Orange Is The New Black

You heard it here first. Trust me on this.

Captain Nice Guy

I noticed that one of the reasons that K and J and I got along so well this past weekend is that we're all disgustingly polite. And not really in a bad way. There's really nothing wrong with treating other people with respect.

Anyway, when we get up on Sunday, it was rainy and gray. Which, you know, is cool. "No rain, no rainbows" as the t-shirts all say. We went to eat some pho, then went to see The Incredibles (six thumbs up) and then decided to go see the western part of the island. We ate some really awesome cheeseburgers and fries at this place - , spelunked around in a cave, and then did a little beachcombing.

All too soon it was time to head back to K's place so I could reboot and get ready to leave. I didn't cry. At least not then.

When I boarded the plane in Honolulu, they were handing out "little blue bags" which evidently contained a snack. I was seated in an exit row right at the entrance so I could hear the flight attendants talking about all kinds of stuff. And first I heard them saying they were out of blue bags. Thinking back to that Tastee Freez cheeseburger, and looking forward to actually sleeping on the way to LA, I gallantly offered up my snack.

Moments later, one of them was lamenting the lack of blankets, so I reached behind me and handed the blanket over.

Unfortunately, these acts did not result in an instant upgrade to First Class.

Perhaps I need to do these things more selflessly?

current music

Way Out West - Intensify

I'll take "Phrases you don't want to hear from the seat in front of you in coach" for $200 please, Alex

What is "Oh! You just press this button and push back really hard!

Normally reticent and non-confrontational me had to speak up and nip that one in the bud.

My Aircraft Is Broken

As I type this, I am supposed to be on my way to Honolulu. I made sure I got to the airport really early in hopes of getting on the upgrade list. Even at $250, it would be worth if for a nine hour forty minute flight. I guess there were already plenty of people who'd booked first class to begin with, or people with a lot more frequent flier miles than I do. Oh well. At least I'm going to Hawaii. Again. Third time this year.

Anyway, about ten minutes before the scheduled boarding time, they decided to let us know that there was a maintenance issue and there'd be a delay. The gate agent asked that we all stay in the area because there was a question of whethere we'd be using the same plane or getting a new one and possibly going to another gate. I would have stayed, but sometimes that airport coffee goes right through me . . . It only took me a minute to run to the men's room, but by the time I got back, they'd posted a new departure time of 1:15 (originally supposed to be 11:50) and determined that we'd be staying at the same gate.

So here I am, in an airport bar, drinking overpriced beer and eating a horrible cheeseburger. I can deal with that. But now I'm not going to get to Honolulu until 6:00 PM. And that's cutting into my already short weekend. To that, I can only say to Delta Airlines:


Oh my god, I hate you!

Partial Restoration

My domain has come back, but I'm going to have to reload and/or recreate most of the files. Please stand by.

Beers, Strippers, and Eggs. Drinks and Bratwurst.

A little explanation of the post and pictures below. Several weeks ago, Caitlin told me she'd be flying down to Atlanta this weekend to meet up with some bloggers. She came down a day early and caught a shuttle down to Columbus. In the course of showing here around, I went to several new places in town and managed to see the place with new eyes.

On Friday, I drove us back up to Atlanta and after a couple minor miscues, we met up with the other folks at a midtown restaurant for drinks and dinner. We then proceeded to another bar where more beers were consumed. This was followed by a visit to the Claremont Lounge. Because why wouldn't a bunch of intoxicated people go to see some of the oldest (and oddest) strippers in Atlanta? It was an experience.

Finally, we went to a diner for some classic post drinking breakfast food, returning to our hotel at 3:15 AM.

We then reconvened this afternoon at CW's house and resumed the party.

As with Blogjam a couple weeks ago, meeting people whose writings you've read is interesting. I've added links to everybody's blogs over on the right.

Blog-o-rama

[Nov 16, 2004: I had to remove the picture links, they were saturating my bandwidth. I'll restore them if I can figure out what was causing that]

One counter full of booze.

One roomful of bloggers.




Hilarity is sure to ensue.

Amend This

Dear Citizens of Georgia, and the other ten states where it you felt it necessary to pass resolutions calling for amendments defining marriage:

Let's us ignore, for the moment, whether or not religious concepts have a place in government in the United States.

Instead, let me tell you about myself. I am a homosexual. I always have been, and there's really no way that's going to change. My sexuality does not define my life, it is just a part of who I am. At this time, I do not have anybody special in my life. I have my family, I have many friends - male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, white, black, Asian, American, European, tall, short, slender, chubby, etc - and they all seem to like me, in fact many of them might even say they love me. And I like and love them. I'd also like to have a romantic love interest, and I expect that one day soon, I will. Why does that bother you?

Would you quote scripture to condemn me? I don't recommend that, it will only backfire. Certainly don't be foolish enough to use the Old Testament, wherein we also have these gems, as quoted by Congressman Jim McDermott on February 25, 2004 (available on page H596 of the Congressional Record):

- Marriage shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. That is from Genesis 29:17-28.

- Secondly, marriage shall not impede man’s right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. That is II Samuel 5:13 and II Chronicles 11:21.

- A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. That is Deuteronomy 22:13.

But as I said at the outset, let's leave religion out of this for now.

Can I ask instead that for just a few minutes that you concentrate not on what gay people might do in their bedrooms, but what they do in their kitchens, their living rooms, their gardens, the supermarket, your banks, your insurance companies, the airlines you fly, the restaurants you eat at? We are you neighbors, your co-workers, your family. We cook, we watch TV, we pull up weeds, we compare prices. We take your deposits, process your claims, show you where the emergency exits are and serve your dinner. Above all, we are human.

Did you see or read any of the news accounts about the couples who were able to marry in San Francisco, Portland, or Massachusetts? Couples who had been together for ten, twelve, TWENTY FIVE years! From the report of a marriage in Oregon: "'At least we can say we were married,' they said, grinning." It's about LOVE. People who love each other, and have spent huge portions of their lives together, being able to express their love.

So tell me, Citizens of Georgia and the other ten states. How does this "threaten" you? What exactly is wrong with two people who love each other wanting to spend their lives together and have it recognized as a legitimate union? Is there something that Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez are doing to uphold the "sanctity of marriage" that I'm just not getting?

And now I'll bring religion back into it. I am willing to let you have the word "marriage." Define it however you want to, for the purposes of your religion. Leave the government out of it. This is where you've gone too far. Not only do many of the resolutions passed on Tuesday attempt to define marriage, but they also seek to prevent the government from recognizing any union or even legal partnership between people of the same gender. You want to write intolerance and discrimination into the law of the land. You want to say it's OK to hate some people, just because of who those people love. You want to condemn me just for being different.

The God I believe in is a loving God. The God I believe in made me in His own image. What God is it that you worship that compels you to legislate hate? I hope you are ready to answer to Him when the time comes.

Quick Note

I guess there's a bit of a problem at the place that hosts my website, so no larrymac.org links work right now. Sorry.

New Map

Heh.

And Dog-Gone It, People Like Me

I don't want to think about the dreadful election results. Not only the outcome for the White House, but the distressing number of anti-gay amendment proposals. Just keep your religion off me, you goddamned dirty apes.

Instead, I'm going to think about how good I feel whenever I get a haircut at Cooper's Uptown Salon. Tammy is fun to talk to and as she gets to know my hair and my preferences, each cut looks better than the last. She did a number of my eyebrows today too, exorcising the ghost of Frida from my brow.

I'm also feeling better about fitness. I did a 20 mile bike ride on Sunday, and on Monday I joined the local YMCA. It's a rickety old building, with a maze of stairwells and hallways to navigate. The free weights are in the basement and are well-used, but hey, they're weights, they don't wear out, right? I've also been eating better, avoiding the vending machine at work, for therein lies evil (primarily in the guise of Herr's Salt and Pepper potato chips. Get the behind me!).

I met some nice new local people on Saturday night as well, in conjunction with going to see Bea Arthur at the RiverCenter.

So hey, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough . . .

Voting

Try as I might, I couldn't locate the postcard I'd gotten that told me where to go vote. I tried using an online resource, but it didn't have the information from my county. What it did have was a phone number to the local elections office, so I went old-school and called to ask where my polling place was. Turns out it is exactly seven blocks from my office.

Once I had that information, and not knowing what the turnout might be like, I thought that walking on up at 3PM was probably better than waiting until after work. I headed on up and had no wait to speak of. Interestingly enough, several of the more local contests had people running unopposed, and in most of those cases, the single candidate was a Democrat. There were a couple exceptions; if the only candidate for an office was a Republican, I abstained. All the information I've seen calls Georgia solidly red, so it was good to see locally there seems to be a Democrat slant. It would be nice to see that carry over to the national side, but I'm not holding my breath.

Of course there was a question about amending the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Stupid religious fucks.

In any event, I did my civic duty and let my voice be heard.

Score one for the good guys

In the past I've written about some pretty bad customer service experiences, so it's only fair that I write about a good one. I've been wearing Oakley sunglasses for a long time. I've owned several pairs of Frogskins, both the old style and the newer style, and currently I can be seen sporting Half Jackets. Aside from attempting to look stylish, I found that by spending big bucks on sunglasses, I was less likely to mistreat them.

Thus, it was with some distress that I discovered about a month ago that I'd misplaced the microfiber bag that Oakley supplies with each pair of its glasses, and into which I'd carefully place my Half Jackets when they weren't on my head. When I visited Richmond a couple weeks ago, I had a chance to stop in at the O Store. I hoped they'd have a replacement bag available for purchase. They had the bag alright, but not only did they just give it to me, the nice guy took the time to thoroughly clean my lenses too. (I probably shouldn't mention that he also showed me that I had the lenses installed incorrectly. Oops.)

So there you go. They could easily have charged me five bucks or so for the bag, but they didn't. And therefore Oakley remains on my "preferred vendor" list.