Since living at my current address, I've been called every three years and since I was last called in 2008, I knew I had a summons coming this year. Not only was I called in 2008, but was chosen to serve. The trial lasted until Thursday that week, and needless to say, I got bored sitting around in the court room. I was nearly asleep on the final day as we gathered in the room to come to our decision. I was glad to get back to work on Friday that week in October 2008. I was glad to not have to got through this all over again. No need to keep calling my boss all week to say when I have to be at the trial. I can just got back tomorrow and tell them I wasn't chosen.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Didn't have to do jury duty today
Over a month ago I was sent a dreaded jury duty summons for today's date. I had get today off from work, and I let my boss know last month after receiving the summons. Then last night I called the line and was told I was no longer needed. I was glad, but felt I'd wasted a day off, but it wasn't my fault, since I'm sure most of you know how this kind of thing can be.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Halloween approaches
It's less than three months away, but it's always around this time that some stores start stocking Halloween merchandise. My town's Dollar Tree has had some Halloween up for some time now. And I saw some Halloween decorations in the floral department at Safeway last week. My own place of work has yet to get any Halloween merchandise, though we always seem to start getting it as early as the beginning of August. Perhaps later this week and if not then then next week. Stores like Kmart and Target are still concentrating on back-to-school right now, but the Halloween can be expected before this month is over.
And as of last week, the annual Spirit Halloween Superstore in Gilroy, California began setting
up. For the last three years they had been taking over the
abandoned Linen and Things building, but this year they are taking place in a building left empty earlier this year by Famous Footwear. This building is only two doors to the left of Home Goods (where I have been working since 2006) and to the left of Old Navy. I'd applied for a temporary side job at the Spirit store on its website last month (haven't heard anything) and they'd said their store in Gilroy would be opening next to Costco, meaning they would be in the old Linens and Things building, in the same building strip as Lowe's, across the parking lot from Costco. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out of the parking lot at work last week and saw the Spirit store banner on the former Famous Footwear building. When Spirit opens, I won't have to drive to the store, since I'll be in the same parking lot.
And since last month I've been working on some papier mache ghosts and pumpkins (made from paper bags) that I want to try to sell on Etsy. I'm still working on opening an Etsy shop, and need to learn how to use Paypal. I've already got an Etsy account and have been looking for a way to make a banner for my shop for free on the Internet. Today I found a way to make one and made and saved it on my computer. I'll talk more on this later as I take more pictures of my papier mache creations. I've already chosen several favorite Etsy shops.
Here are the ghosts I first made six years ago that I have displayed each halloween in my kitchen window. The standing ghost are the ones I made form putting papier mache strips over paper bags.
And I have already been browsing costume sites, especially this one. I feel tempted to get this one, though I could easily make one myself. I've been Googling how to make one myself and came across how one person made the cupcakes using newspaper. That sounds like a good idea and I am considering trying this idea. I have already begun experimenting with strips of newspaper.
So far that's all I have seen and have been doing. More to come.
Monday, August 1, 2011
MTV 30th Anniversary
The popular cable channel that once carried and popularized music videos was launched 30 years ago today. I was 10 years old that year. My family did not have cable until eight years later and by then MTV had gradually slowed down showing videos. Before getting MTV I'd stay up late on Friday nights to watch NBC's "Friday Night Videos."
Below is a You Tube clip of MTV's launch just after midnight on August 1, 1981:
The first video was appropriately the Buggles's "Video Killed the Radio Star."
And remember these TV ads with various rock stars telling viewers to call their cable providers and demand, "I want my MTV" ?
The music video days of MTV are long gone, and reality shows now dominate the channel's programming. According to this article, the channel used to be cool:
I know it’s hard to believe now, but MTV used to be cool, or at least interesting. Back at the beginning, when there weren’t a lot of videos, they had to play what they got. They had Pete Townshend and Sting (before he was a total prat) doing commercials. They ran Velvet Underground outtakes and local NYC bands and anything, at all, that they could run to fill the time and space. They had “VJ’s” (instead of DJ, get it?) that actually knew something about music. Martha Quinn used to be a dj at WNYU back when that was my outpost to hear about new music, driving home from my after-school job at the medical records department at the HMO. There was 120 Minutes and The Cutting Edge – both of which you would plan your week around, even if you had figured out how to program your VCR – and the old 60′s videos from Beat Club. There was plenty of crap, to be sure, but there was always something worth watching, something worth talking about.
I don't have cable now, but know that a lot of cable channels, along with MTV, have strayed from their original focus. And many music videos from MTV's early days can be found on Youtube.
Here is one look at MTV 30 years later. And another person laments MTV's revolution continuing without a soundtrack in this link. And here the same person remembers "30
Things We Miss About MTV":
30 THINGS WE MISS ABOUT MTV:
30. Dial MTV
29. Beavis & Butt-Head
28. We're Dancin'
27. Street Party
26. Live coverage of Live Aid
25. The Cutting Edge
24. Just Say Julie
23. Yo! MTV Raps
22. Top 20 Video Countdown
21. "I want my MTV" promos
20. Liquid Television
19. Chris Connelly's movie reviews
18. Tabitha Soren's politics updates
17. MTV News with Kurt Loder
16. Downtown Julie Brown
15. World Premiere Videos
14. The crazy contests
13. Adam Curry
12. Headbangers Ball
11. Remote Control
10. The Young Ones
9. Al TV
8. 120 Minutes
7. The moon man
6. Nina Blackwood
5. Alan Hunter
4. J.J. Jackson
3. Mark Goodman
2. Martha Quinn
1. Music videos
Anyone agree? I'm sure a lot of you do.
And by strange coincidence about a week ago, I was looking through my stash of old Rolling
Stone magazines from the 1980s and 1990s. Among those from the 1980s was this one from late 1983, with the cover story: "Inside MTV: The Selling Out of Rock and Roll."
And from the pages of "TV Guide"'s August 4, 2001 edition comes this image (at left) of the magazine's celebration of MTV's 20th anniversary that year, saying "We Still Want Our MTV."
Do you still want your MTV?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Another One Bites the Dust
I'm talking about The Blockbuster Video store in Hollister, California. This I was not aware of until 12 days ago when I was making a Sunday run to our hometown's Target which parts of a large parking lot with Blockbuster. Both opened in our still-rather-small town in the early 1990s.
At right is the now empty building that housed our Blockbuster store starting in mid-1995.
No announcement of Blockbuster closing was made as far as I can recall. I was taken by surprise, though not completely, given that the video chain has been closing stores. And I was sad to see it go, even though I have been with Netflix since 2007. Since signing on Netflix, I have only rented a few times from Blockbuster, most recently with gift card I received as a Secret Santa gift at work. I gave Redbox a try after receiving a rental coupon from the register at Safeway one year. Safeway then replaced the Redbox with Blockbuster's own rental kiosk Blockbuster Express. I gave that one a try earlier this year to rent "The Social Network," since it had just gotten out on DVD and had a long wait on Netflix. Since then I have used Blockbuster Express a few more times upon having received free rental coupons via e-mail and from the register at Safeway. And I have even used my town's library to rent some DVDs that I didn't want to wait for on Netflix. I also found a while ago a movie from the 1990s that I missed back in the day, "Made in America." This has the green "Save" button on Netflix so I cannot rent it that way. I was glad to find it at the library.
Blockbuster was the first and only chain video store to hit Hollister. A number of local, independent ones came and went over the years, many of which were around mostly during the VHS era. One of the local video stores that many residents patronized was one called B.O.B.'s Video, whose owner, Bob Valenzuela, also wrote a column for one of our town's newspapers. The store closed in 2002 when Mr. Valenzuela left town for Hollywood. By the time I got my DVD player in 2002, Blockbuster was the only video store in town. Now its closing leaves the rental kiosks (Blockbuster Express in Safeway and Redbox in two other grocery stores), the library, and Netflix the only rental options for Hollister.
While I'm on the subject of Netflix, I must admit I have no way of Instant watching or streaming. I have a pre-Intel-based Macintosh, which does not allow Instant Watching and cannot afford any other device that allows streaming. So after learning that they are will start charging $15.98 a month for both Instant Watch and one DVD-at-a-time, I knew the right thing to do was change over to the plan for one DVD-at-a-time (with no streaming) for $7.99 a month. This plan change will start next month. No sense paying for something I cannot use. I was taken by surprise when I got the e-mail about the Netflix price changes, but did not want to be one of those who got angry and posted negative comments on the Netflix's Twitter or Facebook pages or its blog. With DVDs as my only watching option, I knew that paying for unlimited DVDs was the way to go.
And of course, the bookstore chain Borders will be closing. The nearest one to me is in Seaside, and I used to go to that store whenever I felt like making that long drive. I had not gone there much, however, since Barnes and Noble opened a store in 2004 in Gilroy, near Hollister. I last went to the Seaside store last summer to find a book I had not been able to locate elsewhere, and the lady at the register asked if I had a rewards card for the store, and said no since I don't live in that area. She then asked if I'd tried the B&N store in Gilroy and I said yes, but did not find what I was looking for. I don't know if I'll have chance to go to the Seaside store before it closes, since I don't know exactly when it will close, or if has already done so. And on the subject of bookstores, Hollister had two different ones over the years both independent ones, that last of which closed in 2002. Buying books in Hollister is now limited to Target, Kmart, Rite Aid and Safeway. I still read regular books, and am glad for the library. I've saved money reading books this way. No e-readers for me.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Quiz: What Email Function Are You?
 You are competent, organized, and careful. You know how to stay on task and focus on the most important thing. You like to have everything in its place. Messes and chaos completely stress you out. You have a system for almost everything in your life, and you don't like to deviate from it. Calendars, routines, and having things in a certain order keeps you calm. You don't like to shake things up too much. |
Friday, July 8, 2011
Quiz: What Type of Book Are You?
 You can't help but see the world as how you want it to be. You are an idealist. You don't put bounds or limitations on your thoughts. You are a down to earth daydreamer. You can picture whole other worlds and lives. You have a very vivid imagination. You're the type of person who would like to believe anything is possible. You believe there's so much more to this world than what we see. |
Quiz: The Summer Test
 You are a truly loving person. You are affectionate and warm-hearted. You are unselfish, humble, and altruistic. You get great joy from putting others first. You are tender and compassionate. You wear your heart on your sleeve. You are a virtual roller coaster of emotions, and most people enjoy the ride. You are full of delightful surprises. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)