On The Lot was on again tonight. I'm on the edge between liking this or wondering if what they are trying to accomplish is just too cerebral for the reality tv generation. (Me too of course.) I did like the fact that in tonight's two-hour episode we got to see their individual work. This is more like it. None of this crummy here's a script, now shoot it with a team that just doesn't do these directors vision's justice. There were some tired old themes but truly I thought there were a few standouts. And there were a few in there that I thought - how in the world did they do that and why in the world do they need a tv show to give them their "big break". Sure a $1 Million contract with Dreamworks isn't too shabby but they could easily be working on their own.

Gary Marshall tries so hard to just be a nice guy but sincerely his pep talks to the females were grating on my last nerve. Yes, it's an industry that doesn't have a lot of females however at some point isn't it more important in creative circles to merely let the creativity stand alone and the heck with the gender of the person doing the creating?

Alas, I have a feeling that this might be like all of the other shows I watch and sort of like, a one-season wonder.

Also, it's not at all odd that I'm noticing this but what is with all the decayed fonts in advertising lately? It's a cool thing that we don't have to rely on the Broadway font (and seriously, to the set decorator of On The Lot - GREAT JOB on the creative set decoration -- I think I used that same marquee to advertise my last "at the movies" trade show promotion too.)

I also thought some of the directors were a tad manipulative about what they shared about their personal stories. There are a few that I will not vote for for that specific reason alone. Let your movies stand for themselves, don't give me a sob story about having to put off your dream.

Anyhow...that's it for my opinion about The Lot, we'll see how the vote goes to see if America understands the movie making process to the corners of the frame.

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It's pretty easy to eavesdrop in cubeville - there's not a whole lot of privacy between the fake walls, which you realize pretty quickly your first day at work. I often wonder why companies choose the cube route...why not just give everyone a full wall? Are doors that expensive? They actually make fake doors for cubes which I was tempted to buy just as a conversation piece, but they are more like a "cube curtain" and their complicated hooking mechanism makes them not so easy to slam shut and that accordian whoosing noise just doesn't have the same effect.

I'd accept a cubbyhole office, if it meant I could have a door to close when I wanted privacy or to concentrate on something.

I'm not sure if people who have offices realize how annoying cubeville can be? Especially when they choose to keep their doors open during meetings or speakerphone conference calls - which only adds noise to cube-ville. (YOU know who you are - don't make me come and close your door again!)

I say this as a preface to my next mind wander. My cube neighbor has a relative who is dying. To make a story I shouldn't be listening to even shorter, her family decided late last week to remove his feeding tube. There have been many conversations, plans to be made, complicated struggles that I can only hope I never have to go through. In the midst of it all, that side of the floor got into a discussion of different ways you could be buried or not buried and landed on the idea of shooting your ashes into space. A person in our office seemed to know a lot of details about this which also led me to wonder - what else don't I know about what the people I work with think about?

Sure, most anyone can just log onto my blog and see the innane things that make me tick - or just tick me off, but we work in an office where there isn't all that much of a personal atmosphere.

Our senior management tries to figure out how to boost floor morale. Oh sure we all troop off to the monthly birthday and anniversary get-together once a month, eat a slice of cake or a cookie, stay for ten minutes and return to our desks. At times we know about hobbies or what was done over the weekend...but what else do they know? What else do these people care about? And why don't we make more of an effort to know? We are with these people longer than most of our friends and family during the work week.

That doesn't mean I want to revisit the painful summer picnic of last year or the high speed go-kart race from 2005. Although I do understand this summer the marketing team will be required to go on a boat ride in Minnetonka (that worked so well for the Minnesota Vikings) even though every time a boat ride is mentioned I also mention the fact that I'm not the best boat cruiser. I love looking at water. I love to swim. I collect lighthouses. My stomach just doesn't do well once I get on the water, so I tend to avoid it. This fact alone should make whomever is deciding what we do as a team-building experience to say - hey of my team of six people, one person doesn't like boats, maybe I should pick something else for the tight team building experience? Nah, we'll just go on the cruise, stock Tina up with a bottle of drammimine and she'll at the very least will be quiet. (more likely napping)

Why can't we just take time to know each other - go for coffee and don't talk about work at all? Heck I'd even prefer going bowling...that would give us a chance to compete and talk, if that's really necessary. The competing not the talking. I'm the person who often suggests going around the room before staff meetings and just saying what's going on. I tend to purposely pick something not work related so that people understand that not everything about the work relationship needs to be about work.

I tend to pitch these ideas to the people I work with and they look at me like I'm growing a third eyeball out of my head. Isn't this something HR should handle would be my first thought? But sincerely in the eight years I've worked there we've had six hr managers many of whom I've seen in the elevator and who have known my first name, but none of whom have ever sat down to "relate" to me.

On the other hand, I had dinner the other night with a friend and her co-worker. I would have loved to have had dinner just with my friend but they were in town on business so I completely understood the situation, however we spent the hours watching the co-worker drink a lot and complain about her life which was riddled with problems with her ex. This went on for a few hours when she turned to me, a stranger and said - so honey do you get it yet? To which I wanted to say - nah - why don't you clobber me over the head with a two-by-four? I just don't understand why we need to know the sexual orientation of gay people to understand their problems. Do 40-year old virgins tell everyone that they are a virgin? Do Adulterers say they are adulterering? Why do I need to know EITHER?

Back to my original point I was trying to make...

I ended the evening in the parking lot talking by my car to my friend. I ended up saying something like "sometimes when the lines between personal and business get blurred it's difficult for business not to become personal." YOU just don't need to know that much. I just don't need to know THAT much.

I just know there's got to be a HAPPY MEDIUM.

I don't want my co-workers to know everything there is to know about me. I like the fact that there is a hat to put on when I come to work that is slightly different than the hat I wear outside of work. I know I've just come full circle but here's where I'll end Why not go for coffee...um hot chocolate or a chicago style hot dog at the little place in the creepy Victory ramp, we'll get to know each other...a bit...and it won't hurt at all, I promise.