Archive for the ‘Here and Now’ Category

Dirty Santa Monica Beaches Need Rescue

Friday, September 18th, 2009

dirty beach santa monica pier

A recent article in the Santa Monica Daily Post discussed the need to improve the cleanliness of the local Santa Monica beaches by netting off the Santa Monica Pier  from seagulls that desecrate in and around the water. While I agree that  Santa Monica beach pier area has a lot of birds, it is still their natural habitat and netting off their homes and hatchlings seems, well, like the least of our problems.  Their solution was to hire the Bird Busters to net the area beneath the pier- a home to baby birds and gulls alike- for a mere $100,000. Instead, they could spend a fraction of that cost to clean the trash from the beach. (see photo at right)

With California’s budget in the red as of late, wouldn’t you think that Santa Monica- a pet friendly and eco-friendly city would focus more on cleaning the beaches of trash rather than removing the gulls- in any way they deem necessary to do so? Our state needs to re-think budget allocation. Schools are lacking the fundamental requirements that students need in order to learn, State Parks are being shut down and worst of all- many California residents received IOU’s instead of tax refunds. But that’s a whole other issue.

Here is what I wrote to the Santa Monica Daily Post in reply to their article:

Editor:

It has come to my attention that part of the city budget is being dedicated to installing netting around the Santa Monica Pier. As a life-long, native Angeleno, I must agree that pigeons and seagulls are amongst several problems in Santa Monica, however, when it comes to keeping the public beach areas sanitary, far more attention should be directed toward efforts to clean trash, clothing items and vagrants’ belongings from the beaches.

It has been years since I last sat in the sand and enjoyed the serenity of Santa Monica Beach. Even if I am in the area, I find myself drawn to other, cleaner beaches. Although I do not spend a lot of time swimming, the sand and beach area are far more of a concern to me personally. There are a few reasons for this concern; the most important are littering, homeless, drug infestation and overcrowding. While overcrowding lends itself to the idea that tourism is flourishing, drugs, homeless and trash are far greater an issue than seagulls and pigeon droppings.

In an environment so closely involved with being eco-friendly and highly conservative by way of natural resources, it should reflect some kind of juxtaposition that the city is more concerned with animal feces than our own, human irreverence of public land we so often enjoy.

In the case of the bird netting being installed, It is my suggestion that the $100,000 budgeted for the bird netting be re-allocated toward funding beach cleanup, recycling, patrolling of the public areas and consistent maintenance groups.
Mia Taylor
Santa Monica
September 10, 2009

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“Hello, this is the USPS calling…” In regard to your complaint.

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Woke up a few days ago. A blocked caller.  I hate blocked callers. To be honest, I usually don’t pick up. This time I did, and boy was that a mistake.

It was kinda like this:

Ok, so maybe it didn’t happen just like that but basically what they told me was this:

Well Ma’am, they pay us to deliver the bulk mail to you, so we can’t simply stop delivering it. What you can do, however, is contact each of the distributors personally and pay to be removed from their mailing list.

Well, let me give you an idea of how long this would take. In 2 days of not checking my mail, I received the following pieces of junk: (Keep in mind that most of these have multiple pages…as I’m sure you well know!)

  • Organize your home, ClosetWorld- Sent to Postal Customer
  • PennySaverUSA- Sent to Postal Customer
  • A Local community center pamphlet- I receive this bi-monthly at LEAST
  • Walt Disney Concert Hall
  • Faith Baptist Schools pamphlet
  • Henry’s Farmers Market – Sent to Postal Customer
  • Misc Furniture on Sale- Sent to Postal Customer
  • IKEA pamphlet (I do not shop here and have not given them my address)
  • Doit Center Sale junk- Sent to Postal Customer
  • Longs Drugs/ CVS coupons- Sent to Postal Customer
  • MoneySaver
  • Rite Aid pamphlets/Coupons
  • Molly Maid
  • 40-page LocalValues coupons
  • REDPlum coupons – Sent to Postal Customer
  • Vons- Sent to Postal Customer
  • Albertsons- Sent to Postal Customer
  • Ralphs – Sent to Postal Customer
  • Pavilions– Sent to Postal Customer
  • Smart& Final- Sent to Postal Customer
  • LA Private Trainers – Sent to Postal Customer
  • World Wide Windows
  • Hometown buffet- Sent to Postal Customer

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, two days.

Case and Point. I will be switching to a private post office box.

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Sifting Through Junk- Thanks USPS.

Monday, June 1st, 2009

USPS Mail boxes should all come equipped with a headlamp and shovel for all the digging we endure just to get out bills and holiday cards. I’m serious, the junk mail problem is a big problem. It’s a problem for a number of reasons, reasons I’m sure you’ll agree with. USPS Junk Mail

Ever sit in your kitchen shaking all the grocery coupons and pamphlets erratically just to make sure you didn’t lose a piece of mail in the abyss of junk mail?  It’s a regularity for me. Maybe I’m getting more junk and bulk mail than most, but that’s unlikely. I’m sure I’ve accidentally tossed an important letter here and there, and for this reason I’ve decided to become a P.O. Box user. Why has getting our mail from the mailbox regressed to the days of sifting through email inbox spam folders of the 90′s ? And better yet, Why can we not opt out of receiving all the junk?

I stopped by my local USPS store to see if I could fill out a form which would (hopefully) put me on a list of others annoyed with CouponMania, MoneySaver and all the other bulk mail, but to no avail. “You mean I have no option in the matter,” I said to the postman. He looked at me and simply said…”Um…no ma’am.”  Fan-tastic. Cool. Great. Thanks USPS

Yesterday,  when I picked up my mail (and the endless junk mail that accumulated over just 2 days) I noted that it was time for a blog post. Not only irritating, the junk mail problem has become more and more wasteful over time. Aren’t we trying to go “green?”

Like I said. It’s a big problem. Make the switch- get a P.O. Box near your home or work.

Visit http://donotmail.org/ to sign the petition against junk mail!

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Is Facebook Claiming Our Personal Lives, Or Did We Give Them Up?

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Everyone’ s freaking out about the new Terms of Service that Facebook has set into motion. In a matter of days, the Facebook group “People Against the New Terms of Service” has grown to over 42,000 members.I’m not going to pretend it didn’t freak me out a little at first, but with some reassurance and an open mind to the explanations of those more “legal-jargon wise” than myself, I realized they’re just trying to cover their ass. Scared

One group member wrote in and said something profound… or maybe it’s just common sense. “If you care so much about your intellectual properties, STOP UPLOADING THEM TO PUBLIC WEBSITES”.

I have to say, I couldn’t agree more. The same people kicking and screaming are the same ones uploading picture after indecent picture and posting status updates that are debatably legal.

Facebook member Peggy said “This stinks…..many of my photos are of my creations. My jewelry is my living….I dont want to share my photos or ideas”.  My advice is to get a website, host it somewhere other than Facebook and I think you’ll actually make a better living. Copyright your photos. If you don’t want to share your creations, you might want to refrain from posting them on facebook- a network that shares every aspect of your being if you let it.

The media are invoking fear in Facebook users by creating titles such as: “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.” The real issue here is not that they’re claiming our information, but that we are uploading information onto this thing… no big deal…it’s called the World Wide Web and that, my friends, means it’s available to everyone.  So, if this is a problem for you, head into your Privacy Preferences and uncheck the box that declines the publication of your information on the web.

Company legal representative Susan White clarified in a statement today. “We used to have several different documents that outlined what people could and could not do on Facebook, but now we’re consolidating all this information to one central place,” she said.

For those worried about their writing, photography, illustrations or any other kind of creative innovation, this might be of note to you.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt read a public statement  on Monday- “We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. And indeed, Facebook’s terms of service do say that ‘User Content and Applications/Connect Sites’ are exempt from its claims on content ownership.” He continued, “The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc…), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend).”

Be careful what you post, you are your responsibility.

Spring (photo) cleaning anyone?

Ask not what Facebook can do for you, Ask what you can do for your Facebook. What do you think about all this commotion??


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Mia Leigh Taylor- on Our Super Rainy Season.

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Rain over here in Los Angeles simply won’t let up, will it?  Ok so you’re one of those people, the ones that enjoy the rain?  To each his own, but let me tell you this, driving in Los Angeles in a rainstorm is just about as enjoyable as… well, it’s not at all.

As if there isn’t enough traffic in Los Angeles, add unexpected rainfall to the mix and you’ve got everyone honkin’.  I have to admit though, there is something great about the rain.

Things I love about the rain:

  • Lighting the fireplace
  • Having smog-less skies
  • Gettin cozy with a soft blanket on the couch
  • The smell of saturated pavement
  • The sound of rain is kind of soothing

So while the rain puts a “damp”er on outdoor activities it’s nice to have a little change- so long as it doesn’t last much longer!

Like or dislike the rain? Tell me about it here :)

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