A new documentary is out in theaters. It’s called “Objectified” and is all about design. It looks pretty interesting. I can’t wait to see it.

Some photos I took in Golden Gate Park last week.

Last.FM is one of my favorite sites on the internet. Not only does it do a great job of recommending music based on my previous listening history, it also does allows me to type in a tag/genre/phrase and listen to good music found within it.

I often like to play their “New Zealand radio station” and listen to some of the music I heard while gallivanting around the country a number of years ago.

While listening to that station, I stumbled across this band from New Zealand, called The Tutts.

Good old, indie rock.

Another good band from New Zealand (and a CD I even picked up while in the country) is Fat Freddy’s Drop. Definitely some nice, laid back music.

And if we’re talking about New Zealand bands, we can’t forget Flight of the Conchords!

Updated: A lot of people have been stumbling across this post after becoming frustrated with the California EDD. Scroll down to read the comments for some help, and my tip about emailing the EDD.

Back in August, I was laid off from my job as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm here in the San Francisco Bay Area (1, 2). Fortunately, I was able to receive unemployment benefits that lasted roughly 6 months. Unfortunately, there were no permanent jobs to be acquired during that time. I was able to take on some side projects shooting photos for UCSF and running some events for Photojojo.

However, my unemployment finally ran out at the end of February. The Employment Development Department (EDD) let me know that I could go ahead and reapply for benefits online.

And that’s where the trouble began.

Due to a dating problem with the last unemployment check, I received a form that said my benefits were not exhausted and therefore my extension wasn’t granted. What? My last check said my benefits *were* exhausted and I should reapply!

Anyway, you can’t call the EDD because their phone lines are swamped. So I reapplied online and was finally granted an extension after a week. I filled out the standard form they send you to prove you’re looking for work (the same form I had been filling out every week for the previous 6 months).

Then I received a letter in the mail.

“Your previous unemployment form was either incomplete or incorrect. Please fill out this new one.”

Fantastic! No idea what was wrong with it, since it could have been either incomplete *or* incorrect. Carefully looked over the new one and sent that in as well.

Another week goes by and I receive a new letter from the EDD.

“Your previous unemployment form was either incomplete or incorrect. Since your prior form was also incomplete or incorrect, you current benefit claim has been terminated. Please contact the EDD immediately to open a new claim.”

Great! So I call the EDD and listen to their long winded recording that lists every possible thing that could go wrong. Basically, every solution involves reapplying for benefits online.

So I did that. A week and a half ago. Haven’t heard back anything yet! My previous online claims were responded to within about 5 days.

It’s now been 6 weeks without an unemployment check, I cannot talk to anyone at the EDD to find out what’s going on, jobs are impossible to find, and I have about $80 left to my name. What on Earth am I supposed to do?

Update: [Dec 29, 2009] It’s been awhile, but I figured I should update the post with what I ultimately did.

What ended up working for me was directly contacting them through their email form. It surprised me that they even HAD one. But after 3 days, someone responded to me and things were quickly resolved! They mentioned a check was on the way and that my benefits had been extended.

In my email to them, I basically listed my situation and what I had done up until that point. I listed all relevant info I could find: case numbers, date of last check, dates of reapplying for UI benefits, etc.

The extended benefits lasted until August 2009, but by then I had found steady work. I actually received a letter stating that I could apply for a *third* round of benefits, but declined.

Anyway, that might be the best bet at the moment.

I keep joking that I need to keep a dream journal, since I have ridiculously vivid dreams every single night.

Last night, I apparently won a trip to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, in my haste to “pack” for the trip, I didn’t bring very much. Nor did I know that I would be in space for 6 months.

When I finally reached the space station, I realized that I had forgotten my DSLR. I also forgot the charging cable for my iPhone (hey – that means no games of chess or sudoku!).

Oh, and the station apparently had gravity as well. That meant there was no fun to be had floating through doorways and such!

Twitter? That’s totally jumped the shark.

Flutter is where it’s at now!

[Via Laughing Squid]

I’m a huge fan of Paul Krugman and his blog posts and op-ed pieces for the New York Times are required reading for me everyday. And more often than not, he seems to hit the nail on the head in terms of why we should be cautious about the economy.

I’m detecting a trend in commentary that I find slightly ominous. Some of the economic news lately has been slightly better than expected, which was bound to happen at some point (on average, after all, half the news should be better than expected). Mostly this is in the form of things getting worse more slowly, but it wouldn’t be surprising if we see, say, an uptick in industrial production in a few months, as the inventory cycle runs its course.

If so, that doesn’t mean the worst is over. There was a pause in the plunge in early 1931, and many people started to breathe easier. They were wrong.

So far, there’s nothing pointing to a fundamental turnaround this year, or next, or for that matter as far as the eye can see.

[Via Paul Krugman’s Blog on the NY Times]

San Francisco based Current has the best (and most hilarious) summary I’ve seen yet on what Twitter is all about. I often have a hard time trying to explain to friends and family just what exactly Twitter is.

Also – Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was on the Colbert Report on Thursday night as well. Check out the interview!

My flickr account just passed 200,000 views this weekend! Awesome!

As I was browsing through the statistics, I discovered that this was my most popular photo.

This was taken from the balcony of our apartment near downtown San Francisco. It’s an HDR photograph constructed from 9 separate photographs.

Amazing! Where do kids learn things these days? This guy is going to grow up to be a stud.

[Via Katherine]