Category: People

Sacramento one of real estate blog’s “Nerdiest Cities”

Purports to be LARPers in Sacramento
Purports to be LARPers in Sacramento

You heard it first on Ransacked Media, but Sacramento has made another list, this time real estate blog Movoto’s 10 Nerdiest Cities in America. We also made their list of top cities for gamers, as well as their list of places where you might be eaten by a dragon. In fact you could say we are definitely on Movoto’s radar.

This is a real source of pride, personally. I don’t get out much, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but I don’t think I would have pegged us for a very nerdy town. Maybe there are enough LARPers to account for what I assume was a zero in the “people per science museum” category?

P.S. We’ll forgive Isaac for not knowing what LARPing is. Anyone know where the attached photo was taken?

Spring cleaning on the Garden Highway

Garden Highway Clean Up

In what has become my beat as of late, I’m here to report that my favorite makeshift homeless shelter has been evacuated once again.

Since I ride past this spot almost every day, I keep track of when it is empty, picking up a few stragglers, and when there is no room at the inn. This time the stragglers hadn’t even put out their first week’s trash before getting the boot.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

A state department is caught wasting time and money

A game of solitaire
Remember when this was the preferred method of wasting time by state employees?

Shocking headline, huh? Can’t believe it, huh? Want to learn more now, don’t you?

As if California’s Department of Parks and Recreation scandal wasn’t enough to irritate the snot out of us (the Sacramento County district attorney will not pursue criminal charges against California state parks officials because of a “failure to identify any crime”), we learn from CBS13 that more fun and frivolity occurred recently at Capitol Bowl in Sacramento.

It was the middle of a work week — but that didn’t stop the State Department of Parks and Recreation from having a little fun. On state time, driving state vehicles and transporting state workers flown in from Southern California for “training,” the employees dined, bowled and laughed, a CBS13 On The Money investigation has learned.

Say what you will about this incident, I found the real issue to be with the ease folks have in lying these days. Continue reading “A state department is caught wasting time and money”

Makeshift homeless shelter cleared out…again

Photo of the I5 at the Garden Highway
Where do folks go when they are asked to leave a place like this?

I noticed the makeshift homeless shelter I wrote about late last year under Interstate 5 and the Garden Highway has been cleared out again. The last noticeable evacuation was in May of 2011 when police lead the charge in the wake of a rape case at Discovery Park.

Anyone know what prompted this particular relocation?

Join the KQCA My58 Street Team

Join the my58 Street Team
You get to pose a lot when you’re on the team, Even break dance.

You wouldn’t know it from their website (three browsers and counting, nice color choices, guys), but KQCA My58 is “looking for outgoing, self-motivated, energetic individuals with big personalities and excellent people skills to join our promotional street team. You must be extremely reliable, demonstrate excellent work ethic.”

Yes, that’s a quote, the last sentence is really constructed like that (posted on 12/20/2012, mind you).

My58 Street Team Screen Grab
Nice choice in colors, guys.

I’ll continue the cut and paste for those of you with older eyes.

These part-time positions put you in the middle of the action at some of the year’s biggest events. You will be a complete marketing ambassador for My58, by representing My58 onsite at events, taking photos and videos at events and representing My58 online through our website and social media. You will even have the chance to be featured on-air. It’s an opportunity that’s fun, flexible and gives you great experience! On-air hosting skills a plus, but not required. Must be at least 21 years old, able to lift up to 40 lbs and able to work a flexible part-time schedule.

These are real jobs though, although nothing is listed after “Compensation” on the job listings.

I think I could nail that Lead Ambassador position. Going to start working on my “compelling cover letter” now.

Homeless people take out the trash, too

Trash at the entrance of homeless shelter under I5
Hey, Jim, is it green waste or recycle this week?

I noticed that some homeless folks have set up shelter once again under Interstate 5 along the Garden Highway. Who knows how long they will get to stay this time, or what becomes of their belongings when they are eventually forced out. One thing I did notice, however, was two piles of trash at either end of the entrances to their makeshift homes. Good for them. Living under an interstate has to be pretty tough as it is, so keeping your waste at a distance would make sense.

Now, I wonder where the mailbox will go to receive their cellphone bill.

An autonomous and unimpeded audit or People suck in nature, too

Ron would privatize our state parks.

This California Department of Parks and Recreation financial scandal just continues to prove that until robots rule the world, things will continue to suck because people are behind things.

The Sacramento Bee reported July 20 that state parks has been sitting on $54 million in “hidden assets” for at least 12 years…The money was held in two special funds even as the agency undertook painful service reductions and park closures to achieve $22 million in budget cuts…Some of the surplus money could have been used to avoid those cuts, but it was never reported to the Department of Finance, as required by long-standing state fiscal policy.

All the while, of course, we are asked to “Save Our State Parks” you know, because of the budget.

In January 2011, Governor Jerry Brown unveiled his proposed budget, which included a reduction of General Fund support for state parks by $11 million for Fiscal Year 2011-12 and a total reduction of $22 million by the beginning of Fiscal Year 2012-2013. The California Legislature passed this $22 million General Fund reduction, imposing these permanent park closures.

So, what does one do? Throw the parks out with the bath water? Can I boycott people?

Grow up, Sacramento

Prince is in Sacramento. Please go about your business as if he is not wearing the hat.

Hey Maw! Git a load of that feller's heels!
Local restaurants, bloggers and even our mainstream media are reporting that Prince is hanging around.

Note to Sacramentans: If you don’t want to be seen as a cowtown, don’t crap yourselves when you see a famous person. Don’t disrespect someone’s privacy by bragging that a celebrity dined in your restaurant (especially if you want them to return, HELLO?), and don’t report it in the Sacramento Bee, even if it is a slow news day and you are simply reporting what other people are reporting.

Which is precisely what I am doing. Aw, hell.

The next best way to avoid a ticket

In case you missed this story over at news10.net about speed traps in our area, here are a few highlights.

The one place where you are most likely to be pulled over for speeding is anywhere the highway opens up from two lanes to three or four lanes and there is a temptation to hit the gas. The most popular stakeout for CHP officers around Sacramento is the truck scales near Antelope Road…CHP officers do not have a quota for writing speeding tickets. And money from the fines does not go to the CHP. It stays in the county where the violation occurred.

And then what happens to it?

The CHP uses a variety of tools to catch speeders. The newest is LIDAR, which uses a laser beam to pick out a single vehicle in a crowd of traffic and clock its speed with remarkable accuracy.

A frickin’ laser beam? Let me get this straight, if I am speeding in a crowd of traffic (oxymoron?) how am I being singled out?

Any places they missed?