Attention everyone! The layout has now changed :) The “Add comments” links are now below the title for that post; they’re no longer at the end of the entry.

Snorting Ashes?????

Most people don’t know this, but the “Name” and “E-mail address” fields of a blog comment operate as a sort of “login” for that person (this is one of the reasons your e-mail address is never visible to anyone other than the blog owner). The first time you type all of that in, you usually need approval from the blog owner, but if you continue using that same name and e-mail address from that point on after approval, they go straight through and bypass the SPAM filter.

I can’t stand Yahoo or their stupid name but I will see what I can do to improve my email address.

By the way my comments are probably showing up as spam because I’m using a proxy email address. In my business I need several temporary email accounts.

JAT: Thanks! I’ve been on GDS before, just haven’t posted the other video here…or maybe I did, I don’t remember. But the CBS 13/CW31 crew are awesome.

Hope you had fun being all helpful today. Good job. :)

And nope, I don’t have a watch tan-line. I wear a lot of long-sleeved shirts around this time of the year, so my arms are well-covered.

JAT: Thanks. My dentist is brutal!

I can’t stand watches… But I like some styles from Fossil. :D

I want a TiVo too!

I still have that text message in my phone. It reads: “HEY”.

And yeah, I totally wanna go to the local one! But I know you gotta take Lindsay if she can get the day off.

So, today, Jayn qualified some girl for the Australia trip.. Said something like, Julia just may be the one to go to Australia! So I texted her and said.. No way! I am winning! Tee heeeee! And SHE said:

LOL I think we’ll end up with about 30 qualifiers. Pretty good odds for ya!! :) Have a great day, and thanks for listening! Jayn

30! YESSSS!! I thought it was gonna be like 50-60.. I’m SO gonna win! LOL

P.S. I can only take you to the local concert if my GF doesn’t want to go. :)

Dr. Mike: I tried doing a force reload. The issue was on behalf of WordPress, not my computer. I don’t have my browser cache anything, so it wasn’t that. But WordPress fixed the issue and now the site is looking proper again.

JAT: The service I’m using to host the station, Live 365, pays the royalties to the three major royalty collectors (BMG, ASCAP and one other). That’s why I have to pay for both bandwidth and royalties in my monthly service charge—the more server space and bandwidth I want, the more royalties they have to pay, which means the more I get charged. It’s expensive to maintain this station, but it’s worth it.

Debra: They do give us a list of what they call “sidebar widgets” to choose from, but they don’t tell us the plug-in name. I guess they figure we’re r-tarded and can’t figure out how to use the WordPress interface.

Checking that link now. Thanks. :)

Congrats on the instant success of your new radio station as well! Now when I have time to sit and not loading any pages, I’ll try streaming it. :P

Hope this helps,
-drmike

Mark: Thanks! It’s something I’ve wanted to do for the past three years, but haven’t been able to launch it off the ground. I hope you enjoy the musical selection.

JAT: To start up your own station, you have to put in a ridiculous amount of effort and pay a ridiculous amount of money. Live365 advertises their rates as being $9.95 monthly, but that’s if you buy it annually. Otherwise, it’s an arm and a leg. Just to have the station running for two months cost me about $40, and then even more fees for storage space, URL stuff and more. That’s why there’s a running commercial on my station by me asking for donations when possible, under the tagline, “Stream 24 might be free to listen to, but it’s not free to operate.” And then after charging me all that, they have the nerve to put ads on there! Oh well, it’s still a kick-ass station, and something I’m really excited about.

Moderrn technology is a wonderful thing: we can now fail to communicate instantly! There’s so many nuances which get lost in writing to each other, rather than speaking. However, the care in choosing words isn’t what it was in days of snail mail, when the passage of time between sending and receiving was a given. We’re more likely to write as we talk, but all sorts of things – tone of voice, body language, facial expressions – get lost. I do know that some discussions I and another fellow have had both personally and on the ‘nethave looked harsh and argumentative on message boards, where they were entirely agreeable in the flesh.

Maybe that applies here. I don’t know. I’m asking.

Kelsey did touch on a point I raised in my first comment. There is an important difference between plain dislike, amounting to hate, and a conscientious belief that somebody may be acting in ways which are not good. This, of clurse, is summarized by the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin.” It’s a pharse which I try to avoid, although it’s actually a very sound principle. I avoid it because it becomes a cant phrase we fall into the trap of using to describe what we ought to do, rather than what we do and live. People who are actually living that way rarely have to roclaim the fact: their lives and their way of treating others speak for them.

St. Francis of Assissi once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words only if you really must.”

I share Kelsey’s views on, for example, abortion. A century hence, if humanity’s still around, I imagine people will look at us in the same way we look at Americans on the matter of slavery a century and a haldf ago. However, if I’m going to talk about it, I would start by saying a lady who is very near and very dear to me had one, and it’s something we talked about at great length, in terms of the real human feelings involved by people in that boat. Clearly, I think people make bad choices, but I still have to be aware that I have to respect themand accept them as they are, and not as I would wish them to be. I think it’s the only way that I could expect respect or acceptance from others. “Charity”, St. Paul once wrote, “is the bond of perfection.” St. Paul, of course, would admit to you that he could get pretty excited, and not always able to live up to that standard – I think it would be fair to think that he would have been one of the least favourite dinner guests in the Mediterranean (he did rather tend to go on, and on, and on – even more than me!). But he meant it.

In a more worldly context, I have found much political wisdom in one of President Lincoln’s speeches. I’ll quote a small part of it:

“…it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his own business….If you would win a man to your cause, FIRST convince him that you are his sincere friend….Assume to dictate to his judgemnt, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will rereat within himself…you shall no more be able to pierce him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw.” (Speech to the Washington Temperance Society, February 22, 1842).

Expressions of displeasure come more easily and naturally to all of us. It’s hard work to prevent a disagreement from becoming disagreeable, or to prevent it from declining into name-calling. But we can do better than that, and we all do ourselves a favour by so doing.

I don’t hate. I have concern for this country.

In addition, you said you have the right to protest loudly and that we should “deal with it”. You’re right, we should deal with it—and I choose to deal with it by exposing the opinions that are fueled by hate. That’s my way of dealing with a problem that I feel is present in our country: Not the threat of homosexual adoption, but the pandemic of hate that could be stopped.

I am truly bothered by people saying that I “hate” homosexuals. My best friend is gay, and I love all of God’s children. I only have disdain for the act of homosexuality, not for the homosexuals themselves.

I sincerely believe that homosexuality is bad for this country, but it’s not the ONLY bad influence on our society. People seem to think that I obsess over homosexuality, saying “there are bigger issues out there”. I acknowledge that, and I am an activist on many other issues as well. For example, I am actively opposed to abortion, divorce, adultery, pornography, abuse, drugs, and alcohol.

I have the right to vocally protest whatever I see fit to protest, and I do so — loudly. =) So deal with it, and don’t call me a bigot. Thank you!

A heart would have four valves, though.

Your writing skills have gotten extremely incredible! You were always an adept writer, but . . . WOW! Keep it up! You make many sound arguments against the bigotry and hatred that too many people show against gays and lesbians, and you present them very well. Your site is also very nice, too! GREAT job! :-)

(Note: The last name was taken out by the author out of privacy concerns)

JAT, your comment was initially marked as SPAM, which is why it wasn’t made available on the blog immediately. I really apologize for this, and I thank you so much for opening up to the readers of this blog on an issue that is personal and close to your heart. I hope that one day, our society can shift a little so that your father can come out with ease and be the person he has hidden all these years.

I haven’t been part of the other discussion, but as I understand it, the original issue is adoption of children. How does this come to happen?

Well, there’s many ways, aren’t there? To tkae one example, parents die. You may have a young, single mother whois well aware that she can’t possibly look after a child, but is alos opposed to abortion. There are the cases where the alleged “family” were extreme threats to the life and security of the child. Of these alternatives (there’s others), the third is the only one where, from Gregg’s point of view, governments are interfereing in others’ lies. When we’re speaking of adoptions, we are dealing with a situation where the family is not there. Something else has to take its place, and adoption is the closest replication to biological family there is.

The idea that “family” means the nuclear family, the mother, father and children, is really a post-World war 2 idea. In fact the proportion of “traditional” families in that sense of the word among society was pretty much what it was in 2000 as it was in 100. The circumstances have changed a great deal, and so have the causes, but the end rtesult is the same.

What we do NOT have are the extended family arrangements of old, or the intimate ciommunity arrangements which did apply circa 100. The more normal porcess of “adoption” would have bene the placing of children with other relatives, whether grandparents, uncles and aunts, or cousins. And you would not be surprised if the result was being placed with a couple of maiden sisters, or a couple of bachelor unlces. Sounds like a same-sex couple of some form, does it not?

Incidentally, that does raise an issue where the opponents of same-sex marriage do ahve a point, although once it’s recognized, it’s a fairly easy one to get around. It is entirely true that childtre do grow up best with both a male and fermale role model in their lives. The maiden or widowed aunts or uncles would have been well aware of it. So is any single parent. One does have to bring some role model who isn’t part of the family – usually a relative or neighbour or friend, but there is a real need for “Big Brothers and Sisters” or “Uncles-at-large”. Unfortunately, I’;ve had too much personal expereince of this reality not to be aware of it.

That excursion aside, in 1900, villages did raise children when knship couldn’t manage it. That was a standrd situation in the rural communities of old, and the kind of city neighbourhood Jane Jacobs described in her books in city life.

Both are community responses, and government’s role did not come imto play, unless there were good reasons why the “adoption” had to be legally recognized.

So, why has governent’s role changed? because society has changed. People are much better able to move around: you aren’t tied down to one place or community all your life. Extended family relatinships are difficult to maintain, and the sense of community can be very much lacking. In places where you see half the people move in a single year, any community relationship is going to be difficult to build or maintain. This does not mean that the communitites have lost their values: it does mean that public agencies have to assume much of the role which communities or extended families used to carry out.

Werepeople perfect, I suppose I’d be a “moral force” anarchist. if we were perfect, or at least in the primal innocence we were supposed to have in the Garden of Eden, there would be no need for government as we know it, since all would know exactly how to balance rights and responsibilities, how to live according to one’s lights without interfering in the way of others, and so on. But that’s not the human condition (I don’t subscribe to the view of human depravity, either – I think there’s a lot about us which makes us redeemable). We’re a long way short of perfection, and it shows.The most die-hard libertarian will admit the need for police and armies, if only to protect poroperty. To my observation, the sort of society they imagine, although admirable in many respects, would require very much larger numbers of police, and much larger armed forces than we have now to get the same result.

I should perhaps mention that in religious terms, I’m a catholic, and I do acvcept the teachings of my church, including those on homosexualioty. What I do know is that others have other beliefs, which they are living to the best they can do, that people do not choose their sexual orientation (by the way, I laregly agree with Gregg’s comments there, but not entriely) , and that the sexual drive is a very powerful factor in life – stronger for some than others. In these things

Homosexual people can have children of their own. So it completely confuses me when other people want to stop them from adopting unwanted children. I am sure that not all children up for adoption come from Heterosexual parents.

I don’t think that Gay people are doing enough to inform the public about homosexuality. Maybe there should be special centers where prominent Gay people can hold seminars and educate the public. There are many people who still think that pedophilia is a Homosexual thing. They could not be more wrong.

I’m going to share something with you Mathew that I have not done so with anyone else. Maybe one day I will do a post on it. I am adopted that you know by having read my blog. My Father that is the one who adopted me is Gay. He has been in the closet all his life. My mother totally dominates him and he is a very gentle man. I couldn’t love him more. When I was growing up he did everything a straight father does. He took me to ball games; he enrolled me in sports and so on. I don’t feel that I have suffered by having a Gay father on the contrary. I think I have benefited.

I am just sad that my father never found the courage to leave my mother and pursue what comes natural to him.

I don’t know how to do the link back to a post thing. But in my blog I wrote a post about crazy parents. I talk a little about them there, although I don’t reveal my father’s sexual preference. Read it if you find the time.

Regardless of your view on homosexuality (something I personally don’t believe exists, more on this later), the government is not the institution I want to see create change in the moral fibers and tolerance levels of this country. Children are to be raised by families, not a village, i.e. government. It is a dangerous idea to ask government to create the list of morals we should adhere to. Government exists to protect the innocent, prosecute the evil, and defend liberty.

If we live in a free country, then we must accept free thought and exchange thereof. Some people have really stupid ideas on plenty of things. Sexual orientation and religious beliefs are two of those things on which people disagree, and we must accept this. Would you rather live in a country where we are free to hate than in one where we are told how to feel?

The religious argument has no bearing on my opinions about homosexuality. I believe in the “to each his own” philosophy of libertarianism. Government should keep out and let people live their lives. The same government Matthew seems to look to for creating social change is the same government which refused such movement for hundreds of years. So if expediency is your primary goal, government is your last effort.

As far as sexuality is concerned, I believe it is man-made. We are not born heterosexual, homosexual, or anything in between. We are born sexual creatures with urges and feelings. Our sexual orientation, I believe, is defined not by the urges we accept, but by those we suppress. Based on this logic, no one is 100 percent gay or straight. It’s impossible and illogical. Since human existence has moved away from the animalistic procreation goals and toward individual relationships and happiness, humans have begun to allow their other urges to surface. Someone who is gay pursues the feelings they have for people of the same sex and suppress those they have for the opposite, and the opposite is true for heterosexuals. The choice does not lie in which urges we seek, but those we suppress. We all have the same urges, we just only act on certain ones.

While that really doesn’t address the problem of religious views attacking unorthodox sexual orientations, I do believe it is a central question in any debate about the concept of homosexuality, etc. Does the Bible (and I am not completely convinced it does) hate homosexuality because of the urges they pursue, or because homosexuals aren’t married (premarital sex and adultery are also condemned in the Bible) and their actions are not leading to the creation of a child. If Catholics believe sex should only occur when trying to procreate, then their angst toward homosexuality is understandable, because no matter how hard two women try they won’t form a fetus.

We have to understand the core of the dislike toward homosexuality, both historically and in the modern sense. Once we know this, then the debate can truly be held and arguments generated.

But finally, as a friendly reminder, don’t look to government to solve social problems. Don’t look to the education system, the court, the politicians. It’s not their place; social values are born and upheld in a family.

Nothing disgusts me more then people who choose to pick things apart and decide that they are better then someone else (on an individual or group basis) just because they think they have the right to do so. I firmly believe that homosexual people should have every right and privilege of heterosexual people. My father on the other hand- he feels homosexual behavior is on par with pedophilia, and bestiality.

How he can compare a consensual, healthy relationship between two people with a non-consensual, by-force relationship I don’t know and will never understand.

I also don’t understand how it is that while we are suppose to have the freedom to our religion and beliefs in this country, so many people fall back on the argument that something is wrong because it doesn’t match up with what Christianity preaches. I understand that most people in this country are Christians, and I understand that as the majority the opinion of homosexuality being wrong because “God says so,” but it’s not something I can accept.

It’s been how many years since we’ve abolished slavery? And how many years since women became full-righted people? But the slate is always tilted towards something, and away from something else. And someone is always threatened by what they don’t understand or refuse to try to understand.

One of my biggest dislikes of religion in general is that it gives too many people a veil to hide behind and ignore that which they do not understand. I think that only helps to breed the hate as well.

In the United States, (and here in Canada), the connection between religion and hatred of gays is so marked that it’s easy to think that one necessarily leads to the other. In that form, its a lot like anti-semitism. their are people who are conscientiously convincedt aht active homosexuality is not God’s wish, but have no hatred or dislike of people who are homosexual, and even actively homosexual. Then there are those who really do hate people who are homosexual, and use alleged religious belief to justify their hatred. They’re two very different things, although when you’re on the receiving end, it may not always be easy to tell the difference.

Against this, we have to consider the records of societies with different or no religious cultures. It turns out, specifically to homosexuals, that their behaviour isn’t any better. The record of atheistic states or militantly secular ones is not encouraging. Incidentally, I wouldn’t necessarily suggest this is an argument against atheism or decularism. I think it is an example of a basic human failing which can use the best iof things as a cloak to do the worst of things.

Moreover, it is an attitude which can be turned in ANY DIRECTION immediately. In the U.S. of A. , what could be used against blacks gets turned against gays. Or, for that matter, effete latté drinkers on the left Coast, who redneck crackers in Mississippi. same thing, but different targets.

Looking at some of the attacks on Shawn Hornmbeck, which remind me a lot of the personal attacks on Matthew Shepard and his family, I think I can identify some common traits driving this state of mind.

There are some people who are not happy unless they’re unhappy, and wish everybody to share in their unhappiness. At bottom, this is what I think drives fred Phelps. he actually DOES wish to hurt people as much as he possibly can. It’s a more comon thing than most of us realize.

There are people who take the view that, however poor or downtrodden they may be,
there’s always somebody else whom you can look down upon. In Jim Crow days, it wasn’t the old Southern gentry and elites who were virulently anti-Black (not that they were favourable, but they weren’t unreasonable, either) , but the poor whites, many of whom were nearly as much excluded from anything as Blacks. But only “nearly”. Any White was better than any Black. That got easily applied to Jews, Catholics, etc., and it gets applied against Mexicans and gays now.

The ones who really interest me are the ones who seem to feel their way of showing their own righteousness and self-worth is by tearing someody else down. I think you’ll find that they’re peple who have a basic need to tell others how to live their lives. There’s a good deal of control freakery about it. I think there can be an element of trying to deny smething within oneself.

That’ might give you a few ideas to work with. meantime, matthew, with the two ladies, you could usefull remind them of Maccagno’s law: “she who throws mud loses ground.” In the end, it’s true. We all do it, but for some, it seems to be a way of verbally bullying your way over everybody.

And yes! Go take a shower! I can smell you form here! :P

Feel free to leave comments here. Link whatever you want. Say whatever you want. Put whatever images you want. Just keep it legal.

I recently spoke with one of the operators of the WordPress site via AIM and asked him why WordPress.com seemed to lag behind WordPress.org (for instance, why there are fewer themes). He told me that it takes time to debug the themes, run tests on them, see how they fit with the overall site, etc. It also pretty much boils down to how much money WordPress.com has (not a lot, compared to Blogger).

I kinda rambled there for a second…anyway, something I’ve noticed personally is that since I started using Facebook to connect with my college peers, I’ve slowly started to migrate away from MySpace. My MySpace still looks cooler than any profile I have online, but I just find myself using Facebook more. Not sure why. It’s open to everyone who can connect through a college, high school, employer or regional network so there’s no reason for people not to be on Facebook these days.

Also, sorry it took so long to reply to your comment. Akismet, my SPAM filter program through WordPress, accidentally grouped your comment as SPAM. Luckily, tonight I was doing a look-through (just to see what I might find) and I recovered your comment. I’ve since set a rule for Akismet to let your comments go through, so long as your name and e-mail addy don’t change :)

What I really get a kick out of is the “Hacker Safe” banner at the bottom of the website, near the credit card logos and the sign-up box for e-mail alerts. Because we all know that those hanger merchants are at a higher risk (than, say, eBay) for being hacked into.

When I get home from a tiring day on the set, I just want to hang up my clothes in a nice, firm, dependable, beautiful hanger. That’s why I go to Hangers-dot-com….

And ha! After you hit 21, it all goes by so fast you don’t even realize it’s gone… kind of weird really.

Debra: My birthday already passed :) I don’t give out the date of my birthday, but readers of this blog AND those who are also my friend on Facebook can probably figure out the date, given that little hint there. Yes, group: I am now 20 years old. Let the longest year of my life begin.

So what day is that birthday of yours on?

Even after reading this, I still can;t even really consider it.

Of course I have bunches of such pens all over, many in the bottom of my purse. But what’s in my purse is a different story altogether. hehe

A few times, I stumbled and started writing for attention. I had to regress several times, since that wasn’t what I was going after. Blogging on a social networking site had just as many downs as ups…you make friends and not-quite friends, if you catch my drift.

As I wrote about earlier, on the advice of someone I respect and trust, I quit blogging on LiveJournal and condensed my profiles online to point to one central location: this blog. Here, you’ll find links to everywhere I’m at—whether it’s MySpace, Facebook, or simply e-mailing me. This is like my little home on the Internet.

I hope that my readers will be entertained. As of right now, I have a handful of people who relgiously check by on a usual daily basis. I’m thankful to those who read, and my readers are pretty understanding that I’d keep writing in my spare time even if nobody was reading.

When it comes to the outdoor cat I sort of adopted, it appears as if one of our neighbors in our townhouse complex moved. I think the kitten may have belonged to her, since she no longer comes around since they moved. If she does show up again, I’ll take more pictures.

I don’t know how much English lit. you’ve studied, although from your obvious high standard of writing, I’d guess you’ve done your fair share of it. Doing a blog is like Addison and Steele publishing”the Spectator”, or Samuel Johnson publishing “The Idler” , except they only tried to do it weekly, and at least A&S split the chores! Mind you, the cost of production was a LOT higher…

No, stick with it, post whatever you think you need to post to keep the audience entertained, and when you feel deep thoughts coming on, share them in your own good time. And maybe you’ll sometime feel able, or your biographer will, to collect the REALLY important things in your blog and turn them into a book…or something. I still think books will be around fifty years hence.

Oh, by the way, the cat you sort of adopted recently has quite a strilkng resembalnce to my cat, except yours is much younger and doubtless in better shape. My old girl is 21 now, a little arthiritic and quite deaf…

What is this about the radio station and a woman died? Dial up and lack of patience make me not such a big fan of podcasts and videocasts, so throw me a bone if you will!

Katie: My phone used to go through T-Mobile and now goes through Cingular. It’s the same phone.

Wait.

That sounds… kind of wrong.

Hi. I think the congestion has made me lose my mind today.

I suppose I’d strat by saying that fanaticism is fanaticism, from whichever direction it comes. Matthew, I think you’ve heard me rant on about that elsewhere. I really do think the opinions people have are less imoprtant than the attitudes they carry their opinions with. With a bad attitude (and I really think a disrespect for anybody who doesn’t agree with you ids the biggest one), you can easily turn the best of causes into the worst. Not hard to do.

I guess it can take us a long time to learn that the force of our arguments is not increased by the force with which we voice them. The precise opposite is often the case.

Which gets me to your very first comment: you got that one right, matthew. until we learn that you can’t demand for yourself what you’re not prepapared to concede to others, Nobody is without their prejudices, but we do have the obligation to think how our prejudice, with a very small change can be used against us. It makes us behave a little better!

No argument on ring tones from me. hear! Hear!

I have a bit of a thing about cell phones, but then I’m something of a Luddite at heart…

being something of a Luddite, I tend to leave MySpace alone. I looked in on it once. I wonder, though, whether blogging isn’t a kinder, gentler form of this sort of thing. I suppose it depends how you use it – or any other Internet tool. I, of course, would NEVER think this would apply to our esteemed host here (actually, the interest in communications technology makes this a useful exercise for the studies), but I suppose all these things do tend to encourage exhibitionists. All present company excepted, of course!

Porn…well, some seem to get off on it. It can be (unintentionally) hilarious, but the one time I got caught in a traditional stag with tow alleged calssics, I was bored out of my tree. Maybe I got inoculated from all the racy paintings done for an edition of “the Decameron” my parents left incaustiously in my reach when I was 12.

I think the anti-tobacco lobby are building up into the new Prohibitionists, with very much the same results. I never did think much of smoking, partly because I’m highly allergic to it (BTW, a reason for leaving marijuana alone too), but I found that a number of myrelatives who smoked like chimneys were going to it all the more if I lectured them. And a lot of people still start soley for the reason of irritating the modern-day “Mrs. Grundys” of the world.

I’d suggest you average fourth-grader is a lot more literate than any number of aduilts.

Which seems to be a long-winded way of general applause, but there it is. Pu tup blogs, and you open yourself up to gasbags like me!

I’ll have to try that “Commentator Porn” game sometime. Sounds like it could be fun. Not really a game to play with the family, though (then again, I had an hour-long conversation with my mom a few weeks ago on the Rocky Horror Picture Show, so I guess in today’s society, nothing is taboo).

In the State of California, legislation will go into effect starting tomorrow (January 1st, 2007) that will make it illegal to leave a pet in a parked car without adequate nourishment in the form of food and water. Doing so will cause animal control to break into your car and remove the animal at your expense. It will also be illegal to tie up an animal (mainly dogs) to a public object like a bike rack, lamp post or stop sign for more than three hours.

Gay marriage (let them marry, damn it! They are no more or no less then anypone else!) and animal rights (animals rights = very bad, animal welfare = very good) are my two biggest things I think.

hahaha MySpace. CrackSpace. CrackStalk. I just set whatever new pic I want commented on to my default, and people see it, and comment if they want to. End of story.

Porn is hilarious. Don’t believe me? Watch it on mute, and pretend you’re a sportscaster. And throw popcorn at the screen. Seriously.

Yes, I am aware I am killing myself, slowly but surely. I’m also totaly grossed out by the fact I smoke. One day, I might even motivate myself to quit. Until then though, I’ll hold onto it’s the only bad habit I have, and without it, I’d be perfect. :P

Ditto on pets… they didn’t ask to be carted around, and if they did, sometimes tough love of being left home alone for a bit is better for them. Common sense, people.

PSA brought to you by Radio Matthew. hehe

Awesome post. It made me want to ranble incoherrently here and there, but over all, I dug it. And agreed completely. :)

Happy New Year’s Matthew!

I hope besides thing though, Matthew, your Christmas was good.

Um, you did remember to tell us not to let one’s cat use the computer didn’t you? :-) Trying to stop the cat from doing it is not easy, not least because cats are good at figuring out what annoys the hired help. It gets their attention. At least that’s what my 21 year old cat does.

But I got her back. She had to get on my lap to try and use my computer, and this gave me th chance to force her antibiotic on her. She’s sulking at the moment, but I expect she’ll get over it once she feels hungry…

No harm debating any public institution’s policies, although if you’re a willing participant, it’s usually better to follow the rules, and work on changing them. That word “willing” is an important one. I just don’t know if it applies here. For example, are there other schools in the area which would serve our man just as well? Was the dress code properly explained when he came into the school, and did he make some undertaking to follow it? I don’t know. Both would make quite a difference.

I suppose if all the male athletic students did decide to grow their hair out, it would be hard to throw them off the teams, and not also close down the athletics program. In the end, my high school had to give up in the face of nearly universal disregard of rules about hair.

Again, my point about my generation was that guys wouldn’t take care of their hair the way girls do, and will. It’s just not a “guy” thing (and, no, I’m not convinced sexual orientation makes any difference on this one).

Still, as an objective observation, I could think of one standard dress code issue. It would certainly apply to swimming. If males don’t have to wear tops, why should girls.? I suppose that there’s any number of teen-age males (and lot who aren’t teens, either) who’d claim that it’d be a great idea! :-)

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The New York Yankees are to my knowledge a private company, and thus are free to set what ever rules and policies it deems fit for its public image, within the bounds of law of the land. Perspective players and employees are free to choose to work for them or go elsewhere. But the School is a public institution who’s policies and rules are open for debate by the public it serves. If a public institutions rules or policies are found to be unjust or unfair or discriminatory, or unacceptable, in any way, those who object are free to try and change them.

I have an aunt who was suspended from High School in the 50’s for having green hair. I think a guy who wishes to grow his hair long should be allowed to. Especially if other athletes at the same school are allowed to. Some sports long hair may actually be a performance and or safety issue, such as swimming and wrestling, so then yes they young man should be encouraged to choose to keep his hair short. But it shouldn’t be mandatory in my humble opinion.

I don’t know what applies to the Japanese, bu my Chinese in-laws taught me something useful about their view of etiquette and eating utensils. If it gets it off the plate and into you, it’s entirely okay. Cooks and hosts, in that culture, are always delighted if the guests are enjoying the food…somehow that’s not unique to the Chines, I’m thinking!

Personally, it’s not something I ever went for. I took the (accurate) view that I’d just be hastening my going bald.

My mother, who had been, and who continued to teach high school then and many years after, took the most sensible view. She noted that long hair on guys might be okay if they took the amount of care that the girls did. But they wouldn’t. I’m afraid she was right on that point. maybe that applies here, and maybe it doesn’t.

Any dress code is going to be a nmatter of discrimination, not excluding the expectation that people wear clothing at all. Some kids have argued that they like it because it prevents rivalries as who can wear the snazziest (and most expensive) fashions going. I won’t claim to have any opinion on that one.

Although in Mom’s high school in tyhe 1980s, the teachers did have some success in persuading the students that supe-short cutoffs, while very erotic, did tend to distract people from work. And that the students weren’t the only ones being distracted. That seemed to work….

The weather… I love it. When it’s cold and clear and still and the sky is like looking at diamonds on black velvet. Nothing better.

Now if I could properly enjoy it out there without risking getting sick again…

We had a cold snap of -30 (C) with -41 windchill a couple of weeks ago… the condensation on my bedroom window formed as a 2-5 cm thick layer of ice. I normally don’t mind the cold but those few days were pretty ridiculous.

I suppose it comes down to priorities and choices, is having long hair more important than playing basketball? I hate this lesson in life to many of you, however many companies will not hire you or allow you to wear your hair long, have multiple piercings in your nose, face, etc. Better to learn these simple rules now.

Brokeback Mountain left me… I was expecting more I think. Even though they had their story and they expressed it, the good, the bad, and mostly the pain of not being able to have the life together that the younger and more optimistic wanted, it just seemed to fall a bit flat with me. The ending hit and I was just… “That’s it?” I think there was too much pain and once again my mind can’t comprehend the idea of society’s stereotypes and stigmas. It didn’t leave me in a rage of hatred against all the close-minded idiots as Boys Don’t Cry did.

One day… I can only hope we are past these ideas that any one is better then any other one.

btw you’re now on my regularly scheduled blog coverage as well.

Cheers, G

Anyway, thanks for commenting on my site!

re: Girls on Film- I have a copy of that vid (very bad quality though) somewhere on my machine. hehe

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to talk about hopes and frustrations and the such. In fact, it’s enlightening.

I believe we have more then one “soul mate” and I think they come and go in our lives as we need them. One of mine is my best friend. I hope that we never stop needing each other because she’s a huge part of my life. 13, almost 14 years of our lives are so entangled in each others that there’s no separating out more then tiny minor events without the other’s influence even in the tiniest degree.

I also think in a way The Boy, as mentioned in my blog, has been. But I think his presence has been there to teach and to guide and maybe I’m only just now starting to get what the lesson was and is.

Music has brought together so much for so long. And it’s in everything we do and see, touch, and feel. Music and poetry are everywhere if we only stop to see them.