Hey, I remember you

I just finished up a three-day weekend; during an actual weekend no less.

... Before I go to Mexico with my father, there will be another trip we take.

I called him a week ago, as I usually do, and he told me he would be coming to Southern California sometime in August. I need to take time off and asked him when he was thinking about coming down.

Then it hit me. I asked him in Spanish, “Want to go to Las Vegas?”

Kind of to my surprise he said yes.

So, I went to work and found a room for us at Bally’s, at the heart of the strip. The room came with coupons and vouchers for restaurants around that area and two tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower at Paris which is located right there.

In fact, I’m going to attempt to give him a world trip all there: Paris, Rome with Caesar’s Palace and New York, New York. I also plan on taking him to Hoover Dam.

Heat is a concern of mine, but I think that if we just stay in air conditioned places and just look around, we’ll be fine. As for gaming, I’m sure he’ll just stick to the slots which may mean a trip to downtown, but we’ll see.

It should be fun.

… Just when I thought my new cell phone couldn’t be any more fun, it is.

With the addition of Bluetooth headphones, it becomes as close to having my computer with me at all times. Not only that, but it also can make and receive phone calls too with a better quality than my current headset.

With my songs already loaded into the Micro SD card, listening to them now is much more enjoyable. And, if I ever want to watch a video without bothering anyone around me, I can.

Now, if I can just get that headset to work on my computer.

… I’ve been on facebook for about a year and a half. During that time I’ve primarily used it for sharing youtube videos, interesting photos and other mundane stuff. Until two weeks ago, I never really thought much more of it.

I’ve lived in Southern California for 13 years now. It’s easier for me to lose contact with friends all the way up to high school since I moved half a state away. My friends down here, for the most part, don’t really have to do a search to find long lost friends because their family has remained in the area.

I, along with another friend, had been searching for a long lost co-worker of ours from the Daily 49er newspaper. The last time I had heard from him was by e-mail. Then two weeks ago, I woke up and saw an e-mail with the information of a long lost friend on facebook. In no time, I added him and he accepted. Finally the Daily 49er’s Holy Trinity had returned.

I had contacted another long lost friend – one from the second grade. The last time I had truly spoken to him was when I was a freshman in college. Thanks to another friend who coaxed him into joining facebook, I don’t think I would’ve gotten a hold of him.

I would get a hold of two more people and in the span of about 30 hours would communicate with four people I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for facebook. It was nice to hear from people and catch up with what they have been doing.

The big question asked three of the four times was: So what happened? Each answer is not simple. Most of it is recounting things that are painful – to thy own self be true. However, each time, there was a greater sense of hope in each story and that things have been better ever since.

The important thing is that the last four friends I added wondered like I wondered, what happened to this person. In some way, our mark was made with someone and it was not easily forgettable regardless of the time.

Yes, there were changes from the last time I talked with them. At the same time, it was like nothing changed when I talked to them.

It’s all but official

I just realized I’m too old for Slush Puppies. I had the worst brain freeze ever. It was so bad I needed to stop the air conditioner and roll down the windows as I drove out of Bakersfield with the temperature at 110 degrees.

… So why has the Beckham experiment failed?

About 34 years ago, soccer in the United States was saved – despite the eventual death of the North American Soccer League – by Pele. He was able to draw large crowds for his New York Cosmos club, home and away.

He was also paid an absurd amount of money for a professional athlete at the time. Where Hank Aaron was the highest paid player in baseball at under half a million dollars, Pele would earn well over a million.

Current Galaxy star David Beckham drew in big crowds for his first season in Major League Soccer and signed what is reported to be five years at $250 million.

That’s where the similarities end.

After Pele’s first season with the Cosmos and even after his retirement, the Cosmos were still able to fill Giants Stadium (with its 78,000 seats) to near, if not complete capacity for years to come. The Galaxy still have a hard time filling up the Home Depot Center that seats about 27,000.

The main problem the Galaxy are struggling with and the Cosmos never had to worry about was a salary cap. With a contract as big as his, it’s hard to field a team with quality players. Besides Landon Donovan, can you name another, current, Galaxy player? Therein lies the problem of why the Galaxy can’t win.

When the Cosmos built the team, they were able to bring in top quality international players. After Pele, they brought in Girogio Chinaglia from Italy, Franz Beckenbauer from Germany and another Brazilian named Carlos Alberto. This was a soccer club more than 20 years ahead of its time.

Of course, the Cosmos would eventually be run into the ground to the high salaries and other financial troubles their parent company Warner Communications that caused the end of the club and the league.

Ultimately, MLS and the Galaxy will survive because of that salary cap. Beckham, however, is no Pele.

… I’m now locked into a contract with AT&T Wireless for another two years now that I have a new cell phone.

It is a Samsung Impression and to paraphrase MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre, I am impressed with its performance.

The Impression is a world phone that also has GPS and a touch screen. It takes pretty good pictures and the Internet can play videos; the quality is not so good, but it gets the job done.

It is not a smart phone like my last phone, however, but I think I can do without it.

This is the first time I’m under contract with AT&T since my contract ended in 2006. That’s when I had an LG phone (that was garbage) die on me while I still had a few months left on the contract. I bought a phone without a contract then more than a year later I was given a Samsung Blackjack by my friend James. However, it was time for a change and I wanted something cool. I’m happy with this phone.

… I talked to my father recently and got around to the subject about his trip to Mexico in October. I reaffirmed to him my wanting to go.

He wants to go for three weeks. My two of my sisters that are going with him and I are now up to figure out when we are going to be with him since we can only spend a week at a time with him. We are also trying to figure out a time, when possible, to spend some overlap time with the siblings and our dad.

When I told my father I wanted to go, he told me that I should go first with him. My sister would tell me later, he wants to show you around, which I have no problem with.

From what I understand, his trip will be in two parts, a week or so in Mexico City and the rest of the time in his – and my mom’s – home state of Jalisco. Going first means I won’t be able to go to Jalisco, but that is a miniscule disappointment.

So, I’m going to the homeland of my parents in October. When I have a date hammered down, I’ll buy my ticket and I’ll be there letting my father taking me around Mexico City.

I’m excited and I’m just under three months away from that trip.

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.