Could someone please tell me when the term “deadline”, as used in the publishing industry, came to mean “The time at which we’d like to have your final approved materials if you don’t mind; but if you do mind it’s okay, later will be fine, or tomorrow, or even after we’ve put the papers out on the racks – it’ll be no problem to pull all 30,000 of them and fix the phone number you couldn’t bother to double-check…”
All of our advertisers and salespeople seem to have been told about this change, but none of the production staff. Weird, huh?
Build-your-own panic attack
Had to install some printer drivers today at work during our big production day, and the installer dropped a directory full of useless documentation at the root level of the drive. So I went to move it, but said installer had placed it there as the root user. So I fired up a terminal and told the machine to “sudo rm -r” the directory (in non geek-speak, pretend I am the master user and delete this directory and its contents). As always after doing that kind of thing, I double-check what I’ve done by getting a fresh directory listing.
The terminal reports that the disk is completely empty. Completely. Not a single file.
Well, to say I was freaking out was one way of putting things. Now, the GUI insisted the files were all still there, and my running apps were all still functioning, but the terminal insisted on showing a blank listing. So, finally, I logged out of the whole shebang and logged right back in.
The GUI still says everything is where it should be. Check the terminal… which has recovered from its amnesia and confirms that all is well. *heavy sigh*
I think I need a cookie.
Such a Deal!
Just found this in our paper while doing a spell check:
“IBM PS-1 Desktop Computer. Works Good. $250”
Line forms to the left, folks 🙂
Pre-dawn Wednesday, our office blew its hot water heater. Efforts to fix matters have only made it worse, we can’t shut off the sink, and now the ladies’ bathroom is rapidly taking on water.
We have rechristened the office “Her Majesty’s Ship The Titanic“. Sentries have been posted with orders to shoot Celine Dion on sight.
Found a streaming server for Japanese anime music and j-pop… http://japanaradio.com/. Listened to it this morning while getting dressed – it was nice background music. I would listen to it here at work to annoy everyone, but our ISDN connection isn’t fast enough. Besides, the only other person who will be here today is my coworker Adam, who wouldn’t be annoyed by it at all – and how much fun is that?
As near as I can tell, the only game shop in Roanoke that has available stock of Mechwarrior: Dark Age is a little place called “Ground Zero” that doesn’t even have a phone. We got our figures, though… but then Rain had to stay at work until 10pm ’cause of a stupid virus outbreak on their machines. We’re not even sure what time she’ll be home tonight. So no playtesting. 🙁 The figures are nice looking, and we got a Unique Hatchetman and an Elite Centurion in our first boxes. (For those not familiar with the game, those are two of the most playable mechs in the original Battletech.)
Gonna be hot and sticky again today 🙁
Tuesday is, of course, production day here at the paper. The last weeks have been rough, as the salespeople have seriously overloaded the production staff with full-page full-color spec ads for accounts they probably won’t be able to land; incorrect runsheets giving us faulty information about the existence, size, and placement of ads; and major changes made at the last minute, after the last minute, the day after the last minute, and “you understand that the printer is printing these pages now” after the last minute.
None of this is unusual in the printing industry, of course, but the last weeks have been unusually ridiculous. My stress levels were so bad last week, that I had stomach pain for the next three days. So, last Wednesday I went to my boss and explained to him that: a) I was no longer working more than 13.5 hours straight on Tuesdays, and that b) I was no longer going to kill myself compensating for the careless work of others. I had more of a leg to stand on with “b” than one might expect; I’m the only one here who knows what’s really going on and how to fix it when it breaks, so if my work burns me out completely, my boss has a real situation he’ll have to deal with.
I think it was worth it. I’m tired this morning, but I’m not wild-eyed, wired, and shaky, and my stomach hurts only a little. Lunch ought to handle that.
raininva is going to try to score some MechWarrior: Dark Age starter sets today for us to try out tonight. Anyone want to come over and help us try out a new miniatures game?
Secrets of the lost Keeble masters
Only after 13 straight hours of staring into these monitors will the phrase “Ahhh, Elfhopper, I see your cookie-fu is strong” make an entire room of people giggle hysterically.
We are now building an advanced school of self-defense based on the products of the cookie aisle at the supermarket.
It is most unfairly nice outside right now. Sunny and warm but cool in the shade, light breeze, clear blue sky, one or two thin filaments of cloud for texture…
A less responsible person than myself would be out there playing hooky from work and enjoying himself right now. However, I am much more responsible than that.
… darn it.
Stuff
We got pizza for lunch, Humble Pie. But I accidentally ate a slice of the pepperoni pizza (’cause all the cheese was on top) and now my stomach’s badly unsettled.
The people who programmed the spell checker for this client weren’t real hackers… the spell checker doesn’t recognize the word “pepperoni”.
Someone is advertising miniature cattle in this week’s issue of the paper… I keep flashing back to the conversation about “raising albino lesbian micro-beefalo in a windowbox” that came up during kittykatya‘s Roanoke TFOS game from years ago. The beefalo weren’t part of the game, you understand, just part of our gaming conversation.
The Australian government, responding to the RIAA’s “we can hack your computer when we feel like it bill”, has said that such activity may make US executives criminals under Australian law, and expose them to charges and possible arrests if they enter the country. There’s more info here. Good for them! “Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, amen!”
Hi to rubinpdf – say, do you think I could actually film the Commissioner Horton part this time?
