Give Up Da Funk

First I have to congratulate my godson Sam and his team for winning the California State Championships in hockey! They are the 2009 Tier II Champions! W00t w00t!! He plays for the Tri Valley Blue Devils Midget 18AA and they will be going to the Pacific Division Championships in early March. The thing I am most proud of is the fact that even though Sam isn't starting right now, he is contributing positively to his team. He's the guy in the blue & white pads on the right. Keep your head up, Sammy!!

I often lament that I can't come up with things to blog about. I am a mostly introverted person, so the idea of blurting out whatever is on my mind is kinda foreign. Not to mention that most of what has been on my mind lately has been a morass of moving details, concerns about expenses and worries about family matters. Not the most interesting subject matter, and I can get pretty depressed about it. The conundrum of how and what to pack and ship versus do I get a Uhaul and tow the car continues. Thank you to LY and Strom for their valuable input on the matter. They both have moved cross-country within the last 2 years and have good insights. It seems that the most prevalent attitude is "get rid of everything you can". I thought I was pretty cool selling all my furniture when I moved last year, but now even the stuff I have left is looking like a burden. A lot of things may be taking their chances through the postal service or Fed Ex, cause I'm pretty attached to them, but some of that stuff is breakable. Yeah, some of it is kinda dumb, like Christmas decorations and tons of books, but it's mine. Some of those books I've had since I was little, many were gifts, and some were such a wonderful surprise that I vowed to read them again, like "Little Big Man". I blame my parents for my love of books. However, the flip side of getting rid of things is having to replace them on the other side. I'm gonna buy a new TV for sure, but I can't afford to not move my cooking stuff, then completely re-equip my kitchen and replace all the furniture I sold. And believe me, I'd LOVE an excuse to do a big Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma run! Oh the joys of my very own fish poacher.... sigh.....

Customer Service!

In this day and age, the saying "No news is good news" has become the way we live. The most effort we exert is to complain. Granted, with the current business practices of cutting costs and outsourcing, it often feels as if having a positive customer service experience is not the norm. Righteous indignation is a fabulous motivator and anger provides a jolt of energy Rockstar can't rival. I do more than my share of bitching, but I try to make a point of appreciating when things go well. Not just appreciating, but making sure I tell whoever it was what I think.

I sent emails to both MLB.com and NHL.com asking specific questions about their new combined GameCenter Live. When I move, having both baseball & hockey games from the Bay Area available to me for less $$ than the cable sports packages would be excellent! Not only did I get a response from both in under 20 hours, their responses were consistent and answered my questions clearly. No auto-response, no vague, iffy answers written by someone for whom English is a second (or third!) language. I am thrilled and will tell them so. Take some time today to actively appreciate someone or something. Help bring some balance to our increasingly negative world.

Valentine's Day?

Some thoughts on the dreaded "VD" or "Black Saturday" or "Oh-God-That-Stupid-Fabricated-Holiday-Again!" or "Dammit -What-Is-She-Expecting-From-Me Now?"

I hope this never happens to you, but for those Bitter Bettys and Bills out there, there is plenty of schadenfreude for you. When Proposals Go Bad

I love you, you love me not, you love me, I love you not... what can you say about I-Mockery.com? Not much. Self explanatory. Enjoy!

One of the best Valentine's Days I've had was when several single female co-workers and friends and I went to dinner. We decided that we deserved a good time and a nice meal, so we treated ourselves. We had a blast! I highly recommend doing what you enjoy regardless of whether you have a significant other to do it with/do it for you or not. Buy yourself flowers, have a good meal, bake your favorite cookies, go to the movies, stay in bed and read all day, whatever makes you happy. On one level it is simply self-care. On another level it is showing yourself a higher respect and love, telling yourself you are worthy and lovable. I spent plenty of years wanting to, at the very least, throw up on February 14. I wish I had treated myself a bit better. So do as I say, not as I did! Have a good 2/14/09!

Resistance is Futile

First of all, I have tried not to write anything about this sick woman in SoCal who felt the need to have 14 children. At first I was interested because it isn't every day that someone has 8 babies all at once and they all live (so far). But as the story of the mother started to emerge, I started getting really angry. This insane person - with the help of insane fertility doctors - had all these children with no realistic way of supporting them. Now she wants a reality show, interviews and endorsements for her story. Here's the story, Octopussy: you need help and I feel sorry for your children. Credit for the Octopussy label goes to a friend of my co-worker Michael. Spot on, man! I usually go with "Uterine Clown Car", myself.

Second, in keeping with the times I've been accused of being aloof or secretive, I have been sitting with the idea of leaving CA for a long time. I mentioned some of my disgust in the 1/16/09 post. I will never make enough money here to have the life I want without either more education (and that's no guarantee) or working my ass off at a job I don't want. The politics have become more and more comical. They're comical if you're waiting for that hilarious, feel-good musical about oral surgery. And being so far away from Casey grows more and more terrible all the time. So now is the time for me to declare that I will be moving to North Carolina in June. That little feat will require hard work, luck, lots of money, and the good wishes and support of friends. The decisions that have to be made around my stuff, my job and my poor beleaguered car are not going to be easy, but they need to be made sooner rather than later. Now that my back is feeling better, I can start looking at what I have in storage and figure out what I can throw out & what I can ship ahead. I don't have much more of a plan, so any input on how to move across country will be greatly appreciated (looking at you LY and Strom!). This is all new and scary to me, but it's exciting, too!

Sick and Tired

Ever hear the saying "sick and tired of being sick and tired"? I have used it and lived it more than once, that's for sure. Winter blues? End of football season? Post holidays letdown? Staring down the barrel of a 2 zillion game baseball season? (I dig baseball, but damn that's a long season!)I can't speak for the rest of y'all, but I've always gotten down during the winter. "Seasonal Affective Disorder" or SAD they call it. If I lived in Seattle, this blog would be posthumous. Couldn't stand it.

The Super Bowl was a very entertaining end to the the football season. The first half was a bit wonky, but the second half was great. (Don't ask me to comment on The Boss' halftime show cause I never "got" Springsteen anyway. I figure I'm not the demographic for his stuff.) I think the refs were a little too involved in the game overall and certainly a factor in the final play. I think the Cards last play was an incomplete pass and they should have gotten one more play. Please believe that I had no rooting interest (see my last post) except for a good game, and it was that. Thanks to Ree & John for their hospitality before and during the game! Sorry about the onions in the Artichoke Dip, Ree...

Would you pass the bong to a guy with the lung capacity of an Olympic swimmer? I think not. But on a serious note, dude was arrested for dui a few years ago. Get your head on straight, youngster. The whole world is looking when you make a mistake.

I found it profoundly strange to hear the POTUS saying something I thought myself: corporate executives giving themselves huge bonuses - particularly the ones whose companies have failed - is shameful. I would have taken it a step further and had them rounded up for public humiliation, but that's just me. I can't think of a time I both a) listened to what the President had to say and b) completely agreed. Maybe it happened during the Clinton years, but I can't think of one off hand. It was surreal to think that my beliefs were being represented by the highest office in the country. Talk about a history of feeling disenfranchised. That word does not only apply to the poor and uneducated folks. Believe me.

For Your XLIII Enjoyment

I may have mentioned it before, but there is a blog I visit regularly for laughs and fondant - Cake Wrecks. As someone who has a dear friend who was a pastry chef and who took some cake decorating classes once upon a time, the things these people find are hilarious. The Super Bowl edition can be found here.

As an Eagles fan, my rooting interest this Sunday is for an act of God. If both teams could lose, that would be great. Since that isn't a realistic option, I'll take the Steelers just because. I hope it's an interesting game so I don't snack constantly and end up with a stomach ache.

Just in case some of you are not acquainted with the annual United States ritual of Super Bowl watching, the Boston Globe has kindly provided some etiquette tips for you here. On one hand, the article is stupid, meaning common sense would bring you to these conclusions. On the other hand, some people are even more stupid and need someone to tell them what acceptable social behavior is. On the third hand, we are talking about sports fans here. Overly enthusiastic, often drunk, expletive spewing, not the sharpest bunch sometimes... myself included.

The over/under on the National Anthem is 2 minutes. Look people, - and I say this as a singer - the National Anthem is not fucking American Idol. We do not want to hear you wring every note dry while trying to prove how wonderful you are. People paid to see the game, not your dumb warbling ass. So sing the song and let the game start. I know it's a very hard song to sing, written by a sadist if you ask me, so congratulations on your coup. But for Pete's sake, get your ego out of the way and do your job. Oy. Is that too much to ask?

Racism, Part 2

I'm fighting a small headcold today, so I'm not gonna make this long. I did want to get this out and contribute to the cause in some small way.

I watch anime and have seen "Avatar: The Last Airbender" a couple times and enjoyed it. It seemed to be well written and fun, so it's easy for me to want to raise awareness of a common idiotic tendency in Hollywood using it as an example. There is a movie being made of the "Avatar" series and the main characters, Asian characters, are being voiced by whites. Minorities in general are marginalized or ignored by Hollywood as a matter of course. I can't stand to look at David Carridine after I heard how "Kung Fu" got stolen from Bruce Lee. Ian and I almost got thrown out of "Prince of Egypt" for loudly heckling the anglo facial features and English accents of some of the characters. I appreciate Hattie McDaniel's portrayal of Mammy in "Gone With the Wind" and that she won an Oscar for it, but it is still hard to watch at times. A lot has changed over the years, it is true, but Black people will often be found complaining loudly at real or perceived slights to our identity. I have not heard Asian Americans making the same ruckus. If you'd like to read more about this and/or get involved, please click here. The post is long, but very good. I'm not a visual artist, but I'm going to send a letter, too. Couldn't hurt, might help.