The hard road for Michigan

This is from Yahoo...

"In August, Hawaii posted the lowest unemployment rate (2.8 %), followed by South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia (3.2% each), then Florida, Nebraska, Idaho, and Wyoming (3.3% each). Michigan and Mississippi suffered the highest unemployment rates, at 7.1% each. (The unemployment rate is defined as the "percentage of employable people actively seeking work, out of the total number of employable people.")

Employment opportunities by state might also be judged by job postings per capita. By this measure, California boasts three of the top five cities, led by San Jose in the top spot. "

...So why did I just come from the best state, and two of the best cities in the country and continue my job hunt in Michigan, which is tied for dead last in unemployment rate with a state that had its most metropolitan city destroyed by Katrina recently? Three reasons...

1. Family and friends
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Google has a new office here. Wish me luck!

My Waiting for Godot

"Vladimir: Well, shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let's go.

They do not move."

One of my favorite plays I have ever read (which isn't saying much) is an enlightening piece about a pair of men who do nothing with their lives but wait for an unknown, never-gonna-come, Godot. The play depicts some rather bizarre life circumstances, including references to routine beatings, sleeping in ditches, and a slight reference to autoerotic asphyxiation, if one is so inclined to interpret it as such. All the while they wait and banter on and on about nothing while Godot never comes.

I am waiting for my own Godot right now. Perhaps we all are, but I am especially attuned to the fine art of waiting for an event to happen which may or may not come soon enough. I won't enlighten you as to what my Godot is, for that would ruin this quaint reference to Samuel Beckett's symphonic "play about nothing" by giving you something in my reference for which he did not. I will, however, give you a rundown of my day's work...

Today, Friday the 13th.
I wake up for breakfast before the sun rises, eat, check my email (Godot is a no show), check the sports scores, check Google news, go to the bathroom and sleep once again.

I wake again much later and take my brother's roommate to the airport so she can go visit San Francisco, the area I was just in prior to San Diego. I take some time off to reflect and be spiritual, only I miss the appropriate venue by just 5 minutes. I then sit in my car for a good 5 minutes debating what to do next and where to go. I decide I want to go shop for some electronics.

An hour later I am driving home with a new webcam and miss my exit. My navigation system starts beeping for a U-turn. I hate taking the same route twice when a better (but longer) one may present itself. I trust my instincts and get stuck in a long traffic jam up near the Marine's base. Luckily there is a Friday afternoon air show by some Tomcats or F-16s or whatever and I occupy myself trying to snap a shot on my Razr. Without leaving the car and my line, I can't get a nice one.

I arrive home a few hours later than anticipated, and get quickly online. No Godot, but a good conversation ensues with a close friend and the outcome of a baseball game greatly benefited my likes and my people (Michiganders).

I get bored, so I watch a few episodes of Scrubs, my new "in" sitcom (read old post). I then start to cook a nice large meal for 3, which I eat alone (with my good Friend Zack Braff).

I then get a call to join my brother and some friends for dinner. Great timing, but I join them anyway (might as well have dessert with them). They are eating at a pizza place where no dessert is served. Our conversation encompasses the creation of a new phrase (homo-erratic), Disneyworld, cryogenic freezing, North Korea, horror films, and Brad Pitt's butt (see homo-erratic). I leave for home to have my dessert.

I arrive realizing we are out of milk, so my early breakfast will be slightly less than I had hoped for, unless I go out shopping. My brother gives me a list of things he wants but has no time to buy and I research online which market is open after 9pm. Only one in the area.

I go out, I buy $20 worth of food for over $40, can't refill our water bottles, and am stunned at how such a market can even exist. The people here really want to live the high life, rather than save some money and actually be worth something.

I come home and write in my blog, and still no Godot.

Go Tigers!!!

I love this, Tigers are up 3-0 in the ALCS with 2 more go to at home, and then two more to go in Oakland, if needed (won't be).

As much as I love our victory, couldn't ESPN have picked a more glorious picture of The Gambler (Kenny Rogers, Detroit's Ace pitcher). It looks like....u can fill in the blank if you want.

Pistons/Tigers similarities

Hey, anyone ever notice how the Detroit Pistons were not given a chance in 2004 and yet they still took it to the legendary "Best team ever" LA Lakers and won the championship?

Notice how the 2006 Detroit Tigers weren't given a chance against the "best lineup ever" NY Yankees and we took it to them hard?

Ever notice how after both of these big wins we A). didn't get hardly any media attention because Shaq/Kobe and Joe Torre/A-rod were taking it all because their teams were supposedly "imploding" and B). We all of a sudden had millions of believers in our teams and C) Had even more haters of our teams styles?

I guess we are always the underdogs who disrupt something build so well that it can't possibly play together and win when it counts. Let's go Detroit. Sports is all we have left.

Back to the tube

So, after many years of using older tv shows to keep me attached to my US identity and fight off culture shock, I have moved on beyond the Friends era. My new old TV show of choice is the recently (since I have been gone) released DVDs of Seinfeld, the best sitcom of all time.

In addition I find Scrubs (still on TV, but from my college years as well) to be the best show on TV and I am starting to like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. This is probably due to my early years interest in Saturday Night Live and Studio 60 is basically an over-dramatized version of how they put SNL together (even if the show is about a competitor to SNL and often quotes them on success).

My Name is Earl is another show that has caught my attention recently. Not great, but for 3-4 episodes it is kind of addictive (then it gets old and silly).

I think my point here is that my life when I was away from America did consist of minimal TV watching, but I read books, went out for coffee with friends, and generally kept very busy. I only used TV shows (usually downloads or on DVD) to go to sleep, and watched the same ones over and over. Now that I am back in the US and not super busy, I spend a lot more time researching movies, tv shows, etc., and less time socializing and reading.

The odd thing is, I don't even have a TV nor do I live in a house with one.

Hail to the victors valient!

Just woke up on Sunday and I can't get it out of my head. The state of Michigan just had a great saturday, with the University of Michigan easily handling Michigan State (the one black mark for the state's large sports interests, but someone had to go down in a heads-up matchup) to move up to number 4 in the national rankings and for the Detoit Tigers, who won their best of 5 ALDS matchup against the historic Yankees and their $198 million team payroll.

The Tigers were the team I grew up collecting, memorizing, and in absolute awe when we took the nearly 5 hour trip down south to go watch Lou Whitaker (my favorite), Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, and Sparky's gang do their thing. The only thing was in those days Oakland and at times the Yankees were dominant, so the Tigers didn't often do as well as we are this year. Here's hoping that they win out and take back the championship (I am hesitant to call it by its real name, "World's Series" since this blog is read internationally and it does make Americans look stupid to call the winners of a national (w/ Canada) sport the world's best).

Intense Presentation on Palestine

So last night I went to San Diego State University where the Muslim Student's Association brought in a guest lecturer on Palestine. Unfortunately the person slated to come, a professor at Berkley got stuck in traffic and was unable to attend. So instead they found their third choice, a Palestinian who had some interesting insights onto the history of the situation in the middle east.


His main angle and source of information were a few key books, but primarily his own life experience and stories from his relatives and neighbors. While his stories and points were mostly valid, it lacked strength in argumentation. For example, if I told you that I saw a cop beating up a black man on the street, you could infer that the police were racist and brutal. However, unless I backed up that statement with facts on the situation, irrefutable ones that everyone can agree on, or at least understand, I probably wouldn't get you to believe that this cop was in the wrong.

Despite his best efforts (whatever a last minute call to present could be) his perspective was widely disapproved by the audience. During the questions and comments (mostly comments), his personal background was slightly attacked and chaos errupted. One lady spoke about her Jewish family who bought land pre-World War 2 in Palestine and has lived ever since. They might not agree with everything that has happened until now, and definitely hate the violence their own nation (or any nation) uses, but she sees that their people now have land.

nother lady demanded we all give money to support Palestine. Unfortunately today you really can't give direct funds to Palestine because it is lead by a democratically elected governement which has been deemed by the west as a terrorist cell. This means give them money and you'll probably have a kindly gentleman from the CIA or Homeland Security on your doorstep within a few days.

A final lady spoke up and said, "Look, forget religion and your personal involvement in the situation. This is a violation of human rights and women and children are dying and the big governments have pulled out funds to make a point. We need the entire world to react to this regardless if you are a Jew or Muslim or Christian or of no faith, for this has to do with everyone as human beings."

I would have to say that she gave perhaps the best comment I have ever heard regarding the crisis in the Middle East, especially since everyone always tends to get so personal about it no matter what their involvement.

So I say, don't give money, don't talk on something you don't know factually. Work to challenge people to understand the direness of the situation and help in any way they can by giving these people a chance to live a normal life. Do the same in any humanitarian crisis in the world for that matter. Don't just sit back while millions of people are killed without a chance of survival while we debate politics endlessly and try to mix our heritage or personal religious affiliation into it. We are all humans and those who are reading this comment right now are fortunate enough to not only have food, shelter, and safety, but also technology. Help the less fortunate.