Bruno is now at the bottom!!

Jerksblog!

Date-Based Archive More Picutres of Me with Pink Hair

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By way of explanation, these pictures are of me and Alison making cookies at Grace's apartmend on Sunday. We made seven kinds of cookies to give to our co-workers - including the recipe Sam often makes, which turned out delicious!

Our cookies were trumped before we gave them out, though, because Cartoon Network sent a giant gift basket with lots of crazy candy and cakes and cheese and crap in it, so by the time we passed out the cookies everyone was like, "Oh god, more junk food?!"

On the Secret Santa front, my person got my note instructing them to look at my desk for a hint about what I might like, and they got me a little stuffed animal. It's some kinda sheep. That's a big improvement over the previous gifts, although not quite as good as the "Lovely Pets" calendar (hey Rick, you need a calendar?) and not quite as bad as one of my coworkers who got a weird little skateboarding hip-hop toy thingy, which is probably not appropriate for - well - most people, let alone our producer. I gave him my World Music CD, but passed up the skateboarding thing as an exchange.

Posted by erin at 12:08 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive Secret Santa Update!

Today I got a much improved gift - a desk calendar of "Lovely Pets" that is some sort of Japanese calendar, featuring kanji for the days of the moth and, as one would expect, pictures of cute dogs and cats.

That rules out Barry as my Secret Santa, since the gift implies some thoughtfulness.

(It still looks like a calendar one might get for free though, since it's promoting the "Coroland Animation" company in Hong Kong. I'm convinced my Santa works in marketing. Who else gets all this free crap?)

Posted by erin at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive The Secret Santaland Diaries

So at work we have two different Secret Santa gift exchanges going on. One is open to anyone at CP who wants to be in it, and the other is just for the KND staffers. The KND-specific exchange is very easy - at our party on Friday we give each other the gifts and either 'fess up or let people wonder about it for the next six months. The CP-wide one is different. Participants are expected to give their secret pal several small gifts over the course of a week and a half leading up to a big gift at the company party. I got my person three things and some candy.

Last year the CP-wide exchange was pretty weird. People in the commercial department got each other booze and porn, unthinkable for our more reserved KND staff. My secret santa from last year didn't get me anything until the last two or three days of the event - and in the meantime I got a confusing letter from "santa" (the organizer) that should've gone to Alison, leading me to think my secret santa didn't know who I was. So I emailed santa and gave some gift suggestions, which my gift-giver person followed up on.

This year my secret santa is some kind of jerk. Or I am. It's hard to tell the difference.

On Monday there was a weird little peacock ornament on my desk. Not a Christmas ornament, just some weird thing from India or something like that. A small tin peacock. I thought about that peacock a lot. Was my secret santa trying to make fun of me? Had the not figured out what kind of person I was and just gotten something they'd liked? Were they trying to make fun of my pink hair in some weird way by comparing me to a peacock?

On Tuesday I got a promotional sampler CD (not for resale) of some "World Music". Now, when it comes to music I hate, "World Music" falls on my list somewhere below Country and Techno. I'd rather listen to some "House" than to "World" music, and there's a lot of Country music I'd give more of a chance to than World music. In fact, I can't imagine anyone liking World Music. The CD got me to thinking - maybe my Secret Santa knows me really well, and got me a CD of music that's the opposite of my taste in order to mock me.

Today I got a Kodak-brand calendar of scenes of "Nature's Wonders." This is the kind of calendar Kodak might send you for free with some other stuff. Suddenly it dawned on me - my Secret Santa isn't giving me gifts that he/she likes, or gifts that they think I'd like, they're just CLEANING OUT THEIR OFFICE of stuff they don't want and passing it on to me as gifts.

What a rip off! I spent a lot of time researching the person who's name I drew and coming up with appropriate gifts. My Santa is either really clueless, misguided, and hopelessly uncool, or else he/she is some kind of jackass. In any case, if it was his/her goal to completely obscure their identity - mission accomplished!

Posted by erin at 05:12 PM | Comments (2)

Date-Based Archive Oh, Yes!! Christmas Spam; I don't want to alarm you, but...

Now my life is complete!!

I got this in my inbox this morning:

Subject: Per Carlo's Request

Santa has a special gift just for you.
A miracle gift you have been dreaming about.
I'll give you a little hint...
It has the potential to enlarge your manhood ;)

Today we had the post-production department lunch at a restaurant called Savoy. It had great coffee and good wine and a short menu of pricey internationalish-dishes, but the great part was the building it was in. It was like, this tiny house in the middle of Soho with fireplaces and a tin ceiling. The waiter was really scary though, I mean, he was nice, but I almost said to my coworkers, "I don't want to alarm you... but I think the waiter is an alien. Or possibly a robot."

One of my coworkers pegged him as someone who was probably practicing to be a Shakespearian actor or something. That and my alien theory are pretty much the only things that could explain the waiter's bizarre speech pattern.

Also thanks to the Voice I now know what's behind that unmarked door at Angel's Share.

Posted by erin at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive Answers to Your Burning Questions

I recently dyed my hair pink. This is the only picture so far, taken by Alison's phone:

Approximately 170 people work at Curious Pictures, about 70 of which work on L.E. and about 40 or so work on Kids Next Door. The other 60 people are not all in at once, as many of them seem to be freelancers. I can't tell you how many times an adult has asked me "How many people work at your company?" An inappropriate response for one's grandmother is a flippant "I don't f-ing know."

I am currently involved in three Secret Santa gift exchanges, two of which are through work.

I am throwing a New Years Party this year in NYC. Email me if I forgot to invite you.

Turns out the power came back on at 3am in Michigan, so Thanksgiving was saved after all!

My uncle planned to move the barn, but he hasn't started moving it yet, despite having it planned for November.

No, I haven't bought your Christmas present yet.

Posted by erin at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)