Ow

I meant to get back to riding my bike this week. I really did. I may ride my bike into work tomorrow.

Truth is, it's been cold in the morning and I've been feeling quite wimpy. I justify it by having just recently gotten over some kind of horrific virus, but I have to be honest with myself and admit that I've been lazy and enjoying the prospect of listening to music on my way into work.

Sure, I could play my MP3 player while I ride my bike, but in the wee-hours of the morning before the sun peeks over the horizon, it's not good to deprive one's self of one of the major sensory organs and operate a bicycle.

So, to compensate, I've been jogging the last few days.

And my legs... they hurt. Oh do they hurt.

I stretch every morning. Still, the legs. They hurt.

What's my point? Oh, no point. I'm just whining. What's the point of a blog if not to whine in a semi-public place?

Country steps forward, California stumbles back

The ACLU and other interested parties are taking Prop 8 to the State Supreme Court. I expect this will inevitably wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court. I don't see how it can't.

It boggles the mind that my home state essentially said "fuck you" to a minority group in such an overt way in my lifetime. Okay, this isn't like World War II when California shipped Japanese-Americans off into internment camps, but the rationale is awfully similar: "They're different so they don't get the same rights as us."

What completely and utterly blows my mind is that a lot of the surveyed voters who supported Prop 8 were also minorities. Specifically the polling indicated the voters identified themselves as African-American or Latino/Hispanic.

Um... so... it's okay for groups that have suffered discrimination and oppression historically to go ahead and take rights away from another group? Really? Seriously? Is that how it works now?

I know lots of people who want to lay the blame at the churches involved, especially the Mormon Church (I think something like 40% of the funding for "Yes on 8" came from Utah). Sure, these assholes are culpable, but nobody really expected these hypocritical backbirths to behave any other way than the inbred 19th century mentality they've always had.

These institutions don't constitute 52% of the voting population of California. If they did, the state would never have gone for Obama.

So the rest should have known better. They really should have.

It will be interesting to see how things develop on this front.

A little wager

So I bet on the presidential election with one of my friends. We didn't bet on the overall election. I knew Obama would take it (yay!). We bet on five states:

Arizona
Florida
Ohio
Nevada
West Virginia

For every state that went Obama, I won a drink. For every state that won McCain, my friend won a drink.

Don't get me wrong, we were/are both pro-Obama. He was thinking as I did in 2000 and 2004, that fraud would kick in and the Repugnicans would pull something off as they did in Florida in the past. He just wanted booze to dull the pain of disappointment.

Can't say I disagree with that strategy, but I was feeling strongly optimistic.

As of this morning's tally, I believe I get three drinks to his two. Florida, Nevada, and Ohio all went blue (YAY!) while Arizona and West Virginia remained unsurprisingly red (booo!!!!).

It's all good.

Well, that was a hell of a night

I promised myself I wouldn't watch the returns.

And, unsurprisingly, I lied to myself. When I turned everything off last night, Obama was the projected winner and that remained true this morning.

I am very, very happy with that. Eight years of Republican mismanagement is eight years too many, thank you very much. I would've thought people would figure that out back in 2004, but I digress.

I'm surprised, and a bit dismayed, that 52% of voting Californians are bigots and approved Prop 8 (forbidding same-sex marriage). I don't get that. Why would anyone care if a couple of guys or a couple of women decide to tie the knot? What impact does that have on people who aren't the ones getting married?

I'm not gay nor personally inclined towards same-sex pairings, so this doesn't affect me directly, but none the less I find myself offended that so many people feel the need to tromp on the basic right of "pursuit of happiness" for such a large group of people.

Seriously, what the hell?

While that result disappoints me, it's mostly overshadowed by the joy I feel that the Dems took the White House and got greater majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

I know some people are unhappy with one party controlling the Executive and Legislative branches. The Rebubs did a lot of damage while they were in control, after all.

I'm not too concerned. The Dems have proven pretty spineless in keeping Bush in check when they took control of Congress in the last batch of elections. I do hope they're sufficiently galvanized (and, for a change, united) in enacting real reforms in government. In the end, they're all politicians. It's silly to expect too much.

Still, I love being able to say: "President Barak Obama". Who would've thought that day would come? It's pretty cool.

A little warning next time?

Genius, courtesy of yesterday's xkcd.

From zero to crazy

I just looked at my little planner book thing I carry around to try to figure out what the heck I have lined up in the next week or so.

Sweet Flying Spaghetti Monster do I have a lot of things going on through Xmas.

How the hell did that happen?

Ah well. It's not bad to be busy.

Utter horseshit

Lifted from a county website:

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Why am I always being summoned and others are not?
The selection and management of jurors is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure. By law, potential jurors are selected RANDOMLY from the Registration list and the Department of Motor Vehicles' drivers and identification card holders. If the information you provide to these two sources is not identical you may receive two summonses or you may be summoned more often than others.
---

Two words in reply to this: bull shit.

Just sayin'.

Yes, I'm still angry.