Here Come the Holidays

Been a week or so since I've dropped in to write a post. Nothing much going on. The weather has finally settled into fall, and we've actually had several storms drop rain every week or so. (This is major news in Southern California: only here does a storm that drops less than an inch of rain get "team coverage" on the nightly news.) The temperatures are in the 60s and 70s, and it gets cool enough at night that we can use the comforter on the bed rather than sleeping under just a sheet or light blanket.

I browsed YouTube for some sort of Thanksgiving cartoon or short to place here for your entertainment, but nothing inspiring was found. And nothing worth picture-taking has occurred since the last entry, so no new photos are available for sharing.

I'm still checking in with Pasadena City College, still waiting for the selection committee to review the applications and select interview candidates for the job over there. The rest of the job market has gone into another dry period: If you don't have three to five years of experience in web design with an ad agency or in-house marketing department, no one wants to speak to you, unless you can translate the Bible into JavaScript; then there's a chance you might get an interview. And all the postings are for positions that are doing the work of two people, designer and developer.

For Thanksgiving this year, we've decided to forgo having it at a restaurant in lieu of cooking it at home, which means me cooking it at home. I've never done this solo before, so it should be an interesting experience. I can't see how it would be much different from any other meal where you have numerous dishes that all have to be ready at the same time; just takes some cyphering and one or two accurate timers, that's all.

The smallest turkey we could find at the store was nine pounds, three ounces. Luckily, it fits into the freezer. I'm adding to that stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, green bean casserole and biscuits (and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, of course). So far, it's just the two of us, although there's enough to invite a couple other people over if the occasion arises.

But I refuse to become a pawn in the corporate machinations of Black Friday, which is becoming Gray Thursday Evening/Black Friday this year. Yes, corporate big box stores are opening Thursday evening so that shoppers, still high on their L-tryptophan load, can start spending as soon as electronically possible.

It's odd that we have a nationwide protest in Occupy (your town here), the people protesting corporate power and greed, and yet there is a muddle-headed, malleable middle class willing to abandon their families on the most sacred of secular U.S. holidays to fork over their hard-earned cash (or credit) to feed these soulless, amoral entities whenever marketed to do so. (Well, they're people, too, right? The corporations, I mean, not those faceless consumers-units upon which they feed.) There is protesting and rioting in the streets of most major American cities and those in power don't really seem to understand the import of that. I'm astonished.

In any case, we've decided to move our banking over to a local credit union (it is presently with a monster corporate bank that has frozen our equity line of credit for no other reason than they wanted to. My personal line of credit is still available … at a whopping 17% interest). I have a CD maturing in December, and plan to use that the open the new accounts, then close out everything with the old bank.

Maybe Thanksgiving weekend would be a good time to put up the Christmas decorations at home. I'm hoping that the pre-lighted tree we got last year will make the process a whole lot easier. Getting that holiday chore out of the way would be a good idea, and perhaps leave time in the weeks ahead to add one or two new pieces to the decorations (a garland for the entry stairs would be nice, if the price is right).

As far as the future goes, next month will be the determining point: If I start up a studio of my own instead of getting a job, then I'm going to need to make my major purchases before the 31st in order to get all the tax breaks I can. It's not a whole giant pile of money I'll need to spend, but it's enough to make my income taxes for this last year go away.

So, come on PCC: make with the interview next month so I can know where I stand by Christmas Day. And if I do go into business for myself, there will be one amazing shopping spree the week after Christmas.