Events, Not Momentous, but Events

It's been a while again since I made an entry here. Mostly because not much has been going on of note. There are a few things to mention, so I thought I'd jot them down before they went out of my head.

We went to see cousin Robin's latest play, "Cannibals," at the Zephyr Theater on Melrose in Hollywood. It was a funny show, all about struggling actresses "of a certain age" working in Hollywood. Robin's performance was absolutely stellar and she was funny as hell. I'm not just saying that because I know she'll read this at some point. She really was great. She played a celebrity bitch movie star and it was brilliant. The state is really her medium (though she's great on screens big and small).

I've got a phone interview with the unemployment people tomorrow morning. Seems they're suspicious about why I stopped going to school. So I have to tell them it's because I finished my contracted period (which I told them when I started) and didn't want to lie on my form and say I was unavailable for work. We shall hash out reality and their forms and come to some kind of a compromise, I'm sure.

Another bit of news about tomorrow is I actually have an interview for a job. It's in the afternoon at a place called Castle Press. The job is only part-time (but may lead to full time) and I'd be making about 60% of what I was making at the Reporter, but it would be an income of sorts and a reason to get up in the morning. I'm kind of on the fence about it before going into the interview, so they'll have to sell me as much as I'll have to sell them.

Third bit of news is that Pearce Plastics, where Steve works, wants to redesign their website, and I had a meeting with them last Friday about it. It looks fairly straightforward, and the details might need to be worked out, but I think it's totally within my realm (i.e., no big databases or dynamic page content). I've been playing around with some design concepts, and should be getting back to them by the end of the week with a budget and a site layout scheme. Woody, the owner, is a member of Rotary, so maybe I'll talk him up and see if he can spread the good word about me to other small business folks. Perhaps a web design business on the side and a part-time gig at Castle Press would be a nice combination.

Nine days until we leave for Eureka, and I'm really looking forward to getting out of the big city and enjoying fresh air, beaches, forests, small-town pace, etc., etc. It's getting that time of year here in Southern California when the green starts disappearing on the hills and everything turns brown and dead. That's when I start my clock and wait for the rainy season to come in six months or so. It will be nice to be surrounded by green by default.

Also, my thoughts and prayers are with my niece Amanda, who seems to be having problems in her final trimester. They were going to induce labor this week but are holding off until the baby's lungs develop a little bit more. Everybody send her your prayers, if you're not already.

That's about it. Time to head to bed.

Nasty Anniversaries

What with all the awful things that happened in my life last year, I'm coming up on some very nasty anniversaries. And one has already passed.

Yesterday was the anniversary of my getting sacked -- excuse me, "made redundant" -- at The Hollywood Reporter. So I shall use the same graphic that I used last year to express my appreciation for the moguls who forced my bosses to fire people (anybody) to create a half-million-dollar savings in payroll. Some extremely talented people went that day (the fifth of a series of layoffs which were all called "the last layoff we're going to do.")

And after a year of anxiety and insomnia and occasional bouts of depression, my doctor finally offered me some pharmaceutical intervention, which I heartily took. So, at present, there is no anxiety and I feel just fine, if a little unfocused.

Good news and sad news: My sister Kittie finally disbursed Mom's estate to the siblings, so now my cash flow worries are over for the moment. First thing I did was put $10,000 into an 18-month CD. Second thing I did was pay off the credit cards. Third thing I did was make the full $6,000 contribution to my IRA and my next move will be to make the same into Steve's IRA. With the rest, we're planning on remodeling the downstairs: bamboo floors, slate in the entry, kitchen and on the patio, new doors on all the kitchen cabinets, granite countertops with glass tile backsplash. We want to get top dollar for this place when we sell it, and it will be nice to spend a couple years enjoying the improvements in the interior.

Steve's birthday is coming up next week, and even with a lot of money in the bank, I still can't think of what to get him. It's kind of nice that we don't go in for giving extravagant presents to one another. Maybe I'll get him a book, since he enjoys reading.

Two weeks later we take off for a couple days in Eureka (I'm trying to sell Steve on the idea of retiring there). Next notable occassion is July 29, when the Arizona horrible-horrible law goes into effect and I celebrate the 57th anniversary of my birth.

August is the anniversary of Aunt Kit's death.

October is the anniversary of my Mom's death.

November is the anniversary of my matriculation in web design classes and it will be second time we really don't know what to do for Thanksgiving because the Moms are gone and a familial focus went with them.

Hopefully sometime between all those observations, we'll get that bamboo floor and that granite countertop. It just feels like the outward things should change and renew, become fresher and cleaner and enjoyable once again. Because, on the inside, renewal is something you just can't rush; it moves at its own pace.

Clouds Gone Outside, Now In

I'm feeling blue today, so no pictures. Just whiney, self-indulgent words. I get that way when I'm blue.

It's not depression, you understand. Oh, God, no! Not depression! No, this is more fart-around-all-day, nothing-makes-much-difference kinda blues.

The last two days were cloudy with an off-and-on drizzle that didn't even pretend to be rain. Today's gorgeous, though, with clear skies and temperatures in the mid-70s; just a touch of a breeze, what more could you want?

What I think it is is a twofold kind of thing. First, school ended, and even though I'm still studying, there's not that obligation to attend classes and interact with people. Now I've got all this new knowledge and nothing much to do with it.

Second, last week I applied to several jobs that I thought I was eminently qualified for, and I haven't heard a thing from anybody. I did get the automated "we-received-your-application" e-mail, which is nice, but what I want is a call, an interview. I long for those good old days in the 20th century when you could actually contact someone in the HR department and persuade them to arrange an interview so you could sell yourself.

In two weeks I will have been unemployed for an entire year. This is mind-boggling to me. I thought last time (1998) was horrible at nine months of unemployment. This, however, is consciousness-altering.

On the bright side, I've been planning a trip to Eureka for next month. I want to take Steve up to see the town and the area, see if he would like us to retire there. So we're flying in on a Thursday, checking out neighborhoods and housing prices on Friday, then spending the weekend hiking among the redwoods giants, strolling and discovering the town.

We've got our flight, hotel, car rental, all ready to go. The idea of taking some time off and getting out of town for something other than deaths and memorials is very appealing to me. I get excited when I think about the future. It's just the immediate future that bums me out, and that will change as soon as something appears on the job horizon.

And just writing this has improved my mood. I want to go do something really productive, like trim my beard or vacuum the living room. And in the afternoon, back to studying and the job search.

Hey: life is good. Nothing's being repossessed or foreclosed on. I've got these great new skills I itching to put into practice for some lucky company. All the bills are paid. We won't talk about applying for unemployment extensions today. It's much too nice outside and I'm ready for a walk.

I'm Taking You Home, Baby

Please forgive the huge gap between blog entries, but my computer died on Sunday evening, just as I was about to make an entry (no, really; I wasn't just playing computer games and the screen suddenly went black). Well, I was finishing up a computer game and planning on making an entry, when there was a little click and the display looked like this.

Black. The computer would turn off and turn on, all the things inside were spinning and whirring, but nothing on the screen. Monday I called Apple Support, which is not located on the subcontinent, but in Cupertino in California. We went through all kinds of diagnostics (which always makes you feel so smart because you're in on it), but to no avail. Chris (the Apple guy) said it was most likely a hardware issue. Luckily, the machine is still under warranty.

So I took it into Di-No Computers (the world's best computer store for Macs and their maintenance and repair) and they took a look at it. At first they thought it was the LCD display itself and ordered a new one. On Wednesday they called and said it wasn't the display but the inverter circuits (but of course), so they were ordering that piece. Today (Friday) they called and said it was ready. I was so happy. I have really missed the machine, and when I'd done all the paperwork and left the store with it, I put it in the back of the car and said, "I'm taking you home, baby."

That kind of bothered me, because it was spontaneous.

This leads us to the next image I have to share. It's the cat, of course, and here Patty is, involved in her favorite evening activity: When Steve and I come upstairs to get into our robes (loungewear, we call them), Patty races upstairs in front of us and, as soon as the lights come on in the bedroom, she starts chasing the shadows. She just loves chasing shadows. It's the highlight of her day.

Of course, we get a real kick out of it and dance our hands around in the air to drive her crazy. But it got me to thinking about my ardor for my computer. It is my connection to the world, my major work tool, a conduit for my self-expression and my job search. It is my entertainment and my news source. It was really weird not to have it during the week, worrying that a job opportunity would pass me by because I couldn't get a resume out (over the Internet, of course).

Never mind that I have an iPhone and check my e-mail several times a day on that device. Not having the machine sitting in front of me on the desk, not having the programs I'm so familiar with available for my immediate use, I felt lost. For the first time since I was laid off last June, I sat in front of the TV during the day and watched movies. (To be fair, I also cleaned out the entire pantry and reorganized it and did the same with the office). But I rely so much on this device.

I can't help but think that a lot of the time we all spend in front of our computers is just chasing shadows: An acceptable pastime here in the 21st century. And creating so much of my graphics work on a computer now, I can't help but recall my days at college when I had a drafting table and a T-square and I created all my work on vellum paper and illustration board with ruling pens and India ink and registered overlays. All those accoutrements are antiques now.

But it does make me think about the time I spend in front of my best electronic friend, iMac. I need to make sure I put that time to good use, like writing a blog. Right?

On the Homebody Front

A few things to update you on: the carpet shampooer and the refrigerator. (You can already tell how scintillating this entry is going to be, can't you?)

Yes, all the recent changes seem to be of a disturbingly domestic nature. The first improvement is the repair of our carpet shampooer. This has been an ongoing saga, leading back almost a year. I took the thing out last June to clean the carpets (to work off the depression of being recently laid off) and after about 10 minutes the water stopped squirting. This was followed by disassembly, wherein I cleaned all the cat hair out and inadvertently inverted a valve while reassembling the machine. The valve broke, and I had to order a replacement. It arrived in August and still no water flow.

In November of last year, my sister Kittie and her husband Dave were visiting [see Dec. 1, 2009, entry: "'Tis the Season to Be Dealt With]. Dave's one of those natural-born handymen, and after connecting the vent over the stove, I mentioned the problem with this machine. He located the inverted valve and corrected the situation. Still the machine did not work. After a little searching on the Internet, I found a certified repair shop in Arcadia, just south of Pasadena. We took the machine in last Saturday for repairs.

On the way home from Arcadia, we decided to stop off at Pacific Sales (an appliance store) to check out refrigerators. This is a really great retailer, since they actually have salespeople on the floor who know the merchandise and are up front about being on commission. Our current fridge was 25 years old, ran most of the time and made funny sounds while doing so. So we checked out potential replacements and found out that both the state and the City of Pasadena had rebate programs for appliance replacement that were expiring in mid-May. Doing the math, we realized that, with the store's discounts and the rebates, we would be able to purchase a new refrigerator for half price.

I checked online for different manufacturers and reviews of the various refrigerators we looked at, and I ran across some really cool advertising art images from the past that marketed fridges. Here's one from the 1960s, where a futuristic housewife has cloned herself. Why she is wearing a bubble space helmet, I'm not sure. I don't think the men who did the advertising in mid-20th century really knew how to relate to the concept of a "modern" woman, so they put her in space clothes. Anyway, look at that avocado-green job: that's the look of the future, all right!

On Wednesday afternoon the repair guy called and said the problem was a frozen pump: we had not cleaned out the machine after using it, and the soap solution had solidified inside the pump. Repairs were $80. So the next day we drove down and picked up the cleaner. Driving back, Steve looked at me without saying a word, and I replied "You want to buy that refrigerator, don't you?" He nodded, we stopped by Pacific Sales and we did.

The refrigerator arrived on Friday, and the delivery guys had to take its doors off to get it into the house. They also had to remove all of the drawers in the kitchen to get enough clearance, but we made it. Now I open the refrigerator and feel like I live in the 21st century. It has a french-door refrigerator on top and a huge drawer freezer on the bottom. And I haven't heard it running since I first plugged it in.

Today (Sunday) we pulled out the newly repaired cleaner and shampooed the carpets downstairs. It'll take another go-round to really get them clean, but they are looking mighty spiffy compared to this morning. The cats hated the entire process, of course, because there's nowhere to walk that isn't damp. Marcel hates the vacuum cleaner, and the shampooer is bigger and just as noisy, so he split for upstairs. Patty didn't seem to mind the machine at all, unless it was coming directly for her, then she'd move to what she considered safer ground and continue watching the process.

So this picture gives you an idea of how I feel this evening, having been so intensely domestic for the last several days. (Who could resist this pink and mint-green kitchen?) It's been quite a while since we did anything to fluff our nest, and these are both solid moves, especially since we are contributing to the sales of durable goods and the local economy. Things are good.

On the school front, I have finished my Adobe studies of Dreamweaver, and this is my final week at school. It should take about a week each for the Photoshop and Illustrator books, and then I'll start taking the practice exams for each subject. I'm hoping to celebrate the anniversary of my unemployment by taking the certification exams. I already applied to a job at NBC-Universal, but I'm not holding my breath, since they want someone with an advertising background. We shall see.

The Sky Is Falling!

Steve and I subscribe to Netflix. It's really a great alternative to the movie theater, especially with a HDTV and a blu-ray player. Even DVDs look good on this thing. Why do you think they're coming out with all of these 3D flicks? To try and drag us back into the theaters and charge us even more for mediocre fair.

In any case, we get two movies a week plus a disc from a TV series. (So far we've watched "Lost," "Battlestar Galactica," "Oz" and "John Adams.") With films being released on disc less than a year after theatrical release, it really makes sense to pick and choose what you drop $14 to $22 for in the movie theater versus what you can see at home for less than a buck with a rental service. We watch one on Saturday, one on Sunday and pop in the series disc whenever there's nothing on cable. Friends have told me it's also a great way to introduce their kids to television classics that don't air as reruns on cable.

Today, we watched "2012" on blu-ray, and all I can say to Roland Emmerich (writer and director) is: "Ohhh, puhleese." But I do have to admit that the poster does clearly state: "We were warned." The computer graphics are good but totally over the top. As a film critic I know said, "It looks like he's designing thrill rides for Universal Studios."

Emmerich (the writer/director of this movie, as well as "The Day After Tomorrow," "Godzilla (the remake)," Independence Day" and "Stargate") is really in love with the end of the world. Rumor has it he thinks he's the first horseman of the Apocalypse (but in a good, Hollywood kind of way). I understand "Independence Day 2 and 3" are on their way to us (let's hope the aliens have learned not to program their space ships with Mac OS X this time), as well as Roland's take on the Isaac Asimov "Foundation" trilogy. Of the latter, all I can say is "eeewwww."

Any self-respecting sci-fi fan knows that "Foundation" would be impossible to create as a single film. Perhaps if it were made as six or nine films, or an extended series, like "Battlestar," perhaps it could be achieved with some fidelity. But I dread to think of what Sony and Emmerich will do to it. Makes me want to re-read the series over again for old times' sake.

There is relief on the film front tomorrow, however: our movie for Sunday is "Dolores Claiborne," with Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Based on a Stephen King book, it's directed by Taylor Hackford, who I like way better ("An Officer and a Gentleman," "White Nights," "Devil's Advocate" and "Ray.")

On other fronts: Cats are both fine, the orchid spike is still putting out blooms. I finished the Flash coursebook and passed the sample exam first time (but just). I'm presently halfway through the Dreamweaver book (Photoshop and Illustrator still to go). Steve keeps getting queries from employment agents but nothing solid as of yet. His present boss still refuses to take him full-time or give him the raise he was promised six months ago.

We Need a Vacation

Steve was looking at our European vacation pictures on his computer tonight and commented that it was three years to the day today that we were in London. This picture is from the boat tour on the Thames. It was supposed to rain for most of the two weeks we were there, but it held off and the weather was unusually pleasant. And we ended up lugging raincoats and collapsible umbrellas for two weeks.

Looking over these, I realize how much we need a vacation. That was the last one week took. Steve moved between jobs for a year and a half and I got laid off last year, and we never seemed to collect enough mutual time off at our respective jobs to make it happen.

Bright side news: Marcel is back home after spending two nights at the veterinarian hospital. He's still sluggish, but we've got medicine to give him (won't that be fun?) and we're hoping he'll make a full recovery; he'd better after the $524 we sank into his well being. The medicine is a liquid, because the vet said he would never ask anyone to try and give "that cat" a pill. (Marcel is French for reticent and vicious).

Monday is my last class at New Horizons. Then I have three weeks until my contract at the school is up. I mean to get through at least two of my Classroom in a Book texts by then, and will have all of them finished by the end of May, so that I can take the Adobe exams as soon after as possible.