Utter Wonder does a hilarous Blackwell critique on the fashion choices of the homophobic hate group Westboro Baptist Church. These are the fine folks who travel around the country, holding up signs saying “Gay people deserve death” and “Matthew Shepard’s in Hell” and other uplifting messages.
Stephanie and I went to Valparaiso for the weekend to attend her 15 year class reunion. As a couple. The only gay couple there. It was like a mini pride celebration all by itself (since we missed the big event downtown). We even slow danced together during the evening. Very fun. No one seemed to have much of an issue. It was cute that several of her class mates asked how we met, went through the list of the gay people they know, and asked how to find other gay people to set up their single gay friends.
One of the interesting things is that one of Stephanie’s fellow graduates of Chesterton High School class of 1990 is Nick Smith, the Press Secretary for Bill Frist. Stephanie would not allow me to cause a scene. But I so wanted to. (I have his e-mail address!!! I’m thinking of selling it.)
We got back yesterday afternoon and still face a monsterous number of tasks. Stephanie’s refrigerator went out last week, and we have to buy a new one. But this evening we’re going to the Bosma protest, and we also have to schedule stuff around her surgery. So we’re both a bit frazzled right now.
About nine years after I did, the editor of technology review suddenly realizes the parallels between “Commonplace Books” and personal websites and weblogs.
Too bad he came late to the party and didn’t get the URL he wanted, and had to settle for “New Commonplace” instead. Sucker.
Despite the fact that I love monkeys, and have said several times that I want one, I know that monkeys aren’t good pets, something that’s come up in the news lately.
They’re too intelligent and social to live with people and not with other monkeys, and they become bored and tend to overgroom and self-injure. So the best monkeys to keep around the house are the plush kind.
The original Freeway Blogger, my idol and inspiration, has hit the big time with a news article in the San Francisco Guardian. I’ve corresponded with him a bit in the past (he visited my site and commented on one of my posts once).
Yesterday, Stephanie went to her regular physician for an annual physical (because I insisted that she go) and the doctor found a lump in her breast. She went for a mammogram (several of them, and ultrasounds, too) this afternoon. The doctors believe the lump is benign, because it’s not the shape or texture of a cancerous tumor. She mentioned that it was probably a Fibroadenoma. The doctor said that she wasn’t worried about it, and we shouldn’t be, either.
But it’s large enough that they need to remove it. A lumpectomy is an outpatient procedure, which they’ll schedule here in a couple of weeks. So we’ll meet with a surgeon sometime soon, and then they’ll schedule the procedure. Once it’s removed, they’ll test it to ensure that it isn’t cancerous.
Needless to say, we were both freaked out all night last night and today, and Stephanie’s very concerned about how it will affect her breast and what it will look like and feel.
So, more doctors, and another hospital visit. We’re getting to be pros at this.
VW owners might love this… Pod Caravans are retro trailers that resembled the old-fashioned teardrop trailers from the 50’s.
Sculptor Livio De Marchi has crafted an entire house that appears to be made of books, including the furniture.
From WISH-TV morning news. We’re going to do another interview about my “Big Things” photography, on June 29th. This time we’re going to film first and they’ll put it all together and broadcast it, and they’ll go grab shots of some of my favorite stuff around the city. I have to decide which Big Thing I should do the interview near, though, and it has to be in Indianapolis. Check out all the sites I have, and let me know what you think I should pick in a comment.
The Pentagon finally admitted that Newsweek wasn’t actually wrong, and that the Quran was abused at Guantanamo Bay. Of course they did this late Friday, after the evening news was already on, so that it would miss the news cycle over the weekend.
U.S. military officials say no guard at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects flushed a detainee’s Quran down the toilet, but they disclosed that a Muslim holy book was splashed with urine. In other newly disclosed incidents, a detainee’s Quran was deliberately kicked and another’s was stepped on.
On March 25, a detainee complained to guards that “urine came through an air vent” and splashed on him and his Quran. A guard admitted he was at fault, but a report released Friday evening offering new details about Quran mishandling incidents did not make clear whether the guard intended the result.
In another confirmed incident, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet, and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.