Panic (2000): This is almost exactly the point where Dark Humor turns to simply Dark.

Dude, Where's My Car (2000): Dude, where's my audience? Stupid, stupid, stupid. It had some funny moments, but christ, it was really stupid. I know, this was not a film that was gonna premiere at Cannes or anything - it's geared for adolescents, but even for a ten-year-old (who would theoretically be too young for this PG-13 movie), this one would be hard to watch. Did I mention how stupid it was?

I still have a job for now, and probably at least for another month - if this product is successful, I might even last through the release and for an indefinite amount of time afterward, but the worrying is almost worse than unemployment. More farewell emails from Marketing people yesterday. It's very difficult to manage any kind of enthusiasm for productivity, but as usual in a situation like this, one must try to maintain pride in one's work even while the walls aare crumbling around one.

Have suspected for some time that this would happen, but had placed it a few months further down the road.

The "Anthracite" FIMO is very cool. Takes quite a bit of working (and hand-warmth, I think) to get it non-crumbly, but the black with silver glitter makes everything you do look good.

State and Main (2000) movie within a movie... ensemble cast... morality play... Kinda fun.

My company has laid off a large number of people, and I am pretty much convinced that this entire 'satellite' office will eventually be discontinued. Though the original 10+-year-old company here produced the only products that are providing revenue for the two-year-old parent company, and everyone I've dealt with (and many with whom others here have dealt) has betrayed a certain predictable amateurism, by that very token, they won't be smart and keep the smart people. Logically, I might have several months before I get laid off. But logic hasn't been a highlight of the emanations from the parent office. I fully expect to be laid off any day now, and it's really tough to do anything productive under that expectation. Truth be told, if the job market was the same as LAST June, I may have already been outta here. Just searched techs.com for the 707 area code and "writer" in the description, and no matches are found.

Within my own department, this office has been more productive, more reasonable in disputes, more efficient, and more innovative than our counterparts in the other city. This is true also of the group in the third city -- all of whom were laid off last week. We've done a certain number of stupid things just to allow the parent group to contribute.

Be that as it may, I have created some nice things with FIMO clay this week at my desk. :-)

We have a post-mortem meeting now to discuss what could be improved and what should be repeated "next time." The irony in this is not lost on me.