Whether you air the orchid, audition the finger puppets, beat the beaver, beat the bishop, buff the muffin, butter your corn, check for squirrels, choke the chicken, clean your pipes, dial the rotary phone, doodle your noodle, do your nails, fan your fur, fiddle the bean, do the five knuckle shuffle, gag your clam, get a date with slick mittens, go mining, grease your hips, hee-haw the wrinkled mee-maw, hitchhike under the big top, jerk the gherkin, mangle the midget, paddle the pickle, part the red sea, punch the munchkin, ram the ham, roll your dough, rub one out, scratch the itch, send out the troops, strum the banjo, squeeze the lemon, tame the hog, tenderize the meat, tease the tuna taco, thump the pump, tip-toe through the two lips, walk the dog, wax your willy, whip the window washer, wonk your conker, or yank your crank, I've got a task for you!
On Winter Soulstice day, Friday December 22nd, some peace activists are hoping to have a tremendous effect on the Earth's negative energy. How do they plan on doing this? By achieving a Global Orgasm for Peace. The idea is that the release of physical, mental, and spiritual energy will have a profound effect on the world's current energy and change the violent state of the human world.
So, I ask you friends and strangers, in joining me at strokin' it on 12/22 - keep an eye on the countdown clock, and you too can milk one out for the world.
PS- if any of you females out there need a hand, let me know ;)
So, let me just start this off by saying I feel like a dufus. I just recently decided to invite a few of my friends to Vox, encouraging them to post so we all can keep in better touch, and now it's been a week since I posted. Way to live up to my end of the bargain eh? Guess things have just been moving quick enough in the last week that it's been difficult for me to sit down and pound out some thoughts on the keyboard. I really shouldn't even be doing it now, I should be in bed trying to sleep so I can wake up at a decent hour, get to work, and work like a crazy monkey to get all my shit done at work... but, the mind needs some release.
And now, after staring blankly at one of the most absurd cartoons I've ever seen (Ed, Edd n Eddie) I've decided that no additional information is coming out at this point... and it'll probably be awhile yet again before I make an entry since I'm flying to Kansas tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving
So, I left work "early" (by early I mean before 6:30 ha) so I could head over to Christy Sports and pick up the Winter Park/Mary Jane four pass my Dad so kindly got me. I can't wait to hit the mountains. I feel a little bad, just for that fact that if everything works out with Kansas, I may not be around to use all of them. I guess I could always come visit in the Spring and get my ass nice and sunburned while hitting the slopes. But anyway, I've really done a poor job of expressing how much I look forward to hitting the slopes. Granted, nothing will ever beat the days I spent in the Alps as a kid... but there still is quite no freedom like being on top a mountain enjoying the wind beat your face as you race down the mountain. I'm a little disappointed in myself in that the few trips up I made last year, I was pretty gun-shy. Guess it doesn't help that I was converted onto shorties that my brother passed to me (he got them on our last trip to the Alps as a family) since he wanted the speed and control of regular skis. I'm also a little concerned about heading to the slopes for the simple fact that last time I was up there, I found out one of my friends had died in a car wreck... I know that from now forward, anytime I'm on a snowcapped mountain top trying not to blow my knees out, I'll think of Taustin.
Anyway, enough about skiing, I can write about that once I hit the slopes... I read something in the news today that brought tears of sorrow to my eyes. While I was surfing the net over my lunch hour, I read an article on our local news station's website about an 83 year-old woman who died recently." 83? What's the big deal?" you may be thinking... however, the story is very sad. Last year, the woman was on the verge of being evicted from the mountain home her and her husband had had due to some bureaucratical bullshit... luckily, it all was settled and she was allowed to stay in the home... now, less than a year later... the woman died. I was elated when I found out she got to keep her home and it breaks my heart to know that her final time here was spent fighting bullshit. The only solace I can find is to hope that she died happy, knowing that the property was hers.
And last, my day. It went pretty well I guess, considering my work environment as a whole. Nothing blew up, although I could tell one of my supes was annoyed with me, over something I only had partial control over. Basically it was her own indecision a few months back that led to the whole thing... we had a signed contract from one of our pubs (which is all we really need) but we have to make orders internally, so we can bill the client. I had asked her if she wanted me to send it to the pub (which we don't normally do if we have a signed contract) and she was like no... yes... oh, yeah, I guess so. So, I sent it off to the pub and harassed the guy for a couple weeks to get it back to me. Well, he never did and I stopped following up on it. Today, she asked for that order and I explained what was going on, and I was told it was unacceptable for an order that old to go unsigned (which I completely understand).... but it still bothers me considering we didn't REALLY need it, and she was real meh about the whole thing to begin with. Oh well. Other than that, everything was pretty much a normal day... got a fair amount done so I can't complain.
As far as the rest of my day... well, I just now pulled my goulash out of the oven. After work I went to get the ski pass then to the grocery store... now it's 10:50, all I've eaten is a salad and some pepperoni... I've got hot food that I know will mess with my sleep so I won't eat it, and I really should be heading to bed now so I can get an optimal amount of sleep before going into work early. But, that's not gonna happen, it never does. Especially considering the only place I've been able to fall asleep lately is on the couch... I'm not real sure why. My bed is super comfy, but for some reason I just don't feel that comfortable in my bed room... it's almost as if there's some presence in there that I can sense (go ahead, call me crazy or weird... I dun givafuck) and it's not allowing me to rest properly. It's been that way for a lot of the time I've lived here, although I did get into a routine of sleeping in my bed for a few months. Now I'm back to the couch... wtf??? It's just weird because I told my friends when I moved in that I swear the place was haunted... several strange happenings occurred when I first moved in... but none of them were in the bedroom (yes, unfortunate I know!) Most of them were in the living room... yet that's where I feel the safest now. Guess it could be the fact that my mind doesn't wander when I'm watching TV (which I can't do in the bedroom cuz this place is lame and doesn't have a jack in there) and my wandering mind keeps me awake most nights in bed... so, I guess for another night, I may have to fall asleep to the boob tube, instead of boobs and lube in the bedroom. Ah, the single life.
I watched the Broncos squeak by the Raiders on TV. Man, talk about a close game... way too close. Then again, I can't say I expected any different. It doesn't seem to matter what any team in the AFC West's record is, they always game it up against one another... well, almost always. That and Denver seems to suffer from "play at our opponents level" syndrome. A majority of it can be attributed to Plummer tossing 3 picks. This definitely left a sour taste in my mouth - I've gotten into many a verbal battle over our quarterback. I feel true fans rally behind their team regardless of their performance... so long as they are able to redeem themselves, and also if they demonstrate positive behavior both on and off the field - which Plummer has done, for the most part. Plus, how can you ignore the fact that coach Shanahan and Plummer have the 5th highest win percentage in NFL HISTORY?? A lot of people are already calling for backup QB Jay Cutler, but personally I don't think the guy is probably ready yet. Yeah he performed pretty well in the preseason, but he also wasn't playing first string defenses on well-performing teams. Prior to the draft, analysts felt he has trouble with his decision-making... the same fault that Plummer has suffered - so how much good could the switch make? You don't change QBs mid season... unless one completely tanks - which Plummer has not, yet at least. Yes, he's faultered but even some of the "best" QBs in the NFL screw up from time to time. Still though, you do have to wonder what Denver could be like with someone else at the helm. It's a tough place to be. I can't help but feel for Plummer... he knows people are calling for his head... and it's not a good sign for him that the Broncos drafted Cutler in the first place. Then again it's not the first time they've brought on a high-caliber quarterback as backup (see John Elway vs. Tommy Maddox). I'd probably start screwing up worse if I were constantly looking over my shoulder as well.
As a pretty much lifetime fan of the Broncos, I'm going to stand behind Plummer - that's what TRUE fans do. Even if your team -may- excel under someone else's direction doesn't mean that you shake your first at who is currently at the helm - especially if your team has done well in succeeding seasons. Yeah, you can curse their name from time to time (as I did today) but the idea of booing your own quarterback at home is embarassing, apalling, and simply stupid. I hope next week against our key competition in the division right now, the Chargers, that the fans in Denver don't act like tools if Plummer manages to land the ball in an opponent's hands. Should be a good game, I just hope Denver doesn't keep looking flat. It also doesn't help that we've got a few key players down. All I know is that I'm gonna have one sore throat and aching legs after next week's game.
It's amazing how much the world can change in the matter of the day. It's amazing how much one's opinions can change just as fast. It's also amazing how well TV can distract me from my Voxing. Damn idiot box.
Anyway, back to what I was getting into there. Over the course of the last 24 hours, the world has change, as has my opinions... along with my life. I never really thought about how much can change in the matter of such a short period of time. I mean, there's the obvious big happenings that can change a lot about a person's life, but I'm not just talking about my life or my own little world - the world itself has undergone tremendous change over the last 24 hours.
Everytime I sit down and think about Voxing, it seems like something derails me from what I sat down to write about to begin with... usually it's some sort of change in attitude or what have you. It makes it hard to put together the ideas that were originally flowing through my head. Hopefully I can successfully get these all out of my fingers before TV captures me or some other news comes floating in to get my mind focused elsewhere.
Of course, I'm sure we all know about the split of Britney & Kevin. I think we all saw it coming. Personally, I didn't see it coming quite so soon - I figured it would happen sometime after he gave up the daddy charade and went on his tour. Why she chose now vs. later, I'm not quite sure... maybe it's an attempt to derail his aspiring rap career, if that's the case, then I say "you go girl!" Stupid money grubbing K-Fed deserves whatever he gets -- and that better not be the custody of their children. Not that I think Britney is or necessarily will be a good mom... but what the hell does that guy bring to the table anyway?
Next up in the news... Dems have taken control of Congress... WOOT! Now, I'm not even that sure of why I'm wooting, because I feel that no matter who the candidate or their party affiliation they're all a bunch of liars... but it brings me joy to see the nation take observance to all the corruption within the Republican party. Is there corruption within the Democratic party? Without a doubt... but I feel Democrats, ultimately, believe stronger in our freedoms than those on the Republican side of the American, politcal version of the Berlin Wall. Why the two sides must hate eachother so much is beyond me... but either way, I think there will be less infringing policies put in place over the course of the next few years with the Dems in control.
And more crap from the news... Rummy calls it quits. About damn time. Seems both him and Britney were visited by the common-sense fairy sometime over the last week. That's about as far into that as I'm gonna go. Stupid Rumsfeld.
Now, onto more personal things... with a starting line of Colorado politics. Colorado is such a strange place, politically speaking. It's past seeds the state deeply in conservatism yet with the constant flux of Californians into the state of the last two decades, there is plenty of liberalism to go around. But evidently not enough. Not only did voters approve an amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, they also voted down a referendum to grant same-sex couples in a domestic partnership the same rights as those married (and specifically says that the domestic partnership may not be marriage, a union between a man and a woman). They also voted down an amendment to grant persons 21 or older the right to possess an ounce or less of marijuana... but that doesn't have much bearing on me. But the approval of the marriage definition and the disapproval of the referendum make me sick. I can't believe people in this day and age can be so naive to think that two people that love eachother have no right to be together... or at least that's the message the voters sent the world yesterday. It makes me sad, sick, and pissed off. Stupid Coloradoans. Stupid Coloradans. Hell, people in Colorado are so damn fickle that people from here go by two names!! (Coloradoan/Coloradan)
Not only have all these aspects of the news and what not affected me, so has some shit at work. I was informed last night at work that I was being written-up. Granted, after finding out the details and such, it's clear it's my fault... but there are people who are supposed to verify my work that obviously didn't do a very good job of it. The situation goes as follows...
A couple of months ago when we were in crazy mode, I was asked to work on gathering newspaper information for a client of ours in Reno. Well, Reno is basically on the CA/NV border, so the newspapers I was researching were in both states. I originally started with a list of towns in which to find papers (I was later given a map in addition, but I only used that to find towns that I was having a hard time with, not going back over papers I had already found). Well, one of the towns I had to find a paper for was Eureka. So, I found a Eureka, got the rates and information we needed, and further down the line we placed and ran ads with said paper. Everything seem just fine with everything... that is until last week (well, as far as I'm concerned everything was fine until last night). Evidently, while I was on my vacation to Kansas (which I will hopefully have the chance to Vox one of these days... but there's been too many other things going on to even talk about the trip) our client was alerted about ads running in a Eureka, CA paper. I guess it ends up that the ad director and/or the publisher of the paper's nephew works for our client and they were talking about the client's re-branding campaign. During that conversation, the guy at the newspaper realized they were running ads for this... well, it turns out that the Eureka paper I needed to find was supposed to be in EUREKA, NV. So, word got back to our client and subsequently that bomb landed on my agency.
Yeah, I screwed up pretty bad. In fact, I didn't even want to Vox about it because I don't want a permanent reminder of me fucking up. I am very proud of my work, and I've always done good work. yeah, I've made the occasional SMALL mistake, but this one is huge. In fact, huge doesn't even do it justice. I've been pretty tore up about it. Embarassed. Angry. A melting pot of terrible emotions, right when I'm on the eve of trying to change my life. UGH! At least, for the time being, the farthest this as gone is me being written up... I guess when we come to the end of the whole ordeal I'll know whether or not I still have a job.
In the mean time, I'm going to try and calm myself, and hang out with Uncle Burnett... orange & orange, yumm
So, I'm on full day number 3 in Kansas now, it's definitely a change of pace. It's nice to sit back and relax some, but at the same time I feel guilt for not getting more done with my time. It's signs like this that scare me at times, worry me that I could fall into the habit of my former work-a-holic dad (he's not such the workaholic that he used to be, thus the former part) and even he hasn't quite yet let go of not working everyday of the week... but he also is running his own business now so it's a little different than when I was growing up.
I had my interviews at the agency here yesterday. I'm not real sure what my thoughts are on how the whole thing went. It's definitely obvious that the functions between this agency and the one I currently work at are very different - granted, there are still many of the same elements, but things that are part of my job in Denver are split into two jobs here, and each one sounds more in-depth than what I've been dealing with so far in D-town. Both teams I interviewed with seemed to like the things I had to say, but the way the interview ended with the second person was a bit awkward. He wasn't real sure what my schedule was from there, nor was I... so we both were just kinda like uhhh... hmm... okay. He said to email him if I had anymore questions about the position, etc. At this point I'm still trying to figure out what exactly the tasks are of the job since the media department at Barkley is drastically different... but, I did decide to visit with my ex-coworker Liz before I left. She seems pretty happy about her job and at least perceives that my life would be less crazy at Barkley than at Karsh... I guess that's reassuring.
In many ways they did seem a bit more of informational interviews than actual job interviews... but again, the second guy (who isn't the ultimate decision maker but IS the one I would be working directly with more so than the ultimate decision maker) did seem to think the things I do know would fit well with the position, especially considering that I've had experience with two of the other three entities I will be dealing with at Barkley. At Karsh I deal with both media planning and media buying - the two jobs cross bounderies - whereas at Barkley, the two jobs are completely separate. Also, at Karsh I interned on the account service side, and the planners work closely with that department at Barkley. The only part I haven't worked much with is client-direct. At my level at Karsh, client interaction is slim-to-none... but it's not something I'm afraid of whatsoever. I think I can represent myself well in front of clients.
I just don't know if I should go for the buying position, or the planning position (since I basically interviewed for both while I was there yesterday). I enjoy aspects of both... but not all of both.... it's just difficult with having them combined at Karsh and broken out at Barkley. The lines in my mind are blurred enough that I'm not positive which one I would rather do. I like working with vendors, and at the planning position that would basically be out, at least for the most part from what I can tell. I also like number crunching and research, which it sounds like is NOT including in buying at Barkley. So I enjoy both sides... and I wish I had realized how the two roles are segmented when I went into interview number one, because not realizing it until the end definitely effected the questions and my responses to their questions during discussions with the (two buyers in one interview) and director of group planning... it wasn't until I talked with the group planning supervisor that the pieces really began to fit.
So where does that leave me? A bit confused on where to take this from here, especially since next steps weren't real clear nor were things like salary and such is discussed... which is understandable at this stage of the game. Uncertainty leaves a nasty taste in my mouth, but I am happy that I had the chance to at least talk with some people there and get more of a feel for things than I would've otherwise.
Well, my sister and my nieces are home so it's time to head out. It's funny, during all this vacation time I still haven't had a change to vox the way I want to, oh well.
So, for once, it seems the weather forecasters did their job... at least as close as they could. They called for a pretty wide range of how much snow we could get, but they did indicate that it wouldn't just be a light dusting as we've had a few times already this year. I was hoping to see the start of the snow before I went to bed last night, but unfortunately it was just rain and I wasn't about to stay up and wait for it to turn into snow. Granted, if I had stayed up until my normal hour it probably would've, but I've been so incredibly tired out every day this week that I knew it'd be best to try and catch up before I'm out to all god forsaken hours tonight promoting our night at Kazmos. Thankfully though, with the snow we did get, the drive in was pretty much fine. The car slid a little bit in a couple of places, but nothing too alarming. Now the snow has subsided and much of it on the streets has melted... too bad it'll probably be all nice, frozen and slick by the time I head out of here. If not now, I know the roads will be a mess later either on my way to Kazmos or on the way home. Which brings me to the frusration part of this post...
When the opportunity of helping to promote Thursdays at Kazmos came up back in July, I was reluctant to get involved for a few different reasons. The first reason why I was reluctant was because of the schmoe we'd be doing it with. Yeah, Dave is a decent guy, but he certainly doesn't have his shit together. He's a great networker with some great ideas, but the guy is a slacker and very unprofessional in his approach to things. The second reason is because after Dale and I threw our first event together in conjunction with someone else, I felt like I was the glue holding all the pieces together and took a lot more burden on my shoulders than I should have. I was afraid this would happen again if we got involved in a weekly night. Well, after Dale and Alex (Alex had joined the crew after we threw our first event) assured me that everything would go smoothly, that they were in 100% and that Dave wouldn't be a problem, I decided it was time for my crew to get involved with Thursdays at Kazmos.
Over time, Dave has failed to really hold up on his end of the bargain. He's been too busy promoting his own one-off events to focus on our Thursdays and has been treating the crew with disrespect most of the time. Luckily Alex and I are able to take Dave's disrespect with a grain of salt because we know that's just how the guy is, but Dale on the otherhand, has taken it to heart. He feels that if Dave treats him that way that he shouldn't be giving it his all. This attitude has grown within the crew, and I've found myself, again, carrying the majority of the weight for our night at Kazmos. The first Thursday of November is a week away and we still haven't booked a single DJ for the month. WTF mate? I've been bugging the guys about doing it for weeks now. Finally, after texting Dave a few times yesterday, he responded that he would let the crew handle the bookings for November and that there were just a few people that he'd like to make sure played in November - wow, that's awesome news... too bad he decided to wait until the week before to fucking tell us. So now I'm in a scramble on how we are to get the talent booked in time for next week, and we also need to get the rest of the month booked as soon as possible so we can get a flyer for the month made and uploaded. It just sucks feeling like I'm the only one that really cares about this night. Yeah, Kazmos isn't an awesome place, and yeah, Thursdays are a tough night in this town... but business is business and the owner of Kazmos is depending on us to bring customers into his business. If we do well here, it could mean the start of a lot of things for us... even if we don't care that much for the place or who we may or may not be working with. This brings me to a whole colony of worms I haven't even addressed yet... (do worms live in colonies?)
My job hasn't been going real well lately, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to update my resume and post it up on Monster for the world to see. I selected most of Colorado and also selected Kansas City as places I was looking at for employment. Much to my amazement, last week (or maybe it was the week before?) I was contacted by a recruiter at an ad agency in Kansas City. Why would I look in Kansas you ask? Well, half my family lives out there and it'd be nice to be closer to them... plus I'm in need of change in my life anyway, and change doesn't get much bigger than moving to KS/MO. So, after exchanging a few emails, etc, I have managed to line up an interview for next week. I am taking Tuesday-Friday off to go out and interview and also spend time with my family and celebrate Halloween. What does this have to do with Kazmos? Well, I think it's pretty ridiculous that while I'm trying to see about moving away and all that that I am STILL the one that cares most about our stupid effing night. This all just seems like an incredible waste of time for me, yet I continue to do it week in and week out. Oh well, if I follow the yellow brick road, I just may find myself in Kansas, Toto.
