UK Watercooler Conversation Six: The Private Psychedelic Reel

I feel so... expendable. Sigh.

::sniff::

At least my first report balanced. That's a big relief. And the big bosses really like my new "How Am I Driving?" reports.

We just got new cups for ours, after a week without. They are strangely bluish tinged.

If not, free mittens for me. They are brown suede (?) with knitted cuffs.

Work is still being rather stressful, although it wasn't as bad as yesterday. At least, as of right now, my temporary office is completely clear of all our equipment.

I will have to bring in the camera and get some shots of the New Office, when we get it finished (no ceiling yet).

There *is* a ceiling, a plaster one, but a posh new suspended one is on order. So, the existing ceiling currently has lots of cat5 cables (our fault) and power cables (not our fault) dangling from it.

Also, we are going to have posh new lights, with dimmable fluorescent tubes. On the other hand, we have one small window, too high to see out of, into another part of the building, and no natural light at all.

I would normally say, make sure you have a coffee before you go in, so your hands are warm and you have tons of energy, but then again, you always have loads of energy.

I have returned from house number three. More positive than the previous two, but the most I can muster for this one is ambivalence. It's very large, especially for the money, to the extent that we've actually discussed if there is actually one room too many, given that we don't really know what to do with the extra.

It's very functional, but what it lacks in character is made up for in that the walls are plain and not dirty. However the bathroom is downstairs at the back of the house, accessed through the kitchen, which bothers me. On the positive side, though, there is a shower.

I think we'll keep this as a maybe, pending looking at the other houses.

forget you, I always managed at least one post per thread that mentioned watercoolers.

does anyone think that 'The Warriors' wouldn't have been as good if it hadn't been based on a gang owning a fairground?

I missed this earlier. Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?

Is it a shared house you're looking for, I forget?

And no, TISSP, I'm not talking about Radiohead reports, even though yes, we were listening to that EP at the weekend. They're just individual reports on how the consultants are doing.

Yes. The Waltons are positions 6-10 on the list of the richest people in the world. If the patriarch was alive, he'd be twice as rich as Bill Gates. Also urgh reading the Forbes billionaires list to find this out is really nauseous. There's only two billionaires in Africa, guess what colour they are? Hint: they're South African. Also inherited, of course. It actually makes me feel better towards Bill Gates, because his monster wealth is self-made, and he appears to be doing something with it instead of waiting to drop it on a heir to the throne.

Er, and good luck with the job!

Fingers crossed for emsk!

But still, it's always good to have a good interview, it's good practise and all that.

Mooore problems with my reports. PEOPLE STOP MOVING AROUND FROM BRANCH TO BRANCH, YOU MORONS!!! Argh.

And I was hoping to get out of here before the next mass mailout of promotional crap, which due to the lack of work placement monkeys it looks like I'll be doing on my own. There is no task I loathe more. Hey, maybe you can come and work here unpaid instead emsk ;)

thanks for the job love, everybody. ooh, library. i nearly applied for some library stuff just before christmas, then got distracted by something.

and um yes i do wish to eat. and drink. and sleep in a bed.

Anyone fancy a beer tonight?

clean desk policy = shove everything in a desk drawer last thing at night.

Anyway, just thinking about the nice BEER.

I had a nice time last night, that was a very good idea.

ihttp://www.bluecross.org.uk/web/MultimediaFiles/LEWKNOR-OPENING.JPG

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2363/1091/400/boobies.jpg

(couldn't resist)

aw kate. i know this is serious. all i can think is there MUST be something seriously up in his personal life for him to do this, esp as he's so aware of how other men in your life have behaved. i think the fact that he called you on tues shows that he does know this and doesn't want to let you down, it's just incredibly bad luck that that was the only time he could call.

Kate, you do know that whatever his problems are, they're not to do with you, don't you? That it's not in some way your fault?

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2005/05/04/Boris2204_gallery.jpg

Giant smiling Boris:

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/resource.php?l=johnson

Boris in a tux:

http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/applying/ugprospectus/prospectus_Page_17_Image_0005.jpg

Errrr.... what?

http://www.nyheter.nu/kultur/kjellbrooz.jpg

Congratulations, G-Kit and Missus Kit. 10 years? The mind boggles.

(really sorry you're upset and agitated, Kate)

I can't process this. I can only prop myself up with fantasy.

He booked the main meeting room for a meeting with a supplier, for 9-10. Someone else then booked it again, for 2-3. The supplier then turns up this morning, at 10am, with a carefully prepared presentation and agenda for a five-hour meeting.

Only this very day my office has been engaged in a surreal debate with the elf and safety about whether or not we could have a new printer installed. Such is the volume of correspondence that the old printer packed up the other day, and some of my letters have been piling up (for which apologies to anyone out there expecting an answer).

So we got on to the works department, located a new Hewlett Packard, but were amazed to be told that the device could not be transported 200 yards by anyone in the IT department.

Nah, they said; we can't do that. You need someone specially trained to do that, they said. It's the elf and safety innit. You'll have to wait two days, they said. So in the end we had to carry it ourselves and now it is of course chuntering out great quires of correspondence.

But what kind of madness is it, I ask, that prevents a couple of grown men from transporting a Hewlett Packard gizmo not much bigger than a milkmaid's footstool?

So everyone else is off work today, huh.

I'm so disappointed in Tamara Drew. I love(d) Posy Simmons but it's a bit of a let-down. Maybe it's better read in one big go instead of drip-fed.

Dropped the PA off at the drummer of my (now ex) band's place last night. He was all subdued and down, the fool. Have the van 'till monday, most likely I'll just stick the keys through his letterbox when he's out then. I don't need any grief, or worse still "thanks mate for all the years you put in (even though I shat on you)"

I guess there's probably a balance in band leader members - someone who is laid back enough that s/he's nice to get on w/, yet not so much that nothing ever gets done, yet who has enough get-up-&-go to book gigs, push the band etc, but not so much that s/he is a total dick. I've never encountered it, I imagine that bands who get this balace right and who can keep it this way are the successful ones.

wtf anyway, I'll stick up an ad in locam musick shops in a coupla weeks - "barely competent middle-aged guitarist seeks band for fun - any age/sex/race I like hawkwind, van der graaf, magazine, I hate the clash, "classic" songwriting, britpop", summat like that. I want to build up my guitaring skillx0rz.

That seems quite rare.

Interesting reactions the Clash provoke. I think I might be alone in being indifferent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17walmart.html?th&

Blimey

"Wal-Mart's focus has been on lower income and lower-middle income consumers," he wrote. "In the last four years or so, with the price of fuel being what it is, that customer has had the most difficult time. The upper-end customer got a tremendous number of tax breaks about four years ago. They have been doing very well in this economy."

Blarg, after getting kicked out of bed early by Young Adam, I had to spend the whole morning in training.

However, the owner of the company spotted me working late, and actually came over to talk to me (sans cigar) and managed to solve one of my ongoing problems with this horrible report. Which was good.

Pash, what ended up happening with this band? Were they of the cunting variety or the timewaster variety?

It's so hard, as a bandleader, to tread the line. Because you don't want to be mean and you don't want to be a cunt, but at the same time, it can be very frustrating when you end up having to do EVERY BLOODY THING and you feel like you're not getting any support from your bandmates. But then again, that's why we have a manager. So we can all shout at Emsk and she runs around and sorts stuff out.

I played in the band for 3-4 years, the bass player recently left, and the new guy they wanted to get in came with a keyboard player attached, they basically offered him the job behind my back ("they" meaning the drummer, going on his previous form) and I found out early because the lighting guy tipped me off. They were going to offer me the foh mixing job as consolation, would you believe. The drummer didn't want me to pack it all in, because he was worried that the new guy wouldn't work out! Can you believe that?! I told him to fuck off. I'd be upset, but it's so totally archetypal of the way this guy behaves that it's funny, plus, even though it's been enjoyable, and it's improved my keyboard playing skills & onstage confidence loads, I'm getting a bit sick of playing other ppls songs (to, like, 200 people at a go) I'd rather play my own music (to, like 10 people at a go)

I don't mind playing in a dictatorial band, as long as ppl are a/honest and b/communicate what they actually want, rather than blethering in a vague manner. I'm certainly a worker, extra-musically as well. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at load out time at their next gig, when they realise that the 2 ppl who did all the heavy lifting (me, and the outgoing sound enginner, kim, who the drummer terminally fucked off 1 week previously) are now no longer here, and this p a system isn't going to load itself into the van.

I also not with some amusement the total lack of communication from the singer (who I used to pick up for every gig in the last year) who I know had no idea abt the drummer's plan, or the main guitarist. Ain't it always the way.

I'll email the ex sound gurl, I think. She's a pretty cool person & she has a regular job @ a big venue in nwcstl, where she said they were short of sound crew. And paid well, heh.

(Though, OK, it's the only song of theirs I would probably recognise as it's the one about the Katies. Oh, that might be why he's singing it. Cause there are an awful lot of us on this floor.)

Mrs Webber's Diary rules. It was in the loo in my parents' house while I was growing up, and I loved Posy Simmons's style before I understood what I was reading.

Anyone else around this afternoon?