7/31/2007
Jesus Effingham Christ
I love going to my family's cabin in Indiana. It's the perfect place in the world to drink whiskey, bbq, throw some washers, listen to the Cards broadcast from their radio affiliate in historic Linton, In, and watch Mama's Family reruns till my heart is content, all things which I hold both near and dear (that Bubba will just be the death of Mama, no?!). The drive back and forth from the Lou to the lake could use some spicin' up (Directions: Get on 70, set cruise to 74mph, attach the club on the steering wheel to keep it straight, take nap, wake up after three hours, exit at Brazil.), but it does let me catch this glorious, absurd, gaudy sight which looms large over the interstate hamlet of Effingham, Illinois, like a giant looming loom machine:
Every time I see it, I can't help but to think "You know, I bet Jesus would really like that. When He comes back to surprise Liam next week, I bet He'll say 'Fuck spending the money it cost putting up that cross to build some poor people a home and buy them some food; or instead of just donating to help a charity or find a cure for cancer or some shit, nope, build a giant hideous fucking cross over some hick ass town in the middle of fucking nowhere. That will help humanity. You fucking dumb shits. Oh, and thanks for arbitrarily picking the cross to symbolize Me. I love reliving that fucking day every time I check in on you assholes. Me!'"
Jesus curses a lot.
Every time I see it, I can't help but to think "You know, I bet Jesus would really like that. When He comes back to surprise Liam next week, I bet He'll say 'Fuck spending the money it cost putting up that cross to build some poor people a home and buy them some food; or instead of just donating to help a charity or find a cure for cancer or some shit, nope, build a giant hideous fucking cross over some hick ass town in the middle of fucking nowhere. That will help humanity. You fucking dumb shits. Oh, and thanks for arbitrarily picking the cross to symbolize Me. I love reliving that fucking day every time I check in on you assholes. Me!'"
Jesus curses a lot.
Labels: 13 years of Catholic education quickly washed down the drain, Effingham, Mom Jesus Is Cussing Again, Stuff You Probably Don't Care About
7/19/2007
I Love Corporate E-Mails
Many moons ago, back when I gave an assbag about this blog thing, I wrote:
"My company’s campus has three different cafeterias. Like most cafeterias, they have suggestion boxen. Once a month the management of the company which runs the cafeterias sends out an e-mail which features all of the suggestions, along with a note from the cafeteria management saying (in kinder words) "Go fuck yourself. You’ll eat what we put out there and you’ll pay what we charge. Don’t like it? Go waste half an hour of your lunch hour just walking to your car in the parking lot and eat elsewheres."
These "suggestion e-mails" generally please me, as I like it when companies don't care about their customers and have no bones in saying so."
This is still the way I feel about company wide, suggestion style e-mails. The tickle me absolutely silly. And it is with a sadness knowing no end that I have learned that my company will forego "Town Hall" e-mails for the foreseeable future, instead opting to have live "Town Hall" meetings hosted by our CEO live streamed into everyone's office. This upsets me for reasons two-fold: 1) I'll miss the e-mails, and 2) this is more work for me.
But with this sad news, I bring joy. Well, I don't actually bring it; Will from Deadspin does. His sources leaked him a company wide "Town Hall" style e-mail from the giant, easy to pick on, jumped the shark, corporate monstrosity which is ESPN.
And it's funnier than any e-mail I have ever received.
Some highlights:
Question:
What is being done, (if any), to address sleeping issues of on-duty security personnel? Is there a radio/phone-in person check-in at specific intervals during the overnight hours to prevent an officer from falling asleep on duty?
Answer:
Security posts are rotated every one to three hours to keep the security officers alert on the third shift. The contract security supervisors and our security staff patrol at night to make sure individuals are performing their duties. Any employee who sees a security officer sleeping should immediately report it to the ESPN Security Shift Supervisor on duty at x2486 or x2214.
That sounds safe.
Question:
When will the bicycle rack in front of the south door of Building 3 be reinstalled? It was removed last year during construction.
Answer:
The bike rack has been reinstalled.
Pay attention, asshole.
Question:
Is there or could there be an option to receive a pay check once a week instead of every other Thursday? Many of us live pay check to pay check. Being able to be paid every week would help tremendously.
Answer:
All ESPN employees are paid on a bi-weekly basis and have the same pay date. Payroll is a shared service provided by our parent company and ESPN cannot operate under a different system.
Mr. Morgan, you earn a decent living. If you could control you $10,000 a week faberge egg habit, this would be a non-issue
Question:
What qualities do you feel a Leader should possess?
Answer:
For guidance, please review the Leadership Competencies in Performance Connection on the intranet for information on what is expected of a leader. Another good source for guidance is your department's HR generalist.
Believe it or not, that's actually a quote from Dwight Eisenhower. France, 1945.
Question:
Given the success of Dancing with the Stars" on ABC, (and "So You Think You Can Dance" on FOX), does ESPN plan to capitalize on this nationwide dance obsession, (and high TV/internet ratings), and offer similar programming? Would ESPN strongly consider seeking rights agreements to air existing competitions and/or would EOE develop its own dance competition and/or reality show? If aired in months when neither of the two above series air, it could potentially capture the same audience without direct competition. ESPN would also further expand its viewer base by offering this diverse programming option. Considering the success of pro-athletes Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice on DWTS, it might be just the right time for a dance competition featuring only pro-athletes. [I have read that
the 2nd Annual World Salsa Championships, (Albert Torres And Salsa Seven Inc.), will be broadcast on ESPN International and ESPN Deportes and I very much hope that they will also be broadcast on ESPN 2.]"
Answer:
We often include content from and play off the success of Dancing with the Stars within our existing studio franchises, including regular updates in SportsCenter and other studio shows, particularly involving the participating athletes. We have looked at ballroom dancing programming and will continue to. One challenge is that the dancing audience is generally not our typical audience. To have a shot at success would require devotion of significant resources, and at that point, it becomes a matter of prioritization.
Oh, sweet fuck.
"My company’s campus has three different cafeterias. Like most cafeterias, they have suggestion boxen. Once a month the management of the company which runs the cafeterias sends out an e-mail which features all of the suggestions, along with a note from the cafeteria management saying (in kinder words) "Go fuck yourself. You’ll eat what we put out there and you’ll pay what we charge. Don’t like it? Go waste half an hour of your lunch hour just walking to your car in the parking lot and eat elsewheres."
These "suggestion e-mails" generally please me, as I like it when companies don't care about their customers and have no bones in saying so."
This is still the way I feel about company wide, suggestion style e-mails. The tickle me absolutely silly. And it is with a sadness knowing no end that I have learned that my company will forego "Town Hall" e-mails for the foreseeable future, instead opting to have live "Town Hall" meetings hosted by our CEO live streamed into everyone's office. This upsets me for reasons two-fold: 1) I'll miss the e-mails, and 2) this is more work for me.
But with this sad news, I bring joy. Well, I don't actually bring it; Will from Deadspin does. His sources leaked him a company wide "Town Hall" style e-mail from the giant, easy to pick on, jumped the shark, corporate monstrosity which is ESPN.
And it's funnier than any e-mail I have ever received.
Some highlights:
Question:
What is being done, (if any), to address sleeping issues of on-duty security personnel? Is there a radio/phone-in person check-in at specific intervals during the overnight hours to prevent an officer from falling asleep on duty?
Answer:
Security posts are rotated every one to three hours to keep the security officers alert on the third shift. The contract security supervisors and our security staff patrol at night to make sure individuals are performing their duties. Any employee who sees a security officer sleeping should immediately report it to the ESPN Security Shift Supervisor on duty at x2486 or x2214.
That sounds safe.
Question:
When will the bicycle rack in front of the south door of Building 3 be reinstalled? It was removed last year during construction.
Answer:
The bike rack has been reinstalled.
Pay attention, asshole.
Question:
Is there or could there be an option to receive a pay check once a week instead of every other Thursday? Many of us live pay check to pay check. Being able to be paid every week would help tremendously.
Answer:
All ESPN employees are paid on a bi-weekly basis and have the same pay date. Payroll is a shared service provided by our parent company and ESPN cannot operate under a different system.
Mr. Morgan, you earn a decent living. If you could control you $10,000 a week faberge egg habit, this would be a non-issue
Question:
What qualities do you feel a Leader should possess?
Answer:
For guidance, please review the Leadership Competencies in Performance Connection on the intranet for information on what is expected of a leader. Another good source for guidance is your department's HR generalist.
Believe it or not, that's actually a quote from Dwight Eisenhower. France, 1945.
Question:
Given the success of Dancing with the Stars" on ABC, (and "So You Think You Can Dance" on FOX), does ESPN plan to capitalize on this nationwide dance obsession, (and high TV/internet ratings), and offer similar programming? Would ESPN strongly consider seeking rights agreements to air existing competitions and/or would EOE develop its own dance competition and/or reality show? If aired in months when neither of the two above series air, it could potentially capture the same audience without direct competition. ESPN would also further expand its viewer base by offering this diverse programming option. Considering the success of pro-athletes Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice on DWTS, it might be just the right time for a dance competition featuring only pro-athletes. [I have read that
the 2nd Annual World Salsa Championships, (Albert Torres And Salsa Seven Inc.), will be broadcast on ESPN International and ESPN Deportes and I very much hope that they will also be broadcast on ESPN 2.]"
Answer:
We often include content from and play off the success of Dancing with the Stars within our existing studio franchises, including regular updates in SportsCenter and other studio shows, particularly involving the participating athletes. We have looked at ballroom dancing programming and will continue to. One challenge is that the dancing audience is generally not our typical audience. To have a shot at success would require devotion of significant resources, and at that point, it becomes a matter of prioritization.
Oh, sweet fuck.
Labels: espn, Links, Stuff You Probably Don't Care About
7/18/2007
You know what...
The Cardinals may suck right now, but they'll never take this away from us:
I still can't believe he humped the fucking World Series trophy.
I still can't believe he humped the fucking World Series trophy.
Labels: Awesomness, Chris Duncan, The 2006 Saint Louis Baseball Cardinals, The Crappy 2007 Baseball Cardinals
7/10/2007
