A friend was just talking about their job. No raises for three years, no company calendar, no overtime, no more money to go around.
One part of my brain screams: “I’ll gladly swap jobs with you!” How I think I would love to be back in that business again.
Another says I have it pretty good right now. Money-wise, it is pretty tight. Way under the poverty line. I’ve been sickypoo achy, sniffly sneezy and upside-down since Monday and I’ve only left my house once since tuesday. I finished up a tough semester at school and will have to redo a particularly difficult class.
It is so much easier to complain about things I have no control over.
But that gets boring after awhile. I’d rather be happy about what I have than piss and moan about what I don’t!
What a change in perspective that is. I’ve learned a lot in 11 months, and through living on my own.
I’ve got more expenses, less free time and less disposable income, I have a much richer life.
Trimming the fat has never killed me….even when there seems to be no fat left to trim.
I like to remind myself, what’s important isn’t so much what I have but what I do with it.
Something greater than me in the universe is taking care of me. Thank goodness, cause I know I can’t do it all myself!
Thinking about the example of the “cheap” company with no money for calendars. Wow, I get to work at a job that pays me every month, and I get to do something that is rewarding and which I’m skilled at. I have great coworkers and a wonderful boss and management team. I am going to get a box of new business cards, and I just received a calendar for 2010.
I get to have caring, loving relationships with friends and family. I’m learning how to truly relate to others. we support each other in achieving success. we respect each other.
I have water and food. I have a safe place to live. There is public transportation, and because I am enrolled in college courses, I ride for very low cost.
being able to enroll at college is amazing, and I get to choose the classes.
I have the opportunity to take care of myself and what I need.
I can keep in contact with people who are far away, as often and frequently as we choose!
This morning I woke up to the clock radio, hearing two local musicians playing in the studio.
Next week I’m planning to travel to another state and spend christmas with my family. So much to be grateful for!
I dreamt about a phone call and woke up thinking about how to spell certain words. In my dream, a friend emailed me a list of reasons we are friends, for my birthday I think. I have just walked through a JCPenney that looks more like a hotel which is going out of business and all but the toy room, spa and the Shiseido counter are sold out. So I take the white, glow-in-the-dark Transformer. Old school with the original packaging. The same friend who just emailed me that important letter is looking for a place to live and then I had to decide whether I would just let them vent or help with suggestions.
Dream > dreamt
Spill > spilt
Spend > spent
Send > sent
End > ent???
I feel like I’m being pulled in that time zone where it is three hours earlier than it is here.
Been learning about being present in each moment, and it is 1 o’clock now but feels earlier somehow. Well, people in Hawaii are going to sleep. Maybe I should, too.
That’s all.
My friend I. calls milk “udder pus.” So I took it a step further to call anything more solid, “fermented” or “cured” or “aged” udder pus.
I haven’t been in the dairy mood since then… A few months back. I’ve had milk chocolate, pancakes, eggs, cake, and other items where the milk is mixed in and then cooked. And I’ve had ice cream a couple of times.
But tonight I decided to order this butternut squash pasta with light cream sauce. Yeah right! It was baked lasagna stlye in a ceramic dish, bursting with fluffy ricotta and covered in mozzarella.
My food was hot and melted and delicious going down. But about half an hour later I developed a horrible tummyache! I think it is from eating too much fermented udder pus.
Initial thoughts about the UC walkout on sept 24.
I think the “best and brightest” _ which they obviously think they are because they’re affiliated with uc _ need to make some compromises.
Do people really think majoring in stuff that has nothing to do with the highest demand jobs is a good start on a career or a way to help stimulate the economy?
In other words, California’s struggling economy doesn’t need too many people who study the history of families in the central valley. We need folks like doctors, civil engineers, mechanics, technicians, computer workers.
I don’t think too many of these workers will be coming from the University of California. Just a thought.
In times like now, when people are struggling, isn’t it more like a luxury to be able to attend an elite university like UC Berkeley or UCLA? Heck, any of the UC campuses. (Even Merced.)
Perhaps some people believe they are entitled to be affiliated with UC. Their parents can pay, so they should be able to go. They got good grades. Their SAT scores were high. They were a candystriper at the local pediatrics ward.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with taxing students to make up gaps in the state budget. Raising tuition over 30 percent in a year is unreasonable. The State knows it has a huge organization like UC to support, but now it’s not a surprise that once again this year the item needs to be funded?
UC takes the top students in the state. UC is selective and competitive. I’m sure a lot of the incoming freshmen really are smart, even though reports show that many of them don’t start out at college level and need to take remedial classes. I agree that college instructors shouldn’t have to slow down for the semi-literate. Big problem! But that’s not why they’re walking out. They’re walking out because budget cuts have forced UC to issue furlough days, cut programs, fire workers, negotiate with unions.
I think professors would understand that in times of economic hardship, it’s a privilege to have higher education at all. Like my grandpa would say, when he was growing up he got to go into the service. College was for rich people, not people who had to work. It isn’t enough that you got into the university or landed a teaching job there. Why not specialize in subjects that have no connection with the jobs we need to rebuild California.
Could the fortunate UC professors support their university by focusing on the priority of providing quality undergraduate education? It’s a compromise that hopefully won’t last many years. If teachers want to do specialty work of their own, they could seek a job with a private company known for partnering with the university on research projects.
Some people are talking about the rainy-day fund that voters didn’t want. Could the state have used money from a rainy-day fund to support higher education?
For me, instead of donning a blue t-shirt and walking around the Capitol during my lunch half-hour, I’m going to find ways to make good, useful contributions to my community. I think I’d rather buy some English, science and math workbooks and donate them to a needy high school.
This is my personal opinion and is not endorsed or condoned by any agencies or employers I am affiliated with.
i am the co-owner of a 1999 ford taurus. when we got her, she wasn’t exactly new, but she was new enough.
now that she doesn’t work anymore i’ll be seeing her in my parking space all the time.
in her first and second years, i maintained her as best i could. her last year went by fast. i barely drove. i used her 10 percent of the time.
her co-owner is elsewhere now, but $2,200 is still owed. she’s worth less than half that. to fix her up it will probably cost more than what’s owed.
i often asked him to treat the car like a virgin: go slow and easy. make sure she’s well-lubricated. check under her skirt obsessively.
it’s not our fault the car was broken into three times when we lived at that huge apartment complex, but she still ended up pretty bad.
repairs could easily have been prevented with a little care and foresight. i now have to tend to busted hoses, dirty oil, dried up fluids, broken thermostat, plugged radiator, flat tires. enough that you’d think i said: “use her like a cheap whore.”
img - theraflu apple cinnamon sore throat tea
I don’t have the flu, but enough of a sore throat and watery, itchy eyeballs that my dad is giving me Theraflu tea. It has a decongestant, antihistamine and acetaminophen. Something tells me that stuff tastes nasty in its “natural” state. Continue Reading »
State higher education commission discusses new degree programs, equity in education, alternative format textbooks
SACRAMENTO — JUNE 5, 2009 — Degree and certificate programs reviewed in academic year 2008–09 will be discussed at the next meeting of the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), June 9 and 10.
CPEC staff review new programs proposed by public colleges and universities, based on an assessment of societal needs, student demand, cost, and advancement of knowledge. CPEC is the state agency that provides independent advice to the Governor and Legislature on higher education issues. Program review is one of CPEC’s primary statutory responsibilities.
SACRAMENTO — Empty Streets, the award-winning short film tells the story of “Johnny” and his troubles in society due to being a homeless veteran. “Empty Streets” takes place over the course of one night, and is based on real events in the life of a Marine veteran who returned home from combat with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and no government benefits.
The film was shot in Sacramento, Modesto and Lodi, California.
Empty Streets is the directorial debut of Sacramento producer/director Paul Booth and the newest project by Sacramento writer/editor/designer Kendyce Manguchei.
“Empty Streets” features music by Grammy winners Willie Nelson and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and multiple Grammy-nominated blues musicians Charlie Musselwhite and Jimbo Mathus, as well as hip-hop group Righteous Movement, who is nominated for Sacramento News & Review Music Awards.
“This film was made to help veterans and shed light on how the government does not help all of them when they come home from war,” says Paul. “The fact that my film helped a veteran with a past experience is all I care about. A WWII veteran saw our premiere and said, ‘Good job, you captured how I felt when I came home.’ That’s what really touched my heart.”
Empty Streets has screened in St. Louis at the Veterans for Peace National Convention, colleges and universities in Hawaii, art house cinema in Honolulu, at the Northern California Film Festival in Modesto, Calif., and Sky-Fest Film Festival in North Carolina, and has been on world wide webcasts.
As a producer, Paul has films available on DVD from Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Netflix, including Blood of the Samurai, Ghost Game, and Greeley’s Field (Australia, New Zealand, U.K.). For Time Warner Cable Honolulu, Paul has produced an action miniseries, “Ninja EX,” and numerous segments for a behind-the-scenes show about the film industry, “Hawaii Reel Stories.”
Empty Streets will be available on Amazon.com this year.
emptystreetsmovie.blogspot.com
SCHEDULE, JUNE 7–14
CALIFORNIA
Sacramento
Access Sacramento cable channel 17 (Comcast, SureWest)
- Sunday June 7 and 14 – 8:00-10:00 PM
- Monday June 8 – noon – 2:00 PM
- Tuesday June 9 – 4:00 – 6:00 AM
Davis
Davis Community Television cable channel 15 (Comcast)
- Sunday June 7 and 14 – 8:00 – 10:00 PM
Eureka, Arcata, Humboldt County
Access Humboldt cable channel 12 (Suddenlink)
- Monday June 8 – 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Stanford
Media Center cable channel 27 (Comcast)
- Monday June 8 – 9:00 – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday June 9 – 12:30 – 2:30 AM and 4:00 – 6:00 AM
West Sacramento
Community Access cable channel 21 (WAVE Broadband)
- Monday June 8 – 9:00 – 11:00 PM
Grass Valley, Nevada City, Nevada County
Nevada County Television cable channel 11 (Comcast)
- Monday June 8 – 10:30 PM – 12:30 AM
MASSACHUSETTS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge Community Television cable channel 10 (Comcast)
- Sunday June 7 – 8:00 – 10:00 PM
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Manchester
Manchester Community Access Media cable channel 23 (Comcast)
- Sunday June 7 and 14 – 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM
- Thursday June 11 – 3:00 – 5:00 PM
- Friday June 12 – 7:00 – 9:00 AM
MISSOURI
Columbia
Columbia Access Television cable channel 3 (Mediacom)
- Sunday June 7 and 14 – 8:00 – 10:00 PM
- Monday June 8 – 10:00 PM – midnight
I set my Myspace mood or alter ego for the evening as “Ms. Fix-It.”
Tonight I came home to a big brown chunk of a problem. Rather, many chunks, suspended in a lumpy stew of shredded toilet paper and piss. So I had to fix it.
I now know what it means to have a smell burn your nose hair.
I have a sensitive sniffer. Smells can be irresistible, memorable, comforting, surprising, disgusting, totally wack.
Wailua soil, early morning ocean, bonfires, fresh pot of coffee, eucalyptus leaves, new books, old books, Nana’s kitchen cupboards, babies, yarn, rambunctious beach dog, newspaper pressroom, that spot on his neck, burgers and fries, burning brake pads, 4 a.m. beer-and-cigarette breath …
When I walked in the door tonight I didn’t smell the spaghetti sauce I was expecting. Instead I recognized the odor of the ladies’ room at Polihale, but less salty. My senses have been wonky since the car incident.
This evening I was super caffeinated. I had an urge to take a shower. And I had to pee real bad! But I don’t pee in the shower! That is when I recognized the sewage thing wasn’t memory or imagination. It was my toilet, and it was nearly overflowing.
I quietly looked online for stores likely to sell plungers that were open past 9 p.m. Either Target or WalMart. Target it is. I am lucky I could call my dad, because I forgot whether to turn the water off. I could have looked on ehow.com I guess. But hey, it’s my dad and dads know these things. Besides, last year his plumbing exploded and his hallway flooded with nastiness.
My first try didn’t go so well. The store didn’t have any “toilet” plungers so I went with the flat, “sink” kind. I started getting light-headed from holding my breath while plunging away in my humid, urine, shit and Lysol stenchroom. This was worse than the stickiest, pukiest beer bar in Las Cruces. This was worse than toe-jams after a summer afternoon’s trek through Midtown. Worse than burnt popcorn. Worse than the “what’s this?” container of leftovers in the back of the fridge. All my plunging only made brown and black pieces of excrement float around the bowl.
I washed my hands a dozen times with hot water. I ate a bowl of pasta (turns out it was on the stove the whole time), ate some crackers, ate some candy, checked my email, then went back to the job.
It was just as I left it. Of course it couldn’t do me a favor and fix itself. At this point I was determined. Otherwise I would have to live with the stink until morning.
I had no other choice but to take the chance. I gripped that slick handle and positioned it the best I could toward the hole. I pumped and pressed and plunged. I pushed and pounded that raunchy, freaky, hole.
Finally, I reached my limit. I was on the verge. My stomach started tightening. My hands got sweaty. I squeezed my eyes shut. What was going to happen next? I was afraid to breathe. I was afraid to look. I let go. To my surprise, the pressure slackened.
The chunks, the piss, the grit, burbled down down down down down. I flushed again. Clean water emerged.
And that is why I am Ms. Fix-It.
