cygnoir.net

This is a cleverly-turned phrase that inspires you to spend a few minutes of your precious time watching this video.

(Obligatory dedication to Ergazork.)

I love Battlestar Galactica. I love Beastie Boys. Therefore, this shot-by-shot tribute to the Boys’ “Sabotage” video using clips from BsG … well, it made my frakkin’ day.

(Thanks to Monica for the link.)

Because sitting in my office with the door closed while eating a wilted salad and trying not to cry is not an acceptable new hobby, here is the briefest of notes on our trip to Portland.

It feels so good to take a risk — traveling with friends — and have it turn out better than I could have hoped. Although it is always nice to have alone-time with FunkyPlaid, the four of us made a great team.

The highlights were many, and involved eating, geocaching, and visiting with friends. There was only one lowlight, in the form of an overpriced and disappointing meal at Bluehour, which I will be reviewing in detail soon. In fact, I have decided to dedicate a portion of this site to reviews, focusing on but not limited to my culinary adventures. It’s well past time.

Portland is enchanting. I love the Pacific Northwest for so many reasons, but the people I meet there consistently impress me. Seattle and Vancouver are more culturally diverse, and therefore more compelling to me, but Portland is so charming and quaint without being precious that I could easily see myself living there.

FunkyPlaid and I are Active Travelers, which is a kind way of saying that we neglect to schedule downtime and end up rather frazzled on the last days of our vacation. We ran out of time before we ran out of things we wanted to do and people we wanted to see, so we’ll just have to go back.

• Newsom's Orwellian doublespeak on city layoffs
  From the article: "As the Chronicle reported that day, none of the affected employees are happy about this 'offer' they can’t refuse, and their unions are even talking about suing the city. As for this plan to 'maintain services,' that’s based simply on Newsom’s demand that city employees – who, because of the layoffs in previous years, are often already doing several people’s jobs – do 40 hours of work in 37.5 hours."
  (tags: sanfrancisco economy jobs layoffs)
• 15,000 S.F. workers given layoff notices
  Yes, I received a pink slip. No, I have not (yet?) been rehired. No, I most certainly do not approve of the mayor's tactic. From the article: "Newsom ordered the layoff notices be sent to most of the city's 26,000 workers and said the overwhelming majority of them will be hired back within two weeks to work 37.5 hours a week instead of their current 40 – meaning they'll see a 6.25 percent cut to their paychecks."
  (tags: sanfrancisco economy jobs layoffs)
• Newsom Highlights Efforts to Save Jobs and Services
  I know, I know; I'm a broken record on the topic. You would be too, if you just got laid off. The article is good; the first comment (by "A City Worker") is outstanding.
  (tags: sanfrancisco economy jobs layoffs)
• Don’t blame fast food for making you fat
  From MSNBC.com: "Fast food isn't solely to blame for weight problems. Your diet may be hindered by a class of chemicals researchers have begun to call obesogens." (via Rich)
  (tags: diet food health)

I had this idea during dinner that I would get out my laptop and write something about the Big News, but I don’t know exactly what to say. Forgive my befuddled rambling.

For those of you who haven’t yet heard, I was one of the 15,000 City and County of San Francisco employees to receive a pink slip on Friday. Only I was on vacation and, in an effort to unplug, had not checked work email or RSS feeds all week. We returned home late Friday night, and my pink slip arrived in the mail on Saturday.

To say that I was shocked in that moment … well, I was shocked, but I was also a mess of other emotions. I opened the envelope, expecting a direct deposit slip, and received something very different. (It wasn’t pink at all, if you’re curious.) Because I hadn’t read the news, I thought I was one of a small number of layoffs — you see, I still believed all the “no, there won’t be layoffs” so heartily bandied about before this whole thing. Silly, naïve me.

FunkyPlaid and I sat in my study for a while, awash in disbelief and anger and who knows what else. Then I thought to call the library, and I asked a colleague what was going on. She informed me that she, too, had been laid off, that we all had been, library-wide, and then she related the 15,000 number, which blew my mind. I thought it couldn’t possibly be legal, but of course there are loopholes for any behavior.

I know I am hardly unique in this experience, especially now while our country suffers such economic turmoil. Last year, the union had dealt with the budget shortfall by arranging furlough days in order to stave off layoffs, so I know what it means to make sacrifices so that everyone can keep their jobs. But here we are, and with such a vague promise of rehiring at a shorter work-week, combined with my lack of seniority in the system … well, it looks bleak for me, if not during this round of layoffs then during the inevitable next.

This is hardly personal, but its personal impact is massive. My job is a complex and troubling one, but one I have grown to love with a fierce heart. I had so hoped we — and here I use “we” despite feeling cast aside by this city — would find a way to work together to provide our services to the public without losing anyone. Sometimes that is impossible, I am now told.

I hate that word “impossible”.

My gratitude for your compassion and your patience cannot fully be expressed by a mere “thank you” but I will still say it. I fully realize how despised civil servants are — I regularly hear comments to this effect — and yet you have only shown me kindness. Thank you. No matter what the outcome, I am humbled by your friendship.