A Fun Weekend

Smacky and I had a great weekend. Despite me still being a little under the weather with a very minor cold, it was great fun.

Saturday during the day we lounged. Since I was shirking outside duties due to my cold (a neighborhood clean-up effort as well as my private yard work), I tried to be responsible and do a little laundry, but that was only partially successful. We had a lazy morning and early afternoon.

Then we got ready to go out. We got Smacky into her new dress from the Baroness, and I in my Utilikilt. Off to C's (and mark's) Halloween party we went. Hung out there for a little while in a nice low-key gathering. Then off we went to Hell House II, a big party down at Main Street Lounge.

While I'm not huge on clubs, MSL was fun. The dance floor was banging, the outfits were at least decent with a lot of great ones. Smacky was turning heads everywhere we went. The music was incredible, we danced our legs off. Saw a lot of people we know...it was nice to see them even if it was in a loud club.

The only downside to the MSL party was the less than stellar BDSM show. I'm of the discipline though not the scene, and I found the display to be uninspiring. Technically proficient yes (both of the tops had good form with a variety of flogs and whips), but visually dull. That's not to say that what they were doing was bad, as long as they were happy with it, I just didn't find it very intersting or evocative.

Honestly, a better show was being put on when a couple we know had taken to playing on-stage before the official show began. Their play was emotive and evocative, even if far less "complex" than what followed them. And their time on-stage was far more interesting than everything that followed.

And to make matters worse, the primary bottom had a breakdown after the initial on-stage sesion. Chili and I immediately came to the realization we were witness to therapy and not "play." So not only was the whole thing sterile of eroticism and emotion, it was immediately followed up with a disturbing moment as she was led off the stage in tears. Not a Good Thing for BDSM perception if you ask me. Therapy is for private...play is for public...but that is just my opinion.

We came home and crashed after the fun-filled night of dancing and spending time with friends. After only a few hours of sleep, we had another lazy morning before leaving the house to go see the Louisville Orchestra. It was a show of "Russian Masterworks" consisting of two pieces by Prokofiev and a piece by Borodin. The Borodin had not been performed by the LO since 1941-1942. It and the second Prokofiev were stellar. Wow. I don't have the program nearby, so I'll have to post thoughts later. But it will be aired on public radio here in Louisville at a later date, so I highly recommend you find the air date and be there for it. It was amazing.

All in all, the weekend was a roller-coaster of hectic/lazy, but it was great fun.

Two Weekend Oddities

A couple of strange things from this weekend, both from Sunday. The first, an interesting quote from our first errand:

I don't think we quite need eighty dollars worth of lube.

The second, while visiting the purveyor of pasteurized, homogenized, watered-down, counter-culture rebellion (a.k.a. local "Hot Topic" store in the mall), I saw a strange thing. While paying for our purchase, I noticed the little 16-year-old checkout boy had what looked like a cock-ring hanging from his employee ID badge.

At first, my brain tried to ignore it. I mean...cock-rings...who cares? Other than worrying whether I have mine, who cares about anyone elses? THEN my mind went into overdrive, trying to figure out what else it could possibly be. It simply could not be a cock-ring. I mean, WHY OH WHY would he need a cock-ring at the ready while working at Hot Topic? Porn store...maybe. A bar...more likely, depending on the bar. But Hot Topic?! What could possibly happen at Hot Topic that would demand instant and ready access to a cock-ring?! The mind boggles.

Another Good Dinner Quote

Last night's monthly dinner party was much fun and evil. Good food and good company were had by all. Not quite "the last cook-out" I had intended, since both the weather and my forgetting to buy charcoal were against us. Nevertheless, the kosher franks and baked beans went over quite well.

And despite many beans being had by all, there were thankfully no noxious issues with which to contend. Yay.

The quote of the evening, belonging to yours truly, came as Smacky and I were presented with a bottle of home-made merlot:

Well, I'm taking up stained-glass. Dan's making the wine. All we need is someone to take up the buggery of young boys and we have ourselves a church!

Go ahead and laugh. You know you want to. You can cringe later as you beg forgiveness while on your knees to whatever deity to which you prostrate yourself. I'll just continue chuckling thank you very much.

A Changing From Ethereal To Physical

So I've decided to make a change in my hobby pursuits. Over the years I've tinkered with a lot of things: music, programming, fan clubs, et cetera. All of them were focused on electronics. Everything I generated was electronic bits. Not that this is a Bad Thing.

Computing and electronics, and specifically the Internet have been good to me. I've travelled around the US thanks to it. I've written code that has done Good Things for people professionally, publicly, and privately. I've created and cooperatively improved code that is present on almost 70% of the Internet. I've learned from and shared knowledge with people of all aspects of my professional and private life. I've met musicians whose music I've enjoyed over the years. I've had late-night pints and great conversation with musical genius. I've reduced my degrees of separation to numerous music and art circles. I've made friends from around the world online. I've dated some of those people I've met online. I MARRIED one of those people I met online. I've helped high-level, globe-spanning enterprises keep their business running, customers happy, and income flowing in. I've gotten jobs thanks to the internet. I've lost jobs in which I probably would've been miserable, again, thanks to the Internet. I've generated TONS of data both private and public.

And all of it (minus the memories, and the in-person stuff, oh and my wife), can be deleted in the blink of an eye.

It has been somewhat sobering coming to that realization. That the sum total of my life's efforts are a collections of ones and zeros on a selection of storage devices around the globe...some of them mine...some of them not. That my input into keeping this world operational (trying in my own way to make it better while doing so), can be lost with a simple delete command.

So I've decided to make a change in my life. From now on, I'm going to dedicate one part of my life to creating something durable. Something lasting. No, not a child...not yet. No, not a legacy of world peace...not yet. I'm going to take on a hobby based on a craft, train myself in it, and try my best to create something that will remain after I die. Not out of some existential crisis or a desire to live forever. Not out of fear that I will be entirely forgotten, since I'm fine with being entirely forgotten someday. But out of a desire to leave something positive behind me for someone else to enjoy, something more durable than electronic ones and zeros.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and have finally settled on stained-glass. My grandfather had the same hobby, pursuing it for a number of years. In fact I learned the basics of it from him, even working on some small projects of my own decades ago. My grandfather passed away a number of years ago while I was still in college. I was destroyed with grief. Over the years since, I've come into owning three lampshades he had made during those years. Two are in my library, and the third is in my kitchen. All three in some way connect me to him on a daily basis. Not that I would ever forget him, but now some small part of my world is supported and made prettier on a daily basis by the fruits of his labor. THAT is what I'd like to achieve.

Secondarily, if I become good enough at it, it may serve as a second or retirement career. Something to assist me in getting out of this insane corporate culture that is getting worse and worse in this country day by day. Maybe someday I'll be able to leave this insanity behind and work with glass all day long. Who knows? In the meantime, I'm going to do my best to liquidate all the useless crap I have stowed away in my house to fund the initial purchase of equipment necessary to pursue this dream. If I ever get good enough, maybe you dear reader can request a piece from me someday.

Web Of The Day #17

Doctor Who. Torchwood. Life Is Good!
So not only is the BBC producing new seasons of Doctor Who, whose Season 27 was AMAZING and has reinvigorated my love of the series, but now there will be a new spin-off series. The new series will be called Torchwood (anagram it, you'll understand), and will star the amazing secondary character from Season 27, Captain Jack. For those who haven't seen the series, Captain Jack is a bisexual Han-Solo-esque rogue from Earth's far future who travels with The Doctor, helps defend Earth from the Daleks, and gets left behind because it is thought he is dead. Great character. Good series premise. I hope it lasts a long time.

Hel-lo, Computer!
So remember your youth, in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when Scotty ("a key-berd...how quaint...") bartered the formula for transparent aluminum for a series of panels of the same to contain water in the Klingon ship's hold, to transport the whales from Earth's "past" to the "present" day to save Earth from the alien communications device?! Of course you do! Well, transparent aluminum is a reality. Science kicks ass!

Intergalactic Medicine Show
Orson Scott Card has started another venture. An online webzine, full of new writings from himself and others. Should be worth a look. Hell, it has an Ender Saga story in every issue. That alone should make it worthwhile. According to others though, the other writings are well worth the time.

Not Your Father's Sign Language

No, not waving your hands and fingers about to communicate. We're talking crazy-ass "security" posters as used by our government.

I'm certain a level of healthy paranoia is good for keeping secrets, but some of these make me wonder what kind of psychopathic nutters we have working in our government.

And what's with all the kids?! Geez. Creepy.

Cheese On The Lam

"Missing cheese?" thought I as I read Plastic. Yes. Missing cheese. And quite a bit of it, in fact. Wow.

I wish I had thought of making cheese more flavorful by dunking it in a toxic stew...err...body of water.

Gut-Busting Hilarity

For your gut-busting laughing pleasure, I present to you: The Hall of Douchebags.

It's part mockery of bad band photos, part venting of RAWK! pet-peeves, part photo exploration of brick walls from around the world.

I spent hours going through every photo. Despite an over-abundance of gay-bashing mockery, the commentary is overall creative, witty, and painfully funny.

So Much To Vent, So Little Time

The last several days have seen a great number of things that should make free people's blood boil: the Governor Bush's administration is STILL trying to take the right to die in peace away from Oregonians, the Salvation Fuckers have been established by the the Governor B's administration as a federally-funded religious organization that can discriminate based on religion, Governor B has nominated a fundamentalist Christian with no judicial experience for a lifetime court appointment in the highest court in the land, and Governor Bush now wants to enact martial law in our own land by using our tax-funded military for civil law enforcement. To say that Governor Bush and his cronies are the single greatest threat to the ideals that founded the United States of America is an understatement (or perhaps the second greatest, as the complacency of the common American seems to be the first). But we shall not rant about him ad nauseum. Instead, I will babble a little about a few Good Things, and one Crappy Thing.

The Good Things? Well, for one, Serenity opened at #2 this past weekend. It couldn't have happened to a nicer movie. I cannot express how strongly I feel this movie is some of the best science-fiction in recent memory. In fact, Orson Scott Card and I have similar opinions about something for a change. He too feels that Serenity is well worth your time and money.

Two, every time I start to feel hopeless for the future of mankind, I generally am reminded in some small way that humanity may not be doomed. This man — this illiterate man — single-handedly running a private library of thousands of books for the betterment of his fellow man, is a shining beacon as to why mankind has come as far as it has. That despite all of our foibles, we have the capacity to give selflessly for the betterment of our fellows, is probably the one reason we have ever survived all the rampant stupidity, hatred, warring, and ignorance in this world. If only there were more like this man.

Three, Peter Jackson has been selected to make the Halo movie. Now, most video game movies suck. And most video games based on movies suck. But with Jackson at the helm, it could be quite interesting.

And now for the Crappy Thing. I don't know what has been happening to people, but I for one am disgusted with the growing trend of unwillingness to commit to ANYTHING. We're not talking about marriage here...not that sort of committment. We're not even talking about monogamy. This is about inter-personal relationships, and people's inability to commit to anything to maintain said relationships.

An example? Try planning a gathering of friends. Pick a day of the week, any day. Then inform your friends you'd like to host a gathering. First, you can forget RSVP, since nearly everyone on the planet seems to have forgotten how to RSVP. Second, if you hear from anyone at all, good luck trying to get a definite answer from any fucking one of them. At best, you'll get a "I'll try to be there," or a "I should be able to make it," or "I'm not certain I'm free, I'll let you know." You seldom, if ever, will get a "Yes, I will be there," or a "No, I'm sorry, but I can't/won't be there."

This has been a growing trend over the last several years. At first I thought it must be something to do with my generation, maybe they just don't practice those small social mores that help maintain good relationships. Then I find the same thing in generations both before and after mine. I hear from my mother that she can't get "yes/no" from anyone, and only ever gets "maybe," that no one she knows will ever plan and commit to ANYTHING. I hear from people younger than me they experience the same thing. So it is cross-generational! Where the fuck is this coming from?

Then, one of my closest, dearest friends starts doing it. That was the last straw. I told that circle of friends, "either our time together is important enough to commit to it, or it isn't," and that unless we had a "yes" from everyone involved at least a few days before our gatherings, that I would not be there. Which kinda sucked, but it needed to be said.

From now on, I will no longer accept "maybe." Either the relationship I have with someone is meaningful enough to both of us that both of us are willing to COMMIT to spending time together, or our relationship is obviously not important enough to someone in that equation. From now on, when offering plans, if I get anything indefinite, I'll just say "Oh, never mind then."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not demanding a "yes." I'm happy with "no." "No" at least tells me they aren't interested or are unavailable. "No" lets me makes plans based on their absence (less food, doing other things, et cetera). "No" is a perfectly normal, socially acceptable response. But "maybe" is nothing but a bullshit avoidance tactic that does nothing but negatively impact the recipient of said excuse. The recipient cannot plan effectively (does not know how much food to provide, is left wondering if they should bother making other plans, et cetera), and is left adrift because their friend didn't have the decency to say "No."

That's the Crappy Thing...that people are harming their relationships with their friends with indecisiveness or "polite" avoidance tactics. That they would rather cause their friends frustration by never committing to them in any fashion. That they would rather keep everyone on a string of maybes so they don't have to make a decision until the last fucking minute. Pretty fucking crappy if you ask me.

Serenity = Good

Serenity was fan-spankin-tacular! It stayed true to the feel of the verse, the characters, dialogue, and action that made the series enjoyable. It tied up enough things (and even has a shocker or two) to give you closure (should they make no further sequels or series), but left it open enough to leave wiggle room (should they make further sequels or series).

Luckily, they didn't use the cheesy theme song from the series. While I appreciate the tone of it, and in general the spirit of the lyrics, it was pretty bad. The movie rocked from start to finish...and oh what a finish.

And the reavers were actually scary... Ick. Go see the movie. IF you at all liked the series, then you should love the movie.