Work Appropriateness or Lack Thereof

Ok so I've been working as a temp here in the beautiful Santa Barbara area for about four oh so fun months. The jobs have been boring, and lame but they pay me enough that I can get by (which isn't as easy as it should be in this pretty little beach town). Anyways recently I started at a new place, mainly just filing and scanning stuff. I'm pretty sure that my brain atrophies a little bit from non use everyday. Well I was sitting at my desk (a desk that was vacated because the man is sick and no one is really sure if he's returning or not, and apparently he was a pretty big slob so its also a mess) and I needed some post-it notes, so I started looking through the desk. Well I open one draw and what do I find but four catalogs of porn! I quickly shut the door and giggle to myself, and of course call up A and tell him what I found. I don't want to tell anyone because the poor guy id sick and I don't want him to get into trouble, but it also seems really icky to be there at work. I'm all for porn but it seems like its more of an at home activity, not appropriate for work.

Its Official

I'm going back to school. I start on January 24th as the newest academic at San Jose State University home of the Spartans. Which is kind of funny because in the 6th grade we did this whole Greece thingy and we divided up into different city states and I was part of Sparta, I gave myself the name Calliope and good times were had by all. Anyways back to now, I'm going to be getting a Masters of Mass Communication in Journalism, so hopefully this blog will be a bit better written in the months to come. And if not well then I just blew a shit load of money.

Public Drunkenness and Tests

Many moons ago A and I got together with some college friends, headed over to one of two of this town's Irish pubs and paid to be publicly humiliated. We had fun, we had some beers, and we got reminded how stupid we really were (damn you public school!). This went on for awhile until the announcer lady quit and was replaced by annoying announcer lady, and we decided not to return.

Fast forward a few years and now a English pub and you have us once again attending another Quiz Night. Maybe we've learned in these years or the questions weren't as "pulled out of the ass" but we did pretty well. We didn't win but I think we had a solid showing, our worst round being 4 out of 10. All in all I had a great time and we've scheduled to go again in 2 weeks. I mean its tests with alcohol, pure genius!

Terry!

What do you call a bunch of drunk people in white? Terry!

So my friend Alli came up on Saturday to hang out. she really wanted to go wine tasting and as we had just bought the SB axxess card, and got quite a few free tasting from the local wineries, we thought sure why not. We hit up Sunstone, Kylara, and the Fess Parker, as we didn't leave the house until 2:00 pm we ran out of time to go anywhere else. Sunstone and Kylara were fun, nothing strange going on just a bunch of people enjoying the weekend. It was at the Fess Parker that things got a little weird.

We drive up and see about 50 people all in white running around on the grass and playing frisbee. OK why everyone was wearing white we weren't sure but we figured it was some sorority thing. Then Alli and I ran into 3 of them in the ladies room and decided to ask what was going on. A visibly drunk woman in a goodwill wedding dress told us "We are likescientologists without the aliens (is that even possible?). We are equals so we're call each other Terry. I'm Terry, she's Terry, we're all Terry. And we're all getting married this weekend!"

Alli and I leave thinking that it was all some big joke. But as we're exploring the grounds we see the Terrys standing in a big circle, and then they all crowd together yelling stuff. We weren't really sure what was going on but we were entertained. A man there said they come up on weekends get drunk and marry a new partner. Seemed like a big excuse to come up to the wine country, get drunk, and get laid.

What Exactly Is Substance?

Ok I was going to finish writing that story on the two girls that walked into my journalism class last Tuesday but after writing it, it came out boring so I decided not to post it.

Instead I read an article on slashdot of an Indiana University study about the Daily Show having as much substance as regular news shows. The article was short but interesting, the headline summarizes it. But what was more entertaining was the commentary below beneath the article. I found a list of bullet points that one commentator made about the current Republican party, that is to say the ones in power, not Republicans in general. And that all of the bullets could be backed up with how elected officials were acting.

• Government has a legitimate role in enforcing personal morality.
• Unilateral use of force for purposes other than immediate defense of oneself or one's allies is not inherently illegitimate.
• Achieving military objectives is more important than maintaining personal liberties.
• A free media threatens legitimate governmental interests unless placed under substantial controls.
• A strong, empowered leader granted wide powers (with which to attack our enemies) is a Good Thing.
• The executive branch of government may have a legitimate need to act outside of the law, and should be able to prevent laws from being enforced which could hamper its actions (when those actions are taken in the interests of national security).
• The executive branch of government should be able to avoid transparency when it sees fit, including in cases where it uses its powers to act in a manner not consistent with standing law in the interests of national security.
• Questioning strong leadership in the context of an active conflict is inherently unpatriotic.
• Noncitizens do not need to be granted the same rights as citizens.

When listed these characteristics are scary and very Orwellian. I mean sure its not like our president is a dictator or that they don't share information, but who gets to say they've gone to far? When you keep giving yourself more and more authority who do you answer to? Is being safe more important the personal liberties? Is it more important to fold the toilet paper or just bunch it up before using?

Leads?

So I'm taking a Writing for Nonfiction class at the adult ed center in Santa Barbara. I'm pretty excited about it as the instructor is Jerry Roberts formerly of the News Press, and he seems quite knowledgeable. I do feel like I should be helping everyone to their seats as I am the youngest by a good 15 years (ok so there is one other person my age there), but many of them do seem to be good writers and definitely not shy about reading their stuff aloud, where as I get nervous and never raise my hand.

At the end of class two younger women came in wearing wigs and boas and did a little scene with Jerry, now of course he didn't tell us before time but after everything happened he told us that we get to write about the little scene. Which is just wonderful, and the main theme of last weeks class was leads so I have to try to come up with a good lead in which to pull a person into the story. And I really should volunteer to read this one aloud as Jerry said he would write me a letter of recommendation. So crap.

- An angel and a devil walk into a class room...
- With twenty minutes left of the class a small disturbance grabbed the students attentions,
- In the doorway stood an angel and a devil, united in an attempt to get the instructors attention.
- Where most people have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other Jerry Roberts has them walking into his classroom.

Ok I guess I'll have to work on them. Finished story to come.

News-Depress

I used to read the Santa Barbara News-Press everyday. I had no clue what was going on behind the scenes I just wanted to know what was going on in the local news. About three months ago everyone found out what was going on inside the News-Press and, I at least, was shocked. Instead of some happy news room like out of a scene from Superman, it seemed like it was a dark place where everyone was looking over their shoulders and whispering to each other. I started reading some of the employees and community members’ blogs and got to know a little bit more. I started to read the editorials more and the columns, along with more articles at the Independent, and it just saddened me more. With more and more people leaving, the last two getting fired, and now the author of the Healthspan column Dr. Seabaugh has also decided not to bring his article back to the News-Press it just gets more depressing.

Dr Seabuagh decided not to return to the News-Press because the firing of his editor Andrea Huebner was the last straw. Last week the News-Press felt the need to apologize to Dr. Laura because of what was written in Dr. Seabaugh's column.

"On Tuesday, Santa Barbara News-Press columnist Dr. Michael O.L. Seabaugh wrote an inappropriate personal attack about fellow columnist Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The News-Press asked Dr. Laura to offer her opinions, views and expertise in our newspaper knowing that not all of our readers will agree with her opinions. We also know our readers don't always agree with the opinions or views of all of our other columnists or writers. The Santa Barbara News-Press wants to apologize fully for Dr. Seabaugh's comment. We have apologized to Dr. Laura Schlessinger privately and we also wanted to do so publicly. Sincerely, the publisher and associate editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press."

This was a response to "Dr. Laura may have the cajones to preach against tolerating diversity, but personally, I will not spend one more minute of this precious time I have intolerant of the wonderful diversity of my fellow humans." Dr. Laura is notorious for not excepting diversity, it’s just another News-Press show of protecting their friends.

With 19 people now gone it looks more and more likely to me that the News-Press that people used to love will not be brought back and that we will just have to let it die. In a few years people will probably forget about all of this and start reading it again until the situation explodes again. I hope that is not the case. I hope the community can resuscitate the News-Press and that it can once again be a newspaper that we can trust and that is representative of the community.

Stupid Politics

Why is it that its never about what you have done but about what the other person has done wrong? Political adversaries seem to care more about smear campaigns than showing what they can do for the people. Take for example the gubernatorial election in California. The Democratic nominee's camp got a hold of an embarrassing tape of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from his website and gave it to the Los Angeles Times. They are claiming that this is legal because it was on the website and Schwarzeneggers camp is saying it isn't because that section was password protected, but just because its legal doesn't always mean you should do it. I'm pretty liberal but do I want to vote for Angelides knowing that he employs people of questionable ethics? Angelides and his camp say that Angelides knew nothing of this debacle, but to me that says that he can't control his underlings, or he's lying. Either way he's either a puppet or lying go for the throat kind of guy, both of which leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. Every election I go to the voting booth not filling in circles thinking that this guy will be a great leader, but more this guy wont do as much bad as the other guy. When did voting turn into choosing the lesser of two evil? Or has it always been this way? I want a candidate that I can get excited about, that I really want to lead my state/country. But thanks to this little stunt I believe that this year I will be voting independent.

News Press

Noon, just a little off of De La Guerra Plaza (its fenced off so the grass can grow back after fiesta) a small crowd gathered to hear the News Press employee representatives and members of the community give the latest updates regarding the News Press. About 50 people including members of the media were in attendance, and a press packet was handed out which included: A press release from the Santa Barbara News Press Editorial staff regarding the news conference, a letter to local residents set to Wendy McCaw, the letter sent to suspended employees, letters from businesses canceling advertising, and other letters and press releases.

The first to speak was Lou Cannon former Washington Post reporter and famed Reagan biographer. He was part of a community delegation that sent a letter to Wendy McCaw asking to speak to her, which she never replied to. “It’s a bad situation.” He said referring to the Santa Barbara News Press and the fact that the publishers of a small locally owned paper were unwilling to meet with members of the community and that the News Press management was “behaving like a far away chain” instead of the local paper that it says it is.

Many other people got up to speak supporting News Press employees, expressing frustration with current management, and what should be done at the News Press. Although Mayor Marty Blum was unable to attend she sent a letter that told of her long standing support of the paper, and that people should be able to trust what they read, so after 38 years of subscribing to the News Press she was cancelling her subscription.

The over whelming theme of the rally was trust in your paper, and that the News Press had lost the trust of the community. That the publishers had an obligation to listen to local people, and that owning a local paper, isn’t like owning other businesses, it is a public trust, and that the paper must be accountable to its readers.

Also a big push was supporting the employees of the News Press. Of how the employees were being mistreated by current management, with 11 being placed on suspension for trying to deliver a letter to the owner, and new charges filed for unfair labor practice by both employees and management. That though the employees loved the News Press they were fighting for journalistic integrity and the return of it to the News Press.

Union organizer Marty Keegan of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters did say that they had met with some of the News Press people in San Francisco and tried to work things out but couldn’t come to an agreement. They are looking to have a union election on September 26^th. He feels that 10% of home circulation will cancel by the end of this week based on support cards filled out in July and August. The union is only for the editorial and newsroom personnel, about 37 people, to form a union they need 50% of the vote plus one person, as of last count they have 75% of the vote.

There was another resignation today by Kim Burnell the Assistant Sports editor, for a total of 17 resignations in the last two months.

To cancel your subscription you can call (805) 564-5200.
www.savethenewspress.com has dates and information from the newsroom employees.

Psycho Kitty

It all started about a month ago. Around ten at night A and I were watching the TV, it was rather hot out so we had the front door open. When from the corner of my eye I see a blur of grey dart through the door and up the stairs. I sit up and look over at A "Did a cat just run up stairs?" So we get up and go upstairs, cautiously because it could have rabies, you never know, and track it to under the bed. I grab it (very nice cat meows once but doesn't try to fight me) and I toss it outside.

Then randomly two nights ago it runs in the house again. About an hour after we get it outside we open the door and the cat is just sitting there staring at the house, looking almost hopefully at us. It is slightly shy so it runs off if we get close to it. Then yesterday as I was sitting on our porch the cat comes up and jumps on my lap (guess I was wrong about the shy thing) and makes himself comfortable. Now I'm an animal person, and the cat doesn't seem to be dirty so I let it sit there for awhile, and dub him/her (I didn't check) Chester. Then I go to move Chester and it jumps right back on my lap and lays down. I had to pick him up, stand, then put him down. I also gave him a saucer of milk but he wasn't hungry, probably not the brightest thing for me to do.

I talked to my friend Alli that night, who had stayed at our house about two weeks ago when we weren't here and she also mentioned the little grey cat who kept trying to get in the house. She had to kick him out a few times too.

For a final kicker, last night at about 3 a.m. I hear a meowing which sounds like its coming from inside. A and I get up and wonder how in hell did that thing get inside? I turn on the lights and look around (I'm blind as a bat though without my contacts) finally realizing that the thing had climbed onto out roof and squished up against the screen of our open window trying to get inside. It howled for about ten minutes before it (hopefully) went away. Chester has turned into a stalking kitty and I'm starting to get creeped out, why it wants to get into our house so badly is beyond me. I just hope it doesn't realize that we leave the sky lights slightly open or it will probably try to wedge itself inside and get stuck half in and half out.

WooHoo!!

Ok so I finally got over that twice a week hurdle. That's right last night I exercised again, for a little over an hour! That's already three times this week and although most experts say that it takes at least two weeks before your body starts to change I can (of course) already see progress (not really) but I'll continue to pretend to.

But tonight there will be no exercising its all about the cleaning. So I think I'll having to pop in the Star Wars trilogy (the good one), open a beer and try to clean our not gross but definelty untidy house. And I've no idea how to fix the clutter, that is our biggest problem, I swear its because we don't really have any closets.

Two Days in a Row!!

Ok so yay me!! I actually went and worked out last night, ok nothing hardcore a couple of bleachers and a total of 4 laps. But two days in a row is pretty good for me. I am taking a break tonight as I don't want to get burnt out, am getting my hair done, and my ass is still sore from Sunday. But I have high hopes for Wednesday.

Ooh I did finally get a job (finally being less than a week), I started last Monday but it doesn't seem that important so I tend to forget about it. Also I am planning on going back to school next year so I wasn't looking for a "real" job (one that I would feel bad about leaving). I've started the applications and everything, ok so I started them about two weeks ago and then haven't touched them since, but I did print out the transcript request form.

Lets Try This Again

Well A and I and another couple are headed to Hawaii in October, so I have two months to get in shape. And although I am in no way over weight I could definitely tighten some things up. So here I go again trying the exercise thing. These little blips of exercising usually only last about two days, or if I'm really good two days a week for two weeks. But this time I'm going to do it, I'm going to keep exercising, I started yesterday and I'm going after work to do some bleachers. My goal is three times a week until we go (and hopefully will become a pattern that I follow when we get back too). And today I am super sore, and it doesn't help that I've been sitting on my ass all day. I'll try to keep you posted.

Good Times

I got FIRED!! Which is a first for me. And its not the losing of the job that bugs me its the fact that I got fired. After 90 days I was told that I was being let go, that I wasn't detail oriented enough and that I didn't take charge. I don't know maybe it was something bigger than that and they were being nice. I admit I wasn't that great at the job I just couldn't bring myself to care about it that much, but I wasn't horrible either. But I can see them wanting to hire someone that is better at the job, that really cares about the job too. So I hold no grudges.

So I'm on the hunt for a job again. But I think that this time I'll just be looking for something to pass the time, that I really don't care about but it will pay the bills.

Excess Speed and Weddings

So apparently its wedding season. I've now been to two in the last two weeks, the closest one being 5 hours away. But this last one was for my stepsister, my dad informed me two months ago that I was going. So I hopped in the car with A and away we went. Oh did I mention that my father is so cheap that I had the privilege of being the wedding photographer? I just started my job so don't have anytime off se we left late Friday night and got to my Mom's house around 11:30. The wedding went fine, a few little glitches but it was actually pretty fun, the bride was obviously pregnant and the groom's English was so broken he had to ask the minister to repeat the vows a few times. It was a Peruvian/Russian wedding with dancing and lots of alcohol, pretty entertaining.

The bad part of the weekend was the drive home. I was already a little bit tired and I just wanted to be home so stupidly I drove a tiny bit fast in a place where I really should have known better, and got the flashing lights in my rearview mirror. Oops 95 in a 70. She was nice enough to only give me 90 which after checking the Monterrey county website means I can attend traffic school but I do have to go to court, in King City 2 1/2 hours away at 8:15 in the morning. That should be good times.

GO AWAY!!

Why is it that on days when your eyes feel like they are about to pop and you can tell a headache is starting, so you just want to be left alone, everyone wants to talk to you? Usually I love talking to people but today just back off!! And I have to be extra careful not to turn into raving bitch at people, especially at work, and that extra monitoring just pushes the headache arther along. And of course if I do crack and bite someone's head off that too will just give me a bigger headache and I get the added bonus that everyone will hate me. And the sympathetic head tilts with the accompanying "Do you not feel well?" just makes it worse, like you asking somehow helps, it doesn't so just go away. If someone could please throw me down a long oubliette and just leave me there, that would be great. But of course I'll want out by Thursday (America vs. Ghana).

Getting In Shape For Summer

So I signed up to do this exercise thing on line (it was free), like most women in America I have body issues, as a smaller woman I don't have big issues. But A had recently started being good about going to the gym and running, so I've started to feel like a lazy slob. So I decided that I would try this online exercise and diet thingy, to tone up so if I go on vacation this summer I will only be pasty instead of out of shape and pasty. The first step is to write down everything you eat on a work day and on a weekend and then feel like a slob for what you ate. This is day one for me and so far this is what I have consumed:

     2 granola bars (chocolate and peanut butter)
     2 cups of tea
     1 handful of M&M's
     1 Hamburger - with Cheese, Mayonaise, Mustard, and Onions (yeah a vegetable)
     1 order of fries
     1 Chocolate milkshake (calcium)

Its 2 o'clock so I haven't had dinner yet but there is not really that much hope that is will be any better. Ok so I'm not the healthiest eater. But I walked to work and I'm planning on doing their first set of exercises today, I might even stop by the sports store and buy my 5 lb weights, but that is probably pushing it. Actually I have no idea how I'm not fat as it is, I really should be.

Worth Our Time?

So one of my college roommates got married this weekend. This is my first college friend to get married and well I'm really not too surprised that she was the first to go. Since she was getting married in Placerville (hangtown, not kidding) a few of us decided to get a cabin in Tahoe. Great idea there were 7 beds, a bbq, and two bathrooms, all good Tahoe was beautiful, and the weather was great. Now we're all cheap and I'm the first to lead the discount charge but after spending at least 22 hours in a car (the weekend lasted a total of 80 hours, I had a lot of time to figure this out while sitting on my but watching the ten thousandth cow go by), that's 27% percent of the time spent in a car. Now most of us have been out of college for awhile, we can support ourselves, some even do quite well, we make between 0 (actually she's still losing money) to about $35/hour (probably more but its not me so I don't really know), so on average we make about $17.50 an hour. At 22 hours that's $385 that each of us basically just wasted (plus gas which I think was $30 a person), and a flight from Burbank would have been $250, which now seems like nothing. So even though it seems like saved we didn't, I was ready to kill myself on the way home and it felt like I spent the whole weekend in the car. Next time I think I will probably splurge and take a flight for an hour and a half instead of the 9 hour car ride. Of course I'm driving 5 hours next weekend to go to my step sisters wedding in the bay area and I'm not flying to that either, but I'll bitch about that next week.

Cravings

Everyone gets cravings. I get cravings. Today I had a craving for overacting and loud explosions so I went to the video store and picked up Rambo II and III (I had seen Rambo I on TNT earlier in the week). Yes I've seen these movies before but I'd wanted to watch them all week, A is out of the house (he would not appreciate me making him watch these), so on impulse I went out and rented them. I realize these are not the best specimens of American Cinematography (although Rambo II was nominated for an Oscar ... Ok for special effects) but they deliver in the action, explosions, and big hair on men. And damn Stallone was buff back then. Rambo First Blood was a pretty good movie. The concept was more than just macho man with a gun, it told the story of a Vietnam vet, although 10 years after the United States had pulled out of Vietnam, whose life had been spent fighting a war half way across the world only to come home and have the people he thought he was defending hate him and ridicule him. After the war our hero has no direction and can't understand why people hate him. Already unstable, the people that he defended finally treated him so poorly that he finally snapped and became the bad guy. Its got a decent plot and good action. Admittedly 2 and 3 are obviously just in it for the money, sure they are fun action movies but they don't have the interesting story line that the first one did. Of course they also have happier endings. See I don't understand why you would want this guy who flips fighting for you. In the first movie the cops spray him with a hose and harass him and he totally wigs out remembering being tortured by Vietcong, in the second movie he's captured buy the Vietcong/Russians and electrocuted yet remains totally calm. Meditation? Drugs? And I have to admit Stallone is a horrible actor, the chick that couldn't speak English was more believable. Still loved them all.

Home Improvement?

Ah summer is here and with it comes so many plans to get things done. I don't own my home so my plans are really just smaller things like organize the bedroom, and clean up the house, maybe paint something. This last weekend I had nothing planned so I had major plans to at least clean up the house, maybe even start on the bedroom. Except Friday night I went to happy hour and that put me to sleep around 10:00. Ok then I'll definitely get stuff done on Saturday. I got up early made breakfast, and then zoned out for about 3 hours. After that I decided I needed to go shopping, where I wasted another 3 hours in which I got nothing accomplished except the purchase of a cute skirt (was looking for shoes). So I get home and decompress, and instead of thoroughly cleaning we call up some friends for Chinese food and video games. Although due to the arrival of friends the living room was quickly straightened up and random crap hidden. Ok but Sunday I would do better. I didn't wake up early and A made breakfast, and then I started watching one of those home makeover shows which inspired me. So I ran to ACE and bought some shelves, I came home and hung up a picture, decided it was in the wrong spot so I moved it to the other side of the wall. After that I rewarded myself with some gold medal ribbon ice cream and a well deserved break. An hour later I decided to try to tackle the shelves, so I took measurements and drew lines on the wall, again decided it was time for a break so I got some chips and salsa and sat down to watch Lake Placid. Ok I was firm, I was going to finish those stupid shelves, I got in one mount, then A came home and helped me with the second one. I was getting the third one in when it was brought to my attention that I had the wrong screws to attach the mounts to the wall. So I gave up. So after two days I have one picture hung and three shelf mounts sticking out of the wall, basically it now looks worse than it did before. YEAH ME!!

Survivor Man Vegas

Ah Vegas, America's playground. More like America's hunting ground. Packs of twenty something males roam around looking for willing females. While the women are more like ambush hunters waiting till a male comes near and then strikes. Although I don't know if you could consider either group to be prey, since it appeared to me that they are both looking for the same thing. Now if you aren't out hunting you might feel like prey, left alone for even a minute and you're swarmed, guys standing too close telling you that you have pretty eyes, or grabbing you and trying to pull you into a dance. I've learned the hard way that subtly in this case is not an option, a hard shove doesn't even faze them, but they do seem to have exceptionally short memories so if you run away they will move on to the next girl. You don't even have to be that attractive, all you really need is a pulse.

Mother's Day

Ah Mother's day. The second most commercialized day of the year after Christmas. Don't get me wrong I do think that mothers' deserve a day of their own, they do a lot, and from what I can see from friends, family, and coworkers its still the mom that does the brunt of the child rearing (thereare of course exceptions). But it just seems so sad to run around because you have to get your mom a gift because the calendar says so. Yes I got my mom a gift (it was late but I called her on Sunday). And now I feel bad because I forgot to call my step mom who I'm sorry is not my mother and had no hand in the rearing of me (she married my father when I was 19), she's a wonderful woman and I love her but she's not my mom (I'm gonna call her tonight). Although I still feel bad for not sending her a card.

Sunny SB

Ok Santa Barbara is supposed to be this wonderful vacation town, and I have to admit that its pretty great, but it definatly has its draw backs. Like June, supposed to be one of the brightest months of the year, is one of the worst in SB, its known as June gloom and its cold and damp, totally sucks. And then over the last few years is been gloomy and damp in May too, and that's just not fair. I'm ok with June but May too? At least its supposed to burn off by the afternoon and half the time it does do that, the other half it stays horrible the whole day. Summer is actually the worst time is SB, usually Spring and Fall are the best seasons here. But this year spring got completely rained out, and then fogged over. Oh well I guess we can keep our hopes up for August that's usually a good month.

Really?

OK so when did master/slave contracts become normal? I was reading The Smoking Gun and yet again theres another story about about some sado masochism sex contract gone bad. Its always so sad too because you think that if these two love birds can't make it who can? But anyways this contract looks like its some form letter downloaded off the internet. I'm pretty liberal but that still grosses me out, not that I'm judging (I totally am, sorry). And who thought to post form letters? Was there one guy out there who was just like "All these contracts that I've been filling out totally blow, I'll write up my own and everyone will use it and finally there will be peace in the master/sex slave world!" And its been in the news so often, there must be thousands of people out there just like me who are so intensely disturbed by these news stories that they too feel the need to go find more stories that disturb and disgust them.

Oh To Be a Woman

Today was an amazing day for me. Usually I would say that a six hour drive between Sacramento and Santa Barbara is more of a boring day, but something amazing happened during this drive, something that shocked me to my very core. About two hours into the drive we stopped at a Chevron somewhere south of Stockton on the I-5, and I get out and head to the bathroom. And this is where I saw it. As I walked to the ladies room I noticed that the men's room actually had a small line while I walked straight into the ladies. This never happens. I've waited in lines for ten minutes as thousands of guys goes in and out while the women in line make small talk about how there is always a line for girls. So I couldn't help but smile a triumphant smile at the guy, because for once I was able to walk straight up to the door and go in.

Weird Day

Ever have one of those days that's just kind of surreal? Today was my last day at my first "real" job, I was there for over two and a half years. I thought that I would be sad to go, kind of nostalgic? Nope, the whole day just kind of passed. Didn't seem special, monumental, nothing. Of course I'll miss some of the people but not the job itself. The main feeling I get is relief. So the whole day I kind of just went through the motions, the weirdest point was when I finished cleaning off my desk and packed everything away and all I thought was "Hmm my desk has never been that clean, looks weird." And the worst part is getting ready for my new job the part that I mention is the best part is that I can walk to work. Does nothing else draw me to the job, sadly that was the deciding factor.

Milestones

I'm am so proud today. After two years and much agony I've finally finished, and I don't think that I've ever been prouder. College graduation, my first job these are nothing compared to the joy I feel from this. That's right I've finally finished knitting my first scarf. Sure the lines aren't the straightest and many of the loops are large enough to drive cars through but I don't care, I wear it proudly to work on this the twenty fifth day of April. And then you might ask me, why this project has taken me 2 years? Well I started in Dan's house thinking to knit myself something warm in that freezing place, but my joints froze up from the cold and I could only knit very slowly. Summer came along and it got put away. And then we moved. So randomly I was trying to find something in the closet when I came across my old knitting, so I brought it downstairs and decided to give it another shot. And now after about a month I have a finished scarf!! YEAH ME!

Sure I Can Drive Five Hours

Ah the joys of getting married. One of them is calling up friends from miles away so that they can watch you try on dresses while they sit there and ooh and ahh wondering why this place doesn't have vending machines because a big bar of chocolate would definitely be appreciated. Of course I can't really complain I promised that if she needed me I would be up there, and I wanted to go too. As E is one of my closest friends it nice to be a part of the planning. But I'm not a good shopper, it tires me out and it gets annoying really quickly. But wedding dress shopping is different you actually have to make an appointment and then wake up early and head to these places, where it takes at least two people to dress one person, in dresses that cost more than my rent. And of course no one can decide on one dress, they all look wonderful, although there were quite a few that looked hideous (as a good bridesmaid I let her know that those were not an option), so we take pictures and then obsess about those for the rest of the night. After the dress is narrowed down to two likely contenders its the bridesmaids' turn to try on the dresses. Thankfully we basically ran out of time. I'm kind of hoping that they just tell me to buy a certain dress, at this point I don't even care if it looks good I just don't want to try anything on. Although I did get a hot dog on a stick so I had a good day.

Procrastination and Taxes

Have you noticed that taxes aren't really that hard to do anymore? Well if you're me, a single gal making very little they aren't hard to do at all. But I still wait till the last minute and then scramble around and try to find all of my W-2s. I swear I put them all in the same spot, but I could only find two of the three forms that I needed. Oh well I'm a pretty good guesser. Then I had to decide if I was going to do this the traditional way or online, online won by a landslide. I got a bunch of emails from turbo tax, and I'm a big believer in quantity not quality so I gave them a shot. They are great for for federal, but charge you for state the whole thing probably took about ten minutes. And since today is the seventeenth I suck it up and pay for state instead of doing them again (I have no idea where I stuck the rest of my W-2s anyways). At least I'm getting more back than what I had to pay. Now here I am sitting at work printing out my tax forms and looking for an envelope, asking myself why didn't I finish this three weeks ago when I started filling out the form and got distracted by Land of the Dead? At least the post offices are open till midnight.

Parents

I went up to visit my parents for the weekend. I love the bay area but visiting my parents is kind of a chore. Its not that I don't love them, I do its just that they are divorced so I feel like have to spend a certain amount of time with both of them to be fair. And then I have no time to visit my friends. I have to sneak up to the Bay Area and not tell my parents if I want to visit friends, and then I feel guilty. But the other thing is that I don't do anything when I visit my parents. I sit, eat, and watch t.v. And then I go to the other house and the cycle repeats itself. This time I mixed it up a bit by bringing my knitting, wow that was a good time. And then my dad always tries to get me to have a drink or be ok with him smoking a stinky cigar, I showered because I don't want to smell bad, your cigar will completely ruin the effect. A five hour drive for this? I get guilt trips about not coming home, but when was the last time one of them came and visited me? My mom cam over a year and a half ago my dad almost two years ago. But still its my fault, I'm a bad child for moving so far away.

Mind wanderings

 So I'm trying to take up knitting again. Its kind of frustrating, and I'm no good at it but it keeps my hands busy. So last night as I sat at home trying to knit, feminism popped into my head. I have no idea why, I think knitting is neither a feminist or nonfeminist thing, its generally a girlie thing but I don't think practitioners of the craft have any particular leanings either way. But there I was and a commercial came on, and it made me so annoyed. In our battles to make everything equal, advertising does its best to keep all stereotypes intact. Its moms that are cleaning the house and making dinner, men that are driving fast cars, and clothing challenged women selling beer. So I tip my hat to you Hoover vacuum for having bikers as the spokesmen for your product, bikers drinking milkshakes. There is no point to this story.

Big Brother in Oregon?

So I recently read that Oregon is starting to lose revenue on gas taxes because people are buying smaller, more gas efficient cars. So to make that money back they are seriously considering taxing the amount of miles that are driven instead of the amount of gallons purchased. Basically you would put a little gps unit in your car that would track where, when, and how far you drove and then tax you on instate and peak hour diving. Track my driving? Ok I don't live in the Oregon and have no plans to move there in the future, but if it works in one state others might adopt it, and that worries me. I don't want anyone tracking my driving. True I don't go anywhere interesting but thats not the point. The point is that this falls under personal privacy, as a private citizens I have a right to go where ever I want. And of course they say that the information from the gps wouldn't be used for anything else and would be erased every time you go to the gas station and pay your taxes. But you know are government would start using those records to follow people around, of course only suspicious people, but what exactly is the definition of a suspicious person? What right do they have to ask me where I go?

 

And then what if they decide to track how fast you were going? Automatically send you a ticket when you go over the speed limit? And then a little camera in the car to make sure that you are doing nothing illegal?

My Thoughts on the FCC

The FCC is one of many government organizations that are trying to take away Americans' freedoms. The FCC scares me; I realize that they are answering to people complaining about shows, but how many more people aren't complaining? Why listen to the minority, and why take such drastic measures? The extreme censorship of the FCC is wrong, the fact that they won't give stations guidelines so instead they live in fear that they are going to get fined up the wazoo for something that they weren't sure was "indecent" or not. Take for example the WB's new show about an undergraduate sex class. They edited the first show after finishing it removing scenes of two girls kissing and another of a girl unzipping her jeans. Neither of those scenes seems indecent to me but the WB is scared that the FCC might fine them, and fine them not just once for an indecent show but for every time they think something is indecent. What right do they have to say that two girls kissing is indecent? As long as the show is rated for adults people should not be so up in arms regarding the content. If you think something is indecent, write a letter to the station, stop watching the show, but stop complaining about it to the FCC.

And where is it going to stop? It seems like lately the FCC is censoring more and more often. What right do they have to tell me what I can and can't watch? Isn't this infringing on the stations right to free speech?

I'm ok for reprimanding CBS for the Janet Jackson incident (although the fine did seem a little high), it was in the middle of the day, children could have been watching, and there seemed like there was no risk of seeing a boob when you started watching. But if a show is on late, and has an adult rating, that means it should have a little leeway. If you don't want to risk seeing something that offends you check out the Disney channel or TLC. I want my TV unedited, I'm adult enough to know what’s decent and what isn't, and I'm adult enough to turn off the TV or write a letter to the creator of the show, not go tell my mommy that some show hurt my feelings. And you know that the people that complain about these shows are little old ladies scanning the channels just waiting for something indecent to happen so that she can report it.

The chairman of the FCC is appointed by the president, that’s why I'm not totally surprised that the chairman, Kevin J. Martin, had worked for the president before. This wouldn't be the first time that George W. had promoted someone for past loyalties, instead of present works. Mr. Martin probably feels that is his duty to clean up American television, that TV should be more moral and crap like that.

Just give me everything, I can filter out the indecent. If I wanted to watch edited TV I can watch tbs.

Freddy, Zombies, and Coked up Monkeys

I love horror movies, with some hot kettle corn and a coke, there is nothing better than sitting in a theatre waiting for the next scare. I don't like the artsier scary movies, I like the ones dripping with cheese, ones with horrible actresses whose only talent is her ability to wear tight tops and scream at everything. As a feminist that might sound a bit wrong, but I can't help it. I actually cheered when I saw the preview for Freddy vs. Jason and I was extremely disapointed when Alien vs. Predator came out with a PG-13 rating instead of an R, and I even thought House of Wax was very entertaining.

You have to wonder about horror fans. I would assume that for most of them there must have been some sort of traumatic event in their youth. For me it was when I was five or six and my teenage cousin came to stay with us for the summer. He would sit on the couch and watch movies all day long. One day when both of my parents were gone he popped in Nightmare on Elm St (the original and scariest one) and let me watch it. Now the concept behind Nightmare on Elm St is one of the creepiest, a mutilated murderer stalks you in your dreams, and (as the movie points out) eventually you have to sleep. So every night for a week I woke up screaming and would run into my parents' room and crawl into bed with my mom.

If I followed the Love Line theory of if something traumatizes you when you are younger you will be drawn to that act/person/thing when you are older, then the reason I love horror movies is because they scared me so badly when I was young. I wonder about other fans... were they traumatized like me, do they associate horror movies with a good memory, or are they just sick and twisted?

In the last few years I have moved from slasher movies (still love them though) to zombie movies. They are fun because often they are little commentaries on what the writer/director feels society has become. I like them because in a weird way I think the zombies are cute (I have already established that I have issues). And I have moved the movie Sean of the Dead into my all time best list. Of course most of these zombie and slasher films are worthless dribble that were probably written by coked up monkeys, but then thats probably why I love them.

Girls Scout Cookies and World Domination

Why do people (me) obsess over girl scout cookies? Is it because they are so good? Only come out once a year? Or because they put an addictive chemical in it that makes you crave it the minute you see a box, like some trigger in your mind?

So on Sunday I was making waffles, I was cleaning up and went to put the flour away on the top shelf of the pantry. I put the flour down and the shelf goes crashing into the one below it which then falls also. So I gently close the cupboard door and finish up the waffles. After breakfast its decided that a trip to Ace Hardware is needed.

On the way into the store I notice a bunch of young school girls and their mothers. My heart rate starts to go up and I get excited, they are selling girl scout cookies! I hadn't even realized it was that season. Usually someone at work will send out an email letting everyone know that their little girl is selling cookies and that it is our duty to buy some (and if its the CEO sending out the email everyone must buy). I of course do my duty and then some.

The girl scouts got their start in 1912, but the famed cookies didn't get their start until 1917. And those cookies are not the cookies we crave today. Up until the 30s the cookies were homemade, by the little girl scouts with mothers supervising, they packaged them up in little wax bags and put a girl scout sticker on them. Then in 1936 the Girl Scouts started to get serious. They hired a commercial baker and set up mass production of the cookies, and in 1937 over 125 girl scout councils held cookie sales.

Today about 70% of the sales stay with local Girl Scout councils. The balance goes to the baker. Of that 70% about 12-17% goes straight to the troupe. So of the $8 I spent a good $.95 went straight to the dealers, I mean girls I bought them from. So yeah! I bought the cookies to help empower little girls in my community, and not for the yummy yummy goodness that can be found within each brightly colored box. And I totally didn't start to panic when I realized that no one would be bringing Girl Scout cookies to work, and that I would have to drive back to the hardware store to stock up.

And then I have to ask myself, why don't they sell this stuff year round? Is it because if they were offered year round no one would buy their overpriced confections? They offer it once a year so that you feel like you have to buy them (the cute little girl hawking the goods doesn't hurt either) or you will be missing out. And the price isn't that bad, after all its only once a year, nevermind that you normally don't buy cookies at all, that's not the point.

I'm pretty sure that the Girl Scouts are planning world domination. There has to be a chemical in the cookies just building up in everyone's brain, and then one day they push a button and we all do whatever they tell us. I mean you never notice them eating the cookies.

Ms. Piggy and Other Randomness

Ok I think I’ll go off on Ms. Piggy. How she can associate with Jessica Simpson and Dominoes is beyond me. I mean one or the other maybe, but both? She really is a slut, and she seems to have left Kermit behind. That ungrateful bitch! She would be nothing without that little green frog. I mean he’s already said that it isn’t easy being green but being dumped by a pig? That’s got to sting. And if I have to pick one or the other, the amphibian has my vote every time.

I mean I used to really like Ms. Piggy, although she was always a little over the top jealous and rather violent, which can’t be good for children to watch day after day, but if she’s starting to hang with the chicken of the sea gal I’m out. I miss the muppets, those critics on the balcony were a riot. And Animal, Beaker, the Swedish chef and the chickens those were all the coolest characters ever. How did that go off the air and yet Barny is still poisoning the youth of America?

I admit, a lot of the shows I grew up on were totally crap, its like a bunch of stoned guys got together wrote down a bunch of words that didn’t go together at all and said, “That’s genius! Lets draw it!” For example: the PawPaw Bears, I loved it but it was lame, or the Snorks they really weren’t as good as the Smurfs. The Smurfs were a classic, I think it worked because the vocab was so small, just insert the word “smurf” for anything.

The Not So Secret World of Geocaching

There we were walking around this tree squatting, moving around branches, trying to get a closer look. “You?” A calls out “No, you?” We were off the path trying to find a geocache and not having much luck, this was our second one, the first one we had not been able to find. Then finally I noticed a color that was slightly out of place “I found it.”

Geocaching is a hobby that I thought was only for techie geeks that were also outdoorsy, but apparently quite a few people do including a friend of mine from MS who had never heard of the Ipod Nano when I showed it to her in December (I think it had already been out for 6 months by then). Its a lot like a scavenger hunt, you get the coordinates and maybe a clue and then try to find a little treasure. Within the cache there are usually little trinkets and a log book which you sign and date and maybe leave a little message.

Apparently it started in 2000 when President Clinton lifted scrambling for civilian gps, so that manufacturers could produce more precise machines. One guy hid a bucket, posted the coordinates on the internet, and the great game was born.

Aaron and I went out today to Hendry’s beach in Santa Barbara to try and find the first cache. The cache was supposedly by the restaurant by the beach and there were quite a lot of people milling about, waling to and from the beach, or eating on the outside patio of the restaurant. So we get to where we think it might be (a gps has a +/- radius of about 20 feet) and try looking for it. Aaron is way more subtle than I am, I lean over the bushes and look under benches, he sits down and glances over at the bushes. Well we didn’t want to look to weird so after about ten minutes we gave up on that one and started down the beach looking for another one.

Again we felt kind of self conscious about holding a gps so like the idiots we are every once in awhile we would hold it up to our ears and pretend that it’s a cell phone, it kind of looks like one maybe people believed us, who knows I didn’t stop and ask. But as we start coming upto the place where the geocache should be Aaron informs me that he thinks he was mistaken and that the cache is probably not on the beach but instead above us 100 feet on the cliff. Lovely. There’s no way to get to cliff from the beach (well at least no way that we can see). So we head back to our car and look for a way to get to the cliffs from the street we came in on. About twenty feet past the parking lot we notice a little trail that goes up to cliffs, so we make a u-turn and re-park.

It takes awhile to get up the hill and to the cliffs and then some bad gps reading on our part. Finally we get to the spot that we think its in. Off the trail around a deformed, short tree we start searching for the cache. I finally find a Tupperware container, of course I don’t want to touch it because it looks kind of wet. Inside there are a bunch of little toys (I loved the gummi bears little figurine) and beads that people had left. We didn’t bring anything to leave in the box so we signed our names and put everything back.

Although I must admit that I felt rather lame looking for these things as normal people walked by, after finding the cache it was so much cooler. Its like you know a secret, you are in the know, and everyone else is oblivious.

UltraViolet = UltraPainful

Ok I like cheesy movies. Usually I am the last person to say a movie sucks as long as its not some sappy romance movie I can usually find something redeeming with it. Like House of Wax, I was entertained and didn't feel like they stole my money I even thought Paris Hilton had a great death scene (although Jared paedecki's character border on the psychotically stupid, Hey are those weird operating instruments in this creepy house? I think I should take a closer look.). And Freddie vs. Jason will always be a favorite, I mean on the dvd you have the option to just cycle through the death scenes, you really couldn't ask for more than that. But UltraViolet had no redeeming qualities. The dialog was painful, the fight scenes were way over the top, and the plot was non existant, and everything about the movie seemed forced. And I don't usually care if people are good actors (I already mentioned that P.H. wasn't that bad in House of Wax), but this was wrong, one of the girls in my group actually fell asleep during the movie. And its not like I went in with high expectations, no offence to Mila Jovovich but if she's in a movie I'm pretty sure its not going to be oscar caliber, but the Resident Evil flicks were pretty decent, and The Fifith Element is a classic (ok so its not like she talks a lot in that movie) but still, Mila for shame!! You should actually apologize to people for this! What were you thinking? This is way worse than Speed 2: Cruise Control could ever be, and VanHelsing doesn't even come close. This movie was worse than the myriad of LifeTime movies played over and over on the WE channel. This movie should be getting negative stars, it is a smoking pile of crap.