It's a bottleneck

I haven't posted in days, I know. So this is likely to be long and rambly since I'm finally letting out some thoughts.

A quick update on my doings: Tuesday, went to work, went home. Don't remember what I did with the evening.
Wednesday - stayed home from work for no good reason except I wanted to. Slept until noon. Ran to Target. Rearranged the living room to make room for the new stereo system. Went to mattmn's movie night where I enjoyed The Limey quite a lot.
Thursday - back at work. Met with another photographer in the evening (good, but too expensive). Tried to get to Sam's Club for groceries but failed. Watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Talked to mom several times about possible honeymoon stuff.
Today - working (sorta). Having guests over for dinner tonight and a John Carpenter doublefeature.

The weekend: I want to see Spellbound (which is at the Uptown), Finding Nemo and The Italian Job.

Other things that will probably happen instead: I will come in for a few hours tomorrow to get some filing done. Monte will be at work till 5pm. I will meet with another photographer at 1pm. I will hopefully get some of my many "to do" items done. Then Monte and I will be having Ms. lucyruthe over for dinner and a movie (Othello with Kenneth Branagh as Iago).

Sunday is a board meeting in the morning, a promotional thing at 12:30pm (by going, we earn a travel certificate), and then the MISFITS picnic at 2pm. Whee! OH - and Movie Night.

The wedding: I've been ticking things off, doing final piddly things with stuff already "done". We have the dj and the emcee, we should have the photographer by next week. That will complete my major tasks and I can then sit back, relax, and do all that work for CONvergence! Seriously - everything else can wait till after the con.

The convention: I love CONvergence. But there's something about this year - I don't know what - but I'm really EXCITED about it. I'm anticipating it the way I used to anticipate Minicon when I had a great Masquerade entry. I'm looking forward to the parties, the dancing, Savage Aural Hotbed, the panels, the movies. I'm looking forward to having photographers and a video crew this year. I'm excited by new ideas about badging. I'm excited by a continually improving relationship and work-style with Registration.

Crazy, baby.

And hey - I got my first Amazon order yesterday! Four SANDMAN books, the rest of COWBOY BEBOP, the "Down with Love" soundtrack and the Princess Bride on DVD! Woot!

Okay - my other ranty things will go in another post.

When did Minnesota become a Southern State?

In the Strib today:

After a five-month regular session and a 10-day special session, Sviggum said Republicans had succeeded in delivering on a fiscal and social agenda years in the making, following through with bills that make it easier to carry guns and more difficult to get an abortion, that cut programs rather than increase taxes, that added a weekly recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools and scrapped the controversial Profile of Learning.
"That's a good day in Minnesota," Sviggum said.

"Easier to carry guns and more difficult to get an abortion" - anyone else see a problem there?
"Cut programs rather than increase taxes" - and this is a GOOD thing?!?

And look, there's a lot of good things about our country, but mandatory recitation of the Pledge isn't going to fix the bad things. I think it's a cop out, waste of time, quick popularity builder by politicians, as well as being just a little too Orwellian for me.

That said, even our Democratic senator is becoming a conservative freak:

Though they oppose each other on many issues, Dayton has teamed up with Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., to back a proposed constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban desecration of the flag.

I personally can't think of a reason why I would ever burn our flag. But you bet your ass that I will strongly defend my RIGHT to. Disagreement and dissent is the surest sign of a healthy democracy. But this isn't a democracy, is it?

I have to walk into my office every day now past a stupid, ugly sign that says something that ought to be frikkin' obvious: "Don't bring your guns in here" It's a stupid law, stupidly worded, stupidly passed. By our stupid governor. I have to email Mark Dayton and tell him to leave the flag-burners alone. I could email Coleman, but he just sends pieces of paper back that talk about whaling in the Caribbean or something equally as irrelevant. I could call the governor's office and tell him that I hate the direction this state is going, that the Republican causes are misguided and shortsighted.

But I'm a liberal, and therefore I don't count.

Perhaps I should by some starch and send it to the Democratic Party headquarters, nationally and locally. Get some frikkin' starch in your britches and stand up to these people, dammit!

And the final thing that has been plaguing me

Office politics.

THE BACKGROUND
The old secretary supervisor quit (before being asked to quit). Basically because the secretary to the group bigwig kept undercutting her to the group big wig - who would then back up his secretary instead of backing up the supervisor.
Our floor apparently has a "morale problem".
We have a new supervisor.

CURRENTLY
The new supervisor sets my teeth on edge. She sits next to me. And she chats at me. About stupid things. I already have one chatter on the other side - who's not the brightest either - but I'd resolved myself to that one, and she's often away from her desk anyway.

I hate being chatted at.

I will indulge in chat. But it is on my terms. Don't just start talking to me when I'm clearly doing something else.

This new supervisor is clearly trying to "improve morale" by giving us little gift certificates and being all touchy-feely gung-ho. Which irritates me, to say the least. And she sends these constant informational emails about stuff I don't really need to know or care about.

The new back-up supervisor (the person who fills in when the main one is sick or gone) is the woman who wanted the job. Only she won't just say she wants it, she's all manipulative about it. And she's in tight with the ruling clique.

It's been interesting to see all the schmoozing of the new supervisor by the ruling clique. I wonder if they'll undercut her too. She seems to be doing what they want (Linda as back-up supervisor), so she's probably acceptable. Nice and easily controlled.

You know what? I didn't have a morale problem until they started trying to fix my morale problem. Now I'm just sort of disgusted with this place and it's manipulations, politics and stupidity.

I mean, good lord - I'm moving my desk soon. And it will now be by a woman who has gone to lawyers' offices and slammed their doors! Yet she still works here! Even though she's a crappy secretary. This is a woman who went through the company directory counting how many people each secretary supported and then said, "The average is 3. I have 4. I'll only support 3. I'm being overworked." Her lawyers are frustrated by her poor skills, but give her good reviews because she's better than the unknown. And if they're going to keep her, they'd better not piss her off and give her a bad review!

GRRR!

My answer to technology is to kill more trees!

So, in a more positive post:

I bought a corkboard. You know - the kind you pin up notes on.

And now, when I think of something I need to get done, I write a note about it and post it on the board. It's a big old visual reminder of all my various "to do" things.

Yes, some people have palm pilots. I carry a personal planner 5" thick and buy a corkboard.
At least if I drop them, I don't lose all my information.

So, I've been going through all the various items in my life and trying to write down everything "to do" I can think of. It's depressing, yet exhilirating.