Just thought I’d most some new photos since I’ve been a bit lacking lately. . .
Here is my friend Bobby posing behind the holy reverant photo at Burgermeister. *giggle* Doesn’t he look like an angel? NOT!
And here is moi. *Notice how blurry mine turned out…user error*
Here is a quick shot of kristaki at work. He was groping for some grub.
My last rant, sometime back, about “gay genes” referred to genetics. This time I’m referring to the very stereo-typical version….SHOPPING! I didn’t get many of the “gay” genes however, I got the ‘shopping’ one in spades it seems. So today’s rant is a rare indulgance in the purely materialistic love of shopping!
For the uneducated, there are 3 types of shopping. Oh yes, there are different types. And all this time you thought it was just “shopping”. First, you have necessity shopping or shopping for items like groceries, staples, etc. Then you have desire shopping for items you want but don’t need. The third is merely a combination of the first two. Today was the third. Needing some new housewares, I decided to put the video game down for a bit and go shopping. (Having beat it once, I’m no longer in-thrall to it.) But I digress. I like to check out the discount stores first. Just on the off chance, they’ll have what I want for a fraction of what it normally costs me. As luck would have it, they did. Of course, I didnt’ stop there. Oh no, I also had to have a new Ralph Lauren coverlet, Polo athletic socks, some new towels, 6 flawless (see I do speak gay) new kitchen utensils, and the set of Mikasa glasses I originally went in looking for. All for under 150 buckaroos! Now that’s shopping friends!
Of course, all was not perfect. I didn’t find the Sateen cotton sheets I wanted. I absolutely refuse to sleep on anything less than 600 thread count. Anything under 200, you can usually see thru after the first wash. The 200-500 count usually ends up w/those awful little “beads” after a few washes. Hella annoying. I never mind paying full price if the item is made well and exactly what I want.
So there you have it. My unexciting rant about the joys of bargain shopping.
Ok, so that’s normally not something I say often. Let’s face it, Texas doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to being “open minded”. So it is w/no small amount of pride that I offer today’s tidbit. Thanks to Towleroad for catching the story.
Apparently, there is one ‘christian’ legislator who has had enough of all the hate-mongering. They passed the despicable amendment but god love her for calling a deuce a deuce!
I have served in this body a lot of years, and I have seen a lot of promises broken… So… now that blacks and women have equal rights, you turn your hatred to homosexuals, and you still use your misguided reading of the Bible to justify your hatred. You want to pass this ridiculous amendment so you can go home and brag — brag about what? Declare that you saved the people of Texas from what
(snip)
If you want to make your hateful political statements then that is one thing — but the Chisum amendment does real harm. It repeals the contracts that many single people have paid thousands of dollars to purchase to obtain medical powers of attorney, powers of attorney, hospital visitation, joint ownership and support agreements. You have lost your way. This is obscene…“I thought we would be debating economic development, property tax relief, protecting seniors’ pensions and stem cell research to save lives of Texans who are waiting for a more abundant life. Instead we are wasting this body’s time with this political stunt that is nothing more than constitutionalizing discrimination. The prejudices exhibited by members of this body disgust me
It is nice to know there are some respectable folks left in politics. Even in Texas.
*giggle* Have I mentioned how much I love WordPress? The ability to hold comments for moderation is a godsend when it comes to spam control. I rarely get hit but when I do, I get anywhere from 5-30 “comments” in a single session. It is glorious to not have to delete every comment manually. Just select “mark all as spam”, double check for real comments and then it’s as simple as one more click. Bu-bye spam!
I hate Mondays! I really do. Add to that, I was up until 3:30am playing a new video game and you feel my pain.
The weekend was blissfully uneventful. Mostovic and I took in Star Wars on Saturday. He wanted to go to the beach as the weather was beautiful. However, I was being selfish and was having none of that. Actually, Bobby wanted to go too. I know the weather was great but I just wasn’t in a beach mood. I think mainly due to my crazy schedule the past 2 weeks. Hopefully, after this week the madness will return to it’s normal mild state. There were so many things I needed to get done this past weekend. Of which, only one actually got done.
I’ve often wondered why I get this way. Being a typical Aquarian, I tend to be very spontaneous and free-spirited. I hate schedules and rigidity. On the other hand, life has taught me that schedules and structure can be very good things at times. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. I find when I’m overly pressed for time or scheduling I tend to shut down and rebel on my free time. Any thoughts of scheduling stuff on my free time goes out the window. I don’t know if this is merely my subconscious rebelling or if it goes much deeper as a defense mechanism for the id. (Another topic we can save and crack open later when I’m desperate.)
The weekend unfurled completely unplanned and I loved every wasted minute of it. I did manage to get out Sunday and get a replacement keyboard for work. (I have carpel-tunnel syndrome in my left arm and have to use an ergonomic keyboard.) The downside is no one seemed to have any so I spent the better part of the afternoon bouncing all over town looking for a replacement.
This brings me back to the reason I’m so grumpy today. I never could set foot inside a technology store w/o buying something. And it always ends up being more than what I needed. This time was no exception. A long story cut short, I ended up w/a voucher from Best Buy so I put it to good use and picked up God of War for the PS2. I got home around 9:30 and didn’t put it down until 3:30 in the morning. I had to be at work by noon for the day’s first meeting.
I’m cranky. I wanna go home and play some more!
So I had lunch w/Mostovic today. Normally, lunch w/him is great but today I came away angry. We started discussing some of the issues w/my work. Specifically, the work I’ve been doing w/the Union to help get a raise. I was a bit taken aback when he actually began arguing as if I didn’t deserve a raise. Like, HOW DARE I ask for more money in such a rough economy. I guess more than anything it surprised me. I didn’t expect it.
However, during the discussion, it did serve to remind me of the reasons why I’m fighting for a raise. The main one, my job was doubled two and half hears ago and am just now getting a chance to plead my (our) case. The other reason is I value my skills. I’ve learned (the hard way) that if I don’t stand up for my rights no one else will. Sometimes that means a new job and sometimes it just means playing hard ball where you’re at. And it’s definitely been an uphill battle. The city is facing another large deficeit and is looking for ways to save money. So, naturally giving me more money doesn’t figure into their plans. (In case you missed it, I’m a dispatcher for SFPD. Two years ago, we were forced to take over Fire and EMS dispatch as well)
Even before we took over the extra duties, we were the least paid in the nine Bay area counties. Now with the increased workload, we have stopped asking and started demanding more money. At a time when Sacramento’s dispatchers just got a 41% pay increase, I think our small 10% request is not going to break the bank. And considering there is only 1 dispatcher on duty for every 100,000 (yes that was one hundred thousand) people in the city, I think it would be in SF’s best interest to at least try to keep the dispatchers they have.
Remembering this put me back in a good mood and my day has been peachy since!
Another glaring example of how corporations are out-of-control in this country.
(story)
Internet phone providers were ordered Thursday to begin supplying reliable 911 emergency call service after regulators heard an anguished Florida woman describe how she was unable to summon help to save her dying infant daughter….
…Her voice breaking, Cheryl Waller of Deltona, Fla., told the commissioners before their vote that “120 days is seven days longer than my daughter lived.” Julia Waller “died at 113 days old because I can’t reach an operator,” she said.
Waller said she got a recording when she used her Internet phone to call 911 after her daughter stopped breathing last March. By the time she was able to summon help with a neighbor’s phone, the child was dead.
Instead of focusing on issues like this, our leaders are worried about who I’m poking at night or who I choose to marry. Where were the morals of the company exec’s who rolled out this service knowing that it was missing a critical component? Once again, we wait until a problem bites us squarely in the ass before we act. Shameful to say the least.
I often find that conversations involving morality (and monogamy but thats another rant ) always seem to end up in a bitch fight. Neither side is willing to listen or relent and both end up vehemently attacking the other.
I’m trying to collect my thoughts to make this rant sound coherent but ideas keep colliding w/each other so I’ll ask you to bear w/me. . . I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m tired of the factions within the gay community constantly at war w/each other. One side uses their morality as a shield w/their self-righteous speeches proclaiming they’re superiority because they have morality on their side. The other side uses their sexual freedom as an ax to chop away at the traditions society has built up for years and years. Yet, neither side really tries to listen to the other. No one tries to find a middle ground. It’s always “my way or the highway!” Ya know what folks, that same attitude is what has this country in the political quandry its in today!
I still feel like I’m still missing my point. Maybe I can focus on the term itself.
Morality is defined as
At first read, both definitions sound the same. If you read it that way, re-read it until you see the difference. It is pointless to read further until you understand the above definitions differences.
*ok I stopped here out of frustration. I couldn’t find the right words so after several hours of reading, I found what I was trying to say, albeit not so elegantly.*
…. it is not useful to adopt a definition of morality as meaning the code of conduct accepted by the members of a society because in many large societies, not all members of the society accept the same code of conduct. Nor is it useful to adopt a somewhat more general definition of morality as the code of conduct accepted by the members of a group because it is not only always possible, it is often the case, that not all members of any group accept the same code. A natural outcome of these problems is to switch attention from groups to individuals. If what is important is what code of conduct people accept, and members of a group do not always accept the same code of conduct, then why be concerned with groups at all?
This consideration leads to a new descriptive sense of morality. morality is taken to mean that guide to behavior that is regarded by an individual as overriding and that he wants to be universally adopted. [See R. M. Hare, Moral Thinking] In this sense of morality, it refers to a guide to behavior accepted by an individual rather than that put forward by a society or any other group. But morality does not refer to just any guide to behavior accepted by an individual, it is that guide to behavior that the individual adopts as his overriding guide, and wants everyone else to adopt as their overriding guide as well. This sense of morality is a descriptive sense, because a person can refer to an individual’s morality without endorsing it. In this sense, like the original descriptive sense, morality has no limitations on content. Whatever guide to behavior an individual regards as overriding and wants to be universally adopted is that individual’s morality.
This quote was taken direclty from Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Now we are getting somewhere! The picture once fuzzy becomes clear. (well at least for me.) We begin to see that morality is an ambiguous term at best. How can we expect to come together as a group if we are all focusing on our morality instead of our equality. It should be quite clear that we’ll never have the same morality as those who oppose and hate us.
If we don’t learn to move beyond our multi-cultural/racial views on morality, frankly folks, I think we are doomed as a species.
Well, I’ve beat this horse to death so I’m moving on now. Discuss, comment, or bitch as you will.
Well Mostovic just called and he wants to go see it after all. So, I’m thinking we’ll probably go to an early showing in Saturday to avoid the crowds.
Anyone else?
None of my cohorts are free to go w/me this weekend to see the new Star Wars flick. *collective awwwwww*
So, I’m forced to go on my own tomorrow during the day before work. Aren’t you sad for me?
