2005-03-11 - 11:32 a.m.

Nibbled to Death By Ducks

I'm a Babylon 5 geek. I honestly am. If you've not sat through a few episodes of the show, you probably will not understand the appeal of the show.

Work is bad. Extremely bad. For the first time since I've been here, I put out a call to a former boss to see if he is serious about starting a new modeling group outside of the State (I'm assuming the group would still work in downtown Sacramento).

It was in Babylon 5 that Londo Milari said, "I'm being nibbled to death by ducks!" At least he said something like that.

Right now I feel like I'm being nibbled to death by ducks. Yesterday I was probably about 90% ready to not only update the historical study, but also release the first DOC fingerprint for the state. I got reassigned with this stupid flooded island project.

I hate flooded islands. I hate it when levees break and I have to study them. I hate it more when we talk about intentionally flooding islands to create storage reservoirs, after I've already spent years researching the issue and concluding that any future analysis needs more field data.

I was assigned 25 model runs and asked to write another report (on the order of 100 pages) by mid-April. I complained about how I can't edit a multi 100 page report that we must submit every year, conduct 25 new studies and document them in detail, and also enhance the forecasting system while developing historical conditions for organic carbon. On top of all this, I'm expected to train ... LIKE EVERYBODY.

I am Satchel Pooch. I am Satchel Pooch and I've had enough!

The short story ... I complain, and my interesting projects get reassigned. I'm left with all the crap assignments and I'm told, "We are giving this to you, because the truth is you are the only one who can finish them in time allotted. The rest of us would take double or longer, and we'd still have you do most of the work."

The result is I want to leave. I am not a superhero. I can't be counted on every time something wrong happens. And it is clear that as long as I'm here I'm remaining the resident work horse / damage control expert. But the thing of it is that isn't my strongest skill.

On the brighter side of life, I signed up for a softball team. Why? Simple, I want to smack the shit out of a ball using a wooden stick. For the past few nights I've put in more time and distance jogging than I have in years. It bothers me that my misery makes me so physical, but when I sit in my apartment, sitting just makes things worse. I'm thinking the softball team will help. I'm open to giving it a try.

I have made my hotel reservations for Leipzig Germany and started looking into my airfare to Zurich. I'm looking forward to Wave-Gotik-Treffen 14. Love Is Colder Than Death and This Morn' Omina will both be performing again. They are among my two most favorite bands.

Speaking of music, I recently picked up Kattoo's Places. Kattoo is a Beefcake sideproject. The album Places was original scored as the soundtrack to a German art film. The German government pays filmmakers and musicians grants, much like the US government sends money to technology and engineering groups. The film was turning into a midget porn and cat porn film, so the plug was pulled and the funding lost (though I suspect the midget and cat porn weren't the real issue, my take on Germans is they tend to consider art as expression, and might just shrug that off as being silly but harmless).

Anyhow, so Places is basically an ambient, experimental, industrial album, that compares well with projects like Empuase, Monolith, or Mlada Fronta. My favorite track is Place3, which starts with samples from the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which for the record is the most low-tech and most character driven James Bond film. I love the film, and it should be no surprise why I'm so curious about Europe, in particular the Alps. The samples were taken from Blofeld (Telly Savalas), and sadly I'm not sure why more industrial artists haven't sampled Savalas. He speaks with command (I always picture him as being the ideal actor for the Kingpin as well). Things to think about, the Kingpin is from Amazing Spiderman #50 (1967), Blofeld dates back to Dr. No (1961), but was really defined in later films. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was released in 1969.

But the album will appeal to most anybody.

-=-

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