Some pre-vacation excitement!

This photo was from my backyard, and really has nothing to do with the post I'm about to make.

Maybe it's not the most Earth-shattering thing on the planet, but certainly the most exciting thing thats happened to me all week.

This morning I drove my mom to the dentist, using her car (at her request of course). While she at the dentist I decided just to pop downtown and go browsing for a book or two for the trip, and grab a coke to drink. I got the books (2001 by Arthur Clarke, and Nature Man and Woman by Alan Watts), and drove around the block to a hot dog stand for the coke (yes I know, why was I too lazy not to just walk extra block? I wanted the car nearby in case I had to leave then and there to pick my mom up).

So while I was inside, I saw a meter maid/parking enforcement type golf cart pull up behind my parents car and proceed to write a ticket. Of course, not wanting to present them with a parking ticket, I went out of the stand to try and see what was the matter and perhaps settle things then and there. Of course because I'm so slow, as I was walking out, the policewoman started to walk away, and wanting to catch up, I just spoke out from about halfway across the street "hey....". Apparantly, this was indeed the most insulting thing I could ever say to her, because her natural response was not "hey, whats up" or "how can I help you", nor was it "thats not a very respectful thing to say", but rather in the most angriest, loudest voice possible "HEY?!?! YOU DID *NOT* JUST SAY "HEY" TO ME!!!!". My initial reaction was just complete surprise. Maybe it wasn't the most tactful thing to say in the heat of the moment, but it was hardly anything that would ellicit such a harsh response.

I was literally left speechless for a moment, then rallied back in a calm and cool way "what seems to be the problem here, officer?"

Her reply: "WHY DON'T YOU LOOK IN THE ENVELOPE AND AT THE BACK OF YOUR CAR!!". Again, the sheer anger continued.

I was confused and proceeded to walk to the back of the vehicle, to which she mentioned soemthing to the degree of "I'M GOING TO THE BACK OF THE CAR TO SHOW YOU RIGHT NOW!!" then "YOUR REGISTRATION IS OUT OF DATE!!!!". Apparantly, an out of date registration is not only a violation of the law, it is a personal affront to her and everything she stands for. Or at least, thats the only rational explaination I can come up with for her behavior.

I replied with "oh well let me just grab the registration real quick and we can clear this up...". Apparantly, the very idea of wanting to do so was again, the most painful, vile thing possible, because she replied with what turned out to be the parting shot of venom spewed at me.

"NO, YOU TAKE TO THAT THE STATION AND SHOW THEM, OR MAIL IT IN!!!!" she screamed. She then angrily took to her little golf cart, and she was on her way immediately.

Oddly enough, my reaction was just pure and utter surprise. I can honestly say I'd never been spoken to like that in my entire life, at least not to anyone who had no personal issues with me. I'd never seen a random person with seemingly no reason to act so irrationally and with so much anger do just that towards me.

After a few minutes, I decided to lodge some sort of complaint to the station about this officer. I was successfully able to leave a voice mail on the supervisor's answering machine. After I picked up my mom though, this was not enough for her, she insisted that we drive down to the police station then and there to clear up the issue, and so I could also lodge a formal written complaint--both of which I was more than happy to do. She was angrier at the incident than I was (as I mentioned, I was more surprised than anything else). The ticket issue was immediately taken care of, and the fine was reduced from $35 to $10 for not displaying the current tag (an incredibly minor issue as far as I'm concerned). And yes, I wrote out a formal complaint on one of their forms too, being polite, but frank and honest. I really don't know if the supervisor will ever get back to me, and I'm fairly certain this will probably be the end of this issue.

Okay, all that being said, I need to pack. Perhaps an update will be made from Palm Springs. Until then, enjoy the photo of the owl I've posted..

Haven't updated in a couple days

I suppose because there isn't much to update.

Last Monday, I got around to fixing the radiator overflow on my van, by just cutting out the old one and putting in a replacement. Unfortunately, I'm not really convinced that fixed the problem. The tank is working, but the water in the cooling system is still going out somewhere. The odd part is, I don't see any obvious leaks, nor any telltale signs of catastrophic engine failure (like water in the oil or coming out the exhaust). A while back I did bypass the rear heater, and maybe the weak link is there, and its only leaking when the engine is under pressure. Maybe I'll check it out if I get the time.

Saturday I'm going down with my parents to see my grandma in Palm Springs. I'm glad to have gone last year, if only for a couple days, and I'm even more glad I'm going this year. And I may go back in September to go to the Campout with Camper Van Beethoven in the high desert, an hour north of PS. I'll probably be coming back the following Wednesday though, so it won't be a terribly long stay. Just long enough to get away from it all for a few days, but not quite long enough to make it a super fantastic fun vacation. I'm excited about going though, because I'm really tired of being around here and could really use a change of pace.

What am I doing today? I've got to go to a meeting for work in about 2 hours. I went to k-mart earlier and bought a kinda-cheesy hawaiian shirt for really cheap, heh. I've got to gear up for the (short) trip and pick up a few things, but I don't really need that much right now. Other than the trip, I don't really have all that much coming up in the horizon. I designed a logo for the the Young Democrats of Arizona, and I'm waiting on their final decision. In fact I should email them.

Okay well thats about it for now.

Hot, late night...

Well a faint glimmer of hope today. The other day I sent a resume to the "sister" rental hall near where I work (see in the park, theres the city-owned building, where I do part time custodial engineering, and a privately run non-profit building up on the hill--where I applied was at the non-profit). Okay, all convoluted explainations aside, I sent them a resume after they advertised for the position of an office admin/rental booker. I told them my status with the city, and how since I have full knowledge of what goes on during a rental, I would be perfect for the job! It looks like they did pay attention, because I did get a response today. However, they also said they are keeping the position open for another 2 weeks, so I won't know anything for a while, unfortunately.

Not that doing office work is my ideal goal in life, but it does pay decently, and usually isn't terribly hard. And with so few beginning positions in design right now, I may need to get that kind of a job for a while until something comes along, or until I do enough freelance work to where I can convince people that I have professional experience. Freelance is definitely a more difficult road to travel though, and usually requires that you have a full time job to support it. But dammit, I'm going to make this art/design thing work somehow. For now though, its late, its hot, and I've got a sore throat. I hope this isnt something worse coming on (though in all actuality, I don't really feel that bad--a bit tired, and worn out from the heatwave, but nothing terrible). I have to work all day tomarrow, and well into the evening, though I will have someone who is experienced around me, so if I'm hanging a bit he can hopefully pick up some of the slack.

Still using the laptop a lot lately, and somewhat justifiably so, as with the heat brings a higher demand for power, and I just don't feel like zapping more resources to run a huge PC box all day, and a sizeable CRT monitor solely for my computing pleasure, if I can't run something smaller and more efficient. Though at night the lcd screen is a bit of hell on my eyes. I bought some completely useless items today too--a computer gamepad, and a game set with GTA 1 and 2 included in it. Dreadful games those are too, but you can see where the basis for the series started. A gamepad is something I've always wanted, but never really had the will to get.

Okay well thats all for now...

Its Hot

The first major heatwave of the yearh, and its nearly mid-July. Yep, it topped triple digits today (well in all fairness, I think it was only 100 even, at least according to Yahoo...). Of course this is where the major difference lies in California weather. The high in San Francisco today? 73. Concord, a mere 30 miles east? 100. How is this possible? The Pacific Ocean, my friends. And I suppose the San Andreas Fault too, for creating the costal ranges and keeping the cool air at bay only at the coast.

A boring, pointless week actually. My younger brother has been sick all week, so my mom and I have pretty much had to deal with him. Actually he's been ill for about two weeks. Today we could both tell he felt a lot better, because he was his usual troublesome self.

The heat brings a lot of problems though, especially when you have a van with a cooling system that is running only water right now, because the coolant tank cant seem to hold anything for more than a few days at a time. Honestly, that van was nice for its time--is a 1991 Ford Aerostar, Eddie Bauer edition--but lately its looking more and more like junk (and in all fairness, inside and outside, its in fairly good condition).

I'm just kind of down on life right now. A lot if it has to do with the fact that after the debacle in San Francisco, it seems like pretty much all possibilities out there for entry-level graphic design have dried up. I saw one listening for a small firm in the Haight last night, and I did email them one of my resumes, but I figure its a longshot seeing as how they wanted someone who knew more about building web architecture, than just straight design. If nothing turns up soon, I'll probably go to a staffing firm and see if they can help me. Thankfully, I still have oodles and oodles of graduation money left, so I'm not in any dire financial straits; in fact I'm planning on going to a concert next month, maybe even two. Although what I'd really like to do is attend the Camper/Cracker fest in Pioneertown, which is about 20 or 30 miles north of Palm Springs. I probably could do it too, but who knows if I'll have the time or will.

Sweet, one of my favorite songs just came on, "The Fountain of Lamneth" by Rush, heh.

Also I need to find the time to start rebuilding my website. I like to do one major redesign per year, at the least. Of course in the interim, I usually do minimal updates, so it stands as this sort of monolithic site that never changes. I need to make at least the design a bit more sophisticated though.

Okay, thats all for now...

One month's time...

Yeah, its been exactly a month today since my graduation ceremony, therefore marking my "official" graduation from college. The scary part is, it seems like it all happened a week or two ago. I do have two new, nice things, a camera and a laptop computer, and I love them both. Maybe I should do something with this desktop, although I don't really want to do until I either A) get the new mac, or B) figure out how to become more self sufficient on the old mac (unfortunately its only really set up to do Photoshop, Illustrator, and chat, but the thing doesnt even have a CD burner...if I could somehow install classic mode OS 9 on it, that would be more beneficial). But yeah, after that aside, I'm still here.

I went to a Giants game yesterday afternoon with my family. Man, thats a beautiful ballpark, in a beautiful city. And with BART and MUNI, getting there is incredibly easy (and also because of all the people, a bit suffocating). Unfortunately, they lost to the Cardinals 4-3.

The wife of the co-host of the radio show I listen to, Don and Mike, died today in a car crash. It was Don's wife that died. I'm not sure how exactly this affects me personally, but its a show I do enjoy, and his wife appeared regularly and was part of the show's fabric. It is sad to see a part of that fabric gone forever now.

Have I mentioned that looking for a job sucks? I'll see how this month plays out, and maybe either shortly before or after my trip at the end of this month and the beginning of the next month, I'll contact a staffing agency and see if they can give me some assistance. Actually I was contacted by one last month, but at that time I didn't want to go that route. This was shortly before I had been contacted about the interview in SF (the one that turns out, never materialized). Since I got that notice, I had all but stopped job searching; and since getting stiffed, I've been a bit busy and hadn't really had the chance to pour over the classifieds yet again. Craigslist is excellent, but there seems to be a huge dry spell as far as entry level design jobs go right now. There were a few that popped up last month, because I imagine because places were looking for summer hires and interns.

Alright well its going to be hot this weekend, and I think I need a slurpee soon.

Another post so soon? YOU DONT SAY!

Its nearly midnight here in California. The weekend is upon us...well upon me...whatever. Still on the laptop....the most significant downside to using it fulltime is the fact I have to crook my head downward ever so slightly to see the screen properly. Ahh, the pitfalls of technology. I suppose if I wanted to, I could just plug in the monitor to the VGA-out port. I watched about 20 minutes of a DVD on this thing earlier too. Yep folks, its getting closer and closer--the integration of all your favorite technologies into one unit. This thing has a screen thats big enough to be watchable from several feet away, and since I plugged it into my computer speaker system, it has quality sound. I'm sure it won't be too long before we ask ourselves "why on earth did we dedicate so much space to so many different things?" Meanwhile, people like me will be holding on dearly to console stereos, as big as any dresser or large piece of furniture. I need to get one of those, and get rid of a few of these damn computers. In all due time though. That reminds me, I didn't transfer all the mp3 files on my desktop to the laptop. The question is though--should I?

The album on right now? A CD of a german band named "Can", with the album "Tago Mago". I wonder if playing this gives me indie cred or something? Not that such a thing has ever mattered to me.

You know what sucks, that is, besides life? That the human race, for all its accomplishments in the rational realm of science, resorts to nothing but irrationality in times of need. Its both our greatest strength and weakness. You know what else sucks? Partisan bickering. Oh wait, Im turning into a "blogger" now, and all of a sudden I have credibility that somehow the major media outlets lack. Of course its their own damn fault, but it is troubling that anoynmous sources with no credibility or accountability at all somehow trumps institutions that have been around for centuries. The new journalism indeed.

Back on the desktop...

My laptop kicks ass, but I need to resolve some space issues before I can start using it more often. I guess I'll move out the 19" monitor and move in the 17".

Damn, already a week a half into the month of July. For doing absolutely nothing, the summer is really flying by.

Thats about all I have for right now...

A new computer

Okay, this is me chatting on the new laptop. It works fairly decent right now, at least for a windows based machine. And hopefully it will last me a few years, if not longer. I might hold off for a while getting the mac/graphics machine though, at least to see if and when a decent job oppertunity pops up.

Shit!

Lots to update, yet I haven't done so in over a week.

The last time you heard from me, I was going to help a friend move from one side of the Bay Area, to the other. I'd rather not go into specifics, but suffice to say, it didn't exactly go according to plan. I at least did get make it home.

The next day I felt slightly crummy. I had some kind of cold virus, and a heat headache. I was able to get a few errands done though. Saturday I worked, then that night spoke the wonderful one known as FeeLicks.

Hmm...I have so much to say, that I'm basically speechless. Lets try again. Or perhaps I'll just focus in on the last 24 hours.

Saw a real bargain of a laptop at Frys Electronics yesterday. $579, with a $30 rebate, making it 549. Why didn't I buy it? I felt the need to get more input. And I did just that last night. Now I'm fairly certain I should have bought that laptop, and I'm fortunate because I think the sale is still on today. If I get the time, I'll go by the store and get it. If not, well I doubt it will wound me much to be minus $600, and plus an expensive electronic gizmo that I never had in the first place. But I think a laptop computer is something thats worthwhile having. Although the thing does run on (gah!) windows, since I'm planning to get an Apple soon anyway, I think its a good idea for a balanced computer user to operate with both platforms. Plus, I can have a computer thats completely my own, I can run it into the ground or keep it wonderfully maintained, whichever I decided. I can throw a bunch of freeware and bootleg stuff on it if I ever need it in a pinch. And until I get my main machine, it could also serve as a replacement for 4-year-old PC. The sad thing is, its still a decent running machine, even though surely anyone in the know will probably paint as laughably slow and obsoulete. But its still far and away the best computer Ive ever owned, though I've only been owning them for 10 or so years. These things don't have much staying power, which is why I imagine so many of them are so cheap. And I think, at least to my advantage, the tech curve may be flattening out some. Even this supposedly obsulete computer runs fairly well, even though the operating system is Windows 98 Second Edition, which is prone to freeze ups. But it will be nice to have a new computer, and something that I can take with me. And if, for whatever reason, I can't get my graphics machine, or I have to get rid of it, I will at least have some new hardware, and I won't be back exactly where I started. I'm starting to horde computers too. I just pray I don't end up having 5 or 10 in storage because of some oddly misplaced alligance to a box of plastic, metal, and silicone.

And yes, the wonderful art of "flaming" on the internet. I participated in a sterling example of it yesterday on my music board. But you know, no matter how much the guy deserved it, I still end up regretting it in the end. I guess I have some sense of morals, or something. Or not, whatever.

I'm very discouraged about the job front right now. I still haven't called that place back, and maybe I should. But I'm hanging onto a glimmer of hope that they will call me first. Right now, there is fuck all as far as good jobs. Maybe I will have to resort to contacting a staffing agency or something after all.

Okay, enough!