November 2009

Odd.

I’m on my lunch hour as I write this. I’m plowing through a plate of leftovers from last night’s BBQ chicken. It’s tasty. I do chicken right.

I keep forgetting what day it is. Having Monday off, working Tuesday and then having Wednesday off gives work a little touch of whimsy and a big helping of disconnection, but coupled with the rapidly shrinking size of the group I work in, there isn’t really anyone around to notice. I have noted that the people that are left are sitting in the old cubicles. The new ones are empty.

On my day off yesterday I spent the day familiarising myself with Windows 7 Ultimate again. At the end of the day was the big announcement from Microsoft that the public beta of Office 2010 was available for immediate download. I installed it last night. I have only messed around with it a very little bit but so far I like what I see. Ironically, I’m typing this blog entry on my MacBook Pro which is running Snow Leopard.

Earl is back from his trip to Arizona, having plopped into bed around 1 a.m. Actually it was a swing and a plop, because he had to move the bed to plug in his CPAP and then swing back into position. Then he plopped into bed. Apparently I slept through all of that.

I’m not quite on my game today as far as feeling good health wise. I’m just a little bit off center. I think that’s why my body is craving extra calories and therefore, I continue to plow through my leftovers.

Falling Stars.

This is one my favourite tracks from the 1980s and I have to admit that I have always found Shannon Rubicam kind of hot.

This song has been going through my head for weeks and when I saw it on Joe My God I had to share with the masses.

Here is “Waiting For A Star To Fall” by Boy Meets Girl.

 

Even Now.

It’s been over 13 years and I still have a hard time on the nights that Earl is traveling. You would think I’d be used to this by now but I’m not. He doesn’t travel nearly as much as he used to, and I am quite grateful for that, but there is a definite emptiness here at The Manor when he’s not here.

I feel good, just incomplete.

Even though tonight is a bachelor night, I opted to skip the popcorn supper and instead loaded Jamie up in the Jeep and took him out to dinner at one of our favorite haunts: Casa Too Mucha. The food was good as always. Patty with the Voom hairspray and Voom hair greeted us heartily; Linda the server was as courteous, pleasant and efficient as ever. Well, almost. She forgot to bring me my seafood bisque. I didn’t say anything until the bill came and it was on there; she took it off the bill and then put the seafood bisque in a take away container. I’m going to have it for lunch tomorrow.

I am off from work tomorrow. It’s going to be a quiet day. I need the rest to fend off what everyone else is feeling but I refuse to acknowledge (that would be the sniffles). I’ll probably catch up e-mail, read a bit and perhaps write some. I write quite a bit that I don’t share on this blog. It would make many people blush.

Privacy.

So last weekend I made my way into Canada during our travels. The border crossing of choice was at the 1000 Islands. This is not uncommon for me.

The 1000 Islands border crossing is not overly busy outside of tourist season and that’s actually one of the reasons I like crossing there. Crossing the border is a game of chance no matter where you’re doing it. Sometimes the customs officer is reasonably nice, other times they’re quite cranky and rarely do you drive away thinking they were actually friendly. The cranky level goes up depending on which direction you’re traveling in. You’re usually welcomed into “The Land of the Free” by very surly people. Heading the other direction makes you feel like the whole experience had a touch of maple syrup sugary sweetness.

As we crossed the bridge from Wellesley Island to Hill Island, I noticed that something was amiss. Everyone was stopping before the Canadian customs station. Trucks with flashing lights were being used to herd all the vehicles into one lane all the way to the left. As we got closer I realised that we were being herded into one of the U.S. Customs lanes and passing through it backwards (since it’s designed for traffic moving in the other direction). There was a whole bunch of U.S. Customs officers inspecting vehicles leaving the U.S.

Um, why?

Now I understand that the customs folks are there to keep the U.S. safe at all points of entry. They look for a whole variety of illegal activities going on. Now that everyone has to have some sort of passport to get back into the states it’s become very, very militaristic. I laugh when I look at some of my old maps from the 60s and 70s which tell how to cross the border easily and efficiently and tout the U.S.-Canadian border as “the easiest border to cross in the world”, because that is hardly the case in this day and age.

I’m sorry, I believe that it’s Canada’s job to inspect people headed into their country. I do not believe that the U.S. should be inspecting my credentials, vehicle, etc. as we are *leaving* the country.

As I pulled up to this impromptu U.S. inspection station our passports were taken and numerous questions were fired off.

“Where are you going?”
“What’s your citizenship?”
“Where do you live?”
“What do you do for a living?”
“How do you know each other?”

Now that last question can be interesting for us. It was our friend dave that was crossing with me this time, and we met dave through online connections. Explaining this is difficult to U.S. border agents because they apparently haven’t heard of the internet yet and they don’t fathom the idea that we have met friends online. The relatively homely woman looked at me askance when I told her that we had met online and had been friends for a few years.

After a few more questions I was told to put the car into park (of course I said, “it’s a stick so I’ll go with neutral”) and several people rifled through the things in the back of my car. I heard murmurs of discussion and bags being rifled through. I smirked. I don’t really care anymore when they go through my bags. I think I’m going to start packing some really shocking underwear or magazines or something to give them something to talk about at their coffee break. I noticed that I didn’t hear the bags zip close before they slammed down the hatch.

A few more questions from the homely woman and off we were a few hundred feet to the Canadian border station, where the pleasant (and pleasantly bearded) official asked where were going, for how long, if we had anything in the car like tobacco, alcohol or firearms and then we were told to have a nice day. Off we were to the 401.

As a tax paying American citizens I have a Really Big Problem with the United States government inspecting me as I LEAVE the United States. I really don’t think it’s any of their business as to when I’m leaving the states. I think they should only care when I coming back into the states, and then I think that they’re inspection process is overly intrusive, laughable and ridiculous. One is assumed to be nearly a criminal these days and I don’t appreciate it at all. I thought things would ease up a little bit when Obama took office in January but no, it’s the same old, same old as when GWB was there.

I don’t know if the 1000 Islands border control is overly zealous or what but that’s the third time that I have had such an intrusive crossing experience. I was thinking that I have a note on a file somewhere but the outgoing U.S. border officers didn’t scan my passport, they just searched and grilled me.

I don’t feel any safer, I don’t feel any comfort and I am certainly not happy being treated like this by my own country, which is supposedly “The Land of the Free”. I felt a great deal of comfort when we were finally in Canada.

To me that’s a little sad.

Freeing.

You have undoubtedly heard that Carrie Prejean, the Miss California USA 2009 titleholder that rocked the gay rights discussions here in the U.S. by sharing her beliefs that “opposite marriage” should be upheld recently dropped a lawsuit against the producers of Miss California USA when a sex video she had made was brought to the public spotlight. Last night she appeared on Larry King and brought the interview to a screeching halt because Larry took a call from a gay caller. She’s a little uptight.

Up until the release of the sex-act video she was the media darling of the right-wing anti-gay marriage folks.

She apparently dropped her lawsuit based on the release of this video where she performs “solo sex act”, in which she is easily identified as the solo performer. Those that considered her a media darling are shocked at her behaviour, for they believe that acts like that are violating the Lord’s Temple aka the human body. They are a little uptight.

Here’s the thing. I am going to preface this by saying that I believe Ms. Prejean is a hypocrite to the Nth degree and those casting stones shouldn’t live in glass houses and all that. But honestly, if Ms. Prejean wanted to make that video for her boyfriend or whatever, she shouldn’t be scorned for making a sex video. She should be scorned for being a hypocrite. Sex is a healthy, natural biological function of the human body and one that happens to be very much enjoyed by 99.5% of the people that engage in it. If it was wrong, it wouldn’t feel so good. Good is not evil. Oh, I will state right here and now that I have no desire to see Ms. Prejean’s video. No siree. But the human body, no matter what it’s doing or what position it’s in, is a pretty incredible thing. Not only is it incredible, but it’s beautiful. It’s a piece of art.

One of the many things that I think my mom did right in raising my sister and me is teach us to be comfortable with our bodies. Fat, short, tall, thin and in any variety of colours, we have what we have and if we’re not happy with it, we should strive to improve it; but we should never be ashamed of who we are, what we look like or how we present ourselves. I’m not a nudist. There are no nudists in my family. But I enjoy being naked and have been to places where I could be naked in public and quite frankly, it’s a liberating experience. Perhaps Ms. Prejean felt liberated by making this video. I don’t think that’s the bad part of this whole scandal, it’s the hypocritical attitude that was brought to light by this video that I think is the bad part of this whole drawn out saga.

Last night I was up rather late. Earl had gone to bed early in preparation for a 6 a.m. flight this morning and Jamie was busying himself elsewhere in the house. As I sat in my studio I realised that one corner of the room might make a good backdrop for a couple of photos. I thought the white cinder blocks with contrasting shadows in the corner would look great. So I set up that camera and readied myself for a couple of self portraits. After a few shots I decided to take one of the photos completely nude. The experience was liberating and I felt more grounded, yet free, than I have in front of a camera in a while. I posted the bare-chested, waist up version on my Flickr account, with no restrictions on visibility. I then posted the full-length nude version on the same account1 but with some search and content restrictions (it can’t be found through a random search nor will it appear in my Flickr badge) and restricted viewing access to only the people that I have friended. This wasn’t the first time2 that I have been nude in front of a camera and shared it with the world. It won’t be the last.

And you know what? I’m kind of proud of that.

1 I won’t post the photo on my blog so that people have a choice as to whether they want to see it or not. Just ask through e-mail and I’ll give you access.

2 The first time was actually back in 1993 when I did a photo shoot with my friend Kevin. The creatively cropped/rated PG version is available here.

Communication.

I have decided that I am no longer going to be part of this trend in speaking in as few words as possible or using abbreviations just so I can fit my thoughts into 140 characters.

I’m looking at your Twitter and I’m looking at you Facebook.

Since I have been actively “tweeting” (I like it better when it’s referred to as “twatting”, actually) my participation here on my blog has been way down. That’s unfortunate. One of the reasons that I have had a blog since August 2001 is because I like to write. My subjects are random, my thoughts are scattered and my style varies wildly but you know what, this is MY space and I can write what I’m thinking, doing or reminiscing about in as many characters as I want.

There are times that I write the beginnings of something brilliant but in the process I end up writing it in a half baked way and posting it on Facebook or Twitter. You know what? That’s not how I operate. In real life I tend to look at all sides of a situation. I consider every angle. I think things through and I have a habit of over-processing things once in a while. Blurting out a comment on any random topic on Twitter doesn’t do my thoughts justice. I’m more complicated than that. I deserve more than that.

I don’t care about comments. I’m always open to input and I’m very happy to read comments and I’m always open to a healthy debate (though I suck at debating) but I’m not looking to be the most popular on a Facebook feed nor do I get breathlessly giddy if my Flickr pictures get more than 20 hits. I suspect this is part of my loner nature and you know what, it’s who I am. I like who I am and I’m proud of who I am and if I’m not in the cool kids crowd anymore then so what, I never really was anyway.

So I’m taking a break from Twitter and Facebook. The accounts are still open and I’ll comment from time to time, but if you want to know what’s going on in this complicated head of mine, you’ll have to either ask me or read about it here.

Screw MySpace, this is My Space.

Retro.

The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles unveiled the new license plate design slated to start appearing on vehicles in April 2010.

All vehicles in New York will be transitioned to the new license plates over a two year period, replacing plates that debuted in 2001. The official word is that the current plates are losing their reflectivity and were only guaranteed to last for five years anyway. Unofficially, the extra $25 fee to buy the new plates (which you must do to renew your registration) will add a lot of money to the Empire State.

The new design harkens back to the plates used prior to 1986 and will feature the states official colours with blue characters on a gold background.

The official name of the plate series is the “Empire Gold Plates.” Motorists wishing to keep their existing plate number will be required to pay an additional fee. Like the current plate series, NYSDMV will not identify which county you are from by the letters in the plate number, opting to start with “AAA1000” and moving on from there.

I like the fact that there are no fancy graphics on this plate series and that it appears that a huge amount of money was not spent on the design of these plates, since the Empire State is experiencing an unprecedented fiscal emergency.

The official press release from NYSDMV is here.

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Chimney Bluffs State Park.



Chimney Bluffs State Park., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a drive. One of the guys I work with, who appreciates being out in nature as much as I do, told me about a state park that we had never been to before and how different it was from other parks along Lake Ontario and how it was just a beautiful place. So amongst our travels I decided to scout out and introduce Earl and Jamie to Chimney Bluffs State Park.

My friend was right, it is gorgeous.

Chimney Bluffs State Park doesn’t offer any camping facilities nor does it offer swimming (though it seems like it would be a great place to swim). There is a very small picnic area and one building with bathroom facilities. Other than that there’s a bunch of hiking trails and a beautiful shoreline along Lake Ontario.

It seemed to get warmer the closer we got to the lake, so we walked up and down the rocky and pebble covered shore. Due to my timing we got there a little later than planned, so we didn’t venture to the end of the park boundary. We are planning that for a future trip.

If you click on the photo above you’ll probably find more shots from the visit on my Flickr page.

Being Sick In America.

The United States is the only country in the industrialised world without universal health coverage. The result: 47 million Americans are uninsured. If they fall ill, they can count on no one but themselves.

An important video that every American should watch.

US President Barack Obama is fighting for health-care reform that would provide health insurance for every American. But Democrats have been trying — and failing — to overhaul the system for more than 75 years.

The current system leaves 15 percent of Americans uninsured and countless more under-insured.

Perhaps surprisingly, the uninsured are not always the unemployed. Many small-business owners and employees are in charge of getting their own health insurance. They are left to deal with private insurance companies which often refuse to insure patients who have serious illnesses.

According to America’s National Academy of Sciences, 18,000 Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance.

Source: France24. Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20091002-reporters-united-states-america-health-care-reform-barack-obama-insurance