Sigh...

I call this shot "Doo Doo Doo Lookin' Out My Window." This was taken the day before yesterday from my living room and its almost full wall of window. Since then the leaves have been falling like rain and I can totally see the House of Women In Business Suits Who Drive Luxury Cars next door -- barely visible in this shot, the white on the lower left.

I miss J-Land. I'm taking my stance, but I wish it had never come down to this. I feel I must stand up for my principles and I honestly like a lot of stuff about Blogger productwise so much better. I've felt violated by AOL before and I feel that way again. They don't care about paying members. It's sad that a company can care so little about the folks who have supported it over the years. I don't believe when they sell ad space that they promise any certain areas and ads go wherever. The wherever doesn't need to include personal blogs of paying AOL Members. I link my AOL non-blog page using the members.aol.com format instead of the AOL Hometown addressing, thus sparing my Jackie's Stuff page from banner ads. They could do that sort of thing for Journals. Will AOL listen? They rarely do. I guess we'll see.

In other Gripes:
1. Do NOT put your feet on the train seats, idiots! I have to sit there! Have you NO common sense? (Inspired by a person trying to be oh-so-cool with her IPod and Converse sneakers all over the train seat the other day.)
2. Another train Gripe -- Dang! If you want to talk to each other, sit together! Stop shouting across the aisle to each other! I don't want to hear you!
3. An Apartment Building Gripe -- Sheesh! The elevator has been on the blink on and off for three days! What's its attraction to the basement? Some of us have bad knees! Don't fix it so it works a few hours, just fix it!

Other Stuff:
I watched the NBC 'Dateline' show about the death of John Lennon this past Friday night. It's hard to believe it's been 25 years, or will be next month. In a way, I have a tie to that night. I was downsized by my company along with the guy who took the famous shot of John signing Mark David Chapman's album. Yep, the photographer who took that photo and I were downsized and I haven't seen him since. He took the severance package and left the company; I was offered another position and a raise. That was about 10 years ago -- I had just been promoted and relocated to New Jersey when the ax fell. Being a Stranger in a Strange Land but with a company I've been with pretty much since 1977, I took the position offered and I still work for them... still in NJ. (Whatever!) But I have no clue where Paul Goresh, the photographer, is these days. I hope life is being good to him. They mentioned the shot and showed it on 'Dateline' but didn't mention his name, nor interview him. He actually talked quite a bit to Chapman that evening. Paul was a non-dangerous Lennon spotter and shooter (camera!) those days. I've photographed the Dakota building myself, but never people who live there. It's a very intriguing building. 25 years post-Lennon. Life goes by way too fast...