A kiss is just a kiss

Finally found a blogworthy subject. It's one thing to say you're in support of gay marriage, but when two men kiss each other on national television...
I'm talking about this.
George Takai says it so much more eloquently than I could have. After reading his blog, I have to agree. America is going to have to get used to things like this happening.
I didn't see it when the incident occurred, but there were enough videos and talking heads chatting about it to make me take notice. 
Strangely, more people are upset about two men kissing, rather than two women kissing. Hmm, double standard much?
You are either open to the idea or against it. Much like being a little bit pregnant. You are or you're not. It's that simple.
You know what raised an eyebrow with me? When a male character in Doctor Who kissed the Doctor a few years back. It made me do a double take. I didn't hate it. I couldn't believe they got away with that.
This doesn't mean I am leaving my wife of 23 years. This does not mean I'm about to buy floral prints and any of the other stereotypical tropes you can imagine. So Micheal Sam found somebody who rocks his world. Good for him. This all ties together. Sam's happiness doesn't take anything away from mine. My rights end where his begins. So he's excited about being drafted by the Rams. Actually, it would be a bigger deal if he was signed to the Steelers or Cowboys.
People were upset by the open display of affection. Others expressed their bigotry over the fact a gay man was playing the 'manly' sport of football. Maybe I missed it, but nobody got upset over a black dude and a white guy kissing?
Years ago, being gay on television was a punchline. (Three's Company, Will and Grace, Modern Family) But that's all sanitized. Couples in love hold hands, kiss, and yes, have sex. My three daughters didn't just zap into existence one day.
When two people fall in love, it's almost magical. In a world of 7 billion people, you find the one who completes you. In my humble opinion, it would be a crime to deny anyone the joy I've felt for nearly the last quarter century.
So when I say I'm an ally of same sex marriage, I actually mean it. Friends are hard to come by and as time wears on, there is no room in my heart for hate and prejudice.
Do what makes you happy, Micheal Sam.   

Turning point

I'm really having a tough time deciding what today's topic is going to be about.
My quest for a new job goes on. I'm reading a book and trying to learn a new skill. I'm also reading a book for pleasure, because that's the way my mind works, by balancing things.
The study related book is about learning Joombla. What is that besides a word to make spellcheck go all red squiggily on us? It's a way to write web pages. The pleasure reading is Feast of Crows by George RR Martin. It's set slightly ahead of where the series Game of Thrones is currently and I'm okay with that.
It's not that I couldn't decide what to write, but a subject that I find interesting.
There is a group of Computer users that call themselves Anonymous. They are computer literate activists, or in their vernacular, hacktivists.
In the most general sense, they oppose internet control and they target large corporations, governments and organisations. Personally, I first heard of Anonymous when they launched a denial of service attack on the Church of Scientology. While I condone the use of illegal tactics as a means to an end, those mad 'christian' scientists had it coming. The hacktivists and Scientologists went back and forth in 2008. Improving security on their websites and Anonymous using multiple harassment tactics. My personal favorite is sending black faxes in order to make the church waste ink.
Since 2008 Anonymous took on the MPAA and the RIAA, the motion picture association and the recording industry association in response to the actions taken against content sharing sites such as Pirate Bay.
In recent years, 2011 to the present, Anonymous has taken roles in the Arab Spring, confronted the Westboro Baptist Church, and embarrassed Bank of America and the computer security firm HBGary Federal, which led to their CEO, Aaron Barr, to resign under calls for a congressional investigation. They also publicly supported and help coordinate the Occupy Wall street movements.
What crossed my desk earlier this afternoon is this. Looks like Anonymous is going to take on Wal-Mart. So far there has been nothing illegal being done, but more of a public shaming. All publicly available information on the CEO's and their families has been compiled and posted in a couple of high visibility areas.
Highlighting the disparity between the workforce and their corporate CEOs.
Addresses. Phone numbers. Arrest records. This is called Doxxing. People may find this disconcerting and even uncomfortable. Welcome to the information age.
While I agree with a lot of things Anonymous does, there are a few things they did that were counter productive. Case in point: they went after a few child pornography sites. Even after hacking and posting the user lists and credit cards. Authorities can't go after the perverts because the evidence was gathered illegally.
If you want to see what went right and wrong with these episodes of cyber vigilantism, look no further than the Steubenville rape case, brought to world attention through the actions of Anonymous.
Lastly, Anonymous released a proposed update of the U.S. Constitution. No, seriously. It's worth a read.
Weather or not you choose to take this assorted group of web activists seriously or not, this is the face of the world in the 21st century. The internet is a great equalizer. I for one approve of the direction Anonymous is going.

Updates

At first I thought I'd write about the history of Mother's day. Then I read a neat article listing things other countries think are weird about the U.S. I got a chuckle out of it. Then again what I find funny is open to interpretation.
The House of Representatives voted for an increase in the NASA budget. Of course it still has to pass the Senate... Lots of stuff going on there. The Mars rover, Curiosity, is in it's TENTH year of it's 90 day mission. Like that damn energizer bunny, it keeps going...
We're about to crash, err... land a robot on a comet.
Our robotic emissaries are on route to Pluto, Jupiter (more precisely the moons). Get ready to rewrite what we think we know.
Here is an image you may or may not have seen before.

Not photoshopped

 Look at the bottom left corner of the photo. The Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn took this shot of the polar region. Notice anything unusual? If you said that hexagonal shape, you'd be right. And we have no flipping idea what it is or how it came to be.
Proof the universe is stranger than what we believe.
After a week of hair pulling and a doctor visit, we have been given the diagnoses our middle daughter has asthma. We tried a few medications to see what worked. Hopefully, it's sorted out.
Got caught up on a bit of work, a little reading, a little studying, but didn't get started on the home made soda in preparation of family coming to town. I'll put it on the to do list for tomorrow. In the meantime, the Spurs might sweep the Portland Trailblazers and advance to the finals. Get your silver and black on.

Stages

'No battle plan survives contact with the enemy', is a phrase a lot of my military friends use. There should be a corollary to it, and it should go something like this: 'If you have a plan, forget it. Life will intervene proportionally to your need.'

So if you have nothing pressing that you must absolutely do, the world will let you slide. But heaven help you if you want to do one thing...

We're going to do a family together night. The wife and kids want to simply reconnect with each other. No TV, no computer, no phones. We might play cards.

Then the emails come in.

"Hey, do guys wanna..."

"There's a meeting tonight at..."

"Come on down and meet your friends..."
Nope, nah, not gonna happen. I have plans with my family.

And the time was well spent. I learned how my children did on their advanced placement tests. We talked about my oldest going to college. In all likelihood I'm going to have to rent a car or van and drive her up to Colorado in August. Even writing that sentence seems weird. It hasn't hit home yet. Mine were the first hands to touch her. Not the midwife, I brought her into the world. Seems fitting I'll be there to usher her into a new stage of life. Which reminds me, I'm going to have to take the time off from work to take her up there.
I'm not sure of the details, but this is where we are going. Personally, I'm looking forward to it... and all the laughter and tears that will follow. 

it's official

There's been a lot on my mind lately. If you've been tuning in to Cosmos on Fox and National Geographic. The last installment hit home on several levels.
Television should educate, entertain and inform. Most of the time it only accomplishes one of those things. Last Sunday night I got all three, but most of all, the show made me think.
There I sat, frozen to my couch. Eyes glued to the screen as the captions raced under the show. It was a good thing that I have it recorded so I can watch it again.
Neal deGrasse Tyson, the host, tackled climate change. In the past he's taken on creationists, big corporations, and mysticism disguised as science. Sunday he handled climate deniers.
Tyson talked about the previous eras in Earth's history. He even backed it up with facts and examples.
In a previous episode, Tyson discussed Clair Patterson, a geochemist who discovered we were poisoning ourselves with lead back in 1966. His findings led to the end of all products containing lead, including leaded gasoline, which was poisoning our very atmosphere.
So here we are in 2012 and this report lands on President Obama's desk.
The National Climate Assessment is a comprehensive account of climate change from 300 scientists in various fields.
If you don't want to sift through the 1,300 page report, here's a condensed summary.

Bottom line: there is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere... and we put it there. Because of that, we have this:



There are a lot of graphs in that last link, but these two hit home for me.
One of the things I got out of the last episode was that the Earth was like a rubber band and we are stretching it to the breaking point. The summers of today are not at all like the summers of 20 or 30 years ago. Think back to a summer in your childhood and ask yourself if it was as hot back then.
I already know my next car is going to be a hybrid or an all electric one. If I can manage it, I'm going to get a Tesla. I'm also going to take a look at what it would cost to put a few solar panels up on the roof... Set up a system for power collection.
Now I have friends who are going to argue with me that I'm overstating things and imagining this whole climate change, which I'm not. The evidence is changing my way of thinking. More to the point, it's altering the way I run my life.
For a moment, let's say everybody is wrong. Those scientists, the studies, the evidence and facts. Let's suppose they're completely mistaken and we all go through this for nothing.
Except it's not nothing. If we reduced or turned off the CO2 gases, we'd have a cleaner planet. If we reduced our dependence on gasoline, we'd all breathe a  little easier. What's the downside to that?

Whew!

Four people sitting around my table playing cards. A friend crashing on my all too comfy couch. My oldest recovering from her senior prom. The other two kids joined us after playing with their respective friends.
Bottling day went well yesterday. Laundry got done and the tux rental returned. My Sunday night nerd fix is about to happen.
Life goes on at my house.
Most of all, the Spurs won decisively 96 to 103. Well done gentlemen.
Here is your moment of zen for the week. Enjoy.

The aftermath

If Monday was any indication, the rest of the month is going to be very long for my girls.
Okay. So a boy who isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer brings his parents AK-47, two Glock pistols and a knife to school. The parents and authorities catch him before he can start a killing spree. Police dogs search the school and came up with no traces of ammunition or weapons. There is a continued presence of police officers in case things get out of hand. The FBI is even getting in on the act because of the false threats being posted to Facebook and twitter.
Rumors are running rampant that there was another threat made today. Weather it's serious or not, the authorities have to respond to each and every e-mail, text and tweet.
While I applaud them for stepping up and taking the safety of the students seriously, forbidding backpacks unless they are clear and or mesh seems a bit much. I think that went over the line. What next, Metal detectors?
One of the few good things that is being done is the increased presence of police. This is what is called threat deterrent.
The visibility is a message to would be troublemakers not to pull any crap. They are not terrorists. They are not jihadists on an agenda, let alone anything resembling a plan.
They are simply young adults. Bored, angry, not thinking ahead.
So this is the path I see the authorities taking.
Be calm and patient. Secure the area and perimeter of the school. Communicate with the parents to keep the family's firearms out of reach. Most of all... let cooler heads prevail.