Monthly Archives: October 2013

A Couple of Things…

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time1.  One of my co-workers, Sergio, shared with the crew an idea that his friend came up with, instead of Daylight Savings Time, we should all get off of work one hour early on Friday, then on Sunday, we put the hour back for the extra sleep needed to recuperate after the weekend.

I like it!

2.  So Sydney placed an ad for Portland, Oregon, on Craig’s List to sell my wrecked up car.  It’s a 2007 Nissan Altima and the estimate to repair it was $8,000.  I think she went online to do it on Saturday.  She called to see if any leads came in by Sunday afternoon but not one person had contact me.  I was bummed.  But then at 9:00 Sunday, calls and texts starting coming in.  She had gone back on Craig’s List and discovered it was still in DRAFT mode.  She forgot to PUBLISH it!

The car sold by 8:00 AM the next morning for my asking price of $3,000.  It was perfect until I told the next inquirer that I sold it for 3 and he came back immediately with, “I can bring $3500 cash right now!!!”

Live and learn.  I kept my agreement with the first guy, I don’t need any bad Karma.

3. How embarrassing is it to mistake high school homecoming pictures for Halloween hooker costumes?  Never should homecoming be the same weekend as Halloween parties.   Just saying.

dolphins

4. The site of dolphins swimming by still takes my breath away.  So freakin’ cool!!!  I love living at the beach!
Of course I didn’t realize there was a dolphin passing by until I looked at my photos later.  I was actually focusing on the couple.  But, at that point they took my breath away!

5.  Bacon cupcakes?!!!  Yeah, I think I’m gonna pass on this one.

6. Headline seen: “Touching Pregnant Tummy Banned”
It’s now illegal to touch a pregnant women’s belly in Pennsylvania.  This was pursuant to a harassment case against a man who kept tummy-touching a pregnant lady against her will. (k, go ahead and snicker, I did).

I never minded people rubbing my belly when I was pregnant.  Come to think of it, I still don’t!

malware-warning7a. My email not only got hacked but apparently the mutherfuckers installed a virus on my computer which hacked several of my websites which resulted in Google Chrome blocking access to them and saying “THE WEBSITE AHEAD HAS MALWARE!”  So yeah, it’s been quite a nightmare.

7b. I JUST discovered typing this, that my spell check points out that “mutherfuckers” is misspelled and they suggest I meant to write “muckrakers.”  But when I type “motherfuckers”, nothing.  They accept that but not the ghetto spelling?  I call racism.

8. I’m a big fan of the LBD (Little Black Dress).  I use to wear them for the slimming effect.  But now, as an older woman, I like them for the Audrey Hepburn effect.

9. As you can probably tell, I love lists.  I enjoyed item #9 on the list called, “16 Awesome Hidden Gems You Must Experience at Disneyland.”  I’ve been to Disneyland probably a hundred times and I was aware of most of these.  But this one caught me off guard regarding Big Thunder Mountain:  “Once you get to the second hill (the one with the snakes), start looking for the Billy Goat, who should be raised up on your right. Stare the goat down and don’t take your eyes off of him. You’ll experience a dizzy, disorienting feeling that will make the ride even more exciting.”

How gullible do they think we are?  Yeah, I’m gonna try it.

George
10. George passed away last week, one month shy of his 8th birthday. George made the Guinness World Record in 2010 as the world’s tallest dog at 5 feet. .  RIP Giant George.

dad-double-duty-130911. Speaking of birthdays, My dad’s 79th birthday is today, October 29.  He still loves going out to hear live music, especially jazz, he still has a wicked sense of humor, and he still drives me crazy. . . which I hope he continues to do for many many more years to come. Happy Birthday Dad!

12. “Women are angels. And when someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly…on a broomstick.  We’re flexible like that.”  Anonymous

Thanks for listening!

A Couple of Things…

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PoorCar1.  It seemed to me that time stopped when I received the news that my only daughter, Sydney Rose, had been in a pretty bad car accident in another state where both airbags were deployed.   Even though it could of been much worse and no one was severely injured, I felt completely helpless.  Her car was substantially damaged and understandably, she was in tears.  My motherly instincts cried out to coddle and protect, but I had to be the strong one, calm, cool and collective, to walk her through it, albeit, long distance.   I’m proud to say that she has come through the incident with flying colors.  I, on the other hand, grew a few more gray hairs.

breeze2.  I’m excited to say that I was asked to write a column for the Ventura Breeze about what’s going on with music here in Ventura.  How cool is that?  I get to write about whatever I want and promote it as Ventura Rocks!  What a privilege.   See: www.VenturaBreeze.com

3.  I think it’s really terrible when someone does not accept an apology. Of course the apology has to be sincere and the person trustworthy; so there are circumstances where not doing so is warranted. But I confess that this has happened to me twice in my life, and trust me, it doesn’t feel good.  Thank God neither was family or friend.  One was a work associate, the other a stranger.  I’ll be honest.  Both stung.  But now that I look back, I truly believe that that was their intent, to hurt.  You know, dominate – avoid domination?  So in the end, I guess I actually won, because neither would have been a good friend to have in the first place.

4.  I don’t understand why people have conversations on Facebook.  Pick up the phone! Send a text!  I don’t care if you want to have lunch with someone, or you are having lunch with someone or you had lunch with someone. . . that is, unless that someone is George Clooney, then yeah, I’d like to know where too.

glove-compartment5.  WHY Oh WHY do we still call it a “glove compartment?”  I mean I know why it was called that initially, but seriously, I’ve never seen gloves in anyone’s before.   I think the only solution is finding an old pair of gloves and putting them in mine.  I think that would make me happy and “at one” with my car.

6.  Another local newspaper, the VC Star, wrote an article recently about the price of gas dropping.  They reported, “The average gas price Friday in Ventura County is $3.79, down a penny from Thursday.”  Is that really news??

7. Henrik Edberg wrote a blog called “Mark Twain’s Top 9 Tips for Living a Kick-Ass Life.” Some of them were obvious, for instance, “Approve of yourself.”  But others, not so much.  Like, “Release yourself from entitlement.” He says, “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing.  It was here first.”
Another one I know quite intimately, “If you’re taking a different path, prepare for reactions.”  But my favorite is “Don’t focus so much on making yourself feel good.”  He adds, “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”

Amen brother.

8.  Going to a luau on Maui was about one of the goofiest things I’ve ever done.  If you can’t embrace being a tourist, I don’t recommend attending one.

jazz-punks-abe9.  When I saw one of my favorite local venues, Squashed Grapes, advertise Jazz Punks last week, I HAD to check them out.  Jazz and Punk?  I was so in.  I’m happy to report they freakin’ rocked! I bought the CD, I bought a t-shirt.  DO NOT MISS THEM the next time they come around. . . which is November 15 at Amigos.    www.JazzPunks.com

10.  There are certain movies when they come on TV, I must stop and watch:  Stranger Than Fiction, The Green Mile, Fight Club, A Few Good Men, Independence Day, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Field of Dreams, While You Were Sleeping, Bull Durham, Finding Nemo,   Not all chick flicks by the way.

11.  From my “Favorite Facebook Posts” file:  “I would take a bullet for you…not in the head, but like in the leg or something.”   – Unknown

Thanks for listening!

A Couple of Things…

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NotTheDog

by: Guy and Rodd

1.  You ever feel like the odd man out?  Yeah, me nether.

2.  First recognizing that you have fixed ideas is pretty powerful.  That takes an amazing amount of selflessness on your part.  But to actually see other points of views, and decide which is for the greater good, now that’s awe-inspiring.  Not many people have this ability.  And please understand, this is an ability.

hugs

3.  I feel bad for people who have either a phobia about touching other people, or they just don’t like to be touched.  I love hugs, the bigger the better!!  That is, of course, unless I don’t like that person, then not so much.

4. I swear to God this was a news story on Yahoo.  The headline:  “Los Angeles Students Get iPad for Classroom, Play Video Games Instead.”  Duh!!!  That’s just good stuff.  They seriously didn’t see this coming???  One week after distributing the hi-tech tool to kids, someone hacked it and discovered how to disable the security restrictions blocking games, Facebook, etc…  These kids at least are thinking outside the box.

iPad-ad-Alive-education-001

5.  I love a really nice full radio voice.  But seriously, there are people who walk this earth who think they are “on-the-air” ALL THE TIME.  Also, I have a hard time with DJs who sound like they’re trying to having a “radio voice” as oppose to just speaking naturally.

6.  Seen on Yahoo Health, “8 Comfort Foods that Burn Fat”  The article listed pumpkin pie, hot chocolate, oatmeal, chicken soup, pot roast, roasted veggies, potatoes, and chili.  You could actually make a 4-5 course meal with all these items.  I wonder if you did, would you lose weight?  Yet another experiment I could get behind.

They also go on to say that hot cocoa can possibly ward off dementia in elderly people.

7. New Pearl Jam?  New Stone Temple Pilots?  I’m in!

8. I attended a family party last weekend.  Several of my cousins I grew up with were there.  I always love seeing them and catching up.  It use to be tradition that my cousin Michael would pick up Syd Rose and carry her around on his shoulders. Well since she wasn’t there because SHE IS IN OREGON, he decided we should take a picture of me on his shoulders.  I was scared to death he was going to hurt his back.  We sent the photo immediately via text message to Syd who got it while hanging out with friends in Portland.  She loved it!  I posted it on Facebook, however, I did not post the photo of Michael after he put me down.

mike-shoulders

9. I pity the child whose parents put the fear of the world in their heads.

halloween-110. I use to dress up for Halloween when we would take Sydney Rose out door-to-door.  One year we were Madeline and Miss Clavelle; another time she was a vampire, I was her victim, and yet another time we were Indians, she was Pocahontas.  It was more important to me that Sydney Rose embraced the goofiness, than me retaining my dignity.

My dignity has been through the wringer.  And somehow, I just get goofier as I get older.

11. Speaking of losing my dignity, I once walked out of the restroom at work (not City Hall) years ago, with my skirt tucked up in my panty hose.  Main reason I no longer wear them!  Panty hose that is, not skirts! (Yeah, I don’t have a photo for that one).

12. “The guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

Thanks for listening!

A Couple of Things…

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1.  I’d be pissed if the federal government shut down.  Oh wait.  It did.  And I am.

2.  I saw a fox the other night crossing the road I was driving on up next to the hill here in Ventura.  Very cool.  Still waiting to spot my first owl in the wild.

3.  Is there another noon that I’m not aware of?  When people read, “12 noon” I always wonder, what other “noon” is there?

4.  I recently read an article called, “17 Bizarre Sex Facts You Probably Didn’t Know”  from W.W. Norton’s book, 1227 Quite Interesting Facts. It was a blog posted on the Huffington Post.  These were my favorites:
a.  A female ferret will die if she doesn’t have sex for a year.
b.  A single human male produces enough sperm in two weeks to impregnate every fertile woman on the planet.
c.  The founder of match.com, Gary Kremen, lost his girlfriend to a man she met on match.com.
d.   Gymnophoria is the sense that someone is mentally undressing you.
e.   A female chimpanzee in a fit of passion has the strength of six men.

5.  How do you measure your worth?   By the number of Facebook Friends?  But the number of LIKES on your page?  It seems to me that some people depend on this sort of feedback.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the camaradie that FB provides and the networking and sense of community.  But that’s it.  My sense of worth depends on how much I’ve been contributing back to society and the strength of my relationships with my close friends and family.

And while I’m on the subject, I’m going to go out on a limb here.  I love that people make a decision to clean up their lives and start being productive members of society.  LOVE IT.  That takes a lot of integrity.  But you know what?   If they’ve lived a life of crime, or were drug dealers, or gang members, or a slug who brought others down, they need to do something to MAKE UP THE DAMAGE.   And more importantly, that’s something they need to figure out on their own.  It can’t be mandated.  Trust me, it’s a spiritual thing for them; it’s not for society’s sake, although society would be grateful as well.  It helps them become worthy in their own estimation and as such they can play on the same field with others.

I’ve seen this with a number of celebrities, two of which I was involved with doing an interview with them, one back on Buzzine with actor Danny Trejo and more recently on VenturaRocks.com with Rapper, Immortal Technique.  These guys were bad fucking news back in the day.  But they served hard time and then made the decision to clean up their lives and to set the example for others while showing kids who are having a rough time of it that there are alternatives.  I so respect that.  That’s making up the damage.

6.  The Revenge porn law has been signed here in California.  I’m going to state the obvious because there is a way avoid this problem in the the first place.   DON’T HAVE YOUR PHOTO TAKEN IN THE NUDE!!!   Call me a prude or a realist.  But who wants to worry about that?
I do have a cute story though.  When I was in Jr. High, I remember my sister dragging me along with her friend Madeline whose boyfriend just enlisted and was off to boot camp.  We went to one of those quarter photo booths and stood guard while she went in and took photos with her top off.  It was so funny because we were so nervous and worried we’d be caught!  Good times.

7.  My neighbor recently pointed out that it is no longer politically correct to use the expression, “One for the road.”  No lie!

8.  A lot of us love to watch movies.  I wonder if the genre we prefer reflects our lives.  Do you prefer watching love stories, dramas, crime stories, mysteries, sci-fi genres or horror movies?  I lean towards romantic comedies.  🙂  Which you know, kind of fits.

9.  Sydney Rose can’t even stand the thought of someone touching her feet.  Creeps her out.  Who raised this girl?  How can anyone NOT appreciate a good foot massage?

10.  There are people who are in the business of keeping people scared.   And it’s not just the media.  These people are easily spotted on Facebook.

11.  A Politician is a fellow who would lay down your life for his country.   – Texas Guinan