This hits too close to home

I usually don't post so often, but I just had to post this.

It comes from the website garfield minus garfield, a website that is "dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

So from this site, I give you this comic. It reminds me of me ... and my blog.

Here’s to a better half of 2009

Sunday (July 5) is my first day off in five days and my last one for at least the next seven, but probably longer. I’m grateful to be working however.

… First the bad news; big shock coming from me, I know.

We’ve entered a new fiscal quarter at work and surprise, surprise, there was another announcement. Vacation accrual will be on hold for another three months and everyone has to take a week off, paid this time if you have the vacation hours.

So, the news isn’t all that bad; well for me it isn’t. I’m capped on vacation hours so I can take a week off, no big deal. Unfortunately, there are some of my co-workers that don’t have enough hours to take a full paid week off. For them, they will have to furlough the rest of the time.

I had been expecting a pay cut or layoffs like many other co-workers. So this news is best case scenario.

… Work is busy to say the least. As written earlier, I’m in the middle of an agonizing stretch with an overtime shift to boot. So basically, one day off in about 14 days.

The good news with that is overtime. I worked the Fourth of July holiday so I get OT plus holiday so it’s getting paid for 6 ½ days for five days. This week, I’ll get paid for the same for working six days, however.

With the forced vacation coming up, I might be able to go somewhere.

… The Press-Telegram’s union has reached a deal with the LANG over the transfer of union employees over a year ago, me being included in that.

After fighting and fighting, the union was able to win its case over the group to the NLRB. What the means to us is the group has to pay for the extra mileage they made us drive. For others they will get money for the extra day care they had to pay for.

So soon, I’ll have extra money, and any extra money is always welcomed.

… Well, let’s talk about something work related. I’ve started up my website to keep my writing, designing and video portfolio online so I always have my stuff ready to show at a moment’s notice.

In trying to set myself apart from the pack, I felt a website was a good way to do that. As I’m trying to move out of the industry into something more public relationsish, I figure the best way I can show I can sell something is to prove I can sell myself.

So on there I have 12 stories, a couple of designs plus Photoshop work and the two videos I’ve edited together.

I had to go to CSULB and log on to its academic search engines there to find my stories. I also got a little help from a friend in Riverside to help complete the task. Once I got the stories, I was able to make .pdfs on Word when I got home.

For those interested in starting a website, here is what I did. I signed up with Go Daddy and got a domain name. I also paid for a serviced called Website Tonight that not only hosts my website, it allows me to edit it without using html coding – something I still want to learn. I expect the service to cost about $75 a year.

It was easy at times, hard at others. I was up until 5 a.m. on the first night setting it up, up until 4 the next night getting all the stories, pictures and video set up. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty simple.

Hopefully, this will lead to something good. I just hope it happens before the next quarter because you just never know.

What I miss and what I gain

I’ve reached 100 pages of blogs on this Microsoft Word document. Never had someone had so much to say to so few readers.

… There are many things about the industry I work in that I don’t like. The co-workers I have are not the problem.

In fact, if you talk to anyone that has ever worked in any newsroom they will tell you the people you work with make the job worth it. The reason is because you never know what is going to be said next at any given time; whether a computer crashed, someone on the phone is an upset reader or someone just phrasing something incorrectly, it’s always a good time.

When I found the website overheardinthenewsroom.com it brought back a flood of memories. The site is pretty explanatory from the URL. (And if you decide to go to the site, beware, it’s not for kids.)

When you think about it, you collect a group of people that write or copy edit stories under constant deadline pressure and you’re going to have some sharp responses.

So I had all these great moments rush back to me while I’m on the site. I kind of wish this site existed when I began my journalism career because I know there would be so many moments that would be saved on there.

… One of those people that could have had his own section was my friend James. No matter the situation, he had the right response for it.

I think my favorite moment was when a golf fan was upset there were no golf results in the paper. James was really patient with him and, of course, when can only hear what James is saying and left to imagine what this caller is saying to him.

But at one point we did because of how James replied. For those that didn’t know him, he was in a wheelchair and never let that limitation stop him from achieving anything. (He did more than me, an “able bodied person.”)

So the caller must have asked James if he had ever played golf. James calmly said, “No, I don’t play golf. I’m in a wheelchair.”

Everyone in the office just started to laugh at that. After James got off the phone we asked about that caller’s response to that answer. “He was stunned. He wasn’t expecting that.”

On Friday, June 26, it will be one year that he passed away.

He was one of my best friends and incredibly he considered me one of his despite having only known me for only two years. James is the kind of friend everyone needs. Someone that will listen to you, help you out, but at the same time not be afraid to put you in your place if you needed it.

I still have the e-mail telling me to call his mom who would let me know that James had died marked as unread. I’ve read the e-mail, but a glitch on the server never marked me reading it. So there it sits, unread, mainly because I can’t believe it even though it has been a year.

His death was really the first time I experienced death to someone close to me. I’d always considered myself fortunate up until that point that I never really lost someone close to me. My grandfather passed away in 2002, but I never felt close to him, mainly because it was my fault.

More than nine months later I would lose my mother so it’s been a trying year for me.

But I know they are helping me now. I know I have angels watching over me, helping me, my friends and family when they can. They’ve blessed me when they can, especially recently, and I am grateful.

I miss James every day and know he’s doing his best now to help everyone he knows.

… One of the horrible hazards of what I do for a living is missing out on things, and in spite of all that has happened, I still let work control me more than I should.

I called my father on Father’s Day. He was home with four of my sisters visiting him. He prepared lunch for the family that was there.

No matter what I’ve gone through over the past 15 months, it pales to what my father has had to go through.

So on this Father’s Day, I see my father in a new light. For no matter what has been taken for him, his faith has carried him on.

It’s a strength that has always been there, I’ve just never seen it until now. His determination to be strong for the family is praiseworthy.

While I know it hurts like I can’t imagine and when he talks about it he cries, he knows to give up would be disrespectful to my mother.

He also knows that his children love him and that there is nothing we wouldn’t do for him.

So he knows his mission in life isn’t over. There is more that he will do in honor of my mother and I know my mother will watch over him.

I went on the fly-fly

I’m still happy. That’s really all you need to know for now.

…I flew home for the first time in years as opposed to the usual drive. I was partly tired of driving and didn’t want to put any more miles on my car than I had too. Plus, I’ve never flown JetBlue or out of Long Beach.

So on the plane ride up, I was able to experience all that JetBlue had to offer. The DirecTV was pretty cool, but I enjoyed the XM radio more. I just wished it had comedy channels.

The first night was pretty simple. My father stayed with us in San Leandro and we went to dinner.

The next day I drove my father back to the farm and my sister followed an hour or so later. From there we took our dad into town for a doctor’s appointment. We got lunch and picked up his medication then drove him back home. He said he wanted to stay home just to take care of the plants.

That night, I attended my first Giants game at AT&T Park. My brother-in-law suggested we bike ride to the game, sort of. We rode to the BART station – about two to three miles away from their house – then rode to the stadium. Now, I spent some of the time looking around sightseeing while he was jamming to the stadium. So I had to catch him. I had a good time and, of course, the Giants won. And yes, I would do that again.

The next morning my sister and I drove back to the valley to attend a swim meet in Oakdale where my niece and nephew from Turlock were competing in.

Before that, we stopped off and picked up my dad. Then we went Tracy and visit my mother. We brought her some fresh flowers and cleaned up the older ones.

After the swim meet – where I saw my niece and nephew win a couple of their heats – we went to Turlock for dinner then went back to the Bay Area. The next day I flew home and went straight to work.

So now my sister in San Leandro is now asking me: When are you coming back?

… While I was in Northern California, I was near my K-8 school. Coincidentally, it was at the same time they were closing down the school.

Since 1972, Delta Island was a school that served a wide area of students. Before it opened, there were many smaller schools. My older sisters attended such a school. Then Delta Island opened and all the students from the smaller school funneled to there.

My family was a big part of that school. It’s where all my siblings and I received their eighth grade diploma. And, of course, I was the last family member to attend that school in 1992.

One of my sisters asked me why I made such a big deal about it (I started an alumni page on Facebook). In a way, she was right; I really didn’t care much about that school. However, no matter what I thought about that school, I knew it served a purpose.

Now that it is closed, all the migrant parents will have to send their children further away for their education. They’ll have to hope as well that their child or children don’t get sick because it will be a further drive into town to pick them up.

When I heard about the school closing, I thought about what if I was still attending school. What would have my parents done?

I think about that and wonder how parents of the former Delta Island are going to deal with it.

… For those of you that have yet to check out “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” you need to do so.

I think his cold opening to begin his reign as host was perfectly suited for him; from the premise to the music selection. I’ve caught all the replays on hulu and like what I see so far. I plan on attending a taping sometime this summer, if I can ever get my hands on some tickets.