Friday Thoughts

Once again life is exciting in Lake Gonebelow, but not very much.

The productive part of the week centered in preparing our annual family letter that accompanies most of our holiday greeting cards and in updating and preparing the address list.

Beyond that, one day I did windows. No, not the PC kind, the glass kind that get dirty. I washed the windows of the house inside and out and I also laundered the curtains. Not any of them before they needed washing.

My “fun time” was spent researching the area in Canada in which my younger son has accepted new employment. I was searching for apartments, researching banks, as well as looking for information regarding requirements for our travel there: hotels, pet restrictions, etc.

All of this research kicked into high gear this week following a phone conversation in which son the younger noted that he may use the Thanksgiving break to hunt for an apartment. I/we may accompany him. We were scheduled to spend the holiday at son the elder’s home in the far west of the commonwealth. We are still all gathering there for the annual feast, but there is a better than even chance that we will leave early next Friday morning for parts to the north. Nothing has been definitely decided yet. Whether we will go. Who all will go. How long we will stay. Unfortunately I do not cope well with that kind of uncertainty, but cope I must.

One plus is that I may actually get to use my passport again. I have not needed to use a passport since my travels to Europe in 1971.

On the editorial side of things for this edition of Friday Thoughts:
I am nauseated by the recently revealed t-shirts sold by the right wing insurrectionists.
Ditto by the news of the gay man killed in Puerto Rico and by the reports of the reaction of the investigator.
How can anyone claim to be taken seriously when they repeatedly use film clips from one event and claim they were from another event? Kudos to The Daily Show for exposing them.
Book? What book?

Have a great weekend.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne

There is not a lot to report from the weekend here in Lake Gonebelow.

We dodged the bullet of the bad storm that went up the east coast unlike the Cajun whose area suffered. We had some strong winds and a bit of rain, but nothing crazy. We were just far enough inland this time.

On Saturday Mrs. G went to our previous area to meet up with some old friends. The princess and I hung here at home. I repaired/prepared some holiday decorations that we plan to use outside this year. I also reconfigured my old stereo system that I have in our basement. We do not use the system very much. The reconfiguration will result in some excess electronic equipment that I plan to drop off at the charity resale shop sometime this week. There are a few other items that we have “uncovered” that should be salable for them as well.

The princess and I also had time to watch the third movie of the LotR trilogy. For whatever reason, I was moved this past week to pull out the DVD’s of the trilogy and watch them. Over the span of the week I watched all three movies, beginning with the first. I was amazed at how much more I caught this time through and how much more made sense. Of course, after three times through the movies and once through the books, it probably should.

I have always stood in awe of the special effects in these movies, but this time through I also noticed some spots in which the quality of the effects was not quite up to par. Still, when one considers an effort in excess of nine hours in length, these few spots are few indeed.

I recall going to see The Ten Commandments (DeMille) for the first as a young child. I went with my mother and sister. I was caught up in how “real” things such as the crossing of the Red Sea and the Pillar of Cloud and Fire were. Now when I see the movie it all looks so cartoonish.

In the future will we look back at some of the movies of the present with the same attitude?

I guess word got out on the permission that I gave in my last post to everyone to cuss over the weekend. Many took it to heart in terms of both word and gesture. Yesterday while traveling I was greeted by a fellow motorist with a “California Hello” (refer to Jethro in the movie The Beverly Hillbillies). It seems that I (and the motorists ahead of me) had the audacity of inhibiting the driver behind me from continuing at 80 mph in a 45 mph speed/no passing zone. So when he stormed up my tailpipe, he flipped me the bird. I must confess that I was tempted to return his greeting, but did not. Sometimes I just don’t feel all that friendly.

Have a great week!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Friday Thoughts

If I got points the other day for posting early, then I lose them today for being late with my Friday Thoughts.  Good grief!  It’s almost Saturday!  Of course, then again maybe I lost points being early and gain them with being late.

The week went quickly. Coming off the busy weekend, the days seem to be in warp speed for some reason.

The frustration of the week was dealing with my new LightScribe DVD burner. When I installed it late last week, I did not have time to work with it. I had been using Nero software with my previous burner (now in the Ubuntu computer in the nether regions [a.k.a. the basement] of Lake Gonebelow). The software that came with the new burner required that I uninstall Nero – and even did it for me as a part of the installation process. Ok, I thought.

Oh, that is how fools are born!

As reported in a special mid-week post, early this week I received videos of my gig this past weekend. So I thought I would view them via my PC. View them I did. Hear them I did not! No matter what software I tried I had no audio with the video. Audio CD’s play fine. This DVD played fine on the DVD player connected to our TV, but no soap on the PC. grumble. grumble.

So I tried making a copy of the DVD. That seemed to work fine. Then I rebooted. Windows booted, but locked up about halfway through the start up applications. grumble. grumble. A long sordid story made short here is that by using msconfig – step by painful step – I determined that the attempt to load some of the new burner apps at start up (one to check on the latest firmware) was locking up the system. I took them out of start up and the pc booted fine.

So then I designed a nice label to burn on the disk. Now when I attempted to burn it, the whole blasted system would lock up on me again. Not even the Three-finger Salute would work. Push and hold the power button. Every. single. time.

grumble. grumble.

So again to shorten this saga and to ease your pain, I bit the bullet, uninstalled *ALL* of the new burner software, purchased an upgrade to the Nero I had (so that it supported LightScribe), and installed Nero

I thought Life would be good again (or at least better than Wheaties ), and then I tried to burn a label. Same. Old. Thing. After some online troubleshooting and research, I shut down some apps that were running on the PC and tried again. Voila! I have labels!

On other matters…

In a conversation with a good friend this week, he shared what a shitty week he was having. At one point he paused and apologized in advance for the expletive that followed – given my previous life and presumed sensibilities. There was no need to – for a number of reasons. First of all, neither my ears nor my lips are virgin. [*a-hem* and readers shall desist from making comments about the virginity of other of my Lever-2000 parts! ] I also understand frustration.

But secondly, I’m not sure that I consider such expletives to be obscenities. Nor am I sure that God does. I know that the common interpretation of “you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” is that you should not swear, cuss, use expletives, and otherwise have great fun with our language.

But that is not what it means – at least primarily. “In vain” means “lightly” or “with little regard to its meaning and importance”. Those who are in violation of this ancient commandment are not the cussers, but rather those “religious folks” who prance around saying “Lord, Lord” followed by saying the most hateful, nasty stuff about their fellow human beings. The obscenities in our world are not the expletives, but the actions of those who glibly invoke the deity to support their hateful causes.

Do you want an example from this week? The obscenity of the week was not what my friend said out of his frustration, but it was the threat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Washington, DC, to withhold ministries to the poor and the homeless of DC, if the people of DC should go ahead and approve equal rights of marriage to same-sex couples!! That is an obscenity in the ears and in the heart of my God!! How could anyone of genuine faith (or even of genuine human compassion!) *think* such a thing, let alone threaten it!!

I’m going to stop now and go sit in an easy chair and calm down.

Have a great weekend, every one! Cuss all you like! You can tell Him (or Her) that I gave you permission.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Me and That Ex-Beauty Queen

Although the church in which I did my thing this past weekend is in the hinterlands, they are not totally behind the times.

The building was built in 1884 with an educational area at the ground level and the worship space above (very typical for the era). In the 1930’s the men of the congregation literally engineered and dug out (by hand and wheelbarrow!) a basement for a social room.

I tell you those things to convey the thought that the architecture of the building has made it difficult for persons with physical challenges to participate in activities other than on the ground floor level, especially worship (on the upper floor).

The congregation has always been sensitive to this issue. In my day there was an audio feed into a small chapel on the ground floor and the persons who could not make the stairs would worship there. We would always include them in activities (such as Eucharist) as best as we could. A few years ago the folks there were finally able to raised enough funds to create an addition that would house an elevator that spans all three levels.

Between the age of the audio feed and the elevator, the congregation established a video feed which they still utilize. Members of the congregation man a video camera that captures what is happening upstairs and that sends a live video feed to the chapel and the people who choose to worship there.

[I must also add that we are not talking about a wealthy, endowed, or mega-church. Average attendance is less than 100.]

Since the advent of the video feed another option is available: video recording. Services are recorded and then distributed to shut-ins.

…Or, in the case of this past week, send as evidence to the perpetrator. *grin*

Yes, Ole Lem is now on DVD doing his thing! Just like that homophobic ex-beauty queen!

Yesterday in the mail, I received a copy of the DVD recording of the service.

The audio is not the greatest. Unfortunately they do not have a direct audio feed into the camera from the P.A. system. They rely on the camera’s internal microphone. Still, it was interesting to watch and listen.

Just like whats’erface, I’ll not be able to deny I did it.

Call 1-888-LEM-PORN …Operators are standing by.

LOL!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne

It was a full weekend.

My two sons came in to accompany Mrs. G and I to the hinterlands for my gig on Sunday. They were fairly young when we left. One son was born while we were there. It was good just to have a weekend to spend with them and better that they could go with us.

Overall the gig went well. The message was received well, which led me to ponder whether they were actually listening. There are tensions for the people with the present leadership. I sensed that they looked back on my years there through rose colored glasses, ignoring our own tensions then.

Whatever was going on, everyone was most gracious and appeared to be genuinely happy to see us all. There was a whole lotta huggin’ goin’ on, I’ll tell you. If you are familiar with the last verse of the song by Garrison Keillor about “The Sons of Knute Christmas Dance and Dinner” on his Now It’s Christmas Again CD, then we were rehearsing the music video.

We said goodbye in the hallway
And said goodbye on the stairs
We said goodbye on the sidewalk in the cold December air
Then we leaned against the cars
And we said goodbye out there
At the Sons of Knute Christmas Dance and Dinner.

I will comment though that the present leadership has a very different style of doing things than I do/did. That’s okay. He’s in charge now, not I, but there were parts of the overall celebration that either amused me or made my hair stand on end.

I was amused in another way by the presence of at least two people at the event. One, a male about my age, I know to be part of the Family. I recall one incident when we lived there. I caught a glimpse of him making some subtle moves on a young (legally so) handsome, muscular thing in the parking lot next to our home there. The other was a female who would have only been a child in my time there. I suspect very strongly that she is also Family given the clues of appearance, dress, and mannerisms. She also commented to me about her appreciation for some of my remarks. Her comments strongly indicated that she was listening and understood.

One of the other tasks for the weekend was “fixing” my older son’s lappy. He called Friday night to ask “Dad” to troubleshoot it over the phone. After a conversation of frustration I told him to bring it with him on Saturday and I would look at it here. Holy crap, was it polluted with malware and viruses! The most insidious was one that itself acted as if it were an anti-virus application and send out false messages of infection and immediately tried to sell you an AV. Of course the OS had to be my buddy Vista! Nevertheless, truth and righteousness prevailed and I send him home today with a clean pc …and warnings of dire consequences (from his father) if he ever let his PC get that fubar again!

The SMTP issue continues/continued to plague with no resolution using my normal email client. However, after another online meeting with the Tennessee Chapter head of the Society on Saturday morning (agenda topic: all things geek), I had a work around that I actually like better than using the normal email client. Brad gave me a very good suggestion that gives me wider flexibility and access both in terms of OS’s and geography/location using the features in gmail.

Finally, shortly after we return from our trip to one part of the hinterlands, I received a call from a former co-worker who now lives and works in another part of the hinterlands. On the side, the former co-worker is an organist for an ELCA congregation. From the time of our first working together to the present I found him to be less than Family-friendly. He is not exactly rabidly so, but the theme is there. The congregations of the ELCA that are in the central part of the hinterlands are hot to trot over the recent national decision to permit openly-gay persons in committed relationships to be called as pastors to congregations if a congregation so chooses. These congregations have been whipped into their frenzy in part by a pastor in the area who is leading a schismatic movement.

As a subset of our conversation my former co-worker asked how congregations in the area of Lake Gonebelow are reacting. To be sure there is controversy and discussion in these parts, but it seems to be relatively calm, thanks in part to wise handling/diffusing of the issue by the local bishop as well as by the more diverse nature of the area.

What followed then was a relatively pointed conversation between myself and my co-worker about the truth of the issue and about the misrepresentation of the same by the wingnut, schismatic pastor, et al. It is California, Maine, and health care reform all over again. Second verse same as the first. Among other points, I suggested that he actually read the document in question rather than rely on what others said about it. I also shared with him stories of gay pastors whom I know personally and who are most effective in what they do. I think I may have calmed the waters a bit and I hope I made some inroads in understanding.

Have a great week everyone!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Friday Thoughts

Grrrr……

I am not a happy email camper. Something has happened over the last day or two and I am no longer able to send email via my email client for my main email account. I can still receive mail (POP), but I cannot send. I’ve yet to find Captain Zero’s magic decoder ring solution to the issue. I’ve changed the port from 25. I’ve tried different clients. I’m about to try standing on my head while wiggling my toes and singing Yankee Doodle. Something’s rotten in the state of SMTP.

I have found that I can send and receive if I use the Internet webmail page for the provider of the POP and SMTP services that I use for this main email account. But it is crude and rude. Of course I can still send and receive emails though my gmail, yahoo, and hotmail accounts.

I’m not sure what is happening, but I am suspicious. About the time that it quit working, there was an update from Microsoft.

On other fronts…

The younger G called us early this week to tell us that he is accepting the new position in Canada. He is not scheduled to begin the new position until after the first of the new year. I may be making some trips with him between now and then to scout out apartments and to assist with his move. I’ve been snooping around doing research on the company, area, etc. as any Dad would.

The back to the future gig in the hinterlands is this weekend. I am not feeling good about it all. It appears that there has been much more “hype” about it in that local area than I am comfortable with. Can we all say “Ricky Nelson in the Garden”? There are oh so many things that can go wrong.

One afternoon this past week I was surfing channels on the TV. I happened past my favorite Family channel and noted that the movie “Latter Days” was on. I paused to watch for a moment. It was the scene in which the character Christian learns that Aaron has been sent home in disgrace. Christian catches up with Aaron at an airport layover. Their conversation in the snow has always moved me to tears. I only watched the scene until the security guard opens the door for them. I could not watch any more. The movie touches me in the very painfully tender spots of my past. In light of the religiously-motivated bigotry and deception that denied rights in Maine this week, the movie brought on additional emotion. It was, for the moment, too much.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Election Reflections

Here are some of musings about yesterday’s off-year election and its results.

I was deeply saddened by the vote in Maine. I have visited Maine often and considered it a most desirable location to live. Each time I was there, spanning even back to the very early 1980’s, I thought I was seeing a very open and tolerant people. Beginning with my visit in 1980 I recall seeing gay persons there not needing to hide who they were. I think I saw my first rainbow flag there.

The right wing is touting the results of the election as a rebuff to President Obama and to the Democratic party. The Democratic leadership is trying to say “Not so much”. I am guessing that the truth is somewhere in between.

Exit polling in most races seemed to indicate that the vast majority of those who voted were not casting their vote either as a signal of approval or disapproval for the President. Other factors decided how they voted. Such polling would appear to support the Democratic position.

But I sense that other factors are in play. These factors have to do with the opinions of those who did not vote and hence would be off the radar of exit polling.

Turnout is generally significantly lighter for off-year elections. Those who vote are those who are geezers like myself who vote in every election no matter what (“Hello. My name is Lemuel and I am election compulsive.”) – OR – they are persons who for whatever reason are energized to vote on a given issue or candidate.

Certainly the Right has been whipping up their base to turn out and vote, and I voted as I have in every election since I was 21, even if it were only to elect the new dog catcher.

But there was no energizing of the other side as there was in the Presidential election one year ago. Voters were just not excited about voting, and voters who are not “election-compulsive” like myself just stayed home.

Why were they not energized? I think that there are two basic reasons: First, a number of such voters do not understand the importance of such off-year and special elections. What happened yesterday may not accurately represent the will of the majority of people, but it will have a ripple effect down the political line. It may not be a good effect. We can pay a steep price for our apathy when we allow someone else to decide for us. Such elections should be a wake-up call for non-voters.

I think that there is another reason that persons did not feel energized to vote. I think a number of those who were energized and who voted last year have come to feel betrayed. This factor needs to be a wake-up call for the Democratic party. Promises made – and promises that (from my perspective) could have been kept – have gone unfulfilled. Health care reform has become mired in attempts to appease those who will not be appeased. Gitmo remains open. “Extraordinary rendition” is still a reality. Those who brought down the economy have been rewarded for their incompetence instead of being held accountable. DADT remains an enforced policy. The most outrageous of accusations go unanswered…

Unless things change and change quickly, I am prepared to see another “perfect storm” in 2010. I see a scenario in which disenchanted voters will be no-shows at the polls and the energized Right will be there in full force. Those of us who are compulsive will be outnumbered, and I think that the President and the Democratic leadership will have only themselves to blame.

To paraphrase a common comment of my college history professor, “they will find themselves standing out on the sidewalk at the corner, scratching their heads, wondering what went wrong.”

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne

I’m actually writing this on Sunday evening. I guess this post is inappropriately named.

So sue me.

The weekend was full of the ordinary, in a sense.

The saga with the stoles continues. We went from plan A – which would not work – to plan B – which had issues – to plan C – which… well, I think you all get the picture. I think we’re up to about plan M. We did take a little “adventure” on Saturday to another nearby town which promised a sewing supply store via the Google. We actually found two. The first did not have what we were looking for, but the owner was very helpful in directing us to the second. Bingo! We had the supplies. But when we got home, we discovered that, although the supplies were what we wanted, they would not work the way we had planned. It is a good thing that I do not have any more hair to pull out.

Along the route that we travel to go back to our previous home area, there is a small car dealer who seems to delight in posting the most ignorant, hateful messages on the changeable-letter sign for his business. Really, some of his stuff moves me to nausea. On my last trip I noticed that he had a number of political signs for the local candidates for this election in the grass around this sign. My thought was that if he supported them, they cannot be on the same side of the issues that I am. Today as we passed the sign, we noted who those candidates were. I will investigate their positions and their careers between now and Tuesday, but my suspicion is that I will find them far removed from my own.

By the way, *VOTE* this Tuesday!! A large number of voters do not consider the “off year” elections to be of any consequence. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to start at the local level to elect ethical, responsible, and capable persons to every office. Then we need to work so that such persons work themselves up the ladder.

Another task for me for this weekend, while some of you were salivating over Windows 7, was to upgrade the Ubuntu OS’s on my PC’s to the new version just released (9.10 – Karmic Koala*). Long term readers will know that I generally am a champion for the Ubuntu flavor of the Linux OS. I must confess that I was a bit distressed at a couple of changes as I upgraded the first of the PC’s. But with a bit of Googling, I found my answers and I am again a happy Ubuntu camper.

BTW, the total monetary cost of my upgrade was $0. The only cost was in time and effort, and from what I’ve been reading already from Windows 7 installers, my cost (and frustration) there was also less.

*For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Ubuntu releases, there is a fairly consistent naming convention. The release is numbered by the year and month of release. This latest release is 9.10 – released October (10) of 2009. There is usually a silly name attached made up of two words that begin with the same letter. With each release they advance to the next letter of the English alphabet, hence Karmic Koala for this release. There are two major upgrades each year: one in April and one in October.

I just know that some of you were simply dying to know that!

Next weekend I have another gig in my former life. It will be “back to the future” in more ways than one. I have been invited back to one of my former haunts in the hinterlands to speak at an anniversary service. If they knew what I expect to say to them, they’d already be warming up the tar and gathering the feathers. Maybe they are anyway. I’ve been seeing some black smoke arising over the mountains. Part of the message will be about the need to change and the need to be open to others who are different. In some parts of them thar hills, them’s fightin’ words.

Well, I guess that’s all for this early edition of Mondayne. Have a great week everyone!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Friday Thoughts

In the midst of the nightmare and circus that is Washington, the good news this week was the passage of the Shepard/Byrd Hate Crimes legislation. It was good to at least see some positive movement in the direction of protecting people from such crimes.

I must confess to you all that I was not as bad as I intended expected to be this week. I had figured from some hints that the other guy would not show. I did at least grab a cup of coffee from MickeyD’s while there. Other details are not important here. Suffice it to say that I am convinced that it is as much a part of Family DNA to stand people up as it is to design.

Speaking of design, the work on the stoles continues to progress. As of now, each of the new stoles has been sewn in terms of the basic plain stole. I ran into a snag on Thursday when I realized that the initial artwork design for the one was obviously too small. When I revised the artwork, I needed some other supplies that I could not locate in the area. I think I know a store in which I can find what is needed but it is an hour away. We are currently on hold in the hopes of securing the supplies.

Two of my dessert creations were a hit with Mrs. G this week: pineapple upside down cake and a banana-blueberry loaf with crumb topping. Both recipes used standard off the shelf mixes as a basis and just added a bit of a twist. She liked them anyway.

We received the estimates this week on some home improvement projects for which we sought bids. Of the four “phases” of work, we will only proceed with two: insulation and attic stair replacement. They are important to energy use as well as safety and for a number of reasons it is more cost effective to have contractors do the work. The bids for the other two were *way* out of line! We will be looking for alternatives for those projects.

In preparation for the the work that is to be done, I spent one day this week in the attic moving all the “stuff” into one half of the space. The workers will complete the one half and then I will reverse the action, moving everything to the completed space so that the workers can finish the job. I am about six inches too tall to stand erect in the attic [I just *had* to express it that way! ] and to stand stooped over is a killer on my back. I took an old office chair (on casters) up to the attic. Sitting on it, I wheeled myself and the boxes from one side to another. It was somewhat like being on a funhouse ride.

Channeling my inner Lez, I took advantage of a Homo Improvement Store program to turn in an old drill for a coupon off a new lithium-ion one. I had an old battery-powered one that never really worked and I was glad to get rid of it. I like the new one.

I also got rid of some other items that have been cluttering up the place. Yesterday afternoon (Thurs.) I took the items to a local charity that sells such things in their thrift shop. Two TV’s that were in good working order, but that we did not need or use. A single bed frame. A desk lamp. A set of cooking pots. A coffee table “inherited” from my parents. Unfortunately I could probably make a trip like this every week for a year and still have items to go.

Have a great weekend!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

“Eternal Vigilance…”

via the Cajun:

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!