Nov. 1st I should be okay with giving a call or e-mail to see what the situation is, and whether or not I have a chance. Hopefully it comes through…but if not…well, I’ll figure something out.
Wild phlebotomists loose in the building!
Well, okay, so it’s not really that exciting — just a blood drive. But I thought it was amusing when I noticed them in the 3rd floor conference room. Downsides to having a tattoo barely a year old — from what I understand, I can’t give blood for another year. I’m sure they’ll be fine, though, they had willing volunteers in the chairs already.
Another week begins
Been a busy morning so far, but I figured I’d grab a couple minutes to babble away for a bit. I ended up having a pretty nice weekend — a good balance of getting out and doing stuff, and kicking back and killing time at home.
Friday evening I headed out with Chad and Kelly, since Kelly is in town for a little bit on her way out to a job in Colorado, and we all went to see From Hell, the new Johnny Depp film about Jack the Ripper. I’d give it a very solid ‘good’ overall — not bad, but not great. Worth a matinee showing, at least. However, the closer it got to the end, the more I liked it — and while the end didn’t come as a total surprise to me, I really liked the choices that were made in presenting the final events of the film, and even what those events were. Of course, I don’t want to give away a whole lot here…suffice it to say I was somewhat pleasantly surprised with the closing moments of the film.
Saturday I went out with Chad, Don, and Kelly for a bit. We started with brunch at El Greco, a nice little spot up Broadway a bit, then we all headed down to the Pike Place Market to do some birthday shopping for Dez. Of course, as we were wandering around in a cooking store finding her present, who should we run in to but…Dez! Just the way these things work, I guess. In any case, everyone got things hidden in time, and we chatted with her and her sister Morgan for a bit before they took off again, and we got the gifts and skedaddled. I wandered home to rest and watch a movie, then that evening walked up to Chad and Don’s house and we all cabbed over to Casey and Dez’s place for Dez’s birthday party. Was a lot of fun…just a few friends kicking back and talking. Round about midnight I was getting tired, so I packed up one of the computers I’ve had over at Casey’s and hauled it home with me on the bus.
Sunday was spent mostly cleaning up at home — since I got the TV I’d been just enjoying being able to watch movies again, so had let the house go a bit, and I finally got sick of it. Popped in The Emperor’s New Groove to listen to as I cleaned, and got just about everything put away. I’ve even got my computers set up on my table, all plugged in and ready to go as soon as Rick gets here with my monitors (not that I’m anxious or anything….). Much nicer living in a place that’s actually all clean and presentable.
That evening I went out with Heather, a girl I’ve met here at work. She works for one of the other businesses in the building, and after getting to talking after running into each other a few times, we figured we’d get together sometime. So, we ended up heading out to the Satellite Lounge, just a few blocks up Pike, and sat and talked there for a few hours. Was a very pleasant evening — and I figure any girl that I mention Closet Land to and have her know exactly what movie I’m talking about (it’s not the most well-known flick out there) has got to be pretty cool. Anyway, it made for a very nice evening…we’ll see what happens from here, I suppose.
And that about catches us up to the here and now, as I continue muddling my way through another week punching the green button. Fun fun fun….
Not exactly unexpected
You know, it’s kind of bizarre to see a prediction come true. About the time I was leaving TimeFrame, Rick and Tim and I all were pretty sure that the way the business was heading, it would be closing down in about six months. Well, out of the blue, I found this e-mail in my mailbox on Friday:
A note to all TimeFrame Customers:
At this time all digital intake services have been shut down. If you currently have a print job in progress it will be completed on or before Oct. 31, 2001.
As of November 1st, TimeFrame will no longer be offering volume copying and duplicating services in black and white and color. That means that the services that would normally be produced on the Xerox DocuTech or the DocuColor will no longer be available at TimeFrame.
Large format printing, laminating, and mounting services will continue to be offered under the business name “Big Time Graphics”.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause.
We expect erratic scheduling, at best, as we near the final days of these services.
Please address all inquires regarding archived data to Robert Thomas at (907) 562-3822.
While we were all pretty sure it was coming, it’s still a bit shocking to get the news that it’s actually happening. It definitely looks like I got out at the right time, though.