Andrea has an interview on Friday with the San Jose Mercury News. It's kind of a crap job (part-time, on call, hourly wages), but it is money and a foot in the door of a daily. Of course, if we both get the jobs we're applying for, we'll be working in different cities, earning wages that will make frequent trips difficult.
Investor's Business Daily is flying me to Los Angeles this week to interview for a job compiling the newspaper's news summary page. This won't involve a lot of reporting, but it sounds like a good way to get into a daily newspaper -- national at that!
Now I'm applying for non-tech reporting positions, slowly running out of places to apply. Andrea hasn't heard back from the San Francisco, which is making her nervous. But she's applying at a bunch of different places.
Man, nothing kills a person's self-confidence like a layoff.
Fed Chief Now Blamed for Inflating Stock Bubble
... the future may require reduced expectations for millions of Americans who staked their hope for their comfortable retirement on stocks. The average recovery time--the length of time it takes the market to return to its boom-time peak--during the big busts of the 20th century was 20 years. Those declines were 1906, 1929 and the late 1960s.
Hey, whatever happened to Bush's brilliant idea about investing Social Security funds into the stock market?
I apparently missed the best meeting of the year. Here's an excerpt from today's IM chat with Sarah:
spacylacy2002 (01:11:47 PM):I just read your cover letter and am typing up feedback. you missed a firework-ladden meeting today- I ran out in tears at one point- mullins was insane- tim's entire budget got shut down
spacylacy2002 (01:11:58 PM): shot down I meant
ken_brown_98 (01:12:53 PM): You're kidding.
spacylacy2002 (01:12:56 PM): no
ken_brown_98 (01:12:57 PM): What happened?
spacylacy2002 (01:13:09 PM): can you imagine ME crying? mullins said he never thought he'd see the day
ken_brown_98 (01:14:19 PM): Thyat's why I can't believe it myself.
spacylacy2002 (01:14:27 PM): It's been horrible here the last few days- you have no idea. I almost just quit this morning.
spacylacy2002 (01:14:56 PM): I'm going to have a meeting withcarole tomorrow am.
ken_brown_98 (01:15:01 PM): I wish someone had recorded the meeting.
spacylacy2002 (01:15:31 PM): I know- mullins started pressing her on why she laid you off in particular- it got really uncomfortable.
spacylacy2002 (01:15:55 PM): for some reason- sharon once again - was praising and defending all management- why does she doe that in meetings?
ken_brown_98 (01:16:30 PM): Maybe that's why she still has a job. Robert is going to get himself fired. So did Carole respond?
spacylacy2002 (01:17:50 PM): oh i'll fill you in on the whole thing tomorrow- she didn't really say much on that topic- but what really got me upset before the meeting was I walked in the door and she was like "kent wants only local breaking exclusive news on this budget and if it doesn't happen he's going to come out here and make it happen" I was like fine- we have a few empty seats.
ken_brown_98 (01:20:08 PM): Why didn't they tell everyone months ago? Even last week Carole was insisting that she was in charge and that the coverage wouldn't change. Even after we talked about the mixed signals we were getting?
spacylacy2002 (01:21:29 PM): I know- and this week my breaking news story was on five and my big picture industry story was on one- I was like "this doesn't make any sense!" and she kept trying to justify it then she admitted that I was right and she was getting mixed signals and she started to cry and said she's trying to fight for our staff but she doesn't think she can fight hard enough and that she didnt think she knew what news was anymore either- can you imagine?
ken_brown_98 (01:22:28 PM): Oh my gosh. That;'s bizzarre. It sounds like Kent was the one who didn't like my stuff.
ken_brown_98 (01:23:07 PM): That is the strangest meeting I've ever heard. I would have given anything to habve been there...
spacylacy2002 (01:23:09 PM): I don't know- she said she made the lay off decisions- but I got the impression that dick has been driving a lot of this stuff- and going through charlotte to do it
spacylacy2002 (01:23:33 PM): she said she isn't even getting the sales numbers anymore
ken_brown_98 (01:23:43 PM): Death spiral.
An interesting read in TOMPAINE.com about dirty bomb suspect Jose Padilla.
The other two nominal Americans nabbed thus far in the present conflict, John Walker Lindh and Yaser Esam Hambi, arguably forfeited their claim to citizenship by fighting on behalf of a foreign power. Each was captured by military forces in a combat zone.
Padilla, on the other hand, was born in Brooklyn, raised in Chicago and arrested by civilian authorities at O'Hare Airport. As we're all equal before the law, his legal status is the same as any other citizen's. If he can be forever detained by executive order without so much as a hearing before an independent magistrate, so can anybody else. When your liberty is insured solely by the goodwill and competence of those in charge, you live in a police state.
Andrea, Geoff and I went back to work to pack up our personal belongings, which provided, in a sad way, closure. I wanted to cry when I unpinned from my cubicle wall a photograph Andrea had taken of me when we were in downown San Jose scouting out backdrops for our video project. It really seemed back then that we were making ourselves indespensible to the company, particularly to our publisher. From what I understand, he was the one who made the initial suggestions about who to cut.
It dawned on us afterwards that the four people affected most directly by the layoffs had frozen our spending, going so far as to start bringing our lunches, as if we unconciously knew, despite all other outward logic, that we were the ones getting the axe. Funny.
On todays agenda: I'm redoing my crappy cover letter and applying at TechTV, the Washington D.C. Business Journal, the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times. Andrea is putting together her portfolio, lookin for more leads and preparing for her interview tomorrow.
I couldn't slepp at all last night, so I woke up around 6 a.m., hours before my usual wake up time -- on the one weekday I could justifiably sleep in. Andrea and I have turned her apartment into a job-seeker headquarters, where both of us have been applying for various jobs all day long.
Andrea's still sick, so she hasn't had a chance to hit the pavement in full force. Nonetheless, she has an interview this Thursday at the San Francicso Business Times. Our friend Geoff (also known as Sarah's boyfriend), who was laid off with us, is applying for the same position, and it sounds like both of them have a pretty good shot at it.
So far I've applied at Bloomberg, TheStreet.com, CBS Marketwatch, Ziff Davis' video game group, the Boston Business Journal and talked to my old editors at the Orange County Business Journal. I'm sure I'me forgetting a few. The OCBJ and I are seriously discussing my moving back to Southern California. I wanted to stay here in Silicon Valley, but unless I'm raking in the dough, there's absolutely nothing redeeming about the San Jose area. San Francisco, maybe, but that's still expensive. At least Orange County is a lifestyle upgrade. Unless Andrea gets the SF Times position, that's a really decent option. The first thing I would do is buy a season pass to Disneyland to numb the pain.
We also applied for unemployment benefits online, a nifty benefit to living in California. I don't think I could have taken standing in that joyless, stereotypical "unemployment line."
I’m still processing this morning’s layoff. I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out why, out of all the reporters who could have been laid off, I was the one who got the axe. My colleagues seemed just as stunned as I was; according to Sarah, Robert Mullins marched into Carole’s office afterward and launched into a diatribe about how stupid it was for her to get rid of me.
It was pretty clear from the start that the editor and publisher didn’t care for tech news. It was something they vowed to do while the sector was hot, but they never did enjoy it or even understand it. When the sector fell, my work became dispensable. That’s especially true with the paper’s shift to small-business news. Now, they’ve completely dismantled the tech team they worked so hard to recruit.
Anyway, they say that every significant loss involves five steps of grief -- I think I’m still in denial. I just can’t get myself to feel much of anything about getting laid off. Well, maybe I’m a little angry already. If that’s the case, I’m already in stage II. I’m angry that I got recruited from a job I was perfectly happy with and in an area I loved to be abandoned in this high-priced rat-hole. I’m angry that I put so much effort into this job and tried so hard to make my tech coverage stand out, only to find out too late that they couldn’t care less.
It doesn’t matter that my former editors are complete morons. A layoff is a a form of rejection, and it’s hard getting rejected by anyone, let alone someone with such influence over your standard of living.
And of course, I’m worried. I’m afraid that in this economy, I won’t be able to find another job that pays as well -- if I find a job at all.
Well, Carole has finally confirmed that layoffs are a real possibility in the editorial department. She said we'd have more specifics within the week. This is bad news, but at least we're getting some clarity.
I just got a wireless notification from the state of California that we're in a stage 2 power emergency. At stage 3, the power starts going off.
It looks like I'm not the only one a little unnerved by Bush's unilateral declaration of war.
Michael Kinsley writes:
The eerie non-debate we're having as vast preparations for battle are made before our eyes is a consequence of a long-running constitutional scandal: the withering away of the requirement of a congressional Declaration of War. Oh, the words are still there, of course, but presidents of both parties flagrantly ignore them—sometimes with fancy arguments that are remarkably unpersuasive, but mainly by now with shrugging indifference. The result is not just a power shift between the branches of government but a general smothering of debate about, or even interest in, the decision to go to war among citizens in general.
Interesting point.
Speaking of church and state, here's a Slate article outlining some of the downsides to school vouchers, at least from a mainstream Christian perspective.
One strange thing after installing: when another application crashes there's a new "debug" option. I guess Microsoft wants me to take some share of the blame.
In light of the controvery surrounding the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pledge of allegence ruling, here's an interesting counterpoint to the widespread outrage.
Just as the founders of this country rejected the idea of a king, so they rejected the idea of an official state religion. Here in the United States, religion is a personal matter, not subject to state control. And if most Americans would stop and think about it for a moment, they would agree that they prefer to keep things that way. Who really wants to have Congress writing prayers and weighing in on questions of faith?
The full article is worth considering.
With Andrea in Atlanta, I think I'm going to spend the next four days learning C# (the language, not the note), playing video games, catching up on reading and watching movies. If I'm feeling really ambitious, I might even look for an optical connector for my DVD player.
Everything except thinking about work.
After staying up until 6 a.m. with two screaming Brazilians, I still don't understand what the big deal is about soccer.
Asked about the decision to transfer power, Bush said, "I did so because we're at war, and I just want to be super cautious."
Since all the tech companies have shut down early in anticipation of next week's "holiday," I actually have time to do the Friday Five:
When was the last time you...
1. ...sent a handwritten letter?
Years. I don't know what I'd do without e-mail and instant messaging. Luckily, most of my family is pretty tech-savvy, too, so that's how we keep in touch.
2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand?
I made some capellini a few weeks ago -- everything was hand-prepared, except maybe the noodles. (No, I didn't squeeze out the olive oil or milk a cow for the cheese, but let's get real.)
3. ...camped in a tent?
College, I think. Not something I enjoy all that much.
4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community?
This is something I need to do more. That last time was Feb. 14, when my church undertook a "kindness project" in downtown San Jose. I signed up to pass out food, but ended up on the team passing out flowers.
5. ...helped a stranger?
I helped an old woman cross the street in San Jose a few months ago, at her request. No lie. A few months before that, I helped another elderly woman get her car out of a tight parking spot. She actually trusted a complete stranger to get in her car and back it out of the parking space. We have a lot of retirees around the area I work.
Bush vows investigation into WorldCom scandal
Why is Bush so suddenly interested in a federal probe about accounting fraud? Because WorldCom contributed to Democratic candidates.
Bush Facing Test in Fight to Avert a Financial Crisis
Of course, he'll find a way to blame this on terrorism and not his government giveaway to the rich.
Within minutes of my implementing the new system, it goes down. The error is completely on their end, so I can only assume it will be fixed soon.
I added a new comment system that's easier to customize and manage. Unfortunately, that's means all of the old comments are gone forever. Easy come, easy go, I say.
Now the movie industry is dragging ReplayTV enthusiast-matching site Planet Replay into its lawsuit against SonicBlue. With uncertainties at the workplace, this may not be such a bad time to start boycotting movies.
Charmain, a secretarial-type assisant for our special events coordinator, got the pink slip today.
I don't know what to make of that. She was a part-time employee, so the move isn't going to save much money. What's even scarier is that she was plenty busy, so it wasn't like they were getting rid of deadweight or anything.
I guess I shouldn't worry about things I can't control. The only thing I can do is keep applying like crazy to other jobs.
No big news today; Mr. Bernhard just wanted to sit in at our meeting and hear our story lists. They're really trying to shift our coverage of "hard news," or at least their very narrow definition of the term. Typically, that means news not found anywhere else -- even if that's because it wasn't a big enough deal to warrant coverage in competing publications. Needless to say, this is not the sort of thing that gets me excited -- and contradicts just about everything our editors have been telling us since we got here.
But if that's what they want, that's what I'll have to do. That sort of news is a lot easier to do, but is completely irrelevant in this market.
For those of you who don't know, today is Dia dos Namorados, or the Brazilian version of Valentines Day. and if you're dating a Brazilian, that pretty much makes it Valentines Day for you, too.
Here's an excerpt from an e-mail everyone in the newsroom received this morning:
Wanted to let you know that Kent Bernhard plans to sit in on our staff
meeting tomorrow morning, via conference call.
I'd like to please ask that everyone make a special effort to get here
for a 9 a.m. sharp start time.
Kent is vice president for editorial forparent company American City Business Journals and almost never sits in on a newsroom-only meetings -- at least, he hasn't during my time here or at the Phoenix business journal.
Even if this doesn't mean layoffs or salary cuts, his presence augurs big changes for the job. On the bright side, at least we'll end the agonizing uncertainty. I'll keep you posted.
Police hunt 'criminal' chimp
World domination always begins with a few minor burglaries.
It turns out the parking snafu was an adminstrative mistake brought on by our accounting system going down last week. It's fixed now, but that doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet. Stay tuned...
It may be worse than we thought. Today when I left the parking garage, I and other Business Journal employers discovered that our employer has not paid the monthly parking garage fee.
Sarah L. had to complain loudly to get her reimbursement check, which hadn't been paid in nearly three weeks.
And Andrea overheard an editor asking our payroll department why a freelancer hasn't been paid.
Those are the types of things business reporters look for when trying to determine whether a company is about to go under.
Trillian has finally fixed a minor but annoying bug with Yahoo Messenger, which means I'm once again universally connected to all the IM services at once. Woo-hoo!
(Yes, I am a geek.)
Well it's nice to know that someone is looking after my rights as a consumer.
It's official -- Andrea and I have been dating for six months now. Happy semi-anniversary, sweetie!
I've never really been a big partisan when it comes to operating systems; I championed the Mac operating system in the 1980s and still use one regularly at work. At the same time, I have the lastest versions of Windows XP in my laptop and home PCs. As far as I'm concerned, people should use whichever operating system feels right for them and lets them do the things they want to do.
But it really irks me when some igorant Mac user -- particularly one who doesn't know much about computers to begin with -- starts popping off about how superior his beloved Apple is. I'm talking about the little smirks when a Windows machine crashes (because as we all know, Apples NEVER crash -- I reboot my iMac twice a day for the fun of it), the snarky comment when a Web news outlet issues a new Windows virus alert (like most software developers, virus writers ignore the Macintosh) and the clicking tongues when Microsoft attracts more antiturst scrutiny (Steve Jobs, apparently, is not a control freak who wants to control every aspect of computer from hardware to software to retail experience).
Every system has its strengths and weaknesses, and people will naturally have different opinions about the best system for them. But why do Apple users have a fervor unmatched in the Windows world? Because when you're in the majority, you don't have to be so defensive.
Buying a Mac doesn't just mean paying more for your computer. Buying a Mac means you're stuck with one vendor for your machine, the operating system, nearly all of the software and most connected peripherals. So this is freedom from a monoploy? Buying a Mac means having to adjust the memory allocation for each application separately. This is user friendliness? Buying a Mac means having to make sure your printer fonts match the ones installed on your computer. This is simplicity?
Don't get me wrong. Apple makes some elegant, brilliant computers and software. That's something that no single company in the Windows world has yet duplicated, simply because of the split hardware/software nature of the PC arena. And OS X is a nice operating system, pretty to look at and rock solid to use. But I, like 97 percent of computer buyers, want choice. I like choosing from dozens upon dozens of different computer systems, made possible becuse Microsoft embraced the concept of licensing the operating system. I like being able to find software for almost every whim, made possible because users flocked to the idea of a low-cost PC and created a wide audience for Windows developers -- who in turn created a vast array of software. I like having a wide array of peripherals that extend the life of my machine and make it more useful over time.
So you like your new Apple iBook? Good for you. It's a well-designed machine, and is probably worth its premium price.
But for most of us, the world is a lot bigger than four computer models, or for that matter, a single PC manufacturer. Isn't that what Thinking Different is all about?
Well, the bad news is filtering in. Both of the editors in that videoconference look extremely upset, and I just heard that our sunscription levels have fallen nearly 30 percent in the last year. This is not good.
Our publisher and all of our editors are meeting with one of the corporate guys from our Charlotte headquarters. This can't be good.
Our publisher announced some mid-year "budget revisions" yesterday that everyone here is interpreting as "layoffs." I'm not worried about getting let go myself, but I do worry about Andrea for a variety of reasons. Sure, she's among the most talented graphics people here, but this office isn't exactly run in a logical way.
I'm more worried about having to take a salary cut, which would really stink in this area. At any rate, I'm posting my resume on HotJobs this weekend to see whetherI get any bites.
How cool is this? My video game story appeared on the regular business news section of MSNBC. Woo-hoo
YACCS has upgraded its comment system, rendering my old code dysfunctional. (One of the major drawbacks of Web services). I'm working on some fixes and hope to have comments back online soon.
My video game story made it to the top of the MSNBC local news page this week... Woo-hoo!
Well, here I am in Orange County. Yesterday we went to Disneyland. We meant to go the entire 14 hours, but were so exhausted by 10 p.m. that we had to go back to the hotel. I guess we're all just getting old. We'll have some "before and after" pictures up on the Web site soon.
Today, Chad and Susan are going to Magic Mountain while Andrea and I go to California Adventure. Chad is more gung-ho on the rides at Magic Mountain, but Andrea's not much of a roller coaster person, so we figured it would be easier to split up for the day. I actually like the complete Disneyland experience -- the shops, the thematic details, etc. -- so the idea of Magic Mountain never really thrilled me. (I did want to ride that new roller coaster, The Goliath, though.) We're planning to take today a lot slower, meandering around the park rather than going from ride to ride. Hopefully we won't be as tired. California Adventure is a much smaller park, too, so we'll probably be able to see more of it.
I think this trip is going to hot my wallet pretty hard. I forgot how quickly everything adds up. But I'd say the experience is well worth the money.
Rice: Pre-Sept. 11 alert too general
WASHINGTON, May 16 — The Bush administration chose not to tell the public about a potential al-Qaida threat to hijack airliners a month before Sept. 11 because it did not want to risk shutting down civilian aviation “for very general warnings,” national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
...
Rice repeated the administration’s insistence that the al-Qaida information referred only to a general threat from bin Laden involving jetliners. She said Bush and U.S. intelligence did not know that suicide hijackers were specifically plotting to use planes as missiles, as they did against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
I just experienced my second Northern California earthquake, the first since I moved here. Apparently, it was centered in Gilroy and measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. I'm fine.
Enron memos detail Calif. schemes
Ah, so Enron DID benfit from energy policy. And this was while the conservatives were blaming California for last year's blackouts.
Ah, yeah. Top story on the MSNBC local news page. I did work hard on that story.
Andrea and I took a fun little day-trip to Carmel By-the-Sea today to relax and test out her new Minolta Dimage 7. Anyway, you can see the photos here.
Pollution battle moves to the states
One of the few reasons to love Califonia.
Little Jesus Dolls
This is wrong on so many levels.
The Empire Bounces Back
Let's hope this one is better than Phantom Menance. Double for the video games based on it.
CNN.com - Mr. Elmo goes to Washington
The apocalypse has arrived.
Melee closes down theme park
The one day I decide to go to our crappy little excuse for a theme park, a riot breaks out. Sarah, Jeff and I got out minutes before the fun really began, but we did have several -- yes, several -- verbal run-ins with line-jumpers affiliated with the step-dance competition.
I just got out of jury duty, which is a big relief, since I came within one juror of being selected. (Here, potnetial jurors are questioned in groups, a process that stops when all 12 jurors plus one alternate have been selected.
It was actually kind of nice to not have to show up for work on deadline day. But it also means that I had only two stories in this weeks paper...
Researchers find 3,600-mile ant supercolony
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Study suggests how a pill could build muscles
I got really excited about this story until my girlfriend reminded me that "it's not a belly pill."
Darn, it looks like the Friday Five site is down today.
I know, I know. It's been a few days. I've been busy with another video project for church, which I needed to have ready to show today. I hope the folks in charge don't need any changes, because I was looking forward to spending Saturday in Santa Cruz at the beach.
In other news, our editor told us this morning that she'll be undergoing agressive cancer treatment. It sounds liek she'll be fine, but she'll lose her hair in the course of treatment, which must be weird. It was the first time I've ever seen one of my bosses cry.
Iran joins call for oil embargo
Yet another reason to push higher fuel standards.
Here's a really cool group e-mail I got a few days ago from my friend Lisa. I never considered turning 30 a big deal, but I thought Lisa has some pretty insightful things to say here. And it reminded me how fortunate I am to have journalists as friends...
The big Three-Oh (No!)
....OR
Not going gently into the good night, czech style
This morning, March 26, I officially stopped clinging to the phrase “young adult;” ceased to be in that prized 18-29 demographic that gets all the cool test marketing gigs; and morphed into someone shifty, according to those even older folks who were alive in the 60s. (weren’t they the ones who said you should never trust anyone over 30?!)
So I’ve officially finished the first day of my fourth decade. Please send over-the-hill jokes, hair colorants and Depends undergarments. As well as the guide to how Early Bird specials work, and instructions on how to drive a mini-van. And DON'T remind me that at this age, Mozart only had five years of life left.
Actually, I haven’t really been fretting too much about this milestone, as it doesn’t feel that much different than 29. I certainly don’t *feel* as ancient as this age used to sound. Twenty-six, when you were officially closer to 30 than 20, smacked of much more calamity. Still, you just can’t escape the fact that no matter what, 30 comes with all this weird emotional baggage, no matter who you are, what you’re doing and what kind of lifestyle you’ve chosen. You’re supposed to have some things figured out by 30. I think we all do, to an extent, but you can’t help but wonder if it’s the right things…
I’ve decided all you can do is keep your sense of humor. A wonderful cousin who also recently turned 30 reminded me of this.
Was it brutal? I asked Jennifer of her passage to the no-longer-young side. “Puhleeze,” she says. “It’s so silly how people go around worrying about how old they are. Or saying they’re younger than they are. I go around saying I’m older than I am. I mean, for a 30-year-old, I look alright, but for a 37-year-old, I look hot!” (For the record, Jennifer looks pretty fabulous for a 30-year-old, too.)
Anyway, I do believe she’s right. It’s all how you choose to frame it. They say the 30s are supposed to be the decade when you come into your own. When you’ve established yourself; gone thru some trial and error to find your path, or at least a decent one. You’re supposed to have exchanged idealism for a more realistic picture of how the world works, and what you can accomplish in it. You’re finally considered wise enough to serve in Congress, and are even a desirable candidate to lead services on Jewish high holidays. (!) Apparently, one of the criteria in Jewish doctrine is to seek someone over 30, “because a 30-year-old has been humbled and broken-hearted, and can thus sincerely ‘pray from the heart.’"
Though I still like to believe I could do anything I wanted if I set my mind to it, it is true that, after my jading 20s (ha!), I’ve come to accept that some childhood dreams will probably never come to pass. They include: becoming president of the United States (yes, I realize this was a long shot, and that these few years out of the country has drastically torpedoed my chances!); dancing as a ballerina; and making an appearance on the Johnny Carson show as the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Ambassador (this one is actually in writing from the sixth grade!) I also probably will never figure out how to repopulate the wilds of China with panda bears, nor will I ever pull together that penguin pool for the backyard…(considering I’ve not yet *had* my own backyard…)
Speaking of backyards, there's these, I don't know, THINGS the world tells you you should be doing by now. Things like owning a single piece of furniture besides the papasan chair I recently sold; ascending some ladder some place; buying a house with the money from the ladder; and meeting a nice young man who will fix things in the house. (among other things...) And some nights, when I lose touch with my gut and my perspective -- like last night when I stayed up thinking about all this till 4 am -- I start to wonder if I’m off track.
But I was reminded by a wonderful friend in Prague today, that though life is short, it is also long, and there is plenty of time for such things if those of us exploring other options decide we *do* want to give them a try. And that we will appreciate them that much more -- they will be richer and sweeter -- for having taken this time to explore, seek adventures, and see what life looks like OFF the merry-go-round for a moment. Or maybe in building a whole different type of merry-go-round.
And anyway, there are still PLENTY dreams to tackle to in the next 30 years. I’m putting “weaseling my way into being the token white girl in a gospel choir” at the top of the list. I look forward to checking in with you at 60.
And being like a fine bottle of wine.
G’nite,
Lisa
Here's this week's Friday Five:
1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose?
Abraham Lincoln, still the greatest U.S. persident.
2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel?
Not really, but one of the few famous people I was sad to see die was comedian Phil Hartman, one of the funiest and most industrious actors of the 1990s. He starred in one of the funiest shows ever, News Radio, and made frequent appearances on The Simpsons among others.
3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose?
Conan O'Brien. Talk about a dream job.
4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who?
People have said Iook like Ethan Hawk and Jim Carey, which is odd since they don't even resemble each other.
5. Have you ever met anyone famous?
I once had dinner with a small group of people that included italian singer Andrea Bocelli, but he didn't seem too happy to see me. (Rimshot) I'll be in town all week, folks! Tell your friends about the show! Seriously, I really did have dinner with him.
UPS Package Tracking
Status: In Transit
Scheduled Delivery: Mar 21, 2002
Shipped to: SAN JOSE, CA, US
Shipped or Billed on: Mar 18, 2002
That's right, folks. My ReplayTV should be here in a matter of minutes! I hope it's worth it. If I had known they were shipping it from Tempe, I would have just picked it up this weekend.
After nearly two years of banging my head against a wall, searching Microsoft's "knowledge base," scouring the newsgroups, upgrading twice and seriously contemplating deleting all my credit card account information and starting over, I've finally solved an extremely annoying problem with Microsoft Money.
The issue: despite setting my total monthly debt payments at a healthy, serious-about-paying-off-my-debt figure every month, my debt reduction planner was scheduling the minimum payments, which according to its own projections would extend the payments out through the year 2013, and then pay off the cards in one ridiculous lump-sum of $5,000 or so at the end. Obviously, the planner should have allocated my full intended monthly payment amount among the credit cards to pay the total off in a few years. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the stupid thing to work right, and just guessed the payments myself every month. This is not a good idea for English majors, by the way.
The solution: I deleted my Macy's account, which had been acting weird and showed a credit, though I had not updated activity with Money for months (it's an Enron-style off-budget account). Problem solved; it's allocating the monthly payment just fine now.
While I didn't actually work on the issue continuously, I did keep looking for a solution every few months for at least two years. Finally, I feel like I've accomplished something great, when I should have just switched home-banking applications. Microsoft should thank its lucky stars that I liked the automatic online banking features so much, or the company would be $20 poorer. And then where would it be?
Senate passes campaign finance measure
Wow, this is big. I can't believe it passed.
Here are the Monterey pictures!
Is the weekend over already? I visited Monterey for the first time on Saturday and saw the real Cannery Row made famous by the John Steinbeck novel of the same name. I suppose "real" is relative there, since it's a tourist attraction now and every other building is a Steinbeck memorial. But it was pretty cool. I'll post pictures later today.
This week's Friday Five:
1. What's your favorite animal?
Dogs are great. I don't own one now, but I'd love to get one someday when I have my own house. Pardon the cliche, but there's no more loyal animal. If you're talking about exotic animals, lions and kangaroos are pretty cool, too.
2. What pets have you had in your lifetime?
Just the usual collection of housepets: Dogs, cats, a cockateel, hampsters, rabbits, a pony, a snake, a ferrit, 28 Polish chickens and four pigs named after family members.
3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why?
Monkeys, because they're so facinatingly human-like. It's weird to see such intelligence in an animal.
4. Are you allergic to any animals?
Definitely cats and probably dogs, too. When ever I go to Goeff and Sarah's apartment (they have a large collection of feline misfts), I start sneezing uncontrolably. But maybe Claritin solves that problem. I'll have to conduct an experiment.
5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')?
Cat pee. That stench is nearly impossible to remove once it's set in something.
Re-freakin-posted from earlier today, after Blogger deleted my post in the middle of editing it.
This week's Friday Five:
1. What's your favorite animal?
Dogs. Excuse the cliche, but dogs are the most loyal and loving animals around. Sure, it's more a case of bred instinct than true love, but what's the practical difference? In fact, one could argue that instict is more constant than fickle emotion. (No, this is not a sly reference to my wonderful girlfriend, just a general observation.)
2. What pets have you had in your lifetime?
Oh, the usual. Dogs, cats, hamsters, turtles, rabbits, a cockateel, a ferrit, a pony, a snake, 28 polish chickens and four pigs named after family members.
3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why?
I think monkeys are pretty cool. There's so fascinatingly human-like. It's just so intriguing to see such intelligence in an animal.
4. Are you allergic to any animals?
Definitely cats and probably dogs. Everytime I go to Geoff's and Sarah's apartment (they have quite a collection of feline misfits), I fall into an uncontrollable sneezing fit. But maybe Claritin solves that problem. I'll have to conduct an experiment.
5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')?
Cat pee. That stench is nearly impossible to remove once it's in something.
I got my shoes shined after lunch today, and now my cubicle smells like I've been sniffing paint all day.
My roommate came home last night to say her boss photocopied a story I did a few weeks ago about Web services and distributed it to the people who work under him. It's nice to know that people in the industry are reading your stuff and taking it seriously.
CNN has created a simple but dignified September 11 memorial. It lists all the names, ages, hometowns, employers and locations of the more than 3,000 victims of that horrible morning, most of them with pictures. It's a reminder of why we're in Afghanistan.
Yet another Friday Five:
1. What makes you homesick?
The cold weather here in Northern California. Granted, it's not East Coast cold, but Arizona is one of the most consistently warm and sunny areas anywhere.
2. Where is "home" for you? Is it where you are living now, or somewhere else (ie: Mom & Dad's house, particular state/city)?
Without a doubt, the Phoenix, Arizona area. I've never lived anywhere longer, and it's still the only place I've seen change over the years. But at the same time, I really miss the beaches and culture of Southern California.
3. What makes it home for you? People? Things?
A little bit of both. The distinguishing environment also plays a big role -- the scenery, climate even the roads and buildings. And of course, the memories associated with all of those.
4. Where is the furthest you've been from home, miles-wise?
I've hardly been anywhere, but I've visited Costa Rica, which according to Internet distance calculators is 2407 miles from Phoenix. But interestingly, New York is actually farther from my current home in San Jose, California at 2558 miles. I need to get out more
5. What are your plans for this weekend?
I really want to see Todd Solondz' movie, Storytellers. Other than that, nothing much.
Ford to sell hybrid-powered SUV
This looks interesting. Now let's see if Ford can find a way to think up an SUV name that doesn't start with the letter "E."
It's been a few days, but I'm happy to report that I'm finally better. Apparently this hell I've been through is all allergy-related. The doctor gave me some Claritan and so far, it's really working well.
I spent last night in a roomful of Republicans (yes, they do exist in California) covering the election. Conservative Bill Simon beat moderate Richard Riordan for the GOP nomination, assuring a victory for Democrat incumbent Gray Davis, who actually helped Simon win with TV ads attacking Riordan. You gotta love politics.
I did something today I may end up regretting: I ordered a ReplayTV. It costs $700, so I won't be buying anything gadget-related for the next few months. I think it'll be worth it, though.
Here's this week's Friday Five (a couple of hours early, even):
1. What's your favorite vacation spot?
I haven't been to a lot of "vacation spots," but one memorable trip I took was to Costa Rica. My traveling companions and I did pretty much all the things you can possibly do in a week there -- volcanos, beaches, rainforests and of course, monkeys.
2. Where do you consider to be the biggest hell-hole on earth?
Besides San Jose, California? Ha ha, just kidding. Sort of. My final answer is Catoosa, Oklahoma, where I spent the worst few months of my life. I understand the place is a well-manicured big golf-course community now.
3. What would be your dream vacation?
A summer traveling through Europe, as if I were a college student again.
4. If you could go on a road-trip with anyone, who would it be and why?
I guess I'd better say my girlfriend, Andrea. I generally don't like road trips, but that would be a good way of knowing someone in a hurry. You deal with stress, irritating habits, sharing, compromise and money all in one setting.
5. What are your plans for this weekend?
The girls at work are having their monthly poker night, so Jeff (Sarah's boyfriend) and I are going to see a few movies at Cinequest. The event wraps up this weekend, and I'm sad to say I've only seen a handful of films. On the bright side, most of the ones I've seen are are decent, and if you add up all the good films I've seen so far, I'm already ahead of last year's film festival. Anyway, Saturday night we celebrate Andrea's birthday, which actually occurs on Sunday. But maybe it really is Saturday, when you take into account the time difference between here and Brazil. At any rate, I suppose I'll spend part of Friday shopping for a gift. Or maybe I'll just put it off until Saturday.
Yahoo! News - 'We've got work to do' on image with Muslims, Bush says
Though a majority, 67%, said the terror attacks Sept. 11 were morally unjustifiable, a significant minority, 15%, disagreed. Only 18% of those polled in six Islamic countries said they believed Arabs carried out the attacks. U.S. officials said all 19 hijackers were Arabs.
You're kidding me -- only 67 percent of Middle East Muslims think the WTC attack is morally unjustifiable? Suddenly, I don't give a crap what our "allies" in that region think of us.
GOP unlikely to filibuster campaign bill
Can it really be this close to passing?
Pearl Case Defense Lawyer Prefers Trial in U.S.
Because we're so unfair here, and all.
Salon.com News | Bush renews campaign for Arctic oil
President Bush on Saturday renewed his campaign to open an Arctic refuge to oil exploration, contending that drilling is essential to national security and job creation.
National security? Mr. President, even you can milk things only so much before the teat becomes dry.
I went with Sarah to the Cinequest film festival opening last night. Despite having "platinum" press passes, we got there late and got stuck in the second row of the theater. Before the movie started, we were talking in our usual loud way about the movie's star/director, Mike Binder, agreeing that we both hate his HBO show, Mind of the Married Man. Anyway, when they asked him to come to the front of the auditorium to make some opening comments, we realized to our embarrassment that he had been sitting directly in front of Sarah the entire time up to that point. We laughed, and continued to talk about how much we hate the show. Then Binder introduced his co-star in the movie, Sonya Walger, who also stars in the HBO series. As she got up to speak, we realized she had been sitting in front of me the whole time. True story.
This week's Friday Five:
1. Hey, baby, what's your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well?
Cancer, and I don't believe any astrological sign fits very well. Come on, its the 21st century. Isn't voodoo passe?
2. What's the worst birthday gift you've ever received?
A stupid clock thing I got last year from my employer. Office gifts are always crappy -- the employee gift budget is too low to get anything nice, and co-workers (usually managers) are too pressed for time to get something creative.
3. What's the best birthday gift you've ever received?
Probably my first computer, an Atari 600 XL.
4. What's the best way you've celebrated your birthday thus far?
For my 30th birthday, my friends hosted a "trailer-trash ball" party. It was very fun and touching. So naturally, I moved away a few months later.
5. What are your plans for this weekend?
The annual San Jose Cinequest Film Festival has officially begun, so I'll be seeing lots and lots of movies for the next two weeks. I'm hoping to find a couple of gems among the loads of crap that couldn't find a first-tier distributor. And Sunday, I pick up Andrea from the airport!
Missing reporter dead
Bastards.
