Pacificapocalypse

So the fallout continues; another person in my department is taking the buyout; she’s been with the company for 15 years, so again, it sort of makes sense. That’s two definite and two maybes.

What other fresh, disturbing revelations shall the day bring?

Yeah I wasn’t going to post about this but…
We received a company wide email announcing a buyout program starting today, Monday, August 4th.

Dear Chronicle Guild Members:

As you may already know, Hearst management intends to reduce staff by about 125 positions through voluntary buyout packages. The packages will be similar to the last round of buyouts and will include: 2 weeks pay per year of service, with a minimum of 4 weeks to a maximum of 52 weeks; COBRA commensurate with weeks of service, with a minimum of 2 months to a maximum of 12 months and members can cash out COBRA if they choose; and uncontested unemployment benefits. The 3-week offer period is from Monday, Aug. 4 to Aug. 22, 5 p.m. Once you sign, you have 5 business days to rescind. End dates will be worked out with your supervisor or manager, but all must be finalized by the the end of the year.

This reduction will affect all departments and also include management. We will hold meetings on Monday, Aug. 4, at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. in the third floor Guild Conference Room at 433 Natoma St.

We know that this a difficult time and will assist you in any way possible. Please check mediaworkers.org for the latest updates.
I wasn’t too concerned (I being an absolutely integral part of the Hearst Corporation’s long term financial plan) but today is weird, people are huddled in small groups in cube farm intersections speaking in low tones. There are these odd wondering, sideways looks from people: who’s taking the buyout? Will they get enough volunteers to avoid layoffs? You can smell the fear and desperation.
Or is that lunch? Anyway, there’s a strange vibe in the office and I don’t know which way people are going to jump. Certain managers have already indicated that they might take it, leaving the department in even more precarious straights.

Time to polish the resumé.

Stayed tuned for further developments.

UPDATE: Wow, one person in my department is definitely taking the buyout and two more are seriously considering it. All three of them have, on average, been here 20 plus years, so it makes sense.
Dame this might be serious.

UPDATE: Videos have been pulled. *sigh* well I knew it couldn’t last.
It’ll probably be pulled by the end of the day before lunch; but here it is in two parts sneaked from Comic Con.

Wolverine! (No link. Seriously if you need a link for more info on Wolverine, then this post is of absolutely to interest to you. And you suck.)
Sabertooth!
Gambit!
Blob!

Please oh please oh please!

Iain Banks, my favorite author as of late, did a e-mail Q & A via his site a few weeks back and the result have been posted. I *really* need to pick up his latest Culture book.

So the hype for the Watchmen movie is ramping up nicely, what with the release of the official trailer last week (and it looks amazing; please don’t fuck this up guys!) but what I really love right now is this Vargas style illo of Sally Jupiter done by James Jean.

At 1:32 into the Watchmen trailer, you can see a glimpse of an illustration I did for the movie. Alex McDowell asked me to create a Vargas-esque portrait of Sally Jupiter, played by Carla Gugino. It only appears for 1 second in the trailer, but the illustration is supposed to play a larger role in that particular scene.

click for full size goodness.

A little late, but better than not at all.

Ah the Fourth of July! Now the Fourth in Pacifica is a little different. Pacifica is one of two cities on the Peninsula where fireworks sales are legal. Come the week or so before, the stands pop up on every block like mushrooms after the rain. Each stand dedicated to an individual fund raising effort: the Pacifica Little League; the local Girl Scout troop, the  local Hells Angels ( ok I made up that last one), you get the picture. People from all the surrounding cities flock in to buy their fireworks and Pacifca makes a fair bit of cheddar from it.

The night of the Fourth though, Pacifica PD is on the lookout for illegal fireworks (you know, the fun, dangerous, explody kind). And as usual we were fogged in. Up on the point we’re above the fog so we got a sort of arena rock lighting effect from the fireworks on the beach floating up through the fog bank. Safe and Insane is the motto for fireworks in Pac. Anyway, we invited Melissa up for the weekend and mainly watched movies and drank.
Except for Saturday.
SATURDAY! GUNS! GUNS! GUNS! Ah yes it was time for yet another Calguns Shoot-n-Que at Chabot. We had, I would say, the best turn out so far. At least 50 members showed up, and as usual, more food than we could eat ( we did our best, but after tri-tip, hot links, salmon, samosas, and various sides, it was a forgone conclusion. The food wins every time). Brought out only iron sight rifles figuring that since Melissa had never fired a gun before, she should start simple, at the 50 yard line.
Check that smile!

And of course Court still love *her* M1A Scout.
Goodness knows why my darling 5 foot nothing buck and a quarter girl loves that .308 so, but I’m not complaining.
Now that’s a gun happy face.

Tip o’ the hat to Rivviepop for letting Melissa shoot his S&W 686; I didn’t bring any handguns this time out.  Good time had by all; the bullets went that way and the girls were so proud of their bruises the next day. Weirdos.
More pics here.

We Watch Movies: Wanted
First things first; this movie is based upon a comic book of the same name.
Same it with me: COMIC BOOK.
Got it? Ok now that that’s out of the way, it was pretty fun. Over the top special effects, very bad bad guys, ultra violent, automobile stunts that would have Newton spinning in his grave so quickly, he catches fire from the friction. I won’t go into all the absurd details ( wait a minute, you mean they get their orders from a… loom? The thing you weave cloth with? In binary code?
And where do they get the hand crafted, engraved bullets from anyway?) but it is fun.

Don’t go expecting it to have any sort of connection to reality and you’ll enjoy it. Plus Angelina is still easy on the eyes. Minor divergence: we’ve decided that, at this point in her career, nude scenes are pretty much off the table.  Except in the case of a serious film, like Selma Hayek in Frida. But it’s unlikely we’ll ever see the blistering hot loves scenes as in Original Sin.
One last observation, more of a question really; where can *I* get one of those old timey flintlock rifles, that has the optical capability to see into the future and shoots multi-stage bullets, from? Seriously. I’d like to know.

Ok, true it’s *barely* Pacifica, but WTF?

Pacifica Police respond to Fairmont shooting
Pacifica Tribune Staff
Article Launched: 07/02/08 10:51:08 AM PDT
Pacifica Police responded to the Sunshine area of Fairmont on the afternoon of June 26 on a report of a shooting victim. Callers said several males were seen running from the area with baseball bats. Residents also heard several shots.

Police officers arrived in the area at about 2:45 p.m. and found a 15-year-old male shooting victim on the 200 block of Gateway Drive. He was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital and is listed in stable condition. Pacifica, Daly City and San Bruno police searched the area and briefly detained several teens, but no suspects were located.

“There’s nothing to lead us to believe at this time the shooting was gang related,” said Pacifica Police Capt. Fernando Reayvasquez.

We Watch Movies: WALL-E

Magnificent. Outstanding. Masterpiece. Perfect. Incredible.

These are the words I *might* use to describe WALL-E.

But I’m speechless
There are going to be many glowing reviews of this movie, and for me to even try and match the eloquence of people that actually write about movies for a living would be ludicrous.

I’ll just say that Pixar haven’t raised the bar; they’ve launched it into orbit.

Go see this movie.

I love the zoo.
Yeah, yeah I know, “zoo’s are cruel” whatever Peta dude, go suck down some organic Humus and let me get my zoo on. So last Saturday, we took a little day trip to the San Francisco Zoo. It was hotter than the hinges of hell and there was no way we were going to stay indoors. We still had Kaitlin with us and she couldn’t remember if she’d ever been before (the 12 year old female mind is…  a mystery of Bermuda Triangle proportions.)
I dig the Africa Savanna scene with the Giraffes, Zebra, Lesser AND Greater Kudu. Come on man! Baby Giraffes are awesome. The ginourmous Silverback Gorilla and all the primates. The birds and reptiles. I like the Tapirs and the big Black Swan. I dig the Penguins and the petting zoo with all the farm critters. I love them all.
The Zoo gets a bad rap I think. Yes, ok, I agree, the 1930’s architecture of some of the paddocks are horrific when compared to modern standards, but the new habitats are so much better and they never seem to stop improving. Ok, the whole ‘Death by Christmas Tiger‘ thing was pretty bad for the tiger and the guy that was killed (though in retrospect the two other guys involved come off as world class douchbags.) but I still think the Zoo serves a grand purpose - to allow people and families to see and learn about these animals that they might never otherwise get the chance. Besides. they *did* save those two bear cubs that were up for destruction, and got a nifty new Grizzly bear habitat out of it as well.
So all you naysayers can go fish.
It’s all happening at the zoo.

More pictures here.

Ah man, back from camping at Richardson Grove, up past Fort Bragg on the coast. Big tree country. Had an outstanding time but too short of course. Court and I drove up on Sunday evening after meeting my dad for Father’s Day dinner at the Italian Society Hall in Menlo Park. Totally old school place; a bartender that looked like he’d served drinks at the last supper, traditional anti pasti plates and overcooked pasta, and a crowd that looked like a bunch of extras from the opening scene of the Godfather, but we had a good time.
Then the drive north.
CAMPING!
There’s no better breakfast than camping breakfast.
Great weather; just cold enough at night to make the campfire and the sleeping bags appreciated and pretty warm during the day. Got up there around 11pm on Sunday evening and were grateful that Court’s family were able to put up our tent and air mattress for us beforehand. Setting up camp in the dark sucks. And hey, I love the hardcore, no amenities, dig a hole to poop in, type of camping, but there’s something to be said for running water and bathrooms with flush toilets.
Monday we hung out by the river and in beautiful downtown Garberville. You can really tell that you’re in NorCal hippie country by the number of smokeshops, hydroponic grow stores and crystal emporiums in that town. It’s like all the old hippies that moved out of the Haight set up town here. Dinner was pork loin roasted on the fire and I don’t care what anyone says, 140° internal temp is not fit to serve. Sorry Bob, but I draw the line at 160°. The smashed potatoes were very good.
Tuesday was all day at Shelter Cove and man what a sorry little… hm.. not sure what you’d call it. Tourist spot? Coastal community? Whatever it was a little bleak. Great beach and ocean views but Archie mentioned how he thought it would be pretty miserable place to spend the winter - miles of switchback road, possibly washed out and blocked. No way in or out, storms from the Gulf of Alaska smacking you straight in the face. Pass. You know what it reminded me of? A setting for a Stephen King novel. Something about little isolated communities like that creep me out. Total “Storm of the Century” fodder. Court and I cooked dinner Tuesday night; grilled coulette steaky steak and caramelized onion sammies were tasty. Wednesday we broke camp and hit the road. A short trip but I would not have missed it for the world.

More pictures here.

We Watch Movies: The Happening.
Thursday we went and checked out M. Night’s newest.
Wow, well, first and foremost it wasn’t as bad as all the reviews said it would be, I mean, yeah I never really developed any sort of sympathy for any of the characters and I sort of like all the actors involved. And you *really* have to buy into the premise for the whole movie to even have a chance (dude… it’s the plants!). Ok some of the set scenes were sufficiently disturbing; and they don’t waste any time starting with the weirdness. But why was it only effecting the North East? I didn’t buy the explanation they provided. Whatever.
AND! Betty Buckley gets the nod for Most Disturbingly Creepy Old Lady Living in An Isolated Farmhouse award. They have that, right?

Overall it was entertaining but not fantastic. Worth seeing at matinée pricing.