Driving in the Desert

After a good long weekend of driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Laughlin and back, I would like to share some things I learned on this trip.

1.  When possible, stay at hotels where the women are permitted to be topless in the pool area.

2.  Get a tan started before a high-exposure trip begins.

3.  Don’t sit on the floor where you may be mistaken for homeless.

4.  Avoid the $10 steak, shrimp, vegetables, potato, and beer dinner.

5.  Try the 99 cent draft beer and see if you like it.

6.  A cooler in the hotel room is necessary when more than one beer is to be consumed there.

7.  Drinks that are made by pouring the contents of one bottle over a cup of ice are ideal for hotel rooms.

8.  Check to make sure you have you sunglasses, etc …. before leaving.

9.  Remove your cell phone from you shorts when near water that you may end up in.

10.  If your instinct says, “Stay off the inflatable tow raft”, stay off of it.

11.  Name your own price at priceline.com

12.  Eat at buffets at your own risk.  Expect to get mediocre quality food and overeat.

13.  Drinking cold beer after a big meal is a sure fire way to feel like you’re going to explode.

14.  Bring a pair of pants just in case you want to go out to a decent dinner or a dance club.  Jeans are OK.

15.  Eating well in Vegas is just as expensive if not more so than anywhere else.  If you want top quality food, drink and entertainment, you’re going to pay for it.

16.  Being away from email and internet for a whole weekend is good for you.

17.  Read restaurant reviews before leaving.  Make choices and reservations as soon as possible.

18.  Skip the ice cream cone on a really hot day.  Stick to the small bowl.

19.  Be cautious when ordering the hottest Buffalo wings on the menu.  Somebody in the kitchen may have a sense of humor.

20.  If there is a problem with your rental jet-ski, report it as soon as possible, even if all you want is a partial refund.

21.  Keep babies out of the casino or they men with guns and/or suits will come and ask you to leave.

Cow’s End

All,

I’m going to The Cow’s End in Venice Beach tonight.  I’ll be there working on some stuff between 9:30pm and midnight.  I prefer the upstairs area.  Drop by if you’re in the neighborhood.   This may be my first and only Tweet-like blog.   By the way, just finished Milk.  Worth watching if you are at all interested in the history of the LGBT rights movement.   4 stars.  Then again, if you are into that kind of thing, you’ve probably already seen it.

Alan

Jim Cramer on The Daily Show

After a few weeks of harsh words, it’s good to see Jon and Jim work it out. For the full story check out some of the related video clips on The Daily Show’s web site. I’m so happy to see Jim Cramer humbled on national television. He annoys the hell out of me.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=220533

Twitter

I had a twitter account.  Don’t bother with my old username.  It doesn’t matter anymore.  5 minutes was all it lasted.  Because I like lists of 10, I’ll list the 10 reasons I deleted my Twitter account.

1.   I really didn’t want to be a factor in my friends jumping on another social networking bandwagon.

2.  If I have something public to say, I’ll say it here.  No user account necessary to read it.  No 140 word restriction.  If I have something private to say, you’ll receive it in an email or I’ll tell you in person.

3.  I don’t want to know what people are doing all day, everyday.  I’ve got my own life to live without following a dozen or a hundred dozen other peoples’.

4.  I’m not about to tell you, whoever you are, what I’m doing all day, every day.  Nobody needs to know that.  I’m not going to be my own Big Brother.

Ok, so I only came up with 4 resons I’m not a Twitterer.  That happens to be enough for me.  If you’ve got more, comment below.  Something positive to say about Twitter, comment below.  Want to add my blog as an RSS feed, click “Entries (RSS)” at the bottom of the page.

Viva la Flaca

I’ve had a subscription to daily email service for about a month now. Every workday, an email arrives with a photograph of a nude or semi-nude girl, information about the photographer and model.  You need to decide for yourselves when you start receiving them if they are work safe and/or wife safe.  I’m pretty sure all of the models are over 18, but I could be wrong.

http://www.vivalaflaca.com/

Social Retardedness

I’ve read about and seen reports about the Internet and especially online social services enabling the next generation of young people, still developing social skills, to become socially retarded adults.  I’d like to list a few things that I have noticed as indicators that social interactions have changed as new technology and services have emerged.

1.  I’ve watched people use their phones to type out multiple text messages when a phone call or two could have conveyed the same information, with higher precision, in a fraction of the time.

2.  I know people who freely share personal experiences, photographs and interesting stories with a thousand people online and then remain withdrawn at social events.

3.  Occasionally I have to wait for people to reply to emails and text messages before I can continue a conversation with them in a restaurant.  I took the time to come eat with you and someone else somewhere else takes priority over by pushing a few buttons?

4.  Several people I know spend their valuable time reviewing their childrens’ online profiles for clues as to what they are doing while spending less time talking to their children or just spending time with them.

5.  Visiting friends’ houses can mean hours of watching them play video games which seem as though they would be played with nearly the same level of enjoyment if I had not come over at all. Similarly, I regularly see people will pull out their super internet phone and check for messages or look at websites while attending parties or at bars while ignoring everyone around them.

6.  I get the feeling that the people that are the heaviest users of impersonal communication channels, do the most complaining,  both in text and verbally.

7.  I see people write to each other, usually in forums, in such a way, that if said in person, would provoke a fist fight between men or hair pulling and eye gouging between women.

8.  Mis-understandings occur more frequently with written messages, the more hastily written, the more chances of a mis-understanding, which, of course, requires more communication to straighten out the original meaning and mend hurt feelings.  Straightening out messes like this usually require a phone call or many, many text messages.

9.  When people are highly connected, others come to expect them to reply immediately to any attempt at communication at any time of day.  Business hours can no longer contain a workday or protect personal time.  You have to take time to explain to people why you turned off your cell phone and didn’t call right back.

10.  I will never get back the time I spent looking at completely useless information on social networking sites.  A five minute conversation can better introduce two people than hours spent creating profiles and updating online content.  More meaningful information is always available outside of social networking sites.

Needless to say, i’m not about to create a new Facebook or MySpace account.

Deleting My Nework III

The following is an email that I sent to one of my Facebook friends who noticed that I was missing.  This short email may better explain my actions to others who are wondering what my motives were.

“Every now and then I get bored and delete some online accounts. This time the whole thing with Facebook claiming indefinite rights to user generated content pushed me to do something I had been thinking about for a few months. That was an obvious sign of disregard for their users’ rights. I’ll start a new profile if my feelings about Facebook change or when The Next Big Thing comes along.”

Deleting My Network Part II

I have deleted my MySpace account, again.  It just wasn’t as interesting as Facebook since people stopped updating their MySpace accounts.

I have deleted my Facebook account, again.  I just wasn’t getting that much real value from it.  Now that everyone knows that Facebook isn’t to be trusted with jucy details, the content has gotten a bit dry / repetative.  Commenting on the weather is for the weather people, people!  I also thought this would be a good time to get my account all closed up before the suits at Facebook tried to claim that my profile, and all of the content associated with it, belongs to them, indefinitely, again.

If you want to Delete you account and not just Deactivate it, follow this link  (not easy to get to from the Facebook site itself)  http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

As before you can call, email or IM me.  You can comment on this blog, stop by the apartment or leave a message at my parents’ house.  Just don’t send me anything on Facebook while they are taking an estimated 14 days to close my account.  Probably better to call.  I’m going to try to get out of the apartment a little more.

November 6th West LA Rally

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Nov. 6th West LA protest, march, and then walkathon.  This was a great opportunity to show support for everyone who is currently unable to marry the person of their choosing under the narrowly passed Prop 8.  I can’t even imagine how many thousands of people were there…  it defied my estimation ability.  I was especially happy to run into Neil, Adam, and Margo.  Neil is my friend Alan’s boyfriend and was already without his full voice from the West Hollywood protest the day before.  Adam is a good friend of Neil’s who I’m just getting to know.  Margo was on of my very best friends in high school who I haven’t seen for many years.  I always knew she was a funny girl, full of surprises.

The group first assembled on the sidewalk Santa Monica Blvd starting around 2pm with a few hundred and then grew until it occupied the wide sidewalk and all of the westbound lanes.  Police and men in shirts and ties watched us from inside the compound.  For those of you who have never seen the compound, it is impressive.  The tower is visible from miles around over the advertising boards, trees, apartment buildings, homes and lesser churches that make up most of the Westside.  Look up 10777 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025 on your favorite satellite image providor for an overhead view.  People came prepared.  There were the funny and serious signs people had made.  Some of the clever ones…  “Chickens – 1, Gays – 0″ (a reference to the recently passed proposition mandating better living conditions for some meat and egg producing farm animals), “Joseph Smith – Prophet, Polygamist, Pedophile”, “Keep your doctrine away from my covenant”, and many more I wish I could remember.  In case it wasn’t clear at the beginning, the purpose of the protest was to bring attention to the millions of dollars used in the Yes on 8 campaign donated by the Mormon church, collected both in state and out of state (Utah).  This is clearly a violation of IRS policy that stipulates that a tax exempt church may not promote a political agenda and keep their tax exemption.

As the group grew restless (the usual slogan shouting) the police organized march around the rather large block that the Tabernakle sits on; probably an attempt to burn off some of that extra gay energy.  It gave people a chance to march through some quiet residential neighborhoods.  The LAPD on bicycles blocked off streets for us as we made our way back to the starting point on Santa Monica.  I was impressed with emensity of the group when I reached the top of a hill on one of those residential streets and looked back and could see the steet was solid with protestors for several blocks.

Now back in front of the Tabernackle, shouting “equal rights” and “tax the church” slogans, it was apparent that nobody around was not a protestor, a reporter, or a police officer.  Both east and west lanes of Santa Monica had been blocked off by police.  The group then began the march that I will call “The 2008 LGBT marriage rights 5 mile walkathon”.  Moving toward Weswood Blvd on the already closed lanes of Santa Monica Blvd the group assembled for the march.  It was obvious when we poured out onto Westwood stopping all northbound traffic that this was beyond police control.  There were no organized street closures like there had been earlier.  Up at the front there were no signs of police at all.  That was unfortunate in one case because there was a bit of a scuffle with a bunch of guys in a truck with a Yes on 8 banner on the back window.  I saw a guy get hit pretty hard and had his nose bloodied by someone inside the truck.  People started kicking the truck.  I’m surprised nothing worse happened.  When the police arrived they began taking statements and controlling the situation as the crowd was dispersed.  Further north on Westwood police stopped the march with motorcycle and bicycle officers blocking all of Westwood Blvd.  The standoff ended when another large part of the group came down Westwood from behind the barricade and the two groups merged and were allowed to continue up Westwood with police organized street closures.  The shouting and chanting was pervasive.  The march up to Westwood again stalled as police barricaded westbound Wilshire which led to the Federal Building.  A compromise was reached and the massive crowd was escorted east on Wilshire.  Several attempts by police to send the group back south throught the residential neighborhoods failed as the protestors would not leave the very public place they had established across all eastbound lanes of Wilshire.  Westbound traffic was honking and shouting in support of the march and it was too tempting to keep going down this very high visibility route.  After several attempts to divert the march, it was decided to close streets and allow the march to continue all the way to Beverly Hills along the eastbound lanes of Wilshiere Blvd.  I think this was a nice compromise considering we were a bunch of hooligans with no permits to be blocking any streets at all.  The march continued to the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica just inside the border of Beverly Hills and then turned back onto Santa Monica Blvd. and continued, now taking up all westbound lanes as people in their cars on eastbound lanes honked and shouted in support.  After finally returning to the original spot in front of the Tabernackle the group, now a little worn out from the walking, waitng, and shouting of the past 5 hours, began to go back to their homes after some inspiration words from “Mama Love” with a bullhorn, standing on top of a bit of the Tabernackle’s fence.

When I got back to my car I was so very appreciative that had this opportunity to participate in the day’s rally, now an evening rally.  I will never forget this day I told myself.  When I finally found my car after a bit of looking around several blocks away, I appreciated being able to sit down in ways I can’t express fully.  So the march didn’t end descrimination with regards to legal marriage in California, but I know for a fact that there are some people who are making the best of the situation, expressing themselves, and bear no real resentment toward the farm animals who have new rights while they have fewer.

CA Prop 8

Now that it has been a few days sine Prop 8 has passed and the fight has moved on to the next stage, it is as important as ever to talk to people about the issues: equality for all couples, the tax exempt status of religous organizations who actively influence politics, the legitimacy of a simple majority passed proposition which seeks to ammend our constitution, the duty of our government to protect the civil rights of minorities… etc.