Pacificapocalypse

Married, a month later it’s Thanksgiving, found a house we like (and can afford!) bought said house, packing, moving, and we get the keys on Christmas Eve.

So yeah… it’s been busy.

Going to have to rename the site. Merry Christmas everyone.

Oh hell, when will this crap end? In my in-box this morning:

The Guild was given a “heads-up” today that more layoffs are in store for The Chronicle. There were no details as to numbers or departments, but additional information was expected within a day or two. Arrangements are being made for Guild leadership to meet with management representatives. If we hear anything, we will let you know. As always, please check our Web site, www.mediaworkers.org, for updates.

THERE’S NOBODY LEFT!

The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It’s over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.

J.G Ballard has died.

While not unexpected, it still saddens me greatly.
I discovered Ballard by reading about Burroughs in an old RE/Search pub ‘Industrial Culture Handbook’. Jeez that was in 1983… wow. Anyway I was heavy into science fiction so I started reading ‘High Rise‘ then ‘Terminal Beach‘ and finally ‘Crash‘. From the first couple of chapters into ‘High Rise’ I knew this wasn’t the Sci Fi I was used to. By the time I finished ‘Crash’ I was deeply aware that this, perhaps, wasn’t the standard recommended reading material for ‘young adults’ (If you saw the movie version of ‘Crash‘ I can tell you quite truthfully.. they prettied it up. The book is… explicit.)
Ballard was the master of ‘dystopian fiction’ which after a steady diet of shiny plastic futures in so many previous books, fit nicely into my world view of the mid/late 1980’s. Punk/Industrial/Goth all were hitting their stride; I was ending high school with a big fuck you to ‘normal society’. I had blue hair and a leather jacket. I was mad at the world. What the hell did I know?
Ballard was perfect.

I thought ‘Empire of the Sun‘ was magnificent even before I knew it was an autobiographical account of Ballard as a boy in Japanese occupied China; after wards I sought out the book and was again floored by Ballard’s words.

“Death always presents the face of surprised recognition,” William S. Burroughs.

V.Vale who chronicled both Ballard and Burroughs said “I expected Ballard to live at least as long as Burroughs, who reached the age of 83, even after having been “a junkie” for years of his life. By a strange logic, I felt that since Ballard hadn’t been a junkie, he should live even longer than 83.”

Unreasonable of course, but yeah, I know what he means.

We have pets, specifically we have two dogs and three cats. That’s our furry family (with exception, Andy dog is a Chinese Crested Hairless, and Jayne cat is a Sphynx) and for the time being that’s how it’ll probably stay. So we had some drama start about two weeks ago with Panda dog; she started peeing in really un-cool places (the bed spread! Panda no!). We were concerned that it might be acting out since Jayne cat is a new family member, but not *that* new. We’ve had him for about a month now; a little late to start acting out and we’ve been careful to spread the love and attention equally among the kids so no one feels left out. We thought maybe a doggie UTI; off to the vet’s she went. Court brought her home with some general antibiotics and a doggie pheromone potpourri warmer. Supposed to calm their little puppy hearts and make them less prone to acting-out peeing.

And then… Butch cat started up. First he pee’d on the bedspread also (AAAARG!! We just got that back from the cleaners!) And then on the couch and finally the next day on one of the dog pillows. Something seriously up here; he’s never done anything like this before. So off to Coastal Cat Clinic he goes. By this time, the vet had called back to say that, yes, Panda dog did have a UTI and that the antibiotic she was on should get her through with no problems. Anyway, they take some blood and urine from Butchie and send him home. I get the call the next day; no UTI for Butchie, but something much worse. Apparently Butch cat’s personal chemistry cause his urine to be very high pH which cause crystals to form. These crystals can be very irritating AND clump together to cause a blockage, just like kidney stones in humans.  Very serious. The vet said to bring him back in the afternoon (that was Thursday last week) and we would need to give him sub q fluids for the next ten days and put him on a special diet to lower his pH, raise the acidity of his urine and hopefully dissolve the crystals. I freaked out a little. Sub cutaneous fluids? Like with a needle and shit? Holy crap. Thank god Court has done stuff like that in the past with horses so she had some experience, I would have been a complete wreck without her.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ok kids; here’s the final score.
The Guild has voted and ratified an agreement on contract changes, to take effect immediately. So what does that mean? First off, Hearst Corp. says 150 people will be let go, most likely starting April 1st. That’s when they file their WARN Act notice. We were informed today that most of the cuts will come from Editorial and Production, but we will be hit also. Management has been instructed to start filling out evaluation forms for all employees starting immediately.

So there you go. We get a little breather until the axe comes down.
Jeez it’s been like living in Warsaw in ‘38; you know it’s coming and you know it’ll be bad. But you really don’t know how bad… maybe they can get Adrian Brody to play me in the movie. I’d be okay with that.

I hate this shit.
Pins and friggin’ needles.
No news is good news? Not in this particular case. We’ve received a couple of updates from the Guild and it’s not looking good. But then again, no matter what happens, the situation is grim. If Hearst Corp. get their demands, the workforce is cut dramatically as well as benefits for the remaining employees, which equals a suck fest.
If the Guild and Hearst can’t reach an agreement, then Hearst puts the paper up for sale and if they don’t get a buyer, they close it all down. 144 years of publication history, just swept away. Which equals an even harder suck fest.
Update from this morning:

Chronicle Unit negotiators met Friday with management representatives
to raise certain issues concerning the company’s latest cost-cutting
proposals. It appeared we made some headway in terms of narrowing our
differences, but the meeting adjourned without an overall tentative
agreement.

The parties plan to resume the discussions on Monday.

Hearst Corp., owner of the Chronicle, announced it would have to sell
or close the 144-year-old newspaper if the Guild and other unions
refused to accept concessions.  At least 150 jobs are expected to be
eliminated from the Guild’s jurisdiction, including news,
advertising, circulation and other departments. Buyouts may reduce
the number of involuntary layoffs.

No deadlines have been set. Management has made it clear that
agreement needs to be reached soon.

I can’t even say ‘hopefully I’ll have more news later today’ ’cause any news is going to be bad at this point.
The consensus in my department, and probably building wide, is that it’s definitely time to have a Plan B ready to go. Because, boys and girls, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ anymore, only ‘when’.

Well it’s been a week since they made the announcement regarding the start of negotiations between the management of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Media Workers Guild (yeah boy, I’m a ‘Guild Member’ – sounds so archaic, I feel like I should be setting type Gutenberg Style like some Dickensian character.. “Please Sir! Might I have a steady paycheck and health coverage?”) We’ve got the list of demands (Okay they call it a ‘Summary of Hearst Proposal to Guild, but “list of demands” sounds way cooler and evil.) from Management, of what concessions they want from the Guild, and it ain’t pretty.

<snip>
…Exclude from Guild protection all recently hired outside advertising, online advertising, ChronDirect salespersons and sales reps for the Gate.
Grievances – Eliminate the right to take new grievances to arbitration without company agreement in each case.
Layoffs – Expand employer’s right to lay off anyone out of seniority. Higher severance for out-of seniority layoffs.
Pensions – Discontinue any further contributions to the pension plan.
<endsnip>

Full text pdf here.

There’s (obviously) a great deal of apprehension in the air, and rumors are everywhere. Some people say this isn’t so much about revenue as it is Hearst Management wanting to break the back of the Guild. And the timing doesn’t make sense to me and others; Hearst has sunk a ton o’ cash into a new 15 year agreement with a new state-of-the-art printing facility in Fremont that is set to make it’s debut in June 2009, so what happens to that?
No one really has a clue, but I do know that many people are expecting the worse and making plans now.

A report hit on Monday, January 26, regarding High Fructose Corn Syrup and mercury.
Not cool.
I’ve been a nay-sayer and hatchet man against HFCS since reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma about two years ago. (An excellent read by the way, if you have any interest in where your food comes from.) Suffice to say I’ll take sugar or honey (though honey has it’s own set of problems) any day over HFCS. The funny thing is that right around the time people started becoming more aware of HFCS, how pervasive they are, and the potential health risks associated with it, the Corn Refiners Association (the trade association that represents the corn refining industry) who have a vested interest in the production of HFCS, apparently hired a PR firm and threw together a little site called The Truth About High Fructose Corn Syrup, to plead their case before the public. It’s filled with all sorts of fascinating information about Our Friend High Fructose Corn Syrup™. They play a little fast and lose with the details, but come on kids! It’s from CORN! So it has to be good right? It’s natural. Yeah. Right. Lead, arsenic and cancer are all naturally occurring, let’s slather some of that on your toast. Big tobacco plays this game too.
So of course they had to respond to this negative report ASAP, and here’s what they had to say:

“This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance. Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years.”

Hydrochloric acid and caustic soda?
Really, Corn Refiners Association? Is that what you wanted to say?

You’re not helping.

These were the lazy salad days… warm gentle breezes, crickets chirping in the twilight as Mother and I sipped lemonade on the porch.

Bullshit.

It’s freaking cold out there!
So here we are with another Xmas about to blow it’s festive load all over us. Good times. Unfortunately, my employer has decided that they need to remain open for business (of which there will be none) the day after Xmas, which throws a monkey wrench into the whole visiting the various fams for the holidays road travel extravaganza. Meh, we’ll make it work somehow. So here’s my checklist so far:

• Gifts: all done
• Gifts to wrap: three left to go
• Current mood: suspicious with a hint of ennui
• Currently listening to: Joy Division unreleased Christmas Album bootleg. Ok I made up that last part.

Anyway it’s damn slow in the office and I can tell it’s going to be a very long day.

New Ink!

Finally! Two weekends ago I said screw it and Court and I went and got new ink. Jeff at Lyle Tuttle was able to get us in on a moments notice, so tip o’ the hat to him for that.
I decided to work the chem geek/foodie angle and came up with this -

Don’t waste too much skull sweat trying to figure it out; unless you’re a BioChem freak (or SuperFreak – I’m looking at you Atek) then you might not recognize the chemical diagram for 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide, or more commonly known as capsaicin, the burny goodness in chili peppers.
I’m not going to say what Court got done until i can get a good picture of it, so guess away.

Oh yeah and I asked Court to marry me last Wednesday.
So yeah, it’s been an interesting two weeks.

Ok look, I’m no fan, by any means, of Pat Buchanan, but the man does have a handle on history.
Ignore the messenger ( odious though he may be ) and listen to the message.

Will the Terrorists Succeed Again?

“Terrorism is a tactic, a technique, a weapon that fanatics, dictators and warriors have resorted to through history. If, as Clausewitz wrote, war is the continuation of politics by other means, terrorism is the continuation of war by other means.”

So, will they? I’m not so sure. I do believe he’s correct in his argument that the real target of this attack is Pakistan itself:

But the strategic target of the militants is the Pakistani government.
Pakistan’s offenses? Cooperating with America in Afghanistan and the border region, battling al-Qaida and the Taliban, withdrawing from the fight for Kashmir, seeking peace with a Hindu nation where 170 million Muslims are denied their place in the sun.

I pray ( as I seldom do these days ) that cooler heads prevail and that these ten criminals do not end up in the history books, but instead, as Trotsky said:

“You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on / into the dustbin of history!”