M. Night Shyamalan, you owe me 201 minutes I can never get back

Like everyone, I was taken in by The Sixth Sense several years ago.  Yes, I remember jumping out of my seat several times in the theater.  And countless dumbasses played off variations of "I see dead people..." for way past its prime and we had a pop culture phenomenon on our hands.  Then Signs was a decent movie with several good scares and it was before most people realized how much of a mega douche Mel Gibson is.  But then it started to go downhill fast.  I believe I saw Unbreakable (yes, I'm being smart...) and then it started to seem like maybe M. Night had just gotten lucky.  The Village was just bad and I for one started to wonder if the director / "actor" / writer / producer really thought moviegoers would let him get away with over-wrought movies based on a twist.  

Then came The Lady In the Water.  That was just about THE WORST movie I have EVER seen and that is saying something...I was also just recently made to watch Xanadu.   The dialogue was horrible.  The story was cheesy as hell.  And the acting was marginal at best.  I feel obligated to mention at this point that D made me rent this.  (Speaking of which...I am now blogging so as to not have to pay attention to D's current selection Alvin & The Chipmunks.)  The last straw came just the other night with The Happening.  Another completely stupid premise and the trademark heavy-handed attempt at social and/or environmental commentary.  I found myself laughing at scenes that I'm sure were mean to be horrifying.  For example, I was laughing out loud when the construction workers were throwing themselves off of buildings and crashing to the ground all around their mortified friends.  

I probably wouldn't be so hard on M. Night were it not for the fact that he seems to be SO full of himself.  He takes himself and his movies way too seriously.  And appearing in your own movies?  I'm sorry, but you are NO Alfred Hitchcock.  

So please figure out how to give me back that lost 201 minutes.  Hey, that's a bargain...I'm not charging you for The Village or Unbreakable.  

  

Career Watch: J

Ah, yes, it's the first of the month which means my monthly hours are due. And, like always, they suck.

For the lay people, lawyers typically bill their clients for their time via the firm. So, every month, I report how much time I spent working on each client. My goal is to bill 5 hours per day. I averaged 3 this month. The thing is, in ANY other firm, I would have to bill closer to 8 per day.

The problem, to me, is that I am not busy enough. My boss will retort that I still have stuff to do. Which is true. But it's the never-ending loose-ends type of stuff. Stuff that if all the planets aligned and everyone involved cooperated, would take me 10 minutes to finish.

A more ambitious sort would no doubt look into acquiring new clients of her own. I have two major problems with this: 1. I am not the ambitious sort. No, I am, it's just that I have never been a good salesperson and HATE having to sell myself and 2. there's not really much incentive unless I want to be partner someday. New clients bring in new money to the firm, but not to me directly. So, I would make the FIRM more money which is good and all, but... I have hobbies to keep up with.

Which brings me to the blog. Some (like my boss, if he knew) would argue I spend too much time on email, the internet and this blog which is distracting me from work. I believe that, as part of the MTV generation, I NEED the distraction. I can't remember the last time I felt productive and was only focused on one thing. Nope. If I am productive, I perform several tasks at once. That way, it feels like I am not tied to one project (opression!) and my short attention span is used to its potential.

So. Now I am trying to figure out what to do. I will have The Talk with my boss (trying to explain I need more work--my paltry hours this month do not reflect a lack of willingness to work on my part!), but I think I need to be proactive in solving this problem. Perhaps I should try to write a novel? Find a part-time job I can do from work and potentially bill through work? Or, find a new job/career altogether?

I'll keep you posted.