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January 15, 2016

Today was a pretty horrid day. Alan Rickman was something kind of special to me, for over 25 years. I am really having a hard time coming to grips with his death. And since it has been one horrible month for 69-year-old British legends, I can't even process one before another goes. Lemmy, Bowie, and now Rickman. At least Lemmy made it 4 days past his 70th, and Bowie squeaked by 69. Poor Alan's birthday was over a month away when he passed.


Work is continuing to strain me; the latest is that they are having another round of "enterprise equity improvements". Which is they company's way of saying that they are taking away more of the traditional benefits of working for the home office. Goodbye, anniversary breakfast, and free lunch on your birthday. Bit by bit, they chip away. They've managed to get rid of about everything, at this point.

Makes you wonder--what are they going to cut when there isn't anything left to cut? I had a sudden weird thought on my way in today--what if they make everyone work the same schedule, in order to reduce the number of hours the building has to be open?

They would, of course, throw the plebs under the bus, and go with the executive hours, so that would be something else they could take away--the ability to go to and from that place in under an hour each way., since we would all be in rush hour traffic.

Or, they could always screw us out of our Fridays...
Still going back and forth on the Las Vegas thing. After we fought about it, and I pressured my boss for the time off at his insistence--now he's all disillusioned about the hidden costs. My fault--I accidentally reminded him about the infamous "resort fees". Now he's all umbrageous and pissy because they lie about the room rate. Which is all that is, really. I could totally see him accepting a $68.00/night room rate, if that was the going deal. But tell him it's $50.00, and then tack on a mandatory $18 "fee"? He'll go ballistic, every time. Especially since he is highly unlikely to take advantage of any of the amenities included in said fee.

And I understand. But the thing is--if you are going to go to LV on vacation, you should always bear in mind the prime directive of the place--TAKE THE MONEY. The dynamics have changed in the last 20 years. Where before, it was cheap rooms and cheap food, as a lure to get people to gamble...well, people figured out they could stay in a beautiful resort and dine well for next to nothing, and nobody was going to stand over them and make them to gamble if they didn't want to.

So casino revenues fell, and operators were forced to take a different tack. If they are reluctant to "gamble"? Charge them extra "fees" for their stay, and guarantee you get a set amount a day off of them, while still advertising cheap room rates. Do away with the $1.99 steak and eggs, and the 99ยข hot dogs. For the people who insist on cheap grub, put a food court in every casino, and watch the fast food chains fight for premium space. While you're at it, put high-end retail malls in all the hotels, and suck some more cash. Add movie theaters and bowling allies for the low rollers.

Or cater to the "foodies" and catch the people who are willing to pay $8.00 for a little dish of gelato, or drop a few hundred on dinner at a restaurant just because it's fronted by a celebrity chef.

Put in ever more crafty slots--ones with hundreds of theoretical paylines, to jack up the price of the pull. Ones that pay out a fraction of the initial bet, but still give out with all the pulse-quickening excitement of an actual jackpot.

And of course--megamergers to reduce competition and screw the base prices ever upward.

The list goes on and on.

It's all in the game. But he is having such a hard time realizing that his affordable playground of the last two decades is, to all intents and purposes...history.





Reading: ""Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound, or A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils" (1919) by Alice B. Emerson, and "Murder Must Advertise". I keep picking them all up and putting them down, and never really getting very far. The Sayers is my dedicated lunchtime book, and I still can't seem to get through a book I've read at least 15 times--that isn't even very long. And the Ruthies are what I read at bedtime, so I never get too far at a stretch. (The only thing I miss about smoking is that my smoking breaks were also reading breaks. I got a lot more reading done!)

Listening: No, not really.

Inked Up: Got the new feed for the Konrad. It only took one look at it to show me that the original was pretty messed up--too short, broken tip, mashed in fins. So I gave the pen a clean, fiddled the nib in with the new feed, refilled it with Pelikan 4001 green, and HOLY COW, what an improvement. Night and Day. And given the price and the speed, I will be considering Goldspot in my future pen- related purchasing.

I also cleaned out the X750 and put it away, and the Artista got a clean and refill with Mont Blanc Pink. Which looks really nice in the demo pen, but I've tried it in several pens now, and I really don't like the way it writes. It's a very dry ink. and not really dark enough to please me entirely. Duragraph with its best match, Brilliant Brown, of course. And the Claria is still inked with Ku-Jaku, as I don't like it much (sorry, hon!). Who thought it was a good idea to make a shiny and slick chrome pen!? Despite its lovely nib, it is too difficult to write with it for very long, and this might be nitpicky, but...an object designed to be held in the hand should not, ideally, show every little smudge and fingerprint.

recede - proceed

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