A QUESTION THAT YOU SHOULD SAY YES TO (ONCE IN YOUR LIFE)
So today I'm on the Metro train going over the Potomac River, and it's frozen. Frozen. How do rivers freeze? I don't even want to understand that. Adding insult to injury, I spotted one of those flocks of crazy black birds that swoop around together sitting ON the river. Right in the middle! Just sitting there. Like it's not an enormous body of water. It's snowing a little today, supposed to snow a whole bunch the next day or two. Yey. Luckily, Geoffrey and I went to the grocery store this week and stocked up before the mad rush for bread and milk, which happens here, too, despite the fact that it snows all the time and people should be used to it. Got bread, got milk, got beer. So if it must snow and be awful, we're ready. I guess.
Went to a kickin' Old 97's show last night. As usual, my curse of exceptionally tall people standing right in front of little ol' me at shows kicked in, so I couldn't really see, but man alive they sure sounded good. And they said they'd be touring this way again in spring, so hopefully I can go to that show, too. Wearing stilts.
One year ago today, Geoffrey and I got engaged. Yep. It was at Jones Gap State Park in South Carolina, snow on the ground, blah blah you've heard this, romantic lunch afterward at Sonic, back in the glory days when they had beautiful, beautiful Pickle-O's on the menu. And now, one year later, there are no more Pickle-O's (limited time only, much to my heartbreak), but I still have a purty ring, fond memories of a snowy day at Jones Gap, and a nice little husband to come home to every day.
Sorry for the goo.
LISTENING TO: GREY DE LISLE/Homewrecker. OK, well I'll listen to it when I get home anyway. She was an opener at the Old 97's show last night, wife of Murry, the 97s' bass player extraordinaire. She plays a mean autoharp and has a purty voice. We were inspired to buy her CD at the show, but of course the rules of concertgoing dictate you must not listen to CDs by the artists you just saw as you go home from their show. So tonight will be my first listening opportunity. Hot dog!
Stacy - 3:23 PM
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
So you're sick of hearing me rant all the time, eh? Fine then, jerkface. Today you can listen to my friend Carlton rant. Carlton, for those of you who don't know, is a buddy o' mine from college and my No. 1 Merlefest buddy. You may well be thinking to yourself: "Self, why doesn't this Carlton have his own blog?" And that would be an excellent question. The answer is Carlton does have his own blog, but because he's a diva, he refuses to official unveil his blog until he has time to design it just to his liking. He is a graphic artist and designer (and a right good one at that), but you'd think he could muddle along with a blogger blog or a moveable type blog template or something 'til he gets the real thing ready. But nooooo. So for now, this is all the Carlton you can get. But I bet if you cajole and wheedle, he might be inspired to get to work already and let me add his blog to my links. Hint hint.
A VISIT FROM CARLTON
Ah yes. The wonderful life of a newspaper person. You've been reading about Stacy and her nice little rants on the editorial side of things. But the true evil darkness lies over in advertising. And I do mean lies. So, I figured I'd drop by and share with you....
TALES FROM THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE SURE YOU'RE NOT PAID ANY LESS THAN YOU ALREADY ARE.
By the way - I'm a designer. Not a copy writer. Hence the cringe-worthy headline.
Newspaper ad design is in interesting beast. At the weekly paper where I work, it's the sole source of revenue. Since we're a free paper, someone has to pay the bills and our salaries and the libel
lawsuits...At most other papers, it's the excuse they have for not hiring you any extra help.
The way it's set up where I work, none of the production staff deal directly with the client (which, I might add is fortunate since we are all a tad misanthropic. And snooty. And elitist...which are all
well-deserved titles thankyouverymuch.) So we have to deal with an Account Executive as a middleman. For the most part, it's fun. We have the creative freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want.
Well, at least we do in my fantasy world.
Every once in awhile we get some client who feels like flexing his dick just to make sure we can still see it. And the AE is so damned petrified of saying 'no' to the client and losing their revenue (or so
in awe of his dangler), that she has a tendency to promise him pretty much anything.
AE to the client: "So...you want this picture of a hubcap zoomed out so you can see the entire car, and then placed facing the opposite direction on a flooded street in Downtown Charleston? Sure! No problem. Our designers use Photoshop!"
AE to the production staff: "What do you mean 'no'? I already told the client 'yes.' The deadline is in 20 minutes? But you have Photoshop, don't you?"
I'm not sure why the AEs think we have the Jesus Filter* on our versions of Photoshop, but we really don't.
Oh yeah - saying 'no' to an AE usually results in the bossman coming in and asking us why we're being so rude and to just go on and do whatever it is we just said we can't do. And then telling us we need the money.
And we usually end up doing it.
Because when it comes down to money...guess who is gonna win.
*Jesus Filter. The magical non-existent filter used in Photoshop that is capable of working miracles.
Stacy - 4:42 PM
Monday, January 19, 2004
'EVER GET THE FEELING YOU'VE BEEN CHEATED?'
I'm hoping this is the saddest news I hear all day. Because if anything sadder happens, I'm not sure I can take it.
Stacy - 12:44 PM
Sunday, January 18, 2004
GO ON BACK TO GREENVILLE
My friend Donna, who happens to be a Greenville News reporter AND a recent Jeopardy! contestant, wrote a right nice story on eloping and interviewed me and the little man for it. It ran today in the News' features section. Read all about it here.
In other news, my work schedule is going to be changing in a couple weeks due to some deadline switcheroos, and suddenly I'll be -- gasp! -- on a quasi-normal schedule. Right now I think my hours will be 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. This will take some getting used to. I realized the other day that only once have I ever had a job with "normal" hours, and that was just a summer internship early in college. I have worked:
12:30-6 p.m., 4-midnight (movie theater)
2-8 p.m. (file clerk)
7 p.m.-7 a.m. (college newspaper, but that only once or twice a week)
3:30-11:30 p.m. (Paducah paper)
12-6 p.m. (Greenville News internship)
5 p.m.-2 a.m., 3:30 to midnight (Anderson)
11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. (Stripes)
What this has done, mainly, is completely sapped my ability to get up and then promptly go somewhere. My morning routine has mostly been something like: Get up, eat cereal, browse newspaper, watch some TV, take shower, get dressed, sit around, pack lunch, mosey to car or Metro train, go to work. Now I'll have to cut out a lot of that, especially all the moseying, and it will be difficult, I bet. But of course the benefit is I'll get off at a decent hour now -- maybe even in time to see some sunlight in the summer evenings! And that will help the ol' social life immensely. I won't have to make my normal-hour-working friends wait 'til 9 to eat dinner with me, and I won't have to take a whole day off work just to attend a concert that starts at 7:30. Yes, I think this will be a nice change. Luckily, I'll still have my wonky weekend-days to remind me that I work in the newspaper industry.
LISTENING TO: THE JAYHAWKS/Rainy Day Music (yes, again) and OLD 97'S/Wreck Your Life in preparation for concerts coming up this week. The Jayhawks show will be the 4th one in less than a year, but they're always a great time, especially when you can find another fan to go with so you don't have to drag your whiny, Jayhawk-hatin' husband along. The Old 97's, on the other hand, I have never seen in concert before, and they happen to be the band at THE top of the list of shows I must see before I can peacefully die. So I am very, very excited about that one. Woo!
Stacy - 1:30 PM
