F told me that her close friend R, who is also an ichi-kyu and junior shodan, will be moving with her family to Connecticut. R and her brother do not want to move, from what she told F. This was the reason behind F’s sudden fatigue and illness yesterday: she felt sad.
My son B was right: they have their own stresses. I’m sad for the kids. It’s hard to move to a new place, and leave your friends, and all you know, behind. For older kids, it’s particularly difficult. How can you not be sad when your friend moves to the opposite coast?
Long-term, I know they’ll be fine. Both R and her brother are great kids; they’ll adjust and make new friends. They both excel when they apply themselves. R, in particular, is driven. She’s one of the most accomplished kids in my daughter’s circle of friends. The friend who was hospitalized earlier this year is her childhood buddy, too.
R has been put through the wringer: first year of high school, best friend hospitalized, COVID-19 shutting down their color guard competitions after all their hard practice–not to mention shutting down their school–and now her family is moving to the East Coast.
I exercised this morning, but it was difficult and I was distracted. The Japanese count eluded me more than once.
We had a department meeting at work yesterday. No real news, other than furloughs are coming. The company has a special project or two that will carry a small number of people. However, our group is no longer part of that “inner circle;” the parent company will consolidate business units; they are also staffing offices in locations where they can better take advantage of subsidies and cheaper labour. Our entire business unit may be outside the “inner circle” at this point.
Within our own business unit, the head of digital has started his own hand-picked “creature” department: younger artists more receptive to his ideas, perhaps, and less likely to raise thorny questions. In theory, this is an R&D department; however, why would the people who do the actual creature work on a daily basis, all of whom have anywhere from ten to twenty years production experience, not be conducting their own R&D? Fishy.
Finally, if there’s no work, there’s no money. If there’s no money, no one will be kept working for long. So any “inner circles” are moot. Perhaps it is natural for us to look around and imagine that others have it better. Often, those left behind are not happier or more fortunate. In addition to being talented, they are often cheaper and more gullible.
I really need to apply for jobs elsewhere. The writing has been all over the wall here even before the pandemic shut down live action production. Though I complain about this job, I have good friends there and sometimes enjoy the work. It is the only company where I’ve been able to work for a female CG supervisor. I even like being on four day weeks.
Overall, the people in our unit are good, talented, well-intentioned people. I’ve worked with some real duds during my career, and we have very few, if any, of those. Even my least favorite person there is competent, and, during a crisis, is capable of kindness. He just thinks he knows more than he actually does, and knows less about the people he works with than he should. We can remedy that.
Speaking of work, I have to log in in ten minutes.
