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Quick Reflexes

The door slammed opened. “Get Up!” screamed Genghis Khan. Johnny Appleseed fell out of bed onto the floor.

“What the hell is going on?” Johnny asked. He looked around in the fuzzy state he was in, barely taking in the room littered with empty bottles and pills scattered on the floor. “We have a mission! We have to roll out in thirty minutes!”

Johnny tried to push himself off the floor only to have Genghis’ boot land in his ribs. “Get up, damn it!” Waking like this was one of the many reasons that Johnny hated pulling quick reaction duty.

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The Italian Job

Hat tip: http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005303.php

As I was driving Number One home from her Girl Scout meeting, we heard the report on the radio that a Bulgarian soldier was killed in Iraq.

“I can’t really blame them,” she said after a moment’s pause. “If I was there, and fire came from a place I didn’t know, I would open fire too. You don’t know who it is and who they’re shooting at.”

Then she looked at me. “What would you have done, Abba?” That’s a good question. I gave an answer something along the lines of the same thing: if I saw fire coming from a place that I thought was free of friendly troops, I would open up too. But she hit it right on the head perfectly.

If a twelve year old can understand it, then why not the rest of the clowns reporting this? The same situation of making a quick decision with incomplete information applies to the shooting of the Italian security agent. Forget about the appeasing of terrorists with ransom for a moment. When someone does an action that can be perceived as hostile, like running at a checkpoint at high speed, there are likely to be fatal consequences, like getting shot. Of course, it makes for better conspiracy theories if we chant like Easton and make allegations of deliberate targeting of journalists, rational thought be damned.

Now, even though I’m not the biggest Carl Sagan fan, there is an intelligent quote attributed to him that his appropriate here: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The Americans targeted some nothing Communist writing for a nothing rag? Pony up. This I gotta see.

Evidently, there were 300 to 400 rounds fired. Wow. But, looking at the photos of the vehicle, there don’t seem to be a lot of holes. In my experience, machine guns make a lot of holes. Fast. This car doesn’t seem to have a lot of them. So I am led to think two things: 1. the ammunition expended wasn’t that high, and 2) most went into the engine block or the air. Which would be consistant with firing to disable the oncoming vehicle or warn off the driver at the checkpoint.

The money quote is from Sgrena, the Italian muckraker: “So I don’t see why I should rule out that I could have been the target.” Obviously, not being bound by logic or objective rationalism, she is not able to see what is going on around her. Running a checkpoint gets the vehicle shot up. Not because you are a libelous mouthpiece, but because you are a nudnick. Or, rather, the driver of the car was a nudnick, but there is enough to go around.

As for the appeasement of paying a ransom, well, that is just idiocy. Paying up only encourages this activity of grabbing more hostages. I am not aware of any group that got money in exchange for hostages has come out saying “thanks, and we are done doing nasty things since we have enough dough now.” In fact, we could go as far as saying that Sgrena and her payors are responsible for the next hostage taken. Bet that Italian hostages continue to be taken; there seems to be a good return on investment.

Unless, of course, allied forces get the terrorists first.

Standing up and saying no to the groups involved is what is needed. That is what stops the kidnappings. Word filters out that getting involved with the terror groups doesn’t result in a glorious battle against infidels, but a quick ignomious end.

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Irregular Verbs

“Are you writing me a love letter?”

I stopped typing the email that I was working on and looked up at my wife.

“Um, no. I was replying to an email from Mom about using robot swarms as soldiers.”

Now, my wife knows me well enough that there is a high likelihood that I am serious when I said that. I was. I am a wise-ass too, but robot swarms wouldn’t be the punch line to one of my gags. (Robot swarms are very serious.)

“You guys are definately different. And you are all the same.” Interesting statement. I disagreed, although I have picked up enough at this point to recognize 1) what she means by same, 2) what I mean by same, and 3) we look at the “same” thing differently.

What I immediately thought was something along the lines of: well, we are different heights, hair color, and even genders. The similarities in things like gait and facial structure are small enough that I have heard comments about others thinking we weren’t siblings at first. The tastes in subject matter are way different. Nope, not the same.

What she meant was that we all have a wide net in what interests us, a very analytical outlook, and extremely curious natures. If we come across something that doesn’t fall in the natural category of “oh, I am so into that,” we will still pay attention and ask questions. In that case, same.

Which I have to agree with. I would put the term as “similar” not “same.” Clones, no. Intellectual comrades-in-arms, yes.

Later, I was installing a RSS aggregator on my PC. I should have done this a while ago. The list of blogs and news items that I try to keep up with is well beyond the point of being able to have a few bookmarks that I check up on. Right away I was able to put most of the sites into the aggregator. And away I went.

Of course, now that I am moving these sites of interest into the aggregator, I have a chance to see a totality of my interests, albiet a totality of my blog interests. (Newsletters and the like are not included in the aggregator as I get them via email.) So I can see what interests me from a different perspective. After all, when things come in a trickle, it is hard to estimate the whole population. And if I am just poking around to one or two places at time that I can think of off the top of my head, that doesn’t capture the summation of all the sites that I have thought “hmm, have to check this out again.”

So what interests me? Jewish themed blogs are far and away the biggest area. The individual focus might roam a bit over the idealogical map; some are observant, some not, and some are in between. It is interesting to get a feel for different parts of The Tribe.

Technology is another area. Well, that figures. I am a technically oriented person and do so love the science. Or most of it. I really don’t have the patience for, say, sociology unless it’s framed in terms of Complexity and Emergence. As opposed to my sister, who is a sociologist, which supports my take on the above thinking of “not same.” (There’s the gender difference too, but we’ll ignore that as a “duh.”)

One thing that did pique my curiousity is the number of blogs about language. Which might seem odd at first, since I am the first to admit that I have a limited grasp of English. Oh, I can speak it. I know what the individual words and ideas mean. If the grammer is wrong, I “know” it only because it sounds wrong, not that I can point out “that thingy can’t follow the whoisit since the something is over there.” But I have never quite fully understood it. Frankly, it baffles the hell out of me.

This has always been the case with me. Spelling as a child was a nightmare. Basically, brute force and rote recitation were what I used to make it far enough through school for spell checkers to be invented. Although, by then I had graduated into college, but still.

Now, since I don’t “get it,” but I use it daily to communicate, how is it that I understand anything? Obviously, the letters in certain combinations are meaningful, but what makes that so? How is it that we are able to convey information with these combinations in such a way that they are, for the most part, always understandable? And why is it that I can’t see the rules that are in play?

An example: Poems are collections of words. Haiku is short enough for my discussion and cool enough to have a definition of how long it can be. So, in theory, I can write a program to make a haiku.

Let’s say we make a list of words and say to the computer “pick a random 5 syllables, then another random 7, then another random 5.” Poof! Instant haiku, right? No, we get things like “Behavior Green Was / Dispensing Crash Consider / Column Feircely Has.” Crap. We can tweek it a little to make something like “Green Ideas Sleep Furiously,” but the point is syntax matters to make the ideas presentable. And the “rules” of syntax baffle me.

So language for me is a puzzle, an intellectual challenge, and one that I relate back to information science a lot. Even though I have a hard time with it.

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Zachor v’Shamor

The parsha of Zachor was a few weeks ago. I read something on the Aish website about Amalek and his descendants. Haman is the most famous, and that is fitting since the parsha is read around Purim. It is a discussion, though, about the command to stamp out Amalek and his descendants. The article, “A Question of Race?” by Rabbi Ari Kahn, has this though:

We also know that Rabbi Akiva was either himself a convert or a child of converts:

We can hardly appoint Rabbi Akiva because perhaps Rabban Gamaliel will bring a curse on him because he has no ancestral merit. (Brachot 27b. See comments of Rav Nissim Gaon.)

Based on the combination of these sources, there are many that understand that the descendant of Haman who learned and taught Torah in B’nai Brak was, in fact, Rabbi Akiva.

However it is also pointed out in the same article that “It was taught in the name of Rabbi Eliezer: “God swore by His throne of glory, ‘If converts come from any nation they will be accepted, but from the progeny of Amalek and his household they will not be accepted.'” (Mechilta, end of B’shalach. Also see Midrash Tanchuma Ki Tezta 11, P’sikta D’rav Kahana 3)” How can this be?

Obviously, it was ignored. Perhaps there is a good pilpul about how the prohibition for the conversion of Amalekites is laid aside, but I don’t know it.

Perhaps that progeny in this case doesn’t refer to biological progeny, but cultural.

In any event, I think that the important part is not how to reconcile a command to seemingly commit genocide, but a thought that struck me when reading the text itself.

“Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; how he met you by the way, and struck at your rear, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear G-d. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your G-d has given you rest from all your enemies around, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget it. (Deut. 25:17-19)”

It struck me that Amalek used a good old-fashioned cavalry romp. This is what I train to do monthly. Get into the rear of the main force and hit the support elements. Strike where you are not expected. Sow fear and confusion. Sharon himself did this crossing the Suez Canal. The result was the complete collapse of two Egyptian divisions that let to a full on rout. Thus ended the western part of the Yom Kippur war. What is so wrong with fighting smarter, not harder? Amalek as a person might be faulted, but his methods of war are fine.

It seems to make no sense. We are commanded to blot out the remembrance of Amalek, but also not to forget it. What gives?

The remembering that is blotted out in a time of peace and comfort is not the name of the commander. The remembrance that needs to be put aside is the fear that was caused. There is a time for everything, a time for war, and a time for peace. The situation once in the land that the Lord gives is one of calm, peace, and tranquility. We need to remember that. We need to live in the now, view the situation as it is today, not be haunted by the ghosts of the past. The problem with post-traumatic stress isn’t the stress, it is the post, the after the fact. Being stressed in a time of trauma is fine. Being stressed long after the trauma is not.

This passage certainly has use today with the disengagement in Gaza. I’ll sidestep the debate on right or wrong. Something that does bother me, though, is that we as Jews are still being held emotionally hostage by the failure of Oslo. There has been a lot of anger and dissillusionment. Certainly modern-day Amaleks besieged us. We were harassed, hassled, and had fear put in us. That fear needs to be put down, the remembrance of the trauma put in its proper place. There is a time for everything and the time we are in is now, not then. This is Disengagement, not Oslo.

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Hero Worship

We saw a movie about Hannah Senech at the JCC a few weeks ago. I can’t say that I really liked it. I came away with the impression that Hannah was a shitty commando that wrote some poetry. The movie was a nice propaganda piece for socialist pioneers. Make the desert bloom while singing Zum Gali Gali and all that.

The discussion moderator at the end seemed to be wholly unprepared and lost about a number of facts. Actually, I think that Number One could have taught the discussion afterwards with better results. She did ask a couple of good questions or make some good point, but I forget what they were.

I think that an elderly gentleman in front of us, though, summed up the whole exercise. He pointed out that as a community we needed role models for the kids to look up to that had the ideals we wanted to convey. Sports stars and musicians are the typical people that kids looked up to, so who represents what the Jewish community wants to see? Madonna?

I could have told him that my twelve year old is busy planning aliyah so that she can be a tank commander and live in Beersheba to be near where Ben-Gurion had his home. I think that would have floored him, so I said nothing. My wife told me later that she was thinking the same thing.

Maybe we have to boot strap it. There are no heroes, so we have to be it. Number One will be the role model of the next generation. I am sure that she will continue to be involved past Bat Mitzvah.

She will be a role model. And a good tanker.

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Shots And The Massacre, Four Bits

A shooting outside of Hot 97 in New York.

Maybe the station has nothing to do with the shooting directly, but it seems interesting that this is an interesting place to be. Interesting as in “My you live in interesting times” kind of interesting.

Not that this is a first for Hot 97, mind you. Either first controversy, or first shooting. There was the first shooting in 2001, which is what started the mess that got Lil’ Kim in trouble. (Note to Lil’ Kim: Baby, you can’t lie under oath, unless you can invoke Presidential Privilege. Just sayin’.) The evening DJ came to fisticuffs with a DJ of the cross town rival Power 105.1.

There was the complete lack of a sense of propriety when the morning show on Hot 97 played a parody of “We are the World” about the tsunami disaster that included racial slurs.

But cross-town rivals in the morning time slot, Star and Buc Wild, aren’t any better. Their racial comments have raised some ire, although the outcry has been less.

Incidentally, this pisses off Hot 97 to no end. Star and Buc Wild were fired from Hot 97 over a year ago, and now the station is holding them to a non-compete agreement. What could have possibly gotten them fired? Oh, the little things of assaulting fellow employees, insensitivity to the death of singer Aliyah, stuff like that. Lawsuits were mentioned as a means of keeping them off air.

Damn. Seems like Hot 97 is in deep shit. Again. And what exactly will be done about all of this?

Nothing.

See, since the deregulation of radio with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, radio has become very, very corporate. Scales of economy, and all that. Just four companies own a 49% share of the radio listening audience. In news broadcasts, it’s worse with four companies holding a 67% share. The result? Failing stations are snapped up and integrated into larger corporate empires. Which is fine for making use of common resources to reduce individual costs.

The problem lies in the fact that these companies could not care less about the employees or the audience. They are driven by bottom lines, which are fed from advertising dollars, which are based on market share. So far, so good. But the pursuit of market share, that is, making people go “I have to tune back in to hear [insert the blank]”, comes not from content, but from shallow antics.

But what about the consumer? If they are tuning in, aren’t they culpable? Yes, except for two things. One: what is the alternative? A vast majority of the stations are owned by the same oligopoly. Two: they are turning off the radio, and it is beginning to show. Alternatives exist in the Internet and on satellite radio. Revenues are down. Fines are up.

So what is a radio company to do? Well, squeeze more from the employees. Don’t like it? Quit. I know, it’s a tough business and job market, but if you can’t take the sweatshop, then you need to go. Sweatshop being the operative word here. Think it’s a hostile environment? Tough shit, get on the air with the racist anyway. That is the situation that Minya Oh (a.k.a. Miss Info) is facing. Seems that in the Hot 97 tsunami flap, the highly paid lead host, Miss Jones, berated Ms. Oh and made less than harmonious comments. Why? Ms. Oh expressed displeasure for the parody thinking that it was in bad taste. The result? Get on air with the same scum bag, don’t talk about anything, or you’re fired. Minya Oh is considering a civil suit.

Now, should a flap occur, respond only when advertisers pull out. Then, muddle around only enough to make a token effort at apology. Like, firing the producer of the segment and maybe one DJ. But only because he said he was going to “shoot all Asians” which probably panicked the legal staff. The racist can stay because a public flogging is only a hostile work environment, which is harder to prove than terroristic threatening.

Since the market is tied up effectively in the hands of the few, there are limited options for either on air talent, or consumers. Keep in mind that the producer of the tsunami segment is formerly of the Opie and Anthony show. (That would be the same show kicked off air for having a contest that involved listeners, sexual relations, and a church in New York City.) The station knew what they were getting with Rick Delgado. There was no way that they could not know what to expect. It’s only after there are protests led by a New York City Councilman that Emmis Communications (owner of Hot 97) goes “my bad.” And a token donation is made to smooth over hard feelings. But the show goes on.

Other than that, The Suits will go out of their way to protect a racist with the intention of protecting their investment in air talent. Hot 97 is locked in a statistical dead heat with their rival. All for declining ad dollars. There is never so vicious a fight like one over shrinking resources.

Content is king? The king is dead. Long live the king.

What else can a communications company do to make a few dollars in a declining market? Payola. Pure and simple. Well, one step removed, but simple none-the-less.

New York District Attorney Eliot Spitzer is looking into payola with some of the larger broadcast companies. Say what? Isn’t that, like, so 1950’s or something?

Here’s how the new shell game works: Instead of paying the station or DJ directly, the record labels pay an “independent promoter.” It’s the promoter that pays the broadcaster directly. Did the (former) Iraqi Information Minister think up of this operation? “Nope. No payola here. Haven’t seen any all day.”

Now, to be fair, some places like Clear Channel have claimed that they distanced themselves from this kind of thing. In April of 2003, which would be not quite two years ago. But the implication is that they did in the not too distant past. And so did Radio One. New revenue stream indeed.

Also, as an aside, Spitzer is slow on the uptake. 20/20 aired a program on 2002 on this. Timing? Anyone?

All this extra money has got to make the analysts on Wall Street Happy. Actually, no. Stock ratings are down. Share prices are down. Damn internet.

Oh, and the 50 Cent thing? Disloyalty. Someone else said “ya know, I don’t think that I’m going to play with your silly shenanigans.” Kind of like Ms. Oh. Maybe 50 Cent and Hot 97 really belong together. They seem to be cut from the same cloth.

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At My Command, Unleash Hell.

So al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap Russell Crowe to further the end of “cultural destabilization” by grabbing an American actor. Huh? He’s from New Zealand. And having Michael Moore run amok should create enough trouble from a cultural perspective.

Number One and I heard this in the car while we were driving home from Hebrew School. Naturally, I wondered out loud if al-Qaeda was taking requests. After all, there is Keanu Reeves and Sean Pean. C’mon, the high point for Keanu in films was Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure for crying out loud. And Sean’s claim to fame is shacking up with Madonna and defending the honor of Jude Law.

Those two can go right now. I promise I will be destabilized. Honestly.

Actually, if al-Qaeda wants to hit the consumerism of American culture, they would go for the Urban and Hip-Hop stars that the suburban kids love so much. That’s where the money is at and the attention lavished, not Hollywood. I want to see al-Qaeda try and grab somebody like Ja Rule.

How about that? In the ensuing gun battle, who would be left standing? No matter, we would all win. If Ja Rule wins, well, that’s a few less terrorists that we have to worry about. If al-Qaeda manages to get Ja Rule, well, thanks anyway.

I want to see them try to make off with someone like Old Dirty Bastard from the Wu-Tang clan. I give the terrorists two days tops before they come back with him. “Yeah, see, on second thought, he does more damage here.” (I know that ODB died, the point is that at the time of the plot, he wasn’t. Insert a suitable name in lieu of ODB.)

But Number One had a better one. How about Paris Hilton? Not that would be a riot. We could have “The Simple Life: Terrorists.” Paris could dress in a burkha. Work with camels even. I can’t wait for the episode where she trains with the Palestinian police and learns nipple tweaking and superman flying. I won’t even think about the videotapes that will be released.

Yes, Number One is exactly like me.

(Hat tip: IFOC)

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Loss Of Transmission

Looks like I am not the only one with issues with a radio station. WPLY in Philadelphia, Y-100, has flipped formats from Alternative to Hip-Hop and fired all the staff in the process. Radio One is the corporate parent of Y-100, and I guess they feel Urban Pop / Hip-Hop is a more profitable format. Not that the Alternative format is unsustainable, according to the (now former) Program Director of Y-100 Jim McGuinn.

Which is kind of amusing, in a sardonic way, since on my recent trip to my Grandparents, we tried to get WHFS when we were in the Washington / Baltimore area. All we got was Spanish. Huh? I know that I was picking up their signal before in the previous September / October timeframe. What the hell is going on?

When I get back, I get the scoop. Turns out that they too had flipped formats. There was a public outcry and now the programming of WHFS is piggybacking on another frequency in the evenings and weekends. And the option for Internet broadcast is available for HFS through AOL Internet Radio.

It looks like the same setup is being done with Y-100. There is the Internet broadcast of older original and local material through Y100rocks.com and this is available on a subscription basis.

Interestingly, WMMR announced today that they were picking up the Y-100 morning show of Preston and Steve. In the course of the announcement, WMMR said that they had been doing a search for about five or six months now and had identified them early on. So, the format flip is serendipity in the respect of the talent migration and not the cause. Nor does the talent migration seem to be the cause of Y-100 blowing up. Just another case of narrow-minded Suits following the money and pursuing their own self interests. Kind of like my shop sometimes.

However, there is a posting on the blogs that the format change is because the morning show was leaving. This allegedly from the Program Director of WPHI, Colby Colb. Morning shows are often lynch pins to commercial radio line ups, so it was felt that building a new morning show to compete with the same line up across town would be too much. So junk the format.

I don’t buy it. I think that the decision was in the making, and this might have been the tipping point, but the intent was there to begin with. Radio One describes itself as targeting the African-American and Urban markets. Specifically, they want to be in “markets that have a significant African-American presence” and have a “primary focus on urban formats” in these markets. No room for an Alternative format in that. Period. The morning show excuse bit is a red herring.

All of this reminds me of WDRE going off the air, but in that case there was notice. Listeners knew it was coming and could figure out how to fill the gap. This is sudden. Interestingly, McGuinn was at WDRE, so if this format makes a comeback in the Philly market, I am willing to bet a nominal sum to the charity of choice that McGuinn will be one of the people behind it. (I pick the Ronald McDonald House.)

WDRE incidentally became WPHI which is the station moving to Y-100’s frequency. WDRE was bought in July 1996 by Radio One and changed over less than a year later. See this page for a rundown of the history of Philly radio. Again, Radio One does Urban and Hip-Hop, not Modern Rock or Alternative or anything approaching a rock format. Their past shows this and any blathering by Colby Colb to the contrary does not bear this out. He picked up a new morning producer in July of 2004 and had a change in his morning show starting in December of 2004. None of which required a format change.

Conspiricy theories involving Radio One and a drive to push Alternative formats out of the Philadelphia market will now be entertained.

This morning on all the morning television newscasts, the local news was dominated by the demise of Y-100. The former DJs were talking about the format change and the overwhelming public response. Seems like this story might not fade into the night like the news outlets were figuring and The Suits were hoping. I don’t see Radio One reversing its decision, but I do see other stations eying this situation up and Radio One taking a loss in the Philly Market in the long haul.

After all, Urban / Hip-Hop formats are dominated in Philly by Clear Channel. Between WUSL (Power 99) and WIOQ (Q 102), Clear Channel has a virtual lock on the format in this market. And Radio One’s piss ant “me too” entry is going to make a dent? Puh-leese. The best shot for Radio One would have been the Alternative format since NO ONE ELSE does it. WMMR might be the biggest competitor then, but the sound is sufficiently different to allow for enough distinction so each station can carve out its own niche.

On the other hand, it seems to me like a corporate culture war was brewing and Y-100 didn’t fit in nice with the ideas entertained by The Suits.

How not to fight the juggernaut of Clear Channel: “What if we were the sixth station to add Usher to the line up?”

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When It Rains, It Pours

We returned yesterday from a trip to my grandparents. It was nice seeing them again, and they seem to be doing well. My wife met them for the first time also.

It was a family reunion of sorts. My brother was there from Indiana with his wife and daughter. We all hung out for a few days and enjoyed the time. All of the kids were either coming down with or getting over some kind of sniffle, so I can only imagine what we are in store for in the coming days.

Yesterday, we left in the morning so that we could drive the eight hours home in time for me to get to the radio station and do my weekly show. Now, I come home about 40 minutes before airtime. We unpack the car, and I check the answering machine before walking back out the door.

It’s my boss, and he left a message that he knows I’m on vacation, but I should come in on Wednesday for a meeting at one o’clock in the Executive Conference room with his boss, who flew in special for this particular get together. Really? I thought there was a standing order to shoot any programmers that got within fifty feet of the Executive Conference room. The punch line is that my boss says, “It’s about what you probably think it is.” My wife looks right at me and says, “You just got laid off.” Damn.

I head to the station. Whereupon I find Men’s Basketball being broadcast. Apparently there was a schedule change on February 14th where this week’s show of mine was preempted to make up for technical difficulties that prevented two other games from being broadcast. This makes four weeks in a row that we have been bumped, and this one being last minute, no notice. I pigeonholed the sports director about the change and he says that he put out an email and made mention of it at the general meeting. Naturally, I was not at the general meeting. Nor did I get the email. Nor did he bother to put anything in the mailbox at the station.

I lost my job and lost my airtime. What’s next?

My wife thinks that I should quit doing radio since it is getting to be a pain in the ass and stressing me out. This coming on top of the fiasco with another show that I was doing where the rug was pulled out from under me and another DJ put in. In that case, the program director didn’t get an email response from me so assumed that I was not interested in continuing. Again, I never saw the email. She admitted that she could have communicated a lot better and should have tried to call or something, like she did when she set up the last schedule and the one before that, but the damage was done.

I told Number One to have all of her buddies call the station and complain. I told my co-host the same thing. Then I wrote a long missive to the station manager and copied in the general manager and program director.

The station manager passed the buck, as he is prone to do. He deferred to the sports director about the scheduling. And he says that I was correctly entered in the distribution lists. The program director just ignores my emails at this point. The general manager wrote back that she updated the email list and that neither email (previous and current) of mine was in the distribution lists. Funny, how did I get mails before at the old domain? And why is the station manger saying that I’m there in the distribution list if general manager insists that I’m not?

The sports director wrote back with a long missive of his own that covered his tracks and was apologetic very slightly. It was also condescending at the end with the summary being “find another time slot if you don’t like it.” Fuck you.

We have emailed back and forth since then with him explaining how the sports sponsorship works. Which is a lot different from the weekly sponsorship in the sense that for the sums that they get (in the tens of thousands), they offer up guarantees of number of games broadcast to assure the sponsor of a number of times that the spots will run.

And we are non-commercial.

So sports trumps because they make guarantees. And they make guarantees since they are pulling tens of thousands down from each of the sponsors for a given sport.

Non-commercial. Right.

Generally, I think that grass roots activism is the way to go to push back with the station. Build a base. He is really pushing for a site redesign. Sigh. I guess I have the time now. But I think that this is beginning to bore the tar out of me.

Today, I got in to work early. Number One knows that something is up since I asked her to make sure that I was up early in exchange for a ride to school. We stopped off at the Sunoco and got coffee first. In a way, it was like the old days when I took her to kindergarten and we would stop for a coffee for me, and a hot chocolate and a sticky bun for her.

When I got in, no one was there. I left a phone message for my boss and an email that simply asked, “Do we get 30 days or 60 days” in the subject line.

Everyone else wandered in well after nine. Since I missed the official notification, everyone was kind of sketchy at first, until I coughed up enough details and told them that my boss had called me at home to clue me in. Someone else had stopped by before, and had let the date slip, so I was on to that.

May 16th.

Official paper notification will be on March 13th or so. I will get two weeks for every year, and since my fifth year anniversary is June 19th, I get credit for only four years. But it’s not just me that they are trying to nickel and dime. My boss has a hire date of 1987, but they are trying to pull something funny and shorten that up to something like 1999 or so. I told him to ask HR whom his lawyer should talk to. That should get their attention.

The CIO sent one of his directs from New York to sit with us. We must have had the same wrong information, because he and I were in the Executive Conference room and everyone else in the usual conference room. He tried to feel me out by asking something along the line of how do I feel about this. I shrugged and said that this was just part of the game in the modern world. No sense being all worked up about it since everyone has a sob story. That wasn’t what he expected. I think that it knocked him for a loop.

There was a meeting with all the IT in North America on the phone, and people were upset, concerned, all that. The idea is to reduce the number of sites that handle the IT stuff for the company, not a reduction for budget reasons. Overall, the company IT departments will be adding people this year despite the layoff. Huh?

One person emailed the CIO and said that he flat out lied to us in previous “all hands meetings,” a.k.a. “The Hour Of Power.” Someone else called out the CIO on his idea that the company would help with relocation in the event that people relocate for open positions. The allegation was that the person relocated from New York to Texas and “HR was no help whatsoever.” The CIO responded that this was a case of one person, and because the focus was on a large number of impacted people now, HR couldn’t and wouldn’t screw it up.

I think he missed the point entirely. The issue is trust. If we can’t trust in the small, why should we trust in the large? Failure scales better than success.

There seems to be a lot of “here is the decision, now fill in the details.” Example: one of my coworkers is one of two programmers for the company in North America versed in the XYZ application. Building 1 will use XYZ until August 31, and Building 2 is the back up for that. But the coworker is gone in May. Just in case anyone thinks that they can cross their fingers and hope nothing goes wrong, XYZ was down this morning, I think for junk data that Building 1 entered into some table in the database. Another example: my boss is the only person period who does this other process that crosses something on the order of a gazillion systems. Not a lot of activity, but enough that we haven’t abandoned it. Now what? Gap analysis anyone?

This will be a fiasco.

Of course, we were our usual insouciant selves. This layoff was not unexpected. The question was always “when,” not “if.” Things have been declining for a long time now. We just didn’t know the date.

So we said things like “we didn’t screw up the letter program, why are we getting the boot?” and “If we fuck up and get an article in the newspaper, can we stay too?” I don’t know what the New York babysitter with us thought of that.

Queen Bee asked me how I was doing. I told her fine, and I think I meant it. In a way, it’s a relief. Now I have a target date that I have to stick to in finding another job. And I am done finally. This just changes the decision criteria for a new job. I don’t have the luxury of being picky. But I’m not desperate yet.

I told the kids this evening. I also told them that we would have to clamp down on the spending until things are clearer. Number Three was upset that I put the brakes on summer camp. Number One is planning on a trip to Arizona to visit her friend when said friend moves there this summer, but she needs to think airfare without including me.

All of this is a shaking up of my sleepiness in life. Blessed is the one who quickens the dead. One can be dead, or near dead, and still convert oxygen to carbon dioxide. I think that I have been complacent with my radio show; that has to change. I have been complacent with my job; that has to change too.