Jenn, aka JeSais (I know)

I like to spend the beginning of the new year reflecting on accomplishments of the past year, and setting goals for the new year…  I’m not quite ready to share any of that yet, however, I will share my “new” journal with you. It was a gift from my Uncle Johnny who passed away just before Christmas. He was my great uncle, my grandmother’s sister…  the youngest of the five siblings and the last one.  He was a brick layer and he lived on the farm he grew up on in Sedley Virginia– if you look close enough at the picture on the right you’ll see his hat says, “Been there Done that– Sedley” which is pretty funny considering Sedley, Virginia has a population of probably less than 2000 near as I can tell. It’s not even a town, more of a community in South Hampton County.

Note:  Sedley is home to Hubs Peanuts, the best peanuts in the world.

His wife, my aunt Lucille passed away a few years back, she had diabetes (Type 1 I believe).  Their son Curtis also passed away a couple of years ago (he was also a diabetic).  Uncle Johnny did have a grandson and a newly born great grandson.  He also had an adopted daughter who lived across the road, Anita. She called him Pop and looked out for him.  Uncle Johnny had a long life, he was 90, but he will be missed none-the-less.

So back to the journal.  I haven’t been journaling, and I’m not sure why… it’s a good way for me to process what’s going on in my head, to create starts to stories and to work out problems with pieces in progress.  And so, one of my goals for 2009 is to start it up again.  I pulled off the shelf this lovely journal that Uncle Johnny sent as a thank you gift after he visited my sister and I in San Diego two years ago. We had a fantastic time, touring him and Anita around.  He went back and told the whole town what great tour guides we were–  which resulted in more folks (I mean distant relatives) from Sedley visting and looking us up, but that’s another story.

So thank you Uncle Johnny.

I’m sure you received a warm welcome in heavan from your sister Ruby (my grandma),  Lucille and Curtis, your sisters Virginia and Shirley, your brother Tommy, George (my Dad) and many more.

Maybe they even had a big ole plate of fried chicken for you…  rumor had it that you could eat an entire chicken on your own.

PS:  I almost forgot to mention, that the best package ever received in the mail came from Uncle Johnny in 2006.  I mean seriously, you can’t go wrong with a hundred Audrey Hepburn stamps, can you?

filled with Hubs peanuts

There’s a bulletin board near my house I keep meaning to take a picture of. It’s near the supermarket, and I never have my camera with me when I go grocery shopping. It says “Change is Good” and is advertising Kyle Zimmerman Photography’s move to downtown Albuquerque.

Every time I look at that sign I feel like it’s reminding me that my decision to move to The Duke City was a good one.  That I am exactly where I need to be now.

There’s another Change is Good sign over on Carlisle Boulevard, right next to what became Obama Election Central in Albuquerque.  Fitting, don’t you think?

Well as we all know by now, change did happen. It may not have been the “change we need” (thank God) but in fact the CHANGE we deserve.

I don’t consider myself to be particularly patriotic. I don’t fly the flag. I couldn’t care less about singing the national anthem (who can hit those high notes anyway?).  To me, the most patriotic acts we can perform are voting, free speech, assembling as we see fit…  and exercising the rights granted to us by the constitution.  That said, I do believe that this is the best county in the world. Sure, some other countries have great things (ancient history, fabulous food, multiple languages, universal healthcare) but the United States is truly the land of opportunity.  Barak Obama is the absolute embodiment of that kind of opportunity.  I am thrilled with the results of the presidential election.  Change is Good.

The cynic in me realizes we won’t have a huge change. We may get small steps in the right direction.  I don’t know why all those far right conservatives are so afraid of Barak Obama. He’s not that different than the other politicians in Washington.  Except in one big way.  His positive vision for the United States, and as far as I have seen, he has conducted himself with grace and dignity.  We deserve this kind of change.  We actually deserve more.

Today I went to the website for the office of the president-elect, aptly named Change.gov.  There was a place there to submit your own story or your own ideas. Now I don’t naively think that Barak Obama is going to read the email I sent.  Perhaps some poor student intern will be slogging through all the emails and trying to ascertain which ones of us are kooks. But I may get some sort of automated response.  My email may be sorted and stacked with a whole lot of other emails then counted and analyzed and put into a pie chart to show President-Elect Obama.  I hope.

On election night I had some friends over for an Election Night Vigil and Chile Party.  The vigil didn’t last that long. In fact, it was somewhat anti-climactic.  I had memories of the 2000 election that went on for months.  I didn’t think this one between That One and McCain would go on that long, but I thought it may last until 11 pm or so.  At least until after all the polls closed.

The one issue that was not settled by the end of the evening was Proposition 8, the ballot initiative in California that would actually CHANGE the constitution of the state to specifically deny the rights of same sex couples to marry.  And so Wednesday morning came, and the news that the proposition had in fact passed.  Seriously that dampened my joy at seeing Obama elected.

And so back to That One’s new website.  And my email.  Here is what I said:

Given the recent legislative initiatives banning same sex marriage in several states– including a change to the constitution of the state of California to legalize discrimination– I would like to see federal leadership on this issue. It is wrong to deny rights to any segment of our populace. I was dismayed with VP-elect’s answer to the question regarding same sex marriage in the debate. It sounds like we are arguing semantics but really, the issue is more than what we call it. It is an institution that is licensed and recognized by the government, and affords certain responsibilities and privileges to the parties involved. Call it what you like but it ought to be offered to any couple who wants to join and form a family.

For the record, I am not gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The fact that California (the state I called home until a couple of months ago) passed Proposition 8 makes me sick, and put a cloud over what should have been a grand night for our nation. I hope President-Elect Obama will take the lead and ensure that ALL citizens are afforded equal rights.

I hope you will join me in voicing your opinion and letting President-Elect Obama’s intern know what your concerns are. Whether you’re scared you’ll have to be working until you die because your 401K and your IRA are in the crapper, or you want the troops out of Iraq, or immigration policy that works…. or your kid gets cancer and you’re worried about hitting the lifetime cap on your healthcare plan.

Change is good, but only if we take full advantage of it.

You may remember a while back one of those internet jokes going around, The Homosexual Agenda:

6 am Gym

8 am Breakfast….  2 pm take over the world,  etc

pretty funny stuff.

What’s not so funny is the Anti-Homosexual Agenda. The folks pouring money into passing Proposition 8 in California. I hear the Mormon church has invested heavily in their Anti-homosexual Agenda….

Back in May of this year, the California Supreme Court overturned the ban on Gay Marriage.

California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban

By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 16, 2008

In a 4-3 decision, the justices rule that people have a fundamental ‘right to marry’ the person of their choice and that gender restrictions violate the state Constitution’s equal protection guarantee….READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE ONLINE–>

Before the Supreme Court had even dotted the last i on their decision, “They” (who are they anyway? and what are they so afraid of?) were rallying the troops and had at the ready a ballot measure, what is now Proposition 8, which will change the constitution of the state of California so that discriminating against same sex couples– specifically denying them the right to marry– will be perfectly legitimate.

Well this Saturday I will be attending a wedding.  Julie and Mirna are getting married. (Aren’t they cute!)

They are a terrific couple of women. They are both responsible, contributing, tax-paying members of society. They own their own home.  They are kind and generous people.

They deserve the same rights as everyone else.

I admit I am a little biased. Julie is my best friend.  But seriously, what’s the big deal?  How is their getting married harming anyone else?  If you have any questions, read the facts about why to vote NO on Prop 8. There is a lot of misinformation out there being spread by people that are ignorant, mean and just plain filled with fear.

It’s a shame that they feel like they need to get married NOW. In case Prop 8 passes, they hope they will be “grandfathered” in.

It’s my hope that Prop 8 fails.  I wish I’d kept my California residency just long enough to vote. Since I can’t, I’ll just encourage anyone who happens upon my blog to vote NO on Prop 8.

And just to make my point a little louder:

And if you get a chance, stop at a Hallmark store and pick up a wedding card to send to Julie and Mirna.

Acoma Pueblo sits atop a 367 foot sandstone bluff in high desert of New Mexico. Magical doesn’t really begin to describe what it is like to walk on land that people have been walking on since the 1100s.

Our guide (who you see in this photo– he kept backing into my viewfinder) was a charming young man who usually coordinates the tours but they were shorthanded so he pitched in. He kept having to look at his notes and seemed a little embarrassed, but he was very nice.

I can’t imagine people looking at this desert land and thinking it was a good place to build. It’s a harsh land. Heat in the summer, snow in winter, limited water. And yet, these pueblos are a testament to man’s ingenuity, and strength to not only live, but thrive in such a landscape.

Rather than take the bus down, Cassie and I opted to walk down. Yes, we could have taken the road… but didn’t realize until we were half way down the “path” that it was closer to rock climbing (down) than walking.

Here’s Cassie, leading the way. Me, I’m taking my time. Scooting on my butt when I have to, and I have a death grip on the handholds in the sandstone bluffs.

I stopped to look up and took this picture. It really doesn’t look as scary as it was.

The dark part in the center of the cliff is the “path” we took down.

I kept teasing Cassie, “Who’s idea was this anyway?” (it was Cassie’s but truth be told, I said, “Sure, let’s walk down.” I wanted to take pictures. Oh the sacrifices I make for my art!

You can see all my photos here:

No, this is not a post about McCain’s “that one” remark, or his refusal to shake hands….

It’s about gas prices in Albuquerque.

Not sure what prices are like at the gas stations in my old stomping grounds of San Diego– when I left in July they were nearing $4 per gallon. At Costco!

Things are sure different here:

Drivers line up for cheap gas

People in New Mexico and around the country are getting a break at the pump as oil prices plummet.

The average price of gas in Albuquerque hasn’t been at $2.85 for about a year. That’s why the Phillip’s 66 at Lowes in northwest Albuquerque is jam packed with people trying to save a few bucks.

People haven’t been this happy around a gas station for a long time.

CONTINUE READING–>

Of course the median income in New Mexico is something like $34,000/year

Let me first say, I love my job. I love the company I work for (go Arc-Zone.com) and my boss (who happens to also be the owner of the company) rocks. Thank god. ‘Cause if he didn’t I’d probably be fired.  I shared a little bit of news about one of our vendors that apparently they didn’t want made public.

Here’s the story….

One of my roles is Editor of two company blogs. My boss pretty much lets me blog about what I want, although he always has things to say also (great stories I wish he’d tell more of!).

Anyway, one of the ways I find things is by setting up Google Alerts. So, the other day I got an alert on one of my keywords– the vendor name– and I clicked to check out what was new on the world wide web and Hello! Vendor’s new website is posted online. Yeah, it was in a part of their website that probably wasn’t supposed to be public…. but I couldn’t resist. The new site looks a damn site better than what they have now….  and my boss actually approved this post.

Their current site is circa 1999 and created by someone’s high school kid, I can only assume, complete with an animated GIF of an American flag. It’s ghastly….

So I took a screen shot, edited out the location and posted a sneak peek.  I mentioned we were really excited to see the nice clean graphics, and some of the new features like the Help Me Choose The Right Thingamajig Tool, and we were eager for the launch…  

Were they excited about the publicity?  No.  Let me rephrase that. FUCK NO.

The first dude that called, a customer service manager or something said,

“Please remove the picture and details from the site that references our new site. We don’t want our competion to see what we are doing - we are not sure how you even got that.  When the time is right in Q4 we will do a press release. We don’t want any other news about it until then…”

Then the second dude called, someone higher up on the food chain. A big muckety-muck I believe is the official term.  He practically called my boss out, like he was gonna beat him up or something.  ”I want to talk to you man to man…   I’ll be looking for you at the show” he said, referencing a big trade show next week.  

Apparently all hell has broken loose in corporate America.  Not because of the financial crisis, but because of little ole me.  It was a big secret that they were building a new web page, and now their competition is going to know all about their big secret website.  A website that has been 4 years in the making, (and 10 years overdue in my estimation).

Thankfully my boss is backing me up–  even though he could totally throw me under the bus. But he’s not that kind of guy.  And hopefully he won’t come back from the show with a black eye.

and he’s actually playing in Albuquerque! Sunday, September 28, 2008. And I just bought myself a ticket!

David Byrne will be touring in support of his new album (made in collaboration with Brian Eno), Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. He will also be playing music from his previous collaborations with Eno, including three Talking Heads albums and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. David’s touring with a full band, including back-up singers and dancers.

I’ve wanted to see him live in concert ever since I saw the movie Stop Making Sense.

Why stop making sense? Why a movie? Why a big suit? Where do the odd movements come from? What will the band David Byrne do next? You can read his pseudo blog online — I say pseudo because he doesn’t allow comments on his posts (sigh). Do any celebs have blogs where they actually let folks post comments? In David Byrne’s defense (not that he needs one from me) at least it appears that he writes his own posts… and he calls it a journal, not a blog.

NOTE: for my San Diego friends, he will be playing at Humphrey’s (by the bay, on the water, one of the best places to see ANY artist play). For a list of / google map of David Byrne’s upcoming tour, check his website.

In noodling around the internet, I found this David Byrne quote from the film True Stories (which I have not seen):

I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don’t notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is.

Perhaps its because I write creative non-fiction, but this quote really speaks to me.

Did I mention I think David Byrne is a musical genius? let me amend that– David Byrne is an artistic genius. Can you imagine him at a dinner party?? how cool would that be?

So I’m puttin’ it out there…. David Byrne, if you’re listening you are totally invited to my house for dinner. I can’t guarantee that I won’t get all tongue tied and make an ass of myself, but I make a mean pozole!

‘Tis old news by now, but I had a bit ‘o fun talkin’ like a pirate for me work, and I wanted to share with me hearties.

Over on me work blogs ’tis weld like a pirate day, Avast:
www.CarmenElectrode.com
www.JoeWelder.com

What’s really awesome is that I can do something like that at work because me boss rocks! I was asked to guest blog at a manufacturers website…. and shiver me timbers if the scurvy lubbers didn’t take me post and clean the saucy prose out of it as it went up the corporate ladder for approval.

Starting in January 2006 I started blogging for SanDiegoBlog.com. It was a community blog run by my dear friend Joe Crawford (one of the smartest guys I know). I blogged off and on for almost 2 years. The ads he had running on the site pretty much paid for hosting– his hope was that if it ever started to make money he would construct some sort of profit sharing, but it hadn’t come to that yet. No forms were signed, just kind of a internet hand-shake.

Joe, being the smart guy that he is, sold the blog. It was the wise thing to do. He had moved to Simi Valley with his lovely Leah Peah (another dear friend) and wanted to focus his energies on his new life up north.

Unfortunately he sold it to a guy that (1) has cluttered up the site with ads; (2) never ever emailed me (or any of the other regular or occasional bloggers that I am aware of) to introduce himself or to ask me (or any of us) to continue writing -or not and (3) there’s no info about him or about the site on the site– a personal pet peeve of mine especially if this is a business, which clearly it is.

And so my words are making him money (keyword based ad revenue). It ticks me off every time I get a notification of a comment– usually a SPAM comment– on one of my old posts. (Note I have not contributed to the blog since October 2007).

SO, since I can’t delete even my own posts, I edited them all…. they are now blank. Nothing more than empty (keyword free) space under some pretty catchy titles (if I do say so myself). Note my personal favorite title was “Oooo eeee” (for you Justin Wilson Cajun’ Cook Fans) to announce a Cajun Music and Food Fest taking place in San Diego.

My most commented post ever (47, baby) was “Wake Up San Diego”

Your city planners are trying to enact an Oversize Vehicle Ordinance (OVO) that will affect ALL citizens of San Diego. ALL vehicles over 7 feet high and or over 22 feet long, ALL utility trailers, and ALL recreational vehicles would be prohibited from overnight parking on city streets. Recreational vehicles, as defined, could park overnight up to 72 times per year only with a valid permit issued by the city. The San Diego business community will be drastically affected as the OVO includes street parking in industrial areas.

Note to any potential commenters on this issue, it is dead, decided, and I no longer live in or near San Diego so it’s not my issue anymore.

My personal favorite post was “Is San Diego a Literary / Artistic Wasteland”

Maybe I’m just naive. Maybe I just like Rich Baiocco. And maybe, just maybe, San Diego does have an arts community… and maybe, just maybe you have to open your eyes and look around. It’s there. Like Winter in San Diego its subtle, but it’s there.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the interview with UCSD’s Lit professor / poet Eileen Myles (she’s ready to move to LA because San Diego isn’t gritty hip enough for her):

Alone in San Diego: Gritty New York poet Eileen Myles struggles with life and work in a shiny, happy city by Emma Silvers

and local writer Rich Baiocco’s response via BlogSanDiego, I, Necrophiliac

So, SanDiegoBlog readers…. you know where I stand, so I put it to you. Is there art in San Diego? Can you be an on the edge, over the edge, standing on the ledge artist in San Diego?

That one didn’t draw as many comments –only 8– but it did get picked up by The Reader. And I got paid for it!

So all in all I don’t regret the time and words I spent at San Diego Blog, but it really would have been nice if the new owner had made some sort of effort to either keep the community going, or let us know what his plans were for the blog….

So, instead of taking Joe’s advice, “You might even offer up constructive criticism of the site to him, rather than go in with guns blazing,” I just deleted all my words, killed my darlings as it were…..
I am now free to be as noted on the tags (see right column) of this very blog…. or participate more on Duke City Fix — a true community blog / social network site for people that dig life in Albuquerque… or, hey, do my homework! write my book! (grad school update coming up next)

or do another bad bad thing….