Black Thursday

If you follow news or the ramblings of gadflys in the blogosphere (Do I ever fucking hate that word), several people used the phrase ""Black Thursday" to refer to Gannett's annoucement this afternoon that they would be laying off about 1,000 employees nation wide at their smaller papers. Read about it here at Gawker. (And, keeping with the theme of the entry, the Gawker post about this only got 740 views and 20 comments, when a posting about some dumb girl who may or may not attend Princeton posting on her Facebook got 24,319 views and 243 comments. I.fucking.hate.EVERYONE.in my generation who has access to a computer.)

(I'll be honest: I was going to call her a "dumb c*nt', but it's not her fault that generation hip values the Facebook updates of complete strangers more than they do keeping abreast of the news by way of honest, objective sources. But I digress.)

This comes on the heels of the Star-Ledger announcing they would sell the paper in October if 200 employees didn't take buyouts, and Hearst also announcing that they were looking to combine the Daily News with another paper, or sell it.

Why this is problematic for me: The Press will be laying off 50 employees.This is the second round of layoffs in nearly six months that Gannett has gone through. I've said a few times that the business is circling the drain, but now I am legitimately concerned that the end of print is coming a lot sooner than we think.

I'm mad.
I'm mad because I am trying to buy my way into an apartment this weekend, and come Monday, I might not have a job anymore.
I'm mad because I spent four years studying a dying industry and didn't bother to minor in anything. Technically, I would consider Radio my minor, but that's not doing too well either. I wish I had tapped into marketing or advertising.
In the event of losing my job, I know I could probably find something else in a timely manner. The next logical step would be to do PR, but the thought of being a PR girl turns my stomach. when I hear the voice of a 20 something fresh outta college girl on the other end of my line, trying to tell me how totally, seriously awesome something that has no relevance to my beat is, and when do I want to speak to the person in charge of it, I literally hiss.

But most of all, I am upset that as as a whole, the career choice of media has failed me as well as several of my friends, who can't even find work in their preferred field, if at all.

I'm dying to go back to school, get my MBA, take culinary courses and open a small restaurant. But I'm afraid of getting saddled with loans.

If anything, I can be a guest judge on Project Runway. They've been using lots of nobodys this season.

To relax my rattled bones, I am going to go watch Colbert Report and Root of all Evil. The nonsensical rantings of middle aged men usually pacifies me pretty well.

Easter candy+me-consequence= <3

I'm going to act my sex for a moment, if I may.

I'm out of shape.

Not terribly out of shape, I've found that taking a six week hiatus from the gym (a result of my new work schedule, NOT my boyfriend, as several people have suggested.), my workout stamina hasn't diminished at all. Sure, I'm not as flexible as I was two months ago, but I found that I could hop back on the treadmill or lift the same weights and not get winded, and after restarting my working out full time last week, I found that not only did I feel awesome, it was like I never stopped. And that is the true measurement of how healthy a person may or may not be.

But, I know I've gained a few pounds back (like, all of them), and it's kind of frustrating knowing that had I stayed on track with my work0ut, I would be able to be looking at swimsuits now instead of saying that I'm going to wait another month because I'm totally going to kick my ass into gear and lose a few pounds.

I've taken great pleasure in the last week of watching bitchy gossip sites rip Carnie Wilson apart because she's back up to 200 pounds of after losing gobs of weight after gastric bypass a few years ago, whoring herself out to every possible media outlet and showing her loose skin off in Playboy. I spent two years in Rutgers doing project after project analyzing the public's appetite for famous and semi-famous and not even semi-famous people, and even if you think that you are above it because you recognize the patterns, I'm telling you that there is still a bit part of your brain that just wants to watch people on TV fucking fail at life and be fat like the rest of us.
So that's where my brain has been yesterday and today.

On a lighter note, I've had a lot of energy building up because of the warm weather, and I just want to go outside and run around and play tennis or go swimming. I'm thinking about entering a contest at Work Out World where you work several times a week with a trainer for six weeks, and the person who loses the most weight wins free dues for life. I get bored very easily with working out, and I've never tried working with a trainer before, so it might be something new and fun to try. Maybe.

Today is the last day before Comcast takes the Cartoon Network away from me and makes it available only through digital cable. I am really upset by this and will miss late night cartoons very, very much. This might actually be enough to make me look into getting a digital connection so I can watch Metalocalypse again. I remember when Cartoon Network was first launched, and it was only available through deluxe cable packages.

Lastly, this made me giggle today. A lot. To the point where I was almost late for work. Leah was grossed out by the plug in tongue, while I laughed audibly at the "Stuffoscope".