We went…
to the pool.
-
The Gay Agenda
Part One and Part Two. I sure hope Mr. Arthur sounds like Buddy Cole, because he does in my head. I have never read a funnier parody of high school assemblies, the differences between straight and gay, and classroom discussions. He did a great job capturing voice and making it feel like it was an actual transcript. Funny, funny stuff.\
Aside from the humor, I was impressed by how honest it is about the camps in the gay community. In Tucson, I knew a lot of gay people and had quite a few gay friends. It was funny to see parties and gatherings where the group was mostly gay. The cliques and stereotypes are mostly true in a beautiful and amusing way. Lance does a better job than I could of putting all those stereotypes in perspective and doing it with a lot of humor.\
And relatedly… I miss all my HomoFriends. No one that I know here is out enough to be any fun. Maybe I’m just old and have no friends… Maybe the gay people all run from me and my obvious boringness. No, really, I can queen out if you give me a chance! I’m straight, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends!! -
Dean’s Democratic Declaration
Dean’s declaration speech was pretty stunning. I only heard the last half, but went back and read the whole thing. Reading it, I almost teared up. I need to go back and compare this speech, and Dean’s platform to that list I came up with of what I want from my elected officials. He sounds too good to be true. And what’s funny is he sounds, acts and even kinda looks like John McCain, who I voted for in the Republican primary in 2000 (yeah, I was a Republican at one time, remember?).\
Even if you’re planning on voting for GW, or anyone else in 2004, please go read the speech. It’s good. It’s inspiring. It gives me hope that there is a chance of dethroning President Bush and putting some sanity back into the Executive branch. It’s time to stop being afraid and actually do something. -
A Pretend Demand For Pretend Money to Write A Pretend Book
The Acadia Letters are the best cure for an early morning. I’m not even caffeinated and I laughed my head off.
-
Howard Dean on Meet The Press
Ok, I know I told Nancy Pelosi I was voting for Dean last night. That was a bit of an exagerration. I wasn’t sure. Seeing him on Meet the Press this morning helped tip the scale. He was thoughtful and intelligent and gave some answers I agree with. That would have been OK and completely unimpressive had it not been for his answers about parental notification. I went in disagreeing with his position. The answers he gave didn’t really change my mind, but he showed the thought process that went into making his decision and that process was logical. I don’t agree with him on this issue, but I definitely respect him for being willing to talk about the events that led him to take the position he has.\
It was a tough interview. Tim Russert took it to him, as he should. Russert’s a great interviewer, and especially tough when someone’s new to the national stage. It’s the toughest interview I’ve seen on the show since Dick Cheney sometime last year (don’t remember exactly when, just remember Tim hammering him on several issues). I can’t imagine President Bush holding up and answering intelligently, or even being able to defend his positions under that kind of questioning.\
I’m still not sold 100%, but Dean’s a solid candidate, and I hope he does well. He shows that there is some fight in the Democrats and we might not be stuck with GW for another four years. -
Dear Max
How did you know it was my turn to wake up with you this morning? Did you wake up at 6:50AM because you knew it was me? One day, you’ll realize that Sunday mornings are for sleeping in, not for waking up at the buttcrack of dawn and jumping on me. I don’t know about you (ok, I really do), but my imagination doesn’t start working until at least 10:30. Before then, you’re lucky to get a good game of Princess Lamby Gets Saved By Hero Max From Daddy the Badguy.\
I apologize profusely for sucking when we had our big car race on the couch, and that my airplane noises during our dogfight were less than enthusiastic. I hope the fact that I didn’t get upset when you spilled rice krispies all over your chair will help dull some of the pain from my lackluster playing.\
I also hope that you forgive me for not finishing Snow. You were so enraptured with Junkyard Wars, I just couldn’t bring myself to get to the end and find out if the snow melted or not.\
And thank you for accidentally kicking me in the crotch while I was the Badguy. If I were really the Badguy, that would be a perfectly valid move. But, when playing, please only pretend kick Daddy in the nuts. Thanks.\
I hope you’re enjoying the fine programming on Noggin right now. I am definitely enjoying my ice pack and the quiet in the office. I hope you come visit soon.\
Love,\
Daddy -
Dear Nancy Pelosi
I got your “letter” yesterday asking me to send money to the Democratic National Campaign Commitee. While I appreciate the address labels, at this time I can not donate money in good conscience. You may ask yourself why. The Democrats haven’t done anything to earn any of my hard earned money. You and your fellow Representatives and the Senators of the Democratic party have failed to mount even a token resistance to the President and the Republicans’ extreme agenda. The party is in disarray and from the looks of the current crop of folks running for President, it looks like George W. Bush may win re-election.\
If the leadership of the Democratic party gets their act together and puts up real resistance, I’ll consider donating to the cause. For now, I’m waiting for you to prove it to me that you’re willing to put up a fight.\
I’m waiting anxiously for the Virginia Democratic Primary so I can vote for Howard Dean. Do I think he’ll win? No, but he’s the only member of the current crop of candidates who’s willing to ask the hard questions and come out against the President’s far-right agenda (and not look mad doing it, sorry Congressman Kucinich) with the vigor it deserves. If only the rest of the party could follow his lead and be as passionate.\
Sincerely,\
Kevin Lawver -
Lemon Jelly Est Fantastique!
New music Friday!! I should have written about this instead of my Java vs. Tcl conflicts, but hey, I’m tired, have a headache and am hungry as hell, so forgive me – please. I went a little nuts on Amazon last week and bought a bunch of new music. The first batch arrived last night, and after listening to it all day, here are my impressions of these two albums by Lemon Jelly. Where did I hear them? Why, JazzMusique, of course. Usually, I don’t check the track names of the songs as they play, but last week, three songs really caught my attention during the day, and they all happened to be by the same group. So, I bought ’em. Here’s what I think of the albums:
- Lemon Jelly.ky: This is a collection of three EPs the group (two guys) put out. What’s weird about knowing it’s a collection is that the songs all flow together really well. It feels more like a concept album than a compilation. What do they sound like? They’re a little like Groove Armada if you replace the vocals on Groove Armada‘s stuff with funny spoken word samples and add some more horns. It’s trippy, groovy lounge music that’s not at all boring. It has some pep to it, which is a nice change from some lounge music that makes you want to nap. I have no idea why, but it makes me think of late spring sun showers. It’s raining, but the sun’s out and I’m happy that it’s raining. Yeah, I know, must be the allergy pills talking.
- Lost Horizons: A complete album, and you can tell. While there may not be an overarching theme (not that I can find anyway), there are riffs that show up in the background, and some of the voice samples are probably from the same source (sounds like the same guy anyway). This is great coding music. It’s interesting enough to keep you focused, but not overpowering enough to distract. There are an insane amount of layers to the songs. You can hook into the bass line, the drums, the samples, or the other instruments hidden under the covers. It’s perfect headphone music. Spacewalk and Ramblin’ Man are breathtaking in the sheer beauty of the songs and the layers of complimentary sound they pack into them. If you’re going to buy just one, get this one.
The one downside to both albums is the packaging. While both CD’s come in fantastic looking cases, they’re completely unusable. It’s hard to get the CD’s out, hard to put them back in, etc. Thankfully, I’m burning backup copies so I can put the CD’s away in the “vault”. I should get the other CD’s from the splurge this weekend, so expect reviews of them next week.
-
Tcling Bodies
Switching back and forth between java and Tcl sucks. Do I use parens or curlies? Do I use a dollar sign or not? Do I have to put a semi-colon? I’ve been doing more Tcl stuff this week than I have in a long time, and it’s nice. I can make it do whatever I want, unlike Java where I’m constantly looking things up and making mistakes. My mistakes in Tcl are almost always typos and not syntactical boo-boos. I’ve been playing with tDOM, and I have to say it’s veddy veddy nice. It makes parsing XML so much easier than ns_xml and is millions of times better than ripping it up using plain old string commands. Now that I’ve started playing with it, it makes me want to write an RSS reader or some cool Google API application. It really makes me wish I could afford to get an AOLserver hosted site instead of the normal Apache/PHP/MySQL setup I’ve got now (and like 99% of you, I bet).\
I didn’t hit 276 today (didn’t go up or down… stayed right at 277), so I have to wait another day to order the Sidekick. Oh well. It’s funny. It happens every few days. I’ll go three or four days losing between half a pound and a pound, and then one day where nothing happens. The next day, I could be down two or two and a half. Bodies are weird. -
The Great Gastree
When oh when will the burping end? I can’t stand it anymore. It’s insane. I don’t eat as much anymore, and I drink a lot of water. I can burp like the kids on South Park and my little brother, Tim (hi, Tim!). I can do the alphabet and rustle birds from their perches. I can rattle windows and break champagne glasses. I can do the first half of the Gettysburg Address. My stomach hurts. If I weren’t laughing so hard at my own effervescence I would be doubled over in pain. This definitely goes on the list of things to address with the doctor on Monday (boy, i hope my appointment’s on Monday and not tomorrow… should have called). In other news, I can almost guarantee I’ll be at 276 tomorrow, which means I get to use my groovy employee discount and save almost sixty bucks on my new color Sidekick.