Adventures in moving...Nature's Own Alarm Clock

And...once again, it's been awhile since I posted.

I had thought that once I got the move accomplished, I would be back to blogging on a regular basis. I was, as it turns out, wrong.

It isn't that I haven't had things to say. Or time to say them. But, adjusting to being in a new place, getting settled in, and everything that entails is taking more mental and emotional energy than I expected it to.

And, it isn't that I'm not happy to be here. I'm very happy to be here. It's just...oh, I don't know. Different. Even though I've moved back to the general area where I grew up, it's taking some readjusting to my surroundings. To adjust to living with different people. Even though I know them, I haven't lived with them before, and the rhythms of life are different from those I'm used to.

I have made some progress in getting settled. I'm getting quite a bit of work done on my writing projects. I (finally) got to the library to get a library card and checked some books out. So, I'm feeling on pretty strong ground on those accounts.

And...speaking of ground, steady and not, one of the things that has thrown me for a bit of a loop is the fact that last week on Monday I was awakened at 6:25 a.m. by what I have come to think of as Nature's Own Alarm Clock, also known as an earthquake. It isn't the first time that has happened to me, goodness knows. I've been in several large quakes, albeit not always close to the epicenter of them. Growing up in Southern California and then living in Central California, there were plenty of quakes through the years. But quakes in the center of the state are not the same thing as quakes in Southern California.

This one, which you might have seen referred to in the media as the Shamrock Shake, since it happened on St. Patrick's Day, was close enough and big enough (at 4.4 magnitude) to wake me up from a deep sleep and, frankly, frightened the crap out of me. I think that's because it took me so by surprise. At any rate, since then my anxiety level has been a little higher - although that's getting a bit better now. There for a couple of days, though, I was jumping at every little noise. Ridiculous, I know, especially for someone who has always lived in earthquake country.

Although, for some reason, ever since the quake, I feel like I've been welcomed properly back to the area. So, you know, it doesn't have to do that again any time soon as far as I'm concerned.

At any rate, I'm not making any more predictions about when I'll be back to regular blogging. I hope that it will be sooner rather than later, so watch this space. There are some things that have been in the news that I really want to talk about. I also have some things to say about getting reacquainted with the old stomping ground and the things that have changed since I lived here before...and the things that have, amazingly, remained the same.

Move accomplished...

So, okay. It's Monday. So, Movie Monday. And last night the Academy Awards were handed out. I watched the show, and thought it was okay - certainly an improvement over some past shows. And I was going to write about that.

But...I'm still sort of getting settled in after my move. I've still barely started unpacking. I've slept 8 hours last night (long for me), and I slept 11 hours Saturday night, the day of the move. So, I'm still in recovery mode after the past week, which was long and complicated and busy, busy, busy.

Not to mention that the weather on Saturday was awful. Riding in a 26-foot U-Haul truck, towing a car on a car-carrier is not fun when the wind is blowing and it's pouring down rain. Fortunately the driver, my now-ex-roommate's son, did a very good job at the wheel. Then, when we arrived at my new place, while it was not raining at first, it started pouring before we got everything inside. But, we did get everything inside eventually, although I was soaked to the skin by the time that happened. I was not the only one.

The good news is, it's supposed to be much warmer and drier for the rest of the week, so maybe I'll get everything settled and in its place within the next few days.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to have a little lunch. It's past one and I'm getting hungry.

But, like I said, watch this space. I plan to be back more regularly going forward.

Getting closer to moving day...

The packing is almost done.

This is a minor miracle, considering that it is still six days until the move actually happens.

Oh, I still have things to do. Last-minute packing, doing the change-of-address thing at the post office. A trip to the Laundromat just before packing the last-minute things. Taking the last two books I have out of the library back. Washing down the walls in my bedroom. Taking the cable equipment down to UPS to send it back to the provider. But, for the most part, I've got things ready to go, and many of those last-minute things can't happen until Thursday or Friday.

I can spend some of that time checking out the job situation where I'm going. That's one of the things I most love about the Internet. I can do things like look for a job before the move is accomplished. However, I'm not actually applying for anything until I am physically in the new location. Yes, it is often weeks before you get a reply back when you send out of resume. But it isn't, sometimes, and I'd feel really stupid to get an e-mail or call back the next day, saying, "Can you come for an interview tomorrow?" So, the actual applications/resumes will have to wait.

But, I can say that I'm excited about the possibilities. There are actual jobs in my field where I'm moving. And, if something doesn't turn up right away - and I'm realistic enough to know that it might not - there's always tutoring. I'll be living within a few miles of a 4-year college and a 2-year community college. That means a lot of potential students. So, I will work on getting the word out that I tutor as soon as I arrive and get settled in. Which should take a day or two, considering that I don't have that much to unpack.

The only thing that's really bothering me about the move is that it's going to take a little while for me to get a library card. The library system there requires a piece of business mail as proof of address before issuing a card. But I don't really get that much business mail. I'm going to check to see if they'll accept someone vouching for me instead; I remember that when I was a kid and living with my family away from home for a few weeks due to my father's job, the library let me get a library card with a note from the people we were renting from. We'll see. The good news is, once I get the library card, the local library branch is apparently just a couple of blocks away from where I'll be living.

So - that's the latest update. T-minus six days and counting, with most of the packing already done and only a few last-minute things left to do. Blogging should resume more regularly as soon as I get moved and get the Wi-Fi there figured out. Which might be a bit of a chore, as my laptop is sometimes reluctant to talk to new-to-it systems.

Now, if YouTube would just start talking to my computer again. After a few days of behaving itself, normally, YouTube seems to be going through another round of changes or something. Which is why there is no Music Sunday again. I'm looking forward to getting back to those, and to Movie Monday, and regular blogging in general.

Update and report on progress...

Well, it's now ten days until moving day, nine days until the day the moving truck will be loaded, and eight days until all the packing has to be done.

I've been busy. Which is why I haven't been here. But, the packing is nearly done - I've just got CDs and DVDs left, plus my SCA garb. There's also the last-minute packing which will not be done until the last packing day - clothes, bedding, and kitchen stuff - but there's not really much of that, either, and shouldn't take more than an hour or two.

I've also got a few last minute things other than packing to take care of - change of address at the post office, get the cable equipment back to the cable company, take the last couple of books back to the library, and so forth - but all those things are only time-consuming, not difficult, and those will be taken care of next week.

And, also, there are some more things to throw out, but that can't even be done until Friday after the garbage has come and there is room in the cans again. The neighbors to the north moved recently and no one has moved in to their apartment, and so we can use their cans, too. Miss the neighbors, but having the extra trash capacity is a good thing.

I don't know if I mentioned it in my previous post, but I've also been looking online at the job possibilities where I'm relocating to, and I'm pleased with what I'm seeing - actual jobs in my field. I haven't started actually applying for anything, yet, of course, since I'm not there to go on interviews yet. But I've identified several possibilities and expect more to come up if those are filled by the time I get down there and get settled in and am ready to start looking for work seriously.

Oh, and my computer appears to be talking to YouTube again, so Music Sunday and Movie Monday will both be back soon, I hope.

Now it's time to go get some more packing done, but I wanted to post this update, since it's been a week since I've posted anything.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

I know.

I said that I was going to be posting more regularly.

But, no. I didn't lie. Really.

Do you know how much time and energy it takes to get ready to move? Well, here's a hint: It takes a lot of both.

And, it isn't just the packing. It's all the other stuff that has to get done. Wrapping up stuff here, for example. I had a short writing job that I had to finish. And there's people to say good-bye to, and organizational ties to wrap up.

Which explains, I think, why I haven't been spending much time around here. And why I probably won't be for the next little while. I hope to look in from time to time, maybe give an update on how things are progressing.

Having said that, I do want to say that this move in a good thing. A very good thing, in fact. There are more jobs available where I'm moving. I like the weather better where I'm moving. I like the area where I'm going. Which makes sense. It's the area where I grew up. I still know people there. Not a lot, but enough.

Look at it this way. Once I'm moved and settled in (and I don't have that much stuff, so it shouldn't take me that long to get settled), I'll have lots of new things to write about, not least because I'm moving to the second-largest city in the United States. That means there are places to go, things to see, stories to tell.

But, for now, back to the sorting and packing.

Relax. Enjoy yourself. Take a little time...

Some days, you've got to just chill.

That's what I did today.

I spent several hours with friends, working on needlecraft projects (sewing, embroidery, knitting), talking, laughing, and generally having a good time. Well, I had a good time once I straightened out a problem I was having with my knitting. But, anyway, it was a pleasant afternoon with friends. By the time it was over, I was more relaxed than I have been in weeks.

I didn't have to hear all the crap in the news. I didn't have to deal with anyone making demands on me. I didn't have to justify what I was doing. It was wonderful.

But, consequently, I don't have anything to complain about here, or to rant about, or to express my concern about.

So, instead of writing something long and drawn out, I'll just say that I hope you had a good day and that you got to do something you wanted to do as opposed to something you had to do. And that if you didn't get to do that, I hope you do get to do so soon.

If nothing else, relaxing a little is probably good for your health.

Oh, and don't forget. Tomorrow is Music Sunday.

Michelangelo's David and my busy life...

On this day in 1501, Michelangelo began work on his monumental sculpture of David. It's a fascinating story, with one of the most beautiful sculptures in the world being created out of a flawed block of marble that had already been used and abused in an attempt to make it into something else.

I had planned to write a long post about this, being that Michelangelo is my favorite artist. I love that he kept insisting that he was a sculptor, damn it, yet also painted some of the greatest frescoes ever conceived. I get that he was prickly and cranky and generally hard to deal with, but in those fantasy "Which ten people would you invite to a dinner party if you could ask anyone, dead or alive" he would be high on the list, simply because he did so many things, so well. Besides being a sculptor and a painter, he was also an architect (he was architect for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, taking over from a succession of earlier architects, including Bramante, and designed the dome) and a poet.

Anyway, I was going to write about Michelangelo and the David, but it was a very busy day around here - getting my roommate's car fixed (it was out of commission for almost two weeks), signing up for a couple of computer classes that start in a month or so (I need to add some new skills to my resume), taking books back to the library, buying groceries, grading assignments for my roommate...basically just running about like a madwoman in the heat all day. The time just got away from me.

So, I'll save my Michelangelo geekery for another day, and leave you with this (and a word of warning - Michelangelo did not give David a fig leaf):



I'm also going to recommend the book "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1961), by Irving Stone. It is a big, old-style biographical novel, something Stone specialized in during his career. This book was my introduction to Michelangelo, and I love it. It is a long book, but from things I've read about Michelangelo's life and work since, it seems to be very well researched and brings Michelangelo and his times to life in a very convincing way.

But please, read the book. I wouldn't recommend the film of the same name (from 1965), though. For some reason someone thought it was a good idea to cast Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. This was a bad, bad choice, on physical grounds alone. Heston was tall, a few inches over six feet. Michelangelo was only a little over five feet tall. And that was just the beginning of the problems with the film. I agree with the New York Times review of the film from when it was first released - Heston could manage only to find the cranky side of Michelangelo. Although that's one of the things the artist was known for, it was not his only side, something that is clear in the book the film was based on.

Really. Read the book.

Busy, Busy...

I've been kind of busy the past couple of days, doing scheduling for our monthly Practice Interview Day for the newbies at CVP, and so I haven't had much time to think about blog posts.

However...it has come to my attention that today is the anniversary of the US release of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", which opened on August 14, 1975. So, I'm just going to leave this here for you (with bonus Italian subtitles):



Also, it's David Crosby's birthday today. I'm a big fan from way back. And so, I'll leave this here, too:



--------------------------

Practice Interview Day is tomorrow, and is pretty much an all-day thing. After that, I should have a little more time to think about other things, including writing blog posts.

It's Do What You Want To Do Saturday

Ever have one of those days when you deliberately ignore everything that you're "supposed" to do and just do what you damn well please?

Well, that's what I did today. I slept in reasonably late. I read for awhile...I'm reading an interesting book right now. I watched a couple of movies. I worked on my writing project. Working on that project does not count as "supposed-to-do" because I'm doing it on spec and don't have a hard-and-fast deadline on it. Plus, I'm happiest when I'm doing that. I had hot dogs for dinner. I played with the cat.

I did all those things instead of writing a proper blog post today.

I'll be back with Music Sunday tomorrow. Meanwhile, I hope you had a nice Saturday, wherever you are and whatever you did.

Summer's coming...

It's been busy around here the past few days. I don't feel like I've accomplished much, but I've been going from early morning until time for bed every day the past few days.

Yesterday was typical, yet not. Got up to take my roommate to work and then took the (very unhappy) cat out to the SPCA to get fixed. Went and did the laundry. Came home long enough to eat breakfast/lunch (it was breakfast because it was the first thing I had eaten all day, but it was lunchtime by the time I had the time to eat) and get a few things done around the apartment, then went to pick up my roommate from work and then went out to retrieve the cat, who was now stoned in addition to being very unhappy. Brought the cat home and situated him so he wouldn't be doing any climbing and jumping. I went to the library while my roommate went to the gym, then went to dinner. By that time, I was ready to fall into bed. Right after I got in bed, though, the still-very-stoned cat escaped and came sauntering into my room looking quite puzzled and then went under my bed to hide. He didn't get to stay, but he tried.

So, today, I'm staying home (while my roommate takes some of her students on an end-of-school field trip to Yosemite) keeping an eye on the cat and trying to stay out of the heat. It's a little bit of respite before I have to go to CVP tomorrow to help with a workshop and then go back on Thursday for meetings.

We're also busy around here with the approaching end of school. My roommate has been getting her 8th graders ready for their Constitution test (which happens tomorrow), and she's been giving them a lot of written work to prep for the test, and I've been helping her grade all of that. She is also getting ready to take off in a couple of weeks to spend the summer with her kids on the other side of the country, and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get around town while she's gone, since she's driving this year and the car won't be here. That will resolve itself eventually, but I've been spending quite a bit of time stressing over whether or not I'm going to have the money to get a bus pass for the month of July, or whether I'll be stuck at home for two months and relying on rides to get where I need to go. I don't like that option; I'm used to being able to come and go when I need to.

I've been avoiding watching the news lately: I'm sick and tired of hearing about one manufactured "crisis" after another in the government, mostly, and I just can't take all the reports of the tornado disasters in and around Oklahoma. If I have to watch another reporter stick a microphone in the face of another person who has lost their home, or members of their family, I'm going to scream. Why can't the press just leave those poor people alone to try to start recovering? Or, you know, put their microphones and cameras down and help the recovery effort.

Okay. That's where I am, and why I haven't been here. What have you all been up to, as summer approaches and as school is just out or just about to get out? Leave me a comment and let me know.

When life consists of miscellaneous stuff...

Again, it's been a busy few days. So, I haven't dropped off the earth, I've just been doing stuff out here in the real world. This includes writing, CVP volunteer stuff, looking for work, and...well, so much stuff I can't even quite remember some of it.

I also had an ailing computer for a few hours yesterday, so couldn't get online until that got troubleshot? troubleshooted? Fixed, at any rate.

Yes, I know troubleshooted is not a word. I just thought it was funny and had to include it.

But, mostly I haven't been writing because I'm going through one of those pissed at the universe phases that I encounter occasionally, and I haven't wanted to subject you all to that. It's been a free-floating pissed-offedness for the most part, but there have been some foci to it as well, including the fallout from news out of the recent National Rifle Association meeting...not going to get into that at all because, well, for reasons.

There was also the news out of Cleveland. What the hell was that guy thinking, kidnapping and holding hostage three women, two of them teenagers at the beginning and one of them a friend of his daughter's. I'm not into the "let's all hate men" thing, but there are men in this world who just don't seem to have a freaking clue that they don't have special rights just because they have a...well, you know. I won't comment further on that, either.

On a related note, I read an item in the past week or so about a middle school that banned girls from wearing strapless gowns to graduation, or to the graduation dance, or something. Well, I can see that in principle, as I'm not sure that thirteen-year-old young women really need to be wearing strapless dresses, but that's just me. I'm old. But the reason the school district gave for the ban was something along the lines of "because it would be distracting to the boys." Excuse me, what? Are we still teaching young men that if they can't control their hormones, it's the girl's fault, and that it is the girls' responsibility to cover up so that the boys won't be distracted, or do something about that distraction. Really?

There's more. But I'm on a library computer at the moment and my allotted time to use it is about to run out. So, just let me say that the continuing dearth of jobs is also continuing to frustrate me as well. One thing I can't really complain about this time is my Facebook feed. People have mostly been behaving themselves this week. There have been a couple of exceptions, but those were easily hidden.

Additionally, I can't complain about my writing, which is going fairly well considering the mood I've been in. In fact, I've been finding this week that the only time I'm really happy and content is when I'm writing something.

So, maybe I should have made myself sit down and write posts every day. Maybe I would have been happier.

Oh, one thing I want to mention before I go for the day, considering that I write about movies here from time to time: I finally got to see "Argo" last weekend. Fabulous movie. I can see why it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. And I do want to jump on the bandwagon of folks who thing that Ben Affleck got robbed by not being nominated as Best Director for his work on the film. The performances were wonderful, with special props to Affleck for starring as well as directing. It was especially interesting to watch the movie with a friend of mine who lived in Tehran for a time, up until just a couple of years before the events depicted in the film. She had a few quibbles with details, but it's Hollywood; they never get anything completely correct. But, even knowing the city and the culture and recognizing the fact that there were some inaccuracies, my friend still liked the film a lot.

If you haven't seen "Argo", please do. I'm pretty sure you won't be sorry you did.

In which I am homesick...

I'm really feeling homesick today, as I sit here in Fresno and look out at the gray sky and a wet patio and fence. It's probably the same in southern California, the place I'm homesick for, but that doesn't matter. That's home, and every so often I get so homesick for the south part of the state that I can hardly stand it.

It makes no sense, to be honest. I've lived in central California longer than I lived in southern California - about 14 years longer here than there, at this point - but as far as I'm concerned, southern California is home. It probably always will be.

I think this particular bout of homesickness has to do with having watched the Academy Awards ceremony when it was broadcast late last month. At one point, for some reason that I don't remember now, they showed a photo of the Capitol Records building. When I was growing up, we drove by that building on a fairly regular basis, and it has become one of the symbols of my childhood. Now, whenever I see it, it reminds me of home and all the warm, fuzzy stuff that goes with it.

That isn't the only place that has that effect on me. The Hollywood sign does it to a lesser extent. What does it even more than the Capitol Records building is the observatory and planetarium at Griffith Park. And, of course, Disneyland. I grew up going both of those places, and I love them, and seeing photos of them always makes me want to be there rather than here.

When it gets really bad, sometimes I go searching YouTube for videos of all the places I knew and loved growing up. There is quite a variety of them, some of them from places that no longer even exist. There's even some old, silent footage from the California Alligator Farm, which used to sit right across the street from Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park:



We used to go to the alligator farm every time we were in that part of the region. My father was a big fan of reptiles in all their forms, and he always liked the alligator farm a lot. Originally, the Alligator Farm was located in Lincoln Heights, a Los Angeles Neighborhood, but it was moved to Buena Park in 1953 and remained their until it closed in 1984, a victim of dropping attendance.

Another place that isn't there anymore is Pacific Ocean Park, which was located in Santa Monica. POP, as it was known, opened in July, 1958 and operated until October, 1967, when it closed due to low attendance and after a new owner couldn't pay his bills. But, it was fun while it lasted, and I remember the one visit my family made there with fondness. Here is a bit about POP from a 1959 documentary, around the same time as my visit there:



One of the things I remember most about that day was that I really, really wanted to go on the diving bell ride that you saw in the video. My mother, however, was frightened of water and refused to let me ride.

Here's an ad for another gone-but-not-forgotten southern California attraction, Movieland Wax Museum. I'm the first to admit that the wax museum was kind of cheesy, but it was a good kind of cheesy, and I was sorry to hear the news when it closed in 2005 after having been open since 1962:



At one time, the wax museum had a second wing, in which the wax figures were not of movie stars, but were set up in re-creations of famous works of art. It was called the Palace of Living Art, and the best part was neither inside the building nor made of wax. This was a Carrara marble replica of Michelangelo's David, with the marble, so legend says, taken from the same quarry where the artist got the marble for his original sculpture. It sat in the courtyard of the museum for a time after the Palace of Living Art closed, and was eventually sold to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in St. Augustine, Florida, according to the sources I've seen.

Well, sitting here and being homesick is not a productive use of my time, and so I'll leave this at that. I hope today's homesickness will pass as I get on with the day, since I really have other things to do than sit and ransack YouTube for scenes from my past. That book I'm writing will not ever get finished if I don't get to work. I'm already an hour behind today's self-imposed schedule.

And what did you do today?

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you think it must be Friday, but it's only Wednesday?

I don't know what it is this week, but it has just seemed like the longest week in the history of the universe. What makes it even stranger is that my roommate, who is a teacher, had Monday off for President's Day, and so it should really only feel like Tuesday today. But instead, it seems like the week has just dragged on for ever.

Maybe it has something to do with having to arrange schedules and confirm appointments for Practice Interview Days at CVP, where I'm doing volunteer work while I look for a job myself. This is the first time I've done this, and so it's been kind of labor-intensive while I figure things out. I got good, helpful instructions from the gentleman who usually does this, and so it's gone mostly smoothly. Not completely smoothly, but well enough for a first time out, I guess.

Well, we will see just how smoothly or not it has gone. the actual practice interviews take place Thursday and Friday.

And the point of telling you all of this? The point is, I've been so wrapped up in getting the finishing things done on this project that I just realized a few minutes ago - at about twenty minutes to 9 pm local time - that I hadn't written a post yet today.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be less distracted, once day one of the interviews are over.

Life and stuff...

It's late in the day for a post, but I wanted to at least check in to say that I think I'm back online. Cable is fixed, and a good friend is letting me borrow a laptop because mine is still being cranky.

It's been a long day, with a visit to the airport, the library, and grocery shopping...all even though I'm supposed to be staying off the knee I did something nasty to late yesterday afternoon. But, with the grocery shopping done, now I really can stay in and rest the stupid knee for a few days.

By the time I got home from all that, the water was off. It was a planned outage; the city has been working on the water lines for a few weeks, and this was the fourth or fifth time the water has been off. The good news was that it came back on about half an hour before it was scheduled to do so.

The other good news was the cable guy showed up about five minutes after the beginning of the two-hour window they had given me for the appointment when I talked to them yesterday. It didn't take him long to get things working again. The bad news was that he said it looked like the cables out by the outside cable box had been vandalized.

And then, this evening, my friend Juanita came by and brought the computer to me so I can use it. I am so grateful to her for letting me use it. I spent the afternoon feeling guilty that I wasn't able to blog yesterday or, until now, today. I guess the theory that it takes about a month to establish a new habit is true. After blogging every day for the past month and a half, not writing a post sometime during the day just feels...wrong.

So, I feel much better now that I've been able to get this written. I just hope I spelled everything correctly, because I haven't found the spell-check on this machine yet, and I'm not sure I'm awake enough to proofread adequately at the moment.

Oops...

I was supposed to write a blog post today, wasn't I?

And now it's nearly 5 p.m., and I haven't even thought about it, except to put it on my list of things to do this morning when I first got out of bed.

Funny, how time flies when you're having fun.

Or, when you're just busy.

I can't claim that I haven't been having fun today, actually, for all that I've spent most of the day putting the finishing touches on a workshop I have to present to a group of fellow job-seekers tomorrow morning. I really enjoy putting workshops like this together and presenting them. On the other hand, they are a lot of work.

I didn't even put this off until the last minute. I started writing it the middle of last month, when I first got the go-ahead to do it. And I've been working on it along the way. It was substantially finished three or four days ago. Yesterday and today, though, I've been fiddling with it, making a list of the content on the PowerPoint slides that will go with it, and generally making sure that I didn't forget to put anything in.

Well, I've probably forgotten a few things, but at this point, that's just too bad. It will have to stand as it is.

So, tomorrow morning I'm going to be talking to a group of people, many of whom I know, about proofreading resumes and cover letters, and how it isn't a good idea to rely on spell-check and grammar-check programs to do your proofreading for you. I won't bore you with the reasons why it isn't a good idea, but if the point is to submit a professional-looking resume and cover letter, you'll want to do more than that before you send it off, either electronically or by snail mail.

It really is about ready to go. I've got the thing written. I've even gone over it a couple of times. I've got three handouts, including one proofreading exercise, ready to be reproduced and handed out. Participants are also supposed to bring along a copy of their own resumes for another exercise. I don't believe in "workshops" where the attendees just sit and listen to someone talk for an hour and a quarter or however long. I present introductory material, and then the participants...participate.

And so, I'm going to step away from the whole thing for a couple of hours before I get back to the final, final look at it. I better not be making changes at this point, but just seeing that everything is in order.

And tomorrow, after the presentation is over, I'll try to find something of more general interest to write about.

Oh, and if you find any typos or misspellings in this post? I really don't want to know about it.

Yet another sabbatical from posting...

Um-hum. Yeah. It has been a long time since I've posted here.

But, no, you haven't gotten rid of me yet. It's just that I spent most of January worrying about various issues, while most of February was spent in the process of moving house (well, apartment).

I could not believe the amount of crap that one can accumulate in a one-bedroom apartment and that you don't even see until you start packing to move. I think I threw out as much or more junk than I acutally moved. And the time spent shredding old mail so as to avoid identity-theft. Can someone please tell me why places have to print account numbers on every single page of mailings? It is absolutely insane.

Also, I celebrated the move by going to Gallifrey One in Los Angeles. For those of you who don't know, Gally is a Doctor Who convention...yes, we've established before that I'm a geek...held annually at the airport Marriott in L.A. Lots of fun, loads of insanity, and a good way to get rid of a lot of stress.

Now, I'm just concentrating on work and finding more work. The former is going as well as can be expected in a time of recession (no, it isn't over yet, no matter what the talking heads on the news stations say), and the latter is, well, dismal.

I guess we will see how much more time I have to post here. Maybe if I'd start reading the news again (I've been avoiding it; too depressing), I'd find stuff that riles me up enough to post.

Happy New Year

I am, I hope, back on a more regular basis as the new year begins.

During the last half of 2008, it was difficult for me to concentrate on much of anything as well as to find time to write anything beyond for my work.

My mother's health began to deteriorate at a more rapid pace after she fell and broke a hip in mid-July and she passed away on 6 December 2008, so my mind and energies were elsewhere.

I still miss her terribly, but life does go on...something my mother taught me...and so I plan to be back and blogging much more often in 2009. I can't say that I'll have something to write about every day, but my plan is to be here at least two or three times a week and I hope to write even more often than that.

So, here's hoping that 2009 brings you all health and happiness and as much success as you can handle.

And better weather. It's past 11 a.m. here where I am, and while the fog has lifted so that I can actually see across the street, it is still hovering above the Valley, making it still dark and dreary and cold. Not saying that I'm looking forward to those 105 F degree days we will surely get this summer, but a little warmth would be nice.