Ah yes, it is now actually even Friday (Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to my dad, who will never read this. :) ), so I'm safe to tell you all about the wonderful news we got at work on Tuesday. I have no qualms sharing it here, because, actually, it's very public domain. This is info as it was explained to me (and my coworkers) by my big boss man.

So apparently el presidente and his terrorism-hunting cohorts aren't doing so well and there's this re-election thing coming up, right? Well, time to take on an interesting effort to stir up some positive press.

We were told by the boss that, starting this week, we are losing 90 PERCENT of the advertising we run--all the offshore gambling ads, which basically is all of our ads.

The gov't is going after the offshore gaming business. They are going to take them down. Here's how it works: As you all may know, sports gambling is ILLEGAL in the U.S., except in Vegas. So, these sports gambling companies have found an interesting way around it--using the Internet to get U.S. customers via the grand ol' Internet. It's not illegal, technically, from what I know. Hell, Laz does it, and I would too, if I had money.

So, where does the gov't start in order to eliminate these fellas? Cut them off at the "source," where they advertise. That's where we come in. We've been subpoenaed by the feds in that we've run their ads. If we don't pull them from here on out, the belief is that we'll be charged with aiding and abetting (sp?) an illegal activity.

Now, we're not the only ones...some of the big boys in the biz have also been subpoenaed. The industry can only hope one of those big boys decides to fight this, because chances are, they'd win the case and we'd be able to run the ads again. Our little company though, cannot afford the legal hassle, obviously, that this would take.

The boss man says we're OK for the rest of the year (two months), and assured us there'd be no layoffs in that time. But, he was straightforward and said there could be problems next year if we can't run these ads and then can't replace the enormous chunk (and I mean enormous chunk) of revenue via other advertisers or sponsorships.

That means layoffs or worse. If there are layoffs, I think I'd probably be one of the ones to stick, given my place on the company ladder. But that would mean that I'd probably have to do the work of like, five people.

Obviously, this is getting the cart way ahead of the horse. But, it certainly makes for interesting thoughts...what to do next? Our supervisor said he wasn't sprucing up his resume, but that would be silly. It's good to be prepared, and sprucing up the resume doesn't mean looking for another job, just being prepared. I think this basically guarantees no raises at the end of the year now, which really, really, really sucks, but that's a personal assessment and could be wrong...who knows?

There's no job security terror alert yet, but it causes me to entertain the notions now...get an idea, ya know?

So, guess who I'm NOT voting for next time around if I have the chance...not that I would have anyway. :)

And I tried carving a pumpkin for the first time today since I was a kid and screwed up the top...so my pumpkin will look funny for those of you coming tomorrow...but my house will smell nice, as I have a bunch of Glade candle things... :)