Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview
As I reflect on my scribblings so far this week, I think I have covered just about everything that ought to go in the Weekend Preview. Aside from the Anime 2006 Expo, I will be writing for most of the extended weekend.

I am unsure what to expect from the Anime 2006 Expo. I am certain that I will see people dressed up as characters that I have absolutely no idea who or what they are supposed to be. They are probably very much like those people who dress in Star Trek costumes for the Star Trek conventions and the people who dress up from the Comic-Con in San Diego.

People, adults actually, dressed in character are somewhat upsetting in a convention setting and I wonder about their childhoods.

Since it is an anime exposition, I may purchase one or more DVDs. Doug reminded me to make certain that I buy only Region I DVDs or else I may have to buy a multi-region DVD player. That is one thing that I will definitely avoid.

Carbon Dating Myself
I was walking down the stairs in my building to pick up the mail the other day. I was following a young lady who appeared to be headed to the exercise room by the pool by the way she was dressed. When we got to the ground floor, she purposefully held the door open for me.

I wonder if she thought that I was really old and deserving of some help and assistance. I certainly felt very old for that.

Of course, I thanked her for holding the door for me.

Classmates.com or similar web sites
Have you ever registered at Classmates.com or some other site like Reunion.com?

I did maybe three or four years ago in a fit of boredom. Maybe I had smoked a bad cigar or drank some warm beer. I was having an off day and my decisions showed for it.

Anyway and more to the point, I happened to check out Classmates yesterday in response to an email that said someone from my high school class had registered. I thought it could be one of those women I had a foolish crush on when I was young and didn’t really know a lot of about women.

Someone could also point out that I still don’t know very much about women now either.

The new registrant was not from my class but had attended my high school when I was there. The name was a complete blank.

I did happen to come across a listing of all of the people who have looked at my profile.

That was a scary list. I don’t mean scary in an evil or bad sense. It was scary that so many people thought my profile, somehow, was all that interesting. Beyond the fact that my profile appeared interesting, probably half or more of those who looked at the profile where either in the high school before me and were gone or came after I had graduated. I stopped counting at around 175.

Why would someone who never knew me or had a chance to go to school with me bother to look my profile up?

I had only expected that my own class would want to know about me.

Either I must be incredibly fascinating or there are some people out there with way too much time on their hands. The strange thing is that only two people have ever contacted me, I think, through Classmates.com.

I take that back; there was a third but he was looking to contact my brother and used me as an information conduit. Does this count since I was only an incidental contact?

For the record, I have never looked at anyone’s profile.

No knowledge is good knowledge
I had given some serious thought to checking with Verizon about the status of the new DSL service on my way home from work today.

I had lots of time to think about the possibility of checking because I seemed to have missed every traffic light. In the end, I decided that if I did not check then I would not learn any bad or unpleasant information and be disappointed with Verizon so therefore no knowledge was the equivalent of good knowledge.

I will check on Monday morning to see when the modem and software might arrive at my house. I had given some thought to going out for all of the day or part of the day. I don’t want to spend almost the entire four days, sitting at a computer terminal and typing.

Preweekend Thoughts
In the words of Bill and Ted from BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, “party on dudes.” I hope you all have a great weekend and I will have a posting for you on Tuesday, July 4th.

If you enjoy your freedom, be sure to thank a veteran.


Be well and stay happy gentle readers.

Reality Check

Reality Check
Today was a reality check for Verizon Online Services.

I looked up my DSL modem and software shipment this morning to see when it would arrive. I was thinking it would arrive on Friday. I was wrong; it will not arrive until Monday the 3rd. It seems that Verizon sent it to the wrong city.

Why was I not surprised?

Verizon still has an outside chance of making their July 3rd launch date but only if they can get the package from Horsham, Pennsylvania to Redondo Beach, California by Monday.

Personally, I don’t think they will make it. If I were a betting man, I might want to bet against Verizon. But, I don’t gamble anymore; I don’t gamble at all except maybe a few bucks on the office Super Bowl pool or the World Series pool. Oh yeah, I also toss a few bucks into the lottery pot every now and then when the jackpot gets large enough to make the payout interesting for me.

Job Searching and Interviewing
The recruiter for the company where I have been working called me to say that I was not a finalist for the president’s position. She explained, in general terms, what the Selection Committee was looking for and how the other candidates came closer to what the Committee thought it wanted.

I didn’t want to argue with her about the selection; there was nothing to be done. Personally, I think the Committee said a lot of things to make themselves feel good and, in the end, will not be happy with their choices.

But, only time will know who was correct here.

My friend Sharon phoned me to complain about a job she had interviewed for with a bank. She was not interested in the job the bank wanted to hire her for. That made her unhappy. I think Sharon was more upset at me not making it to the finalist interviews at the company than I was.

I told her to cheer up and relax. Everything happens for a reason and some reasons are more obscure than others.

The Princess
The Princess called me this afternoon. She wanted to ask me how to handle a situation at her work. We talked about the events and then I gave her some ideas on how to go forward and seek a resolution.

I think I was helpful. It is nice to know that you still have a few good ideas left in your head at the end of the day.

I don’t have more to write. It was a slow day at work that was spent over a keyboard doing some research for the out-going president.

Be well and stay happy.

Miracles Do Happen

Miracles Do Happen
Yes, gentle readers, miracles do happen and I do not mean the 1969 Mets or the 2005 Red Sox. I mean Verizon Online Services.

I got a phone call this morning before I left for the office from Verizon. Granted, it was one of those automated calls with a metallic voice that makes HAL sound really friendly, pleasant, and inviting. It was also more than I received from Verizon on my first order attempt.

The call said that my DSL service should be operational on July 3rd and this is good.

I am still highly skeptical about Verizon’s ability to deliver the DSL service by the 3rd. I will naturally keep you posted on the developments as they become clear.

One obvious benefit of the new DSL service will be my ability to upload photos. I have been using my enforced hiatus from uploading to develop [download photos] for four future Babes of the Month and some other nifty photos that should be worth a passing moment or two in the blog.

Programming Note
While I am thinking about it, the Weekend Update that would normally come out of July 2nd will appear on July 4th. I am stretching the Independence Day Holiday into a four day event so the blog posting will appear at the end of the four day weekend.

High Heel Shoes
I don’t wear high heeled shoes unless you count my rough out cowboy boots that I have had for years.

I have always wondered why women wear this style of shoes. Clearly, they must be uncomfortable and painful to wear, walking around on your toes all day. I suppose there is an element of balance and stability involved as well. It would seem to me that, if I were a woman at work, I would wear the most comfortable shoes I could find.

You must agree that there is a certain compelling logic to the concept.

So, gentle readers, you can imagine my surprise when I noticed that one of the young smoker ladies in the courtyard today seemed to be wearing high heeled shoes that were several sizes too big. I am assuming that, in a properly fitted shoe, the woman’s heel touches the back to the shoe. I could not for the life of me understand why she was wearing a shoe that allowed an inch or a couple of centimeters gap between her heel and the back of the shoe.

This just seems all wrong to me and risky as well.

I should point out that I know next to nothing about women’s fashions and styles. The Princess will tell you that I am a lost cause unless she is there to help me and prevent fashion disasters that would make the Hindenburg tragedy pale in comparison.

Maybe one of the readers would care to enlighten me.

Contract Negotiations
This afternoon I concluded some contract negotiations at the company where I have been working. The other side agreed to our requested changes and additions all too quickly. They took all of the fun of the process.

Still, I am pleased because we got all of the major points that we wanted to see in the contract. That, after all, was the object of the negotiations exercise. So I guess alls well that ends well.


Be well and stay happy.

49 Minutes

49 Minutes
I spent an incredible 49 minutes today talking with the people from Verizon Online Services. This was such an incredible waste of my personal time and energy.

I learned that many departments at Verizon lie.

I also learned that I was so dead on center when I said that I would get tried of hearing Verizon employees apologize for the inconvenience that I experienced. At first, the apologies were only mildly annoying then my sense of anger and frustration rose to the level of patronization and finally it was disgust. I finally had to tell the employee that all of this apologizing was making me ill.

One of the people I talked to today said that they had tried to contact me on June 22nd and 23rd and got no answer when they called. Lie. Of course they got no answer, I was at work.

If they called and needed to speak to me, why oh why didn’t they leave a message on my answering machine that asked me to call them about a problem?

Probably because the note that someone called me was gun decked and phony.

I finally got what I believe to be an honest answer with the last person I spoke with.

To make a long rant much shorter, I had to reenter my order so they could move it forward. Don’t ask me why I had to reenter the order. That is Verizon for you. So I had them reenter my order and I now have an activation date of July 3rd and only time will tell if that works or not.

Frankly, I don’t believe that they will be able to have their act together in time to make the July 3rd time frame. Call me pessimistic if you want to; I like to think that I am being a realist.

The funny or pathetic thing about why they needed to contact was that I am going to have to get a new static IP address and they wanted to talk to me about that.

Duh, if I left Earthlink.net for Verizon, I assumed that I would get a new static IP address from the new vendor. What is the big deal? Seems kind of straight forward and simple to me but then I am not an IT person.

The big IT guy was sick today so I didn’t have a chance to ask him about the veracity of the Verizon’s statements. I will see him tomorrow and ask him to shine the bright light of truth on Verizon; maybe the Verizon employees will be scurrying around like roaches in the kitchen when you turn the light on at night.

Good Tats
I saw a good tat today in the courtyard. This was pleasant change.

The tattoo looked liked it was inspired by a Betty Page photo from the early 1950s. It was on a man who looked like he was my age or maybe a bit older. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that he served with pride in the United States Navy.

My Friend Sharon
Sharon called me this morning.

She wanted to know if I had heard anything from the company where I am working now about the President’s job that I applied for. I told her that all I knew was that the Search Committee was presented with a list of ten potential candidates and they cut that list to three at their meeting on Thursday. Some of the candidates that did not make the cut were called and notified on Friday.

I had to phone Sharon back this afternoon after I found what seemed like a perfect made for her job. Sharon wanted to know who the potential employer was. This will be a bit difficult since the company was only identified as being in Southern California. I think I can find out who the company is or at least narrow the list of potentials down to a few with a modest amount of online research.

Doug.
I caught up with Doug this afternoon also.

I wanted to let him know how things are going with Verizon. I told him that you could probably substitute the name of anyone’s current ISP vendor for Verizon and I would pretty much mirror their feelings toward the ISP. He agreed with me.


Be well and stay happy gentle readers.

Weekend Update

Still no DSL
Crud!

I would use other and perhaps more appropriate words to describe my growing sense of frustration with Verizon.net and their continuing inability to provide me with the DSL service I ordered almost three weeks ago. I don’t think it is such a difficult task; I am certainly not the first person to have signed up for DSL service from Verizon.

When I had lunch with Doug today [more about that later on], I reviewed the best things about Verizon say as compared to Earthlink or AOL. Verizon does not have too much in its favor beyond lower prices and most call centers are located in the United States. Competing on price and not on service is not much of an advantage. Someone else can always offer a lower price.

I can almost quote what the call center people will say when I call them on Monday. They will say how sorry they are at the delays I have experienced. They will say that they will make my installation a top priority. They will say that they value me as a customer.

They will say blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and more blah, blah.

Lies.

Pathetic lies.

Lunch with Doug
I had to go visit Doug to drop off a cable he needed to move the Atlanta trip photos from the digital camera to his personal computer.

We went to Albertacos since he had not had a Number 8 with a medium drink in a long time; at least a week. Anytime is a good time to go to Albertacos. I had a Number 8 with a medium drink and an extra carne asada taco. That was my lunch and dinner.

The big discussion item was the upcoming Anime Expo 2006, from Manga to Anime, over the Independence Day Weekend. I had planned to take Monday off and double up at the office at the end of the week. I thought Monday would be a good day to visit the show at the Anaheim Convention Center since it would be in the middle of the show [July 1 to July 4].

Doug thought I would do better if I went on Sunday since Saturday is a setup day and Monday is a day when tiredness is setting in. That makes a certain element of sense to me. I figure I can get out there when the show opens, probably at 10:00 AM, be finished by 2:00 PM at the latest, and back at my home by the beach by 3:00 or 3:30 PM.

Sunday it is for me then. It will be a nice break in the weekend.

Dissertation
I wrote five pages this weekend in Chapter Two and revised my first chapter. This was on the low side of my writing target goal. I also pruned about a dozen more references that are no longer related to the subject matter.

I was counting on being able to write for all four days of the Independence Day Weekend. I think I could have written 30 to 35 pages and maybe finished Chapter Two. That would have been a major accomplishment for me.

Now that I am going to the Anime Expo, I think I will be happy if I can write between 25 and 30 pages. I may not finish Chapter Two but I will be very close so I can accept that. I figure if I wrote for four solid days that I would be a mess by Wednesday morning when it came time to go back to work.

No Photos
You have, no doubt, noticed that I have been unable to post a single photo to the blog. I tried again to post a small 37 kb file on Saturday and had no luck at all. This is so frustrating for me.

I may have to make Doug a Balancing Checkbooks Team Member. Then, I could email the photos and text to him so he could post them for me or email the photos with instructions on where to post them. That would be a slow work around but it would work in the end and seriously address one major source of frustration for me.

Visitors, Foreign and Domestic
We had fewer foreign visitors this past week; three in fact, one each from Brazil, Canada, and Poland. The total traffic count for the month will probably be close to 250 visitors. That is down from May but still a good month for the blog. Last week, we had one visitor spend 24 minutes reading the blog and another spent 12 minutes reading the blog.

I wish I knew what I said that was so compelling and could hold the readers’ attention for that long.

That was my weekend; I hope you had a great weekend also.

Be well and stay happy.

No Call from Sharon

No Call from Sharon
Sharon did not call me today.

I guess that she has run out of things to say to me. I did not miss her non-call. Of course, she probably had something that was either more interesting or more fun to do and did not have time for me.

Oh well, not to worry Charles.

Lisa the Matchmaker
Lisa the Matchmaker called me this morning on her drive into work at the old office. She was in traffic so she was not going fast enough to hurt anyone. She likes to call me at this time because she knows I will be in my office and off of my phone. That, plus I make the drive a little nicer and go a little faster for her.

The first thing on her mind was Nurse Beth. Nurse Beth has been calling Lisa to know how I reacted to the meeting. Lisa said I hadn’t called her and explained that I was a man and somewhat unreliable. Lisa said she knew that was not the case and said it was away of diffusing the questions.

I told Lisa that I planned to call Nurse Beth after she returned from her two weeks of vacation. I’ll make the call next weekend.

Lisa brought me up to date on what is happening in the old office. One of the vice presidents is leaving because his wife just received a killer job offer in San Francisco. This is one of those job offers where everyone ends up happy except the old company since they have to go out and find a replacement and that is not easy. I think the vice president will be happier and more successful in a different environment. He will, of course, miss out on the management retreat in August. That may have taken a minute or less to get over.

Job Searching and Interviewing
One of the vice presidents where I am working indicated to me today that he thought the CEO search committee was going to have a meeting to select the final interview candidates tonight.

I believe that I exceed all of the desired qualifications that the committee has and that I would be an excellent choice for the job. That is not my decision unfortunately. I expect to hear from the search recruiter in the next few days about my status for this position and one other president’s position she was working on.

I don’t think I will lose any sleep over the decisions. I know my friend Sharon wants me to get the CEO position and then hire her. That would not be a wise move on my part.

Work
I received the contract back from the vendor after they looked at my request changes.

They agreed to most of them as I knew they would. I was very disappointed that they rejected the privacy and security sections that I wanted to add. Most of what I wanted to add already were covered in the transaction, were part of Federal regulations that cover the transaction, and established reasonable standards of care. These are key issues and the client may end up walking away. Then we would start all over again.

Crud that would be no fun at all.

Weekend Preview
Saturday is a dissertation writing day for me. Then, I will watch my samurai drama and go to bed.

Sunday I will read the large Sunday paper and then go out to see Doug and have lunch with him. I think I will suggest that we go to Lee’s for some No. 4s, whatever they are for lunch. I am assuming that Lee’s is open on Sunday for lunch. Then, I will come home and probably go out on the balcony to read and smoke a cigar.

I will not be playing the role of Mr. Excitement this weekend.


Be well and stay happy.

Still No DSL - Day 3

Missing Post
I wonder what happened to my post from yesterday. I do remember writing one. Admittedly, it was not the greatest prose that I have penned before. I thought it made some degree of sense.

DSL
I still don’t have any DSL service from Verizon. The original in service date was supposed to have been Monday the 19th. I checked my order status today. The only thing showing was receipt of my order on June 9th. Everything else is pending.

The service was supposed to be active two days, what a crock of [insert you own pejorative adjective].

Verizon lied to me about the service.

My Friend Sharon
My friend Sharon called me today.

This was the third call so far this week. She wanted to tell me getting invited to an invitation only reception and about where she worked a couple of years ago and how they want her to come back. She said she would go back but only on her terms. That must be nice.

Yesterday when she called, we got to talking about how her personality has changed since she left her old bank. I said that I had noticed a big swing in her moods. I told her about a photograph from Douguary where she looked like she had been sucking on a lemon all day long. Naturally, she denied this so I had to send her a copy of the photo. I
haven’t heard from her since I sent it to her.

She also wanted to ask me about a marketing idea that she had. I told her that it would probably work as she intended. Then, I pointed out some of the potential drawbacks and how it could possibly fail. Sharon was not happy about the potential problems but agreed that I made some valid points. We discussed some work arounds that would avoid the troubles.

Happy First Day of Summer
Today was the first day of Summer.

It was cloudy until the middle of the afternoon. It will heat up by the weekend with the local deserts getting up to 116F / 47C and about 76F /23C at the beach where I live. I plan on sticking close to home over the weekend and avoid getting melted in the sun.


That was my day. Short and simple because I don’t have a lot of interesting things happening right now. Maybe the coming weeks will make things better and more interesting for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Still No DSL

Still No DSL
My new Verizon DSL service was supposed to start today and it has not. I was supposed to have received my new Verizon modem last week and I have not. This just sucks.

I want my DSL service.

Verizon lied to me. They said that the DSL Service would be ready by today. I checked and everything about the service except for receipt of my order in pending. This is not what I had in mind when I signed up with them. Maybe they all lie but to varying degrees. I suppose that is possible in the grand scheme of things.

I do remember the Asian bars girls from a dozen nameless bars and dives that stretched from Bangkok to Subic Bay to Kaohsiung to Yokosuka. When they said that they loved you, you knew that they only loved your money so long as you would buy them a drink.

Everyone played by the same rules and the game was reasonably fair. You could always try another bar and you would hear the same story. Or, you could wait until the good ship pulled into a new liberty port and try you luck anew.

Blogger.com
Yesterday, I tried to upload some photos so we could have new Babe of the Moment plus I wanted to show you what happens when a woman starts down the slippery slope of bad tattoos.

I tried to upload a 37 kb photo file of the new Babe of the Moment with this crappy dial up service from Earthlink.net. I couldn’t get that file uploaded for love nor money. It was impossible and very frustrating for me. Actually, I have three future Babes of the Moments all lined up and on deck as the case may be. Right now, it looks like my batters will have to sit out a rain delay of their showings.

My Friend Sharon
My friend Sharon phoned me today to wish me a belated Happy Father’s Day.

That was nice of her I suppose. Most of the call was Sharon centered. Her phone calls usually are. I know that this is not what anyone would like but I do appreciate the consistency of her calls.

One of the main points of her call was to remind me to hire her if I become president at the company whereI am working now. I know she has the talent and skills but she is not always a complete team player and sometimes acts like a superstar who believes that he or she deserves all of the attention and focus.

Sharon told me about what she and her new boy friend did for the weekend. I was glad to know that she had a fun weekend and that she enjoyed her time in Yosemite.

But, that was not really what I cared to hear.

You live; you learn; you move on.

Life is too short for warm beer and cheap cigars.

Work
I finished the retyping of the eleven pages of corrections to the proposed contract at the company where I have been working. We emailed them to the other party this morning. I expect to hear them complaining by Thursday or so. The other party will say that we are making unreasonable demands and that what we want is not workable for them.

I will be very happy if they complain loudly to my employer. That means that I did an excellent job for them.

Granted, I did include some throw away items that my employer can give up in the spirit of compromise and not lose anything significant in the overall contract. None of these items are important to the success of the overall deal. They are only expendable deal points that get sacrificed in the name of compromise and everyone feels good because they got the other party to give in on something or another.


That was my day gentle readers. I hope tomorrow will be better for me; maybe I can have my DSL service.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update and Train Wrecks

Weekend Update and Train Wrecks
My evening with Nurse Beth was not what I had in mind. Doug called it a train wreck. Lisa the Matchmaker said maybe it was not such a good idea. Lisa was much kinder than Doug.

Nurse Beth and I are two different types of people. I have three cell phones, four email accounts, a very, very low ICQ number, and a love of the Internet. Nurse Beth has no cell phone, no email, and no Internet access.

We agreed to meet at a Starbucks a couple of blocks from the hospital where she works. I got there a head of the scheduled meeting time; traffic on the freeway was lighter than I thought it would be for a Tuesday evening. That’s when I discovered it was closed for repairs.

I had no way to contact Nurse Beth so I just sat and waited for her to arrive.

When she arrived, she was very surprised that it was closed. We talked for a few minutes and she suggested that we go to a local Mexican restaurant instead. Nurse Beth gave me some directions and said it was only a couple of blocks away.

I was driving in what I thought was the proper direction based on her instructions. Nurse Beth pulled along side of my car at a traffic light and said that she might have the directions wrong.

Great.

I found another place and we ended up there. It turned out she had not eaten dinner so I got to pay for an unplanned dinner. The replacement restaurant was nice. I wouldn’t go there again because it is really out of my way. If I lived closer, then, I might go there.

We talked for most of the hour while we played with our meals. It seems that we do have some things in common but I am not certain that one could build a relationship on them.

We also have more differences. I tend to know where things and locations are; Doug calls me the Navigator. I like things very orderly. I am very organized. I plan ahead and I have multiple options thought through before I leave my house.

Nurse Beth is not like this at all.

As we leaving the restaurant, Nurse Beth asked me if I was going to call her. I said that I would.

I am uncertain if I want to give Nurse Beth another chance and see if things could be better on a second meeting. Part of me says that I should give her another chance and another part of me says it is time to cast loose the mooring lines and head out to sea, in search of a new female companion.

Maybe Lisa the Matchmaker was right when she said that it sounded like we would not work well together.

Father’s Day
I celebrated Father’s Day yesterday with Doug. He is flying to Atlanta today to spend the week with his sister.

Doug gave me a DVD, FORT APACHE, that I needed to complete by John Wayne – John Ford 1870s United States Army cavalry trilogy. Doug drove to my house and then I drove us to the original location of the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers in downtown Los Angeles for a lunch of Mega Combos.

His sister, the Princess, also gave me some DVDs that I did not have. I now own the Cecil B. DeMille Collection and RONIN. Doug said RONIN is great film with Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno. We had both seen it on the big screen and really liked it.

The Princess called me today to wish me a Happy Father’s Day. She was on her way to pick up her mother and brother at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta. I kept the conversation short because I do not approve of driving while talking on a cell phone.

Tonight, I will grill myself a steak and have it with a baked potato and a sliced tomato for dinner. Nothing very fancy for me; just simple food.

All in all, it was a good Father’s Day for me

Eye Examination
I got lucky with my eye examination on Saturday. I did not need a new prescription this time around; I will in a year for sure. I just hope my glass frames will last another year. It looks like I will have to go regularly now for eye examinations because of my diabetes.

It could be worse for me so I can live with an annual vision check.

I don’t look forward to dealing with the clerical staff though. They have less of a personality of than most of the robots in METROPOLIS. One of them got indignant when I asked to read their privacy policy before I signed a waiver. I have a right to read about my rights before I waive them.

Foreign Visitors
We had seven foreign visitors this past week. They were from, in alphabetical order, Australia, Canada, France, Israel, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

I think overall viewer traffic this month will be down compared to last month. This is probably a reflection of my obsession over getting rid of Earthlink DSL service and switching to Verizon. If all goes well, I should be back online with DSL service by this time next week.


That was my weekend. Nothing much to shout about; just a quiet weekend for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Blown Hard Drive

Blown Hard Drive
The hard drive on the personal computer I have been using at work blew up today. Normally, this would not be much of a problem. The work product should have been saved on the servers so it should be there when I was given a replacement computer. Unfortunately, the computer was not mapped properly and the work product was stored on the computer’s internal hard drive, the one that crashed badly, instead.

Hopefully, the IT guys will be able to recover the data on the drive. Otherwise, I am looking at recreating an eleven page document that had all of the contract changes that needed to get made. That is no way to start a weekend.

Obviously, I did not get very much done at work today.

In retrospect, this was not unforeseeable. The company likes to do everything as cheaply as it can. It buys cheap equipment that does not last. Instead of buying a new computer, the company will probably buy a new hard drive because that is cheaper. The company is penny wise and pound foolish and the employees are the ones who have to suffer the most for it.

Sharon
My friend Sharon called me today to see how things were progressing in my job search. She is anxious for me to get a president’s job so I can hire her for a marketing position. Sharon has a couple of promising jobs that seem to be falling into her lap. They would probably pay more and are closer to her home than anything I might be able to offer her.

I would be deluding myself if I thought she was interested in the jobs because I was such a great person to work for. My big attraction is our long personal relationship that she could use to slack off work and keep her own hours instead of contributing to the overall goals of the organization and being a part of the team.

Weekend Preview
Doug is coming over for Father’s Day on Saturday and we will have lunch at the main location of the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers in downtown Los Angeles. I will have a Mega Combo again; I think Doug will as well.

My dentist appointment for early Saturday morning got cancelled by my dentist. I still have an eye checkup where I expect to have to get some new lens.

Saturday is shot with those two events so I will do some laundry and some cleaning on Saturday. If the weather is good after lunch, I will hit the balcony with my biography of Thomas J. Jackson and a cigar to smoke and read and relax.

I plan to write on Sunday in the dissertation and that will finish off the weekend for me.


Be well and stay happy.

Single Hoodedness

Single Hoodedness
Well, last night I did meet with Nurse Beth.

I will just give you a Cliff Notes version of our first meeting with a promise of a fuller and richer discussion in the Weekend Update on Sunday. Nurse Beth has some admirable qualities and some that I find to be not so swell.

The evening did not go as well as I would have hoped it would.

I was right in saying I would get home too late to make a posting last night. I did not get home until a little after 10:00 PM and I get up around 5:40 AM so I padded off to bed.

I will give my friend Lisa the Matchmaker a call in a couple of days to see how things went from the other side. I have this perverse interest in knowing how Nurse Beth reacted to our meeting.

I also want to talk to Doug about use of language for when I write about our meeting. Since he received an “A+” in Screenwriting, I figure that he can give me a pointer or two on how to turn a catchy phrase here and there.

Doug
The Big Guy called me to let me know that he got signed up for one class for the Fall Semester already. One of his favorite professors emailed him to get on the reserve list for the class so he would be certain to get in because enrollment is very limited. The professor will be teaching the Directing class in the Fall and Doug is looking forward to it. Good work Doug. He also said he may have lined up a Teaching Assistant job in the Fall for one of his professors who liked his work.

I can remember when Doug disliked, hated sounds so harsh, Teaching Assistants and now he may become one. Life does go around in a great circle.

Work
I am almost finished with the contract review work now. I have eleven pages of revisions and additions that I want to see added to the contract.

What I hate most about this work is cleaning up the other party’s incredibly sloppy drafting work. In contract law, a party may be an agent of another or it may be an independent contractor but the party can not be both. It is legally impossible and yet there it is, in all of its so very wrong glory, for the entire world to see.

Maybe I should charge the other party my hourly rate for revising their contract because I know they will incorporate most of my changes into their future contract versions. That would be a sweet extra payday for me.

Short Posting
I think I will write a short posting tonight. I will have something worth looking at on the Weekend Update on Sunday.


Be well and stay happy.

Nice Guy Chuck, Again

Nice Guy Chuck
I was Nice Guy Chuck again today. Actually, I was Nice Guy Chuck last week as well. I hope being nice doesn’t harm my image.

Last week, I gave my old assistant some theater tickets because I did not want to go and I knew that she and her daughter would love to go and get out for a night. The curtain is at 9:00 PM on Saturday so they had another chance for a leisurely dinner before the performance as they always do.

My assistant said it was a perfect evening when she called to thank me again for the tickets this morning.

The play was a comedy. It had a lot of laughs and several plot twists and turns. I almost wished I had gone to the play myself after listening to her description of the play. But, I was happy staying home so the day turned out well for all.

I saw an ad in a trade paper today for the marketing position at the company where I have been working. I phoned Sharon to tell her to send in her resume into the recruiter so she could get in consideration. She was out, as usual, so I left her a message to call me when she gets a chance.

I do not think the current President will hire anyone. I suggested that he could collect qualified candidates’ resumes that his successor may want to pick from. This way, he does not saddle the new President with a team of players that do not fit the new person’s management and leadership style.

Lastly, I mailed a movie poster to a friend of ours, Doug and me, who lives in South Africa and operates a video rental franchise with her brother. It was from a newspaper ad that featured the next PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and CARS films. She will get the poster well before the films are released in South Africa so they will be an attention getter for her store.

Work
Work was fun today for me. I got to negotiate a contract. Actually, I started the contract negotiations today.

I got the four deal killers removed from the contract and that was a major success for me. I think the other party just put the terms in the initial version of the contract so that they could give in on some issues that looked important at an early stage.

I won’t know until probably next week how the other party will react to the other five pages of changes that I want to see made to the contract. It is a chance for me to practice what I learned in law school and that is good for me.

DSL
If all goes well, by this time next week, I should have my DSL broadband service back with Verizon. Living without a high speed Internet connection is just no fun at all. I miss being able to download files quickly.

Dial up services just sucks unless you are away from home and are using a hotel connection to check your email.


Be well and stay happy.

Singleness or Single-hoodedness

Weekend Update
I did not do very much this weekend in terms of major events. I did do a lot of little things here and there. Saturday was an organized errand day for me.

On my way out to see Doug to drop off my digital camera, I stopped at the ATM for cash for lunch. Then Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, I picked up some tea leaves for the Princess and had some coffee ground for her roommate. Doug will be able to fit the containers into his large duffle bag when he goes to Atlanta in a week.

I stopped at Office Depot to buy some Cross pen refills. I have one two Cross pen and pencil sets; both given to me by former girl friends. Just because they were from former girlfriends doesn’t mean that I should toss them out.

I was ten minutes ahead of my schedule when I was checking out of Compu USA where I picked up a new copy of the Norton Anti-Virus software. I should have stayed longer at Coffee Bean and enjoyed the free cup of coffee that I was entitled to for buying a pound of coffee.

The drive out to South Orange County was relatively easy. Traffic was moving freely and there were no incidents to delay traffic. There was the usual quote of drivers who were not as attentive as they should have been.

Doug and I had lunch at Albertacos. It was a fine filling meal. My dinner was a small salad and a small sandwich. I did not have any room for a full meal. We talked about the upcoming trip and a little bit about school.

On my way home, I stopped by the drug store and picked up a prescription and I also went to the post office to mail a package to a friend in China. My friend in China works for a consulting firm so I sent her a special report on doing business in China and a CD full of copies of articles from two major American management consulting companies. They had a number of articles on doing business in China and Asia. I think she will find them interesting.

I watched my Saturday Japanese historical serial. Talk about time jumps; I missed last week when I went to see the musical. The samurai’s wife had just told him that she was pregnant in the episode from two weeks ago. Last night, their daughter was now about a year old.

That was my Saturday.

Doug
Doug called to tell me that he received four “As” on his report card for the Spring Semester. I told him that I was very proud of him and his work. I also told him that I had never been able to get four “As” when I took History as my major in college.

Epic performance Doug.

Foreign Visitors
We had visitors from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada this past week. It looks like it was Commonwealth visitors’ week. I decided to include Canada as a visiting group so they won’t feel badly.

Verizon
Verizon is my local phone company. I tired to sign up for their DSL service over the phone on Friday.

The sign up process was nothing that would inspire confidence with their ability to handle and manage technology smoothly. Since I have been their customer for only twenty eight years, I thought that they should be able to locate my within their data base by my phone number. It is, after all, unique.

Can’t do that.

I had to give the sales person my name and address at each stage of the process. That took too much time; in all, I spent about forty minutes on the phone and accomplished nothing.

I wanted to add my cell phone line to my home phone bill so I would have one less bill to pay each month. I gave the sales person my cell phone number; she told me their system did not recognize my number. I know they have me in their system. I read the phone number off of the most recent bill. I have had that phone number since 1989. Personally, I think the sales person entered it wrong and did not want to admit to making a simple error like that.

After telling the sales person three times to move the microphone from her headset closer to her mouth and being ignored, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor was like a wind up doll; all he could do was to apologize for my problems.

The supervisor was unable to help me because the computer system was not functioning properly. He said that if the address wasn’t entered just so; the computer would reject it. That got me to thinking that data enter is simply a matter of filling specific information in specific boxes.

I caught another tech worker lying to me. They really need to work on their lame excuses; people will catch on soon enough.

I tried to sign up for Verizon online when I got home. This process was much smoother and efficient. I did not have to deal with any human for the most part. I did learn that the bulk of Verizon’s tech support was located in the United States so that means the workers will speak American English after a fashion; this is a much better solution than the help desk in India.

If all goes well with Verizon and that remains to be seen if it will, I should have DSL service back by June 19th. Not as soon as I would like but it is much better than dial up.

Singleness or Single-hoodedness
I thought I would bring you all up to date with Nurse Beth.

I spoke to my friend Lisa on Friday. I wanted to see how she was doing; getting better day by day and seeing the doctor every other day for last week and next week.

Then, we moved on to the heart of the call, Nurse Beth. Lisa seems determined to find me a female companion. I wanted to know more about Nurse Beth. I knew that she did not have email and that was a surprise.

Based on what Lisa had previously shared with me, I am guessing that Nurse Beth is in her late 40s or early 50s. Lisa told me that Beth has been widow for two or three year. Lisa went on to say that Beth was about her height but that she had a fuller figure and that Beth had blondish brownish hair.

Lisa told me that Nurse Beth was interested in me. When she gave Lisa her phone number after Lisa told Beth all about me, Beth added a parenthetical that said “Possible date for Chuck.” That would seem to be an indication of interest to me.

I wonder how many lies or how much truth stretching Lisa told to get Beth interested in me

I told Lisa that I would call Beth over the weekend and see what happens. I think I mentioned that I would probably call on Sunday. I suspect that Lisa has called Beth and told her to expect a phone call from me today.

During my afternoon writing break, I phoned Nurse Beth and left her a message that I called and left her my phone numbers.

Nurse Beth called me back this afternoon. She had gone to the air show at the Van Nuys Airport this afternoon. It sounded like she had a good time.

We talked for about an hour or so with no one special topic coming up. Nurse Beth likes to work on weekends because it is easier to get to work at her hospital then. That obviously creates a potential time conflict since I work the normal business hours. It remains to be seen how we will work this out.

Beth talked me into meeting her after work on Tuesday at the local Starbucks. She said that she doesn’t drink Starbucks coffee. It is a convenient meeting location. Beth seemed sort of eager to meet me.

I should point out that the former Ms Flaky also was very eager to go out with me and then proceeded to cancel out on two successive events with weak excuses.

This brings up a minor programming note. I don’t think there will be a blog posting on Tuesday since I have to go meet Nurse Beth after work. I do not think I will be home until sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 PM. That is too late to start to write a blog posting. However, if I drink too much coffee, I may be up with a blog posting if I can not get to sleep.

That was my weekend. I hope your weekend was good for you.


Be well and stay happy.

I'm Almost Free of Earthlink

Free, Free at Last; I’m Almost Free of Earthlink
I cancelled my Earthlink.net DSL service today and that made me feel so very good. Tomorrow, I will sign up with Verizon for their DSL service. I figure I should be able to complete the transition to Verizon by the end of First Quarter 2007. I will miss my soon to be old and forgotten Earthlink email address.

But, as the Doug says, it is what it is.

Doug
Typing about the Doug, he called me yesterday to let me know he survived his polling place duties. I don’t think they were overwhelmed with only 175 voters showing up to vote over a twelve hour period. That works out to one voter every four minutes.

75% of the eligible voters stayed home on election day in California. This is what happens when the campaign is one of the dirtiest and nastiest on record. Voters get disgusted and stay home. We feel the candidates are all crooks and untrustworthy.

Now, we are in a rest period until after early September when the campaigning begins again in earnest.

Doug also called to say that he received an "A" in his American Cinema class. This was a class that he was not necessarily expecting an "A" so that news was very welcome.

Job Searching and Interviewing
I sent the second written exercise off to the recruiter today. I was not that excited about this job. I know I could do a great job for the company. But, I could not get as excited as I did about the one where I am working now.

I plan to talk to the recruiter on Friday and see where things stand for me with the two jobs. Maybe she will have some encouraging news for me.

One of the company’s retired managers from where I am working called me today. We had not spoken since her retirement party last year. She called to encourage me to apply for the soon to be vacant President’s job.

I told that I had applied for the job. She said she was very happy for the company because I was the best candidate for the position and she hoped I got it because she knew that I could do great things for the company.

Phone calls like that can sure make a day go by faster. It is nice to know that she thought enough of my ability to call me and encourage me.

Now, all I need to do is land the job.

Weekend Preview
I am going out to see Doug on Saturday to drop off my digital camera so he can take it with him when he visits his sister in Atlanta. We will be going to Albertacos for lunch.

But, you knew we would be going out for lunch didn’t you.

I would like to write between five and ten pages with the dissertation over the weekend.

The weather has been cloudy and overcast all week long so it looks like I will not be out smoking and reading this weekend.

And, finally, I need to go to the post office to mail a package to a friend in Hong Kong and another package to a friend in Johannesburg. I also have to go buy a new version of my Norton System Works and Anti-Virus software.

Maybe I will do some cleaning around the place. That would be it for the weekend. I will have a new Weekend Update posting out for you on Sunday sometime. I will try to upload a new photo or two for you.


Be well and stay happy.

Election Day

Election Day
Today was the primary election in California. This means we settle who will run for the various offices in the general election in November. That means we get to go through the whole nasty process again in five months.

On the plus side, we won’t have any of the nasty, dirty, and sleazy television ads until after Labor Day [September for you non-American readers].

This is one of the unique features of American politics.

You have a rich man who spends millions of his own wealth to win the primary election just to get a chance to do it all over again in the Fall. He and his opponent exchange some of the vilest television ads in a long time. If you win in November, you can hold office for four years and then have to go through the process all over again. The job of governor hardly pays much if you are a multimillionaire. The longest you can hold the job is eight years and then you are out of office.

Isn’t life grand in California?

Doug called me from his lunch break at the polling place.

It didn’t sound like he had been very busy so far. He said they had about fifty people vote so far in the first five hours of the voting. He said several of the new computer based voting machines were broken and that is not very good. He seemed to be enjoying himself at his work. I don’t think this is difficult work and it should be the basis of a nice blog posting.

Work
I started working on Vendor Z’s contract this morning.

Vendor Z sent a complete set of documents. There are 25 pages of smallish type to go through. I think the font size is around 10 or so.

I got as far as page three before I hated the contract.

The contract was not what the salesman described to me and the client’s decision makers earlier. There are a bunch of previously hidden clauses that only came to light today. There are some items in the contract that a deal killers. A deal killer is a clause that, unless it is removed or modified, will cause my client to say “No” to Vendor Z and walk away from the transaction.

For example, the other vendor contracts that I looked did not have a specific term to them. True, the initial term was a year but the contract could be cancelled at any time for any reason on sixty days written notice. Vendor Z’s contract is for an initial three year term. That will not go over that well at all with my client.

Vendor Y wins by default; just as if only one team showed up for a World Cup match.

I have yet to finish the review of Vendor Z’s contract. I should finish that my tomorrow. Then, we will sit down, probably on Friday and decide which way to go with the final contract negotiations.

I had previously anticipated that I could conclude the contract negotiations in about a week. Now, I know I will be closer to two weeks and this assumes the other side wants to sign my client and will be flexible.

I suppose we could go back to Vendor X who did not make the final cut and see what sort of the contract they have to offer. We didn’t like their approach to the business but maybe they have a friendlier contract with fewer onerous terms and conditions.

My Friend Sharon
My friend Sharon called me this morning.

As usual, Sharon wanted some information from me. She wanted to know about a company that she was thinking about applying for a job at. I knew the company and gave her my opinion and suggestion. I’m not sure that she will follow my suggestion or not.

Sharon also wanted to know if I had any contacts with some potential clients for where she is working now. I said not at the moment because I did not see a reason why I should provide her with my contact names and sources since I will get no benefit from sharing the information with her and her current employer.

Life moves on and so do relationships.

Alternative DSL Vendor
I tried calling my local phone company to see what they charged for DSL service.

$17.99 a month for the first year and that price continues in the subsequent years if I have the company as my local and long distance carrier. It already is my local and long distance company so I am set for the future.

I can switch to the phone company’s DSL service, keep my Earthlink dial up service and email address, and still have more money left in my pocket at the end of the day.

I did spend about 15 minutes on hold and getting transferred around this morning. This was tolerable since all of the call center people were Native English speakers. That is a nice change from dealing with an Indian call center.

If I do make the switch, I guess I will miss that charming Indian English accent on the phone. I can make the sacrifices; I will save money.


Another good day to be at work, it was cloudy and grey all day long.

Be well and stay happy.

Weather Changed

Weather Changed
The weather changed this morning at the beach. The weekend weather was warm and sunny and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was the perfect time to go to the beach except for the crowds and parking troubles.

Today was grey and overcast and cloudy and cool. Perfect weather to go to the office and not feel badly about getting out of bed.

Work
Right now, I am reviewing contracts for a new program at work. There are only two finalist vendors so I thought I would only have to look at two contracts.

I was wrong.

Vendor Y has three different programs and each program has its own contract. Vendor Y made the same mistakes in all three contracts. That was very discouraging for me. After spending five hours reviewing the contracts, I came to the conclusion that I hated every version for multiple and sometimes common reasons.

Vendor Z sent me a copy of its contract on Friday. It had a kiss-of-death, fatal flaw in it; they had misspelled the president’s name. That was a for sure and certain way to have their proposal rejected.

I phoned the sales man and told him to send me a contract with the name spelled properly. I didn’t want to have a fatal contract in my files for fear it could get confused with an active version and somehow land on the president’s desk.

Foreign Visitors
Last week was a slow week for foreign visitors. We only had three foreign visitors; they were from Turkey, India, and the Czech Republic.

Molting
I feel like I am molting now.

I went to San Diego two weekends ago to buy some cigars. On the way back, I got sunburned on my arms. Now my arms are tan and my skin looks like I am a lizard man who is shredding his skin.

I rolled up my dress shirt sleeves after I got home tonight as I was sitting down at the old laptop. I had loose dead skin falling all over the place; good thing I had some canned air so I could blow it out from under my keys.


All in all, it was a nice day for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update and Lies, Damned Lies, and Earthlink Lies

Lies, Damned Lies and Earthlink Lies
Do you have one of those days when you feel like a complete fool?

That was my Thursday. I talked to the IT guys at work about what Earthlink technical support had said about switching me from a frame relay to an asynchronous transfer mode circuit. I told them I was told that it would take up to fourteen days.

One of the IT managers fell out of his chair laughing at me. That hurt.

He said, “Chuck, changing a circuit is a couple of hours. Its an easy process to do. You let the customers know about the change in advance. You test all of the new circuits before you make the switch and then you make the switch when the users are most likely to be asleep. Piece of cake, easy to do.”

The head of the IT department said that they were playing with me and that was wrong.

I agree.

Earthlink lied to me when they said I requested a circuit change. They lied to me when they said it would take up to fourteen days. And, they really lied to me when they said I was an old long time valued customer.

Actions speak louder than words

In retrospect, Earthlink may have been right when they said it will take fourteen days. Maybe they are that incompetent and screwed up.

I gave them another call on Saturday morning. I wanted to see if things had changed any from Wednesday. The call center operator said no and then I asked to speak to a supervisor.

Asking to speak to a supervisor was probably a mistake on my part. The supervisor, James, certainly tried hard to make me feel good about Earthlink. I stopped him when he started to make his third apology for the service failures. I said that an apology was not to do anything to change my mind about the shoddy service and poor treatment that I had received.

James asked for one more chance to make things right with me. For some unknown reason, I decided to give them some more time to fix things for me. I doubt that they will be able to fix things by the close of my business [bed time for me] on June 7th. That is my self imposed deadline for the restoration of my DSL service. June 8th is “Hello, Verizon DSL service, how may I help you?” day.

Dial up connections just suck. It takes for ever to download a document or file.

Programming Note
This dial up connection is miserable for me.

I will be holding off on the Babe of the Moment project. Downloading .jpeg files on a dial up connection takes for ever and that is no fun, especially if someone tries to call me.

SPAM
I checked my Yahoo.com email account the other day, Wednesday actually. I had just over 15,000 emails in my bulk mail folder.

Incredible.

I guess that we are no where close to getting a handle on the proliferation of SPAM across the Internet.

The Big Guy
Doug called me on Friday. He wanted to talk to me about some of his plans for the coming school year.

The call was prompted by the possibility that his mother may be able to work from home soon and he is very unhappy with the idea of having to share the house during the day with his mother. He said that he didn’t think that sort of a situation, sharing the Internet connection and being home would out well for him.

Doug decided to get a job when he returns from his trip to Atlanta with his mother to see the Princess. He plans to work and save up some money, always music to Dad’s ears.

Doug is working on Election Day as a precinct worker. He said that he will earn about $90 for the time he spends signing voters in and handling the voters their ballots. It is certainly not the most challenging job but it is work.

He also asked about staying at my place when he has his internship next year. Staying here is closer to the entertainment industry and a shorter drive for him. This should work out for me. I should be finished with the dissertation and I won’t have as much need to be online at night.

We decided to talk about the ideas next weekend when we get together for lunch. I think we will end up at Albertacos since we were at The Original Tommy’s Hamburgers for our last lunch.

Mouse
The mouse that I have been using for four or five years died on me or is in its final death throws. It was functioning in an off and on manner. I could type two or three lines and the cursor would disappear. I had to left click the mouse to make the pointer reappear. This was just not going to work if I have a lot of writing to do.

I am now using the ThinkPad Trackball pointer. It works very nicely and is effective. I would prefer to use a mouse since it is more functional then the Trackball. This will do for now.

Pathfinder
I took the Pathfinder into the office to have it washed. It was well past the time for a wash. The crew that comes to the office did such an excellent job on the Prelude that I decided to give them a try. If nothing, they would be less expensive than the regular one with the mechanical washing system.

The crew did an excellent job on the Pathfinder. It looked much better than when the regular place washes and waxes the truck. My chrome wheels really shine now and the tires were treated so the truck looks younger than it’s eleven years.

I was very pleased with the outcome. The cost was less than the regular place and I did not have to take any time out of my weekend to have the truck washed and waxed. I was in the office anyway.

My Friend Lisa
Lisa and I worked at my old company. We were supposed to have lunch last month after she returned from her trip to Germany. We had to cancel the lunch because she had this nasty blood clot in her arm.

The last conversation that I had with Lisa was that she was going to see her doctor on last Friday. They were going to decide how to treat the blood clot. We decided that Lisa would call me when she went back to work.

Moving along to this week, I sent an email joke to Lisa and Vivian.

I got an almost immediate response from Vivian because the joke appealed to her sense of humor. We have a very similar sense of humor. She said she loved the joke and told me that Lisa had her arm operated on Friday after she saw her doctor.

I phoned Vivian to see how Lisa was doing. Viv said she was home and recovering; the surgery went well and there were no complications from the procedure. I was happy to learn that all was well and getting better.

This will obviously delay our lunch by a couple of weeks.

I sent Lisa a couple of very humorous get well cards on Thursday. She ought to have them by the weekend.

Lisa sent me an email this morning. She thanked me for the cards and thought about me when she was there. She had been in the hospital for five days and had four surgeries on her arm. Gee, you would think the doctors could get it right the first time. She is home resting and plans to go back to work next week sometime.

Lisa wants to play the role of the matchmaker so badly. I think she has taken on my singleness as her personal crusade to find me a female partner. Lisa said she met a wonderful nurse at the hospital and she told her about me. The nurse gave Lisa her phone number to pass on to me I guess.

I will have to have a long talk to Lisa about Nurse Beth.

Aren’t all nurses in the hospital nice?

Bad Tats and Belly Shirts
First, let me go on record as saying I fully support a young woman’s right to dress as she pleases; even if that will make her look very unattractive to me anyway. It is a free country and anyone can be foolish.

Let me also say that I like belly shirts on young women. A belly shirt is a tee shirt usually that stops somewhere between her navel and her breasts.

Summer in Southern California is an excellent time for belly shirts and shorty shorts. This is why Doug and I love the Summer.

One of the young female smokers was wearing a non-belly shirt that had become one because the tee shirt was too short to cover that portion of her pink stomach that was rolling over the top of her pants.

It was not, in my mind at least, a pleasant sight.

She was wearing light blue denim pants and a light blue or gray tee shirt; sort of a monochromatic look I guess. Then, there was this pink flash across her middle where her stomach peeked out for the entire world to see.

I choose not to look beyond my first glance.

Just as I feared, Summer has brought out more revealing clothing with the coz class girls. For the most part, I am more than happy that Summer is here now. But with more revealing clothing comes it’s partner, more bad tats to see.

I saw one coz class girl on Friday. She was dressed in black of course. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt.

She had tattoos on both of her arms than ran from her shoulders to her wrists. I suppose that she may have had more tats but they were mercifully covered and I, of course, did not inquire further.

She had more tats on her arms than any of my sailors from my active duty time in the United States Navy ever had. She had one of those ubiquitous spider web tattoos on each elbow. I think more than one of my former sailors would get a serious case of tattoo envy if they saw her arms.

Young woman had no real Southern California tan to speak of. She was mostly a very pale whitish color. This made her tats stand out even more.

I suppose there is a perfectly good reason why a young woman would want to semi-permanently mark her body. I do know that as one gets older the skin looses some of its consistency and stretches a bit. This changes the look of a tattoo.

Of course, there is one unspoken question on female tattoos. What happens if fashion changes and, sometime in the future, tattoos for women are no longer fashionable?

One answer will come from dermatologists and plastic surgeons.

Their answer will be, “Jackpot!” as they do a brisk business of laser tat removals.

Carbon Dating Myself
I can remember when a 28.8 Kbps connection to the Internet was a smoking hot fast connection.

Job Searching and Interviewing
I think I mentioned that I applied for the President’s job at the company where I am working now. If I didn’t, I sent my resume in to apply for it.

Anyway, the executive search firm recruiter called me on Thursday to talk about my background, experience, philosophy, and stuff like that. We talked for about 45 minutes. I guess I must have had the right answers because I got to move on to the next level which is a written exercise.

I got the written part in an email on Friday. It is only seven questions long but so far I have written three full pages to answer two questions. I have a lot more writing to do before I finish tonight. I hope to be able to return it tomorrow so the search firm can maintain their timeline.

The recruiter also talked to me about another president’s job her firm is working on and asked if I had any interest. I said that I did after she explained it to me. She sent along a written exercise for that position as well. She did not have a lot of good background information and what she did have was dated and not encouraging. I think I will ask her if she can provide some more current information so I can answer those questions intelligently.

Dragon Zakura
Dragon Zakura is the name of the new Japanese serial on Sunday nights with English subtitles. It looks like it is a cross between GOODBYE MR. CHIPS and THE BREAKFAST CLUB and maybe with a little THE DEAD POETS SOCIETY thrown in for good measure.

The concept of the series is a failing private school is on the verge of bankruptcy; a former motorcycle gang member turned poor lawyer is hired to liquidate the school for the creditors; lawyer sees something worth saving in the school; lawyer convinces creditors to give him time to turn it around and save their money; lawyers fights students and faculty who are opposed to the idea; lawyer convinces them to join him; lawyer saves the school; and lawyer marries the hot but bookish looking young teacher.

It is predictable I guess.

One of the big plusses is you get to see a lot of teenage Japanese female high school students run around in the halls in their short uniform skirts. That is positive don’t you think?

Johnny Guitar
Johnny Guitar was the musical I went to see last night. The play was an adaptation of the 1954 Joan Crawford film by the same name.

I think the play was fine and believe that most people would enjoy it. I did not enjoy it because the music is played too loudly and, for me at least, tends to drown out the singing. So, why go to a musical if the singing will be drowning out?

The star of the play was a great young singer Michelle Duffy. I think she is a local person but I could be wrong. I have seen her perform before and have always enjoyed her singing. It was too bad that a lot of her singing was over powered by the music.

Dissertation
The dissertation writing is going to take a big hit today from my work to complete the recruiter’s written exercises. Next weekend is a slow weekend with only a lunch on Saturday with Doug as the big events.


That was my weekend gentle readers. I hope your weekend was as good as mine.

Be well and stay happy

Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview
It is weekend time now.

Excellent.

I am going to the theater on Saturday to see a musical. As I recall, this performance is the West Coast premiere of the show. I have found this to be an unsetting event because one has no idea what the show will be like.

Of course, I do have the option of walking out at intermission and going to the car park, jumping in my car, and driving home. That is a benefit of intermission, besides stretching a bit.

Other than the musical and a possible trip to the market for food, I will spend the rest of the time writing. I would like to write ten or more pages this weekend. I should be better able to write since I don’t think I will have my high speed Internet connection back by then. I may also take a writing break and hit the balcony with a cigar and a book.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. The weather forecast is calling for perfect weather at the beach and less perfect weather elsewhere. It will be very hot most every place else.

The Weekend Update will be back at its regular day and time on Sunday afternoon – early evening.


Be well and stay happy.