| Tuesday, 27 November 2001, 1:07 pm Tags: cartoons, TechTV, The Screen Savers |
I came back to work yesterday for the first time since the layoffs and it was so weird. The halls were much quieter. Partly because there were fewer people. Partly because people are a little subdued. I greeted everyone I saw with “I’m glad you survived!” which puzzled a few people until they realized that this was my first day back. But I missed so many who would have been there.
Among the most missed, our hair, makeup, and wardrobe folks. It’s humiliating to admit this, but we have to do for ourselves these days. They laid off all the stylists. I doubt this situation will last long – it’s just too bizarre to have a production assistant pretend to apply makeup to our guests – but for now I have to do my own hair and makeup. Which explains the eccentric Elvis swoop in my forelock tonight. I just couldn’t do a thing with it.
Last week I went to the local M.A.C. cosmetics store to stock up. The good news is that I get a 30% trade discount. The bad news is I’m buying makeup for myself. In case you’re interested I wear NC 35 for concealer, apply studio fix NC 40 (a powder foundation), add contour with Symmetry Matte, then powder it whenever I get shiny with Dark Blot Powder #451. I wonder how Patrick is going to handle this when he gets back?
On a brighter note, cartoonist Rich Tennant, our guest tonight and the creator of The 5th Wave, did a cartoon of Patrick and me. What an honor.
I think my hair looks pretty realistic, don’t you?
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| Saturday, 17 November 2001, 1:01 pm Tags: TechTV |
I’ve been in broadcasting for 25 years now. I’ve even been through layoffs before. But I’ve never experienced anything like yesterday. As many of you already know, TechTV fired 130 people on Friday – 25% of our work force. A great many companies have had to cut back in the past few months, and millions of folks have lost their jobs, but having it happen so close to home was a brutal shock and totally devastating.
I was stuck in airports all day yesterday, trying to get back from Raleigh NC to the Bay Area. I spent much of that time on the cell phone getting updates as some of my closest friends were getting fired. I felt so helpless.
I guess part of the reason these layoffs hurt so much is that TechTV is much more than a job for most of us. Rightly or wrongly, it has become a second family. Like any family it’s frustrating at times. And painful. And intensely rewarding. But what a bitter blow it must have been to be so suddenly thrown out. Monday morning is going to be so tough for those 130 people. People who, for the most part, looked forward to coming to work, who believed in TechTV’s mission, and who gave their all to make it happen.
I don’t know the names of all the people who were fired. I’m slowly learning who made it and who didn’t. And each name added to the latter list is like a blow to the stomach. I know these layoffs were necessary for the channel to survive until better times. I know it must have been incredibly hard for management to do this. I also know that the people who are gone will go on to do great things – they’re all wildly talented and bright. But it still hurts like hell.
There’s a thread on the message boards devoted to the layoffs: TechTV Shakedown. I hope you all will use it to share your feelings and offer support to the good people who were let go.
There are still over 400 people who work at TechTV. We’ll pull it together and continue to bust our butts to give you a channel we can all be proud of. But for a while at least, we’re grieving the loss of 130 of our friends. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication, guys. I can’t wait to work with you again. And I know we will some day.
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| Saturday, 10 November 2001, 12:23 am Tags: Alerts, Kilt, Patrick Norton, The Screen Savers |
Two announcements for Screen Savers fans. First, Patrick will be wearing the kilt again tonight.
And second, Kate Botello will be co-hosting with me on Monday while Patrick is in Las Vegas for Comdex.
The two events are not related. I think.
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| Friday, 2 November 2001, 12:31 pm Tags: Appearances, Travel |
The car comes in half an hour and I’m off for Charleston WV and Fairfax VA. I sure hope Patrick feels well enough to do the show tonight!
I’ve loaded up my new HP Jornada 565 Pocket PC with audio books (I download ‘em from Audible). I bought a 128 MB compact flash card for the Jornada. That’ll hold about 18 hours of audio books. I have a book called Bobos in Paradise, four or five This American Life episodes (my all time favorite radio show), and a couple of Robin Williams interviews with Whoopi Goldberg and Will Durst. I’ll stick some music on the Rio 500 for the flight, too. My current favorite flying songs: Bruce Hornsby’s Walking in Memphis, Everlast’s What It’s Like, Will Smith’s Miami, and Shania Twain’s That Don’t Impress Me Much.
I’ll be flying again on Wednesday, but just for a day. I’m going to LA to interview Ted Danson for the show. Those frequent flyer miles are starting to pile up!
I’m hoping people show up in Charleston and Fairfax. Everybody is so jumpy these days I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t. My own producer begged off the trip yesterday. He just wasn’t comfortable flying. For some reason it doesn’t worry me much. I feel like it’s probably the safest way to travel these days. On the other hand, I’m not so keen crossing the Golden Gate Bridge ever since Governer Davis announced that terrorists plan to blow it up this week. Gee thanks, Gov.
See you in VA and WVA – or back on TV on Monday. -yawn-
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| Friday, 2 November 2001, 12:18 am Tags: Books |
Woo hoo! My book hits bookstore shelves December 3rd. We have the final art for the cover. (It’s a PDF file you can download from here. You’ll need the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed to see it.
I’m already thinking of ways we can make it better next year. And how I can get back on Regis to plug it!
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| Thursday, 1 November 2001, 5:41 am Tags: Chris Pirillo, Pocket PC |
Chris Pirillo took two of the blog images of me and made a Pocket PC theme. (Thanks, Chris!) You can download it here. If you have a Pocket PC 2002 device just copy it to your documents folder then select Settings from the Start Menu and click the Today item to select it as a theme. When you get tired of looking at my mug, download more PocketPC 2002 themes fromPocket PC Themes.
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