Meredith

I had placed a Half.com order for Study of American Deaf Folklore a few weeks ago, and shortly after I got a refund because they didn’t have the book available. It was about $30 for a used copy, and at the time the only other one I could buy online was an $80 copy! I asked around about getting it for less but nothing turned up. When it showed up at the bookstore for less than $30 NEW I pounced on it! It just came up on Half.com again…now there is a used one for $40 and a “very good” one for $150! I’m thinking of buying one or two more from the school bookstore…I could make a buck here!

I had a great 28th birthday! For presents, I got:

• Seasons 1 and 2 of DS9, leaving me lacking only Season 3, which my friend says he will get me as a late Xmas present
• A totally awesome Hello Kitty phone with caller ID and light-up bits
• Serenity on DVD
• Yesterday’s Tomorrows
• $50 that I don’t know what I’ll spend it on yet

fairerhiannon and I interpreted the Mid-Atlantic Leather contest during the day, and that was fun…I always have a good time with that. I got my picture taken with Kathy Najimy, who was the entertainment but really more of an inspirational speaker. And it’s always nice to work with the perennial leather emcee, Frank Nowicki!

For dinner we just went to Tara Thai, which I really enjoyed. They are cutting back though…there wasn’t nearly as much Pad Thai on the plate as usual, and the chocolates that usually come with the bill weren’t there. But overall I had a really superb birthday. I wish I could have sat on my butt at home all day, but at least I had fun!

These are occasionally altered for easy reading. I CARE ABOUT YOU!

• I like to think undressing in front of the window is setting up the 12 y/o across the street to be either a BBW fetishist, or gay.
• My family has decided I need to make this: http://www.phobe.com/fsmhat/
• Tom Jones is wailing about Delilah on my iPod. Wait…he killed her, didn’t he? *feigns shock*
• Okay, the nation’s front yard is going to be filled with poop. Got it. Meanwhile, listening to Zager & Evans seems fitting.
• Watching pre-DPN episodes of Deaf Mosaic; odd seeing deaf use words like “hearing impaired” and being amazed at their own success stories.
• Come on, surely you people agree with me on Robin Williams + Star Trek being an awesome combination.
• Cat has discovered pile of catnip mice. World domination plot may be in jeopardy.
• Don’t look now, but I think I can breathe without coughing. Perhaps the Great Bronchitis of 2008/2009 is on the way out!
• Seriously, blaming someone’s meth addiction on their homosexuality makes me sick to my stomach. “She does meth because she’s sad she’s gay.”
• http://twitpic.com/12efa - I told you they were plotting!
• Starting to get an awful lot of practice with the 911 script lately.
• Incredibly tickled by the appearance of a Rice to Riches spoon in the breakroom. I miss that place!
• Wait, who am I kidding? I don’t want to volunteer for Inauguration, I want to hide under my bed.
• My 8 skeins of Chenille Thick & Quick arrived today. So excited to start working with it but I really must finish the other blanket first!
• What are your most rewatched YouTube videos? I like Evolution of Dance, Mean Kitty, Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl
• [responding to the fact that cochlear implant users can receive a card to explain to airport security] @sajego The fact that you can stick quarters to the side of your head isn’t enough?!
• Why does Bush appear to have the giggles at his farewell speech?
• People, @levarburton just tweeted at me. I’m never going to wash my Twitter account again.
• Lincoln Memorial is being prepared for the concert; the POW/MIA vendor is still at the Vietnam Memorial - barricades placed around him.
• bkite.com is blocked as Personals and Dating. WTF? People use BrightKite to DATE? (brightkite.com is not blocked at all)

Looks like the trip to Hawaii is on! We leave April 17th and I come back on the 26th; A may or may not stay an extra couple of days. I am NOT thrilled about missing class for it, but my friend pointed out that school is school, and Hawaii is something I’ll always remember. I figure if I have no other absences it should be okay…I just have to not get sick! It’s not cool how close it is to the end of the semester though; I have to figure out what to do about that. If I fly out on the same flight as my wife, airfare is probably $663, though that could change. We’ll be staying in Waikiki. I sure do miss the days of taking my vacation whenever I please, though.

This means I can’t go on a crocheter’s cruise this summer, because I won’t have any money. That’s okay though, it’s Hawaii - no brainer!

I’m reading Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed right now, and it perfectly illustrates why I want to become a historian. If a civilization doesn’t write things down, they will become lost. Just writing is not enough, of course; the Maya wrote things down but Diego de Landa destroyed some of the most informative texts they wrote, and as a result we know less about the Maya than we could. Even with today’s wisdom we still destroy history - much of the National Museum of Iraq’s relics were lost and damaged in 2003 after the war began there, which Jacques Chirac referred to as a “crime against humanity.”

But reading about the Maya, the Rapanui (natives of Easter Island), the Polynesians who died out on Pitcairn Island long before the Bounty crew arrived…all of this makes me feel even more strongly about preserving history. Archaeologists have had to figure out the stories of those long-ago societies. As fascinating as it is to put together pieces of such puzzles, I just find it imperative that we take care to record our history. It’s all well and good to put a Kewpie doll and some alfalfa into a time capsule for 5000 years but how will the people who open it know the significance of these items?

We have to tell our story, because we are the only ones who know it. Realistically, archaeologists make guesses about their findings. “Well, let’s see, the carbon date on the bird bones we found in these skeletal remains indicate that they were from about 3000 years ago, so around then there must have been somebody living here who ate birds, but there are no other animal bones found, so presumably birds were their only diet.” It would have been so much easier if that person had written a diary and said “today I had some birds for dinner, I am getting really sick of them because they are all we eat, but we can’t find any other meat so we are stuck with what we’ve got.” Yes, the thousands upon thousands of publications on Amazon.com will tell a darn good story of what society is like right now…but it’s not enough. We have to record our own stories before we forget. Thank goodness for projects like StoryCorps that allow us to do just that.

So why do I want to become a research historian? Because I like putting those puzzles together. The closer we are to the time the puzzle was created, the easier it will be to solve. And I want to get it solved so future people don’t have to. It’s about posterity.

I want to start a new meme. I doubt it will reach beyond my friends, but it will be fun anyway.

List celebrities of your non-preferred gender that you think are hot. Straight people should list celebrities of the same gender; gay people should list celebrities of the opposite gender. Bisexuals can list whomever they please. Pictures are a bonus!

Sir Ian McKellen

Johnny Depp

LeVar Burton

Neil Patrick Harris

If anybody would care to speculate on why 50% of my “favorite hottest guys” are gay, I’d be amused to hear it!

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• I love those two old graves at the Pan Am Shopping Center. I hope they’re never taken down. I should do the geocache related to them.
• Vegetarians take note: Burger King does not offer the BK Veggie as a combo. We got two w/med fries and coke and it was $13.50 total
• I love Lister’s Cat. This is mine…all of this is mine…this is definitely mine!
• Bailey’s “with a hint of coffee” tastes basically like Bailey’s “with some Kahlua in it.”
• The company firewall is blocking ICHC as spam. This is insanity!
• I would not kick anyone out of bed who bought me a whole bunch of Lion Brand Glitterspun.
• Wow, fitness expert Alicia Marie also has magna cum laude, 3.8 GPA, dean’s list, etc in neuroscience from Univ of CT. Hot smart chicks rock!
• Reading love letters from romances long past is a little bit gross.
• According to the internets - http://is.gd/eiAE - GIRAFFE is kosher. I felt the need to share with you all.
• I am drunk and stuff but we saw poor Dick Clark bless his heart but I couldn’t understand him HAPPY NEW YEAR twitter peeps!
• Just watched Lost and Delirious. Loved it! Excellent movie.
• Had to leave behind a beautiful blind kitten named Sarah. Damn pet adoption fairs! So cute and so sweet and I can’t have her.
• Surely my friends are on 43things.com right? The only person I follow on there is @superaleja but I know others must have accounts!
• Having a dialog box open caused my Firefox fields to be filled in backwards. THAT was surreal.
• Mustered the courage to spend $8 on an iPhone app, so glad I did. Royal Rainbow!
• Ew. Just ew. http://tinyurl.com/5quv2s
• Newsflash: A poncho pattern should not “double” as a skirt pattern, and vice-versa.
• I have an inexplicable desire to just log off for a while. Take a rest from the Internet. I expect it to last 8 hours. Then I wake up.
• How can a Half.com seller refund for Out of Stock? Shouldn’t their inventory be up to date? Need to re-find Study of American Deaf Folklore.
• Most inexplicable website ever: http://www.horg.com/horg/intro.html (tell your friends)
• Dreamed I went to Disneyland and it was right here in Northern Virginia and parking was easy and they had a coaster called The Burmese.
• Jane Austen, Facebook style: http://www.much-ado.net/austenbook/
• Note to self: Don’t get Red Heart Soft anywhere near velcro.
• Worst idea ever: General Tso’s Mushrooms. (For those who don’t know me…I don’t eat mushrooms.)
• Let me guess…all these “Hitler’s Bodyguards” shows are popping up on tv because Valkyrie just came out. Right?
• I am up at 7am on a Saturday because WHY?
• http://twitpic.com/11h7v - the hat is done, yay!
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People posted what they got for Xmas. Guess I forgot to do that.

• Star Trek Deep Space Nine DVDs, seasons 3-7
• Firefly DVD set
• Cute Overload page-a-day calendar
• Crochet books (Year of Q-Hook Afghans book 3, Quick and Easy Q-Hook Afghans, 200 Crochet Blocks, Stitch n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker)
• Dr. Horrible DVD
• Entire set of Crochet-Lite hooks, sizes C-K, with spare batteries
• Book about collecting Girl Scout products

My dear sweet gretchen_marie did it, so I am too. Mine is not nearly as long, detailed, or interesting as hers.

January: Worked over winter break, but not enough, mostly because of a trip to southern California. Went to LA for the first time, San Diego for the first time, visited Sea World and Tijuana and Disneyland. Back to school; started four classes - History, Deaf Studies, Linguistics, Sex and Gender. Brought Amanita over to the in-laws’ house.

February: Our 10th anniversary! Took two weeks off school for our anniversary trip to the Caribbean. Spent several days in Puerto Rico and the rest of it was on a cruise. Made the switch from Sidekicks to Blackberrys with my purchase of a Blackberry Curve 8310. Hearing loss was officially diagnosed as being between the eardrum and the cochlea, but they couldn’t pin down a reason.

March: School continues. Went to Sacramento over spring break instead of working, this included a day trip to Oakland and San Francisco. In a clusterfuck of epic proportions, helped C move from New York City into our house.

April: Got hearing aids and my life improved tremendously. Work no longer left me exhausted, and I could hear my wife again. Got $1500 back from the federal government; school continues. Julia committed suicide, I still haven’t forgotten her.

May: End of my second semester of school - straight A’s! The desire to eat meat came back strong, and I dithered about it for a few weeks. Went back to working full-time for months.

June: A got sent to Philadelphia for a week for work, so I went with her, and we stayed in an extended-stay hotel by the airport. Went into the city a few times myself and a few times together. Had the “Go Down Moses” guy from American Idol as our tour guide at one point. Went to Wildwood, NJ for a couple of days after. Got my bunny tattoo to mark our 10th anniversary. In case that isn’t clear, it’s because my wife calls me her bunny! Booked a Carnival cruise that would hang around my neck for a long time.

July: Went to New Orleans for the NAD conference, we won the College Bowl contest because we’re awesome! Amanita had to be put to sleep. Her combination of kidney failure and senility was causing major problems. It still breaks my heart when I think of her, even though I know what we did was right…she wouldn’t have gotten any better. But she was such a sweet girl and I can’t believe she’s gone. Had a major clash with Kristin Pilotte, a friend from high school…that still also makes me sad when I think about it. Managed to repair my phone all by myself despite being intimidated by opening up the case. Started working at Sorenson in Fairfax as well as the Gallaudet center.

August: Started Weight Watchers again. Worked in VRS for the first half of the month and then worked really crazy intense hours at a hospital in Baltimore for the second half of the month, right up until when school started. Classes: Deaf Studies, History, Sports Ethics, HIV, Sociology.

September: Decided I wasn’t going to work in a money-earning fashion for the rest of the semester…bad idea, but I didn’t know it at the time. Got sick for the first time in the semester, missed a bunch of class, this time it was a cold. Got my Blackberry run over by a car and promptly ordered a new one.

October: Entered several contests, pestered all my friends to vote for me, didn’t win anything. Started taking an interest in Mohandas Gandhi, after watching the Ben Kingsley movie; did some research on satyagraha and his other theories and practices. Got sick again, this time we thought it was mono, and I missed a bunch of school again.

November: Hosted an election night party and was so glad that it was FINALLY OVER…but even more glad that it went the way I wanted! Elation was tempered by the loss in California due to Prop 8’s passage. Did some leather interpreting. Brought the family to my mother’s house for Thanksgiving.

December: Got my grades…all A’s except for one that I am still contesting. Started working again after going completely broke during the semester (see September). It’s going to take a while to recover from that one. Found myself completely ready for Xmas, all presents bought and everything, with plenty of time to spare. Did more leather interpreting, worked all day on Xmas which should result in a nice deposit to my bank account soon. Got back into crocheting in a big way…went insane and spent $300+ on yarn.

I can’t say that I was really thrilled with Yes Man. I wanted to see it because I was curious about the concept of saying yes to everything, which originated with British humorist Danny Wallace, who did exactly that for six months as an experiment. I am not a big Jim Carrey fan, and my opinion wasn’t changed by his middling performance. What I really wanted to see, though, would be if Yes Man had a similar social message to that of Pay It Forward. (Yes, I realize the concept of “paying it forward” originated with Ben Franklin, but it was the Kevin Spacey movie that brought the idea to a wider audience.) In the beginning of the movie, it seems like saying yes to everything might be something actually worth trying, especially for those who are bored with their lives. But as the movie progresses, the negative aspects of doing so are shown - things like being suspected of being a terrorist are silly, but things like alienating a potential girlfriend are entirely possible. (Not to mention the financial negatives of buying a round for everyone in the bar because you’re just that drunk.) In the end, I do think Yes Man could potentially have an interesting social message, but I don’t think most people are going to see it as such. It’s going to turn into just another silly Jim Carrey movie, and it’s not going to change anyone’s life. But still…it’s an interesting idea.

And Terence Stamp is always attractive, anyway.

A and I went to see Milk with my mom today. It was only playing at The Charles, so we went to Baltimore and had lunch at The Yabba Pot beforehand. We got to the movie a few minutes before it started and settled in to watch.

To say I was unimpressed would be an understatement. I was bored. I did not like this movie at all. Somehow Sean Penn managed to portray a charismatic, passionate man as uninspiring and devoid of strong emotions, and the film overall managed to take a time that was filled with radical change and turn it into a shadow of a social movement. There was absolutely nothing interesting about the movie Milk. I walked away with the impression that Harvey would be rolling in his grave if he knew about this tragedy, and that it did his memory a disservice to make such a boring movie about him. I didn’t find it educational in the slightest, although my mom points out that I am well-versed in gay history, and others may have indeed learned something from the film.

I didn’t like it. There were no bright spots for me to highlight. I know it got decent reviews, and I know Sean Penn was nominated for a Golden Globe award. But I found his performance limp and uninteresting, and the movie as a whole was quite yawn-inducing. There wasn’t a minute of passion or excitement during the whole thing, nothing at all to get swept up in. If somebody wants to learn about him, they would do much better to read The Mayor of Castro Street or watch the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.

Interesting links:

• Advocate cover story: What if Milk hadn’t been murdered?
• Commentary</em> on Sean Penn’s involvement with the gay community
• Other articles about Harvey and the movie from the Advocate
• Metro Weekly had a review, they weren’t too fond of it either
• The Washington Blade thought the acting was good but not the story here

After some consideration, I am doing a trial run. Here are some choice bits from Twitter.

• Aw, watching Voyager and just heard the computer voice. Once again, RIP Majel Barrett.
• LOL at Montel Williams hawking painted coins of Barack Obama.
• I really need a better way to store yarn. Suggestions welcome.
• Holiday party got much better when I discovered the room with the Xbox and Guitar Hero.
• I still wonder who bought me that Flickr Pro account when mine expired a few months back
• I wonder if crocheted pasties would sell on Etsy.
• If people refused to work for companies whose sole purpose is scamming fellow humans out of their money, the world would be a better place.
• Phrase of the day: Kids don’t hug sushi. Also: Cake Wrecks!
• Let me get this straight, Pete Burns of Dead or Alive is NOT trying to be a woman?
• I’m not the only person who gets yarn caught on their nipple piercings while crocheting naked…right?

Raise your hand if you would get all cranky if I started doing the daily Twitter crosspost again. Because really, it’s where I communicate the most. I promise I would wipe out all the ones that were replies to other people unless they actually could stand alone as posts. Last time I set this up, I got a whole lot of griping, but honestly there is stuff that I say over on Twitter that I want a LOT of reactions to, and I just don’t get it on Twitter. In other words, I want my entire blog audience to be able to respond to some of what I say in Twitter.

So would it make you cranky, O Reader?

Added: Consider this exchange in which I explain my philosophy on Twitter.

Right now I am wishing I had not crashed my car back in 2006 which resulted in spending $7000 on a used car, and wishing I had not busted my ears, also in 2006, which resulted in spending $5700 on hearing aids. If I had that money back, I’d be in so much better shape. As it is, I think I will be living on credit for the next couple of months, at least until I get the paychecks from working over winter break. I am working as much as I can, more than I want to…I’m even working weekends. Blah. I will be okay in the end, but next semester I definitely have to WORK on days when I don’t have classes, not take time off. The plane ticket to Hawaii might be a pipe dream right now, I don’t know. Would be just as well since I’d have to miss school, but still…it’s Hawaii and my wife is going. Augh! Plus I want $150 for a set of Micro Molds for my hearing aids so they fit better. I will probably be able to afford that a few months down the road, maybe next summer.

I’ll be okay, I’m just griping because things kind of suck for right now. At least I have Xmas presents for everyone!