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Friday, December 27, 2002
My Christmas Quote Award... ... goes to my friend John, in response to asking why he started his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve... 'I don't have to buy too many presents. I don't really have any friends and I'm dating a Jew.' | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, December 23, 2002 HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!! Dear Family & Friends, I'm about to leave work... technically my office is closed until January 2nd... but I'll be in and out for the next week (working on some crucial projects that can't be left alone for too long). Since I only have internet at work, be patient with my posts until after the first of the year... I'll see what I can do to keep them coming regularly. My plans? I'll be going to Rochester with my friend Cheri in tow. I'm very excited to get to spend time with her and my immediate family (my mother, my brother, and my cutie patootie nephew will all be there). Tonight, I have mega gift wrapping to do. Luckily, Cheri and I won't leave until early tomorrow afternoon, so I can spend the morning getting any last minute stuff together. Not sure what I'll be doing for New Year's... I'm not really interested in spending it alone, and I don't really want to go to any big parties either. Maybe the next few days off work will help me clear my head and figure that out. :-) I just realized... its Christmas, and I haven't even finished typing out the entire story of my Thanksgiving/Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza... My bad. I really have to get better about this. I'm not sure any of you will care anymore about how crazy my shopping experience was... but as you've seen today, I'll share stories that happened even longer ago... so what the hell. I'll get to that when I'm back from Rochester. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this funky experiment of a web journal. I've relished every single comment I've gotten, it is so great to know that the time I'm spending on something is not in vain. I'm looking forward to keeping it going in 2003!! Happy Holidays! I have nothing but the best wishes for you all! Shane | private feedback | (0) public comments Since you asked... ... and since I'm in the mood to share some stories today, someone was curious how I 'ALMOST artificially inseminated a cow' in college and I thought I'd share with y'all. Please note, the following story will be a little graphic for those of you that can't stomach nasty, disgusting, bleeding things. :-) As an Animal Science major who was concentrating on Animal Reproduction (stop laughing!), I had to take ANSC 300 which is the equivalent to Introductory Animal Reproduction where, among other things, you learn all about the reproductive tracts of barnyard species and the biology of conception, gestation, etc., etc. And of course there is a lab component. (Seriously, stop laughing!) Lab exercises pretty much matched topics of lectures, and so when we hit the artificial insemination (AI) lecture, we had a chance to go to the teaching barn as a group and 'practice' artifically inseminating cows. We got to the teaching barn and there was a long row of cows along one side, maybe 10 of them in total, completely oblivious to the fact that we were even there. (That wouldn't last long. *grin*) Dr. Parks, our instructor, went first, making the poor choice to demonstrate the technique on a cow with terrible diarrhea. Before I go any further, let me describe, briefly and superficially, the procedure one follows when you inseminate a cow. Yes, the jokes you've heard are true... you put on a glove that goes up to your shoulders, put about a gallon of lube on it, and you reach into the cow's ass (in non-scientific terms, for those of you who weren't animal science majors) while your other hand inserts a straw filled with bull's semen in their vagina. So you get the general idea, right? 'Nuff said for the purposes of my story. Back to my story... So, you can imagine why picking a cow with diarrhea is NOT ideal for demonstrating AI. When Dr. Parks stuck his gloved and lubed arm into this cow's ass, she projectile shit all over the place. Already, I (who had not heeded the warning to wear work clothes) was skeptical of my practicing AI on this particular day. Also, instead of using the normal apparatus (a long, hollow straw with the bull semen in it), we were instructed to use thin metal rods. So, here is Dr. Parks, his pant legs covered in runny cow shit, letting a class of ANSC 300 students crazy on these poor cows armed with gloves, lube, and metal rods. So I decided to hang back a bit, and watch the class go at it. One by one my classmates were attempting to get this little metal rod through a cow's cervix... which by the way, is NOT an easy thing to do. What should take a pro seconds, was taking these students minutes... and every now and again they would pull their rod out and it would actually have blood on it. Dr. Parks would come along and mark the rumps of the bloodied cows with a big X. This X, apparently, was universal code for, 'We've poked, prodded, and battered this cow enough today, kids. Let's give her a break.' So, now, I was confronted with two things... a fear of getting nice clothes covered with cow shit and lube, and not wanting to cause any more damage to these poor cows. (In my class's and Dr. Parks's defense, I am sure this is not signifcant damage to the cows, but it was enough to make me a little uneasy since I knew this 'practice' was wasted on me. I was certainly never going to artifically inseminate cows for a living. And I couldn't picture a survival scenario where my life would depend on getting Bessy pregnant. So, when it came to be my turn, I politely turned down the metal rod... and for moral support, my friend Stella did also (what a sweetie). Of course this opened us up to all kinds of ridicule by our instructor, Dr. Parks. I'm pretty sure it was soon after this experience that he started singing 'Shane of Fools' in class to the tune of 'Chain of Fools.' So, there you go... my 'near miss' with artificial insemination. Aren't you glad you asked? | private feedback | (0) public comments Reading the Newspaper... Trent Lott STILL doesn't get it 'There are people in Washington who have been trying to nail me for a long time.' and 'I don't think there's any use in trying to say I'm disappointed in anybody or anything. An inappropriate remark brought this down on my head.' Why does this man insist on adding 'buts' at the end of every apology? NOW, apparently, there are foes who set up a trap for poor Trent... I particularly liked the way they wrapped up the article... 'Later Sunday, a police bomb squad was called to Lott's home in a false alarm after a passer-by left a box on his mailbox. On the box in black marker, were the words, 'We always knew you were a hypocrite, Trent. Thanks for setting Mississippi back another 50 years.'' Indeed. 'Friends' will be around for another season Thank god, cause I was worried about what I was going organize my Thursday nights around. War against Iraq How do you prove that you DON'T have anything to hide? This is essentially what we're asking Iraq to do. Prove to us that you are not currently developing weapons of mass destruction. Iraq keeps telling us they aren't, and we just keep insisting they're lying. This is a no-win situation. What we ought to be doing is turning the question around on the White House and saying, 'Hey Georgie, show us the evidence that you have which leads you to believe that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction.' And it better not be him sayin', 'Well, gee. They've done it in the past... and I bet you forgot they tried to kill my daddy.' Just imagine someone saying to you, 'Take out your contact lenses.' And you're like, 'Dude, I'm not wearing contact lenses.' And he's like, 'I so know you're wearing contact lenses. Remember that time a while back when I asked you to take out your contact lenses and you said you weren't wearing any. And then I caught you taking them out like five minutes later. You lied to me. I bet you're lying to me now.' And you're like, 'So what are you going to do? Gouge out my eyes to find out if I'm lying?' And he's like, 'Yeah. I think I'll gouge out your eyes... after all you DID try to kill my daddy.' Or something like that... | private feedback | (0) public comments I have a date tonight... OK, its with a woman, so it's not *really* a date, but we're calling it that anyway. Dinner and a movie... This all reminds me of the last date I went on with a woman... I was a senior in high school... and it was with Jen, a friend of mine, who had asked me out to a movie. She picked me up in her mom's minivan (I didn't have a car then, either). The ride was relatively pleasant, but she kept making groaning noises and saying that she didn't feel well. I said, 'Jen, if you're sick just take me home.' But she REALLY wanted to see this movie, 'Species.' (You remember that movie, right? The sci-fi flick about the half-lizard-half-woman. I don't remember much about it... it was apparently good enough to make a sequel out of. But, I digress.) So we get a few blocks short of the movie theater and she abruptly pulls the car over, tears open the door, jumps out, and starts vomiting near the rear tire. Then, she very nonchalantly slides back into her seat, pulls out a kleenex to wipe her mouth (EIW!), and says, 'I feel much better now.' I'm sure the expression on my face was priceless. But what makes it worse is that throughout the movie she was trying to get as close to me as possible, she was gettin' a little touchy-feely and she was trying to rest her head on my shoulder... and all I could think about was that less than an hour-and-a-half before, she had just thrown-up in front of me. I'm actually gettin' a little nauseous typing this... | private feedback | (0) public comments Sunday, December 22, 2002 The Power of 'Blogging' I was reading the recent TIME magazine article on Trent Lott last night while at Common Ground (Yes, I was THAT bored...) and it said that his downfall was hastened (at least in part) by 'bloggers' who were posting information about his past voting record and past statements online. Isn't that amazing!? Long live the bloggers! | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, December 20, 2002 LOTT STEPS DOWN After saying repeatedly that he would NOT step down as majority leader... but perhaps finally spurred by the latest developments (a real challenge to his leadership by Bill Frist of TN)... Trent Lott will, in fact, resign his leadership post in the Senate. I'm only sorry he's not resigning his Senate seat entirely. | private feedback | (0) public comments I wanna go on a gay cruise I'm on this mailing list for cruises tailored to gay men. I get all kinds of postcards and catalogs laden with pictures of buff, tanned bodies laying all over eachother on the decks of ships all over the world. (Or am I confusing that with those 'junk mail' attempts to get me to subscribe to porn?') While I'm hardly buff and far from tanned, I still wanna go on one of these... I've never been on a cruise before, let alone a GAY one. I was reading a web journal today written by someone who just got back from a vacation where he went on a gay cruise... and he wrote that on this vacation they had gay bingo! That's right, GAY BINGO. That's pretty lame that bingo excites me so, and I can't imagine gay bingo is very different than plain old bingo... in which case I should get my ass down to the church hall. Maybe if I wear a hawaiian shirt and squint my eyes just so... the church hall will feel like Puerta Vallarta. | private feedback | (0) public comments Nothing's changed... Do you remember a long time ago (it must have been weeks ago, now) when I was complaining about how my life was basically devoid of all meaning and I had to do SOMETHING to change that? Yeah, well... I still haven't done anything about that. Any ideas? (Besides taking that grafting course at CU?) | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, December 19, 2002 And the nominees are... As far as I can tell, Julianne Moore was nominated for a Golden Globe in the 'Best Actress, Drama' category, and Dennis Quaid was nominated for 'Best Supporting Actor.' Far From Heaven also got a nod for 'Best Screenplay.' I just like to be able to say I've seen some of the nominated movies. :-) | private feedback | (0) public comments President Clinton is still fierce Say what you want about personal indiscretions, but any guy who will stand up and say out loud that the Republicans have used race in a negative way to pave their road to success is alright in my books. Read "Clinton calls GOP 'hypocritical' on Lott" @ CNN.com. It's Flo and Zach! I'm torn about this because I believe the most AND least deserving individuals won The Amazing Race last night. I can't believe that after all her whining, Flo managed to pull it together at the end. She threatened to quit like five times.... she was an embarassment to their team and she does NOT deserve that money. But then there's Zach, who is a saint for putting up with her the whole time, and the only reason that team pulled it through to the end... I hope HE enjoys his money cause he totally deserves it. Golden Globe Nomination Announcements... ... are coming this morning. I've got my fingers crossed that 'Far From Heaven' gets a bunch. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, December 18, 2002 Reality TV Revving up Mid-Season... MTV's Real World/Road Rules Battle of the Sexes starts January 6th... There are 6 gay/bi participants this time 'round. ABC's The Bachelorette starts in January. 1 Bachelorette, 25 Men... lucky bitch. ABC's Celebrity Mole I'm not sure if this is just a one-time special or a series... ABC doesn't even have it listed on their Web site yet. But I couldn't really follow the first two seasons, I don't think having celebrities is going to help me. | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, December 17, 2002 SONDA Passes! So, I'm sitting here totally oblivious to the fact that the vote on the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act was today. (For some reason, I had Wednesday stuck in my head.) Chris just IM'd me to tell me that it passed. Its about damned time! ...but not with a vote from my State Senator James Seward said that anti-bias law shouldn't extend to protect lifestyle choices. He had this to say, 'The jury is still out on whether homosexuality has a genetic origin. I've heard from smokers who feel like they've been discriminated against. I hear from obese people who feel they've been discriminated against. Where does it end?' Thanks for throwing my 'choice' in with the same lot as smokers, James. | private feedback | (0) public comments Awwwwwwwwww And the 'Cutest Couple Award' goes to.... THE LESBIANS!!!! | private feedback | (0) public comments I am in bad shape... The longer this light-headed, queasy, upset tummy feeling lasts, the more I start to think that I really do have a flu bug. Spaghetti-O's and Zingers aside, I should have gotten over an upset tummy caused by eating badly long before now. So, that means I probably shouldn't be working... And on top of that, I'm trying to detox... i.e. wean myself off of caffeine... Ugh | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, December 16, 2002 Recovering from a violent upset stomach... ...that started Saturday night. I'm all light-headed and a little out of it today. I'm not ruling out a stomach bug because people around me have been under the weather... but I think that a dinner consisting of Spaghetti-O's and Hostess Zingers washed down with Pepsi Twist would make anyone sick. Oh yeah, and then a few Gin and Tonics later. Ick. | private feedback | (0) public comments Guilty pleasure Even though he represents the politics of the right on CNN's crossfire... I think Tucker Carlson is super handsome. Even wearing his signature bow tie. *deep sigh* 
And another thing about me you'd never guess... I am fascinated with grafting... in the horticultural sense. The ability to take a part of one plant and graft it onto another plant and have it continue growing is nothing short of amazing in my mind. When I had to decide what to study at Cornell I was a bit torn between plant science and animal science. As you know, I ended up studying animal science, and while I nearly got to artificially inseminate cows, I missed out on any potential plant grafting experiences I could have had. But all is not lost. I just found out today that Cornell offers a distance learning course entitled, 'The How, When & Why of Grafting.' Woohoo!! | private feedback | (0) public comments Pundits in a tizzy All the analysis you could ever want about Gore's decision NOT to run, and its impact on the Democratic Party. | private feedback | (0) public comments WTF!?! I'm glad to read this bill doesn't much chance at passing... but the authors of the legislation should be ashamed of themselves! The bill would force women who want an abortion in Georgia to go through a trial and have a judge sign a death warrant for an "execution" of the fetus. | private feedback | (0) public comments All Lott, All The Time... By Sunday afternoon, I was so over the Trent Lott fiasco. Every news show, every political talk show, every half hour update was dedicated almost in its entirety to the topic of Trent Lott. I am so desensitized at this point, I don't care if he steps down, apologizes for the tenth time, or gets censured. No Gore in '04 Unfortunately, I didn't see Al Gore's turn as host on SNL, but all the clips I saw Sunday were pretty funny. What I *did* hear was that Al Gore announced that he would NOT run for president in 2004. So... now the real jockeying for position amongst the other hopefuls for the Democratic nomination begins. Woohoo! New President for Cornell Cornell University announced the selection of its 11th University President. An alum, Jeffrey S. Lehman '77, currently dean of Michigan Law, will take over in July when Hunter Rawlings officially steps down. | private feedback | (0) public comments Saturday, December 14, 2002 Its all relative... I was talking to my brother this morning on the phone... Our conversations tend to last all of five minutes so I was amazed when he just started talking and talking and talking. We talked a bit about shopping for the holidays and how their mall is really pathetic. He said all their stores together are about the size of one Wal Mart. And as if I might get the wrong impression, he quickly added, 'and not a super Wal Mart either, just a regular old Wal Mart.' I didn't think anything about the comparison since he was comparing stores with stores, but then he asked me, 'Did you know that we have relatives buried in Pennsylvania?' I said I didn't... and he said, 'Yeah. I went looking for the gravestones but we have so many cemetaries in town, and one of them is like, twice the size of Wal Mart.' So in my smart-ass way, I said, 'Holy shit, but not like... twice the size of a SUPER Wal Mart, right?' His response was very serious, 'Naw. We don't have Super Wal Marts around here.' Apparently Wal Marts are a new standard of size... at least in DuBois, PA. | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, December 13, 2002 Another day, another slap in the face... From CNN.com: 'President' Bush issued an order Friday stepping up government support for religious charities, an initiative that critics say could violate constitutional separations between church and state. [Critics?... you mean educated folks? P.S. The quotes around the word 'president' are mine, of course.] The measure signed by Bush would allow religious charities which contract with the government to provide social services to discriminate in their hiring. This is HUGE. The government will be giving money to charities and saying, 'Here's a bunch of taxpayer money, probably some of which came from folks that you discriminate against... but we're going to exempt you from treating those same taxpayers fairly.' WTF!? The founding fathers were not stupid when they initially set the separation of church and state in motion. Sending government money to religions equals state-sponsored religion... You don't think they're just going to hand out free food or addiction support without a little sermonizing on the side, do you? The slippery slope towards a theocracy begins at the White House. And while we're on the subject of charities... Every place with heavy foot traffic during the holidays will be manned with a bell-ringer (or two) from the Salvation Army. I know we all just wanna throw a dollar in those little red kettles hoping against hope that they stop making noise... but please don't forget that the Salvation Army specifically asked the White House in the early stages of the Faith Based Initiative planning to be able to continue discriminating against gays and lesbians. That's right, 'Give us your money but don't make us treat people fairly!!' I'm sure that's not exactly what they said, but surely something close to that. | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, December 12, 2002 Good Business Practices I don't know if you remember (or care), but I recently sent my Handspring Visor to Duracell because their batteries had corroded inside and rendered the PDA unusable. It wouldn't even turn on. They have a 'value-added' guarantee that if their batteries ruin a piece of electronic equipment, they will either repair it or send a check for the value of the device. This morning I received a check for $150.00 to replace my Handspring Visor. Not that it does me much good seeing that most all my contact information is ON this little gadget and now lost. My favorite line from the accompanying letter: 'We can certainly understand your disappointment in our product and assure you that this is a very rare occurrence. We hope the matter has been resolved to your satisfaction and that you will continue to use DURACELL products.' I also got a coupon for $6.00 worth of free Duracell batteries. I'll try to contain my excitement. | private feedback | (0) public comments Finally... A senior republican in a position of power is shown to be what he really is... either racist or extremely stupid. Either way, Trent Lott's statement about how if a segregationist (Strom Thurmond) had won the white house back in 1948 'we wouldn't have all these problems' is by far the stupidest thing I have heard a politician spout in a long time. I don't care if it was said at a birthday party, on the floor of the Senate, or to his wife at night as some kind of sick pillow talk... those words came from somewhere, some place of skewed truth within Trent Lott... otherwise he wouldn't have said them at all. And to find out that he said similar things years ago... Shame on him. A person who makes these types of comments has no place leading a party in the Senate. Thankfully some Democrats are getting a spine and not allowing Trent Lott out of this beautiful mess he's created. John Kerry (a presidential hopeful that I'm starting to like more and more) and others, including the New York Times are calling for Trent Lott's resignation. Surely, the republicans can find someone who will be better able to keep the secret that their party is all about rich white guys better than Trent Lott did. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, December 11, 2002  Far From Heaven
I finally got to see Far From Heaven last night. What an amazing movie! Dealing with two very big issues, sexuality and racism... in the late 1950's. Sexuality is played out in a very private way... Julianne Moore plays a housewife who discovers her husband (Dennis Quaid) in the embrace of another man and decides to keep it between the two of them, hoping against hope that her husband can change. In the community and among close friends, the couple is revered as 'Mr. and Mrs. Perfect,' hosting extravagent parties and posing in print ads together... While her husband grows distant dealing with his own demons, she begins a very public friendship with her gardener, a black gentleman, in a time when this is absolutely unacceptable for a white woman to do. Sparks fly, controversy begins to swirl when the two are seen together at various places by 'society women' and they realize that their two worlds can't coexist in this time and place. Through both instances, Julianne Moore's character has to come to terms with the disconnect between reality and best intentions. I won't spoil any endings... but this movie is phenomenal. The costumes, the dialogue, the filming... all flawless. | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, December 10, 2002 Its gold, Its gold, Its solid gold baby... With the Open House behind us, I thought that things would settle into a brisk but manageable pace this week. This is mostly the case, with a few exceptions. There are always last minute things you don't plan on that become obstacles... clients who demand a little extra time, projects that need a little extra babysitting, etc. I cannot wait until the holidays... even though I haven't even given a single thought to buying anyone a gift yet. Isn't that amazing? Especially after my whole Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza in Dayton? This is par for the course, I have always done my christmas shopping at the very last moment, buying anything but thoughtful gifts. Oh, I haven't even mentioned what I did this weekend. Well, the Open House went off without a hitch... all kinds of fun, clients gettin' tipsy and hanging out for hours... and then I rented Austin Powers: Goldmember, which was hilarious! I LOVE the 'Hey Goldmember' song... 'He's got the midas touch. But he touched it too much. Hey Goldmember.' I can't get it out of my head. Saturday afternoon I hung out with Lori. We had a date to check out the new Barnes & Nobles, Eastern Mountain Sports, and Pier 1 in the Tops Plaza. (Ithaca is finally growing up.) Then I took a quick nap and Mikey came over before work. Don and Rodney and I went to Syracuse for the night. RAIN, as usual, was fun... and then off to Serpico's where our favorite waitress could harass us and call me Pepe. Who knows where THAT came from, but its funny and it stuck. (Don is now Poppy and Rodney is Puto. Just so we all have fun 'P' nicknames. *smile*) Sunday, I watched 'Meet the Press' got the New York Times, sat at the office for a bit cleaning up... and then bowled... followed by the Holiday Drag show at Common Ground hosted by Anita Mann. Busy, busy, busy. Tonight, I hope to check out the new movie, 'Far From Heaven' at Cinemapolis. I've heard great things about it from everyone except one person... | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, December 09, 2002 My Only Wish... For the past two years, Anita Mann has hosted a holiday drag show at the Common Ground. (Y'all know how much I enjoy good drag.) Anyway, all the queens perform christmas songs and its a hoot. Last night, Rodney and I went to see the show and heard this song that I would like to adopt as *my* christmas anthem. Unfortunately its sung by Britney Spears... but whatever. My Only Wish (This Year) Last night I took a walk in the snow Couples holding hands, places to go Seems like everyone but me is in love Santa can you hear me? I signed my letter that's sealed with a kiss I sent it off, and just said this I know exactly what I want this year I hope my letter reaches you in time Bring me a love, I can call all mine 'Cause I have been so good this year Happy alone, under the mistletoe He's all I want and I'll be thankful Santa can you hear me? I have been so good this year And all I want is one thing Tell me my true love is here | private feedback | (0) public comments Yes, Democrats, There is a Santa Claus Mary Landrieu retained her Senate seat in Louisiana. | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, December 06, 2002 Dear Bill O'Reilly... (I dunno if I spelled your name right, I'm really not all that concerned about it to be honest. But, for future reference, is it one 'L' or two?) I watched an interview of you last night by Greta VanSusteran (Did you know she was on 'The Osbournes' once? That's fierce!) on your beloved Fox News channel. You were bitching and moaning about taxpayer dollars going to fund prgramming on PBS and you were very concerned about whose wallet that money was ending up in. I think you also said that NPR and PBS were bastions of the liberal media and that the government should no longer subsidize them. (P.S. I think you're getting 'quality programming' confused with 'liberal.' I can understand how you'd mistake the two since all you have is Rush Limbaugh who's pretty stupid... so when you hear something you don't understand and/or seems more intelligent and thoughtful, you'd instantaneously categorize it as 'liberal.') But that's not really my point, so let me move on. You continued to say that you thought others in the media elite were exerting influence over decisions involving awards... You said Fox News Network has been passed over consistently at the Emmys and that one of your particular reports about charities after 9/11 'which by all accounts blew other reports out of the water' (I'm paraphrasing, don't sue me) was snubbed at the Emmys. I have a bit of a theory about why your 'reports' dont get Emmy nominations, Bill. (May I call you Bill?) And yes, I have watched your show once or twice, so I'm not totally in the dark about what you do. First off, Fox News Network hasn't been around that long... at least not when you look at CNN and other news networks... so maybe you guys gotta earn your stripes a bit. But then... and this is even more important... I have always been under the impression that the awards shows, Emmys included, awarded good journalism... not bitch fests passed off as a news story. So, until they instate the category for 'Best Extended Bitch Fest on a News Network.' Don't expect to fill your mantle with any trophies. | private feedback | (0) public comments Tell the NY Senate you want SONDA Passed!! There is an intense lobbying campaign among conservative Republicans to defeat the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in the NY State Senate. If you remember, Empire State Pride Agenda endorsed Gov. Pataki based on his support for this very bill and are now fighting to get it passed. Some shameless republicans are distorting facts (calling us 'sexual predators, drug abusers, and immoral misfits') in order to defeat the measure. Read the article at 365gay.com here, and then write your State Senator and tell him or her to vote 'YES' on SONDA!!!! | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, December 05, 2002 Maybe my week is turning around after all... As a pleasant surprise last night, my favorite wednesday night TV show, Amazing Race 3, was a special two-hour long episode. By the end, John Vito and Jill were eliminated... which was sad, but not because I particularly liked them, more because I wanted to see Terri and Ian get the boot. I hate that I have to listen to at least one more episode of that dysfunctional couple barking at eachother like children. And, I won two tickets to Fall Creek Pictures this morning! Just for bein' subscribed to the 'Ithaca Community News.' It does NOT get any better than that. :-) | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, December 04, 2002 Candy nostalgia My youth was chock-full of afternoons spent walking to the candy store... and agonizing among all the selection how I would spend my 50-cent per week allowance. Does anyone else remember cinnamon flavored toothpicks? Wax lips? Candy cigarettes? Fun Dip? Major League chew? What fun candy we had back then! While organizing our office's Open House I came across this Web site (I had to order boxes of Chupa Chups lollipops), OrderCandy.com. You can buy all the above and more candy that I've never heard of @ OrderCandy.com. Its definitely worth browsing! | private feedback | (0) public comments I didn't even know... ... one of my outspoken idols, Bill Maher, had a new book out called 'When you ride ALONE you ride with bin Laden' all about America post-9/11 and the lessons we SHOULD have learned. And, Michael Moore wrote a quote in support of it. “Bill Maher has the courage to speak his mind – no matter what the consequences – something you can’t say about most people these days. And he’s damn funny! Now, more than ever, the country needs his outrage. Agree or disagree with him, there is no question that what he has written in this book should be front and center in the great national debate and I, for one, am thrilled that this cantankerous s.o.b is still there doing battle for the republic we all love.” -- Michael Moore Wow... Bill Maher and Michael Moore. Two of my superhero titans joining forces... *daydreaming* | private feedback | (0) public comments Dayton, Day 2: The Dinner Got to sleep in... I was sooooo exhausted from the day before. Thanksgiving Dinner at Susan's turned out to be fantastic. Its been a long time since I've had a real 'pass-the-dish-clockwise-around-the-table' kinda meal. Turkey, amazing homemade stuffing (I saw the bowls of torn bread the day before), this great corn dish, and a sweet potato souffle (Dennis, it was the same kind you made... Mmmmmmmmm), mashed potatoes... you get the picture. All present were Susan's family except for Lori and I... and Dawn and her son, Trevor. Besides dinner, most of Thanksgiving Day was spent planning the 'Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza' which I will from here on out refer to as BFSE. Susan, Lori, Dan, Dawn and I were all going to get up at 5:30 AM the day after Thanksgiving for the BFSE. After dinner, out came the inserts and ads for the after-Thanksgiving sales... Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Kay Bee, Toys 'R Us... Even Walgreens was getting in on the after-Thanksgiving sales frenzy. (But who would buy A DVD player at Walgreens? Even if it is only $59.95). No page of a sales circular was left unturned. Everyone made out their list by store and then checked it against eachother's lists so that we could keep our shopping trip to a limited number of stores. BFSE roles were assigned... Lori a driver, Dan a line placeholder and runner for those 'limited number' items, Dawn and Susan both shoppers, and since this was my first year... I was assigned to take photographs and be in charge of the music in the car. (I failed on both counts... I was NOT up to the challenge at 5:30 in the morning.) Since BFSE depends almost completely on timing, Lori drove the route in the evening so that we could be sure that we had all of our pick-up and drop-off locations plotted. A five-minute delay or missed turn could mean the difference between getting the Olsen Twins video game or having one sad child on Christmas morning. Nothing, and I mean nothing could be left to chance. On our drive of the BFSE route, we stopped off at Krispy Kreme because I had never had a Krispy Kreme donut before. We had JUST missed the conveyor belt delivering the much-talked-about pastries and so we had to settle for fresh-enough, but NOT right-off-the-conveyor-belt donuts. (I particularly liked the constantly flowing glaze waterfall on the donut production line.) We bought a whole dozen of the donuts and took them back to Susan's house... where I felt a little guilty carrying a box of chain-store donuts into a house that contained a bunch of homemade pies, and lemon and raspberry squares made especially for Thanksgiving. But noone else seemed to mind, so I got over it pretty quickly. I toured Susan's well-organized private museum o' rubber stamps... Between the scrappin' and now the stampin', I realized that Susan is a regular renaissance woman. And she uses her stamps mostly to make greeting cards... but ironically enough, never *sends* greeting cards. While I've still got you pondering that one, I bet you didn't know there was a powder that you can heat up which makes your stamped designs look foil stamped. She has shears that cut in a jagged fashion to match the edge of a leaf, and stamp pads of every hue imaginable. I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting because she literally has a room full of rubber stamps and stamping paraphenalia. This is a true art form. Lori, Susan, Dan and I all played a game of Triple Yahtzee which must have taken two hours to finish (much to Lori's chagrin because she couldn't even grasp the concept of Triple Yahtzee... 'Huh? Three games of Yahtzee at once...? What?') and then watched 'Monsters, Inc.' before it was time to set the alarms for 5:30 AM and hit the sack... The next day, Day #3 in Dayton, would be 'Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza'... | private feedback | (0) public comments The details are irrelevant... I had such a rotten day yesterday... I stayed at the office until a little after 8... and then I went home, crawled into bed and tried to go to sleep so that yesterday would just be over as soon as possible. Today's not lookin' much better... | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, December 03, 2002 And in more news from the Supreme Court... The people who installed our 'President' have also graciously decided to hear a case on whether individual states can pass laws outlawing sex between consenting gay and lesbian citizens. That's right, there are still 13 states in the good Ol' U.S. of A. that say its ILLEGAL for two consenting ADULTS to have any sort of sexual contact with eachother. This is absolutely mind-boggling to me. What I do (If I lived in... say, Texas) in my own private bedroom and not hurting a soul doing it... is illegal. Amazing! And the only defense these 13 states can muster? 'The laws are rarely enforced.' [So why do we need them!?] And they are 'intended to preserve public morals.' [i.e. the majority thinks the actions of the minority are immoral and they want that put into law. Big fucking surprise, right?] If the Supreme Court doesn't change their stance on this issue... (they upheld individual states' rights waaaaaaaay back in 1986), then I hope activists in these 13 individual states take up the cause... and get truly outraged. | private feedback | (0) public comments The importance of being diverse... The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving 'reverse discrimination' brought against the University of Michigan by a white student who was denied admission. She claims that minority students were admitted that same year with significantly lower test scores and grades than she has... and in her opinion, this is just not fair... that college admissions should be 'blind to race.' Ideally, this *would* be the case. But noone (except garden variety republicans) would dare look me in the eyes and tell me that a black teenager from inner-city Detroit has the same opportunity to succeed as an upper-middle-class white teenager from Westchester. Because its simply, flat-out false. Entire books have been written about the topic of race and class inequity and so I won't even begin to go into specifics in my pathetic little blog posting. On the flip side, Rush Limbaugh and others want you to believe that if you work really really hard and pull yourself up by the bootstraps you can acheive anything you want... no matter the color of your skin. While there are exceptions, this is NOT the rule. Suffice it to say, when *I* think of America and the so called 'American Dream,' I like to imagine that every individual gets the same OPPORTUNITY to succeed. This is just not the case. And, obviously, this white woman has lived a pretty sheltered life not to have realized the same thing. But seriously, don't we all feel just terrible for this white student who didn't get into the University of Michigan? After all, she was a 'victim' of affirmative action. (P.S. Its not as if she didn't get into any school by the way... just not the University of Michigan... she has since finished her college degree at some other apparently second-rate University or else she still wouldn't be bitter.) I don't feel one bit sad and I'll tell you why. By her own admission (and this is sad just on its own), she admits that when she first got the letter turning down her application, she immediately turned to her father and said, 'Can we sue?' What a statement!! This woman, for whatever reason, thought it was not a priviledge to go to this particular college, but thought it was her god-given RIGHT, that was so guaranteed that she was going to sue for it. Duh! Of course she was shocked! How often does a white person not get what they want in this day and age? Hardly ever! But did she stop and think, 'Gee, I must not have been quite the candidate they were looking for?' or even 'Wow. So this is what it must feel like... to be denied certain things that up until now I have taken for granted as a given.' Of course not, she thought she was entitled! Otherwise, this wouldn't be going to the Supreme Court. Our country as a whole (yes, I know I'm still excluding the republicans), at least gave lip service to the idea that diversity makes us a stronger nation... that we actually VALUE diversity among our population. And then we took a look at our higher education institutions... the places where the leaders of tomorrow are being educated and sent out into the world, and we realized... 'Gee, the diversity of this great nation is not represented on our campuses.' This is a devastating revelation! That the next generation of leaders in the world DO NOT reflect the population at large. That's a big problem, so what do you do about it? Colleges and universities responded... 'Hey, lets include diversity in the litany of things we consider for admission to our school. Not only should we look at grades, extracurricular activities, recommendations, standardized tests, work experience, essays, interviews, but lets add diversity as just one more thing that we can include in our decision-making process.' A few schools went overboard with actual quotas... and were quickly, and rightly shot down. So yes, considering all things... and looking at the student body at University of Michigan as a whole... the admissions board decided that as an applicant this particular person had less to offer the school than another student... and yes, that decision was partly made because the University of Michigan values diversity. I think we should all value diversity, and I think it will be a travesty if the court overturns their own decision allowing universities to at least consider race in their admissions processes. | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, December 02, 2002 A few fun pictures... I realize I haven't even told you the rest of the story of my trip... and these pics might spoil a few of the punchlines... but here goes... (Thanks for sending these, Lori!) FYI, these are ALL before I got my hair cut Friday night, and I hadn't shaved for days. Ugh. Lori & Susan Dan (Susan's son), Susan, and Dawn arrive at 5:30 AM for our Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza. And Me at 5:30 in the morning... My crush, Dawn, *sigh* The line to get into Target @ 6:30 AM!! It goes *around* the building... I kid you not. Another picture of Dawn with a toy on her head. *sigh* Oh yeah, Susan's in there too. *grin* When I was a kid, the only thing I ever wanted for christmas was an EasyBake oven... and I never got one. And today I hate to cook... coincidence? I think not. I'm so jealous of Keelinn cause *she's* gettin' one... Another one of Lori's GREAT friends, Melinda showing me a sewing machine from her collection. | private feedback | (0) public comments The cards don't lie... Sometime Wednesday night I had also met Lori's friend Robyn... and it was at her house that Susan read tarot cards for me. (So many things seemed to have happened that night that it is all a blur). It was a SCARY reading cause I didn't tell her what my question was and all the stuff she was telling me was right-on. Of course I was interested in learning about what my love life held in store for me... I won't get into too many specifics... but issues from the past abound, gossip queens are standing between me and true love, and I'll meet 'Mr. Right' in a group setting. Hmmmmmmmm... | private feedback | (0) public comments Dayton: Day 1 Wednesday morning Lori and I pulled out of the driveway a full two-and-a-half hours later than we hoped. There was no way we were getting our butts out of bed at 4:30 in the morning. We had both stayed up late packing... and I was up later than I thought doing laundry. Dar Dar did not come with us but she came downstairs to say goodbye. We stopped at Weghead's to get some coffee and some reading material for the trip and didn't stop again until we got near Hornell, along Route 17. I spent many of my childhood years in and around Hornell... so it was a bit surreal to pull up to the Quik Fill that we used to stop at before going on to the gravel pit to shoot frogs out of mudpuddles when I was like... 10. I hadn't been in Hornell for years and so I started spouting off every random memory from the area that I could... shooting starlings from light poles in our back yard, building forts out of big sheets of bark in the woods behind the apartment, and Jeff's (this is what I call my brother's father now that I don't speak to him anymore *grin*) hypochondriac girlfriend who would throw herself down flights of stairs to keep him from leaving her. Looking back on it, it was a very violent existence... in Hornell. Anyway, so here we were... this was Lori's trip... I was going to meet *her* friends and see where *she* spent so much time... and I was having my own flashbacks. So we distracted ourselves for most of the way with singing drag queens... the Kinsey Sicks and 'Ho Ho Ho' by RuPaul. (Since we're getting to that time of the year... let me just interject that RuPaul's Christmas album is my FAVORITE christmas album of all time. That's right, even more than both of Reba's christmas albums. It contains such gems as 'RuPaul the Red Nosed Drag Queen' and 'All I Want for Christmas (is some liposuction)' and a kick-ass version of 'Hard Candy Christmas' -- originally from one of my favorite movies 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.' This album is a christmas must-have!!) When the drag queens were through we tried to find some talk radio... and stumbled across... RUSH LIMBAUGH. I forgot this blowhard even existed. So we listened to him about as long as we could stand it. This conservative lump-of-a-man hosts a radio show that has absolutely NO content... he just pats himself on the back, (I'm leery of anyone, either conservative or liberal, that refers to themselves or anything they do as 'brilliant') and discredits any liberals. It was a particularly enlightening show... his rant was about how the groups that lean Democratic are just a bunch of victims and that the only thing liberals know how to do is act like a victim and can only whine about their problems, but can never fix them. Rush Limbaugh is nothing short of a whacko. ... And now, drum roll please... the most exciting road trip stop we made in both directions, both to and from Dayton... a little out of our way but WELL worth it.......... an Apple Store somewhere outside Columbus!! Every single time we plan a road trip one of the first questions we ask is, 'Is there an IKEA or an APPLE STORE' anywhere near where we're going or on the way?' My knees were literally weak as we walked up to the store that was marked with nothing more than a white translucent Apple logo. I had read articles and seen pictures of Apple Stores but had never actually been inside one. We took a deep breath and stepped inside what must have been the most beautiful retail store imaginable. *grin* We played with machines and got to run our hands over the curves of computers that we can only dream of owning. (Right now, if you're a Mac person you're completely understanding this... and if you're not, well you'll probably think I'm a nut and never come back to this Web site again. I know I am taking a risk being so open about my love of Macs.) After a brief stop in a super-cool furniture store where I will never be able to afford a single peice of furniture, we were on the road again... only an hour outside of Dayton. It was pretty dark by the time we pulled up to Susan's. Susan is Lori's friend from college and lives a little south of Dayton in Centerville. She lives with her parents and her son, Daniel. They had been waiting for us to get into town so that we could get something to eat... and we were a little late. So by the time we got there, Daniel was ready to push us out the door and get some food... we went to Fuddrucker's and then back to Susan's for a bit... I was so out-of-my-brain tired Wednesday night that I don't remember if these conversations happened in quite this order or if they were before dinner... but Susan introduced me to one of her hobbies... Scrapping, i.e. making scrapbooks. Are you familiar with this phenomenon? I feel I need to call it a phenomenon when whole niche stores have popped up celebrating the art of making scrapbooks... stores that sell nothing but paper, matting, stickers and stencils so that folks could scrapbook any and every moment of their lives if they are so inclined. I would probably do it, except to do it right, it takes longer to scrapbook the moment than it does to actually *live* the moment... If you've never seen a REAL scrapbook like I did this past Wednesday night, you cannot even imagine what I'm talking about. We also took a driving tour of Dayton... I don't remember much except every new neighborhood we drove through, Susan would change the music as appropriate. I thought that was a nice touch. OH YEAH, and Susan also works for a Graphic Design agency in Dayton, so we got to go back and see her office... which was super cool for me since I also work in a Graphic Design agency. :-) Susan's sister was nice enough to let us use her condo while she was out of town so we wouldn't have to spend money on a hotel. That's where we crashed Wednesday night after our long day on the road... to prepare for the feast that would be Thanksgiving Dinner the next day. | private feedback | (0) public comments Sunday, December 01, 2002 Back in Ithaca! After an 11-1/2 hour drive that should have only taken 8 (Damned snow!)... I'm happy to report that I'm back in Ithaca safe and sound. Just in time to bowl! What a great weekend. I had a blast! Great food, great people, tarot card readings, Apple stores, tours of Dayton, trash-talkin' games of Yahtzee, enzyme-enriched pancakes, redefining 'Black Friday,' getting a crush (on a woman!?!), sewing machine collections, and a bit of drag. Scrappin', stampin', quiltin' good times! Details as I can type them out... | private feedback | (0) public comments |
Hey! I'm Shane... a proud gay progressive Democrat who has recently relocated to New York City from Ithaca, NY. As I am no longer in Ithaca, I haven't quite decided the fate of this blog. Drop me a line!
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