What the fuck is going on with the weather out West? First it snows six inches in Antelope Valley (just north of Los Angeles) this morning, then I see this:

That’s the big fake Pharoah at the Luxor. In fucking LAS VEGAS. Yes, that’s right, folks, Las Vegas got six inches of snow today, too.

I first heard about this when Joel told me his trip had been cancelled because his co-workers got stranded in a snowstorm in Vegas. The Vegas airport owns neither a snowplow nor a de-icer, so they called him at O’Hare to say, “Yeah, don’t get on the plane.”

Seriously, this is just ridiculous. I’ve had one big shoot that keeps getting cancelled because of weather, and at the rate things are going with both that shoot and the overall weather, the next cancellation is going to be because it’s raining blood.

A day that was supposed to be a sixth day became a lazy day yesterday, and by doing so I actually managed to get shit done today.

By being a complete useless lump all day Saturday, I saved up the energy to do laundry, go grocery shopping, swim 3km in damn good time, dye my hair, and even remake the bed.

Well, technically not remake the bed yet, since Chaplin keeps sitting on the covers and getting all bitey as I try to make it, rendering any attempts to do so both useless and slightly perilous. God help me if I ever get a girlfriend who’s not a complete slob likes me and insists I make the bed every day rather than whenever I damn well feel like it.

Anyway, I see the finish line at work - Maybe spilling over into a couple of shoot-free office days on Christmas week, but lord, we’re close.

Christmas won’t be quite the hibernation week in Connecticut I was expecting because of some family medical fun I won’t get into here, but it won’t be work. And at this point I need a simple break from work more than I need the hibernation I traditionally take this time of year.

Alllllllmost there.

This year, I’m thankful for:

• My job, because it’s nice to have a job I like, let alone any job whatsoever after spending a third of the year unemployed
• My family for being understanding about me not schlepping my ass to the East Coast for a whopping two days of family time.
• My friends, for putting together so many awesome thanksgiving celebrations that I’ve had to bake multiple pies instead of the usual one.
• The fact that there is not a major union on strike shutting down my entire industry (yet).

And finally, a card I was highly amused by from someecards.com, which describes the entire conversation with my father I’d be having had I dragged my ass to Atlanta to get attacked by my 8 nieces and nephews:

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

I am tired.

A lot physically tired, a little tired of getting run into the ground at work, VERY tired of this election, frustrated-tired of the stupid plateau I hit with my weight, tired of just having no time to do anything except work out, work, and sleep.

And the latter of which I really don’t have as much time to do as I’d like. Which is why I’m dragging myself to bed right now. Whee!

Still just buried in work as we try to get our footing, but a few quick:

THINGS I LIKE

- This American Life’s podcast this week, aptly titled “Another Frightening Show About The Economy.” You can download it for free from that page for the rest of the week, and it’s a much, much clearer explanation of what in the hell is going on with the economy than I’ve heard from any other place thus far. Really fascinating stuff.

- Google’s Gmail Goggles. If you’re going to send a late-night email from Gmail, you can now enable a new feature that will ask you to answer a series of relatively basic math questions in a short period of time to prove that you’re not too a) drunk or b) tired to be emailing someone.

- USAA Checking. Sweet god, Deposit @ Home is awesome. You scan a check with a normal scanner, you upload it, and then you’re done. You can walk over to an ATM 20 minutes later and withdraw the cash, which is REALLY convenient when that check is your petty cash advance from work. And USAA reimburses you for the ATM fees since they’re an internet-only bank.

THINGS I DO NOT LIKE

- The nights I just can’t seem to get out of the office. We had pages drop right as we wrapped tonight, and when I should normally be getting out of the office by half an hour after wrap, I wasn’t done until almost 2 hours after wrap.

- The fact that every muscle in my body is seriously pissed at me right now. I ordered a footrest for the office which should help prevent me from hunching over my computer, but between being the Hunchback of Notre Lot and working out like a crazy person, my body is hating on me right now.

- Waking up in the middle of a REM cycle, which I did this morning, and which made me drowsy, cranky, and off the ball all morning.

THINGS I’M UNDECIDED ABOUT

- I mentioned this to a few people, but for some reason two different guys in my office asked me if I was ex-military this week. Apparently I have a military precision about me, according to them. Frankly, I think it’s just because I know the alpha-bravo-charlie alphabet and use it to be clearer on the phone. That, and I keep making my PA’s drop and give me 20.

- I’m pretty clearly not going to make my goal of getting my weight loss total to 80 pounds by Halloween. At least not unless I get some sort of serious gastrointestinal illness like the one striking half of USC. However, I’ve already lost 70 and will hopefully be in the 73-75 range by the end of the month. I’m debating whether I should be happy about this, since it’s so close to my goal and weight loss slows as you lose more weight anyway, or frustrated with the slowing pace. I think for the sake of my sanity, I’ll go with the former.

October 3, 1995

I was in the student lounge of my high school in D.C., where they’d dragged a bunch of TVs so we could all watch the O.J. verdict. They knew people would cut class to go find TVs elsewhere and watch it anyway, so the administrators just threw up their hands and let us watch.

The reaction to the “not guilty” verdict was mixed at my private, relatively white high school - I recall my own reaction being, “Well, they took that little time to deliberate after such a long trial, that’s pretty much the only verdict they could have come up with.” I was a very cynical 14 year old with a lawyer for a father.

There wasn’t any celebration as far as I remember, but there also wasn’t as much anger as I saw later on the news from a lot of people. The overriding reaction I recall from my schoolmates was a reinforcement of the idea that if you have enough money and good enough lawyers, you can always buy reasonable doubt. For once, it wasn’t about race. It was about money.

Some people (namely, those whose families had a LOT of money) were a little too reassured by that.

October 3, 2008

I’ve been neck-deep in work all week, so I’ve barely been able to keep up with the most basic aspects of the news. I remembered seeing something this morning about the case going to the jury, but then I got sucked into yet another giant fiasco involving internet not working in one critical area, and half my day was gone.

Then, about 10pm, I heard a crackle on the walkie, “Hey, they’re about to announce the verdict.” Confusion ensued, since there were a number of people who hadn’t even realized the trial was going on. And then, apparently from a guy with a wireless connection and a Slingbox: Guilty on all counts.

Before it was even up on any website. Most sites were still just getting breaking-news briefs that a verdict had even been reached up before it was announced. So the walkies scooped the internet. A truly bizarre chain of events.

Not as bizarre as the chain that landed O.J. back in the defendant’s chair, and now probably in jail for the rest of his life. But still, pretty damn odd.

Last week: 6 days, somewhere between 75-80 hours (I pretty much lost count).

Today: 13 hours, and lost my boss halfway through the day so I got to pull double-duty for most of the afternoon. Tomorrow: Likely even more ridiculous.

I’m bloody exhausted, but I will say: I’m glad I’ve been WAY too busy to watch the economy implode. I’d probably be a lot more worried about it if I had a better grasp on what in the fuck is going on.

I’d like to preface this by stating that the video I’m linking to was shot when I got home four days into a six day week, when I’d already worked well over 50 hours. This means two things:

1. I don’t look too spectacular in this. My hair in particular is starting to go for its evening frizz-out, and generally the black circles under my eyes aren’t quite that pronounced until the end of the day on Friday.

2. My brain was complete mush when I recorded it, so I couldn’t exactly make it stop when I wanted it to, and I’m also rambling a wee bit.

And now the link, which will open a 5MB, 40 second video in a new window (I need to figure out how to convert to flash without getting a YouTube account): The Network is encouraging me to waste enormous amounts of time.

Oh, and this is the toy I got. It’s pretty damn awesome and relatively idiot-proof. However, it’s not really sleep-deprivation proof, as you can see from the video.

Prep is always pretty brutal. Trying to formulate a system to get everyone all the information they need, figuring out exactly what information they actually do need, and even simply trying to get a grip on who the fuck everyone is before we start shooting is a time-consuming and exhausting process.

Adding onto that the increasingly Herculean task of dragging myself to the gym an absolute minimum of 4 days a week to try and keep the weight loss going, and time for damn near anything starts to evaporate.

And of course, only in my world is it a problem that this is all happening as almost every show on television starts to premiere. Sure, I have a terabyte of storage space on the big TiVo, but I want to watch everything noooooooow. And by everything, I mean the 30+ hours of crap I plan to record every single week.

All in all, I just need the days to be longer. As much as the prep process sucks, I like my job. And the working out has left me feeling physically better than I have in a long time. But I need more sleep, and I could really use some more time to myself during the week.

Alas, for now, I’ll just keep rolling along, taking the occasional Saturday off the gym and then deciding to make up for it by doing a gym triathlon on Sunday. And sleeping like a hibernating bear on the weekends.

Ah, the first week of work after a long layoff. Inevitable lack of sleep and exposure to fun new germs leaving me sick…again. The good news is that this seems to be one that’s only affecting my chest and sinuses, and not completely addling my brain like the last cold I had.

The bad news: My nose is running like a leaky faucet. Went through half a box of tissues at work, probably going to wind up going through at least a whole one over the weekend. I’ll be a sight to behold in the crowd at Roller Derby tomorrow, clutching a giant wad of tissues as I cheer hot girls beating the everloving crap out of each other.

For now, I’m going to go hang out with my good friend NyQuil. To quote Denis Leary: “NyQuil, NyQuil, NyQuil, we love you, you giant fucking Q!”