Some buildings are so famous they’re known around the world. The Empire State Building is so famous people can recognize it by its silhouette. The Twin Towers were a New York symbol until they were destroyed. The Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, Taipei 101 are all world class icons. They may bring different feelings to mind, but no doubt they stir some kind of feelings within you.

Today on my way home from work I discovered a new building as joined their ranks. If a janitorial services company uses the Hearst Magazine Tower as a symbol of professional cleanliness, you know it has hit the big time. Now it belongs to the ages.

Oh and if your office needs a janitor, these guys are pretty good. I have no complaints about their work.

Maybe you caught this headline. Rumors were brewing that McCain would announce his VP pick during Obama’s trip overseas. It’s an obvious way to steal his thunder and get some badly needed attention for McCain. As it turns out Bob Novak, the “reporter” who spread this story around, now thinks McCain’s campaign used him as a dupe. McCain never seriously planned to make a VP announcement. The rumor alone was the story that was supposed to distract from Obama’s trip.

I don’t care about any of this. Since when do people think everything in politics is out in the open? The story is important because it shows how neglected and unimportant McCain’s campaign is. A month ago McCain went on a foreign tour and all I heard from cable news pundits is, ‘What the hell is he doing over there?’ Now Obama takes a trip overseas and the whole world stops for him. News anchors actually left their desks to follow.

I wonder if McCain knows how irrelevant he’s become. Well I can think of one way to rescue his campaign from oblivion. He should pick his VP early and he should pick Sarah Palin. I know I’m going back on what I said earlier this year, but the situation has changed. I never imagined McCain would be so wooden and confused. He was great on the campaign trail in 2000. Somewhere between then and now he forgot how to relax and speak to people.

I originally rejected Palin because of her lack of political experience. She’s only been elected to one term as governor and she hasn’t even finished it yet, but Obama’s success shows experience isn’t a requirement.

Choosing a woman for VP is an excellent way to give the McCain campaign a jolt. It will do wonders to minimize the appearance that the Republicans are only for old white men. Having old, white McCain campaign against Obama is tough enough. With a woman on the ticket, Republicans can at least give the appearance of being an inclusive party. Palin might also help steal away some Hillary supporters. She’s a 43 year old woman with kids. She could generate so much sympathy from people who think Hillary got shafted because she’s a woman. That’s also the reason I want McCain to announce Palin as VP early, as in, before the convention. I want to get her out on the campaign trail early. She needs time to work the crowds of moderates and jilted Clintonistas.

There are some negatives to Palin, from a conservative standpoint. For one she did try smoking weed. She admits to it and said she didn’t like the experience. That could bother staunch conservatives, but hey if these people could overlook Bush’s cocaine use they should grow up and look past some youthful smoking. Also, she’s not very anti-gay. She opposes gay marriage, but other than that I have never found any info about her opposing any gay rights issues. However Palin is an NRA member and is pro-life, so conservatives should soothe themselves with those facts.

One last thing. If McCain actually manages to win this election, I LOVE the idea that in 2012 or 2016 we could see a presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. Hell, even if he loses I hope I get to vote for President Palin.

I whiled away my Saturday afternoon with a very new experience. I visited my first auction. About a week ago I saw a flier in the mail announcing an IRS seized property auction. I’ve seen similar announcements but I always dismissed them because they were inconvenient to attend. This time though the auction was being held at a hotel that was a mere five minute drive, so I could hardly resist. I kept tight lipped about it this week because, frankly, I was worried I would jinx it. What if I overslept? What if some work emergency came up and I couldn’t go? I was way too excited to risk missing this.

Fortunately everything was fine today. I arrived with friends at about noon, in time for the pre-auction preview. I had never been inside this hotel, but I believe it underwent a renovation about three years ago. It’s across the street from a Wendy’s I visit every so often. The hotel management must not have renovated the meeting rooms because the whole area looked very tired. It wasn’t filthy or dingy. Rather, the materials simply showed their age. The popcorn ceiling had some stains. The paint looked faded. The halls were very dim. ‘Shabby’ conveys it all. But who cares! I wasn’t there for the amenities. I wanted to see some bargains!

I wasn’t totally sure what sort of merchandise to expect at auction. The ad was clearly geared towards jewelry and watches, but it did picture other items like electronics. I guess I expected a mix; Maybe a handful of electronics and miscellaneous items, but mostly jewelry and watches. I didn’t seriously expect to find the drug boat of my dreams. I arrived to find the auction was almost entirely about jewelry. The handful of watches they had were all Rolexes, and only half were men’s.

The items were displayed in the standard glass display cabinets you see in any department store. They were chockfull of rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and the few Rolexes they had. For an hour we circled tables, looking over the items and checking their descriptions in our auction book (really just a stapled printout). The vast majority of items were so gaudy. The most hideous item was a ring made of different colored sapphires that looked like a rainbow version of the Cadillac crest. It had to be 2 inches across at a minimum. I can’t believe someone would wear that.

The items chosen for auction actually depended on people showing interest. The auction company didn’t bring every single item up to the podium. During the preview, you had to request items be brought up. A staffer would affix a green sticker to items people weren’t interested in. After the preview, those items were brought up.

Most of the people there looked as shabby as the hotel. Like the Cadillac ring, there was one couple that really stood out. To start with, they were elderly. I feel very sure the man was German. Something about his face told me so. He was short at around 5’6″ with a potbelly and gray hair. He wore a stained t-shirt that was a size too small, and the sleeves looked like those on a football jersey. He also worse some nylon athletic shorts that did a poor job of hiding his bright blue underwear. His wife was in a similar disheveled state but instead of looking at her clothes, I spent most of my time trying to figure out if she was Asian. I still don’t know. Clearly, as a friend whispered to me, these were trailer park people. No one else really stood out as much as these people. Sitting in front of me there was a middle aged couple. I suspect the woman was a bit of a golddigger. The man, who I suspect was from Eastern Europe, said nothing that I ever heard. The woman though sounded rather aggressive when she spoke to him. She also sounded pretty demanding when I stood near her at the preview tables.

The auction itself started out fine. The auctioneer, Julian, was a funny guy. He told some good stories and kept everyone very entertained. This was at the beginning when he was auctioning the loose gemstones. Then we got on to the set piece jewelry. Things went downhill there. He started off with the Rolex watches. I never realized how ugly Rolexes are. The most hideous one at the preview was a gold watch with a red face. By the way, having diamonds in the wrist band is tacky. Also at the preview I noticed a black guy, probably in his 20s, admiring a different Rolex. I’m pretty sure he put one into the auction. I guess he was as surprised as me to find that the minimum bid for a men’s Rolex was $14,000. I suppose when you consider a new Rolex can be $50,000 or more, you can argue it’s a bargain, but i was expecting a bargain under $10,000. I remember not too long ago I watched an episode of the Suze Orman show where one guy called in asking if he could afford a $5000 Rolex. What does a $5000 Rolex look like?

I guess that was the first sign this crowd was not full of big spenders. One Rolex didn’t sell. Then a second didn’t sell. When the third one up for bidding elicited no response from the crowd, the auctioneer put three together in the auction and said the winner would have their choice of them. Still no response. This seemed to leave the auctioneer slightly shaken. He said this was the first auction he’s held where he hasn’t sold at least one Rolex. If that’s true, I’m pretty damn surprised. Every auction actually has one person willing to spend over $10,000 on a watch?

I think another two pieces went by without a bidder when Julian brought out a really exquisite piece. It was a diamond and ruby tennis bracelet. It was really beautiful jewelry. The diamonds and rubies sparkled so brightly. I don’t care much for rubies but I was really taken with this. Well with a starting price of $30,000 of course no one bid. Soon after, three necklace/bracelet sets of emerald, ruby and sapphire were brought out. Julian combined these into a single auction, lowered the start bid to $8000 and still got no response from the crowd. His annoyance was pretty clear. No one bid on these sets, so he takes out the sapphire set to show us “how to break down jewelry”. As he said, the necklace is long so he could easily remove a link containing one sapphire and turn the stone into a ring. How much would you pay for a sapphire ring? $1000 would be cheap, while the bracelet alone had eight stones. Eight stones could make eight rings which should cost $8000. That would make the necklace practically free. Well no one bought that argument or a jewelry set.

It was painfully obvious no one was buying today, so Julian decided to cut to the chase and have people call out the item numbers they were really interested in. Also, that trailer park couple had left and he said they must have put stickers on half the stuff they had up for auction. I guess he was hoping the silence was a problem of demand. People weren’t interested in what was being offered. As it turns out it was a problem of sticker shock. I guess no one in the crowd expected jewelry at these prices. I sure didn’t. Even the item numbers called out didn’t sell. One really nice diamond ring came up for $20,000. Someone shouted out $5000, but of course Julian wouldn’t take that.

Finally the one item my friend was waiting for came up. This was a “Cartier-style” (whatever that means) ring with diamonds, amethyst and aquamarine. The diamonds were collectively only a half carat so we were hoping this would be a relatively cheap ring. Our max bid would have been $500, but the item started at $1500. No one bid and we left after that.

I know it sounds like a disappointing day, but it wasn’t. It was tremendous fun! Everything you hear about the auction atmosphere is true. It’s exciting and thrilling. Even today when no one was buying, you could still sit there and talk about how no one was buying. I had no intention of bidding on anything but it was still a great experience. I will definitely be on the lookout for more auctions coming to this area. It’s a fantastic way to spend a day!

I have been very absent from this blog, and the reason is simple. I’ve started working a normal 9 to 5 shift at work. In the past I would do my writing around 11 pm or later. Now, I’m getting ready for bed at that time. I knew the shift change would cause disruption but I thought it would be over with by now.

Although the new hours are killing this blog, working normal hours isn’t all bad. Everyone at the office has suddenly become much friendlier to me. The change was like flipping a light switch. People chat with me in the kitchen now. The receptionist, who I never spoke to, is completely friendly now. She even yelled “boo!” at me in the hallway as I stepped out from the doorway. I never had this sort of playful banter before.

I am finally getting a taste of the rush hour traffic everyone complains about. I’ve been hitting 101 North at around 8 am, and I must say it’s not nearly as bad as I expected. I imagined it would be an LIE-like parking lot. On most days you can still cruise north averaging 45 mph or so. I have been ducking out of work early for two weeks, but today I actually experienced the evening rush hour. It’s slower for sure, but I still got home in a half hour. I did notice the carpool lane was full though. The Bay Area could really use more highways.

So who knows where this will go. I don’t really feel like writing much now, but maybe I’ll change my mind in August. It’s a shame though. I have a huge list of material I wanted to comment on. I guess it will all go to waste.

Watch this ad! Watch this ad! Watch this ad! I can’t believe this made it on TV.