Pet Peeve of the Day – Handicap Parking Spaces

Once upon a time, I never really paid much attention to the handicap parking spaces. Sure, I grumbled like many other people. “Why should they get the best spaces!”, “They already have wheelchairs, why do they need the CLOSEST parking places?” and so on. Of course it didn’t mean anything to me, because it never hit close to home for me.

Then the unimaginable happened. At the age of 44, my husband had a stroke. Oh, he was lucky! Compared to the vast majority of those who have a stroke, he got off easy. Instead of complete paralysis, loss of speech, memory loss, speech problem, inability to swallow or any of the other dire symptoms that regularly accompany a stroke, his was mild by comparison. His stroke (a hemorrhagic stroke -- meaning a brain bleed rather than a blockage of the blood vessel) happened in the right frontal lobe of his brain. His primary symptoms included very mild aphasia (forgetting or mixing up words), balance problems and loss of up to 60% use on his left side (remember, right brain controls left side of the body and vice versa).

Thankfully, by incorporating our business last year, we actually have health insurance. It was a convoluted process -- completely unnecessary if not for our screwed up health care system, but that’s an entirely different rant. But thankfully, we WERE insured, so his hospitalization and followup therapy was covered. of course, the greedy bastards at Anthem Blue Cross of California decided on October 1st to start charging PPO copay/coinsurance rates on an HMO plan -- but again, that’s a different rate -- so now where Physical Therapy was free, we know have to pay $25 per visit twice a week and even more for “specialist” visits to doctors who are part of the very HMO group that we belong to, who don’t even bill the insurance company. Greed fucks.

The point of all this griping and background -- even with the stroke, while Chris is able to get around on his own now, his prognosis is such that he will never be able to walk without an supportive device (e.g., cane) probably for the rest of his life. On a good day, the most he can walk without the can is 1/2 a block. On a bad day -- he’s lucky to make it across the apartment without falling down. So, obviously, we petitioned the state for a Handicap Placard for our car.

NOW I pay attention to what’s going on in the real world with regard to handicap parking places.

Let me point out, so there is no confusion: The placard is Chris’. At no point and no time do *I* use the placard to park in ANY handicap parking space if Chris is not in the car with me!!! Certainly it has been tempting on more than one occasion! However, I do not roll that way. #1, it’s not my placard and I don’t need it. I can walk the extra 20-3o yards. #2, I’m scared. Have you SEEN the penalties for misusing a Handicap Placard lately? I don’t have that kind of money laying around. Do you?

First off, California needs some serious review of their procedures for issuing these placards. I mean, really, does someone need a handicap placard because of a MENTAL diagnosis? Really? These spaces are supposed to make it easier for people with PHYSICAL handicaps to get where they are going. When I can’t park where I need to for Chris to get where he’s going, and the person in the spot gets out with no clear or obvious physical handicap, it’s like a slap in the face. Are they cheating and using the space with a placard that belongs to someone else? Did they lie on their application? Did their doctor lie? According to the LA Times:

California, which has 24 million licensed drivers, will issue 2.1 million permanent placards this year, up from 1.2 million a decade ago. In Los Angeles County, about 621,000 of nearly 6 million licensed drivers have placards.[1]

 

To what do we owe such a drastic increase in disabled placards in California, in particular in LA County? Do we really have do many disabled people? I am highly suspicious of that. Instead, I attribute it to high health care costs and the proliferation of low-cost health clinics run as businesses, where anyone with any complaint can stop by for little to no money, see a doctor for 2-3 minutes and shove some paperwork in front of them with any sob story. The doctor signs it without reading it, and voila -- instant handicap placard. Since the state doesn’t actually VERIFY any of this paperwork, every Tom, Dick and Mary now has a placard to use with impunity.

We got a temporary placard at first, because his original prognosis was “full recovery in 6 months” according to the doctors. After  4 months, they changed their minds and said he’d probably be using a cane for the rest of his life. So we amended our application and requested a permanent placard. Neither time did the State investigate our claims or follow up with the doctor -- they simply took the claims at face value and processed the application.

Now we all know that doctors can be bought. If they couldn’t, there wouldn’t be a zillion drug addicts on the street zoning out on legal pharmaceuticals. Yeah, times are tough and budgets cuts affect everyone. For something THIS important, though, could they not at least afford a phone call?

Next comes the ones who don’t even HAVE a placard. You know the ones. Perhaps you even are one. “I’m just stopping for a moment.” “I only had to run into the store for a second.” “Nobody was using it and it was right here.” “Why should they get all the best spots?” The excuses are endless. End the end, that’s all they are though -- excuses. The plain and simple fact is IF YOU DON’T HAVE A HANDICAP PLACARD, DON’T PARK IN THE HANDICAP PARKING SPACE!!!!

So the next time you see that conveniently place handicap spot -- just keep driving. Unless you have a proper, valid placard/license plate from the state, avoid the urge. Not only are you risking monetary fines from the state, but you are SERIOUSLY inconveniencing peoples’ lives. I’m not talking about just making them walk a little bit further -- I’m talking about causing them pain, making them choose between shopping or not shopping, having an independent life or being stuck at home. Your choices seriously have an impact on others.

Next time, just think about it.

 

[1] http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/22/local/la-me-disabled-parking-20110522

Leave A Comment, Written on December 4th, 2011 , Disabled People, Ethics, Rude People, Stupid People, Uncaring People Tags: , , , , ,
What Exactly IS A Veteran?

Local restaurants are offering free meals to veterans today -- and asking for A MILITARY ID. Somehow I don’t think, despite their good intentions, that they quite get the point of being a VETERAN. You know -- discharged, no longer active duty, don’t HAVE a military ID any longer? What, are we supposed to carry around a copy of our DD-214, and even if we did, would the restaurant accept it? Or even know what it is?

I love that people since 9/11 are finally giving Veterans their due. Unfortunately, thanks to misplaced and overzealous patriotism pushed by the neo-con Republicans, there seems to be a selective process on some peoples’ parts when it comes to deciding WHO is a veteran.

Oldsters that served prior to 1980? Absolutely, especially if they show a physical infirmity!

Vietnam vets. Prior to 9/11 they used to be the national pariahs. If anything good came out of that day, it’s that people are FINALLY recognizing the contributions of that group.

Middle East war vets -- of course they are universally loved and recognized, regardless of what side of the aisle you are from. Not that this has any affect on providing any of them with adequate medical care when they return to this country, housing or shelter, jobs, mental health care or anything else. But we love them! Why, twice a year we break out the American Flags and wave them in their honor, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, showing them just how much we care! Meanwhile, Republican Presidential hopefuls stand by and do nothing while a serving, active duty soldier gets booed by a debate audience for asking a question that is current and relevant. Oh, yeah, most of them apologized AFTER the debate -- but I think it’s a better measure of their character on how they responded at the time than how they responded after when their handlers prompted them with prepared statements.

Then there is the forgotten veterans that make up the vast majority of the group. The ones that nobody remembers, never get recognized, receive no benefits of any kind except maybe some educational benefits (if they are lucky) and are largely ignored by their country’s citizens -- even on Veteran’s Day. Who are these mysterious invisible people? They are…. the average veterans! For example, me and my brother.

We didn’t happen to serve during a major war. We weren’t injured or suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We weren’t part of a big group that earned the sympathy of the nation for whatever reason.

Instead, we were patriots. We joined as volunteers (although, in truth, our group is largely made up of draftees from the Vietnam War era and earlier, though that group is declining through attrition) when we didn’t have to. We kept the government’s dream of an All Volunteer Force alive. In my brother’s case, he served most of his 4 year tour on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. I served just over 8 years, 5 of them on nuclear missile subs out of Bangor, WA and 3 years in the barracks at Naval Station San Diego. During that 8 years I received my Good Conduct medal, more letters of commendation that I can count, an Expert Pistol Shot medal (I volunteered for the security for and was trained by marines), multiple unit commendations, and ultimately received the Navy Achievement Medal while in San Diego for writing a computer networking program that saved the Navy millions of dollars a year.

I am not that unusual, though. I am like so many others in that I served my country, did my time and got out to pursue a life as a civilian. I am not on disability of any type (nor is my brother), I don’t belong to the local Foreign Legion, I did not serve overseas on any major campaigns (although I did serve during the Cold War).

So next time you see all the fuss on television about Veterans Day or Memorial Day, remember that there are a hell of a lot more “forgotten” veterans out there like me than the ones they trot out for the big fancy ceremonies. We are all patriots and love our country -- some of us are just more visible than others.

Leave A Comment, Written on November 11th, 2011 , Life Tags: , ,
T-Mobile: Here Reside Double Standards

and really bad customer service.

Last month we decided that it was time to change mobile carriers. Doing some simple math, we figured out that we were paying T-Mobile for 2 cell phones plus a really old @Home line that hasn’t even worked for 6-9 months, Verizon for 3G data service on my Galaxy Tab and Jitterbug/Great Call for a “senior friendly” phone for my mother-in-law.

In mid-September, I got an offer from Credo Mobile that not only offered much better rates than T-Mobile, but offered to pay my contract termination fee, too. Since Mom’s phone and the Tab data service were both month-to-month, plus we would be signing up with Credo (service by Sprint but company run by Working Assets, look them up), this was too good to pass up. So I took the plunge, ordered 2 Android phones for myself and Chris, a decent Sanyo flip phone for Mom and ported our numbers over to Credo. The @Home number, which was for work anyway, I ported to my Asterisk phone switch service provider so it rings into our work phone system. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave A Comment, Written on October 15th, 2011 , Business Ethics, Customer Service Tags: , , , , ,
Charter Cable Burbank – Worst Cable Ever

Adventures with Charter Cable Burbank, Bastard Stepchild Division

Why is Charter Burbank the Bastard Stepchild Division? Well, some may like the service nationwide, but we are basically the asshole of the nation when it comes to their service. We pay the same rates, or higher, as everyone else in the country. Unfortunately, we get only 1/2 of the HD channels as listed on the Charter Communications nationwide website as supposedly being available on their system. Why? Our “head end” hasn’t been upgraded in years. Our cable boxes? Leftovers from everyone else -- nobody here has EVER received a brand new cable box or DVR. Charter is supposedly introducing Tivo service, but we are literally LAST on the list to receive them nationwide. Our service and performance history is the worst in the nation. Two miles away, in LA city proper, Time Warner provides the cable service -- for less price per month they get 40% more HD channels and the non-HD channels are 20% more English language. Their internet service is faster and has considerably higher reliability.

Of course, since it’s cable and we live in an apartment, we are SOL. Our apartment faces north. We have zero options for switching to satellite. Our local city council/Franchise Authority refuses to allow AT&T to install U-Verse or Verizon to install FIOS. So lucky us, we are stuck with a government mandated monopoly, for which the city council members are probably getting a kickback from Charter. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave A Comment, Written on October 9th, 2011 , Business Ethics, Cable TV, Customer Service, Rude People, Stupid People Tags: , , , , , ,
First They Came …

With the current debate going on regarding the proposed ban on circumcision for males under 18 in San Francisco, the famous poem First They Came… has been on my mind a lot recently.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

In 2008, there were many groups that resisted supporting the LGBT community in our fight against Proposition 8 with the argument that it had nothing to do with them. They did not support gay rights and the passage of such a proposition would have no effect at all on their communities, so why should they care? Two of these groups in particular I remember very well: the Muslims and the Jews.

Now, in San Francisco, a group of extreme left-wing do-gooders are trying to pass a law that would ban all circumcisions for males under the age of 18 without regard for religious observances. Never mind thousands of years of religious tradition. Forget about the 1st Amendment. These people believe that they know better than everyone else, and just like the ones who think they should intrude upon our lives & bedrooms to restrict who we should marry, they think that they should have the right to restrict whether or not parents can have their boys circumcised. Just like in 2008, this will be put to a vote of the citizens, because these do-gooders believe that basic rights of minorities should be put up for a vote of the majority.

Many supporters of this new measure in San Francisco would argue that it is necessary because boys are being needlessly mutilated, often (falsely) comparing the procedure to the so-called female circumcision barbarically performed on girls around the world, usually so they will not be able to gain any pleasure from the sex act. The problem is, you can’t compare the two. Female circumcision -- more accurately named female genital mutilation -- is the act of physically removing the external genitalia, specifically the clitoris. Experts world wide have testified again and again that there is no analogy between male and female circumcision

There are other arguments -- pain, psychological trauma, brain damage, etc. If you really want to know, you can Google it or go check out the subject on Wikipedia, which is quite thorough and sourced. What I can tell you, however, is that both my brother and I were circumcised as infants because we were born on Air Force Base hospitals in the 60′s, when it was common practice to do it to all boys. We don’t remember anything, we did not suffer any lasting trauma, we do not have PTSD, nor have we suffered any of the other dire ailments predicted by the so-called experts quoted by the proponents of this measure.

Oddly enough, I find that the strongest and loudest supporters of this measure appear to be women. Go figure.

So, since the ones who now could be affected the most by this “voice of the majority” vote didn’t want to stand up for the LGBT community to fight against Prop H8, I give you a slightly updated version of First They Came… based on our recent history of Civil Rights fights and known hate group targets here in America.

First they came for the African Americans,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a African American.

Then they came for the gays and lesbians,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t gay or lesbian.

Then they came for the Muslims,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Muslim.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Bob Parker

 

2 Comments, Written on May 26th, 2011 , Life Tags: , ,
Greed vs Charity

One of the categories of businesses that my company focuses on is non-profits, especially animal rescues/shelters. Unlike many in the internet industry, we do this because we genuinely care about these organizations and want to make a difference. That is why we give additional discounts to non-profits, find existing tools that they can use that don’t cost them extra (for example, Google Apps has a completely un-advertised premium service that’s available for free to non-profits), and will spend time training their staff to use the tools to maintain their websites on their own, rather than spending valuable donations on site maintenance.

We have seen how many of these groups end up being used & abused by unscrupulous so-called “experts” in the industry. You know the type -- they got some certifications or went to an expensive school to call themselves “experts,” but really they are just highly trained con-artists. They charge way too much money to put up a crap website, promise all sorts of results for SEO (search engine optimization), slap up some bogus contact forms, maybe setup a PayPal account for donations and say they’ve done their job. At worst, they setup a scam of a system whereby they take a percentage of all donations that come in for themselves, while charging outrageous monthly fees for a really, really crappy website.

Sorry, but we don’t do business that way. We actually believe in running a business with a vanishing quality these days: ethics. Now because of this, we will probably never be rich. We realize this and we’ve faced the reality of it. Sure, it would be nice if we could be rich! We have lots of dreams, just like anyone else. We just simply cannot do business knowing that we are profiting unfairly at the expense of someone else. We can’t! Yes, the purpose of business is to make a profit -- that’s a given. But excess profit? No way. I would rather make a little bit of profit and live comfortably with a clear conscience than screw over my customers, make a big profit and live with a guilty conscience. In fact, when working as a wage slave for others, I’ve had to make that decision on more than one occasion and each time ethics won out over the “almighty” dollar.

Whenever I give money to a charity, of any type, I always investigate them to find out how much of my donation goes to the intended recipient and how much goes to “overhead” (e.g., administrative costs, staff salaries, etc.) to really see how effective that organization is. I highly recommend this to anyone giving any charitable donation of any kind. After all, unless you are someone like Richard Branson or Bill Gates, you want your money to count, right? It’s not just a tax write-off, this is valuable money that you are giving to make a difference in someone’s life -- be they 2- or 4-legged “people” :) .

So, imagine my surprise when I started investigating options for raising some Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief money by auctioning some items at eBay®. I found their “Giving Works” program, administered by MissionFish, itself a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This, however, is proof that the 501(c)(3) label is not a guarantee of “good” in the charity world! You see, it appears from what I can find out, that MissionFish was created for no other purpose than to administer this “Giving Works” program for eBay® -- and nothing else. In other words, they serve no charitable purpose other than to distribute money collected from eBay® auctions and was setup as a 501(c)(3) organization simply to distribute that money tax free.

Oh, but the worst is yet to come! While all charities have some administrative overhead, MissionFish has made a business out of profiting from your charitable giving! That’s right, They charge a minimum 20% of every gift given to every non-profit recipient organization through sales at eBay®. 20%!!! That is utterly ridiculous! It doesn’t stop there, though. That’s only the minimum, for items that sell up to $49.99. For over $49.99 sale prices, they charge even more depending on the price. For example, for an item between $200 -- $999, they deduct 20% of the first $49.99 ($10) + 15% of the $50 -- $199.99 ($32.50) + 10% of the remaining amount. So, for a $500 sale, they collect from you $72.50, passing just $427.50 to the designated charity. That’s an “administrative overhead” of 14.5% for simply collecting the money and forwarding it to a charity electronically? Can we say “scam“? Don’t forget -- this is on top of the eBay® listing, insertion, “Buy Now” and other misc. fees! Oh, sure, eBay® will credit you some or all of those fees, based on the percentage of your sale that you gave to the charity. Woo hoo! Aren’t they generous? Remember -- this money is coming off the top before your chosen charity gets a dime -- you still have to figure in their overhead, too.

Granted -- “Donate Now” and “Cash Donation with Sale” fees are less, 3.75% and 5% respectively. Why? If you can answer that one, please comment and let me know! I can’t find a logical reason for it myself, since it is still money from an individual designated for a charitable organization in exactly the same way.

On the flip side, in comparison, a really good charity that provides direct disaster relief like AmeriCares®, has a total administrative overhead of just 2% -- with 98% of all donations going directly to recipients. If it were me (and it will be) then I would simply sell my items directly with using eBay®’s “Giving Works” program at all. Once the items sell (which I know they will) then I will take the money and make a direct donation to AmeriCares®, so I know that they get the money now.

Wait -- it gets better!

  • Based on the concept that they must give time for a purchaser to return an item and the seller to give a refund, MissionFish holds on to all cash donated to a charity for 45 days. Think you are benefiting Japan Relief now by purchasing something today? Think again! They don’t tell you that on the website unless you dig!
  • Of course, while MissionFish holds on to that money for 45 days, they are naturally earning interest on all that money. You don’t think they are holding it in an interest free lockbox account do you?
  • When you purchase an item on eBay® through the “Giving Works” program, regardless of what charity you choose to support, you are not making a donation. The seller is making a donation. This is an important distinction, one to keep in mind!
  • For sellers, no matter what charity they designate, their donation is not to their chosen charity. It is to the MissionFish-Points of Light Foundation, the 501(c)(3) organization they setup. That is who you will get your tax receipt from. If they cannot deliver the donation to your intended recipient or any reason (hmm… wonder how often THAT happens?) then they choose who gets your donation, at their total discretion.

One has to wonder, even with the processes of distributing funds, vetting non-profits, etc., why would a group like MissionFish need to take so much off the top in order to simply collect and distribute charitable contributions? This isn’t rocket science! This is, when it all boils down, software programming and automation, with some tax accounting thrown in for good measure.

There is one answer I can come up with. Greed.

2 Comments, Written on March 15th, 2011 , Greed Vs Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Catching Up Redux

Yeah, Yeah -- I said it before. Life is catching up, things are going good so I am going to start posting on my blog regularly. Famous last words, right? Uh huh.

Here we are, a little over a year since my last post on this blog. A whole lot of things have happened since then and, of course, not one of them has been a post on this blog. Bad Bob! So let’s try this again! A a little “Catch Up Redux” here to summarize the past year, then an opportunity to see if a new year will bring about a renewed commitment to regular blog postings.

Professionally, things have been a bit exciting over the past year. Chris and I took the big step and incorporated our business last summer, moving from Sole Proprietorship to full on California Corporation. In a fair world, of course, this would not have been necessary because we would have been protected from the ravages of the Infernal Revenue Service simply because we are gay. However, thanks to the lovely efforts of Republicans in Congress, even though we are legally married in our home state of California we are not able to claim the same financial protections in business on our taxes that any opposite sex couple married in a quickie ceremony in Las Vegas gets. As a result, we do not qualify for any of the “husband/wife” tax breaks given to married small business owners. We do not qualify for any of the tax breaks at all, period. And people wonder why we are fighting so hard for marriage equality, or the repeal of DOMA? Read the rest of this entry »

Leave A Comment, Written on March 5th, 2011 , Life Tags: , ,
Easy Chicken Parmesan

With both of us working so many hours, we often don’t have a lot of time to spend on big fancy meals -- especially since it’s just the two of us eating them anyway. So we’ve come up with lots of shortcuts for simply, easy meals that look and taste a lot fancier than the preparation would suggest.

Here’s one of our favorites that literally only takes about 5 minutes to prepare: Easy Chicken Parmesan

What you’ll need

  • Frozen Chicken Patties/Chicken Breasts (we like Tyson, but any brand will do)
  • 1 jar of prepared pasta/spaghetti sauce (e.g., Prego, Ragu, whatever you like. If you have left over sauce of your own, use that instead!)
  • Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated
  • Mozzarella Cheese, sliced 1/8″ -- 1/4″ (we like fresh, whole milk mozzarella ourselves, but you can use any kind you want. Buffalo, skim-milk, low moisture, prepared slices, whatever works for you)
  • Optional: Pasta for side dish (Spaghetti, Fettuccine, Angel Hair -- try the fresh pasta’s in the cooler section of the grocery store. They cook super fast and taste amazing!)
  • Optional: Olive oil (or regular vegetable oil if you don’t have olive oil) for the pasta

Before you are ready to start:

First, if you are making pasta to serve with the chicken, get your water boiling and don’t forget to salt it. Don’t forget, your only chance to season pasta is when it is cooking! Make sure you use a big enough pot to give the pasta room to move while it is boiling, or it will stick together.

At the same time, take your pasta sauce and put it in a small sauce pan on medium heat to get it warmed up.

Preparation Time:

If you are making pasta:

Your water should be boiling now, so go ahead and put some olive oil in the water, then put your pasta in. Cooking time will vary depending on the type of pasta, dry packaged vs fresh, so check your pasta package for details. Don’t forget to set a timer!

Making the chicken:

Take your frozen chicken patties and place them on a microwave safe plate. You probably won’t want to cook more than 4 at a time (or can’t if your microwave is like ours!), but that’s OK. Check the instructions on the chicken package and cook them for 1/2 the recommended cooking time for the number of patties. Do this for all the patties you are cooking if you need to do this in batches.

Now take your chicken patties and flip them over. Spoon enough pasta sauce over the patty to cover it, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Lay a slice of the Mozzarella cheese over the top. If you want some color contrast and make it look fancy, you can sprinkle some dried parsley or even a little dried Italian Seasoning Mix over the top of the cheese.

Take the whole plate and put back into the microwave, then cook for the remainder of the recommended cooking time (For the Tyson patties for 4 of them, total cooking time is 4 minutes, so we cook 2 minutes before and 2 after).

After the 2nd cooking with the sauce and cheeses, let the plate rest for at least 1 minute before trying to move the chicken and plate it up! This is very important! Otherwise the mozzarella will not have time to set after melting, and when you pick it up it will all just slide off to the side in a big mess. Trust me on this one. :)

When your timer goes off, carefully dump your pasta noodles into a colander or strainer and very quickly rinse them with warm water, then put back into the pan. (Yes, I know -- lots of folks say don’t do the rinse thing, but after 25 years of cooking I’ve found that doing so helps keep the noodles from sticking together.) Then add about 1 tablespoon (eyeball it) of olive oil to the noodles and mix well -- this, too, will help keep the noodles from sticking together as well as adding some great flavor.

Quick Tip: If you want Garlic Toast but don’t have a toaster oven, no problem! You can prepare the frozen slices of garlic toast or cheese bread in a nonstick frying pan. Just heat up the pan and fry them like you would French Toast, checking carefully until toasted to a light brown then flip over.

Serve your Easy Chicken Parmesan with the noodles and sauce, and you have a very quick and simple Italian Dinner that your family will love. They don’t have to know that you didn’t slave over the stove for hours to make it!

Leave A Comment, Written on January 31st, 2010 , Food Tags: , ,
Catching Up

Wow. So much has been going on in my life, I just realized that this blog -- which I had such high hopes for -- has pretty much been abandoned. Ahh, the best laid plans!

So, before I move on to more current matters, here is a quick catch-up on what has been happening since my last post.

Southland

Unless you’ve been living in a cave or totally ignore television altogether, then you should already know that TNT saved Southland and it began airing on January 12th with the original episodes from NBC. They will start airing the unseen episodes on March 2nd.

This has, in fact, been a large part of what has taken my time over the last couple of months. Since the announcement that TNT saved the show I created a new Fan website at SouthlandTvFans.com and it has taken off like a rocket! We just recently passed 5,000 visits and over 10,000 page views for the site in just over 2 months. I was also able to (surprise!) wrangle an interview with one of the biggest stars of the show, Michael Cudlitz, who plays gay cop John Cooper.

On a personal level, the site has led to Chris and I meeting several members of the Southland cast, including Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Michael McGrady, Tom Everett Scott and Regina King, as well as series director/co-creator Chris Chulack. We were able to attend a special screening even in Hollywood recently where we met up with some Southland Twitter friends from San Francisco and Las Vegas, then see a sneak preview of the Season 2 premiere episode. Following the screening I have been able to setup a second interview, this time with Michael McGrady, which I am preparing to do tomorrow on the phone.

All in all, I would say that the whole Southland project has been a major success, both personally and as a webmaster.

Work

What can I say -- work is work, in the world of the independent contractor. Certain people continue to frustrate the hell out of me on a daily basis with their lack of communication and organization. Their clients are even more frustrating, but what can I do? It also makes it a lot tougher that someone who I valued immensely as a co-worker, mentor and friend was let go suddenly. I sometimes wish there was a better option, but unfortunately this IS the better option, at least right now. It certainly is not what I was promised when I started with the company almost a year and a half ago, and most of the promises that were made back then have never come to fruition, but you just have to hang in there and keep plugging away. In this economy, what choice do you have?

Cats

What can I say about the cats. They are spoiled rotten, lazy, overfed, over-loved -- pretty much the same as always. :) One is sleeping between my legs as I type right now, so nothing new on this subject!

Life

I mentioned going to the Southland premiere event in Hollywood earlier in the month, which was a lot of fun. It was great to get out of the house and actually go do something! With all the weight both of us have lost, we had to go clothes shopping before the event, spending way more than we probably should have, but hey -- after losing that much weight you just have to buy new clothes, right?

One of the friends we met at the event lives in Las Vegas, so Chris and I decided that for the 13th Anniversary of our initial meeting, we are going to do an all out fun trip there. We met on February 9th for our first date, then I cooked him a special dinner on Valentine’s Day, in 1997. So we are going to drive to Vegas on Friday, February 12th and come back on Monday, February 15th. We booked ourselves a deluxe suite at the Mandalay Bay(!) for the trip, so we have some place to finally relax and enjoy a real vacation, rather than just a Motel 6 room on a budget.

Of course, after spending that much money for the room, there won’t be too much left over for gambling, but that’s OK with me! I’m more of a slot machine guy myself. Chris can get a little bit to play some poker (on a very strict budget, with no access to debit card for withdrawals!) and our friend is already planning out fun activities to paint the town on Fri & Sat nights with us. That should be great fun -- partying in Vegas with a native!

That’s pretty much it -- my life for the last few months in a nutshell. Clearly, I need more of a life if it can be summarized that easily! Oh well -- maybe this year.

Leave A Comment, Written on January 31st, 2010 , Family, Life, Work Tags: , , , ,
Southland Canceled?

OK, NBC Universal is officially brain dead and off it’s rocker. Yeah, that’s redundant, I know.

Just two weeks before the show Southland was due to return for its second season, the executives at NBC Primetime Scheduling have -- in their infinite wisdom -- decided that the show is “too expensive” and canceled it. Of course, Warner Brothers has already shot 6 new episodes, they are 4th in ratings (of 5 broadcast networks) and they are so far gone that GE is trying to sell them off.

If you haven’t seen it, Southland was a cop show that takes place in Los Angeles with the LAPD, but unlike any cop show you’ve seen before. This show was REAL! The characters, the stories, the emotions -- this was finally a show on NBC that was worth watching that wasn’t Seinfeld wannabes or Sci-Fi. It was also one of the few prime time shows that had a realistic depiction of a gay character who was NOT a drag queen, a femme, a fashion designer or any other sterotype. At the same time, that same character’s “straight” partner was played by a known (and much loved) out gay actor. Added bonuses for an excellent prime time drama!

The fan reaction has been strong -- reminiscent of the reactions in 2007 when Jericho was canceled by CBS. While there has been rumor circulating today that TNT might make a bid to take over the show, that hasn’t stopped fans from berating NBC Universal and Warner Brothers about what may be the dumbest move in network history.

In doing my part to further the cause for Southland, I setup a website quickly using Google Sites at http://www.SaveSouthlandShow.com with some basic info and links, and put together a petition at PetitionSite.com. There is a “Twitition” going that has some momentum, but unfortunately you have to have an account on Twitter to sign it, which is leaving a lot of fans out (bad thinking folks -- Twitter is great, but it’s not the be all, end all of the Internet!). I did, however, link it from the site’s Petition page. Every little bit helps!

So that kept my Sunday night busy. It may be a few wasted hours and the $10 domain registration fee in the long run, but at least I fought for something I believed in. There is so much garbage on television these days, when we finally get something of quality on that’s worth watching, then they cancel it AFTER renewing it before it even airs -- something fishy is going on at the network. That’s worth fighting for in my mind.

If you haven’t already, please visit http://www.savesouthlandshow.com and go to the Petitions page. Definitely sign the Public Petition, and if you have a Twitter account, sign the Twitition, too. Every voice counts and we need to let NBC know just how much they screwed up!

Save Southland!

Leave A Comment, Written on October 12th, 2009 , Television, WTF Tags: , ,
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