August 2009 Archives

It isn’t that much, but I had been looking to redo the top main navigation bar at the Erie Gay News site and I finally got around to it. I am using the Spry menu bar within Dreamweaver for now. I decided that I should tuck it into an include file, and that way, if I decide to make a subsequent change, I only have to edit and upload the include file. The menu bar reads from a database. I have been developing a homegrown content management system over the years.

There is some other redesign stuff that I mean to get to eventually, but getting this out of the way felt very good.

This seems to be the weekend for getting stuff done that I have been meaning to do for a while. I finally got around to posting the photos from last year’s Pagan Pride Day.

And it is only 2 weeks until this year’s event!

I took the day off as I was scheduled to have the furnace and water heater replaced today. I have long felt guilty for being so thoroughly crappy and basically scared of anything related to home maintenance. So, although this is not cheap, it does feel good to confront my fears.

I got up slightly late, and walked downstairs just as the workers were showing up, so the timing worked out pretty good for that.

At one point, one of the workers came upstairs and asked, “Mike Mahler, right?” I thought he looked slightly familiar. It turns out that he had seen me at some of the events that the Covenant of Brighid’s Haven has held. I brought up about Erie’s 5th Annual Pagan Pride Day being on Saturday, September 12. I also mentioned about the recently created United NeoPagan Council of Lake Erie Announcement email list.

So, what have I been doing on my day off from being a computer programmer/analyst? Why, keying in data and making some code changes to the Erie Gay News site, of course! I finally got around to entering some events, and I also improved some of the code for pages containing contests. I also sent the notification about the Kristine W contest that we launched today. I mean to re-work some other parts of the site as well.

I was driving home from work when I saw a van for a firm labeled something like “Achilles Running Shop.”

Can I just point out that in terms of running and feet, Achilles might not be the most positive association. Maybe their slogan is “We’ll heal your injured feet?” (Yeah, I know, not the right word.)

What’s next? Other ideas for rather unfortunately named businesses for Greek mythology include:

• Medusa Cosmetics
• Trojan Horse Security Systems
• Medea Day Care
• Cassandra Forecasting

I read today’s Erie Times News and saw the story about Randy McElwain swimming Lake Erie in record time. I was sort of thrown by the photo and the story. Way back in 1992, I did my first public speaking as an out gay man for WSEE TV 35’s story about the recent second degree murder conviction of 2 men. The reporter was Randy McIlwain, and he did a few subsequent stories while he was in the the area. The spelling of the names is slightly different (and they definitely have different appearances :) ), but how odd that there are 2 guys with almost the same rather uncommon name with ties to Erie PA.

Yesterday, Deb and I were finishing the latest issue of Erie Gay News, which went fairly well. At one point, I was picking up some papers and stuff to check on the proof copy and I found a rather foofy white glove.

I didn’t recognize it, so I asked Deb. She was also unfamiliar with it, so the image I had was that secret drag queen ninjas had sneaked into my house and left it as a message that they had been there. Or it could have gotten tangled up with laundry over at Deb’s, which got bundled into her backpack, but the drag queen ninjas story is ever so much more colorful.

I am at work now, taking a brief break from the Drenched Fur Summer event at Waldameer. it’s a rather small turnout, but it is nice meeting a few new faces.

When I thought about going out to pick up some lunch and check email, I discovered a brand-new ride/attraction! “Wandering around the parking lot for half an hour looking for your car, whilst wondering it had been stolen or if you are just going senile, only to later realize that you are in the OTHER parking lot at Waldameer. Duh!”

Oh well, it was some exercise and when I got in to work to check on email, I found a note from Deb about an ad to be fixed, so I connected to the home PC and we have it taken care of.

All’s well that ends well!

I went over to Mom’s for a very nice birthday dinner. It was wonderful visiting, and I also helped her hook up a VCR/DVD recorder/player.

I also noticed something interesting about the relationship to my age as of this birthday, my grandmother’s age as of her birthday in just under 2 month’s, and Mom’s wedding anniversary that she celebrated in February of this year. As of Grandma’s birthday, I will be half her age, and Mom’s birthday is half of my age. My birthday this year happens to also be the number of chromosomes found in a typical human body cell (i.e. diploid) and Mom’s anniversary is haploid/same number of chromosomes found in a gamete.

Yeah, I have too much time on my hands. ;)

I had a security system installed at home last week, that has been working out fairly well. Yesterday, I was at a hair appointment and the cell phone rang. The security system said that the alarm had gone off and did I want to send the police. I wasn’t sure, but I said to go ahead and do that.

About 45 minutes later, I got home to see what was up. It appeared as if the police hadn’t gotten then (rather disconcerting), but I discovered what set off the alarm: a ceramic bowl had fallen and broken, which triggered the alarm looking for the sound of glass breaking, apparently. So, I called the security folks to cancel the false alarm. “Unless the police feel like sweeping up some broken pottery, that is.”

My brother-in-law emailed me birthday greetings today, with a message header of 0x002C. I didn’t get it at first, but then I realized what he meant. However, I pointed out that I was turning 0x002E this year.

Just think! I am in my late twenties – if we are counting in hexadecimal. And in two years, I hit the big 0x0030!

I had an email from a woman in Butler this morning who asked if there was something like a chapter of PFLAG in Butler or one of the adjoining communities. I wrote back to tell her that there was actually a group of folks working on forming exactly that.

Earlier, I was emailing with some wonderful women who are forming a GLBT parents’ group and they apparently were contacted by some friends who are parents that I had forwarded info to.

Whenever I can help folks connect or find a needed resource, it just makes me feel happy and useful. Neither of these things were particularly difficult and they may not be earth-shattering, but feeling like one is hopefully making a difference is a joy in my life.

I am also gearing up for the Great Nationwide Kiss-In tomorrow. I am hoping that goes well.

I had a phone conference this morning to discuss some possible modifications to the fundraising software. There was a total of 4 of us in the conversation. Oddly enough, there as only 1 person whose first name wasn’t Mike. I told him that it was confusing. He said something about “Abby Normal” and I picked up on the Young Frankenstein reference and said that no, it was pronounced Eye-gor.

Erie Gay News (with some help from other organizations) had an info booth at the recent Jazz and Blues Fest this past weekend. The United NeoPagan Council of Lake Erie also had a booth.

At one point, a woman stopped by and said “Hi, Mike.” I thought that she looked familiar, and I instantly launched into the gay tour guide/resource referral thing. I thought that it was someone from a previous incarnation of Womynspace. It turns out that it was a former co-worker. We had a nice chat. I was amused that I was apparently on lesbian auto pilot. It was good catching up.

There was a gaggle of very nice early 20 somethings who stopped by on Sunday. I think that they might have been from Ashtabula. The LBT Women volunteers were mostly working the table at that point. It ended up with everyone pretty much hugging everyone else. One rather cute young guy hugged me out of the blue. I don’t that any of the folks were necessarily gay, but at least one of them did have a gay uncle. They were just being friendly and pleasant.