Tuesday 11 December 2012

Shining a tiny light in the anguished dark.

  



Sorry if this sounds a little rantive. It was written with a glass of Vodka and lemonade next to me, with a head full of muddled ideas and feelings about the future. 





..... Well, that is a little bit of luck to tell my side of the story if it all goes bad.

I rather like this SM3. I think I'll keep it in high rotation.

9 comments:

  1. I'm glad you kept your job!! Don't feel guilty for having been spared the arbitrary whack of the institutional axe.

    I think it's very kind and decent of you to write personal letters to the unfortunate.

    As for obfuscatory jargon, it's used in academic administration as much as hospitals, I can tell you that. We are looking into "alternative revenue streams" here as we "double down on the high-touch experience." -- ???

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    1. Well, those are some interesting samples! We often use 'alternative revenue streams' here too. I wish I could broadcast some of the absurdities that came from my session yesterday, but along with the 'newspeak', there's other Orwellian things happening.

      I also haven't so much kept my job, as I've just been contracted a little further down the road, with no certainty to the future.

      I'm seriously thinking of just jumping across to 'Plan B'.

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  2. I absolutely detest modern 'business-speak' where many words are spoken, but not much is said and I can give a few examples of dealing with the Principal of my children's Primary School where I was informed that the school had 'strategies in place' for dealing with a kid who was bullying my daughter.
    Anyway, Scott, I am relieved that your job is still relatively intact, but like I said last week, always have a back-up plan. In the meantime, have another vodka and lemonade on me. Cheers.

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    1. Garbage talk Ivan be so frustrating at times. It is like trying to talk through a cloud when you are trying to address some serious issues.

      As for the backup plan, I'm seriously thinking of switching to plan B.

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  3. We knew it was the beginning of the end when they stopped calling it a newspaper and started calling it "the product". Then it was "platforms". One guy gave us a presentation in which he used a picnic blanket to illustrate that we were all outside the square. Finally we realised they weren't talking about a newspaper at all any longer, that was already dead as far as they were concerned. The end came one night when the deputy editor looked at a hole on the world page onscreen layout and said, "Make it go away". He wanted it filled with a James Bond story. I'm convinced he thinks James Bond is real, and Bond's activities should be covered among other international stories: Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Bond. This is not a Brave New World. It's a Stupid New World.

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    1. Robert, still faithfully reading the school library's copy of The Canberra Times - don't really know why, though - this explains a lot about the World News section lately. Section? That's a term ones must use loosely when one describes the "product".

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    2. That kind of twisting of the language is becoming the norm. Product? Well.. I make pent of 'product' every day. At least I don't try to pass it off as a newspaper.

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  4. oh no, the blasted, hypocritical weaselwords of gov't... to cover up a raft of inept bungling and unvarnished cruelty. It's good that you're writing through this. I worry that the uncertainty won't go away for a long time - but the bumbling will continue, and that real people with real careers and responsibilities will be affected. It'd be comic if it wasn't so depressing & hopeless. rino

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    1. Tho this government has an amazing capacity for bullshit, doesn't it? And I agree. This uncertainty will last for quite some time.

      But I'll always have writing.

      Anyway.. I'll get past this, and be back to normal. Thanks though.

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