March 2008 Archives

Man Caught Having Sex with a Picnic Table  (via First Coast News)

Saw this over on Esoteric Diversions...  DT, It's always this stuff in Ohio isn't it?  Seriously folks, we don't have gay marriage in Ohio, so don't blame us!  I wonder, is this man heterosexual?  I mean, is there a way to tell the sex of a picnic table?  Really, there are so many unanswered questioned here that I really just don't want answers to...

I just discovered iMT - a nifty iPod Touch interface for Movable Type.  It's wicked cool!  Now I can blog from anywhere in the house when I have half a thought!

iMT

Since I've quit smoking I've noticed that I often have difficulty sleeping.  Even though I take the patch off hours before I go to bed, I still toss and turn all night.  Last night was the "Night of Twenty Dreams."  When I woke up in the morning, I remembered all kinds of dreams.  It was like a short film festival in my head.  There was the one about the paper fireworks, another about a roller coaster ride, being back in high school (playing my cello), and one where I was just driving around.  Some were connected but then some seemed completely different.  Hopefully tonight I'll sleep better...

But the cravings are still there..   One day at a time.

To all those who came into my store tonight at 9pm looking for jelly beans, so sorry we were out.  But then who waited until the evening of the day before Easter to fill someone's basket?  I know I know, I should have been able to pull some out of my butt. 

A friend and I were talking today about becoming masseuses.  For a few moments we thought that would be an interesting vocation.  But then we thought about what would happen if someone really nasty came in for a massage - what would you do?  One thing we thought of was just starting to drool or use toothpaste to foam at the mouth.  Perhaps that would discourage them.  Or, you could simply state that your herpes was acting up today and a massage wouldn't be possible.

Provided that I make it to 2 weeks smoke-free (which will be next Thursday), I'm going to treat myself to a massage.  I hope the masseur doesn't have herpes.

Arg!  Why is it that people find themselves in a bowel movement crisis while shopping at my store?  Sorry for the graphic nature of this, but I swear someone ate cement and then came in last night to use our toilets.  Code brown!  Although I found a novel way to clean a toilet without having to touch the bowl.  Yep, just throw wads of toilet paper against the side of the bowl, wait for it to soak a bit, then flush.  I think I must have flushed that toilet a hundred times!  I wonder if Mr. Clean would be interested...  

I think I've lost count of how many times I've tried to quit, but not trying is worse than continuing.  So, here I am at exactly one week to the minute.  Something I saw that I liked: " Nobody ever regrets quitting. Many regret never quitting."

A young couple were in my store tonight getting ideas for their wedding registry when they found a microwave that they just had to have.  It was the last one - a display - so I was going to sell it to them.  They asked if they could get a discount which was what I was about to offer as I figured out the percentage to dollar amount in my head.  As I was thinking, the man asked me to consider that people had opened and closed it a bunch of times and that someone might have peed in it.  Peed in it?  I told him that I could guarantee that no one had peed in that microwave. (we keep the crock pots out for that...)

When I got off work today and got in the car, I heard the start of an eveningful-earful of commentary about Obama's speech today.  I had heard bits and pieces of the speech - the ones I heard were meaningful and well put.  And I heard everyone dissect every last bit of them.  From "he believes everything his pastor says" to racial diatribes to a comment that the speech was magnificent.  And I heard the talking heads debate whether or not Americans were smart enough to even understand what he was saying.

I watched it for myself tonight (because like most people I am smart enough to understand spoken word).  Taken as a whole, it has a message of hope for the future while acknowledging the past and what it means for the present.  I haven't heard a politician talk that honestly in awhile.  Taken as a whole it says that Obama is a loyal man, but not blindly loyal.  It shows that he can see beyond simple black and white, and not just in racial terms.  We can pick it apart all we want, we can support Obama or not, but the fact remains that the issues are real and need to be addressed.

Thank goodness for Google!  I had my alarm all set so I would up in time for work tomorrow.  I just happened to check my Google calendar before going to bed, and what do you know?  I'm off work tomorrow!  Whoopee!  It's like when I was a kid and always asked for 5 more minutes.  As I was getting ready for bed I was thinking, just one more day..   Thanks Google!

I went to see the movie Shelter tonight at the Cleveland International Film Festival.  First the line to get in was crazy.  There were a few lines for different movies lined up, and the one for Shelter was by far the longest.  There was an equally long line for "stand-by tickets."  So it was good that we bought tickets online.  Otherwise we might not have gotten in.

There are so many bad gay flicks out there - sometimes they're just unwatchable.  But this was the complete opposite.  It was a multi-faceted and touching story about a guy who deals with coming out, and balancing the needs of his family with his own.  One movie review puts it this way: "Zach falls in love with Shaun while struggling to reconcile his own desires with the needs of his family."  There are so many moments in this film that many gay folks can relate to - the joy of first love, the trepidation about first being out combined with the want to shout it to the world, and moments of terror of being found out.  More than that, the themes are universal: love, family, finding yourself, and making the most out of what is in your life.

The movie portrays many ideas in the storyline, is well produced, well acted, and overall very good.  The director says that is is "a story about tuning into one’s sincere desires, finding love, and creating family."  From the cover it looks like there's a lot of skin - and it is a movie about surfers in part so that's nice - but it isn't gratuitous.  Two of my favorite scenes: one where Shaun simply gives Zach a hug when he needs one - a simple scene, yet conveying more than what is one the surface, and the second is when his best friend questions him about being gay.  It's one of those movies that you can get into, and take something away from it. 

Verdict: recommended!

(sources: 2008 Shelter via CelebrityWonder.com, Shelter - HereTV Films)

Well, the other day someone indicated that gays are like unicorns.  A certain representative of Oklahoma would disagree - she thinks gays are like terrorists - or worse.  "I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam. ."  This kind of rhetoric, actually, is a bigger threat to our nation.  It threatens the lives of the people who she speaks of.  She's aware that LGBT people are more likely to commit suicide - she's unaware that it's because of people like her.  It threatens to incite people to violence.  When people feel they are on the "right side" of morality it sometimes justifies their actions, especially when she says that people's children are threatened.  It threatens to tear and divide our nation - why do we have this need to feel this "us versus them" all the time to feel better about ourselves? 

Truly, this woman is so uneducated it's frightening.  While I support her right to say what she wants and express her views, I think she has simply expressed her level of ignorance and homophobia.  Hate speech isn't illegal in our country, but being hateful is seen for what it is.  And we're listening...

So 17 inches of snow pretty much all at once can cause a few problems when you're driving a little car. Actually, it didn't do too bad until I got into the driveway - about 10 feet into the driveway actually. And you can see the results of said attempt above. We shoveled for about an hour or so to get the driveway clear enough for one car width to get through.

This morning I went and volunteered with Equality Ohio.  We went to the polls to collect postcards to send to Ohio legislators encouraging them to pass the Equal Housing and Employment Act.  We got some interesting responses from my fellow northeast Ohioans.  Some were great - there was this one guy who was eager to sign the postcard.  He said he knew several gay people and surprise, they're just like everyone else.  But we also ran into a number of argumentative people.  One man said he didn't see any discrimination.  Another said that she was an employment officer for the county and that no one was protected and that we were asking for special rights.  (scary)  The best one though was a man who said he didn't believe in gay people.  The person I was with and I looked at each other with a bit of confusion.  Then he added, "It's a SIN!"  Oh, now we get it.  We thought he meant he thought gay people weren't real, like unicorns or something.

Did you get a sticker after you voted?  You know, everyone wears those "I voted" stickers all day long.  I wonder if there's a reason for them, like do they encourage other people to vote?  Or is it as elementary school as it seems?  Here you go little kid.  Here's a sticker for voting!  I bet there's people who vote just so they can get the sticker.

What a beautiful day!  A high of 64 degrees, sunshine, snow melting..  and now we're under a winter weather advisory.  Does this happen elsewhere besides Ohio?

And of course tomorrow is the big day in Ohio. (We'll see if we can count the votes this year)  I'm fairly certain who I'm going to vote for tomorrow, and it's none of the pizza lady's business.  Yeah, since when is getting pizza a political journey?  I'll be up a 5am tomorrow (in a few hours) to volunteer with Equality Ohio collecting postcards to send to Ohio's legislators in support of equal housing and jobs for LGBT folks.  It'll be raining/snowing/sleeting/flooding, but it's a very worthy cause.  And it'll be fun because I'll get to meet some new people, all the while doing something productive. 

What's not productive - I went looking at cell phones tonight.  I don't need an iPhone or anything crazy.  I really just need something that makes phone calls.  Was looking at the KRZR but it's a little odd looking.  Back to looking at the RAZR, but not wanting to go with another 2-year contract.

What will really be non-productive tomorrow?  My several hour long nap...

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