Professional Burnout and Other Stuff...

Hi gang.

I hope everybody had a great weekend. I'm getting ready for tonight's "Sopranos" episode. I hope something cool happens. We'll see...

So I was siting at my desk at work the other day and I was wondering if maybe I'm just plain burned out...So I looked it up online. I found a good link related to technical writers (and no...I'm not a technical writer) that started with:

Quick! Answer the following questions without putting a lot of thought into them. We want your instinctive, knee-jerk first response.

• Do you enjoy going to work each day?
• Are you excited about the projects you're working on?
• Do you look for excuses to be late, leave early, or be off altogether?
• Are you in a bad mood more often than not?
• Do you feel like you have control over your job?
• How long have you been feeling like this?

If you answered ……

• "No"
• "Not particularly"
• "Yes"
• "Yes"
• "No"
• "Can't even remember"

you may want to read the whole article called Dealing With Professional Burnout ...

I can totally relate to the constant interruptions and a continuous stream of last-minute projects given to you regardless of all the other projects and deadlines you're currently contending with (sometimes called “dump and run”) and how this can make an employee feel taken for granted.

So now that that's out of the way...

It would seem that Boston has a place known as "Monkey College" where little helper monkeys are trained to help folks with disabilities. My pal Beatdogg found this link and forwarded it to me. (Click the video if you have time. It's pretty cool). Has anyone seen George Romero's 1988 film "Monkey Shines"? It too was quite cool at the time...IMDb's plot summary as provided by David Carroll:

When Allan becomes a quadriplegic he loses all hope for living until he meets Ella - a monkey trained to fetch and carry for him around the house, obeying him in all things. But Ella is part of another experiment, and when she starts responding to Allan's underlying rage and frustration, she has the ability to carry ouy her master's darkest wishes.

(Pretty cool, huh?) I don't know if it has stood the test of time, but I remember really liking it when I first saw it, and on subsequent viewings...I looked for it today when I went to the mall, but couldn't find it...I may have to order it online...So, my video pick of the week is...

In other news, Peter Tamarkin, host of the game show "Press Your Luck" died along with his wife when their plane crashed a few weeks ago...I used to like that show. Remember the Whammies?

"No Whammies. No Whammies. Stop!"
"Oh no! A Whammy!"

Also, here's a link to the new Simpsons intro...with real actors as the animated family, if you're interested. (I think traffic's pretty high at the moment, but it should die down later)...

If that didn't work, try this one for the Scientology "South Park" episode that the Cruiser got Comedy Central not to re-air...and it seems to have led to Isaac Hayes quitting...

It's fairly old news, but I'm a bit behind these days...

Anyway, gotta go. "Sopranos" time soon!

Take care out there!

Your Pal,

Zambo.

P.S.

This just in...If you wanna see how Chef dies on the show, click here. All I can say is amazing! Truly amazing! Thanks again to my man, Beatdogg. Best death scene ever!