Pennies and Screams

An impromptu Rocky and Bullwinkle 

Halloween outfit.

Happy Halloween everyone! I feel like most of the festivities took place this weekend; I know all the dressing up and socializing I did was on Friday and Saturday, but I wish you all a safe and fun Halloween this Monday. If you were wondering what I was for Halloween 2011, I found some antlers and put on a brown shirt and a pair of brown pants I had and was Bullwinkle; Nikki got an aviator hat and got a grey dress and was Rocky. All that was missing were a couple of Russians spies. To be honest, peolpe at first thought we were a just a deer and an Amelia Earhart, but once we told them what we were supposed to be everyone thought it was cute.

Right now I am waiting patiently in the living room anticipating little trick-or-treaters to come by. So far nobody has made an appearance, but there are a few hours left in the night. I did have a scare earlier today - my phone was dead. It turned out it just needed to be charged. But it is really depressing eye-opening to realize how dependent I am on that phone. I might treat myself in a bit and go see a movie, The Rum Diaries.

So besides today being Halloween, it is also the last day of October. I like to take the time and reflect on this past month. So what happened in October - I assumed more responsibilities at work and at home (paying for cable and internet). I got a chance to volunteer and give back to  my community. I got to really just kick back and enjoy life (and football). And of course I started this blog and have stuck with it thus far. What I would like to see more from myself - In general I would like to see myself follow through with things. See out project ideas for work. I would like to finish reading a few books - Chrome Yellow (Huxley) and A Season in Purgatory (Dunne). I would like to finish learning Russian "puts cameloute". And, of course, I would like to see this blog continue to grow.

Lots still to do!

-Cheers  

Day Blogger

My uncle, Christopher Saunders (right), one of my icons growing up, during the Occupy 

Oakland protest Oct. 25 2011. 

Proud to serve the city of Oakland. That would be my uncle, Christopher Saunders, with the wide grin as he raises he fire arm during an Occupy Oakland protest. Christopher has been like a father figure to me. Someone I can look up to, aspire to be like, and be so very proud of. He has a beautiful family, is talented in pretty much anything he tries, and I feel better about myself knowing that I am related to such an awesome person. 

I find myself in a predicament after learning about the events that have transpired today. I have gone on record stating that I support the Wall Street protests happening around the nation - corporate greed needs to be reigned in. However after learning what has happened in Oakland California, a city in which I lived literally minutes away from, has me thinking. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, protesters were evicted from an encampment outside Oakland City hall that they had inhabited for 15 days. Protesters tried to retake the encampment, and about 400 people marched towards city hall and were met by anti-riot police. The protest was mostly peaceful outside city hall, but further out the situation became much more violent. Objects were thrown at police officers, and the police responded by firing tear gas into the crowds. 

Although I support the movement, I am displeased by the violence. Unfortunately I can understand where some of the pent up frustration is stemming from. Oakland has especially been hit hard by the recent recessions. Some parts of Oakland look like a post-apocalyptic ghosts towns. Poverty is growing. And then their is Oscar Grant, which has caused more tension in the community. But Oakland, resorting to violence will

not solve any problems, especially against your neighbors.

So I would like to thank my Uncle for keeping the peace and keeping the city of Oakland safe from those who want to cause harm. It seems bleak, but heroes like my uncle make it all seem worth fighting for.  

National Make a Difference Day

Some of my fellow corpsmembers and I volunteered at an equestrian therapy

ranch for National Make a Difference Day

What an excellent Saturday! I hope yours has been just as good. If you didn't already know today is National Make a Difference Day, and people all across this great nation are volunteering in their communities. It is estimated over 3 million people will be volunteering. I'm am so glad that I got a chance to be a part of this wonderful tradition. 

Every weekend our California Conservation Corps corpsemembers (cms for short) go out on volunteer projects. They are required to get 48 hours of volunteer service (community and the environment component) to receive their scholarship. I decided it would be fun if I joined them. I am an avid believer in volunteering - I volunteered quite a bit in college and I have wanted to do more since I've been back in San Luis Obispo. And what an opportunity this was! 

Me and about 10 other cms first headed to Cal Poly Technic University at 8:30 am to get our assignment and some breakfast. We found out we were assigned to a therapeutic equestrian ranch. We grabbed some bagels and fruit they were serving and then headed out around 10:00 am. after getting lost for a bit, we finally arrived at the ranch. The program that they have going on at the ranch is a noble one - they offer therapeutic horse rides to children and others with disabilities. So we were more than willing to help out. Our group split up, about three or four of us got to wash down the horse, while the rest of us (including me) got to scoop up the horse poop. After a while we came together for lunch (pizza), and then had the opportunity to switch roles. However it turned out scooping up the horse poop was much more entertaining than washing (at least for the others and me who had been doing that), so we continued. We finished the poop scooping in no time, which was no small feat mind you, and the ranch owner/volunteer coordinator, impressed by our work ethic, had to find more work for us. There was a group of Cal Poly students volunteering as well, but we clearly out-worked them (yes I am bragging about my Cs). 

Yes, that is horse doo doo that I am hauling away 

We rebuilt a stone path for them, and did some sweeping. At about 1:30 pm we all came together for group photo (see above). The owner was very impressed, and we might return again to do more volunteer work in the future. I had a lot of fun and the cms really enjoyed it too, and some even made loving bonds with the equine. It feels so amazing to volunteer. I would really like to do it again. I suggest that everyone should volunteer their time as much as they can. You can really make a difference. 

-Cheers

Mission Accomplished...At Last!

President Obama, following through on his campaign promise: All our troops will be out of 

Iraq by the end of the year. 

I'd like to start this post with something I've noticed. I can see what countries my blog is being viewed from. Obviously most of the views are here in America, but I have gotten two views from Germany. That is kind of cool. If you are from Germany and reading this, you should comment. Err....

Hallo deutschen Freunde! Bitte hinterlassen Sie einen Kommentar, wenn Siebetrachten dieses Blog sind!

Back to English. I am thrilled about today's news coming from Washington D.C. President Obama has fulfilled his commitment and is recalling all troops from Iraq by the end of the year. Finally an end to this misguided war. Of course it is a bit more complicated, in 2008 the then president George W. Bush, agreed to something called a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), where by 2011, a majority of U.S. troops would be out of Iraq unless another agreement was met. This was a unilateral decision made by the White house and Congress was not involved what-so-ever. Obama could have extended the SOFA and agreed to keep a number of troops in Iraq. However certain agreements could not be met (something to do with immunity for troops) and  in a much more eloquent professorial manner, Obama appropriately responded somthing along the lines of "ok". So our troops are coming home.

Why I like the move: 1)Not a fan of war, not going to lie. 2) Finally bringing an end to a conflict that was built on fabrications - there were no WMDs  in Iraq and Iraq had nothing to do with al Qaeda and the tragedies of September 11th. 3) Instead of spending billions rebuilding a country on the other side of the planet, we can spend it here rebuilding our country -which needs it badly. 4) It's not like keeping troops in Iraq for any longer would have solved long term problems in that country, and honestly, I think most Americans don't really care about Iraq's problems anymore.

I'm still not sure why we ever went into Iraq. Was it to expand the powers of the executive branch, go after dwindling oil supplies, to fulfill a personal vendetta, global domination or a combination of all those? Either way, its a good day in my book when any action is made to reduce violence and get our friends and family members out of harms way. Welcome back to all our armed forces who there served overseas. Thank you for all your sacrifice. Your accomplishments will never be forgotten.

-Cheers

Thursdays are for Thinkers!

That's me on the far right standing next to my director Sylvia(wearing black),

who is retiring at the end of the month, and all the other amazing people at the CCC

I wanted to show off this cool picture of the entire CCC Los Padres Center, corpsmembers, staff and yours truly. We took it for the Corpsmember Development Director - my supervisor, Sylvia Navarro-Miller, who is retiring at the end of the month. However she had no idea the picture was actually intended for her.

So how am I doing you may ask...or not. Either way I am going to tell you. Things are still going swimmingly. I basically have all but quit on learning Russian. I might try to pick it up again, but usually I get home from work I am so tired that I just want to lie (lay?what?) on my big comfy bed and fall asleep. Sleep and work; my weekly routine. Oh and of course hanging out with my girlfriend Nikki as much as humanly possible. And I have no problem with this routine since work is amazing, Nikki is a great girl, and sleep...well sleeping is the best. This is also mainly why I haven't been consistently blogging every day; I'm just too tired to try and get my brain to think of something clever to write about on a daily basis. But I will keep trying to whip something up habitually for my followers, who as of now are just Nikki and I. 

As of now my blog is a potpourri of ideas that pop up in my head or things I see in the news that spark my interest. This isn't a political blog or sports blog or anything focused like that (I can't seem think of any other types for some reason), but just a place where I can talk about stuff.

I kind of wanted to get into this story developing out of Ohio. It is very strange and tragic to say the least. But I hate ending my blogs on a sad note. I wish there were more upbeat stories in the news (have I ranted about this before?). So I will leave you with this: I went to Panda Express for lunch today, which is really bad because I had orange chicken yesterday. Anyways my fortune cookie said this:

"PEOPLE IN YOUR BACKGROUND WILL BE MORE COOPERATIVE THAN USUAL"

Yes the all caps are necessary. I'm not sure who this may pertain to, maybe the person who is literally working behind me? Who knows...

-Cheers

Back for More

49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh (Left) going face to face with Lions head

coach and angry troll-look-a-like Jim Schwartz (Left) after the game.

Well I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. I am back from my 3-day hiatus which was filled with food, friends, family, TV, football and beverages of the alcohol variety. Although my boys in blue fell to MSU this weekend, my weekend was highlighted by a thrilling slap-fest between the San Francisco 49ers and the previously undefeated Detroit Lions, in which my loveable Niners prevailed victoriously.

I got to relish the victory with my mom, grandfather and girlfriend, which was actually quite nice. Although the game was filled with big hits and emotion, the real fireworks came after the game when the head coach of the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh, perhaps too over-zealous from the stunning victory, aggressively grabbed and slapped (on the back) Lions head coach Jim Schwartz during the post-game handshake. Schwartz took offense to this and angrily chased Harbaugh down, and it required payers, staff and security to separate the two.

I actually missed this absurd altercation because immediately after the game ended my girlfriend and I ran out the door to get her to improv practice. We ended up ditching improv to hit up SLO Brew for some tenders and beer, and caught up with some co-workers and my friend Michael H Porter. Football, friends, family, beer and food; Nirvana found in simplicity.

-Cheers

Occupy Wall Street Sweeper

The system has it's priorities straight

Since the last post was a complete debacle, I've decided to go with something less controversial - politics. In case you were wondering, yes, I am being sarcastic. This is my strange sense of humor. I majored in political science, so I should be more in touch with current events. Indifference and apathy keep me from staying up to date mostly, but I check in now and again when I'm not checking sports scores.

My favorite topic this past month - the Wall Street protests taking place not only in New York City, but in cities all over America. I think it is awesome that people are actually doing something. The wealthiest 1% of Americans is wealthier than the other 99% combined. Simply- staggering. But while us stuck in the bottom 99 have to deal with atrociously high unemployment with teacher's and state employees getting their pink slips, the upper elite are getting tax breaks and bail-outs from the government. Simply - unbelievable. People need to speak out, that fact that this is happening is criminal. That's why I support these protests. I wish I could be out there with them.

So to clarify the picture above, the protest is reaching its 27th day of occupation of Zuccotti Park. The Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg for all it seems supports the rallies, but issued a decree today, stating the protesters must leave parts of Zuccotti Park for "cleaning". 

Update: The Ethics of Blogging

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.”

*Update 10/13/2011: This is an update to Wednesday update (oh the irony). My original blog post was really just a rant about work and people I work with. I've decided, mainly for my own job protection, not to talk at length about the CCC and the drama that may occur here, and have since removed the post. Of course if something wonderful happens at work I may mention it briefly, but I won’t get into length about anything or anyone here.

Any job will have its fair share of drama; considering if you have a full time job, you will be spending most of your days and time at work, and I believe it is natural for people to want to express their frustrations. However negative comments on the internet and particularly on social networks or blogs are not the proper medium for a person to express themselves and is an unethical practice. Why? First of all it is unethical and also immature to complain about people you work with to another audience. If you have a real grievence with a coworker, take it up with them at a proper time and place - not on the internet. Secondly, the internet is open to everyone to view (except if you live in China) and if someone happens to take a particular offense with it or read it a way you may not have intended,  it is possible that you can get sacked for comments you make, innocent or not. Here are examples of people losing their jobs or getting into trouble because of comments they made on Facebook.

In my case I made comments that may not have been appropriate to publish on the internet, even if no one I mentioned or work with had read them. I am aware of the mistake I made and I will not make it again. I should have more integrity than that and I value my job too much to lose it over a blog post (especially only the third one).

*Update - I also forgot to mention yesterday that my good friend Juan Espinoza went to the emergency room last night for numbness and nausea. The doctors are not sure what the problems are but he seems to be doing better. I wish him the best of health.

Whales and Russians

A silly song about whales.

If you are wondering about the song selection, it is Whale by Yellow Ostrich. My girlfriend put it on a CD that she made for me for our anniversary and I have been listening to it all day. I have yet to understand what the whale is a metaphor for in the song or if it has any deeper meaning besides about yellow ostrich being smitten with a whale, anyways it’s a fun little indie song.

I guess today has been a fine day. I really haven’t checked the news today, rarely seems like much is going on, even though the Wall Street Protests have my attention. Maybe I will get into how I feel about it in the future, but not now.

At my work we have Rosetta stone for learning Russian. I installed it on my computer today and this is really what has consumed most of my day. What a strange language Russian is. I'm just going to leave it at that. But I really want to learn it. Being fluent in another language is a skill that I would really like to acquire. I mean I took four years of Spanish in high school, but I barely have a grasp on it. For instance when a fluent Spanish speaker actually speaks at a normal speed, I hardly catch any of it, and it makes my brain feel uncomfortably slow. Usually "uhhh no entiendo" is my typical response, and usually suffices.

I digress however. Speaking a different language is such an important goal for me because one day I would like to join the Peace Corps; travel to another region of the world and help someway in their community. Being fluent in another language is vastly important if one wishes to join the Peace Corps, it makes your application that much stronger (and the application selection is absurdly competitive).

More on my future aspirations and the Peace Corps later, just for now I will leave on this note: I was going to call charter cable today to get internet and cable installed at my house, however I was so distracted by Russian that it totally slipped my mind. Oh well....

-Cheers

Pennies and Dreams: 1st edition

So here I am writing my first non-school related blog, "Pennies and Dreams." A little corny, but I named it after a song in one of my favorite movies Major League. The song goes something like:

 "pennies and dreams, carelessly spent. Holes in my pockets, memories on my mind. So many things I lost on the way, but most of all you."

I like the correlation of pennies and thoughts, so that's why I went with this tittle. I could have gone with some funny pun or something, but I believe this tittle will be appropriate enough.

I am hopeful this blog writing will be a productive experience; hopeful that expressing myself on a blog will be beneficial to my psyche, while at the same time maybe provoking some pleasant emotion to you the reader. I plan to blog about what's going on in my life and how I feel about certain things etc. etc., albeit conceited, the fact remains this is my blog. My thoughts at times may be jumbled and convoluted, I might bounce around from thought to thought, and I might not have the best grammar at times, but at the very least it might be a fun way to document my thoughts that one day I can look back and reflect on.

So about myself:

I wrote my first blog while I was going to CSU East Bay for my bachelor's degree. It was for an introduction to folklore class, which I ended up getting a D in the class. I didn't mind getting a D, a D is still passing and it was subject that I had very little interest in. I still graduated college despite this unimpressive performance with a GPA of over 3.0, but this was my first introduction to the blogosphere and I am still relatively green when it comes to blogs. I am by no means an accomplised writer or journalist nor am I an avid blog follower either. I'd say the closest blog-esque site that I follow would be DailyKos.com.

I believe that this is a very good time for me to start writing this blog. For the first time in my life I can say I am really beginning a brand new chapter in my life. I just recently graduated college last July, as I alluded to earlier. College was an amazing experience that I am so grateful for, but glad that time of my life is done. I moved back to my home town of San Luis Obispo CA. Well, I am actually living in Pismo Beach (a ten minute drive from SLO)  which is amazing. Our house is a block from the beach. There is something humbling and inspiring about living so close to the ocean. The sunsets are amazing and it is hard for me to imagine wanting to live anywhere else.

Upon moving back I was hired by the California Conservation Corps as a special corpsemember. It is hard for me to put into words how thankful I am for this opportunity. I feel like I am actually making a difference in the world, helping the corpsrmembers with their development and education, and it is the most uplifting feeling one can have. The job of course has its frustrating moments, but I am always looking back to how lucky I am to be working here considering the current state of our economy.

Also upon my return to the central coast, I met an amazing girl, Nikki Maraviglia. We are currently dating, and today is our 2 month anniversary. I plan on taking her to a nice dinner tonight, even though it's 7:26 pm and I still don't exactly know where yet. Like all relationships there are ups and downs but overall I am really happy when I am around her.

I have all this exciting stuff and more that I will blog about in future posts. I am pretty excited to do this and I think this will be a fun means for me to express myself and if anyone else is reading this, well I hope you enjoy it too! Untill next time...


-Cheers