Seriously, where did the last 35 and a half years go?
I find it unfathomable that, back in my younger days, I felt that life moved slowly... and that I had time to be bored in.
Whether life has accelerated further now that I'm living on my own, I don't know... but it certainly takes quite a lot of structure out of my personal universe, and that makes it very difficult to accurately/adequately follow the passing of time. Things that happened months ago seem like just yesterday.
Half the time, at the moment, I'm not entirely sure what day it is, because the print schedule at work is so cock-eyed and compressed in an effort to close all the January magazines before we break for Christmas. Which magazine am I working on now?
Actually, right now, I'm not... I'm stuck dealing with web ads, in a new system that I saw a demo of back in March, with the assurance that it'd be launched within a couple of months. It was lauched mid-November.
It's far easier to get everything done in this new system, but porting over information from our old Copy Control system to the new is a real chore. It's basically duplicating work just so I can upload ads. It's rather silly.
It would help if the Copy Controller operating this system had two brain cells to rub together, and could comprehend that a list of ads missing critical information like... ooh, just of the top of my head, the web address the ad is supposed to link to, is an utterly useless list of ads. It also lists ALL of the ads, individually, as being 'for December'.
I fucking know they're December ads... that's the month they're booked IN. I need to know what month they're booked TILL.
A small fraction of them list what state the ad is in... and I know they're not all done because some of them are missing.
Rocket Science, anyone?
This went so much more smoothly when I did everything, but I have been instructed that continuing with that method is not an option.
Nor is my proposed alternative, that that whole thing is operated by A.N. Other single person, working 2 days a week (if that, with the new system) for the same money I'm getting for 'managing'... Which I can't adequately do because I'm already 'managing' 5 magazines per month, and I'm not even managing them because I'm dealing with everyone else's critical lack of common sense and the capacity to use it.
There is something very wrong with a company that cannot take the best option presented to them for efficiently dealing with the work they do.
But, hey, that's my employers through and through.
I never even considered a career in this sort of thing, back when I first started in that little Pre-Press Bureau in Acton 16 years ago. It was just a way of getting out of the Dole queues, making a bit of money to squirrel away towards eventually buying a place of my own, or taking holidays.
Now I seem to be stuck with this career, because I haven't the faintest idea what else to do. Plenty of people tell me I have a good, transferrable skill set... but, seriously, whatever I do, I'm going to end up spending more time solving other people's problems than doing my own bloody job.
Wow... That could be an angsty whine worthy of Spider-Man.
Back when I was in school, all I wanted was to get involved in videogames... but then videogaming technology moved on to the point where I couldn't do what was needed, so that dream fizzled out...
I fell into a job that I could do very well... and that, frankly, I still enjoy doing... but I don't get the opportunity to do 'my job' because the people I work with are incompetent and brainless.
Am I repeating myself?
I watched Monsters Versus Aliens when I got in this evening - punctuated by a rather l o n g conversation with my mother about the state of my roof. Apparently it's quite obvious from Google Maps that something is very wrong with it. I spoke to the Managing Agents again today, and they were deeply apologetic that they cannot do anything yet because most of the flats haven't paid their service charge in a couple of years, and the fund is down to about £14.
Most of the flats are let, of course... so the occupants feel no obligation to pay. That'll be the Leaseholder's problem.
I may try to get the source of my leak fixed privately - with the Managing Agents'/Landlord's permission, of course - but it could easily be that the external source of the leak is nowhere near the hole in my bathroom ceiling...
Of course, it now turns out that several of the commercial units on the ground floor are complaining about leaks. The Managing Agent as replied by bluntly asking if that means they're now going to pay their share of the refit cost. Who knows, that might just work.
Erm. Back to Monsters Versus Aliens after that little sidetrack...
It's good... It had me giggling most of the way through, despite being full of clichéd characters and situations. Some of it was a little weak, but the voice acting was more than adequate. Unlike Shrek, there wasn't quite so much for the grown-ups in the audience, but it's an enjoyable enough yarn for the kids.
And I can't tell you how much I needed a giggle today...
More web ads tomorrow. Oh, the joy.
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