Journals : 2004 : July
1 July 2004 | Link this
A note to certain of my co-workers: if working for a large corporation so offends your sense of ethics that it becomes the only thing you can talk about -- or think about -- all day, do you maybe need to ask yourself at some point why you continue to accept that tainted paycheck every week instead of just moving along and doing something else?
It's just a thought...
Yes, like many San Francico residents, I work with a number of annoying anarchists. Actually, they'd probably be more inclined to refer to themselves as "individualists" or "non-conformists". Evidently, individualism is defined by a need to recite recycled dogma on an hourly basis and to have as many tattoos and vaguely repulsive piercings as possible, while non-conformity means ignoring rules just because they're rules and questioning all authority just because it's authority.
Mind you, despite this focus on the individual, there is a community focus too. It usually seems to involves parking one's obligatory, non-polluting, non-conformist bicycle in a narrow passageway INSIDE the office so as to make it more visible to the less-evolved (who take the bus), not to mention to create as much of a safety hazard as possible to anyone who might damage himself on its protruding handlebars. Like me. At least once a week...
I keep reminding myself that they're young, idealistic poseurs who will eventually grow up and get slightly less annoying. But they probably won't, particularly here in the insulating womb of San Francisco, where non-conformity is a fashion statement and individuality is rewarded (tolerated) only when it poses no threat to -- nor asks any questions of -- "the community"...
1 July 2004 Later | Link this
Yesterday on Mark's birthday, I joked that it was almost time for his spanking, and he had no idea what I was talking about. He was completely unfamiliar with the concept of kids getting one playful birthday whack on the butt for every year followed by "one to grow on"...
Now I'm wondering if it's a generational of geographic gap. Was this a Southern tradition or just an old one that has since -- mercifully, perhaps -- gone away?
2 July 2004 | Link this
Maybe this should be the first entry at The Silliest Place on Earth™, but I'm not up and running with that site yet:
In San Francisco, the maximum legal time limit for parking on an otherwise unmarked street is 72 hours. However, "special event" signs, which warn that you may be towed if you don't move your car by a certain time, need only be posted 24 hours in advance. Does this sound like a bit of a contradiction? You're allowed to park for 72 hours. Except when you aren't allowed to. And you only get 24 hours notice that you're not allowed to...
In other words, your legally-parked car can be legally towed, and you get the privilege of paying a couple hundred bucks for the whole experience just because you parked legally on a street in San Francisco...
I'd offer some citations, but -- of course -- the website which houses the city's traffic code doesn't work. Rather like the whole city government...
I hate this city...
4 July 2004 | Link this
It was three years ago today that I emerged from my first (very unexpected) trip to the hospital, in which I learned that the hyperthyroidism I hadn't known I had was throwing my heart into major turmoil. To say that I was scared shitless would be a significant understatement...
Three years in, I no longer have to inject myself in the stomach with mucous from pig intestines (that lasted a week), I no longer lie in bed paralyzed with fear that I'm going to die before morning (which only happened a few times), and I've come to realize that I'm going to be just fine, thanks, even if I do have to take certain pills the rest of my life...
That said, I'd like to announce that the aforementioned thyroid gland has this week been pronounced -- with about 90-95% certainty -- dead. Thanks to the fine folks at the unfortunateely named Department of Nuclear Medicine at CPMC. I shan't miss the little bastard...
5 July 2004 | Link this
Has anyone else heard those PBS bumpers which say "we are PBS..." and just sort of paused there a couple of seconds waiting for the annoucer to add "you will be assimilated..."?
Just curious...
9 July 2004 | Link this
Apparently, the ghost mall with which I am most acquainted (and where I first had tearoom sex) is about to become a Wal-Mart, eliminating once and for all the possibility that I'll ever manage a clothing store across from the Chick-Fil-A there again. Which is probably a good thing...
9 July 2004 Later | Link this
This week's superlatives:
- Most stupid comment I've heard on the news: "Authorities are wondering if a recent murder could have been prevented." Just my own bias, I guess, but I thought that ALL murders were, by definition, preventable...
- Most stupid comment I've read in the paper, from a column on the dangers of pit bulls: "The human community has been in denial for 20 years.'' The HUMAN COMMUNITY??? Couldn't we have gotten some couterpoint from, say, the attack dog community or the flea community? Jeez...
- Most stupid feature I've read about in the new version of Microsoft Word for Mac: a much easier method for inserting movies. Do people really need to add movies to word processing documents all that frequently? I don't get it...
- Most strangely appealing song I'd almost forgotten but heard on Flashback Alternatives: "Heaven (Must Be There)" by Eurogliders...
- Best accidental find on the DVR: the Addams Family episode of The New Scooby Doo Movies on Boomerang Sunday morning...
10 July 2004 | Link this
Why yes, despite what you read -- and despite what people in the Bay Area seem pre-programmed to believe -- there are actually places where people (and local businesses) are HAPPY to see Wal-Mart coming. Knowing this part of my hometown as I do, I don't think this will be quite the cure-all it's made out to be, but neither do I see it as particularly damaging...
Speaking of huge chains, we had dinner at Ikea last night. As many negative things as I've had to say about the place over the years, our last couple of visits haven't been nearly as horrible as earlier ones. And you gotta love anyplace that can feed the two of us so completely for fifteen bucks...
16 July 2004 | Link this
1. The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth:
Ah, those useless obsessions which have fascinated me since I was a kid. I wonder if anyone can tell me what the following cities have in common:
- Huntsville AL
- Bakersfield CA
- Fresno CA
- Peoria IL
- Fort Wayne IN
- South Bend IN
- Springfield MA
- Elmira NY
- Youngstown OH
- Scranton/Wikes-Barre PA
Put your guesses on the Message Board if you like. I'll post the answer in a day or two...
2. It's My Hormones, Really...
I've decided that menopause must feel an awful lot like going from being severely hyperthyroid to being severely hypothyroid in a very short period of time. And I have a bit more respect for all women of a certain age at this point. For the past two weeks, I've felt an awful lot like Edith Bunker in that episode from "All in the Family". I think it may be starting to even out some. I hope so. At least I'm sleeping like a baby...
Did I mention that I'm married to the the most wonderful boy in the world?
3. Technology Sucks:
The Dish DVR has already crashed, taking with it about thirty epsiodes of "The Addams Family" which Mark hadn't yet dubbed to DVD, not to mention a Cure special and a couple of "Fillmore" episodes which would have completed my collection. It's the power supply, I'm told. Of course, there will be no effort by them to recover the data on the hard drive -- not to mention a stiff penalty for us if we try it ourselves. We're in a "replace, don't repair" world these days, after all...
17 July 2004 | Link this
Twenty-two years ago tonight, at approximately this time (11:40 PM EDT), I was sitting in a little room on the third floor of Elliott University Center waiting for a stupid baseball game to end so I could be on the radio for the very first time...
Some days (years?) I miss it more than others. This is one of those times when I miss it a lot, perhaps because I'm scheduled to start my midlife crisis by turning 40 in just three weeks or so. Maybe I'll start me one of them there internet radio stations one of these days...
18 July 2004 | Link this
Friday's question has been successfully answered. The cities listed were all designated as all-UHF television markets by the FCC's channel reassignment plan of 1952 and have remained that way ever since. They were designated this way because the country was running out of VHF channels and because most of them were situated close enough to multiple larger metropolitan areas that the shortage was particularly acute...
Before 1952, many of these cities had at least one VHF channel assigned. In Fresno, for example, there was channel 12, then KFRE-TV, which moved to channel 30 and now operates as KFSN. Bakersfield had channel 10, KERO, which is now on channel 23. Several cities, Columbia SC for example, retained this single VHF channel arrangement even after 1952...
I knew a lot of this stuff beforehand, because I was a freak and I used to sit around reaading things like the channel assignment table when I was a teenager. But I got further information here and here at this cool history of the Dumont network...
Speaking of Dumont, those of you who are really inclined toward trivia might find it interesting that there is a direct link from the fourth network of the 1950s to the establishment of the fourth network of the present thirty years later. Dumont's owned and operated stations became the Metromedia group after the network folded. This group was later purchased by Ruper Murdoch in the 1980s as the beginning of his new network...
OK, I'll stop being so damned geeky now...
Until after breakfast, at least...
23 July 2004 | Link this
1. Video Killed the Dish DVR:
As Mark stated so very eloquently, we lost the third DishDVR in about ten days last night. Apparently, they just can't send us a working model; so far, two of them have died the same death and one has died a seemimgly-unrelated one. Read the story and offer suggestions here if you have any...
2: Did You Bring Bottles?
In happier news, I was featured in Walt Wiley's Sacramento Bee column yesterday. We may run up there on the way to Fresno today (yes, I was a Geography major and I know better than anyone that it's not REALLY on the way) so I can get printed copies to send to Mom. I've been interviewed numerous times now about both sites, but it's still rather exciting...
3. God Hates Fags but May Be a Nils Lofgren Fan:
And it's definitely more exciting than being reminded -- as I was via email this morning -- that I am "not another stream. You are the reguritated waste of society and it's (sic) great downfall. Life can not cope with maggots who fail to reproduce. Enjoy your defiance of the Lord (sic) while it lasts. Your day before the Lord (sic) will come and He (sic) will show no mercy." Help me out: wasn't "No Mercy" was a Nils Lofgren song from about 1979?
4. Jumping the Gloryhole:
Not to make it an all email entry, but I also got a message the other day telling me how my site had jumped the shark" since I stopped writing about sex clubs five or six years ago. Yeah, as if I (a) maintained websites for the purpose of getting good ratings -- perhaps for all that lucrative advertisng revenue -- or (b) would care what anyone who's still using a 1999-era term like "jumping the shark" thinks anyway. Funny...
5. Wake Up, It's 1983:
Another song from the 1980s which holds up better than I would've expected: "Should I Love You" by Cee Farrow, caught yesterday on internet radio...