OMG! The future is here and now and is hanging on my wall in the form of a Panasonic television screen equipped with VieraCast! What, you ask? High def viewing combined with the power of the Internet, wild sound, a camera and the likes of SKYPE, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon Movies (did you even know they had a competitive service to Netflix??), Weather.com, Pandora radio, Picasa photos, assorted channels from Germany (yes, Germany, although I am in Pasadena, California) and all of my 500 channels from AT&T/U-verse. All this on the clearest, crispest plasma screen I've ever seen!
I am wowed. I can't wait to see what other services they have in store for us that are "coming soon."
All you need is an electric connection, Internet access and either your digital box for free television channels or a connection to a programming distribution service. VieraCast is a smart TV platform brought to us by Panasonic that makes it possible to stream multimedia content from the Internet directly into select televisions. Maybe this is the return of family viewing. The return of families sitting around the TV, together.
My husband and I did something we haven't done in years -- we actually danced and sang the night away, in our living room. We went to Pandora and set up our favorite, personal radio stations, choosing our favorite songs so that Pandora's computer software could psycho-select our stations for us! It reminded me of so many nights my sisters and I would put on records and dance while my parents watched, shaking their heads but inwardly appreciating the beat as we moved our hips and threw up our arms like chimps and had a great, shared time.
If you haven't yet gotten all your holiday gifts, this is one to consider! Ours cost us under $800 and has already given us hours of fun.
Happy Holidays to all!
VOTE for MY Blog Please!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Feeling Empty or Full This Year?
As we approach the end of 2010, we bid adieu to our first decade of this, the twenty-first century. And guess what, folks? WE MADE IT! I guess that goes into the “full” category. My husband and I met ten years ago this month, so the magic of this past decade has not been lost on us. We made it this far. Yippee!
In no order of importance, this year has had its ups, downs and wacky turnarounds.
We remain in our town of South Pasadena, the home of the South Pas Tigers. Ten minutes from downtown LA. Thirty minutes from the Pacific. Fifteen minutes to the San Gabriel Mountains. Former home of the Ostrich Farm, where strippers from the 20s to 40s could find their plumes for coverage.
Our youngest, Michael, now a Senator at his elementary school, turns eight in January and is more convinced than ever that the elections of 2044 will be his year to get to the White House. It’s not too early to put your contributions aside for the first Jewish-Greek-American President. We’ll be counting on you. We know where you live.
Alex, our twenty-something son, has moved to hip Atwater Village where he and the lovely Andrea share a one-bedroom apartment that combines mid-century kitsch (think bobble heads of The Monkees on a shelf in a room with an Eames-like chair) with up to date electronics and very powerful speakers. He remains happily employed with thoughts of academia a fading memory from his past.
I, on the other hand, am thinking of turning to academia more and more. Professor Davis has a nice ring…But maybe not, as I have just gotten notice that I now qualify for my fourth (yes fourth!) federal extension to receive unemployment benefits, approved by President Obama. It was automatically filed on my behalf, as it was for the other millions of folks who have been downsized, marginalized, penalized and otherwise life-jeopardized since 2008. I can’t afford a low-paying job like teaching, when the Federal government continues to bail me out.
My better half, Nick, who began the year thinking we would be ending it in Prague, where he would be running a division of Europe’s fastest growing IPTV provider, is scheduled to have his thirty-fifth interview with the same company tomorrow. But he can only make it if the oil & gas company in Aberdeen can re-schedule his SKYPE interview for a COO position and if the Reuters IT team can put off the launch of the new system he has headed and if the non-profit stops calling to ask for his help with their website and if the darn Cub Scouts would only postpone their Den meeting…
This year, we lost our beloved Betta, Chester, who lasted three years longer than the average fish. We lost relatives and close friends. Cancer, homelessness, unemployment have hit those we love. The riots in Greece have put us on edge.
And yet…
We can’t help feeling full with a roof over our heads, a smile on our kids’ faces, fragrant lemons for picking all over town, the mountains beckoning and our friends calling from around the world. My book series The Jelly Bean Chronicles continues to entertain kids and their parents.
All in all, we’ve felt empty and we’ve felt full this year. But one thing is for sure: our glass has not yet been dry. May 2011 be a year of comebacks. Heck, Sarah Palin came back. Eliot Spitzer has his own show on CNN. Even the iPhone 4 came back with a better version.
Wishing you and yours a very happy New Year.
In no order of importance, this year has had its ups, downs and wacky turnarounds.
We remain in our town of South Pasadena, the home of the South Pas Tigers. Ten minutes from downtown LA. Thirty minutes from the Pacific. Fifteen minutes to the San Gabriel Mountains. Former home of the Ostrich Farm, where strippers from the 20s to 40s could find their plumes for coverage.
Our youngest, Michael, now a Senator at his elementary school, turns eight in January and is more convinced than ever that the elections of 2044 will be his year to get to the White House. It’s not too early to put your contributions aside for the first Jewish-Greek-American President. We’ll be counting on you. We know where you live.
Alex, our twenty-something son, has moved to hip Atwater Village where he and the lovely Andrea share a one-bedroom apartment that combines mid-century kitsch (think bobble heads of The Monkees on a shelf in a room with an Eames-like chair) with up to date electronics and very powerful speakers. He remains happily employed with thoughts of academia a fading memory from his past.
I, on the other hand, am thinking of turning to academia more and more. Professor Davis has a nice ring…But maybe not, as I have just gotten notice that I now qualify for my fourth (yes fourth!) federal extension to receive unemployment benefits, approved by President Obama. It was automatically filed on my behalf, as it was for the other millions of folks who have been downsized, marginalized, penalized and otherwise life-jeopardized since 2008. I can’t afford a low-paying job like teaching, when the Federal government continues to bail me out.
My better half, Nick, who began the year thinking we would be ending it in Prague, where he would be running a division of Europe’s fastest growing IPTV provider, is scheduled to have his thirty-fifth interview with the same company tomorrow. But he can only make it if the oil & gas company in Aberdeen can re-schedule his SKYPE interview for a COO position and if the Reuters IT team can put off the launch of the new system he has headed and if the non-profit stops calling to ask for his help with their website and if the darn Cub Scouts would only postpone their Den meeting…
This year, we lost our beloved Betta, Chester, who lasted three years longer than the average fish. We lost relatives and close friends. Cancer, homelessness, unemployment have hit those we love. The riots in Greece have put us on edge.
And yet…
We can’t help feeling full with a roof over our heads, a smile on our kids’ faces, fragrant lemons for picking all over town, the mountains beckoning and our friends calling from around the world. My book series The Jelly Bean Chronicles continues to entertain kids and their parents.
All in all, we’ve felt empty and we’ve felt full this year. But one thing is for sure: our glass has not yet been dry. May 2011 be a year of comebacks. Heck, Sarah Palin came back. Eliot Spitzer has his own show on CNN. Even the iPhone 4 came back with a better version.
Wishing you and yours a very happy New Year.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Tilting Left or Right, It's All Turned Around
Like the faults in California's crust, there was a lot of shifting last night, but surprisingly not what we would think in California. Where the rest of the country dramatically tilted right, California voters resoundingly went left. The country's seismic patterning was spectacular and strange. Blue went red, left went right. Latinos against immigration. South Carolinian Republicans claiming there is no difference between wealthy, middle class and poor folks. Huh? What was going on?
After spending nearly $200 million on her gubernatorial campaign, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman lost her fight to ex-Governor Jerry Brown. Thirty years after he was one of the youngest to ever run any state, he takes over as one of the oldest to course-correct this now- crumbling state.
Boy did she ever blunder after the Nannygate doors were thrown open. OK, so she employed a non-documented worker. So do millions of employers. Anyone who does that is taking a risk as are the workers for working under illegal circumstances. The woman, the nanny/housekeeper in question, had come from an agency to which she had provided false papers. Whitman and her husband probably did not ask or simply turned a blind-eye to the situation. Then, after controversial lawyer Gloria Allred, fresh from getting money from numerous mistresses of Tiger Woods, took on the housekeeper's case, what did Whitman do? She went to the mat, declaring no-knowledge of non-documentation and then let her employee of nine years be faced with deportation. Latinos took that as the ultimate insult-- even though it was the housekeeper who lied -- committed fraud actually. How dare she turn her back on a household employee who served her for nine years?
Latinos switched in droves. Here's what I find irritating in this: we all use "don't ask don't tell" when it's convenient. I have no doubt that over nine years the question of her papers came about and my guess is the housekeeper said something like "Don't worry. I have papers." I've heard it many times. I guess if Meg had really wanted to pursue it, she could have.
Where she blundered was not being able to turn this around as an example of why we desperately NEED immigration reform. Granted there are many who take advantage of this country and have no sense of debt to it or pride of being here. They do not want to be American; but, simply take the American dollar to improve life for those back home. For those, deportation may in fact be proper.
But for millions of other undocumented workers who work hard, who are trying to follow the correct legal paths to naturalization, who are providing services for families, businesses, farms, restaurants, hotels and others, the state of immigration is untenable, frustrating and plain WRONG. They want to be part of this country legally but are forced to work here under undocumented circumstances. And what's more, this country needs to grow its economic base, lower unemployment and can by creating fast-track citizenships for these millions of aspirational "immigrants" living in this country today. By legalizing these workers, we can dramatically reshape this country for the future.
In years past, it would be the Democrats to do this. Or a coalition. Or at least teams of Latino lobbyists. But it's going to be some crazy times ahead. We don't know who will do what or where it will come from. If Latinos are one thing it's this: they are divergent and do not vote as one.
Look at New Mexico. Governor-elect Susana Martinez is now the first Latina Governor. Great you would think, if immigration reform is on your mind. But she ran on the Republican platform espoused by neighboring Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona. She is about as right as you can get and if she has her way, will give power to her police force in unprecedented ways to keep her state free of "illegals" and "corruption." She is already plotting to repeal driver's licenses given out this year to 50,000 undocumented workers in her state. She wants a wall between Mexico and the "Land of Enchantment."
How about Marco Rubio in Florida? He considers himself not "American" first but a "Son of Exiles" first. He too ran on the Republican -- Tea Party -- ticket. He's not thinking of those millions of undocumented workers. He's thinking of how to get land back in Cuba.
This country is at a major crossroad and voters showed their distaste for the course we are on. Course correction, introspection and action are needed. Unfortunately what we got was a lot of pandemonium.
After spending nearly $200 million on her gubernatorial campaign, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman lost her fight to ex-Governor Jerry Brown. Thirty years after he was one of the youngest to ever run any state, he takes over as one of the oldest to course-correct this now- crumbling state.
Boy did she ever blunder after the Nannygate doors were thrown open. OK, so she employed a non-documented worker. So do millions of employers. Anyone who does that is taking a risk as are the workers for working under illegal circumstances. The woman, the nanny/housekeeper in question, had come from an agency to which she had provided false papers. Whitman and her husband probably did not ask or simply turned a blind-eye to the situation. Then, after controversial lawyer Gloria Allred, fresh from getting money from numerous mistresses of Tiger Woods, took on the housekeeper's case, what did Whitman do? She went to the mat, declaring no-knowledge of non-documentation and then let her employee of nine years be faced with deportation. Latinos took that as the ultimate insult-- even though it was the housekeeper who lied -- committed fraud actually. How dare she turn her back on a household employee who served her for nine years?
Latinos switched in droves. Here's what I find irritating in this: we all use "don't ask don't tell" when it's convenient. I have no doubt that over nine years the question of her papers came about and my guess is the housekeeper said something like "Don't worry. I have papers." I've heard it many times. I guess if Meg had really wanted to pursue it, she could have.
Where she blundered was not being able to turn this around as an example of why we desperately NEED immigration reform. Granted there are many who take advantage of this country and have no sense of debt to it or pride of being here. They do not want to be American; but, simply take the American dollar to improve life for those back home. For those, deportation may in fact be proper.
But for millions of other undocumented workers who work hard, who are trying to follow the correct legal paths to naturalization, who are providing services for families, businesses, farms, restaurants, hotels and others, the state of immigration is untenable, frustrating and plain WRONG. They want to be part of this country legally but are forced to work here under undocumented circumstances. And what's more, this country needs to grow its economic base, lower unemployment and can by creating fast-track citizenships for these millions of aspirational "immigrants" living in this country today. By legalizing these workers, we can dramatically reshape this country for the future.
In years past, it would be the Democrats to do this. Or a coalition. Or at least teams of Latino lobbyists. But it's going to be some crazy times ahead. We don't know who will do what or where it will come from. If Latinos are one thing it's this: they are divergent and do not vote as one.
Look at New Mexico. Governor-elect Susana Martinez is now the first Latina Governor. Great you would think, if immigration reform is on your mind. But she ran on the Republican platform espoused by neighboring Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona. She is about as right as you can get and if she has her way, will give power to her police force in unprecedented ways to keep her state free of "illegals" and "corruption." She is already plotting to repeal driver's licenses given out this year to 50,000 undocumented workers in her state. She wants a wall between Mexico and the "Land of Enchantment."
How about Marco Rubio in Florida? He considers himself not "American" first but a "Son of Exiles" first. He too ran on the Republican -- Tea Party -- ticket. He's not thinking of those millions of undocumented workers. He's thinking of how to get land back in Cuba.
This country is at a major crossroad and voters showed their distaste for the course we are on. Course correction, introspection and action are needed. Unfortunately what we got was a lot of pandemonium.
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