Month: March 2000

Prop 22

If there’s anyone out there who can give me an acceptable answer to either of the following two questions, I’ll be very surprised:

  1. Just how, exactly, would extending the right of marriage to same-sex couples have ANY effect (positive or negative) on any existing heterosexual marriage?
  2. When discussing Constitutional law and human rights, what does it really matter what God or the Bible have to say about anything (or even what Confucius or The Great Pumpkin say, for that matter)?

Granted, they’re both more or less rhetorical questions and it would be hard to find an answer to satisfy me. But they’re the primary idiocies being used to defend the passage of California Proposition 22 next week.

Note that I’m not putting down God, the Bible, Confucius, or (heaven forbid) The Great Pumpkin here. I’m just stating that religious teachings are no more a basis for extending (or denying) human rights in this country than are the oft-cited “court of public opinion” or the idea that allowing more motivated couples to marry will somehow “weaken” the institution.

Ultimately, Proposition 22 will pass, it will be challenged in court, and (eventually) it will be overturned. You can’t vote on human rights in a public referendum and expect it to stick or to have a valid outcome. I doubt that plantation owners in South Carolina would have been chomping at the bit to outlaw slavery in 1860, had such a referendum occurred, for example.

Anyway, please don’t hesitate to vote simply because this referendum shouln’t be on the ballot and will be eventually declared unconstitutional. Vote no on 22. While you’re at it, consider voting no on 21 (for being just plain wrong) and on 23 and 27 (for being just plain silly). If you want to vote yes on something, go for 30 and 31.

I’ll skip the presidential candidates for now. Would that I could continue doing so in the future as well…

Randomly Sunday

Only 16 days until Krispy Kreme arrives in the Bay Area. I went by the new store in Union City yeaterday and supervised the construction for a few minutes. The “hot doughnuts now” sign is expected to be lit on 21 March, signalling a new world of North Carolina sanity only 30 miles or so from San Francisco. Let’s hope this grand innovatrion eventully makes its way into the city as well.

If we could just come up ith a couple of K&W Cafeterias now, I think California might be infinitely more bearable.

Random thoughts:

  • One more “William Shattner Sings the Classic Rock Hits Badly” commercial for Priceline.com might drive me over the edge and cause me to throw my TV through the window of the yuppie slum across the street. There’s “camp” and there’s “just plain stupid”. These spots are dangerously close to the latter.
  • I’m actually voluntarily going to the Castro this afternoon. Seems there’s a bit of a demonstration against Prop 22, featuring actual bands and everything. Aside from supporting the cause, it should be fun to see how the fluffy Castro boys react to actual electric guitars in their rainbow-encrusted midst. It should also be nice to think back about a time when the Castro was a social and political center rather than just a shopping center.
  • I’m excited that I’ve finally eaten at the Granada Cafe on Mission , satisfying a five-year craving. Dan, Jamie, and I ventured in Friday night. Odd little place: the food was passble, the salad dressing was frightening, and the bar was inspiring. It helped, of course, that there was also a banquet for a large amply-proportioned family in varying degrees of booze-induced disarray. They were definitely a colorful bunch, noisy, but generally good-natured. My only complaint would be that, from the aroma in the bathroom, they had a little problem with aim.
  • Happy news of the weekend: I think jeans which actually FIT may be slowly coming back into style, at least among those of legal age. This is quite refreshing after a decade of wondering if guys had suddenly started being born without asses.

8 March 2000

Another rhetorical question: is it just my imagination or is Regis Philbin quite possibly the most annoying human being ever to walk the face of the earth?

I caught one of my rare glimpses of the little nimrod while changing channels waiting for the triumphant return of “Family Guy”, which my have been the one highlight of this particular cold and rainy Tuesday night. The election returns sure weren’t a lot of fun.

So speaking of the elections, I don’t really have much to say today, and this whole journal entry is more about putting something up to fill space and replace my endorsements list than anything else. Sorry. I’ll try to be more exciting in a couple of days.

Sites worthy of your attention on a Wednesday morning:

So please feel free to look around since I’m a little sparse today…

I’m going to have a bowl of cereal with milk and work on those strong bones and teeth, because, after all, I’ve got milk. And it does a body good. It also costs more in California than almost anyplace else in the country even though we produce more of it than Wisconsin.

Space filled. No more babbling…

Like Sheep

Like sheep. The wise people of California have determined that jails are a more effective means of dealing with youth than schools. I expected Prop 22 to pass, but I thought my fellow Californians might have the intelligence to defeat Prop 21. But once again, like sheep, they fell hook, line, and sinker for the ludicrous “anti-crime” idea.

Call something “anti-crime” and I guess it doesn’t matter how misguided it my be, nor whose rights it violates. It doesn’t even matter that the “anti-crime” measure will almost certainly result in the production of MORE hardened criminals. Sending 14-year-olds to jail with murderers generally has that effect.

All in all, it’s got me thinking about getting on the road again. Of course, my new road atlas probably had more to do with it than the election.

I didn’t get to do my annual road trip last year for a number of reasons (money being the biggest of these). I really need to make up for lost time, and I’m already pondering this year’s route, even though I have no idea when Ill be leaving. I’m also pondering how to pay for it, but that’s a whole different story.

So far I’m thinking of crossing Canada in one direction, heading south into Detroit for the return trip, which might include the original route of an old US highway. The following examples come to mind:

Of course, everything’s subject to change. But now’s the chance to say that your hometown (or heck, even your living room couch) should be part of Planet SOMA US Tour 2000. Find out more: read about 1997 and 1998.

Happy 100K


10,000 Miles Ago…

My car finally hit 100,000 miles on Sunday, right in the middle of beautiful downtown Pescadero CA. Of course, since I have a Toyota, I don’t get to see “all zeroes”. This milestone won’t occur for another 900,000 miles. I feel a little cheated.

Longtime readers might remember when I bought it, why, and where it’s taken me. Or they may just not care. Which is quite understandble, but I thought my trustworthy little Toyota desrved a little recognition for all its accomplishment. It’s avoided major breakdowns (and break-ins) for three years now.

OK, I also didn’t have anything else better to write about tonight, my life having taken one of those “uneventful” turns lately. Thus, I offer random thoughts for a Monday night:

  • One thing you can always count on: if you walk by Julie’s Supper Club on a Saturday night, there will always be a drunk yuppie idiot saying something really stupid at the top of his lungs.
  • Most unexpected song heard in a queer bar this weekend; “Cool Places” by Sparks with Jane Weidlin. Runner-up: “Jesus Walking on the Water” by the Violent Femmes.
  • One more thing you can always count on: in any given week, “Back to the Future” will be airing at least once on TNT or TBS. Guranteed.
  • When I was 13 and really obsessive, I would have killed for a website like this. Even at 35, and no longer obsessive, it’s still pretty cool.
  • No, the aforementioned link has nothing to so with sex, thank you.
  • Showing my age: it strikes me that the first actual date I went on with a guy (as opposed to the first sex, which happened much, much earlier) was to see “Terms of Endearment”, which is right now showing on TBS.
  • Yes, “Back to the Future” was on right before it.

Happy Tuesday…

No Webby Award

Another year without a nomination for a Webby Award. I’ll try to live with my disappointment. At least I’ve been interviewed by the same website as one of the nominees. And he doesn’t even have pictures of cool old supermarkets on his site…

All the same, it’s time for my occasional rant about web design developments I hate. This is mainly because, once again, I don’t really have anything much to say tonight…

Guaranteed to make me run away from your site in a hurry:

  • Any sound file which doesn’t give me the option of whether or not to hear it, especially stupid MIDI files which sound like a little old lady sitting at the organ store in some 1975 shopping mall.
  • Numerous multiple Javascript windows which launch all over the place for no other apparent reason than to prove “it’s possible”. There are good reasons for multiple windows only about 15% of the time they’re used, I’ll estimate.
  • Use of full-size graphics, re-sized in HTML as “click here” thumbnails. What is the point of thumbnails if you have to download the full-size image anyway? You might as well just skip the thumbnail page and o for a slide show instead.
  • Sites designed on Winblows machines using microscopic text which is only legible on other Winblows machines with their big, clunky screen fonts. Particular annoyance: badly-written stylesheets which don’t respond when you try to make the type bigger.
  • Sites which tell me which screen resolution (browser, etc.) to use.
  • Specific frame or ASP sites which make it all but impossible to bookmark any individual page or piece of information.
  • Sites which you can’t navigate without the use of marginally-functional plug-ins, Javascript, or Java applets. Flash too. These technologies are great, but anyone who would make a site totally dependent upon them is way too willing to write off a lot of potential visitors.

Maybe in the next day or two, I’ll do my own awards for good design. And maybe a few for bad design as well. It won’t happen tomorrow, though, because I’ll be earning the rent doing some good design of my own…

He Came from the Porch


Picture shamelessly lifted from It Came from the Porch, because my camera’s still busted, dammit…

“Thanks, to the internet now I can be a nympho and share my body without getting VD or smelling gross guys.” I’d love to claim that wonderful line, but it was in a porn spam I got this afternoon. I just thought it was too perfect not to share with the world. So there it is…

I didn’t realize that Trey was being all industrious and updating his site while he was here. I figured the fact that he was flying back tonight might save me from being the last to write about Saturday’s “bomb this restaurant and put numerous webzines out of business” lunch at Greens.

No such luck, and yes, yer humble host DOES eat the occasional vegetarian meal, thank you.

All in all, it was a nice Saturday, starting with Trey, Mark, Lezlee, Mar and Darren and I in own private dining alcove. One wonders if the wait staff put us there because we looked like we might cause trouble. Afterward, we drove by Sarah’s apartment and waved (she was home sick) and went on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco. we hit all the hotspots: the Tenderloin, the Mission, the Doggie Diner head, and Twin Peaks, not to mention the Planet SOMA Factory™.

It all ended at Safeway (as so many things do with me) and I drove home remembering that I’m rarely disappointed when I meet the flesh and blood renditions of people I’ve met online. Today was not an exception. Class all the way, even if the restaurant did hide us in a corner.

By the way, there are no dirty pictures and I have no idea about any sex clubs in Oakland, nor do I particularly care, thanks…

God Hates Web Designers

Krispy Kreme opens Tuesday night. I haven’t been quite this excited since I finally found fried okra in San Mateo a couple of months ago. Of course, several friends and I will be there tonight for some grand opening doughnuts. I thought about making this an officially-sanctioned Planet SOMA Non-event™, but I’m not sure exactly what time we’ll be there, so maybe not…

That said, maybe it IS time for another Planet SOMA Non-event™. The birthday thing was kind of fun, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. Perhaps we could invade the Doggie Diner, or maybe the spacious and often-empty hoffbrau in Daly City. I’m thinking about Saturday 22 April as a potential date, using Jeff’s birthday’s an excuse. Of course, he’ll be in Greensboro at the time, but I think he’d want us to celebrate all the same. Thoughts welcome.

If you’re having trouble reading this, so am I…

We were speaking of inept web design a couple of days back. A case in point would be the piece of crap known as godhatesfags.com. You’d think these idiots would want as many people as possible to read their babbling, but badly-written stylesheets render much of the site illegible on a Mac at 832×624. I could only imagine it’s worse at a higher resolution. I guess ignorant wannabe Christians have a propensity toward ignorant wannabe web designers.

Maybe God hates screen fonts larger than 8-point too…

Time for The Brady Bunch. I’m not sure if it has God’s seal of approval or not, but at least you can read the credits.

Lost 45s

How much do I love this (or this, if you’re inclined toward Windows Media Player)? It’s exactly the tapes I used to make for my friend Duncan, trying to dig up just that one obscure single which peaked at number 37 in 1981 and was never heard much again.

I sometimes wonder if songs like “My Girl” by Chilliwack or “5-7-0-5” by City Boy or “Hold On” by Ian Gomm were really all that good or if they just seem good because they haven’t been played into the ground for 20 years like others which had little more initial chart presence. Even when they were new, though, I think I sort of liked the bottom half of the top 40 a little better than the top half.

But then again, I prefer fog to sunshine too, so my opinions may be questionable. And I have little patience with any of the current top 40, whatever said designation means in 2000 anyway.

Anyway, there’s something sort of comforting about listening to this stuff with that slightly out of phase streaming audio sound. Reminds me of when I used to listen to distant AM radio stations at night.

It’s taken billions of dollars in technology to give us the effect of a cheap transistor radio. By God, I say it was worth it.

Oh God. They’re playing Andy Gibb. Gotta run…

The Weekend

So I’ve just returned from the Eagle and the going away bash for my friend Eugene, the latest victim of this “great economy” which is doing so many wonderful things for all of San Francisco.

Otherwise, a pretty uneventful weekend. Dan and Jamie came over for dinner on Friday night, I spent most of Saturday updating Did You Bring Bottles (only three months late), and today I tried unsuccessfully (again) to get my hands on some Krispy Kreme Doughuts.

Last Tuesday, as promised, we hit the grand opening. There was a line with a 90 minute wait. We went to a carnival in Oakland instead. This afternoon, the line was down to only an hour. I drove around Oakland and bought a cake at the Super K-mart instead. They’re good doughnuts, but they’re not THAT damned good.

Things I love this week:

Thing I really hate this week:

  • Long, hype-induced lines at the Krispy Kreme.

Yeah, I realize that I continue to have nothing particularly interesting to say. It’s always like that after the February sweeps, I guess…

God Hates Idiots

Fred Phelps was scheduled to visit my home town today. Good old Fred. His antics have done more to help the cause of gay rights than any paid lobbyist could ever hope to accomplish. I renew my call to add him to the payroll…

The touch of anti-Semitism is a nice testimony, I might add, about the Inner Klansman which Fred and his merry band of Topekans face each morning (after their prayers, of course) when looking in the mirror. It’s refershing to see a group which realizes that if one aspires to complete idiocy, one must at least do so consistently.

Speaking of idiots with lousy websites, anyone visited the NRA page recently? I challenge you to find one news item which isn’t in Real Audio format. Not a text article on the whole site. Earth to gun-crazy freaks: the web and TV have not merged quite yet, thank God (even though God may hate gun control too for all I know)…

At least their site will probably cause numerous individuals not to join Charlton’s Raiders (Heston’s Heroes?), so there’s some hope…

Quoth God (through Charlton Heston): “Thou shalt not kill.”

Quoth Archie Bunker (speaking of bigots and idiots): “All scotch tastes the same. It all tastes like iodine.”

Quoth Yer Humble Host: “I hate scotch. God hates iodine. Charlton Heston may hate fags, but I don’t much care”

No, it didn’t make sense, but it sounded amusing while I typed it. Probably had something to do with the lack of sleep…