The Chinaman Is Not The Issue

I Am So Friggin Bored.

I have sat and stared at my computer willing something interesting to pop up for the past...oh, 7 hours. I've read everything on CH, typed in random names and phrases on Google, read the Punk Planet, The NY Times and The Independent, drove all the way home during my lunch break just to get my cell phone, stared at my calendar, walked upstairs to get some M&Ms, checked my email exactly 14 times, read old emails just for the hell of it, listened to my boss tell stories of druken debauchery, walked to and from Kinko's just cuz it takes longer than driving...and I still have 2 FRIGGIN hours left. And nothing to do. Bleah.

I Finally Have A Roommate

...she's around my age, has a stable job (2 actually) and even seems pretty normal! Can you believe my luck? It's only taken 3 months. She's moving in some little stuff this evening and the rest this weekend. (Damn, I guess that means no more walking around the house naked.)

Personalize Your Balls!

In the June issue of one of our magazines, we're running a Father's Day Gift Guide and advertisers can send in a picture of a product with a 20-word description. But we're on deadline to go to press tomorrow and I needed to have all the materials for the magazine turned in yesturday so we could start laying it out today. And there were a couple of companies that just couldn't get it together, so they asked me to use the picture from their ad and then create a description for them. One of these companies has a product called G-Stamp: a little stamp that monograms your name or initials on golf balls so that when you hit your golf ball, it doesn't get lost or accidentally taken by other golfers. So in the heat of deadline I had to sit and come up with a catchy tagline.
Here's what I came up with:

1) Is your Dad losing his balls to other golfers?

2) Get Dad a great gift for his balls!

3) Give your Dad's balls a mark of distinction!

4) G-Stamp: Precision equipment for imprinting balls with style!

5) G-Stamp: Making it easy to spot your balls.

...well I doubt they'll print any of that, but at least it was an amusing endeavor.

Glutton For Punishment

I am anxiously awaiting Harry Potter Book 5, with abated breath and impatient tremblings. I'm even looking forward to the book release more than I am to my own birthday! (which is a full week sooner...though that may be a function of turning 23, which is sooo uneventful...) However, the impatience was manageable until I went to Amazon.com and read this:

From the Publisher
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling, the fifth in the bestselling series has been scheduled for release on Saturday, June 21, 2003.

"We are thrilled to announce the publication date. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is absolutely superb and will delight all J.K. Rowling's fans. She has written a brilliant and utterly compelling new adventure, which begins with the words:

"The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive.... The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.

"Later in the novel, J.K. Rowling writes:

"Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. 'It is time,' he said 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.'

-Barbara Marcus, President of Scholastic Children's Books in the United States, and Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury Publishing in Britain

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is over 255,000 words compared with over 191,000 words in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The new book is 38 chapters long, one more than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

AACK! I can't take it anymore! MUST HAVE IT NOW! MUST HAVE IT NOW!!!

Dawson's Creek!!

A couple years ago, I used to be an avid fan of Dawson's Creek (as well as Buffy, Angel and other WB manias) especially with the influence of Nuala as a roommate. Ahhh we would spend hours basking in the glory of television...But now, I don't really watch TV and since I've moved into my new place (and am cheap and lazy) I don't even have cable, so I don't even watch TV at all.
BUT, today on the way to work, I heard an advertisement on the radio about the finale of Dawson's Creek...and flash forward 5 years...Joey's getting married...one of the original four is going to die (!)...and something about Pacey and a real job? What? Getting his life in order? And something about Jen being sappy for some reason.
So I am asking my fellow WB fans (and I KNOW you're out there) to tell me how the series finale goes, as I can't watch it myself. Anyone up for it?

6 Reasons To Love South Africa

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
...and to think my dad grew up there...it all makes sense now! ;)

Hell Is Over!

Well last weekend marked Churm Publishing's triumph at the Ultimate Kids Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. We were expecting about 50,000 attendees throughout the 3-day expo. On Saturday alone we had 90,000 (albeit that may have been due to the attraction of Spongebob Squarepants). But the show was a success!! All the vendors were happy and Steve (my boss) popped a bottle of champagne and toasted me (and 3 other girls) individually to congratulate us for putting it all together. I clocked in a total of 75 hours of overtime so I'm looking forward to mass amounts of vacation time and moola to come streaming in. (Of course, I'm now going into deadline for 3 magazines to go to press, so it'll still be a little while before I can actually take advantage of it...but it's there!)
But you should have seen us 4 girls!! We were delirious and giddy, dazed and a bit drunk afterwards, cracking up at the lamest jokes...but it was amazing how smoothly the whole thing went, considering the enormity of it. Except we had a stage area, and after Spongebob, there was a pile of rambunctious kids whose parents had just wandered off and so we had to babysit them while they went flying all over the bean bags, pummeling each other. And they were jumping so hard in the bounce house, it started to wander into the aisles...
And Sea World brought otters for their show and the otters were so cute on their little leashes! But there was a lot of noise and one poor otter got scared and started backing up with its little flippers going squidge-squidge down the aisle.
On Sunday night, I got home around 11 and I was still a bit wired, so I put in my Harry Potter 2 DVD and plunked down on the couch...next thing I knew, the DVD was over and it was 2am...guess I was more tired than I thought! It took all my powers of concentration to get up, brush my teeth and fall into bed properly.
Now I just need a little more coffee until I can go home and go back to bed.

Working Long Hours

nah i don't hate these people. i get pissed off at some of them sometimes (but that's normal). we just have this huge event we're putting together (1,500 exhibitors, 50,000 attendees...spongebob squarepants....) so i've been working 12 hour days, sleeping in hotels, traipsing around convention centers at dawn and midnight...i'm exhausted but excited all at the same time.
but i did have a conversation with steve (the big boss) and they're paying me overtime (which i can use as time off or hard cash) so i feel all better about it now. i don't care about the hours as long as i'm not feeling underappreciated or taken advantage of...which i'm not cuz they're taking good care of me.
besides, when else do i get to walk around with a badge, walkie-talkie and headset saying "we have a DOD on dock. 10-4, do you copy? Roger that, over and out" =)