2008
Merry Christmas Family and Friends,
After only four years Stephanie will graduate with a dual BS/MS in Architectural/Structural
Engineering in May 2009 from USC. Then she'll face "the worst job market since 1929." (But her animated grad photo should give her an edge in the job market?) Stephen is a sophomore at Cal Poly SLO in
Computer Engineering. Last summer he did an internship at Prestwood Software - where Kim had worked for four years. He did the
ASP.NET makeover of
www.reporemarketing.com, among other
projects.
Stephanie and Stephen are also the key plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Homeland Security's extension of the student OPT visa from 12 to 29 months, allowing foreign students to remain in the U.S. and work, without any prevailing wage or requirements that Americans be given hiring preference. DHS is out of control - does a visa extension during the middle of a recession rise to an "emergency" (public comments waived) matter? As students about to enter the job market, they have the most standing. Their latest brief against Chernoff is here. (We are barred from discussing the case.)
In May Mike Prestwood invited us to spend a day riding around town in a limo solving clues. (We didn't know we'd be competing with over 40 other teams, all in their own limos - it was crazy.)
Still in May, Kim and Tess participated in Skips Music "Weekend Warriors," getting paired with strangers, picking some songs, and after four weeks performing them in at Harlow's nightclub. Kim did it again in June.
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We didn't travel far this year, but still we had a good time. In July we stayed with Kim's sister Ingrid at the house they rented in Carmel. It was the same house where Clint Eastwood had filmed "Play Misty For Me" 37 years ago. We watched the movie in the same room that Evelyn trashed, and took some photos that matched the movie. The YouTube at left is the movie trailer. We spent Father's Day at Scandia, riding go-carts, batting cage, bumper boats, and the screamer. Another time we drove high-performance go carts at RPM in Rancho Cordova. |
In August we went to the State Fair at Cal Expo, and met up with Kim's coworker Dirk and his wife Maria - who is from the same home town as Tess.
In September, the day before Stephen returned school, we went to Six Flags Vallejo, and with the lower "schools open" attendance and our "fast track" cut pass, we took many coaster rides with minimal waiting in line.
We nearly lost another parakeet when White-bird got the best of Sky-blue one day. (Click here for disturbing photo after the fight.) For a week we'd return from work not knowing if Sky-blue would make it. But she recovered so we still have the same three, including Green-bird. And our Amazon Parrot "Pretty Bird"
(inventorying the wine cellar below) has been with us for over a year now.
The YouTube at left gives a sample of Pretty-Bird's vocabulary.
Kim again got a lot a press coverage advocating that Americans should have preference for U.S. jobs, and that Congress should stop condoning the offshoring of our tech infrastructure. But Congress does not listen to the common sense of average Americans, and look at the trade deficit pickle we are in now.
In
December he launched venture
www.LessonsMe.com in partnership with the sponsor.
We wish everyone the best in 2009 - specifically may we all hold on to our jobs!
Tech Tip: YouTube now has a high-resolution mode. I've set that mode on our Philippines 2007 videos.
Confession: We faked our Christmas card photo. It is composed from two photos that were taken in different months.
