January 08, 2003

Thus far the response to my call for applications for the position of Schlock Mercenary Colorist has pleasantly exceeded my expectations. That's marketing-speak for "I'm surprised at how many talented folk out there are interested in doing this." I have to spin it that way, because if I actually came out and said I was surprised, it could be taken to mean that I did not think my readers' pool of talent was especially deep, and I can't go insulting my readers, not even accidentally.

The sad thing is that in my new position at Novell, I have to tweak wording like that every single day. The funny thing is that 30 months worth of wordsmithing scripts for comedic effect, story alignment, and character accuracy has honed that ability to a keen edge. It's also made me the life of many an otherwise unsalvageably dull meeting.

Okay, enough prattle about how clever I am. Back to the topic at hand -- the colorist:

I've got lots of applications, samples, and resumes to wade through. It's very important to me that I make the right selection, and I suspect it's also important to all of you. I hope to be able to make an announcement by the end of January.

In unrelated news, I'm sick. I tried to medicate myself in order to put in a full day at the office, and ended up inadvertently becoming the life of a couple of otherwise unsalvageable meetings. Of course, I have to use the word "life" rather injudiciously. It turns out that the difference between Nyquil and Dayquil is that Nyquil puts sick people to sleep at night, and Dayquil puts them to sleep during the day. I'm not going to say much more about the incident, because, quite frankly, I don't remember much about it. Except for the laughter, and everybody staring. Oh, and I never got a donut.