philly

Politics PA

Every once in awhile, I like to do a technorati search of this blog and see what new sites I can find who are linking to me in some way, shape or form. I recently found that a new [to me] political site for Pennsylvania is listing me as a PA blogger: PoliticsPA.com.

I haven't had a chance to really sit down and go through the site and see what it's all about with the new job and the electricity, therefore, internet connectivity problems, but it seems like a clearinhouse for all PA politics, from the Left that is. Seems like they scan a good amount of news and parse it out pretty well geographically throughout the entire state. Take a look over there and see what you can make of them.

My error in citing them as a Lefty blog, that assumption was made while most of their front page stories were Santorum-bashing in quality, but at the time, just about everyone was on the bandwagon, even the sites from the Right, which it seems PoliticsPA leans towards.

New Temp Job

So, I got myself a jobby job. It's a temp job I got through Office Team. I've temped before and I had a pretty good time at it back in NY. It was never the dream job, but hey, it was some interesting work and I learned some new things.

This temp job I have now is for a construction company. They're redoing the eleveated SEPTA stations in West Philly. I'm the Document Control Engineer there for the next four to six months or so. Sounds like a pretty spiffy title, eh? I'm an engineer! I basically handle all the paper flow between us, another office and all of the subcontractors. It's pretty cool though, to see all the architectual drawings for the new stations. The steelwork, electrical stuff and whatnot. The only downside for me is the workday; it's construction hours: 7.30a to 4p. Not the greatest, but at least I'll get out early enough to still have time to do lots of stuff before it gets dark out!

But all this means that I'll have to go to sleep a little earlier which is something I've always had a hard time doing. Let's see how all this goes. The nice thing is that I get a weekly paycheck. It's less than a bi-weekly, but a check a week is nice. I also get to not wear a button down, slacks and dress shoes to work! I can dress nice and casual, with jeans and boots. I think I can get away with anything short of a t-shirt.

Oooh, and it's also about three blocks away from where they used to film American Bandstand which is cool. I'm gonna take a stroll down Market St over there in 40s and take some photos once it clears up. When are all these storm clouds gonna go away?

Turning in My Photos

I head to Wynnewood tomorrow after my temp job to hand in my photos from my first gig. I initially culled the 200 images down to fifty, but they wanted thirty which was even better for me. A pretty tight edit. Take away all those blinks, in-between faces, slightly out of focus and just plain bad shots and I got it down to fifty and the final thirty are a pretty good bunch.

I haven't had my photos critiqued at any level [in person] in some years now. I guess critiqued is the wrong word, but I can't think of one that's better right now. I'm gonna go in there and they're gonna tell me whether or not the images are 1. usable and 2. how happy they are and if they'll think of using me again. I dread them turning around and telling me I'd either have to re-shoot or that they'd have to find someone else to re-shoot it. Oof. That would be quite the shot through my ego.

I've been on the other side of this situation, as editor. During my time interning at Vibe magazine for three summers from 1998-2000, they gave me my own sections to edit. I edited several sections in the front of the book and was sent, solo, to several photo shoots to be the liason on-site for direction and whatnot. I was also the first set of eyes to look at the books photographers sent in for the Director of Photography to look at. I'd go through and mark the better ones and make note of the better ones for upcoming jobs. It was quite a bit of responsibility for a kid 18-20 years old, but they gave it to me and that confidence in having an eye for what looks good has stayed with me. Now, for the first time, I'm having to hope that what I think looked good will look good for another set of eyes, the tables have turned.

I think I'm gonna be pretty nervous up until I get there and then I think I'll be better.

Electricity Outage Workaround

So, the problem is that there are two 110v ground wires [I'm not sure that's the right term] going into this building, to make up the 220v. One of those wires is completely dead — according to my landlord and his electrician. So, half of the building's outlets are dead. But I've now created my own, slightly dangerous?, workaround.

There are two sets of outlets that seem to be working on one side of my apartment. One in the bathroom and one just outside of it. So, I now have a bunch of extension cords running around my apartment into those outlets. I don't have any more electricty than I'd normally have in an outlet, so I'm not too worried about a burnout, but I do have two long cords on the ground which I may trip on.

Workarounds make the world go round.

Electricity Back?

I've been in my apartment now for about twenty minutes and the lights haven't flickered on and off yet. That's a good sign. Wait a second. I spoke too soon. The power — as I was typing "that's a good sign" — went out for about five minutes. Fuckity fuck fuck. Fuck. Off to Lady's house I go for a third night in a row. This is becoming rediculous. I hate you PECO.

Electricity in my Apartment

The electricity is flickering on and off in my entire apartment building. The landlord isn't coming over with an electrician until tomorrow. So, I flee to Lady's house around the corner. Hopefully it'll be fixed - easily - tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and the reason I need the electricity is so that I can get up for work tomorrow. I got me a temp job out in West Philly. Doing what exactly, I'm not sure. Methinks data entry, but things always change when you get there. I gotta be out there by 8a so I needs me an alarm.

Race on Television

Race on television is always a touchy subject. It has always been made clear to me by the powers that be that my race/ethnicity: Korean/Asian-American is not one to dwell on. Race is about blacks, browns and whites. I know that this is partially a result of Asians and our tendency to take things as they are and not make a big stink about it. We're always extolled for our great work ethic and that we're good at math and whatever. Shit, I have a great work ethic and I used to be great at math so...

But before I go off on a crazy longer-winded-than-usual rant on all that, I'll get back to what I wanted to post on. Two commercials I recently saw. One about a commercial by GE on the formation of the trans-continental railroad and one on a new TV show on TNT called Into the West.

First, the GE commercial. I didn't catch the entire message of the commercial, Suffice it to say that it was how GE was integrally involved in the formation, funding and building, yadda yadda yadda... There were tons of images of people in the commercial ending with a slow set of steam engines coming to meet in the middle of the screen with people flocked all around them. Not a single Asian face. The Chinese were an integral part of the formation of the transcontinental railroad. I was taught that they bore the brunt of the labor in the West back then for this project. The Chinese are largely credited with bringing people out West by helping build that very railroad. And GE can't find a single Asian face to stick into their stupid commercial?

Secondly, the Into the West commercial. It was a commercial for TNT I saw before the previews for the latest Star Wars movie I saw last week. It had little soundbites from the cast and crew. It's supposed to give us a whole new outlook on the West and the relations between the new settlers and the American Indians who were already there. One actor exclaimed how this is going to change the way we look at Native Americans. What way are we looking at them now? To me, it seems like we, as a country, are not looking at them at all. In fact, we're turning our backs on them. Corralling them into little plots of land where they are supposedly autonomous. Great! They get a nice ten square miles of jack shit and told to rule that land just like in the good ol' days. I think that this little mini-series will do jack shit for the relations between the American Indians left here and the rest of us, but I'd be pleased beyond belief for some lawmakers to prove me wrong.

I know that Asian-Americans are downplayed in the large picture of race in America, but nobody is more underrepresentated than American Indians. I believe that Chris Rock said it well:

Nobody got it worse than the American Indians... Indians got it bad. Indians got it the worst. You know how bad the Indians got it?... When was the last time you met two Indians? You ain't never met two Indians... I have seen a polar bear ride a tricycle in my life. I have never seen an Indian family just chillin' out at Red Lobster

I grew up in Westchester County, NY and worked in New York City for about three years and went to college in Washington, DC for three years and now I've lived in the great city of Philadelphia for the past year. I have met one American Indian person in my twenty-five years here on this earth. I'm not trying to slight the underrepresentation of other countries here in America, but they weren't here until not long ago. My family only came here thirty years or so ago. How scattered, few and non-integrated are the true owners of this land? Maybe they'd rather not associate themselves with what this country has become.

Philly Future's Community Interview of Dianah Neff

Philly Future's community interview of Dianah Neff, CIO of Philadelphia, has concluded. Ms. Neff has answered all of our questions. I learned quite a bit about this whole Wireless Philadelphia [WP] initiative through her answers.

The project's initial small-scale pilots are being funded by different wireless companies which have agreed to support this initiative for a year while the big network is being built. Smaller projects like LOVE Park, the Parkway, Washington Square and others are all being funded outside of WP.

Customer service will not be handled by the City of Philadelphia nor WP, but by ISPs like Earthlink, AOL and MSN. That was in interesting twist. I can imagine the calls being answered by folks in call centers in India to complaints that Joe Philadelphia can't get his damn internet to work over by Pat's as he eats a cheesesteak. I wonder if they'll have to teach the call centers a whole Philadelphia lexicon. Words like cheesesteak and woulder [a.k.a. water].

Access within the public libraries was also raised. Libraries could choose to bring the signal indoors [I'm assuming through some kind of repeater] and offer wireless within their walls to all those with a wifi card. I wonder if you'd have to have a library card and enter the network via the library's homepage as you do when checking what books you have out or on reserve. I wouldn't see that as a problem since the cards are free to anyone with a Philadelphia mailing address.

There were tons of questions asked and answered. Everyone should give this a good read. The questions were posted by us, the people of Philadelphia. Not by the Inky, the DN, Metro, Philly Weekly, City Paper, the Tribune nor any other big media outlet. This is only the beginning.

Finished the Shoot

Well, I finished my first freelance photo gig. It took about ninety minutes. I think it went well. I got a good coverage of portrait/group and horizontal/vertical shots. I took about 200 photos. Man does that 1GB CF card hold a ton of shots. I'm nervous to look at them though. I think I'll wait until at least tonight.

NYT Feature: Class Matters

I just came across a new series over at the NY Times: Class Matters. Here's the summary

A team of reporters spent more than a year exploring ways that class - defined as a combination of income, education, wealth and occupation - influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of unbounded opportunity.

An interesting series. I'm definitely going to give this one a thorough read in the coming days.

I don't see a dedicated RSS feed for it though.