july 25, 2001. "Oooh babe. A'course mama's gonna help build th'wall..." Today sucked. Not in a 'losing my job' kind of way (which is good, because I've had enough of that shit to last a lifetime), or in a 'body crushing labour' kind of way, but...well, maybe I should stop the preamble and just get to the story. One of the projects we're working on this summer is an on-line architecture course that offers all kinds of neat, real-time gubbins as well as extensive opportunities to create and share work. The lectures are to be delivered in a CD-ROM - we were going to put it all on the website, but then somebody woke up & realized that we cannot afford that kind of bandwidth, so CD it is. The launch date is in 4 1/2 weeks. Not only are we running behind on taping (6 pre-edited lectures in the can, 2 to go), but every single thing we contracted out came back to us when everybody in the world went on vacation this week. And although I use the plural pronoun to describe these goings-on, the real truth is that my boss makes the decisions and I do the best I can. Last week that translated into a delightful jaunt around Halifax as an itinerant AV girl. Today that meant scanning slides. 165 slides. For 5 hours straight. With no lunch. In the office of a man who (before he went on vacation) offered the opinion that since he has to charge for the use of his machine, it might be cheaper to buy the $400 scanner. And who made me wash my hands before he would allow me to touch anything on his desk. I figure that if I work two more 8-hour days in there, I can finish 5 lectures by the end of the week. I will survive by frantically eating crackers and other small foods during the precious 3-second intervals when the scanner is initializing. I will not leave this office for anything but urgent bathroom breaks and the occasional 30-second trip to the cooler to fill up my water bottle. And why am I doing this for a paltry $8 an hour? Balance. Thanks for a week of free sushi. And because I'm an idiot. It's a small phrase that explains so much... this time 3 years ago: "I wish I had a brother like Nic...or a brother that looked up to Nic..."