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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • Done, with ten days to spare.

    This year is my most successful year of holiday shopping yet. Yea verily, I am indeed finished with all of my holiday shopping as of today. I can now lean back and enjoy the next nine days secure in the knowledge that I have no more crowds to brave, bargains to hunt, or expenses to incur. There’s even a good chance that people will actually like what I bought them.

    Not too shabby for a scatterbrained procrastinator like yours truly, is it?

    (It bears pointing out that the vast bulk of this year’s holiday presents were selected, assembled and wrapped up by one particular very awesome lady. Some gifts required my personal touch, however, and oddly enough I actually came through with some good selections. I’m so proud of me. Heh.)

  • Impersonal Holiday

    While I’ve carefully tracked my vacation hours this year, and have spent them fairly wisely, I realized this morning that there’s one additional source of paid time off that I tend to forget until it’s too late.

    Entercom grants all employees one pick-the-date “personal holiday” per year in addition to the regularly-scheduled major holidays. I’ve worked here full-time for over eight years and, to the best of my recollection, I’ve never yet taken that holiday. (Anyone who’s known me for more than a year or two is welcome to chime in with a correction at this point.) I’m going to take it this year, however, in addition to the couple more vacation days I need in order to get firmly under the “carry over” cap.

    And so, I’m going to take payday (tomorrow) and Wednesday the 28th off as vacation days, and Winter Solstice (the 21st) as a personal holiday. Mind you, it’s not so much personal as it is merely convenient, but in this case my “sense of proper” is overruled by my “sense of mercenary practicality.” I’m sure my pagan friends will understand.

  • The Anti-Utility Aura

    While getting my haircut this morning, the power along a short stretch of SE Division (including the location of Fresh Hair) went out for fifteen minutes.

    Shortly after I arrived at work, water service was shut off for about three hours.

    Is there something about my presence today that is detrimental to basic utilities services? If so, I’d love to know what it is so I can prevent another outage…

  • The Holiday Party Blues. Or, Jazz.

    The annual company holiday party is something of a necessary social occasion, from my point of view. It gives me a chance to rub elbows with my coworkers in a situation that doesn’t involve phrases like, “The Internet’s broken, can you fix it?” I like (the majority of) my fellow employees, really.

    Mind you, this year’s party sent me packing in fairly short order. Let’s see… Loud, crowded venue? Check. Not a non-alcoholic drop to drink other than water? Check. Food selections consisting almost entirely of bread-based snacks? Check. (Anything meat-based was carried around by a server and doled out piecemeal, so gods forbid you wanted another one of those yummy coconut shrimp.) Jazz band in the corner contributing to the decibel levels so I can’t possibly hear what anyone’s saying? Check and mate.

    Nevermind that on a day when, early in the morning, I was assured by the weather service that it wouldn’t be raining for about a week so I left my umbrella home, it started sprinkling just as I was leaving the office to walk over to the venue… well, it was just better for all involved if I left after a nice, brief turn around the tables, you know?

  • A waste of a perfectly good Sunday.

    I’d probably have had a better day, today, had I not: a) climbed out of bed at 7:16am, and b) wrenched my shoulder, badly, shortly after getting to work. Argh.

    My shoulder still hurts like hell, a half-dozen ibuprofen later, or I’d tell you more about my day, such as it was. I hope you had a good weekend, friends, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Stay tuned for the company holiday party recap, won’t you?

  • A Note to Spike TV

    Dear Spike TV:

    When, in the future, you want to air a two-hour video game awards show, please feel free not to include musical numbers by artists who bear no relevance whatsoever to any video game ever made. I understood your including of Four Bits, or Two Quarters, or whatever that rapper’s name is who has a game out with his name on it. I don’t like rap, but at least that made sense.

    Def Leppard, however, looked truly pathetic and had absolutely no business being there. Wow. Their performance served only as a bitter reminder that those of us who grew up with rock bands of that vintage are getting along in years.

    The less said about Missy Elliot and her dancers, the better. Trust me.

    So please, in the future, consider the tortured psyches of the audience you’re trying to reach with a shindig like the one you put on a while ago (and later televised). Your parade of (generally) relevant presenters was about as good as one would expect. The overall quality of the show was good, albeit appropriately cheesy given that it was an awards show, let alone one about video games. The music sucked, though. There’s no two ways about it.

    Won’t someone please think of the gamers? Thank you.

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