"Reformed" ex-gay woman returns to her Southern Baptist faith and sues for full custody of the daughter she had while in a Vermont-sanctioned civil union, stating that permitting her former partner to have any parental rights "would be like handing my child over to the milkman." (!)
While it's basically impossible to top that comment, I especially like the part where she files child abuse allegations against her partner (the one who for years has run a professional daycare out of her home), because the 6-year-old girl allegedly exhibits "disturbing behavior" after visits with her other mother, such as masturbating in public and putting a comb to her throat, threatening suicide. (These allegations were deemed unfounded by Virginia Child Protective Servies.) Anyways, the journalism here is really excellent, presented fairly and well-written.
(I'm kind of glad that if there's a somewhat landmark case about gay parental rights across state lines where the partnership laws differ, the anti-gay party is a legitimate nutjob, with a history of mental issues and a willingness to run up thousands of dollars of fees AND risk jail for contempt of court in refusing to permit court-mandated vistations.)
On a related note, the cover article from that issue is the "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage." Nothing I haven't believed/advocated for years, but a good read nonetheless, and I'm ecstatic to see such beliefs getting play in a mainstream publication.
After a moment, he amended it to 9g, but I had a good bit of time in there. The clever retort just begged to be made... but I was overwhelmed by all the routes I could take. In the end I just walked away, because mocking those of lower mental capacity is unkind. 8)
notes for the unintiated:
G stands for gold pieces, a significant sum of money. I usually gift my own new characters with only 5 pieces of gold, which lasts them a very long time. Not to mention that begging for money makes you a weenie.
Biggest bummer ever? It's just too depressing to listen to economic news right now, not even Kai can improve it. Now what reason do I have to be happy about my otherwise-perfect 6:25 departure??
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geepgal and I haven't travelled much this year. We took a weeklong "staycation" in March (before the term became a buzzword, thank you very much), and elected not to go camping this summer due to asthma concerns. So when Big Work Project (the once-every-3-years one) got pushed back a couple months, in essence taking over the whole calendar year, it was a problem. I had to scheme and negotiate to get even a little vacation time off before it got cold out, but I got 3 days.We decided to go to OCMD, because we're addicted to staying at the Breakers and because you can't go far in that amount of time. Since oceanfront rooms are just a leeeeetle bit expensive, we decided to go for just 2 nights, mid-week, later in the month to catch the rate drop.
Except...the rate drop occurs on Tuesday. I knew this. That's why I made the reservation for Monday through Wednesday, to catch part of the rate drop. And yet? I forgot this and we drove down on Sunday.
Luckily, the desk lady knows and loves us -- they must recognize my name, because they always know we're coming even before we walk in the door. And it IS late enough that they had plenty of availability...we even got the same room we wanted, just on a higher floor.
So yes, we could have gone earlier in the month and paid the same amount, but I don't care because Sunday could NOT have been a more beautiful day. The sky was a brilliant warm blue with wispy cirrus clouds all over, and went totally pink at sunset. And in all my years and years of going there, it's never been that pleasant outside at night. The wind was actually warm. We ate dinner outside (outside!) at Shenanigans, with the cutest waitress ever, who recognized we were regulars and gave us Shenanigans buttons. They say "summer 2008", meaning they're going to keep making them. I exclaimed, "They're like real-life ACHIEVEMENTS!" (Achievements are the downfall of my existence...they're totally like crack.) Guess we'll just have to keep going back to complete our collection, *dramatic sigh*...
The kicker is that the winds started up on Monday morning and increased in a linear fashion every hour. Last night it was so bad we couldn't even sit on the balcony and watch people blow away for sport (sad!). So I give myself a hearty pat on the back for ignoring my reservation and heading down on Sunday instead!
Also: happy early birthday
paperkingdoms . 8)EDIT: Today is also
drmcsexypants 's birthday, but I never remember it b/c he lied to me for several years about when it was! :P So happy birthday to you anyway, hope your party last weekend was fun!!I just saw an adorable "Mac ad" online, where Mac guy in the banner at the top of the page talked to PC guy in a newspaper-style article in the banner at the side of the page. Admittedly I had the sound off, but PC talking from the photo box was cute.
So, thoughts.
1. Are
geepgal and I really the only ones who hate Mac more and more with each commercial, and like PC more and more? I guess they're trying to reach technophobes or the only semi-computer-literate, not us. I just don't like the attitude of the character one bit and I don't see how it's effective. I watch A LOT of commercials (not kidding. It's unintentional, but sometimes I watch the commercials more than the show), but I rarely have this visceral a reaction to them. Enlighten me, friends list. State your pre-existing opinion on Macs and explain whether or not the commercials work for you.2. Dude, Mac guy has gotten uglier over the years. What happened? He does realize there are about a bazillion different hair products that would prevent his hair from being greasy and lank like that, right?
3. Um, there was going to be a point three, but I appear to have forgotten it. Heh, I need to start sleeping more I think.
In other news...there appears to be a cricket loose in the vicinity. It keeps feeling like a condemnation of our department, cricket noises echoing through like we're all too boring for words.
EDIT: Has anyone seen the new Microsoft ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld?? It's insanity! Churros, "you're clean AND dressed!", Bill's series of comical expressions, his membership card to Shoe Circus, and edible cake computers? Regardless of the products involved, it made geepgal and I stop and just stare at the TV for a good minute. Kudos to their agency for that one.
I'm proud of this screenshot I captured of my World of Warcraft character hitting level 70 (currently the highest level you can reach in the game). It's never easy to catch the yellow swirly animation when you level, because it happens instantaneously. I also deliberately chose to be in this region of the game for its scenic value. And I stalked the hell out of that clefthoof (the big hairy creature), to position it for a photogenic angle. I love his grimace of death!
Too bad I wasn't zoomed in farther, but dude, there are only SO many factors I can manage simultaneously.
Me: Yes, that's totally right; keep doing what you're doing. And forget what I just said — it just confuses things unnecessarily.
Co-worker: (thoughtfully, nodding slowly) No...I think it's equal parts confusing and helpful.
I think I need to put that on a badge and wear it around as a preemptive warning to others: "EQUAL PARTS CONFUSING AND HELPFUL"
It's surprising to realize I still have fond memories of Cultural Analysis...actually quite a few of them! (Terribly-unfond memories of discussion section, given that the adjunct was so nervous he couldn't spark any discussion, and Aaron spent the entire hour EVERY TIME trying to steal my pen cap and put it in his mouth. I went through a lot of pens that semester.) I guess it was preventative — we made ourselves laugh because otherwise it was painful — and I think the professors loved us for it, because even if we were disruptive, at least we kept everyone awake. I know there was much hilarity; wish I could remember more of the specifics.
groovesinorbit that she should watch Clone High! It's hard to advocate clearly without gushing too much! Here was my attempt to explain, describe, and fan the flames (comment repeated here as not everyone has access to the friends-locked entry):
It is hard to adequately describe the splendor of Clone High. Sadly cancelled after one season, it's an animated series out of Canada about a high school, except all the students are clones of brilliant minds from throughout history. Of course, they're famous people...as teenagers, so not only are they standardly angsty, they have angst about living up to their genetic predecessors. It also sends up teen drama staples: Abe Lincoln pines after sexpot Cleopatra, who's dating school lothario JFK. His best friends are gothy Joan of Arc (who's not-so-secretly in love with him) and wacky party animal Ghandi.Or feel free to bemoan if you like: about the fact they only made one season, or some of the disappointing aspects of the series. (I've always hated the Scudworth-vs.-various-Woody-Woodpecker-e
And famous Canadians make cameos, and the principal is absolutely looney toons, and the vice-principal is a sweater vest-wearing robot who calls everyone Wesley, and it's got an awesome catchy theme song, and the best comedic timing of anything I've ever seen. So it comes highly recommended. So worth tracking down the DVDs on the second-hand market (I got mine from Amazon.ca, but it seems they only have the French version in stock).
I'm not a spoiler-phobe, so if you're not either, you could check out the memorable quotes on IMDB to see if it continues to tickle your funny bone:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305011/quotes
paperkingdoms indirectly inspired some brilliance from geepgal yesterday. After PK mentioned Alex Krycek in this post, I told geepgal I'd regrettably missed the opportunity to name my rogue in World of Warcraft Krycek. That being said, my character is female and a troll, so the name and the visuals wouldn't have gone together well at all.Geepgal's brilliant idea was to create a character in the other faction of the game. While we're staunchly against them, our type of server does permit one account to have characters on both sides of the fight, and the other side has human characters! (Terribly boring in every other way, but quite useful for this plan.) Plus, duh, he'd be a double (triple?) agent, just like the "real" Krycek! Geepgal characterizes it thusly (comment excerpted from PK's journal):
My evening plans: to go home and meet ambientguise in front of the computerfor the making of our Warcraft character who is an Alliance human rogue named Krycek... He will spy for our main characters (FOR THE HORDE!) and it will be unclear exactly whose side he is on. He will slip us information to help us, only to lead us into more danger...oh the mystery...hehe.
The punchline to all of this? The human character model is bulky and muscle-bound and comes with a variety of terrifying facial hair options. Came out looking terrible. So Krycek the new human rogue? Uses the female character model. Go pretty men!
I do not have a long-standing opinion on the month of July. The title actually came from a late-night-in-bed conversation a couple days before I founded this journal, back when I was playing Persona 3 just about constantly. I was sleepily telling geepgal about my plans to write a story inspired by the game, set in "the world of July" because that was a happy and tranquil time, back before every possible rug on earth got ripped out from underneath the poor characters. I remember thinking it was such an evocative and poetic phrase to come out of my mouth while barely awake — whether that's true in the light of day, I dunno. But July is a pretty good month: you get long summer evenings, and beautiful luxuriant foliage, and the cosy sensation of being embraced by the warm, thick summer air when you come out of overly air-conditioned buildings... Anyways, here's hoping that the world of July 2008 will indeed be an awesome place to live!
- Music:King of Bloke and Bird – Robbie Williams
Let's see, what have I done recently... Saw
paperkingdoms on her US Tour 08. Went to OC MD over the holiday weekend with femmetofarad, drmcsexypants, poindextrous and husband. OC rocks as always, though linnyninny was greatly missed -- if there aren't any weddings next year, you guys are being brought along by gunpoint if necessary! ; )This weekend
geepgal and I were on hospital-transport-duty for her pregnant coworker, whose husband was out of town, but naught came of it. (She's not technically due for like another week.) We missed the H&B visit as a result, so I hope all had fun. While hanging at home waiting for the call, I got insane amounts of cleaning done -- haven't had a productive day like that in a long time, and it felt good. I folded more laundry than I should ever admit to having piled up. (I'm good at washing the laundry, mediocre at putting it away.) Yay to a nearly clean house. And Jingu and Akutaba very kindly ran me through Zulfarak (I do not acknowledge ridiculous apostrophes), which knocked out so many quests at once that I went up a level, which is good because Zurya's been stagnating lately. ETA: Ooh, I went to a cookout this weekend too! At the house of one of B's grad school friends. She's like the world's most together person. In one year she went from #1 social butterfly to bride, mother, homeowner, and team lead at her job. Insanity. So there was a grad school gathering for all to meet husband, baby, and house -- and as an honorary speech therapist, I'm not relegated to have to sit with the boys. Maybe I really do want a house, because hanging out in people's backyards has become my favorite activity of late. Maybe I'm just really looking forward to summer for some reason?
Next weekend it's back to OC for my dad's wedding. It will be on the beach, so everyone cross their fingers that the accessibility stuff works out.
geepgal and I have also been working our asses off at work. She and her fellow therapists have exceeded an already record-setting productivity rate (not necessarily willingly), so hopefully things will calm down with the summer lull. It also seems like air-conditioning season might be helping eliminate the sauna-like, impossible-for-asthmatic-lungs-to-breathWe've also been asking ourselves the big questions lately...where do we want to live long-term, where and when might we want to buy real estate, jobs, careers, vacation homes (always high on her priority list)... Sigh, FAR too much thinking lately. It's no good, too much thinking.
I've got plenty of word geeks and articulate people who'll read this, so I need your help. Is there a word that means simultaneous excitement and nervousness? Particularly in the context of looking foward to something while being concerned how it will go. It really seems like there should be one (in English ahem; I'm sure there's some crazy German monstrosity but that won't help), but I can't think of any. I want confirmation I'm not overlooking something!
Further musings: Words like apprehension and trepidation have totally negative denotations when you look them up. Anticipation is neutral, so the phrase "nervous anticipation" works... (I guess anticipation has a generally positive connotation to me, so appending it with nervous completes the picture for me.) Suggestions of similar compound phrases are also welcome.
Sorry for excessive underlining of WORDS USED AS WORDS! It's a ridiculous joke from high school.
Dear geepgal,
I don't really know how to tell you this, but I'm joining the monastery.
I think I realized it when I tripped on sesame seeds at the mental hospital and I saw you pull the clothes off Manchester United's goalkeeper.
I'm sure you're cowardly enough to understand that I had a sex-change. I'm returning your love letters to you, but I'll keep your left ear as a memory.
You should also know that I get sick when I think of your passionate interest in mice.
Good luck on your short-term leave from jail,
ambientguise
My favoritest video game ever has been rereleased this week, with expanded content, at half the original price point. When it first came out last year, it was totally unavailable after 4 months, unless you wanted to pay $80 or $100 on ebay. Now it's only $30. And it's only on PS2 -- practically everyone in this country owns one of those!
So if you like RPGs, at all, I suggest you buy Persona 3: FES. Buy it now, even if you're not going to play it yet. The publisher is NOTORIOUS for small print runs, so who knows how long it'll actually be around. It's worth every penny, even more so now that it's cheaper and longer. And don't be thrown by the M rating. While the characters are all in high school, they're dealing with serious and interesting issues — gasp, a plot for grown-ups. The M rating isn't for gore, it's strictly in reaction to that whole "shooting" yourself in the head with the fake gun thing...which, whateverrrrrrrrrr. It relates to the plot, and it looks really cool when shattered glass flies out of your head (metaphorically), so ignore the rating and buy the game.
I should be advocating for it more coherently, but I like it too much to be coherent. And I'm distracted by trying to pick which of my 20 Persona 3 icons to place with this post. Maybe I'll go with the default. That's you there, the main character. Your hair and eyes are actually bright blue, and usually you look more emo and less ridiculously adorable and cute, but HOW CAN YOU RESIST THAT FACE. You can't. You must go buy this game and help yourself become the awesomest person to ever attend the 11th grade — brilliant, charismatic, able to kill monsters with your bare hands while serial-dating the entire school — and maybe even save the world along the way. Go.
Thanks for coming through for me, Pennsylvania! I knew you could do it. ::looks askance at Philadelphia, but says nothing::
Sorry you won't hear any enlightening commentary from me -- geepgal has temporarily abandoned LJ, and I'm not the eloquent one. All I can do is rant incoherently about my hatred of delegate distribution/the electoral college. And how the Democratic party dug its own grave on this one, not that they're going to fix anything for the next time around (same as we didn't fix anything after Gore's popular vote "win" -- though even more inexcusable because we're just talking within the party here, not the entire national system).
( Mostly me reminiscing about how much I still love Krycek, so you can skip if you want. )
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