Dear Local Target Store,

Have I mentioned that I really do love you?  And that it hurts me to write this?

I was standing in line with my items that started out as a small list and ballooned (as always) to about a bazillion things.  I was tired and impatient, I’ll be honest. 

I get to the checkout line, and I take a gander at the checkout person.  She looks as if she is about to die.  You know how people look when they are really sick and should be in bed, but instead for some reason showed up to work?  Well, that was her. 

She croaks, “Hello” at me and then COUGHS ONTO HER HAND. I repeat ONTO HER HAND.  My first grader knows by now that you DO NOT COUGH INTO YOUR HAND you cough into the crook of your elbow.  He does it, I’ve seen him do it.  But for whatever reason, this chick decided it was too much effort. She then casually, or perhaps very slowly because she had a horrible illness residing within her that has rendered her limbs practically useless,  pumps a couple of drops of hand sanitizer onto her hands, rubs for about two seconds, and then PLACES HER GERMY HANDS ALL OVER MY STUFF.

Did they not just come out with a study that showed hand sanitizers do not in any way kill 99.9% of germs?  Why yes, they did.

What should I have done?  Should I have switched lines, even though she had already started on my things?  The thought crossed my mind, but it was too late. 

So thanks a lot, sick Target employee.  I have a three month old with an immature immune system at home, the last thing I need is an onslaught of your germs.

And Target, I don’t know if your policies encourage sick employees to show up to work or not.  I hope they don’t. And you might want to give your employees a refresher course in proper hygiene.  Especially in the time of, you know, that little thing called swine flu.

Thanks bunches,

Gina

You guys remember a while back when I posted about my awesome trip to The Valley aboard the Metrolink? I even had another one just a couple months ago where I utilized the Gold Line to Pasadena! Both trips were fairly easy and made it so I didn’t have to drive through traffic. However, I had to plan a few days ahead of time, because as I’ve mentioned, Metrolink doesn’t exactly have a “regular” schedule. Well today Metrolink let me down not once, but twice.

To hear the reason, just follow the jump… (more…)

I’ve been trying to stay away from the whole “birther” thing, I really have.  These people are completely nuts, and I fear for their sanity.  And I figured that writing about them would only encourage them more, so I definitely didn’t want to do that.

But, it seems that everyone is talking about them, and the Republicans behind the Orange Curtain are ground zero for the “movement.” I put that in quotes because I’m not sure a bunch of insane people qualify as a movement of any kind.  More like an epidemic.

Sigh.

It seems that the leaders of the crazies, Orange County lawyer Orly Taitz and Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park are based right here, and have a lawsuit that is currently making its way through the court systemin Santa Ana.  However, it is encouraging that some of the judges are prone to giving Ms. Taitz a good smackdown.

So now comes along two more dubious examples of OC crazy.  Judy Ahrens and John  Briscoe want Maya Angelou’s fantastic autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” banned from school libraries.  Seriously?  Way to put OC back in the Dark Ages J & J!  Their objection is to one part of the book in which Ms. Angelou describes being raped as a child.

I’ve read the book many times, and I don’t think that one passage should mean that the entire book is banned.  The work as a whole is moving and powerful, and already the book is restricted to being checked out by 8th graders only.  And listen, with all the stuff kids today watch, the scene is not as traumatizing to the “innocent children” as J & J would like you to believe.

But again, book banning? Seriously?

Please, crazies, you are giving the rest of us a bad name!

I am watching the  11:00 a.m. news on ABC7, one of the perks of working part-time, and they just did a story about how you can’t tailgate in the parking lots at Angels stadium. Wait, let me clarify … you can tailgate, but you can’t drink alcohol. What!?! But here’s where it gets really stupid. There was a private lot across the street, that charged the same as the stadium, that did let you booze it up. However, the City of Anaheim shut it down for the playoffs citing zoning violations.

As a huge sports fan I take offense to this. Tailgating, with alcohol, is part of the experience. Of course there are always people who drink too much and become belligerent and want to start a fight with anyone for any reason, but that can happen anywhere.

What everyone needs to remember is tailgating is about celebrating the commonality that is your team, which makes it a community. When you have a shared community you have respect, or should have, and that means respecting your fellow fans and the fans of the other team. I’m all for good natured ribbing of the rival team especially if they come into your stadium all decked out in their teams gear. It’s expected and if you don’t know this you’re very very naive. Remember though, mean-spirited barbs and violence is never appropriate.

Okay, end of my rant. Do you guys agree with me or the City of Anaheim?

Unfortunately, I can’t imbed this particular video from the ABC7 website (it was shot earlier than the live shot I saw), but click here to see the video/story.

Did you know we had an OC Pride event this year? Yeah me neither. They really need to get the word out a little more. Finally there is an official event in OC for LGBT pride and I missed the damn thing. Poor Gay Days in Anaheim has been carrying the unofficial OC Pride torch for so long it seemed likely we should just officially call it OC Gay Pride and get it over with.

Anyway! I am just a wee bit irritated about the complete lack of visibility for the event. Maybe the organizers (listen up boys) should have reached our to their popular queer friendly community blogs (not unlike this one) and let them know it was even happening. Also, lets be real, if we’re gonna have OC Pride shouldn’t we be having it in Laguna Beach? Why Irvine? Oh well, here’s hoping there will be one next year and here’s hoping they actually, you know, tell people about it!

Did you know there was an OC Pride Picnic this year? If so, did you go?

Don’t let the media fool you, it is NOT a buyers market. Maybe it is, if, and only if, you are willing to wait month upon month upon month – you get the idea – for approval from the bank for that short sale property. There are good deals to be had, but you have to be willing to wait. A lot of people think they can, but since the process is so long and the banks are so overwhelmed, potential buyers are pulling their offers and moving on i.e. when an equity home is on the market people are overpaying.

When the short sale buyers pull their offers they are so ready to buy a home they act irrationally. Irrational in the fact that they are willing to pay well above the asking price for no other reason than they HAVE TO BUY A HOUSE BECAUSE THE “EXPERTS” ARE TELLING THEM TO BUY NOW. Irrational because they are willing to waive appraisal contingencies – for example the house appraises at $450,000, but sells for $510,000. Typically a bank won’t finance a loan for more than the house appraises for, but like most things there are ways around this. You buy a mortgage origiation point or more likely the bank will require you to make up the difference in cash. Of course, you can always pay in cash, in full, and believe it or not people do. We lost a house to an all-cash offer. We were also asked by a sellers agent to waive the appraisal report, needless to say we did not put in an offer, but four others did. WTF???

Let’s not forget those that are going to rush to buy and close escrow before 30 November 2009 just so they can claim the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. The way I see it, and I could be wrong, I think there is going to be a mad rush and even more competition in the next two months. Basically you have to be in escrow no later than the end of October if you wish to claim the credit. As the law is currently written any home purchase that closes escrow beginning 1 December 2009 is not eligible to receive the tax credit.

I realize the Southern California market is markedly different than 95% of the rest of the country. However, by rushing to buy and pushing prices back up is doing no one any favors. If you buy a home for more than it’s worth that is exactly what you are doing. Even if it’s worth that price to you, it’s not a sound financial decision. So basically all this irrationality coupled with so many short sale/REO properties is making for a very small sellers market. As my husband likes to quote the age-old proverb: “a fool and his money are soon parted.”

Gary Robbins reports that Cal State Fullerton has officially fired Tuffy the Titan, the school mascot for over fifty years.  Tuffy was a prominent part of the University’s identity, as Tuffy was featured on almost everything.  Well, Tuffy will still be featured at sporting events, since it’s pretty hard to get inspired by a tree, which is part of the new logo.

The reason Fullerton chose an elephant as a mascot is due to the fact that early in the school’s history, some silly elephant races were held on the fields that are now the Student Union buildings.

As many commenters on the Register noted, I’m suprised that in the budgetary crisis we have, CSUF can justify all the money it will take to change the logo.  Guess that’s what those fee increases were for!

So, now Tuffy is gone, replaced by an extremely generic looking logo.  Ugh.

By appealing a recent court decision to reject Supervisor Moorlach’s pet project to renege on a contract with the Orange County Sheriffs.

Their suit has already been rejected twice.  You would think they would get the hint.  But no, they see the possible future savings as worth it.

Granted, it would indeed be a large savings.  But the problem with this whole thing is that once you have negotiated a valid contract, you shouldn’t be able to say, oops, never mind, I don’t like the terms anymore.  Which seems to be what they are doing.

I think the Supervisors are trying to capitalize on the extremely high anti-union sentiments that seem to be everywhere these days.

Why all the resentment? 

They aren’t perfect, but unions are why you get breaks, lunches, and a set-hour workday, amongst many other things. 

I see more anger directed at unions than I do at almost all CEOs, Wall Streeters, and banks combined.

Much to the chagrin of its students, Chapman University College Irvine is changing it’s name to Brandman University – due largely in part to a $10 million donation by The Brandman Foundation. The new Brandman University, which recently expanded it’s Irvine campus into an all-new and larger complex, is a separate and fully accredited university within the Chapman University System. They are trying to pitch this to students as a simple name change, sort of like how they have the Argyros School of Business & Economics, Dodge College of Film & Media Arts, Schmid College of Science and the Wilkinson College of Humanities & Social Sciences. The difference is, those students will all have a degree that says Chapman University while the new Brandman students will have a really classy crap-ass diploma from Brandman. I ask you this? Why would you knowingly pay Chapman prices for a degree that’s really not from Chapman anymore?

Since they will no longer be the Chapman Panthers, some of my friends and myself came up with a new mascot for the rebranded university. We’ve been colloquially referring to them as the Brandman Asshats. Most (if not all) CUCI students I spoke with are PISSED! Lucky for them, if they were already enrolled they are still considered Chapman University students and will graduate with a Chapman University degree. However, all those new students enrolling will get a big fat Brandman degree. I wish them the best of luck in selling this new brand (and inflated prices) to a group consumers who may be looking for style and substance; brand and comfort.

The other day, I caught the PBS presentation of The Celluloid Closet on KCET* during their never-ending pledge drive for your cash. LA Metblogger Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters, even wrote a piece about the film recently. If you have never seen the movie, it’s a documentary about how gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people have been portrayed throughout cinematic history. It’s not the best film ever but it’s worth a look if you’ve a couple of hours to spare.

What really got me riled up, and I do mean riled up, was the odd and scattershot censoring the broadcast version of the film chose to employ. The Standards and Practices folks saw fit to remove the swear words and pixelated almost all nudity on display. Ok. Fine. I get it, you don’t want to offend people by saying “fuck” a lot or by showing bared breasts or shots of hot naked lesbians knocking one out. Although really, who doesn’t want to see that? :)

No, what really pissed me off is that only some of the graphic sex and violence was left unedited. For instance, a scene involving two women making love was blurred-out but startlingly, a scene from the 1980 Al Pacino shocker, Cruising, was left unedited for all the world to see. The scene in question features a good looking fellow face-down on the bed with his hands tied behind him while an unknown killer repeatedly (and bloodily) stabs him in the back. Even more offending, is the clip is intercut with pornographic shots of the killer anally raping his victim while he stabs him over and over and over. Ew.

In the context of the unedited film, it’s a gory and disgusting example that leads to a finer point the filmmakers wish to make: which was that in 1980, the only way to show gay men or gay sex was by brutally killing and graphically raping them. However, in the context of the edited broadcast version, it serves to prove a different point altogether: PBS (or KCET*) was guilty of the very thing The Celluloid Closet was rallying against. Apparently it’s not acceptable to see an exposed breast but it is okay to see a gay man being pornographically raped and murdered. What kind of message does that send? The same one it always has: gay people aren’t fit to even be looked at unless they are being murdered. See what happens if you have gay sex? You die!

I was so mad. If you’re gonna edit it, then edit it! Their pansy-ass attempt at ‘protecting’ us failed and only further solidified stereotypes which still linger today. I’m not sure if it was PBS or KCET* who made the decision but it doesn’t really matter, because either way, their attitude and conduct is more shocking than the films will ever be.

* Author’s Note: This post was originally titled “KOCE (or PBS in general) Sucks!” The author (hey that’s me) made a sloppy and egregious error by confusing the real PBS station in question (KCET) with another (KOCE). I don’t have a very good excuse, except that I Tivo’d the film and fast forwarded through all the membership-drive and station breaks. As such, I misread the station’s call letters and failed to take the time to verify I had the information right. It’s an embarrassing mistake to say the least and I offer my sincere apologies to KOCE for the careless way I mistakenly threw them under the bus. I also thank them for their kindness in pointing out the error and I’ll take it as a lesson learned (the hard way).

A clip from The Celluloid Closet is after the jump…

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