| What could happen when 8 returns to the CA Supreme Court? |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|10:56 pm] |
I started thinking about this today, now that the legal challenge to Prop 8 is a reality rather than a backup plan.
Really, though what might happen? From my position of little-to-no expertise (IANAL!), here's what I gather:
If the CA Supreme Court rules that an exception to the "equal protection" rule is a "revision" by definition, this could be even better than if 8 had simply failed at the polls -- and not only in terms of marriage equality. Passing a revision to the state constitution is much more difficult than passing an amendment. A ruling that, as "equal protection under the law" is a fundamental part of the California constitution (and really, just on ethical grounds, equal protection should be a fundamental part of any legal system) means that depriving any group of any right guaranteed by the state constitution becomes much more difficult. An ordinary failure of 8 at the polls would have let the theocrats bring an identical "amendment" next year (or during the next election where a conservative-slanted turnout is expected, as they did with the Knight Initiative). A smackdown by the California Supreme Court, though, could end the question permanently -- the reactionary homophobes do not, and probably will not at any point in the foreseeable future, be able to put together the kind of support needed to pass a constitutional revision. And any similar measures in the future, whether aimed at LGBT people or another easy-to-pick-on group, would no longer be able to take advantage of the initiative system to put rights up to the vote of a simple majority.
Of course, this is a best-case scenario, and I could be completely wrong about how the whole thing works. Maybe we need to work on a constitutional revision to get a stronger equal-protection cause in place -- which would certainly be a worthwhile project. |
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| Note to California: |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|08:18 am] |
So, it seems the count might take awhile on That One Issue. Really, though, if y'all don't start backpedalling pretty damn quickly?
Fuck you all, I'm leaving.
(*"you all" in this case should not be interpreted to include no-on-8 voters, which should be every California voter on my flist.)
Because it's not just marriage, though being so flatly insulted by half the electorate does add insult to injury. It's about the principle of equal protection, which is part of why even homophobes should've had the presence of mind to reject 8. Because if "equal protection under the law" can be cancelled with a bare majority vote, then no rights are safe for anybody. Yeah, there's still the U.S. Constitution -- but once you allow the California constitution to make exceptions to the really broad ethical principles, how long do you think you'll be safe? |
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| Alas, poor RAM slot... |
[Nov. 2nd, 2008|02:48 pm] |
Found the problem that was keeping my desktop comp from starting up.
One of the RAM slots had gone bad. Actually, two of the comp's four RAM slots (one in each dual-channel-compatible pair) seem to have died. Fortunately, I don't need dual-channel, so I'm back up and running with my usual 2x1GB, but it looks like my motherboard might not be long for this world.
If it goes (or if I replace it before it has a chance to do so), I might replace the case at the same time -- my current (HP-supplied) one makes it nearly impossible to reach the RAM. (Given that I had to try a few different combinations to figure out what was wrong and how to make it right, this was pretty horrendously frustrating). |
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| Plan B... |
[Nov. 1st, 2008|05:29 pm] |
I ended up abandoning the 24-hour NaNoWriMo kickoff.
At first I was just going to run off for a nap; I was already sleep-deprived by midnight, so once I'd gotten about a 2k-word start I went home for a bit. Today I caught up with the group for a couple of hours and made more progress, then went to lunch with friends.
After that, though, I was realy starting to worry about how much rain was coming down. Not enough to worry about under normal circumstances, but definitely enough that I wanted to take a crack at patching up my skylight before something sensitive and electrical got wet.
This turned out to be a good thing -- if I'd waited until tonight, one whole end of my bed would have been soaked and well on its way to mildewville.
So I'm still going to spend awhile writing, but I'll also be checking regularly to see if my duct-tape patch is holding up. (Tomorrow I'll probably borrow a ladder so I can cover the skylight with plastic from the outside; water is currently still getting trapped between the layers of window plastic, which isn't something I really want to see continuing to happen.)
At least The Snake and the Crocus is off to a decent start -- I now have more sense of the plot (not to mention how I'll be using the title as a recurring pair of symbols). |
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| NaNoWriMo countdown! |
[Oct. 31st, 2008|01:13 pm] |
10 hours, 49 minutes to go.
This time, to get NaNoWriMo off to a good start (as opposed to "barely getting started at all" or "not getting started at all", I'm joining up with a writeup this year. We're meeting up at 11:30 tonight, starting writing at midnight, and continuing for the next 24 hours.
Considering that I was woken up at 6 this morning (after 5 hours of sleep) by a leaky skylight dripping directly on my forehead (though woo-hoo! rain!), this could get...interesting. The first few chapters of The Snake and the Crocus might be a bit more surreal than I'd originally intended. |
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| Beep interpretation |
[Oct. 29th, 2008|06:07 pm] |
Still not having any luck with my desktop comp. I went in and checked all the fans and physical connections; everything's hooked-up as it should be. Still no signal to the monitor at any point after the comp is turned on, though.
I am getting a pattern of beeps from the hardware, though (and not through the sound card -- the hardware itself is beeping). It's a pattern of alternating one- and four-second beeps (the longer might be 3.5-second or so, since I'm not perfectly accurate counting out seconds, but the shorter is almost definitely 1-second). I'm going to poke around onlline and see if this is significant, but there are several of you on my flist whose opinions I'd trust more than someone on a random community tech-support message board.
ETA: According to the HP website, my comp's running an Award BIOS...meaning the beep codes really aren't helpful. The next time it's light when I'm home (which may not be until this weekend), I'll go through and clean out all the heat sinks, vents, fans, etc. and, if that doesn't help, figure out if one of the memory modules has gone bad or needs to be reseated. Gah. |
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| Food explorations! |
[Oct. 28th, 2008|11:29 pm] |
I've been dabbling in the dark art of pupusa-making.
It's not just that they're so unfairly delicious -- their main ingredients are Maseca and water, meaning they hit the broke-college-student Holy Trinity of "cheap, nutritious, and yummy." So I've been trying my hand at them.
And yes, as I'd suspected, making pupusas is definitely a skill which requires some practice. I'm still in the phase where I'm trying to figure out the right amount of moisture in the dough, which is important; after that, it'll be on to getting the shaping skills down.
So tonight, I had another plate with a few rather dry and malformed quasi-pupusas...and the pot of ratatouille I'd made as backup (as ratatouille is one of those things which just seems to get better in the fridge, so there was no real loss if I put off eating it). Instead of wasting the pupusesque...things...or eating them plain, I tossed them in a bowl and covered them with ratatouille.
Dude, I think I saw God...and I'm not a monotheist. Pupusas are what ratatouille never knew it was missing. This is a combination of foods which I will probably be exploring in quite some depth over the next few months.
I need to find the appropriate set of fillings for the pupusas, though. (My attempted pupusas so far have been plain -- one step at a time!) I'm thinking...loroco, cheese, and morels, sautéed in truffle butter? |
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| Ugh. No desktop comp. |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|06:47 pm] |
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Got back from San Diego last night -- and either my desktop comp or its monitor has decided to throw a fit. The comp starts up (and all the fans are running -- I've had fan failures before), but sends no signal (at all) to the monitor. There are a few sporadic (if distinctly non-encouraging) beeps from what may be the hard drive (I can't pin down where the sound is coming from). Using my laptop now, but all my games and most of my fiction are on the desktop comp. |
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| New Prop 8 ads... |
[Oct. 26th, 2008|05:53 pm] |
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Warning! If California doesn't pass Prop 8, public schools may actually be required to give kids honest information! This is absolutely unacceptable -- it's the inalienable right of every heterosexually-married biological parent to misinform their children about state laws without the interference of the state. Next thing you know, they'll be indoctrinating our kids by telling them that it's illegal to beat queers to death in public places -- how ridiculous is that? |
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| It's that time again... |
[Oct. 25th, 2008|10:10 pm] |
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It's time for me to find another job. Not in place of the tutoring one, but in addition. As of this January I need to be completely self-supporting, for which I'll need another 20 hours or so a week. Unfortunately, given the schedule for classes and the job I do have, this will mostly mean night and/or weekend shifts. It really, really doesn't help that both my employment and education records are distinctly spotty; at this point I don't look good for much beyond the "show up, work, get paid for the day" sort of thing. By next summer I'll be able to re-assess my resumé, but for the moment I'll take whatever I can find. It doesn't help that the job market is going to suck in Antelope Valley for a long time...at least a shortage of options means less worrying about having too many decisions to make. |
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| My next bumper sticker? |
[Oct. 25th, 2008|06:59 pm] |
"Proposition 8: supported by liars, bigots, thugs, blackmailers and theocrats all over California!"
Too long for a bumper sticker, maybe...but it still works as a slogan. |
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| A job I now kinda wish I'd taken... |
[Oct. 19th, 2008|04:24 pm] |
A few years ago, when I was living in San Diego, I turned down a job offer from an organization I respected. It wasn't the pay or benefits (or effective lack of either) -- I wasn't in it for the money, it was a cause I supported, and at the time it was a life path I considered my first choice. Unfortunately, they needed someone who would be comfortable canvassing, phoning, and doing the assorted other community-organizer things which my own social issues make me both mediocre-at-best at and terrified of. Public speaking I can handle -- talking one-on-one with strangers, even about something I believe in, just freaks me out.
Now, though, this organization has been getting a great deal of press and I sometimes wish that I'd taken the job -- because this year I could, instead of a part-time high-school teacher and engineering student, be one of the ACORN organizers copying down hate mail and terrorist threats from McCain/Palin supporters. |
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| The U.S. elections... |
[Oct. 15th, 2008|10:37 pm] |
For those of you in close states, remember a variation on a bit of French advice from a few years back:
Votez pour le con, pas le facho.
Meanwhile, here in California, I can vote for someone who doesn't suck (and actually supports my right to get married!). |
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| Yay desktop comp! |
[Oct. 15th, 2008|10:07 pm] |
My "real" computer is now running and on the wireless network. I have a fully-wired truck!
Unfortunately, I probably can't/shouldn't run this at the same time as my space heater, which will limit my late-night gaming somewhat. |
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| Not how I like to start a day, weekend, or trip: |
[Oct. 10th, 2008|03:42 pm] |
As I was leaving home today to start on my drive to Sacramento, I noticed that the turquoise minivan of the very friendly couple who recently moved into one of the bedrooms of my house (or "the house my bedroom is parked outside of") had a bumper sticker.
A Pro-8, "restore marriage" bumper sticker.
It's probably a good thing that I saw this while leaving, giving me a few days to cool down rather than knocking on their door and unloading a whole stream of multilingual abuse -- but that's not the kind of thing I want setting the pace for my trip. It pisses me off even more than usual because this was right outside the place I live. I share a kitchen with these people. |
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| California disappoints me... |
[Oct. 7th, 2008|11:32 pm] |
It seems that Proposition 8 is pulling ahead in the polls.
I'm on the verge of deciding that if 8 passes, I'm sticking around long enough to get all the state-subsidized education I can carry and then applying for jobs in a short list of other countries. Because, really, if that many people even in California think that little of me? Fuck 'em, I'm leaving. |
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| Since I'm officially an engineering student... |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|08:02 pm] |
There's a company in SoCal in the process of setting up a utility-scale solar-power plant -- in Antelope Valley.
This week I need to call them and inform them that they'll be offering me an internship. |
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| London in December? |
[Sep. 30th, 2008|02:38 pm] |
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It looks like I'll be in London this December 20-28. For those of you who have been there (or are there now) -- is there anything you'd recommend seeing/doing while there? |
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| 3 cups of coffee before voice class: |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|11:31 pm] |
...bad idea. On the upside, my little portable voice recorder works better than I'd hoped -- on the downside, this lets me hear very clearly when I'm flat, when I run out of breath, and when I flip vowels off my throat.
So no, I won't be sharing tonight's rehearsal. |
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| Memo to the Knights of the Order of M |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|08:27 pm] |
You know who you are, and this memo is being made publicly in order to humiliate y'all for not doing a better job at your first mission.
Knights of the Order of M, Mission I: Find M a Man has been suspended. We may, after almost a year, be reuniting with our Snugglebunny, so further efforts in this mission would be misplaced at this time.
Since none of you have managed to complete Mission I, you will all remain on probationary status until we decide on a new Mission I. |
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