Monthly Archives: December 2013

Anniversary

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Michael is the handsome devil on the right.
Michael is the handsome devil on the right.
So, 365 days ago the sweetest, most capable, most patient, and most astonishingly funny man married me.

I really don’t quite understand what he sees in me. Whenever I ask him why he puts up with me, he just counters with asking why I put up with him. Which makes no sense at all, because I can be annoying and exasperating.

Continue reading Anniversary →

The Law of Fumble Fingers

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Cat looking at a Macbook.
This may or may not be an accurate representation of me writing.
One of the problems with the way I run this blog (and it’s a subset of the way I write), is that from time to time, I accidentally publish something that isn’t ready.

I have a certain number of posts in draft form at any time. Continue reading The Law of Fumble Fingers →

Brewing up some holiday cheer

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www.freefever.com/wallpaper/
Thinking about the Christmases past.
When my late husband, Ray, was still alive, every December we would acquire a number of bags of various Holiday Blends of coffee beans. It started out simple enough, I like Starbucks’ holiday blend, one of whose components are aged Sumatran beans, but Ray wasn’t a big fan, as he didn’t like dark roasted coffees. So he would pick up a bag of “Jingle Java” which was the Safeway store brand’s holiday coffee.

This escalated over time, as one or the other of us would find other companies offering some kind of holiday or christmas blend of beans while we were shopping. Some years we would wind up with a half dozen or more bags of different holiday blends…

Continue reading Brewing up some holiday cheer →

Friday Links

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New Yorker Mandela obituary portrait.
New Yorker’s cover portrait of Nelson Mandela is by legendary artist @KadirNelson.
Friday Links!

It’s Friday, here’s a collection of news and other things that struck me as worthy of being shared:

South Africa’s Nelson Mandela dies in Johannesburg.

100 Years of Breed “Improvement”.

While I have often decried the culture of permanent snark which has taken root in many places, it is equally troubling when people enforce the never criticize anything culture, as explained by: Tom Scocca: On Smarm.

U.S. Growth Faster Than Estimated.

10 worst right-wing statements of the week — Marxist pope edition.

Google, AT&T, Comcast trade group penned viscerally anti-gay memo.

Republican candidates being tutored in how to speak to female constituents and opponents: Good Luck with That.

I’d never heard this story: The Siege of Sinatra.

A My Little Pony-themed parody of a Chick Tract. (Thanks to Chip Unicorn for the link!)

6 Grammar Points to Watch Out For in Christmas Songs.

Gov. Scott Walker Named A**hole of the Day for the Third Time!.

Will Republican National Committee Chairman End His Own War on Christmas?.

First posted a few years ago, but despite recent PR to the contrary, still true: Why You Shouldn’t Donate to the Salvation Army Bell Ringers. (More recent incidents are included in this AmericaBlog story.

Update on Sea Otter with Gunshot Wounds (video).

The Daily Show takes on a few anti-gay bigots:
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This whole album is awesome, but this take on one of the best Christmas carols ever is the awesomest:
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A song for the Christmas tree

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Cat with Christmas lights wallpaper desktopnexus.com
Time to put up the lights!
Once again this year we didn’t get much of our decorating done during the long Thanksgiving weekend. Some of the blame goes to me trying to finish my novel by the end of the month for my Alternate NaNoWriMo. Part of the blames goes to the fact that we drove down to Mom’s the night before Thanksgiving and drove home Thanksgiving night itself, so we both slept in more than a bit longer than usual on the day after Thanksgiving.

And part of the blame goes to me having a really awful sinus headache on Sunday.

Continue reading A song for the Christmas tree →

Bullied bullies, part 2

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Religious person beats atheist with cross, is angry when atheist breaks cross.
They never think it’s fair when you stand up for yourself.
Week before last, a Catholic Bishop in Hawaii spoke out against the Marriage Equality law, and while doing so claimed that children raised by same sex couples were at very high risk for becoming suicidal. Dan Savage, a Seattle-based nationally-syndicated sex advice columnist and gay activist, appeared on Bill Maher’s show, and Maher mentioned this Bishop’s statement. One reason to mention it, besides the fact that Savage is always good for some commentary on a gay rights issue, is because Savage was raised Catholic (and has written eloquently about how his Mom’s Catholic faith is where she gained the determination to became a fierce pro-gay activist). So Dan has written and talked a lot about the Catholic church’s stand on gay rights as opposed to its more supportive members.

Anyway, Dan replied that the Bishop was confusing kids raised by same sex parents with the actual statistics about kids raped by pedophile priests.

This set many conservatives and Catholic pundits into an uproar, accusing Dan’s comments of being hate speech, or even a hate crime, or at the very least disrespectful.

The problem is that it was none of those things.

Continue reading Bullied bullies, part 2 →

Bullied bullies, part 1

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Cartoon about abusers claiming to be abused.
A literal bible thumper!
Anti-gay activists have been claiming to be the victim of bullying and oppression for a long time. The go-to response when anyone points out their intolerant attitude has always been to accuse that person of being intolerant. So in one sense this isn’t new. But the attempts to paint themselves as victims have escalated lately, including being invoked as a “justification” for the political action branches of these anti-gay organizations to ignore, violate, or only half-heartedly comply with campaign finance disclosure laws and tax filings.

Last week a new claim began making the rounds: that anti-Christian hate crimes were now happening as often as anti-gay hate crimes. A claim that the numbers just don’t support…

Continue reading Bullied bullies, part 1 →

NaNoWriMo Rebel Winner

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Image of typewriter keys and the words The Alternate NaNoWriMo.
The Alternate NaNoWriMo, as proposed by Cafe Aphra (cafeaphrapilot.blogspot.com)
So, this year, inspired by the fabulous people at Cafe Aphra, I decided to do an Alternate NaNoWriMo.

Continue reading NaNoWriMo Rebel Winner →

To absent friends…

people,

Today is World AIDS Day. Each year, I spend part of the day remembering people I have known who left this world too soon because of that disease.

So: Frank, Mike, Tim, David, Todd, Chet, Jim, Steve, Brian, Rick, Stacy, Phil, Mark, Michael, Jerry, Walt, Charles, Thomas, Mike, Richard, Bob, Mikey, James, Lisa, Todd, Kerry, Glen, and Jack. Some of you I didn’t know for very long. One of you was a relative. One of you was one of my best friends in high school.

I miss you all. It was a privilege to know you.

Michael Spectre has a piece at the New Yorker that everyone ought to read (not just gay people): WHAT YOUNG GAY MEN DON’T KNOW ABOUT AIDS.