<< Previous: Momus at Tower Records
>> Next: Time to wade in

August 29, 2001

Multiple exclamation marks

Oh, Jesus H Christ on a bike. I hope my employers aren't planning to hold a bunfight in a bakery any time soon. Based on today's farce, they'd need all the help they could muster. I don't normally do this, but pardon me please for a moment while I vent.

Today we reorganized the office slightly; one of the departments was being relocated, so a new desk cluster had to be fashioned for them. This meant "rationalizing" the neighbouring department's desk cluster; unfortunately, I got rationalized at the same time.

Until today, I was sitting with the same department I used to work for. I changed jobs back in February but we couldn't be bothered to move me - there was nowhere else for me to sit, anyway. Finally my boss has reclaimed me; as far as I can tell, I've been moved nearer to him so that I can be summoned to fix his e-mail without his having to stand up and come get me.

Seriously, that's really pretty much the fundamental building block of our professional relationship: his e-mail stops working, I come fix it. Some of the ingenious and challenging ways I have "fixed his e-mail" in the past include:

• turning the ethernet router on
• pointing out that his Caps Lock was on, thus rendering his password invalid
• sitting down in his chair and typing the password in myself
• sitting down in his chair and clicking on "send and receive mail"
• sitting down in his chair and moving the mouse fractionally, thus bringing the computer out of sleep mode
• sitting down in his chair
• coming within six feet of his workstation

Ironically, I've actually been working with the old gang more than ever before; I'm consulting on a couple of Web projects that they've undertaken and it would have made far more sense to leave me where I was - instead, I am suddenly more fully exposed to the whims of my boss's luddite lapses. Swapping Flash and Director authoring for Outlook Express troubleshooting... not good. Not good at all.

So anyway, I got to swap my seat in the main, open-plan office with huge windows and nice sunsets, alongside a bunch of people with whom I enjoy working very much, for a spot facing into the corner of a windowless, enclosed enclave. I am actually now the nearest person in the office to the door but, unfortunately, making a dash for it without going past the boss would mean scaling the seven-foot wall my desk is set against and then vaulting down into the lobby - so I'm trapped until I can fashion a crude ladder from twisted paperclips and ingeniously folded pages from my Access 2000 and Dreamweaver manuals.

I have a promise from my old team that they will come and evacuate me for lunch at precisely one o'clock every day, which is touching (*sniff* thanks, gang) but I have the feeling that if I'm not ready to move on the dot of time, the helicopter may leave without me, stranding me in my shared cell. We get fluorescent desklamps to compensate for the lack of natural light - and boy, do they make up for it!!!!!!!!!! That's how bad it is - I've had to resort to multiple exclamation marks to denote sarcasm. Fuck.

I'd better get some sleep, try to clear my head. The saga of the move itself I'll have to leave till tomorrow - if I'm not too busy slitting my wrists, that is.

Posted by chris at August 29, 2001 12:22 AM | Permalink

• Cinema [8]
• Clubbing [20]
• Culture [3]
• Design [8]
• Fictionsuits [10]
• Fun stuff [64]
• Gaming [18]
• General [155]
• Japlish [26]
• Kanji SITE [9]
• Literature [7]
• Music [17]
• New York [18]
• Only in Japan [56]
• Out and about [21]
• Politics [12]
• Rants [26]
• Tech [26]
• Urbanism [1]
• Web [39]
• World Cup [16]
• 日本語 [3]

• April 2006
• March 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• October 2002
• August 2002
• July 2002
• June 2002
• May 2002
• April 2002
• March 2002
• February 2002
• January 2002
• December 2001
• November 2001
• October 2001
• September 2001
• August 2001
• July 2001
• June 2001
• May 2001
• April 2001
• March 2001

• Ninja Tune Zen TV II Timetable up
• Assorted linkery for April 1st (no, really)
• Byte Size 060401 at Bar Aoyama
• Sony to Ditch UMD Movies?
• Assorted linkery for March 27th
• Spanking size-case
• May the Telnet be with you... always
• Heehee heehee heehee heehee heehee heehee heehee
• Star spotting
• Ninja Tune "Zen TV II" night at Ageha, April 7th

Syndicate this site (XML)

Home

Blog
About
Gallery [at flickr.com]
Glossary

Away

The Kanji SITE

Nihon:go

rikai.com
Jeffrey's J-E Dictionary
Moji (Firefox plug-in)
WWWJDIC
Babel Fish Translation

Disperse peacefully

[blogs:]
an englishman in osaka
antipixel
arakawa riverview
blackbeltjones
boing boing
bwg
easterwood.org
geisha asobi
gen kanai
gizmodo
gladwell.com
hanzi smatter
joi ito
kotaku
kottke.org
lifehacker
linkmachinego
melissa havergal
metroblogging tokyo
ninja polymath blues
plasticbag.org
sushi zume
tokyo times
undercover in japan
[not blogs:]
tokyo clubs info
tokyo food page
tokyo art beat
pingmag
superfuture tokyo
kakaku.com
tokyo train routefinder
tokyoplastic
yugop.com
the japan times
japan today
waiwai
[webring:]

Flash design by

hoohacorporation
[disable Flash banner?]

Hosted by

DreamHost

Powered by

Movable Type 3.2