7 a.m.: still early

So I just finished my first (half-)week at my new job. Switching jobs can be pretty stressful, and this was no exception. One of the odd things about the new job is that I have to be in the office every morning at 7 a.m., which means waking up 6-ish. Not really a problem except that I tend to have these sorts of dreams:

Alarm sounds. I wake up, take a shower, get dressed, go to work. Do some coding and designing. Lunch rolls around, I realize I left it at home and have to buy something at a nearby cafe.

Then I wake up and it's noon.

So anyway, training myself to get used to actually getting out of bed, not doing the phantom "re-setting of the alarm" (which I never do correctly) or the "I bet I can shower and get dressed and be in Culver City in 8 minutes" thought process or the "Oh yeah, today's national stay in bed day" thing or the "Just tell me I don't have to go and I'll take your word for it" thing -- that's the trick. So far, so good. 2 out of 3 days ain't bad!

More to say, too tired to say it. Nap time.

-M

New Blogs

Introducing two new blogs:

the neighborhood
local blog dedicated to my neighborhood.

transmission
photoblog / audioblog -- sights and sounds from los angeles.

That leaves this blog for the wackier stuff. Enjoy!

-M

Michael Jackson Crazy-Ass Trial Prediction Sweepstakes

I read today that Michael Jackson's ex-"wife," Debbie Rowe, will be testifying at his trial to support the testimony of a prosecution witness. I just can't wait to see the defense discredit her with "Why should we listen you? You married Michael Jackson, the child-molesting pop star!"

That's all I wanted to say.

The Gods Must Be Crazy... About Incredible Offshore Pharmacy Deals!

OK, when I was a kid -- granted, it was in a relatively small town in Alabama -- to come across anything that might be considered "pornographic" took either:

a) a lot of work, or
b) someone from a faraway civilization finishing a pornographic magazine, throwing it out of the window of a small airplane, and having it (the magazine, not the aircraft) land on the ground near you, at which point you and your fellow natives examine it and then look in wonder towards the sky, thinking, "Wow, what must they be doing up there?"

Once, while playing in the woods next to my house, a friend and I came across a paper sack which contained a videotape. The tape's package had images that more or less 'hinted' at the contents of the tape, although I guess your reaction could have been, "I wonder if this is a movie about renegade blue dots which travel the world and cover the private areas of people while they have sex."

Of course, the blue dots only increased our curiosity. That curiosity was never satisfied, though -- it was a PAL-encoded tape. Had we been traveling to France the next day, we could have taken it with us and watched it there; this was not to be. So, in the end, we had a box. And blue dots.

I say all of this because a spammy email just got through my junkmail filtering, and it's an advert for an online pharmacy, and one of the main products it's pushing is the Viagra-type stuff, and the accompanying image makes the videotape box look like the cover of an elementary school textbook.

Bees! and stuff.

I've seen police activity on my street with less hoopla than this:


(photo courtesy Anne's new mobile phone)

Of course, I've not seen a single bee, but there are 4 signs. Not only that, a portion of the sidewalk between my place and Skye's is blocked off due to the bee menace. Bees! All this, and as I walked to Blockbuster last night I saw a group of folks behind the local neighborhood club Level One gearing up for a big fight. One guy had his shirt off, a lot of name-calling, etc., and so on. Probably sponsored by the club, what with their track record since moving into the neighborhood.

The bees are a mythical menace. Level One is an actual one. There should be signs.

Oh, and I have a new job starting soon and there's a lot of great stuff going on. I'll get to it. But... bees!

Not the first person to mention it, but...

There's an internet scam out there that gets to you through your physical mailbox. If you own a domain name, look out for something like this (click on thumbnails to see full-size images):

It looks like a bill. In one section (on the second image above), it does say "THIS IS NOT A BILL..." but clearly the idea is that you will think it is a bill, you'll write a check, you'll send it in. It's unconscionable.

Info:
The "Company": ILSCORP.NET, or Internet Listing Service
The mailing address is in Chicago, but it's just a UPS mailbox. Real location: Amsterdam.

More information can be found by searching "ilscorp.net" and seeing what other bloggers have had to say. Here's one link from a blogger named Les Jones which had some helpful information.

-M

An overwhelming show of force --

While drifting off to sleep last night, I heard someone yelling in the street. Angry yelling, followed by sustained periods of regular semi-yelling. Mostly just one yeller. But after a few minutes it became so disturbing that I thought, Hmm, I should check it out. So I put on my glasses and open the window and see this guy yelling at a girl, both standing on the sidewalk. Probably one of those deals where someone had too much to drink, got upset about something... but anyway, it goes on for a while.

It seems to be getting more heated, even with a tiny amount of shoving, and it is close to 1 AM, so I go look up the police department non-emergency number and give them a call. I told them that basically it seemed kinda like a normal fight, but somewhat escalating... really, mainly, it's late and they're in the street yelling. She asked if there were any weapons involved. "Oh, no, I've seen nothing like that." "OK, we'll send an officer."

OK, I called the cops and they'll send a car by and keep something bad from happening and get these people off of Crescent Heights at 1 AM to boot. I was hoping they'd come soon, not after half an hour or so.

Well, did they ever respond. About three minutes later a helicopter (which i hope just happened to be in the area when the call went out) starts hovering overhead and spotlighting the couple. He tries to act casual and she's like, "Hey, don't start being nice to me now!" But then she finally gets a little freaked out too and they start walking down the street back towards that nightclub, and the helicopter follows them. Then a cop shows up and crosses into the oncoming traffic lane and spotlights them and stops them. All the while the helicopter spotlight is also trained on them... he talks to them for a couple of minutes and then lets them go, the chopper flies off, the cop leaves. It was awesome!

So anyway, I think it's a good way to train people from being jerks in public.