{"id":1509,"date":"2011-04-15T12:33:26","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T17:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=1509"},"modified":"2011-04-15T12:33:26","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T17:33:26","slug":"new-job-or-so-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2011\/04\/new-job-or-so-what\/","title":{"rendered":"New Job or So What"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, 13 April 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four people from my (former) department were laid off today. This brings the total number of people in that department from 15 on Monday, down to 9 today. Wow. They’re a vanishing breed.<\/p>\n

My new job is in the packaging department. To clear up the misconception everyone seems to have about this: No, I am not working in the receiving dock nor am I working in shipping. When I say “Packaging” I mean the housing that the medical devices are directly stored in. If I worked for a condiment company, it’s kind of like I just stopped testing the mustard and will now test the mustard bottle.<\/p>\n

Yes, the containers also need to meet rigorous specifications.\u00a0 Think of it this way: it does little good for the FDA to regulate, say, Advil, if the Advil can simply be poured into a pick-up truck and dumped off in Target Pharmacy’s parking lot. The bottles that contain the Advil need to meet certain stress, impact, shear, temperature, permeability, air pressure, and cosmic radiation considerations. Okay, so no one’s said anything to me about the danger of cosmic radiation on catheters, but everything else I said was true.<\/p>\n

Thursday, 14 April 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

I received my copy of So Beautiful or So What<\/em><\/a> in the mail yesterday. I’ve gotta say, the packaging is, well, beautiful. It’s a triptych featuring three sleeves: one on the left, one in the middle, and one on the right. The one on the left houses an envelope with a guitar image on it. The CD is inside that envelope. The center sleeve houses a booklet, with another picture of the exploding DNA on the cover. The booklet has all the lyrics and a two page write-up by Declan MacManus<\/a>.\u00a0 The sleeve on the right houses an envelope with a microscope image on it (very appropriate – as it connects both the the DNA on the cover and the idea that what’s in this envelope will give fans a closer look). There’s a DVD inside that features a live performance and a making-of filmlet. I haven’t checked out the DVD yet.<\/p>\n

The album is very reminiscent of Simon’s last two albums – You’re the One<\/em> and Surprise<\/em>. In fact, I’d say this album is a combination of the best of both of those two. Overall, it’s a little too laid back for my preference, but not as laid back as You’re the One<\/em>. The sounds and lyrics reminded my of Surprise, though there were a few things that made me think “Yep, this is the guy who created Graceland<\/em>” – such as when he sings about\u00a0 a “bomb in the marketplace.”<\/p>\n

Simon continues with his two favorite themes again: the limits on communication, and the sense of isolation we can sometimes feel in the presence of new people, places, and technologies. There’s more of an air of mortality and finality here than in earlier works which, I guess, is to be expected from someone who’s been in the business for 50 years and is nearly 70 years old.<\/p>\n

There’s also an instrumental track named “Amulet” (the shortest track on the album). This was a pleasant surprise that I almost missed (it is, of course, not given any space in the lyrics booklet). I can’t recall any instrumentals in Simon’s other solo work.<\/p>\n

Overall, I enjoyed the album. It’s a little earlier to say for sure, but I think I like it better than There Goes Rhymin’ Simon<\/em>, One Trick Pony<\/em>, You’re the One<\/em>, and even The Rhythm of the Saints<\/em>. It is, of course, not as good as Graceland<\/em>. Probably on par with Surprise<\/em> or Still Crazy After All These Years<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And now that I’ve said that, you should be able to score pretty admirably at THIS QUIZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, 13 April 2011 Four people from my (former) department were laid off today. This brings the total number of people in that department from 15 on Monday, down to 9 today. Wow. They’re a vanishing breed. My new job is in the packaging department. To clear up the misconception everyone seems to have about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1511,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}