RamblingDyna

The holidays have come and gone and it sure did feel different this year, obviously. The kinetic energy to grab the best deals and buy as much as you can carry to the car was…restrained. The checkout lines were not as long as in past years. I’ve been walking through the San Francisco Center for a week. It’s located in the heart of the downtown shopping district, a stone throw away from the famous cable car stop. It’s home to Bloomingdales and Nordstrom and the energy is very different, almost subdued. It’s like you want to dip your hands into the jar full sinful sweets but can’t because you know it’s bad for you. That’s what the crowds looked like as they snaked slowly between aisles of 50-70 percent off sales bins. They didn’t clamor over each other and hoard bundles of red tagged stuff. People browsed, poked and prodded, looked again and then walked away. Before Christmas, the crowds were plentiful but not as packed and hungry. I figured the recession cloud was hovering over...

Weary, baggy eyed airport travelers are stranded for the second day in a row as winter storms shut down planes and ice runways. Retailers keep their fingers crossed praying that second black Friday will reap extra change. Gas prices are down by 60% but people are still watching their mileage as with any other expenditures. Families are tightening and streamlining their belts. Xmas wish lists are pared down or done without. In the Xmas 24 hour marathon television favorite, A Xmas Story, the mother of the main character, Ralph, asks him what he wants on his Xmas wish list. Initially, she denies him his Red Ryder BB gun because it's dangerous. In the end, Ralph and his brother get everything they wanted. Even though it's a fictional and all time movie classic favorite, I'm sure financially strapped families now watch these idyllic scenes with a sobering perspective. People are coping and learning, most for the first time, how to really save and buy what's necessary. Can...

It's been a couple of years since I've been to any career networking events but the past seven days sure have been busy and they all happened by accident. I just signed up for a journalism group that meets periodically in San Francisco; missed their first meeting and didn't expect to see their next invitation for a couple of weeks. But the group organizer emailed the members about a fundraising event for two local non-profit, online news startups: The Public Press and Newsdesk. The last time I was in the same room with a group of reporters was when I was covering a murder trial in New England years ago. As many national and local newspapers and other commercial media groups are shutting down shops and slashing hundreds of editorial staff, the life and livelihood of true news reporters and the journalism field is being threatened. These two online media groups like a few others nationwide are working hard to not let true hardnosed journalism succumb and wither away to ...

I didn’t catch the beginning of the television news report but San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, held a press conference in a city store. He stressed how important it is for citizens to support local businesses by buying from city shops. A CBS TV reporter asked him why he bought his Chevrolet SUV hybrid in a Colma car dealership instead of a San Francisco shop. Colma is right next door, south west of San Francisco. Newsom was put off guard by what he appropriately described as the “gotcha question” and said he didn't know why because he didn’t buy the vehicle. Someone else did. Then he attempted to ignore the unrelenting reporter who asked him why he’s promoting buying local when he’s not following his own words. Newsom this time was obviously annoyed and said that since he didn’t buy the car, he can’t answer the question and will find out about it and get back to the reporter. Isn’t that just lovely. The “I didn’t do it” excuse simply absolves Newsom of any accountabili...

My family and I last saw my father alive on Wednesday, May 17, 2008 at 8:00pm as he laid in his hospital bed at the San Francisco Veteran’s Administration Medical Center awake, his eyes closed. His breathing was shallow but he looked relaxed and at ease. Unlike the day before, his silver hair was combed and his face was clean shaven but his cheeks were no longer rosy. They were sunken and pale and his lips were dry. His team of doctors told us 2 hours before that he could die anytime. Last week they said it could be days, weeks or months but on May 17, it was imminent. His blood count was dropping fast, a sign that his cancer caused him to internally bleed. His doctors told us he had lung cancer the third day after he was admitted to the hospital. Well, they believe it’s cancer due to the symptoms of high levels of calcium, chronic sleepiness and emphysema, a byproduct of his 50 plus years of smoking cigarettes. They could have done a cat-scan to look for the lung cancer but the pro...

I usually don't think twice about Veteran's Day. I see the parades of retired military veterans on television, most wearing their uniforms proudly and offering a interview or two about sacrifice, remembrance and honor of the soldiers who fought and died for freedom. My only connection to Veteran's Day is my father, John Villegas Lopez. He served in WWII when he was drafted as a Philippine Scout and fought alongside United States serviceman against the Japanese when they invaded the Philippines. He escaped from the Bataan Death March and suffered from Malaria for a month before returning to serve again. It's shocking to know that 700 WWII veterans die every day. Only 2,530 are still alive. It was of course sobering for my parents to see the numbers shrink every year as a majority of my dad's fellow comrades have passed away. He outlived most of them until this past May. My father of 88 years joined them when he lost his courageous battle to lung cancer. The last...

A week later, I'm still pinching myself of images of cries and smiles worldwide congratulating Obama and the United States for several deep reasons: The first and obvious of course is that he's making history as the first African American to live in the White House, the house that was built mostly by the hands of slaves. Second, it's generational. Obama is 46 years old, between the Baby Boomer and Gen X (like myself), he can relate to the My Space, Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry generation. Remember when he announced his VP, Joe Biden, running mate via text messages? That was cool! He even has an account on LinkedIn, a free professional and international online networking tool that connects people. He has 500+ contacts in his network. He's probably tilt the scale as his rolodex entries continue to multiply by the week. In online interviews in China, 2 men of different backgrounds were asked why they were happy about Obama being president. They both said he looked lik...