Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in aoikanjo's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
6:54 pm	Brenda Laurel on making video games for girls VIdeo Games, Feminism, and Research...awesome! (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
5:35 pm	on Warren While I can understand many LGBT activist and their complaints about Obama’s choice of using Warren for the prayer service at the inauguration, I don’t think this will show a precedence of Obama’s policies.       Andrew Sullivan, a conservative LGBT activist was quoted saying, "[It's] shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now."   I don’t particularly agree with Sullivan on the sobering part.  I don’t think that we should expect Obama to charge in and give marriage rights to same-sex couple the first day or even year in office.  That isn’t his priority.  He has a war and an economic crisis on his hand.  That and he’s working on uniting a country that has been very divided by the blue state/red state mentality.   That being said I hold Obama far more likely to pass a federal civil union bill, same-sex hate crime or protect act, work on don’t ask don’t tell or even get that family act moving again (the one where same-sex couples could get easier access to green cards).    The man is working for everyone and I think people are being overly critical of Warren.  I don’t agree with his polices of working against marriage rights for LGBT folks and his pro-life views.  That doesn’t make his an evil person.  Warren has also been a huge advocate for the poor and the AIDS epidemic.  You aren’t going to find a perfect minister to participate in the inauguration, or one that will appease everyone.    As my life goes on I find more people I disagree with.  This will be a fact of life for everyone.  It doesn’t make them or myself wrong, because we all have different opinions, and frankly that makes life interesting.  If we didn’t have arguments, life would be a hell of lot more droll.  =========== Currently Reading: Cat’s Cradle Author: Kurt Vonnegut     (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
2:20 pm	Tea and me So about half a year ago I mentioned to my regional manager of a certain coffee company about red tea and the lack of it within the company. I didn’t outright say this, but I gave an example of the type of tea I drink for illness (rooibos = more antioxidants and no caffeine). He seemed to get all excited and started taking notes.  Next season, after xmas, we’re having a new Vanilla Red Tea Latte. Coincidence? Beats me, but I’m thinking its because everyone else in the market has it now as well. Still you want the ego inflate a little when you think about something like this. That, and while I drink red tea, it usually tastes like chalk. So I have no high hopes for this drink. And I in no ways want to take credit for a bad drink.    This being said, its tea season and I’m incredibly lacking in tea. I must make a run to my shops soon.    =========== Currently Reading: Cat’s Cradle Author: Kurt Vonnegut   (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
11:31 pm	Clinton as Secretary of State? That’s what’s going down in the news lately. But its interesting to see people’s reaction to this. Not many people feel comfortable with Senator Clinton and her campaign against Obama. She attacked Obama pretty hardcore, and not many people can forgive the person who tried to stop our victor.  Of course the this argument I have to add that her “attacks” on Obama were adequate. Not in the way that they were actual concerns, which on some of the issues they were, but rather that in a political race it was her job to challenge the opposing force. As a matter of fact many campaign analyzers said that since Clinton was in the race for so long, Obama did better for it. Why is this? Clinton attacking hard was a great prep for the RNC that Obama was going to eventually have to face. By not going “tough” she would more likely be patronizing Obama (ironic statement?), and also making it harder to fight against McCain. When she attacks Obama for lacking experience and Rev. Wright and that he is just speaking pretty words and not mentioning policies, we’ve heard that already by the time McCain tries to use the same items. Of course I will say I’m biased about this argument since I voted for her in the primaries. I like her and her polices and still think should would have made a god damn great president. I don’t want her as VP because we don’t need another Cheney trying to overshadow the president, and she could do so much more in other positions like senator or secretary of state.  Personally by taking in his political rival he would be reliving the team of rivals from Lincoln’s term. Obama has even already talked about keeping some of the Republican incumbents! To me this is awesome. He is keeping his promise to work with unite this country and make it whole again.  But lets face it, Clinton would mage a damn good Secretary of State. My only concern is that I want her working on domestic issues in the senate as well. Oh well we can’t have it all. But then again the “front runner” for the job was John Kerry. Flip no on Kerry! He has no likability and not the best conversationalist.  So all in all, give Clinton a job! (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
5:47 pm	on prop 8 and demo So Proposition 8 passed in California, a state Obama won. Polls have found that African-American and Latino voters were one of the factors on why an issued that was against the Democratic schema was a odds with the presidential victor. I have heard some people argue this point and I have to agree with it, but there are some limitations to the argument as well. For example there is only 10% population of African American in California. They really are a minority population in that state. Although Latino populations are rising and are almost equivalent to Caucasians. It should be noted that this was only one factor with the dissonance between those who voted for our president elect and also voted for this horribly limiting proposition. Other factors were involved and other issues need to be looked at instead of this easy finger pointing.    That being said, there were a large percentage of Latino and black populations that voted for the bill. There is no arguing this fact. Acceptance of divergent sexual orientations and identities is lower in these populations so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Many runaways or homeless youth are within these populations. Also many, not all times, individuals seem to have to choose between their racial/ethnic identity and their sexual orientation. When your family and social structure don’t support you it can strike a cord.    I do NOT want to villianize these populations though. Latino and African Americans are far more active in their religious activities. So its voting with your faith. And don’t tell me that is not important. Both faith and politics are about morals and values. If their church teaches one thing and it goes along with a proposal then it just makes sense, less cognitive dissonance. Also many people don’t come out very opening within the communities. Added to the fact about the Down Low culture it can be harder for these populations to meet and be immersed with LGBT individuals and hear their side of the story.    So here is where my argument it trying to get to. I’m not trying to be racist, but these are real ordeals. We aren’t going to see change unless we work on our weaknesses, and one of them is the continual ignoring of the Latino and African-American cultures. We should be working more visually WITH them. There are very few coalitions of black and gay facilities working to end AIDS. Unless they’re working with gay African-Americans, these companies will work by themselves and in their own niches. We need to work together more and reach common grounds and share our stories. We need to win over the Latino and African-American populations and not just assume they are going to vote in our favor.    But it’s not just the voting. More exposure means more acceptance when their family members come out. I could go on about assumptions, but I want to see these communities working together and getting great things done!   ================= Currently Reading: Murder in Mesopotamia Author: Agatha Christie (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
2:53 pm	Heroes rant so if you havn't watched don't read...  ( Read more... )================== Currently Reading: The Last Continent Author: Terry Pratchet (Comment on this)
Monday, October 27th, 2008
9:34 pm	Okay so I'm writting this because it is bugging me.  Yesterday I was driving to the northside and what would normally tell me the time between where I am at to CIrcle on the Dan Ryan was replaced with "Child Abduction Alter!" White SUV Liecence Plate #....  So in the back of my mind is that "isn't this putting the child more at risk?"  This is telling the kidnappers, on a bright neon sign, that they're carrying a high risk captive if their caught.  It would probably be better to just drop off the kid somewhere fast, but we don't want him spilling any info so... I'm not saying the police should do nothing, but to me this tactic does put the child at risk.  But worse is that in a crowded place like the express way, there is a low probablity that the police would get any calls, even if people saw the SUV.  There is this thing called diffusion of responsibility, where people don't make the call because they think someone else would do it.  There was a case where one Kitty Genovese was stabed in front of her apartment screaming out for help.  Her neighbors went to the window and saw her and some stayed and watch, but no one called the police.  They all thought someone else had already done that.  So she stayed out there screamign for help and tried to crawl her way to her apartment when her assailent came back and continued stabbing her until she died.  The police were never called.  Diffusion of responsibility happens when there are more bystanders (say like on the Dan Ryan) and people are less likely to act because they think someone else will do it.  I'm not saying that this is how it happened, but it makes me uncomfortable... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7694020.stm ...my prayers to the Hudson and her family. ================= Currently Reading: The Hallow Author: Agatha Christie   (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
4:10 pm	measuring victories So what hasn’t been in national news as of late is California’s marriage buzz. This may be a good thing or something the media is trying to sway away from cause they know people are sick of the issue. (Also props for Biden for Reframing the argument at the VP Debate from a “right to marry” to “same rights and privileges”). But whether or not this passes, does affect people.    What is ugly in this debate is the campaign ads for passing Proposition 8, that would ban samesex marriages. There are ads placed and funded by most religious organizations (funded 40% by Mormons!) whose lives would not be directly effected by people outside their religions getting married. They’re trying to prove that it would by having school being forced to teach its okay for gays to marriage. Of course this argument is absurd and deals with favoring one religion’s beliefs and practices over all others. It is the whole argument that we can’t teach what goes against anyone’s faith or comfort level.   Now you notice in the first section I say affect (inferring distress) rather that effect (inferring an altered change) in regards to the Proposition 8 passing. This is because the marriage rights are the same as the same-sex domestic partner rights that were in place before. I’m not saying this a moot issue, and I’ll get more into this, but rather I believe that we under regard the civil union/domestic partner movement.    We currently have 3 states that allow samesex marriage (although CT just passed  and CA is up for grabs right now). So that’s is 6% of our states recognize samesex marriage. But we don’t look at civil unions and domestic partner rights. The basic thing is that we NEED these benefits and assistance because studies have shown that samesex relationships, no matter what the label, do better when there is some sort of recognition and also when there are legal benefits to help. This adds OR, VT, NJ and NH to our list of states supporting samesex relationships (up to 14%). Okay and we can add DC doing this as well, but that’s not a state (14.2%)   In other states there are some recognition and benefits but as of now, are not equal to those of state level marriage rights (WA, HI and ME). So at recognition we’re improving (20.2%). And then NY has that weird law where it doesn’t have same sex marriage or anything there, but it will recognize other state’s recognitions albeit marriage, union or partnership. So you can get married in Canada or Massachusetts or civil unionized (just needed to say it) in New Jersey and New York is cool with you (22.2%).   So all in all things are improving, but if we define things at a marriage vs. non-marriage dichotomous victory stance things don’t look so hot (6% vs. 22%...I mean 22.2%). Trying to pass marriage bills with all the DOMA mess and people’s perspectives and stern beliefs on the issue of marriage make the task daunting if nigh impossible. Everyone admits it would be political suicide to support samesex marriage, but supporting civil unions and ensuring the rights of all people is something that people can follow through with. Let’s be pragmatic here, people needs these rights now. Creating a black or white, marriage or nothing stance will get us no where. Lets face it, getting 1/5 of the nation to recognize same sex relations his a huge step in the right direction. The more that follow suit can lead to an easier move to have such at a federal level (one hopes).   Now I am not belittling the CA campaign, more that it is the next step in the process. CA has its domestic partner rights, so losing this battle will be a defeat, but we’ll still have our rights, but less recognition. In the end goal, attitudes are changing, the old arguments are working as they did and same sex couple are more visual in culture now that it is hard to ignore their needs. This next step is getting marriage recognized in every state and welcoming equality in a more progressive future.    ================= Currently Reading: Wyrd Sisters Author: Terry Pratchet (Comment on this)
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
12:38 pm	crazies working with crazies cause I like multiple sources talking about topics that I'm reading about, or cause my text book crams too much to get a full concept of certain ideas, I usually brouse the internet and the library for items about psychology or whatever the topic happens to be.  Its why I originally liked Humanistic Psychology, but then realized that upon further reading that it needs a very Very VERY inuitive client to have any sucessful purpose.  Or how I originally thought Cognative Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was cold, but then discovered it had a rich text of involvement and was everything I thought Humanistic Psychology should have been.  (I new read any new Aaron Beck book I can find). The point being is that texts books give us only a minute information.  Well actually my point was to explain how I found this website... christiandiscernment.com http://www.christiandiscernment.com/Statement%20Purpose.htm (partiularly check this one out) So this guy goes on and on about Psychology reading had how they can go against the Bible... Okay so yes, we have a literalist bible thumper yelling at psychologists about their research.  Now Freud I can understand, (maybe because he left out sexual feelings for ones catholic priest in the oedipus complex), but the guy goes after some hard core researchers as well. But this guy believes that prayer and "finding god" will solve all the problems of people going to therapy.  Now there is some evidence that some symptoms of psychotic disorders, psychosomatic disorders and occasionally mania have been subdued due to ritualistic behaviors, but I'm not sure it works on everyone.  Still its crazy to see what idiotic websites people build these days.  I mean why attack psychology, which attend to HELP people with their problems...Helping they fellow man.  Why doesn't this guy just stick with the homosexuals and feminists and the liberals, now he has to attack yet another idenity of mine. ================= Currently Reading: Interviewing Clients across Cultures Author: Lisa Aronson Fontes (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
5:30 pm	Its interesting to read through my psych reading and have an entire different interpretation on them now then when I did as an undergraduate.  I have had more experience and worked somewhat on the sidelines of the field and have done a lot of different readings.  I always list books I’m currently reading and yes I got into Facebooks Virtual Library pretty hardcore, but I never list articles that I read for fun.  I remember when I lost PsycInfo when I graduated and when one of my coworkers at the health center gave me 2 months access where I printed off 23 articles in those two months.    Its interesting that my three years outside of school actually did me good despite my feelings that I didn’t have that much experience. I’m a more grounded person that some of my classmates and have seen more in just three years. For many of the “I’m came straight from undergrad” students I find they have less practice of knowledge and everything is still theory to them and the speculations that are discussed in class can go all over the place where it is on a thought process and not on rationality.    But that is a whole nother story. What I was really surprised about was that I’m currently reading about Anxiety Disorders. It was reading about the clinical diagnosis of panic attacks that it finally hit me. This isn’t me anymore. I’ll admit that I have had a few panic attacks in recent history, but I think I only had 2 in the past year. That’s tight 2 in 365 days, well last year was a leap year so 366 days. This is a whole lot better that one to three a week when I was beginning college or the agoraphobic behavior that I displayed in high school.    This isn’t to say that I’m not anxious, but I’m handling my pressures better than what I used to. I have better coping mechanisms and I learned to move past the anxieties. But mostly I’m just pleased that the DSM has no power of me anymore. Which brings in a whole other discussion, but I’ll leave that out. What I’m trying to say is that when I was in undergrad and reading anxiety disorders I was trying categorize myself, now I can’t categorize myself within these spectrums. But also I’m not categorizing others with the symptoms of disorders. Not that I knew people with those particular disorders, but just a symptom here and there. Oddly its being able to recognize the impairment of these symptoms verses having similar symptoms that may actually work for someone.    I’m not articulating myself well on this, but eh, its all a new look on readings   ======================== Currently Reading:  Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
1:23 am	Holy Watchmacallit!!! I just have to say after 19 years of Catholic school education I just had the most phenomenal thing happened in class. We were talking about a hypothetical case study in one of my class with open discussions. The topic was abortion. It wasn’t that topic that threw me, but rather the rational discussion that played threw. Why we talked of religious connotations, they were more oft in a clinical point of view, looking at the mental health of the fictional young woman and possible relationship issues with the parents if they were hypnotically religious.  I know this sounds sad, but I was amazed by the professionalism of the whole conversation. There was no condemnation, no blame, and tisk-tisking. It was just rational thought and analysis. I was just refreshing to see.  ======================== Currently Reading:  Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and Daniel Levithan (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
12:46 am	beware the red head So yes, McCain choose a women to run as his VP candidate. That is a big deal and none of us saw it coming. Truthfully I didn’t know who was going to be picked. Palin is the fresh faced conservative McCain needs to balance him. She is a staunch conservative, which appeases the conservatives to no ed, but she is young and well is a she, which helps appease the moderates. But it is so blatant that he is going after the Clintonites and trying to take away the issue of diversity from Obama. Yes I can go on a whole song and dance about this but I have made yet another association between this election and television, which is odd for someone who doesn’t really watch the tube that much. I formally compared the primary between Hilary and Obama (and to an extent McCain) to the last two seasons of West Wing. Hilary was part of the old Dem presidency, like the VP in WW, who had more experience. Obama is the fresh faced new senator with charisma, looks and ideals is the protagonist who eventually beats the all contenders, much like the latino Santos from WW, and McCain is seen as a moderate but still hold true to his party, which was what Alan Alda played in WW. But wait does this Palin thing remind you of anything. You remember Commander in Chief. I know you tried to repress the thoughts, but it existed. The young red head female VP takes the president seat after the old frail president dies (McCain is 71 in a few days). She isn’t too strongly connected to her party, and not that much experience in international or national politics. And her party isn’t too accepting to the idea of a woman as president. (Although it does beg the question does Palin have any experience to run the country if McCain should die…I mean it is a possibility, with his temper tantrums at his age). So this November vote for your favorite TV Show, West Wing or Commander in Chief. ======================== Currently Reading: Boy Meets Boy by Daniel Levithan (Comment on this)
Monday, August 25th, 2008
3:08 pm	To a grand old weekend Hmm, my last post was very whinny and woe is me, but it was a bad week…weeks. But I have made up my lack of summer fairly well this weekend and having a regularly awesome time Friday I discovered that an orchestra was playing at Millennium Park, and they were playing one of my favorite pieces, the Planets!!! Oh and free performances are the best, especially with all the people watching and dancing toddlers and what not. I invited a couple folks and there was a wonderful turn out. I should also note that the band is playing two of the pieces from the Planets at our next concert. But yes picnic blankets, some minor food, varying degrees of decency in drinks and wonderful wonderful company. And some Adler people put on a little movie to go with the piece. Although I will always remember Darth Wally from Mars (“Wall---deep breath---yyyy”) is such a breath taking performance. Then followed a good stir-fry at Flattops, which I never been to before. Food was great! It was fun cause you literally pick out what goes into the bowl. You scoop how much meat, veggies, fo-meat, sauce and what not goes into your stir-fry. And I made some new friends who walked me through it. Saturday I got invited to a party. I’m normally nervous from these things, but this may have been because I got punched in the face at a band party in college cause I guy thought I was sleeping with his girlfriend…yeah. I blames the alcohol on that one. But all in all I didn’t not get punched in the face at this party. I did learn how to play Irish Poker (mistake to play this the first hour of the party), got to play cheerleader, sat on the roof on a beautiful night, met some new people. All in all a huge success for me. Sunday A friend had asked me to accompany him to a gay gamers group. He didn’t want to go by himself so I agreed. They were meeting in a bar, so in my mind I’m seeing like 6 gay guys in the back of a bar playing dungeons and dragons. It turned out not to be that bad. The bar was awesome! Just as a bar itself, I want to go back. It was well lit, on the back porch with windows open and a view of a wonderful garden. And while they had no dungeons and dragons, there was Munkins, Risk, Scrabble, Monopoly, Stratego, Sorry, Apples to Apples, Scaragoies, and such all on a big shelf. This bar has the atmosphere of a coffee house where you relax and play games with friends, but serves drinks and bar food. It was nice seeing couples playing Scrabble or a group of friends in a corner playing Yatzee. It the total scene of this bar. It so rocked. The 6 people I imagined were more like 30-40 all pretty attractive guys in their twenty or thirty-something. They were all friendly, totally welcoming, and just a good friendly vibe from all. That and it was nice to rant Avatar and Final Fantasy and see other guys squee over them as well. I even got a guy interested in the band! So to recap, I hung out with some of my friends, met a lot of real cool people and it was all a blast. It feels nice to get out. ======================== Currently Reading: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Comment on this)
Friday, August 15th, 2008
11:04 pm	Ten-Foot Pole Can I just say that Lindsey Campbell is awsomeness (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
8:05 pm	The other side to moral issues (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
3:34 pm	Rogues So I’ve been reading speculations on the next Batman movie, and who will be in it in the Villain aspects.  The main restrictions I found is that there needs to be a sense of realism that works with what the other two movies created (We’ll just ignore some physics problems, and unrealistic tech and drugs, but they could be fictionally real).  This means Killer Croc, Clayface, the Ventriloquist, and Mr. Freeze are most likely out.  I’ve talked to a few people and here is the list that we thought of, progressively more likely at the top (in my opinion) Catwoman: Obviously familiar, and as long as she is a gymnast catburglar and nor Michelle Phiffer’s nine lives thing.  I mean I can see it.  A narcissistic catburglar takes the name after some sexist political/lawyer refuses to take her seriously can calls her the catwoman in stead of recognizing her as a professional catburglar, she takes some controversial pictures of him as revenge and now she is this weird loved criminal which only plays on her narcissism and that only one man deserves her, the Batman…I may be ranting fanfiction here, but hey   Talia: Rachel is dead.  The bat needs a love interest, in comes the beautiful and talented Talia (Jolie?) But in reality she wants revenge on the man that killed her father!  Oh No! And wait is her father being resurrected!  Oh NO! Harley Quinn: Harley has always had an interesting back story.  Originally the Joker’s therapist trying to get into his head and cure him.  She was altruistic and good at her job, but the Joker twisted her in their sessions until she became infatuated with him.  Lets face it, this goes well with what they have been doing.  It brings back the Joker and believably corrupts a good person.  And seriously try to imagine these therapy sessions.  Harley would have to be an extremely brave bad-ass to go for this job and oh, oh.  I’d like to see this. Hush: Childhood friend of Bruce, but extremely dark and twisted.  One of those opposites collide type thing.  Could work, but the scar issue is too close to Two Face.  His original origin also required the Riddler Penguin: Definitely a believable villain, but he doesn’t really go with what they have been after.  I mean if you leave him as a corrupt bureaucrat and organizing crime, but he was never that great of a fighter or that interesting really   Riddler: Never really had a good back story this one.  That and after the Joker, I think we need something more that the saner version of the killer clown, but there are possibilities.   Bane: Yes they did some bad things to him in Batman and Robin (movie), but he was actually an intelligent force in the books, could be fun.  But he was never insane enough.   Poison Ivy: Er how?  It be hard to do, but after that horrible Thurman job, I want a redo.  Ivy wasn’t some bimbo like they portrayed her, she was a scientist (like she was portraying at the beginning of the movie), but she still hard to swallow in all this realism they working on. ======================== Currently Reading: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
2:33 pm	Creepy Jesus Dawn Dissappointing Campaigning Flip July  So I’ve been trying, emphasis on trying, to watch Jesus Camp.  Holy Jebus is it disturbing.  I’m only 13 minutes in the movie and there is this bouncy 7 year old saying she wants to do nails for a living so she can sit people down and have them trapped for a long period of time and talk about god’s plan for them and how great Jesus is, and you also see her handing out pamphlets to some random stranger say god want me to give this to you and he has great plans for you.   So yes, this movie scares the daylights out of me.  And I’m only in the first 1/20th of the damn movie.  I was telling my brother about it, and he said “Yeah, my friends told me to keep away from that movie and it was disturbing.”  This is my brother, the watcher of Donnie Darko and Requiem for a Dream and Bubba Ho-Temp, and a myriad of slasher movies.  He is afraid to watch this movie, and justifiably so.    I have also luckily survived the Break Dawn release party.  I have also gone through the trauma that I went through for the process, at least far enough to be okay reading the book with only a few flashbacks.  I totally blame the co-workers that abandoned me the last 2 hours.   Speaking a feral attacks over words…the campaign is still going on.  Keep forgetting about that.  McCain and his obsessive slashing of Obama have been getting more tedious from…He didn’t visit the injured vets (on one occasion, but he visited others), to the He should be campaigning in front of a German restaurant and not Germany and leave that for the president (even though Obama holds a office and making connections with foreign affairs could possibly be valuable for his Senate work and the country as a whole), and then the Obama is just a celeb like Paris Hilton (The IQ levels don’t match, and really he’s just envious of the coverage the guy gets).   Okay, We know that negative campaigning works, but seriously I felt let down.  I know I’m an Obama supporter, but I expected more from McCain.  I expected a man of integrity, someone who was unjustly attacked my negative campaigning, that did a lot more damage than just losing a campaign, to think twice about doing such a thing.  It made me loose faith in what he stood for at the beginning.  But I guess that is the deal with politicians, they disappoint, after all they are human, even Obama and the Clintons and yes even my hero Feingold (did I mention that I voted in Milwaukee instead of my home state to vote for him, ah I wish I was still at Marquette to vote for him again)   Okay, someone tell me what the hell happened to July.  I know June was all about Pride, but July just went by and it had an entire extra day.   Okay July was just a rancid month this year, thus far, besides coworker issues at the bookstore, August has rocked.  May it rock some more and may I actually see my friends.   ======================== Currently Reading: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Comment on this)
Friday, August 1st, 2008
9:56 am	The more I live through things, the more I learn I need to laugh at myself.  I’m a klutz, I do stupid things, make mistakes, and am in general human.   And it when I laugh at myself that I get over my anxieties and do what I want for once instead of letting things pass me by like I always do.  Odd revelations for being caught in the rain Now I like walking in the rain, but not while I’m walking towards work, which I was yesterday.  It didn’t look that bad when I left, but the clouds kind of rushed in, and the sky almost fell bythe time I hit my mile mark.  So being there stuck in the pouring rain with little shade, I had two options, run back the mile and hop in the car I haven’t driven since June (it runs, I’m just being green and cheap), or run the mile and half rest to work.  I chose the second and got to work as a drowned cat.  My black polo and black jeans were kind of clinging to my body and my supervisor, a heterosexual male, goes up to me and says “What are you trying to do, audition for Chippendales?”  I can take that as a compliment.  Luckily I had a change of shirts, but I had to do my shift in wet jeans.  But I got to laugh at the event, and can tell a story from it.  If I don’t embarrass myself more often then I’ll be running out of stories to share.  And that is just part of the fun of the journey.  I should make a fool of myself more often. Not looking forward today.  Working 3pm-2am for the book release of Breaking Dawn, excited the book is coming out, not so much about the screaming fan-girls.  I swear if they use the word “like” out of connotation more that 4 times in one sentence or use it as a period, then I get full right to slap them upside the head with a dictionary.  ======================== Currently Reading:  Grave Peril by Jim Butcher   (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
10:16 pm	Is anybody else confused by the McCain’s recent “attack” on Obama.  Um, did he, or rather his campaign,  really try to compare the articulate, pure, intellectual that is the Democratic Presidential Candidate (elect) to Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton.  Okay I understand the celebrity complaint, but the analogy is such a stretch to the imagination that it give it no validity.  I mean the worst antic that came out of his past was from his now former pastor, which infers he goes to church, which Hilton and Spears rarely attend.  And wait, who was it that preformed at the RNC’s national convention in 2004 when Bush was campaigning?  I believe it was Kid Rock and Britney Spears!  SO again the attack makes no sense and is making McCain looking like he is grappling loose straws. Really the first to resort to negative campaign ads usually loses, and when your negative campaigning is this weak, there does seem to be a strong sense of foreboding.  On a complete tangent, I took a full day off and did nothing (beside cleaning and laundry).  I wanted three movies, read relaxed and what not.  I basically had a whole whopping hour of work to do at the health center so luckily I was able to take off the day and save the $4 and 4 hour round trip by putting off the nonessential work til next week! So I wanted The Second Coming (loved the ending as much as I love Russell T Davis), Keeping Mum (Maggie Smith as a crazy psychopath house keeper, and Mr. Bean as a vicar?  Much fun.), and An Inconvenient Truth (I’ve only had this movie since April or May which only goes to show that I need more free time to breathe.  On the movie, nothing that new to me, but still awesome in its presentation.  Love the Futurama cameo!) Oh and I discovered I can’t bake out of a box.  I love baking, but I tried to bake a cake from a box of cake mix and it came out all wrong.  I’m not sure how I messed it up, but it was pretty bad.  Sure I can make a cake from scratch, but give me cake mix…at least the mess tastes good, but I have too much pride to present this anywhere.  ======================== Currently Reading: Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorder by Aaron T Beck   (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
2:20 pm	good energies   So I got to go to Jay Brannan last night.  God the guy is cute.  And I don’t know there is something about going to a performance where you know the guy is gay and down right admits it.  There are always those befuddled minds of ambiguity that singers seem to be taking a shine to these days, Pete Wentz, Robbie Williams, and Gabe Saporta like to do the am I gay or just experimenting, or just making myself look sexy in a pansexual way? Anyways, it was hot, good energy from the audience, a great show from Jay himself.  I did find his collage of covers great (especially his face when he sang I Kissed a Girl).  And I got his autograph on his new CD.  Oh, and Rory from Make Me a Supermodel was in the audience as well.    I also find that the Republican attach strategy of attacking Obama was to link him, the Democrat, with his party about NOT allowing offshore drilling for oil.  Yes we’re hurting a the pump, but this would be a push.  Not to mention that he oil companies don’t look so good cause they have apparently been paying off Alaska Sen. Stevens via home improvements.  So yes, they are going to try to tie Obama via his party line, while someone in their party is being indicted.    Okay, I will admit that I have mixed feelings for Kiara Knightly, she can be a great actress, and sometime she just rancid.  I had hope and the she blew a bunch of movies, and then she started choosing and challenging.  But all that if for naught, cause she is totally forgiven from her prior mistakes by actually making an awesome stand!  She is speaking out against airbrushing her boobs into a larger size for promotional ads.  Lets not give impossible expectations to our youth.  I mean when supermodels need to be airbrushed, we have a problem.  Also I don’t think cleavage will up sales for a 18th century historical piece.  Although the guys might be hot for that time period outfits.   Also RIP Martha Jones.  While she is a fictional character, and while said fictional character never actually dies in any series of Doctor Who, she will now be phased off the map of the series and side series.  Freema Agyeman, the actress that played Martha, was basically axed for signing up for Law and Order: London which is made by a competing company of BBC.  So she is no longer on Torchwood, which has been sliced to 5 episodes.  A sad day indeed.  Yes my dork levels are up.  I’ve finished 2 books, the 1st season of Avatar (anyone have access to the 2nd?), and completed Doctor Who.  Life is good.    ======================== Currently Reading: Good Omens by Neil Gainman and Terry Pratchet   (Comment on this)