Mad Man or Messiah

Every time Mad Men is on, I notice the commercials in-between much more than I usually do while I watch tv...when I fast forward or pause so they'll shut the fuck up. Did you ever notice how much louder they are than the regular programming? Anyway, the constant discussion during the course of the show how to hook the consumer is so interesting...with the all of the carefully crafted words, lilts and pauses - the overt attempts at manipulation about how a car or a new pair of underwear can change your life. Ha. I guess if you believe it will then it will. I noticed especially this week all of the car commercials and Viagra commercials - are they marketing to the audience they HAVE or the audience they WANT?

Sometimes I'd Rather Just Take My Chances with the Lotto

We had some layoffs about a month ago, and a bunch of my friends went 'buh-bye'. One of them had the same position as I do, at work. We'll call her "Mon". So Mon was let go, and after the initial shock subsided, all I could think was, "Please please please don't let me have to work for her boss". I like the man - he's really fun, and really interesting, but he made me cry. Whenever I had to fill in for her at work, because she was on vacation, or she left early, he gave me these ridiculous tasks like trying to transcribe his hieroglyphics in negative time (i.e. 20 minutes ago) or spinning binders into gold. He's like a real-life version of Jack Donaghe. We'll call him "Jack".

So, of course, I now work for Jack - "support" Jack. I told my supervisor to please make it clear to him that he's not the only one I work for, but I'd be willing to take him on - after much hesitation. Well, it turns out he's great. He likes to talk a LOT - likes to listen to himself talk, A LOT, but he's way cool.

I work for two other folks: one man and one woman, both of whom travel constantly - in and out of the country. I deal mostly with travel itineraries, visas and licenses, expenses, meetings and meeting requests, clean-up and set-up - your basic monkey-type tasks.

These highly-paid folks I work for are not just experienced. I've come to learn that they value themselves...GREATLY. And this is a huge reason they are highly paid. Daniel - the other guy I work for, is funny and nice, and I've never had a problem with him, but he LOOOOVES himself. Like - mock-turtle-neck-loves himself, but in my experience, not at the expense of others. So while it might otherwise, I don't let it bother me.

Talking with Mon the other day, I mentioned that Daniel recently gave me an additional ridiculous mundane task - update his resume - his 12 PAGE RESUME (NO, REALLY), in MS Word. So Daniel sends me new things, about 4 or 5 times a week, via email, to add. I have a folder in Outlook for all of them.

So Mon asks me, "He didn't, by chance, give this to you just after you took on Jack, did he?"

"Oh...my God. Are you saying he PEED on me?"

"Well..."

"Oh, fuck. That's DISGUSTING. UGH."

Yeah. I don't like being marked as territory. Tonight is the 252 million dollar jackpot for the MegaMillions Lotto. Wish me luck.