Happy Hot Guy Friday!/Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Happy HGF!

For the holiday I thought I'd give you a couple of images of the scariest guys on tv...




and the scariest video I think I've ever seen in my whole life...



Good Luck to us Tuesday.

Renewed

I'm back, rested, and ready to carry on!

The trip was remarkable, and not without adventure.

The interview wasn't much of an adventure however, and though I think they might offer me something, I think it won't be enough of a something to get me out of my comfort zone at this point.

But there are more important fish to fry.

John McCain is closing the gap on Barack Obama. This is not acceptable.

I say once again and probably several more times before Tuesday. YOU MUST VOTE!

I know, I know.

I realize that some of you misguided souls will go out and vote for John McCain, which is inherently wrong, but at least that means you voted. That you participated in the process, and that you are interested in hopefully, turning things around.

I just had a thought. Tomorrow is not only HGF, it's Halloween. Maybe we need to find some spooky hot guys. If I have time, I'll look.

Love

Kitchen Blog by special request

The spread we enjoyed tonight. Pretty tasty!



Hiking in the Organs

And now from the deepest darkest regions of the southwest by special request it's a Kitchen Blog!

(It should be noted at this point that I am full of Cabernet, so I now disavow any responsibility for the contents of this post)

Here from the kitchen of my friends C and M while the kids are cooking Tempura, and the rest of us are watching baseball we're all here to say hello.

Interviews, horses, senior hikes with dogs and teenagers(sorry Dalton), touristy stuff, and fun restaurants have all been had. M and I solved the ills of our society including gay marriage and African American Presidents. The old man is screwed, Arizona will say yes California will say no. Tomorrow it's hot springs and elevations on the beginning of the return trip. Looking at a house too, but that's just for fun.

The interview went fine, we'll see what I do if they offer. Soul searching has been done, (yawn) now back to reality.

Have a happy Halloween!

Love

Gotta do it!

Jay Hernandez, making me postpone my vacation for a few minutes cause he's awfully hot. I hear he plays a fireman in his latest film.

Ay! Dios Mio!

I'm gone, Just had to spread the Hot Guy Friday love.

Love

Luck, or destiny?

Tomorrow morning I'm off to the southwest for that interview I was talking about last week. I'm still trying to get excited bout it.

It's not that I don't want to move, I DO.

It's not that I don't want the new job I do, (if the $ is right.)

It's not that gathering all that crap up, packing it in a truck and driving it another thousand miles doesn't appeal to me, in some perverse way it does, and always has.

It's that next two years. The years in which you have to just sit still and establish yourself somewhere before ANYTHING happens.

Before you have the contacts and the trust to do the things you love to do and the things that make you whole. It's a tough two years. I seldom make it, and I think that may just be the rub this time.

Cause in the past I could always just come back, this time I refuse to succumb to that easy way out. I'm staying where I'm going and I'm gonna do what I set out to do.

I just gotta get through that two years first. Yikes.

I was putting music on the ipod last night to take with me, and I realized I had left my favorite weezer cd at work, so tonight I have to try to get that on there as well. It's Make Believe, which is like 3 years old and I still haven't listened to the Red Album which I am told is great, it just hasn't made it to the top of the list. I'm also taking Death Cab for Cutie's Narrow Stairs, yes I've listened to their new one, and I really liked it. It's a bitch as you get older and try to keep up with not only your favorite old artists, but the new ones as well.

Of course, Joni Mitchell and Elton John don't release much anymore, thank god, so I'm only a year or two behind on everyone else.

Recently I was reminiscing about the olden days, when I'd get up on Saturday morning and wander around the house and finally go out to breakfast and then to the cd store where I'd spend too much money and then go home and listen to my new cd's while I cleaned the house and read the inserts cover to cover and wonder whatever was I going to do that night?

Now that I'm old and have a life, I have no time for that shit. I download the music stick it on the ipod and try to listen to it in the car or while I'm working. Saturday morning's are for riding horses and being outdoors. For that matter so are Sunday's, another advantage of being old, no housework. There are people for that.

Trying to find some gaited horse training dvd's on the net. I'm just not sure who to listen to. There are so many out there. I want to get this guy right and I don't want to have to start him over and over, it'd just descend quickly into a mess so I'm trying to do good research and choose carefully.

I can't believe Halloween will happen right after I get back from vacation. After that it's just three weeks to Thanksgiving and San Francisco, and then the semester is over and I have to post grades. After that it's pretty quiet until I get done at the library on the 23rd. I'm off until the 5th so the holidays will be relaxing at any rate, I can't decide between New Mexico like last year, or just sticking close to home and riding horses a lot.

Of course, there's prep for the next semester, if I'm still here. And keeping horses ridden all winter, and apparently there are several of us who're going to continue to offer trail rides year round this time. Not sure how that's going to work since I won't go out myself if it's icy, let alone take someone I don't know out. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it I guess.

Last night was for laundry, packing, and getting ready for the trip. Didn't happen. I sat on my ass all night and read. The laundry is done, but packing and all that?

I have a busy night ahead of me.

Wish me luck.

Only 90 days!

George W Bush will begin his tenure as the worst president EVER in a mere 90 days. I can't wait!

A deserved title if ever there was one. I hope we don't let history look kindly on him, cause if anyone deserves the rack he does.

I understand someone tried to cuff and perform a citizens arrest on Karl Rove yesterday. Wish I'd been there. He's the guy that should go to jail, but if anyone does I assure you it won't be him.

I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to mention to everyone that you have to vote. You HAVE to! Of course, I'd prefer it if you agreed with me and voted the same way I'm going to vote, and though I am delusional, I'm not crazy. You may not agree with me and you might not vote with me either. But that's fine. I don't care who you vote for. YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO GO DO IT!

Go out there, stand in that line, and make sure your voice is heard. That someone somewhere counts the checkmark, the lever pull, the non-hanging chad (whatever) that came from your hand to the ballot box.

It's a right, yes. It's a privilege, yes. But most importantly it's a responsibility. We have to get back on the road to being the America I talked about the other day, the one that Thomas Friedman so eloquently described in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, his latest book. If a paragraph like that isn't patriotism I don't know what is.

Voting is the easiest, and most fundamental thing you can do to support your party, your candidate, your ideals, and your future. And if you have children it's all the more important.

Lot's of people blow off voting cause it's time consuming, it's "a waste of time" it's not very glamorous, etc. But, and I know I'm beating a dead horse here, it's so incredibly important.

Personally I object to all the shit that's being heaped on the Obama campaign, hope, change, the expectations that he's going to make things ok.. they're all so...well, huge! It's too much, and it creates inevitable disappointment. If he's our guy, let's just get him in there and tell him what we want and see what he can do. Let's not send him in there with this laundry list and hope for the best.

Yes, I want us out of Iraq, I want universal health care, I want education to...well, exist. I'd like to see college for everyone, but baby steps. I want us to go the root of the economic problem and say to those homeowners, who, though they didn't read their mortgages, and who didn't think through what was probably the largest purchase of their lives, I want us to say to them, "Ok, here's what we'll do. We'll fix this mortgage so that you can keep the house. We'll cover the loss of the financial institution that screwed you over to begin with. But you're staying here, and you're paying for this house." Everyone wins. Instead of saying, "Oh, here, let's give 700 Billion Dollars to our banks so the poor things who obviously can't manage money to begin with can get themselves out of trouble."

We're doing socialist things but we never seem to get the good parts of socialism. We don't get health care, we don't get free college, we get the shitty nationalized banking system. Essentially a way for us to recapitalize the banks who spent the money we gave them to begin with.

You do realize that we capitalized that banks the first time don't you? I mean they didn't just print that shit, we earned it and gave it to them for one thing and another and that's where it came from. And they blew it. So since it obviously wasn't enough we have to give it to them again. But in larger amounts and lump sums this time. God we're stupid.

Anyway, to prevent this kind of shit yo u have to vote. You have to get out there and make sure that gas isn't $4 a gallon again, that we have choices in our energy consumption. That we are not the stupidest people on the block.

We need to start over, we need roads and bridges and an electrical grid, and mass transit, and bike paths that actually go somewhere, like to work, instead of over the river and through the woods, and we need to create the jobs to fill those needs. Let's rebuild what we've neglected and make the necessary improvements along the way.

Yesterday I was reading someone who criticized T. Boone Pickens for his natural gas for cars idea, saying that a whole new infrastructure would be needed.

Wait, we'll build roads and interchanges to handle the traffic to the new Wal-Mart, yet we won't chip in for cleaner, cheaper, energy?

Need I say more?

Get your ass out and vote on the 4th.

I can't say it better

The following is a link to a post from a blog called Thoughttheater by Daniel DiRito. I think he may just be a genius. He's certainly hit the nail on the head with this post.

If you're in California please vote no on Prop 8. If you're anywhere else, read these words and then try to justify denying anyone anything...I dare you.

I have said all along that I don't give a damn about gay marriage. And I still don't. I've also said that I want to celebrate the difference! that I want to acknowledge who I am and know that that person, that tradition, those queer values have merit. That they warrant celebration. Not to be homogenized away. I'm different than you and I like it that way.

However!

I still exist. I'm still a member of this culture, and I still have the same rights that you do. They're not different because I'm homosexual! Where is that written in the Constitution, that these inalienable rights apply only to heterosexuals?

I'm frankly offended that you think I don't have those rights, and that I have to demand them and then wait for everyone to vote to decide if they're going to give them to me.

I don't choose to love someone of the same sex, I do love someone of the same sex, it's who I am and what I do. It's my genetic version of the pursuit of happiness. I should be at liberty to pursue it.

My human-ness is my ticket to living. It should grant me every opportunity that every heterosexual has and it should do so without reservation.

Notes from the Universe

It thoroughly pains me to admit I read Notes from the Universe. Truth is I subscribe to the daily email.

Today, yet again, they sent one that echoed something I've said for years.

I've always contended that two classes of people have attorney's, rich people and poor people. Us middle class goofs usually have no need for one, and most likely can't afford one.

Today's note said that having money, and having no money both present unique opportunities to exist in your life that wouldn't otherwise. I agree.

Having money in this life is not likely. Maybe I should choose to enjoy it instead. Of course, it'll take me a year or two to get rid of my current debt and by that time I could have changed my mind on the subject several times. But for today, I'm going back to poor and having fun experiences.

Tomorrow I may want the Mercedes again...we'll see.

Yesterday I ran into the mother of this guy I went to both grade school and high school with. We were never friends, but he was always nice to me, which was rare in those days, and I always liked him.

Several years after high school I invited a co-worker for a dinner party, and she invited her married BF. She then called me to ask if married bf could bring a friend who had nothing to do and nowhere to go that particular day and of course I said yes.

Married BF dragged K into my house. It was fine actually, he was as nice as always, and I felt that we'd done something nice for someone who according to what I was told was going through a rough patch(it seemed that K had gotten off to a rough start in adulthood and needed some attention) so it felt good that a guy who'd always been nice to me could sit at my table and eat my food and feel welcome, though I'm pretty sure he wasn't very comfortable with his gay host.

However, yesterday I spoke with his mother and she mentioned that he was in a large state that sometimes is referred to as southern, but usually just referred to as itself, starting a new job.

With Homeland Security.

I say good for him, I'm glad he's doing well, and I hope he likes his new job and the wide open spaces. I do find it odd that Homeland Security doesn't take issue with a few early arrests in their employees, but glad for K nonetheless.

Mom said she'd tell him hi. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to his marrow.

Love

Hot guy friday is up in th air since I'm traveling this week, we'll see.

Weekend Update

Incredible weekend. Spent the whole thing on a horse. I got there Saturday morning and rode all day and then repeated the process Sunday. I spent some time in the round pen with Sunny, I think he's getting the message that I'm the one he needs to pay attention to. He's not entirely convinced, but he was much better the last two hours of yesterday's ten hours of riding than he's been.

Still in a quandary over the job interview. Seriously, there's a lot to give up here that I'm EXTREMELY reluctant to let go. So, this week begins the campaign to establish myself in the new state. After the interview I'm headed North to look at the house I've been lusting after for months, and then to see if I can establish contacts there that might be able to assist me in getting established professionally.

I'm just not going to move and give up everything I've worked so hard for. If I can make it work elsewhere and get some foundations built to facilitate that great.

If not, I'll find someplace else.

A symptom of the stupid times we live in.-

A well-known and established restaurant here blew up this morning. Rather than think, "Oh, well, it was an old place, it could have been an equipment malfunction." Our illustrious authorities immediately went to that Armageddon scenario we've all had drilled into our heads that this is a terroristic threat. They called in the FBI, and this morning I saw on the news a guy telling us that they were putting to work on this imminent threat, some of the people who worked on the Oklahoma City bombing and some other terrorist occurrence that escapes me at the moment. Do these people have nothing better to do than this? It reminds me of that Friedman quote I posted last week. This is not the America we can afford to be anymore!

When will these people stop running things with their Chicken Little mentality?

Good news on two fronts!

1.) 92 days left of George Bush in our lives.
and
2.) This interminable election sysle will be over in 14 days.

I can't decide which makes me happier.

Love

The love we make

By 365gay Newscenter Staff
10.15.2008 3:23pm EDT

(Bourbonnais, Illinois) An elementary school bus driver has been charged with leading a homophobic attack on a 10-year old student passenger.
The Kankakee Sheriff’s Police Department said that the boy was taunted by the driver who then encouraged other students to chase and beat the child.
Chief Deputy Ken McCabe said the incident occurred on a Bourbonnais Elementary School District bus which was returning students to their homes last Friday.
McCabe said the driver repeatedly called the boy “gay.”
”When the boy got off the bus, the driver encouraged several other students to go after him and tackle him. Our investigation shows that occurred,” McCabe told The Daily Journal.
He also said the driver is under investigation for joining the students in chasing the boy and grabbing him.
Bourbonnais School District officials would only say the driver has been terminated.
Charged with mob action, endangering the life of a child and battery is Russell A. Schmalz, 46.

I swear not long ago someone said to me "It's not gays vs. straights."

Oh no?

How about we ask this TEN YEAR OLD BOY what he thinks?

Been there, lived that, thank you.

BTW-I turned off comments a couple of months ago and I turned them off really well. I can't seem to get them to come back on. I'm working on the code, but it's a slow process deciphering someone else's work, I'll get them back on one day I swear.

Hot Guy Friday!

I've always liked Rob Thomas. He just comes across as so genuine. That voice doesn't hurt either.

Have a good weekend and remember...


Love

Update

Madonna's millions safe in divorce deal: experts (AFP)

Thank God!

I was so worried.

Damn my good fortune!

I've been renewed to teach next semester.

I've been offered a pretty good horse at a reasonable price.

I've found an apt I love in a location I adore, for a price I couldn't pass up.

I've got a free fully equipped studio at my disposal.

I have regularly scheduled human contact.

(that may sound odd, but for me it's perfectly normal)

I just got a raise and a quasi-promotion at my full time job.

It makes me question my desire to move elsewhere and start over.

Dammit!

The new place has a lot of catching up to do.

A Sunnier day

After the strangeness of yesterday I'm so glad to wake to a brighter day today. Not that I was particularly gray yesterday, I wasn't, it just took an odd turn early on. I got a lot done though, I was pretty happy about that.

But last night I was reading before I went to bed and I found something I love. Thomas Friedman has taken my feelings about George Bush's America scooped them right out of me and put them in words way better than I could ever have imagined in his latest book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded"

I can't really decide if I totally agree with this guy or not. He made some good points in "The World is Flat." the first book of his that I read, a few years ago. But I thought some of his positions fell flat. I'm not very far into this one, so I haven't even begun to form an opinion about it but I wanted to share my favorite passage, it sums up exactly what's wrong today and shows us what we are vs. what we need to be.

"Because a place where birds don't fly is a place where people didn't mix, ideas don't get sparked, friendships don't get forged, stereotypes don't get broken, collaboration doesn't happen, trust doesn't get built, and freedom doesn't ring. That is not the kind of place we want America to be. That is not the kind of place we can afford America to be. An America living in a defensive crouch cannot fully tap the vast rivers of idealism, innovation, volunteerism, and philanthropy that still flow through our nation. And it cannot play the vital role it has long played for the rest of the world-as a beacon of hope and the country that can always be counted on to lead the world in response to whatever is the most important challenge of the day. We need that America-and we need to be that America -more than ever today."

Wow, that about sums it up for me. I've known there is something wrong for a long time, yet I've not been able to put my finger on it. I read that last night and thought, oh my God! This guy has put into words exactly what I've been having a problem with. George Bush's America is a closed-minded fearful isolationist bullying little world in which the crazy rule. Perhaps that's why the dissenters have been so quiet these past few years, no one to talk to. The point I think they missed is that this is exactly when they need to be their most vocal.

And though I haven't linked to his blog a for awhile, today's post reminded me why I started reading him in the first place. Here's a link to Bamboonation where Prince Gomolvilas sums up the need for Proposition 8 in California, and what it's really about.

Thanks for the reminder Prince.

Odd Moments

It's funny how something small can send you into a weird spiral. I was driving in this morning listening to a CD and the lyrics of the song suddenly brought to mind all the people I've lost over the years. Let's just say there were tears. Let's also say I was surprised by this development.

I mean, yes, there is the occasional day when I get out the photo albums and have a good cry, but they're very few and far between, and something usually precipitates such a maudlin event. This was quite different. I was in a good mood, not terribly pensive this morning and I was just singing along with the song. It was definitely an odd moment.

Truth is, I do miss them terribly sometimes. But they were all there with me fer sher this morning.

It's nice that they come visit occasionally though.

Justice? What's that?

I've read that George Bush has instructed his staff to prepare for the transition to the new President's staff in a few months. Read-He's got them shredding and deleting and reformatting into a frenzy so that the new administration will be under the misguided impression that they're walking into a completely blank new world, wait, Blank New World, forget Aldous Huxley.

Of course, if John McCain is elected, then the blank new world won't be so new to him.

I'm reading that there have been certain states that have placed their National Guard units on alert to impose martial law in the event that the economic crisis goes ballistic. How comforting to know that we've come to that point and were heretofore unaware.

I've also read that with the economic crisis having reached the point it has, that the organizations who foolishly exist on the Machiavellian whims of corporate America, you know, like food kitchens, meals on wheels, pantries, homeless shelters and the like. They're feeling the pinch cause when the rich get less so, the first thing that goes is other people. Corporate giving has tanked in recent weeks and a lot of organizations aren't able to make their nut. So what happens? People go hungry, they begin to contemplate the prospect of living outdoors..IN THE WINTER! And they die.

Where in the hell do we live? I heard a story on NPR this morning of a woman who got herself and her children off welfare 45 years ago by working at a nursing home. I've no idea how long she worked there, nor if she was able to retire, but I do know that now...at 68, she's back on welfare. Unable to secure employment, unable to care for herself, and unable to escape the cycle of poverty she's spent most of her life in, she had to go back on welfare just to survive. WHAT THE FUCK?

I suppose she could move somewhere else and start over. I suppose she could try to find some government program that's not currently overrun with applicants that MIGHT help her secure employment. But she lives in a small desert town and the elderly are far less inclined to relocate as they age.

I contend it all goes back to an education system that is so inherently flawed that it doesn't function in a manner that would do anything but keep the masses stupid and hungry. And those in power like it that way.

We don't have anyone anymore that speaks truth to power, so why wouldn't they live in their own little deluded world where they can just cast crumbs to the masses and go off to their little 450k junkets right after they got themselves bailed out at our expense? Oh, and I also read the other day that Wachovia, remember them? They guys who had to be bailed out of their subprime mortgage mess and then had Citigroup and Wells Fargo fighting over the meaty bits? They loaned the Republican party 800k at the height of their insolvency.

Chris Rock said it best recently:

"George W. Bush has fucked up so bad, he's made it hard for the white man to be President."

Well, if this is what we get, what makes it so damn important for them to be President anyway?

Hypocrites are so predictable

The Catholic Diocese in Fresno Ca. has suspended Father Geoffrey Farrow. I'd be shocked if I didn't know they were going to do it all along.

The hypocrisy of that organization knows no bounds, never has. The power they've obtained has been through intimidation and the ability to amass large sums of money with which one can always manipulate the will of others.


It's truly a shame that someone who attempts to be a voice for the civil rights for all is silenced by such a shameless bunch of charlatans.

The Catholic Church has long professed love for all human beings while at the same time smiting them for failing to be anything other than what they are...human.

The mighty always fall, these dissemblers will as well, and when they least expect it.

Another strike for organized religion, what a sham.

We're so delusional

I know I'm delusional, and narcissistic, but most Americans could give me lessons. I'm amazed at the capacity of people to delude themselves. That anyone would actually consider voting for John McCain in the next few weeks is astounding to me.

George W. Bush, whom McCain models himself after cause he has no original ideas of his own, didn't just destroy the economy of the United States, he destroyed the economies of the entire world! That's how big a fuck up he is!

I thought this piece from Newsweek was interesting, and made the points much better than I ever could:

In Britain as in the United States, the vision was about more than owning a home. It was about being a better person. With a home came traditional values, an appreciation of hard work, prudent living, civic-mindedness, patriotism and ultimately a more stable society. Or so the rhetoric went.

But eventually, it all went sour. By the turn of the century, the proliferation of easy credit and universal stock ownership combined to create anything but a conservative society of thrift. Average household debt levels are now higher in Britain than in any other major country in the developed world. In the United States, the shift away from corporate pensions to 401(k) retirement accounts plunged millions more into the equity markets and loosened the traditional connection between companies and workers, which was one element of that 1950s dream that conservatives like Bush conveniently forgot. The ownership society of the 1950s was anchored by a labor movement that made sure that workers received something resembling their share—remember Truman's Fair Deal? The deal for the past eight years has been fair to merchants of capital, and then some. But to the tens of millions on the receiving rather than originating end of those mortgages, fairness has been in short supply.

No, this can't be reduced to a swindle. We all bear some burden for the current morass. You can't peddle what people don't want to buy, and for a while it seemed a decent trade-off: Wall Street got rich, and Main Street got homes. The easy terms—and that is putting it lightly—of mortgages gave many a chance to own a home who never would have qualified for a mortgage in years past. But it also gave others the option to buy, sell and flip. Every speculator a home? That wasn't supposed to be part of the equation.

The irony is that more homeownership and stock ownership has actually weakened traditional bonds. For the past decade, as homeownership went up, marriages continued to fail. As a percentage of the population, fewer people are getting married now than 10 years ago. Single-parent homes are on the rise. So is unemployment, which has increased to 6.1 percent, up from 4.5 percent in 2000. With foreclosures now running at more than 300,000 a month, and stock portfolios and retirement savings shrinking with the global-equity sell-off, there has been a notable increase in demand for mental-health services—which is a problem, given that many health-care plans, the ones left to the private sector, cover only a few visits. Studies have also shown a link between difficult economic straits and declining health and higher mortality. And as the editor and writer Tina Brown, a sharp tracker of social trends, recently said at NEWSWEEK's Women & Leadership conference, "I think the financial crisis is going to put a lot of marriages under great stress. There really isn't enough to go around, and there are choices to be made. When men lose their job they frequently feel a great loss of manly self-confidence, and that has great impact on a marriage."

The final referendum on the ownership society will be the November election. The rhetoric of both parties and candidates for president suggests that regardless of who wins, the vision of the past eight years is being rejected in favor of hunkering down, paying off debt, regulating the anarchic world of credit and derivatives, and unraveling systemic knots that have assumed Gordian complexity. As Barack Obama recently said, "in Washington they call this the ownership society, but what it really means is, you're on your own."

This crisis will pass, eventually, and on the other side there will still be global electronic exchanges and computer-enhanced models; there will still be mortgages; and there will still be a deep cultural yearning for a place of one's own. There may be less froth and more discipline in the coming years—combined with reduced circumstances and less money. Lean times are their own source of hopes and desires, and drive people to find new ways to satisfy old yearnings. There may be more prudent ways to create a world where families are stable and living in their own homes. But the gap between that dream and messy reality isn't likely to close any time soon. Let's hope that we have learned something about how much we can have and how quickly. For Americans in particular, that would be a real revolution.

Karabell is president of RiverTwice Research and senior adviser for Business for Social Responsibility.

© 2008

Hot Guy Friday

Tom Hollander has recently come back onto my radar in a cute little film called "A Good Year" Starring Russell Crowe, and Abbie Cornish.

Tom is quite the exception for me in that I NEVER go for guys with curly hair. But Tom's so cute you have to overlook that.








Remember, there is nothing you can do about the collapse of the world economy. Nothing at all, so pour yourself a good stiff drink, sit back, and relax knowing that you're going to have to work the rest of your life just to eat and live indoors, and thank the Gods that we didn't privatize social security.


Love

(it's really all that matters anyway.)

work work work

I was at a workshop all day yesterday. The jury is still out on whether it was useful or not. I'm really more of a hands-on person when it comes to the kind of stuff we were doing and we didn't do hands-on until the last hour of the workshop. So I'll have to sit down and apply what I did pick up to my own stuff at work to find out just how much help it actually was.

On the 27th I'll be in a city in the southwest interviewing for a job I don't think I want. I can be assured they'll try to lowball me on the money and if they don't at least beat what I'm getting now by a few hundred a month it's not worth it. I want to go, I want to get started elsewhere, I want to transplant myself. I just don't want to give up eating and living indoors to do it.

I think the inventory of what I have here is what's putting a damper on my enthusiasm for the new job. I have a job that's pretty damn simple which pays me ok, and within very few limits I get to do whatever I want. Which is to say I'm spoiled as hell and going back to actual work for some organization that has already pissed me off twice before the interview gives me pause.

Also, as far as personal things I have almost everything I want right here. I'm teaching, albeit not full time. I've got horses at my disposal, and likely will buy one of my own come spring. I have full use of a fully equipped pottery studio weekly, and my own setup at home as well. No kiln there but that won't happen anywhere else either, for quite awhile. I'm losing my personal HB, he's off to greener pastures of his own, and so that search is back on, but it was sweet while it lasted. I love my apt, and the landlord is great, so the new situation will have to improve on the current one if I am to uproot and move on. Also, my social life here is going pretty well, so I'll be giving up that as well when I move to a place where I know no one.

I'm still thinking that my latest plan was the best, decide on the city, develop my network and go when I find a job or a situation that will work for me. Not just cause I want to, I mean, I do want to get out of here, I want to finalize the escape from my former family, but I simply can't manage to bite my nose off to spite my face. So maybe I need to go look at the more northern of my choices while I'm there. I do want to be elsewhere, and I do want to have a life in the particular state I've chosen, or rather that's chosen me, BUT, I'm not renting a Uhaul just yet.

I'll go to this interview and I'll get a vacation. I need one anyway, so it'll be good for me to get away and visit friends. But unless I have no job or some other calamity befalls me here, I'm not running out there and just taking what comes along just to make the move. I'm too old for that.

It's sort of one of those "I'll know it when I see it," kinda things.

God, I miss being impetuous.

The price of freedom

For those of you who still manage somehow to believe in a deity, I submit for your consideration a lesson in what it means to be truly courageous.

Father Geoffrey Farrow, a priest at UC/Fresno this past Sunday gave what I am certain will be his last sermon from a Catholic pulpit. In so doing he became my hero.

By proclaiming his sexuality, and his opposition to Proposition 8 in California he effectively resigned the priesthood. I am certain that if it weren't illegal, those fucking hypocrites in the Catholic Church would have him stoned to death in the town square. Personally, I think we should erect a statue in his honor.

This man knows what it means to pay a price for freedom and was willing to do so. The following is a portion of his sermon, and that is followed by a quote from a phone interview he did shortly after.

I am in awe of people who are willing to give that much for another human being. Always will be.


"...Recently, I was speaking with some of our parishioners who advocate for the ordination of women. In the course of our conversation, a question arose which has haunted me: "At what point do you cease to be an agent for healing and growth and become an accomplice of injustice?" By asking all of the pastors of the Diocese of Fresno to promote Catholics to vote "Yes" on Proposition 8, the bishop has placed me in a moral predicament.... In directing the faithful to vote "Yes" on Proposition 8, the California Bishops are not merely entering the political arena, they are ignoring the advances and insights of neurology, psychology and the very statements made by the Church itself that homosexuality is innate (i.e. orientation). In doing this, they are making a statement which has a direct, and damaging, effect on some of the people who may be sitting in the pews next to you today...

How is marriage protected by intimidating gay and lesbian people into loveless and lonely lives? What is accomplished by this? Worse still, is to intimidate a gay or lesbian person into a heterosexual marriage, which is doomed from its inception, and makes two victims instead of one by this hurtful "theology." This "theology," which is parroted by clerics in polished tones from pulpits, produces the very prejudice and hatred in our society which they claim to abhor....

I do not presume to tell you how to vote but I do ask that you pray to the Creator of us all...The act of casting a vote takes you a few minutes but it can cause other human beings untold happiness or sorrow for a lifetime. It can grant them hope and acceptance, or it can cause them to lose civil rights. It can be a rebuff to bigotry and hatred, or it can encourage bigotry and hatred. Personally, I am morally compelled to vote "NO" on Proposition 8. It is my hope that the people of California will join with those others around the world such as Canada, Europe and South Africa who welcome their gay and lesbian family members fully into society by granting them the civil right to marry.

I know these words of truth will cost me dearly. But to withhold them, would be far more costly and I would become an accomplice to a moral evil that strips gay and lesbian people not only of their civil rights but of their human dignity as well. Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." He didn't promise that it would be easy or without personal cost to speak that truth."

And in an interview he gave the basis for his courageous decision.

"My grandfather was a Sephardic Jew and he left Spain and went to Cuba. He was never religious in his whole life and in that country, they have state atheism imposed. He started going to synagogue all of a sudden. And then he got into an argument with the police over that and he said, 'This is why we left Europe.' And they took him to the police station, beat the crap out of him and he had a heart attack and died.

My family collected the body and then my parents came this to country with an infant, a toddler, two suitcases, $20 and started a whole new life.

I remember being a kid in grammar school and going to mom and saying, 'How come we don't have grandparents? Everyone else in the 4th grade has grandparents.' And she was preparing dinner and she stopped what she was doing, she sat me down at the kitchen table and said, 'Honey, you have grandparents. But we had to leave everyone behind because your father and I wanted you kids to be free.'

I can't betray that. And I know the reason a lot of people aren't speaking out is for fear. But it just takes one or two people to crack that nut and then things start to change. And it's worth it."

Father Farrow, I bow to your valor, and to your honor.

and they all fall down

"Waxman said that in January, Fuld and his board were warned the company's "liquidity can disappear quite fast."

Despite that warning, he said, 'Mr. Fuld depleted Lehman's capital reserves by over $10 billion through year-end bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividend payments.'"

IMHO I say the federal governemnt go get that 10 Billion dollars and use it toward paying back the 700 billion we're shelling out.

All over the place

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, ....." Not that there have been any earth shattering developments in my life in the past 72 hrs, but there sure were one or two on Orenthal James Simpson's life huh? Poor thing, after remaining free for 13 years to the day for hacking up his ex-wife and a total stranger,he's gets his, behind something even more stupid that he did last year. The narcissistic just can't help but let their sense of entitlement run themselves to ground can they? The arc of the Universe may be long but it sure does bend toward justice. How many 13's can a guy get stacked up against himself? 13 years after his acquittal,and after 13 hours of deliberation for a crime he committed on the 13th of the month, he shoots craps! There are cycles to life aren't there? Run from that OJ.

Woke up to a dead fridge this morning. Always the way I want to start Monday. With soggy strawberries. Yummy! That's the beauty of renting. I put all the stuff in a cooler and called the person who owns the fridge to go fix it.

I met what may be my first horse on Saturday. Sunny is a pretty sweet ride. He needs some work, he's apparently been someone's yard ornament for three or four years, so we gotta find his flat walk and then his fox trot. Poor little guy is so short he has to canter to keep up with everybody else. So on Saturday we found the flat walk, but were able to do little with it. But on Sunday he got in it and stayed in it for quite a while. He's a little skittish when I approach from the right side, but after a few minutes that stops, so I think that will be easily worked out. And yesterday I realized that he must get chafed by the girth on the saddle I'm using right now, cause he's jumpy when I try to brush him right where that girth passes behind his legs. He wasn't that way in the morning but he was in the afternoon. I'm not sure if that's the girth or if he just needs to get used to one, I'll try another saddle this weekend.

But as I said, he's a little palomino, probably about 14h, seems pretty even tempered, didn't get fussy when I pulled on his face while trying to get him in the flat walk, and though he shakes me off once in a while when I ask him to do something he always seems to do it without complaint. He's a little chubby right now, but I hope to have that off him in a few weeks. I'd like to have him up in shape to ride all winter, so that if I do buy him in the spring, which is the soonest I could do it anyway, we'll know each other pretty well. He may be short, but as I get older the closer to the ground I want my horse to be anyway.



This isn't him but you get the general idea.

Guess I'll get a dog too.

It's all in your mind...

For the next few minutes sit back, relax, close our eyes, oh wait don't close your eyes or you won't see HGF. Ok, well then, let your mind wander...there's no financial crisis, no election in which one of the candidates can't put three words together and make a sentence, no outrageous gas prices, no being held hostage by people who'd steal the gold out of your teeth... just relax and gaze upon the amazing appearing, disappearing treasure trail of Peter Krause, the latter pronounced like Wowza.

First noticed him on Cybil, where he was a sex object. Then The Truman Show, and of course Sports Night, a show that was waaay too smart for tv. And the incredible Six Feet Under. I can only imagine him as David...woohoo!

Forget your troubles come on get happy! And have a wonderful weekend.

Love

I can hear it now...

Fuck you! We did it anyway.

Ok, here's the problem

I also found this on Bilerico.com, I stand corrected over yesterday's incorrect URL for their site.

I think it's a great point and I love that nameless faceless people do stuff like this.

However, where the fuck have you been? I find it not only ironic, but pathetic that now that it's safe to bash Republicans and the Bush administration that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. I mean, WELCOME! But, don't stop just cause it's not fashionable to bash, they don't, why should we? Bash back. And I mean that in all it's connotations. Question some fucking authority already.

I'm so tired of being held hostage to this 700 billion dollar ransom we have to pay to be able to buy stuff. They're threatening us with a lack of credit. First of all that's bullshit, credit is how they make their money, they loan it, and people and companies pay interest on those loans. No credit won't last for long, they're too greedy.

And here's a novel concept, what if we had to save our money and pay cash for stuff? What then? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!(thanks dr. Venkman)


Cash, now there's a concept!

I should have bought gold when i was told to 15 years ago.

Alas, there's always HGF tomorrow.

The New Dan Quayle

Remember Dan?

Or should I say Dan-E

Well I say the Republican party has replaced him with an updated version...this:



She's not bright, she does not inspire confidence, she doesn't know that to qualify as a diplomat you have to actually talk to your neighbors, and she can't seem to discuss anything legal other than Roe vs. Wade. hmmm.

As for that particular debate, I abstain. I'll never be involved in such a decision, never have been, and need to mind my own damn business as should everyone else.

I'm liking what the McCain campaign has done for her look. Last week I saw her on TV in a suit that looked much like this:

I haven't been able to find a picture of it but it resembled this:



but it was much more severe in its design. And the gray, THAT was a nice touch. Don't these people have dressers? Where the fuck is Carson Kressley?

I say that these people can't be stupid. How could they have gotten as far as they have if they were? I cannot imagine someone attaining the office of Governor if they were stupid. I realize we currently have a complete dolt for President, but he's devious and cunning, and that's not stupid. English seems to be his biggest challenge. That and conscience, and responsibility, and accountability, and...well you know you, were there.

So once again I'm mystified that the stupid apparently rule the world. Bill Maher said this week on Real Time that America has finally found someone as stupid as they are.

I fear that's an understatement. These things make me like Obama more all the time. I wish he were more of my ideal candidate, but at least he can put three words together and make a sentence.

Addendum:

I just found this on Bilericoproject.com and had to share.

This is apparently how Katie Couric was looking at Sarah Palin during their interview:



A picture truly does say a thousand words doesn't it?