just give me like 5 more minutes...

it's been just about nine months, this developing career of mine in the toy business. since then, today marks the first sunday night i wish the weekend was another day longer. toys kick ass, don't get me wrong. spending all day creating Spongebob, Dora, Blue's Clues, and Hello Kitty toys is definitely one of the top ways to earn a living. but paperwork's a bitch.

it always gets me. these needless, inconsequential, annoying pieces of paper that need to be filled out for "administrative" reasons. in this case, "administrative" means "reasons that are such so that your ass if covered if someone decides to let their infant or animal companion masticate on a Nickelodeon-licensed prepubescent injection-molded plaything."

thursday and friday were spent doing data entry as i update a JD Edwards list of all (read 5000+) toys my company has made since inception in an effort to ensure that the costs we have on record match those that our Hong Kong office has.

as i look at this goddamn huge excel spreadsheet, seeing that the scrollbar is only an inch down the sidebar after two days work, and the fact that i'm on item number 20000 something out of 90000 items, is not the most comforting feeling.

considering everything else, it looks to be a pretty good week.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 10:29 PM (0) comments

 
a dose of reality

sometimes you have to laugh at yourself. a lot. because you know you're an idiot. and you wait for that moment when everyone else around you who considers you an expert in your field, in fact, realizes that you are, indeed, an idiot. and i welcome that moment with open arms.

but what's more comforting than anything is that right now, today, tomorrow, and days and days after that, i will be paid to do something i've always wanted to do. not many people can say that. in fact, very few can. so even a mild complaint seems out of place. it's like growing up and being a porn star and complaining that you're tired because you've had too much sex for today. being even the slightest bit unhappy doesn't really make sense. but we already covered that. i'm an idiot.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 3:42 PM (0) comments

 
like my daddy used to say "it's only good if you both get your cookies in the end"

i'm not totally ignorant. the toy business is a seasonal industry. you can make collectibles and trading cards and try to convince me that you have evergreen products, but you're a liar. because the toy business is a seasonal industry. all you have to do is look at everyone's Q1 totals. they're down. usually. and they generally pick up over the course of the year when a .23 Q1 return turns into a .85 Q4 return. more toys are bought for the holiday season. you don't have to be the amazing kreskin to figure that out.

but taking a note from one of the greatest corporate-based films of our generation if not all time, if we produce a few extra units or sell a little more or i get costs to come down a few cents here and there which translates to thousands and in some cases millions of dollars, do i get to see any of it? no. do i get any sort of reward or compensation other than my regular paycheck? not really. our company has an employee of the week parking spot. yeah. except it's not really "employee of the week." it's more along the lines of "employee of the week that works for whichever department's turn it is to give someone the employee of the week parking spot." it kinda cheapens the whole thing.

feedback's an easy thing to give. and it's free. more people should give it.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 3:35 PM (0) comments

 
The Cost is Correct just wouldn't have the same effect

so I didn't Come on down!, but just stood and clapped and yelled for the lucky 9 that were at last thursday's taping of the first show of The Bob's 33rd year of The Price is Right.

because the beginning's a great place to start a story
my roommate's mom and sister were in town this weekend and were nice enough to get tickets to TPiR for thursday. i've never met them, never talked to them, didn't even know he had a sister, but i was supposed to call them at 330am thursday morning to confirm that i was gonna go with them. the roommate had to go to work because he had a meeting at 10, so he wasn't gonna be able to go. cutting out unimportant details, the three of us got in line outside CBS studios at 430 thursday morning for the 230pm taping. i was the 100th person in line. at 430 in the morning. seeing all the cots and blankets, i thought it was just a bunch of homeless people, but they were just the people (with nothing better to do?) who camped out since 5 o clock the evening before to be the first in line. needless to say, the coffee/bagel place across the street rakes in the cash.

here's a number, come back at _:__
at 6am, the gate to the studio opens and we get a number and are told to come back at 7:45. so i play tour guide for an hour and a half as i drive the roommate's relatives around hollywood and beverly hills. at 7:45 we're sitting on benches in numerical order based on our position in line outside the studio. they begin going down the line giving out more numbers. "we are giving you a priority number, please be back in line at 10." i think priority is latin for "the same as you had before, and as you will receive in the future." again, i'm number 100. but i already knew that. so then we walk off the lot and peruse the farmer's market next door, only to realize that nothing opens til 9. but sitting by a fountain with troll-sized coi helps the time pass. at 10 we're back in line according to our priority number. we are given yet another number (still lucky 100) and told not to leave the lot, but be back in line by 12. let me just say there's nothing like taking a day off work only to spend it sitting in line every 2 hours.

the name tag
noon comes and goes. CBS pages (of the helper variety, not the book) in red sportcoats begin their slow walk down the line squishing long legal first names onto the alltoofamous TPiR name tag. no nicknames are allowed. apparently if you win and you have a nickname on your name tag, they can't really prove it's you. go figure. i instantly don't like my name tag as i haven't really gone by my full name in about 8 years. i begin to wonder if i'd recognize it if i were called down to Contestant's Row.

the interview
people stress over the weirdest things. i'd been told by several people prior to showing up thursday that there's a quick interview by the producers that lasts about three seconds per person, and that's how they pick their contestants. other's apparently hadn't been privy to such information. so when it was announced that the interviews would begin shortly, make up compacts and lipsticks flew into action. it was ridiculous.

still in line according to the number i've been given 4 times already, they slowly pull 15 people at a time in front of the two producers. both in directors chairs, one is openly friendly and does all the talking; the other has a clipboard and is apparently mute. the interview is as follows

Producer: "Hi (name on your name tag), where are you from?"
Me: "I just moved out from Atlanta, and live in Playa del Rey."
Producer: "What do you do?"
Me: "I'm a design engineer for a toy company."
Producer: "Sounds pretty cool." Immediately looking to the person next in line, "Hi (their name), where are you from?"

that's it. you get 2 questions. where are you from? what do you do? i suppose you could talk forever because they don't cut anyone off. if you give short answers, you only take up a short amount of time. if you ramble on and on, as long as you're talking about something interesting, i suppose they'll remember you more. either way, it appears that the mute producer with the clipboard writes down the number of the one person he likes best in each group (there are about 30 groups), and the contestants are pulled from that list.

the ambience
you walk in the theater expecting a huge arena with tons of seats, only to be welcomed by an area no bigger than a high school auditorium. the stage is small, walls are close in, you feel like you're practically sitting on the stage when you're actually 20 rows back. the theme music begins. and out of nowhere, some lady starts singing. there are words to the TPiR theme. who knew?

the Bob
what a pimp. the guy walks out, the crowd goes nuts. half the time you can't even hear what he's saying people are yelling the whole time. the man has style. he's over 80 years old, hosts a game show, and is surrounded by absolutely gorgeous women. what's two or three harrassment suits really?

the show
as the first taping i've attended, i was surprised at how abruptly it started and stopped. a person would be called down, they'd bid, and cut. rearrange the set for a particular game, action. play the game, win/lose, and cut. rearrange the set for a new game. what takes and hour on tv including commercials, takes about and hour and a half to film. after getting in line at 430 that morning, taping began at 230, and i was in my car driving away at 415, the same car mind you as i didnt win nor was i called up.

the aftermath
in review, it takes a lot to be a contestant. you have to be able to submit to the torture of sitting doing nothing for 8 hours and then instantly turn on and be excitable for 10 seconds on cue. being in the audience is fun even if you aren't called up. i think it'd be more fun if there was a two drink minimum, but still...it's something i'd do again. anyway, this show and the start of the 33rd season will air september 20th if you find yourself bored and unemployed on a monday in september, or if you know me and can pick me in my green shirt out of a crowd of 320.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 9:01 AM (0) comments

 
no, this really is work related

so i'm not sure if anyone actually picked up on this, but the general tendency lately has been to convey tales from the workplace that is this toy company. it's far more interesting than the pathetic things i do at night or on the weekends in the humdrum metropolis that is los angeles. hmmm. a refreshing of the side links is in order. definitely. eh, i'll get to it later.

there's a huge licensing show going on in NYC right now. latest news is that Disney is book-to-movieing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe due out in summer and christmas 2005 respectively. not to mention that a Davey and Goliath 44 minute holiday spectacular is in the works entitled "Davey and Goliath's Snowboarding Christmas." personally, I prefer the Ruldolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys.

Mighty Beanz, who knew? after being nominated for "Activity Toy of the Year," Nintendo Game Boy Advance is releasing a Mighty Beanz Pocket Puzzles game today. i'm not too sure how i feel about this. i remember back in the day when i got my old school, gray boxed, green and black dot matrix Game Boy at a baseball card trading show in a mall when i was in 5th grade for $75. how much fun can this be? there's a reason GBA hasn't picked up crossword puzzles or electronic word searches. but if Spin Master wants to whore out a 10 million unit-sold license, that's their right.

another one of my friends got a job today working for a government defense contractor. so far my collection consists of a Lockheed fighter plane safety engineer, a Northrop Grumman space satellite systems controller, a Boeing Peculiar Ground Support Systems engineer, and a Raytheon Unmanned Aereal Vehicle systems coder. i guess wars are good for something.

and if you want a taste of what i've been tasting, try one of these on for size: Mattel, Hasbro, JAKKS Pacific, Leapfrog
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 4:31 PM (0) comments