Hmm, so since I've lived about half of my life in Oregon and half in California I was in Oregon for the *cough* height of the Oregon Citizens Alliance and their anti gay ballot measures back in the 90s. Besides the death with dignity laws, and stem cell research here in Cali, Measure 9 in Oregon is probably thee one thing I've been able to vote on that got me most worked up. They had tried to claim it just meant gays wouldn't be given "special rights" in regards to hiring, housing, etc. Because you know how being out of the closet gets you treated so well especially in the more hick areas of Oregon, I mean it's not like we had a family friend that dropped out of school because of the abuse he got over being gay there. The actual text?
"All governments in Oregon may not use their monies or properties to promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism or masochism. All levels of government, including public education systems, must assist in setting a standard for Oregon's youth which recognizes that these behaviors are abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse and they are to be discouraged and avoided."
Yeah they were a great group, since pedophilia is already illegal it was clearly just designed to discriminate again gays. I was wondering if they still existed as I never heard much of them after Measure 9, and figured with things like domestic partnerships in Multnomah county and Cali legalizing gay marriage just one state away, they must be in an uproar is they still exist.
Imagine my surprise when I found that John McCain spoke at an OCA dinner back then.
"After McCain agreed to attend the 1993 fundraiser for the OCA, an
Arizona newspaper columnist headlined it this way: "Hate group finds
friend in McCain." Then-Sen. Mark O. Hatfield, R-Ore., encouraged
McCain to back out, but McCain felt he couldn't."
I'm sorry unless he lived under a cave back then or didn't talk to ANYONE in Oregon ever or didn't watch the National news (OCA and Measure 9 wasn't just on Oregon news back then it was a national, if not international story), he knew what the OCA was. *adds this to the reasons to dislike McCain*
LA Federal Grand Jury indicted woman in cyber bully suicide case.
Brian doesn't like the legal implications of this case... In some ways, I agree, very slippery slope that I'm not sure I like. For example she's being accused of providing false information to MySpace (which she clearly did if they can prove she used the account -- she's not a teenage boy named Josh, I'm sure of that). But eh, some people might not want their real name on the net... some sites want home phone #s etc anymore. If they're saying THAT is a CRIME, well no... violation of MySpace's terms yeah...
I haven't read enough of what they're claiming and what the actual charges are yet... so I'm not sure what the actual LEGAL CHARGE is and what is just "facts of the case" so to speak. Basically if I'm not mistaken, as I said I didn't read up on it yet, they're basically charging her under hacking laws for the above mentioned stuff... hmm I really need to read up on this. If they are that's iffy. If Josh doesn't exist and they created the account... unauthorized access = well they made the account it's theirs, there is no Josh to authorize her to access it.
I think the main charge, if I'm not mistaken, is harassment and soliciting information from a minor. And I gotta say, that aspect I'm not only okay with, I'm glad they're charging her. This would be different somehow if she didn't know the girl and was just a bitch. But she knew they girl had a history of depression, administered her meds to her, and then tells her the world would be better without her minutes before she hangs herself. An ADULT harassing a KID they KNOW is that depressed to that point is wrong.
Sorry this post is random, I doubt I'll read up on it in a timely manner as I need to work on Misi's painting and wanted to semi rant but woah, so much to figure out before I have a clue...
The California Supreme Court has just overturned the ban on same sex marriages!!!
We're now the second state to have legalized gay marriages.
w00t!
Of course the news mentioned some organizations may try to get a measure on the ballot to re-write the state's constitution but meh, I still have faith my state will do the right thing and for now, gays and lesbians have the same rights to marry that I have... and if they're crazy enough to marry, more power to them ;)
As expected Hillary won West Virginia big. Good for her.
What's bad for America is that she and the press have essentially turned it into a purely racial / class issue. Basically Hillary and exit polls in nice and sometimes not so nice ways have painting this as a win because "white working class" voters won't vote for a black man. In fact in the ways I've seen it described they've all but said "uneducated old white hicks living in the country" won't vote him in the general election. Did they use those words? Not they used terms like "No college education" or "rural" or explained that it was the oldest block of voters we've seen this far. But repeating it over and over the implication to me did scream exactly what I said.
Well that's nice. And I don't care how loudly the Hillary crowd scream it. I don't care if old people living in the country are racists. That's not a reason to steal the nomination from him just to insure we get a nominee that can win those votes. That isn't what the Democratic Party is about. And to keep implying it is, it's offensive to me. I love the Democratic party and I don't like how this is going down, so please stop it. To imply the voters are voting on issues but if Hillary loses the nomination will stay home or vote McCain? Umm so Hillary's issues are most closely related to that of a Republican? Or these voter are too dumb to know Obama is most likely to have some of the same stand on issues she has? Or... ??? Yeah... Thought so back to race. Some of us weren't raised that way, and don't care if other voters were.
I don't remember the exact quote, but Chris Matthews said something like if Hillary uses the word White one more time they'll start calling her the White Al Sharpton and he's probably right.
Show us something that is standing in your way.
So I have these desert things in the freezer. Some weight watcher things or something. Individual ice cream cups but they're umm sundaes or something. So you're supposed to either stick them in the microwave for a few seconds or let thaw at room temp for FIVE MINUTES so that the ice cream and chocolate melts a little. Well I tried microwave before and it tends to melt too little if I do their 5 seconds or too much if I set it for any longer. So room temp seemed like a good idea this time. Figured I could use some chocolate around 1 am. FIVE MINUTES. It's now 2:30 am. I go to get a drink and happen to see it on the counter. Err what how'd that get there.... ohh yeah wait uhh that was at... uhh crap. Luckily my freezer freezes real good and Cali has been cold lately so room temp isn't melting stuff too fast.
Don't ask me to watch your children, I think my cats probably better learn to fill their own f00d bowl, eeek. And to think they used to leave Keegan alone with me when I lived in Oregon :P Ohh and the weather guy said though we've been cold, we're about to jump 30+ degrees and gonna have record temps near the beaches you know where the cooler weather usually is, aka near where I live. Great. Aliens get MORE active when temps change THAT dramatically that fast. You have been warned.
Ok semi real update I suppose since movie update and the artlog on my site weren't exactly real updates.
First I don't think anyone who reads here regularly has any family in China, but if you do... family, friends, whatever, I hope they're ok. Holy... Watching news this morning was so sad. So many schools collapsed.
I was already kind of sad for My bot before bed... And of course there's a wave a storms, Burma/Myanmar (whatever we're supposed to call it). Seems like the world is having a tough time lately...
Which makes me not want to complain, but I will :P
I wish the MS Brain aliens would take a vacation. I know it's not a full on exacerbation. Same old symptoms. Just ugh. Pain alien isn't controlled as he had been (though in fairness he's not as active as he used to be either so still somewhat controlled, err.. yeah just even a few stabs to my head that make me stop everything to grab it and make me feel all twitchy = feels uncontrolled, heh). The alien that controls sleep, well he's on crack. He has be so tired that while talking to MY bot I was so out of it between tired brain fog and pain alien I was correcting words I typed right and then having to correct that and fix which ones I meant to fix in the first place. I can't fall asleep, can only pass out -- today that was at at around 1-2 pm. Then am so tired and in pain when I wake up I don't feel alert enough to do anything.
I have been working on painting for Misi but it's been going like this, do some, err looks wrong, erase, redo, err wtf? not right, erase... etc. Good thing I'm painting it digitally ;)
Viddler appears to like me better than YouTube. A - I played around with the idea of making videos not art private on YouTube, and setting friends could see (small friends list there) but then I found if you do that you can only set up to 25 friends so if your list gets bigger later too bad AND when you set them that way it spams them with you've been sent a video AND it spams your own outbox, not once with a cc, but for each person you sent it to *blinks*. YouTube = inefficient. *nods* Haven't really used the feature yet, but on Viddler you can comment on a moment of a video so instead of people saying, as they do on YouTube @ 1:22 look for this, they can just comment at that time of the video pointing out whatever right then). Interesting. Thankie to Miss A.. for showing me the site, I could tell you her name, but then I'd have to kill you *nods*
Err my wrist hurts. My eyes hurt. Waaaaaaahhhhh! But yeah I ranted enough. Oh for the first time ever I made money with Google Ad Sense today, w00t!
Hmm I'm behind it seems, I had no idea that Edward Norton was playing The Incredible Hulk. Interesting. Not interested in the Hulk, but I like Edward Norton. Interesting choice...
Preview for The Happening = *yawn* oh some kind of attack that kills people and loud noises are scary. BORING.
The Love Guru preview = looked like Austin Powers and Mini me teamed up and created alter egos, kinda cute looking but not what I'd pay $12.50+ to see, and yeah OMFG movies at The Bridge now cost that much on a Saturday night (no idea what matinées cost).
So basically the only movie coming up anytime soon I'm sure we'll see in theaters = The Dark Knight. It was the first time Brian saw the preview. He decided if he saw bad guys dressed up like Joker's posse of guys, he'd wet himself :P
Now onto Iron Man. I liked it enough, Robert Downey, Jr. has always rocked. They clearly set it up for a sequel, no doubt about it -- one line just before the big fight scene screamed there will be another. Brian pointed out the one huge huge problem with the plot but since this is the first time in ages I'm seeing a movie while it's still in a theater I won't point it out here, I'm sure if you saw the movie you know what it is and I just figure superhero kind of movies are allowed such unrealistic holes in plots or they just spent so much time on everything else that expanding upon this sort of important aspect wasn't possible thanks to time constraints.
Me = tired and sore. Need about 20 hours of sleep but we did everything today so all I have to do Sunday = work on Misi art. Next weekend is Disneyland unless Brian has to work I think. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Once again we had to go to the Fry's store out by LAX. Ok, so Fry's stores in general tend to be busy, etc. But this one seriously makes me want to have major panic attacks. I get so claustrophobic there. Fellow customers also apparently stressed by the so very un-customer friendly store, or perhaps just rude begin to ignore other customers like me. They walk in straight lines. If you're in their way they shove you, even if all of the area around you was open to walk around you. It makes me want to go Michael Douglas circa Falling Down on them or alternatively just crawl into a cave and never see another person again as long as I live. At least 4 people shoved me with no reason to. Plenty of room to walk around me, me standing out of the way, not in the center of aisles, etc. I HATE PEOPLE BEING RUDE. I mean if I see you wanting to look at stuff I'm also looking at, I move out of the way. If I see you walking by, I make sure I'm not in your way. If you smack into me say sorry or at least look at me with an oops look on your face. Assholes.
And Fry's. Oh Fry's. Your set up is so unfriendly. If we want something from the shelf, no prob. If we want something that is well controlled like RAM, big mess. Last time Brian got charged for a more expensive MB that he wanted but was given a cheaper and slower one that happened to come in a very similar box etc. Didn't realize til he got it home. By then you were closed and it was a holiday weekend so you wouldn't be open again until he was back at work. Meant he'd have to take time off of work to return it during the week and couldn't as he had no working desktop machine and a freelance project he had to start. So you screwed him and he took it and lost about $20 as that was the difference in what he paid for and got.
This time he said he needed two sticks of this RAM. You said ok. You sent him to the front with paperwork for 1. They can't edit it at the register. Back to the back for edited paperwork. They don't have to EDIT THE PAPERWORK. They just have to ask them to send another stick up front. WTF? And if you buy something like RAM that requires paperwork you can't go buy anything else in the store because once you have a piece of paper thats an order for the check out people to use and they can't add to it, even if it's the stuff from by the register. But if you buy just normal stuff from the shelves that doesn't require that inventory control type of paperwork, no worries you can keep shopping but no one tells you this (we happen to know it from previous experience).
I've ranted about this before. Just argh. Why must you be so convenient in SOME ways and yet such a pathetic panic inducing store in others?
My mommy posted in her LJ and her VOX...
Her blood work is in and it seems to answer why her MRI was abnormal. And it's not MS nor is it Sarcoidosis!
It's Pernicious Anemia so she gets to get B-12 injections. Still gotta say that sounds better than MS or Sarcoid so I'm calling this good news :)