Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. " -- Abraham Lincoln

The Previous Post

So, as I am sure many of you have guessed, we didn't actually adopt a child. Anastasia is my cousin's daughter she was just over for a visit. Though I will admit.... I've kind of got the bug.

A New Addition

Yesterday, we adopted a little baby girl... her name is Anastasia. Here are the photos:

The Breakup

Them - "I broke up with him."
Him - "No, I broke up with you."
Me - "Who gives a f---?"

And that is, Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought.

Week One

I have finished my first week of class and while I can already tell that it is going to be intellectually exhausting, I don't know if it is actually going to be as much work as I originally thought it was going to be. The only snag so far seems to be that the film production students really don't like the history class that they have to take, really don't like it. Oh well.

I came across a lovely piece on 365 Gay.com that caught my eye and is Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought. Apparently putting a President in the White House isn't enough for Florida Senate Hopeful Katherine Harris. According to a new interview, she thinks God should be there as well. I love it when the Right makes it easy for me.

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine.....

It's official. The solar system now only consists of eight planets after Pluto's demotion to simply a really big rock. Worldwide students of astronomy will be asked to strike Pluto from their books writing R.I.P. and today's date and will be forced to memorize new pneumonic devices to remember the planets. Very eager mothers will no longer be serving nine anything. Groups of Pluto supporters will mourn the decision to demote the planet today as we try to adjust to life with just eight planets. Not to mention the fact that I will now have to buy a brand new book for Astronomy next semester beacuse this means a new edition.

And now for Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought:

I have often equated the struggle for GLBTQQS rights with the struggle for racial equality in the United States. Whenever I hear some conservative member of Congress complain about the same-sex marriage rulings (which have been going their way lately) citing activist judges and how the judicial branch of government has overstepped its bounds I am reminded that they said the same thing about Brown v. Board of Education. I have continued to assert that the battle we face for equality is much the same battle of all the other civil rights movements.

Now, thanks to a Conservative Lawmaker in Utah, I can once again bring up this issue. Utah State Rep. Chris Buttars (R) has introduced legislation that would allow the Utah Legislature to remove a judge from the bench if it disagrees with a ruling of the court. I can't even begin to go into how much of a violation of the three branches of government this is but let's deal with what he also said. When pressed about other civil rights cases that have been heard before a court, Buttars stated that Brown was "wrong to begin with." Now I suppose that there is some perfectly sane reason that he would feel this way but I doubt it.

So, whenever you hear some conservative lawmakers talking about taking away the rights of GLBTQQS citizens, remember that those aren't the only ones they would really like to attack, if given the opportunity.

What does my future hold?

On our trip to my grandmother's house I realized two things:

1) I want a house. Preferably one large enough so that we can have work and living space in one structure and with a yard big enough for our puppy to be able to roam and exercise.

2) This home may in fact be here in Colorado. After years of fighting to leave the state of my birth, I realize that the unhappiness I feel here, I would most likely feel elsewhere as well. Home is where the heart is and my heart is here in Denver. I still would love to live in Europe or some other amazing city but the most important thing for me to learn is that I should be happy where I am. Geographic location will not bring happiness only I can.

This realization has begun to have an affect on other areas of my life. As I near the completion of my undergraduate studies, I am faced with the decision of where to go from here. I have spent so many months and years fighting what is inside of me in order to mold my future into something that I thought it should be, not what I wanted it to be. There may not seem to be a difference between these two things but there is. I had always had this image in my mind and fantasy that I thought I should be molding my life to. This focus has caused me to miss out on and deny myself some great opportunities. I think that it is time that I just allow the natural flow of things and if I end up in the world of my dreams, so much the better. However, if the path takes me to something that I could never have dreamed of, then that is where I am supposed to be.

All to often I have tried way to hard and focused way to much on the future that the present has escaped me. Only when I have taken it day-by-day have I been able to achieve anything. The most amazing thing is that I realize that I have accomplished what I set out to do even when I thought I was doing something else.

I apologize if this post is a large random rant of ideas, but I needed it to get out. What it all boils down to is this: I want to spend the rest of my life writing about, teaching and making films. I think I have always wanted to do it but for some reason I am only now realizing that I can do it. That it is possible for me to actually be what I want to be and as long as I don't get tangled up in my own drama and obsession of the future, I can make it happen.

Gads, my therapist would be so proud... are you out there Paul?

A Couple of Days Away

Val and I usually try and get out of town for a couple of days before each semester starts and relax before the insanity begins. This fall, I will be starting my senior year of undergraduate studies and I have the full schedule to prove it.

Our trips out of town usually involve visiting my grandmother in Carbondale and her wonderful garden. Unfortunately, there isn't much to do at night up there so we tend to end up spending our evenings staring at each other but the days are filled with great mountain town fun. This time we were able to take our little girl Sue to meet her great-grandmother and let's just say they hit it off quite well. It has been a long time since I have seen my grandmother smile and play like she did with Sue. She kept bringing out more toys, bones and things for Sue to play with. At some point I realized that my grandmother was treating her not like our pet but as though she were our actual daughter.

My grandparents bought their house in the late 1950s when they moved to the country and my grandmother has been working the large garden since. Her yard is different each time we visit with flowers and vegetables moved about the garden in an attempt to keep her busy in her retirement days. It has been about thirteen years since my grandfather died and about a year since her companion of several years passed on as well. She has lived such a dynamic and often tragic life and the years are beginning to show. From her I have learned the language of my cultural heritage and how to be a better person, not just by example but often what not to do.

Since she is alone in a large house built over 115 years ago, we often do some work for her when we go up. This time, we cleaned out one of the upstairs bedrooms and repainted the wallpapered walls. Let me take a moment to dispense some advice: NEVER EVER EVER wallpaper anything. It is a pain in the ass to take down, save yourself the trouble and just don't put it up in the first place. After fighting for hours getting as much of the paper off the walls as humanly possible, we primered and painted. Fingers crossed, the paint will stay on the wall.

In addition to remodeling, we played some mini golf and lounged poolside at the Hot Springs so all in all, it was a good trip.

A flooded Mary's

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Originally uploaded by Shayachern.

It rained hard yesterday. Our neighborhood was flooded again when the drains failed to keep up with the downpour. It doesn't rain often anymore but when it does, it pours.

Save Pluto!

Save Pluto... write your Congress, Governor and President. We musn't let these intellectual midweights redinfine our God created Universe. Save Pluto!

And That's Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought.

TWFT Mirror Mirror on The Wall...

I suppose the title isn't 100% accurate but I couldn't come up with a pithy saying for a crystal ball... give me a break, I'm tired.

As I approach my senior year, I realize that I am going to be faced with the decision of what to do after graduation sooner than I had hoped. I know that I want to continue my education and pursue at least my masters and perhaps even my doctorate and after a great deal of soul searching I think I actually know what I want to do with the next few years of my life. It is strange to be at my age and looking down the path and not knowing where it leads, even though I know what it looks like.

The problem really is that I don't know how to begin to shop for graduate programs. I ended up in the undergraduate program that I am in mostly out of default. The local university offered a degree in what I wanted to study so, I enrolled. Now that I am looking graduate (and potentially post-graduate) schools I feel like I should actually find the one that will challenge me the most and give me the exact education that I hope for.

When I was young, I had dreams of attending Oxford. I probably saw it in a movie once and fell in love with the idea of studying at one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the world. Back then, if I had my druthers, I would be Niles; a man with an Oxford education and a Mercedes, living in a old real wood paneled apartment with antiques and a gourmet kitchen. Ah, that was going to be the life.

Instead, I have chosen to take the creative route and now after years of drifting through a degree that really hasn't always challenged me I am faced with the real decision of where to go from here. I have found a number of Universities that offer a program that I am interested in I just have to make the decision of where I want to go and push myself to do what I have to do to make it happen.

Now is the time to make it happen. Now is the time to decide am I a man or a mouse.

That is today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought.

Flying the Friendly Skies

After the foiling of the bombing plot to destroy airplanes flying from the UK to the US, security experts are saying that the real security measures that we need to actually prevent a plane bombing would drastically change how we travel in the air. Already any liquid, gel or cream is banned on flights and the experts are saying more needs to be done.

When we flew from the UK to the US earlier this summer, it seemed like security in the UK was as strict but better integrated into the system than it was when we changed planes in Chicago. In the UK we were scanned etc. (without having to take our shoes off) and our tickets and items were checked several times prior to boarding. When we changed planes in Chicago, we had to enter the domestic terminal and go through security again which was a far different scene. The security agents were screaming at passengers and we apparently missed the bark that told us we had to have our boarding passes for the THIRD time in the security line. We got yelled at and well, we felt like terrorists or at least some sort of common criminal and have never been more insulted in our lives.

I know that they have to keep the skies safe and that airlines seem to be an easy and common target for terrorists because of the number of people in a small space and the relative vulnerability of the passengers aboard. Still, there still has to be some technological way to secure the planes without having to dehumanize the passengers by making them all feel like common criminals. With the new threats and security measures, I dread the next time I have to fly anywhere and have to subject myself to the screenings. I love to travel but, hate to fly.

And that is Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

Recently a number of academics have joined in the growing conspiracy movement questioning the legitimacy of the 9-11 attacks and their repercussions. I am sure following his take on the JFK assassination, many are looking to Oliver Stone's take on the events in question and come up with some sort of equally disturbing theories. Naturally, that isn't the case. One conservative law maker apparently gushed over the film using terms like, "flag waving, gun toting, god fearing Americans read here" blah blah blah blah. This is pretty much what I expected from the trailer... this is a film that follows in the line of Munich, or at least that is my impression. I probably won't see the film at least not right away, but who knows I might be bored one day and out of material for my blog and head down to the local googleplex and see it.

Now, back to the original idea of the conspiracy theories. I have seen a few of the conspiracy films and honestly after about fifteen minutes of their hard to get through production style, I think that it would be difficult for any sane person to sit through two hours of them and not be driven to madness. They repeat the same point over and over again and usually involve some man in a black mask telling us the facts. If they really want to put forth their theories (some of which may be valid) then they should make a straight forward documentary that raises the questions.

I have written before on how I believe that while the US Government didn't necessarily orchestrate the events, bring down the towers with explosives, man the planes etc., but that they did turn a blind eye to the information they were receiving hoping that they could use a catastrophic "pearl harbor" like event to sell their war in Iraq and on terror which they have wanted to wage for a very long time. One need to look no further than the Project for the New American Century for evidence of that. I believe that there are many questions still left unanswered and that we haven't done as much as we could to prepare our Nation for future attacks because we have been caught up in the quagmire that is the Iraq war which was suspiciously substituted for the real "war on terror".

The problem is that we will never know the answer because to know that our government turned a blind eye to the death of thousands of Americans and ignored the warnings that started us down this path, would totally destroy any confidence they have in our bodies of government. No politician would be safe regardless of party affiliation, which is something that they don't want. So, the full truth behind September 11th, like the JFK assassination, will be forever debated in the back halls of conspiracy theorists and never be fully resolved.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

British Petroleum has begun the shutdown of the oil pipeline that runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in Alaska, also known as the backbone of the Alaskan oil industry. They do so citing the aging pipeline has begun to leak oil and in one spot as many as 210,000 gallons of oil has been leaked out into the Alaskan tundra. This shutdown will cost millions of dollars a day, and will most likely have adverse effects on oil and gas prices around the world. I heard one estimate today that because of this, oil could top $80 a barrel.

If we have learned nothing else over the last two years, then we should learn how fragile the oil industry is and how we are being held captive by forces that are out of our control. Like our power grids, the oil field infrastructure needs work but we have become so dependent on it companies are afraid to take it down to make desperately needed repairs. So instead, they will continue to keep it afloat until it finally collapses and we are left in the dark and cold of our own power addictions.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

Sorry I have been so quite lately, we just took over as building managers for our apartment building and it has been a crazy week of really interesting and well disturbing events.

For the questionnaire purists out there (you know who you are), I fixed the question in the questionnaire below to indicate my favorite foods.

And now for Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought:

This morning the test results for Ladis's 'B' test came back positive and he has been fired from his cycling team and stripped of his championship title. What makes a guy think that he can come from 11th place (or 9th can't remember) to win the title in a single day and people won't question if he doped?

Questions and Stuff

Four jobs you have had in your life:

1. Projectionist
2. Barrista
3. Data Analyst
4. Telemarketer

Four movies you would watch over and over:

1. Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)
2. The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1996)
3. Torch Song Trillogy (Paul Bogart, 1988)
4. American President (Rob Reiner, 1995)

Four places you have lived:

1. Carbondale, CO
2. Anchorage, AK
3. Denver, CO
4. Las Vegas, NV

Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. Murphy Brown
2. Frasier
3. The Simpsons
4. Project Runway (a guilty pleasure)

Four places you have been on vacation:

1. Paris, France
2. Firenze, Italy
3. London, UK
4. Key West, Florida

Four websites you visit daily:

1. Blogs
2. CNN
3. 365gay.com
4. BBC News

Four of your favorite foods:

1. Pasta (absolute favorite pasta? anything involving pesto)
2. Stuffed cabbage (the way my grandma makes it)
3. Mille feuille (a faaab French pastry)
4. Cheesecake (though I shouldn't eat it, well cake of any kind really, god how did I miss this question the first time? I'm starving. )

Four of your favorite books:

1. Saturday, Ian McEwan
2. Magics Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
3. A Density of Souls, Chris Rice
4. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

Four places you would rather be right now:

1. Beach
2. By Water
3. Ocean
4. The Sea

Four places you'd love to visit:

1. Hong Kong
2. Tokyo
3. Egypt
4. Peru

Four foods you don't like:

1. Brussel Sprouts
2. Eggplant
3. Non-fresh Fish
4. Moose Liver

Four friends I am tagging that I think will respond:

1. Val
2. I don't know, it seems like i am the last one to do it.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

No political or social commentary, just an announcement that I have finished class for the summer semester. Now I get two weeks before I start the fall :) Two weeks with little to nothing to do, well other than move, but that is a whole other set of drama.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

At what point do we stop believing the denials of anti-semitism? I am not saying that he is or isn't but at what point, do we no longer believe his sober considered words and start believing what he says off the cuff and drunk?