Playing Ketchup

Well, okay. It’s been a while. And I haven’t written here out of purely laziness. But I’m back, so let’s ketchup.

My new Sony VAIO (previous entry) is just great! I love it. It’s so much faster than the old, dead Gateway that it’s like swimming through water instead of mud. And it can do a lot of things that the old Gateway just couldn’t, like easily digitize video without dropping frames.

On the other hand, I ordered the VAIO with Adobe Premiere editing software, and I have to say, so far I’m not too impressed. I thought it would be much more competitive with Apple’s Final Cut Pro feature-wise, but it’s well behind. I guess Adobe doesn’t figure they have too much to worry about, since obviously Apple will never write a version of FCP for Windows, and Avid is pretty much a Mac creature as well. But I’m pretty shocked that the “best” editing software for Windows is so lame (no grouping clips, nesting requires a total re-render, timeline inserts require a lengthy wait as the playlist is rewritten from scratch, etc. etc.)

Also following up on the previous entry: The talent director at MSNBC told me no final decision has been made about my employment there. But she did mention, almost in passing, that they have filled some of their segment producer spots, which leaves me less than hopeful. And another job interview I had around the same time — which went well — is on indefinite hold as well. But it’s all good. In my experience, these things have a way of working out for the best.

To wit: a broadcasting buddy of mine has a meeting with the guys at Viacom (Showtime/MTV/CBS/etc.) who are heading up that megacorp’s possible entry into the gay cable network derby. Unclear whether that could lead to anything for my friend, and therefore possibly for me, but I must say: helping to run the news and documentary unit at Viacom’s gay cable net would be my absolute dream job. I can think of nothing for which I would be better suited, nor which I would love more. But no use getting ahead of myself.

Meanwhile, as I wait for the job hunting mills to turn, I’ve run out of time to get insurance: my state-funded drug coverage runs out in a month or so. And I finally have enough money in the bank, so I bet the bullet and applied for the group health insurance I mentioned way back in June. Now we’ll see if it goes through, and I don’t wind up breaking the whole thing for everybody.

More ketchup: a couple of weeks ago I finally saw my mom and step-dad. They flew out to Raleigh, NC, where Bob has much family, where I went down for a big family luncheon get-together. It was so nice; I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to come back to work. The original plan was that Mom and Bob would just stay in North Carolina for a few weeks, but they’ve decided instead to stay there indefinitely, which I think is a very wise choice.

And last, but not least: I’ve decided to push ahead with plans to locate my birth parents, if possible. After waiting for many, many months, the county agency that handled my adoption finally sent me the updated ‘non-identifying’ information I requested. It was very interesting, and contained lots of stuff I didn’t know, or didn’t know for sure (e.g., I’m definitely half-Cuban. My father was born there, but grew up from the age of 9 in NYC. He split for Paris before I was born), and lots of information that could be used to confirm the identity of a suspected birth parent. But the searcher who is helping me said it definitely wasn’t enough to find my mother without further information.

However, the good news was that the searcher had a good idea for getting said information. Evidently, Alameda County, CA, where my adoption was finalized, is what’s known as an “open county.” This means that there’s a loophole whereby the adoptive parents can get copies of the final adoption decree, which will contain the birth parents’ names. Stupid loophole, but that’s the way it is. So with some trepidation, when I was down in Raleigh, I asked my Mom if she would mind filing the request, and — bless her — she agreed. The request is on its way.