Adventures in the Colonial 'burg: May 2009

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

All I will say about Prop 8

I am just going to quote what Justice Carlos Moreno wrote in his dissent of the California State Supreme Courts decision:

“Denying gays and lesbians the right to marry, by wrenching minority rights away from judicial protection and subjecting them instead to a majority vote, attacks the very core of the equal protection principle.”

Thank you, majority, for being allowed to tell me how to live.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

What I hate about moving

You know, packing isn't all that fun, but it's not a big deal with moving. I was talking to Corbett last night and realized what I hate most about moving is the return to a generic living space.

I removed all of my wall hangings yesterday, and the place has become bare. (And echo-y in the bedroom, which is really annoying.) I realized how weird it is when you move in and out of a place. I thought of all of the apartments I've moved in and out of. There was the apartment I lived in for three months in Oklahoma, my place in Dallas, three in St. Louis, one in New York and now this one.

That last step out is always strangely sad and exciting at the same time. Well, in New York it was weirder because I wasn't going far: I was just moving two floors up for the rest of the summer at Corbett's before moving to the 'burg. I always look at the apartment and realize that this was "my own place" but really it's generic. And the same really goes for houses, although those generally have more character already in them before you move in. But apartments are usually short-term places for people, and thus designed to be generic.

It's just strange that one moment a place feels like home and the next, it is no different than anything else. It's making the last night I'm sleeping here* a bit sad and strange, and even weirder because I'll be moving into a new place which is identical but with an extra bedroom. That we're going to make "ours."

---
* Okay, I'm sleeping here Friday night as well, if you want to be precise. But Corbett will be here and I probably won't sleep well considering the amount of work we have in store for us Saturday.

Monday, May 25, 2009

A pseudo-busy weekend

This weekend was jam packed with just way too much excitement. First there was the evening of watching Spongebob Squarepants and too much E! with Sonya and Chris on Friday night (yep, we're exciting people), and then a good ol' barbeque on Saturday at Kostas's house. The decision to have it then was made before anyone realized it was Memorial Day weekend, but then again, everyone who went to the BBQ will be working today anyway. Either way, it was a good idea to have it then, the weather was perfect, and is not so now.

Sunday evening I saw Patti Lupone in concert here in Williamsburg (that's right, she came to this piddly town). She started the concert with, "Hello, and welcome to...the Virginia Room!* This is my dream come true, to perform on a platform in the Virginia Room." After much laughter she performed for just over an hour (too short), and the evening ended. She is pretty awesome, I'll say that.

Besides all of that, I've been packing. In two days I fly to NY to get the C-man. Two interesting notes:

A problem with society and teachers today This is interesting and irritating, but I love what the daughter says in the end of it. You should also click on the link in the post labelled "same teacher": For you feminists out there to get your blood boiling :)

CA Supreme Court Decision: Tomorrow, the California Supreme Court will issue its decision regarding the lawsuits against Prop 8. Most likely they'll uphold it but allow all of the already-performed marriages remain valid...10am pacific time everyone!

---
* A room in the basement of the Williamsburg Lodge, best served as a giant banquet hall but a platform was thrown in, with a bunch of tables and voila! Cabaret!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

A little too much hate

It's funny how much attention we are getting in the news nowadays. I mean, it isn't as if the issues of gay rights are new by any means, and obviously I am surrounded by particular media outlets that provide the information I'm interested in. However, it's as if every week there is one thing that excites me and many other things that anger me.

In the marriage arena, many great things have happened. Maine, Vermont, and Iowa all in the last month or so have legalized it (the two former legislatively), which is very exciting. Of course, there's the bittersweet (more bitter now than sweet) issue of New Hampshire. In case you didn't hear, yesterday the legislature voted no on the amended language that requires that anyone affiliated with a given religion has to take part in a gay marriage ceremony. (There were already stipulations that were agreed upon that protected religious organizations, and the new language was added by the governor. While I would rather it get passed than not, there could be issues that say, the entire staff of a city hall would not take part in a civil wedding, forcing the couple to find another place to wed. When that place that rejects you is a church, it's one thing, but it seems odd to allow a municipal employee to not process paperwork because of religious beliefs. Seriously, this is a wedding, it isn't something that is as volatile as abortion.)

But there are other stories that are out there, that are equally upsetting. Right in the wake of Congress adding sexual orientation to the Hate Crimes Bill, we have the state of South Carolina removing any mention of same-sex relationships to their Teen Dating Violence Bill. They don't want to "teach kids about same-sex relationships." I am not even going to comment, I think you know where I stand on that.

The worst of all though, is about this family in Nebraska. After many discussions with their child, who is physically a boy, and with their therapist, they have decided to allow the child to live as a girl, because that is what the child feels. She is eight years old, and quite likely this is a phase, but it could also be real (in fact, the child has asked to be called a girl since she was four, so I doubt it's a phase). Either way, I applaud the parents for being open-minded about something that I am certain they do not understand (let's be honest, I don't understand transgendered people, but that does not mean that they are wrong in any way). The problem of course is the religious "right," who have kicked the child out of Catholic school, because the Chancellor of the school thinks it would not present the right "learning environment" since the child was presented as a boy for the first three years of attendance.

Wait, so learning about tolerance and differences among people is bad? I know, this has always been the case with the "right"-wing nuts, but it angers me so much. The leaders of the pro-hate group Focus on the Family has basically stated that the child is in need of therapy and prayer to fix this "problem." I think the child has exactly what she needs: A loving, wonderful family that is accepting of her needs.

This last fact is what makes me realize that although there are many people out there shouting about the evils of gays, transgenders, and basically anyone who does not conform to their preconceived notion of "normal," there are more important people on our side. The families and friends that support their loved ones, even if it is from a child that let's face it, everyone could just mock and say, "Oh you'll grow out of it, just get over it." Society, however slowly, is moving forward because of people like this.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

No Yo-Yo

It's over. After nearly two years, my yo-yo has died. Now, what I am referring to is my keychain, which, thanks to the people at Jefferson Lab, has attached to it an ID card badge reel. This is designed for one's ID card, so you could clip it to your shirt, and easily pull it out to open doors. I instead keep my JLab badge in my wallet, as I needn't walk around the lab with it all up in everyone's face.

So I instead attached the reel to my keys, making a wonderful toy (or, if you are anyone hanging around with me, it is a god-damned-irritating-distraction-that-dear-god-won't-you-just-stop-playing-with-it-piece-of-s@*#!). But today, the cord on it finally broke under the pressure, and now I have nothing to swing around, allowing me to nearly hit people (or more often myself) in the face with my keys.

RIP.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Dante's bone

We got our shipment of new heartworm medication from 1800PetMeds today, and they always send a dog bone with the order. Now, there was a time when Dante would take this thing and just go to town with it, and gobble it up immediately. Times have changed, and he doesn't eat it at all anymore.

What he does is revert to his old ways of wanting to bury the bone. In the apartment. Now, when he was younger he would place the bone on the carpet in the corner, then try to push the carpet over the bone to cover it, using his nose. This was endless entertainment for me, of course. He's older now and doesn't do that, but he does like to find the perfect hiding spot, which is usually in a blanket (a good spot) or in the corner near the door (not a good spot, and I can clearly see it from here). I like to mess with him by always finding it, thereby leaving him with no choice but to continue looking for a new spot. That's what my Saturday will be today, I think.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Inappropriate joke regarding the name of the company

I'm on hold with Cox Cable, waiting to talk to some tech support person. This is because they have recently changed how to log into their site, and we have to use our Cox email (I don't know what mine is as I have never and will never use it, and when I emailed them to ask, they ignored me), and to register, we must know our "Pin" which is on our bill, but I get e-bills and I cannot log into my account to view the bill.

And every thirty seconds, the crappy hold music is interrupted but an annoying woman apologizing for the delay (and she talks for 45 seconds or so, and it's worse than the crappy hold music because I can ignore the music...her voice is piercing). Plus, each time the end of the music makes me think, "Oh, maybe this time!"

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Worst time to sneeze

I used to think that sneezing while driving was one of the worst things ever, especially because I tend to have a chain of sneezes that happen all in a row. But no. It is far worse to sneeze while swishing mouthwash in your mouth. Two things can happen. You can open up and get mouthwash (and let's be frank, snot) everywhere, or you can hold your mouth shut and make sure it doesn't get out.

And let me tell you, if you do the latter, you will feel like your entire body is exploding. Just a warning.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

A couple of things taken care of

So, I took care of two things that were very important to my way of life.

1) Many years ago I was essentially scammed by some "collection agency," who stated that there was a collection for $101 from Southwestern Bell for calls made from my phone. The calls were made after the number was cancelled, and I had SWBell send me a letter that I faxed the collector, who ignored it, and reported this "delinquency" to the credit bureaus*. It's been sitting there for six years and I have just let it sit there, but finally I contacted the credit bureaux** and got it taken off (with little hassle, I might add), so now it is clear of anything negative. Good for me for finally getting off my lazy ass.

2) More importantly, my fridge light went out last week. I thought to myself, I can live like this for a month, and since I'll be moving to a new place, I can just let it be. But you know, while I live a somewhat meager life, and tend to be exceedingly frugal***, I realized really quickly that I feel like a complete loser with a dark refrigerator. So I shelled out the 99 cents and bought a new bulb.****

---
* Or bureaux, if you want to be a pompous ass.

** What can I say, I'm frequently an ass.

*** Most people would just say "cheap son of a bitch."⁺

**** And no, I fought the urge to save the burnt out bulb and exchange it at the end of the month, so as to save the new bulb in case this traumatic event happens again in the near future.

----
⁺ I feel like swearing a lot in this post.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Waste or not?

Almost everything that I do throughout the day involves a computer. From correspondence with colleagues, friends, and family, to any aspect of my work. I write computer code, I run it on various machines, I type up all of my "pen and paper" calculations so that they are neat and easily readable (and transferable if I need to send them to a collaborator). In fact, from the hours of 8:30am to 10pm, except for maybe lunch, I am in front of my computer, or it is on and ready to notify me when I receive an email.

With many respects, computers aid tremendously in my daily life. My entire field is designed around the fact that we can do calculations that are actually completely impossible without a computer. And we're not talking "would just take a really long time" without a computer. Flat out impossible. As an example, a calculation I recently performed would have taken roughly 84 years on a single desktop computer (well, if it were running Windows, it would take a factor of ten longer). That was a simple calculation, and so doing it by hand would have just been impossible.

So I am very aware of the necessity of these things that have adorned every desk in the free world now. Also, I'm aware of the fact that everyone and their mother has brought up the issue that I'll bring up, but I'll mention it anyway. Do we really waste more time trying to get our computers to work than we should? I say this only because yet again, there are major computer issues happening to me right now that are basically forcing me not to be able to do the very things I needed to do this morning. The sad thing is that I'm going to use this as an excuse to just not work on what I'm supposed to, and I'll just play around with other random things, and still call it "work."

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A blast from the past...

When I was in Dallas, during my senior year of college, I would commute to school every day. It was around 30-45 minutes in the morning and up to an hour in the evenings (without traffic, 20 minutes max). I got to listening to Kiss FM in the mornings, because the morning show amused me. In fact, while I don't remember anything specific, I remember multiple times thinking I was happy to be at a long red light because I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. I imagine if I listened to the old shows again, I would be thinking differently, but I like looking at my past with rose-colored glasses.

However, I may have a chance to relive it, because it turns out that the man who was in charge of the morning show I listened to is coming here to Hampton Roads! He'll be on the Point (94.9) in the morning! Kidd Kraddick is leaving Dallas, and coming here. I'm simulataneously excited and worried. Should I listen to it again? Will it just make me realize how stupid and naive I was back then?

Looking more into it, it looks like it's a national show now, and it's just going to air here...Not sure how I feel about that...

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Maine

So, the Maine house of representatives passed the gay marriage bill today. Tomorrow the house in New Hampshire is supposed to vote on the revised bill that comes from the Senate (it will most likely pass). The two question now is whether or not the governors will veto the bills, sign the bills, or allow them to pass without signing.

Of course, in Maine the oh-so-wrong religious right will get signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot to overturn it, and I'm not sure what will happen in NH. Either way, this is a fantastic day, so I'll not think about the possible negative future...

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Bernay!

I finally called my best friend from high school yesterday, after not talking to her for like, a year or something. She wasn't home but called me back this morning, and we talked for two-and-a-half hours.

This is the friend I've had for the longest time, we've known each other for 18 years, and I think we've been through the most together. We have definitely had moments of joy, hatred, anger, pain, glee, and everything. I know I went through moments wondering if we'd ever be friends again, and other moments wondering how I could ever live without her in my life. I definitely wish we lived closer (she's back in Maine, married with fifteen cats*), but at least we still (try to) keep in touch.

And after about three minutes on the phone it was as if we had never lost contact. This is what I consider a real friendship. And in the last two weeks, it was as if I was being told to call her. I don't believe in a god or in fate or anything, but there were definitely more things than normal that reminded me of my "Bernay" (her name is Bernie, but of course we had to always call her Bernay, where the second syllable was lengthened to an absurd degree).

1.) The song, "Semi-Charmed Life," from Third Eye Blind came on the radio two separate times, and they played the full version, where only the words "Crystal Meth" were editted.

2.) I saw multiple beer trucks, VW bugs, and padiddles on the streets, which isn't unusual, but I also saw a Gold Saturn. This means nothing to most people, but many of our car games involved the first sighting of all these things.

3.) I discussed wrapping paper (or rather, not using it at all, after being given the gift of a Snuggie from Sonya and Chris...that's right, I'll never be cold again and I can still answer the phone!), and while I forgot to tell the story, I was reminded of how I used to wrap all of Bernie's gifts in many layers of contact paper.

Okay, so that's it, and most of those things are just normal things that happen all the time, but obviously it was relevant for me, as I was feeling guilty for not calling her in so long.

---
* Married to a man, and they have fifteen cats...she's not married to fifteen cats.