Facebook vs. Myspace

Back in 1984, I took the ASVAB before graduating high school. FOHI just barely had established a computer lab when I was in my senior or maybe even my junior year. It was located in a portable trailer which soon took over many of the parking lots on campus. I was more interested in Art and Ag (Ag to satisfy my science requirement, but more on that later.) than typing. I had taken typing in junior high for like two weeks and it bored me to tears so I transferred out of that class just as soon as I could into something else. Anyway, what I was getting at was computers were so new in 1984 let alone new to me because up until that time I had never even touched one, I was surprised when the Army recruiter contacted me to tell me he was interested in training me for computers. I basically laughed in his face and went on my merry way. I never pursued a military career.

After a family friend got me into banking because I had cashiering experience, I was exposed to computers for the first time in 1988. Bank computers are pretty much dumb terminals, a point of collecting data and telling you only what you need to know to get the job done they wanted to you do. Yawn.

Later, after I decided I need to be exposed to more chances for opportunities for employment and I moved to Orange County, I got a job with Bankers Trust. The year was 1992. The computers they used were a step up as compared to the dumb terminals I was used to. They were on a network and had applications I had to log into. We also had some access to the Internet at that time.

After a few years, I was able to get my credit going again and I purchased my first computer. So I've had some sort of presence on the Internet since 1995, amazingly so. Cruising the web had entertained me at some level for about a month but it was very passive at that time. I got kind of tired of reading the text and there was not much interaction involved... until I found IRC, then all hell broke loose. I was hooked on the immediate feedback of people sitting and typing to me just like I was sitting and typing to them. I spent hours upon hours chatting to people all over the globe. At one time, I had a map of the world and marked it to signify the locations of the people I chatted with. I had made friends who helped me upgrade my computers so that I could run Linux and have more than one client running at any one time.

Fast forward to 2005. IRC had run its course in my life, but I was still using the Internet frequently, but now mostly for informational purposes. I joined Myspace. I joined and found people that liked the things I liked and I thought that was cool. I was able to gain an ounce of social life back that I missed all the time I was focused so seriously on working and on being a single parent while raising my son as best I could. I made a few friends, and went to a lot of musical performances, shows, concerts, what have you... I still maintain a profile on Myspace, but really only for gaming purposes.

Now, I'm maintaining a Facebook page as a personal page. I used to have one a few years ago, but I didn't like the payout and it was confusing to me, yeah me, so I closed it almost as fast as I opened it, but now it's different. It seems to me to be better at filtering content: what you want versus what you don't want. I play games there, too, but it doesn't cloud my whole Facebook experience like on Myspace which I like. It just seems like a less intense, more mellow place to hang out on line, which is more my style.

History Repeats Itself

12-28-1932 - Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan

The year 1932 to some is the year of the Lindbergh kidnapping. To some, the year of the Shanghai-Manchuria Adventure. To some it was the third year of the Great Depression. But in the United States, at least, it might well be named the Year of the Forgotten Man.

It was his year. It was he who swung the country from conservative Republicanism to mildly progressive Democracy by a plurality of nearly seven million votes. It was he who swung the American Legion from anti-bonus to pro-bonus, the American Federation of Labor from passive to aggressive. It was he who marched on Washington for the bonus, he who ran the farm strike. It was he, and nearly 12,000,000 of him who were unemployed, who set the country pondering and planning for the future.

Without precedent was the overturn by which, casting well over 33 million Democratic votes, the Forgotten Man climbed into the political driver’s seat. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and an overwhelming Democratic House and Senate was the common man’s effort to cope with conditions he had never seen before.

Appliance Reliance

I think my Maytag refrigerator is less than two years old and just this month, I had to place a call to get it fixed. The 'brain' went out... the electronics panel that controls the temperature in the refrigerator section. The freezer? Fine, no problem! I went and bought two thermometers at BB&B to verify their internal temperatures. The freezer was hovering at a frosty zero - where it should be. But the refrigerator while it was busted? A steady 60 degrees. Mind you, refrigerated food is supposed to stay at 40 degrees or below. Oh, yeah. It's true - 40 degrees or below. That's why people tell you not to eat the food at has been sitting in the sun at a picnic. You can get a hellish case of food poisoning if you do.

But anyway, I called my local Maytag repair man on Saturday morning. Little did I know that I had to be f*cking clairvoyant in order to get same day service from ANY appliance repairman in my area. They were already booked up since Friday for Saturday appointments. And they don't work on Sundays, so I was relegated to the next business days available appointment which was on Monday.

And I had to throw everything away in my refrigerator. I was mad because I don't like to waste food like that. After the repairman came on Monday and diagnosed the issue, he needed a deposit to come back with the part and fix the beast. I was fine with that. What I was not fine with was that he couldn't locate and install the part until Wednesday. Now I'm pissed because I haven't had my refrigerator available to me in a working condition for over a week.

And all the week the refrigerator was on the fritz, my son and I both ate out. And my expenses shot up because I could not cook at home. I resorted to eating at my boyfriends for two nights - that was nice. I even planned and cooked one meal - breaded fried talapia with mango salsa and steamed brussel sprouts.

But anyway, I digress. I don't know how many hundreds of years I had that stupid harvest yellow GE refrigerater eating up my money in electric bills before I finally bit the bullet and bought a new appliance. And now this happens. At least the part is warantied for a year. Damn thing better not die again, I swear.

Are people really that stupid?

Frequently, I find myself logging into Yahoo! Answers to pass the time at work. Let's face it, I'm a manager so I sit here looking important until there is a problem and then I spring into action once one is presented to me. I mean, today has been the most busy I've been all month. I had two issues to deal with, one fax to make and one conference call with my boss who is at a remote location. Whoopie!

So last week while trolling through the Yahoo! Answers careers section (I like to generally stick to answering questions about credit, careers, and housing - go figure... haha) there is this question from I think it was a guy who asked:

"Now that I have graduated from a four year university, what career should I get into?"

...something to that effect. At first, I felt this rage well up inside me as though I wanted to smack this person upside his head. Hey, ummm... aren't you supposed to have a career in mind BEFORE you go to college? And don't they have you declare a major while you're there as well? Most normal people have a career goal in mind or at minimum some sort of personal interests they want to pursue. Do you have a clue? Can you get one?

I'm sorry, but I sit in an office full of baby boomers that would kill to have a college degree in anything right now, me included. If given the opportunity to go back to school, I'd do it in a minute so that I don't have to look at another note, mortgage or title document again other than my own.

Then I felt sad that this yahoo ever went to school and wasted time filling a seat in the first place. Are people really that stupid?

NBC maybe going green, but...

NBC maybe going green, but I live in Los Angeles where all of the major television stations here still use helicopters to report breaking traffic news and fires. How green is this practice?

This popped into my mind as I was driving to work this morning going north on the 5 freeway and traffic was flowing heavy but nicely through the 5/101 split. Looking up, there is this helicopter flying overhead directly over the lanes of traffic spewing exhaust and there was no place for me to go to get away from it. Gesus, it's bad enough I'm forced to drive in a fossil fuel burning vehicle but now I've got to be subjected to the smog a helicopter produces, too?

I think helicopters need to go green as well as disel trucks. I'm sick to death of that foul smell. Then eventually, cars the rest of us drive.

Ribbon Cutting

Monday, I was invited to go with my boyfriend to the reception and ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly renovated Ronald McDonald Family Rooms at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. He was the superintendent over all of the subcontractors that worked upon this volunteer effort.

I learned a new acronym - OSHPD pronounced 'oshpod'. Basically, it's the State of California's governing entity over planning and development of hospitals.

Thank you, Germany

To top off an already bad employment situation here in the U.S., Deutsche Post will close DHL effectively eliminating 9500 jobs. Merry f*cking Christmas.

Read: Deutsche Post to cut 9,500 jobs in US

The whole idea about existing in a free market society is to have competition and options. Since this one will be gone, you'll be stuck with FedEx or USPS. Pay thorough the nose or pay with your time. Not much if a choice now is it?

This, already on top of the grim news California is facing...

Read: California's Unemployment Rate Over 7.7% - a 14-year High

All I know is I'm happy I'm working and I don't know where I'd be now if I didn't take this contract position back in March. I know people that have been out of work for over a year now.

My Pleasure

My son and I were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the boyfriends house. The deal is the boyfriend will be in charge of the turkey and I will be in charge of everything else. Cool.

Then I shared my stories of past Thanksgivings feasts. Like last year with the anorexic organic 7 pound bird I got from Trader Joe's that was more suitable for making soup than it was any sort of a roasted meat meal I was dreaming about. Don't waste your money on a 7 pound bird - ever. That was a bad one.

A good one was the brined turkey breast roll with stuffing inside.

Or the one my son remembers the most - when I made garlic mashed potatoes and I somehow did not cook the potatoes enough. It was extremely starchy, and he got sick on it for hours.

So anyway, the boyfriend likes to cook restaurant style cuisine, so I'm thinking roasted root vegetable medley.

Brick, brick, where's the brick?

I'm sick to death of looking at the flower bed full of weeds located in my back patio area of my condominium. It sits under my neighbor's awning, so it's questionable what will grow there and what will mock me and die a slow agonizing death.

I decided three things:

1) I need a fuller landing near the gate on the back patio. The concrete step is an inadequate size.

2) I need brick to fix #1 and possibly create some sort of cover over the said flower bed after I install a week control blanket over it.

3) I'm thinking them maybe installing a fountain and a few potted plants to make it look nicer.

And so I'm on a quest to find free bricks on Craigslist this weekend. Why pay for something like that when people give them away? I happened to mention this project to a guy at work and he told me he had bricks he wasn't using, so he brought those in today and they are now sitting in the back of my car waiting to come home with me. I'm just excited that at least my landing will be better than it has been for years.

It's a good thing for McDonald's

Friday in Simi Valley at lunch time and I'm hungry, so I head on over to the local McDonalds and they were serving samples of their new cherry pie. They were also on sale 2 for $1.00. Yeah and yeah- I bought two.

Nice, but...

So I went to dinner over my boyfriends house last night - first time in three weeks mind you because his work schedule got so damn crazy with the bad weather and anything else that could go wrong. It's just one of those projects... So... After I gave him an earful of the stupid stuff I've have to endure to keep a job in the field I've worked in for the past 15 years... this is what he told me.

I was having to lay off people and you know it's not something anyone likes to do. So I'm handing these guys their final pay checks and one of those wooden boxes over there on the table. I walk over to the dining room table which is steps from the stool I'm sitting at the bar, and I open it.

It's a box stamped with the company name and inside is a nice carving set with knife and fork. And these are the things he's having to handing out to people he's laying off? I said, "What kind of sick fucks do you work for over there? They are making you had out knives to guys who just lost there job? You might want to tell these guys you're laying off to kindly open the box AFTER they get home."

Dinner

Boyfriend cooked:
BBQ steak
BBQ herbed red potatoes
...and something on the side I don't know what it's called but it was sauted bacon with mushrooms and brocoli. Rabe? Scramble? Whatchamcallit? Edible, but still working on the technique for that particular dish, too.

Laundry Hell, Part 2

Laundry Hell, Part 2, the return of the dirty laundry.

After, what, like two weeks, I decided I'd better wash again since I was running out of underwear and work clothes. I was trying to wait it out for the maintenance guy to fix the dryers. I mean, I saw him out there working on something, but they didn't work so now I don't know what is going on with the machines other than I'm really pissed off at the HOA board for not taking care of this sooner.

So it turns out it's not so bad washing clothes right after work on a Monday night. It's a steady pace of people in and out of the Super Wash, but nothing like the crowd I experienced Sunday night. I was able to walk in and load up my three loads into the $1.25 machines with no issues.

Next, I walked down to the Jalisco Restaurant and ordered two chicken tacos to go and a Pepsi. The tacos were fresh and good, but I can't say the same for the pickled veggies. I don't like anything spicy and these were. Eww. I noticed that there were cartoons on the tv at the front of the room, so sat at the bench near the front where I could try and tune out all of the noise.

Ultimately, I was in and out by 9PM for under $10 this time.

Which is more likely?

I love Yahoo!s News section. After reading an article that peaked my interest, I always scroll down to the bottom of the page and see what else is going on in their "Most" and "Elsewhere on the Web" sections.

So today, I followed that same routine and saw something weird. After reading about how some moron thinks rainy climates in the west produce more autistic children (you think maybe it's the mold that grows in those rainy climates, sir?), I looked again and there was an article which said women's hands are more germy than men's. O.K., that makes sense, too. Women do the majority of the food preparation and cooking as well as the cleaning with harsh chemicals, so they are helping to contaminate themselves and their loved ones. I also think it's got something to do with the vitality of the egg and the sperm. Women are most fertile between the ages of 18-24. But that window closes fast when they put school and career first over having a family. Add a nutritional deficient to the mix with everyone drinking alcohol and dieting and you've got a problem waiting to happen. In My opinion.

Read:

Autism linked to rain

Women's Dirty Hands

Infertility

Face The Nation: Nov 2, 2008

I was watching Face the Nation on my local CBS station just because I wanted to see what the politicos had to say this morning two days before the most historic presidential election ever.

One man, Senator John Ensign, a Republican from Nevada, who sided clearly with McCane, made me take notice when he said, as I too think, that it was the CRA in the 1970's that started the need for alternative financial vehicles, i.e. interest only notes, because financial institutions were forced into lending to consumers that has less than stellar credit and could not afford the monthly mortgage payment plus taxes and insurance on a thirty year note.

Earlier in my blog, I began to write how the United States got into this big of a financial mess in the first place, but it became too preachy and a diatribe really, so I decided not to publish it to allow more scholarly peoples put the pieces of the puzzle together for themselves or to atleast see if they came to a similiar conclustion as I did. I was happy to hear what I heard this morning from this senator, but saddened that he was an avid supporter of McCane.

On a side note, I cannot support McCane, a man who is older than my mom and so senile he doesn't even know how many houses he owns. Maybe he needs some Ritalin... or a retirement home. He reminds me of the lifetime politicians of yesteryear when almost at the end of their term in office, they would run for yet another position to continue their legacy, err, government funded their way of life they aren't yet comfortable giving up without a fight.