Addendum, and a reason to hate me
At some point I wrote an entry admitting my perplexity at the internet acronym 'FTW'. There is another one. 'IAWTC'. Now, I do know that it translates to 'I Agree With That Comment', but when I first saw it the thing seemed to say 'I Am World Trade Centre'. Which I thought was in pretty poor taste. Last time I blamed the Vines, but this time I may just have to conclude that I'm terrible at working out acronyms.
So. It may or may not be common knowledge that I did some work experience for the popular morning programme GMTV last year. When I refer to it now I tend to say, "It was fun. I got to make gunge." The problem was that, apart from seeing a TARDIS lying around in a warehouse, said activity was the highlight of the three weeks I spent there. Recently I've been back to do some freelance work. This, I must make clear, is simply because I need the money and not due to any fanciful notions about working in television. That particular slice of idealism was taken when I had a look at the progress of a typical media career, which has a theme of working one's arse off for too little money and uncertain promotion prospects, because everyone wants to work in telly and we can easily replace you. And the jobs so far have been laughably easy. This is my problem.
I know how it sounds if I start complaining about how I keep getting called in to get paid while doing next to nothing. I even understand why my last stint, starting at nine in the evening on Sunday and ending at half past nine in the morning after I'd watched The Feeling performing on the bank of the Thames and realised I wasn't going to be needed again, given that the last time I was called on at ten to five the task was to bring pastries down to the green room for arriving guests, was so lacking in actual work. They were putting together a live show, which involves a certain level of unknowns so it would be useful to have more people hanging around that are actually needed. Just in case. But this is becoming a common theme in my dealings with these guys. I also was taken on to plug in a load of new phones into an office building a department is moving into. The estimated time of completion was two, maybe three days. I and another freelance chappie finished in the morning of the first day. If I do by some freak of osmosis end up working at GMTV in a position of any power I will have a serious look at wasted manpower.
Sorry, sorry. I feel like such a luvvie, with my namedropping and complaints about working on TV shows. The sooner I get a job in some cubicle, the better.
So. It may or may not be common knowledge that I did some work experience for the popular morning programme GMTV last year. When I refer to it now I tend to say, "It was fun. I got to make gunge." The problem was that, apart from seeing a TARDIS lying around in a warehouse, said activity was the highlight of the three weeks I spent there. Recently I've been back to do some freelance work. This, I must make clear, is simply because I need the money and not due to any fanciful notions about working in television. That particular slice of idealism was taken when I had a look at the progress of a typical media career, which has a theme of working one's arse off for too little money and uncertain promotion prospects, because everyone wants to work in telly and we can easily replace you. And the jobs so far have been laughably easy. This is my problem.
I know how it sounds if I start complaining about how I keep getting called in to get paid while doing next to nothing. I even understand why my last stint, starting at nine in the evening on Sunday and ending at half past nine in the morning after I'd watched The Feeling performing on the bank of the Thames and realised I wasn't going to be needed again, given that the last time I was called on at ten to five the task was to bring pastries down to the green room for arriving guests, was so lacking in actual work. They were putting together a live show, which involves a certain level of unknowns so it would be useful to have more people hanging around that are actually needed. Just in case. But this is becoming a common theme in my dealings with these guys. I also was taken on to plug in a load of new phones into an office building a department is moving into. The estimated time of completion was two, maybe three days. I and another freelance chappie finished in the morning of the first day. If I do by some freak of osmosis end up working at GMTV in a position of any power I will have a serious look at wasted manpower.
Sorry, sorry. I feel like such a luvvie, with my namedropping and complaints about working on TV shows. The sooner I get a job in some cubicle, the better.