Disney to Cut 4,000 Jobs in Weak Economy. A few things of note from my perspective: 1) This will take the form of a one-time volunteer severence program, with the promised package supposedly better than the usual involuntary severence. 2) Not all who apply will be accepted. They may very well decide they can't spare a single member of the Internet Group, even if we all signed up. 3) This is company-wide, not just the Internet Group; this includes actors and workers at the parks, employees in film production, etc.-- a work force of 120,000 world-wide. It could well be that we could all still have our jobs much later, even if we all "volunteered." 4) A round of involuntary layoffs is likely, especially if they don't meet their quota. Money-saving efforts by expending Internet businesses are still options, though I have absolutely no knowledge of any plans along these lines.

I cannot comment on my own options until I see their offer, which we'll be getting by mail next week. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't give blood yesterday like I originally planned. Missing a pint of blood, yesterday's news, and that I had to (OK, got to) pretend I was bleeding severely on the freezing cold wet ground for MOFA last night, would probably lead to me getting that pain-all-over flu everybody is getting.

It's been weird to see major events in my life clustering together like they have been. The week I got engaged, Disney laid a bunch of people off, a man was beaten to death at Mardi Gras down by where I work, Seattle was hit by a moderate earthquake, and my mom had a birthday. So far this week, we had our biggest traffic day of the year at work due to our diligent Oscars coverage, everyone (and I mean everyone!) is catching a serious flu, yesterday's announcements at work, and my father's samoid passed away. I suppose Mir just fell from the sky, too, though that was decidedly unspectacular, at least to those with cameras.