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!!