Recently in Oddments Category

I was at a meeting yesterday for planning Drenched Fur, which is going fairly well. We were discussing what to serve at the after hours party for Friday and Saturday.

While we were debating, someone referred to making sandwiches and referred to the brand name “Boar’s Head.”

My ears perked up. I had never heard of the food company, but my first thought was of the traditional Christmas carol from England. (Which I can pretty much sing from memory, and I even have a few versions of it on my iPod. Yeah. Big time geeky nerd here.)

I think that I first heard the song at an SCA event in Pittsburgh AKA the Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands.

Oddly enough, the gentleman sitting next to me at the meeting was English and had never heard of the carol before.

Overall, it was a good meeting and I am glad to be working with the folks that are on the committee.

My friend Kelly is trying to come up with a name for her craft business. Her last name also begins with a K, and somehow, it came up that a possibility that might not work would be KK Krafts.

I pointed out that in addition to whatever other issues might exist, the initials might not be optimal. Kelly is an incredibly sweet and kind person, so I really don’t think that decoupaged holders for a burning cross or adorable stuffed Klan teddy bears in hand sewn white robes with swastikas embroidered on their tummies was the sort of thing that she was going for.

I think that I have had variations of the actor's nightmare before. Odd, as I haven't done theater in 5 years, and I never did that much of it. I was in some form of musical comedy that was a period piece. (The real world antecedent might have been seeing the film version of The Producers musical a few weeks ago.) I was playing a stereotypically gay guy. At first, I only realized that I didn't know what my lines were. I think that we all had small colored books with the lines and notes in them. At one point, I had to sing some kind of number while dancing with another guy. I couldn't dance, sing and read at the same time, so I just sort of ended up making it up, figuring that that the lyrics would be so many verses of such a pattern of syllables. We could se the audience. It felt awkward being so unprepared.

It seemed like while I was frantically trying to read from the book with the lines that the text was changing, or I couldn't find what other people were reading from.

Then the writer/official writer came in during the middle of thing and presented us with some kind of award and sarcastically labeled us as being the worst performers ever. Everyone left, feeling embarrassed and shamed.

We were then eating in what seemed like a basement of the theatre that felt like as cafeteria/restaurant. Everyone was sitting at tables with a few friends from the cast.  Maybe because I cognized that text changing on you was indicative of being in a dream, I asked the entire room if anyone remembered having gone to a rehearsal or reading. A young girl mentioned about having seen the national production. I said "Yeah, but how about this one? This is a dream. I am dreaming all of this right now." I tried to say more, but my voice got all muddled, like I had peanut butter filling my mouth, and then they couldn't hear me. I wanted to prove to them that this was a dream, so I turned everyone into an ear of corn, which here all husked. I think I turned them back. Then I woke up and the alarm to wake up went off.

Weird. I don't recall my dreams very often, but I do occasionally get lucid ones.

When I came home from work today, I was sorting through the mail, and I noticed that I got a  pitch from the National Rifle Association to become a member. I guffawed out loud when I realized what it was.

Bear in mind, I have never used a real firearm in my life. I don’t even recall being particularly interested in toy guns when I was a kid. Not especially opposed or repelled by it, you understand, but it is something that I have no particular interest in, sort like football. I am sure that when I get excited about some of my interests, other peoples’ eyes undoubtedly glaze over in the same way.

In addition to never having used a gun, I also don’t drink or smoke, so from the perspective of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, I pretty much don’t exist.

I wondered if the NRA was just clueless or if someone was trying some kind of prank. (It wasn’t a “Dear Occupant” thing – it had my name on it.) If it was intended as a prank, it didn’t really work, since I find the whole thing a hoot.

It may be a silly tradition, but it’s mine, darn it! Every year, I tape the holiday cards that I get to the fireplace and then take a photo. I was bad this year – money was kind of tight, so I skipped sending cards out this time. Hopefully, next year things will be better.

It really makes me feel warm and fuzzy to have so many good people in my life. I have a lot to be grateful for.

My dog Heracles decided to pull a Crasher Squirrel and got in the photo.

10 years go:: I ended up spending a quiet night at home for New Year’s Eve. It might very well be close to the same this year, although I might also go out. Actually, 10 years ago wasn’t so bad in comparison to the 2 succeeding New Years.

9 years ago, on New Year’s Eve, December 2000, my partner at the time and I went out to the old Zone. I think that we wore M&M boxer shorts. Well, our initials were both MM and it was the year 2000 or MM in Roman numerals, so why the heck not. My leather jacket was stolen from the bar (not fun since it was very cold) and there was some post bar stuff that became a landslides of mishaps. It was annoying at the time, but it made for a good story later.

8 years ago, we went to a neighbors’ post bar party. I am fine with walking, but the partner (soon to be an ex within slightly less than a year) insisted on driving the 2-4 blocks. We found a parking space directly across the street. Unfortunately, some drunken ditz at the after bar party backed out to the driveway and smacked into my car. It left a dent and the car ended up dying anyway later that year, right around the time of the break up.

7 years ago was just after the break up. However, I had already grieved before he moved out and was actually over it by then. (A sure sign that it needed to be over.) Even though I was single, I was just thankful that year that there was no property casualty for New Year’s Eve. I didn’t want to think what would come after a leather jacket, then a car.

So, here’s to a bright and happy New Year for all of us!

I had resolved that I would try to get a few things done whilst I am off on vacation. Yesterday, I did a fair amount of cleaning (the refrigerator – which badly needed it), and I even vacuumed the corners of the rooms, which I couldn’t help but think of as “domestic detailing”, like auto detailing.)

I wasn’t sure how much of a difference that putting the plastic film over the windows helps, but went ahead. My inner sarcastic voice said “Oh yeah. Put up something like Saran Wrap, and you’ll be toasty warm. Whatever.”

Every year, work gives us a gift certificate for a local butcher shop, so I generally stock up and try to freeze in single serving sizes. I got that out of the way, and then used the vacuum food sealer, so I ended up with oodles of bags of stuff. Apparently the domestic theme is “shrink wrapping for the holidays!”

One of the projects that I wanted to work on for the Erie Gay News web site for the calendar page was adding a field for events to tie in the venue resource, as opposed to the resource for contact. In the sort of home grown content management system that I wrote for the newsletter, I had previously added a selection when adding a new event to pick a resource and then fill in the location and contact info. I also had it link back to the resource entry from the calendar page and the calendar RSS feed.

The problem occurs when when a resource has an event at another resource. I typically had chosen the venue resource and then rekeyed other stuff, but that was a small amount of work.

As an example, the LBT Women meet at Presque Isle Gallery Coffeehouse every month. I previously had keyed these in. So, when I added the field for venue resource, I was then able to link to the venue’s phone and web site, as well as for the group. Less keying for me! I thought that might also be useful in that someone might want to call before the event for info, but might also need to know the venue phone if they got lost or there was another crisis.

I also added a field for meeting text, since some of the groups that meet regularly tend to have fairly standard text for their meetings, or at least have something. Copy and paste may be our friend, but having something fill in automatically is better yet.

Yeah, I am a big geeky nerd, but getting this accomplished made me feel pretty good. And since I upgraded the code for the calendar RSS feed, that means that the extra info for venue stuff now appears not only on our site, but the 10 or so sites that carry our calendar RSS feed. (I also fixed the annoying display format for when an event spans more than 1 day.)

Earlier this evening, I was in the chat room at gay.com after I had finished the rest of keying the 2009 GLBT history events and posting them as articles.

A guy IM’ed me and asked if I was interested in getting together. I didn't feel particularly interested, and I said that I was catching up on some geek tasks. he then asked about the future, and I mentioned that I was usually pretty busy with GLBT stuff, Pagan stuff and Democratic Party stuff. (I.e. my schedule is usually fairly busy.) He said that he usually didn’t go out in Erie, but rather in Pittsburgh.

He then mentioned that he was also into politics. I said something about that was nice, and he said that I might not think so. I asked if that meant that he was a Republican, and he said that he was a Constitutionalist, whom I believe are usually even more right wing than the Republicans. He then went on to say that he had voted for Reagan. (Mentally, I am trying to not instantly classify him as a self-loathing closet case, but it was tough.) Yes, I know that there are gay conservatives, but it is not something I get, and it is pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

Can I just say that from my personal perspective that the phrase “I voted for Reagan” ranks right up there with “Hey! Let’s check out my scorching herpes outbreak and then we can go look at the corpses buried in my basement!” as a pick up line?

I was responding with some fairly non-committal variations on “okey-dokey” to all of this.

Then he asks about getting together again. I say that I am about to go out and wish him a nice evening. I resisted the urge to response to the inquiry about getting together with “Only if you are incredibly hot, and the only thing I hear from you are variations on ‘Oh yeah! Pound me harder!!!.” And even then, probably not. I have standards, I am not saying that they aren’t low, but there are, indeed, standards.

I felt the need to cleanse myself, so I went out to the Zone. It was a nice night. I chatted with some friends. I saw my friend John (who is rather hot, and also charming) and John pointed out that there seemed to be a preponderance of black and white flannel shirts being worn that night. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I couldn’t help but notice it the rest of the evening.

So, some more geek stuff to work on during vacation. I think that I need to turn in now.

As if we needed confirmation. The coordinator for G2H2 (Gay Guy/Girl Happy Hour) just sent in the listing for the January 8, so I figured I would post it. I was doing my normal routine of line up various calendar web sites and copy and paste like mad.

When I got to the community calendar page for WICU TV 12, the local NBC affiliate, I noticed that a lot of them were ones that I had sent in. I tallied it up: Out of the 15 events in the listing, 10 were ones that I am fairly sure that I had sent in. (What with sending in stuff for both GLBT, Pagan and Erie County Democratic Party, I probably end up giving them a fair amount of material.)

Oh yeah, in terms of Pagan stuff, my patron deity is Hermes. Just as Catholics might focus on a saint that they feel particularly resonates for them, Pagans will sometimes choose a patron deity. I think I chose what is most correct for me.

A co-workerwas having problems with restoring some Exchange public folders. He eventually had to give up and emailed the office that there were new, empty folders and that he was sorry for the incontinence. (He was also handling a phone call at the time, and the spell check had corrected the word to “incontinence” rather then “inconvenience”.) I guffawed loudly and headed back. Another programmer was already back there giggling. The original sender was sort of sheepish.

Ensuing emails were about collecting for the “Depends for ____” fund. I pointed out that we would have to find the I Pee address first.