Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: charless@sco.com (Charlie Stross)
Subject: the telephone now waiting on line 19 ...
X-Mailer: SCO Portfolio 2.0
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 13:59:49 +0000



Let it be known to all and sundry; I am a lazy son-of-a-bitch.

Now, this should not come as a surprise to you. You might cite in
evidence the paucity of recent postings, or my occasional
descent into driveling sub-peevedom when I can't be bothered to
maintain standards and appearances, or the fact that I haven't
yet been sufficiently motivated to flame the living shit out of
Sybok01 and fellow inmates of the monkey house (as so
constructively diagnosed by Curtis). Frankly, I'm going through
an apathetic patch at present and can't be bothered to write my
normal 5000 words for the day. Oh, and I'm coming down with 'flu,
which doesn't help either.

Nevertheless.  Be that as it may, I _am_ known to work at times
(as often as twice a week, for all of half an hour at a time).  I
have even been known to spend a normal working day in the office
upon occasion, even if I do typically come in at 7:30am and leave
at 4:00pm on the dot.  Hell, I've got a life [of sorts]; the last
thing I want to do is join the honourable Japanese tradition of
dying of overwork when there's beer to be drunk, books to be
written, weird music to be listened to, machines to be
configured, art galleries and parties to be thrown out of, and
all the rest.  Leaving work at 4:00pm, or sometimes as late as
5:00pm, suits me down to the ground.  Three cheers for
flexi-time!

So. This week I planned to attend two conferance calls. They were
on consecutive days; sure, fine. That's business. I can live with
that. Then I discovered that they were time-shifted by five hours
so that they don't begin until 7:15pm, and they go on for two
hours. Uh, well, I guess I'll just go in to work a little later
than usual. Right?

Wrong.

I screwed up.  Got my scheduler out by a day.  The first call is
this evening.  I will head for home at about 10:30pm, after
writing up a memo about the call.  (I got in to work at about
7:30am.) Tomorrow, ditto; only I have scheduled a meeting for
10am so there's no _way_ I can sleep in.  Ugh.  Two
thirteen-fourteen hour days on the trot!  This is supposedly a
laid-back office job with a 37.5 hour working week.  Tell me it
ain't true?

NB: Before you flame me to a crisp for whinging about a mere 13
hour day, it helps if you factor in the fact that I've got a
secondary occupation that takes up c.  20-35 hours a week.  This
therefore gives me a routine 55-80 hour week.  If you're a house
officer or intern doing long shifts in a hospital, fine, flame
away -- but then you shouldn't be reading news, should you?

ObBombShell: I think I may emigrate.  Within the next year or so.
Possibly to Toronto, possibly to Santa Cruz; but definitely
_somewhere_else_.  Something about this bloody country, which is
the one I was born in and the only one I've ever lived in, is
getting to me.  Attitude, mind-set, whatever; I feel the need for
a new frontier.  Sod it, life's too short.  I'm still young (pre-
thirty-something), free (definitely) and single (probably), so
why not?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie Stross aka charless@scol.sco.com ..... UNIX oriented text mangler
WARNING: The opinions voiced in the preceding electronic document are the
product of a warped mind. Take two before meals. 
 

Newsgroups: alt.peeves