Slogging Away

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She works hard for the money
So hard for it, honey
She works hard for the money
So you better treat her right
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When I came in today, I had no idea that I'll be working extra hard today. Sure, I was informed late yesterday afternoon that there'd be a meeting over lunch today but boy, that wasn't just it as I soon discovered as the morning progressed. Btw, despite being conducted over lunch, no lunch was provided at the meeting, apart from tea/coffee and some kuih. Times must be really bad.

So now it's like another one of those crazy days at work. I'm trying my best here not to be buried under the avalanche of work and speaking of that four-letter word, it sure is inducing the beginnings of a migraine and [hopefully not] ulcer, not to mention the sheer waste of time of having to attend to urgent but not important stuff. But I'm sure you already know only too well what that feels like.

Hmmm, I am working hard for my money today!

Anyway, here are some words to enrich your 2006 vocabulary [before I return to workland]:

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1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. [Oh yes, had to sit through this painful thing before. Even though I wasn't at fault, I couldn't help feeling sorry for the poor souls. Really, if you don't make mistakes, how will you ever learn?]

2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves. [I'm sure I know a few characters having this trait...]

3. CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles. [Sounds like ours.]

4. PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. [Oh uh, sounds familiar!]

5. MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

6. SITCOMs : Single Income, Two Children , Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

7. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

8. SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use. [I haven't yet inflicted that much damage to my cards... phew!]

9. XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

10. IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The J-Lo and Benwedding (or not) was a prime example - Michael Jackson, another. [...and Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey, Tom Cruise...]

11. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

12. ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

13. 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web Error Message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. [This error message always annoys me.]

14. GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

15. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realise thatyou've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake). [Oh boy, been there and definitely done that. Big mistake!]

16. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

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Maybe I should do a '404' expression if any more new work lands in my tray today. Now, if only I have WOOFS, then I wouldn't need to be slogging away at this rate, ever.