Where do you draw the judgment line?
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.
Liveblog Doctor Who S04E07 The Unicorn And The Wasp by Gareth Roberts
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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The Rachel Maddow Show: First Episode Review!
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. (:
Liveblog Doctor Who S04E06 The Doctor’s Daughter
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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Liveblog Doctor Who S4E05 The Poison Sky
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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Liveblog Doctor Who S4E04 The Sontaran Stratagem by Helen Raynor
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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Liveblog Doctor Who S4E03 Planet Of The Ood By Keith Temple
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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In which Verso has a Lunch (2.0) date.
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.
Twitter Spam And You!
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.
Liveblog Doctor Who S4E02 The Fires Of Pompeii by James Moran
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?
Liveblog: Doctor Who S4E01: Partners In Crime by Russell T Davies
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.
One Time…At Naughty Camp…
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.
Brownie Recipes And You
Here’s the deal: I have made a couple of batches of brownies lately. Shamefully they were Box Brownies. Super awesome fantastic box brownies, but box brownies nonetheless.
What’s your favorite brownie recipe? Link it here or find some other way to reach me (there’s lots of them, pick your favorite) and when I test them I will blog about them and the winner will get….I don’t know what. Something I made, probably. Maybe brownies if you want, but most likely something I made out of yarn.
REQUIREMENTS:
* Not from a box. (Obvious but must be stated.)
* You have personally eaten these and can attest to their deliciousness.
* Female brownie recipes ONLY. (Almonds or pecans or any of that nonsense must be optional.)
That’s about it, really. Your recipe also gets bonus points for being old. If your gramma made these brownies I am SO there. So fire away! I have one official and one pending entry (as of now) so those will be first. Get in line for experiments in deliciousness!
New to the ‘verse: Bananablog? LiveBanana?
I have decided since I haven’t watched the bulk of Season 4 (of Doctor Who, that is), and since I will be watching a lot of it on my laptop, I will “liveblog” each episode as I watch them, more for my reference later than for anything else, but your own amusement is a possible side effect of this update.
Here’s how it will work (I think):
I’ll find some sort of title that is consistent, and I’ll get a description for the episode (maybe from the BBC site). All the liveblogging will be after the jump so I don’t spoil anything.
I haven’t decided yet if the Confidentials will go along with each episode (I have them and I’m watching them) or if they get a post of their own or what. I think I will add a bit about the Confidential at the ends of the actual episodes.
I am only about halfway through Torchwood too, so I’l probably re-watch the ones I’ve seen and do the whole season that way as well. I’ve certainly got time, with both BSG and Lost out of the picture until NEXT YEAR! (twitch) But I do need to get cracking on it because Heroes IS coming back this fall right?
(Plus at the moment I am in a motor home at Beverly Beach with The Scoot and his parents so it isn’t like I have I anything else to do anyway.)
Please stop using that word…
…I do not think it means what you think it means.
I’m referring to the word “support” and how the wave of “do as I say not as I do” in the current administration is leading me to believe they either have no idea what the word means or they have such contempt for ‘Mercans they just don’t care if there is any consistency between their words and their actions.
Case in point: Yesterday I was watching Friday’s Countdown (mmm, Keithy!) and he has started this segment called “Bushed!” where he tracks “the administration’s 50 other scandals” and the winner on Friday was “Support The Troops Gate” (they all end in Gate, btw). Here’s a transcript of what exactly he said:
(Shows a photo of a man in a wheelchair)
This is about Private First Class Isaac Stevens, Third Infantry Div, 11 bravo co. Well, that’s where he started. Then he suffered a head injury and spinal damage during training. Last November, PFC Stevens was discharged with his claim for medical benefits not yet processed. (music stops) You heard me, he was removed from the Army. No longer received his Army pay and had not yet been granted any Army benefit money. Did I mention the injury had left him in that wheelchair? That was last November. By February he was broke. By March he was in a homeless shelter. By April, from his wheelchair, he had had to fight off the sexual advances of another man in the homeless shelter. Fortunately for Private Stevens, a social worker at an army base, working in her spare time, got him into an apartment with help from a non-profit non-governmental organization. But nearly twenty thousand disabled soldiers like Isaac Stevens were discharged in the last two years and most of them have had to navigate or fall through cracks between the last day of pay and the first day of benefits, a gap of up to a year.You let this happen Mr Bush and it’s your CRITICS who are not doing enough to support the troops?
There you have it. What really concerns me is that Keith only reports the ones HE KNOWS ABOUT. It makes me wonder, if he is talking about Isaac Stevens and refers to twenty thousand others, how hard has it been for them?
So again, Mister Bush, please stop using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Verso Goes To Disneyland (First in a Series)
I’m in Southern California now (“behind the Orange Curtain” as they say) and here’s some bulletpoints about my trip so far:
* Klondike is a very good all-purpose word.
* RONGO BOWL!
* I got to ride the Submarines. This now means the lovely Miss Cami is going to kill me dead upon my return.
* Subs opened a year ago and I still had a 45 minute wait and I got there at rope drop.
* Toy Story Mania Midway Mania is WAY funner than Buzz Lightyear. You can see what your gun is actually shooting so you can tell if you’re low or high or whatever.
* This morning was CRAZY! We were in the line for the Tiki Room 45th Anniversary Merchandise Event. It was fun but it made me wish I had a LOT more to spend on things. mmmm.
* Attraction posters rock my socks.
* You can find some of my updates if you go to Twisney and make sure you are looking at the Disneyland Resort. When I remember to Twitter you can find my updates there.
* Today after the event we completely bailed. Rargirl and I got our nails done did and had a bit of lunch. We slacked around and now we are pondering our next steps.
* If you are trying to DM me or @ me on Twitter I am going to be hard pressed to reply, I am sort of one way at best. My mobile web sucks (no iPhone) and I have limited access the rest of the time.
* It would be awesome to be the 80′s cover band on Tomorrowland terrace.
* Liplash has a very important meeting with a very important vendor at work tomorrow (he works for the resort). Who could it be, who could it be?
Day One:
- Submarines
- Midway Mania
- Lunch Break @ Grand Californian
- Home for naps
- Back to MK
- Honey I Shrunk The Audience
- Space Mountain
- Star Tours (sans Rargirl after the Space Mountain Incident)
- Buzz Lightyear
- Pinocchio
- Bail out to Taco Bell
Day Two:
- Tiki Room Merch Line
- Wait in Tiki Room Line
- Stand in Tiki Room Line
- Bail for mani/pedi
- Eat Hawaiian food lunch
- Nails done
- Back to Chez Rar for regrouping
- I’ll tell you what goes here after it happens. (:
All you need is love
(I started this on Thursday morning. I am finishing it at Portland International Airport on Friday night.)
Yeah, I am feeling a bit Beatle-y today.
Wednesday night at Ignite Portland I saw Liz Kimmerly give a cool talk about getting over yourself. OK it wasn’t really that, it was called “Dare to go where you fear” and all you really need to know is that she hauled off to Afghanistan with a hundred bucks in her pocket and when she landed at the airport there was a plane already on the runway. One that had been SHOT DOWN by Al-Qaeda and they couldn’t afford to move it off the runway. She gave a very cool talk about doing and having faith. It made me realize that with all the drivers cutting me off and general all-around assholery in the world I really should stick to my “glass half full” outlook. I find a lot of times I let that slide in favor of the knee-jerk reaction to flip someone off or immediately believe the worst about them.
So I went and checked out her blog and saw a post about hugs. OK It wasn’t hugs, it was about unconditional love.
It was late Wednesday night as I watched it, still kind of buzzing from the love I’d gotten at Ignite (SO many thank yous and hellos and how can I helps and good jobs I didn’t know what to do with myself!) and I read about hugging and how the touch was what made all the difference in this boy’s life. Suddenly from out of nowhere a memory sprang to the front of my brain. It was 1999 and Mr Fishbones and I were not yet official or planning it but we’d been together about 4 years. His sister had a baby and I went to Seattle (where she had him) to do family type things. His sister already had another daughter who was about 7 or 8 at the time. When I showed up at the hospital and she saw me it was for the first time in quite awhile (they moved to Alaska when she was about 3). She barreled down that long straight hallway and I kneeled down to hug her and when she got there she knocked me completely over and loved every minute of it. It was awesome to have someone be THAT excited to see me. Later that day she said to me “I know you are not Missus Uncle Scott but can I call you Auntie Verso anyway?” And I told her that was just fine. It got me another hug too! I think what really made it stand out for me was the total acceptance. If you know me you know I’m big on “family on your terms” so for her to decide she wanted me to be her family was a VERY good feeling.
It was a really nice memory. I love hanging out with kids and I’m the first one to dig in the dirt or break out the Legos or talk Spongebob so I have had other experiences with younguns, but that one will always be near and dear. She’s older now (gasp! teenager!) and probably would be fatally embarrassed if this story got out, so I have done my best to protect her identity. I’d like to think even if she squirms a little now that someday she will look back on that same day as fondly as I do.
The Old Grey Mower she ain’t what she used to be…
(Yeah that was lame. If the title doesn’t sound familiar, see if this helps.)
Today was Yardwork Sunday at Chez Fishbones. So off we went to toil in the mines-I mean, in the front yard. I did some weeding and The Scoot did a lap with the mower (around the outside edge). He started in with the edger and when I went to pull that mower engine pull it was REALLY hard to pull. I got The Scoot to try and he had the same issue, it was damned near impossible to pull that thing at all, let alone pull it with enough “oomph” to make it turn over. So we tried to figure out what to do about this mower, and I proposed we borrow the mower from Papa The Scoot and Momma The Scoot, since they were in Alaska visiting Sister The Scoot until a couple of hours ago. At least this way we can finish today’s ration of toil, and if ours is straight up busted we can find a new one, and if it’s not we can get it fixed. So we went to their house and got their rarely used mower out of their garage (since we were checking on their house for them while they were gone we had to go over there anyway) and tossed it in Papa The Scoot’s truck and brought it back to use it on our lawn so we could be finished mowing-we had to cut it shorter than normal today for fertilizing and re-seeding and can’t cut it again for like 3 weeks, so even if our mower is well and truly broken we have a little time to get it sorted. When we unloaded the Mower In Law we checked the gas and oil levels, and seeing that all appeared to be well, engine cord was pulled. Mower started forthwith and grass trimming commenced. (And commenced and commenced, I have some crispy red arms as proof.)
So now I come to the really interesting part of the story: Guess which mower is the one that broke down and which one is the one that saved the day?
First a bit of commentary on the photo: On the left we have the EAGER-1, a (presumably) mid-70′s Craftsman mower. Behold the individual height adjustments on each wheel! Behold the years of grungy exhaust! Behold the chipped and rusting body! On the right we have an early 21st century Craftsman mower with no catchy title like the EAGER-1. Behold the candy apple red paint! Behold the giant easy to handle bag for clippings! Behold the self-propeller control with bunny and turtle pictures!
Left mower is around 30 years old. There are a couple of spots near where the grass gets sucked up where it’s rusted entirely through. Part of the bag has come unsewn from the frame. That front left wheel in the photo is a little wobbly.
Right mower was purchased (I think) in 2001 and “driven off the lot”. It is self-propelled so as long as you can manage to hold down that bar and steer the thing, your grass gets cut. Plus, you know, lookit all that red! It has a giant (compared to EAGER-1) bag for clippings and a nicer system for attaching the bag.
Right mower is mine. Left mower is Mower In Law. Old chipped wobbly faded Mower In Law is what saved the day today when my (newer, nicer, bigger, purtyer, more powerful) mower had a fit of I-Don’t-Know-What and refused to mow any more yard.
So when people say “they don’t make em like they used to” they are absolutely right. And what irritates me more is that part of what influenced the Fishbones mower purchase was “my dad’s mower is a Craftsman and it’s lasted forever!”
We had a similarly disappointing experience with our Craftsman pressure washer as well (it went back though, and we got a Karcher which is outstanding). So far all the screwdrivers seem to be doing fine, however…
I wish I understood it. Do I have the one freakish lemon mower? Is it indicative of our disposable society? Is it just that I shoulda bought a Honda one from the beginning? Am I being punished for not getting the completely manual push mower? Is it really just that Craftsman is coasting on this rep for reliability? I want it to be the first one, but I expect it’s probably the last one.
Any other “reputable” brands I should be avoiding? Let me know!
Liveblog of Lost Season 4 Finale
I’mma do this here, but I am also going to make sure to do it behind the cut in case you come here and don’t wanna be spoiled yet. So read on for my thoughts on the S4 finale!
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Construction Pun Here
OMG new site! Dust, I’m picking themes, all very 1.0 right now, blah blah blah. Don’t be surprised at ALL if you come back tomorrow and it looks totally different. Just be glad my URL isn’t livejournal anymore ok? (:
