Me and 37,000 of my closest friends played hooky from work today to go watch the Giants lose to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Yes, that’s really what they’re called. Yes, I know this isn’t news to anyone, but think about it a minute:
The = the
Los = the (plural)
Angeles = angels
Angels = angels
of = of
Anaheim = Disneyland.
Los Gigantes de San Francisco lost to The The Angels Angels of Disneyland.
Well enough of that. Before I left for the ballpark, I put in some solid work on NIGHTCRAFT MOTHER, finishing chapter 5. I’m not quite a third of the way through, and very happy with my work, though I wish it was going faster. I don’t wish this badly enough to rush it. Just, wishing.
The rest of the news: Big Ugly messages in my work email, confirming or at least supporting rumors of pay cuts–they’re talking 8% pay cuts, and/or something they’re calling “furloughs”, by which they mean not paying us for holidays any more. Which, dudes, that’s not a furlough: a furlough is when you get EXTRA DAYS OFF without pay. Not paying for holidays? That’s a pay cut. And probably illegal.
The suckiest part is that all those economic stimulus package grants (that I spent so much time working on a few months back)–the university has already gotten the first tranche of them, and all the state did was cut our funding by that amount. So far. Thanks, Arnie. Way to reward us for taking an initiative…
Grumble grumble.