Living In the World, Not on It

I'm delighted and happy to know that finally people can get married in New York no matter what gender the bride and groom, bride and bride or groom and groom (or however one wishes to phrase it) may be! Finally, a state that understands and bestowed its blessings on all couples. It has only taken far too long for this to happen. California, which appeared to be a modern and open-minded state, began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in June 2008 and then repealed that in November 2008, thanks to Proposition 8, which labeled marriage as a union between one man and one woman. I used to think highly of the state of California until that happened. How stupid is that? But New York has turned around and made it possible for couples - regardless of same-sex or not - to take vows, walk down the aisle, or whatever they wish in order to legalise their union. And I say, "Yahoo! for New York and same-sex couples!" I have always felt very strongly for this and it is none o...

Remember this morning's lofty goals? Not happening. There is no way to find enough topics - and the time - to put up as many meaningful posts as I'd like. The days are too long and tonight has proven to be the standard in full-moon fare. Don't misunderstand; you don't need just crazy people to make the full moon nights what they are. Sometimes it is all medical, sometimes it is all substance abuse, most of the time it is a mix. It's just more. So tonight we had one medical call and one CO alarm, which undoubtedly the fire district at the scene is still playing with - people do the strangest things. I'll just leave it there. CO alarms are normally a show-up-and-get-dismissed-immediately kind of thing, but tonight we were standing there talking and talking while the firemen were in and out and doing things. This is a standard stanby at a scene where the firefighters have the work. Still, that is about 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back. Guess that be...

Always... I should say my best thinking is done anywhere I can't write it down. The shower? That is easily the highest qualifier... At least when I'm driving I can call the house number and leave myself a message with bulletpoints of what I'd like to write. So here I am, witting in front of the home computer, which underscores the fact that I need to purchase another new monitor, wrapped in a towel with wet legs, not getting ready to go visit my parents... But if I don't do this now, I won't remember later. I should move some money around and buy another monitor... But I will instead wait for Luis to return from far-away Omaha (he'll be on the 1400 flight out of Omaha to Houston, then wait a bit for his next flight out of Houston to arrive in New Jersey around 2200). Then he can come with me to Staples to select a new monitor that won't be broken. Back to what I was thinking about in the shower... I was shaving something, and thinking about the social graces...

Barack, Miley move up; baby names Emma, Jacob rule WASHINGTON – Barack and Miley move up, but the classics still rule. Emma is the top baby name for girls, Jacob for boys. Emma's surge to the top in 2008 ended Emily's 12-year reign as the No. 1 baby name for girls, the Social Security Administration announced Friday. Jacob held onto the boy's crown for the 10th straight year. Barack may have been the man of the year in 2008 as Obama won the White House, but the president still trails the king. Barack moved up a record 10,126 places to No. 2,409. Elvis is still in the building, though he slipped from 673 to 713. In the midst of last year's election, Isha Kallay of suburban Washington wanted to name her newborn son after the future president. But she feared that Barack would become too popular, especially if he won. "That's why I named my baby Obama because I wanted my baby to have a special name that other people don't have," Kallay said from her home i...

How often do I want to blog weekly about a show? So far, though, I think I have had something to say about most of the episodes. And I have never been a fan of Donald Trump - there is no denying his prowess as a business man, however, tycoons rarely appeal to me and his employment practices where the show is concerned bother me. Yes, I know... it makes better television and apparently the normal employment laws don't quite apply to this sort of thing. Still... I've posted "Just Fire Dennis Rodman Already" (30 March) and "Celebrity Apprentice 2009" (20 March) - I thought I had said more, but apparently not. I'd thought I had posted about the wedding dress episode but I don't see anything. Well, onto the last airing (Sunday, 5 April, 2100)... Clint Black and Melissa Rivers faced off as team leaders in the last episode, entitled "Trump Makes a Surprising Decision". They have the rather unenviable task of developing a "viral video", ...

I get e-mails all the time about how women are special. You notice that there are never e-mails praising men as special. When you look at pure numbers, men are special. Women comprise 2/3 of the population... not so special. I find it funny and then got an invitation to wear red on Friday, 6 February: Cindy [Reuther] invited you to "National Wear Red Day " on Friday, February 6 at 12:00am. Event: National Wear Red Day "Our Hearts. Our Choice." What: Rally Host: Go Red For Women – Official Page Start Time: Friday, February 6 at 12:00am End Time: Friday, February 6 at 12:00pm Where: National Event So I wrote to someone else: "Wait a minute. Wasn't that to support the troops? Last year it was blue to support them...Here it looks like I'm supporting being a woman... not for nothing, but let's look at this. I'm celebrating having an XX chromosome configuration... uh, so what? Some ⅔ of the populace has this! I'd rather celebrate being me, as tha...

Just in case you aren't paranoid enough... Never mind creating a password with at least eight characters, two of which are numbers, one of which is a capital letter, and one of which is a symbol like (*&^%$). The easiest way for a hacker to weasel into your account is likely the "Forgot your password?" link . "Forgot your password?" features are older than the Internet, providing businesses and site owners a simple way to let a user reset a forgotten password, provided he can verify his credentials by asking a few personal questions that only the rightful user should know. For years the archetypical question was, of course, the "Mother's maiden name" challenge. In recent years, additional challenges have emerged, such as asking the street you grew up on, your favorite pet, and grandparents' first names. Is all of this stuff really secure? More than one researcher is sounding the alarm over these tools, noting that while this data may have ...

I, as usual, agree with Penn & Teller. This is not unusual, since we seem to think alike on many, many issues. They've addressed quite a few different topics, many of which we agreed with. This is one of them. I see the value pornography and the three stooges (ask Penn, not me) who argued against porn are idiots. It serves a purpose - a good one - and while you shouldn't have your five year old watch it, what's wrong with seeking out a great orgasm? Since when is that a crime? Who doesn't want to have a great orgasm? The people fighting against porn, who probably couldn't get laid if they drugged someone up and fed them all the right drugs, seemed to find ways (completely unacceptable) to tie it in to rape. Rape is a domination crime and has nothing to do with sex. Sex is the tool used to dominate, but other than that, there is no connection. Take it from one who knows. When I was 17 I was date raped. This is a fact, not a pity party. Wondering why I'm so op...

I suspect it was 0400 but what do I know? I had been asleep! I love sex, I truly do, and I'm always asking Luis for a snog. But what it is with men and snogging in the wee hours of the morning? Any other time of the day is fine - well, okay, 1300 during the week I'm stuck in my place of employment and can't play, but shit, from the time he gets home until bed time and then at the time I do wake up is all kinds of fine with me! No. Dinner (for reasons passing understanding) always is the top priority for Luis. Not fair. I can reheat pizza but an orgasm is a beautiful thing and beats pizza, hummus and any other food that I love dearly. Some day a man has to explain to me how passing up sex for dinner works; I don't get it. Saturdays and Sundays are perfect because I can push for a fun time at any time of the day - and I actually don't mind going for the big-O at 0300 or any ungodly hour because what time do I care when I get up? I'll sleep in a little extra to mak...

Men and women are not equal. My husband said that last night and he is right. 100% correct. We have the right to do things, to be things, to share in the things that men do. That's fine. I am all for women and men having all of the same opportunities and rights. But to say that we are equal? No, that is not right. Men and women certainly are not equal physically and anyone who says that we are in an overall sense would be full of it. Men are generally bigger, taller, bulkier, stronger humans than are women. To say anything else would be false. It would patently be wrong to do that, to say that. Women are smaller, shorter, not as strong. We aso have higher pain thresholds than men. Men can do heavy lifting, women can do detail-oriented, dexterity intensive work. OK, so physically we are different (besides the really obvious things like gender-specific body parts). Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let's look at the other things. How about how our brains work? Men in g...

...as a man? Ye gods. How does one answer that? The logical answer is yes. I have to say that undoubtedly there is a big difference in the genders. I know that there is more equality now than ever before, but still, male brains are wired a little differently than womens'. The real difference is that this does not dictate an inequality - it just makes it not the same. The same would be dull. I love to see the gender differences at work. Luis and I are a prime example. All the things that are considered a normal inherency in male mindset and capabilities are there. Luis is great with spacial relationships, offering advice, crunching numbers, looking at the world with almost no emotional interference, etc. All the things I can't do. I may not allow my emotions to colour my workplace decisions, but they are there and usually - much as I try to hide them - evident (to some degree). I have zero spacial relationship understanding, as is evidenced by my manoeuvering to get the car in a...