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

I've no interest in Twilight; if I have to have teen vampire nonsense I'll stick with Buffy on VHS, thanks.

I can't believe your employers actually arrange extended breaks around trips to see movies, Shea. The oh-so-ethical organisation to which I'm enslaved has cut our lunch break to the point that we have to choose whether use the time to have half a cup of tea or to go to the toilet...

"I believe that watching these 4 films back-to-back is the new alternative to a frontal lobotomy. But less humane."

Well, 97 citizens of Austin decided to do just that yesterday. We had a Twilight-a-thon The first three films, starting at 4pm, and the most recent at midnight. I think some people need to get out less.

Probably 90 of those were women. That means there are at least seven people in this city who need to hand in their man card and have it torn up in front of their eyes. Permanently rescinded.

The, er, executive khazi is upstairs, and I have a key In order to get to it you have to walk past the projection booth (hardly a booth these days - more of a hall), and if there's already someone making use of the facilities I'll wander over to the projection window for screen 3 and see what's going on while I wait. Yesterday that was the screen we used for the marathon, so I got to see a couple of minutes of the first one, without sound, about 15-20 minutes in. I don't think I actually needed any sound anyway because all I saw was a couple of sulky, moody, pouting teenagers giving each other sullen looks. There was no dialogue.

And this is going to sell out three or four screens all weekend long.

I don't think I want to live on this planet any more.

Oh, I don't know that writing off the whole planet is called for... there's still plenty of worthwhile films to go see.

The next Sherlock Holmes is out soon, and eventually they'll have to make another Star Trek, won't they?

PF, I'm very, very lucky to have gotten a job with this company. I was unemployed for 2 years, and it's almost like I paid my dues to w*rk for a decent place.

We just moved into a new building, and there's a gas grill outside with tables and umbrellas. It's very nice on sunny days. Inside we have 2 microwaves, 2 refrigerators, a sink and a dishwasher along with the usual vending machine ... oh, and a maker!

Last week, we had they got us pizza for lunch and we watched Office Space.

Those of us who stayed behind today noshed on the leftovers from the early Thanksgiving potluck from yesterday. It was a lovely lunch!

And I got to take a bit of a break this afternoon to help clean up the breakroom (hey, it's a break, right?).

Did you get to smash up a photocopier afterwards with baseball bats?

Oh I hope there's another Star Trek It looks like there might be quite a few good films out around Christmas. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy for one, and... another one that I was looking at earlier today on the IMDb and which I can't remember now. Comes out on December 21st I think. Half a mo... oh, yeah - Tintin.

Tintin is fun. I saw it a couple of weeks ago. Dont't expect too much and you will not be disappointed is one of my many mottos

I'm so impressed at Shea's employer.
My last employer had an incentive scheme running,
work hard and you get to keep your job.

I seem to be renting a lot Chinese films at the moment,
I'm getting quite used to either everyone or the hero dying at the end.
Watched something from Hollywood recently and was quite miffed that the main character was still with us at the end.

I'm impressed at my employer too. I had a bad run of them for a while. It's lovely to be treated well.

I'm especially pleased at the way they've been so understanding with my medical issues. I've only been there 6 months, but they've let me have the time off I've needed to go to s, etc. They've always said, "Just take care of yourself and get well." What an incredibly refreshing attitude!

I'm jealous. I've had worse jobs and worse managers than I do now, but there is exactly zero chance of something like that happening for me.

These employers? They're not named Ben and Jerry by any chance?

Nope. Brian and John.

Maybe it's the initials ...

Should I mention there's eggs, bacon, pancakes and biscuits for breakfast at w*rk today? No? Okay.

Oh, and fresh fruit.

and here we're having grits.
That's real grit, filling but tough on the teeth.

Sprinkle a little gravel on that. There's a stick-to-the-ribs breakfast!

I can't complain too much about my employer; the company is nothing like it was when I started as far as meals and perks go, but the trend is pretty much business standard.

Meanwhile, individual departments are pretty much given leave to congregate as they will, most break areas include a full kitchen in addition to a vending machine, different groups/shifts will have a potluck on a pretty regular basis. One of my groups has one about once a month - although we elected to have our December luncheon catered instead of potluck.

Not sure what kinds of perks there will be in my department as I've only just joined it. Even if there aren't *any* perks it will be better than my last department.

I've seen at least three emails today explaining that regardless of the site wide email that went out regarding civil servants leaving early today and encouraging contract managers to let folks leave early, we will NOT be doing so unless we use personal leave.

I really didn't mind but to see this repeatedly "clarified" is getting annoying.

Oh, I also should add that even if we wanted to use personal time and leave early, we would have had to plan on doing so before 11:00 am Monday as that's when they closed the time keeping for this week, what with the holiday and all.

Sounds a bit like the health service.

Here's another odd thing my place of employment does:

Our Marketing Manager quit a few weeks ago, so they've decided to make her replacement position a Marketing Director job. This means that even though the MM wasn't my boss, the MD will be.

They want us (the 3 of us in marketing) to interview our new boss! I've been trying to find questions online, but I'm having a hard time. I guess they want to make sure we'll get along with our new boss, but I just keep thinking if we screw up this interview and end up with a jerk, that we'll have nobody but ourselves to blame!