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!!!