Leave Your Drama At Home

Oh boy, lately there's just been hella drama going on in the work place. Orders have been screwed up; money has been spent haphazardly; fingers are being pointed every which way. Yeah, it's like that.

I gotta say though that I'm proud of how I'm dealing with it all - like water off a duck's back. Don't ask, don't tell. Curiosity killed the cat. I got a million of these. Basically, I'm doing the dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge move from Dodgeball. By avoiding involvement, I keep my sanity. Y'all know how nuts my "new" co-worker is, and yes, people are still calling this chick new after a full year. Where in the hell does on-the-job training last a year? Oh wait, apparently at my work place.

The most honest-to-goodness, inspiring and truthful quote I heard recently was: Be careful of stupid people. They can really kill your business. OMG, this quote has a living, breathing example of itself and she works with me! I really thought I had a handle on what stupid was, but oh how wrong I was. I never knew stupid till now.

The most annoying part is that I don't think she even knows she's stupid. She doesn't realize that stupid things are coming out every time she opens her mouth. She has no self-awareness at all. Even when people joke about her lack of common sense, it goes right over her head.

At least if she were a conniving bitch, who twisted things around to get her way, I could respect her for her ambition. But I think the girl is too stupid for even that. She plays all helpless and hopeless and people respond. This kills me! They either pity her a crap ton and do her job for her; think she's a retard and do her job for her; or are simply efficient human beings and can't wait for her to do it so they do her job for her. Unreal man. Unreal.

Manuscript Update: 2011 Fall ETA

I got a call from my publisher's VP of Creative and was told that they found an illustrator. I won't say who it is though, because who the hell knows if it's for real this time. We all remember what happened last time.

Anyway, they wanted to confirm that I was still interested in publishing my kids book with them. As I mentioned before, my contract ends at the end of the year so they need to update it (again). Once I agreed to this, they were going to contact the illustrator to confirm.

God, I hope this is happening because I've waited over three years now. I know exactly how long it takes to produce a book and it's not three years. But whatever . . . if I've waited this long, then fall 2011 isn't that far off. Yes, apparently it'll take another year to publish and get it out on the market. By then I will probably be in New Zealand having the time of my life. I'll need the extra cash influx so maybe this is working out for the best.

My fingers are crossed for this illustrator. I think this illustrator does some amazing stuff and will add so much to the story. This illustrator was, and still is, my first choice. Let's hope for the best.

Beauty and the Beast

I was lucky enough to get some free tickets to the performance of Beauty and the Beast at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. It was an excellent show, even if there were some awfully cheesy parts.

All the main actors had really wonderful singing voices. Belle's voice was crystal clear. She wore some gorgeous costumes too. The beast was pretty well outfitted too, and the transformation from beast to prince was pretty cool. However, his constant roaring was a bit much for me. I kinda sat there like, "Really? That's what you're going to do?" The actor playing Gaston was so good.

What stole the show were the large set pieces that involved the entire cast. My favorite number was "Be Our Guest." The choreography was great; costumes just sparkled. Even the set for this number was amazing.

Speaking of sets, I sat there in awe of all the things they could do. I cannot even remember how many times the set decorations changed. It was cool how a slight change in lighting or a twist of a house could create an entirely new environment. So cool!

I definitely recommend this show, especially if you have kids. I didn't really notice an overwhelming number of them at my show. But, a lot of the slapstick humor and comedy routines were definitely targeted at them.

My friends and I found parking on the road (score!) so I didn't have to drop any dough on parking. While the auditorium was fairly full, I did see many empty seats. I went midweek though, so I'm sure the weekend showings are packed.

One Team, One Dream . . . or Not!

This has been an interesting week so far. I've been in three separate meetings to discuss the status of our department and the cohesiveness . . . or lack thereof. As I consider myself a short-timer (shh, don't tell them that), I figured I had nothing to lose but to tell the truth wholeheartedly. Only time will tell if my comments were accepted and implemented.

It's difficult to discuss work-related problems and find solutions when one of the main problems is the department manager. It's twice as hard to do that when said manager is sitting in the meeting as well, which was the case in our first meeting on Monday.

Interestingly enough, I was able to get most of my thoughts out there in spite of this. Again, since my outlook is one of months rather than years, I don't think I have a problem talking about these things. Also, I'm usually perfectly blunt about most things anyway. During this meeting though, other issues came to light that I weren't expecting. I should have known better though.

Our newest addition, who is coming up on her one-year anniversary, pulled out all the "pity me" stops. Oh boo hoo is what I say. She's complaining about being overwhelmed. She's complaining about not getting support. She's complaining about not knowing what to do. She can barely turn on her computer much less do real work. It annoys me that she's even on staff because we could've done everything without her and heard less complaining about it. What annoys me even more is that I've already told our manager that she's basically drowning in her obvious deficiencies, and he just continues to let her drown. WTF kind of manager is that really?

My second meeting involved our HR person pulling me into a quick follow up meeting. Apparently good and bad news travels fast in this company. He spouted off the predictable stuff about how this is a good company even if there are a few bumps every now and then; that we all need to be open to change; that change doesn't happen overnight; and how there aren't a lot of marketing jobs out there right now. You know what dude? Get real! For the three years I've been here, nothing has changed when it comes to our manager. He is literally the huge elephant in the middle of the room that no one wants to admit is there. Oh, supposedly everyone knows "how he is," but no one does anything to help us. Yes, I admit that it is our choice to work in his department. But if the management knows the situation, why did it take three years for them to do anything about it if they really cared about the well being of their employees?

The final meeting was with our vice president, which was probably only due to the fact that I told the HR person that we can't really say much with our manager in the meeting. This meeting was a bit more free flowing and cleared the air about how things are run under our manager. Of course, our VP already knew a lot of it, but now we've given him details. I have to admit that it was very good to get it off my chest, even though I'm not at all confident that anything will change. But hell, what can it hurt right? After all, I'm a short-timer.

Manuscript Stuck in Production Hell

I called my publisher to get an update on my manuscript. It's been three years total after all, and I haven't heard back from them since I submitted their requested changes in April.

I was told that all the manuscripts are backed up because they've slowed down production due to the bad economy. I'm not sure if I can believe that or not. I was told that they are now starting to release some books and are working their way through the backlog. If my book is three years old, how many others are before me?

It's quite infuriating to say the least. I was told that my manuscript was given to two illustrators, but they both turned it down. I'm not sure if that means they read it and didn't like it or they did sketches and the publisher didn't like it. I was told that if I could hunt around for my own illustrator it might help to speed the process along. WTF? I might as well go the independent route if I want to do that.

My contract ends in December so I'll need to decide what I want to do at that point. I'm able to either renew the contract and hope they get to it sometime in my lifetime or submit the manuscript to another publisher that may or may not want to print it. At this point, I'm leaning toward the second option. I mean, I used to work for these people and they don't really give a rat's ass about helping me in any way. I have to hunt them down to get an update. No one even answers my emails. I might as well see what strangers have to say about it.