books

April fooling

March was kind of a weird month for me.

http://www.unreality.net/weblog/?p=8390″>got sick pretty early on, actually still nursing what I thought was a cold from February, and I spent the whole first full week of the month at home with pneumonia. While I was out, two of my co-workers were let go (“made redundant” in our UK office’s phrasing), and it was more than a little bit of a shock.

Shortly after I got back to work — the very day, in fact — eager to shake off the cabin fever that a week stuck at home will cause, I learned that I, too, would be leaving the group. I’m still working for the company, and in the same role, but as a part of our larger development group. In the short term, it’s meant a lot of changes and learning of new procedures, figuring out what I will (and will no longer) be responsible for, and that’s a process that’s still going on. I have a new boss, new colleagues, and while for the rest of the year at least I’ll continue to work on psychology and mental health titles, I’ll no longer even be sitting on the same side of the office as them.

On Friday, I moved most of my things to my new cubicle. My new computer — the one I got last Monday, when some malware basically destroyed the old one — will hopefully follow if it didn’t over the weekend. My work phone number is supposed to be staying the same — meaning, I guess, that my business cards aren’t completely out of date — but I’m sure I’ll have a couple of questions for IT before the week is out.

The good news, I guess, is I can see them now from where I sit.

I spent exactly one month in that first cubicle — from April 4, 2011, actually — and a lot longer working for the same team. I think this change will ultimately be good, though both for my own career and for the team. It’s been just one of many changes to have happened since the start of the new year, and the changes came especially fast and furious throughout March. (I didn’t even mention the fact that I turned thirty-five.) In some ways, quite honestly, I’m glad the month is over. I’m nervous about that’s to come, and what’s expected of me, but I’m also eager to start really working on developing books.

Speaking of books, that whole week at home really played havoc with the rhythm I had going up til then, reading about one book a day. A lot of them were (and continue to be) comics and graphic novels, but even those wound up going unread the week I was out. I seem to have spent most of my time doing little more than watching several seasons of 30 Rock. I’m trying to get caught back up, but my secret, in-my-sick-head-only goal of getting the total up to 366 titles may not be doable at this point.

I did listen to some music this month, though, and here’s my mix for March for whatever that’s worth:

  1. “Rivers and Roads” by the Head and the Heart
  2. “Les plus beaux” by Fránçois & the Atlas Mountains
  3. “History Book” by Dry the River
  4. “Lego” by Lady Leshurr
  5. “House of Circles” by Mr. Gnome
  6. “Landfill” by Daughter
  7. “Manchester” by Kishi Bashi
  8. “The Concept” by Teenage Fanclub
  9. “Tea for the Tillerman” by Cat Stevens
  10. “Houdini” by Foster the People
  11. “Helicopter” by Bloc Party
  12. “The Dreaming Moon” by the Magnetic Fields
  13. “Turn into Earth” by the Yardbirds
  14. “Skyscrapers” by OK Go

Beyond all that, there’s not a whole lot to report. I spent the rainy day cleaning and watching some TV (Fringe, Supernatural, Community) and doing the Sunday crossword. Regular stuff.

Time now, I think, for bed. I want to be at work early tomorrow.

Friday

Today was a pretty typical Friday, if you discount the part where I moved everything but my computer from one cubicle to another on the other side of the office. I officially start in the new work space on Monday, with lots to keep me occupied.

On the train home, I finished reading Georges Simenon’s The President, which I really liked quite a lot. It’s the third of the books in the Neversink Library (a gift from Heather) that I’ve read, and the second by Simenon. When I was done, I thought: well, I may just have to read more by him. Turns out, he’s one of the twentieth century’s most prolific writers, having written some 200 novels.

So, you know, there should be plenty more to choose from. Maybe one of the Maigret mysteries.

But first, I think, I’m going to re-read Watership Down, as part of my “re-read some books this year” project.

That was Friday.

Marching forth

Today was really rather Thursdayish, wasn’t it?

Since I don’t have much of anything else to say about the day — I mean, I finished reading the deeply disappointing Her Fearful Symmetry, but that’s about it — here’s my music mix for February 2012:

  1. “Paper Plane” by Persephone’s Bees
  2. “Sugar” by the Horrible Crowes
  3. “Ghost Riders in the Sky” by Concrete Blonde
  4. “Raining in My Heart” by Graham Nash
  5. “Hope in the Air” by Laura Marling
  6. “Uku” by Dengue Fever
  7. “Rivers and Roads” by the Head and the Heart
  8. “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” by Jackson Browne
  9. “Smokescreen” by Willis
  10. “Les plus beaux” by Fránçois & the Atlas Mountains

Is it really March already?

Coordinated Monday

I should have known it was going to be a slightly odd day. After all, I left the house this morning with my belt not matching my shoes.

I know.

I overslept a little too, getting a later train for the first time in several weeks, if not months. And then I ended up having my performance review before the end of the day. On paper, none of it is especially odd, but…did I mention the whole belt and shoes thing? Gray pants, black belt…brown shoes. It was sheer madness.

I think the performance review went well. It’s kind of a weird time at the company, with a number of changes underway, but I enjoy what I do and I (and my boss) feel like I make a valuable contribution. And hey, if I wanted an industry with incredible stability, book publishing might have been the wrong way to go.

Tomorrow, I shall endeavor to better coordinate my outfit, but I make no promises.

Monday various

  • Last week, after my little elevator mishap, I linked to the story of Nicholas White, whose ordeal being trapped in an elevator was much worse than my own. We even joked about it, the two of us, while we waited to be released last Friday. He was trapped for 40-something hours.

    Turns out, it only got worse after that:

    He got a lawyer, and came to believe that returning to work might signal a degree of mental fitness detrimental to litigation. Instead, he spent eight weeks in Anguilla. Eventually, Business Week had to let him go. The lawsuit he filed, for twenty-five million dollars, against the building’s management and the elevator-maintenance company, took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures. He never learned why the elevator stopped; there was talk of a power dip, but nothing definite. Meanwhile, White no longer had his job, which he’d held for fifteen years, and lost all contact with his former colleagues. He lost his apartment, spent all his money, and searched, mostly in vain, for paying work. He is currently unemployed.

    That was in 2008, so he may have since landed back on his feet. But it’s amazing how quickly a life can change. He was just coming back from a quick smoke outside.

    It could be worse, though, as a more recent elevator accident will attest.

  • Congress Ponders Adding GED Requirement to Unemployment Benefits. Spoken like a group of people who’ve never been unemployed (or struggled for an education) a day in their lives. [via]
  • In New Hampshire, meanwhile, they want to eliminate the mandatory lunch break. Just on paper, you know. Because it’s an occasional headache for a couple of HR departments. Nobody would ever think of abusing this and denying workers time off for meals! [via]
  • And I guess we’ll make this a trifecta of people who should know better doing reprehensible things: Cardinal Edward Egan Just Withdrew His Apology For The Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal. “Nope, nothing to see here. My bad for copping to it earlier.” [via]
  • And finally, on a happier note: Roast Beef, the therapy penguin. Seriously, the day before I saw this story, we were joking at work that we should publish a book on penguin therapy.

    I wonder if Roast Beef would need a co-author…