prick

I've encountered two pricks this week.

The first was a porcupine in my apt complex. It was dark and I was walking to the laundry room to get my clothes out of the dryer. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and thought it was a fat little dog, but something about the shape was weird. I looked again and I realized it was a porcupine. I stopped and when the shock of seeing a porcupine in the city wore off, he/she/it caught a sniff of me when the wind shifted and bristled up. Then just as quick the quills relaxed and it ambled off in the same direction I was headed. I got my clothes and it was still around where I first saw it. So I dashed back to my apt, dropped off the clothes and grabed a little disposable camera. When I found it again, it was rooting in the grass and didn't seem too bothered by the flash of the little camera. It moved casually toward the nearest tree and climbed a foot up then paused, another foot, then paused. I took several pictures from different angles. From what I could tell in the dark (and having never seen a live porcupine) it seemed to have a inquistive cute little face. I left it in the tree and on my way home stopped off at the manager's apt to let her know. Her husband said someone else saw it the day before I did.

The second prick is actually one I work with. A weasle actually. He goes on about how he's worked in the graphics industry and how much he knows, etc, etc. So he and another guy did the borders for the pages of the catalog. When they were done, I placed them and didn't pay much, if any, attention to the margin and bleeds. I figured between them they have enough sense to leave 1/4" since that is pretty much standard with the printers and magazines we advertise in.

The proofs for the first 126 pages I sent in came back this morning. On the sheet it was noted that ALL pages have issues with graphical elements in the margin and at risk for getting cut off when the pages are trimmed. Wonderful. I made a few phone calls, had lunch, thought it over and decided that to pay $34.50 per page in corrections to move a little logo over 1/16th of an inch was silly. I was all for leaving it and taking our chances with the trimming machine.

Weasle Prick keeps asking me what I think we should do. One, that's your job, your my supervisor, two, we're talking over $4000 in corrections. I finally got him to get off his fat lazy ass and we'd go see the the prick's supervisor. Being at the bottom of the totem pole and knowing the effects of gravity and how shit rolls downhill, I was prepared for the lashing I was going to get from not watching the margins. Bigger boss says 'Weasle Prick, how could you let this happen?' Weasle prick says, 'I guess 'cause I'm an incompetant idiot' and blah blah blah, I'm so stupid, it's amazing I'm still employed, and all this other bullshit. Managers love to hear you call yourself an idiot for screwing up, even if it's not your fault.

It was decided that we'd (I'd) only correct the right hand pages and leave the other side to chance since the left side was a bit more within the margin. I thanked bigger boss, told him we'd still be able to make deadline and went back to my desk leaving weasle prick to smooze and ass kiss.