Dena is quite involved philanthropy speaking, she donates to quite a number of charities both religious and non-religious. She's been doing it for a number of years and I applaud her for that. Me on the other hand, don't really believe in giving money to people or charities. If I can help, I'll help but I'm not giving money. If I give them money then I have no idea where it goes and how it's being used and whose pockets it's lining. Cynical yes, but that's me. A cynic, born and bred. I do my own thing regarding charities, I've been involved in the past 7 years with a women's shelter here in Los Angeles, I fix their computers, their phones, bring all kinds of clothes and furniture over there and the like. I've turned many people onto this group but due to the nature of the charity and because they have to protect the battered women, mostly I'll pick up stuff and bring it there myself. They prefer that no one knows where they are or who they are. So that's my thing.
But the other night there was a 20/20 special on regarding Camden, New Jersey, the poverty there and the affect it's had on children. The episode was a follow on to a previous one and it discussed the changes that people have made in these kids lives and it got me to thinking. By the way, if you're interested in that 20/20 episode, there is much on the web about it, start here.
So I contacted this kid mentoring program. It focuses on kids in the Los Angeles foster care system, not the ones in trouble but before they get in trouble. Which is good because I don't think I'm ready to handle some kid who has already been in Juvenile Hall. But I do know that I could benefit a kid needing some confidence building, homework help, fun time and someone cool to talk to. I think I'm cool. So, I've already taken the first 2 steps, I've applied and been pre-screened and have been passed up to the next phase. You have to go through training, a criminal background check, etc. Makes sense, can't have a child molester mentoring kids, that would be bad.
Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes.....
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Horror Films
These type of movies have never been my cup of tea. Frankly, they freak me out. They are however, the biggest money makers in Hollywood, netting significantly more cash than other genres. Think about it, you can use B or C actors(resses), special effects are really at a minimum and really, how much does fake blood and a chainsaw cost?
Speaking of freaking out, in my mind's eye I have several images of horror films etched in there. There is one in particular that is so ingrained in my pysche I think about it every week. I'm pretty sure it's from the original Friday the 13th where Jason Voorhees and the gang of soon to be murdered high schoolers are at some camp and he chases them around. The movie was released in 1980 and if I remember correctly, my cousin Robin and I snuck into the film, he convinced me to go, it was rated R of course, and we were both under 18, me just barely. I remember being scared out of my wits and scenes from that movie are with me today, 27 years later......ooooo I hated typing that number. Let me set up the scene for you......
The scene is the bathroom scene. So I walk into the bathroom at 10:00 at night at the UCLA campus after my class, and I walk into the stall and for some reason look up and around. There it is again, that feeling that someone is in the next stall, with a big ice pick and when I sit down to pee they are going to reach over the stall and stick that looped ice pick into my chin and drag me up to the top of the stall screaming, the blood catching in my throat, the breath leaving through the wrong hole........ah the horror of it all. How'd you like to have that scene play in your head everytime you went to a public bathroom at night?
Another scene from a movie that pops into my head at random moments is that scene from Aliens (I think it's the original Aliens wtih Sigourney Weaver) where the alien pops out of someones mouth or stomache. It's the alien baby from the momma's mouth. AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! That movie freaks me out, too!
Speaking of freaking out, in my mind's eye I have several images of horror films etched in there. There is one in particular that is so ingrained in my pysche I think about it every week. I'm pretty sure it's from the original Friday the 13th where Jason Voorhees and the gang of soon to be murdered high schoolers are at some camp and he chases them around. The movie was released in 1980 and if I remember correctly, my cousin Robin and I snuck into the film, he convinced me to go, it was rated R of course, and we were both under 18, me just barely. I remember being scared out of my wits and scenes from that movie are with me today, 27 years later......ooooo I hated typing that number. Let me set up the scene for you......
The scene is the bathroom scene. So I walk into the bathroom at 10:00 at night at the UCLA campus after my class, and I walk into the stall and for some reason look up and around. There it is again, that feeling that someone is in the next stall, with a big ice pick and when I sit down to pee they are going to reach over the stall and stick that looped ice pick into my chin and drag me up to the top of the stall screaming, the blood catching in my throat, the breath leaving through the wrong hole........ah the horror of it all. How'd you like to have that scene play in your head everytime you went to a public bathroom at night?
Another scene from a movie that pops into my head at random moments is that scene from Aliens (I think it's the original Aliens wtih Sigourney Weaver) where the alien pops out of someones mouth or stomache. It's the alien baby from the momma's mouth. AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! That movie freaks me out, too!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Miscellaneous Stuff
We drove through Santa Monica today and it's always the Farmer's Market on Sunday. A wildly successful market that recently expanded to include Valet bicycle parking. Read this bloggers report on it
Almost every morning (except when I go to the gym) I'm walking the neighborhood and I usually take the same route. Usually I see this older woman (I'm hoping she's older than me) power walking the same route. Picture this: she's about 5' nothing, with short little legs and I'm hoping about 10 - 15 years older than me. Well, maybe I shouldn't hope that. One morning she was behind me, and in my true competitive spirit I silently vowed not to let her catch up. She did, in no distance at all and smoked me. The next week, I found myself behind her as I turned the corner, I silently vowed I wouldn't let her get any further away, but off she went, smoking me again. It's kind of depressing really. I was walking as fast as humanly possible in my world.....
Almost every morning (except when I go to the gym) I'm walking the neighborhood and I usually take the same route. Usually I see this older woman (I'm hoping she's older than me) power walking the same route. Picture this: she's about 5' nothing, with short little legs and I'm hoping about 10 - 15 years older than me. Well, maybe I shouldn't hope that. One morning she was behind me, and in my true competitive spirit I silently vowed not to let her catch up. She did, in no distance at all and smoked me. The next week, I found myself behind her as I turned the corner, I silently vowed I wouldn't let her get any further away, but off she went, smoking me again. It's kind of depressing really. I was walking as fast as humanly possible in my world.....
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Human Rights Campaign
This last Saturday night we went out on a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). It was a "women's only" cocktail and Hor'dourves affair hosted at a couple's house. I knew we were in for a treat when I pulled up the address on Google and it was in the Mt. Olympus area in the Hollywood Hills. I've ALWAYS wanted to go up into the area of mansions and see one inside, in person. Normally you can't really see what the house is all about because they are gated, or walled, hedged or whatever. So, I was thrilled. We pull up for the party and were greeted by female (cute I might add) valet parkers. They were very friendly and a nice change from the usual Hispanic valet guys that don't speak to you. They probably can't speak English anyways, but I digress.... If you ever want to hire a bunch of cute, young chicks to valet your party, go to Valet of the Dolls.
We walked in and made our way through this gorgeous house with the biggest kitchen I've ever seen and out into the back yard. The backyard consisted of a beautiful pool with a nice little waterfall and an incredible view of Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles. Spectacular. The whole thing was awesome. What I felt when I was there was that this is where I belong....hobnobbing with Jane Lynch (of Two and a Half Men + and other fame ) and MSNBC pundit Hilary Rosen and the two minister ladies from Amazing Race. Who unfortunately got booted recently, but we didn't know that at the time, and of course, chatting with them, they are forbidden by contract from telling you anything. Must have been hard for them to sit there while everyone congratulated them and wished them good luck, meanwhile they didn't even make it thru the 2nd show.
As I stood at the railing watching as the fog rolled in from the west to blanket downtown Los Angeles, I thought to myself, this is where I'm supposed to be. Hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Why aren't I rich? What did I miss? What opportunity knocked that I didn't hear?
We walked in and made our way through this gorgeous house with the biggest kitchen I've ever seen and out into the back yard. The backyard consisted of a beautiful pool with a nice little waterfall and an incredible view of Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles. Spectacular. The whole thing was awesome. What I felt when I was there was that this is where I belong....hobnobbing with Jane Lynch (of Two and a Half Men + and other fame ) and MSNBC pundit Hilary Rosen and the two minister ladies from Amazing Race. Who unfortunately got booted recently, but we didn't know that at the time, and of course, chatting with them, they are forbidden by contract from telling you anything. Must have been hard for them to sit there while everyone congratulated them and wished them good luck, meanwhile they didn't even make it thru the 2nd show.
As I stood at the railing watching as the fog rolled in from the west to blanket downtown Los Angeles, I thought to myself, this is where I'm supposed to be. Hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Why aren't I rich? What did I miss? What opportunity knocked that I didn't hear?
Launching the Dawn
Yes people that's right, I've got a spaceship named after me. HAHAHAHA The Dawn spacecraft is a direct dichotomy of it's namesake -- me. It's slow, actually, ultra slow (thus ultra efficient) and is very feeble, thus making it ultra light. It is scheduled to launch in September and is destined for anything but greatness.....another dichotomy for sure. It's mission is to explore the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres (which circle the sun between Mars and Venus). This spacecraft is propelled by Ion propulsion system that uses xenon gas (light compared to regular fuels). A stream of charged atoms shoots out the ass of the ship propelling the craft but its acceleration with patience. It'll take 4 days to get to 60 mph. You can read about the mission, it's propulsion system, etc here
Monday, November 05, 2007
Hollywood
Where a video game can become a block buster movie and traffic patterns are affected by whether or not it's a Jewish Holiday. Today is strike day. On one hand you have to empathize with the writer's, after all, they are paid based on their showing airing and are paid every time their show airs. Keep in mind however, that let's say you were a writer for Seinfeld, you'd think you'd be rich right? Wrong. Your residuals or paychecks drop in half for every airing down to a minimum of $1. So, for those writer's on the original Seinfeld series, they are getting one dollar for every episode that airs now, but they get nothing for every Season DVD package that is sold. You can empathize with that complaint.
Hollywood payment schedules and policies have not kept pace with technology and the Internet. That's understandable, technology moves very quickly and why would the studios want to give up $$ they don't have to. This is why unions are important. Also, writer's have suffered on their bottom line due to the proliferation of reality TV. Dancing with the Stars doesn't really need a team of writer's does it? It probably just needs one writer (and a crappy one at that) to write basic copy for the judges. But, it's hard to empathize with a group of people that can make a living working from a Starbucks for 5 hours a day.....
As far as what the viewers at home will be seeing, the impact will likely immediately affect some of the nighttime talk shows, like "The Tonight Show" and "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Those are shows that rely on writers for everyday producing of programming.
The movie studios have stockpiled films in anticipation of a strike. Television networks have a lot of prime time programming ready, and should be okay for a little while -- but it depends on how long the strike lasts.
The strike will have a broad reaching effect if it lasts very long. I wonder how traffic will be today?
Hollywood payment schedules and policies have not kept pace with technology and the Internet. That's understandable, technology moves very quickly and why would the studios want to give up $$ they don't have to. This is why unions are important. Also, writer's have suffered on their bottom line due to the proliferation of reality TV. Dancing with the Stars doesn't really need a team of writer's does it? It probably just needs one writer (and a crappy one at that) to write basic copy for the judges. But, it's hard to empathize with a group of people that can make a living working from a Starbucks for 5 hours a day.....
As far as what the viewers at home will be seeing, the impact will likely immediately affect some of the nighttime talk shows, like "The Tonight Show" and "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Those are shows that rely on writers for everyday producing of programming.
The movie studios have stockpiled films in anticipation of a strike. Television networks have a lot of prime time programming ready, and should be okay for a little while -- but it depends on how long the strike lasts.
The strike will have a broad reaching effect if it lasts very long. I wonder how traffic will be today?
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Dental Damn!
This morning was my first experience at the dentist's office in a long time. I hate to say it, but probably about 8 years. This long time absence stemmed from a litany of botched and traumatic dental experiences both in childhood and adulthood which I won't bore you with here. I had also recently spoke with my Mother about her well known fear of dentists and she related her experiences. Apparently, she was worked on once by a drunk dentist. That seems appalling in this day and age, but remember, it was probably 30 or 40 years ago, in rural Canada. Also, my mom had a bad experience with laughing gas, whether she was allergic or just over gassed is unknown, but she ended up beating up the dentist. hehe. I would have like to have seen that.
Anyways, back to me....so this dentist uses nitrous oxide or laughing gas to chill you out as well as the usual Novocaine. I was pretty happy to find that out as anything to lesson my anxiety is a good thing. I cautioned her as to my mom's previous reaction and she set it on low. Nowadays, you can't screw up the mixture as its all regulated for safety reasons ensuring you get sufficient oxygen into your lungs as well as the nitrous. I was breathing in the nitrous and was feeling pretty good, laughing, making jokes, etc until I started to feel dizzy. It came about rather quickly and I told her that we should turn it down. So she turned the mixture down from a low 2.5 to a lower 1.5.
I continued to breathe in the gas, enjoying the lessening of the anxiety and the feeling of "I just don't care how much drilling you do" until all of a sudden I felt a little dizzy again, then really dizzy, then I started drifting away, my mouth felt like it wasn't a part of my face and I got very confused. As I started to black out I think a little panic set in and I pulled off the nitrous mask. I couldn't understand where my mouth was and I was about a breath away from passing out. The passing out feeling dissipated but I was very dizzy, bordering on nauseous. I thought to myself, it would be bad to throw up in a dental dam right? Fortunately, she took all the crap off my face that I don't remember her putting on. I guess I had a bite guard in and I totally don't remember that going on. It took about 15 minutes for me to get back to feeling normal again. We left the gas off for the rest of the procedure. This was a very frightening experience and frankly, I have no idea how I will make it through any more procedures.
Hours later: my jaw hurts like a son of a bitch and now my teeth are starting to ache. Oh joy. I love when the Novocaine wears off........
Anyways, back to me....so this dentist uses nitrous oxide or laughing gas to chill you out as well as the usual Novocaine. I was pretty happy to find that out as anything to lesson my anxiety is a good thing. I cautioned her as to my mom's previous reaction and she set it on low. Nowadays, you can't screw up the mixture as its all regulated for safety reasons ensuring you get sufficient oxygen into your lungs as well as the nitrous. I was breathing in the nitrous and was feeling pretty good, laughing, making jokes, etc until I started to feel dizzy. It came about rather quickly and I told her that we should turn it down. So she turned the mixture down from a low 2.5 to a lower 1.5.
I continued to breathe in the gas, enjoying the lessening of the anxiety and the feeling of "I just don't care how much drilling you do" until all of a sudden I felt a little dizzy again, then really dizzy, then I started drifting away, my mouth felt like it wasn't a part of my face and I got very confused. As I started to black out I think a little panic set in and I pulled off the nitrous mask. I couldn't understand where my mouth was and I was about a breath away from passing out. The passing out feeling dissipated but I was very dizzy, bordering on nauseous. I thought to myself, it would be bad to throw up in a dental dam right? Fortunately, she took all the crap off my face that I don't remember her putting on. I guess I had a bite guard in and I totally don't remember that going on. It took about 15 minutes for me to get back to feeling normal again. We left the gas off for the rest of the procedure. This was a very frightening experience and frankly, I have no idea how I will make it through any more procedures.
Hours later: my jaw hurts like a son of a bitch and now my teeth are starting to ache. Oh joy. I love when the Novocaine wears off........
Sunday, October 28, 2007
A Long Weekend of Homework
Wow, I've had a long weekend of learning, studying, quizzing and teaching not to mention the frustration that goes along with it all. This weekend we babysat Dena's niece and nephew, Jack and Ruby. We were instructed that Ruby had Math homework to do and Jack had to study for his History Midterms. They are in Grades 5 and 6 respectively. I had no idea what we'd gotten ourselves into.
Saturday I spent 2 hours teaching Ruby the concepts of dividing or multiplying to get the missing denominator or numerator in a fraction. The concept is called Equivalent Fractions. The concept is that if you have 8/10 = n/5 where n is some number that you have to figure out. In this case, the answer is 4.
8/10 = 4/5 <-- These are equivalent fractions
Seems simple, eh, just wait until you have to explain it to a 10 year old. Thank god we only had to do the even numbered problems. After all that was over Ruby informed me that she had another section of homework, she proceeded to read the first question and said "I know how to do this" and shooed me off. I sighed in relief and left the room. She presented me with the homework later for me to check, it was all wrong. I hated to deliver that news as I knew she'd blow up. She ended up crying in the bedroom. Before she went to sleep I explained to her that sometimes we just have to practice things and try and try until we get things right and then I promised her we'd work on the wrong section tomorrow. This stopped the tears and she went to sleep.
Sunday we spent another 90 minutes on the concept of Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and Simplest Form. I have to admit, I had to look up GCF on the internet in order to understand how and why they are teaching it. Simplest Form is easy, I cannot remember what they called it in my day but it's basically just reducing a fraction to its lowest.
Example: 4/8 reduces to 1/4.
1/4 is it's simplest form.
Greatest Common Factor is doing a factor tree and finding the common factor between the numerator and the denominator and figuring out which is the greatest. You then use the GCF to divide and get the simplest form of the fraction. Example, 30/50 -- it's greatest common factor is 10. You divide the numerator and the denominator by 10 and you get 3/5. 3/5 is equivalent to 30/50 but it is in its simplest form as 3/5. These are examples are simple and I'm putting in that way so that the 30 somethings, 40 somethings, etc will understand what I'm talking about. It's been a loooonnnnnnggggg time since we learned this stuff.
We managed to struggle through all of this and during this process I learned how important the foundation of math is. This would have been so much easier for Ruby had she known her multiplication tables. Even 2 x anything was a challenge. When I asked her repeatedly what the common factors of 14 are, it was a 5 minute process to figure it out, even when she was asked over multiple days. If she had the basic foundation of the multiplication tables down then it would be a simple process to determine that the common factors of 14 are 2 and 7. Simple, 2 x 7 = 14.
Well, I have to go now as I have to quiz Jack on Chapters 1 through 3 in his history book for his midterm. First, I have to learn it myself because you can't really ask questions about something you know nothing about. What is culture change? Shit, I don't know, I mean I know, but I don't. Explain the local and global effects of deforestation. I have to make sure I don't miss anything or tell him the wrong thing as I would be doing him a disservice and teaching him wrong. The pressure!
Saturday I spent 2 hours teaching Ruby the concepts of dividing or multiplying to get the missing denominator or numerator in a fraction. The concept is called Equivalent Fractions. The concept is that if you have 8/10 = n/5 where n is some number that you have to figure out. In this case, the answer is 4.
8/10 = 4/5 <-- These are equivalent fractions
Seems simple, eh, just wait until you have to explain it to a 10 year old. Thank god we only had to do the even numbered problems. After all that was over Ruby informed me that she had another section of homework, she proceeded to read the first question and said "I know how to do this" and shooed me off. I sighed in relief and left the room. She presented me with the homework later for me to check, it was all wrong. I hated to deliver that news as I knew she'd blow up. She ended up crying in the bedroom. Before she went to sleep I explained to her that sometimes we just have to practice things and try and try until we get things right and then I promised her we'd work on the wrong section tomorrow. This stopped the tears and she went to sleep.
Sunday we spent another 90 minutes on the concept of Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and Simplest Form. I have to admit, I had to look up GCF on the internet in order to understand how and why they are teaching it. Simplest Form is easy, I cannot remember what they called it in my day but it's basically just reducing a fraction to its lowest.
Example: 4/8 reduces to 1/4.
1/4 is it's simplest form.
Greatest Common Factor is doing a factor tree and finding the common factor between the numerator and the denominator and figuring out which is the greatest. You then use the GCF to divide and get the simplest form of the fraction. Example, 30/50 -- it's greatest common factor is 10. You divide the numerator and the denominator by 10 and you get 3/5. 3/5 is equivalent to 30/50 but it is in its simplest form as 3/5. These are examples are simple and I'm putting in that way so that the 30 somethings, 40 somethings, etc will understand what I'm talking about. It's been a loooonnnnnnggggg time since we learned this stuff.
We managed to struggle through all of this and during this process I learned how important the foundation of math is. This would have been so much easier for Ruby had she known her multiplication tables. Even 2 x anything was a challenge. When I asked her repeatedly what the common factors of 14 are, it was a 5 minute process to figure it out, even when she was asked over multiple days. If she had the basic foundation of the multiplication tables down then it would be a simple process to determine that the common factors of 14 are 2 and 7. Simple, 2 x 7 = 14.
Well, I have to go now as I have to quiz Jack on Chapters 1 through 3 in his history book for his midterm. First, I have to learn it myself because you can't really ask questions about something you know nothing about. What is culture change? Shit, I don't know, I mean I know, but I don't. Explain the local and global effects of deforestation. I have to make sure I don't miss anything or tell him the wrong thing as I would be doing him a disservice and teaching him wrong. The pressure!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Happy Belated Birthday Jackie!
Sorry for the lateness of this......but sometimes our busy lives just get in the way.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Fire and Hair
Driving into Los Angeles from up north Sunday afternoon was a little surreal. Coming down the 101 I could see the plumes of smoke and slowly broad daylight turned to night. It was almost as if the day glowed yellow. An odd color to be sure. With the acrid smell of smoke in the air and the hauntingly clear freeways I emerged from the Camarillo pass down into Woodland Hills and clear, blue sky. The fires here were north of where I was and West (in Malibu) so the sky overhead was clear.
Sunday night and Monday morning it was incredibly dry with a relative humidity of about 5 %. Now that's dry. Today it's hovering around 15 % in the city and 10 - 12% out by the fires. I'm thirsty all the time. There's a layer of ash on the car as well but certainly not to the extent of co-workers and friends that live in and near the burn areas. Check out this blog for promised pictures tomorrow.
Hair:
I accompanied Dena to Rudy's for a haircut. Dena has been going to this garage style buzz and trim place for awhile now as its $ 21 for a "style", and I use that term loosely. Originally I had just wanted to accompany her and hang out but since we had to wait an hour and I needed a trim anyway I decided to get one. The stylist that Dena uses was booked but she suggested Natasha. Natasha, a tall, skinny, pink haired, harsh looking woman comes out from the back and she looks pissed. Apparently she was eating dinner and not in the mood to cut my hair. As I settled into the chair my mind screamed, "Get up!!! Get up and leave now!!" I ignored my intuition as I do most of the time and stayed put. A woman's intuition is a foolish thing to ignore and a vital piece of our existance. Why I continue to ignore mine I'll never know, but my logical side talks me out of listening to it more times than not.
I'm very used to having someone cut my hair with some sort of style in mind. I knew it was going to be bad when she said she was going to take about half an inch off. Then after I had very little hair left she said she was going to texture it. Then it was like she was taking another half an inch off. So I have no style and very little hair. Nice.......I'm never, ever going back to Rudy's. There is a reason why a real hair stylist charges $ 75! I've now taken to calling myself "cue ball".
Sunday night and Monday morning it was incredibly dry with a relative humidity of about 5 %. Now that's dry. Today it's hovering around 15 % in the city and 10 - 12% out by the fires. I'm thirsty all the time. There's a layer of ash on the car as well but certainly not to the extent of co-workers and friends that live in and near the burn areas. Check out this blog for promised pictures tomorrow.
Hair:
I accompanied Dena to Rudy's for a haircut. Dena has been going to this garage style buzz and trim place for awhile now as its $ 21 for a "style", and I use that term loosely. Originally I had just wanted to accompany her and hang out but since we had to wait an hour and I needed a trim anyway I decided to get one. The stylist that Dena uses was booked but she suggested Natasha. Natasha, a tall, skinny, pink haired, harsh looking woman comes out from the back and she looks pissed. Apparently she was eating dinner and not in the mood to cut my hair. As I settled into the chair my mind screamed, "Get up!!! Get up and leave now!!" I ignored my intuition as I do most of the time and stayed put. A woman's intuition is a foolish thing to ignore and a vital piece of our existance. Why I continue to ignore mine I'll never know, but my logical side talks me out of listening to it more times than not.
I'm very used to having someone cut my hair with some sort of style in mind. I knew it was going to be bad when she said she was going to take about half an inch off. Then after I had very little hair left she said she was going to texture it. Then it was like she was taking another half an inch off. So I have no style and very little hair. Nice.......I'm never, ever going back to Rudy's. There is a reason why a real hair stylist charges $ 75! I've now taken to calling myself "cue ball".
Friday, October 19, 2007
Toilet Paper Usage
Dena and I have argued since we moved in together about the quantity of toilet paper I use. This weekend with my Lake Naciemento scrapbooking home girls (a bunch of straight wild women who turn into wild women when the are away from their husbands) we discussed this topic and how several of their mates complain about it as well. So we all decided to do a test. We all "pulled" our regular allotment of TP and compared who uses how much. The results are.....
Of 7 women 3 are "green" where they only use 5 squares, one using 7 squares. The other 4 are between 8 and 11 squares with the average being 9.
Some basic history of Toilet Paper
The first known use of toilet paper per se (as opposed to leaves, etc) is 6th century AD in China.
I love this quote below:
The 16th century French satirical writer François Rabelais in his series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel, discussing the various ways of cleansing oneself at the toilet, wrote that: "He who uses paper on his filthy bum, will always find his ballocks lined with scum", proposing that the soft feathers on the back of a live goose provide an optimum cleansing medium.
Of 7 women 3 are "green" where they only use 5 squares, one using 7 squares. The other 4 are between 8 and 11 squares with the average being 9.
Some basic history of Toilet Paper
The first known use of toilet paper per se (as opposed to leaves, etc) is 6th century AD in China.
I love this quote below:
The 16th century French satirical writer François Rabelais in his series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel, discussing the various ways of cleansing oneself at the toilet, wrote that: "He who uses paper on his filthy bum, will always find his ballocks lined with scum", proposing that the soft feathers on the back of a live goose provide an optimum cleansing medium.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Stress
What does stress do to you? I've got so many things going on currently in my life that my stress level is astronomical. I'm not sure how I'm even handling it frankly, I think it helps that in the last 45 days I've taken 2 weeks vacation. I'm pretty sure that's whats saving me from a heart attack or a comatose mental breakdown.
The stress is caused by this company merger, new boss, doing multiple jobs, changing everything to do with my job (i.e. health plan, dental, 401k, etc) all the unknowns of this merger. Almost everyday I have stomach issues, often I'm angry and irritable, and I'm definitely not sleeping well and I'm definitely drinking more alcohol. I go to bed exhausted and wake up exhausted. And the aniety dreams! Wow. What am I going to do about it? Who knows? I find that going to the gym helps quite a bit however, I'm working so hard and long that there is often no time for the gym. It seems like an endless cycle that I'm becoming concerned about. For now, I'll just hang in there and hope. We have to have hope right?
Symptoms & Warning Signs of Job Stress
While the causes can be something other than job stress, here are the most common symptoms and early warning signs of job stress and burnout:
Apathy
Negativism/cynicism
Low morale
Boredom
Anxiety
Frustration
Fatigue
Depression
Alienation
Anger/irritability
Physical problems (headaches, stomach problems)
Absenteeism
hmmm, I have 99% of those things......perhaps I should try the last one -- absenteeism......
The stress is caused by this company merger, new boss, doing multiple jobs, changing everything to do with my job (i.e. health plan, dental, 401k, etc) all the unknowns of this merger. Almost everyday I have stomach issues, often I'm angry and irritable, and I'm definitely not sleeping well and I'm definitely drinking more alcohol. I go to bed exhausted and wake up exhausted. And the aniety dreams! Wow. What am I going to do about it? Who knows? I find that going to the gym helps quite a bit however, I'm working so hard and long that there is often no time for the gym. It seems like an endless cycle that I'm becoming concerned about. For now, I'll just hang in there and hope. We have to have hope right?
Symptoms & Warning Signs of Job Stress
While the causes can be something other than job stress, here are the most common symptoms and early warning signs of job stress and burnout:
Apathy
Negativism/cynicism
Low morale
Boredom
Anxiety
Frustration
Fatigue
Depression
Alienation
Anger/irritability
Physical problems (headaches, stomach problems)
Absenteeism
hmmm, I have 99% of those things......perhaps I should try the last one -- absenteeism......
Monday, October 15, 2007
My UCLA computer class
I'm taking this Linux computer geeky class at UCLA this fall semester. I felt that with the company merger happening and all the rule and expense changes, I should capitalize on the lax old rules before they change. So I took the class. I'm a firm believer that opportunity rarely knocks and when it does it knocks very softly.
The Unix/Linux class is Intermediate and it's taught by a JPL rocket scientist who I'm pretty sure is on about 10 cups of high test Starbucks by the time he comes to teach. He talks very fast, gives us very complicated Linux commands and I am finding it incredibly stimulating. The other night I went to class exhausted and came out wired, excited and wide awake. Nothing like a little brain candy to wake up all the synapses, eh. I'm hoping this class will help me prepare for my Linux certification but who knows if I'll have any time to study to prepare as we are so busy that I'm already working 12 hours a day. Thank god I had some vacations planned or I'd be hosed and burnt out already. The stress of the merger alone is really affecting me. There is so much going on, we're splitting off, getting new benefits, changing benefits, changing bosses, it's just way too much change to happen all at once.
The Unix/Linux class is Intermediate and it's taught by a JPL rocket scientist who I'm pretty sure is on about 10 cups of high test Starbucks by the time he comes to teach. He talks very fast, gives us very complicated Linux commands and I am finding it incredibly stimulating. The other night I went to class exhausted and came out wired, excited and wide awake. Nothing like a little brain candy to wake up all the synapses, eh. I'm hoping this class will help me prepare for my Linux certification but who knows if I'll have any time to study to prepare as we are so busy that I'm already working 12 hours a day. Thank god I had some vacations planned or I'd be hosed and burnt out already. The stress of the merger alone is really affecting me. There is so much going on, we're splitting off, getting new benefits, changing benefits, changing bosses, it's just way too much change to happen all at once.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
It's Crazy Out Here
These are just random thoughts.
You know what's cool -- losing 20 pounds lets you fit into the small 737 seats a whole lot better. Flying is actually sort of comfortable, well, as comfortable as flying nowadays can be.
Also, my sister was at LAX flying home with her family last Sunday and she told me about this TSA agent making a mother take a baby's bib off. I thought, hmmm, must have been some snotty TSA agent. Well, last Tuesday I went thru Burbank airport, I was wearing a t-shirt with a nice collared shirt over it, open, aka not buttoned. They searched me after I went thru security because I had lose fitting clothing. What a bunch of bullshit.
I'm exhausted, want to know what I did this week? Monday, worked like a dog, about 14 hours. Tuesday, took a 7:00a Southwest flight out of Burbank airport for PHX, worked 14 hours a day while I was there and flew home tonight in time for my Linux computer class at UCLA. Where I'm sitting now, until 10:00pm. Great. Think I'm tired yet? Well, how about Friday's agenda? Early morning flight from Burbank to PHX, work all day, fly home on 6:30p flight, and then....pass out.
Sounds like fun eh
You know what's cool -- losing 20 pounds lets you fit into the small 737 seats a whole lot better. Flying is actually sort of comfortable, well, as comfortable as flying nowadays can be.
Also, my sister was at LAX flying home with her family last Sunday and she told me about this TSA agent making a mother take a baby's bib off. I thought, hmmm, must have been some snotty TSA agent. Well, last Tuesday I went thru Burbank airport, I was wearing a t-shirt with a nice collared shirt over it, open, aka not buttoned. They searched me after I went thru security because I had lose fitting clothing. What a bunch of bullshit.
I'm exhausted, want to know what I did this week? Monday, worked like a dog, about 14 hours. Tuesday, took a 7:00a Southwest flight out of Burbank airport for PHX, worked 14 hours a day while I was there and flew home tonight in time for my Linux computer class at UCLA. Where I'm sitting now, until 10:00pm. Great. Think I'm tired yet? Well, how about Friday's agenda? Early morning flight from Burbank to PHX, work all day, fly home on 6:30p flight, and then....pass out.
Sounds like fun eh
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
DisneyLand Day 2
19,800 steps on my pedometer later (for one day) and Disneyland is done. Wow. That's a lot of steps. Disneyland has a theme this year, "a million dreams". Well, Grace's dreams certainly came true on this trip with a 100% success rate in seeing princesses and a pretty much 90% success rate in meeting them. The only princess she didn't personally meet at least once was Tinkerbell but I don't think Tink really attends any events per se. She's like a night princess I think. However, during the parade, Tinkerbell was high up on her float waving to everyone with her wand and Grace was waving her little Tinkerbell stuffed doll up at her, Tinkerbell saw Grace, smiled, waved and put her hands over her mouth in a true "pleased" princess posed. Grace was thrilled. We're all dog tired but had a great time with even the adults getting on some rides. The haunted mansion was decked out for "Nightmare before Christmas" and it was awesome! I've never seen it in that state. Bye for now
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Heart to Heart Chats.....
Grace has a heart to heart chat with various Disney Princesses. The highlight of her day, I can assure you! I'm pretty sure they were solving the world's problems. Good thing, they need solving.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Thoughts and Ramblings.....
I had to go to my neighborhood Von's grocery store last night to pick up a few veggies for dinner and got a nice surprise at the cash register. Now, let me just preface this by saying that our Von's sucks. It's small, has a terrible selection of fresh food and poor quality when it is there and frankly, it caters to a market segment that I'm not a part of. Ok, let's get real here. Some of you aren't going to like what I say, but, hey, it's true. Grocery stores, and other retailers use market research (like your Ralph's/Vons/Albertsons "savings" card) to gather buying habits and other data on their clientel and focus the stores' content on that information. Our Vons caters to black people, pure and simple. It's the only grocery store I go to that has grits, collared greens during Thanksgiving, gumbo, etc etc. Am I racially profiling and pissing you off? Well tough shit, it's the truth.
Wait a second, where was I going with this? Oh, right --- so at the cash register there was a stack of Melissa Etheridge's new release "Awakenings" with a big sign over the POS machine for donating to breast cancer. I thought, hmmm, this is novel, a lesbian, white woman's CD in a predominately black supermarket with top billing. How life continues to amaze me........by the way, I donated.
Next random thought, 6:00 am. I usually get up at 6 and go to the gym or for a walk. What happened? It's still dark when I go out there! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that the earth rotates and moves in it's orbit around the sun and fall is coming so the days are shorter, but still. It sucks. It feels like I should be in bed. Getting motivated is quite difficult when you get up and it's dark. When is daylight savings time anyways? Well this year, it's the first Sunday in November instead of somewhere in October. I think it's 2 weeks later.
Well, there are more random thoughts, but I'll get to those later.......
Wait a second, where was I going with this? Oh, right --- so at the cash register there was a stack of Melissa Etheridge's new release "Awakenings" with a big sign over the POS machine for donating to breast cancer. I thought, hmmm, this is novel, a lesbian, white woman's CD in a predominately black supermarket with top billing. How life continues to amaze me........by the way, I donated.
Next random thought, 6:00 am. I usually get up at 6 and go to the gym or for a walk. What happened? It's still dark when I go out there! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that the earth rotates and moves in it's orbit around the sun and fall is coming so the days are shorter, but still. It sucks. It feels like I should be in bed. Getting motivated is quite difficult when you get up and it's dark. When is daylight savings time anyways? Well this year, it's the first Sunday in November instead of somewhere in October. I think it's 2 weeks later.
Well, there are more random thoughts, but I'll get to those later.......
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Simpler Times.....
As I sit in the deep, dank ne'er regions of the Grand Del Mar computer room designing and programming their entire network, I think of how much fun this is. I know that sounds silly. I have no cell phone service, the toilets have no paper products, there are construction workers everywhere and a big smile on my face. Here, I can fix something, program something and receive relatively instant gratification that I've done a good job.
My job now is Customer Relations Manager. What does that mean really? The official explanation is that I provide a liaison between the customer and sales and the customer and our technical services people. You may even call me a customer advocate. I'm required to be technical in nature, salesy in nature but most of all, have excellent customer facing skills. I think I fit that bill. The job in theory is supposed to strengthen the customer relationship between the "company" and the customer. This should head off situations where all of a sudden the customer buys $ 1,000,000 worth of widgets from your competitor and tells you to hit the road because x, y and z sucks about your company, but you had no idea the customer was having that experience. I think it's a vital position and my company focuses it on higher $ value customers, as it should be.
So for these next 2 days, I have no customer interaction, I have only to talk to inanimate objects via my computer and make them do my bidding. A nice change for sure. I'm sure Monday I'll be happy to be doing my real job :-)
Addendum: well as I left the site at 9:00pm I'm wondering if I miss it all that much, my back aches from sitting hunched over a cardboard box as a table from my seat, another cardboard box.
My job now is Customer Relations Manager. What does that mean really? The official explanation is that I provide a liaison between the customer and sales and the customer and our technical services people. You may even call me a customer advocate. I'm required to be technical in nature, salesy in nature but most of all, have excellent customer facing skills. I think I fit that bill. The job in theory is supposed to strengthen the customer relationship between the "company" and the customer. This should head off situations where all of a sudden the customer buys $ 1,000,000 worth of widgets from your competitor and tells you to hit the road because x, y and z sucks about your company, but you had no idea the customer was having that experience. I think it's a vital position and my company focuses it on higher $ value customers, as it should be.
So for these next 2 days, I have no customer interaction, I have only to talk to inanimate objects via my computer and make them do my bidding. A nice change for sure. I'm sure Monday I'll be happy to be doing my real job :-)
Addendum: well as I left the site at 9:00pm I'm wondering if I miss it all that much, my back aches from sitting hunched over a cardboard box as a table from my seat, another cardboard box.
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