time to look at the schedules....

It is Friday here, a wonderful and exciting day in the office. It is not the fact that we have the weekend coming up (we work weekends here) but that today is the official day before scheduled hangover day.

This means that tonight we can without guilt or recrimination from our co-workers, consume more than one beer in the evening. This is a full office event.... It is almost like sport, with people staggering into the office Saturday afternoon comparing the end result. The winner is often the one with the worst looking been-drunk-I-hurt face in the place. Extra points are awarded to arriving early with the worst looking facial expression; points are deducted for arriving chipper or with empty redbull cans for recycling.

I have to admit that I have not won the event yet, but I have been in the medal standing a couple of times. And you would think I could take the title at least once, since I am a lightweight amongst some serious pros.

Though this seems juvenile, I have discovered that it actually has therapeutic value. This is a high pressure office with serious deadlines, you miss one you are dead. We are fully immersed in work 7 days a week on this job, though it is only for a few months it is very intense. Weekday hangovers are not acceptable here, (not that I would anyways) and not pulling your weight in this office can lead to a quick retirement. So going out with your co-workers on the one night that you can get away with it and getting liquored is a very serious form of release. We still talk about work, but at least we do not remember it the next day...

That is almost the same as having a day off, isn’t it?

Short notes....

things are mad here at the office today. . Lots O deadlines flying, so I will make this short.

I am going to take a trip from Penn Station to Milburn NJ on NJ transit tonight. Off to the Paper Mill Playhouse to see a show.

I will be able to compare and contrast the public train systems extiting major metropolitan areas of 4 countries on three continents once I am done this trip...

Report to follow...

And on Tuesday we studied Marketing!

Another thing about NYC is the lengths that marketers will go to in order to tap into the largest single market in the USA. Good Ol Manhattan. You get the normal stuff, Times Square (one big ass billboard), Planes flying overhead writing in smoke (yeah, they still do that here) and the myriad of playbills and restaurant menus stuffed under my door each night.
With the new TV shows coming up this fall, the pressure is on to be creative in order to get the advertising out. This morning, I was handed a free NEW YORK TIMES as I walked into the subway to go to work. The fake headline on the fake overlay of the real times was “Woman becomes President” It was in fact an advertisement for a new show in the fall that stars Geena Davis. Pretty effective, though I will never watch the show. The second unique advertising trick I saw was for a show called “My name is Earl”. These poor young women were walking around Times Square in black t-shirts with video monitors on the front running 30 second TV ad loops of the show. The sound systems (also part of the shirt) were cranked up so that you could hear the advertisement over the sound of the cars an people in Times Square. We were in line for a club opening, waiting to get in for our free booze (I managed to get a ticket by chance) and these poor women were walking up and down the line getting verbally abused because their video shirts were so obnoxious. You could see the pain in their faces, even they had no plans to watch the show after that experience.

I can see it now, some young marketing executive pitching the idea in a boardroom like it was the best plan in the world. Boy was that wrong. Though I was impressed with the creativity…..

On a side note, I am despondent that as a race we have the ability to put satellites in orbit and yet most men cannot complete the simple task of flushing the urinal…. There is something wrong with us…

Monday musings....

A quick note for monday. I watched a swedish movie with subtitles last night. No it was not porn, it was a comedy. (Swedish comedy - draw your own conclusions) the name of the movie was: Slim Suzie.
It was a strange outing about a murder in a small town and the brother tries to sort out the story.... Funny at times, it was also very subtle and left me guessing till the end what was going on. I enjoyed it... the curious part was the fact that the leads sang some songs in english, and probably did not know what the words meant. (peaked your curiosity now?)

It was a quiet sunday night of low cash flow adventures. I have noticed that ever since Blockbuster got rid of late fees, I have become perpetually late on my movie returns... I was never late before. Blockbuster has turned me into a movie procrastinator.. I hope they are proud of themselves...

Till later....

Bikes and Mountains on Oahu - A harley ride in Hawaii, knock that off the things to do before I die list.

what am I doing at the office?

Well, here we are on a Sunday afternoon and I am in the office.  
Loser you say?  Not really I think.  You see, Jennifer is not here, so I have nobody worthwhile to hang out with.  I could be watching the Grand Prix with Jeff and JD, but that would involve alcohol and I do not want to be hung over tomorrow at work.  It is overcast, so not worth going to the park and I only have basic cable.  
Might as well be a keener and pretend to work on a Sunday.   (send out emails to co-workers intermittently while surfing the internet for interesting stuff and of course writing in the new blog.)

Could be worse, I could be working on a hang over….   Well, I had better review the content on the technical rider…  

Blah.

Sitting in NYC

So, I am down in NYC... Working out of an office for 8 weeks. Kinda strange living in Manhattan, feels like I am a rat in a maze sometimes...
I wonder if Central Park is the NYC version of the little wheel that the gerbil I had as a kid had in his cage for amusement.
One thing I have discovered here is that drinking is either very cheap or very expensive in NYC.. there is no in-between. If you come here, tip your bar staff well (20 - 25%). You will be amazed how many free drinks flow when the tips are flying. And if they don't then find a new bar (there are many).
Ah, Manhattan.....

What the heck am I doing here?!?!?

Been travelling for many years, working throughout the world on the business end of the entertainment industry.

Because of this, I have developed a unique appreciation for things like work ethic or lifestyles from many different parts of the world. I did develop a virtual tourist website for our fun travels, but I was looking for a spot to write about random musings about work travel.

I need a place to vent on the lack of community spirit of Fort Wayne or the nice body surfing waves at Tamarama beach....

Hey, no bad comments from anyone from Fort Wayne...... it was just an example

Living to travel