I am addicted to American Idol. Is it because I like karaoke, and what is AI but glorified karaoke? Maybe. All I know is that when it's that time of the year I get glued to my television set and start voting for the contestants I like best.
I get that it's cheesy. That it's awesomely bad (or just bad?). That I enjoy it much more than a 30-year-old should. But 30 million viewers can't be wrong. Then again, the American public isn't always known for their high taste. Still, if following American idol is wrong, I don't wanna be right, as they say.
However, I know that blogging about every episode is likely to get on people's nerves. So to balance my compulsion to want to throw my two-cent commentary into every episode and not annoy the five people who read my blog, I've started a separate outlet for my AI addiction.
If you don't watch Idol, consider myself a hand-holder through the train wreck that is AI. Or if you follow it, consider it a sort of play-by-play of the show. There are about a bazillion blogs on American Idol--most of whom are actually on the official idol site, but I don't think I want to be part of the official madness. I'll toil away in anonymity instead. But what I really hope to do is convert you nonbelievers into viewers. Because there's two kinds of people in this world I don't trust: People who say they hate sushi, and people who refuse to watch AI.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Paging my boss' balls—boss' balls, are you there?
Not too long ago I got a raise and a promotion. So I should be thrilled, right? Well, I do appreciate the extra 10 percent padding to my paycheck. And the title is good for a bargaining chip for future jobs, I guess (though it’s really a bullshit title and doesn’t mean much to me). But right now I am not a happy camper.
Basically, without going into too much detail, I just don’t feel my boss has any balls. He is kowtowing to the Corner Office guys who seem to be making decisions about our product that, in the past, have been none of their beeswax. The last two years or so, the President of our division (or whatever powers that be that have Supreme Budget Control) cut our budgets so much that our product looked like shit basically. (Those who are reading this blog who know me know what our product is; I’ll just say that it has a design element to it.) Then in division meetings Mr. Pres will trash our product without acknowledging that we never had MONEY to make it look better.
About six months ago, they decide all of a sudden that they are going to give us money to make the product look better; more money for photo shoots (though no raise or promotion yet). It looks great, yes—but only because we had the resources to make it so.
Except along with the money, we also get more bureaucracy; seems our product has been so bad Mr. Pres decides he wants to have more of a hand in our decisionmaking, and one of his minions takes over the art part of it. So even though we make suggestions, the ultimate thumbs up has to come from Corner Office folks.
ARRGGGHHHH…is all I can think to say. Amidst all this, my old boss, whom I liked, leaves for another job, and our staff is basically three people. The New Guy is…eh. Initially, I just thought maybe it was because of the age gap. I had been used to female bosses not even a decade older than me for a while, so having a middle-aged male boss, I knew, would take some getting used to. But then New Guy’s balls start shriveling into his sac. I know that all new bosses want to make a good impression, they want to make their mark, and they feel pressure to ramp up quickly, especially when a product is at sort of a cross-roads like ours. I know that. I understand all that. I know he has pressure. But New Guy immediately starts instituting all these changes, of which we are feeling the affects right now. (I am in a deadline-oriented business, and with changes comes extra time to deal with those changes.) Why not phase in changes? No, that would be too practical, too common sensical. (Yes, I know that is not a word.) But NO…someone is so quick to change everything, without even thinking how it would affect us underlings, and before he truly understands the market and how our product serves our market.
I was particularly unhappy with one assignment in which Mr. Pres makes a decision that directly affects my job, even though no one runs it by me to check whether it’s possible—not too mention that Mr. Pres’ decisionmaking is based on totally stupid, and possibly sexist, rationale. I express unhappiness to New Boss; new boss and another higher up say it’s too late, they’ve made a promise to Mr. Pres that his wish shall be done, and we can’t go back and tell him no now because Mr. Pres holds grudges. Harrumph!!!!!!!! Forget that I have been at the job for nearly four years and New Guy has been there for two weeks. I don’t win this battle, but I at least get it off my chest—and am happy to have been straightforward with my unhappiness rather than use the passive aggressive shit my new boss seems to use. (Other things that annoy me about him: He OVEREXPLAINS everything—leaves me five minute messages to ask me to do something that only takes one.)
The sad part is, some of the changes that are being made, which may degrade the quality of the product, will likely produce more revenue. And added revenue will result in happier corner office guys, which will result in them patting themselves on the back for making our formerly shitty product better.
Why is there always such a disconnect between what managers see and what employees see? Why is it that when people go higher up the corporate ladder, they get stupider, can’t do anything on their own, and their balls start shriveling up? And when I actually want to start going on interviews, why I can’t find any jobs I like? (It doesn’t help that I’m at this weird middle level point in my career—not entry, not exactly management—that makes it so hard to find jobs, particularly in my field.)
I have one dash of hope: My company has been in the news of late as a candidate for a takeover, and if that happens, then I’m hoping they will dissolve our division, lay us all off, and give us severance. Of course, I would only be happy about this if the severance was enough to last me for at least two months—enough to do some serious job hunting. But a girl can hope, right? Unfortunately, have not seen much on my company on fuckedcompany.com so maybe the takeover is not as imminent as some of the media reports are making it seem. Oh well.
Basically, without going into too much detail, I just don’t feel my boss has any balls. He is kowtowing to the Corner Office guys who seem to be making decisions about our product that, in the past, have been none of their beeswax. The last two years or so, the President of our division (or whatever powers that be that have Supreme Budget Control) cut our budgets so much that our product looked like shit basically. (Those who are reading this blog who know me know what our product is; I’ll just say that it has a design element to it.) Then in division meetings Mr. Pres will trash our product without acknowledging that we never had MONEY to make it look better.
About six months ago, they decide all of a sudden that they are going to give us money to make the product look better; more money for photo shoots (though no raise or promotion yet). It looks great, yes—but only because we had the resources to make it so.
Except along with the money, we also get more bureaucracy; seems our product has been so bad Mr. Pres decides he wants to have more of a hand in our decisionmaking, and one of his minions takes over the art part of it. So even though we make suggestions, the ultimate thumbs up has to come from Corner Office folks.
ARRGGGHHHH…is all I can think to say. Amidst all this, my old boss, whom I liked, leaves for another job, and our staff is basically three people. The New Guy is…eh. Initially, I just thought maybe it was because of the age gap. I had been used to female bosses not even a decade older than me for a while, so having a middle-aged male boss, I knew, would take some getting used to. But then New Guy’s balls start shriveling into his sac. I know that all new bosses want to make a good impression, they want to make their mark, and they feel pressure to ramp up quickly, especially when a product is at sort of a cross-roads like ours. I know that. I understand all that. I know he has pressure. But New Guy immediately starts instituting all these changes, of which we are feeling the affects right now. (I am in a deadline-oriented business, and with changes comes extra time to deal with those changes.) Why not phase in changes? No, that would be too practical, too common sensical. (Yes, I know that is not a word.) But NO…someone is so quick to change everything, without even thinking how it would affect us underlings, and before he truly understands the market and how our product serves our market.
I was particularly unhappy with one assignment in which Mr. Pres makes a decision that directly affects my job, even though no one runs it by me to check whether it’s possible—not too mention that Mr. Pres’ decisionmaking is based on totally stupid, and possibly sexist, rationale. I express unhappiness to New Boss; new boss and another higher up say it’s too late, they’ve made a promise to Mr. Pres that his wish shall be done, and we can’t go back and tell him no now because Mr. Pres holds grudges. Harrumph!!!!!!!! Forget that I have been at the job for nearly four years and New Guy has been there for two weeks. I don’t win this battle, but I at least get it off my chest—and am happy to have been straightforward with my unhappiness rather than use the passive aggressive shit my new boss seems to use. (Other things that annoy me about him: He OVEREXPLAINS everything—leaves me five minute messages to ask me to do something that only takes one.)
The sad part is, some of the changes that are being made, which may degrade the quality of the product, will likely produce more revenue. And added revenue will result in happier corner office guys, which will result in them patting themselves on the back for making our formerly shitty product better.
Why is there always such a disconnect between what managers see and what employees see? Why is it that when people go higher up the corporate ladder, they get stupider, can’t do anything on their own, and their balls start shriveling up? And when I actually want to start going on interviews, why I can’t find any jobs I like? (It doesn’t help that I’m at this weird middle level point in my career—not entry, not exactly management—that makes it so hard to find jobs, particularly in my field.)
I have one dash of hope: My company has been in the news of late as a candidate for a takeover, and if that happens, then I’m hoping they will dissolve our division, lay us all off, and give us severance. Of course, I would only be happy about this if the severance was enough to last me for at least two months—enough to do some serious job hunting. But a girl can hope, right? Unfortunately, have not seen much on my company on fuckedcompany.com so maybe the takeover is not as imminent as some of the media reports are making it seem. Oh well.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Hines’ special sauce
I wasn’t really rooting for anyone in particular in the Super Bowl yesterday, but when I realized that Hines Ward was playing I pledged my allegiance to the Steelers because I have to support the Korean guy (there aren’t too many of us in pro sports, after all). Go Hines! Go Hines! It’s your birthday! It’s your birthday!
I was curious to see how much about Hines’ “Korean-ness” was covered in the media, if at all, so I did a quick search and found this article in the WaPo. It’s cool that he acknowledges that the Korean community will be following his career, and that he has to represent for Korean Americans. And hearing his very typical second-generation story (language/cultural barriers, parent/s who works long hours, being teased by other kids, initial embarrassment of being Korean, and therefore different—not to mention the difficulties he must have faced being biracial) was inspiring. (His mom apparently still works in a high school cafeteria.)
But I also wanted to see how he was being covered in Korean media, if at all. Turns out he's mentioned a lot, and it didn’t surprise me that there were some parts of his story that were “creatively amplified.” For instance, if you read this Q&A with Hines in SI, he recounts his childhood and the influence of his mom. And this LA Times story gives a little more detail, talking about how Hines didn’t really know his mom when she regained custody of him, and resented the fact that he was placed with an unfamiliar woman, community, and culture, but grew to appreciate his mom’s sacrifices for him.
Okay, nice story. In the Korean papers though, they say that Hines “ran away” from his childhood home to be reunited with his mom, such as in this story that ran in the Korea Times online. This story in the Digital Chosunilbo even says that “Hines could not forget his mother and ran away to live with her when he was in second grade.”
If the SI interview is accurate (I’m more inclined to believe it is, since it was a Q&A), this wasn’t the case—his mom got custody and he went, and experienced hardship because he was placed in unfamiliar surroundings. In direct quotes from Hines that appear to be accurate (or at least have not been questioned) he said as much. And I don’t think a seven-year-old would be successful at running away, anyway. I’m not necessarily accusing the Korean papers of making stuff up—maybe they do have a credible source? Maybe this viewpoint was reported in a secondhand source first? Maybe one paper published it and the others ran with it? But probably more likely, the Korean publications are choosing to ignore Hines own admission that he had to learn to be proud of and accept his mom and that part of his heritage.
Who knows—I just thought it was hilarious that I found this whole dramatized “Hines ran away to be with his mom” angle in the Korean papers and not in the U.S. news sources. Or maybe the Korean papers just wanted to turn it all into a melodrama, like so many addictive Korean soap operas. I mean, some of the flowery language in the Chosunilbo article sounds like a soap-opera synopsis: “[Young-hee Ward] never remarried and held multiple jobs to support the two of them, working all the hours that God sent.”
I know part of the cheesiness is because the metaphor gets lost in the translation, but I can so hear a Korean parent saying this: “See, Hines’ mom loved him so much she worked all the hours God sent...that’s why you always have to respect your parents!!! Now go marry a doctor.)
I don’t point out this discrepancy out of some kind of journalistic outrage. I don’t really believe truly objective journalism exists anyway; each news outlet paints the picture it wants, consciously or subconsciously, based on its goals, leanings, and /or cultural perspective and world view. All I’m saying is that reporting that Hines had to grow to love and respect his mom makes his story no less poignant—if anything, it’s even more special. So, Korean newspapers, if you don’t have a credible source for the “Hines ran away” theory, paint the truth, not fiction. No one will think less of you, his mom, or of Hines.
I was curious to see how much about Hines’ “Korean-ness” was covered in the media, if at all, so I did a quick search and found this article in the WaPo. It’s cool that he acknowledges that the Korean community will be following his career, and that he has to represent for Korean Americans. And hearing his very typical second-generation story (language/cultural barriers, parent/s who works long hours, being teased by other kids, initial embarrassment of being Korean, and therefore different—not to mention the difficulties he must have faced being biracial) was inspiring. (His mom apparently still works in a high school cafeteria.)
But I also wanted to see how he was being covered in Korean media, if at all. Turns out he's mentioned a lot, and it didn’t surprise me that there were some parts of his story that were “creatively amplified.” For instance, if you read this Q&A with Hines in SI, he recounts his childhood and the influence of his mom. And this LA Times story gives a little more detail, talking about how Hines didn’t really know his mom when she regained custody of him, and resented the fact that he was placed with an unfamiliar woman, community, and culture, but grew to appreciate his mom’s sacrifices for him.
Okay, nice story. In the Korean papers though, they say that Hines “ran away” from his childhood home to be reunited with his mom, such as in this story that ran in the Korea Times online. This story in the Digital Chosunilbo even says that “Hines could not forget his mother and ran away to live with her when he was in second grade.”
If the SI interview is accurate (I’m more inclined to believe it is, since it was a Q&A), this wasn’t the case—his mom got custody and he went, and experienced hardship because he was placed in unfamiliar surroundings. In direct quotes from Hines that appear to be accurate (or at least have not been questioned) he said as much. And I don’t think a seven-year-old would be successful at running away, anyway. I’m not necessarily accusing the Korean papers of making stuff up—maybe they do have a credible source? Maybe this viewpoint was reported in a secondhand source first? Maybe one paper published it and the others ran with it? But probably more likely, the Korean publications are choosing to ignore Hines own admission that he had to learn to be proud of and accept his mom and that part of his heritage.
Who knows—I just thought it was hilarious that I found this whole dramatized “Hines ran away to be with his mom” angle in the Korean papers and not in the U.S. news sources. Or maybe the Korean papers just wanted to turn it all into a melodrama, like so many addictive Korean soap operas. I mean, some of the flowery language in the Chosunilbo article sounds like a soap-opera synopsis: “[Young-hee Ward] never remarried and held multiple jobs to support the two of them, working all the hours that God sent.”
I know part of the cheesiness is because the metaphor gets lost in the translation, but I can so hear a Korean parent saying this: “See, Hines’ mom loved him so much she worked all the hours God sent...that’s why you always have to respect your parents!!! Now go marry a doctor.)
I don’t point out this discrepancy out of some kind of journalistic outrage. I don’t really believe truly objective journalism exists anyway; each news outlet paints the picture it wants, consciously or subconsciously, based on its goals, leanings, and /or cultural perspective and world view. All I’m saying is that reporting that Hines had to grow to love and respect his mom makes his story no less poignant—if anything, it’s even more special. So, Korean newspapers, if you don’t have a credible source for the “Hines ran away” theory, paint the truth, not fiction. No one will think less of you, his mom, or of Hines.
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