A map of the orignal area code boundaries established in 1947. I'm enough of a goob to have pulled up a current map to switch back-and-forth between the two ("They've added one there... and there... and there....").

Management here at TV Gourd has their collective heads up their ass. Or their heads up their collective ass. I'm not sure which.

We're working on a huge project (one of those "We know this isn't really what your group does, but we could really use the help because, instead of using the last 6 months to work on it, we put it off until the last minute!" -type things^†).

Problems include:
• Forcing us to use proprietary programs that we've never used or been trained on, and no, they're not going to train us to use them.
• Those same programs actually being of no use to us.
• The one program that is useful (and almost necessary) is one that can't be installed on our group's computers because our software is out-of-date.
• The single, most useful database resource available to us (as in, 80% of the information we need is there) is also a single user resource. Only one person at a time can be logged in to it!
• The reports from which we're working: There are two different versions of the first half of the first report, no one seems to know what happened to the second half, while the second report is being given to more and more people who all try to start on the first page. When it is divided, it's by "I'll take the third page!" instead of dividing it up by subcatagory, so we'll have multiple people working on the same subcatagory.
• No standardized method of keeping track of our progress. I was the first to begin working on the report and I use a apparently complex system involving colored highlighters and a pen. When the others were brought on, Dumbass_Manager_01 asked me to explain my system, then suggested the others use whatever will work for them. Which, of course, will be great fun when all the reports are given to one person to be compiled.

^† Even better is when they say "If you do well on this, maybe they'll keep you around instead of laying you off!" when we've already been told by several management-types several months ago (including the one who said that) that the layoff dates were finalized and that there is nothing, short of a Jedi mind trick and the blessing of an Incan mummy girl, that will alter the fact that we're being laid off.


edited, because it's harmonious when your corresponding nouns and verbs agree in number.

Odd Place Names: Meat Camp, NC

An interesting site that I've missed until today: EyeWitness, "history through the eyes of those who lived it." I haven't had a lot of time to explore it yet and only read of a few events in which I have a particular interest: The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906, The British Burn Washington, DC, 1814, The Destruction of Pompeii, 79 AD, and Doomed Expedition to the South Pole, 1912.

At the bottom of this page is an audio clip of a very cranky Orson Welles during a voiceover recording session that wasn't going well.

He doesn't sound much like The Brain (except for that "Yes!" part about one minute in). Compare to The Brain's voiceover in his commercial for his new fragrance, Subjugation.

Oh, and wasn't last night's Angel great? I LOVED it! The season is building up a lot of excitement and tension, and now I can hardly wait for Wednesdays.

Is Wes getting hotter with each episode?

One episode from each Joss series nominated for a Hugo in the same category (plus two Enterprise eps I'm not concerned with):

Nominations for the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Category:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Conversations With Dead People"
Firefly, "Serenity"
Angel, "Waiting in the Wings"


Do they ever have three-way ties, 'cause I can't pick just one (though I am leaning toward "Serenity," but I think that has more to do with everything that happened to the series and the general feeling of FOX FUCKING SUCKS that I still have).

Some people need to be thoroughly flogged.

Clock spider.

Spiders don't really bother me, but if I saw this one, I'd probably freak and wet myself.

"I've been moved to tears on Buffy before but I've never been so truly upset."

That's about all I can say about "Dirty Girls."

It's difficult to believe that a New-Buffy- Tuesday could get much better without more Buffy news, but mine got a little better outside new-Scoobiness: I paid off my car today. Yay!

So, between this and my not-quite-three-weeks-old computer, I remember the reason I took up that weekend video store job, and maybe I'll whine a little less about never having a day off.

New Buffy tonight! Yay!

Last night, I saw the trailer/commercial for the second X-Men movie for the first time. I nearly wet myself with Fanboy Awe.

Some stills. Siryn? Look at her clothes! I'm liking this Jubilee better than the Generation X tv movie one (though I like that one too, and the whole movie). Yum!

Gotta stop looking. I'm starting to get all spazzy.

Small things make me happy: a transcript for Clue

WADSWORTH
Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry,
specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics
suffering from delusions of grandeur.

PLUM
Yes, but now I work for the United Nations.

WADSWORTH
So your work has not changed.

The April 12 issue of TV Guide has an article about John Walsh. The really "Ah-ha!" part: In 1996, FOX "dropped [America's Most Wanted] due to declining ratings. Fifty-five members of Congress lobbied for its return, and 38 governors signed a letter in support of the show. Fox reversed its decision."

So there it is. Folks, start writing you Congresscritters now and call your governor to get them signed on. We can still save Firefly!

I left my apartment after lunch yesterday, got to the bottom of the stairs on the second floor (I live on the third) and there's a squirrel sitting in front of my downstairs neighbor's door. Being of the "Aww, a cute little squirrel!" type, I stopped to watch him do his little squirrel thing, expecting him to freak out and run away. Instead, he puffed his little tail and started shaking it at me. After another "Aww, how cute!" moment, I stepped slowly toward him (had to round the corner to go down the next flight of stairs). He turned like he was going to run, but then he turned back, puffed and twitched his tail again, and took a hop toward me and snorted. Again I thought it was cute, and fascinating. Here's this liiiitle fuzzball threatening me and letting me know that he means business.

I took another step to go around the corner, and again, he hopped and snorted at me. Then again. And again. And once more. At this point, I'm starting to get a little freaked, wondering if this squirrel could be rabid and carnivorous. I stepped again, and this time, the little guy turns, runs a foot or so, turns back, and repeats the hop-snort process until he's close enought that I could have reached down and picked him up. That was a little too close for me, so I hurried around the corner, with the squirrel turning away, hopping back, turning away, hopping back, and snorting at me the whole time. I turned to go down the next set of stairs, which double back and would have forced me to go by the squirrel again. The space between the bars on the railing is way more than enough for a rabies-crazed squirrel to leap through and eat out my eyes once my head was level with him. I didn't want that to happen, 'cause I like my eyes. Instead, I backed up, walked through the breezeway to the back of the building, took the rear stairs, and walked around the building to my car.

A vicious, diseased-brained, possibly flesh-eating squirrel has taken over the front side of the second floor of my apartment building.

Update: Went home for lunch today and thought I'd check up on the squirrel. He was still there.

Upcoming Buffy eps:

• Tonight: all new "Lies My Parents Told Me"
  
• April 1: "Sleeper" (repeat)
  
• April 8: "Never Leave Me" (repeat)
  
• April 15: all new "Dirty Girls".

Upcoming Angel eps:

• Tomorrow: all new! "Players"
  
• April 2: all new! "Inside Out"
  
• April 9: all new! "Shiny, Happy People"
  
• April 16: all new! "The Magic Bullet"

Neither Gem Nor Star
Embattled TV programming-guide provider Gemstar-TV Guide reported this week it will restate $111 million in revenues it booked in the past. In other words, the company claimed revenues it shouldn't have.


Naughty, TV Guide!

Still, most of us around here preferred Henry to current Big Cheese Jeff.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome all the fine folks coming from Metafilter, and to let you know that Angel is on tonight at 9pm, EST, on the WB. You should watch it. It'll answer every question you could possibly have about anything*.



* may not be the truth

Dreamed last night that I was in Sunnydale with the Scoobies. Andrew had been arrested and was in jail, all part of some devious plot by the First, who was controlling the police officers. Somehow, Jonathan had come back to life, but the First and his Bringers didn't know that. We used Jonathan as a decoy to break Andrew out of jail, and hid out in Angel's old mansion, only the mansion was different. Much bigger, more spacious, and less darkness there. Also, Katharine Hepburn lived there with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spent the entire time naked. And anatomically incorrect. And his job was to cook corn dogs for the ball park next door.

Andrew and Jonathan disappeared, while Buffy and Katharine argued over the best way to fight the First. Buffy eventually stormed out, leaving me to deal with the fuming Ms. Hepburn. Katharine picked a fight with Arnold, then kicked him out of her house for not paying rent. Instead, Arnold climbed into bed, pulled the blanket over his head, and disappeared. This is where I woke.