April 2009 Archives
We wish Joe Biden would STFU. He's got a bad case of diarrhea of the mouth, or foot in mouth disease. After a tough week of public health education efforts, Biden goes off script, runs his fucking mouth and shatters any confidence in the public health system we may have achieved. Way to go Joe!
His son Beau is still a total dreamboat. Hopefully he doesn't talk as much as his dad. But when in doubt during a crisis of any kind, keep Joe Biden busy with a Playstation in a dungeon or something to keep his mouth from running on and on and on...
Egypt is preparing to "depopulate" all their pigs - ostensibly to lower risk of H1N1 transmission. The real reason is that the Christian minority owns all the pigs, and the majority Muslims have been looking for an excuse to get rid of them for a long time. It's pretty ridiculous because it's still the humans who are transmitting the disease. The pigs are currently in full health. Just an example of political maneuvering during a crisis, which leads us to one maneuver I do like...
There is some silver lining to all this - OPM Chief John Berry is taking advantage of this emergency to showcase the advantages of telecommuting in situations like this. Aside from coworker interaction, I could do a lot of my work from home, especially during high writing volume days. In fact without all the cubicle chatter going on, I'm probably more efficient. Since I'll have donated my Playstation to the Office of the Vice President to keep Joe Biden busy, I won't have any distractions.
Shameless Thursday/Friday Woof, because you need a break from all the drama. Click to embiggen:
I'm here to help. Have a good weekend.
More perspective on the flu: in February I wrote about two flu-related deaths in Maryland. While that news made the Washington Post, it didn't get the media coverage that this recent H1N1 outbreak is receiving.
With all the recent news to rant about, I neglected to mention the passing of Bea Arthur.
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I remember watching Golden Girls at my grandpa and grandma's house as a child, somehow feeling affinity for the characters. I didn't know then that the characters were really a bunch of gay men.
Happy news: Arlen Specter switches parties. The narrow-minded GOP tent is shrinking fast.
I was invited to write for DC's Bilerico Project but was stumped about what to write about for a while. Reports of the death of gay nightlife have been greatly exaggerated was all I could come up with. Former personal bloggers getting "legit" gigs often have the same problem - it seems once we're actually assigned something to do, a writer's block comes up. I'll try to brainstorm for more Bilerico-friendly entries in the future.
OMG I'm in MWs 'Scene' photo gallery.
Wednesday Woof: New York Rangers hockey dude Paul Mara sporting a fine playoff beard, and Portugese Formula One driver Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro with natural, unadulterated eyebrows and a crisp goatee. Click to embiggen:
Attention gay men: please stop sculpting and overtrimming your natural, masculine eyebrows. Drag Queens and the monobrowed are exempt from this request.
I've officially left the 90s and am phasing out my AOL account to my Gmail e-mail account. AOL was becoming too buggy and rife with annoying, blinky ads. Goodbye, AOL chat rooms. It was fun while it lasted.
Just a quick note: without getting too much into details, I can assure you we're on top of this "swine flu" thing.
When I was in Atlanta this January I wasn't there just to visit health and disease museums - it was a work trip where I saw good things, like a multi-story disease incident command center that constantly monitors every single disease outbreak in the world 24/7, among other things. We're not a bunch of nepotistic suit and tie losers doing a heckuva job like "Brownie" anymore. We've got a big team workin' on this and we got this, so relax.
What troubles me is how poorly the media is relaying truly important information, choosing instead to publish conjecture, speculation, controversy and conspiracy. The real news is somewhere in the middle of the article, right about where you stopped reading.
Let me get some important points across, to counter the stupid shit I've read in the mainstream and social media sources:
- This isn't a swine flu, it's
a North American human fluH1N1. - For some perspective, about 35,000 people die of the flu every year in the U.S.
- You can't get this flu from eating pork, chicken or people.
That's what I'm really worried about - legions of workaholic American troopers - particularly in the DC workaholic culture - who come to work and spread disease. Ever since the avian influenza scare, I've seen no change in American habits to improve hand washing practices, staying home when you're sick, or covering your mouth when you cough. I guess it's going to take an outbreak and mortalities to teach those lessons again.
I can tell you this administration is genuinely concerned about this situation and people are mobilized in preparation for an event, but that doesn't mean it's time to panic. Keep in mind the mainstream media sucks these days with a greater priority to sell ad space, and less of a priority to relay truly important life-saving information, so moderate your daily U.S. media intake (BBC is good though), take what you do read with a grain of salt because a lot of it is bullshit and spin, and just relax cuz we've got this. Here are some useful links to resources without the hype:
Swine Flu:
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm
Swine and Human Cases of Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Frequently Asked Questions:
http://www.usda.gov/2009/04/0131.xml
INFLUENZA: Pigs, People and Public Health (PDF):
http://www.pork.org/PorkScience/Documents/PUBLICHEALTH%20influenza.pdf
I don't know what clan these pipers were from but they were happy to pose and I liked their tartan colors. Click to embiggen.
We had a good time playing rugby on Saturday at the Celtic Festival of Southern Maryland at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in Prince Frederick, MD. I got some playing time in but it was gawdawful hot out. As I predicted this year we're going directly to summer, no spring for you this year. Fortunately I got to eat the biggest roast turkey leg I've ever eaten in my life before it got hot and I played rugby, so I was lucky not to throw it all up. Good times.
That evening me and TJ met up with Sheepy and his beau for a meet 'n greet at Nellie's. But none of us remembered to bring our digital cameras to take photos and post them to our blogs or Facebook, so the event never really happened.
I'm not sure if this is legit or not, but at Jones' Good Ass BBQ & Foot Massage appears to be a one-stop shop for your most vital needs.
Youk's beard now has a Twitter account. The owner of the beard also delivered an impressive walk-off homer vs. the Yanks.
Star Trek is coming soon, and is getting good reviews.
You can now get your homophobia straight out of the pump at the gas station in Rim Forest, California.
Anyhow, plenty of kiltage was to be seen at yesterday's outing, and the Chesapeake Bay was sparkling in the sunshine:
Sorry for dropping out of the Blogosphere, but I was a busy bee this week. I finished the 42-page Mother of All Papers, a public relations plan in full color. Between work and finishing the paper every night Sunday thru Tuesday I was practically immobile all day seated at a computer somewhere. So I was finally able to treat myself to a run to the gym on Wednesday and usual workouts, and I've been able to get back to rugby practice again. It's good to be back, and I have a month off from class and homework.
The next (and final) class is "in person" Wednesday nights at UMD. Usually these live classes tend to have fewer labor intensive assignments, relying more on class discussion. We hope. This previous class was the capstone class for the public relations aspect of the MS in management that I hope to achieve this summer. The next class is my final management capstone course, then I'm done. I expect I won't feel like any more education for a while after all that.
And at work I was in training, and I feel like I'm sufficiently trained and ready for the trenches. Bring it! The classes were more public relations stuff, including practicing interviews live with a camera. I've spoken with mean aggressive reporters on the phone but have yet to have a real camera interview. On the screen I sound like a Smurf and I tend to blush easily.
Tomorrow we're heading down to the Celtic Fest for some rugby and turkey legs way down in Prince Frederick, MD. Our pitch is right off the Chesapeake and it's pretty nifty playing rugby on the waterfront with the sounds of bagpipes and drums in the distance. Hopefully I can snap some more pictures of hot guys in kilts.
"Ohmigawd Lady Gaga is going to be at Town!" Heard that before, different venue, different artist. Someone at Nation would start that rumor every time they held a Madonnarama - "OMG Madonna's gonna make an appearance at 3am!!!" And now someone at Town is pulling that crap. I'm guessing it's one of the owners or managers, possibly the same one from Nation. Not cool. When it's that obvious you're starting a rumor just to pull in the numbers it undermines your credibility and makes you look desperate. I'll go there because it's a nice place, not because of a rumor. For the rest of you gullible gays, please read "Rumors and Rumor Control: A Manager's Guide to Understanding and Combatting Rumors," by Allan J. Kimmel. Or maybe Town might have better luck saying something like, "OMG Aaron Schock will be dancing shirtless on the box tonight!"
Today we played a match against our old foes North Bay and had a nice day at the park:
Busy weekend as the final mother of all papers is due in a week, and must be mailed out soon, so I'm glad I got out in the sunshine. Next weekend we'll play at a fun tournament at the Celtic Festival of Southern Maryland where many roasted turkey legs will be had. I had a good time at last year's event.
“Here Kitty Kitty,” a documentary on the controversy over killing feral cats in Wisconsin.
Uncensored All Access Web Cam American Bald Eagle Porn.
Wendy and Lisa interview in Out Magazine.
Eight police officers serving with Scotland's largest force listed their official religion as "Jedi" in voluntary diversity forms. And here's an encounter with a princess and a wizard in the forest.
Crack will mess up your brain, and so will breakfast cereal - INTERIOR CROCODILE ALLIGATOR:
The Garden - an interesting documentary about activist gardeners. I want to see it at the E Street Cinemas soon.
White House Gardens - this bitter piece of satire written about gardening in this region actually has a few good tips sprinkled here and there. The people I sent it too all agreed that it was kind of pessimistic. Hostas always seem to grow well here, so there's one simple suggestion.
Greenback Gardens - how much money can you save by planting a garden? I don't think about what I consume or produce when I garden. To me it is therapy and an annual experiment in nurturing through climactic challenges.
Rising Sun Gardens - Japan solves some unemployment problems by sending city workers back to the land.
Grey Gardens - the history of how how the overgrown tangle in the Hamptons was tamed for modern-day living.
Gay Gardens - Metro Weekly article about local farmers' markets.
While I'm on the topic - if you've even uttered the words "Grey Gardens" in your life then you're definitely gay. Whether it was a mention about the documentary, musical, or upcoming HBO movie, you're totally gay if you've even thought about it. Gay, gay, GAY!
More reasons to distrust the weed killer Roundup. Can I suggest you just pull up the weeds by hand after a heavy rain? Roundup is bad, elbow grease is good.
Tea Party Nonsense - So a bunch of entitled white people bitter that Sarah Palin lost the VP race gathered yesterday across the nation to complain about a black man being the President. And something about overspending, and they wanted to pour tea in public fountains here in the District of Columbia. Hey, I'm all for gathering, protesting and marching, but people actually live here in DC - like as in residents who pay taxes and stuff like that. You're welcome to use our fair city to protest, but everyone needs a permit - even if you're rich, privileged and white. We'll even close off streets for you, but you don't just show up and dump shit in our fountains just because you're rich and white. I hate it when any protest group comes into the District, destroys things or otherwise poops within our city boundaries, then leave and think no one will mind.
Tonight I'm attending Metro Weekly Next Generation Awards which will recognize our community's future leaders, currently under the age of 30. I'll be sitting in the Troll section to the left of the Chickenhawk enclosure.
I hope everyone had a nice Easter brunch yesterday:
This little one has the wisdom that will help you stay out of such predicaments:
Hopefully that poor polar bear won't have to clear out his colon after the incident.
The intruder is apparently not the first human to have wandered into this polar bear enclosure, and human incursions into animal space at zoos happen all over the world. Some of the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act include ensuring the safe separation of humans from animals for the sake of the animals, because humans obviously don't know any better. I mean, what kind of zoonotic diseases has this poor bear been exposed to?
Seriously though, with humans becoming more and more separated from wildlife and nature due to the spread of urban/suburbanization, these stupid incidents will continue to happen. Most people think animals are cute and furry and that we can somehow establish a spiritual connection with animals. On the contrary, animals indeed want to establish a vital connection - between you and their stomach.
Anyway, here's a great story about a gay organization that achieved its goals and closed up shop.
"If the gay community truly wants to achieve equality, it will have to overcome a victim mindset that is slowly becoming obsolete."
Adidas Super 14 Jersey Swap interactive ad. Great for hours of fun.
Be sure to check out the Washington Post's 3rd Annual Peeps Show Peeps diorama contest. They received over 1,100 entries this year, and the clever displays never disappoint and are always good for a chuckle or two.
Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson dies at 61.
I really enjoyed the overtly gratuitous Comedy Central show Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword of Fire this week. It's a parody of Xena and Hercules and should be good for a season or two.
Stevie Nicks vs. Lindsay Lohan: "She needs to stop doing drugs and get a grip."
I've really been longing for my annual trip to the Southwest, but since I no longer work for academia I don't get that sweet spring break this time of year anymore. Flights from DC to Tucson were always a bargain, and I would get a jump start on the summer with all the sunshine down there. This summer I'll probably only get a trip to Wisconsin for my 20th annual high school reunion, but I'm long overdue for a visit back home anyway.
Happy Scary Bunny Day:
I love this image from Pam's House Blend...we're so organized to destroy the Institution of Marriage that we have rainbow fighter jet squadrons and requisite party base to land them. And legions androgynous robots programmed to recruit your children and ruin your weddings. We're organized like that.
All joking aside, it has been a good week for equality in Iowa (of all places), Vermont, Easter and in the District of Columbia. Let's hope this momentum keeps truckin' along.
My former water polo team's favorite water polo widow (a partner of a teammate) John Berry was unanimously confirmed as director of the Office of Personnel Management last week. Berry is the first openly gay person to take the helm of the very federal agency that was once responsible for firing people because of their homosexuality in the 1950s.
Moving trees at the National Zoo is no easy task.
There's a Blowoff this weekend at the 9:30 Club. Woof, grrr, meow, rawr, hee-haw or whatever beastial interjection you choose to use. Speaking of woof, we're playing the Quantico Hooligans down at the base this weekend. Always a good time.
Like me, Obama has been depressed since Battlestar Galactica ended.
Miss Manners makes statement on Facebook pleas for attention/not-attention. And There's Something Terribly Rude About Texting on a PDA During Conversation.
Dire news from my home state of Wisconsin: more meat trucks overturn, and the invasive Emerald Ash Borer (an insect) has been found just south of my home county.
Our new DM survived the monumental D&D 4th edition conversion, but with 9 players I'm sure his head was about to explode at any minute. At the last minute I switched my character idea from half-elf to gnoll. She's a refugee from Thay with infernal warlock powers and a dash of shaman spirit summoning ability. Her name?
Bayoncé Giselle Gnoll
From Boobob: here's the real reason why Terminators transport naked.
From Phil in the U.K. - Why David Tennant and Russell T. Davies are leaving Doctor Who.
This weekend I toured the furry varmint Sean around town and was finally able to locate the space age architecture at the George Jetson Memorial Picnic Area outside the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. I had been looking for it for years and finally stumbled across it last week while trying to find my meeting place for work.
Then we headed over to the Tidal Basin near the Thomas Jefferson Memorial for some Cherry Blossom Festival scenery. Since it was Friday during the day the crowds weren't so bad, but with the weather as glorious as it was the crowds thickened over the weekend.
I'd never actually spent much time in TJ's Memorial, but was struck by the potent words found inside:
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
So like, was he saying that our laws, like for marriage and recognition of gays, should change with the times and that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and all that? Crazy talk!
Then after a bite to eat we headed over to the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery where we learned about the Tale of Shuten Doji, a wicked flesh-eating oni (ogre) who enslaved maidens but was ultimately slain by a crew of brave samurai.
On Saturday the team played the Gotham Knights at Cardozo, followed by good times at Stoney's on P Street. I wanted to drag Sean out to Madonnarama at Town but was too burnt out by then to get into the groove. Staging at Nellie's wore me out as there were crowds of people watching something having to do with the Final Five or something like that. Didn't they see the BSG finale a few weeks earlier like everyone else?
Some silly fun to look forward to from Comedy Central: Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword of Fire, starring a woofy Sean Maguire (Meet The Spartans, Dangerfield, EastEnders) and Matt Lucas from Little Britain.
There is another rugby match on Saturday at Cardozo HS, this time at 1pm against our evil arch-rivals the Gotham Knights from NYC. You're welcome to come but you can't bring your dog or drink alcohol at the stadium.
There is a furry varmint in my home this weekend, adding a 3rd Sean to the house. It's getting confusing around here.
Wonderful news: Maryland House passes ban on texting while driving. It's also illegal in DC, but generally unenforced. I get close to being killed by texting and cell-phone using motorists nearly every time I ride my bike to the gym. And I've never seen a cop pull a cell phone yakker over in this city either. It's a dangerous practice at epidemic levels in this city, probably yours as well.
My old roomate is featured in a story about unemployment and keeping your home in DC!
The mysterious cherry trees of Hains Point & the mysterious growing crystals of Chemistry Lad.
Digusting 4' tropical sea worm terrorizes aquarium residents in Cornwall, England.
A sad tale of grocery bags and corporate race-baiting. Far too easy a game to play in DC.
Some very clever editing gives some insight into Captain Picard. I love the Klingon's expression best.
