Odds and Ends: Workaholia

by javabeans

javabeans: What a long week. Then again, when your job is to report news and there IS no news (other than the one big thing in the news), the days start feeling really long. Uh, not to make a tragic current event all about me, of course. But the news has been so inundated with ferry updates (that aren’t really updates) that it’s a mental drain and you’re just dying for something lighter and happier, so you’re not depressed 24/7.

girlfriday: It was really hard not to be depressed. Every time I read another news story it put me in another funk. But yeah, when our work is dependent on entertainment news and the entertainment world stops in its tracks, it makes everything harder. I was this close to looking up stories about puppies.

javabeans: I briefly considered just taking the week off, but my OCD nature just couldn’t give up and I was determined to find things to post about. I don’t know why I do that. Why do we do that? Why do we treat Christmas and Thanksgiving and other big holidays like regular work days that must not dip below our non-holiday output?

girlfriday: I don’t know. It confuses my mother. But we do, because that’s how we are. There’s probably a clinical term for it, but we call it workaholia.

javabeans: I mean, looking back on it NOW, in this conversation, it seems like the obvious thing would be to decrease news stories for those occasions, instead of increasing stress about how you’re going to keep news flowing (even when there’s little news flowing).

girlfriday: Yes, this is likely what a sane person would do. Or so I hear.

javabeans: I notice that you never set me straight, though. You immediately agree with my crazy.

girlfriday: Well I wouldn’t want to be called a slacker.

javabeans: I remember my whole youth being pushed by my parents to work harder all the time (they wanted nosebleeds, dammit), and now they’re always worried about me always working and call me to remind me to go outside.

girlfriday: Omg, seriously. Parents, you did this to us! Why is this a mystery? My mom’s always like, “Why do you have to work on the weekends? Why can’t you go shopping with me?” Uh… because you raised me this way?

javabeans: My mom does the typical mom thing of asking if I’ve eaten or gone outside today and I just lie now.

girlfriday: I routinely tell my mother I eat vegetables. It’s occasionally true.

javabeans: It’s weird that watching dramas recreationally used to always make me hungry, but recapping dramas makes me forget to eat. So I guess the nice thing about our week hiatus was that I ate on a more regular schedule.

girlfriday: I don’t know about you, but I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms from the lack of television in my life. When you eat, breathe, sleep nothing but TV, a week of preemptions feels like eons.

javabeans: Oh, but I didn’t lack for television. I just got to catch up on everything I’d been behind on, which was nice. Until it all starts all over again and soon you’re just as buried as you were before.

girlfriday: Don’t remind me. See, even on a week off from dramas you were productive. I marathoned old Veronica Mars episodes.

javabeans: Well, I couldn’t stray too far from our usual schedule since we weren’t sure until the LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT whether the shows would air or not, and we were basically on call in case they did. The broadcasters were pretty ridiculous about the scheduling thing. I mean, I understand not knowing what to do. But the Big Three were basically playing chicken with each other, changing their minds based on what the other station decided.

girlfriday: Okay, that was officially the worst part. Who writes a TV schedule that reads: “10 pm: either God’s Gift or News Special”? It might as well say: We’ll think of something.

javabeans: It’s probably amazing that none of the stations have had a dead air accident yet. I do believe this is an accurate recounting of the schedule at one point: On Wednesday, SBS preempts Three Days, so then KBS preempts Golden Cross and MBC preempts Sly. All day Thursday the three stations are trying to figure out what to do about their dramas that night. Sly decides to to air an episode, until they hear that SBS and KBS are preempting, so it decides to preempt again. An hour later, a station reports possibly airing two episodes back-to-back, which spurs the other stations to declare that they’re considering that too. Ten o’clock rolls around and ultimately they all preempt. All that hullaballoo for nothing.

girlfriday: It’s stressing me out just remembering how many times we had to change our recapping schedule that day while we were waiting for at least one of the broadcasters to make up their minds. Because you know they’re all sitting there waiting for the first one to pull the trigger, so that the rest can do the same.

javabeans: Even that would have been better than what they did, which was to pull the trigger, then try to stuff that bullet back in the gun, then pull it again in a different direction, ad infinitum (or at least until about two hours before showtime). I remember the news stories would say, “The broadcaster has not yet decided whether the drama will air. They will make the final decision by late afternoon.” Who runs an industry like this?

girlfriday: One that liveshoots its dramas? Are we even surprised?

javabeans: That’s the thing about defying logic. Every time it happens, you’re surprised.

 
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