my co-worker and i have taken to taking backgammon breaks through the course of days when we are feeling particularly tired or burnt or whatever. we play with the hand-carved set of cute gnomes and weird ugly ladies holding babies that i got in peru 3L year.
anyway, my co-worker has uncanny backgammon luck. he said that he always has. we play a quarter a guy, with it upped to $5 for skunks (when the other person doesn't get any off -- a gammon), and $10 for backgammons (when the other person is stuck in your home quadrant when you finish). pay-off is at $5, because i can't stand to build a losing streak past there. he skunked me once last week, and since we've started playing, he's had 3 pay-offs.
but TODAY (after giving him his third pay-off), i got my first! i completely SKUNKED him and he had to give me my fiver back!! it was actually pretty weird. i got something like 6 or 7 doubles in a row, and finished with doubles. all told, i got something like 10-12 doubles in that game. my worry, however, is that i have used up all my backgammon karma and will be back to losing my ass off to this boy.
but yay! skunk!
on sunday i was trolling for 80s music (yes, i am making an excuse for scrolling here), and i came across a new show on KBIG (perhaps not *new*, but i had never heard of it before).
RADIO MEDIUM!!! mon-thur 10-mid, sun 7pm-mid.
it is like crossing over, only on the radio, with more than one psychic, all who are not as good as the crossing over guy. "okay... do you have a son?" "no." "okay... well, i'm being shown a little boy. did someone have a little boy recently?" "my nephew!" "yes, that must be the young boy i'm being told about. your mother is aware of him. now... who has the great sadness in your family?" "we have a history of that." "bingo. your mother is telling you to lighten up and live your life."
while i am generally very gullible, this does seem awfully crocky. i do, however, believe that the radio mediums believe that they are hearing things and believe in what they are doing (and i do kinda believe in ghosts, so i could see one getting through once in a while). ayumi thinks they are complete crap and consciously lying to their gullible believers. no faith in people.
at any rate, it's entertaining. i do like listening to how they twist everything around when they are completely wrong. "okay. is your mother still around? your father is saying something about concern for your mother." "no, she's passed on." "okay, well he's showing concern, so i get the feeling it was very shortly after he passed? and this is a woman who loved to dance, am i right?" "uh... i don't know, she passed when i was very young." "oh, okay, i see, he's saying, 'no, she didn't know her.' well, she loved to dance. and your father mentions her to let you know that they are reunited now on the other side, and they want you to know that."
(by the way, you MUST click on the link to learn more about participating. 1) there are more pictures of shaun valentine, and 2) they have drawings done by the mediums of the spirits they are talking to. this is all very interesting.)
you have been warned.
the l-word looks like it might slightly be looking up, though i am really irritable about this whole mark business. "hi, i'm a straight male with skeevy friends and we make 'documentaries' for a living. by the way, to pay the rent i used to make pornos and stuff like that." i certainly can't think of a better candidate to room with two lesbians, can you?
and i now officially HATE tina. she is so focused on her "now i need to be independent and do what is right for me" that she is doing so without consideration for anyone else around. what, she goes one minute from "i have ruled [getting back together with bette] out" to "now i'm going to go out with the woman who has ruined bette's livelihood and who is manipulatively edging bette out of her job. i am too selfish to ever be able to see how going out with perhaps the one person who would make it feel like i was stabbing bette in the heart on many, many different levels is any different than my getting back in the game. hmm." could you BE ANY MORE OF A SELFISH CUNT??? bette is not perfect, but this is pretty fucking downright cruel. i don't give a shit if tina had/has problems asserting herself. it's not like anything is changing anyway, she is just going from one power lesbian to the next to the next. I HATE YOU!!! you never had any personality anyway and now that you are trying to get one, it turns out you are a bitch!
(sorry, i haven't had my coffee today.)
jenny's hair. i still think she's unattractive, but i suppose if you don't mind the mousey look she's alright.
FAT ACTRESS. good show.
we just finished with a big deadline that my team has been forging toward for a couple weeks. i've been plodding on with my head down, through late nights and all last weekend. now that it's over i feel all tired and down... deflated, i suppose. i just want to go home and sleep. :(
at the airport today, the old man checking id and boarding pass at the security checkpoint looked at my id and said, "you cut your hair?" when i gave a perfunctory smile and, "yes, i did," he said, "you should be shot for that."
some of these are fucking hilarious.
HIGH SCHOOL METAPHORS
These came from the annual Dark and Stormy Night competition. They are
actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of Ecoli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steeltrap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
27. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
28. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
well, not really. i'm reviewing documents in an empty partner's office. the window is much bigger than mine, but then again, the view is not as good -- you can't even see the hollywood sign. hah.
woo-hoo for doc review!
e-mails have already gone out detailing where you can celebrate all up and down california.
here is the decision: Download file
and this from nclr (national center for lesbian rights):
California Court Rules Same-Sex Couples Must Be Allowed To Marry
National Center for Lesbian Rights Hails Decision as a Victory for Fairness and Equality
San Francisco, CA - A California state court ruled today that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry, a decision that NCLR called a victory for fairness and equality. NCLR filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of 12 same-sex couples, Equality California and Our Family Coalition.
The court ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor on two central arguments: denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry is impermissible gender discrimination and violates the fundamental right to marry.
"I am so happy that my parents can finally get married," said Ericka Sokolower-Shain, the fifteen-year-old daughter of plaintiffs Karen Shain and Jody Sokolower. "My parents have been together for over 30 years. They have been together so long they can practically read each others’ minds. It is only right they should be able to get married."
"Couples who have made a commitment in life deserve the legal commitment to match," said Shannon Minter, NCLR’s Legal Director. "This historic ruling affirms the state constitution’s promise of equality and fairness for all people. The court recognized that when the government denies lesbians and gay men the right to marry, it is treating them unequally."
"We are overjoyed by today's ruling," said Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, two other plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "Fifty years ago, the California courts paved the way for my mom and dad to get married when they struck down the state law barring interracial couples from marriage," said Stuart. "Today, the court ruled that the California Constitution protects my right to marry my partner John. We've been a loving and committed couple for over 17 years. We've waited long enough to be able to marry."
"Today we are one giant step closer to true equality for all California families," said Geoffrey Kors, Executive Director of Equality California. "The court recognized that the government has no business putting obstacles in the path of people who are seeking to care for their loved ones. Today’s ruling affirms that lesbian and gay couples have the same need for the legal protections of marriage, and the same right to equal protection and dignity under the law."
Plaintiffs Corey Davis and Andre Lejeune were elated by news of the decision. "As African American gay men, we joined this lawsuit to lift the mantle of discrimination and inequality perpetuated by the state of California through its outmoded marriage laws," Corey stated. "Years from now, when marriage for gays and lesbians is legal nationwide, our children will study this issue in school and wonder -- just as the white kids in my generation did about those so violently opposed to the co-mingling of the races and ending legal segregation -- they’ll wonder and secretly pray that their relatives weren't any of those people perpetuating discrimination against gays and lesbians."
Shannon Minter, NCLR’s Legal Director, is NCLR’s lead attorney on the case. NCLR was joined by co-counsel Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the Law Office of David C. Codell, and the law firms of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe and Steefel, Levitt & Weiss.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera also filed an action challenging the constitutionality of excluding same-sex couples from the right to marry. The two actions—Woo v. Lockyer and CCSF v. Lockyer—were consolidated last year. California is the only state in which a municipality has joined with same-sex couples in seeking marriage equality.
Judge Richard Kramer was appointed by former Republican Governor Pete Wilson in 1996 and took the bench in January 1997. During his eight-year tenure as a San Francisco Superior Court judge, Kramer has handled both civil and criminal cases. Prior to becoming a jurist, Judge Kramer specialized in bank litigation for 25 years. He was born in Massachusetts and raised in California.
a la omlet girl, let me first lift a warning from her site:
******************************************************************
Beware!
Basic plot spoilers below will (kind of) ruin ALIAS, THE L-WORD and YOUR LIFE if you continue reading. Alligators may possibly emerge from the screen to eat you if you read what follows.
Doom.
Doooooommm!
******************************************************************
alias has become good again. i mean, some of the up-front plot was still stupid, but it's always nice when, at the end, you find out that all the revelations about secret plots were bunk because really, there is a really secret plot going on. muhahahahaha.
this is good because i really need a middle of the week pick-me-up to combat the insane depression that it looks like the l-word is going to launch me into every sunday night for a little while. i mean, the show is still good, but it has become a little too, er, gut-wrenching. i do not ever want to see bette's friends putting her to sleep as she drunkenly sobs over having lost tina. AND I HATE THAT MEAN DYKEY LAWYER WHO IS COMING ONTO TINA!!! i mean, we saw it coming, but i almost lost my shit when they showed her kissing tina in the preview for next week. THIS IS SO NOT OKAY!!! i mean... what happened to last year? things were fun last year. now, bette and tina are miserable (with scary militant fem-dyke glomming onto tina), alice and dayna are toeing a fine cheating line (okay, to be honest, i don't give a shit if tanya gets hurt) and EWWW jenny is going to end up in a triangle with shane??? i mean, clearly shane and carmen will end up in lurve and everything will be okay, but i have a feeling that we are going to have to deal with some nasty jenny sex scenes in the interim. harumph.
anyway, sorry for the spoilers. but at least you got the alligator warning first, right?
conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call conference call.
2.3 hours and counting.
so at the end of 2004, i went ahead and ordered another year's worth of contacts, because i had set aside money under the flex plan and i didn't want to waste it, but didn't have time to get my eyes checked. so i've been wearing these contacts, and it's become clear over the last week or so that the prescription (in my right eye particularly) is not good anymore. meaning that i think both my prescription and astigmatism got worse, such that my eyesight is always blurry, causing me headaches and feverishness, and i am constantly touching my eyes to try and rotate the contacts into clarity.
yesterday i had the bright idea of opening a new left eye contact and putting it in my right eye, because my left eye has a stronger prescription. alas, my right eye is still not quite as bad as my left eye, so either way it's blurry, and with the left eye contact in the right eye, i get worse headaches, because there aren't even fleeting moments when my eyesight is clear.
i finally broke down and made an appointment to get my eyes checked. the soonest i can do it is next saturday, however, and then i will have to wait another week to get the new contacts, assuming i don't go blind before then.
laser eye surgery is starting to look better and better. bah.
my blog is now spam-free, and both mt-blacklist and some sort of SQL query thing have been implemented. this just goes to further show that CB rocks.
during the bitter end of her cleaving away the 70,000+ spammed comments, CB informs me that some false positives were probably deleted through content based search+deletes. (so, for example, the comments under the l-word discussion were probably gone because of our discussion of how slutty jenny is.) if you notice some comment of yours having gone, it was probably one of the false positives, and not because i hate you. alternatively, you should stop posting as fleshlight.
there is some new thing you have to enter in now to show that you are a real person, too. i haven't seen it, but will test-post to this entry to check it out.
anyway, this rocks.
on another note, i think my purchasing another year of contacts without getting a new prescription has resulted in continuously blurry eyesight that results in continuous headaches and fevers. yuck.
THANKS CB!
soon my blog will be spam-free! woo-hoo!
and on a side-note, while i appreciate that iron chef america understands that dubbing is a huge part of what made the original iron chef a hit, and thereby chose a host who either has a slight accent or who is conscientiously trying to make himself sound dubbed, it's not working for me. i only saw it once, but the judges were trying too hard to look like they knew what they were talking about, and just came off annoying and pretentious. (and were stupid -- they gave morimoto no originality points and the other guy a ton when... what did the guy make? SUSHI. WOW. i've NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE.) AND, one of them was like, "oh, when they unveiled those live crabs, i was thinking, are we watching iron chef or SURVIVOR???" fuck off. if you can't deal with seeing your food the way it is before it's made all pretty and innocuous so that you can pretend that you had nothing to do with slaughtering something, don't be a judge on a god-damn cooking show.
but you know, not that i care.