Dollarshort

Last Chance to Help Children!

Today is the last day of the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge. While I missed a couple days of posting daily, I think I did a pretty good job to sticking to my promise. 

Please take the time to donate to the projects I've picked to support. Any amount helps!

Member is Just Another Word for Loser

Stumbling upon this piece on abcnews.com about frequent flier programs during these hard times reminded me of just how frustrated I am with United Airlines. I know what you're thinking: " Voicing your frustration about an airlines? Hey that's what Twitter is for!?" The airline/airport bitch is a cliché, but here's why I don't fly United anymore -- in more than 140 characters.

I flew quite a lot from 2003-2007. Getting over my fear of flying was aided by the notion that I could treat it like a competition and earn points and by 2006 I was flying 100,000 + miles per year. These were work-related trips, so by the time 2007 rolled around and I was pregnant/new mother, the air travel ceased abruptly. Here's a breakdown of my United status (the status is earned the previous year):

2004 - Premier Executive
2005 - Premier Executive
2006 - 1k status
2007 - 1k status 
2008 - Member! 

"Member" is the ultimate blow. It's the airline equivalent of the points you get for getting your name right on the S.A.T. Collecting miles was my addiction and I went from being on the ultimate high to quitting cold turkey. 

But that's the thing that frustrates/confuses me about United. With the loss of my 1k, they completely loss a customer. Not because I think it is unfair and am protesting, but because I have absolutely no incentive to fly with United anymore. I'm not going to work on next year's status because the experience of traveling to earn that status is just so damn poor. How hard is it for them to grant some sort of emeritus title for a year and see if I build it up again?

Considering that they now charge for baggage and water, my elitist rant about their loyalty program is the least of their problems.  Besides, I'd rather fly coach on Virgin America than deal with United full-stop. And yay* for Virgin for finally launching their own loyalty program.

*And another yay for Virgin America's awesome customer outreach on Twitter.

Barack Obama, Friend to Three-Legged Dogs

Three items (and a photo) that may be of interest to those who might still need to be persuaded to vote for Obama. [1]

Humane Society Legisslative Fund Endorses Obama/Biden.

While we've endorsed hundreds of congressional candidates for election, both Democrats and Republicans, we've never before endorsed a presidential candidate. We have members on the left, in the center, and on the right, and we knew it could be controversial to choose either party's candidate for the top office in the nation. But in an era of sweeping presidential power, we must weigh in on this most important political race in the country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us.

Best Friends Animal Society (my favorite animal-centric charitable organization) recently started a petition to get the Obama family to adopt a rescue animal. After 50,000 signatures, Michelle Obama confirmed that they would be adopting a rescue.

Finally, the poodle pictured in the photo with Obama is Baby. She was rescued after ten years in a puppy mill and is the subject of this book. Obama's political mentor -- Dick Durbin -- is the author of a federal bill to stop the practice of puppy mills. Obama appears in the book as a supporter of Baby and this cause.

[1] Yes, this post is for my mom.

Breaking the Law, Trott-style

Up until last Sunday morning, I had only been pulled over by a cop once in my life: I was sixteen years-old and had forgotten to turn on my lights on my way home from my pizza-parlor job. My reaction to being pulled over (pure panic) prompted the officer to ask me if I had been drinking. Of course I was incredibly naive at the time and said: "I'm sixteen -- it's not even legal for me to drink!" And I meant it, too.

On Sunday, *I* didn't get pulled over -- Ben did. We were in traffic going into Golden Gate Park and didn't have the foggiest clue what Ben could have done wrong.  It turns out that we didn't have an updated registration sticker on our car -- it had expired in July. I've been driving around with expired plates for more than 3 months and had never noticed or been stopped. 

Since our registration was current -- we were just stickerless -- Ben got a infraction ticket without any fine or marks on his record.

But the story doesn't end there. Twenty minutes after being pulled over, we were pulled over again! By a different cop! 

Officer: It looks like your registration isn't current...

Me: We know. We already got a ticket about it.

Officer: Ok, when did you get this ticket?

Me: Umm. Like twenty minutes ago.

Officer: Really? 

He then looks at the ticket and tells us to have a nice day.

Later, we saw a woman pulled over for the same thing. We were on foot so we could hear their conversation. So either Sunday was a SFPD expired registration tag scavenger hunt or there was some quota in serious effect.

That said, both officers were very nice to us. I think having a cute baby in the backseat helps a lot.

Pen on Ocean Beach

Penelope and Sand, originally uploaded by mgtrott.

Today was Penelope's first trip to a beach, courtesy of a warm October day in San Francisco.

She's a very generous little person and will pick up things and bring them over to people. Then, she makes a little sound that sort of means "here." She started doing that with grains of sand. She'd pick up a pinch of sand and then bring it to me. What totally delights me is how she would take time to pick just the right grains out of the billions out there.

I'm sure that there is some lesson to be learned from this baby's action and that it would make some great sort of Zen parable.

Turn of the Century Autochromes

It's amazing what a little color can do. Take these vivid color photographs from the 1930s-1940s available from the Library of Congress collection. Or these photos from turn-of-the-century Russia. It's the presence of color that make these folks look like they aren't that far removed from modern times. (Actually, he's not like anyone I've met lately.)

Here's a collection of color photographs (actually, autochrome) that is new to me. Found via The Commons on Flickr, these autochromes are from the George Eastman House.

What's an autochrome, you may ask?

The process used a screen of tiny potato starch grains dyed orange-red, green and violet. Dusted onto a glass plate, the dyed grains were covered with a layer of sensitive panchromatic silver bromide emulsion. As light entered the camera, it was filtered by the dyed grains before it reached the emulsion. While the exposure time was very long, the plate could be processed easily by a photographer familiar with standard darkroom procedures. The result was a unique, realistic, positive color image on glass that required no further printing.

I also love these photographs because they're obviously the result of experiments with a new toy. 

You've got the requisite flower portraits reminiscent of a modern-day photographic ritual: when trying out a new camera, who doesn't take a couple of pretty pictures of nearby flowers?

And then there are the staged portraits that imitate the only real color "photographs" these photographers would have had as a point of reference -- oil paintings.

But my favorite is this photo of a baby in a high chair from c. 1915.

Bring On the Sexy Amish Costume!

Perhaps most men won't agree, but the state of women's Halloween costumes has probably hit an all-time skanky low. Since when did every costume out there have to be sexy? Strike that. Sexy would be fine -- I'm talking straight-out slutty. And it's not just the expected sort of costume: nurse, French maid, Playboy Bunny. I'm talking about utterly absurd costumes to be sluttified.  

Here are my top ten costumes that should not exist:

1. Sexy Palace Guard
2. Sexy Mental Patient
3. Sexy Border Control Agent
4. Sexy C.S.I. Agent
5. Sexy "Sloth" [1]
6. Sexy Defense Attorney
7. Sexy SpongeBob
8. Sexy Puritan (Garters for Teens!)
9. Sexy Leprechaun
10. Sexy Freddy Krueger (thank you Mule Girl) 

[1] Sexy Sloth would have been so much cooler if it was "Sloth" from the Goonies or even a tree sloth. 

Cute-O-Matic

Want to see the saddest and/or greatest Halloween costume ever? Penelope models it over at my other blog, Nested.

Mobsters Ball

Having a one-year-old, it's very difficult to be spontaneous. That is, unless my idea of spontaneity involves a last minute trip to the park. To be fair, before Penelope, we weren't the really spontaneous types of people. Usually I had a spur-of-the-moment idea for an adventure but we'd talk ourselves out of doing most things before the fun actually began.

 

Yesterday, at the Farmers Market, my friend Krissy told me about an event she happened to stumble upon the night before. She was walking around in Portrero Hill when she saw a bunch of folks in 1930s period clothing hanging around a club. When she asked what the event was, the people there told her about the Collegiate Ball. They let her peek into the event and she thought it was magical. 

After telling me about the experience, I told Krissy that we needed to do a costumed event like that at the next opportunity possible. Little did we know that only a couple hours later we'd be dressed up and at one such an event. [1] 

The Mobsters Ball Timeline:

12:00 noon: Krissy tells me about The Mobsters Ball.

1:48: Krissy emails me their website.

2:01: I text, call and email Krissy and tell her we need to go.

2:45: She worries that we can't find costumes in time. I  tell her we can do it.

3:00: I pick her up and we head to Haight Street, in particular, Decades of Fashion.

3:20-5:00: We shop for clothing and are helped by the most wonderful sales clerk. He helps us accessorize our dresses perfectly.

5:20-6:35: We get ready and then get picked up by the taxi.

6:48: We're sitting down and eating dinner.

11:00: Back home and exhausted.

 

I love costumes and period clothing but had never gone to any event like this. It was quite the treat to be in that world for a couple hours. It was made even greater by the fact that it was completely spur-of-the-moment. That way, we didn't obsess about our outfits or question whether we really should go. 

 

You can see all my photos in this set on Flickr. Excuse the quality -- I only had my iPhone. [2]

It was quite the magical event.

[1] It wouldn't have been possible without Ben's wonderful dad abilities. From 2:00 - 11:00, he took complete care of Penelope and didn't try to talk me out of my silly costume fantasies.

[2] I would have brought my SLR but I was afraid that it would have been an anachronism in the room. I hadn't planned on taking any pictures with the iPhone, but when I saw others and their cameras I decided that no one minded.

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This dollarshort.org post was brought to you by Erikka Arone who supported the kids by donating to my DonorsChoose.org Nested & Dollarshort Challenge, [read more about it here] Donate to one of my challenge projects and see your name appear here!

Oh, Snap, Lloyd Bentsen!

Even though I was only 11, I can remember watching news reports (and possibly the actual debate) about that famous Lloyd Bentsen diss in the 1988 Vice-Presidential debate. You know the one:  "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy: I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Of course, it was all lost on a child at the time.

As a kid, I didn't note/grasp the Quayle reaction. Now, it's quite interesting to see this back and forth after watching the insanely controlled debates of this year. Sure, McCain looks angry in the debates but he doesn't look as angry/traumatized/insulted/humiliated as Qualye in the following clip.

Bush/Quayle maintained their lead and we all know who won that election. It just goes to show that those who get the zingers in don't necessary win the prize.