For those of you who don’t know, basically a Texas state congressman amended a bill that had nothing to do with electrics or live entertainment, in an attempt to clean up engineering legislation, to include a provision that “lighting design” could not be performed by anyone except licensed engineers, electricians, and architects. (And not recognizing any of the LE industry licensing programs.) Basically, he had a constituent (i.e. big donor) call and complain that he was unhappy with the work of someone he hired to “design” his residential lighting. In a knee-jerk reaction, a the congressman added the above provision without knowing its full ramifications.

Thankfully, it was immediately brought to the attention of the lighting design community and heavy-hitters came out in force. Gently educating the congressman on what exactly that would mean to thousands and thousands of people, not just designers, but the people that hire them, the companies that supply them, etc, seemed to open their eyes and the amendment has since been pulled.

Kinda scary there for a minute, tho. Could have been illegal to practice lighting design in the state of Texas!

I adopted him yesterday from the shelter in Genoa. He’s a needly little guy and quite the talker, but he’s sweet and adorable. (This is the best picture I have, I can’t get him to stand still long enough!)

Looks like they basically agreed that the number of crew at load-in could be a lot more flexible, that pre- and post-show calls could be extended some without initiating a minimum call (I.E. so they could call crew at an hour and a half to show and not have to pay a full four-hour minimum for that extra half hour.) In exchange for some of the concessions made on the behalf of the Union, the techs will see a higher than standard pay raise.

Dammit, I want a pay raise! I’d go on strike, but no one would give a damn.

I don’t see anything terribly earth-shattering here, but some of the fall-out remains to be seen. I just hope it doesn’t start to establish a precedence of justifying cutting into job security with paying more per hour. The temporary contract will be voted on by the members of Local 1 in the middle of December.

As those of you who pay attention to the news may or may not know, IATSE Local One (Broadway stage technicians) has gone on strike. Add that to the Writer’s Guild strike, and it’s a hell of time to be in the entertainment industry.

I can’t say that I blame anyone involved in either of these strikes, but it’s a shame that the parties have been unable or unwilling to come to an agreement before this measure was taken.

Regardless, I’m going to be paying close attention to how these strikes play out and the changes made to their respective contracts, because I know that it will have important ramifications for all of us working in the industry, especially those of us on a contract basis.

Something I’ve wanted so bad for more than a year is finally here and I’m scared shitless.

Powerful words written by a good friend of mine with a gift for metaphor. They deserve to be reproduced.

I know it’s been a few days since the events at VT and I’ve posted since, but I keep reading what people are saying about why this young man did what he did and I’m finding myself developing and remembering some serious concerns I have about what the “aftermath” might be and the state of things in America.

Some good friends of mine that were creative writing types are justifiably concerned about what parallels might be drawn between this young man and writers everywhere. His prose has been characterized as “dark” and “disturbing”, and that is being cited as a “warning sign” of a disturbed mind. Now, I won’t deny that crazy people can write some crazy shit, but certainly not everybody that writes crazy shit is crazy. I don’t see anyone advocating locking up Thomas Harris; he’s certainly not going to go about eating people and that’s certainly disturbing writing.

I can only hope that students refuse to censor themselves, refuse to stop exploring “disturbing” themes and ideas out of fear of profiling. I hope that the educators reading this uncensored work are engaged enough with the authors to recognize the true character of their minds.

And that engagement is something that I might say is the single biggest factor that leads to the sort of social isolation that we see in cases like this. It’s horrible that in a society that prides itself on the high quality of our educations, lifestyles, and institutions, we are so woefully unconnected with each other.

I had the gift in highschool of a faculty and staff that were engaged with their students and observant of more than just the grades they gave. I suppose we were different, in that we were away from home, but that consciously or unconsciously took on the role of surrogate parents. In a culture that almost encourages absentee parenting, and certainly doesn’t shun it, we need to be even more acutely aware that our children are “well adjusted”.

I was reading an article on the website of some newspaper and alongside the article was a comment posted by a user. The comment said, [I paraphrase a bit, emphasis mine.] “We should not be so concerned with the man that did this and more concerned with the other students. We taught them to be cowards.” I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. If anything, we’re teaching them to be assholes with little fear of reparation from their actions.

The speaker was right, in that we do need to be concerned with the students. The “loner type” is as much of a result of shunning by his peers as it may be any of his conscious decision. Most “loners” such as this young man, wanted nothing more than to be included. One article cited a former highschool classmate recounting an incident where he was nervous about reading aloud in class, and when requested to do so, was taunted and told to “go back to China.” When and how did we develop the idea that this is acceptable behavior?? When I was in middle school I was taunted mercilessly by a group of students. When confronting the administration with that fact and the lack of interference on the behalf of the staff, one administrator said, and I’ll never forget it as long as I live, “They’re just kids being kids and there’s nothing that we can do to stop it.”

Now I bet if the actions of these tormentors, both mine and his, were brought to the attention of their parents, they would find the behavior at least somewhat distasteful and make efforts to put a stop to it. I’m not saying that America’s parents are all bad parents, it’s that they’re not being given and they’re not seeking out the opportunities to be parents.

Of course, as we see in the aftermath of any major incident carried out by a single individual or group of homogeneous individuals, I’m concerned about profiling of immigrants. This country already has a hard enough time dealing with people that seek to share in its prosperity. Thank god he was here completely legally or the shit-storm would unlike any we’ve seen for quite a while. I hope I’m not offending anyone when I say this, but white Americans are notoriously bad at identifying the races other than their own and tend to lump related cultures all together as one and the same. (I reference the “Go back to China” comment.)

And, of course, we come to the “violent music and video games” argument. Reporters are fond of pointing out the similarities between some of his images and those of a popular Koren cult movie. And of course reviving the “violent images make violent people” argument. Now, I don’t know where I stand on this. The problem with this issue lies in the individual characters of the observers. Some people can maintain that awareness that this != reality, but some are the types that *do* “get desensitized” to it. I’ve seen types of personalities, mostly male, that see something on a game or movie and think “hey that’s cool” and internalize that idea. They eventually develop a mentality and vocabulary full of these violent images. I’ve SEEN it. This, of course, ties back to parents.

At all serves to make me grateful for the good that came out of my own experiences as a kid and even more grateful for the people around me that supported me and the few friends that I did have and the balancing effect that they had on my life. My heart goes out to the victims of those that died that day, and those that continue to suffer. Even more my voice goes out to those that identify, at least in some part, with the shooter. May you find the hope and compassion that you need before it’s too late.

America, I recognize that it’s asking a lot, but please be smart and be nice.

To whoever decided that it would be a good idea to steal my family’s minivan on Friday morning:

You are an asshole. There are not enough adjectives to correctly describe your degenerate ass, so I’ve settled on Asshole.

Because you needed to get your rocks off by stealing a vehicle, and probably using it to traffic drugs, you have dealt a horrible blow to a family that is already stretched near the breaking point. You have stolen, in one fell swoop, not only the livelihood of of one of its members, but much of the hope of all of its members that we might, someday, dig ourselves out and have a fresh start at life.

You are a horrible, horrible human being. I curse the fate the led you to choose, out of a subdivision full of minivans, in a world of people who need to be rocked just a little bit, our van IN OUR DRIVEWAY.

(The one, I might add, parked next to an unlocked Mustang with the keys in the ignition.)

I hate you. I hate you and your degenerate ass. I hope you find yourself someday, prostrate and powerless to some other asshole and you feel regret and remorse for what you’ve done.

We have no extra income. We have no means to replace what you’ve taken. We’re now in the situation of having to make loan payments for a vehicle we no longer possess and trying to scrape up the means to replace what you’ve taken.

I hope, for your sake, we never meet. If so, you will definitely live to regret it.

Words cannot express how horribly violated and destroyed we feel right now. We’ve been in such a bad place for so long. We were finally beginning to feel like we were making some headway, regaining some ground, and then someone steals our damn car. Just gone. Woke up Friday morning and it was gone from our driveway like it had never been there.

I keep hoping that it will just reappear someday soon. That it’ll turn out to be some prank gone horribly awry. That we’ll get it back and this horrible episode will be behind us. But I know that’s probably not going to be the case.

There’s a seven day waiting period before we can get any compensation from the insurance company. In that time, they’ll pay for a rental car, but it has to come out of pocket and then we’re reimbursed for it later. We certainly can’t afford that expense, even if we do get it back later because we don’t have it now. Thankfully, it sounds like the company that my dad works for has stepped forward to help out, and that’s a great thing, but even still….

The money from the insurance company has to go toward the car loan first, and than whatever’s left over goes to us. Well, there isn’t going to be any leftover. In fact, we’re still going to owe money toward the loan. The insurance company only gives you KBB value for the vehicle. Not actually what it would take to get you back on the road again.

Assholes.

For a variety of reasons, I have grown to hate car insurance companies in the past few days. There not in the business of helping people. They’re in the business of screwing people and doing only the least the law allows.

(I just found out that my insurance premium is an extra $10 a month because I went TWO DAYS without insurance while I was switching providers. Assholes.)

To top it all off, I know it’s not entirely rational, but it’s set me completely on edge. I don’t feel safe anymore. When I was falling asleep last night, I heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from the garage. Convinced someone was trying to steal another one of our cars, or worse, I armed myself with my knife and stuck out to investigate. Obviously I found nothing, but I was so rattled that I slept with my knife under my pillow and slept fitfully all night.

You don’t think it’ll happen to you. You hear about thefts and break-ins and it’s always somebody else. I’m here to tell you that it can be you.

Please, if you have an auto loan, see if your insurance covers all of your loan in the case your car is totaled or stolen. PLEASE. If it won’t, demand it, and if they won’t, switch. Don’t just assume the insurance will protect you.

Holy webpage layout made easy, Batman!

I’m absolutely in love with Sidebar Widgets in WordPress. I’m a big fan of how you can rearrange items on your website with the click and drag of a mouse and be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be.

That said, I really need to stop futzing with my webpage right now and go to bed.

Boy is it nice to be excited about something again. I’m back in that “I could stay up all night working on this” mode again. I missed it.

I didn’t do this last year because my blog was down at the time, but I should do it again this year. It’s been a big year. I have to be careful, though, because I know how much my current mood can effect what I think of.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?
Well, I graduated from college. That’s a pretty big thing.
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, I was very anti-resolution last year, so I didn’t really have any to keep. This year, I am making some, mostly because I’ve noticed myself falling into a lazy pattern, so I’m using them to hopefully kick me out of my stupor.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.
5. What countries did you visit?
Didn’t leave the states, unfourtunately.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
Financial stability.
7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
11 Mar 06 – my last day as a student at Knox.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Surviving the last of college. Toward the end, I wanted out so bad I was going to burst, but I made it.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Perhaps not getting out on a vacation like I wanted.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not that I can think of.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Well, I technically bought my new phone in 2006..
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
G.T. She’s stuck with it and things are working out well for her now.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Perhaps my father’s upset me most.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills and gas.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I still can’t stop thinking about the gorgeous room that we had when went up to Timber Ridge. That was so much fun…
16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
OK GO’s “Here it Goes Again” is the first that comes to mind.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, I think.
ii. thinner or fatter? About the same, actually.
iii. richer or poorer? Well, I made more money, and I actually have a savings now, so richer.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading, definitely.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Gotten upset about things. I feel like I let things get to me too much.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
As usual, Eve with the E’s family and day with mine.
(Still no question 21)
22. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Over and over again. And I fell in love with my new phone.
23. How many one-night stands?
None.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
the new Battlestar Gallactica.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I try not to hate people. I’ve defiantly gotten to dislike so people, but I really don’t care for a few people.
26. What was the best book you read?
Probably The Time Traveller’s Wife it was very good.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Galic Storm
28. What did you want and get?
. A college degree
29. What did you want and not get?
The Perfect Job
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Gosh, I saw so many this year… I can’t think back so far, but I can remember that Zach Braff’s The Last Kiss was really, really good.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 22 and we had a very low-key evening, after all, I had to work that night, but we did go to the bar afterwards.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
moving out.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
I’m continuing to evolve from college hippy to young professional. I like simpler patterns, solids, tailored looks.
34. What kept you sane?
E’s backrubs.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I dunno.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Healthcare’s getting very important.
37. Who did you miss?
A.L. She seems to have no interest in keeping herself in my life.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Well, I met a bunch of new people this year, but none of them are sticking out to me, per se. I have made a bunch of new connections and networking-type things. And that’s cool.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:
Sleep is important. And I’m getting old and need more of it than I used to.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Goodness, I really can’t think of an answer to this right now. I’ll have to get back to you.

OH MY GOD THE SEXY.

Now, the question is, who will be cool enough to carry it, and how incredibly expensive is it going to be? Oh, and will they make enough to meet what I’m pretty sure will be high demand? (as far as Apple hardware goes, anyway.)

UPDATE: Looks like it’ll be carried by Cingular and retail at $499-$599 (4GB/8GB)

That’s, actually, not bad…