Midway through the weekend

I guess this could be the midway point of the weekend. Who really knows? Thanksigiving went pretty well. I felt like crap all night, but felt decent during the day (I coughed all that night, the night after, and last night as well...loads of fun that is!). But the entire family was over, or at least as much of it as we could muster, and I actually didn't sit in my room for extended periods of time, which is actually sort of unusual for me. When a lot of people come over, especially lots of kids, I sort of reach a boiling point where I need to get away from it and be alone for a while. The computer provides a distraction during that reprieve. There was quite a bit of food leftover too (as always...).

Today I went out (gasp!) shopping, but not Christmas Shopping, mainly just stuff for myself. Since I have an interview on Wednesday, I needed some photo paper to print out a few things for my portfolio. I also needed some double sided tape. On top of that, I got a couple CDs. A Trey Gunn (bassist from King Crimson, among others) live CD, a Peter Gabriel CD, and a Shostakovich string quartet disc (which is on right now). They were all impulse buys, and they were all less than $6 each (used).

It was a really nice day today, but chilly. The winter air is upon us. Its supposed to drop into the 30s tonight, easily the coldest its been since Feburary or so. And we only have a little over a month in the calander year. More on what I think about that later. Until then...

Gearing up for Thanksgiving

Once again, this year, its at my house (actually my parents' house, whom I still live with). All the preparation is, indeed, a total pain in the ass. It is fun when everyone is here, even if some of the time when everyone is here, I prefer to spend in my room alone, because I cannot take all the action. It gets to be too much for me, especially when I have the allure of my wonderful internet world just a few steps away. Crap, that reminds, I should charge up my camera.

Anyway, a short post probably. I've been battling a cold since Sunday, and yesterday afternoon I was finally feeling better. Then this morning, I woke up with a terrible nausea. Seeing as how there's also been a flu bug going around, I thought "oh great....". But then I took a nap mid-morning, and guess what? After I woke up from that, I felt fine. Its a thanksgiving miracle...if there is such a thing. I'm taking it easy on the foodstuffs though, sipping ginger ale and crackers (and...a candy cane...). But hopefully, I will feel alright through tomarrow. I had a similar thing happen a few months back actually, where my stomach just felt like shit all morning, then by the afternoon it cleared up and I felt fine. Here's hoping this isnt the start of some tragic, chronic problem...though it probably is.

I picked up the new live DVD by Rush yesterday. Its great to take a break from a familiar band, only to come back to them and enjoy some new, and familiar material. It has an amazing picture and fantastic sound too (amazing what modern technology can do...).

The Christmas jamboree starts on Friday...

So Long, Rusty Wallace...

Okay, now's the portion of my blog where I fawn over some sports star. On the left is race car driver Rusty Wallace, and on the right is me (enjoy it while it lasts, you won't see too many photos of me on the web!). And in front is a die-cast that I had him autograph. This photo's from 2004.

What drew me to Rusty? Well I started watching NASCAR nearly 10 years ago, when I started getting interested in autos in general. Really, for trivial reasons, I liked Rusty the most. He drove a Thunderbird race car, I drove a Thunderbird (albeit a vintage that was 17 years older), and he was at the time, the best Thunderbird driver (and one of the best in the sport). Likewise, he won the local race here, run at Sears Point about 35 miles northwest of here the first season I started watching. And he had an attitude about him--not like the kind of attitude where he was whiny or self serving, but rather, the drive to simply be the best, and go all out all the time. He gave all he could on the track, and left nothing behind (this is really the kind of trait I enjoy in pro sports--guys that give it all they have, and leave nothing behind. The "naturally talented" guys usually aren't my favorites). He was outspoken, but not in a trite, attention getting way; he really said what he thought and felt. You knew if Rusty was saying it, it was how he genuinely felt. But also, he was in a way, quite forgiving. Sure, at the time, certain things made him angry, but in the end bygones were bygones. Yeah, he was pissed at Earnhardt years back for bumping cars left and right on the track, but in the end, Earnhardt and Wallace became good friends.

Things didn't always work out well for him though. Infact I really only watched him on the downside of his career, and saw him lose many, many more races than he won. I endured plenty of heartbreak, especially the last 4 years, as he's only been able to win two races in that time span. But he was one of the best of his time, and arguably one of the best of all time in his field. And I'll definitely miss seeing him on the track.

2nd post about the trip

Okay, there are a few more photos from the trip. The top one is the monarch butterfly grove at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz. The second one down is a gull perching upon a rock at a beach somewhere north of Santa Cruz. The next one is Pigeon Point Lighthouse, a real working lighthouse with a youth hostel on the grounds. The final one is the famous beach boardwalk at Santa Cruz.

The concert was simply friggin awesome. Not really by design, only by chance, I somehow ended up at the very front of the stage for Camper Van, right in front of the violin player. I had more energy for this show than I've had for many other shows, so I was moving and dancing all night. I had a rapport with the violin player (named Jonathan Segel) all night too. He would make some goofy faces, and I would make them back. He laughed at something I did, so I laughed back. In between songs people would yell out songs to play, and I would yell off the wall stuff at him, and he would react to it (I yelled "baba o'reily!" and he mouthed "oh yeah!" then played a few licks on his keyboard...I later yelled "Walk the Line" and he gave me a rather perplexed look). Of course the best moment all night was when the bass player and the violin player were talking about all the solo records they had made, and jokinng how we should all come by to their garage and listen to all the stuff they keep there. So jokingly I yell out "where do you live?", and he bass player gives me a total deadpan look and says "you're really funny, aren't you". I think someone might upload this show to archive.org (lots of live Camper Van can be found there) and if it is, I'll post a link.

Wednesday I drove back up the coast. It was simply a picture perfect day--sunny warm, and very little wind. The ocean was as calm as I'd ever seen it. I stopped at a few places, including an old light house, and a few beaches. It must have been Field Trip season, because at nearly every large beach or turnout, there was a school bus. I remember years ago I believe in 7th grade, going to Ano Nuevo State Park (also along this stretch of coast) to see the Elephant Seals and Sea Lions, but I believe that was a bit later in the year...but I could be wrong. Field trips were always cool as a kid, especially if you got to ride in a parent chaparone's car as opposed to the school bus (I remember 4 or 5 of my friends all piled in one of my friends parents' cars instead of the school bus for the aforementiond Ano Nuevo trip).

But anyway, I decided to take the coast highway all the way up and over the Golden Gate Bridge. I didn't spend a lot of time there, but I did snap a few pics both there, and on the Marin side of the bay. I decided to head home after that, but not before stopping for lunch.

Last night there was a scheduling emergency at work...actually it wasn't at the building I work at, but another city building, so I had go fill in for them for a few hours. It wasn't too bad though, I just basically sat there and listened to music. I do have to work tonight though, and close the skatepark on Saturday and Sunday night. Until then, its the countdown to Thanksgiving, when the holiday mania will begin. I think I've mentioned this before, but I do enjoy this time of year overall, but I don't always enjoy it completely. I always have a feeling of hopeful new beginnings, really because my birthday is late in December, and it conincides within a week (just about) of the calender new year.

I also have an interview on the 30th with a company I won't name for now--but it is for graphic design, and they even want to see my portfolio, which means I have to get it back into shape, and buy new ink so I can prepare a few newer entries.

Bye for now...

What a difference a week makes...

From the lowest lows to the highest highs, then back down again, then back up yet again...thats pretty much how my week has gone. Heres a photo for you all I took earlier this afternoon from the Santa Cruz Pier of a sleeping sea lion. Isn't he cute? I'm sure if I went down to pet him, He would break my back with one swift strick of his tail.

So this past weekend wasn't too bad. I spent the entire weekend by myself actually, except when I was at work all Saturday night (and part of early Sunday morning). That day, my parents came back from their trip, and my mom had re-injured an ankle she lightly sprained a few weeks back. Crap! My parents insisted I still go on my trip, and I was all set to. But you see my younger brother, sometimes he gets up in the middle of the night for no reason at all, and won't go back to sleep. He did just that sunday night. And the person that had to stay up all night with him was: ME. Fuck! I was feeling incredibly shitty by daylight Monday morning, and was seriously thinking about cancelling the trip, even if I would have lost out on a days worth of hotel fare. But I got a few hours sleep in that morning, and was feeling halfway decent, so I made the trek down to Santa Cruz. Best decision ever.

I met up with a friend I know online who lives here, and we hit up a few record stores, and went out to dinner. Nothing real special I know, but it was fun for me. Today I went everywhere I could think of in town. I checked out New Brighton Beach, to see the Monarch Butterflies...spectacular! Then tried checking out some tidepools, and I was slipping and sliding all over the rocks and thought a bath wouldn't be too fun at that time, so I declined to go any further. Then I drove over to the wharf (by way of the lighthouse/surf museum, which was closed, doh...) and had lunch, and walked around a bit. I drove downtown after that to scope out some parking spots for tonight's concert, then decided since I'd never seen the UC Santa Cruz campus, I should. What a wonderful place that is...its like going to college in a redwood forest. Stunning, and a change from the concrete jungle design of my alma mater, CSU Hayward. After that I shot down the coast to another beach, and by that time decided I should head back and get a shower before I go out tonight...and here I am. Camper Van Beethoven tonight. Yay!

Wow...just wow.....

Last time I posted here, I mentioned the interview I had, and that I was going back on Wednesday. How did that go? Well I'll tell ya!

I got to the office at about 9 am, and the group was still in some meeting. Oh wait, I need to give some background... I was given the impression that this was a *marketing* job, with maybe just a bit of selling, and having connections with local buisnesses and the local community. Okay, sounds reasonable, I get to meet some new people, shoot the shit with them, and thats about it, right? Okay back to the beginning... The boss or whoever was yelling about something, and they were chanting the most asinine things--like when the boss would say "does that make sense?" Everyone would yell "Sense!". That rose a red flag there--anything like that is definitely smacks of "clone" behavior. After being kept waiting in the lobby about 20-25 minutes, I finally meet the guy I would be with all day. He seemed like a nice enough dude, and he also had an assistant who was cool too. Hmm, whats this, his car is literally jam-packed with boxes of stuff. Thats interesting.

Then on the car ride over to the "territory", he starts to set everything up for me. It was really then that I started to realise what we were doing, and what were the mechanisms of how we were compensated, and such. In my mind, that raised a gigantic RED FLAG. I didn't exactly realise that it was a bonafide Pyramid Scheme at that point, but I was wary. But because I had made a commitment to spend a day with them, I would honor that commitment.

We pull into a shopping center most of the places were closed, so we stopped for breakfast (at frigging...McDonalds...ick! If I wasnt so friggin hungry I wouldnt have eaten at all). So the guy explains to me exactly what we would be doing; what I initially thought it would be was probably checking up on already existing clients and contacts, and maybe making a few new sales here or there. As I was told (or perhaps as I made up in my mind...) was that this was primarily *not* a selling job. But what we did was the following: go around to every buisness in this strip mall (and then another, and then another, and then a few more...), lugging a huge box of crap that retails for outrageously low prices, and try to get the poor suckers to buy it. And quite a few did. Fortunately, at least for me, they didnt make me carry anything--in fact the guys I spent the day with were for the most part, two fantastic guys, who I guess the guy described as "the top sales leader" was someone who easily recognized he could manipulate the pyramid to his advantage, and in the short term put in a shitload of work, but climb easily and live off of others, and the other was just some dumb kid who I imagined they suckered into lugging this shit around, because its better than working at McDonalds. And I'm guessing what the manager of the place saw in me was someone like the top sales guy--someone who was more than smart enough to know that I could manipulate the system to not only my favor, but of course his as well.

It was already around noon that I was just about dog tired. The sales guy mentioned "did you wear comfortable shoes today" And I said "sort of", which was my best code for "Are you fucking crazy? I didn't know I was going to be walking this much, and the only shoes I own right now that could accomadate that are sandals". He had explained the pyramid fairly well to me: I sell a little bit, and hope to make a staggering $60-$80 *per day* (OOOHHHH!!!) and if I got good in a month or two, I might be making $100 a day (double OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH). But get this--the work day, with the morning and evening meetings included, works out to be 12 hours. So yes, if you are making $60 a day for $12 work, you are making less than the minimum wage in California. If youre making $100 over the same day, you're making less hourly than I'm making at my custodian's job. Yes, I know how to do math. Just barely though. Again, if I'm a stiff who's working a shit job, that doesnt look half bad. Fortunately, I'm not. And look at this, he's already training other guys, and he's been here for 3 fucking months, *and* he's the top salesman. It was really then that I wanted to get the hell out of there, but the sense of honor in me says "I know this is wrong--I shouldn't be here, but I don't want to disrupt his work by making him take me all the back to the office to retrieve my car, and I should at least live up to the commitment I made for the day".

Now keep in mind, its about 2:30-3:00, and of course the crappy little egg mcmuffin wasn't nearly enough to suffice, and I was starving like a mofo. But not wanting to impose, I didn't say anything (I'm so dumb sometimes...). The guy then makes his best pitch to try and reel me in, and comes up with this gem. And I'm not making this up, though it may not be an exact quote:

Some people want to say this is a pyramid scheme. This is not a pyramid scheme, this is multi-tiered marketing. OHHHHHHHHHH OKAY! Like I was going to fall for that Jedi Mind trick. Nice try, Obi-Wan. After his explaination, I simply said "I understand completely", and left it at that.

So we head over to yet another strip mall, this one really pretty dilapidated. I really wanted to get out of there by then, and finally after the guy asks me " so what do you think?" I just say to him as politely as possible "this isn't what I expected, this job isn't right for me". Maybe he could offer to take me back to my car so I could leave, but no. Instead I end up tagging along with him to hustle another few folks.

Now comes the best part. After hitting up some grandmas at a meals-on-wheels place, the guy has the sheer BALLS to hustle a police substation. I knew this was going to be trouble. We walk in, and first thing out of the cops mouth is "do you have a peddler's permit" "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT" was what I was thinking. But the guy was smoother than that, he just said "oh you know what, its in my car..." and the cop just said "well if anyone is interested in here, you can do buisness outside. One officer was actually genuinely interested in what they had to sell--although I imagine they were either setting him up, or just gathering more information on the company as a whole.

We move on to a laundromat next door, who are apparantly regular customers, and the cop we just sold to waves for me to come over. She says to me "if you have anymore books (she had bought some crapply little disney book set supposedly worth $100 for $7...) or anything else (we were also selling watch sets, duffel bags and pretend computers for kids) someone in the station would be willing to buy". Knowing that the guy I'm with is a total hustler and won't turn down a potential sale, I tell him this, and he says "sure, go tell them once the other guy gets back, we'll sell them anything they want". Obviously it was a ploy by the police to clue me into what was really going on here, as if I didn't already know. After I walk in, another cop pulls me aside and says "look, you've gotta stop selling if you don't have a license" and of course not wanting to get my only ride arrested, I say "oh, it was my understanding that they had them" which actually it was, as the guy said he had "left his license at home", and I knew nothing further than that. I also tell this cop "I'm not an employee of theirs" and the cop says "I know. Someone I know was an employee of theirs. They are selling without the proper license. They need to get them if they are going to keep doing this stuff." to which I reply "look...I know there are some hijinks going on, and I was basically hoodwinked into being here. I don't want to be doing this anymore.. But if the sales guy comes back, don't tell him. I said any of that. What I will do for you is tell the manager when I get back the office what you said" (which is what I did). Eventually, the two sales guys did apparantly make some sales, then from what I understand, they "nicely" gave the salesmen some proper paperwork as to what exactly constitutes a selling license in that city, and they need to have with them. They could have arrested both those guys right there on the spot, and possibly me as well, though I doubt it because I wasn't actually an employee and I wasn't doing any selling. Actually that was really nice of the police. So even in my most negative anti-estabilishment mood, I can at least say the police have done one considerate thing that has directly affected me.

Around 4, its getting cold, dark, and I'm hungry as fuck. But no, we have to *keep on selling*. We hit up another questional strip mall, then another small one, then the dude starts hitting up these awful dive bars on the way back to the office. Places I wouldn't go to in a million years, even if I liked bars. Finally, *FINALLY*, about 5:30 since by that time we were near the main office, he offered to drop me back there so I could leave since it was clear I wasn't interested in being with them anymore. I thanked him for the oppertunity (sheer politeness there), and that I wished him good luck in the future (a near lie by me, I hope that company rots in hell). I went in and told the manager that "I'm not interested in any aspect of this job, and that its simply not for me". I told him there was "way too much selling for me", to which replied "but thats just the probationary period" to which I shot back "no, selling like that is not for me, sorry". I also told him what the officer said to me earlier in the day--that they were aware of the questionable legality of their selling practices, to which the manager replied "oh no I have a license, they are wrong". I just replied with "well I just want you to be informed of whats going on, so you don't get in trouble", my code for "youre lucky there isnt a cop car sitting out front right now, either to tell you they arrested your sellers, or to arrest you personally".

After I got to my car, I let my anger loose for a few moments. At the moment, I was mainly mad at myself, because after all, how could I be so blind as to not realise such an obvious scam! But then I realise I was tricked with vague double speak into this job. And I was too desperate for a chance, and I did almost no research on the company. I was wary of the fact that the company wasn't at all the same one that advertised and that I had sent in a resume to on Yahoo! (and I don't think I'll be using their job services again...), but I saw "marketing", thought thats what it was, and not direct door-to-door selling, and also the oppertunities for advancement. But at least I can say that I did quickly realise the scheme, and I only have one shitty day to show it for, instead of weeks, months, or possibly years wasted of my life.

And now for the name of the company, in big, bold letters: INNOVAGE.

Do not deal with this company in away. Stay away from the company that contacted me also, Parker Imports/Terra Wholesale. This is a pyramid scheme.

Some helpful links also relating similar experiences...

http://www.badbusinessbureau.com/reports/ripoff127446.htm

http://www.balgavy.com/blog/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=643

http://www.wahm.com/boards/Forum39/HTML/000056.html

http://www.wahm.com/boards/Forum39/HTML/000056.html

Unfortunately those were the only references I could find. A google search with the keywords "Innovage Pyramid Scheme" only yields 5 pages of results, and many are due to Innovage selling a pyramid-shaped speaker. But those relay similar experiences to what I had.

Oh, and all of the state ballot measures that I wrote about several days back failed. I guess more commentary on that later...

Interview Update...

Unbelievable. Within 10, maybe 15 minutes of walking the door, I was asked back Wednesday to "observe the buisness operations" with someone with the company. I was a bit wrong about what I was doing btw--this looks like straight marketing with yes some sales, but not anything close to the previous job I interviewed for. The sales aspect had me nervous, but it looks like the job might be more to do with meeting with people out in the real world, rather than trying to make cold contacts out of nowhere. It was a very small operation, in fact when I went in for the interview I wasn't even sure that was the right building, because they were the only ones occupying any office space at all (the place next to them had been evicted, there was a notice on the door...).

I've no clue where this will lead, and I'll know more of course after Wednesday. Obviously it's not my dream job, but it looks like something, and potentially something promising--or at least somewhere I can get my feet wet in the career world, and get at least some experience outside of the part-time jobs I've held all my life. And I can still do design on the side of course, picking up whatever freelance or even pro bono work I can do until soemthing comes along. Or maybe I won't even get this job, who knows.

Upcoming Election

Several months back, the Governator called a special election to vote on several initives he supported, and now on Tuesday, that election will come. I believe this election to be a gauge of the governor's popularity and effectivness, which is why I imagine he decided to call it; he wants to know just how viable his reelection campaign will be. Significant defeats on measures he's supporting (and he supports nearly all of them on this ballot) could be an indicator that he will suffer defeat next years in the gubanatorial election. I'm not really sure though how this election will turn out. Arnold's popularity has severely declined since he took office two years ago, but since this is an off year election, the turnout will be quite low. All the measures on the ballot though are quite interesting, and could have a huge impact on our state, some of them include:

Prop 75: if passed, public employees would have to give consent to have their union dues used for political purposes. I support this general idea, because I think that a person should have some right in where their money is going in a union, but obviously this a tactic to significantly weaken the strength of the unions, because the public employee unions (teachers, nurses, etc) are the ones that have been the most outspoken against Arnold. So I see this as a purely political move.

Prop 76: this will create a state spending cap that the governor himself can control. Again, I'm for less spending, but this is aimed at giving Arnold more power, and again is a political move on his part.

Prop 80: Utility re-regulation. This one is a wild card, as many people point to the deregulation of utilities in 1996 (correctly or not) as a chief reason why we had the power crisis of 2000-2001. It will be interesting to see if this passes.

Prop 74: raises the probation period on newly hired teachers from 2 years to 5 years. Again, I see this as another political move on the part of the governor to weaken the power of a group that has been against him throughout his administration.

Prop 73: parental notification of teen abortion. I'm surprised this even got on the ballot here (well really not too surprised...). I haven't seen the poll numbers but I doubt this will pass here.

Prop 77: would take redistricting out of the hands of the legislature and hand the job over to a panel of retired judges. Again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but this seems like yet another attempt by Arnold to weaken the power of the Democratically-controlled legislature, which of course has opposed him at every turn.

Prop 78 and 79: these are two somewhat confusing initives dealing with prescription drug discounts, especially since they offer two different plans for the same goal. However 78 appears to be a voluntary discount plan, whereas 79 would make the discounts law. 79 would also give discounts to buisnesses as well as individuals, and also makes it illegal for drug companies to engage in "profiteering". However, 78 would give a wider range of drugs available to choose from that would be eligible for discounts. I'm guessing what happened here was that the group for 79 wanted this idea on the ballot, so someone came up with 78 to try and beat them to the punch, knowing that probably 79 would get passed, and that they could get a much more favorable deal on the table.

Things are never boring here in the Golden State! But its quite possible that I may vote "no" across the board on all these measures. Some of the issues do look reasonable, but I know they are being brought up for purely political reasons, which I do not want to be a part of. I'd much rather vote on an issue because it will be a beneficial change, not to significantly influence or support someone's personal agenda.

More on this later...