Gung Hay Fat Choy 2009!

I must have fallen asleep as the Chinese New Year crept in. It was during lunch at the local Chinese restaurant when I learned that this marked the first day of the new Year of the Ox! I am used to the new year arriving in the month of February, but one of the restaurant staff explained to me that it's similar to having a leap year, where Chinese New Year will begin in late January. Like this year.

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!

Unemployment?

California's numbers are higher than earlier reported due to some number juggling (so I've heard). Or maybe it was just a matter of interpretation by the feds? I wonder how anyone arrived at these numbers? Are people being counted by the time they reach their 15th birthday? Are just California residents counted? Would the unemployment rate be lower if we sent illegal immigrants back home? What constitutes unemployment?

I believe it is less a matter of a lack of jobs that are available than it is a willingness to accept one that a prospect finds less appealing. I can't blame 'em... and count my lucky stars I am still employed.

Obama's Crack

Um, as in "crackberry", the appropriately coined term for the addictive Blackberry communications device. I know, this is old news. On one hand I applaud the President for being technologically hip; on the other, I feel it underscores the depth of this indulgence. I really don't know how well the security experts will be able to protect the data that will be flowing in and out of the Presidential Blackberry, and providing a set of rules for its usage is a joke. Obama said, "they're going to pry it out of my hands", perhaps subtly paying homage to the late Charlton Heston's line about prying his guns from his cold, dead hands. If only Obama felt as dearly about firearms as he does his precious crack.

The Blackberry and other communications devices have become quite the addiction for many people, and the bane for many others. Consider me one of the latter, as I find it irksome to hear the yakking in all sorts of public places, and the inattention that it causes while driving.

At least Obama is being chauffeured while he's glued to his.

Weight a Minute

After nearly a two month hiatus from my volleyball league, my new scales told me I had lost weight. Didn't seem to make much sense. Sure enough, it didn't. Lemme just say that the difference between having carpeting under the scales versus a hard, solid surface is about a dozen pounds.

Fortunately I am back at the gym and where I spent the last few evenings. Sucking wind. Reacquainting myself with many muscles that were sorely underutilized. Yup, sorely. It was a rewarding three days and I'm feeling pretty good along with that sense of accomplishment, yet I've still that hurdle to clear. The six pounds I had hoped to have lost was six in the wrong direction, much to my chagrin, and time for me to focus my attention on trimming down.

Got MLK?

It's Martin Luther King Day!

Downtown Sacramento

This is the heart of the city that is the capital of California, where politicians throughout the state convene to conduct their business. This is where you will find the greatest concentration of state offices and state workers. The Westfield Downtown Plaza is an open air mall which is host to many shops and restaurants, as is the K Street Mall which extends eastward from 7th Street (across from the Downtown Plaza).

Sacramento's newly elected mayor is a local product who had made a name for himself as a professional basketball player in the NBA. Kevin Johnson has an uphill battle in trying to revitalize the downtown economy by encouraging new development and improvements to the area. Still, downtown businesses depend heavily on the dollars that are spent by the state workers.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just imposed a mandatory two-days-per-month unpaid furlough (appx 10% pay cut) on state employees, with a few exceptions, and possibly layoffs. During times of belt-tightening, the food budget is often the one that's slashed and will have employees brown-bagging it to work.

This just in from our local news station (KXTV News10): the downtown establishments draw appx 90% of their weekly business from state workers.

So much for revitalization. The opposite will probably happen, where businesses will fold up shop and the area will become merely a ghost of its former self. These shop owners and restaurateurs, as well as all their employees, are consumers too... without jobs they will need to curtail their spending, and could soon turn into a domino effect.

This is not the way to stimulate the economy.

The Obama Budget

As the federal government continues to promote ways to stimulate our current economy and create jobs, state and local government continue to cut wages or lay off employees altogether. The government wants people to spend money yet the government reduces employee pay. The government wants to trim unemployment levels, by having government send their employees into unemployment. There's something about this logic that seems terribly wrong.

Let the hypocrisy begin.

Nerds

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd   (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Literature Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Social Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
Drama Nerd
Musician
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Digital Delay

I'm pretty much fed up. We truly live in a nation of idiots (for lack of a better term). The buzz in the Obama administration is to push back the February 17th deadline for analog-to-digital TV conversion so that the lolligaggers will have a chance to catch up. Helllllooo? There was plenty of advance notice that this was coming (what was it, a year of advertising?). People. People who ignore taking any action until the very last minute. Homework given a week in advance that are completed the night before it's due. CA passes a hands-free-cellphone-while-driving law in January 2007 with the condition that it will not go into effect until 1.5 years later, in the summer of 2008, to allow ample time for drivers to purchase the proper devices to comply. Yet, the 6 months that followed still resulted in 46,000 citations issued for violation of that law. Oh, and how about a state budget that is chronically late year after year?

I think an appropriate motto for America as we near the end of the first decade in the new millennium is this: "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?".

What I Really Watch

Okay, here's an update to what I really watch when I am situated behind the boob toob (and when I find the time), as of the beginning of 2009:

(shows in syndication included)
24
Boston Legal
Chuck
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
Crusoe
CSI:Miami
CSI:NY
Family Guy
Heroes
House
Law & Order (and SVU)
Life
Smallville

SNL

Supernatural
Two and a Half Men
and our various local news stations.

My must-see choices at the moment are probably Chuck, Heroes, Life and Supernatural... subject to constant change. It's kinda sad to have such a large list on which to waste away the hours. As Jim Carrey pointed out in his role in "The Cable Guy", the TV is my babysitter.

Brady v Interior Dept

"We should not be making it easier for dangerous people to carry concealed firearms in our parks."

The Brady Campaign is suing the Bush Administration over a new policy which allows carrying concealed weapons in national parks and refuges for those who are otherwise permitted to do so. This means for anyone who has a valid Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) permit. That quote is presumptuous implying that gun owners are dangerous, and that the truly dangerous have been abiding the law all along. Wake up people! Criminals and scofflaws have always illegally toted their guns while visiting these parks; the policy's admission or defeat won't make a damn bit of difference.