Happy Anniversary

Bad Mood Rising

VDH wonders about California's Groundhog day:

Our poor state is $14 billion plus now in the red, and the Governator has promised no new taxes, wise inasmuch as our sales and income taxes are already among the highest in the country. The University of California system is panicking and sending out emails to us alums, to march en masse on Sacramento for redress!

But lost in the furor is any self-reflection, such as why would UC Davis recently pay John Edwards, multimillionaire trial lawyer, $50,000 plus to give a brief lecture on poverty? Such questions are never answered, much less raised, since the problem is always framed as a matter of a shortage of income, never a surfeit of unnecessary expenditure.

We in California, given the past budget implosions, know the script to follow. We expect that police, fire, prisons, parks etc will be threatened with cut-backs and closure while the state-funded "Center for this" and the "Department of that" will remain untouched, since cutting the essential while protecting the politically-correct superfluous is the only way to scare the voter and achieve higher taxes.

At some point we Californians should ask ourselves, how we inherited a state with near perfect weather, the world's richest agriculture, plentiful timber, minerals, and oil, two great ports at Los Angeles and Oakland, a natural tourist industry from Carmel to Yosemite, industries such as Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and aerospace—and serially managed to turn all of that into the nation's largest penal system, periodic near bankruptcy, and sky-high taxes.

I suspect that there can be no meaningful compromise in the capitol...not when Democrats in the legislature long to increase taxes and the Governor--for whatever it's worth--keeps saying he won't do such a thing as Hanson points out. So now what?

In the meantime, real estate continues to take it on the chin--the house next door has been on the market for over a year and the owner can't unload it even with a fire-sale sticker of $289,000.

I'm upside down to the tune of $30-$40K on mine, revenues are way down yr-to-yr at work and my income for '07 was down a cool 10% from '06 while the outlook for '08 is no better.

So yes, now what?

Happy Birthday to Me!

On the plus side, I share the day with Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Ramano, Comedian Andy Dick and Television tough-guy Kiefer Sutherland.

On the down side...how 'bout Josef Stalin. Oy...

Soundtrack of Youth

Well...not exactly, though their music will always remind of High School and College. Caught it this morning and enjoyed the short, entertaining ride to a long-ago past.

Sanity Returns

Along with my hour...

Where does the time go?

Tomorrow is 15 years. Has it really been that long?

Of a different magnitude

Having survived Maliburn '85 and watched it's repeat in 1993, I'm somewhat sceptical of headlines like this:

Wildfire threatens Pepperdine University...

That is until I started to read. This is already in less than one short day well beyond any previous episodes that I recall:

The blaze had charred at least 1,000 acres, or more than a square mile. Wind that gusted as high as 65 mph carried embers across the Pacific Coast Highway, closing the popular road and setting fire to cars and trees in the parking lot of a shopping center where several stores were damaged.

Television news video showed several other buildings also in flames in the area, including clusters of beach-side homes.

Flames consumed the landmark Castle Kashan, a stately fortress-like home with turrets and arched windows, as about a dozen residents watched from across a street. Chunks of brick fell from the exterior of the burning building overlooking the coast.

...

Erratic wind gusts hampered efforts to drop water from aircraft and pushed flames toward HRL Laboratories, commonly known as Hughes Lab, a research and engineering facility jointly owned by Boeing Co. and General Motors Corp. about a mile north of Pepperdine. One outbuilding caught fire, Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball said.

Flames engulfed Malibu Presbyterian Church, which had been evacuated, said youth pastor Eric Smith. “That’s the really good news, that everyone’s out and safe,” Smith said.

In addition, high winds have carried burning embers to the beach-side of the Coast Highway reportedly leading to the burning of several beach-side homes and damage to retail buildings and cars at a shopping center across the highway.

The Castle and Malibu Presbyterian Church both sit on the beach-side of Malibu Canyon road as it runs out of the canyon and begins it's descent to PCH. Both have sat there as landmarks for decades. I'm amazed at the thought they are now gone.

In past episodes such as this LA County firefighters have always dug in at the top of the University which sits carved into a horseshoe in the hillside. There in 1985 and in other years, firefighters waited for the fire to move over and down the hills, killing it before it could damage any of the University structures. With the recently finished Graziadio School of Business now sitting on that hillside, I'm wondering exactly how they'll approach the University's protection.

Video of the Fire Dept. newsconference earlier this afternoon is avaialable here.

I'm the King of the World!

Er, I'm running the shop. Haven't a clue what I'm doing but we'll see what happens...

Irish Coffee

Liquor, coffee and whipped cream...what's not to love!?

Still more Scenes from the Mini-Vacation

A stone's throw from the Hotel (literally, you could throw one into the grove) is a bird sanctuary, this area hosting Blue Herons.

As I walked down to the water to shoot the Rock, these guys caught my eye.

A quick turn of the head to the left and I was greeted with this shot, a multitude of nests high in the numerous trees.

While staring out at the Rock and taking it all in for several minutes, it was as though they all realized it was now dinner time and began an orderly departure in pairs to points North of the Hotel.

Happy Birthday to Me!

More Scenes from the Mini-Vacation

Scenes from the Mini-Vacation

Morro Rock at sunset from the Hotel parking lot.

Breakfast at the Village Coffee Stop Cafe

Yum...there are worse ways to start your Saturday.

"I want a new rep"

Advertising is, at it's heart, a business about relationships. Everything we do helps or hurts our working relationships. When our working relationships are good, problems are few but when problems are many, it's entirely too likely that the relationship isn't as good as it ought to be.

Sometimes those relationships end. An account leaves or, at the extreme, you cut them off. Or, occasionally, an advertiser requests new blood. That happened to me this morning.

I only caught two things as the conversation was ongoing; 1. my name and 2. "I want a new rep." With my dander already up, I inquired of my manager exactly what was going on.

When I learned the specifics of which account it was I offered gladly to turn it over. In my mind I already had the file put together and ready for handing over to the next unsuspecting slob.

Then I got angry; these people have been nothing but difficult for the entire time I've called on them. They routinely find ways to slow-pay, under-pay and not pay at all. They want a new rep?! They can have a new rep.

They want a new rep? Well, I want a new advertiser. One that doesn't send us the wrong copy then blame us for running the wrong ad.

I want a new advertiser. One that doesn't demand we write off more than half the money we've billed in the last 12 months.

They want a new rep!? I want a new advertiser. One that pays their bills...on time. Or even at all.

They want a new rep...? Don't get me started.

Life > Blogging

And will be that way for I-don't-know-how-long. See you when I don't know when...

What does 'Minimally Involved' mean?

That's my line. Numerous people have asked exactly how involved will I be at the shop. My answer is nearly always the same.

This is a four-person deal, yes but only two are working full-time and I am not either of them. "I'm minimally involved."

My employer asks how much might this endeavor potentially interfere with your work here? "It won't. I'm minimally involved."

Sim wonders what I'll be doing. "I'll be in on the decision making but won't do much of the day-to-day stuff...I'm minimally involved."

Friends have asked similar questions. You guessed it; "I'm minimally involved."

So what exactly does that phrase mean? For as easy as it rolls off the tongue, it's rather vague.

Well, on Opening Night at least, it meant that I was the guy at the shop 'til 10:45 working with the IT guy getting the computer systems up and running.

I'm minimally involved, yes.

Business Lesson #2

When you think you've spotted someone in the act of shoplifting, stop them.

Open for Business

Months in the planning and weeks in process, with our persistence and determination, faithful friends, no help from Oliviera's and the Grace of God, Avenue Flower Shop opened it's doors on H Street in Lompoc on Thursday, March 1.

My Dogs are Smarter (Or, Prove your love with Cheese)

Small bite-size pieces of cheese are often suggested as training treats for puppies and even as rewards for adult dogs. While training Lacy we went with something less up-scale than the finest block of Tillamook cheddar that money could buy.

The theory was that actual "dog treats" were a healthier choice and would promote fewer bad habits (shameless begging highest on the list). Sadly, that hasn't been the case.

It was my wife who first introduced the puppies to the joys of cheese. Over time we've reached the point now that any trip to the kitchen produces the look: that mix of expectation and rapturous joy. The one that wonders if now is the moment; the one that says "Mommy's getting cheese!"

Earlier tonight as occasionally happens I was volunteered for KP duty as Assistant to the Cook. Tonight's assignment: grate the cheese. Which of course becomes near-impossible once the dogs figure out what's on the menu.

I like to spoil the puppies...to a point. But every so often I wonder how we got to this place where it seems impossible to show them love in any way other than with a 1-pound block of Cheddar.