h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1) Don't bother getting a temp in to help me until after the bank holiday.

2) Don't bother thinking about getting a temp in to help me until after the bank holiday.

So have you thought about getting a temp in?

I would have loved to, but I have to pass that responsibility 'upstairs'. Fortunately it's fairly quiet just now.

Oh- I'd have thought that when they said you'd be running the place, that meant you'd be responsible for bringing in your own help. That would make the most sense. I usually arrange for my own temps when I need help with projects.

Glad it's at least reasonably quiet. Hope your help is sorted soon.

Quiet here for me at the moment, too, which is unsettling. I realize it's the day after a holiday and my boss is out today. But it's the end of the month and I should normally be swamped. Which means I'll be up shit creek by the end of the week.

Thing is working for the third largest employer in the world* the chain of command is absurdly long. I'm only really responsible for the procedures here, rather than the place itself.

I've just been promised someone by Thursday.

*1) The Army of the Glorious People's Republic Of China
2) Indian Railways
3) NHS
4) US Dept of Defence
5) Wal-Mart

On the plus side I just found Deborah Kerr's medical notes. From Here To Eternity. Well 2032, to be precise.

Well, quite- I knew you were only responsible for your exact location. I'm just not accustomed to that level of micromanagement... department heads, supervisors, etc are responsible for such petty issues as temp help, etc. Operations only gets involved in the big things. You know what I mean.

Then again, we only have a little over 1000 employees.

The noisy person who sits outside my office has been coming in sick every day for the past two weeks rather than going to a doctor. Now I won't say that I've never come to work with a minor cold, and I certainly won't run to the doctor for every sniffle, but this guy *sounds* like he's got either bronchitis or pneumonia. His supervisor was out on Thursday and Friday, so I sent him home around noon Thursday and told him not to come back before today. If I wind up with whatever it is he has right as the weather is about to get summery hot, I'm taking sick time off until I'm well, and won't be rescheduling my vacation in July either.

Hang in there. That's got "spree killing" written all over it.

The other great thing about working for the vaunted British public sector is you never know when someone halfway-up is going to pipe up and say "no, you're not to do that anymore. You have to do this instead. Gordon's spazzed it all on a horse, and we have to cut costs."

You get that in the private sector to some degree, too. I've got a sweet example, but it probably wouldn't be prudent for me to say online.

I think I can stave off the murderous urge for the few hours remaining of my day. Then again, maybe someone else will annoy me and I'll finally snap.

Blast him!

I *knew* that was coming!

Watched a couple episodes yesterday myself. Hope you're enjoying them. And to think that the original cartoon didn't even survive its first season.

What are you talking about with this constant "blast him!" referencing?

Space Ghost Coast to Coast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Ghost:_Coast_to_Coast

I visited the UK for 30 days in 2003, and Christopher was kind enough to put me up during my visits (two weeks in summer as well as the Xmas and New Year holidays). I brought some of my DVDs with me, among them Space Ghost discs.

Chris has been kind enough to send me a number of DVDs I can't get here (among them Garth Margenghi), and I've hooked him up with the Space Ghost sets in way of gratitude, since I remember how much he enjoyed them.

The Zorak character has a tendency to encourage Space Ghost to blast guests on the show.

Here they are, with Laurie Anderson Stomp and Beck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK_De-L4W9M

Just spent a marvellous evening watching Indiana Jones with Tom. Never seen Harrison Ford so hammy, nor a Jones film more ludicrous and fantastically put together. The main chase scene is genius, the plot Dagenham East*... just see it. Have a ball.

Question. when was the last time you went to a film with an intermission? This is an old theatre, with good old-fashioned schtick; the bit of film indicating the break must have been 40 years old, judging by the typeface and the scratches.

*Tube station, four stops past Barking.

Still no sign of the temp, calls are being made about it. How bloody hard can it be?

Seems rather odd to me. Last time I needed a temp, I had someone here 30 minutes after I made the call. Something sounds a bit fishy about this.

Nothing fishy about leaving one person to do the work of two for the pay of the cheapest one, because someone paid more than both combined can't remember to do what either of them could have done in 10 seconds flat themselves. That's socialism!

They'll have to get someone soon, because I have responsibilities to the PCT SLA that I can't fulfil under the SMHP LWP and HSR. LOL!

Up The Junction is on the radio. I love this song.

That sounds a lot like Capitalism to me, too.

"Up the Junction"... is that Squeeze? Not an expert on them but I remember enjoying that album (Cool For Cats, no?).