Date:	2009-05-26 10:51
Subject:	Proposition 8
Security:	Public
Mood:	disappointed

Six of the seven justices on the California Supreme Court have rejected challenges to Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to ensure that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

[O]ur task in the present proceeding is not to determine whether the provision at issue is wise or sound as a matter of policy or whether we, as individuals, believe it should be a part of the California Constitution. Regardless of our views as individuals on this question of policy, we recognize as judges and as a court our responsibility to confine our consideration to a determination of the constitutional validity and legal effect of the measure in question. It bears emphasis in this regard that our role is limited to interpreting and applying the principles and rules embodied in the California Constitution, setting aside our own personal beliefs and values.

When California voters exercise their power of initiative, a simple majority vote is sufficient to amend any part of the state Constitution. [Citation.] To determine whether the voters have validly exercised this power, a judge must put aside any personal views and apply the law as set forth in the state Constitution and in this court's previous decisions. And when the voters have validly exercised this power, as they did here, a judge must enforce the Constitution as amended.

Do not blame the justices, who plainly despised what proper application of the law forced them to do. Blame the 52% of Californians who voted to enshrine hate and fear in the California Constitution last November.

Happy Memorial Day.

Edit: The Court's lengthy opinion is here, for anyone who wants to read it.

Date:	2008-11-07 17:06
Subject:	In which I am a vindictive bastard
Security:	Public
Mood:	angry
Music:	Mendelssohn

One of the many false arguments that the supporters of California's Proposition 8 advanced during their campaign was that, in the absence of an amendment to California's Constitution, churches could be forced to perform gay marriages and could lose their tax-exempt status if they refused. (This is nonsense, of course: how many churches can you think of that lost their tax-exempt status for refusing to perform marriages for, say, couples of another faith? Or atheists? Or anyone else who does not share a church's particular religious values? But I digress.) In the aftermath of learning that more than half of the people who live in my state are narrow-minded, intolerant bigots who hate homosexuals and just needed a decent excuse to treat them as lesser citizens without just coming right out and saying "I hate homosexuals," it has occurred to me that the well-publicized conduct of a certain religious organization in the months preceding the election should legally deprive them of tax-exempt status. Ironic, no?

( An open letter to the Internal Revenue Service )

So there.

Date:	2008-05-11 17:00
Subject:	Off the grid
Security:	Public
Mood:	busy

It's happening again. The thing. You know, the thing. That thing that happens every so often, in which I get so caught up in other (non-LJ) stuff that I vanish for a few months without a word to anyone.

Except that this time I can feel it happening. So I can amend the "without a word to anyone" part.

See you later.

Date:	2008-04-15 12:40
Subject:	Ah, the joys of the job market
Security:	Public
Mood:	pissed off
Music:	Sixteen Tons

When submitting one's résumé for a job which lists, among the descriptors of the ideal candidate, "smart," "detail-oriented," and "computer skills," it probably helps to remember to attach the résumé to one's email.




In entirely unrelated news, the happiest of birthday wishes to hmrpita (yesterday), kaali_thara, and gossamerflame!

Date:	2008-04-05 01:20
Subject:	Little help?
Security:	Public
Mood:	creative
Music:	Young at Heart

Through one of those strange twists of fate that make me question the existence of, y'know, fate, I find myself about to submit a writing sample to a complete stranger. Here are the criteria:

1) Something that I've already written
2) Containing fantasy elements (e.g. Harry Potter, Toy Story, Narnia)
3) For a target audience 8-15 years old

I know that there are at least four people on my Friends List whom I consider extraordinary fiction writers. (And there's probably more of you that I don't know about.) Would anyone be willing to look over the first four or five pages of a children's story that I wrote mumblemumble years ago, and give me lots and lots of free editorship constructive criticism? I can use all the feedback I can get.

Date:	2008-03-31 21:59
Subject:	O me of little faith
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic
Music:	John Williams, Olympic Fanfare

As some of you know, I've been following an Alternate Reality Game that we're calling "Find the Lost Ring." It officially launched back on March 3, 2008, but mysterious hint-laden packages were sent by Federal Express to certain familiar members of the ARG community beginning on February 29.

For reasons that are not worth going into at the moment, my only current address is a Post Office box. Now I wasn't expecting to receive a package, certainly, but I did begin collecting my mail from the post office daily instead of every few days whenever it was most convenient, and I made a point to try to get there during business hours (which I usually don't) so that, if a package should happen to arrive, I would be able to claim it.

On Wednesday, March 5, my P.O. Box contained a package notice. Almost trembling with excitement, I approached the front desk, handed in the notice... and received a thick envelope stuffed with paperwork from a guy who wanted me to do a research project for him. Sigh.

I visited the post office every single day between Monday, March 3, and Saturday, March 8. No mysterious package. By then the announcements of "I got one!" -- originally several per day -- had slowed to a trickle. A little investigation soon disclosed that Federal Express will not deliver to a P.O. Box. Drat.

With no reasonable expectations (and against my better judgment), I checked one final time on Tuesday, March 11. No mysterious package. By this time, someone as far away as the Netherlands had received one.

I will confess to some slight disappointment, but I consoled myself by blaming the manifestly unreasonable delivery criteria of Federal Express, and resigned myself to empty-handedness. After all, it's not as if I have some sort of "right" to a mysterious package. Plenty of people didn't get one.

Sniffle.

( You can already see what's coming, right? )

Date:	2008-03-23 23:10
Subject:	Because I am a sheep
Security:	Public
Mood:	curious
Music:	Mary Had a Little...

...and everyone else is doing it:


My sub-attributes are Sofia and Chariton, in that order. If the internal link is being persnickety, the quiz is here for those so inclined.

Baaa.

Date:	2008-02-29 16:18
Subject:	Sometimes...
Security:	Public
Mood:	disappointed

...they do figure it out after all.

Date:	2008-02-26 23:49
Subject:	The jealousy may now commence
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited
Music:	All I Have to Do Is Dream

( This is where I spent my evening. )

Date:	2008-02-14 17:47
Subject:	does... not... compute...
Security:	Public
Mood:	confused

Date:	2008-02-06 19:23
Subject:	I KNEW IT!
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant

Dark chocolate makes you smarter! Again!



(Okay, so everyone else on LJ probably knew about this two months ago...)

Date:	2008-02-04 14:42
Subject:	i dont know what im doing
Security:	Public
Mood:	scared

and theyre all going to find out

Date:	2007-09-03 17:14
Subject:	Haste makes waste
Security:	Public
Mood:	irritated

One morning last week I'm in a bit of a hurry to get back to the office, because I am (as usual) swamped. So I trudge to the parking lot, set down my briefcase and a client file on the trunk of my car, and head to the parking booth to pay my $9.00 (for less than one hour -- ah, the joys of downtown parking). And I head to my office, about 40 miles away, and as I park I notice that I still have a pen in my shirt pocket, which I had taken out of my briefcase earlier that morning. So I take the pen and open the rear door to grab the briefcase out of the back seat.

Where it isn't.

Because I had left both it and the client's file on the trunk of my car.

After the obligatory cursing and swearing, I drive back downtown -- which takes considerably longer in rush-hour traffic -- and head to the parking lot. No file, no briefcase. I approach the parking attendant and tell him what I'm looking for, and he waves across the street at another parking lot attendant, who beckons me over to him. He tells me that he doesn't have my things, but that he knows the guy who found them, and he can get them for me. I express tremendous gratitude.

Then he starts talking about how the guy who picked up my stuff had to run all over the place chasing down pieces of paper and whatnot, and the long and the short of it is this:

He wants $50.

In cash.

Which I do not have, and say so. So he very kindly offers to wait while I go get it.

Now, this file does not belong to me. I am in a world of trouble if anything happens to it. So I grit my teeth and swallow any objections and go pull $40 from an ATM and offer it to him along with the $6 I had in my wallet and the dime I had in my pocket and tell him that's all I can get. I am apologetic about this. And he, doing me a great favor, takes the $46.10 and returns my briefcase and the client's file.

And I drive back to the office, in a lovely mood.

Date:	2007-08-11 12:35
Subject:	Not dead yet
Security:	Public
Mood:	confused

Yesterday I attended a funeral for a man who was very open about the fact that he was an atheist and did not believe in life-after-death. At one point in the service, the reverend (his sister-in-law, who had put together a truly lovely nondenominational memorial service) invited anyone who wanted to share a thought or a story about him to come up and speak. Among those who accepted the invitation was a woman who introduced herself as someone from his workplace -- I gather that she was a superior. And she took the opportunity to say that, while he "thought he was" an atheist, he was "with Christ" now.

It occurred to me that, leaving aside the issue of respecting his beliefs or those of his family, her statement was in fact entirely untrue. As I understand it, regardless of what branch of Christianity she follows, she believes that anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as his or her savior is doomed to Hell. An atheist clearly falls into that category, so she could not possibly have believed that my friend was "with Christ." I'm sure that she meant well -- was trying to say something comforting -- but it irritated me.

(Oh, and as a amusing side-note, she had worn some sort of stole consisting of red and white stripes and a blue field with white stars. So she was literally draped in the American flag.)

Date:	2006-09-13 23:13
Subject:	Sign of the Times
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused
Music:	"Let the Rest of the World Go By"

Actual restaurant sign, spotted yesterday:

Date:	2006-09-02 17:49
Subject:	Debt
Security:	Public
Mood:	guilty
Music:	James Taylor, "That's Why I'm Here"

Does anyone here have access to a TiVo (or possibly any other DVR, if they all work the same way)?

Y'see, you can tell TiVo to record lots of shows for you. And it will. And the next thing you know, you hit the little button and you've got 16 screens full of stuff that you do actually like, really, but just haven't had time to watch yet.

And all of a sudden watching these shows -- that you do actually like, remember -- becomes a sort of chore. You feel obligated to watch them, and soon, because if they sit there long enough TiVo will have to delete them to make room to record more recent shows.

And then, when you do finally set aside some time to watch some of them, and you can delete them yourself and free up some space, you feel a sense of accomplishment. That's right. Accomplishment.

From watching a television show.

A friend of mine calls this phenomenon "paying TiVo debt." As if every time your TiVo records something for you, you have made an implied promise to watch it, and you "owe" the TiVo an obligation to fulfill that promise.

You may be wondering why I'm bringing up this particular topic. You may also be wondering where the hell I've been for the past few months. The connection will be left as an exercise to the discerning reader. (If I still have any readers, that is.)

The short version: From now on, if when I get behind in my LJ reading, I hereby resolve not to go into Hibernation Mode, afraid even to log in for fear of feeling obliged to tackle the twenty+ pages of friends' posts that have accumulated since I last had time to read them.

Hi.

Date:	2006-06-18 16:53
Subject:	The thing with feathers / That perches in the soul
Security:	Public
Mood:	optimistic
Music:	"Good Morning To You," but with different lyrics

The other day I was eating lunch next to a long table full of people who, in my estimation, probably represented four generations of relatives. They caught my attention only because I happened to overhear some of the conversation (for lack of a better word) between four of them, two guys and two girls, probably in their early twenties. What did I overhear, you ask?

One of the guys was reciting bits from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

This went on for the better part of twenty minutes. I didn't care that his British accents were deplorable. I didn't care that it was all out of order. I didn't care that he was getting the lines wrong left and right (although I did have to restrain myself from lunging over to correct him). I didn't care that he segued briefly into Rowan Atkinson's Devil sketch for no readily apparent reason. He was reciting British humor! In public! To girls, even! And at one point one of the girls joined in with him on one of the scenes!

It gave me hope for the future of humanity.



On an entirely unrelated note, I seem to have missed coffeejedi's birthday yesterday. Shame on me, and I hope your day was everything you could possibly have imagined.

Yes, it's the latest attack on the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Those damned liberals! Quick, rally the troops! Call the Governor! Alert the media (or at least Bill O'Reilly)! Write your Congressmen Congresspersons Congresspeople Senators! We must amend the Constitution at once!

Date:	2006-05-26 16:37
Subject:	I knew it!
Security:	Public
Mood:	exhausted
Music:	Daniel Powter, "Bad Day"

Chocolate makes you smarter!



In other news: Hi. I'm back. Sorry about that. Stupid Real Life(tm). Stupid, stupid Day Job(tm). Stupid, stupid, stupid Why-Does-Everything-Always-Happen-At-Once(tm).

As a side-effect of my prolonged absence, I have discovered that there is, in fact, a limit to the number of friends' previous entries that LiveJournal will keep track of for you. It appears to be 25 pages -- at least, by the time I got to the page with the heading "480 ENTRIES BACK," the "back 20 entries" link disappeared. And that, incidentally, was still a week shy of my DoD (Date of Disappearance).

I'm sorry. I just can't do it. I can't imagine slogging through 500 outdated entries. Not to mention that I'm sure none of you has much interest in comments responding to things written three weeks ago. Presenting, therefore, a selection of Generic Responses from which to choose:

Congratulations! That's fantastic! It's about time, too!
I'm so sorry to hear that. Hope things improve rapidly.
IHNCH,IJ can't stop giggling.
Wow. You are still such a fantastic writer. I think I'd read the phone book if you wrote it.
Stop selling yourself short. Everyone loves you, and you know it. (And deserve it, for that matter.)
No particular response... just wanted to let you know that I read and appreciated. Comment=value, y'know.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

If anyone thinks I ought to look at a particular entry -- yours or someone else's -- I would greatly appreciate posting a link here. Otherwise, I'm just gonna pretend that you've all been very, very quiet for the past 3½ weeks. Happy celebration of the invention of the barbecue Memorial Day weekend!

Date:	2006-05-04 21:26
Subject:	Public Service Announcement
Security:	Public
Mood:	aggravated
Music:	Me and My Shadow

It has recently come to my attention that, as of about a month ago, there is now someone on LiveJournal by the name of shad_o.

I am not this person. This person is in Italy. (And appears to evince somewhat antisocial tendencies.)

The management wishes to apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Thank you.




(Accept no substitutes!)