Dept. of Saturday
This Cold Sucks, Like a Great Sucking Thing ... Oh, And Other Stuff
Here I am, trying to get back on the posting bike again.
I was supposed to go to a Chicago Humanities Festival panel, "Chicks Dig Time Lords," today. It's being hosted by the editors, including
rarelylynne of course, and I'd been looking forward to this for so long! I'd bought the tickets more than a month ago, and had it marked on my calendar, and was going to go with two friends, and ...
... and the cold got worse overnight, expanding in my head and crawling down to settle into my chest. I opened my eyes this morning, and almost immediately realized that I couldn't get the energy up to go. Not only that, I'd potentially be spreading the cold to everyone else. So I cancelled with my friends, and have been lying here on the couch in what counts as jammies, drinking tea, wrapped in my shawl and feeling very sorry for myself.
So now I am thinking about going through my favorites on Teaspoon, because I'll be reccing at Calufrax in a couple of weeks, and I should be ready.
(Heh. I just looked at that sentence and realized that to a non-fan it would mean nothing absolutely nothing, with suspect grammar and spelling to match.)
I'm also working on trying to get some more done on Hearts & Moons, Chap. 24. What is it that eve11 calls her long term challenge, a WIP o'doom? That's what I'm dealing with here. I am determined to finish the story, but - oh, never mind, you've heard it before.
Other things: yes, my newspaper chain, Pioneer Press, got sold yesterday by the Sun-Times. You can read about it from both sides here. And here's a reasonable analysis of what it means for both companies. Even though it was written before the deal was closed, it's pretty dead-on, in my opinion.
im Knight, the operative head of the Sun-Times wrote us a largely ungrammatical and completely ungrateful kiss-off email, which was absolutely typical of the dead-eyed little corporate prick who. along with majority ST owner Michael Ferro, is running that company into the ground. Between the two of them, they'll end the Sun-Times, probably within five years of having taken it over in 2011.
Meanwhile, the folks at the Chicago Tribune wrote us a very generic "welcome, we're all family and we're happy to have you, nothing will change at least until the end of the year" type email. Well, I hold that email in the type of regard you reserve for such corporate speak, but I will say this for them. One thing that won't change is our contracts.
Ahem. Let me say that again.
The Tribune, Colonel Robert S. McCormick's Tribune, a vast empire that still bears the imprint of its fascist, virulently anti-labor founder, assumed the three Guild contracts that cover three newspaper chains' worth of editorial staffs.
As one wag amongst my colleagues quipped, we've finally managed to unionize the Tribune. They were that desperate to buy us. I fully expect them to try to break us when our contract is up in about two years, but it gives us time to plan and defend ourselves. It's one immediate load off my back, although I'm perfectly cognizant that the road will not be smooth.
It's amazing how fast the sale was completed. From the word breaking on Oct. 21 to Friday, when the sale became final. That's how desperate for immediate cash the ST is. Now comes transition. We'll see how much change there actually is, and how much time they will need for the proper transition - everything from what operating platform we do editorial work on (after just switching to a Wordpress-based system less than a month ago, I'm not looking forward to learning something else), to switching pay systems, learning what medical system we get coverage under, etc. etc.
I got reports that, on the very afternoon the sale was announced, the former ST suburban staff downtown, including Pioneer editors and non-reporting types, were being ordered to pack up their stuff at the Sun-Times and head, at least temporarily, for Tribune Tower. It would, after all, be awkward to be working in the same newsroom as the people who have suddenly become your indirect competition. I don't know how much of that has happened by now. But, oh my, the interesting times ahead.
As for me, right now, we're waiting to see Dr. Who, which should be possible in just a few minutes. I'm going to focus on that because, after all, this chick does indeed love Time Lords. They make everything better, even with a head cold.
This entry was originally posted at http://kaffyr.dreamwidth.org/330013.html?mode=reply, where there are currently
comments. You can comment there or here; I watch both.
Here I am, trying to get back on the posting bike again.
I was supposed to go to a Chicago Humanities Festival panel, "Chicks Dig Time Lords," today. It's being hosted by the editors, including
rarelylynne of course, and I'd been looking forward to this for so long! I'd bought the tickets more than a month ago, and had it marked on my calendar, and was going to go with two friends, and ...
... and the cold got worse overnight, expanding in my head and crawling down to settle into my chest. I opened my eyes this morning, and almost immediately realized that I couldn't get the energy up to go. Not only that, I'd potentially be spreading the cold to everyone else. So I cancelled with my friends, and have been lying here on the couch in what counts as jammies, drinking tea, wrapped in my shawl and feeling very sorry for myself.
So now I am thinking about going through my favorites on Teaspoon, because I'll be reccing at Calufrax in a couple of weeks, and I should be ready.
(Heh. I just looked at that sentence and realized that to a non-fan it would mean nothing absolutely nothing, with suspect grammar and spelling to match.)
I'm also working on trying to get some more done on Hearts & Moons, Chap. 24. What is it that eve11 calls her long term challenge, a WIP o'doom? That's what I'm dealing with here. I am determined to finish the story, but - oh, never mind, you've heard it before.
Other things: yes, my newspaper chain, Pioneer Press, got sold yesterday by the Sun-Times. You can read about it from both sides here. And here's a reasonable analysis of what it means for both companies. Even though it was written before the deal was closed, it's pretty dead-on, in my opinion.
im Knight, the operative head of the Sun-Times wrote us a largely ungrammatical and completely ungrateful kiss-off email, which was absolutely typical of the dead-eyed little corporate prick who. along with majority ST owner Michael Ferro, is running that company into the ground. Between the two of them, they'll end the Sun-Times, probably within five years of having taken it over in 2011.
Meanwhile, the folks at the Chicago Tribune wrote us a very generic "welcome, we're all family and we're happy to have you, nothing will change at least until the end of the year" type email. Well, I hold that email in the type of regard you reserve for such corporate speak, but I will say this for them. One thing that won't change is our contracts.
Ahem. Let me say that again.
The Tribune, Colonel Robert S. McCormick's Tribune, a vast empire that still bears the imprint of its fascist, virulently anti-labor founder, assumed the three Guild contracts that cover three newspaper chains' worth of editorial staffs.
As one wag amongst my colleagues quipped, we've finally managed to unionize the Tribune. They were that desperate to buy us. I fully expect them to try to break us when our contract is up in about two years, but it gives us time to plan and defend ourselves. It's one immediate load off my back, although I'm perfectly cognizant that the road will not be smooth.
It's amazing how fast the sale was completed. From the word breaking on Oct. 21 to Friday, when the sale became final. That's how desperate for immediate cash the ST is. Now comes transition. We'll see how much change there actually is, and how much time they will need for the proper transition - everything from what operating platform we do editorial work on (after just switching to a Wordpress-based system less than a month ago, I'm not looking forward to learning something else), to switching pay systems, learning what medical system we get coverage under, etc. etc.
I got reports that, on the very afternoon the sale was announced, the former ST suburban staff downtown, including Pioneer editors and non-reporting types, were being ordered to pack up their stuff at the Sun-Times and head, at least temporarily, for Tribune Tower. It would, after all, be awkward to be working in the same newsroom as the people who have suddenly become your indirect competition. I don't know how much of that has happened by now. But, oh my, the interesting times ahead.
As for me, right now, we're waiting to see Dr. Who, which should be possible in just a few minutes. I'm going to focus on that because, after all, this chick does indeed love Time Lords. They make everything better, even with a head cold.
This entry was originally posted at http://kaffyr.dreamwidth.org/330013.html?mode=reply, where there are currently
comments. You can comment there or here; I watch both.