Week 5

Yes, as some have guessed, I’m trying to lose weight again.  I packed on about 25 kg after switching to Lyrica.  Almost as bad as the amount of weight, is that it’s all around my waist.  In the past it’s seemed more evenly spread.  When the scale hit 130 a number of weeks ago, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer.  It’s a loose goal, I simply took the amount I wanted to lose and the number of weeks till the end of the year.  They recommend about 1 pound/week and this is a bit over 2, but I still think it’s workable. 

Plants

We had some friends in Madison that bought the small lot next to their house and created a series of perennial beds around their home.  I loved it and when I bought our house in Madison I had a plan to eliminate all the grass in the back yard and only keep enough in the front so as not to startle people walking down the street.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the pain from Lyme’s got so bad I had to take a break every few minutes just to cut the grass in front.

Lately I’ve been feeling a lot better - not just less pain, but some more energy.  With spring in the air, I’ve found myself with more interest to do some gardening.  Since we rent I’m keeping things small.  I’ve started getting a few plants in containers and cleared some of the overgrown beds for a few simple plantings.

Since the porch is screened in, I picked up a couple shade tolerant plants.  The fern and goldfish plant were small ( = inexpensive ), but should fill in their space after a while.  I’m also trying to get a couple varieties of peppers going from seed.  I haven’t found any habaneras yet – I’d really like to try them because the growing season in Madison was so short  the peppers would just start to come in when the frost would kill the plant.

I’m also making a list of plants that I’d like to try either in containers or once we get a more permanent place.

To go along with the other herbs, I put a couple of varieties of lavender in this bed.  I’m hoping they’ll spread out next year.  In the meantime I also put a few zucchini seeds in.  Assuming they take off, they’ll keep the rest of the space from going back to weeds, and give us a few veggies for dinner.  I also stuck in a few sticks of a damaged geranium – and they seem like they’re still growing.  I’ll move them to the front yard if they stay alive.

Sunday Blasphemy – She aint no allah-back girl!

see more Lol Celebs

http://stop-stoning.org/resources/middleEast

I don’t pick on the followers of muslim-god as much as I do the followers of jesus-god because my life doesn’t intersect with them as much.  Unfortunately it seems that when I do see something, there isn’t a lot of humour in the stories.

Hamburger Cupcakes

I read a blog by a guy in Milwaukee.  Among other things, he shares some of his baking creations.  I’ve had him link me to recipes for a couple of the cookies he makes for the holidays.  The cakes he makes for birthdays are beautiful. 

I saw on a TV show that cupcakes are the new wine – you know, that something you can take to a friends gathering.  It can be part of the spread or something for the host later.  When I saw John’s cupcakes, I figured I’d have to try them.

I’m not the artist he is, plus I put my skills more on the side of cooking rather than baking – but they weren’t a failure.

If there is a next time, here’s what I learned:

Top Bun – the top of the bun developed an odd lip.  I don’t know if it was the cake mix or the pan.  I had hoped that baking them in the pan without a liner would give me a smoother curve, but I think the opposite was true.  I was going to sprinkle some raw sugar (large granules) instead of sesame seeds on the top, but forgot.  I’ve heard of using orange juice or corn syrup to make it sticky for sprinkling after baking but I didn’t try it.

Beef patty – I thought the bottom of the cupcake worked better than the top part for making beef.  The top was too rounded.  I might try baking a dollop of batter on a cookie sheet instead of trimming a cupcake.

Frosting – I used a standard butter cream from a recipe on the internet.  I cut the recipe down so I ended up with 2 cups of frosting instead of three.  Two cups should get you a dozen burgers.  Go ahead with 3 cups if you like lots of frosting.  I mixed about 1/2 of it with green for the lettuce and mixed the rest with red, yellow, and red + yellow to make ketchup, mustard, and cheese (most cheese in the US is orange).  I used the cheese to attach the burger to the bottom bun, the ketchup, mustard, and lettuce on the top. 

I found it very convenient to scoop some of the frosting in a mini ziplock baggy with the food colouring – mix it and squeeze it in the same container.  If you wanted to get really fancy, I suppose you could use a thicker frosting for the lettuce and form more realistic leaves.

GALVAnize

I heard from a friend that the current guardians of the Pride March in Madison were trying to contact the original members of Galvanize who started (or restarted) the march 20 years ago. Doesn't that make me feel old. This photo is not from the Madison march, but a subsequent march (I believe in Des Moines). I am the overly tall and skinny guy, with even taller hair, with mixed day-glo shoe laces.  (gawd, I look like Beeker, no wonder I never got any dates).

Earlier in the process, before we even came up with a name, I thought we should give some thought to stationary (logo, etc) since we’d need to contact groups, send out newsletters, requests for funds, blah, blah. Instead of putting "insert name here" on the page I started thinking of acronyms.  We had made a decision to try to use “Lesbian and Gay” as much as we could instead of “Gay and Lesbian” or just Gay because there was the feeling that the women in the community were often unseen or overlooked.  Starting a name, even just a place holder, with LAG seemed to suck the energy right out.  There was a lot more to work with GAL (and as far as the rest of the alphabet soup – BTIQ etc, I think we tried to mention the BIs, maybe even the TRANS on occasion, but back then it seemed if we got more than 4 letters, we might as well just go with a “queer” umbrella).  Galvanize had popped into my head right away.  Visibility, because that was what the march was all about – plus that gave us a nice big V to fill with pink.  Alliance, because we were trying to reach out to as many different communities as we could (and we had mixed success with that).

Later, at the next meeting where we were scheduled to come up with a name, GALVAnize stuck (yes, someone even grabbed a dictionary and read the meaning).  Now it seems most march efforts go by “city name” Pride (or something similar).

People in San Francisco back then (or my Facebook friends that attended NPA) might recognize the stylized people shapes on the banner.  Shortly after our march, the artist who designed the t-shirts and logo, moved to San Francisco and recycled the same design for their march.

Spouse

Something happened recently that I didn’t mention at the time.  It seemed a little thing, but it took a lot of time and effort to make possible.

One of Australia’s “evil” socialist policies is to require that some of your wage is put aside in what they call superannuation.  It’s like the “evil” socialist policy in the US called social security (although I think Australia’s plan is meant to let you retire a little more gracefully).  Anyway, it’s automatic – I don’t recall more than a form that wanted my tax ID and signature.

One of the things we need to do for permanent residency is be able to prove we’re a couple.  When we first arrived on a work visa, I got to come along because Australia recognized same-sex couples as “interdependent relationships”.  (The US only recognizes straight couple for immigration).  We had pictures of our ceremony, mail that was addressed to both of us at the same address, etc.  We realized there wasn’t much since our arrival that showed we were a couple.  All the utilities, even our credit cards, were set up by John when he arrived (several weeks before me).  We had our lease – and while that showed we lived together, it wasn’t really proof that we were a couple.

Going back to superannuation, one of the things the forms listed as possible evidence was beneficiaries of each others’ life insurance, super, etc.  We checked our paperwork, and no one was listed.  We can only conclude that it wasn’t one of the boxes on the form we signed, but we printed out the “change” form and filled in the right boxes…

AND due to a change in the laws that went into effect on July 1 of this year, I was able to officially/legally check the “Spouse” box.  Australia doesn’t allow us to marry –yet, but we can be considered “de facto” spouses.  (I’ve got to believe it would be much easier if they let us apply for a license, but only certain parts of Australia have same-sex registries).

The Second Amendment - for kids

Cute skit from Bill Maher's Real Time (which we thankfully get here). Of course, the argument of arming all the kids because no one is a bully when everyone is packing seems utterly ridiculous - but when exactly do people get the maturity to start carrying a gun around on a day to day basis?

Alan!

Things just sound funnier to me with a British accent.

Week 4

Sunday Blasphemy – Twitter god

I think the first time I was aware of Christian god’s online presence was when he asked me to be his friend on Windows Live Spaces.  I think at the time, my MySpace friends had just ticked 666 (of course now they’re saying that satan’s street address is really 616).

Now, keeping up with the latest fad, you can tweet to Jewish god.  Maybe it was due to being raised as a protestant, but I never understood how an all powerful, all knowing god would get the message better if the message was sent in a specific way.

Several services deliver prayers sent by email, text message or fax to the wall. Israeli postal authorities say prayers also arrive from overseas by regular mail, some in envelopes addressed "Dear God".

And now, your tweets can be printed out and taken to Jerusalem’s Western Wall.  I wonder how many you’d need to tweet a day before the paper waste became a problem.

New Shelves

A while back I picked up some cheap planters.  I’m not going to start any major planting projects because I don’t want to get into anything that I don’t have the energy to keep up with (like the house in Madison) and we rent.  I thought it was cool that I could have an herb garden outside all year round.  I decided to move the planters to the backyard as it gets more sun.  I didn’t want everything just sitting on the bricks so I started thinking of getting shelves.  I saw these at dealsdirect, but figured $50 plus shipping was a little steep.

I did some measuring and let it ferment in the back of my head for a while.  Then we went to Bunnings and I wandered around the isles to see what was readily available.

The main legs are 1.9cm x 4.2cm.  The vertical was a 1.8m length that I cut in half.  The diagonal was a 2.4m length that I cut in half. 

The shelves are a board that I cut in thirds.  They’re attached to the diagonal length by upside down T shaped metal piece.

One of the things I like most about the design is – if it needs to be moved or stored, the shelves swivel and the vertical legs swing around so it lays flat, only about 3” high.  It cost about 1/2 what the premade shelves would have been.

I have a sealer for the wood so it doesn’t warp as much when it gets wet, but I want it to look a bit weathered.  I’m going to paint it with some strong tea, then seal it when it is fully dry.

The herbs in the planters look pretty bad, but remember it’s winter.  They’ll perk up when it gets warmer.

Week 3

Sunday Blasphemy – Warning Label

Warning: This is a work of fiction.  Do NOT take it literally.

Content Advisory: Contains verses descriptive or advocating suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs or alcohol, homosexuality, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness, and human rights violations and atrocities.

Exposure Warning: Exposure to contents for extended periods of time or during formative years in children may cause delusions, hallucinations, decreased cognitive and objective reasoning abilities and, in extreme cases, pathological disorders, hatred, bigotry, and violence including, but not limited to fanaticism, murder and genocide.

“Forwarding” an email

I can see having some debate over how it will be implemented but it boggles my mind that there are people fighting it.  I remember discussing the need for universal healthcare fifteen years ago.  Back then, I think, South Africa was the only other industrialized country that hadn’t switched to it – yet.                             -robguy
____________________________

A lot of angry, over-the-top rhetoric is muddying our discussion of health care reform. To help clear things up, here’s a brief summary of President Obama’s plan, including how it will stop insurance company abuses and help you—even if you currently have a strong health benefits plan.

• Health care reform will stop insurance company abuses.
  • Insurance companies won’t be able to refuse to pay a claim or give you coverage because of “pre-existing” conditions.
  • Your out-of-pocket expenses will be capped. No more going broke because of a serious illness or injury.
  • Insurance companies won’t be allowed to charge women higher rates than men or drop you if you get sick.
  • Insurance companies will have to cover your children until age 26 instead of dumping them at 19.
• Health care reform will hold down rising costs.
  • A public health insurance option will force private insurers to compete and will lower costs for everyone.
  • By requiring companies to pay their fair share, we’ll stop them from dumping their health care costs on the rest of us.
  • Health reform means affordable care will be there for you, no matter what. If you lose your job, or your kid loses his. If you get sick. When you retire. Affordable health care will be there for you, no matter what. That means you and your family can’t fall through the cracks and won’t go broke because of health care bills.

For more information about how health care reform can help you and for answers to many of the common questions about President Obama’s plan, check out this new web resource from the White House.

We are so close to real reform, but getting over the finish line will be a battle. We are up against giant insurance companies, a Republican Party that wants President Obama to fail and the corporate media like Fox and Rush Limbaugh.

The reality is that health care costs are spiraling out of control, and everyone in America deserves quality and affordable care. Health care reform simply can’t wait. We will all be better off with real reform.

Thank you for everything you do, and please forward this e-mail far and wide.

Marc Laitin
AFL-CIO Online Mobilization Coordinator

Need a haircut?

(the sound is not work safe, but hilarious)

Thanks for the find Chadd.

Do not date N00bs

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1917993

“you might as well date somebody who plays alliance!!1”  (thanks Jim)

Wolfenstein

Video Games | Wolfenstein | Exclusive Zeppelin Bloodbath Gameplay HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Coming to an XBox 360 near me? I generally enjoy games on my PC rather than gaming console... we'll see.

Week 2

Sunday Blasphemy – Biblical Prophecy

File under: not surprised

Time: 2003
What: Phone conversation between George W. Bush and French President Jacque Chirac.

“Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

My first guess for that quote would have been Pat Robertson.  I guess it just goes to show the level that religious nuttery is accepted in the US.

Sunday Blasphemy – If god disappeared

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkCuc34hvD4