March 19, 2008
Dear Everyone:
I believe I have mentioned the GIL 3 project in
general and the new Glossary in particular.
Last week, The Powers That Be decided that another “official”
glossary of technical terms needed to be added to the Glossary As Soon
As Possible. That got me the
approval-in-advance that I needed to work overtime.
So last Saturday, I put all the
Star Wars
DVDs in a
bag, along with my personal laptop, and went in to the office.
I had already been through
Star Wars I The Phantom Menace and the first half of
Start Wars II Attack of the Clones
the previous weekend. So I
started at the halfway point, about where
Anakin Skywalker finds his
dying mother and takes his first steps along the path to the
Dark Side
of the Force. And began entering
new glossary terms.
Star Wars III
Revenge of the Sith and “birth” of Darth Vader, and still entering
glossary terms.
Star Wars IV A New Hope (the original first movie with added footage
using computer imaging.)
More glossary terms.
Star Wars V The Empire Strikes Back and the introduction of the
melodic “Yoda’s Theme”. By
now I had finished entering and was now swinging back around to set up
links to other terms (i.e., “see also…”).
Star Wars VI Return of the
Jedi and I stopped around the time our heroes were trouncing
Jabba
the Hutt.
All that work meant that I could spend some time
this week on my other (50%) project for the “Winks” Group.
This consists of going through boxes of Active Files that someone
has deemed “no longer needed”.
In many cases, they were right.
In others, retention hasn’t expired yet, but the folders can go
to Inactive Storage.
Some of these files are quite entertaining.
For instance, there was a file on “Animal Care”.
An Operating Company (OpCo) that no longer exists did, at one
time, use live animals for
toxicity testing.
Anxious letters from various concerned organizations and
individual. Soothing replies
about the company’s policy on humane treatment of animals.
Said policy no longer exists (I checked) because all that was
sold to another company a long time ago.
These records just need destruction review as a formality.
Another folder labeled:
“Avian Conservation”.
Turns out, the same no-longer-in-existence OpCo once had an arrangement
with a local zoo, which shall remain nameless.
Said zoo had, in its avian collection, certain birds of prey
who’s preferred sustenance was small rodents.
Said OpCo happened to have rodents (i.e.,
lab rats).
Some of the aforementioned rodents were not used for toxicity
testing. Instead, said
rodents would be “sacrificed” and quickly frozen to be kept in a freezer
until the zoo’s representative came by to collect them.
All with the provision that said zoo would never tell anyone who
“donated” said frozen rodents.
Put on your Thinking Caps, everyone.
Just what is the proper retention period for records relating to
frozen dead rats?
Then there was a reporter working for a newspaper
in
Very angry letter from the CEO of “Bayou, Inc.” to
the CEO of this corporation stating categorically that he (the CEO of
“Bayou, Inc.”) was not a murderer.
Furthermore, no one employed by his company was a murderer.
Threats of suing for defamation and, for good measure, the cut up
pieces of his (company) credit card.
Legions of lawyers leaping into action, drafting,
revising and “sending upstairs for approval” of an official letter to
the editor of the newspaper that no one meant to call anyone a murderer.
When approved, said letter sent to the poor schmuck who probably
will never talk to another newspaper reporter again if he lives to be a
hundred, to be signed and sent to the newspaper.
At the same time, soothing letter to the CEO of “Bayou, Inc.”
that no-no, of course no one at your company is a murderer, it’s all the
reporter’s fault.
It’s all very amusing, but now they want me to go
back to working on the Glossary.
In other news…
“Jeannie” and I celebrated my birthday last Sunday
by going to see
The Other Boleyn
Girl, a movie loosely based on the
novel of the same name, which was
a little less loosely based on the whole
Anne Boleyn and
Henry VIII
historical event. As costume
dramas go, it has plenty of costumes (possible award) and plenty of
drama. As historical pieces
go, you could fill one of those castles with all the inaccuracies.
In fact, in the closing credits (these movies provide hundreds of
people with employment) they included a disclaimer that it was a work of
fiction only.
But it was still fun to watch.
Pete
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