Here it is: the last blog entry of the year. But I'm not ready to tote up the days and the happenings of 2010 and declare them to be of a certain quality. I think I'll have my taxes done long before I get a real handle on what 2010 was for me.
To celebrate its departure, Steve and I went up to Pismo Beach for a couple of days earlier this week. We got to visit with my sister Kittie and her husband David. We had a lovely Italian dinner with them Monday evening. Steve had shrimp and scallops and got extremely ill later that night. After about 11 hours of sleep, and he was feeling much better, so we headed out.
On Tuesday, we drove up to Cambria, since Steve had never been, and stopped in at Seekers Art Glass Gallery to see if we could get a couple more tumblers by Esteban Prieto.
No such luck. They were out of stock, so we drove slow down Main Street and drove past Dr. Tinkerpaw's house on Nitwit Ridge. We didn't stop for any food, since Steve was still feeling a little queasy.
By the time we reached Morro Bay, he had enough of an appetite to stop at one of the Foster's Freezes of my youth. We got milkshakes, which has always been my chicken-soup for food poisoning and/or hangovers.
After, we went down to the Embarcadero to window shop and kill some time before our dinner date. (I only seem to take pictures when I'm standing on a dock in Morro Bay. Here's a chunk of video):
Late afternoon-early evening, we got together with Lisa Woske at Pepe Delgado's in San Luis Obispo for a round of drinks and some dinner. Steve braved the Albonigos soup (which was most agreeable) and I had a taco salad. Lisa had a large burrito with the word "Whale" in its name. It was very large, and a hefty remainder went home with her to feed her son, Chris. Steve and I went back to the hotel and kicked back for the evening, listening to the rain as it arrived.
Wednesday morning, the rain had moved on. We packed up and checked out, then stopped by Kittie's office. She introduced us around (getting a real kick out of calling Steve her brother-in-law). After lunch at a deli in the Village, we dropped Kittie back at work and hit the road home.
The rain moved ahead of us as we drove south, following far enough behind never to get wet. The gray clouds were moving out of Pasadena just at the time we got home.
The cats were glad to see us.
For New Year's Eve, we're celebrating at home, as usual. Moving around in Pasadena on New Year's Eve can be tricky. We've got half a cheese log, a wedge of brie and bread and crackers enough for celebration.
Goodbye, 2010. Goodbye.
Can't wait for the Rose Parade and the floats. Much saner and better viewing watching it on HDTV. But maybe next year we'll get some tickets and brave the weather to be there in person.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas Everybody
Here it is, Christmas Eve, and now my favorite Christmas cartoon. Coming across this last year was what started the whole Yuletide cartoon fling. My copy from last year:
We went out last night to pick up cat food and cat litter, both supplies almost exhausted and overlooked while getting ready for the holiday weekend. It was crazy out there. The parking at PetSmart was all right, but everywhere else it was impossible to find a parking place.
I hope I did a Christmas good deed. Sister-in-law Carla sent out an e-mail asking for dad's Christmas Eve Clam Chowder recipe. Luckily, I have it on file with my other favorites on the computer, so it was easy to copy and paste it. Hope she got the e-mail, as I sent it just minutes before she was scheduled to leave for the store.
So, Merry Christmas everybody, and a Happy New Year.
1936 "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" is a Fleischer cartoon (the creators of Betty Boop) from 1936 and stars Professor Grampy, who was added to the Fleischer character stable in an attempt to tone down the risque innuendos of Betty Boop's early cartoons which brought the wrath of the censors. I can remember watching this on our black-and-white television set in the late '50s. Running across it in color is a real treat.
We went out last night to pick up cat food and cat litter, both supplies almost exhausted and overlooked while getting ready for the holiday weekend. It was crazy out there. The parking at PetSmart was all right, but everywhere else it was impossible to find a parking place.
I hope I did a Christmas good deed. Sister-in-law Carla sent out an e-mail asking for dad's Christmas Eve Clam Chowder recipe. Luckily, I have it on file with my other favorites on the computer, so it was easy to copy and paste it. Hope she got the e-mail, as I sent it just minutes before she was scheduled to leave for the store.
So, Merry Christmas everybody, and a Happy New Year.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Here Comes Stepford Santa
From 1963, this short must have been a tax write-off. It's kind of a poem but not. It's obviously shot in somebody's living room and a department store somewhere, and there is no talent or even enthusiasm involved, but lots of stock footage of Santas in various promotional situations.
There's also lots of female brainwashing involved when it comes to the scenes in the "toy warehouse." My favorite line: "...she'll cook and scrub the whole day long, then serve a TV dinner."
Wednesday was rain. And rain. And more rain. There was lightning and thunder and some pretty nasty mudslides in the area, some four and five feet deep. And then, just before sundown, a crack in the clouds in the west and, for a moment, a rainbow. By the time the sun had gone down, seven days of constant rain were over. The storm has moved off to the east, to wreck havoc as it moves across the continent.
Wednesday evening was cookie-baking time. Not the vast amounts I had hoped to do, but enough to make a gift and keep a dozen or so for our holidays.
Today I have one more shopping errand and then we're ready for the holiday weekend and the week off to come. It will be nice to walk in a chilly but sunny day. But it's my understanding we're not done with the rain, and some forecasts predict at least drizzle on the Rose Parade. We'll have to see.
One last cartoon scheduled for tomorrow, Christmas Eve. We will go back to the Great Depression and one of my favorite holiday animations.
If you don't get around to reading this on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
There's also lots of female brainwashing involved when it comes to the scenes in the "toy warehouse." My favorite line: "...she'll cook and scrub the whole day long, then serve a TV dinner."
Wednesday was rain. And rain. And more rain. There was lightning and thunder and some pretty nasty mudslides in the area, some four and five feet deep. And then, just before sundown, a crack in the clouds in the west and, for a moment, a rainbow. By the time the sun had gone down, seven days of constant rain were over. The storm has moved off to the east, to wreck havoc as it moves across the continent.
Wednesday evening was cookie-baking time. Not the vast amounts I had hoped to do, but enough to make a gift and keep a dozen or so for our holidays.
Today I have one more shopping errand and then we're ready for the holiday weekend and the week off to come. It will be nice to walk in a chilly but sunny day. But it's my understanding we're not done with the rain, and some forecasts predict at least drizzle on the Rose Parade. We'll have to see.
One last cartoon scheduled for tomorrow, Christmas Eve. We will go back to the Great Depression and one of my favorite holiday animations.
If you don't get around to reading this on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Holiday Bump-a-Cars
Made in Russia in 1959, "The Christmas Visit" provided for the holiday (which officially did not exist) while showcasing Soviet scientific superiority. Kind of kooky, but no less insane than American Christmas.
Of course, there's no telling what liberties were taken by the people who dubbed this into English. It's fun to compare this to the very first Christmas cartoon in this series, which was also done in Russia but in 1913 (Here Come the Cartoons, 12/03/10).
Tuesday was weird. There was a good lull in the rain, so I took the opportunity to go out and do grocery shopping for the holiday weekend. This year I actually put together a daily menu so I'd have the right stuff on hand and not have to run out to grab missing ingredients.
I was driving down Mentor, a one-way street clearly marked "no stopping at any time," and there was a car stopped in the righthand lane, just in front of the entrance to the store parking lot. I pulled left around them, signaled for my righthand turn and felt them ram into the back of my car as I made my turn.
I backed up and parked on the street, and an old woman emerged from the passenger's side. She had a heavy slavic accent. "Dis vas yur vault!" she was saying. The driver, a younger woman, sat in the car. I went around and checked my fender and there was a foot-long scratch but, hey, there are lots of scratches on my car, as it's 12 years old.
"You were stopped in a no-stopping zone," I said. "And you hit me from behind, so you obviously didn't look for traffic before pulling forward."
"No, no," she protested, "You come from wrong lane."
"Because you were illegally stopped in the right one."
About this time the young woman got out.
"Well, what's the damage to your car?" I asked. We walked over and checked the driver's side headlight. There was a inch-long scratch in the paint and a small piece of the rubber gasket around the light housing was half peeled back.
"Here," the old woman said in an injured voice, "You see vat you do!"
"I was turning into the parking lot," the young woman said.
"And you cut us off!" the older one exclaimed.
"Well," I said, "I can give you my insurance information and you can give me yours and we can call the police and wait for someone to come out and document this." The old woman glared at me. The young one looked worried.
"You were breaking the law," I repeated. "There's a sign right there and one right back there, and they both say 'No Stopping at Any Time.'" All was silent.
"You're going Christmas shopping, aren't you?" I asked. They both nodded. "If we file a report, you'll get a ticket and I might get one, too. Why don't we say we were both at fault and live with the scratches? The important thing is everyone's all right."
"I'm a sick old woman!" was the reply.
And then. "I think you're right," from the driver.
"Let's get our shopping done," I said, moving back to my car, and added without really thinking, "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas!" the old woman called. The two words had worked magic on her, and she seemed almost chipper.
This store has a strange holiday energy. Five years ago, Steve and I were pulling into the parking lot Christmas Eve to pick up last-minute stuff. He hit the curb and blew out a tire.
As Steve was gnashing his teeth and we set about to change the wheel, a man pulled up next to us in the parking lot and said, "Looks like you need some help." While we watched, he pulled a pneumatic jack from his truck, popped the wheel and had the new one on in no time, chattering happily all the while. "Merry Christmas!" he called on the way into the store. We returned his hail.
This is all very heartwarming, in an automotive way, but I am avoiding this Ralphs store within 10 days of any major holiday from now on.
Of course, there's no telling what liberties were taken by the people who dubbed this into English. It's fun to compare this to the very first Christmas cartoon in this series, which was also done in Russia but in 1913 (Here Come the Cartoons, 12/03/10).
Tuesday was weird. There was a good lull in the rain, so I took the opportunity to go out and do grocery shopping for the holiday weekend. This year I actually put together a daily menu so I'd have the right stuff on hand and not have to run out to grab missing ingredients.
I was driving down Mentor, a one-way street clearly marked "no stopping at any time," and there was a car stopped in the righthand lane, just in front of the entrance to the store parking lot. I pulled left around them, signaled for my righthand turn and felt them ram into the back of my car as I made my turn.
I backed up and parked on the street, and an old woman emerged from the passenger's side. She had a heavy slavic accent. "Dis vas yur vault!" she was saying. The driver, a younger woman, sat in the car. I went around and checked my fender and there was a foot-long scratch but, hey, there are lots of scratches on my car, as it's 12 years old.
"You were stopped in a no-stopping zone," I said. "And you hit me from behind, so you obviously didn't look for traffic before pulling forward."
"No, no," she protested, "You come from wrong lane."
"Because you were illegally stopped in the right one."
About this time the young woman got out.
"Well, what's the damage to your car?" I asked. We walked over and checked the driver's side headlight. There was a inch-long scratch in the paint and a small piece of the rubber gasket around the light housing was half peeled back.
"Here," the old woman said in an injured voice, "You see vat you do!"
"I was turning into the parking lot," the young woman said.
"And you cut us off!" the older one exclaimed.
"Well," I said, "I can give you my insurance information and you can give me yours and we can call the police and wait for someone to come out and document this." The old woman glared at me. The young one looked worried.
"You were breaking the law," I repeated. "There's a sign right there and one right back there, and they both say 'No Stopping at Any Time.'" All was silent.
"You're going Christmas shopping, aren't you?" I asked. They both nodded. "If we file a report, you'll get a ticket and I might get one, too. Why don't we say we were both at fault and live with the scratches? The important thing is everyone's all right."
"I'm a sick old woman!" was the reply.
And then. "I think you're right," from the driver.
"Let's get our shopping done," I said, moving back to my car, and added without really thinking, "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas!" the old woman called. The two words had worked magic on her, and she seemed almost chipper.
This store has a strange holiday energy. Five years ago, Steve and I were pulling into the parking lot Christmas Eve to pick up last-minute stuff. He hit the curb and blew out a tire.
As Steve was gnashing his teeth and we set about to change the wheel, a man pulled up next to us in the parking lot and said, "Looks like you need some help." While we watched, he pulled a pneumatic jack from his truck, popped the wheel and had the new one on in no time, chattering happily all the while. "Merry Christmas!" he called on the way into the store. We returned his hail.
This is all very heartwarming, in an automotive way, but I am avoiding this Ralphs store within 10 days of any major holiday from now on.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Wet, Wetter, Wettest, Wettester
"The Christmas Visitor" from 1959. It's an English cartoon, done in the simplified animation style that would become so popular in TV commercials of the 1960s.
It's a take on "T'was the Night Before Christmas," with a whole Snidley-Whiplash-Nell-on-the-train-tracks twist that doesn't make sense. Santa smokes a cigar and drinks booze while it all unfolds. Also, he's got a Mary Poppins thing going on in the chimney.
It rained even more Monday than it did the day before. Whole gobs of rain. I kept waiting for it to let up so I could go out and do some shopping, but by 2 p.m. it was obvious this was as good as it was going to get, so I got in the car and headed out.
Conditions were terrible: intersections flooded, my windows fogging up, idiots in SUVs tearing around like the roads were dry. Got done most of what I wanted to get done and then headed straight back home. Wrapped a couple more presents and stayed warm inside while the storm pounded on Pasadena.
Today I plan on doing some holiday baking and some boring old laundry. And Wednesday I've got to get the shopping done for the holiday weekend. Haven't even planned the menu yet, but I'm sure it will all come together.
Only a couple days left until Christmas, only a couple of cartoons left to put up here. Hope everyone's holiday season is going well so far. Hope people can get to where they're going by the time they need to get there.
It's a take on "T'was the Night Before Christmas," with a whole Snidley-Whiplash-Nell-on-the-train-tracks twist that doesn't make sense. Santa smokes a cigar and drinks booze while it all unfolds. Also, he's got a Mary Poppins thing going on in the chimney.
It rained even more Monday than it did the day before. Whole gobs of rain. I kept waiting for it to let up so I could go out and do some shopping, but by 2 p.m. it was obvious this was as good as it was going to get, so I got in the car and headed out.
Conditions were terrible: intersections flooded, my windows fogging up, idiots in SUVs tearing around like the roads were dry. Got done most of what I wanted to get done and then headed straight back home. Wrapped a couple more presents and stayed warm inside while the storm pounded on Pasadena.
Today I plan on doing some holiday baking and some boring old laundry. And Wednesday I've got to get the shopping done for the holiday weekend. Haven't even planned the menu yet, but I'm sure it will all come together.
Only a couple days left until Christmas, only a couple of cartoons left to put up here. Hope everyone's holiday season is going well so far. Hope people can get to where they're going by the time they need to get there.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Gray Skies Aren't Gonna Clear Up
Harveytoons strikes again with "Jumping With Toy" from 1957. This one stars Baby Huey, a mentally challenged monster duckling. The starving fox always tries to consume Baby Huey, but Huey's positive attitude and giant size saves him every time. What's the point of the cartoon? There is none, as with much of 1950s American culture.
Sunday was spent pretty much indoors, as it rained and rained and rained. It looks like it's going to be doing just that until well into Wednesday, so my last days of shopping will be done in drizzle to downpour, depending on the timing of it all.
My heart goes out to those who live beneath the burn areas, which take three to five years to fully recover. Minor mudslides were reported today, but if the rain keep coming down as forecast, I fear some families will be spending Christmas knee-deep in mud.
Steve and I have decided, since he's off between Christmas and New Year's days, to take a couple days and head up the coast just to get out of town. We're scheduling it so that we miss most of what will be the intra-holiday traffic.
Hopefully, one of our stops will be at John and Sandy Beck's to see their Christmas decorations. I'll get footage, if possible, to share with those unfamiliar with this phenomenon. It will astound the uninitiated.
Sunday was spent pretty much indoors, as it rained and rained and rained. It looks like it's going to be doing just that until well into Wednesday, so my last days of shopping will be done in drizzle to downpour, depending on the timing of it all.
My heart goes out to those who live beneath the burn areas, which take three to five years to fully recover. Minor mudslides were reported today, but if the rain keep coming down as forecast, I fear some families will be spending Christmas knee-deep in mud.
Steve and I have decided, since he's off between Christmas and New Year's days, to take a couple days and head up the coast just to get out of town. We're scheduling it so that we miss most of what will be the intra-holiday traffic.
Hopefully, one of our stops will be at John and Sandy Beck's to see their Christmas decorations. I'll get footage, if possible, to share with those unfamiliar with this phenomenon. It will astound the uninitiated.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Merry Christmas 200 Times
It must be close to Christmas, because we've reach the 1950s and television has begun to brainwash us all. Today's feature short is "Howdy Doody's Christmas." You have to be rather long in the tooth to remember this show. Only four of the regular characters show up here (and Santa too, of course), but already nefarious forces are at work to stop Santa's special visit.
But first, in the spirit of 1950s TV Christmas and while the kids are all watching, a word from our sponsor:
And now, back to our special program for today from 1957:
Today was rainy-drizzling, with constant but not overwhelming precipitation. We went grocery shopping, then Steve went out for a haircut while I wrapped presents. When he got home, I went up and napped while he wrapped presents. Now it's not looking too shabby under the tree, but nothing like some of the trees from my family's past (one coarse snapshot shown here, with presents reaching wall to wall).
When we were very little kids, opening presents happened on Christmas mornings, and it was a free-for-all: paper and ribbon flew and it was over in about 15 minutes. As we got older, we started opening presents on Christmas Eve, 7:30 p.m. to be precise.
Someone was designated and he or she picked a present from under the tree (when picking, the rule was it could not be to you or from you) and handed it to the recipient. He or she opened the present, oohs and aahs ensued and everyone got to see it. The recipient then got up and picked a present and presented it to the next person and so on.
This procedure could last for hours with a family of seven (and even longer when those siblings spawned offspring). The extended period, however, gave us all more time to enjoy the holiday.
Traditions are funny things, sort of like taking a shower: everyone does it a little differently and without ever thinking about it. Yet they have a very precise and time-honored course they follow. And, over the years, it changes ever so subtly that almost no one notices.
Merry Christmas: pass the shampoo when you're done with it.
But first, in the spirit of 1950s TV Christmas and while the kids are all watching, a word from our sponsor:
And now, back to our special program for today from 1957:
Today was rainy-drizzling, with constant but not overwhelming precipitation. We went grocery shopping, then Steve went out for a haircut while I wrapped presents. When he got home, I went up and napped while he wrapped presents. Now it's not looking too shabby under the tree, but nothing like some of the trees from my family's past (one coarse snapshot shown here, with presents reaching wall to wall).
When we were very little kids, opening presents happened on Christmas mornings, and it was a free-for-all: paper and ribbon flew and it was over in about 15 minutes. As we got older, we started opening presents on Christmas Eve, 7:30 p.m. to be precise. Someone was designated and he or she picked a present from under the tree (when picking, the rule was it could not be to you or from you) and handed it to the recipient. He or she opened the present, oohs and aahs ensued and everyone got to see it. The recipient then got up and picked a present and presented it to the next person and so on.
This procedure could last for hours with a family of seven (and even longer when those siblings spawned offspring). The extended period, however, gave us all more time to enjoy the holiday.
Traditions are funny things, sort of like taking a shower: everyone does it a little differently and without ever thinking about it. Yet they have a very precise and time-honored course they follow. And, over the years, it changes ever so subtly that almost no one notices.
Merry Christmas: pass the shampoo when you're done with it.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Ghost of Christmas 1955
To prove the shamelessness of Hollywood, here comes a Casper cartoon from 1955. With all the potential of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and their rich Dickensian heritage, Harveytoons chooses to rip off the Fliescher Bros. 1938 classic, "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" (which we will be seeing here on Christmas Eve Day) in this friendly ghost story. No real redeeming qualities, but I wanted to show it as a lackluster comparison to the original.
Looks like it's going to rain right through until Christmas here in Pasadena. The temperatures will be below normal, meaning in the low 60s instead of the high 60s. I watch the news coverage of cold and snow in the rest of the country and have to be thankful for our winters here. Let's just hope it doesn't rain on the Rose Parade like it did five years ago.
Friday I got down the wrapping materials and took paper/ribbon/bow inventory. The one thing I always forget — name tags — I had already purchased. Having made my count (and taken a picture of the wrapping papers to match colors), I went shopping to fill out the supplies.
I checked the job boards online, but nothing new is showing up this week, and I don't think anything will until the new year, so I'm concentrating on holiday cheer, thankful for all the good things in my life right now, and my good taste in holiday wrapping supplies.
Still some shopping left, so next week won't be boring.
Looks like it's going to rain right through until Christmas here in Pasadena. The temperatures will be below normal, meaning in the low 60s instead of the high 60s. I watch the news coverage of cold and snow in the rest of the country and have to be thankful for our winters here. Let's just hope it doesn't rain on the Rose Parade like it did five years ago.
Friday I got down the wrapping materials and took paper/ribbon/bow inventory. The one thing I always forget — name tags — I had already purchased. Having made my count (and taken a picture of the wrapping papers to match colors), I went shopping to fill out the supplies.
I checked the job boards online, but nothing new is showing up this week, and I don't think anything will until the new year, so I'm concentrating on holiday cheer, thankful for all the good things in my life right now, and my good taste in holiday wrapping supplies.
Still some shopping left, so next week won't be boring.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Begin the Year's Closing Out
Just got the news today that Variety hired someone else for the graphic designer position they had open. Actually, Wednesday night I wrote an e-mail to Creative Director, Paula Taylor, saying I couldn't understand why I wasn't being seriously considered for the position and letting her know I was going to call her on Friday to discuss whatever concerns she might have.
Thursday afternoon I got an e-mail from the HR person saying that the position had been offered to someone else and they had accepted it. If I had not been so assertive, I wonder how many days it would have taken her to give me that information (or, in fact, for how many days she had it and had not communicated it to me as she has repeatedly said she would).
It was a long shot, in any case, but at least I got the information I wanted (though not the information I wanted, if you get my drift). Perhaps this is God telling me that the entertainment industry sucks, and I should go into something sincere, meaningful and genuine, like marketing or public relations.
Enough of my tawdry career melodramatics. Nothing of substance is going to happen until after the holidays now, so let's have some holly-jolly fun, what eh?
It's time for today's Christmas short: "Hardrock, Coco and Joe (the Three Little Dwarfs.)" I love this one especially because, during a time when America had such racial tensions brewing, the creators of this piece were brave enough to make Santa Asian (perhaps guilt feelings of Hiroshima): ENJOY!
There was a party on Thursday at Pearce Plastics (the company where Steve works and I did their web design), and I was the only invited outside guest. It was quite an honor. It was a combination Christmas party and birthday party (the owner, Woody Pearce, will be 91 this month).
They held it in an open area of the shipping department (the company manufactures plastic tops and jars for the cosmetic industry) and it was kind of a pot luck. There were some amazing enchiladas and rice, and a flan that was really excellent. And after the food was the Dancing! Here's the very first video from my iPhone recording the festivities. Woody's the guy in the gray jacket who comes into frame on the right about 30 seconds into the clip.
After the party, I actually got some shopping done and the parking wasn't too terrible at all. Found some nice stuff and a few bargains.
And when I got home there were two boxes from Fed Ex sitting outside the door. They were both from my sister Kittie and her husband David. One was full of Christmas presents and the other had birthday presents from this last year: two hand-blown tumblers in the exact same style and by the exact same artist as the four old-fashioned glasses I've had for almost 20 years. Steve and I were just blown away! And the birthday presents were packed in a styrofoam shipping chest, so now we have a really convenient way to transport our spare human organs.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!
Thursday afternoon I got an e-mail from the HR person saying that the position had been offered to someone else and they had accepted it. If I had not been so assertive, I wonder how many days it would have taken her to give me that information (or, in fact, for how many days she had it and had not communicated it to me as she has repeatedly said she would).
It was a long shot, in any case, but at least I got the information I wanted (though not the information I wanted, if you get my drift). Perhaps this is God telling me that the entertainment industry sucks, and I should go into something sincere, meaningful and genuine, like marketing or public relations.
Enough of my tawdry career melodramatics. Nothing of substance is going to happen until after the holidays now, so let's have some holly-jolly fun, what eh?
It's time for today's Christmas short: "Hardrock, Coco and Joe (the Three Little Dwarfs.)" I love this one especially because, during a time when America had such racial tensions brewing, the creators of this piece were brave enough to make Santa Asian (perhaps guilt feelings of Hiroshima): ENJOY!
There was a party on Thursday at Pearce Plastics (the company where Steve works and I did their web design), and I was the only invited outside guest. It was quite an honor. It was a combination Christmas party and birthday party (the owner, Woody Pearce, will be 91 this month).They held it in an open area of the shipping department (the company manufactures plastic tops and jars for the cosmetic industry) and it was kind of a pot luck. There were some amazing enchiladas and rice, and a flan that was really excellent. And after the food was the Dancing! Here's the very first video from my iPhone recording the festivities. Woody's the guy in the gray jacket who comes into frame on the right about 30 seconds into the clip.
After the party, I actually got some shopping done and the parking wasn't too terrible at all. Found some nice stuff and a few bargains.
And when I got home there were two boxes from Fed Ex sitting outside the door. They were both from my sister Kittie and her husband David. One was full of Christmas presents and the other had birthday presents from this last year: two hand-blown tumblers in the exact same style and by the exact same artist as the four old-fashioned glasses I've had for almost 20 years. Steve and I were just blown away! And the birthday presents were packed in a styrofoam shipping chest, so now we have a really convenient way to transport our spare human organs.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Aching for the Holidays
Today's short: "Here Comes Suzy Snowflake." Rosemary Clooney popularized this 1951 song with a much spritlier version than the one heard here. This film's creators were also responsible for tomorrow's vid, "Hardrock, Coco and Joe" (more gang names), both created for broadcast on WGN in Chicago.
I woke up yesterday morning feeling achy and sore and didn't get any better, so I called and canceled my last day at job search boot camp. I made myself a sandwich and went back to bed and slept the rest of the day. Taking an ibuprofen improved things a little, and I'm not feeling too lousy. Since I write these blogs around midnight, I can report that I'm feeling better and hope to be back on my feet today.
Got to put together my to-do list. Believe it or not, I haven't even started my Christmas shopping, and there's only eight days left (we open packages on Christmas Eve). The list will be short this year, but it needs to get done, nonetheless. Also on the list, getting my car smogged and paying the registration. A tip: Never buy a car in January. It really screws up the holidays with the annual paperwork. What a festive bit of advice upon which to end.
I woke up yesterday morning feeling achy and sore and didn't get any better, so I called and canceled my last day at job search boot camp. I made myself a sandwich and went back to bed and slept the rest of the day. Taking an ibuprofen improved things a little, and I'm not feeling too lousy. Since I write these blogs around midnight, I can report that I'm feeling better and hope to be back on my feet today.
Got to put together my to-do list. Believe it or not, I haven't even started my Christmas shopping, and there's only eight days left (we open packages on Christmas Eve). The list will be short this year, but it needs to get done, nonetheless. Also on the list, getting my car smogged and paying the registration. A tip: Never buy a car in January. It really screws up the holidays with the annual paperwork. What a festive bit of advice upon which to end.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Six Decades of Separation
Here's a lovely live-action short from Christmas 1950, starring Santa Claus and his three elf workers, Pepe, Zippo and Click. It's odd, because I'm sure I've seen these same names scrawled in graffiti on a bus bench in old town Pasadena: yesterday's Christmas elves become today's gang members.
I love the family portrayed in this film. No needy children here, just Christmas greed wrapped up in a holiday hymn: a glimmer of the mercantile Christmas yet to come.
The second day of job search boot camp was kind of like the first, only in reverse. The first session dealt with taking your LinkedIn network and using it to find contacts with various companies. They also turned us on to several job sites that are designed to narrow your search rather than cast the widest net.
One of the great things about these seminars is that these folks are recruiters, and they are giving us the inside scoop on how recruiters go about finding qualified candidates for job openings; how they search and what they look for in resumes and profiles.
The second half of the afternoon was interview advice, and a lot of this was pretty self-evident. I did pick up a few ideas, though, so it wasn't a total repeat of what I already know. Tomorrow is mock interviewing with actual recruiters, with a critique afterwards. That will wrap up the three-day workshop.
I still haven't done any Christmas shopping.
I love the family portrayed in this film. No needy children here, just Christmas greed wrapped up in a holiday hymn: a glimmer of the mercantile Christmas yet to come.
The second day of job search boot camp was kind of like the first, only in reverse. The first session dealt with taking your LinkedIn network and using it to find contacts with various companies. They also turned us on to several job sites that are designed to narrow your search rather than cast the widest net.
One of the great things about these seminars is that these folks are recruiters, and they are giving us the inside scoop on how recruiters go about finding qualified candidates for job openings; how they search and what they look for in resumes and profiles.
The second half of the afternoon was interview advice, and a lot of this was pretty self-evident. I did pick up a few ideas, though, so it wasn't a total repeat of what I already know. Tomorrow is mock interviewing with actual recruiters, with a critique afterwards. That will wrap up the three-day workshop.
I still haven't done any Christmas shopping.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Disturbing Live Action
This film, "Santa in Animal Land," was made in 1948 and just smacks of something churned out for that new medium that no one knew how to program: television.
The acting, writing and direction are disturbingly similar to early John Waters films. The puppets themselves are creepy, especially Santa, who looks like he has a crystal meth problem. Better to keep this one from the children.
Monday's session of job search boot camp was stultifyingly boring for the first two hours, as they were devoted to discussing motivation and how to keep it. The fact that the guy doing the speaking was not terribly motivational didn't help, and I had heard all the quotes and tricks to stay motivated. Just as my eyes were glazing over, we had a break.
The second half of the afternoon was devoted to the concept of networking, and specifically portals for virtual networking. The cold hard fact is that 80% of jobs are filled via networking and not by filling out applications on a website or mailing resumes in response to job postings online.
They also discussed effective networking, as opposed to just attending meet-and-greets and shoving your business card in every available hand. The techniques they discussed take some time, but I can see how they would put you in a great position to be in the mind of many influential people.
Today we're going to discuss using LinkedIn as a way to build a cyber network. More and more, recruiters are going to these business specific social networking sites to do their culling for job candidates. It's definitely interesting enough that I will be going back. On Wednesday, we're going to do mock interviews with actual recruiters to get feedback on the good, the bad and the ugly of sitting as a candidate for a position. I'll keep you all posted.
The acting, writing and direction are disturbingly similar to early John Waters films. The puppets themselves are creepy, especially Santa, who looks like he has a crystal meth problem. Better to keep this one from the children.
Monday's session of job search boot camp was stultifyingly boring for the first two hours, as they were devoted to discussing motivation and how to keep it. The fact that the guy doing the speaking was not terribly motivational didn't help, and I had heard all the quotes and tricks to stay motivated. Just as my eyes were glazing over, we had a break.
The second half of the afternoon was devoted to the concept of networking, and specifically portals for virtual networking. The cold hard fact is that 80% of jobs are filled via networking and not by filling out applications on a website or mailing resumes in response to job postings online.
They also discussed effective networking, as opposed to just attending meet-and-greets and shoving your business card in every available hand. The techniques they discussed take some time, but I can see how they would put you in a great position to be in the mind of many influential people.
Today we're going to discuss using LinkedIn as a way to build a cyber network. More and more, recruiters are going to these business specific social networking sites to do their culling for job candidates. It's definitely interesting enough that I will be going back. On Wednesday, we're going to do mock interviews with actual recruiters to get feedback on the good, the bad and the ugly of sitting as a candidate for a position. I'll keep you all posted.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Mark Goes to Boot Camp
Today's cartoon is from 1948, another one from Famous Studios. Entitled "Hector's Hectic Life," it deals with a dog and a woman who seems to be Norwegian or Swedish or something. Three little puppies who look just like Hector arrive at the door and panic ensues (why do animated offspring always come in three's?). Fairly pointless, kind of hinting at the vapid, materialistic road post-WWII America was on.
This afternoon I am going to unemployment boot camp. You see, I have the dubious honor of belonging to the "Top 125"; we're clients of the Foothill Employment and Training Center who are the most skilled and employable but who still do not have jobs (I think I must be in the top 10 by now).
So the WIA Program I belong to (which was where I got my grant for my web design training last year) is having this three-day boot camp "to help propel you into the workforce." Sounds a little uncontrolled to me. I imagine, after three days and 12 hours of rigorous corporate brainwashing, being hurtled forward, catapultlike, and landing in a job where I get to say "do you want fries with that?" at least 20 times an hour.
The boot camp is being "facilitated by dynamic workforce professionals from Launchpad Careers, Inc." Well, that's a plus: the word "career," having one and trying to continue with it are concepts that the folks at FETC are addressing less and less the longer I'm unemployed. At a certain point, I think I become an embarrassment and they wash their hands of me altogether: That will probably be about the time my unemployment extensions run out.
Actually, these folks have been very helpful; it's just the employers who seem to have so little interest in hiring a "seasoned" design professional like myself.
So I'll let you know how day one goes in tomorrow's entry. For all the sarcasm, I'm keeping a positive attitude and hoping this will be a very real turning point for the job search.
This afternoon I am going to unemployment boot camp. You see, I have the dubious honor of belonging to the "Top 125"; we're clients of the Foothill Employment and Training Center who are the most skilled and employable but who still do not have jobs (I think I must be in the top 10 by now).
So the WIA Program I belong to (which was where I got my grant for my web design training last year) is having this three-day boot camp "to help propel you into the workforce." Sounds a little uncontrolled to me. I imagine, after three days and 12 hours of rigorous corporate brainwashing, being hurtled forward, catapultlike, and landing in a job where I get to say "do you want fries with that?" at least 20 times an hour.The boot camp is being "facilitated by dynamic workforce professionals from Launchpad Careers, Inc." Well, that's a plus: the word "career," having one and trying to continue with it are concepts that the folks at FETC are addressing less and less the longer I'm unemployed. At a certain point, I think I become an embarrassment and they wash their hands of me altogether: That will probably be about the time my unemployment extensions run out.
Actually, these folks have been very helpful; it's just the employers who seem to have so little interest in hiring a "seasoned" design professional like myself.
So I'll let you know how day one goes in tomorrow's entry. For all the sarcasm, I'm keeping a positive attitude and hoping this will be a very real turning point for the job search.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The Depression's Over
At least as far as the Christmas cartoons are concerned; we have moved on to the post-WWII era. Today's offering is called "Santa's Surprise" from 1947 and features Little Audrey. Gone are the children in tatters; here's a Santa who has plenty of presents for every girl and boy all over the world, and in the spirit of the United Nations, which began the year before, all the children decide to give Santa a present in return by cleaning up his messy house (one must surmise Mrs. Claus had not been created yet as a plot or marketing tool). All the racial stereotypes are here, and Santa's as white and American as can be.
We drove out to Claremont Saturday night to attend Steve and Roberto's annual Christmas party. They have a house well-suited to large soirees, not an open plan, but lots of different rooms, and they deck the place out for the holidays. I believe I counted four large trees and at least a dozen tiny ones.
We lasted a couple hours, but then the place got so crowded it was nearly impossible to move. By the time we left, four rooms on two floors, a very large patio and even larger deck were filled with bodies, and they were spilling out onto the lawn outside the front door and along the walkway when we left. It was a blast and the food, as usual, was amazing. (We didn't stay around for the tamales or desserts, though.)
Earlier in the day, Steve confessed that he was going to get me a new iPhone for Christmas but wasn't sure how to activate it. I then confessed that I was getting him one, as well, and that I would have to be present with both old phones to get the new ones activated because the Family Plan is in my name. So we headed on over to the AT&T store and, after some questions and answers, came home with our new phones. (It was about time; we both have the first generation of iPhone and they'll be obsolete in a year or so).
The new phones have video, and I tried to shoot a video tour of the Christmas tree, but it's getting late and I'm working with programs I have never run before, so getting the framing right and adding music and such will have to wait until tomorrow. You'll see something soon here, I promise.
To compensate, I've added a couple shots of ornaments on the tree. This will have to suffice until I master the rudimentaries of the iMovie program.
We drove out to Claremont Saturday night to attend Steve and Roberto's annual Christmas party. They have a house well-suited to large soirees, not an open plan, but lots of different rooms, and they deck the place out for the holidays. I believe I counted four large trees and at least a dozen tiny ones.We lasted a couple hours, but then the place got so crowded it was nearly impossible to move. By the time we left, four rooms on two floors, a very large patio and even larger deck were filled with bodies, and they were spilling out onto the lawn outside the front door and along the walkway when we left. It was a blast and the food, as usual, was amazing. (We didn't stay around for the tamales or desserts, though.)
Earlier in the day, Steve confessed that he was going to get me a new iPhone for Christmas but wasn't sure how to activate it. I then confessed that I was getting him one, as well, and that I would have to be present with both old phones to get the new ones activated because the Family Plan is in my name. So we headed on over to the AT&T store and, after some questions and answers, came home with our new phones. (It was about time; we both have the first generation of iPhone and they'll be obsolete in a year or so).The new phones have video, and I tried to shoot a video tour of the Christmas tree, but it's getting late and I'm working with programs I have never run before, so getting the framing right and adding music and such will have to wait until tomorrow. You'll see something soon here, I promise.
To compensate, I've added a couple shots of ornaments on the tree. This will have to suffice until I master the rudimentaries of the iMovie program.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Party Weekend
Today's Christmas cartoon is "Somewhere in Dreamland" from 1936. Another depression-era cartoon about poor children and destitute parents and the miracle of Christmas giving. If you're starting to get sick of this theme, fear not, we are almost out of the era of animation and will be getting to shoddier and more tasteless fare from the '50s and '60s very soon.
The holiday season has begun because David and Deeann have had their Continental party (named after the Christopher Walken character from Saturday Night Live) on Friday evening. Ever since I worked at the Reporter, this has been the first bash of the season after Thanksgiving, and has kick-started my holidays for the last couple years.
We had to leave fairly early to get back to Pasadena, but I did get to see several people I haven't talked to in months or years. It was a really good time and something my spirit needed right about now.
Saturday is shopping day and, guess what? We're out of laundry soap. This evening we have Steve and Roberto's Christmas party, so this should be a whirlwind weekend. I'm just glad it's so warm (in the '70s and '80s through the weekend).
The holiday season has begun because David and Deeann have had their Continental party (named after the Christopher Walken character from Saturday Night Live) on Friday evening. Ever since I worked at the Reporter, this has been the first bash of the season after Thanksgiving, and has kick-started my holidays for the last couple years.We had to leave fairly early to get back to Pasadena, but I did get to see several people I haven't talked to in months or years. It was a really good time and something my spirit needed right about now.
Saturday is shopping day and, guess what? We're out of laundry soap. This evening we have Steve and Roberto's Christmas party, so this should be a whirlwind weekend. I'm just glad it's so warm (in the '70s and '80s through the weekend).
Friday, December 10, 2010
I Want to Make My Dirty Clean
Firesign Theater fans will recognize the title as a line from "High School Madness." Today it refers to the fact that I spent yesterday not only doing all the laundry but also emptying the dishwasher and cleaning my desk (well, starting to clean it, anyway).
Today's Christmas cartoon is called "Toyland Premiere" and is one of those studio cartoons that caricaturizes Hollywood stars (although it also seems to be alluding to the Macy's parade with the balloons, and it all takes place in a department store). It's "controversial" because the elves are called "dwarves" in the lyrics, and there's an Al Jolson caricature in blackface. Also, there is a small cut made at the end: Santa blows out the candles on the cake, the cake splatters on Laurel and Hardy's faces to make them look like they're in blackface (that bit's cut), then it cuts to Santa laughing.
Tonight we have a party in Toluca Lake. It's hosted by a couple who used to work at the Reporter with me. There are going to be a lot of old faces (some still working at the Reporter, some who have moved on, some still unemployed), so it will be nice to catch up on where people are in their lives and careers, and garner all the juicy details about the Reporter since it has gone glam mag.
Hell, maybe I'll get out and do some shopping beforehand. You never know.
Today's Christmas cartoon is called "Toyland Premiere" and is one of those studio cartoons that caricaturizes Hollywood stars (although it also seems to be alluding to the Macy's parade with the balloons, and it all takes place in a department store). It's "controversial" because the elves are called "dwarves" in the lyrics, and there's an Al Jolson caricature in blackface. Also, there is a small cut made at the end: Santa blows out the candles on the cake, the cake splatters on Laurel and Hardy's faces to make them look like they're in blackface (that bit's cut), then it cuts to Santa laughing.
Tonight we have a party in Toluca Lake. It's hosted by a couple who used to work at the Reporter with me. There are going to be a lot of old faces (some still working at the Reporter, some who have moved on, some still unemployed), so it will be nice to catch up on where people are in their lives and careers, and garner all the juicy details about the Reporter since it has gone glam mag.
Hell, maybe I'll get out and do some shopping beforehand. You never know.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Working It In
This cartoon was featured in last year's lineup. Here's the comments I made about it back then:
"It's interesting to note that Santa's house looks an awful lot like Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. And those elves aren't unlike the happy human fodder who work for the Disney magic factory even today. See if you can spot the four places where Walt indulges in that campy '30s racism he's so famous for (a hint: two blacks, two asians and a Jew)."
A point of interest: if you go to the Hollywood Reporter slideshow on my website and select the Special Sections gallery, then choose the fifth image ("Buzz Biz") and download the PDF file, on page 5 of that PDF file you will find an advertisement for this cartoon, as well as "Mickey's Good Deed," both released in 1932.
I think I've run out of holiday spirit for the week. We've got a party on Friday and a party on Saturday, and I'm hoping these will charge me back up with good cheer, but right now I have no desire to go shopping or wrap presents or any other festive thing. What I have in store for me today is the laundry.
I can't get over this being my second Christmas unemployed. Things are going well but I really feel the lack of direction in my life. Starting up my own studio would be a positive move, but I just don't have the motivation to make it happen right now.
I've started working up the steps necessary, the licenses and permits needed, sketching out a marketing strategy, but I'm not jumping out of bed in the morning thinking, "Got to get working on the business." There was a time when I felt that way about working at the Reporter, but that's a fading memory these days.
So I'll go sort the laundry and get the loads going. At least we'll have fresh clothes for the parties to come.
Maybe tomorrow's post will be a little more festive.
"It's interesting to note that Santa's house looks an awful lot like Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. And those elves aren't unlike the happy human fodder who work for the Disney magic factory even today. See if you can spot the four places where Walt indulges in that campy '30s racism he's so famous for (a hint: two blacks, two asians and a Jew)."
A point of interest: if you go to the Hollywood Reporter slideshow on my website and select the Special Sections gallery, then choose the fifth image ("Buzz Biz") and download the PDF file, on page 5 of that PDF file you will find an advertisement for this cartoon, as well as "Mickey's Good Deed," both released in 1932.
I think I've run out of holiday spirit for the week. We've got a party on Friday and a party on Saturday, and I'm hoping these will charge me back up with good cheer, but right now I have no desire to go shopping or wrap presents or any other festive thing. What I have in store for me today is the laundry.
I can't get over this being my second Christmas unemployed. Things are going well but I really feel the lack of direction in my life. Starting up my own studio would be a positive move, but I just don't have the motivation to make it happen right now.
I've started working up the steps necessary, the licenses and permits needed, sketching out a marketing strategy, but I'm not jumping out of bed in the morning thinking, "Got to get working on the business." There was a time when I felt that way about working at the Reporter, but that's a fading memory these days.
So I'll go sort the laundry and get the loads going. At least we'll have fresh clothes for the parties to come.
Maybe tomorrow's post will be a little more festive.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Today is Today
Yes, I'm really writing this entry on the 8th. The fact that I just finished writing the entry for the 7th means I don't have a whole lot to add just now.
Here's our Christmas cartoon: Popeye! It's a colorized version, and it is your basic Popeye cartoon: Popeye and Olive Oyl together, Bluto mashes Olive, Olive gets in grave danger when she rejects Mr. B's advances, Popeye eats spinach and saves the day. The American icon of competition and violence, except this one ends with a Christmas tree and holiday greetings (this tree is not created by a magical Santa, however; it is the direct result of violence of one human on another). The real message of Popeye, though, is the futility of wanting to possess another, especially someone as bung-ugly as Ms. Oyl.
And now that I'm caught up on my blog entries, I think I'll hop in the shower, throw on some clothes (it's 72 and sunny outside) and maybe go out and do a little Christmas shopping.
Here's our Christmas cartoon: Popeye! It's a colorized version, and it is your basic Popeye cartoon: Popeye and Olive Oyl together, Bluto mashes Olive, Olive gets in grave danger when she rejects Mr. B's advances, Popeye eats spinach and saves the day. The American icon of competition and violence, except this one ends with a Christmas tree and holiday greetings (this tree is not created by a magical Santa, however; it is the direct result of violence of one human on another). The real message of Popeye, though, is the futility of wanting to possess another, especially someone as bung-ugly as Ms. Oyl.
And now that I'm caught up on my blog entries, I think I'll hop in the shower, throw on some clothes (it's 72 and sunny outside) and maybe go out and do a little Christmas shopping.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Catching Up
Our Christmas cartoon today features the Little King, whom I vaguely remember from my childhood (possibly the Sunday funnies in the paper?), but I had never seen him animated. The whole thing is kind of pointless, but any Little King who picks up two hobos on Christmas Eve and bathes and sleeps with them while the Queen is sleeping in the other room is OK with me. I also don't understand the whole thing with the soap. An interesting point, just like in the 1913 animation, Santa actually makes the tree grow, with decorations included. Enjoy.
This entry is labeled Dec. 7, although I'm actually writing it on the 8th. Our router died on the 6th and I had to make my blog entry from Steve's computer. I'm afraid I got so preoccupied with catching up on job searching and such, I failed to make a Dec. 7 entry. So here it is:
I did my job search and found one great job right here in Pasadena which was already closed by the time I made application (of course, it took 20 minutes of filling out their employment info online to find that out).
Then I cleaned the floors downstairs (trying to use up all the wet Swiffer mop heads, because I really hate them) and vacuumed the rug and slate. That was about the scope of my holiday job for the 7th.
And, of course, I remembered Pearl Harbor.
This entry is labeled Dec. 7, although I'm actually writing it on the 8th. Our router died on the 6th and I had to make my blog entry from Steve's computer. I'm afraid I got so preoccupied with catching up on job searching and such, I failed to make a Dec. 7 entry. So here it is:
I did my job search and found one great job right here in Pasadena which was already closed by the time I made application (of course, it took 20 minutes of filling out their employment info online to find that out).
Then I cleaned the floors downstairs (trying to use up all the wet Swiffer mop heads, because I really hate them) and vacuumed the rug and slate. That was about the scope of my holiday job for the 7th.
And, of course, I remembered Pearl Harbor.
Monday, December 6, 2010
I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas
It's presently raining cats and dogs outside here in Pasadena, and that's about as Christmassy as it gets in Southern California.
Today we continue with the Depression-era holiday cartoons, this one called "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives," produced in 1933. This was right toward the end of the era when the concept of putting burning candles onto a Christmas tree was still thought to be sane.
We went out Sunday just long enough to pick up some final items to finish with the holiday decorating. I put up the garland over the dining room window and strung the electronic-controlled LED lights in the window facing the street, so now it twinkles like stars … well, kind of. It's real pretty from the sidewalk, though.
Our router died Sunday morning, so there was no Internet connection available. We got the modem rebooted and hooked up to Steve's computer, but mine is offline for the moment. This being so, I'm posting this entry on his computer, which is a PC with a right-hand mouse (even though he's left-handed), which is kind of awkward for me.
Hope your weekend was wonderful. I suppose I'm going router shopping, as job searching must continue each and every Monday. Maybe I'll get some holiday shopping done, as well. I haven't even started yet.
Today we continue with the Depression-era holiday cartoons, this one called "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives," produced in 1933. This was right toward the end of the era when the concept of putting burning candles onto a Christmas tree was still thought to be sane.
We went out Sunday just long enough to pick up some final items to finish with the holiday decorating. I put up the garland over the dining room window and strung the electronic-controlled LED lights in the window facing the street, so now it twinkles like stars … well, kind of. It's real pretty from the sidewalk, though.
Our router died Sunday morning, so there was no Internet connection available. We got the modem rebooted and hooked up to Steve's computer, but mine is offline for the moment. This being so, I'm posting this entry on his computer, which is a PC with a right-hand mouse (even though he's left-handed), which is kind of awkward for me.
Hope your weekend was wonderful. I suppose I'm going router shopping, as job searching must continue each and every Monday. Maybe I'll get some holiday shopping done, as well. I haven't even started yet.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
All Things Disney
One of my friends on Facebook was starting her gingerbread house today (she's a professional baker, doing specialty wedding cakes and such) and was taking suggestions of after what she should model the house. I suggested the train station at the entrance of Disneyland. She's a Disneyland nut (living just a few miles from the park) and really liked the idea.
Now I sit down to write today's post and who should be the protagonist of our next cartoon but Mickey himself. This reminded me of the freebie park tickets I used to get as a member of the press. This is the second Christmas season we haven't taken someone to the Magic Kingdom.
So here it is, "Mickey's Good Deed," which was created in 1932. Many of these depression-era cartoons deal with the huge disparity between the wealthy and the destitute. These days we don't seem to care too much about that, even though the gap between the very rich and the very poor is every widening in this new century.
It's interesting that Mickey's good deed was to betray his best friend in order to give a merry Christmas to a bunch of cats. Also interesting is that the rich father and son are portrayed as pigs, an image that was carried over into the protest decade of the 1960s.
Here are two shots of our Disneyana ornaments. The first is a "hidden Mickey" disco ball (purchased at Downtown Disney on our way out of the park) and the other is one of a dozen small Mickey ornaments on the tree. We do not have a Tinkerbell or Cinderella, but we do have a Barbie ornament which Steve inherited from his mom.
Today we went down to Di-No Computers and found out about laptops for that design studio I'm thinking of starting up. I'll have to do it by the end of the year if I want to get tax breaks on all the design equipment and software I've bought this year. I'm starting to sketch out potential marketing plans and trying to come up with a bare-bones budget to get up and started. I'm thinking I could concentrate more on a full-service approach to business and marketing design, emphasizing the benefits of print promotion while integrating that with a web presence.
One last thing I have decided this evening: We need more holiday decorations. And I'm not really sure what we're going to do with all the tree lights that we no longer need, what with a prelit tree now. Perhaps the two will have some sort of mutual and inexpensive solution.
Now I sit down to write today's post and who should be the protagonist of our next cartoon but Mickey himself. This reminded me of the freebie park tickets I used to get as a member of the press. This is the second Christmas season we haven't taken someone to the Magic Kingdom.
So here it is, "Mickey's Good Deed," which was created in 1932. Many of these depression-era cartoons deal with the huge disparity between the wealthy and the destitute. These days we don't seem to care too much about that, even though the gap between the very rich and the very poor is every widening in this new century.
It's interesting that Mickey's good deed was to betray his best friend in order to give a merry Christmas to a bunch of cats. Also interesting is that the rich father and son are portrayed as pigs, an image that was carried over into the protest decade of the 1960s.
Here are two shots of our Disneyana ornaments. The first is a "hidden Mickey" disco ball (purchased at Downtown Disney on our way out of the park) and the other is one of a dozen small Mickey ornaments on the tree. We do not have a Tinkerbell or Cinderella, but we do have a Barbie ornament which Steve inherited from his mom.Today we went down to Di-No Computers and found out about laptops for that design studio I'm thinking of starting up. I'll have to do it by the end of the year if I want to get tax breaks on all the design equipment and software I've bought this year. I'm starting to sketch out potential marketing plans and trying to come up with a bare-bones budget to get up and started. I'm thinking I could concentrate more on a full-service approach to business and marketing design, emphasizing the benefits of print promotion while integrating that with a web presence.
One last thing I have decided this evening: We need more holiday decorations. And I'm not really sure what we're going to do with all the tree lights that we no longer need, what with a prelit tree now. Perhaps the two will have some sort of mutual and inexpensive solution.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
From the Mountains to the Sea
I went out to West L.A. for my interview with the temp agency today. It took two hours each way, with half of that riding on the express bus down Wilshire Boulevard. It was a long haul but the interview was really great, and the woman I'm working with there is savvy and sharp. Almost all of their services are web based, so I can cull through the available positions and also take advantage of their online tutorials.
Today's holiday cartoon is "The Snow Man" from 1932. Frosty he ain't, and there have been several versions of this short over the years, mostly edited to cut down on what critics saw as excessive terror and violence. Originally intended to be in color, it was released in black and white because Walt Disney had an exclusive arrangement with Technicolor at the time for color animated films.
I'm pretty sure this will be a weekend of holiday shopping for many of you, so have fun but keep those credit cards in your wallets and shop local. But most of all,have fun!
Today's holiday cartoon is "The Snow Man" from 1932. Frosty he ain't, and there have been several versions of this short over the years, mostly edited to cut down on what critics saw as excessive terror and violence. Originally intended to be in color, it was released in black and white because Walt Disney had an exclusive arrangement with Technicolor at the time for color animated films.
I'm pretty sure this will be a weekend of holiday shopping for many of you, so have fun but keep those credit cards in your wallets and shop local. But most of all,have fun!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Here Come the Cartoons
After spending quite some time on YouTube, I've put together a sort of video advent calendar. A few of the pieces are not really cartoons, per se, but all of them bring their own special facet to the whole holiday cheer thing.
I'm going to present them in roughly chronological order, and so we start with this very bizarre yet somehow touching Russian stop-motion animation from 1913. This was cutting edge experimental at the time and, remember, all of the "special effects" were done in the camera.
The Christmas tree is up and finally decorated. We started on it last Saturday and, after figuring out how the prestrung lights plugged in together, we took our time adorning it, and it was really quite a pleasant experience. I dragged out all the boxes of ornaments and decorations on Wednesday and put the special ornaments on that evening. Thursday we finished up the tree and unloaded most of the decorations, though none are really in place, save the stockings.
This afternoon I spent with the usual surfing of the job sites and actually found three potentials. With my three percent reply rate on resumes, though, I'm not holding my breath. Still, as Confucius said, "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." So I keep plugging along and focus on that moment in the future when resolution will appear.
And I have the interview with the temp agency this afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes in my post tomorrow.
I'm going to present them in roughly chronological order, and so we start with this very bizarre yet somehow touching Russian stop-motion animation from 1913. This was cutting edge experimental at the time and, remember, all of the "special effects" were done in the camera.
The Christmas tree is up and finally decorated. We started on it last Saturday and, after figuring out how the prestrung lights plugged in together, we took our time adorning it, and it was really quite a pleasant experience. I dragged out all the boxes of ornaments and decorations on Wednesday and put the special ornaments on that evening. Thursday we finished up the tree and unloaded most of the decorations, though none are really in place, save the stockings.This afternoon I spent with the usual surfing of the job sites and actually found three potentials. With my three percent reply rate on resumes, though, I'm not holding my breath. Still, as Confucius said, "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." So I keep plugging along and focus on that moment in the future when resolution will appear.
And I have the interview with the temp agency this afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes in my post tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
December Is Here
The lst of December. It's in the low 70s during the day and dips into the upper 30s at night and that translates to cold, wintery weather here in Southern California. Add a little rain to that, and everyone starts singing Christmas carols.
I thought this was an appropriate day to make my first holiday posting, since Hanukkah started this evening.
So here is my first holiday season cartoon. I started this last year and decided to continue the tradition this year. This is actually a reprise of the first cartoon from last December. It was so popular back then, I decided to repeat it.
On the work front, no official word yet from Variety, but I'm pretty sure they hired someone younger and prettier, since I'm not getting answers back from my e-mails to the HR manager there. Same goes for the HR person at Thibiant, so I seem to be back at Square One, jobwise. And, thanks to the Republicans, my unemployment will run out at the end of the month and we get to start dipping into savings to pay the bills.
I did get a call from a woman at a temp agency in West L.A., and I've got an appointment with her on Friday to come in and take their tests and sign up for possible temp assignments. I told her I wasn't really interested in anything less than three months in length, and what I'm really looking for is permanent full time. She said a lot of places are hiring temp to feel the waters before they start adding back to the staffs they cut back in the last few years. It may just be a line temp agencies use, but it would make sense to have some short-term gigs on the resume and keep my hand in the game, as it were.
I'm seriously considering starting up a design business of my own, since I have pretty much everything I need to make that happen. I'm really lousy at marketing, though, so the first year or two might be rough going, but I'm getting really sick of sending out resumes and getting nothing back. I have yet to sit down and crunch the numbers on the idea, but perhaps now is the time to take just such a dramatic step in my life.
We got a new Christmas tree from Stats last weekend, a prelighted one. The old tree has seen a decade of seasonal service and was looking rather ragged. The new one has branch tips that look just like the real thing, not green bottle brushes. We started putting ornaments on it this evening. Photos will follow once it is fully decked.
Hope your holiday season is starting off well and will continue to bring happiness and joy.
I thought this was an appropriate day to make my first holiday posting, since Hanukkah started this evening.
So here is my first holiday season cartoon. I started this last year and decided to continue the tradition this year. This is actually a reprise of the first cartoon from last December. It was so popular back then, I decided to repeat it.
On the work front, no official word yet from Variety, but I'm pretty sure they hired someone younger and prettier, since I'm not getting answers back from my e-mails to the HR manager there. Same goes for the HR person at Thibiant, so I seem to be back at Square One, jobwise. And, thanks to the Republicans, my unemployment will run out at the end of the month and we get to start dipping into savings to pay the bills.
I did get a call from a woman at a temp agency in West L.A., and I've got an appointment with her on Friday to come in and take their tests and sign up for possible temp assignments. I told her I wasn't really interested in anything less than three months in length, and what I'm really looking for is permanent full time. She said a lot of places are hiring temp to feel the waters before they start adding back to the staffs they cut back in the last few years. It may just be a line temp agencies use, but it would make sense to have some short-term gigs on the resume and keep my hand in the game, as it were.
I'm seriously considering starting up a design business of my own, since I have pretty much everything I need to make that happen. I'm really lousy at marketing, though, so the first year or two might be rough going, but I'm getting really sick of sending out resumes and getting nothing back. I have yet to sit down and crunch the numbers on the idea, but perhaps now is the time to take just such a dramatic step in my life.
We got a new Christmas tree from Stats last weekend, a prelighted one. The old tree has seen a decade of seasonal service and was looking rather ragged. The new one has branch tips that look just like the real thing, not green bottle brushes. We started putting ornaments on it this evening. Photos will follow once it is fully decked.
Hope your holiday season is starting off well and will continue to bring happiness and joy.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Homes That Are Just Houses Now
Nothing of significance to report on the job front at the moment, so I thought I'd take a break from obsessing about my employment status and the upgrades to home and hearth and share a little cyberspelunking I've been doing the last few nights.
It started with a discussion with Steve about all the useless crap from decades ago that still resides in one's head. I can't remember what I'm supposed to pick up at the grocery store, but I can remember all the lyrics of "Itsy Bitsy Teeney Weeney Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" from half a century ago. One other example for me is knowing the address I lived at in Tigard, Ore., when I was in first grade.
On a whim, I put the address into Google maps and, bam, there's the house, as old as the lyrics I remember so easily. The neighborhood around it is vastly different from my mental map of childhood, and the shed next to the house where we used to keep chickens is torn down, but I could clearly envision the interior spaces behind those domicile walls. I even recognized the house across the street (though many new ones have been added). I lived in this house when America sent its first astronaut into space, and it's the place we lived when my sister Kittie was born. Here's a picture of me taking brownies out of the oven in that house and one of dad cooking (check out the push-button cooktop controls).
This success got me going on a quest for more pictures of houses we'd lived in and what they look like today. The house in Tigard was the only one I remembered by address, but others I felt I could locate just by looking at the maps and satellite views of the various communities.
So I started with the first house I could really remember, which was when I was four. It was the projects we lived in on Clyborne Avenue in Chicago when dad was going to med school at Northwestern. It took some doing, but I found the projects and even the building (we were in the two-story unit on the right, second or third unit down). The place looks just as pleasant as I remember it. This is where my older brother and I had our pictures taken on a pony (an expense that sent my father through the roof at the time). Here's my pony picture and one of dad with my brother David (you can guess by now mom was the picture-taker in our family).
The next house was in Lake Oswego, Ore., and I located it because I remembered the park across the street. The entire block of bungalow houses was torn down and replaced with apartments. The houses used to back onto a dirt alley, and I remember my brother David (about three at the time) would get up early on Sunday mornings and go door to door down the alley, bare-ass naked, asking for cookies. He was the hit of the neighborhood and all the housewives and little old ladies loved him. Here are shots of David and a Christmas tree we had in that house.
The next house was near Lloyd's Center, which had just opened in Portland, Ore. This house, too, is gone, along with the entire neighborhood. It's now a parking lot amid lots of hotels, high-rises and the convention center. It was an old neighborhood with big houses and bigger trees. I remember that was where I first became aware of politics, having heated debates with my first-grade companions about the Kennedy-Nixon contest. Nixon fans said the pope would run the country if a Catholic was elected. It was on Wasco Street, and we lived there about a year and then moved to Tigard, which you've already seen.
From Tigard we moved to San Bernardino, Calif., where dad took his psychiatric residency. Our first house was a rental on Argyle Street, and it's still there. I can remember being fascinated by the fact that the entire back yard was cultivated with cactus. It was kind of like living on Mars. This is where my brother Jim inadvertently put a dart in my brother David's back, and where David almost got sucked into a storm control drain during a summer flash flood.
After a few months, we moved into the house on 18th Street. It was part of a brand new tract home development (in fact, about a third of the homes weren't even completed yet). Our back yard butted up against an abandoned orange grove and, again, it was other worldly to wander back among the trees and just pluck oranges off and eat them right there for free. The place looks kind of worn out and run down now, doesn't it? All those big trees were barely six feet tall during our residency there.
When Dad finished his residency, we moved to Morro Bay and he started work at Atascadero State Hospital. It was amazing living just up the hill from the beach, and every night we fell asleep hearing the surf in the distance. I remember once we were evacuated from school because of a tsunami warning (the high school is on the beach and actually below sea level), and everybody came up to our house on high ground to watch the town get washed away: it didn't happen.
From Morro Bay we moved into San Luis Obispo on Johnson Ave. It was a very nice house. Now the front yard has a wall and terracing that hides the spanish colonial look of the place, but here's a shot of what it looked like when we moved in. Below that is an antiquated Polaroid print of one of our Christmas trees there.
We spent several years in this house (you may have guessed by now we moved around a lot), except for one year when dad took a job in Reedley in the California Central Valley, and we lived in a huge house on Ward's River Ranch (a thoroughbred horse breeding and training farm). I couldn't get a street shot of it, since the house sits in the middle of the ranch, which is probably about 50 acres. We all loathed the Central Valley, so we moved back to San Luis Obispo the next year.
From San Luis Obispo, the family moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, because my dad got a job as chief of mental health services for the Gateway Borough. The house we lived in there was being completely remodeled when Google passed by with its cameras, so who knows what it looks like now.
Dad came down with triple pneumonia in Ketchikan (he was always an overachiever), and when he recovered the family moved back down to San Luis Obispo, they bought a house up Johnson Avenue from the old one, and that was home for a good 30 years. You can barely see the house in this photo. Since it was on a busy street, we planted hedges that grew up to block the traffic noise. They also blocked the view of the house, and people often commented they didn't know there was a house there until they got out of their cars.
This is the house I lived in when I went to college, and from there, I've moved on to many places of my own. But it seems just amazing to me that, here in the 21st Century, I can take such an extensive walk down memory lane and visit so many places I called home. Perhaps in an upcoming entry I'll do all the places that I've lived since graduating from college. Or maybe not. Weigh in on the idea and I'll see if on it's worth up following. Well, you know what I mean.
It started with a discussion with Steve about all the useless crap from decades ago that still resides in one's head. I can't remember what I'm supposed to pick up at the grocery store, but I can remember all the lyrics of "Itsy Bitsy Teeney Weeney Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" from half a century ago. One other example for me is knowing the address I lived at in Tigard, Ore., when I was in first grade.
On a whim, I put the address into Google maps and, bam, there's the house, as old as the lyrics I remember so easily. The neighborhood around it is vastly different from my mental map of childhood, and the shed next to the house where we used to keep chickens is torn down, but I could clearly envision the interior spaces behind those domicile walls. I even recognized the house across the street (though many new ones have been added). I lived in this house when America sent its first astronaut into space, and it's the place we lived when my sister Kittie was born. Here's a picture of me taking brownies out of the oven in that house and one of dad cooking (check out the push-button cooktop controls).This success got me going on a quest for more pictures of houses we'd lived in and what they look like today. The house in Tigard was the only one I remembered by address, but others I felt I could locate just by looking at the maps and satellite views of the various communities.
So I started with the first house I could really remember, which was when I was four. It was the projects we lived in on Clyborne Avenue in Chicago when dad was going to med school at Northwestern. It took some doing, but I found the projects and even the building (we were in the two-story unit on the right, second or third unit down). The place looks just as pleasant as I remember it. This is where my older brother and I had our pictures taken on a pony (an expense that sent my father through the roof at the time). Here's my pony picture and one of dad with my brother David (you can guess by now mom was the picture-taker in our family).
The next house was in Lake Oswego, Ore., and I located it because I remembered the park across the street. The entire block of bungalow houses was torn down and replaced with apartments. The houses used to back onto a dirt alley, and I remember my brother David (about three at the time) would get up early on Sunday mornings and go door to door down the alley, bare-ass naked, asking for cookies. He was the hit of the neighborhood and all the housewives and little old ladies loved him. Here are shots of David and a Christmas tree we had in that house.
The next house was near Lloyd's Center, which had just opened in Portland, Ore. This house, too, is gone, along with the entire neighborhood. It's now a parking lot amid lots of hotels, high-rises and the convention center. It was an old neighborhood with big houses and bigger trees. I remember that was where I first became aware of politics, having heated debates with my first-grade companions about the Kennedy-Nixon contest. Nixon fans said the pope would run the country if a Catholic was elected. It was on Wasco Street, and we lived there about a year and then moved to Tigard, which you've already seen.
From Tigard we moved to San Bernardino, Calif., where dad took his psychiatric residency. Our first house was a rental on Argyle Street, and it's still there. I can remember being fascinated by the fact that the entire back yard was cultivated with cactus. It was kind of like living on Mars. This is where my brother Jim inadvertently put a dart in my brother David's back, and where David almost got sucked into a storm control drain during a summer flash flood.
After a few months, we moved into the house on 18th Street. It was part of a brand new tract home development (in fact, about a third of the homes weren't even completed yet). Our back yard butted up against an abandoned orange grove and, again, it was other worldly to wander back among the trees and just pluck oranges off and eat them right there for free. The place looks kind of worn out and run down now, doesn't it? All those big trees were barely six feet tall during our residency there.
When Dad finished his residency, we moved to Morro Bay and he started work at Atascadero State Hospital. It was amazing living just up the hill from the beach, and every night we fell asleep hearing the surf in the distance. I remember once we were evacuated from school because of a tsunami warning (the high school is on the beach and actually below sea level), and everybody came up to our house on high ground to watch the town get washed away: it didn't happen.
From Morro Bay we moved into San Luis Obispo on Johnson Ave. It was a very nice house. Now the front yard has a wall and terracing that hides the spanish colonial look of the place, but here's a shot of what it looked like when we moved in. Below that is an antiquated Polaroid print of one of our Christmas trees there.We spent several years in this house (you may have guessed by now we moved around a lot), except for one year when dad took a job in Reedley in the California Central Valley, and we lived in a huge house on Ward's River Ranch (a thoroughbred horse breeding and training farm). I couldn't get a street shot of it, since the house sits in the middle of the ranch, which is probably about 50 acres. We all loathed the Central Valley, so we moved back to San Luis Obispo the next year.
From San Luis Obispo, the family moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, because my dad got a job as chief of mental health services for the Gateway Borough. The house we lived in there was being completely remodeled when Google passed by with its cameras, so who knows what it looks like now.
Dad came down with triple pneumonia in Ketchikan (he was always an overachiever), and when he recovered the family moved back down to San Luis Obispo, they bought a house up Johnson Avenue from the old one, and that was home for a good 30 years. You can barely see the house in this photo. Since it was on a busy street, we planted hedges that grew up to block the traffic noise. They also blocked the view of the house, and people often commented they didn't know there was a house there until they got out of their cars.This is the house I lived in when I went to college, and from there, I've moved on to many places of my own. But it seems just amazing to me that, here in the 21st Century, I can take such an extensive walk down memory lane and visit so many places I called home. Perhaps in an upcoming entry I'll do all the places that I've lived since graduating from college. Or maybe not. Weigh in on the idea and I'll see if on it's worth up following. Well, you know what I mean.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
A Vacuum Does Not Suck, It Is Suck
That's my quasi-Zen for the week, and that's how I'm feeling: I'm living in a special vacuum all my own.
I've had two interviews in the last month, which is a bountiful harvest in this job market. One was with Thibiant International, which was about three weeks ago. I still haven't heard from them, so I sent an e-mail Monday to their HR person and have yet to get an answer back.
The second interview (the one I didn't want to jinx) was an interview with Variety. My heart still leaps a little when I type the word.
For those of you who don't know, Variety is the daily trade publication that, until recently, was in direct competition with the Hollywood Reporter. Now that the latter publication has gone rather Us Weekly, Variety is really the only daily covering the entertainment industry.
The job they were advertising is pretty much exactly what I was doing at the Reporter, so it would be like picking up where I left off, careerwise, with a better publication.
I've followed up with a couple e-mails making additional comments I forgot to make during the interview and telling them how good a fit I would be and how much I want the job. Not obsequious, you understand, but with genuine ardor.
The interview was about a week and a half ago, and I'm anxiously awaiting their final decision. I sent their HR person an e-mail on Monday, too, and got an immediate reply: they're still interviewing. And I'm thinking to myself, without feeling vain, "Why? You've found the person you should hire: Me."
These are both really good prospects and jobs I'm confident I could excel at, and my greatest fear is that, like with McGraw-Hill earlier this year, something's going to fall through and I'll end up back at Square One. That's a real anxiety-provoker for me. "My God," I'm thinking, wringing my mental hands, "Am I ever going to get another job, much less one that will further my career?"
As meditation, I imagine sitting with Steve on a pleasant, sunny day years from now, maybe in rocking chairs on a porch, all wrinkled and blissed out in our retirement. I turn to him and say, "Remember when I was unemployed, back in aught-nine and ten? Sure was a rough patch, all right, what with mom and aunt Kit passing, too. Seemed like I'd never get through that."
And I concentrate on the peace and confidence I'll feel reflecting back on what's my current here and now. The only thing that makes the image ring hollow is the fact that I don't know how this "rough patch" is going to resolve itself. And, being an American, I want to know everything and I want to know it now.
To mitigate all the anxiety of waiting, I cull the job postings online (Fritz Perls said anxiety is just excitement you feel compelled to repress). Of course, this would be one of those weeks where nothing new or appropriate for me is being listed, so I don't even have sending out resumes as a way to fill this vacuum.
Speaking of vacuums, we picked up a canister vacuum to use on the bamboo floors because the upright we had wasn't cutting it. (I refuse to say that it sucked.) The exhaust blows out the front of the upright and kicks up all the dust you're trying to pick up.
The new one is small, weighs only about nine pounds and is easy to carry around. It works really well, especially on the stairs. Since we're in kind of a lull in the remodeling, I'm finding housework an adequate substitute diversion to interior design planning.
So send up your prayers that the good people at Variety see what a catch they'd have in hiring me and, God willing, that I'll have something superblastastic to celebrate for Thanksgiving next week: the blessing of a new job.
And even if a new job hasn't arrived, I still have lots and lots of stuff to be thankful for, as do we all … it's just nice to able to pick the ones that really make you feel thankful.
I've had two interviews in the last month, which is a bountiful harvest in this job market. One was with Thibiant International, which was about three weeks ago. I still haven't heard from them, so I sent an e-mail Monday to their HR person and have yet to get an answer back.
The second interview (the one I didn't want to jinx) was an interview with Variety. My heart still leaps a little when I type the word.
For those of you who don't know, Variety is the daily trade publication that, until recently, was in direct competition with the Hollywood Reporter. Now that the latter publication has gone rather Us Weekly, Variety is really the only daily covering the entertainment industry.
The job they were advertising is pretty much exactly what I was doing at the Reporter, so it would be like picking up where I left off, careerwise, with a better publication.
I've followed up with a couple e-mails making additional comments I forgot to make during the interview and telling them how good a fit I would be and how much I want the job. Not obsequious, you understand, but with genuine ardor.
The interview was about a week and a half ago, and I'm anxiously awaiting their final decision. I sent their HR person an e-mail on Monday, too, and got an immediate reply: they're still interviewing. And I'm thinking to myself, without feeling vain, "Why? You've found the person you should hire: Me."
These are both really good prospects and jobs I'm confident I could excel at, and my greatest fear is that, like with McGraw-Hill earlier this year, something's going to fall through and I'll end up back at Square One. That's a real anxiety-provoker for me. "My God," I'm thinking, wringing my mental hands, "Am I ever going to get another job, much less one that will further my career?"
As meditation, I imagine sitting with Steve on a pleasant, sunny day years from now, maybe in rocking chairs on a porch, all wrinkled and blissed out in our retirement. I turn to him and say, "Remember when I was unemployed, back in aught-nine and ten? Sure was a rough patch, all right, what with mom and aunt Kit passing, too. Seemed like I'd never get through that."
And I concentrate on the peace and confidence I'll feel reflecting back on what's my current here and now. The only thing that makes the image ring hollow is the fact that I don't know how this "rough patch" is going to resolve itself. And, being an American, I want to know everything and I want to know it now.
To mitigate all the anxiety of waiting, I cull the job postings online (Fritz Perls said anxiety is just excitement you feel compelled to repress). Of course, this would be one of those weeks where nothing new or appropriate for me is being listed, so I don't even have sending out resumes as a way to fill this vacuum.
Speaking of vacuums, we picked up a canister vacuum to use on the bamboo floors because the upright we had wasn't cutting it. (I refuse to say that it sucked.) The exhaust blows out the front of the upright and kicks up all the dust you're trying to pick up.The new one is small, weighs only about nine pounds and is easy to carry around. It works really well, especially on the stairs. Since we're in kind of a lull in the remodeling, I'm finding housework an adequate substitute diversion to interior design planning.
So send up your prayers that the good people at Variety see what a catch they'd have in hiring me and, God willing, that I'll have something superblastastic to celebrate for Thanksgiving next week: the blessing of a new job.
And even if a new job hasn't arrived, I still have lots and lots of stuff to be thankful for, as do we all … it's just nice to able to pick the ones that really make you feel thankful.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Enigmatic Check In
I wanted to post something because it's been a week, and I don't want people thinking I've simply forgotten to write in the blog. But the last week has held something rather special, something in process right now, and I don't want to jinx it by even mentioning what it is. A few people know, but I don't want to share it publicly until resolution has been obtained.
Another purchase for the living room, one of the last, I'm thinking, before we dive into building the bookshelves. It's a floor lamp that was a perfect choice and a good solution for dividing the living room from the dining room. And, of course, on sale.
I haven't heard back from the people at Thibiant. I assume this means that they're still in the interviewing process, or that they've chosen someone and haven't bothered to let the other candidates for the position know that it's no longer a possibility. I've found that most places do give a call back or send an e-mail if you've actually entered the interview process and not been selected for the job. Depending on how the week pans out, I may give them a call on Friday and check in.
The weather's getting much cooler and fall-like, with a small front passing through last night and dropping enough rain to wet everything down. The rest of the week is forecast to be in the low 70s with the night in the upper 40s. Setting the clocks back brings long shadows in the afternoons and an early sunset: I love this kind of weather because I can use the oven to make dinner and all it does is make the house warm and cozy, not hot and sticky.
Stay tuned: I hope to post later on in the week.
Another purchase for the living room, one of the last, I'm thinking, before we dive into building the bookshelves. It's a floor lamp that was a perfect choice and a good solution for dividing the living room from the dining room. And, of course, on sale.I haven't heard back from the people at Thibiant. I assume this means that they're still in the interviewing process, or that they've chosen someone and haven't bothered to let the other candidates for the position know that it's no longer a possibility. I've found that most places do give a call back or send an e-mail if you've actually entered the interview process and not been selected for the job. Depending on how the week pans out, I may give them a call on Friday and check in.
The weather's getting much cooler and fall-like, with a small front passing through last night and dropping enough rain to wet everything down. The rest of the week is forecast to be in the low 70s with the night in the upper 40s. Setting the clocks back brings long shadows in the afternoons and an early sunset: I love this kind of weather because I can use the oven to make dinner and all it does is make the house warm and cozy, not hot and sticky.
Stay tuned: I hope to post later on in the week.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Scissor Steps
Remember scissor steps in "Mother, May I"? It wasn't really jumping, but it was bigger than a regular step and certainly better than baby steps, but you had to make sure to execute them properly or you'd lose your balance and be out of the game. I ran across this picture of a Buddha made of scissors online and thought it a fitting image to head up the blog, because some form of scissor stepping makes up a lot of existence.Here in the first minutes of November 2010, I wanted to put something up on the blog just because over a week has gone by. And I think it's been a week full of scissor steps; jerky, significant gains on various fronts interspersed with inactivity.
The interview at Thibiant went well. In fact, it turned into two interviews. The first was with the woman who I would be replacing if I get the job. Turns out it's a one-person operation, doing PowerPoint presentations, graphics and forms for the manufacturing areas of the business and architectural signage for the plant and operations.
She and I spent a little over an hour together, and she asked if I could wait around for a bit so the head of HR could talk with me. I did, and we had a very good interview, with her saying they had a couple other people to interview that week, and that she would be calling me back next week. Today is next week, so I'm eager to see if I made it to the final round of interviews, which will include one with the president of the company (he's very hands on and works a lot with the arts & graphics person).
The commute, while long, is on the easy side, hopping onto the 210 Freeway here in Pasadena, changing to the 118 in the North San Fernando Valley, and driving a couple miles on surface streets to the plant. If I actually land the job, we'll see how feasible commuting on Metrolink would be.
The place seems pretty amicable, and everyone I saw there seemed to be happy and enjoying themselves. They even had a couple of contests going for Halloween: Guess the number of candy corn pieces in the jar and guess the weight of a very large pumpkin that was hauled into the lobby by several guys who were obviously from the production area in back.
The rest of last week was spent trying not to focus on the prospect of an second interview, but that's hard to do. I spent the usual time looking over job postings, sending out applications (very few, because there wasn't a lot advertised that was up my alley) and feeling frustrated that more people aren't hiring full time.
I did locate the ottomans that will be replacing the coffee table in the living room, and they were very reasonable: upholstered truncated cubes with tops that reverse to serving trays. They're small, and inside they have a second ottoman, even smaller, that we can use by the bookcases.I got these at the same supersite from which I purchased the patio fountain. They had given me a 10% discount code good for a week and the shipping was free, so these came at a really sweet price.
On Saturday we stopped in at Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a faux fur throw for the couch (literally, for the couch: the cats have been clawing their spot on it, so the throw is to protect the fabric). It's a lynx print, and really much subtler than it appears in the picture. It's lined and thick enough to provide a good barrier. Both of the cats are in love with the throw and seem to take it for some sort of mother surrogate. Patty was even licking and cleaning it Saturday evening.
While we were in the store, we also saw a rug that we thought would be great for the living room. It was well within the budget, especially with BB&B's 20% off coupon, so we picked that up, too. Just about the only thing lacking in the living room now are the bookcases, and I'm kind of hesitant to order the materials for those until I see what happens on the employment front.Yesterday (Sunday), Steve and I cleaned out the CD collection which was sitting around in various racks in the bedroom. There's about 250 of them, and we actually dusted each one, alphabetized them and put them back in their racks, now stored in the office closet, along with the VCR tapes we took out of the living room.
There are also about 40 or so cassette tapes Steve kept, but the only thing we have to play them on is an old Walkman. Now, with the move of a bookcase from the bedroom into the office, we will have enough room to bring the recliner and its side table up to the bedroom and have a nice little sitting area.
All this activity, all this planning and organization, just to keep from going crazy while unemployed. It crossed my mind last week that, once I do land a new job, these projects will go from being a major concern to secondary priority. That, however, would be a very nice problem to have.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Mission Fruition?
The couch finally arrived today. It was worth the wait and aggravation and looks really good in the living room, but now everything else needs to be removed so the room doesn't look like a furniture warehouse. Already, I'm starting to think about what the area rug should look like and what we can use for a coffee table that's small enough to not take over the space.
More design progress: the fountain for the patio also arrived and is outside burbling away. It has been cloudy and wet pretty much all week, so we haven't been able to appreciate it as a water feature, since the whole patio has been a water feature.
And news on the job front: I got an interview with a cosmetics firm that has a world-famous spa in Beverly Hills (I'll drop no names) and also does manufacturing for other cosmetic lines. The downside is that the job is at the factory in Chatsworth, which is about 33 miles away from Pasadena in the San Fernando Valley.
The commute, however, might not be as bad as all that, since I would be going against the major flow of commuters (most are coming into town from out there), but it would almost certainly mean getting a new, more fuel-efficient car. There's also a Metrolink train that I could take from Union Station, so that and the Gold Line would get me there in about an hour and twenty minutes.
Landing the job is something else altogether.
The interview is on Monday at 2 p.m., so think good thoughts and put me in your prayers, if you have those. First, that it's an interesting and rewarding job; second, that they realize the value of the talent and skills I have to offer; and, third, that I actually land it if the first two work out well.
Again, no pictures, but those will come in time. I shall keep you posted on area rug options, employment status and couch and watger feature appreciation as the days go by.
More design progress: the fountain for the patio also arrived and is outside burbling away. It has been cloudy and wet pretty much all week, so we haven't been able to appreciate it as a water feature, since the whole patio has been a water feature.
And news on the job front: I got an interview with a cosmetics firm that has a world-famous spa in Beverly Hills (I'll drop no names) and also does manufacturing for other cosmetic lines. The downside is that the job is at the factory in Chatsworth, which is about 33 miles away from Pasadena in the San Fernando Valley.
The commute, however, might not be as bad as all that, since I would be going against the major flow of commuters (most are coming into town from out there), but it would almost certainly mean getting a new, more fuel-efficient car. There's also a Metrolink train that I could take from Union Station, so that and the Gold Line would get me there in about an hour and twenty minutes.
Landing the job is something else altogether.
The interview is on Monday at 2 p.m., so think good thoughts and put me in your prayers, if you have those. First, that it's an interesting and rewarding job; second, that they realize the value of the talent and skills I have to offer; and, third, that I actually land it if the first two work out well.
Again, no pictures, but those will come in time. I shall keep you posted on area rug options, employment status and couch and watger feature appreciation as the days go by.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Design for Unemployment
It's been over a week since I wrote anything for the blog, so now's the time.
When I look over my last week, it all seems creative overkill. I am going crazy not having a job, so the creative energy I would be spending on design is leaking out of me every waking moment. Designing things, redesigning things, conceptualizing, abstracting and generally driving myself mad.
Happy family news, though not exactly in the back yard: my Cousin Paul Riker (1st, once removed) and his wife Katie had a second child, a daughter, my cousin Maggie (1st, twice removed). Here's a really cute shot of older brother Max holding Maggie. I ripped it off from Paul's Facebook page, and I hope he doesn't mind, but they're such a good-looking family, I just had to share.
The big frustration last week was the "sofa problem."
A month ago, we bought a sofa from a place on South Lake called Pampas (South Lake touts itself as the Rodeo Drive of Pasadena, but I think that's stretching it just a bit). We ordered a special size (100" instead of 120") and the salesman said it would be ready in two to three weeks. Last Monday was just a shade over three weeks, so I called to check on the sofa. The woman at the home office said the manufacturer was closed for the day and she would call me Tuesday with its status.
Tuesday at noon she called, saying the fabric we'd chosen was damaged in shipping and it would take one to two months to reorder. She suggested we go to the showroom and pick a new fabric. I was a little irritated, but also grateful, as I'd been having second thoughts about our fabric choice (it got more garish the longer I looked at it).
On Thursday, after Steve got home, we went down and chose a new fabric. The saleswoman called while we were there to see if the fabric was in stock. She couldn't get the manufacturer. She suggested, just to be safe, that we pick a third choice in case the second was unavailable (see the numbered samples). This we did. She wasn't working the next day but would leave a note for the salesman (who had sold us the sofa) to check on the fabric and call us.
At noon on Friday I hadn't heard from him, so I called: he'd done nothing about it, but said he would call right away and get back to me. An hour later, the woman from the home office called: She couldn't contact the manufacturer, but would call me first thing on Monday with the order status.
I was pretty irritated by this point: If things are not right as rain on Monday, I may cancel the order and get the money back. Since buying this sofa, we've seen a couple others, both less expensive, which would work in the space. They just aren't as nice as the one we ordered, though. Rodeo-Drive-quality customer service, however, this is not.
And, speaking of rain, we've had a mild drizzle pretty much constantly for the last two days. I think we've finally broken the cycle of hot late-summer weather and moved officially into fall. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday also promise to be rainy, and when things clear out at the end of the week, temperatures will be in the low- to mid-70s, which is my very favorite temperature range.
I spent a day or two designing bookshelves for the living room. I was reminiscing about the old board-and-cinder-block shelving we used during my hippie days in college. I extrapolated on that concept, designing them with more upscale materials and keeping in the art deco/oritental/modern style mix we're working with. What I came up with was this design, using finished hardwood shelves and 4"x8" glass blocks:
We have books, DVDs, CDs and tchotchkes coming out of our ears, and even after we donate the unwanted stuff to Out of the Closet, there's still more than enough to fill them. Not only functional, they would also help open up the space in the living room. I've also designed them to appear built-in.
On the fountain front, I gave one last valiant attempt at sealing the base of the patio fountain, using the last of the aquarium epoxy, but to no avail. The fountain is officially a lot cause.
But take heart! I found a new fountain online; not quite as tall and now quite as Zen, but with nice aesthetics nonetheless. I went ahead and ordered it, and it should be here by the middle of the week. It's self contained, just plug-and-play, and it even has a light inside, so it will be a focal point in the evenings.
This, of course, leaves me with a perfectly good pump from the previous fountain, so I will probably be buying slate or rocks of some kind and coming up with another water feature for somewhere in- or outside the house. Stay tuned for that.
No new job possibilities. I keep combing through almost a dozen job sites and spend hours online filling out forms on companies' websites for positions that I'm totally qualified for, but no one replies.
I've been having insomnia worse than normal, and once stayed up the entire night processing images to update my general design page on the website. I've usually been getting to sleep between 1 and 2 a.m., which has been manageable, but I'm feeling lousy that it really doesn't matter when I get to sleep or when I wake up, because there's nowhere I have to be and no one who's counting on my to get a job done.
I'm up late tonight because I had to revise the slideshow programming on the general design page of my website, now that I have the new image files. I've included a couple extra brochures I found in my files, and also added galleries for stage design and my faux finishing work on interior design. The new slideshow is up and working, so I'm feeling good about that.
It's got me up late again tonight, though. And diving into a blog post didn't help matters, either. But, what the hell; I enjoy sharing inconsequential events in my existence with whoever has enough time to waste reading about them.
When I look over my last week, it all seems creative overkill. I am going crazy not having a job, so the creative energy I would be spending on design is leaking out of me every waking moment. Designing things, redesigning things, conceptualizing, abstracting and generally driving myself mad.
Happy family news, though not exactly in the back yard: my Cousin Paul Riker (1st, once removed) and his wife Katie had a second child, a daughter, my cousin Maggie (1st, twice removed). Here's a really cute shot of older brother Max holding Maggie. I ripped it off from Paul's Facebook page, and I hope he doesn't mind, but they're such a good-looking family, I just had to share.The big frustration last week was the "sofa problem."
A month ago, we bought a sofa from a place on South Lake called Pampas (South Lake touts itself as the Rodeo Drive of Pasadena, but I think that's stretching it just a bit). We ordered a special size (100" instead of 120") and the salesman said it would be ready in two to three weeks. Last Monday was just a shade over three weeks, so I called to check on the sofa. The woman at the home office said the manufacturer was closed for the day and she would call me Tuesday with its status.
Tuesday at noon she called, saying the fabric we'd chosen was damaged in shipping and it would take one to two months to reorder. She suggested we go to the showroom and pick a new fabric. I was a little irritated, but also grateful, as I'd been having second thoughts about our fabric choice (it got more garish the longer I looked at it).
On Thursday, after Steve got home, we went down and chose a new fabric. The saleswoman called while we were there to see if the fabric was in stock. She couldn't get the manufacturer. She suggested, just to be safe, that we pick a third choice in case the second was unavailable (see the numbered samples). This we did. She wasn't working the next day but would leave a note for the salesman (who had sold us the sofa) to check on the fabric and call us.At noon on Friday I hadn't heard from him, so I called: he'd done nothing about it, but said he would call right away and get back to me. An hour later, the woman from the home office called: She couldn't contact the manufacturer, but would call me first thing on Monday with the order status.
I was pretty irritated by this point: If things are not right as rain on Monday, I may cancel the order and get the money back. Since buying this sofa, we've seen a couple others, both less expensive, which would work in the space. They just aren't as nice as the one we ordered, though. Rodeo-Drive-quality customer service, however, this is not.
And, speaking of rain, we've had a mild drizzle pretty much constantly for the last two days. I think we've finally broken the cycle of hot late-summer weather and moved officially into fall. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday also promise to be rainy, and when things clear out at the end of the week, temperatures will be in the low- to mid-70s, which is my very favorite temperature range.
I spent a day or two designing bookshelves for the living room. I was reminiscing about the old board-and-cinder-block shelving we used during my hippie days in college. I extrapolated on that concept, designing them with more upscale materials and keeping in the art deco/oritental/modern style mix we're working with. What I came up with was this design, using finished hardwood shelves and 4"x8" glass blocks:
We have books, DVDs, CDs and tchotchkes coming out of our ears, and even after we donate the unwanted stuff to Out of the Closet, there's still more than enough to fill them. Not only functional, they would also help open up the space in the living room. I've also designed them to appear built-in.On the fountain front, I gave one last valiant attempt at sealing the base of the patio fountain, using the last of the aquarium epoxy, but to no avail. The fountain is officially a lot cause.
But take heart! I found a new fountain online; not quite as tall and now quite as Zen, but with nice aesthetics nonetheless. I went ahead and ordered it, and it should be here by the middle of the week. It's self contained, just plug-and-play, and it even has a light inside, so it will be a focal point in the evenings.This, of course, leaves me with a perfectly good pump from the previous fountain, so I will probably be buying slate or rocks of some kind and coming up with another water feature for somewhere in- or outside the house. Stay tuned for that.
No new job possibilities. I keep combing through almost a dozen job sites and spend hours online filling out forms on companies' websites for positions that I'm totally qualified for, but no one replies.
I've been having insomnia worse than normal, and once stayed up the entire night processing images to update my general design page on the website. I've usually been getting to sleep between 1 and 2 a.m., which has been manageable, but I'm feeling lousy that it really doesn't matter when I get to sleep or when I wake up, because there's nowhere I have to be and no one who's counting on my to get a job done.
I'm up late tonight because I had to revise the slideshow programming on the general design page of my website, now that I have the new image files. I've included a couple extra brochures I found in my files, and also added galleries for stage design and my faux finishing work on interior design. The new slideshow is up and working, so I'm feeling good about that.
It's got me up late again tonight, though. And diving into a blog post didn't help matters, either. But, what the hell; I enjoy sharing inconsequential events in my existence with whoever has enough time to waste reading about them.
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