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11:17 p.m. - 12-16-2002
Work, Books and some shit on writing.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
I wish work would be steady. For like 2 weeks, I'll barely have stuff to keep me busy. Then, boom, I'll have more stuff than I can handle...almost. Ever since the managing editor "stepped down" and I took over some of his responsibilities, I've had plenty of work. There's always something on the site that needs to be updated or changed or something. I'm happy for the work, but it feels weird.
I've worked at jobs where people got fired before, but I've never had one of those people be a good friend. And I've never had one of those people show me how to do their job a few months previous to being let go. I know that Bob wasn't let go because of me. I know I didn't take his job, but in the back of my head I have this little voice that blames me. Bob did the News Wire 85% of the time and I did it the other 15%. I basically did it to keep my hand in and so that I wouldn't get rusty. I only did it every 3rd Sunday so it wasn't like I was putting in a lot of time on it. Problem is, it's just basic HTML, which I've been doing for the past 6 years and have gotten very comfortable with. Bob, on the other hand, never worked much with HTML and always used a WYSIWYG editor like FrontPage to do his stuff. So, when it came to nights that I did the News Wire, I knew shortcuts and stuff that allowed me to shave about an hour off of the time it took Bob to do it. And then the new bosses came.
When the new company took over, there was a small ripple of fear that passed through the staff. A lot of people were wondering if they were going to be replaced or let go. I mean, this is a major publishing company. They publish something like 100 different magazines from aviation to equestrian and they're a multi-million dollar corporation. I figured they had guys with hatchets just waiting in the wings to "cull the herd" so to speak. But, at the same time, I wanted to be totally honest with the new bosses. So, when they'd conference call me ask me about my duties, I was honest with them. They would ask me how long it takes me to do stuff and more than once they were suprised at my answers. I couldn't help but think that the answers I had given them, although perfectly honest, had somehow sealed Bob's fate. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I had no bad intentions whatsoever. It also turns out that most of Bob's functions were redundant. He handled customer service, which they already had a department set up for. He handled a few other things, for which they already had a department set up. And did the News Wire, which I could also do, but better and more efficiently. So, they added it all up and decided to subtract Bob. I was afraid that my co-workers would think I had something to do with it, but luckily, they all understood.
What took a lot of the sting out of it was that I knew Bob was already pretty set financially. On the side he had some kind of computer consulting business that did pretty well. He also had mentioned that he was planning on selling his house in the near future and would get at least $200K out of it. Whereas I had a family to support pretty much by myself and nothing to fall back on. That helped a little. And Bob was cool about it too. I never really said it, but I should have. Bobbo, I owe you a ton.
The book I'm reading now is by Sue Grafton and is Q is for Quarry. I'm not too far into it yet, maybe the 3rd chapter or so, but it's looking good so far. Good mystery/thriller base. It's kept me captivated and wanting to learn more.
That's one of the things I've found about some books. I can usually tell within the first few chapters if I'm going to enjoy a book or not. If it keeps me interested and captivated through the first 3-5 chapters, then I'll be hooked all the way through. If it either tells too much to begin with or if it doesn't tell anything then I can tell it will be a struggle and I lose interest really quickly. I have a few books in my collection that I've started reading 2-3 times and have stopped just because I lost interested too quickly. Sometimes, it's just my mood, but most times it's the book. If a book gives away too much stuff at the off, then I spend most of the rest of the book formulating solutions or answers. I have pay attention to the book and usually miss some good parts. Some books just get too laden down with details. I remember reading a Tom Clancy book, I think it was either Hunt For Red October or maybe Clear And Present Danger, but I remember hitting parts where he got extremely detailed in the description of technologies and such. Now, luckily for me, these came at parts where I was already extremely hooked into the book, and the details were about military things like weaponry and other technologies and that stuff I can never find boring. A couple of my favorite PC games are the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games. I just love that whole, special unit, secret military, elite asskicker shit.
I do love to read, though, and have even been known to force myself through some real crap just because I want something to read. Back when I was in college and going through an odd, Satanic phase, which I haven't fully outgrown, I went and got The Satanic Bible by Anton LeVey or whatever his name was and The Necronimicon. What complete shit. My bestest bud 'Topher said that it was all basically copied from Lovecraft. It was so bad that I honestly can't remember shit from either of them. Those are few and far between, thankfully.
The wife styles herself as something of a writer. And I think she has talent. Her problem, in my opinion, is that she's too grounded in "typical" Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Her favorite author is Anne McCaffery and I can see that influence in everything she writes. Her biggest problem, actually, is that she never finishes anything. She'll get a story idea started, write quite a bit of it, then it just peeters out and she never finishes it. She moves on to the next idea, writes some of it out, then it dies as well. Some of the stuff she's written has been a bit too cliché and I've told her this. Yes, I have to read everything that she's writing, usually a page at a time. I don't mind this, I'd just rather she finish a draft and then let me read it. As she goes, she writes 3-4 pages and I read them, critique them, and then she goes to work rewriting them. She spends too much time on just those 3 pages. If she would finish a story and then go back, I think she'd be more productive.
There are times when I'll read something she's done and I'll immediately think, "Oh, that's from such and such novel, or that's from such and such movie..." That's when I tell her and try to help her come up with something in the same vein, yet more original. I think the story that she's been plugging away at recently is a very good idea. I think if she stays with it and actually gets it worked out in her head and on paper and finishes it she'll have a winner. She's already started with some of the cliché stuff and I've pointed it out, but she's trying. My biggest fear is that she's going to really get going good, hit a snag or have a brainfart or something and then give up and stop. I think this is the one she needs to take all the way.
Well, gonna go and read for a bit. Got to finish my book because I got 2 new books in the mail and I want to get started on those. Remember, Reading is FUNdimental. And I'm just play fun...or is it mental. Oh well. Grab a good book, relax and take a trip somewhere. Somewhere else.
I've read, or am reading, some pretty damn good books lately. Read the new one by Tami Hoag a while back, Dark Horse. Very good book. There were times I couldn't put it down. I used to be like the wife, I only read Sci-Fi or Fantasy, but lately, I've really enjoyed a good mystery or a good thriller. I'm a big Tom Clancy fan too, but haven't gotten a hold of Red Rabbit yet. After Hoag, I read the new Stephen King, From A Buick 8. It was a pretty good book, but it was odd as hell. Of course, coming from King, I'm not too surprised. I haven't read a lot of his books. I read, and really enjoyed, Skeleton Crew and Night Shift when I was in high school. I've read The Green Mile serials and also Pet Cemetary and Christine. But this one was different. It wasn't really what I would call a horror novel. It was more of a mystery/thriller type. It was good, but I was still scratching my head afterward. I don't enjoy those books as much. I don't know if the author is leaving it up for me to complete in my own way, or if there were some clues to the answer earlier in the book and I missed them. That always bugs me.
