Survey says

Holy whatever, I am so tired of people.

You know what, I was going to provide the work related rant, but it's just not even worth the time and energy that it would take. Maybe I'll change my mind later.

Let's see - what else is going on?

I'm avoiding my story.
I have a headache, even though this is a short work week, and really, it hasn't been all that stressful of a day... bah. Winter is just bah.
I finished One Door Away From Heaven, and I do believe I'm done with my Koontz Kick. At least for a while. Highly disappointing ending, I must say. Koontz needs to be sent the Stephen King memo: Kill your characters. Cause them pain, and remember that not everything ends happily in life. Also, lay off the dogs, dude. AND - psychology? Not really the devil you make it out to be. Lastly, no more proselytizing. It's great that you're a Christian and all, but ...whatever. I guess it doesn't matter since I wont' be reading any more of his books for a while anyway, right?

What else?

When I originally thought about blogging, I thought about making a list of movies that I hated, since Kirk did that recently on his blog. But now that I'm here, actually doing that feels like too much work. And getting worked up over movies - most of which are crap anyway - just seems... eh.

Steph and Harper and Irina are going to a Thanksgiving party today. With banana bread. I'm very jealous. Right about now i'd give practically anything to be somewhere other than work. It's not like there's even anything for me to be DOING. But I ...ohh! Email!

Bah. It was nothing good. A revision to the OBIN guidelines. Apparently, now as long as the "fucker" part of "motherfucker" and the "hole" of "asshole" are edited out, we're good to go with those words. Yippie ki ay, mother!

I'm still waiting on a phone call or an email back from the Armenians. No, seriously. We're running some Armenian Telethon (heh. I originally typed Telethong) on Thanksgiving Day. I need a trouble number and the audio subcarrier information given to me. Thus far, no return call. No return email. Okay, then.

It's 12:22 as I type this, and I should be eating lunch, but I'm avoiding the lunch room because I don't like eating in there during the noon hour anymore. Too many people, which means talking. And I'm tired of talking to people. Oooh! Email!
BAH!! Dollar modification. Shut up, people!

Speaking of talking, though, Tina (my ex boss) called me yesterday. She's up in Oregon now, and her family seems to be doing well. Her cat has disappeared, though. That was sort of a bummer, but she's holding out hope that he'll return. He's gone missing before, but then, that was back in Vegas.
She gave me her new email address and I gave her mine, and she said that she'd be back in Vegas during December to visit, so there ya go. Hey, another email, but I'm not even going to be excited this time, because I know that'll just disappoint.

H
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And, yeah, I'm doing that to boost my word count. Got a problem with that? [glares] [gets tired of glaring] [wants to go to sleep] [types more instead]

It was bitterly cold this morning. My ears were all numb when the bus finally arrived. It wasn't freezing outside, but I'd say that it was in the low 40s. Even though our house is not properly insulated, and it is often pretty cold inside, being out there made me appreciate how warm it truly is in there.
Every morning when i take the bus to work, I walk past these areas where homeless people sleep. It's disconcerting, for a minute or two before I push it out of my head, to see blankets and cardboard beds and empty alcohol bottles and garbage and discarded clothing all around there, especially as it is getting so cold.
Oh well. What are you going to do, starve? Ha ha ha.

Steph had this neat idea the other day. That couples should be allowed to marry each other. Like legally have a four-person household, where the responsibilities are all split. That way, everyone could work part time, and there would always be someone there to watch the children. I don't know if Steph's idea involved the swapping of mates. The idea, though (not the mate swapping, just the concept of having another couple that you are legally attached to and who would help out with all matters familial)  was one that was very intriguing. It would be like a baby step toward the retribalization of  people. Sort of. Anyway, seeing how people get uptight at the thought of anything other than man-woman marriage, I don't see it happening anytime soon, but still a neat idea. If I were working on my story, I might even try to find a way to incorporate it somehow.

Hold on.

Back. A short walk downstairs - and back again (obviously) - did me a little bit of good. I'm still suffering from a headache, and still Grumpelstiltskin, but it was good to get up from my desk and move around.

I think I will go eat, lunch crowd be damned, and see if that helps any.

And then he just sat at his desk for at least two more minutes, doing nothing. Wow. I am really tired or really ...something. Okay. Seriously this time, I am going to go get some food in my belly. Hopefully when I get back the Armenians will have called, although I'm not holding my breath. I'm much more likely to get a Family Feud complainer. [rolleyes] (And, yeah, okay, I'll tell the Family Feud story..ies when I get back.)

Back.

Feeling slightly better, too. But. Hold on.

Still have a headache. I think it's a caffeine (or, rather, a lack of) headache. I bet if I had a Pepsi i'd feel better. Pepsi - cures what ails ya.

Anyway. The Family Feud stories.

Yesterday during the 4pm episode of Family Feud, there was a problem with the automation. (Let's automate the television station. That way, nothing could possiblay go wrong!) So, the op on duty, trying to get the problem under control, but not wanting to have dead air while doing so ("Why we in black?"), ran some of the commercial breaks from Family Feud. Twice. Meanwhile, time marches on, and 4:30 rolled around, so the op decided, well, Family Feud at 4:00 is pretty much a wash (he was still unable to sort out the automation error - when the machines go bad, they REALLY go bad), so I better start my next program.
I agree with that call.
However. For those watching at home, they never got to see what happened in the final 6 minutes of the show. Did the family win $20,000? Did they only win 400 dollars? We'll never know!!
Most people would just shrug it off. Maybe be mildly irritated. But every once in a while there's a person out there who has to bitch about it.

And so, at 4:35 yesterday, I got a call transfered to me asking if we were having a problem with Family Feud. Since our station is set up in a really un-user friendly way and I don't have a television in front of me (and, even more baffling - neither does the receptionist), I said I didn't know, but I could go check.
So I put Irate Family Guy on hold, run downstairs, run across the parking lot, enter the other building, run down the hall, and go into Master Control, where I find the scoop. The op on duty was trying to recover still and wasn't too keen on me standing over his shoulder.
Having the answer I needed, I ran back to my phone, and slightly out of breath, took Irate Family Feud Guy off hold.
Explaining to him that we had equipment failure and that I was sorry, he was still pissed off at me. "So I wasted twenty minutes of my time watching a show I'm never going to see the ending of?"
"Well, yeah, basically. Newsflash. Television = waste of time."

I, of course, didn't say that - directly. But dude. What else was I going to say? We had a machine failure, we couldn't get the show to run, it's not going to be on again for several weeks, I'm sorry. Move. On.

Eventually he realized that I could not turn back the hands of time (I'm no Superman) and that bitching about it to me was not going to do any good and he hung up.

I was told by our receptionist this morning that he called again, yelling at her about how we 'always mess up the 4pm Family Feud'. Always?
And, dude. It was 24 hours ago. Let. It. Go.

Hopefully tonight we have it air with no problems. But I may have to make sure I leave before 4pm just to be on the safe side.

Then. Got another phone call today from a viewer - another male, older guy, but not the same Irate Family Feud Guy I spoke to yesterday - who was pissed as HELL that we would air Family Feud calling George Bush a liar.

Um. Care to explain, Señor Psychopath?

He informed me that the question was "If you could give a lie detector test to anyone in the world, who would it be?" and the number one answer was "George Bush", which insinuated (he claimed) that George Bush was a liar.
When I tried to say that I didn't think that is what they meant, he jumped down my throat. "Don't tell me what I didn't see! That sure as hell is what they meant. And I don't appreciate it."
Oooohkay, then.
Trying a different route, I tried to shift the 'blame' to the audience members that were polled. Since it's the audience that they ask the questions to, it isn't the station's fault that they want to submit Dubya to a lie detector test.
"Well that just shows the democratic/liberal sway that's going through this country. I don't agree with it," Irate Family Feud Guy 2 says.
Umm.
He continued on, telling me that even though his wife likes "that stupid show", they're never going to watch it again if that's the kind of nonsense they're going to air on it. And he was going to email everyone - the RJ, Family Feud, maybe George Bush himself - to let them know that he isn't a liar and he doesn't appreciate people insinuating that he is.

Yeah. Do you see now why I'm sick of people?

In other work related news, because work is all freaking encompassing lately, I still haven't heard back from the Armenians. However. They sent us a backup tape. That is only one hour long. And not in English.
It's going to be a long Thanksgiving, I have a feeling.

Finally, I think I will now make a random boq. You can either answer here in my comments, or cut and paste into your own blog. Or both. Or neither. The choice is yours!

<b>"Why do they always send the poor?"</b>

<b>Does blood money make a difference? For example - someone pays you, say, 1000 dollars for something you own. Does it matter who the money came from? If it's from mafia hitmen does it make it less acceptable than if it came from, say, a family member or a friend?</b>

<b>Torches and pitchforks really are underused nowadays. I know that's not a question.</b>

<b>What's going on in the news today? It's been a slow month, hasn't it?</b>

<b>Whatchya reading? (always a good standby question)</b>

<b>Is the sky falling?</b>

<b>What shape is the universe? (i think I've asked this before.)</b>

<b>If you could give a lie detector test to anyone in the world, who would it be?</b>

<b>Should I post my story here? Do you want to read it? Do you think I'll finish it?</b>

and finally...

<b>What's something that has made you laugh recently?</b>

Meh. A kinda weak bunch of questions (and one non-question), but it really does feel like the good ones have all been asked.

I guess I'll send this off now. Woo and hoo.