200th Blog Posting

Today is my 200th blog posting. I think this is sort of significant for me. When I started, I didn't know if I would be able to keep the blog going and interesting. Thank you for visiting my blog.

Winter is Coming
I wore a vest to work with my suit today. I really looked like a corporate executive, most like an IBM salesman. I was wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt, dark red tie, and highly polished black shoes.

Stunning; just stunning.

Every once in a while, I take the time to make sure I have the perfect corporate image. You better make that the traditional corporate image and not this business casual / business sloppy style that seems to be so popular these days. I bet that there is a generation of men out there who don’t know how to properly shine shoes.

One thing you learn when you are with the Marines is dressing smartly. The Marines have a term for those who cannot dress properly; the term is civilian. There are other terms but I don’t want to really offend you gentle readers by sharing those terms of endearment with you.

Days
It was Day 13 today. I suppose that the cooler winter [ok Southern California winter] weather has dampened my desires for ice cream somewhat.

I could celebrate the end of the year with an ice cream bar. That sounds right to me.

Courtyard Observations
It was another interesting day for courtyard observations.

I happened to glance out my window while I was waiting for a large document to print. What else can you do while a document prints and no printer is ever as fast as the box label claims it is when it comes to churning out the document.

I saw a young woman walking up to the building door. She looked like she was in sales; she had one of those brief cases on wheels and a big folder holder under her arm. She wore a nice suit, coat and skirt.

Looking good; looking professional until I saw her feet.

And then she lost me and I nearly lost my breakfast.

She was wearing flip flops instead of regular shoes. What ever happened to women wearing dress shoes to work?

Did someone screw up and not give me the memo on that subject? Probably yes.

So, there I was watching her make an entrance into the building. I hope who ever she was seeing was an indulgent person who makes allowances for others eccentricities. If the young woman was meeting with me, I think she would have had a hard time getting me to buy whatever it was she was selling.

I probably would have answered her open ended questions with a simple yes or no or even a maybe. Direct answers tend to drive sale people crazy because it doesn’t allow them to control the conversation. I could have just gone off on a discussion tangent that interested me and ignored what she had to say.

Today was my day for bad observations.

A little later on while I was waiting for a return phone with the missing information that I needed for the project I was working on , I saw a European American young woman walking up to the building entrance.
She looked really professional with a nice pants and blazer outfit. She was talking on her cell phone because she was really, really, super important and had to prove to the whole world that she is important because she wouldn’t be talking on her cell phone if she wasn’t important.

Or so the theory goes.

She was pulling her rolling brief case box. I guess it was full of really important stuff. Then again maybe not.

She stopped just before the entrance and stuck her hand down the back of pants.

She was a tuggin’ and a fussin’ with her underwear like it had all rode up on her during the ride in from Pomona. I guess she needed to clear things up so her mind would be free and clear and without tension and stress for her meeting.

This was perfect.

Here we have two women on two consecutive days that are acting like most of the guys do. You know a pickin’ and a scratchin’ and such. They were almost like us.

Damn, that made me feel a right good. It made me feel great to be a livin’ in this great land of ours.

They would be perfect companions. I know they scratch in public so they wouldn’t be embarrassed if I scratched just a bit.

All they need to be dead solid perfect is a love for Morton’s beef dinners, Albertacos, American football, anime, NASCAR, Japanese high school girl crime / slasher / horror films [for Doug], apple pie, and the Original Tommy’s Mega Combo meals.

What more could a guy want in a woman?

Ummmm, maybe an ability to cook beyond tossing the frozen plate into the microwave oven. She could know how to cook. That would be nice. Being able to drive a car with a manual transmission would be nice but not a requirement in Los Angeles. Driving a manual transmission car in Los Angeles would cause her to overdevelop her left leg from all of the clutching that would be necessary.

Life is so fascinating these days. I wonder what tomorrow will bring me.

Be well and stay happy.

Bad Observation

Crummy Day
Today was one of the days that, for the most part, was crummy.

Can’t See
My eyeglasses fell apart as I was typing on the keyboard. One of the lenses fell to the floor. Fortunately, it was a plastic lens so it is still unbroken. I couldn’t do any more work because I need the glasses to read up close. I am fine with roadside billboards. This all meant that I had to leave work early since I couldn’t see and I had to give up a couple of hours of billable time today.

I have a spare set of glasses so I can work tomorrow just fine. I plan to stop by Lenscrafters on Saturday morning and see if they can fix my frames.

Now, I suppose there are benefits from not being able to see everything. I jut haven’t seen too many benefits.

Days
It was Day 12 today and no ice cream freezer chest action.

Courtyard Observations
Sometimes, I just should just not look out in the courtyard. Today was one of those days.

I happened to look out in the building courtyard this morning while I was waiting for a document to print. What else was I going to do? I could have watched the paper go through the printer but that was not part of my plans at all.

I glanced out in the courtyard and saw this one Asian woman get up from the bench outside of my office after her mid-morning cigarette. She has always impressed me as having her act together and being prepared. She usually wears suits to work.

Another plus, she is older than most of the other single Asian women. I think this plus is cancelled out by her smoking, maybe not.

Anyway.

She was walking away from the bench when she stopped and tugged at her butt like her thong was riding up and was becoming very uncomfortable. Then, she walked into the building I guess after fixing things as it were.

All of her sophistication went down the drain in an instant.

All of her simple, “I don’t what others think” went way up for me. Now, if she happened to like Utah [American] football, hot dogs and cold beer, and NASCAR, well, then we would have something wouldn’t we.

The G-Man
I called the G-Man, one of my coworkers from the bank. He had been on vacation and I was curious to see if my old boss was still with the bank. Yes, he is.

I was telling the G-Man about the job offer that I turned down at the finance company that finances esthetic plastic surgical procedures, boob jobs. He found the idea of this type of lending to be hilarious. I could see how one might find some humor in this lending work.

It was good to talk to him. I see that not too much has changed at the bank. I still think it is being cleaned up and primed for a sale maybe next year.

Market
I did some marketing tonight. I was not my usual shopping trip; just buy enough food to hold me over until the weekend. The market was not that crowded and I did not see anyone who appeared to be interesting to me. Maybe I will do better on the weekend.

That was my day gentle readers.

Be well and stay happy.

Wake-up Time Seemed Early Today

Wake-up time seemed early today
I woke up at my usual time at 6:00 AM, much to my regret. I would have much, much rather bagged a couple of more hours in my nice, warm, comfortable bed. Since I have not yet won the big lottery, I have to get up and go work so I can pay the bills.

Days
Today was Day 11. I decided to not count the weekend days or the holiday days since access to the ice cream freezer chest was shut as well.

Courtyard Observations and Comments
Winter is finally reaching the building courtyard. Today, I noticed a big jump the number of young women wearing long skirts and pants. The scarf volume was way up as well. I don’t know if this is good or bad for me.

I did see one really scary sight this morning. I saw one young man wandering around with a beard [not so unusual] and a Mohawk. Now that was unusual for me. My first thought was could this be the Princess’ prince charming? I came to the quick conclusion that it was highly unlikely she would pick someone like to bring home to meet the family.

I had a minor epiphany this morning while I was waiting for a document to print.

As you are aware, I have been noticing a large number of young Asian women, many of whom appeared to be single. Then, I realized that I would have almost nothing in common with any of them except maybe to introduce them to Doug.

As I looked around at the Asian women who were closed in age to me, I noticed that most of them seemed married. That reduced the pool of likely candidates significantly from a whole bunch to a very small hand full.

It would be wrong to become involved with a woman, any woman for that matter until after New Year’s Eve and maybe even Valentine’s Day. This time of the year is hazardous for single men since many women will read more into an event than is actually there. Some days, New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s, are too emotionally charged to make starting a relationship that good of an idea.

University of Utah Football
Utah has a sort of opponent for the Emerald Bowl. The Atlantic Coast Conference will send a team to San Francisco to play in the bowl game. I won’t know who the ACC team is until after the conference championship game this weekend so by this time next week I ought to know who Utah will be playing on December 29th. Then, I will decide if I want to leave work early and go watch the game at home. I suspect the office work load will have dropped off substantially by then.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Weekend Update
Well, gentle readers, if nothing else, I managed to upset my sleeping patterns over the long weekend with three mornings in a row where I did not have to get up at any special time.

On Saturday, I woke up for about an hour or so around 2:30 AM. I went back to sleep and the next time I checked the clock was 7:30 AM. Friday was much the same; I woke up at 6:30 AM. Maybe my body was really tired and needed the long rest periods.

Oh well, I have Monday to look forward to and getting up at 6:00 AM.

Burp
Thanksgiving Day dinner went very well. It should have gone well after I spent almost twelve hours cooking and cleaning and serving.

The turkey was a nice golden brown and very moist. It will be gone by Monday at the latest I think. The stuffing was better than usual this time around. I think the stuffing was better because I added more turkey broth than the recipe called for. I also added a little more ginger, basil, thyme, parsley, and cilantro than I usually do. I did forget to put the poultry seasoning on the turkey before I put it in the cooking bag; this was the first time that I have done this in years.

My candied yams or sweet potatos were very good. The extra time I spent cooking them earlier than normal helped them absorb the brown sugar, ginger, and cinnamon. Of course, Doug is not a candied yams eater at all. His mother and I do enjoy the candied yams.

I finished my dinner with mince pie. I am the only one in the family who eats mince pie at Thanksgiving. One of the nice things about this fact is I can eat the pie right out of the pan and no one will get upset with me. This is both convenient for me and I don’t get a plate dirty just for a snack.

University of Utah Football
Our Utes are playing in a post-season football game again this year. So far, the Utes are one of three Mountain West Conference teams to have accepted bowl bids. The others are Texas Christian University and Brigham Young University, odd that the other two teams so far are both church affiliated schools.

Utah is playing December 29th in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. No opponent has been named as yet. It was supposed to be the sixth ranked school in the Pacific 10 Conference and only five school are eligible for a bowl bid so our Utes will be playing an at large school from somewhere.

Oooops.

Better make that four Mountain West teams.

Colorado State will play Navy in San Diego. Navy will probably be the home town favorite since the city is the major West Coast surface ship home port of the United States Navy as well as the United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and just up the Interstate at Camp Pendleton.

Movies
I did see a lot of films this weekend. I had a lot of time on my hands.

ZATHURA was the first film I saw in a sort of double feature. I had to pay for each film separately but saw back to back. Zathura was an interesting science fiction film. It was written by the same author of JUMANJI only I think it will do better since it is aimed at a more targeted audience.

The film revolves around an old board game that the two feuding brothers must overcome their dislike for each other and play and win to save themselves and their teenage sister. They have to continue until the end of the game. Each turn produces a new challenge or opportunity. The film has a small cast of young and unknown actors except for an extended cameo by Tim Robbins as a divorced father of the three children.

The only interesting characters are the Zorgons who like and act like a cross between the Three Stooges and the Alien. I think there should have been more of them in the film but that is only me.

The second film in the sort of double feature was JARHEAD. The film is based on a young man’s service in the Marine Corps during the first Iraqi war. I really enjoyed this film because it seemed to catch the essence of the Marine Corps and its espirit de corps that the other services sometimes lack.

We join the film as the recruit is still at the Marine Corp Recruit Depot in San Diego and then follow him to Camp Pendleton where he becomes a sniper. Being a sniper in the Marine Corps is about the highest one can go in the rifleman hierarchy. The Marine Corps is built around the marine and his rifle. Marksmanship is expected and if you are among the very best, you can become part of a sniper team –one shooter and one spotter.

About half of the film takes place in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Mostly, the Marines are sitting and waiting for something to happen and allow them to enter combat. When the big push against the Iraqis comes, they are left behind because they are mostly walking while the war is moving on a highly mechanized pace.

In the end, they never have a chance to fire a shot in anger. The only time they fire a shot is when the armistice is signed and fighting ends. First one marine fires a shot and then he is joined by everyone else. One of the nice ending plot points is a reveal of what happened to the young Marines after they came back to the States.

Saturday was HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. I have seen the other three films and have them on DVD. This is the next installment of the series and the first one to be rated PG-13 in the United States. I think the PG-13 rating makes a great deal of sense in the plot of the film. It seems unlikely that you can go deeper into the magical world of Hogwarts without going towards the Dark Side and a more mature or adult story line.

The plot line seemed a bit strange with the introduction of an almost new cast of young magicians that is built around the Triwizard Tournament. I think it worked well and allowed for the best use of CGI special effects. The snake was particularly interesting.

I am told the plot follows the book well. I can’t say that it does since I have not read any of the books. I suppose I may one day but now right now.

The film did an excellent job of capturing the teenage anxiety about dating in general and the almost manifest fear of dancing in young men.

I can remember being forced to go to dance class when I was young. My brother had to go as well as so it was not like we were alone and surrounded by a bunch of young women who wanted to dance. I think we both hated dance class and tired our best to get out of going. That was usually to no avail.

It will be interesting to see how the following films deal with the principle characters as they mature emotionally and sexually. They are changing and the plot lines will, I would think, have to change and adapt with them.

The fourth film I saw this weekend was CAPOTE on Sunday. The film is a semi-biographical story of Truman Capote’s life during the period where he wrote In Cold Blood.

Capote is not an easy character to like. He is vain, self important, arrogant, self destructive, and often times without honor. I did not care for the story at all. It seemed as if the film was saying it was fine to be an alcoholic and lie in order to achieve your goals.

Perhaps the only reason to see the film is to see Philip Seymour Hoffman play Truman Capote. I have generally liked Hoffman’s acting work and this is probably his best film work ever.

Odds and Ends
I finished reading the book on the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. The book is based on the European survivors’ diaries and records so this presents a more limited view of the siege. It would have been a more balanced book if it has been able to include the Chinese views. Unfortunately, the Chinese records were largely destroyed or lost in the days following the lifting of the siege of the foreign legations in Peking [Beijing].

Sharon
Sharon called while I was out on Sunday catching CAPOTE. I would have called her back when I got home but she said she was going to be in and out all day. I decided to call her in the evening when it was more likely that she would be at home.
That was my long and uneventful weekend gentle readers. I hope you had a good weekend as well.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview
This is a four day long weekend for me gentle readers. And this will be a short blog because there was not much happening for me today.

Upcoming Activities
I think I will just list them sort of chronologically instead going with the narrative.
Thursday
Prepare turkey for cooking
Finish cleaning
Cook turkey
Serve dinner
Clean up
Collapse and go to bed

Friday
Sleep late
Read newspaper
See two movies
Leftovers for dinner
Read
Go to bed

Saturday
Sleep late
Read newspaper
See two movies
Leftovers for dinner
Read
Go to bed

Sunday
Sleep late
Rest
Have dinner
Go to bed

Nice Guy Chuck
I finished reading Doug’s joint paper with his classmate Jennifer. I only had a couple of minor comments concerning things like continuity and proper titling of a section. On balance, I thought it was a good paper.

I was disappointed with the very casual and conversational tone of the paper. It would have been too casual for any class that I ever taught. I always strived to have my students write professionally and to use sound sentence structures.

Maybe I am too old fashioned and conservative to go into the classroom again, even at the college level.

Courtyard Comments and Observations
It was cooler today so the smoker crowd was down again. I expect it will be down to noting on Friday. I could go by the building on Friday and check out the courtyard but that would cut into my movie viewing time.

Ms Halfway must have been having a bad day today. She had been down for four smoke breaks by 1:00 PM, about double from what she has done in the recent past. I wonder why she is smoking since the public must know about the dangers of smoking by now.

For the record, I am opposed to cigarette smoking because my mother was two packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day smoker for most of her life. That meant I was exposed to second hand smoke for twenty years. Swell. Lung cancer, probably caused by smoking, was one of the leading factors that resulted in her death.

I want to wish all of the regular and irregular readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. I will be back with the Weekend Update on Sunday the 27th.

Be well and stay happy.

Final food shopping for Thanksgiving

Days
Today was Day 9 and I have still avoided the ice cream freezer chest. I only have to holdout until Thursday and I will be having a mince pie for my dinner. That will be very tasty.

Courtyard Comments and Observations
The smoker crowd was a little smaller today. Of course, this gave me the opportunity to get a better grip on who is coming out for a smoke.

I noticed one young Asian woman, don’t have a nickname for her as yet but I will find one soon, who came out four times to light up. Either she must have a bad smoking habit or her job is really stressful. I am betting that hear job is crummy. She smokes the cigarette down about half way and then snubs it out. Then, she lit up another cigarette right away and only puffed half of it before snuffing it out.

I think I will call her Ms Halfway.

Job Searching & Interviewing
I phoned the recruiter this morning. We talked about the job and I said I would like to learn more about it. The recruiter agreed with me that the job description was poor. I said that I guess I will learn more when I interview with the bank. I gave her some dates that will work for me.

The recruiter had obtained some more information about the job and forwarded it to me. Now, the job description is only ¾ vague instead of completely vague. We also talked about the job location. It is in the city of Orange in Orange County. The drive is workable for me.

I looked the location up on msn.com maps. It is easy to get too.

Doug
Doug called after he had returned some of film class equipment to school.

I told him about the job and all. He started to laugh when I told him where it was located. He said it is located in Old Orange and is close to where his best friend, The R, is moving. The R is moving into a house with three other friends; they call themselves the Bento Box Productions.

I told Doug to remind to not come asking me for money to finance a film.

We also firmed up the time he and his mother will show for dinner on Thursday.

Cosmetics
I found out that Clinique and Estee Lauder both have offices in the building. That would tend to explain why there are so many young women in black in and about the building.

Entertainment Finance
I got a call from one of my former coworkers at the bank this morning.

I had phoned her last week to let her know I was back working and earning some money. She was very happy for me. She said I missed out on a long break for work time. I said that if I don’t work, I won’t have any money to pay for food and things like that.

She said the American Film Market went well for the bank. Some of the financed films got more sales and that is always good.

I learned the bank had passed out 1,000 share certificates to everyone who was an Assistant Vice President or higher just after I was let go. It does make sense to let me go before you hand out a gift worth around $50,000, the approximate market value of the stock. Letting me go cuts down on the cost of the benefit.

My friend wants to have lunch with me soon. I suppose I can work out a lunch trip up to Century City before the end of the year.

Final food shopping for Thanksgiving
I did my final food shopping on my way home from work. I picked up some fresh rolls, celery, and butter. Now, all I have to do is finish cleaning and then cook everything. That is a lot of work yet to do. I should get going on that now.

Be well and stay happy.

Feeling Good Today

Feeling Good
I feel pretty good today gentle readers. The weekend went well for me and I am healthy, unlike a lot of people in the client’s office. I think this will be a short posting.

Traffic was lighter going into work this morning. I think it will get progressively lighter as the week goes on towards the holiday.

Courtyard Comments and Observations
Today was Day 8 and I avoided the Hagen Dazs ice cream freezer chest in the sandwich shop at the building. I consider that I am making real progress since I love chocolate and coffee ice cream flavors.

The smoker crowd in the courtyard was down today. I think some of the smokers are off with an early Thanksgiving weekend celebration. The weather was not a factor again since it was around 80F / 27C with no clouds until the late afternoon. There was a light breeze. I had to go out in the courtyard to make a cell phone call.

Ms Lionel was out in the courtyard as usual. She was wearing some gianormous [Doug’s word] platform shoes that were made of a pink plastic. The shoes really added to her height but I wonder how she is able to walk in these shoes. I suppose that is a woman thing that men wouldn’t understand.

Job Searching and Interviewing
I got a call from a recruiter I spoke with last week.

The recruiter was calling me because the client had expressed an interest in me and my resume. They were interested in me but not for the position that I was more interested in. The recruiter wanted to know if I had any interest in going forward.

I said that the information she provided me as on the vague side and that some more information would be helpful. I asked the recruiter if she could email me a more detailed job description. She said she would. I read it when I got home tonight. It was still vague.

I will not reject it out of hand. I will explore the job and probably go on an interview sometime next week. I will see what happens next. I will have the weekend to research the client and my potential next employer.

That was a short blog posting.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Weekend Update
It is the weekend and I am happy for it.

So far, it has been unseasonably warm at the beach, around 82F / 28C, toasty for November in the Northern Hemisphere. I was buzzing around today in my shorts and a golf shirt.

But first, there are the Friday events.

Friday Events [cleaver title don’t you think?]
It was warm again on Friday. Some of the following topics fit under Friday Events but I gave them better billing.

It was Day 7 on Friday for me. I made it through the day in flying colors. I did have some candy when I got to school. I figure the candy is OK since I only have it once every two weeks and that small of a volume will not hurt me.

One of the office assistants asked if I was sick or feeling poorly on Friday. I said that I felt fine. It seems that just about everyone else in the office is under the weather in one way or another. I guess I am too mean and nasty to get sick.

Courtyard Comments and Observations
As I drove into the office, traffic was lighter than normal even for a Friday. I figured that some of the people had started the long Thanksgiving Weekend early. My suspicion was confirmed during the first morning smoke break session. The volume of smokers was down from the day before. It stayed down all day.

I did see Ms Lionel; you remember her, the young lady with the bad tats from earlier this week. I almost didn’t recognize her because she was not wearing black.

The building has one of those hand activated door openers that are designed for handicapped visitors. This is logical and appropriate. The automatic opener certainly is helpful for the person with a bunch of boxes and things in their arms.

What I don’t understand is why so many of the young people who work in the building seem to believe it is necessary for them to use the door opener instead of using the arms and hands God gave them. These young people seem more than capable of opening the door. I guess they are just lazy or feel that using the door opener is their right.

For the record, I go through the door the old-fashioned way; I push or pull on the door handle and open the door. I walk through. I hold it open if there is a woman behind me or if the person behind me has objects in his or her hands.

I expect that the courtyard smoking crowd will be done even more next week with the holiday around the corner.

Sharon
I phoned Sharon to see how her examination went. I guess it went well since she is still with the living. Sharon said she felt miserable all day after the examination since she had probes down her throat as well as the colonoscopy. I can imagine how uncomfortable that must have been.

Sharon said she was diagnosed with gastro esophageal reflux disease [GERDs]. I said that sounded bad. She said it was not painful except that she has to take medicine for ever now. She also has to give up fatty foods, fried foods, caffeinated beverages, and chocolate.

That is just about a complete list of her favorite foods.

I asked her how her new diet was going. Sharon said terrible.

I tried to point out that her new diet would help with her weight loss plan. With the incredible advantage of perfect hindsight, this was not a positive point by any stretch of my imagination. I should have kept my mouth shut.

I have this coming Friday off. I think I will call Sharon during the week and see if she wants to take me to lunch. She has to work I think so I have time to kill.

School
I nailed my presentation in class on Friday night.

My professor said I needed to do a little more rework and it would be fine. I had thought this would be what would happen with my presentation. I need to revise it a bit and go in for a one-on-one session with him to finalize some of the statistical tests I plan to use in the dissertation.

My professor also gave me some ideas on how to fashion some of the questions that will go into the survey I will send out. He showed me how I could ask the questions in a simpler manner that is more likely to get the best quality information.

The Original Tommy’s Burgers
Doug and I ended up here for our dinner on Friday night.

Doug exercised restraint when it came to dinner. He had a double chili cheeseburger and chili cheese fries and a medium drink. I had a triple chili cheeseburger and chili cheese fries and a large drink.

I think would have killed Sharon’s new diet.

We spent a fair amount of the time talking about the trouble Doug was having with his Apples machines. He said his laptop died on Friday. I think it died for heat exhaustion. He had the laptop lying flat on a counter top. There was no way for the heat to dissipate. I think this may have damaged one or more of the circuit boards.

His G5 would not connect to the Internet. Apple said it was the ISP. Earthlink said it was the Ethernet card. He called me after he took the 5 into the local Apple store. He got an updated version of the Earthlink software for the 5. It worked and now he is back online.

As I had wisely forecast on Thursday, I would not get home on Friday until after 10:00 PM [10:25 PM to be more accurate] and I would not want to put a blog post up then. I was so right on.

Saturday Stuff
Mostly, I did domestic type stuff today.

I went to the market to pick up the last of the food that I needed for Thanksgiving Day dinner. I had to hunt around to find a large enough turkey. I finally found a 12 ½ pound / 5 ½ kilograms. I know that is way too large but we happen to really like leftovers plus Doug is a big turkey eater.

I also did a couple of loads of laundry so now I have some clean clothes to wear. I took some old newspapers out to the recycling bin. I also recycle the plastic, glass, aluminum, and steel containers.

Value of a University of Southern California Education
I went to Giuliano’s, the local Italian delicatessen, for a sandwich for my dinner on Saturday. I didn’t go on Friday because of my class. Class gets out at 8:00 PM and that is when they close.

While I was waiting for my sandwich to get made, I overheard a conversation between Lucy the counter person and a young woman who was wearing a USC tee shirt. Lucy asked if she went to USC.

The young woman said that she had and graduated with a double major of business and journalism. I was impressed because the Younger Brother went to USC and majored in Accounting.

Lucy asked the woman what she was doing now. She said she was a cook and that she went to culinary [cooking] school after graduating from USC.

I wonder what the Younger Brother will have to say about that when we talk over Thanksgiving.

University of Utah football
Our Utes finished off a modest [American] football season with an overtime victory against BYU, the in-state, bitter, and long time rival. The game was played at BYU in Provo Utah so the victory was even sweeter.

The victory was lead by the back up quarterback who had not played in any of the preceding ten games. The primary quarterback injured himself last week and is out for the season and along with the best receiver. These are major losses when the offense is built around the passing game

This was a difficult year for Utah, having lost the head football coach and the offensive coordinator to other schools. The junior quarterback left to become the first round draft choice in the National Football League draft.

The Utes record for the season was 6 wins and 5 losses. They are eligible to play in a post season game. I don’t know if they will get an invitation. If they do play, it will be in a minor level bowl game. Even playing in a minor level bowl game is better than sitting at home and watching someone else play.

For those of you who do not understand American football, you can insert local college names and think of this as football in the World Cup sense. Then, I think you can form a fairly good image and impression.

Rivalries are universal and transcend the sport being played.

Sunday Stuff
I did some cleaning around the place this morning. I will finish the cleaning over the next few days. It was warm and sunny again today; why waste the sun on the balcony scrubbing a floor?

Doug and his mother are coming over on Thursday for Thanksgiving Dinner. I started my cooking today. Some dishes just taste better when they have had a chance to sit in the juices for a while. The only dish that benefits from the extended cooking is candied yams or candied sweet potatos. I am some brown sugar and some spices to the yams and then simmer them for a couple of hours. Then, they will sit and absorb the added ingredients until it is time to eat on Thursday.

It was very nice to smell the spices and brown sugar as the pot simmered. It made the place seem in a more holiday mood.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview
This is the weekend preview blog posting gentle readers. Tomorrow night, I have school after work. It seems highly unlikely that your scribe will feel to posting a blog around 10:00 PM or later after a full day at work and at school.

Monarch Butterfly
I saw a monarch butterfly this morning. It was flying outside to my office window for a few minutes today. I can’t remember when I saw another monarch in a long time.

School
I have school tomorrow night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. I am going to take another stab at my prospectus presentation tomorrow night. I think I am very close to having it nailed dead solid cold. In spite of my efforts, I will probably have to make one more presentation on December 2nd before my professor will sign off on my effort. It is part of the overall game at school.

I spoke with Doug this afternoon and he is up for going out for dinner with his dad after school. It looks like we will end up at the Westminster [in north O. C.] Original Tommy’s Burgers for dinner. With the decline in the price pf gasoline, the extra driving is not that bad on the wallet.

We sort of have to go to Tommy’s since we went to Albertacos two weeks ago. We like to rotate the dinner venues. I suppose we could try the local Chipotle Mexican Grill since that is one of Doug’s favorites for fast casual food.

Knowing us, I don’t think we will decide until the car starts to head out from his house.

Days
It was Day 6 of avoiding the ice cream freezer chest at the sandwich shop. I really only have to hold out until about 3:00 PM when they close for the day. I know I won’t be picking up any desert at Tommy’s or Chipotle tomorrow night.

Tattoos
Today was another revealing day for poorly thought out tats.

You all remember Ms Lionel, the young Asian woman with the heart and rose tat with her boy friend or husband’s name across, from a couple of days ago. She was out today for her smoke breaks.

Since it was warm, she skipped her regular, knee length black coat. Ms Lionel wears a lot of black.

Anyway.

Ms Lionel was walking towards the building entrance when I caught a glimpse of a spread eagle tat across the top of her butt; there was a serious coverage gap between her top and the top of her pants. The spread eagle went almost from hip to hip and it was in color.

I started to wonder if she has a tat on her arm and one across her butt, how many more does she have and where are they?

I quickly came to my senses and decided that I had absolutely no need to know the answers to those questions.

Previews
Saturday is mostly a day to get ready for Doug and his mother come over on Thanksgiving for dinner. I will be cooking the meal and they will be bringing the pies. I need to do some cleaning and go to the market and buy the turkey and some other ingredients.

I will probably do some more research for my dissertation. I am not excited about this prospect but it must get done.

I may go hit the cinema and see a couple of films. I haven’t made up my mind what films to see yet.

Sharon had her colonoscopy on Monday and I should give her a call to see how things went.

If the warm weather holds, I will probably smoke and read out on the balcony.

That’s it for me today.

Be well and stay happy.

Warm Wednesday

Warm Wednesday
The warm weather continued through today gentle readers. For a change, there was no fog this morning or evening.

Working
I have been working on the first project for about a week now. I think the project is coming together nicely. The client will get more than they agreed for in the project scope. Most of the extra work, at no additional cost, consists of a 120 page practices manual. It should help set the client apart when it gets examined by the regulators.

This afternoon I spent some time with the Chief Operating Office getting his views and ideas on the project direction. He wants the project to be very aggressively designed. I think that is a seriously flawed approach since that will only give the Board of Directors more concern and result in a likely delay. Not a good solution.

I am meeting with the President tomorrow to catch his ideas on the project direction. I think this will be an interesting meeting.

The finance guys are working on the next year’s budget. There is nothing unusual about that effort at this time of the year. What is troubling is they keep coming into the office where I am working and ask me for advice and suggestions on what to put into the budget for the loan programs. It is hard for me to determine how much money will be lent in a yet to be approved program.

I gave the finance guys some numbers and explanations. They seemed happy with the input and went to plugging the data into the Excel spreadsheets.

Days
Today was Day 5 in avoiding the ice cream cooler in the sandwich shop at the office.

I will admit some of the chocolate ice cream products looked particularly tasty as I gazed into the chest while I waited for my salad to be for lunch today.

That was my day gentle readers.

Be well and stay happy.

Tuesday was better

Tuesday was better
Tuesday was a better day for me. I’m not really sure why today was a better day for me gentle readers. Maybe traffic was more organized.

Weather
The weather was mixed today. The fog was still present but not as thick as it was yesterday. I drive along some coastal hills on my way to work. When I was driving on the crest of the hills, I was in the sun and had to put my sunglasses on because of the glare. When I got down into the bottom of the hills, I was driving in fog and needed my headlights and fog lamps on to drive safely.

There was no fog on the drive home tonight. I did have sunset so I needed to put my lights on again.

It was warm for most of the day. It felt like the temperature was around 80F/27C when I phoned the Princess this afternoon.

The Princess
I phoned the Princess to see how her trip to Salt Lake City went over the weekend. She said she had a wonderful time; she got to see almost all of her sorority sisters who went to the wedding. I gathered from her comments that it was a reunion of sorts.

We talked about her trip to California for Christmas. I know she will show up so she can claim her fair share of what is under the tree. We were both concerned about a potential Delta Airlines pilot strike. Since the Princess is in Atlanta, a strike by the Delta pilots would play havoc with her travel plans.

I suggested that she consider Air Tran that has a nonstop flight to Los Angeles and also Continental with a plane change in Houston. Neither one of those airlines is as troubled as Delta is and they may have incentives to encourage Delta frequent flyers to try a competitor.

All I know is I have to make sure my Pathfinder is clean and has a full fuel tank so she can drive around when she is home.

Building Courtyard
I am beginning to recognize the smokers in the building courtyard now. I can also begin to estimate when the crowd outside of my window is likely to be noisiest. I don’t know whether this is an important skill or not.

I do know that a group of three or more women sitting outside of my window chatting in a foreign language is not conducive to productivity for me. It is very distractful. At least, none are talking on their cell phones outside of my window.

I noticed one young woman came out four times today for a cigarette. I guess she must be a hardened smoker. I wish I knew why she was smoking since it is common knowledge that smoking cigarette tends to led to cancer that tends to lead your unpleasant death.

With the warmer weather, many of the young women left their coats at their work spaces today. Normally, this would be a good thing. Not today though. It seems that many of the young women who are smokers are into tattoos and many wear thongs.

This combined to produce a large crop of women with Doug’s favorite female tragedy, thong creep. The creep was out and about everywhere it seemed.

The warmer weather also revealed one my female tragedies, bad tats. There were the near generic geometric pattern tattoos in the usual blue-grey ink to the more exotic graphical ones.

Bad Tats
I noticed one young woman when she came out for her second smoke this morning.

She had a bad tat on her arm. Actually, the tat was on her left bicep and she was wearing a tank top of sorts. It was hard not to see the tat since she was sitting on a planter with her arm facing my computer screen. I could not avoid seeing it.

The tat was a bunch of roses with a heart on top of the roses. There was a banner across the heart with the name of “Lionel” inscribed across it. I am assuming that Lionel is her boy friend. At least, I hope he still is her boy friend.

My first reaction was “I haven’t seen a tat like since I was a division officer on the good ship USS Leonard F Mason.” A lot of my men would get tattoos of with their girl friend’s or wife’s name in the scroll across the heart.

I always urged them to go with a safe name like their mother’s name or something like “Mom” since those names were safe and were unlikely to upset a girl friend. Most of my men never listened to me; a few had to go back to eliminate the unfaithful wife or girl friend when they got the “Dear John” letters.

My second thought was a long the lines of “I hope Lionel is her husband and that she plans to stay married to him until beyond ‘til death do us part.” Didn’t she know that body art tends to be permanent; like ‘til death do us part?

I suspect she will learn the very hard way in the not too distant future.

Co-worker from the Bank
I phoned a co-worker from the bank. He left the bank about six months ahead of me. He is working for a credit union that is only a couple of miles from my office.

I wanted to catch up with him and let him know about my involuntary decision to seek employment elsewhere. He was genuinely surprised that the bank had laid me off. We were both represented change for the bank and I don’t think change is accepted as being a good thing for the bank.

He is struggling with change at the credit union where he is working now. As he described the situation to me, it seemed as if the organization was dysfunctional. He laughed when I pointed out how much experience we had with that management style.

We will probably get together for lunch one day next week.

Satan works in the building sandwich shop
Our building has a really good sandwich shop in it. It is clean and the service is prompt. It is very close to our office and that is nice. The staff is friendly and helpful.

By now, you are wonderful where Satan comes in.

The shop has a low freezer chest full of Haagen Daze ice cream; ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones, and I don’t know what else but it is all bad for me with gobs of cholesterol and other bad things.

Gentle readers, you will be pleased to know that I have resisted temptation so far and not purchased a single ice cream goodie. I expect that I will buy one on Friday since that is my long day; I have school this Friday so it will be closer to 9:00 PM before I have my dinner. I will need the energy boost.

I hope your Tuesday went well gentle readers.

Be well and stay happy.

Another Slow Day

Another Slow Day
It was another slow day for me gentle readers. Nothing significant happened for me today.

Fog
This morning the fog was extremely thick as I set off for work. It condensed on my windshield to the point that I had to use the wipers to clear the condensate off. It was odd for this time of the year.

By mid-morning, the fog was gone and it was sunny and warm outside. I think the warmer weather increased the number of smokers and cell phone talkers in the building courtyard.

When I left to go home tonight, the fog was swirling back over the land and obscuring the stars and clouds. I expect that I will be hearing the local small boat harbor fog horn when I wake up in the morning.

Nice Guy Chuck
Doug has been working on two papers for two of his classes. He asked me to take a look at them. For the most part, they were in very good shape. I only made few minor changes like replacing words when the wrong word was spelled correctly, a fatal Word spell check program failure.

I also went over the punctuation. Doug sometimes leaves the opening or closing comma of a phrase out. I cleaned that up quickly.

The biggest challenge I had was with his paper for his American Pop Culture class. It was a joint effort so it was difficult to follow two different writing styles. I think I got that integrated well but I could be wrong. I suggested that Doug and his partner Jennifer try an approach to the organization of their paper because the one they were working on confusing.

Anyway, I felt good about being able to offer some help to him.

That was my day gentle readers, Dull, wasn’t it now? I hope your day was better or at least more interesting than mine.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Weekend Update
I think this may be a thin weekend update gentle readers. Some weekends are like that you know.

Pregnant Women
Let me first start of by saying I have absolutely nothing against pregnant women unless she is saying I am the father of the child that is growing in her belly. My favorite and only ex-wife was pregnant twice with the Princess and the Big Guy so I have had my full measure of gazing at large stomachs.

What I do object is women who parade around as if all of the world wants to see their stomachs. I, for one, do not.

I got the cinema early this afternoon and was talking to Doug on the cell phone when I noticed this very pregnant woman slowly walk past my car. She was walking slowly because she looked to be eight months along in her pregnancy.

Her dress just turned me away. She was wearing velour sweat pants and had pushed the sweat pants waist band under her distended stomach so that she look like she had way too many of Doug’s Miller High Life beers.

The mom to be was wearing a cotton tank top or at least it looked like cotton. There was nothing with the tank top in general. The tank top was just too short. It allowed about three or four inches of her stomach to show to anyone who glanced in her direction.

This was just what I wanted to see on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Friday Office Courtyard
The weather on Friday was much improved over the rain and the wind on Thursday.

The improved weather brought out more female smokers. I have been able to notice some who come out at predictable times now and those that come in groups. I found it interesting to see that some non-smoking females join their smoking friends while they share a break time together.

I guess I am no longer a novelty from their point of view; they can look into my office while I am working. I am glad that I keep the office space I am using neat and tidy. I think having a messy office would not be productive or impressive for me.

I learned that Japan Air Lines has an office in the building. That raised the possibility of their female flight attendants would stop by the building. That possibility is extremely intriguing.

Sharon
Sharon phoned me on Saturday afternoon. I was out at the time. She said she was going to a charity fund raiser with a friend. I decided against returning her call since she was out.

Sharon said she would be home on Sunday because she had to get ready for a colonoscopy on Monday. That didn’t sound like much fun to me. I had a brief thought of asking her out for dinner but then remembered what her procedure was and figured that she would not be even thinking about food.

I will give her a call on Sunday if only to cheer her up. I know that colonoscopies are not fun at all, ever.

Utah Football
Our Utes lost last night to New Mexico in a close game, 31 to 27, in Salt Lake City. It was not a pretty game. The Utes did not deserve to win. They gave up 13 points on turnovers. New Mexico intercepted a pass in the first quarter and ran it back for a touchdown and seven points. Later, in the second half, the Ute quarterback fumbled the ball in the end zone. New Mexico recovered for six points and another touchdown.

You can’t win if you give up two touchdowns on turnovers. Well, maybe it you are the University of Southern California or the University of Texas. This year, Utah is neither.

Barnes & Noble bookstore
I went to the local Barnes & Noble bookstore on Saturday because I felt like reading out on the balcony. It was warmish and sunny, prefect weather to read and smoke in. I was out of books, having finished off The Three Kingdoms as my last book read. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find a parking spot so I came home without a new book.

Fog
I woke up to the foghorns from the local small boat harbor this morning. Yes, I live that close to the ocean. I have lived her so long that I sleep through the foghorns now. By mid-morning, the sun was up and the fog was gone.

Today is a much better day to read on the balcony. Maybe I will get lucky at my local Barnes & Noble today and find a parking spot.

Reading
I did go to the Barnes & Noble and picked up three books. I was gone a little over an hour. I spent a lot of time looking for a parking spot and then I had to walk around in the store to find the books.

By the time I got home, the fog had rolled in and it was cool and cloudy at my house. I had to put on a jacket and zip it up so I could read and smoke on the balcony.

That was my weekend. I hope your weekend was better than mine.

Be well and stay happy.

Veterans' Day

Veterans Day
Today was the 87th anniversary of Armistice Day, the day the fighting in The Great War stopped. We called the day Armistice Day until after World War II and the Korean War when it was changed to honor all veterans.

If you can read this blog, thank your teacher.

If you enjoy your freedom, thank a veteran.

The Princess
I phoned the Princess today to let her know how things were going for me now that my Winter Break is over.

The Princess is in Salt Lake City for a sorority sister’s wedding. At the rate they are getting married, I think she and her old roommate Adrienne are the only unmarried ones left out there. We didn’t have a long conversation because she was on her way to a luncheon and did not want to be late.

Maybe if she is lucky, she could skip the wedding and go see Utah play New Mexico in football at the campus stadium. It should be a better activity. Well, I would try for that option.

The Prelude
The Prelude rolled over 329,000 miles – 529,500 kilometers last night on my way home from the honors society organizational meeting. It still runs well and I see no reason to give it up.

I won’t be adding too much in the way of more miles to the car. My current temporary job is only eight miles from home. I do like the shorter drive and commute time.

I know this is not much of a blog posting gentle readers. You can look forward to a longer posting in the Weekend Update on Sunday. I hope you have a great weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

I'm in the wrong degree program

I’m in the wrong degree program
Yes gentle readers, your humble scribe is in the wrong degree program.

I was listening to the local CBS television network affiliate in Los Angeles early morning news talk show before I went into work. They had a report that Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute had just launched a new degree program in, I hope you’re sitting down when you read this, bra design or bra studies. I’m not sure which is correct because the news reader was having a difficult time keeping a straight face.

It obviously has to be a Bachelor’s degree program. Who else would be more interested than bachelors? Maybe they could invent an easy off bra latch; that would be a big improvement.

Can you imagine how popular the lab sessions would be? No males would ever miss a lab session; you could bet the farm on that idea.

But, I got to thinking more about the degree program and came to the startling conclusion that having the course of study in Hong Kong is just all wrong on so many counts. I’ll only mention one of two reasons why it is wrong.

Asian women, as a general rule, are not as busty as European or North or South American women. A better place for the course of study would be Paris or Milan because it could be tied into fashion design as well.

Then, as I was having a Cobb salad at lunch today, I had a mental breakthrough and concluded that the Chinese were doing the correct thing with this bra design program. They are following the tired and true method of economic advancement for developing countries. Just look at the Japanese auto makers with the development of their versions of the All-American pick up truck. They started out with a subcompact size truck that was underpowered and had a very limited cargo capacity. Now, the Japanese auto manufacturers are producing a full size pick up truck that competes with the best that Detroit has to offer.

It came to me that the Chinese are going to start out with the small size bras and then gradually work up to the full size bras. What a shrewd long term marketing campaign. Before long, they will conquer this market as well.

More on Bras
I switched to another station only to learn the Japanese have invented a microwavable bra insert to warm that body part in the Winter.

Fascinating which leads to the question of what happened to American ingenuity and the ability to invent things. This struck me as being a rather obvious solution to an age old problem.

In the demonstration in the news segment, the Japanese model popped what looked like a small, circular gel pack into a microwave oven and heated it up. Then, she took it out of the oven and inserted it in a panel in her bra. Judging from the smile on her face, she seemed rather pleased with the warmth. I have no idea how long the gel pack holds the heat but it certainly looks like a promising invention.

Working Again
I started working as a consultant this morning. It is nice to get paid to tell other people how to do things and why they doing the wrong things. I have two projects to work on right now and there is the possibility that I can have my project work extended.

I was able to help the company’s chief financial officer figure out some 2006 budget inputs relating to one of the projects. He was uncertain how to plane the rollout and estimate the revenue stream. He only the estimated ending value for the new program I am developing.

I gave him two workable methodologies to create the growth pattern. I gave him an income forecast to use for the year and the supporting rational which was perfectly defensible to the board of directors. I also settled a question over how to classify the program.

Then, I had helped out, in a very minor way, with the some lending policy interpretations and provided a solution for the pricing of a loan request. The pricing was based on a solid logical model that everyone could agree on. In addition, I gave them a solid basis for the decision on the loan pricing that can be applied in future transactions.

The company I am working for has its offices on the ground floor of the building. No stairs to climb down in case of a power failure so that is nice. My office has a floor to ceiling window that looks out into a courtyard. I can see people going in an out all day long and this can be a distraction.

There are three or four cosmetics companies in the building. They employ, surprise, surprise, a lot of young women. But, this situation gets even better because two of them are Asian companies so they have hired Asian females and you all know that I am partial to Asian females.

Clearly an added benefit for a single guy like me.

The final benefit is that I have a concrete bench just outside of my office window where many of these young Asian females will come and sit during their breaks.

So far, everything is perfect.

As you might expect, all is not well in this courtyard form of paradise. The vast majority of the females who are sitting outside of the office are smokers and that leaves me rapidly losing interest.

And, I have not even included or rather excluded the ones with pink or bright red hair or bad tats or are wearing poorly shined combat boots with fish net stockings. Then, there are the Goths and that has always been a strong argument for me for birth control or celibacy. The idea of having some young person with bad and tasteless tats and more piercings than a wheel of Swiss cheese being responsible for my care when I get really old is so very disturbing for me.

That was most of my day gentle readers. I hope your day was as interesting as mine.

Be well and stay happy.

Rain

Rain
It rained today; just like the forecast said it would. I got out early and did my marketing so I only had a minimal exposure to the rain gentle readers. I did manage to bang my head as I was getting into the car after putting the food in the trunk. I think my feet may have slipped just a bit to through me off balance and not bend my back as usual.

When I had the Prelude serviced over the weekend, I replaced the windshield wiper blades because they were old and starting to go bad on me. They were not sweeping away the rain on the windshield very well.

Today was an excellent drive in the light rain. The new wiper blades swept the area clear and left it almost dry with each pass. That was a major improvement.

Of course the Prelude is not heavily water spotted and will look unsightly until I get it washed again. That maybe next year.

I had planned to visit the City’s recycling yard today and off-load a couple of broken printers and scanners as well as dump a bunch of dead batteries. Actually, the scanners work just fine. I no longer need them since my new printer is a combination printer, scanner, and copier. One of the scanners is an old, early generation sheet feed scanner. The other scanner is a simple flat bed model. In their day, which could have been ten years ago, they were perfectly suited for my needs. I think my trip to the recycling yard will happen on Saturday because it is not supposed to rain.

I can take the Pathfinder and get it out on the road for it’s once a month driving experience. I want to make sure the Pathfinder is functioning because the Princess will be driving it when she comes home for Christmas.

The Three Kingdoms
I finished The Three Kingdoms this morning. I learned a great deal about Chinese culture from reading this classic.

I learned that the Chinese tend to place a great deal of value on family honor and duty and more importantly, doing the right thing. One lord’s wife hung herself to preserve her family’s honor when her husband changed sides and surrendered the city that was given to him by his lord to safeguard, without a fight or defense. This illustrates the duplicity that seemed to abound throughout the novel.

Men would swear undying allegiance to their lord. Then, when the times got tough, they bailed out and took the best offer from the other side. To the credit of the other side, they would often kill the lord who sold out his master on the theory that it he sold out to us; he might sell out to his old master if the time came.

Punishment seemed unduly harsh. Whole clans would be executed when it was only one lord who created the transgression like plotting to over through the current government. People who were in a distant city and who had no contact with the plotters were summarily executed.

It reminded me of the Reign of Terror some 1500 years later and the great Soviet purges of the 1930s.

There is the redeeming characteristic of nobility in the novel. Many of the characters were true to their oaths and willing died because they could not serve another master in order to live.

Governments were just as base as some of the lords. Not honoring treaty commitments was a common place event; even where the treaty was bound up in blood and included inter-marriage by the respective ruling families.

I also learned that Chinese generals were often not very bright. They would regularly fall into the same traps, battle after battle. Ambush seems to have been a common tactic and highly predictable. There was no sense of a well thought battle plan. The respective generals would fight in individual combat until one died, was captured, or retreated. Then, the massed armies would engage in a close quarter battle.

I think the legion commanders from the early Roman Empire would have felt right at home. I think they would have handled the light forces better and they would have been able to make better use of the cavalry.

I was amazed the Chinese generals had little use for light or heavy cavalry. In a war where the armies had to march hundreds of miles across open land to reach the battlefield, cavalry could have been used to better scout the opposing forces and screen their own forces. Generals would not have been caught unprepared when the enemy appeared while their own battlements were still under construction and their own troops were scattered.

Doug
The Big Guy called this afternoon to see how I was enjoying, as he called it, the end of my Winter break from work.

I said I was doing fairly well. I told him that I was watching Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy as a wind up for my Winter break from work. I said that there was some truly magnificent cinematography in the first two films. I felt the sword fighting was not as good as some of the fighting in Kurasawa’s films like The Seven Samurai for example. Still, it was well worth the three or four hours that I spent in front of the television monitor.

I was stuck inside because it was still raining and it was windy and cold. Not weather to go out on the balcony and read while smoking a cigar. I could have done that but I did not want to bundle up in sweaters and jackets.

Be well and stay happy and I will try to post these blogs on time. I guess this is what happens when one spends too much time on Winter Break. [This was supposed to post on November 9th.]

Happy Happy Joy Day

Happy, Happy Joy Day
Today is Election Day here in California for our state’s special election. The real significance is that this means the end of all political campaign advertisements on television and an end to automated dialing calls from the campaigns.

I have been called by the Governator three times now, I think Warren Beatty once [you need to check out Doug’s blog http://www.blogspot.skeetonmischa.com for November 7th for his take on the campaigns], the former mayor of the City of Los Angeles, and some other people I have never heard of. Naturally, most of these calls come at dinner time or later in the early evening, just in time to interrupt my day. My mailbox will have less junk mail to recycle.

Our peace will only last until the primary elections that take place in March 2006. Then, the whole process starts all over again and goes on until the general election in November.

This is one of the benefits of living in a democracy.

Doug
The Big Guy called to check in this morning. We talked about the election and whether he was going to vote or not. He wasn’t sure; I encouraged him to vote.

Then, we talked about registration for school. Doug said he got most of the classes he was interested in including the most important one to him, Screenwriting. This was a relief for him since he was registering late in the process. He is also taking American Cinema 2, Contemporary Film [I think], and Children’s Television. It looks like a good schedule. I hope the classes are good and he gains from them.

I told Doug that I don’t have to worry about my registration except for being late. I know I will get the one class I am taking; everyone who registers for their Dissertation block gets the course.

I asked Doug what he thought of Sharon’s photo. He said it was nice and had good composition and it was technically well made. Doug said he doesn’t see Sharon as she looked in the glamour style photo. I understood what he was saying so his comments were in keeping with being Doug.

Voting
I went and voted in the special election today. There were only really old ladies at my polling station so I just went in and voted and left in a hurry.

Haircut
I decided to get my haircut today since I had spare time to kill before going to bed tonight. I also figured my favorite stylist Michelle would be working today.

I was right; Michelle was working today. Going to the hair cutting place, Michelle calls it a salon, when I did meant there was no waiting, period. That was excellent for me.

I showed Michelle a print of the famous Sharon photo. Michelle thought Sharon looked very beautiful and was very pleased with my selection of friends who are female.

Then, we talked about Thanksgiving. I was happy that I had brought two cigars with me for Michelle as part of her tip. Michelle is one of those rare women who can pull off smoking a cigar and still look very feminine. Michelle was happy because her parents are going to visit her for Thanksgiving; she said that she and her dad will smoke the cigars together.

How about that for father – daughter bonding; cigar smoking on the balcony.

So now my hair is neatly trimmed and Michelle says I look handsome as ever. Sometimes I wonder about her sincerity since she usually says that before I settle the bill and leave a couple of dollars behind.

Weather
Tomorrow, the forecast calls for possibly heavy rain with up to an inch and a half of rain or close to four centimeters along the coastal areas like where I live and much more in the inland mountains.

It looks like tomorrow is not going to be a good day to go to the market. Unfortunately, I am about out of food so I will brave the rain and dress very warmly and hope I don’t step in any puddles.

That was my day. I hope you all have a great day tomorrow.

Be well and stay happy.

Monday Came

Yes, Monday Came
It was a cool, grey, overcast Monday that came into my life today. But, Mondays are often dull and uninspiring. Today was one of those days that felt like it should be best spent in a nice warm comfortable bed.

Blog Odds and Ends
I check the blog’s site visitor program regularly. I find it interesting to see who visit my blog. I can’t actually identify a visitor; I can only identify the general URL location. For example, there is a regular visitor, I believe, from Toronto, Canada. Toronto is a big city so I can’t find out who you are.

I can tell most of the time when the Princess logs to read the blog. Like many other there in the Internet ether, she sometimes logs into the Internet from her job. Like a good Daddy, I know where she works and I can guess what the company’s site name is. Otherwise, I do not believe that any of her coworkers would find this all that interesting.

Speaking or rather typing about the Princess, she sent me an email this morning and said that my friend Sharon’s photo was “fantastic.” That doesn’t leave much room for improvement does it?

I also discovered that I had a visitor each from Harvard University and from Princeton University over the weekend. This was a surprise to me. I am guessing that they found the old blog through a Google search.

Job Searching & Interviewing
I turned down the consulting project at the company that financed esthetic cosmetic surgical procedures. I had thought about the assignment over the weekend and came to the conclusion that we were just not even a rough fit.

I talked to one of my former clients about their two loan projects. They want to move along faster than I thought they would; that is very nice for me. I will start my projects there on Thursday. I think I should be billing around 30 to 35 hours a week for the next couple of months.

No more slothful indulgence and sleeping in any more for me, well, no more after Thursday morning. Then, I am back to the traditional suit and tie.

I should go get my hair trimmed before it gets too shaggy. One should make a good impression on the client and the client’s staff.

Today was a good day for me I think.

Be well and stay happy.

Monday Cometh

Monday cometh, bah
I guess Monday will cometh in spite of my very strong desire to sloth around next week. There are no ways to avoid this untimely event.

The Weekend Update posting will be shorter than usual because of the Friday morning make-up posting. You, the gentle readers, may think of this as Weekend Update Lite. I know I usually write about things chronologically but I want to start off with something that is really significant in my life.

Sharon’s Photo
The famous Sharon photo finally arrived on Saturday with the mail. It was unexpected since Sharon had said she was going to mail, then give it to me in person, then couldn’t find it in her cubicle.

Sharon is just simply stunning in the photo. That’s my opinion; I sent the Princess and Doug a scanned copy of the photo and I am waiting to see if they agree with me.

I was buzzing around doing things on Saturday so I did not pick up my mail until this morning after breakfast. I was very surprised to see her envelop was in the mail and I was shocked at how beautiful she is.

I’m not sure if shocked is the best choice of adjectives that I could use to describe my feelings when I first opened the protective folder that held the photo. I will say that Sharon’s nephew did a superb job of capturing her image and personality in the photo. The composition and lighting were about perfect.

In case you haven’t figured this out by now, I really care a great deal for Sharon.

Back to the weekend chronology.

School
I have a dissertation prospectus class every other Friday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. This is a killer time schedule since I have to compete with everyone going home on Friday night and those trying to get out of town for the weekend. The drive to school can take anywhere between an hour to three hours and more, depending on traffic.

I was driving down the 405 Freeway to school when I passed a slow moving car. Yes, even in the crowded commute traffic in Los Angeles, there are slow moving drivers. When I pulled alongside of the other car, I saw the driver was probably lost.

The other driver was talking to someone on her cell phone. She had her Thomas Brothers freeway road map open and resting on the steering wheel. I want to think she had at least one hand on the steering wheel. I decided to keep my belief and not confirm it by looking further. There are just some bits of information that one can live without and still be happy. This was one of those information bits.

School was good for me on Friday.

I helped out another student in my class while I was waiting for class to start. I am not sure she has thought through her dissertation topic clearly. I tired to point out to her that gathering the data was going to be a killer challenge and problem, in addition to the fact the professor has already voice serious misgivings about her topic choice.

I ran into one of my former dissertation committee members while I was killing time. He asked how things were with me and how was the dissertation coming along. I told him that I was confident that I would have my fourth topic approved soon and would be asking him to serve again on my committee. He expressed interest in serving on the committee again. That made me feel good.

Friday’s class was a presentation of my proposal. The professor said I made a very good first effort and that I only had a few areas to work before it will be accepted. One of my good friends’s had his presentation accepted on Friday night; it was his fifth revision.

Albertacos
After class, I drove a little further down the 405 Freeway to pick up Doug for dinner.

We had our usual Friday night dinners at Albertacos; two Number 8s, two medium drinks, and two carne asada soft tacos. It was slow when we arrived just before 9:00 PM. I guess we got there after the dinner crowd and before the after the high school football game crowd.

We were about half way through our dinner when a bunch of high school girls came giggling into the storefront restaurant. Doug thought they had been or were drinking. They were obviously underage and desperately trying to look older and sophisticated.

I watched as one of the girls sprinted for the ladies room. She lost part of it before she made it to the door. She spent at least the next five minutes in the ladies room, probably getting sick all over. I supposed she blamed the mess on the food or some other lame excuse.

I know the Princess would be very unimpressed with these girls’ performance. The Princess has a very low tolerance for sloppy and messy drinking. I don’t think she would want them in her sorority at the University of South Carolina. None of the girls looked like they could handle two of the Princess’ friends, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.

Episode III
On the way to class on Friday, I picked up my wide screen copy of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I feel so complete now that I have all six on DVDs. I was glad I had pre-ordered my copy as the shelves looked on the bare side unless you wanted a full screen version. Then, there were plenty of copies to pick from.

Saturday odds and ends
I slothfully slept in on Saturday since I did not get home from the South O.C. until almost 11:00 PM.

The Prelude needed an oil change so I took care of that in the morning. I had a discount coupon from some quick oil place near my house so I went there. Since it was my first time, the attendant said they were not on commission and only wanted to provide me with the best service.

Even though he was not on commission, he almost magically reappeared by the car window every five minutes or so with a suggestion to purchase an additional service beyond the simple oil change. Did I want to flush the cooling system; did I want to add some engine treatment; did I want to buy a can of gasoline injector treatment? He sure acted like he was on commission.

It was warm and nice on Saturday so I went out on the balcony and read for two hours and smoked a cigar. It was a very nice way to spend a couple of hours.

I am now into Volume IV of The Three Kingdoms. The story is getting close to a conclusion. I have about 250 or so pages left to read. I should finish the book by this coming weekend. Friday is a bank holiday in the United States so job hunting will be dead for me; that is my extra time to read.

Saturday ended with me going to see a play. I had asked Sharon to go with me. When I asked her, she said she thought she had a conflict. Sharon said she would get back with me but go caught up in other activities. I called her because she sometimes needs to be reminded. I was going to re-invite her until she said she had a family funeral on Saturday. That convinced to not bring the subject up.

I invited a woman in my building to go with me and she was happy to go. We have been nodding acquaintances for several years so it seemed like a good decision.

Anyway, back to the play.

We saw Sister’s Christmas Catechism. It is a comedy and part of a series of plays built around a nun who teaches in a Catholic school. We had a wonderful time at the play. We laughed and understood what was going on even though neither one of us was raised in the Catholic Church. For the record, I was raised in one of those “off-shot Christian religions” as Sister referred to my Protestant upbringing.

Since I went to the play, I did not turn in on the Korean language station to see if they had launched another historical drama series. If they did launch a new series, I know that I can miss an episode here and there because they tend to overlap each other and I have been able to figure things out because some of the characters are very transparent.

Sunday Stuff
I slept in again today because I got home late again last night.

After reading the fat Sunday paper, I drove over to my local Target store to buy a photo frame for Sharon’s photo. I found a nice Art Deco style frame in chrome with some red resin trim. It presents a nice contrast to the darker colors of the photo.

My big future decision about the photo is do I take into the office in my next job? Arguably, there is nothing with the photo as far as I am concerned.

Having said that, I know there are some who would find fault with the photo and say it is too suggestive and risqué. Some would say that the photo shows too much of her legs. You can see more skin from women’s legs just by walking through the halls of a Catholic high school between classes than you can see in the photo. Some would say her pose is suggestive and I would say that sitting on a stool, fully clothed is hardly suggestive.

Some might say her smile is too beguiling. I think they would have me dead solid on that count. But, in my defense, I would say that the Mona Lisa’s smile in beguiling and almost all beautiful women have beguiling smiles, just look through any current issue of People, US, or Entertainment Weekly.

So, I will just enjoy her photo all to myself and be very, very happy.

There was no historical Korean epic drama on television tonight; just an old style variety show. Since the show was in Korean, naturally, without subtitles, there was no reason for me to watch it. I will check next Saturday and see if there is the historical drama on Saturdays only.

That was the rest of my weekend gentle readers. I hope you had a great weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

End of the Week

End of the Week
It is the end of the week gentle readers. Can I hear a big “Yeah,” from all of you now happy timers?

I meant to put a longer posting up last night. I got side tracked and by the time I got back on track it was getting late for me.

I was also getting tired and typing badly on the old laptop. I think I did not sleep very well on Wednesday night because I was either worried and concerned about Sharon or I was worried about the consulting interview on Thursday. Since I have been in lots of interviews over the years, I am willing to conclude that my lack of sleep was caused by worrying about Sharon.

I think this explanation has a strong sense of plausible deniability behind it.

Job Interviewing
I had the consulting job interview yesterday. It lasted almost three hours. That is way too long for a consulting interview.

The consulting work will not be a challenge for me. It should only take two to three weeks and not the two to three months as the recruiter envisioned. It is a simple data analysis project and the total amount of available data is limited. That makes the project work scope short.

I felt good after the interview. I think I answered all of their questions well. Technically, I am more than qualified for the project.

The company is toying with the idea of bringing on a senior credit person and they were considered the consulting project as a contract to hire position. I don’t have any interest in full time employment with the company. It is smallish; the total loan portfolio is about $60 million. The bulk of the credits are commercial truck driver schools and esthetic and reconstruction elective surgery procedures [boob jobs, the Chairman’s words, not mine].

The company does need some strong credit person in senior management. The Chairman wants to exit the day to day activities and possibly sell the business in a year or two. He has a very young president who has no credit experience and no formal credit training. The president strikes me as being a numbers guy and not really solid with people or making a decision based on sketchy facts; the kind of facts that you have or don’t have with almost every loan request that floats down the stream.

Anyway.

I called one of former clients who had contacted me earlier this week. They were interested in having me work on a couple of loan programs. One is a straight forward integration of a third party mortgage loan origination and funding program. It is straight forward but more complex. It would entail the finalization of all of the vendor due diligence work and then the program launch. I have done this before so I know where all of the pitfalls are. Unlike other consultants, I also know the client’s culture and philosophy dead solid cold. I think this project should last a month to a month and a half to complete.

The other project is more interesting to me. It is launching a participation loan program, something I have successfully down before. The project should last no more than two months to from start to launch. It will be a fun project for me.

The nice thing about the second project is the opportunities for on-going income. The participation loan program requires on-going loan monitoring. I meet or exceed all of the regulatory requirements for program monitoring. It would be less expensive for the client to hire me to review their participation loan portfolio on a flat fee per loan basis than it would be to hire a full time employee with all of the related payroll costs. I can do all of the analysis and review work from home and at night so it doesn’t interfere with any other activities.

Knowing the client’s fondness for saving money, I think this will be an easy sale for me.

School
I think most of you know I am working on a Doctor of Business Administration degree now. For those of who did not know that, now you do.

The school sent me an email a day or so ago asking me to attend an organizational meeting of an international business honor society chapter at the school.

This was a real surprise to me. To be perfectly honest, I have never paid too much attention to my grade point average. I knew I had done well in class but never bothered to look at the grade point average. Now, when I graduate and do the walk to pick up my diploma, I will be graduating with Honors.

Wowie kazowie.

Who would have ever thought I would graduate with Honors.

Nice Guy Chuck
The big reason for my distraction last night was I was doing some things for Sharon.

I was Nice Guy Chuck again today.

I found a perfect job for her and sent it to her. She has done all of the job requirements very successfully and could be extremely successful at this new place. In addition to being a more fun to work, it is only about a fifteen minute drive from her home. She could bag an extra hour in bed every day and still be at work on time. Plus, the drive home might only be twenty minutes so she would be home in plenty of time for a normal dinner instead of running around late at night.

Sharon told me she didn’t get home until a little after 10:00 PM last night. I was sound asleep by then. She said the job idea sounded perfect for her.

Phone Calls
Today seemed like a day for phone calls.

I am not counting all of those horrid ones from the political campaigns that seem to come at all of the time now. I can hardly waiting until November 8th when we have out statewide special election and I can get a break until next spring when the election process starts all over again.

I received a call from a recruiter in Springfield Missouri who wanted to talk to me about a senior bank position. The job was located in Denver and I was willing to consider a move to Denver. Denver, after all, is not that far from Los Angeles now that Southwest Airlines will begin flying there soon. It is also not that far from Atlanta. I could handle the weather in Denver; it is very much like Salt Lake City in terms of weather so the cold would be manageable.

The problem with the job was what I would end up doing. If I got hired, I would be in charge of the financial and IT operations of a ten branch community bank in Denver. I can do the finance stuff but I only like that as a side line activity to lending and banking operations.

I reluctantly told the recruiter that I would probably not be happy and therefore would not do well in the position. She seemed disappointed. I told I would consider relocating to Salt Lake City if she had something there.

The Younger Brother called to check in on me. He had read about my lay off and wanted to see how things were going. He was surprised that I didn’t mention the possibility of a layoff when he visited my former office. I said it was one of those thing one doesn’t usually talk about. I told him that I had a couple of projects in process and that things looked fairly well for the time being.

I got a call from one of my former coworkers at the bank. He and his boss were out of town at a conference in Dallas when Vivian the office assistant left him a voice mail asking what she should do with all of the files and paperwork that Chuck left behind. He said it was a surprise and the company did not send out an email saying that I was no longer there

We talked for a while about the company and concluded that 2006 is going to be a dark year. We think loan volume will be down because of the continuing Federal Reserve Board interest rate increases. Each quarter of a percent increase makes it harder for more borrowers to qualify for a loan. The loan officers who are paid on a commission basis are likely to have a grim year.

I made the coworker laugh when I told him the pluses about being laid off. I pointed out that I can avoid the holiday gift exchange purchase decision.

I no longer have to think about who to take to the holiday party. I would be expected to go to the party since it is going to be on a Saturday, hard to create an excuse for time, and I avoid having to go through the trouble of asking someone to go with me and all of the attendant troubles like what should I wear, will this outfit look fine, and does this dress make me look fat.

Being laid off has a few benefits.

This has been my make-up posting from last night. I will have the Weekend Update posted on Sunday as usual. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

Missing Thursday

Hello gentle readers.

I got involved with some other activities tonight and did not have time to put up aThursday post or a weekend preview posting. I will toss something up tomorrow for your reading pleasure.

Be well and stay happy.

The Weather Changed Today

The Weather Changed
Well, gentle readers, the weather changed today. It was overcast all day long. It has been cool, no more than 70F/20C today. It has been breezy all day long. I could not wear my shorts today and put on long pants in keeping with November weather.

Doug
Doug called today to check-in on me and see how things were going with me.

We talked for a while about his school and what classes he plans to sign up for next semester. I think he is becoming a serious student. He said he was even planning on taking two Friday course. I can’t recall when he was signed up for Friday class before except for Summer school and that doesn’t count because the session is so short.

We also talked about where we would go have dinner after my class on Friday. There are a very limited number of venues that we would consider. The last time we ate together was at the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers and the time before that was at Morton’s with Amy the server.

That left us with Albertacos. As Doug has said many times before, “there is no bad time to go to Albertacos.” It is Albertacos for Friday night dinner for us then.

Doug and I talked about what films to catch at the local multiplex this weekend. He said about the only films that had caught his eye were JARHEAD and CAPOTE. I said that I would probably go see JARHEAD, having served in the Marine Corps Reserves for 18 months.

I mentioned that I had seen GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK. I said it was an excellent picture that appeared to follow the historical events as they unfolded. I felt the decision to use black and white photography was a wise decision and this helped make the film better in my mind. I said it was well worth seeing.

Sharon
I phoned Sharon to see if she was free or reasonably priced for lunch on Saturday. That way, I could take her out to an inexpensive lunch at Chipotle Grill and pick up her famous photo. Unfortunately, Sharon’s uncle passed away and she will be attending the funeral on Saturday. I expressed my sympathies to her.

We talked about going out to lunch next week when her evil boss is out of town on vacation. Sharon thought this was a good idea but wasn’t sure she would be able to go to lunch. Her evil boss gave her three new major projects so she was uncertain if she would have the time for lunch at all.

Oh well, life goes on and I will see what develops next week. All I have at risk in the cost of the phone call and that is insignificant for me, especially with my cell phone that lets me accumulate my minutes. I think I have about 30 hours of free air time to use. My cell phone battery will die before I run out of time.

Job Interviewing
I guess things are improving moderately for me today on the job search front.

One of my old clients from when I was a self-employed consultant has asked me to get in touch with them. They have a couple of projects that I could knock out quickly for them. That was a nice way to open my email earlier today.

The company were I interviewed yesterday convinced their client to meet with me tomorrow afternoon. This was a nice email to get towards the end of the day. I will give the recruiter a phone call before I meet with their client first to make sure I avoid any known pitfalls.

All in all, not a bad day for me.

Be well and stay happy.

More Summer Weather

More Summer Weather
It was Summer again today. The high temperature at the beach was 88F or 30C. Toasty warm for a First of November day, it was pleasant again.

Job Interviewing
I had a preliminary job interview today. It was a contract position with the possibility of a permanent hire after the contract ends. The job, as it was described to me by the recruiter, is one of consumer loan administration for a consumer finance company.

The recruiter liked what I had to say this afternoon, so much so that he is going to push to get me an interview with the company president. That would be nice. I think the recruiter would like me to start next Monday. I would also find out why the company needs an old grey-hair lender. I suspect the company may have grown too fast and now it has some ugly growing pains to deal with starting off with credit quality and loan losses. These are not uncommon events with a new consumer lender.

I will get excited when I get a call to go out for another interview. One needs to pace oneself and not peak emotionally early in job searching.

Sharon
I phoned Sharon today to follow up on a phone call we had last week about getting together for lunch sometime this week. I had left her a message saying how about we do lunch on Thursday or Friday.

Sharon phoned back to say she was swamped again with work. Some of her co-workers have been out sick or on vacation and she and the others are being forced to pick up the work load. I can feel sorry for her since she has extra work plus an evil boss that does not like her.

I asked Sharon to mail me the famous photo of her. She said she would save it and give it to me when we have lunch. Sharon said she mailed me a thank you card for her birthday already. I told that I have not received it yet. Then, she said that the Princess and Doug have not received their thank you cards either even though I sent her six, first class postage stamps so she could mail the cards,

I was going to say that it was only four months since we celebrated her birthday but that seemed a bit harsh.

It would be borderline ironical if I could not go to lunch with Sharon next week because I was working.

Balancing Checkbook Visitorship
October was the larger month in terms of visitorship in the young life of the blog site. The site received 320 visitors and you all know who you are. Obviously, some of you are regular readers so your visits were counted individually.

Not surprisingly, most of the visitors came from the United States. The next largest number of visitors was from Canada followed by the Republic of Korea. I think the Korean visitors will fall off with the end of The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin postings. The remaining countries are Germany, Mexico, Ireland, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, and Spain.

I do appreciate your continued support.

New Single Malt Scot’s Whisky
I have a new single malt whisky tonight. I forgot what the brand is so I don’t have that for you. Yes, I know I could get up and walk into the kitchen and read the label but I don’t want to do that right now.

This whisky is from the River Spey region. I don’t think I have drunk any whisky from this region before. I do like the taste; it seems on the light side and a bit smoother than the last whisky I drank.

Not a very exciting day was it gentle readers. Some days are slower than others I guess.

Be well and stay happy.