Britney Spears sheds ‘innocent’ image, releases new album swearing like a sailor!

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Okay, well, no, that’s not quite it. But it’s close! I swear!

While it’s probably not meant to be funny, when I read the AP story “Spears’ New Album Contains Cursing”, I was giggling most of the way through.

Britney Spears’ third studio album comes out next month, and it contains a few curse words that she knows some parents may not want their children to hear. “When I say ‘hell’ and ‘damn,’ I say it out of frustration in my songs. It’s not, like, a normal term of endearment that I use all the time.”

Well that’s good to know — because ‘hell’ and ‘damn’ sure are terms of endearment that I use on a daily basis, but it would be a sure sign of the apocalypse (or, at the very least, the world going to h-e-double-hockey-sticks in a handbasket) if Miss Spears, that paragon of virtue and teenage innocence, were to start slinging them around like beads at a Mardi Gras parade!

Um…or something like that.

(My second choice for a headline: Britney Spears contracts Tourette’s Syndrome in recording studio; FBI, RIAA, and PTA launching investigation targeting bin Laden)

Job frustrations

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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.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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After Enterprise, I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers’ last outing. A great little film, as it turns out. I’d already picked up the soundtrack a while back, which is an incredible collection of old-time bluegrass, folk, and gospel music, and it was neat finally seeing how all this wonderful music fit in with the film itself. The Coen brothers, of course, have a twisted sense of humor that I just love, and the movie was definitely one of the better outings I’ve seen from them — and one of the better performances I think I’ve seen George Clooney give. Incidentally, now I’m going to have to find Down from the Mountain: Live Concert Performances by the Artists & Musicians of ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, which apparently is available both on CD and DVD. Hmmm…Christmas is coming up pretty soon….

Enterprise: Terra Nova

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This week the Enterprise was off to “Terra Nova”:

The Enterprise crew alters course to investigate the mystery of Terra Nova, a legendary Earth colony whose inhabitants mysteriously disappeared decades ago. But when they arrive, they confront descendants of the colonists who have become more alien than Archer could ever have imagined.

Not bad, actually — definitely better overall than last week’s episode. I liked Archer’s frustration in being able to deal with the situation he ended up in — especially when he started fuming about how, “If I can’t make first contact with a group of humans…I don’t deserve to be on this ship.” T’Pol’s handling of Archer in the situation room was wonderful, too — I’m still not entirely sure just how serious her suggesting the stun grenades was, and how much of that was playing devil’s advocate.

Wild phlebotomists loose in the building!

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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.

For a wonderfully surreal time

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…pop in the new Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD, set the audio track to French (or maybe just mute it if you actually speak French), and turn on the ‘subtitles for people who hate the film.’

I watched about half an hour of the movie like this last night, and kept bouncing between laughing and just staring at the screen in bewildered amazement. I wasn’t sure what people meant when they mentioned that the ‘subtitles for people who hate the film’ were made up of text from Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV, Part II‘ — I thought they’d just run the text of the play underneath the Holy Grail. However, they’ve actually grabbed lines from Henry IV that are as close as they can be to the actual wording and intent of the lines in the Holy Grail that they’re replacing, and the end effect is truly, wonderfully bizarre. Some scenes don’t quite work, but in others, the correlation between what’s happening onscreen and what the subtitles are saying is freakishly accurrate.

I think this subtitle track may be one of my favorite features on the disc — probably not the one I’ll visit most often, but in terms of the sheer twisted humor of the idea (and the work it must have taken to assemble the track), I think it’s absolutely amazing.

Another week begins

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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

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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.

Enterprise: Unexpected

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Benefits to actually having a TV — while the reception is pretty cruddy, it does allow me to watch the single TV show I’ve got any real interest in, Enterprise. Last night’s episode was “Unexpected”:

When Tucker is dispatched to assist an alien ship with its power source problems, he is delighted to have a friendly encounter with one of the ship’s female engineers. But after discovering that their special moment has resulted in his becoming pregnant, he realizes he’s had an unwitting experience with alien sex. Now it’s up to the Archer and the crew to return the rapidly growing alien baby to its mother.

Definite mixed feelings about this episode, for me. It was enjoyable enough, and certainly fun to watch, but it definitely had a few moments that concern me a bit.

Things I liked: Trip’s attitude throughout the show — I really liked the understated, very dry approach he took. Archer’s reactions were hilarious, the number of times he had to work to stifle a smirk were hilarious. I do have to admit, too, to a thrill when the Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser appeared on the Enterprise’s viewscreen. I’ve always liked that ship (and Klingon design in general — though they were finally upstaged by the Next Generation-era Romulan Warbird…but I digress), and seeing it in action again was quite nice. On the other hand…

Things I didn’t like: We’re four episodes in, and they’ve already succumbed to the temptation to get some sort of Holodeck on the show. Okay, so the Enterprise didn’t end up with it, but still — is it that difficult to come up with original ideas? And would the Klingons really be appeased/tempted by the possibility of being given holographic technology? Seems to me that they’d be more interested in the cloaking technology that the alien ship was using. Besides, they seemed far to easily dissuaded — it’s hard for me to believe that given the level of tension between the Federation and the Klingon Empire during Kirk’s time, that any Klingon 100 years earlier, with far less contact with Humans to draw from, would put up with Archer’s down-home “Aw, shucks, Paw,” attitude for any longer than the time it would take to send a torpedo up the Enterprise’s tailpipe.

Anyway, taken as a whole, it was an okay episode, with some fairly amusing moments — but for someone who’s been watching Star Trek practically since birth, I really wonder how this show’s going to integrate its story arc with the known back story of the Trek universe. So far, they seem to be doing a fairly shaky job of that, which worries me. Ah, well — we’re also only four episodes in, and none of the Trek series have really hit their stride until somewhere between their second and fourth year, so I supposed it’s a little early to write “Enterprise” off just yet.

Still….

If I ever go postal…

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I swear, if I ever completely lose it, flip out, and go postal, I’m going to end up doing it with a staple gun, because of the sheer number of jobs I’ve run for lawyers, accountants, government employees, and various other people who seem to compensate for whatever percieved deficiencies may exist in their life with a pathological drive to staple everything as many times as possible, whether or not it’s actually necessary.

Grrrrrrrr.

And ack pffft, too.