Summer Solstice

Happy first day of summer (technically)!  And no, I am not cool enough to actually know that myself, one of my co-workers reminded me :)  It's been a long time since I have written, and I can't believe we are already through most of June - time flies I guess.

Thanks to all of you who prayed for my sister....God works wonders when we least expect it!  She isn't with her boyfriend anymore and has a place of her own.  The most awesome thing is the I and my parents were in town (Louisville) when a lot of this was happening.  Mom actually helped her look for a place when they went to Cincy. 

Life has been pretty good, just busy.  For some reason, I still have the second job (they haven't decided to get rid of me yet).  And that has helped for some car fixes I wasn't expecting....Other than that, I have been hanging out with my Biblestudy group a lot - this weekend we are going to Disneyland!

Last Friday, I had adventures in dog sitting....I was dog sitting three dogs, and when I tried to take one of them for a walk, I have didn't have the chain on all the way, and he had a really nice run around the yard (thankfully it was fenced in all the way, otherwise I would have never caught up to him.)  Then I was going to take one of the other dogs for a walk, and this same dog got jealous and jumped the fence around my friends place - it was a six foot fence, which is really hard for a medium sized dog.....Anyways, lunch time is up and I probably ought to go...hope everything is good in Cincy!

True actual Update

My last couple of updates have been realitevely short...so I wanted to take some time to let you know how things in Cali were going.

First. Job - it's actually been going pretty well.  My role recently (just recently, like yesterday) changed, and I am going to be doing more analysis work.  It's more of what I am good at, but hopefully I will still be learning a lot.  Not going to delve deeply into this one, as I am on my lunch hour.

Second.  Relationships - I think I wrote on this once, but I have found an awesome group of people to hang out with on Thursdays.  They are my biblestudy group, and all of them are a lot of fun.  Most of the group is in Grad school to early 30's age-wise.  I have recently been hanging out with them besides thursdays too. Friday before last I went to one of the girl's Improv Group shows in Hollywood, and run out at the Saddle Ranch (an interesting kundrum - a Country Western themed bar that plays more than just Country Western music).  The only thing is that I haven't been swing dancing since Frank came down - the two best nights to go are Friday and Sunday (and I have been too tired most Sundays).  Church has been going really well too - the pastor is really awesome.

The only thing is I feel like am missing out on other relationships sometimes.  Last week I really wished I was in Cincinnati.  The one reason I didn't want to move from Cincinnati area happened last week, and I felt horrible that I wasn't there.  And last week I missed hearing about my roomate's bad day because I was out the door to something else. 

Third. Goals - I really need to get this one figured out.  Although I am not planning to live here forever, I would like to figure out what path I need to be on a little later in life.  And my short end goal is to experience more of LA (and Southern California) this year, ie go to more concerts and museums.  I am going to the Southern California Renaisance Fair this weekend, and hopefully will take trips to San Diego and Northern California this summer  (details still need to be worked out on the trips).  But I want to spend more time at the beach this year than last and I have found a group of people with this similiar interest.  And possibly Disneyland this month or next as well!!

Fourth. Challenge to you - If you have read to the end of this and finished my ramblings from the workplace (they could have gone on further if I had more time), then you are a wonderful friend!  You really should know that!  If this sounds to cheesy to you, then please don't do this.  Do you remember all the Warm Fuzzy's we left for each other in the BSU in college?  How if we were having a bad day, we would have a note froma  friend sitting there and it would cheer us up a little bit?  I was wondering if you could (hand) write a little note to my sister, Karin, and send it to me.  Just something to let her know that you are thinking of her, and leave your phone # or e-mail if you want.   I think she could use a reminder that she has friends as wonderful as you!  If you would like to do this, could you please send them to me by May 18 (because I will see Karin the next weekend when I go to Louisville to visit my grandparents). 

My address:

Kristi Gerlach
133 N. Kenwood
Burbank, CA 91505

The Death of Internet Radio???

Hey guys....I wanted to post about something that sort of directly affects my work.  Normally I probably would not do this but I also find this thought totally insane. 

We have so many avenues to find new music nowadays.  You can listen to the radio, serach for artists on I-tunes, or search the web for websites involving music.  I don't know how many of you enjoy streaming online while at the 8-5 job, but it is something that 72 million people in the US enjoy.  And it's better than listening to the regular radio because there are so many more choices of what types of music.  Like I could go find a ska, christian rock, or 50's channel on Live 365 (www.live365.com) or design my own station on Pandora (www.pandora.com)  - I actually just found out about that one a couple weeks ago.  By the way, this also includes NPR (National Public Radio)!

But here's the thing - the Copyright Royalty Board wants to start charging the Internet broadcasters (most of whom are barely alive with the funds they have coming in) based on the Average Total Listening Hours for the station.  Many of these stations have thousands of people listening and won't be able to afford the charges they will have to owe.  These are small independent stations that don't have a lot of advertising on their stations, and depend on donations from listeners to stay alive.  The larger companies who own both terrestrial (regular AM/FM) and internet stations stations haven't said a word, because they will still be able to have their internet stations.  And the other thing is there is no way to download the music from the websites, so why are they charging them????  This is basically idea is basically a way for terrestrial radio (who has seen a decline of listerners lately) to shut down internet radio which has been increasing its audience each year..... 

A lot of the stations have tried to appeal, but to no avail.  See the article below for more info.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070416-internet-radio-dealt-severe-blow-as-copyright-board-rejects-appeal.html

Would you like to help try to save Internet Radio?  The last resort for the stations is to make an appeal to Congress who will hopefully decide something before the fees go into affect on May 15th.  Follow this link to fill out a simple form that will submit an e-mail to your local Congressman or woman.  

http://www.savenetradio.org/latest_news/index.html

I will write more about life in general later, but wanted to let you guys know of a rather large issue in case you did not.

Updates

Okay, okay....I am so bad about updating this...so I am trying the lunch hour today.  If this works maybe I will start doing it weekly, who knows?

So, I celebrated Easter in the most non-traditional way I have so far.  I went to a ship called the Queen Mary, and had brunch in the Grand Ballroom.  For those of you who don't know (because I sure didn't before I went there), it is a ship built during the 1930's and was supposed to be a sister ship (I guess that means built similiarly) to the Titantic.  It was a fairly good brunch, but we walked around the ship after brunch, and that was so cool.  It was all art deco, and has a ton of history.  It also has at least 4 definitive ghost stories.  One of them was that during WWII, it cut another ship in half, and sometimes you can hear the other ship's sailors screaming from the front of the ship.  I did a stupid thing though, and didn't wear shoes to walk around the ship in. (Mental Note:  Don't wear heels when going to a brunch on a ship that has 8 stories.)  So I am definitely going back again sometime this year.

I also went swing dancing recently and saw my German friend Frank who was visiting from San Francisco which was cool.

The biggest update I have is about my sister.  Thank you guys for all your prayers about her!!!  She is supposed to close on the house in Kentucky at the end of the month (Brad Treas has been helping her sell it).  Then she is planning on getting an apartment on her own.  And I get to see her and almost all the rest of my family when I go to Louisville next month!

Talk to you all later!  Hope you have a good week!

Update