Gumbo Jumbo
Mmmmm Friday.Technically I'm still working even though I'm at home & "relaxed". Joe called in crook today which sucked coz I wanted to see him before he left us & with Anne unable to find anyone to replace him, I offered to monitor the news from the comfort of my (tiny) home. So currently I'm on tragedy alert, monitoring http://news.bbc.co.uk/ etc. every half-hour or so till 3am when the (fucking) cricket finishes & I give the Master Control fellas a call so they can take over the task.
A phrase has been coming up at work a lot this week, regarding the Hurricane Katrina situation, which has caught my ear: "Toxic Gumbo". It's such an evocative little term but sounds a bit like a punk/industrial Zydeco band-name. I laughed when I first heard it, then felt guilty about all those people who've lost everything & don't seem to be getting much help from their govt. As I always say "I'm not political" (that and "Go get 'em goober") but it seems crazy for a country to be spending so much of their money killing people in another country when their own people need help.
It's kinda weird to be back monitoring the overnight news. I spent two years waiting for something catastrophic to happen somewhere in the world to justify my employment & the only time anything major did happen it was outside of my work hours. Not that I ever hoped for disaster but there did seem to be a few major world leaders the world could do without, which would have given me reason to call the boss.
The closest I ever came to having something important to report was the Boxing Day Tsunami which happened a few hours after I'd gone home, I spent days afterwards trying to find out the precise time it occurred thinking I may have missed the year's most crucial news event. Thankfully in my current position I'm only looking at events from the past so I don't have that feeling of impending doom hanging over my desk. I'm also get half a day off for my good deed so I have to decide whether I wanna sleep in or leave early & catch a movie or go out on the piss.
Finally a good group email has gone around the office. It features a picture of Sam, the world's ugliest dog. Go have a look at the precious little critter & find out about him & his owner at http://samugliestdog.typepad.com/blog/. By the looks of it he has extra claws growing up his leg/s.
Gonna sign off now but I'll keep watching the skis...er...skies....er....news.
posted by This one @ 10:23 PM
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