Save The Internet.

The following is a well written entry lifted from a blog I follow, In The Thick Of It I’m asking for your help today on keeping the internet the way it was meant to be.

Congress is currently pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard against Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Network Neutrality prevents AT&T and Verizon from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T or Verizon more. Network Neutrality would insure that Amazon doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Grammy-nominated musician Moby made a goofy, yet poignant new video about the very real attack on Internet freedom that is happening this week in Congress. Watch the video.

Learn more and sign a petition telling congress that your Internet is not for sale to the highest bidder.


Save the Internet: Click here

Tinka Tinka Tink.

bwcloset.jpg

I just love this graphic I found on the Bewitched-related website, Harpies’ Bizarre. June is gay pride month and one of the contributors to that site is making Bewitched themed postcards for the occasion.

And here’s a little bit of trivia: shortly after Dick Sargent’s (Darrin ) coming out in the early 1990s, he was asked to be grand marshal of the Los Angeles Gay Pride parade. He asked and was joined by America’s favorite television witch, Elizabeth Montgomery. As well as being breathtaking beautiful, “Lizzy” was a wonderful human being.

Proposal.

I’m becoming increasingly fired up about this second round of gay marriage debate that is taking a hold of the capital. It’s very obvious to many why this is being bandied about again; the current administration is failing miserably and know they are going to pay the price for it in the next round of elections, so they are doing everything they can to secure the ultra-conservative vote in November. Senseless deaths in Iraq, a failing economy and international concerns be damned, we need to make sure that Bruce and Bruce don’t get married. In their eyes, it’s blasphemy.

What a crock of bullshit.

The issue of separation of church and state aside, one of the arguments we hear is that marriage is for the purpose of building a family. I wish someone had told my 80-year old grandfather that back in July ’95. He was marrying for the second time to a woman he wanted to spend his final years with. I have no doubt that he loved her very much. I also have no doubt that they wouldn’t be having children any time soon. By the whackos’ rules, they shouldn’t have been getting married. But they lived in marital bliss right up until his death. No houses fell, no fires engulfed them, but horror of horrors, they were married but weren’t having children.

It really is amazing when you see two people in love. It’s truly a sight to behold. Oh, there are many that say they’re in love, and they fake it really well, but I believe you can tell when you see two people united as one. They’re best friends, they’re two parts of a whole and their relationship transcends this mortal concept of “marriage”.

If by the slim chance that this waste of time amendment somehow becomes part of the U.S. Constitution, then I propose this: All “normal” couples getting married be submitted to fertility tests. I mean, if they can’t procreate, then there really isn’t a need for them to get married, right? Can you see it now? “I’m sorry Tim, but this test shows you’re unable to have kids. I know you’re 23 years old. I understand that you love Jenna very much and have been together for a long time, but no, you can’t get married.” Why, if that happened to an affluent family in Texas, they’d be jumpin’ higher than the mother’s hairdo to get the situation corrected.

I have news for anyone opposed to gay marriage. Hear me and hear me well. Earl and I were married on December 26, 1996. I have had a wedding ring on my left finger since that blessed event. Nothing, and I mean _nothing_ is going to take our marriage away from us and nothing is going to make it any less sacred. We will do everything in our power to protect our marriage. You can tax us, you can ban us, you can tell us we’re going to hell (and that is such a stupid thing to say as I think it’s quite evident that _this_ is hell), but it’s not going to weaken our union. Hardly. It’s not going to make us stop loving each other. It’s going to make us stronger and bring us closer.

Every citizen has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Period.

Blech.

So Dubya is speaking about the importance of banning gay marriage at a federal level by way of a constitutional amendment. This would be the first constitutional amendment that would deny rights of U.S. citizens instead of granting them. It has little chance of passing the proper channels to become an amendment. But he’s going to go ahead and talk about it and what not, to prove to the religious right that he’s still on board with their crusade.

What a bunch of heartless ghouls.

Grilling.




Grilling delights.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Summertime means grilling time, especially when it’s cold, cloudy and rainy here in lovely Upstate New York. The weather really has nothing to do with it, since you can grill just as easily in a blizzard, but there’s something about the rumor of some extra sunlight that stirs the urge in men all across the area.

That urge, of course, is to stand in front of a grill and cook something using lots of flame and stuff to baste with.

So Earl and I (mostly Earl) came up with these skewered seafood delights. There’s shrimp and scampi and bacon and pineapple in there, along with my favorite, grilled eggplant with various seasonings and asparagus.

Yummy!

We had my Mom, sister and friend Debbie over for dinner today and everyone seemed to enjoy our latest grilling offering. I’m thinking of concoting a BBQ marinade with beer and other assorted fun for the next time.

Fixed!

The very nice Adelphia technician came and fixed our internet connection today. Oh yes she most certainly did. She replaced a filter out on the pole and now it is flyin’. _Flyin’_ I tell ya. Apparently the filter keeps us from getting cable television (we have DirecTV) and it looked pretty fried. I didn’t want to disagree with her in anyway, because though she was a very, very nice person, she looked like she could beat the crap out of anyone she wanted to.

I shouldn’t let material things like this sway my mood but this has just made my day. We can actually talk on the phone now (over VoIP) without it s ndin l ke th s.

Now I can finally get rid of my cell phone.

Whoops.




Whoops.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

So we have this fancy new beard trimmer in our household. It has a built in vacuum attachment and nine different settings.

I set out to give it a whirl and discovered that the guard is a little more flexible than I’m used to. Of course, I discovered this after I took a huge stripe out of my mustache and goatee area.

I’m now clean shaven for the first time in a long time.

Time to start the beard from scratch.

Rain.

You know it kind of sucks when it rains on the weekend. I’ve been making the best of it though by working on my roadgeek website and whatnot, but it’s just not the same as getting out there and enjoying some fun in the sun.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Humor.

There are people in the world that believe cats and dogs are “just animals”. They have no personality, they have no free will, they’re here to be the pet of a human being. In fact, years ago a woman once chimed in on a newspaper commentary call-in column that animals don’t have a soul. I personally looked that woman up in the local phone book and called her, just to tell her that she’s a cold, cold woman, but that’s another story.

Boy, are those people wrong.

I can say without a trace of doubt in my voice that our cherished feline and canine friends certainly do have a personality. Some of them even have a sense of humor. For example, our cat Tom found a new way to terrorize me in the early hours of the morning today. He now jumps on the weather station control station display in the bedroom, causing it to emit various beeps and bonks as it’s confused about the commands it’s receiving. While I was having a wonderful dream that had something to do with “Charmed”, I was interrupted by Tom’s new game. Stumbling over to the weather station to shoo him off, I was intrigued that he apparently prefers metric, as he had converted the temperature display to celsius and the wind speed to clicks (kmh). I haven’t the foggiest idea on how to do that, or change it back for that matter, so now I have to do math when it comes to determining whether I should wear a parka or board shorts to the office.

A little kitty cat humor.

You’d think that being an older cat he’d be settled in his bag of tricks, but no, he’s blessing us with new things on a weekly basis. Last week, the gentle tap-tap-tap on my chin while I’m sleeping was replaced with a claws-extended push, push, scratch. At least my beard covers any scars that may accumulate through this phase of his. A couple of months ago, he discovered the piano and that walking across the ivories made music. I’m afraid that his next trick will involve sending an e-mail to my family or something. “FOOD SUCKS. SEND SOMETHING TASTY FOR A CHANGE.”

Does this all make me crazy? Not really. Would I change it in any way? Not on your life.

So to those people that don’t see any personality in their cat or dog, I say you’re nuts. Stop treating them as “just a pet” and just let them be. Even if they make things go ‘bonk’ in the night.

Get Smart.

Our Jeep Tour took us through Texas last month. We missed this awesome event. “Missed it by this much.” Oh well, there’s always the next Jeep tour.

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The daytime speed limit in west Texas along Interstates 10 and 20 is now 80 MPH