Guarding Guitars
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Posted:May 25, 2009 12:50 am
Last Updated:May 25, 2009 12:51 am
6741 Views
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A couple of months ago, my security company stopped giving out overtime assignments. It seems they've had an influx of employees, and they have more people than they have assignments for. This is a savings for them, since most pay a certain amount for the services of a guard, and they get the same amount whether they're paying the guard straight time or overtime, so obviously they're losing money when they have to pay overtime.
This last weekend was an exception, as they seem to have had enough special assignments that they had overtime to pass out.
I ended up with a special assignment. I went to a Guitar Center, and kept an eye on 3 guitars in display cases. All three had been purchased by Guitar Center at an auction at Christie's some years ago (as part of a special auction for a foundation owned by Eric Clapton), and are now a part of a traveling display that they have.
The cheapest was called "Lenny". It was originally bought at a pawn shop by Stevie Ray Vaughn's wife, Lenore. It's valued at over $350,000. The second was one of Clapton's--an original ES-335 by Gibson that Clapton played regularly from 1973 through 1988. It cost Guitar Center $750,000 at the auction. The third was called "Blackie". It also belonged to Clapton, who bought six guitars at a shop in Nashville back in 1964 and had them all shipped back to England. Once home, he selected parts that he liked best--the body of one, the neck from another, and the pickups from a third, and re-assembled from the parts a unique electric guitar, now valued at over $1,000,000.
I just thought this was all terribly interesting and wanted to share it with someone.
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Watchmen
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Posted:Mar 14, 2009 2:36 am
Last Updated:Jan 7, 2014 4:52 am
7219 Views
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I'm such a freak on the subject I just had to publish my opinion on the subject.
Quibbles. That's about all I can make is quibbles. It would have been nice to have included information about where Rorshak's mask came from, but since that was one of the most artificial parts of the book, it's probably just as well that it was ignored.
I'd have prefered Dylan's own versions of "All Along the Watchtower" and "Desolation Row", but then, I've heard that Dylan himself prefered Hendrix' arrangement, so who am I to quibble? I was also delighted at the inclusion of a couple of Leonard Cohen songs. I've become such a Cohen freak in recent years.
So many pieces of it are, to me, letter perfect, that I can't fault the missing pieces. In one of the reviews, they indicate that a Director's Cut, with an additional 25 minutes, will be in the theatres in June, and the DVD of the "Black Freighter" will be out in a couple of weeks, but neither of these are necessary to the main story, which struck me as being startlingly complete.
But then, I have to admit that I'm too close to the source to be able to see the film as anything but an extention of the original. If there's anything lacking in the storytelling, I can't see it.
I actually prefer this version of the ending. It's the kind of self-referential piece that the original story needed, but lacked.
Performances: no complaints whatsoever, with special praise for Jackie Earl Haley's Rorshak and Kovaks. Both letter perfect. Trying to express my pleasure at the list of small performances that were great would take too long.
If there were any weak notes, the treatment of Nixon might be considered one. What we see on the screen is more of a caricature than a realistic interpretation. But, as I said when I started, that's a quibble.
The showing I attended was only about 40% full. Possibly due to the fact that it was a Friday morning show. I'm intensely curious to see what kind of audiences this draws. Lord knows that this film has received enough advance hype that it should have reached its target audience, but it remains to be seen if this can bring in the general audience who has no idea what the source material was. I was at a bookstore a week ago, and couldn't believe the number of supplementary books that have been released in conjunction with the release of the film, but we don't get to expect to see any Burger King give aways for this film.
Interesting also is the fact that this follows in the wake of Dark Knight Returns, which probably wouldn't have existed without the existence of the original material, or Miller's Dark Knight. Watchmen and Dark Knight had such an impact on the field at the time that it's hard to determine now what the field would have been like without them.
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Real Content!
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Posted:Mar 9, 2009 2:16 pm
Last Updated:Mar 14, 2009 12:19 am
6386 Views
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I know that there hasn't been anything in here for a long time about anything real that's been going on with me.
But that just means that it has accurately reflected the way my life has been..... work, come home, play on the computer, sleep, get up, work...... repeat cycle as needed. The only thing going on in my life really, is work, and there's just no point in wasting energy here bitching about what an incompetent manager my boss is. You'd get bored real quickly.
This last weekend broke the cycle. It started off Friday morning (my day off) when I got up to see an 11:10 AM show of the movie I've waited over 20 years for...Watchmen. I really liked it. I have a few quibbles, but nothing serious. I'd be glad to publish a review if I thought anybody was paying attention.
Then I went to play cards Friday night, and was the big winner in the game I played. This was followed by dinner with a couple of friends, which included some revelations about my xgf to indicate that she is at least consitent in her inconsistency.
Saturday was a work day, because I'd agreed to take the Saturday morning shift for a co-worker who'd gone out of state for her father's birthday. The was a project going on, and my boss's boss's boss was there relating to me how he'd come down on my boss for her incompetence in communication about a minor event that had occured Friday morning. Very satisfying to me to see that management is aware how hopeless she is.
Saturday night, I check my cell phone to make sure that the phone has adapted to daylight savings time by itself, and discover that I'd had a phone call from a friend I'd made at a previous account, asking if I wanted to go to a movie on Saturday with him. Nice of him to think of me, even if I hadn't gotten the call.
Sunday is a work day again, and I find an email from someone I hadn't heard from for years who knew that I'd been a big fan of the Watchmen graphic novel and wanting to know what I thought of the movie. A pleasant email exchange followed. Later that day a co-worker came in who'd seen the film and without any familiarity with the graphic novel, had been favorably impressed. My impression is that the film is going over well, even with those who weren't already familiar with it.
Sunday night was user for another card game, and I was big winner again.
After I got home, late last night, I actually checked out my home page here, and discovered I'd been getting flirts from women from all over the world. I haven't figured out what that's about, but I do appreciate the attention. Now if I could only figure out a way to establish some form of communication with them, without having to spend money to upgrade my membership.........
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Haircut
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Posted:Feb 22, 2009 2:17 am
Last Updated:Feb 28, 2009 1:09 pm
6283 Views
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On Friday, February 20, I had my hair cut, in preperation for a visit with my folks. If I'd shown up with my hair as long as it was, my dad would have bitched at me, for sure.
and I really don't like the way it looks when it gets too long, anyway.... too much gray, and it curls up into what my ex-wife used to call "Bozo wings".
Better it's short. I wait too long between cuts out of financial considerations, not to mention that the person who cuts my hair is in a shop 50 miles from where I live. Checking my back posts, I find that I did log my last haircut in here on October 10. That means that I went over 4 months between cuts.
Tomorrow, it's laundry day again.
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Laundry, entry the third
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Posted:Feb 1, 2009 1:20 am
Last Updated:Mar 14, 2009 3:37 am
6442 Views
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Yesterday was another laundry day.
As a matter of fact it was the second laundry day since I last posted on the subject.
Just keeping track, you know.
(Aside to Bardic: don't let the shithead rattle you so much... nice research, though.....)
I've stuck my head in the guillotine at work again. Complained to the guy my boss reports to about what a shitty job she's doin'....
See if anything comes of it.
Been down with a cold this last week, the result of a 40 degree switch we had here in SoCal this last week.... it went from mid 80s on Sunday afternoon to low 40's Monday night. By Wednesday I was sick. Somewhat better now....
I read a book of Philip K. Dick short stories this last week. The man was definitely ahead of his time.
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financial problems
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Posted:Dec 20, 2008 10:22 pm
Last Updated:Jan 7, 2014 4:54 am
6893 Views
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So, things have been going ok for quite a while now.
not good, but at least ok...... I've at least been able to keep the bills paid.
Then, the overtime started drying up. I cashed in my vacation time in early November so I could pay my bills. Then I had to take $500 out of savings and move it to checking so I could pay the rent at the beginning of December. After calculating the amount that's going to be forthcoming on my next check next Friday, it's clear that I'm going to have to do that again before the end of the month if I want to be able to pay off my current bills and make rent at the beginning of January. That's not going to work many more times, 'cause I just don't have that much in savings.
and it's not like there's anything to keep going for. There's just so long that I can keep this up with no improvement foreseeable in either the near future or the distant future.
it's hopeless.
one of these days I'm going to look at the bleakness of the future and give up.
and that day is coming soon. If I'm lucky, I might be able to make it to the beginning of March when the Watchmen movie is released. I've been waiting for that for 20 years. Beyond that, there isn't anything to look forward to.
No reasons to care. Nothing to care for or about, save the cats.
not enough.
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Laundry, again
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Posted:Dec 10, 2008 1:16 am
Last Updated:Dec 21, 2008 5:14 pm
6420 Views
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I have to do laundry today, and have it done before I start to get ready for work at 3 PM. That means I have to get started by 1 PM. Between now and then I need to try to get about 8 hours of sleep. Should be manageable if I can keep myself from playing Fate all night long.
I got stuck at a point very late into StarCraft a couple of weeks ago. I have to rethink my approach to the level I'm stuck on and decided to play a traditional dungeon quest game. This has been engrossing enough, and I keep getting killed often enough that progress is very slow.
I'm not sure if that's good or not.
I was very curious to see how long I got to go between doing laundry. It seems I've managed to stretch out something I was having to do almost every two weeks into every four weeks, but not quite up to a month.
Otherwise, life sucks. I'm glad I've got my head stuck up my computer.
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Laundry
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Posted:Nov 13, 2008 12:33 pm
Last Updated:Dec 18, 2008 12:32 am
6825 Views
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I'm doing laundry today. I mention this only because I want to keep track of how long I go between having to do it.
It costs me $4.25 to do my laundry each time I do it. That's $1.50 each for a load of white wash and a load of colored wash, and $1.25 for one load of drying with everything thrown together to dry.
I recently got a bunch of new underwear for myself because I got tired of doing laundry every two weeks. I just don't know how much time I bought for myself between laundry days, so now I've made a notice for myself and I'll find out.
The sort and folding phase takes a lot longer than it used to.
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Hair Cut
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Posted:Oct 10, 2008 11:42 pm
Last Updated:Oct 14, 2008 1:22 am
6932 Views
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I had my hair cut today. I know that this isn't of any great interest to anyone, but I know that I go too long between having it done, and I wanted to start leaving a record for myself so that I know how long it's been since I last took care of it, just so I know, and this struck me as one of the most efficient ways of keeping track.
Just be glad I'm not using this as a way of keeping track of how often I clean out the cat box......
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another update, months late
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Posted:Sep 19, 2008 1:18 am
Last Updated:Mar 14, 2009 3:33 am
7027 Views
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Yeah, it's time that I filled in those few of you who are paying attention what's going on with me......
You may recall that some time ago, I worked for a division of Toshiba, but that I left that place in April of 2007 because of repeated conflicts with another of the supervisors (for a more detailed account of my departure, look up Roving Supplemental, Filenet 2, plus The Meeting. I spent a couple of months roving, and then, in early July of 2007, I ended up at the Art Institute of California. I loved it there. I put in 32 hours a week there, and supplemented that with more roving every place they sent me. I tended to average about 60 hours a week (I could give you a more exact figure, but that data is on the hard drive of my old computer, from which I'm still trying to recover the data). I left there in April of this year, because the company asked me to go to another division of Toshiba, across the street from the division where I'd previously worked. I'd worked at this other division several times last summer as part of my roving, and it's a very good place to work, so I agreed. (This was covered in more detail in Update.)
That lasted a month. The new division ran into a budget crunch, and had to reduce their work force from 3 guards to 2, so I went back to roving full time again. The day I found out that I was being taken off of that account was the same day my old computer died.
I roved full time for a month, and then landed at a church, where we'd been the security company watching over the construction project. The church was scheduled to go live in late June. I became the dayshift guard there, and became responsible for programming all of their surveillance cameras. I worked with the crew who had installed the camera equipment and other security hardware around the three buildings on the new church property. It was fun and interesting. I knew very little about how the cameras worked, but was able to learn pretty much everything on the fly (well enough that I was able to make a very good impression on the guys who'd installed the equipment).
After I had been at the church for six weeks, I got a call late one afternoon from the post commander of the original Toshiba division asking (almost begging) me to come back. To take over the shift of the supervisor that I hadn't been able to get along with before. He'd made one too many enemies, and the had delivered her with an ultimatum--he had to go, or we'd lose the account.
I've just finished nine weeks back at Toshiba, and I must admit that the time has flown by rapidly. The post commander is still a recurring pain in the ass to work with, but the place is much more tolerable with the asshole supervisor gone. Most of my crew is very good to work with, and I'm trying to bring along the problem as well as possible (in one instance, this is probably hopeless.... the guy is 79 years old and can't remember what he's supposed to be doing from one week to the next. As long as nothing goes wrong, he's ok... if anything out the the ordinary comes up, he can't cope. Not to be trusted, but we're still working on it until the p/c decides to replace him.
Most of my time these days when I'm not working is spent deep in the throes of a game called "Starcraft". This was a gift from one other the staff members of the Art Institute last spring, and I've been enjoying it for months, even if I've recently hit a level that I can't get through, and I have to start the whole level over again, throwing out hours of work that I'd put in before learning that I don't have enough resources left at the end to finish the mission........
anyway, you're now pretty much up to date. Everything else is pretty much the same. I'm still living alone with nothing even resembling a relationship on the horizon. The cats are fine, I'm fine, and I'm making enough money to pay the bills, though it's still a pretty marginal existence......
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Back from the dead
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Posted:Jun 26, 2008 10:43 pm
Last Updated:Sep 19, 2008 12:52 am
6473 Views
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On May 9, the sixth anniversery of the death of my best friend, my hard drive refused to work, and I ceased to be able to boot my computer.
I got some money from my parents for my birthday a few weeks ago, and I used half of that money to buy myself a new computer (the other half went to car repairs).
So, I still live, and I can now access this place again. (Library computers have an awful lot of limitations, you know.....)
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Our Argument for the Day
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Posted:Apr 20, 2008 8:43 pm
Last Updated:Jun 29, 2008 11:59 pm
7102 Views
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I saw this taped on the window of a car in the parking lot where I was working today, and it struck me as being so provocative that I had to post it in an attempt to arouse some response and discussion:
Peace does not mean the absence of conflict but the presence of justice!!!!!
Personally, I think this is a crock of crap. Any dissenting opinions?
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Update
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Posted:Apr 15, 2008 7:07 am
Last Updated:Sep 19, 2008 1:18 am
6829 Views
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I know it's been months, but in all that time, hardly anything has changed, and my opinion of Couples Dating has dropped sufficiently that I can barely stand to hang around here any more....
but as long as somebody out there is paying attention, I thought I'd make note of the one major change that occurred a week ago.
I'm no longer at the Art Institute. Everything was fine there, except for the post commander, who was and remains an ass. I'd call him incompetent, but that would imply that he's trying to be competent, and he isn't. All he does is "be in charge" without ever doing anything to warrant the position. No effort was ever made to communicate with the rank and file officers, but then, we all knew that he was superfluous, and worked around him.
Anyway, a week ago yesterday I got called into the local office of the guard company for whom I work because they had "a proposal" for me.
It seems that an upper management decision at one of the posts where I've served part time off and on since last summer had been made that the dayshift front lobby guard needed to be replaced. The veep in charge of security had no say over the fact that she had to be replaced, but rather than start over with an unknown quantity, he specifically requested that I be the one to be put into the position.
I've long considered myself to be a team player, and it was clear that this was something that the team (i.e. the guard company) needed for me to do, so I agreed.
So now, instead of working from 7 AM to 3 PM from Tuesday through Friday, and from 6 AM to 2 PM on Saturday, I come in at 4:30 every morning, open up the building and turn on the lights and make coffee, and preside over an almost empty building for about 2 1/2 hours. Almost empty because there are employees who do come in that early because they have to interface with the offices in Japan, and they only have a relatively narrow window with which to do so.
This gets me out earlier in the day (1 PM) for any other miscellaneous overtime assignments they have for me (I had three of those last week). The other bonus is that I get to use a much better computer than I have at home which I may use as I see fit, as appropriate for a work environment......
and it gets me away from the asshole pc at AI. I have to admit that there are a number of people at AI that I'm going to miss, and a number of very pretty ladies that I'm going to miss being able to watch, but, hey, I'm way too old for them anyway.........
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To link to this blog (rm_smosmof2) use [blog rm_smosmof2] in your messages.
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