Random SMS of the day

A little bit of pick me up during my work hours

Oh mechanical lead pencil, why do you keep choosing to break while I jot down facts of William Petty and Thomas Hobbes… My feet shift in my shoes…

- peejay

Monitoring Education Committee at work.

I’m currently watching Senate Education Committee about recommendations from the CA Association of Student Councils. I like their recommendations, these issues will help our legislature develop and implement better policies to school needs. I agree with the first panel about school cafeteria and the need for full time nurses. To the best of my knowledge, school nurses just don’t slap on a band-aid and send you back to class or give you ibuprofen, they deal with a whole range of medical needs. They also undergo the same training and education as nurses who work in clinics and hospital settings. Anyway, I should stop now before I bore you all. Kudos to these students for mentioning the need for full time school nurses. UPDATE: Powerful presentation from the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Panel. They all shared stories of how they are affected by drugs and alcohol abusers. If you're interested in viewing this committee hearing, check out www.calchannel.com and type in the search engine today's date: 2/24/2010 and click on Senate Education Committee to watch the video.

In the news today...

Damn, I am. I’m sure many of you are aware of the major headlines in today’s news, or at least I hope you do, but you’d know about Toyota’s squeaky clean image being questioned as of late. Today, victims and leaders of Toyota will be testifying in front of Congress. That’s some heavy shit, right there. I never thought I’d see that coming from a goody-two-shoe of the automobile industry. I’m currently watching a testimony given by a victim on CNN. A survivor, Rhonda Smith, of Lexus’ malfunction is testifying with tears, of course. Shame on you, Toyota. Shame on you. I honestly felt like Toyota has been skimping on their handi-work. I’m sure they felt like they were already at the top of their game, especially being proclaimed as the best automobile company to purchase from. So, they got a little lazy with their production. I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty details of this effect and my thoughts on their half-assed production. I’ve already decided that my trust in Toyota is gone. Seeing that they have been cocky and never admitted to any wrong-doings when Rhonda Smith filed a complaint, just shows that they did not handle the situation right away when complaints were being filed. Millions of lives could have been in danger. It’s going to take a lot of convincing to get me to trust them again. But I’ll still buy their Prius, since that’s the only they I feel they have going for them. It is Toyota’s pride and joy, so why not? Well, with the exception of 2010 models. But I'll be looking forward to the 2011 Prius! :P CNN put together a great list of recalls on their site: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/09/toyota.recall.list/index.html

Note to self...

...eat all the snacks in your snack drawer at work before the end of Friday. P.S. Also raid Philliam's pantry because he is going through a "life-style change." P.P.S. Stop buying foods that are packaged in plastic.

Reflections of last week

What happened? Everything happened so quick last week. I’m still trying to tie in what had happened. I attended the legislative black caucus reception where, apparently, I had all eyes on me and my name tag (with my organization name on the tag) that night. Wednesday morning, we had a governmental relations meeting at a nearby breakfast joint with the new intern (just one intern now... politics is dirty) and my predecessor. Back at the office, I received a phone call that asked if I was available for an interview at 2pm that day. So I got the job after my interview. Only one problem. I found out it was an unpaid job. But at least I got my foot in the door. Hopefully, in addition to education related items, I would be able to pay close attention to corrections, environmental issues, and foster youths. Enough about that. Later that same day, I attended a fund raising event at M!X lounge for one of the Senator. Open bar, yummy appetizers, and great conversations with other staffers and guests. I enjoyed myself. I was also pulled aside and told to drop off my resumes at certain offices. I did that the next day. Thursday was basically volunteer in the morning, then gossip with the site coordinator and told her about what happened. Afterward, I printed out my cover letters and resumes. I had my dad proof read while he was having tea with a neighbor. Then I dolled up and headed over to the first house to turn in my resumes. Crazy. That’s all I can say for now. Friday, my heart almost stopped beating. I received an email on my work account (not my personal one) asking to submit my resume electronically so they could forward it to a very interested legislature who asked for it. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Word of mouth works good. Maybe I’ll have a paid gig after all.