Layoffs Archives

Monday, June 15th 2024

Blog

Recently I thought I’d try writing things—jokes, mainly-as they came to me. I liked it, but it just doesn’t fit with my mindset of what I (think I) want this site to be. I am forever a work in progress. There was a time where I was convinced that being forever a work in progress was a bad thing. I think there were people around me that were frustrated that I couldn’t be set in one thing, but that’s just not me. I’m going to be 54 next week, and my GAF was all but destroyed years ago.

It’s not me, it’s you.

Apparently my former employer is still ‘restructuring’. I saw that some remarkable human beings I had the pleasure of working with were told that his services are no longer required. I’m sure it’s nothing more than cutting the higher paid people in order to have someone else do the same job (or twice the work!) for less money. Still, the thing that’s really bothering me about this round is that it involved call center associates. They said over and over when I dodged the first two rounds of layoffs was that they weren’t going to touch the call center floor. I guess that’s been forgotten. It was only a matter of time. The company makes cameras and printers, neither of which are widely used by consumers anymore, and they were way behind the curve on things the rest of the camera world had embraced years earlier.

I know it’s not supposed to be personal, but when you invest a great amount of yourself and your time it’s hard to not take it personally. In my case, I’ve always felt it WAS personal. It really destroyed me for a long time to the point that I couldn’t do anything creative at all. I hope my friend can bounce back better than I did. I also hope he can make an honest go with his photography business. I’d like to direct you to his photography website, but it appears to be down. So I’ll direct you to his Facebook Page. Please have a look and if he brings back his shop site, please consider buying something from him, and by all means spread the word.

We’d like you to decide, even though you’ve already decided.

I honestly don’t know how this isn’t the simplest of decisions. I don’t care who the Democratic nominee is, I’m voting for that person because I am not interested in opening the Seventh Seal of the Apocalypse. Is Biden older than dirt? Of course he is. Do I care? Maybe, but that’s what the 25th Amendment is for. I’m waiting for the first Republican to say a damn thing about the 25th Amendment, but if I was a betting man, I’d bet they will stay quiet about handing the Presidency to Kamala. Funny thing, that. I bet they do return to the birtherism real quick, tho.

That said, Biden hasn’t helped his cause. The stuttering is baked in, as far as I’m concerned. What isn’t baked in is the switching up of names, the rambling and gibberish with no real direction, and the long—LONG—pauses. Yes, Trump does it too. Breaking News: They’re both old as fuck. However, that’s the ballot. Unless there’s a real, successful draft at the DNC in Chicago (the irony!), Biden is the nominee. No draft movement has ever been successful.

He’s Just This Guy, You Know?

Trump is the immediate existential danger, but if I’m being honest it’s not Trump himself I’m worried about. What worries me is the Zaphod effect.

In the classic-oh-my-god-this-is-required-reading novel The Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, the President of the Galaxy is Zaphod Beeblebrox. He brings nothing to the table. He’s a party animal and an idiot. But his antics distract the people so they’re not paying attention to the folks really doing the work. That’s Trump.

Trump is going to Trump. We know this. They know this as well, and they’re counting on it.

Yeah, but when is the Two Minutes of Hate?

The RNC convention started today, and maybe I’m just old. I remember conventions being run differently. Not covered differently (although I can make that argument as well), but it seems more like a marriage of informercial and cult worship than it used to be. I’m watching C-SPAN for neutral coverage (because I am that nerd), and some minor amusements.

*First, I see Marsha Blackburn, the protokaren from Tennessee, found the time to brush that rats nest she calls a hairdo.
Second, it’s funny to hear the band playing Where The Streets Have No Name, but dare not speak a word of it.
They’re doing the nomination election at 3pm on the first day. Why the first day, and why not in Primetime? Also, it has been my experience that at some point, someone makes a motion to wrap up the nomination by acclamation. Not so in this case. Ego much?
Junior’s a twat. Also, Junior’s a twat.
Youngkin is slightly less of a twat than Junior, but the twatfulness is still strong.
They are really calling The Orange Mush ‘the bravest man in America.’
All the folks who read their speeches from a phone or a sheet of paper and STILL mangled their way through their state delegate votes totals need to have a fucking seat when it comes to Biden’s stutter or prompter use.
You can always count on old white dudes (including me) to have the worst rhythm in the known universe. Awkward knows no party.
In what must be the first documented Karen moment of the convention, Senior Karen was upset that Middle-aged Chad wanted her to stop waving her Trump placard long enough for him to get a picture of…something. Probably the house band, Slightly Spicy Mayo (I don’t know, why not?), to document their playing ‘I Want You To Want Me’ for 15 minutes.

It’s only 4pm. This should be fun…

JOURNAL: February 11th, 2024

Journal

Yes, I know, it’s been a minute. Several. Welcome to the world of object permanence, where I forget it exists if it’s not right in front of my face. That said, let’s fill you in on where things are.

Over the past little while, I seem to have made a breakthrough when it comes to my life since 2020. Aside from the fact that 4 years is long enough to be anything, much less sad, I lit upon what I think is an inconvenient truth I had to face: There was a point where the writing was on the wall that I was going to be let go from my job, COVID or no COVID. There were yearly layoffs back then, and I had dodged two rounds. My job had been relegated to rewriting and voicing English versions of Japanese scripts with little to no variation between printer models. I was editing already-produced videos of illustrations with little to no variation either. I wasn’t creating anything new, I was reheating the leftovers. In a sense, I was set up to fail. Once I got to that realization, I realized that it didn’t give much of a base to qualify for a job in the field beyond that. So, if I wanted to do something creative with video, it’s up to me to do that on my own. TikTok is nice and all, and it’s quick and dirty, but I think I need to do something a little more substantial. Now, I’m no Casey Neistat. I’m just some guy with a camera that thought he was a multimedia guy until he realized he wasn’t. So maybe I should do something about that.

In other news, some progress updates:

The new Pungoverse season seems to be going a bit better, I’ve written two episodes so far. The premise is very simple. WYRD 101 has lost its broadcasting license due to a huge mistake. If you’ve been a fan of WYRD 101 over the years then this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Roley’s talent agent takes on the whole crew and suggests a pivot to all podcasting. This sets up a little bit of a satire of the current state of podcasting, and what I see as the homogenization of the industry. I also hope to revisit some long lost citizens of Pungo that I haven’t used in a long, long time.

The other project I’ve been working on is Tsunami. I’ve finished one chapter, and halfway through a second one. Tsunami is my attempt at a cyberpunk story, and I hope I can do the genre a little bit of justice since I’ve been a fan of it for so long. The main character is a Tracker of sorts, and falls into a little bit of a mystery involving augmented humans. It’s in the first person, and the main character is in the vein of the sarcastic type of detective I grew up being fascinated by, from Richard Diamond Private Detective, to Thomas Magnum.

Podcasting? Well, that’s what these two things are for. It’s possible I’ll serve something up soon, though I am not going to head back to the same old current events pod. It’s boring, and I really don’t want to think about the timeline we’re living in right now, or I’ll get nothing done.

I have two other ideas in the bucket at the moment, but they’re not fully formed thoughts yet. In other words, just like any other random thought in my head at any given moment. Update next time on that, hopefully.

See ya next time.

Tuesday, February 21st, 2023

Blog

Has anyone else experienced the following: You’ve been stressed out past your limit so much for so long that you stop holding back about things? That’s where I’m at right now. Whether that’s good for my mental health–or anyone else’s–is up for debate. Film at 11, as they say.

RIP to Richard Belzer, most likely the first comedian I ever saw on TV and knew what he was. A brilliant comedian. The character of John Munch will have him on TV from now until the heat death of the Universe because SVU is playing on TV somewhere on the planet. I heard yesterday that he took the settlement money when Hulk Hogan dropped him and bought a house in France that he named Chez Hogan. I don’t know if that’s true, but that sounds like him. And, of course, let’s never forget his brief moment of MTV stardom.

MTG posted this tweet this morning (it’s there as I type it, card subject to change) where she says:

“We need a national divorce. We need to separate into red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

Honestly, I’m warming up to this idea, but not for the reasons she would like. It would appear that the red states are more dependent on Federal Aid than the Blue states, which generally have a higher income and GDP. The Blue states pay more taxes, and the Red states appear to be the–to be generous–slightly larger beneficiary of those taxes. But, of course, this ‘national divorce’ will never happen. She knows that. This is just red meat for the ignorant. Her citizens will expect the same services they’re getting today with a fraction of the tax base. You have to make up for that somehow. Someone should ask her how she plans to….oh, wait. Right. What plan, right?
MTG Related: Could someone please tell her that giving access of the 1/6 tapes to Tucker Carlson is not the same as releasing the tapes? If there are 41,000 hours of footage, you can bet Tucker is going to release about 30 seconds of some guy from Dubuque taking a leak in the Bushes and claim it was Antifa, so TOTAL EXONERATION. Of course all that footage will NEVER be made public, but that’s ok. We have C-Span.
To get back into photography, I’ve signed up for a newsletter from Digital Photography School. This week’s challenge appears to be about using lines in your images. I received a beginner’s guide to street photography for signing up for their newsletter. I was today years old when I realized one of the best tips about street photography is to find a place you like aesthetically and JUST FUCKING WAIT THERE. I’m the Goofus walking around with a camera making everyone uncomfortable. Plus, the last time I went out shooting street photography, I had my Canon T5i. My iPhone 12 camera with the Moment Gear is much more suited to this purpose. So, I think I have two things to work out this week. Let’s see how it goes.
- - Photography related: I see that Canon is releasing the R50, which seems to me to be the entry level mirrorless camera. This is clearly meant to be replacing the M50; the M Line was Canon’s first excursion into Mirrorless cameras and after a while it was clear that Canon wasn’t going to devote more time to it. A fine camera, but a limited amount of glass. The R50 along with an 18-45mm and 55-210mm lens is out for pre-order for 1029.00, and I have to tell you I’m wanting this one. There is an adapter for my EF Lenses, so there’s a way to keep my current glass involved. My more professional friends might laugh at wanting just the entry level camera. I don’t need more than that. I’m not a pro, but I do want a new camera. My T5i was out of date when I bought it at a pawn shop with two lenses for 300 bucks. I’ve held off on getting a new camera until Canon made an ‘affordable’ replacement they were going to stand behind, and this R50 is that camera.
Jimmy Carter is entering hospice care, and the amount of tributes he’s receiving for the life he’s led post-Presidency is nice to see. Honestly, he wasn’t the greatest President, but he’ll be leaving this Earth knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t the worst. I stand by my belief that Carter freed the Iranian Hostages in the hours before Reagan’s Inauguration, and Ronald Reagan got credit for it, and I hope in the coming weeks the tributes make that abundantly clear. Of course, there will be the vultures, you’ll see them come out of the woodwork the moment the announcement is made. I suppose I’d ask them how they felt when someone spoke ill of Reagan when he died, but they’ll never answer that question as long as the white hot hatred of Carter/Clinton/Fonda/Ted Kennedy fills them with impotent rage. That Venn Diagram is the most perfect of circles, you can be assured of that.
The human equivalent of the slime you scrape from a hull under the water line James O’Keefe has resigned from Project Veritas. No doubt he’ll find another grift, they always do. On the other hand, maybe he’ll end up doing dinner theater in Branson. Kind of a coin flip, truthfully.
At last, the true power of AI: Let it decide who gets laid off. You know this is how we get Friend Computer, right? Please report to the Food Vats for…uh…Reassignment.
Lastly, I’m starting a little experiment. This post is also a Podcast on my Patreon Page. It’s got what you see here, plus a little more in the way of my flavor of crazy because it’s me. I’m making every Monday Patreon show public so it can be shared and promoted. Feel free to check it out, share and subscribe. Thank you.