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

Well you *do* live in a red state! They should probably steer well clear of Wike Winterbottom's (Welcome to Sarajevo; 24 Hour Party People; In This World) soon-to-be-released '9 Songs' http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1397249,00.html

Thanks for pointing out The Dreamers. I like Bertolucci. I'd also recommend to you In This World http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310154/ - remarkable for the fact that the 'actors' are 'real people'. I also liked 24 Hour Party People http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274309/ - but then it was about the music I grew up with. We also used to get Tony Wilson (central character, played by Steve 'Alan Partridge' Coogan on our local TV. Check out the tagline to the movie for the perfect description of him!) on local TV on the 'So It Goes' programme, which used to feature acts like Iggy Pop, Blondie, The Buzzcocks.

Adaptation I loved too. I remember watching it in a slightly bad mood and getting annoyed that the last 20 minutes seemed to degenerate into a stoopid straight-to-video movie. Then I got the joke!

As for Charlotte Grey - I've got it at home, but I've steered clear of it after reading Sebastian Faulks' 'Birdsong'. Everyone thought that that was great, but I thought that, while bits of it were good (the tunneling scenes), the writing was incompetent. I remember the first couple of pages being a detailed description of some French countryside and thinking 'eah - but I'm not getting any kind of mental picture here'.

I'd say run-don't-walk to Philip Roth's 'The Plot Against America', which I've just finished. It's a masterpiece. But it's not repeat NOT an allegory for Bush. It's much cleverer than that.

Oops! Logorrhea!

I have seen Charlotte Grey but never read it, I definately enjoyed it though.

Yes, the film's good. But it sank FilmFour as a production company.

*pokes head in, looks around for PCandy*

Will check back later.

Heya JEllen... just got in (it's around 7:30). K and I met up with some of the old co-workers for a few drinks after work let out. I'm here till around 10:30 and will watch for you!!

Helloooooooooo! I'm back.

I'll be back in a bit... got an email from my uncle, my grandma fell today and she's in the hospital. I'm getting info on where she is and visiting hours and stuff and will be back after I get off the ohone with my uncle.

Sorry.

Oh okay, no problem. I know how frightened I am when my Mom falls -- I hope your Grandmother mends quickly. I'll stay on for a bit, but if you come back and I've disappeared, it means I've gone to bed. My sister wants me to go with her to a bead show tomorrow at 9am. But I will stay on for a while longer.

Best wishes to your granny PC.

And from me also.

granny. (But gently!!!)

Hey, JEllen, yup, i reckon you are demonstrating a very healthy reaction by squaring up and declaring you like this film, not that i have seen it of course.

But i do actually get to have the option of watching TV now at times, OK, it's in frogsqueak, but quite often that doesn't really matter too much. I have to confess it can be quite relaxing at times, but i still doubt i will ever be a big fan, i am just too hyper and have a very low boredom threshold. i am the same with books, if it hasn't grabbed me by page 5, forget it; but if it has, i do little else except plough through it very quickly.

*worrying thought, am i like this with people too?*

Seriously, that is possible, i am very impatient. For instance, last night i was all for massive...er...but more. The definitely available, but as for the other..."hey, slow down, we've got at least 20 years with any luck, let's just relax a bit for now!"

I guess he is right really. At times i am much more than !!! (But it's part of my charm my dears!)

zdt

Sorry to hear about Grandma, PC. Grandparents are so fragile! Not like two year olds who can somersault down a flight of stairs, knocking over an umbrella stand at the bottom, and walk away unfazed.

As to books - I was thinking only yesterday - when picking up an unfamiliar novel, I generally look to se if the first line grips me. This is not a reliable guide though, by any means. One book on my shelf is Q by Luther Blisset http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,967157,00.html I've started once and given up - but I'm told that it really kicks in after about 200 pages !.

Currently I'm coasting with the next Patrick O'Brian in the series. Maybe I'll give Q another go after that. Alternately...I bought Richard Ford's 'Independence Day' from Oxfam. Has anyone read it? It's meant to be a modern classic.

I also bought TS Eliot's complete work (I recently got a notion to attempt The Waste Land and Four Quartets)....and a rather neat German-English pictorial dictionary. It's divided up into different topics on each page and has detailed, annotated diagrams in which it gives German names for different parts. Some of them are really esoteric topics....like Railway Marhsalling Yards and Neural Anatomy.

Re. TS Eliot. Has anyone read Catch 22? There's one bit where the pompous General Dreedle circulates a communique saying that many of the men are spending too much time thinking about useless things like poetry instead of practising their shooting. 'Name, for example, one poet who makes money' So P.F.C. Wintergreen phones HQ and says 'TS Eliot' and hangs up....which triggers a chain of evenys such as people panicking that this is a code word they've forgotten and an investigation into whether thisn Eliot might be a spy.

(But I digress: brilliant book. Some people say it's hard going, but its worth persevering with. The opening lines are brilliant: 'It was love at first sight. The very first time that Yossarian set eyes upon the Chaplain, he knew he was in love.')

Hi all. My gram's all right, I guess, but she'll be getting corneal transplants soon.

I'm also in a foul mood going off to work today... Friday a delivery came from one of our vendors for an order I'd been promising to ship for weeks. I will try to explain this ongoing situation later when I have more time. So I wound up paying for the delivery myself, with my boss promising to reimburse me before the end of the day. That didn't happen, and I'm now even more livid than ever. I will be perusing the want ads while at work today. F*ck this.

Will try to pop back on later, just wanted to let everyone know (1) Gram wasn't badly hurt, and (2) I might not be around much for a couple of days so I can step up my job search efforts.

I'm sure you'll know the classic song by The Adverts, 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes' http://www.comnet.ca/~rina/gary.html

Wellll....when Winston Churchill's wife died, it was announced that she had donated her corneas. That was on the day that my Great Aunt Dolly got her corneal graft......

I actually have a little time for random online activity, since I'm left with a $300 a day budget for ordering parts for jobs on my desk, and I hit that limit before 8:00 this morning. So, I really have nothing else to do today aside from answer the phones and make up lies as to why I've not shipped anything out yet.

Therein lies my primary dissatisfaction with my current employment situation: I'm not particulary proficient at thinking up, and getting away with, recurrent falsehoods. I don't WANT to lie for a living. Period.

I'm afraid my payroll check is going to bounce. My boss had to bum money off me to pay a vendor with? There's no heat in here except for the little propane blaster which guzzles $15 a day in fuel for which I have $20 to last the week. I'm left to drown in a mess of backlogged work and then I'm expected to run interference between irate creditors, customers, and insurance agents and my clueless employer? I don't think so.

The only reason I am still here is that I can f*ck off for most of the day and get paid for it- the boss is in Florida till Friday.

Incidentally, K's last day at the old plant was Friday and he hasn't gotten a break yet. Keep sending

That is one shockingly sh*t job, don't give that waster anymore of your money. You may never see your pay check, so work your time there. Search for a job on their time.

When will you hear whether your paycheck has gone through?

Do you have solicitors over there who will help you for free or until they win some?

This utterly utterly stinks, I am so sorry to hear its gone like this for you.

Yep, I'm purusing the want ads this morning, some of which I'll need to reply to at home where I have access to a printer with a working ink cartridge, etc. I'm actually doing as little work as humanly possible today, I'm so p*ssed off.

I imagine I can go to the Board of Labor and file a formal complaint. Problem with that is, while an employer can't terminate an employee for that, one's employer CAN make one's life a living hell. I don't want to quit outright until K has a job lined up. Although he's entitled to unemployment benefits, it won't be enough to cover the both of us.

I'm also going to look into whether I'd be entitled to any sort of benefits, because my employer provides unfit working conditions for me and grossly misrepresented himself to me prior to my starting work here. I dislike being deceived, and I dislike being used. The only thing keeping me going with it right now is wanting to be able to cover K's back till he gets his work situation sorted out. When he moves in this spring, I don't want us struggling any more than necessary, or than we're accustomed to.

Thanks for the support and the encouraging words. They help a helluva lot.

Another thing which has cheered me considerably today is (besides the fact that my boss is gone through Thursday!) that part of my recent Amazon.com order arrived today, bearing the DVDs and one of the books I ordered last week. And the second of the three parcels should be waiting on my front steps when I arrive home. There's something to smile about.

Tomorrow K's picking me up around an hour or so early and taking me to my doctor's appointment, then we'll be hanging out and watching one of these fine films, depending on how "heavy" of a mood we're in. We weren't quite up to "The Birth of a Nation" last week. I'm feeling better NOW, though.

"look into whether I'd be entitled to any sort of benefits, because my employer provides unfit working conditions for me and grossly misrepresented himself to me prior to my starting work here"

That is a possibility and one worth pursuing PC.
You may be eligible for beneifts until you find another job in a safe environment with the same or better pay.
This state it would not work but we have some unusual laws.

Sorry to hear this job is not up to what you were promised not to mention you are unhappy and under utilized. You deserve better, do keep looking reguardless of Ks positions or timing. Sounds like you have enough time at work to investigate other jobs which might be a plus.

Have you thought of working somwhere that gives discounts on the things you like to buy for your retail therapy?

>Have you thought of working somwhere that gives discounts on the things you like to buy for your retail therapy?<

Yeah, I had thought about (and applied for) a few management positions at various record and bookshops. I'm way overqualified for sales, and they don't pay enough to support my current "lifestyle", so to speak. Management could work, though. I wondred if I got a job at Barnes & Noble if I'd wind up owing *them* money on payday. Perhaps if half my pay were in money, and the other half in books and CDs and DVDs, it would amount to the same thing as I've got going now.

I'm still going to keep looking and will see if any of the various Labor agencies can help me out. I'm sure there's better protection for workers than I or many people actually know about out there. I will also continue to check the Career Builder and Monster.com for more administrative and call center type positions, as I am happiest working in a busy office environment where I deal with a fair number of people.

At times I sort of wish I'd just waited things out at the old plant and taken the layoff when it came. It could be fun, both K and myself being off work for a few weeks. But the job market's too fickle right now to tempt fate too much. So I'll stay where I am until I actually find another position, in spite of my overwhelming urge to just walk out one of these days. Especially now that I've got another person's interests to look out for as well.

Wow, PC, your boss sounds like such a lying scumbag. How horrid for you. Here's to finding a decent opportunity soon, and good luck for K's search too.

Planning on getting some painting done tonight.

And I am thinking of starting a new collage. I'm in a very artsy mood.

JEllen