random thoughts and thoroughbred selections

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

All Over The Place

I was at the Whitney Museum in NYC Saturday, and fresh off the fetishistic anatomical art of Kiki Smith I had the lamest celebrity sighting I've had since I met Eric Hipple in 1983.

Waiting with a friend for the elevator was the actress who played Fay on "Wings." Wow. Just awesome. Some people fly halfway around the world to see Kate Hudson bend over in front of them, I get a septugenarian character actress who might have Tim Daly's phone number.

Hooray.

Not that I have anything against older women. Hell, Helen Mirren is kinda hot for a sixty-something.

There actually is a minor job-related reason to celebrate today... I found out yesterday that my October 2003 hire date, which puts my fourth anniversary with the company nine months out from now, actually puts me in my fifth calendar year of service.

That's plus five days in the vacation column. Awesome.

I'm still waiting on some interesting developments on the job front that may manifest in short order. I took this transfer - a lateral move title-wise, with responsibilities two job classes above my title - with the understanding that within the first six months onsite I'd be getting that two-title promotion. Hasn't happened for a variety of reasons outside my control, but the carrot stays on the stick just out of reach.

About three weeks ago, my boss apologized - again - for not being able to move me forward and get me titled and compensated properly. He didn't want to hold me back any longer, and encouraged me to chase another internal opportunity (near Philly) that would give me that promotion and bump I've been looking for. I've interviewed, and I think they're getting close to deciding what to do with the opening.

This has also been a good thing in order to motivate my current client. We're using the leverage of my leaving the account to get them to increase our business here. If they can get that coordinated, I stay here and get the promotion.

~~Here's the possibilities and percentage probabilities:~~

In between 8AM when I started this post and 930AM, I found out that I didn't get the Philly thing, and they are still murky on finding a way to get me compensated appropriately here. Save the "it's time to quit and find another job" comments, as that's where my head is already anyway.

Fuck. I don't deserve this.

Shifting gears, I've never been one to pirate music to a large extent, but there's an album that just came out that apparently isn't going to be carried on iTunes for which I don't want to wait to get a CD from Amazon. Thing is, they have the entire album available in streaming audio from the label's website. Hello Audacity. I don't see the difference in what I'm doing here versus the 1982 model of holding a tape recorder up to the radio to get "Pink Houses" by John Cougar off "American Top 40." I'll probably still buy the disc at some point, because I believe in capitalism and all, but I'll be damned if I'm going to wait to have the music I want on my iPod.

Same goes for a certain website that's streaming some of their enormous archive of concert audio with a promise that someday there will be CDs available for purchase. You put it out there, I'm going to pull it down. God bless Audacity.

By the way, I want to punch that Jack Johnson dude in the vagina. Just sayin'.

Today's political moment will be short, I promise. It's a game, actually. Tell me how these two stories are related:

Scientists say Bush stifled data on climate [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

Bush gives White House greater control over government agencies [International Herald Tribune]

In the so-called "Information Age," one would think it would be more difficult to spin webs of obfuscation and that those driving partisan messages would find it more difficult to not be seen as the disingenuous shills they are.

One would think.

By the way, I tend to agree with Jeremiah's take on Hilary as a power-hungry opportunist elite, but unless you can convince the electorate to support Dennis "Nerdlinger" Kucinich, I'm not sure what you can do to prevent a power-hungry opportunist elite from taking the 2008 election. It's all about finding the most palatable power-hungry opportunist elite.

Maybe more later - as I just got the news I detailed above and I'm irritated. Loving my employer today, that's for fucking sure.

[>>]posted at 10:04 AM by BG - click to email
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