Saturday, January 24, 2009

What keyboard key am I?

OK, so I'm a little bored tonight. I was rearranging my blog and started clicking on some favorite places to hang out. As I went through the first few links I discovered that either some of them were dead links or that they were places I hadn't visited in a while. Here's one of them (and so was the last post). This one, however, is kind of a weird idea. How could a keyboard key be representative of someone's personality? So naturally I took the little quiz and here's what it said, which was actually quite accurate I think. The part about not being normal sounded right, as well as the "influenced by alternative lifestyles." That might account for the part about living in Japan for a few years.

But, the best part of all was the reference to the knowledge stored in my "big brain. . .but most of it useless." So true, so true.



You Are "alt"



Some people might find you to be strange, mysterious, and even a bit off putting.
You tend to be drawn to and influenced by alternative lifestyles. You're definitely not normal.
Once people get to know you, they realize you're interesting, intriguing, and very intelligent.
You have a lot of knowledge stored in that big brain of yours. Most of it is useless knowledge, but some of it is very useful.

Really?




You Belong in the Baby Boomer Generation



You fit in best with people born between 1943 and 1960.
You are optimistic, rebellious, and even a little self centered.
You still believe that you will change the world.
You detest authority and rules. Deep down, you're a non conformist.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

One way to celebrate!

Tomorrow's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. If I may take the liberty of borrowing his famous words: "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God I'm free at last.

As much as I'd love to experience what it's like to be free to take flight like a bird, there's NO WAY I'd try this!!!! How about you?


wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Chance of purrs with intermittent pets

German Weatherman Joerg Kachelmann never skipped a beat when studio kitty Lupin needed some affection.

Bargain travel destination?

According to The New York Times, "Sin City's lucky streak, it seems, has gone sour."

Unemployment in Las Vegas has reached 7.9 percent and bargains are everywhere, but who cares about bargain hotel rates when people are losing their jobs by the thousands? Layoffs are imminent or already underway at most of the hotels, including the one where J works. If she's lucky, she'll be up high enough on the extra board to continue working, but will have to call in every day to see if they need her. She could be called to work any of the three shifts, which means she'll never be on any specific sleep schedule. How can people be expected to do that?!!

January 2008 served up the fire that laid everyone off for over a month at the Monte Carlo, and before that it was the devastating 9/11 layoffs. What ever happened to the certainty of our parents' generation when they knew they would have a job for life if they wanted it, even when there were economic downturns? Or maybe that's just a figment of my imagination. Maybe people have never had any job certainty. . .

All of this job uncertainty is making 2009 seem pretty dismal already. On top of that, I'm sure the crime rate is going up. Thieves targeted T's "vintage" Camaro Thursday night--incompetent car thieves who only managed to steal the T-top sunroof and car cover, and tear out some wiring under the dashboard. It was the night of his birthday. Totally bummed him out. He filed a police report and posted notices around the neighborhood about the crime, but within hours all the notices had been torn down. No doubt the thieves live right here, and probably drive by our house a few times a day. Nice.

(Their truck had already been burglarized, and the built-in TV stolen a couple of years ago, and then since I've been here, someone did another moronic attempt at stealing it but only managed to mutilate the lock on the driver's side. This is why auto insurance in Las Vegas is among the most expensive anywhere in the U.S.)

Things with my job haven't been going so great either. When our academic director left a couple of months ago, I applied and was selected to be the acting AD until a decision could be made. After six weeks of teaching full time and doing the AD job half time--but not getting the AD pay or knowing when, if ever, they would actually hire me permanently for the job--I withdrew my application. Things have been deteriorating rapidly since then, but only in the past week did I find out they had no intention of hiring anyone because our student numbers have been falling. Our students come from all over the world, and the entire world is experiencing a dramatic economic downturn. While I think the school will probably survive, it's not going to be easy. I'm the most senior teacher, so if I get laid off, that means the school closes completely.

I hope, for everyone's sake, that things turn around quickly once Obama takes office, but I don't see how they could. We should all be asking how this mess happened in the first place! Why was there so much unaccountability within the financial sector ? Why was the SEC asleep on the job? For a lot more info about how this happened and what's ahead, check out The Big Picture.

For now, however, the world is focused on Gaza, and rightfully so, but it seems that every time congress starts turning up the heat and asking questions about how this meltdown took place, some other world event intervenes. We may never get any real answers, and in the meantime millions, maybe hundreds of millions, of people around the world are losing their jobs, their homes, and any hope for the future.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Just for giggles

Nora has been playing the piano since she was one year old. She's now four and very famous on YouTube, with over 16 million hits!