orhan, I hope your friend is Ok. I'm glad you are there for him. I'm sure he is too.
Spanish lessons are going well. I'm reading children's books now, up to third grade and working towards fluency. Speaking is not coming as fast, but that is only natural. I happy to have discovered I can learn 4 times more material in a few intense weeks than I learned in 4 years of dumbed down public high school Spanish courses. No wonder our students are so far behind! The brain is a wonderful thing! What have you fed yours lately?!? :)
strawbeary, reading children's books to learn a new language is an approach that i've never thought/heard of, but it makes total sense! i might have to try that to improve on my language(s).
want to get your blood pressure up? (because you've probably had too nice a day otherwise...) check out the comments following this otherwise perfectly OK/harmless article:
Philip, not sure what is available in German, but el gato en el sombrero and other Dr Suess books is where I started in Spanish. Children's books are great because you can build and reinforce so fast! I'm sure I wasn't the first to think of it, but I'm pretty excited about it.
i learned spanish really fast by living with girlfriend whose family spoke no english. same with japanese, i learned by moving to japan and working in office where no english was possible. At which point i immediately forgot almost all of my spanish ;-)
i have tried reading my daughters books in japanese but cant stand most of them. My reading in Japanese has mostly come from what I needed in the office (which is mostly weird stuff and useless in real world), as well as reading the Japanese subtitles in English movies. After a year or two of movies I simply noticed I could read the text, without even noticing I had learned all those words. The mind is absolutely an amazing thing. We are all of us always learning.
i caught an idea, and now i am not sure what to do with it, any thoughts?
well, ladies, it seems that i may, may be back on the market. i know, i know, but before you all get crazy, the line for meeting me forms to the left. is that too strong?
btw ^ the guy that wrote ^ is a total @#$& - i hope you all know i am joking...although, i did use old spice body wash this morning, so it could be the drugs in that are working...HA!
I think that's a fantastic way to teach yourself Spanish Straw. It's so funny, I find reading German much harder than speaking it. Last week I got rather tipsy and spent the evening speaking to another German speaking friend of mine in German. It was awesome. Unfortunately she just left for Germany for the next month and I won't have a chance to do that until she comes back :o(
LOL beta!!! Just take it slow my dear. Relationship wounds always seem to take longer to heal than others. Have you tried AXE body wash? ;o)
No, god no, no AXE! That's for tweens. But it reminds me: while here at the beach my sister bought and read Twilight, in public, with the book cover visible to all. She's doing this because she caught herself feeling superior to a gaggle of middle-aged women in a bookstore gushing over the full-size Edward (right?) poster by the display. She decided there was no logic in feeling superior about NOT having read a book, so she did the exercise of reading it, in public, to 1. know what the fuss was about and 2. exorcise the misplaced superiority. I think it's a great zen-ish move.
That said, the book, she says, was terrible.
beta, I'll set up the velvet ropes to help corral your entourage of adoring women - I'm married, so I can't partake, but want to feel like I'm playing a supporting role in the spectacle!
11:30 on vacation and though I've spent an hour in the pool I haven't yet had a margarita - gotta go get busy!
Beta, old spice? I always thought you were as more of a CK One sort of guy... Just don't ask me to set you up on any blind dates! How about hanging out at chez TK, gorging on cucumbers-n-tomatoes (they are both aphrodisiacs I've been told), and ogling the ladies at the park?
toast there are definitely a couple of things i would do differently if I was making a second one including. But all in all for my first go i am super pleased.
1) make sure drill/screw holes were placed in locations that don't interrupt beautiful knots, grain etc...
2) pick a stain dark enough to hide wood putty in screw holes or use a router bit to make proper joints.
nam-
you should just use wood plugs instead of putty...that way it'll match almost exactly..i kind of like when the screw holes stand out...but even if you did that on purpose you should use a contrasting wood plug instead...wood putty doesn't really work in furniture so much. imo. unless you're going to sand and paint that is.
the router could also help with cutting the back tight to the overall piece. although you could also have cut a groove for the back to go into.
do the turntables have a tray on slides or anything?
overall looks good though..i miss doing wood working...although i still do some in my apartment from time to time.
Nice work nam. I actually like the "holes". How are you liking the wheels. I feel that the locks on those suckers never work well, but then again I'm probably don't wiegh enough to actually fully lock them.
lars, yeah it was great to be making something. especially fulfilling when compared to my day job wherein all work is digital and never "real" enough.. I actually remembered about wood plug from shop class but for some reason didn't think to use them here..
Also, I did finish the piece with a sealant (not polyurethane) but debated making it too dark. So didn't stain it dark enough to cover putty holes. My big concern is that the putty could wear out.
Sarah, the statue is my roommate's. It is some sort of African (or African style) elephant fertility thing. As for the setback, since we didn't have routers and stuff to make a proper joint cut we couldn't figure out any other way of being able to screw the top and bottom pieces together if we lined it up with the edge one on top of the other.
pro-tip: Smear your (stainable)wood putty thinly out on a piece of wax paper and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. This will make it thicker.
While your putty is drying, pour enough wood stain to cover a very shallow pan and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
As your wood putty gets thicker and more doughy, slow add a few drops of thickened stain to the putty.
Massage the putty until stain is thoroughly mixed throughout the putty. You can repeat this process one or twice to get enough color into the wood putty.
i always get news too late. last year was george bush giving a lecture in the building next door. this year is secretary general of UN, Ban Ki-Moon. He gave speech yesterday afternoon on campus and the message rolls into my e-mail just now inviting me to join. Not that i needed to see george bush talk but this time mighta been kool.
Good morning all, thanks for the kind words on the furniture.
snook, did i tell you i finally finished that book a couple of months ago. really liked it. "I want, I want, I want" such a great story of a man trying to better himself.
Donna that dinner sounds delicious. I actually just had crab legs for first time in my life a few months ago.
As for the Prop 8 news, between that and Bloomberg's stance on the WTC adjacent Cordoba mosque/community center, nice string of common sense/true American values on display.
In a strange stack of circumstances, I had dinner with my grade school bus driver last night.
I'm angry at a former co-worker. He was a total slacker that contributed to our company going out of business. We were a branch office where the principal lied to get his position and then hired a bunch of his friends at high salaries that didn't do anything, hence we went under, but giving all of them mucho "experience" to pad their resumes. He was the principal's yes-man, a highly paid guy that didn't even have a degree (a CAD tech) who didn't do anything but justify drinking margaritas all day with the boss while us chumps ran the office. So after he main office finally decided we had lost too much money and our firm closed this guy and the principal opened up their own shop with a 3rd guy. Fine, whatever. They must be getting work because this dude's facebook status lately, like everyday, is something like "Gave myself a raise today." and "Taking the afternoon off." and "I guess my drawings were so good I didn't need to convince them of anything" And all his friends "like it" and are soooo jealous and soooo happy for him, thinking he is a hot shit architect running his own company in a climate where the rest of us dodo brained architects can't even feed ourselves. Meanwhile, 9 people that used to work for the firm that Dumb and Dumber deliberately decimated to use as 'experience' to start their own firm might be out of luck to ever get back into the profession ever again even if we wanted to, none of us have found jobs in the profession, many of us are content to never re-enter it because of it. And now this guy is bragging to all of us on facebook about how good he has it made! This is the guy that couldn't finish a set of docs for a 2 story wood apartment building with 8 units on his own! I know because I had to finish it for him while he went drinking with the bossman. One of my former co-workers is now homeless (couchsurfing), two moved back in with mom and dad, one has a new baby on the way with two unemployed parents who are stressed to the max... If there is one thing I can't stand it is arrogance, especially from someone who lied and cheated to get where he is and is now bragging to all of us about how successfull he is. Who knows, maybe he gave himself a raise from nothing to not much more than nothing??? and is giving himself a day off because he doens't have shit to do?!?! I am about to call him out on it, but must resist. Not sure how karma works here, he deserves bad karma, but I don't want to be the catalyst for it should my karma be effected. I keep thinking that it is going to catch up with these jokers, but the world is big enough they just keep finding the bigger fool with their drunken networking skills. He never brought in a single job while he was at our firm, but yet that was the reasoning given for never laying him off although it was obvious he couldn't contribute a damn thing and was a higly compensated leech on the rest of us. Having integrity is getting a lot of good people nowhere, while these terds are the ones who remain "architects". I am going for a run, even though I don't run.
straw - i wouldn't worry too much - the longer that ass-clown is around, the more of a reputation he'll get.
n_ - you've heard about the lower court ruling in Mass that DOMA (defense of marriage act) was unconstitutional? it's heading to circuit court and is likely to be upheld there... after that we'll see if the supreme court will hear it or just quietly approve it since the department of justice is likely not going to put up much of a fight.
after DOMA is gone, then it'll have a snowball effect for all the states that have bans in place - what is ironic is that while the ruling on doma was that it infringes on states rights, after its gone future rulings will most likely be that the marriage bans infringe on federal civil rights.
also - Chile is currently working to approve civil unions, and possibly full-on same-sex marriage - which is amazing considering that just 10 years ago divorce was illegal.
i have felt the same way, there are people who just don't pull their weight, or kiss way too much ass and all that. the american dream isn't all encompassing, and in many regards is pretty dead. currently, our firm is in a bit of turmoil. secretly ownership is changing hands and there's a huge shareholder battle. and basically the chumps who run this place feel like they can do whatever they feel like. they've got 400 peoples lives on the line and they are trying to weasel themselves into a bigger yacht.
even as competitive as we are, there's only some much one can control, and even less these days. but i think you could think of it if he were in your shoes and you in his, what would your status read, instead of "gave myself a raise" maybe "received a sweet letter of recognition" and instead of "taking the afternoon off" how bout "reeled in another big fish, send me your resume" and instead of "i guess my drawings we so good..." how bout "under budget, and on time, client so happy, i just might rhyme"
sorry about the boy howdy, i think i meant boo-yaa.
man, it's been slow lately... i've been a 'nectin machine this afternoon
I've been trying to keep up with the DOMA battle in Massachusetts. I get lost in all the different court systems it has to go through but progress is progress and DOMA is slowly losing its power. Good riddance.
My sister and brother-in-law had their wedding in Cartagena, Colombia a few weeks ago on July 16th. Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage on July 15th (a few Latin American countries recognize civil unions such as Colombia, Ecuardor, and Uruguay). At the rehearsal dinner on the 15th, they stood up and asked everyone to toast their glasses to Argentina for becoming the first country in Latin America to legalize the same right that were born with and were going to share the following day. It was really touching gesture as many of the invited friends and family are members of the GLBT community.
not sure why anyone cares about who is marrying who. isn't that between the folks getting married? wasn't that what the equal rights fight was all about in the 60's?
that sounds typical strawbeary. hate to say it but isn't it too late to speak up now?
just watched daily show where john covered the 911 emergency responder's healthcare coverage debate. hahahah. how in the world do these bums get elected and re-elected after taking stands like that? isn't it amazing how we all are always voting for politicians who don't give a fkuc for anything but the good will of corporations? i am sure that is an old lament....;-)
I think I've become confused with what a right really is. I mean, what does it mean to say "it's my right," isn't a right up to whoever controls you? I feel like I'm on the verge of something mind-blowing, but also very out there. I'm just thinking out-loud here, really. But who says it's a right to live, be free, eat cake, marry, whatever? What makes it a "right?"
"It's my right to live in this country." - Says whom?
"It's my right to voice my opinion." - Says whom?
"It's my right to have free healthcare." - Says whom?
"It's my right to walk around naked." - Says whom?
I guess, where I'm getting swirled is that many of our "rights" are rights because the constitution says so, but what does that mean? And if people can vote, or legislate what "rights" we have, then aren't we still under control?
I feel like I need to have this conversation with people over glasses of wine. Maybe this is all too deep for me.
The definition of "unalienable rights," is those rights that cannot be surrendered, sold or transferred to someone else - the government, for example, or another person. Some people refer to these as "natural" or "God-given" rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness). Certain unalienable rights, such as a Social Security number, however, are "unalienable" only because the law prohibits reassigning your number to someone else.
thats right sarah, the govt can take away your "rights". theoretically they are the only ones who can. doesn't mean they aren't real though.
it looks like the right for gays and lesbians to marry is going to be recognised at some point in most of usa now, slowly but surely. it will definitely be interesting to see where the supreme court comes down on it all in the end, but after the arguments in california it really sounds like there is no way to say anything but ok to the gay.
hurray. then we can get on to bickering about important stuff, like fluoride in the water.
i don't think the definition of rights is all that deep. some rights are explicitly recognized by the constitution, some are not, some are left in a grey area. the grey area ones are the ones we argue about all the time. we, in the u.s., have some rights that are explicitly recognized that are not stated so explicitly in other countries - and vice versa.
the muddiness comes when we begin to think how the practice of our rights interacts with the common good, the affects of one's rights on neighbors' quality of life, and the morality of one's exercise of his/her rights. if the carrying of a gun is deemed dangerous to society, that perceived danger must be weighed against one's right to self-protection. if abortion is considered a individual/sovereign choice about one's person by some and an issue of murder by others, these things must be argued to a place of consensus - comfortable or not. in contemporary america, even choosing what color you're allowed to paint your house is not necessary a right.
there's no black or white because we're talking about beliefs and collective compromises about what constitutes acceptable behavior, not absolute truths. rights are simply legal tools for categorization and codification of what's ok, what's discretionary, and what's not - what's antisocial behavior, what's dangerous to community order or national security, etc.
IMO - this issue has more to do with explicitly denying a very specific group people (in this case, two consenting adults) the same "rights" others enjoy.
the problem is that there is contradiction in the law - that we cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation (in most states and according to some supreme court decisions), and yet there is this
.... law that prevents two consenting adults in a committed relationship to gain access to many of the rights that "married" couples enjoy (taxes, medical, estate, etc...)
if there wasn't any benefit to getting married, or if the government only recognized civil unions (I think people are just getting hung up on the word "married'), then I don't think there'd be an issue.
Thread Central
orhan, I hope your friend is Ok. I'm glad you are there for him. I'm sure he is too.
Spanish lessons are going well. I'm reading children's books now, up to third grade and working towards fluency. Speaking is not coming as fast, but that is only natural. I happy to have discovered I can learn 4 times more material in a few intense weeks than I learned in 4 years of dumbed down public high school Spanish courses. No wonder our students are so far behind! The brain is a wonderful thing! What have you fed yours lately?!? :)
Thank you soooo much. I am going there now and will transfer the beauty of humanity.
strawbeary, reading children's books to learn a new language is an approach that i've never thought/heard of, but it makes total sense! i might have to try that to improve on my language(s).
want to get your blood pressure up? (because you've probably had too nice a day otherwise...) check out the comments following this otherwise perfectly OK/harmless article:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/when-less-was-no-longer-more/
i wrote a long response to the comments which i guess was too far off topic for them to post. oh well.
Philip, not sure what is available in German, but el gato en el sombrero and other Dr Suess books is where I started in Spanish. Children's books are great because you can build and reinforce so fast! I'm sure I wasn't the first to think of it, but I'm pretty excited about it.
er... Seuss is how it's spelled.
que bueno, strawbeary!
i learned spanish really fast by living with girlfriend whose family spoke no english. same with japanese, i learned by moving to japan and working in office where no english was possible. At which point i immediately forgot almost all of my spanish ;-)
i have tried reading my daughters books in japanese but cant stand most of them. My reading in Japanese has mostly come from what I needed in the office (which is mostly weird stuff and useless in real world), as well as reading the Japanese subtitles in English movies. After a year or two of movies I simply noticed I could read the text, without even noticing I had learned all those words. The mind is absolutely an amazing thing. We are all of us always learning.
Strange, I'm learning all about English language learners right now.
Abram is doing the chicken dance.
i caught an idea, and now i am not sure what to do with it, any thoughts?
well, ladies, it seems that i may, may be back on the market. i know, i know, but before you all get crazy, the line for meeting me forms to the left. is that too strong?
btw ^ the guy that wrote ^ is a total @#$& - i hope you all know i am joking...although, i did use old spice body wash this morning, so it could be the drugs in that are working...HA!
I think that's a fantastic way to teach yourself Spanish Straw. It's so funny, I find reading German much harder than speaking it. Last week I got rather tipsy and spent the evening speaking to another German speaking friend of mine in German. It was awesome. Unfortunately she just left for Germany for the next month and I won't have a chance to do that until she comes back :o(
LOL beta!!! Just take it slow my dear. Relationship wounds always seem to take longer to heal than others. Have you tried AXE body wash? ;o)
No, god no, no AXE! That's for tweens. But it reminds me: while here at the beach my sister bought and read Twilight, in public, with the book cover visible to all. She's doing this because she caught herself feeling superior to a gaggle of middle-aged women in a bookstore gushing over the full-size Edward (right?) poster by the display. She decided there was no logic in feeling superior about NOT having read a book, so she did the exercise of reading it, in public, to 1. know what the fuss was about and 2. exorcise the misplaced superiority. I think it's a great zen-ish move.
That said, the book, she says, was terrible.
beta, I'll set up the velvet ropes to help corral your entourage of adoring women - I'm married, so I can't partake, but want to feel like I'm playing a supporting role in the spectacle!
11:30 on vacation and though I've spent an hour in the pool I haven't yet had a margarita - gotta go get busy!
Morning all.... Busy busy busy
Also, for those who haven't already seen it Here are some photos of the completed piece of furniture I have been working.
nam - looks good - how do you think it turned out?
Beta, old spice? I always thought you were as more of a CK One sort of guy... Just don't ask me to set you up on any blind dates! How about hanging out at chez TK, gorging on cucumbers-n-tomatoes (they are both aphrodisiacs I've been told), and ogling the ladies at the park?
toast there are definitely a couple of things i would do differently if I was making a second one including. But all in all for my first go i am super pleased.
1) make sure drill/screw holes were placed in locations that don't interrupt beautiful knots, grain etc...
2) pick a stain dark enough to hide wood putty in screw holes or use a router bit to make proper joints.
nam-
you should just use wood plugs instead of putty...that way it'll match almost exactly..i kind of like when the screw holes stand out...but even if you did that on purpose you should use a contrasting wood plug instead...wood putty doesn't really work in furniture so much. imo. unless you're going to sand and paint that is.
the router could also help with cutting the back tight to the overall piece. although you could also have cut a groove for the back to go into.
do the turntables have a tray on slides or anything?
overall looks good though..i miss doing wood working...although i still do some in my apartment from time to time.
Nam, what was your reasoning for the slight side-step on the right side?
And I want that statue - what the heck is it?
Nice work nam. I actually like the "holes". How are you liking the wheels. I feel that the locks on those suckers never work well, but then again I'm probably don't wiegh enough to actually fully lock them.
lars, yeah it was great to be making something. especially fulfilling when compared to my day job wherein all work is digital and never "real" enough.. I actually remembered about wood plug from shop class but for some reason didn't think to use them here..
Also, I did finish the piece with a sealant (not polyurethane) but debated making it too dark. So didn't stain it dark enough to cover putty holes. My big concern is that the putty could wear out.
Sarah, the statue is my roommate's. It is some sort of African (or African style) elephant fertility thing. As for the setback, since we didn't have routers and stuff to make a proper joint cut we couldn't figure out any other way of being able to screw the top and bottom pieces together if we lined it up with the edge one on top of the other.
nam,
Where is the motor? It has wheels. You might want to think about branding the idea, with a lil galvanized metal name tag.
Actually a nice honest piece of work.
Everytime I see Henderson....I think of Saul Bellow's and Henderson the Rain King.
pro-tip: Smear your (stainable)wood putty thinly out on a piece of wax paper and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. This will make it thicker.
While your putty is drying, pour enough wood stain to cover a very shallow pan and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
As your wood putty gets thicker and more doughy, slow add a few drops of thickened stain to the putty.
Massage the putty until stain is thoroughly mixed throughout the putty. You can repeat this process one or twice to get enough color into the wood putty.
Prop 8 Overturned!!!!!
Yes!!!!!
@n_:
agreed.
Holy crap, really?! That's great news! I have to check in with Dan Savage!!!
Dinner tonight: crab legs and beer. That's it. Mmmmmmmmm.
Excellent furniture piece, nam. It's my favorite kind of furniture: honest and simple and homemade!
cool furniture nam!
i always get news too late. last year was george bush giving a lecture in the building next door. this year is secretary general of UN, Ban Ki-Moon. He gave speech yesterday afternoon on campus and the message rolls into my e-mail just now inviting me to join. Not that i needed to see george bush talk but this time mighta been kool.
Seriously n_ I did a little jig when I heard the news. :o)
Good morning all, thanks for the kind words on the furniture.
snook, did i tell you i finally finished that book a couple of months ago. really liked it. "I want, I want, I want" such a great story of a man trying to better himself.
Donna that dinner sounds delicious. I actually just had crab legs for first time in my life a few months ago.
As for the Prop 8 news, between that and Bloomberg's stance on the WTC adjacent Cordoba mosque/community center, nice string of common sense/true American values on display.
nam, your piece looks HOT HOT HOT. Is that a Belle and Sebastian BBC Sessions album I see? If so, we are destined to be BFFs.
I'm jealous of Donna's dinner.
I was overjoyed when I read about the Prop 8 ruling yesterday. The last time I felt like that for our country was when Obama was elected.
In a strange stack of circumstances, I had dinner with my grade school bus driver last night.
I'm angry at a former co-worker. He was a total slacker that contributed to our company going out of business. We were a branch office where the principal lied to get his position and then hired a bunch of his friends at high salaries that didn't do anything, hence we went under, but giving all of them mucho "experience" to pad their resumes. He was the principal's yes-man, a highly paid guy that didn't even have a degree (a CAD tech) who didn't do anything but justify drinking margaritas all day with the boss while us chumps ran the office. So after he main office finally decided we had lost too much money and our firm closed this guy and the principal opened up their own shop with a 3rd guy. Fine, whatever. They must be getting work because this dude's facebook status lately, like everyday, is something like "Gave myself a raise today." and "Taking the afternoon off." and "I guess my drawings were so good I didn't need to convince them of anything" And all his friends "like it" and are soooo jealous and soooo happy for him, thinking he is a hot shit architect running his own company in a climate where the rest of us dodo brained architects can't even feed ourselves. Meanwhile, 9 people that used to work for the firm that Dumb and Dumber deliberately decimated to use as 'experience' to start their own firm might be out of luck to ever get back into the profession ever again even if we wanted to, none of us have found jobs in the profession, many of us are content to never re-enter it because of it. And now this guy is bragging to all of us on facebook about how good he has it made! This is the guy that couldn't finish a set of docs for a 2 story wood apartment building with 8 units on his own! I know because I had to finish it for him while he went drinking with the bossman. One of my former co-workers is now homeless (couchsurfing), two moved back in with mom and dad, one has a new baby on the way with two unemployed parents who are stressed to the max... If there is one thing I can't stand it is arrogance, especially from someone who lied and cheated to get where he is and is now bragging to all of us about how successfull he is. Who knows, maybe he gave himself a raise from nothing to not much more than nothing??? and is giving himself a day off because he doens't have shit to do?!?! I am about to call him out on it, but must resist. Not sure how karma works here, he deserves bad karma, but I don't want to be the catalyst for it should my karma be effected. I keep thinking that it is going to catch up with these jokers, but the world is big enough they just keep finding the bigger fool with their drunken networking skills. He never brought in a single job while he was at our firm, but yet that was the reasoning given for never laying him off although it was obvious he couldn't contribute a damn thing and was a higly compensated leech on the rest of us. Having integrity is getting a lot of good people nowhere, while these terds are the ones who remain "architects". I am going for a run, even though I don't run.
^ said person reads archinect every once in a while. Maybe that rant is my super passive aggressive way of telling him off.
the wife and i did a jig, and most of her family did spit takes and started calling their senators... le sigh :(
straw, wow what a great rant... sounds like said individual could stand to learn a couple of life lessons. Hope the run helped.
N_ yes it is... And thanks for the kind words...
straw - i wouldn't worry too much - the longer that ass-clown is around, the more of a reputation he'll get.
n_ - you've heard about the lower court ruling in Mass that DOMA (defense of marriage act) was unconstitutional? it's heading to circuit court and is likely to be upheld there... after that we'll see if the supreme court will hear it or just quietly approve it since the department of justice is likely not going to put up much of a fight.
after DOMA is gone, then it'll have a snowball effect for all the states that have bans in place - what is ironic is that while the ruling on doma was that it infringes on states rights, after its gone future rulings will most likely be that the marriage bans infringe on federal civil rights.
also - Chile is currently working to approve civil unions, and possibly full-on same-sex marriage - which is amazing considering that just 10 years ago divorce was illegal.
oof, straw, boy howdy, ya-uhh. you go. etc etc.
i have felt the same way, there are people who just don't pull their weight, or kiss way too much ass and all that. the american dream isn't all encompassing, and in many regards is pretty dead. currently, our firm is in a bit of turmoil. secretly ownership is changing hands and there's a huge shareholder battle. and basically the chumps who run this place feel like they can do whatever they feel like. they've got 400 peoples lives on the line and they are trying to weasel themselves into a bigger yacht.
even as competitive as we are, there's only some much one can control, and even less these days. but i think you could think of it if he were in your shoes and you in his, what would your status read, instead of "gave myself a raise" maybe "received a sweet letter of recognition" and instead of "taking the afternoon off" how bout "reeled in another big fish, send me your resume" and instead of "i guess my drawings we so good..." how bout "under budget, and on time, client so happy, i just might rhyme"
sorry about the boy howdy, i think i meant boo-yaa.
man, it's been slow lately... i've been a 'nectin machine this afternoon
I've been trying to keep up with the DOMA battle in Massachusetts. I get lost in all the different court systems it has to go through but progress is progress and DOMA is slowly losing its power. Good riddance.
My sister and brother-in-law had their wedding in Cartagena, Colombia a few weeks ago on July 16th. Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage on July 15th (a few Latin American countries recognize civil unions such as Colombia, Ecuardor, and Uruguay). At the rehearsal dinner on the 15th, they stood up and asked everyone to toast their glasses to Argentina for becoming the first country in Latin America to legalize the same right that were born with and were going to share the following day. It was really touching gesture as many of the invited friends and family are members of the GLBT community.
very cool about the gay marriage law.
not sure why anyone cares about who is marrying who. isn't that between the folks getting married? wasn't that what the equal rights fight was all about in the 60's?
that sounds typical strawbeary. hate to say it but isn't it too late to speak up now?
just watched daily show where john covered the 911 emergency responder's healthcare coverage debate. hahahah. how in the world do these bums get elected and re-elected after taking stands like that? isn't it amazing how we all are always voting for politicians who don't give a fkuc for anything but the good will of corporations? i am sure that is an old lament....;-)
I think I've become confused with what a right really is. I mean, what does it mean to say "it's my right," isn't a right up to whoever controls you? I feel like I'm on the verge of something mind-blowing, but also very out there. I'm just thinking out-loud here, really. But who says it's a right to live, be free, eat cake, marry, whatever? What makes it a "right?"
"It's my right to live in this country." - Says whom?
"It's my right to voice my opinion." - Says whom?
"It's my right to have free healthcare." - Says whom?
"It's my right to walk around naked." - Says whom?
I guess, where I'm getting swirled is that many of our "rights" are rights because the constitution says so, but what does that mean? And if people can vote, or legislate what "rights" we have, then aren't we still under control?
I feel like I need to have this conversation with people over glasses of wine. Maybe this is all too deep for me.
thats right sarah, the govt can take away your "rights". theoretically they are the only ones who can. doesn't mean they aren't real though.
it looks like the right for gays and lesbians to marry is going to be recognised at some point in most of usa now, slowly but surely. it will definitely be interesting to see where the supreme court comes down on it all in the end, but after the arguments in california it really sounds like there is no way to say anything but ok to the gay.
hurray. then we can get on to bickering about important stuff, like fluoride in the water.
Important issues like....humm.....Why can't we buy Cuban Cigars in America?
i don't think the definition of rights is all that deep. some rights are explicitly recognized by the constitution, some are not, some are left in a grey area. the grey area ones are the ones we argue about all the time. we, in the u.s., have some rights that are explicitly recognized that are not stated so explicitly in other countries - and vice versa.
the muddiness comes when we begin to think how the practice of our rights interacts with the common good, the affects of one's rights on neighbors' quality of life, and the morality of one's exercise of his/her rights. if the carrying of a gun is deemed dangerous to society, that perceived danger must be weighed against one's right to self-protection. if abortion is considered a individual/sovereign choice about one's person by some and an issue of murder by others, these things must be argued to a place of consensus - comfortable or not. in contemporary america, even choosing what color you're allowed to paint your house is not necessary a right.
there's no black or white because we're talking about beliefs and collective compromises about what constitutes acceptable behavior, not absolute truths. rights are simply legal tools for categorization and codification of what's ok, what's discretionary, and what's not - what's antisocial behavior, what's dangerous to community order or national security, etc.
we will argue these things forever.
and they change alla time too. some folks even thinking its about time to overturn the 14th amendment if you can credit it.
IMO - this issue has more to do with explicitly denying a very specific group people (in this case, two consenting adults) the same "rights" others enjoy.
the problem is that there is contradiction in the law - that we cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation (in most states and according to some supreme court decisions), and yet there is this
oops...
.... law that prevents two consenting adults in a committed relationship to gain access to many of the rights that "married" couples enjoy (taxes, medical, estate, etc...)
if there wasn't any benefit to getting married, or if the government only recognized civil unions (I think people are just getting hung up on the word "married'), then I don't think there'd be an issue.
damn, i'm a machine today!
I'm a kitchen appliance that has gained existential awareness.
i wish i could be a machine. totally exhausted today but hours of work in front of me at best. ugh.
It's going to be a huge challenge to catch up next week from taking this week off!
One more day on the beach - off to enjoy it.
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