The Bananaverse

I like Japanese nonsense, and this is one of my favorites. All Kasugai snacks say something on them that ends with “And You”. Now on to the actual post:

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve rejiggered the sidebar over there. I did it to add two cool things to my sidebar: One is the Google gadget I titled “get your vote on” that gives you voter registration information no matter where you are (just feed it your city and state), and one is the bit underneath it titled “call your congressman” where you enter your zip code* and it tells you who your Congressional representatives are so you can get ahold of them and give them the what-for. It’s what they’re for, so don’t be shy!

If you want even MORE information about Congressional goings-on you can sign up for the newsletter offered by Congress.org called MegaVote and this one I like because it’s low traffic (once a week or so) and packed full of info. You tell it where you are and when bills are voted on it tells you how your representatives voted. I like this because I have every one of my reps in my phone and I call them and tell them how I feel about this or that, and then I check that against how MegaVote says they actually voted and then I follow up and either thank them for voting how I wanted or tell them I’m disappointed they didn’t vote how I wanted. For me that’s the good bit, the followup. It lets them know someone is paying attention, whether you agreed with them or not. I am not as good at this as I want to be, but I do a lot more of it than most people do (according to my informal statistics).

So check it out! Get involved! We need you more than ever. If you aren’t sure about some of the voting basics (hey, it happens, I’m sure there are a LOT of Americans whose only voting experience is calling in to American Idol) you can check out the FAQ at Declare Yourself. If you already know and you’re political to begin with you might want to take that act on the road. The Great Schlep is trying to get everyone to visit their retired Jewish grandparents in Florida so they know the issues and know how important the whole voting thing is for you. If the facts don’t seem so factual and you want to see if what one guy said about the other guy was true, your best bet is probably FactCheck dot org since they are nonprofit and nonpartisan (no really they are, not like the airquote fair and balanced of some news organizations), so they gain nothing by being honest. They come down on the side of facts, not the side of corporations or moral outrage or whatever else.

If I am missing a political resource that you find particularly handy, add it in the comments. I don’t want to leave anyone out!

*I want to make the results on call your congressman appear in a box below it like the Google gadget does. If you have any insight into this process and can help me make it work I will buy you a beer at the next Beer and Blog or a bacony treat of your choice.

Last week I had a lot of crappy days. All kinds of bad stuff happened, and normally I would have considered it a very VERY bad week.

It wasn’t.

My attitude was fine. I just kept coming home in a good mood, sounding almost chipper as I related that day’s tragedies to Mister Fishbones. I felt really weird about it and then I finally figured out why I felt so upbeat.

I had a chiropractic appointment, a massage appointment, and a friendly get together during the week. Since the get together was friendly, I was hugged a lot, and obviously getting cracked and kneaded meant there was laying on of hands (and elbows and whatever else).

I was supposed to be having a miserable week and it just didn’t happen because I had a whole lot of physical contact, and all of it was pleasant so it totally cheered me up. My fundamental outlook wasn’t bad at all, even though things were showing obvious signs of coming apart.

So if you are having a really bad week, or just a crummy day, find someone willing and get a hug. Or have your sweetie hold your hand awhile or whatever. Just get to touching already!

I like to think that I can reach out and “touch” people on the interwebs with my blog, or on Twitter, or through IM or what have you, and to some extent that’s true. But to really get the full range of human interaction you have got to drop those quotes and actually touch people.

If you are reading this when it’s posted, GO TO BED! It is late. Get some snuggles in before your sweetie is completely asleep. If you read this when it isn’t bedtime, find someone today who needs a hug* and hug them. It’s win-win, really.

*I would prefer you were trying to hug people you know. Look where trying to just give hugs away will get you:

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the tenth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Midnight. From the site: The Doctor is trapped, powerless and terrified, on the planet Midnight, as the knocking on the wall begins…
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the ninth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Forest Of The Dead. From the site: As the shadows rise, the Doctor forges an alliance with the mysterious River Song. But can anyone stop the Vashta Nerada?
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the eighth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Silence In The Library. From the site: The Doctor and Donna enter a world of terror inside an abandoned library. They’re given only one warning: ‘Count the shadows’.
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In my last post I briefly mentioned at the bottom that John McCain can’t send an email. Since his campaign does not deny it, I am going to presume it true.

You know what really grinds my gears? (Or as The Ambassador would prefer me to call it, You Wanna Know Why? I’ll TELL You Why!) Here it is: McCain’s campaign is having like six different varieties of cows over Obama QUOTING MCCAIN. What’s their excuse? “Oh you shouldn’t be mean he can’t type because he is a POW are YOU a POW too Obama then you can’t say anything you are a mean jerky head and YOU ARE NOT READY TO LEAD! VOTE MCCAIN! CHANGE 08!!!” and so on.

Guess what? BULLSHIT. (Sorry Mom, if you read this, but it is.) I have a friend who is deaf. She plays video games and she’s on Twitter and has a computer and does all kinds of things effectively. I used to know someone who had a degenerative eye condition and she kept a blog and used instant messenger and SENT EMAIL and did all kinds of things. With her computer, no less. So that means a deaf person AND a blind person both use their computers successfully. I know there are people with other sorts of handicaps as well who get around that pesky keyboard issue JUST FRIGGING FINE thank you very much. Some people have a computer as their only means of communication with the rest of the world. It certainly doesn’t stop them. So why is it stopping John McCain? You’re going to have to try a little harder than “it hurts when I type” because NaturallySpeaking is one such bit of software that allows you to talk to your computer to control it. It’s easy to use and would allow people who are unable to use a keyboard, for example, to be able to control the computer with their voice. I am not shilling for them, I just know they are one of the more popular software packages with this capability. So learn to talk to your computer and then you can send email with the best of them!

Here’s the thing: My great aunt was older than Senator McCain when she passed away. She had email and went to websites and was capable of all of this without getting someone to do it for her. My mom can run a spell check competently, and I have an aunt who is set up with her own gMail address now. I used my mom as a test case at a startup I used to work at. I would look at different UI elements and complain to engineers: You guys, my mom will never find this button. Can we put it at the top? Because we had decided everybody’s mom should be able to use this software, so she was my example. Also she lives in Eastern Oregon in a town of about 15,000 people. They have one “nice” restaurant in town, a couple of Mexican food places, and I think one Chinese place. It’s not the biggest place nor is it central to anything, so when my mom asks me about things (what is this Twitter I heard about?”) I can pretty much presume they’ve been around. My mom totally knows how to get her machine to check email, what her homepage is, and how to report spam. These are BASIC skills.

I am not saying McCain’s service to our country is useless or stupid. However that service does not entitle him to the Presidency. This seems to be his belief and I disagree. This is America and I am well within my rights (at least for now) to do so. I think Obama was well within the bounds of a “clean campaign” to point out that McCain doesn’t know how to send an email. It is yet another startling contrast between the candidates, and I think a valid thing to point out. My issue lies entirely at the feet of Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager. He is allowing this campaign to make McCain out to be a victim of his handicap and if someone wants to be The Leader Of The Free World they’d damn well better act like it and not let a little thing like “typing hurts” turn into the big issue of the day.

I would also like to point out, while I still have on my PunditPants(tm)*, that Karl Rove is absolutely the last guy on earth who gets to piss and moan about being taken out of context. Bitch all you want, turd blossom, the part you don’t seem to get is that I learned it by watching you.

*I have no actual graphic for PunditPants(tm), but I am accepting submissions. For now this photo will do since I only wear my PunditPants(tm) for blogging:

(Or: The Day Banana Lee Stayed Home and Accidentally Watched Hardball.)

At the very end of Hardball today with these two particular guests on (whose names escape me at the moment) Chris Matthews asked, “You know, every candidate for President in our lifetime has had a very succinct message if he won the Presidency: ‘Get this country moving again’, Jack Kennedy, ‘It’s the Economy stupid’, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’, I can’t think of the line from Obama yet.”

Buchanan (OMG yes THAT Pat Buchanan*): We can’t stand four more years of what we’ve had for the last eight years?
Matthews: Do you feel like four more years of this!? That’s what I’d say.

(he goes on)

“All I know is I’d go to the numbers…every time the Senator from Arizona spoke, I’d say let me read those numbers to you John McCain, you got a tough act to defend here, and you gotta defend it because you’re the republican candidate that’s why you’re standing here. You got an unemployment rate that’s spiking, you got a debt that’s growing, you’ve got a surplus that’s disappeared into a deficit and you’ve got gas prices at four bucks, your side has BLOWN IT, don’t ask for four more years.”

To which I say AMEN! I don’t want Obama to go out and say terrible things about McCain (and while he doesn’t know how to send email is TOTALLY TRUE it is one that they are crying foul about), but I want him to go out and speak truth to power as it were. If repeating “I said thanks but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere” over and over is going to make it true, then why not repeat things over and over that ACTUALLY are true? I wonder how well THAT would go over. How do you beat him up over things that are TOTALLY accurate? More “sex ed to kindergarteners” nonsense? Even KARL ROVE said your campaign is a little out of line.

*Not only is it THAT Pat Buchanan but that link is to his blog. McCain can’t send an email, but Pat Buchanan has a blog (E I E I O).

Once again, nobody asked ME if it was a good idea. If anyone had bothered to say “Hey there Banana Lee, you come from a place with colorful language. You can still say ‘lipstick on a pig’, right?”

Because, you see, if they had, I could have said “Oh, no no no. Don’t do it. You will have nothing but heartache. Someone will misquote you and use it to drum up outrage against whatever you represent. They’ll gladly strip you of context and try to work people up about you criticizing something you never criticized at all.”

And they would have listened to that answer and said “My goodness Banana Lee, you certainly sound like someone who’s been there. Is this your area of expertise?”

To which my reply would only be, “Why, yes. As a matter of fact, it is.”*

*Seriously, I got misquoted about lipstick on a pig myself. It was stupid then and it’s stupider now.

Cliff Richard, who’s been making music for FIFTY years, is coming out with a book and a box set. I like some of his songs, and happened across an article talking about his book and how he refers to his “companion”. I presume they mean partner or boyfriend or husband or something like that, it sounds like he’s a bit more than a roommate. I don’t care though. Neither does he. From the book:

“I think the Church must come round and see people as they are now. Gone are the days when we assumed loving relationships would be solely between men and women. It seems to me that commitment is the issue, and if anyone comes to me and says: ‘This is my partner; we are committed to each other’, then I don’t care what their sexuality is. I’m not going to judge; I’ll leave that to God.”

And to that I say AMEN! This is line I referred to in the subject. Who are you to stand in judgment of someone’s personal decisions? Isn’t the whole point of things like Christianity that you are to stand in judgment after you die and that’s when you find out if you chose correctly during life? (Mormons was the correct answer.) Because, you know, when I went to church I remember the lesson being “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” But then I haven’t set foot in a church of any sort for full mass in a long LONG time so my memory might be fuzzy.

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the seventh episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Unicorn And The Wasp. From the site: In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 10 days. Was it amnesia? A nervous breakdown? Or a Giant Alien Wasp..?
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I am a little biased, since she did guest host for my man Keith and I love that show. So I wanted her to do well because when she does his show I like her. She’s smart and funny, and I like to know what she has to say about things. I also like her because she is making her way even though she’s not Barbie which means she basically has to be twice as smart as all the boys to do half as well. Oh I was born and bred an NBC news girl but come ON, tv news is not a place where good girls go. Y’know?

So when I heard Rachel was gonna get her own show I was very pleased for her. She does a great job on Olbermann so I was looking forward to seeing how she handled things on her own. I was also looking forward to seeing what her show ended up being since she does fine wtih Keith’s format but when it’s HER name on the title, what will it look like? So tonight I got a chance to see.

I like her show! Right now it’s a fair amount of campaign coverage, so I also want to see how her show evolves when the campaign is over. But for now it’s campaign coverage and then some time with Pat Buchanan and some guy who “gives me enough pop culture knowledge so I can be allowed out in public”. I liked that part because they touched on Britney and he said “I have more if you want it…” and Rachel said “No, I’m good.”

So here’s the show:
I like Rachel. She asked some interesting questions of all her guests who actually weren’t the Keithy usuals.
I liked that she had “my fake uncle Pat” (Buchanan) on, and that she stood up to him on some things. It was fun to watch civil disagreement instead of just shouting. What a switch!
I liked the pop culture bit and it was a brief snarky thing that was a nice change of pace from politics.
I felt like they were trying to show that Rachel could do it on her own, but I also think she really shines when she gets to put the hard questions to guests, so I would like to have more back and forth.
I think this could do well for a number of reasons. I like that she’s a girl but I don’t watch JUST for that, it’s bonus. (grumble McCain playing me grumble) I will save the politics for a different post. But I wanted to say that Rachel’s show is interesting and fun and I think she gives me a different enough perspective from Keith that I can watch two shows for a nice perspective and get info from another source.

Believe you me I have so much to say on politics lately that I barely know what to do with myself. I need a good outlet for all that political opinionating and pontificating. Maybe I’ll find one, you just never know. (:

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the sixth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Doctor’s Daughter. From the site: On the planet Messaline, in the middle of an endless war, the Doctor meets the most important woman of his life.
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the fifth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Poison Sky. From the site: As the Sontarans choke the Earth, the Doctor battles to keep both Martha and Donna alive.
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the fourth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Sontaran Stratagem (first of a two-parter). From the site: Martha Jones summons the Doctor back to modern-day Earth, but an old enemy lies in wait.
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the third episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Planet Of The Ood. From the site: The Doctor takes Donna to her first alien world - but the Ood-Sphere reveals some terrible truths about the Human Race.
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Well!

Earlier today I happened to be reading my friend Rick Turoczy’s blog and imagine my surprise when he offered to buy me lunch! Well having had a good experience last time I had lunch with Rick I figured I would be foolish to pass up his offer. So off I went to CubeSpace and imagine my surprise when I saw a number of people there whom I recognized! Turns out Rick had extended his invite to a number of others as well, but somehow I had mistakenly read it as just for me.

Anyway! Portland geek fave Nicholas brought a TON of food for us to eat, and we had a great time. Plus Shizzow was there handing out beta codes like Ritalin to 6th graders. it was a REALLY good time. Some of the more memorable moments:

* My excitement at not having to make my nametag sticker look pretty since I brought my own LED nametag which scrolls my Twitter nick, my online alias, and my real first name.
* Compliments on my LED nametag.
* Discussing purses with Audrey (@spinnerin) and having one of my Tweeps introduce himself as my mouth was FULL and we were talking purses.
* Miss Cami Kaos getting my attention and begging me to follow her to sit and eat lunch, to which I replied “but we’re talking Star Wars!” She said “oh ok” and told me to come her direction when I was done.
* Explaining Twin Ion Engine (TIE) Fighters and talking Star Wars with some folks who wanted to know.
* Actually sitting with Cami Kaos and her husband and getting to eat lunch.
* Looking down at my plate and feeling my sunglasses slide off the top of my head, then watching them SPLAT into my hummus.
* Letting Mister Cami take a photo of my glasses while they were still upright in the hummus.
* Sitting in awe of Mommy Cami as she immediately pulled two hand wipes and a package of kleenex out of her purse to help me resolve my hummus/shades issues.
* Watching TheInfovore scroll “Banana Lee Fishbones” across his iPhone as he held it to his chest as though it were a nametag.
* Hearing Cami say “But you’re not Verso!” and TheInfovore say “But I wanna be!”
* Getting a hug from the man behind the event, my friend Rick.

So that was my lunch with the Silicon Florist. It was a really good time. Maybe next time you should join us. (: I’m sure Rick will talk ALL about it on his blog so you have lots of time to plan in advance.

Yeah, I don’t want to have to write this, but I was asked this for the third time today after mentioning I’d been reporting spammers on Twitter. (Just so’s you know, asshats who use Twitter for their own spam-farious purposes are called twats.)

So here’s how you do your part to eliminate the waste of bandwidth that is Twitter Spammers:

1. Automatically block and report all GirlNameThreeDigitNumber usernames. (I’m kidding. A little.)
2. When you see the profile and it’s obviously a twat, first go to the side of their profile page and block them:

2a. Click that little block link down there at the bottom and then confirm that you really do want to block them. (Not required but a very good thing to do.) (Sorry PDXScott but you don’t follow a lot so you make a good example.)
3. After that happens it will take you back to your “home” page on Twitter. Then at the top of that page, click help.
4. From there, over on the left, click on submit request.
5. When you fill out the form, in the dropdown menu just choose “spam request” and fill out the form with the username of the spammer and then (and really, this is the important bit) In the bit where they ask you how you feel about it tell them it is too much work to report spammers!

I don’t like to complain about stuff just to complain so I am going to offer some suggestions:

* Put a “Report Spammer” link near the “Block” link.
* Put a “Block and Report Spammer” link near the “Block” link.
* Have a separate link on the help page for reporting spammers.
* Have a separate page for reporting spammers.

OK those are four things I came up with almost immediately off the top of my head. This shouldn’t be so difficult. Please devote some resources to this Twitter! Since we are starting to see more and more people sign up for Twitter and it gets more popular it is probably time for us to seriously consider spammers and how to deal with them. Secret follower ratio formulas are no good, and you should already know that by now-you are only hurting your most popular users and when those folks complain they are complaining to an awful lot of your other users. With the advent of other services (FriendFeed, Identi.ca) there’s a chance you could lose people to those other services. For good. Please don’t let that happen.

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the second episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Fires Of Pompeii. From the site: Psychic powers and stone beasts run riot in old Pompeii, but can Donna dare the Doctor to change established history?

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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the first episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Partners In Crime. From the site: Donna is determined to find the Doctor again - even if it means braving the villainous Miss Foster and her hordes of sinister Adipose.

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So I know this person who used to write on the Metroblog with me, her name is Cami and she’s awesome. At the last Metroblog meetup I went to I was there with Miss Cami when she officially met Miss Burrows. I could tell at the moment they officially met that it was the start of a beautiful friendship. And I was thrilled for Cami, whom (or who? I never know for sure) I knew was awesome when she sent me a postcard from Disneyland. Just for me! It was very nice of her to do for someone she knew casually at best at that point.

When they first met I was pleased for them. But around the edges of that happiness was a bit of jealousy flavored sadness. I have a dear girl friend (not a “girlfriend”, mind you, I have lots of those, all my gays are all “girlfriends”), named Rargirl. Or if you prefer, (even though I can’t remember why,) Myrtle, Wife of Thunderball. I would link to HER, but her newest entry is nearly a year old. She is my family and I love her. We used to do fun girl things, and collectively we would have girly moments. Neither of us are super girly the rest of the time, so having someone to sit around and do girl things with who would also drink and swear and bitch about other girls with me was really really nice. Unaball, Ambassador of Liptenstein, fell in love with and eventually married Rargirl. Which made it really awesome for Teh Scoot and I because we had another married couple to do things with. Like get loaded and play Mickey’s Speedway. Then they moved away. It was very sad for me because I haven’t really had a friend like her since.

But now, through some twist of fate (and Twitter, no doubt), I have been invited to Camp Naughty, where I will be one of FIVE (yes! Five!) campers having an evening filled with fun (with bondage tape), frivolity (Strange Love live broadcasting), and topped off with a happy ending (according to the schedule). I will be one of seven girls together to hang out and have fun and enjoy the evening. Mostly I’m shocked I was even considered, let alone picked!

In case you are new to the Bananaverse, I have a hard time reconciling being female (mani/pedi, wearing a bra, Hello Kitty) with everything else (Star Wars, computers, Nintendo, comic books), and for the most part I feel like I am not very good at being a girl. Sometimes though I feel like being a girl on my terms (wearing boy shorts and watching South Park) is my right and I only get to do it as a result of Women’s Lib and all of that. So when I see people I think are good at being girls, and they want to have anything at ALL to do with me I am very self conscious and a bit disbelieving about it. I’m totally looking forward to it and I’m terribly excited I got picked, but there’s still part of me that can’t believe the cool kids scooted over and made room for me at their table.

I’ll probably be Twittering from this Naughtiest of Camps, so you can catch me there if you want. And be sure to join us live for a very saucy Strange Love.