Paterson to appoint a unicorn to Senate

Why is she a unicorn*?

• Conservative Democrat
• Advocate for gun rights and endorsed by the NRA
• Supports extension of Bush Tax Cuts
• 100% rating from ACLU

I’m a little surprised, honestly, and somewhat cautiously optimistic. This doesn’t affect me in any major way because I’m not in New York (which is why I’m waiting to see what my New York friends have to say), but honestly, I like to see a little more moderation in Congress. There’s might be more of an air of non-partisan and bi-partisan legislation and cooperation right now, but that doesn’t stop the dual polarities of Republican/Democrat and Conservative/Liberal.

I consider myself more conservative than most other people would. I think most gun control legislation is a steaming crock of shit, was an NRA member or sympathizer for most of my formative years (both thanks to my dad the gunsmith) and, at the same time, a Democrat. Most times, they don’t go all that well together, y’know?

Every day brings new surprises and good things from the Obama administration. I’m under no illusions that this honeymoon period will last forever; there will be some things that happens that I don’t agree with. For now, though, the hope is there, the positivity is there, and I curious to see how it all will last.

* A unicorn is a mythical creature that doesn’t exist. Other unicorns are fully-furred blond men and Marine tops.

…I’m pretty sure I hate American Idol the most. I’m pretty sure I’d watch Rush Limbaugh before I watched the auditions of American Idol. It’s not so much that I have a problem with them showcasing the absolute train wrecks. I have a problem with other things.

First of all, I come from a very musical family. I have a great ear for music. My maternal grandfather could hear a song three times and be able to play it, note perfect, and sing it as well. That singing trickled to my mother, and then into me and 3 of my siblings (we’re still not sure what happened to BJ. Mom, did you drop him?). All of us (except, of course, BJ — and stop laughing, Julian. I can hear it from here) play at least one instrument, usually multiples (I play 7, the girls play anything stringed, plus Clare also plays clarinet and Sarah plays trumpet), and all of us are theatrical (we’re AC-TORS!). To hear a tone-deaf Siamese-in-heat try to belt out the latest Human Porpoise Mariah Carey or Beyonce song? Yeah, ouch. To the point of my ears bleeding. To the point of wanting to stab baby duckies.

Number Two: WHY IN GAY HELL would you ARGUE with the judges?? And to tell one of them in an incredibly snotty tone, “Well, your version of the song wasn’t that great, either…”? REALLY?! Welcome to your LAST 12 seconds of fame, princess. Oh my god. Arguing with the judges on any contest show NEVER works. Seriously. And it makes you look like a total turbo-douche. So, really, cut it out.

Third: Learn to take criticism. Don’t get all ghetto on them if they say “it was good, but here’s some things you can change to make it better.” Nobody gives a perfect performance. Ever. Well, one opera singer did. She exploded immediately afterward. Learn how to perfect your craft. Learn to smile graciously. Do NOT tell the judges they were stupid or tone-deaf for not liking a particular aspect. See Number Two above.

*sigh* When will this country get rid of shows like this? Even as much as I love me some Project Runway and Top Chef, they have aspects to them that AI just doesn’t: age and experience. AI won’t let you audition if you’re over 28. Yeah. Fuck that noise, right in the goat-hole.

And by noise, I mean noise. Of the pollution variety.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Today I started listening to one of the reasons why you have a Grammy, the audio book of “The Audacity of Hope.” On Tuesday, we take George Bush out of office and swear you in as the 44th President of the United States of America. You’ve got a very large job ahead of you, and I hope that you’re strong enough to do it.

Two years ago, you weren’t my first choice for President of the United States. You were actually my choice for Vice-President for Hillary Clinton‘s presidency. The two of you together would have made a nearly-unstoppable, phenomenal team. She would never have been comfortable in the Number Two spot, though, and I’m still not a hundred percent convinced that Secretary of State is the right spot for her, either. I do feel that she will run for president in one of the up-coming elections. But I digress; this is about you, not her.

Grudgingly, I moved over to the Obama camp after you won the nomination. You were up against a formidable man; John McCain is no slouch. Had he picked someone other than the northern version of Elly May Clampett in a “let’s convert the disgruntled Hillary voters!” move, I think that he would have had a much better showing in the polls. That, sadly, was the most transparent part of his entire campaign. I was slowly impressed with your campaign. Sure, there was some mudslinging, but it seemed like your heart was genuinely not in it, like you were as grudging in your negative campaign tactics as I was in switching candidates.

I’ll also admit that two years ago — hell, six months ago — I knew nothing about politics. Then a podcast to which I listen religiously had one of its hosts start watching political shows on TV and I figured if he could do it, I could, too. I started downloading Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Meet the Press, along with lighter stuff like NPR‘s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. I also downloaded all of the debates, presidential and vice presidential alike. These helped form a lot of my opinions on the upcoming election and the possibility of either candidate’s presidency.

You and John McCain are both strong, charismatic men. Sarah Palin was also frighteningly charismatic, and on some levels, I identify strongly with both her and Vice President-elect Biden. It was a difficult choice, quite honestly, because all four of you were against my biggest trigger issue: same-sex marriage. It came down to trying figuring out which candidate would actually help GLBT civil rights in this country, and while all of you were anti-gay marriage, you and Mr. Biden had a better grasp of what GLBT civil rights would entail and what it would take to help further those goals. Does this make me a one-issue voter, as former friends would call me? To an extent, yes. I believe, though, that this one issue, which encompasses my whole existence, is that important that I need to be a one-issue voter on this. Sure, there are other things that are important — the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy and education reform — but this one giant, all-encompassing issue in my life is the difference between me being who I am and me lying about who I am. I was much more comfortable putting you in the driver’s seat than your opponent.

You ran on a platform of change, of hope. You have to know, sir, that the hope that you’re putting out is a desperate one for many of us. After the last eight years of soul-pummeling anger at the governing administration, many of us voted for that change, to ignite that spark of hope that the Bush administration hadn’t destroyed in us. As I said, it’s hope born of desperation. Sir, you have to fulfill your promises. You have to make this country work and pull it out of the dark ages into which it was thrown. The country and the world can’t afford much more of the spirit-crushing that we’ve had to endure for eight years.

When I think of the hope that you embody, my chest tightens and tears sting my eyes. I have to believe that you’ll do what you say, that you weren’t the average politician and told bald-faced lies to the American people just to secure your place in history. I have to believe that you can actually, to quote Major League, “win this whole fuckin’ thing.” That you’ll bring this country back from the brink of annihilation and up to where it deserves to be, the greatest country on Earth. To believe otherwise would honestly completely kill my spirit and the spirits of millions of other Americans and make us not be the people we are, to be empty drones.

You have to. There’s no other option.

In listening to you speak and listening to you read “The Audacity of Hope,” I hear in your voice a quiet strength of both personality and will unseen in a president for a very long time. You have to live up to your promise, Mr. Obama; this country desperately needs it from you.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Bredeson
Columbus, Ohio

And by unicorn, I mean “mythical creature that doesn’t exist.”

I’ve met a lot of people in my life — a LOT of people; my hometown was in the Guiness Book of World Records for years, until they finally removed the category, for Most Churches Per Capita (something like 65 churches in a town of less than 5000 people) — who call themselves Christians. Sadly, though, I know very few true Christians. They include my mother, my friend Matt, and several people in the Columbus faith community with whom I’m proud to be acquainted. I would love to include this woman in this list. That article is brilliant.

Thank you, Reverend Smith, for your support and for knowing the meanings of Christ’s teachings, and for being willing to call bullshit.

Yes, me. I love football, and the more amateur it is, the more I love it, right down to the PeeWee level. Those kids are (mostly) playing for the pure love of the game. Once you get up to pro ball, it’s a job, and then it’s awesome because of the possibility of the Star Factor, but not as awesome because you have to bust your ass more to stay employed.

I saw this article yesterday, and started with a split second reaction of, “Legislation for college football? Really?” which quickly morphed into, “Well, that might be a bit extreme, but I can see why they’d want to regulate it a little bit.” and into “The BCS is completely skewing football.” And they pretty much are.

Take a look at that article again. Five conferences — Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic — get the chance to send one team total to a bowl game, where the other six conferences can send multiple teams. How is that fair? Granted, one of my teams is Big Ten Conference(Wisconsin!) but the other is Mountain West Conference (Wyoming!), and most likely will never see a bowl game.

Do I think that legislation is the way to go? Probably not, but you know what? There’s gotta be some frivolity every once in a while. Kinda like the President “pardoning” the turkeys on Thanksgiving. I do think that some reform is needed for anything called a National Championship. If the NCAA does it for basketball, why can’t they do it for football? Sixteen teams to eight teams to four teams to two to a true national champion, complete with banners and parades and bragging rights. Let the teams themselves figure out who’s the best, not some arbitrary choice of who goes where. Let the bowl games be the quarter- and semi-finals and then pick one to be the Championship game. Would it take time to restructure? Sure it would. But that’s why these people get paid the big bucks.

Defense wants conviction dismissed in Web hoax

How is this creature not up on charges for murder? Seriously. How is she not looking at more than 3 years in jail and $300,000 fine? This goes back to the DeGrassi stuff about which I’ve been posting, honestly. She is getting away with manipulating this teenager to kill herself, for pushing her over that fragile edge that all teenagers tap-dance along for, well, 10 years, until they come out the other end more stable. If you’re lucky, you’ve got decent people around you, like I did. My parents are awesome, my teachers were pretty damn cool, and my friends were fantastic; I just had to insulate myself from the worst of my peers, which was surprisingly easy (though, in all honesty, when you’re smarter and more clever than a good chunk of them, it’s not tough).

This is outrageous. They’re just after her for the violations of the site’s TOS? REALLY?! Ugh. What kind of social and legal retardation is that? How is that justice?

My Mission 101 list just got (theoretically) longer in my mind. I know that I could accomplish this in five years, but most likely not in three. Not if I wanted to accomplish everything else on my list.

The Knitting Guild Association (TKGA) runs a Masters Program for knitters (no, really? Are you sure it’s knitters and not, maybe, basketweavers? Duh…) that I’ve drooled over for the last three years or so, ever since I learned of it while working at Skein Lane in El Cerrito. I finally feel mostly comfortable enough in my skills to do this challenge. I know that I’m more than advanced enough to achieve Level 1, and I’m mostly comfortable enough to get through Level 2, but Level 3 is… daunting. Not necessarily scary, but definitely a little on the “this is gonna take a looooong time” side.

Of course, right now, the biggest challenge is getting the money to complete each section. And, well, put on my BGPs and just do it. Huh. You know, by the end of the year, I will find or make a way to start Level 1.

So mote it be.

(more…)

So, I was just digging around on the DeGrassi website in regards to this entry, and Jimmy, the character who got shot, has evidently been in a wheelchair since the shooting.

Does this make me look like an insensitive asshole? I mean, my rant about the bullying making Rick just as much of a victim as Jimmy is still valid, but because Jimmy came out of it crippled, that doesn’t make me a dick, right?

I just watched part of an episode (“Time Stands Still”, 2 parts, Season 4) of Degrassi: The Next Generation (shush, Ben watches it; I walked in halfway through the episode). In the episode, one of the outcast kids, Rick, someone who was constantly bullied and mocked, won a competition at school because some of his schoolmates helped to throw the contest, and was doused with yellow paint and feathers while the contest was televised. Rick proceeded to go home, get a handgun, come back to school and shoot a student (Jimmy) on whom the incident was blamed and then himself. At the end of the episode, Rick was dead and Jimmy was in critical condition in the hospital.

There was a candlelight vigil outside the school because of it, but most of it was focused on Jimmy. There was even a PSA during the last commercial break of the episode for a hotline to call if you suspect gun violence at your school given by the actor who plays Jimmy. That’s all well and good, but they ignored one incredibly important part of what happened.

Rick.

This kid was bullied, mocked and made fun of by his peers and more or less ignored by the faculty. I felt exactly zero pity for the popular kids in this episode, and was outraged that everyone was demonizing Rick for his reaction. I was that kid in high school. It sucked; those demons still haunt me. I’m just now starting to make some tentative friendships with people with whom I went to school. It’s the worst feeling in the world, to be out cast, made to feel like you were useless, unwanted, talentless. Then to have something like that “prank” played on you in front of who knows how many people? Yeah. I probably would have snapped, too.

Would taking a gun to school have changed anything for me? Only for the worse. Hell, there were gunracks, some of them occupied, in the trucks of some of my classmates. Most of the people I went to school with, though, were stable enough to know what not to do, thankfully.

When is someone going to clue into the fact that just because some kid is less socially connected than most of the school that doesn’t make him the bad guy? Rick was as much, if not more, of a victim as Jimmy in this show, yet they’re making him out to be Evil Incarnate. That’s unacceptable. Faculty members need to be aware of the bullying; even if the kid is an absolute hellion, faculty knows who is involved with which clique and who’s going to be a target of whom.

I can guarantee that some of my best friends now wouldn’t have been in high school. I was in Journalism (3 years), drama (4 years), band (4 years), Academic Decathlon (2 years). Dirt poor and not even remotely close to being a jock, that, of course, put me in the lowest of the pecking order. I had very few friends in high school, and knowing I was gay on top of that, well, I’m honestly shocked that I even survived through to graduation. I was miserable every day of my life for four years. I got past it, though.

I’m going to be sharing this post with my Facebook list as well; there are a dozen or so people on there who were in school with me. Some of them were friends, some of them were friendly, some of them were civil, and some of them were fucking evil to me. I’m an adult, though, and I can look back and see that we were kids. It’s important to me for them to see this because I still carry the scars. They’re deep, and I’m hoping that, eventually, they’ll go way. My wish for them is that they teach their kids that it’s really not okay to treat people like crap. Even if you don’t like them, their clothes, their car, their family, their activities, you need to treat them at least civilly. You never know what might make someone lose it.

I’m not doing resolutions this year. Instead, I’m doing the Mission 101 goal list. I’ve added extras into mine (and will continue to do so throughout the next three years) because I’m not stopping at 101 goals nor at 1001 days. I’m continuing for three years instead of the 2.75, taking me to the end of 2011.

I’m keeping my list (mostly) private, because while it’s important to have support, I’m trying to limit most of the support to people who actually know me. I’ve got it posted in a small, locked LiveJournal community of people who all mostly know each other, and I’ll post it in a VERY tightly filtered locked post on my own LJ (and I probably won’t accept “applications” for people who want to see it; it’ll be who I choose, because it’s that personal to me), but mostly, this is to keep me accountable to myself. I’ll update the list throughout the next three years (and in fact, I just remembered something else that needs to go on there), as well as updating the filter and the community.

I started on one of my goals today: potty train Belle. Since she gained the ability to go down the stairs, her favorite place to poop is right inside the front door on the doormat (which, ironically, says, “Wipe Your Paws”). I think it’s because she’s pissed off that we leave her during the day, even though Ben’s home with her. So I took her for a walk today, and we stayed out until she pooped. Before today, when we’d go on walks, she’d hold it until we got home and then do her bid’ness in the house, causing OH SO MUCH frustration. It’d be easier if we lived in a better neighborhood or in a house with a fenced yard to just let her out to go, but we don’t, so we just need to deal with her with much patience. Today, though, she pooped outside, and she was resoundingly rewarded for it with much love and good treats.

Another goal for me is to mend some friendships that I’ve neglected, flat-out ignored or pushed to the back burner for various reasons. That’s unacceptable to me, and it bothers me. It’s no secret that I’m kind of a bitch; whereas being the boss and being bossy are pretty different, being a bitch and being bitchy has a fine, fine line. I’ve been working on it a lot in the last few years with the help of some friends to help keep me accountable, but I’ve got a long way to go, and the only person who can really keep me accountable is me, and I need to learn how to do that better. I’m trying to* letting down the walls more, I’m trying to* learning to laugh at myself more and not take myself so freakin’ seriously. It’s a constant process, and I can’t expect everyone to immediately treat me differently just because I say I’m changing; I have to prove to myself and to everyone around me that I am, in fact, changing.

As expected, there are a lot of craft-related goals; thirty-nine of them alone are knitting projects, mixed in with five quilting projects, five beading projects, learning two knitting techniques (dyeing and entrelac) and designing another pattern. There are a nineteen spiritual goals. I’m going to create six different cordials (and if they’re successful, yes, I’ll share recipes, because damn, they should be tasty), create a cookbook with a friend and lose 40 pounds. There’s gaming, there’s baking, there’s education and blogging and fire spinning. I’ve got a lot ahead of me, and I’m looking very forward to the next three years.

2009 is off to a great start, and I will keep that momentum going. Who’s with me?

* “Do or do not; there is no try.” — Yoda