Saturday, May 31, 2008
I have to admit that I'm moved by this site
I don't care how liberal/pretentious/Seattle it makes me seem, I'm moved by this stuff. Seattle Homeless Youth.
lots of random photos from two recent trips
The water photos are from a trip Angel and I took last weekend to Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island, WA. The mountains are from Baker Lake, near Mt. Baker in WA. I went there with some folks from Multifaith Works.
Friday, May 30, 2008
W.T.F.?!
I don't know what to say about this picture other than it's Jesus riding a horse and wielding a lance made from light. Was this created by some sort of weird Christian D&D nerd? I'm just...speechless...
Murder City Redux
Just thinking about this show--a reunion 2 years ago--after hearing a song on the radio, and found out there's a good new YouTube video. Not sure if there will be a longer film from More Dust Than Digital. I was in the crowd on the left, but I don't think you can see me.
Dangerously Faithful
Is this for real? I don't know. Watch the video, and here's the guy's website. Fresh Fire indeed.
Maybe it's just an elaborate hoax designed to make Christians look like dangerous lunatics ready to attack at their first impulse. You know, like the Prince Caspian movie, or the War in Iraq.
Hot tip to Justice and Compassion.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Baby Gramps and Tommy Dean
I went to the Seattle Folklife Festival today. I really wanted to hate it-- hippies hula hooping and middle-aged white liberals with no rhythm or inhibitions dancing to Samba. You know, the usual.
However, the fact is, I really liked it. More specifically, I really liked the following two musicians:
Tommy Dean, who seems like he might be the kind of crazy genius that I so frequently find myself enamored with. He sang this absolutely brilliant song called, I think, "Look Up", which I can't find on the internet. (As far as I know he really just spends his time playing at the Pike Place Market, but I'd guess that he's going to get some underground country publicity.) Here's something different from him:
He played with Baby Gramps, who was also brilliant. Apparently people know about him already.
However, the fact is, I really liked it. More specifically, I really liked the following two musicians:
Tommy Dean, who seems like he might be the kind of crazy genius that I so frequently find myself enamored with. He sang this absolutely brilliant song called, I think, "Look Up", which I can't find on the internet. (As far as I know he really just spends his time playing at the Pike Place Market, but I'd guess that he's going to get some underground country publicity.) Here's something different from him:
He played with Baby Gramps, who was also brilliant. Apparently people know about him already.
Back and Forth
I've not been in the blogging mood lately...
My life during the last three years has been a constant nervous mess as I've gone back and forth on discernment, and I'm as sick (and increasingly bored) of going through it as you are of reading about it.
For an update in the process though, I've realized that I'm finally at peace about whatever happens with ordination. For the last month I've been thinking that I'd rather not deal with the cost that comes along with ordination, and now I'm back around to thinking it might be worth it. In any case, what happens happens.
I've decided that I'm going to be honest regardless. Generally the priest's role has involved a lot of pious lie-telling, and I'm going to avoid that--even if it means I won't be ordained. We'll see how that plays out with the community, but if I'm going to be a priest, I'd like to at least be an honest priest.
So, from here out, to hell with trying to convince people that I measure up, and to hell with pretending I'm a Christian in a sense that I'm really not.
My life during the last three years has been a constant nervous mess as I've gone back and forth on discernment, and I'm as sick (and increasingly bored) of going through it as you are of reading about it.
For an update in the process though, I've realized that I'm finally at peace about whatever happens with ordination. For the last month I've been thinking that I'd rather not deal with the cost that comes along with ordination, and now I'm back around to thinking it might be worth it. In any case, what happens happens.
I've decided that I'm going to be honest regardless. Generally the priest's role has involved a lot of pious lie-telling, and I'm going to avoid that--even if it means I won't be ordained. We'll see how that plays out with the community, but if I'm going to be a priest, I'd like to at least be an honest priest.
So, from here out, to hell with trying to convince people that I measure up, and to hell with pretending I'm a Christian in a sense that I'm really not.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Capitol Hill Religion: For the Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay
Last week, I put up this post about religion on Capitol Hill in Seattle, hinting that I'd be posting again about what I think religion should look like here. Having thought about it a bit, I've come to realize that that whole endeavor is a little bit silly. Capitol Hill is a sampler platter of culture, and religion is really just culture that's been sanctified by magic hands and holy potlucks.
The fact is that I'm glad that there are a bunch of different groups that have organized the varieties of religious experience on the hill, and it's stupid to try to distill that into one "should" of religion here. That might be obvious to some, but honestly I think that ultimately that's what a lot of religious leader types aim for--at least those coming from a Christian perspective, which I can speak for somewhat authoritatively. As an individual, at best I think what you can say about the "should" of religion on Capitol Hill is that you have to hold to it pretty loosely. You have to approach things from a generally pluralist perspective if you want to be able to stay sane in a culture that is as mix and match as this one. It's not surprising that you meet a lot of cafeteria religion types around here. For faith communities, my guess is that the best you can do is try to fill a niche. The Hill for Jesus is great, as long as you don't mean the whole Hill.
As a member of a religious community, this is a difficult tension to keep. I'm a St. Mark's Episcopalian, and despite my aspirations to religious leadership, I'm generally personally non-committal on religious suggestions that go beyond "be good" and "love people". However, I've also got an interest in seeing my community continue to survive and thrive, and that sort of saccharine religiosity generally doesn't go far enough to be appealing. We're a healthy community in terms of population and resources, but we have to figure out how to continue to be so. Because there just aren't very many Episcopalians out there anymore, it's not exactly clear how to do that. Being reflective of the culture is important, and we've done that pretty well in adopting an aggressive position on social justice issues and inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. My feeling is that people on the Hill, in all of their diversity, have a generally positive view of the St. Mark's community, which is a good thing I suppose. (See The Stranger review of their worship here: It's number 29.) We've also been aggressively gay-friendly, which goes a long way in our neighborhood. Despite it's recent troubles, St. Mark's is actually probably in a more stable position than any other church in the city besides Mars Hill. Go figure.
(On MTV's old show The State, there was a sketch called "The Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay" which I was going to use to preface this post. However, apparently they haven't finished putting everything that has ever happened up on the internet, so I couldn't find video. Here's the script though. Thanks for the transcription whoever's site this is)
The Jew, The Italian, and The Red Head Gay
David (Jew), Ken (Italian) and Kevin (Red head Gay): The Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay, we all live together on Avenue A, we have zany adventures from day to day.
David: The Jew!
Ken: The Italian!
Kevin: And the Red Head Gay!
David: Come on Ken, it's the end of the month. We need the money for the rent, where's the money?
Ken: Oh, I'm sorry Dave, I spent it all on pasta. I'm gonna make a big tomato sauce.
Kevin: Oh, I would help you with that Ken, but I'm busy picking out these pretty curtain patterns for the apartment.
David: Fine, I'm gonna go get some bagels, I guess.
Kevin: Okay. Toodleoo schnookums!
Ken: All right Dave, Ariverderchi!
Ken, David, and Kevin: The Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay, we all live together on Avenue A, we each see the world in our own way.
David: The Jew!
Ken: The Italian!
Gay: And the Red--Head--ha--Gaaaaaaaaaay!!!
(great 70's disco music)
Whole Cast in ridiculous costumes: The Red Head Gaaaay, the red head gaaaay, the red head gaaaaaay. The red head gay!
The fact is that I'm glad that there are a bunch of different groups that have organized the varieties of religious experience on the hill, and it's stupid to try to distill that into one "should" of religion here. That might be obvious to some, but honestly I think that ultimately that's what a lot of religious leader types aim for--at least those coming from a Christian perspective, which I can speak for somewhat authoritatively. As an individual, at best I think what you can say about the "should" of religion on Capitol Hill is that you have to hold to it pretty loosely. You have to approach things from a generally pluralist perspective if you want to be able to stay sane in a culture that is as mix and match as this one. It's not surprising that you meet a lot of cafeteria religion types around here. For faith communities, my guess is that the best you can do is try to fill a niche. The Hill for Jesus is great, as long as you don't mean the whole Hill.
As a member of a religious community, this is a difficult tension to keep. I'm a St. Mark's Episcopalian, and despite my aspirations to religious leadership, I'm generally personally non-committal on religious suggestions that go beyond "be good" and "love people". However, I've also got an interest in seeing my community continue to survive and thrive, and that sort of saccharine religiosity generally doesn't go far enough to be appealing. We're a healthy community in terms of population and resources, but we have to figure out how to continue to be so. Because there just aren't very many Episcopalians out there anymore, it's not exactly clear how to do that. Being reflective of the culture is important, and we've done that pretty well in adopting an aggressive position on social justice issues and inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. My feeling is that people on the Hill, in all of their diversity, have a generally positive view of the St. Mark's community, which is a good thing I suppose. (See The Stranger review of their worship here: It's number 29.) We've also been aggressively gay-friendly, which goes a long way in our neighborhood. Despite it's recent troubles, St. Mark's is actually probably in a more stable position than any other church in the city besides Mars Hill. Go figure.
(On MTV's old show The State, there was a sketch called "The Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay" which I was going to use to preface this post. However, apparently they haven't finished putting everything that has ever happened up on the internet, so I couldn't find video. Here's the script though. Thanks for the transcription whoever's site this is)
The Jew, The Italian, and The Red Head Gay
David (Jew), Ken (Italian) and Kevin (Red head Gay): The Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay, we all live together on Avenue A, we have zany adventures from day to day.
David: The Jew!
Ken: The Italian!
Kevin: And the Red Head Gay!
David: Come on Ken, it's the end of the month. We need the money for the rent, where's the money?
Ken: Oh, I'm sorry Dave, I spent it all on pasta. I'm gonna make a big tomato sauce.
Kevin: Oh, I would help you with that Ken, but I'm busy picking out these pretty curtain patterns for the apartment.
David: Fine, I'm gonna go get some bagels, I guess.
Kevin: Okay. Toodleoo schnookums!
Ken: All right Dave, Ariverderchi!
Ken, David, and Kevin: The Jew, the Italian and the Red Head Gay, we all live together on Avenue A, we each see the world in our own way.
David: The Jew!
Ken: The Italian!
Gay: And the Red--Head--ha--Gaaaaaaaaaay!!!
(great 70's disco music)
Whole Cast in ridiculous costumes: The Red Head Gaaaay, the red head gaaaay, the red head gaaaaaay. The red head gay!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Do you ever get the feeling that we've already gone too far?
Apparently the oceans have already just about hit their limits on CO2 absorption, and the Seattle Times reported today that oceanlife-killing acid water is approaching our shores 100 years earlier than scheduled.Please email if you know of any investors who would be interested in supporting my Thunderdome venture in the deserts of Eastern Washington.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Relatively Faithful Review of the Film "Prince Caspian"
Being a youth minister, I get all kinds of crap in my email and snail mail about these religious movies that the corporations want churches to promote. I usually resist, but this weekend I caved and took the group to see Prince Caspian. What a crock! Don't get me wrong, the movie was pretty good, but here's the story line: good Narnians get in a big fight with bad humans, and lots of people kill each other in fight scenes that can't decide whether they're trying to be graphic or funny. After a few beheadings and humorous murders performed by mice, the Jesus figure (Aslan) comes and kills all the bad (Spaniard?) humans for the Narnians. Thanks Disney for a helpful and nuanced Christian allegory! I'm glad you got my dollars and the dollars of countless other youth group teens around the country. Now I have to figure out how to communicate the idea that Christianity really isn't a crusader religion. (In an interesting side note, the opening scene to the movie was filmed at Cathedral Cove in the Catlins in New Zealand. I saw it and immediately said "Hey, I know where that is"! You South Island Kiwis will undoubtedly know the spot as well.)
T&A Beyond Oyster Dome
Here are some photos from Oyster Dome, near Anacortes, WA. Angel and I went hiking there on Saturday.
Apparently our hike was a short section of the Pacific Northwest Trail, which I didn't know existed, but sounds big.
Here's Angel "before". Have you noticed that photos don't capture hill grade well? 
This was the first view we saw, over the San Juan Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
This is another shot from a little higher up.
And four more from "the dome" itself. It's apparently made entirely of fossilized oysters. Not really. It is however about a two and a half hour walk (straight) up. I'd tell you what the islands in the pictures are, but I don't know. Anacortes is in there somewhere, as is San Juan Island and Orcas Island, and some other little islands. If you click for a large view, you should be able to see the Olympic Mountains in the background very faintly. 
Here's a posed picture of Angel "after". She was tired, but in this photo she's just pretending.
Apparently our hike was a short section of the Pacific Northwest Trail, which I didn't know existed, but sounds big.
Here's Angel "before". Have you noticed that photos don't capture hill grade well? 
This was the first view we saw, over the San Juan Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
This is another shot from a little higher up. 
And four more from "the dome" itself. It's apparently made entirely of fossilized oysters. Not really. It is however about a two and a half hour walk (straight) up. I'd tell you what the islands in the pictures are, but I don't know. Anacortes is in there somewhere, as is San Juan Island and Orcas Island, and some other little islands. If you click for a large view, you should be able to see the Olympic Mountains in the background very faintly. 
Here's a posed picture of Angel "after". She was tired, but in this photo she's just pretending.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Popular attractions...
This blog continues to get hits coming from folks Googling "short shorts on men".
Saturday, May 17, 2008
I beg to differ sir. I'm pretty sure Emilio Estevez was not in "Red Dawn"
Well, tonight I WAS planning on going to a little indie theater over by OSU to watch Battle Royale which, if you've never seen it, is awesome. I find myself running short on time however and I don't think I'll be able to make it. I suppose missing it isn't that big of a deal; I've seen it before and I'd have to drive across town at 11 PM to watch it by myself. The theater was probably going to be full of fat nerdy otaku anyway and I can do without that.
When it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to make the start time I decided I better just stay in and work on getting some things done around the house. In order to accomplish these goals I found that I was going to need some Krazy Glue, epoxy putty and an X-Acto knife. To make a long story short I drove around for two hours looking for these things and wound up returning home with the Krazy Glue, a pound of hamburger (extra lean) and Poltergeist and Red Dawn on DVD.
When I left my apartment I had every intention of only getting the glue, putty, and X-Acto knife. But, much to my chagrin, every store that would potentially sell these three things closes at 8 PM on Saturdays. I finally found myself at Wal-Mart and, of course, all they had was the Krazy Glue. Frustrated and out of stores to check I decided to juts go ahead and get the glue - the other items could wait until tomorrow. So I grabbed the glue and headed to the front of the store to check out. When I got to the front of the store the lines for the registers were all at least six people long and there were only four registers open. I guess I should have expected as much. Aside from incompetent employees the only other thing you can always expect from Wal-Mart is too few open registers during peak business hours.
Rather than wait in a long line (which I hate almost as much as Sean Hannity) I decided to browse around the store for a while until the lines died down. In retrospect I probably should have just waited in line because when I "just browse" I usually wind up making impulse purchases. Tonight proved to be no exception.
I started my browsing in electronics where I perused all the fancy HD tvs I'll never be able to afford. When I got sick of that I made my way over to the $5 DVD display which, of course, was over-run by pro-wrestling fans, their screaming children and Mexicans. I've had a pretty short fuse the last several days because I haven't been smoking and I found myself getting increasingly agitated with the unwashed masses gathered around the cheap DVDs. All I really wanted to do was check out the special features on the Joe Dirt disc but Cooter, Jolene and their little kid, let's call him "Couldn't Afford An Abortion," kept getting in my way.
Frustrated, I decided to move over to the $9 DVD rack - the upper middle class neighborhood of DVD sections. Now I wasn't intending to actually buy anything but a little voice inside my head kept saying, "Come on Shayne, do you really WANT to stand in that big long line just to buy one tiny tube of Krazy Glue?" At first I fought it but it's persistence won out. If I couldn't waste money on cigarettes I was damn sure going to waste it on something else. At first I was going to get The Protector but of course they were sold out. Then I noticed they had the special edition of Red Dawn for $9 and it was settled. Call me sentimental but I'll always have a place in my heart for this movie. I don't know if it's the Reagan-era anti-Commie propaganda or the sub-Brat Pack cast but I love Red Dawn. I snatched it up quickly and then arbitrarily decided to get Poltergeist as well.
At this point I had built up a powerful hunger and remembered I had Manwich sauce at home but no hamburger. Being that I fancy myself a burly man's man I felt that I would be doing myself a disservice by not fixing a delicious pan full of hamburger and bland tasting BBQ sauce. So off to the food department I went to score some delicious steroid laced Wal-Mart beef.
At this point I was pretty much fed up with Wal-Mart and their damn smiley face logos and I decided it was time to make my escape. I found the shortest line (only 5 people in it!) and claimed my lot, much like early settlers in the West must have done. I placed all my items out on the belt and waited patiently for the cashier to get to me. After about a minute the guy standing behind me noticed I was buying Red Dawn and said, "Man, Red Dawn, I haven't seen that movie in years."
Being an anti-social douche I tried to blow him off and just said, "Yeah, it's pretty cool." This wasn't enough though. He proceeded to tell me how awesome it was and how unlikely it would be for Russians to actually invade the mid-West.
"It's not like Pearl Harbor man. We have radar and shit. You couldn't just parachute into America without being noticed" he said grinning at his proficiency for identifying glaring plot holes in films.
He was right of course. A Russian invasion of America is pretty unlikely, even during the dark ages of the 1980s. But still, I'm not going to let something like "reality" stand in the way of me enjoying a perfectly good action movie. My sensibilities had been offended and I had to respond to his allegations of "unrealism." (Is that a word?)
"Well, the Soviets WERE a formidable adversary during The Cold War. It's true that they couldn't get a Hind-D attack chopper over the border let alone an entire army but that doesn't mean the Red Menace wasn't an ever present threat to national security. I think Red Dawn really just served as a mouth piece for what a lot of Americas feared in the 80s...all out war."
I actually said that to him too. I wasn't serious of course but I was pretty sure he wasn't going to pick up on my sarcasm at this point in our "conversation." After I had finished my abridged treatise on Red Dawn and Cold War era paranoia I expected him to just pipe down but he didn't. Instead he began telling me how great Emilio Estevez was in the movie. I told him that E Money (that's what I call him) wasn't in Red Dawn but his brother Charlie Sheen was.
"No way, I'm pretty sure they were both in it," he said.
"No, I'm sure E Dog wasn't in Red Dawn. See, he's not even listed here in the credits," I said pointing to my soon-to-be-purchased DVD. "You must be thinking of Young Guns. They were both in that."
"Aw shit you're right. That's what I was thinking of. That movie was good too. I like the part were Charlie Sheen gets shot by that dude in the shitter."
I agreed with him that Young Guns was also a bitchin' movie and left it at that. By this time my turn at the register had arrived and I quickly paid the employee and left. I don't know what happened to the guy behind me in line and I probably never will. Maybe he'll return home and regail his wife with tails of "this dude at Wal-Mart who was buying Red Dawn. You know, that movie with Emilio Estevez and that Jewy looking bitch from Dirty Dancing." Or maybe he'll just masturbate to internet porn and fall asleep. I just don't know - life is full of uncertainty. The only thing I DO know is that Manwich is good and now I really want to watch Red Dawn.
Peace out yo,
Shayne
When it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to make the start time I decided I better just stay in and work on getting some things done around the house. In order to accomplish these goals I found that I was going to need some Krazy Glue, epoxy putty and an X-Acto knife. To make a long story short I drove around for two hours looking for these things and wound up returning home with the Krazy Glue, a pound of hamburger (extra lean) and Poltergeist and Red Dawn on DVD.
When I left my apartment I had every intention of only getting the glue, putty, and X-Acto knife. But, much to my chagrin, every store that would potentially sell these three things closes at 8 PM on Saturdays. I finally found myself at Wal-Mart and, of course, all they had was the Krazy Glue. Frustrated and out of stores to check I decided to juts go ahead and get the glue - the other items could wait until tomorrow. So I grabbed the glue and headed to the front of the store to check out. When I got to the front of the store the lines for the registers were all at least six people long and there were only four registers open. I guess I should have expected as much. Aside from incompetent employees the only other thing you can always expect from Wal-Mart is too few open registers during peak business hours.
Rather than wait in a long line (which I hate almost as much as Sean Hannity) I decided to browse around the store for a while until the lines died down. In retrospect I probably should have just waited in line because when I "just browse" I usually wind up making impulse purchases. Tonight proved to be no exception.
I started my browsing in electronics where I perused all the fancy HD tvs I'll never be able to afford. When I got sick of that I made my way over to the $5 DVD display which, of course, was over-run by pro-wrestling fans, their screaming children and Mexicans. I've had a pretty short fuse the last several days because I haven't been smoking and I found myself getting increasingly agitated with the unwashed masses gathered around the cheap DVDs. All I really wanted to do was check out the special features on the Joe Dirt disc but Cooter, Jolene and their little kid, let's call him "Couldn't Afford An Abortion," kept getting in my way.
Frustrated, I decided to move over to the $9 DVD rack - the upper middle class neighborhood of DVD sections. Now I wasn't intending to actually buy anything but a little voice inside my head kept saying, "Come on Shayne, do you really WANT to stand in that big long line just to buy one tiny tube of Krazy Glue?" At first I fought it but it's persistence won out. If I couldn't waste money on cigarettes I was damn sure going to waste it on something else. At first I was going to get The Protector but of course they were sold out. Then I noticed they had the special edition of Red Dawn for $9 and it was settled. Call me sentimental but I'll always have a place in my heart for this movie. I don't know if it's the Reagan-era anti-Commie propaganda or the sub-Brat Pack cast but I love Red Dawn. I snatched it up quickly and then arbitrarily decided to get Poltergeist as well.
At this point I had built up a powerful hunger and remembered I had Manwich sauce at home but no hamburger. Being that I fancy myself a burly man's man I felt that I would be doing myself a disservice by not fixing a delicious pan full of hamburger and bland tasting BBQ sauce. So off to the food department I went to score some delicious steroid laced Wal-Mart beef.
At this point I was pretty much fed up with Wal-Mart and their damn smiley face logos and I decided it was time to make my escape. I found the shortest line (only 5 people in it!) and claimed my lot, much like early settlers in the West must have done. I placed all my items out on the belt and waited patiently for the cashier to get to me. After about a minute the guy standing behind me noticed I was buying Red Dawn and said, "Man, Red Dawn, I haven't seen that movie in years."
Being an anti-social douche I tried to blow him off and just said, "Yeah, it's pretty cool." This wasn't enough though. He proceeded to tell me how awesome it was and how unlikely it would be for Russians to actually invade the mid-West.
"It's not like Pearl Harbor man. We have radar and shit. You couldn't just parachute into America without being noticed" he said grinning at his proficiency for identifying glaring plot holes in films.
He was right of course. A Russian invasion of America is pretty unlikely, even during the dark ages of the 1980s. But still, I'm not going to let something like "reality" stand in the way of me enjoying a perfectly good action movie. My sensibilities had been offended and I had to respond to his allegations of "unrealism." (Is that a word?)
"Well, the Soviets WERE a formidable adversary during The Cold War. It's true that they couldn't get a Hind-D attack chopper over the border let alone an entire army but that doesn't mean the Red Menace wasn't an ever present threat to national security. I think Red Dawn really just served as a mouth piece for what a lot of Americas feared in the 80s...all out war."
I actually said that to him too. I wasn't serious of course but I was pretty sure he wasn't going to pick up on my sarcasm at this point in our "conversation." After I had finished my abridged treatise on Red Dawn and Cold War era paranoia I expected him to just pipe down but he didn't. Instead he began telling me how great Emilio Estevez was in the movie. I told him that E Money (that's what I call him) wasn't in Red Dawn but his brother Charlie Sheen was.
"No way, I'm pretty sure they were both in it," he said.
"No, I'm sure E Dog wasn't in Red Dawn. See, he's not even listed here in the credits," I said pointing to my soon-to-be-purchased DVD. "You must be thinking of Young Guns. They were both in that."
"Aw shit you're right. That's what I was thinking of. That movie was good too. I like the part were Charlie Sheen gets shot by that dude in the shitter."
I agreed with him that Young Guns was also a bitchin' movie and left it at that. By this time my turn at the register had arrived and I quickly paid the employee and left. I don't know what happened to the guy behind me in line and I probably never will. Maybe he'll return home and regail his wife with tails of "this dude at Wal-Mart who was buying Red Dawn. You know, that movie with Emilio Estevez and that Jewy looking bitch from Dirty Dancing." Or maybe he'll just masturbate to internet porn and fall asleep. I just don't know - life is full of uncertainty. The only thing I DO know is that Manwich is good and now I really want to watch Red Dawn.
Peace out yo,
Shayne
Friday, May 16, 2008
Blog Walk: Capitol Hill to Discovery Park
Today has been the best weather day in Seattle all year--80's and sunny--so this morning I undertook perhaps my most ambitious Blog Walk yet: walking 7 miles from our place to Discovery Park in Magnolia, and then walking the 3 mile park loop at the end. All for you, anonymous internet readers, and I hope you appreciate it because my legs are now hair-covered sticks of pasty white jello. Craftily, I topped the three hour walk off with lunch at Dick's, which negated any positive physical benefit I might have gained from the process.
It really doesn't get much nicer in Seattle than it was today. We had stunning views of the Olympics from the Hill:
Seattle's newest major park investment, in South Lake Union, was generally deserted at 10 am on a Friday, but I did see a bunch of highly-evolved turtles braving the sewage and enjoying the sun:
(St. Mark's Cathedral from South Lake Union)
Hearty little fellas. Between South Lake Union and Fremont is a little houseboat community. Here's what a houseboat community looks like:
And here's what the front door to Magnolia looks like:
Discovery Park was stunning today with a great view of the Olympic Mountains:
Mt. Rainier is in the shot below. If you click to view the bigger version, you might be able to see it faintly towards the center of the screen. It does strange things, disappearing and reappearing.
Here's a picture I like. It's nice here on days like today:
Sometimes I post what i was thinking about while I was walking, to make this whole experience more (pretentious) than just me posting pictures on the internet of things I saw today. Instead of doing that, today I'm going to take a shower, because I'm sweaty. In other news, I've decided again not to be a priest. Probably I'll be a deacon. We'll see how many more times my decision changes.
It really doesn't get much nicer in Seattle than it was today. We had stunning views of the Olympics from the Hill:
Seattle's newest major park investment, in South Lake Union, was generally deserted at 10 am on a Friday, but I did see a bunch of highly-evolved turtles braving the sewage and enjoying the sun:
(St. Mark's Cathedral from South Lake Union)
Hearty little fellas. Between South Lake Union and Fremont is a little houseboat community. Here's what a houseboat community looks like:
And here's what the front door to Magnolia looks like:
Discovery Park was stunning today with a great view of the Olympic Mountains:
Mt. Rainier is in the shot below. If you click to view the bigger version, you might be able to see it faintly towards the center of the screen. It does strange things, disappearing and reappearing.
Here's a picture I like. It's nice here on days like today:
Sometimes I post what i was thinking about while I was walking, to make this whole experience more (pretentious) than just me posting pictures on the internet of things I saw today. Instead of doing that, today I'm going to take a shower, because I'm sweaty. In other news, I've decided again not to be a priest. Probably I'll be a deacon. We'll see how many more times my decision changes.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Oh Crap. Seismic Retrofit
There was an article in the local newspaper this week. Apparently the building we live in is going to fall down and kill everyone if there's an earthquake larger than a 1.1, and we the ownership will likely have to spend a billion dollars to retrofit. Mercifully, the article points out, the city won't force us to "demolish" our home. Also luckily, everyone else on Capitol Hill is going to have to retrofit as well. I'm getting into the retrofitting business before next year.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Religion on Capitol Hill
As disciplined as I've been in obsessing about religion and where I want to live, I was dismayed today when I took stock of how little time I've actually spent obsessing about religion in the place where I do live, on Capitol Hill in Seattle. I've decided to begin rectifying that situation, and made that topic the subject of consideration for today's afternoon constitutional.
Capitol Hill is a convergence zone for a bazillion people groups, so it's no surprise that even after three years I find it a hard place to characterize religiously. The most visible religious building and community is undoubtedly St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, which is the center of worship for a subset of the local community that can be fairly labeled as almost uniformly white, of the upper classes, and liberal (though being of that subset, many there would be upset that I pointed that out). It's also probably fair to say that St. Mark's is the epicenter for GLBTQ Christianity in the city as a whole, having had a prominent and active gay dean and an "open and affirming" policy for years.
It would be wrong to say that St. Mark's characterizes religion on Capitol Hill though, because it really is a mixed bag. There's a large Catholic population here along with the Episcopalians, but I think the Hill is most clearly a "spiritual" place, and non-traditionally religious. There are lots of yoga studios and such, and the grocery stores sell magazines like Tikkun and Tricycle. Having a large white liberal population, there's also a visible Cult of the Sunday Morning New York Times. The prominent hipster population here was probably best served by the now closed Coffee Messiah, which was only religious in an overly-defensive and self-consciously ironic sense. There are several Black churches within a few blocks of my house, but my feeling is that those really belong more to the adjacent and historically African-American Central District than Capitol Hill proper (although, again, the white liberals would be defensive about that, wanting to make sure you know that we live in a diverse neighborhood). There are regularly Evangelical groups that try to "Win the Hill for Jesus", but the evidence seems to suggest that it's not working. (Apparently one of those used to meet in a Pizza parlor right down the road from us--Piecora's.) Actually, there are a smattering of traditional WASPy churches around, but most of them have dwindling congregations and some are closing up shop. There is an old Christian Scientist Church building just down the road from us that is being turned into Condos, and it's close to an old Methodist Church that is now business offices. Now that the Christian Scientists are gone, the most unlikely church left on the Hill, if you ask me, is Volunteer Park Seventh Day Adventist Church. I really don't know where their congregation comes from. There's a cool looking Greek Orthodox Church called Church of the Assumption, but I don't know how anything about their congregation either. I haven't run into anyone who I knew was Greek Orthodox, but they tend to be stealthy. Apparently, there are no more Jews on Capitol Hill--or, well, no synagogues, though there is one close by on First Hill. I've seen Buddhist monks walking down Broadway, but don't know if there are any temples around. I guess my expert opinion would be that Capitol Hill is a ultimately a pretty decent microcosm of the religious diversity of the US as a whole. Its nucleus is comprised of disinterested agnostics and miscellaneous (though unusually liberal) Christians, with lots of fringe groups floating around the edges.
If you're wondering why I'm telling you all of this, it's because along with the thousand other things I might do in the next few years, I might be working here on the Hill on some sort of Episcopal missional front. (Yes, Wesley, I am confused.) With that in mind, I've probably got another post forthcoming, on what I think religion should look like on Capitol Hill...
Monday, May 12, 2008
Winners Never Quit And Quitters Never Win
Yesterday I think I finally made up my mind to quit smoking. I'm tired of hacking up nasty crap every morning, spending a ton of money on a dangerous habit and generally feeling like a pariah in public now that smoking is no longer "cool." I've tried quitting various times in the past with varying degrees of success but I think this time is going to be it. I'm just fed up with it.
I'm not looking forward to the withdrawal though. I've been consuming large amounts of caffeine and sugar all day just to keep myself going. I'm shaky and grouchy as well. Soon I'll be eating a ton more food and will probably get fat. But I just keep telling myself that the withdrawal beats getting lung cancer.
So here's to hoping that I can finally get this monkey off my back. I'm just going to try taking this one day at a time and hopefully I can quit for good. It shouldn't be so bad I suppose, I've been chewing tobacco to take the edge off. Thank God for that stuff; it tastes great and it's completely harmless...
I'm not looking forward to the withdrawal though. I've been consuming large amounts of caffeine and sugar all day just to keep myself going. I'm shaky and grouchy as well. Soon I'll be eating a ton more food and will probably get fat. But I just keep telling myself that the withdrawal beats getting lung cancer.
So here's to hoping that I can finally get this monkey off my back. I'm just going to try taking this one day at a time and hopefully I can quit for good. It shouldn't be so bad I suppose, I've been chewing tobacco to take the edge off. Thank God for that stuff; it tastes great and it's completely harmless...
A story and a rant on health care.
As you've probably gathered, there's no real "theme" to this blog, other than "things that Tim (and now Shayne) obsesses about". With that in mind, what I post about most often is, of course, myself, but politics and religion also usually factor in prominently. I generally know my stuff when it comes to myself and religion, but I'm a bit of a hack when it comes to politics. All of this to give you advance warning that over the next few months leading up to the American Presidential elections, you're probably going to be reading a lot of amateurish political arguments in this space.
To kick things off, Angel and I have been complaining about the US health-care system again for the last several days, and I realized that there might be an interesting story in our situation. This weekend in particular we got to moaning because Angel received a letter in the mail informing her that her employee insurance was being canceled, because being in the last semester of her nursing program she's been unable to work the requisite 20 hours a week to maintain coverage. The good news is that if she wishes, she can keep that insurance for $425/month, or can get insurance through the University of Washington for $1000/10 weeks. The bad news is that we can't even come close to affording that right now without taking out a loan. She can't work because of school, and I make right about $31,000/year between my two jobs. Do the math, and $425/month is about 20% of our present income. Being that we live in Seattle and are working on paying down my student loans and a reasonable mortgage, Angel has temporarily joined the ranks of the 44-45 million uninsured in America. I, on the other hand, am maintaining $75/month private coverage, which means that if I have a medical bill over $2500, we'll only have to pay 20% of it (under $2500 and we pay 100%). I work for two socially-conscious and politically liberal non-profit organizations, both of which have good health-care coverage for employees. At both jobs I'm intentionally employed for a number of hours just below the threshold for medical coverage, because they can't afford to pay insurance costs (or have chosen not to pay insurance costs?) for an additional employee.
I'm not pitching this as a woe is me story, because in some ways we've chosen our lot, and we could still be covered if we really wanted to. I was getting insurance through my job at the warehouse, but decided that it was worth dropping to have a more rewarding and socially responsible--though ultimately lower paying--job. Angel could have chosen not to go to grad school, or to go part time in order to maintain her level of employment. We also could probably afford coverage now had we not decided to buy a home. Ours isn't a large problem of social justice, and for us going without insurance isn't a major risk because we're young and healthy, and could still probably recover from a large medical debt. Our situation is something to think about though, because I think we're representative of a large and generally invisible demographic of people who are uninsured. We're not poor, we're not sick, and a lack of insurance is probably both temporary and benign.
What I am asking though is what our situation says about the social wisdom in the American set up? Angel and I have both faced negative pressure against improving our lot in life because we've wanted to maintain insurance coverage. If we had any chronic illness, pregnancy, or other major medical cost, either I would have continued to work in a dead-end warehouse job, she would have not gone to grad school, or we would have not purchased a home. We're both people who have been preparing for work in jobs that will benefit society, but would likely not have been able to do so had we not been willing to take (unnecessary) risks and lucky enough to be healthy. We're still presently in a situation where a nasty fall or an unexpected pregnancy could put us in a hole that we might not be able to dig our way out of. Medical bankruptcy is a real possibility until we're well insured--and society of course foots the bill on that one. Is our "freedom" to be insured or not really a positive thing for us or anyone else? Aren't health-care costs creating problems beyond just illness? Wouldn't the "American Dream" be more accessible without this so-called freedom?
Which is one more thing that leads me to say raise our taxes and put in place a social safety net that reaches across the population. Regulate the health-care industry and admit that the way we've been doing things in this area is ass-backwards. Quit with all of the ideological BS and figure out how to do it. I don't care if it's federal or state by state. Stop voting for people who support the status quo on health-care and social programming and start voting with the international evidence. The situation we've got isn't good for anyone.
(Oh, and watch The Edukators.)
To kick things off, Angel and I have been complaining about the US health-care system again for the last several days, and I realized that there might be an interesting story in our situation. This weekend in particular we got to moaning because Angel received a letter in the mail informing her that her employee insurance was being canceled, because being in the last semester of her nursing program she's been unable to work the requisite 20 hours a week to maintain coverage. The good news is that if she wishes, she can keep that insurance for $425/month, or can get insurance through the University of Washington for $1000/10 weeks. The bad news is that we can't even come close to affording that right now without taking out a loan. She can't work because of school, and I make right about $31,000/year between my two jobs. Do the math, and $425/month is about 20% of our present income. Being that we live in Seattle and are working on paying down my student loans and a reasonable mortgage, Angel has temporarily joined the ranks of the 44-45 million uninsured in America. I, on the other hand, am maintaining $75/month private coverage, which means that if I have a medical bill over $2500, we'll only have to pay 20% of it (under $2500 and we pay 100%). I work for two socially-conscious and politically liberal non-profit organizations, both of which have good health-care coverage for employees. At both jobs I'm intentionally employed for a number of hours just below the threshold for medical coverage, because they can't afford to pay insurance costs (or have chosen not to pay insurance costs?) for an additional employee.
I'm not pitching this as a woe is me story, because in some ways we've chosen our lot, and we could still be covered if we really wanted to. I was getting insurance through my job at the warehouse, but decided that it was worth dropping to have a more rewarding and socially responsible--though ultimately lower paying--job. Angel could have chosen not to go to grad school, or to go part time in order to maintain her level of employment. We also could probably afford coverage now had we not decided to buy a home. Ours isn't a large problem of social justice, and for us going without insurance isn't a major risk because we're young and healthy, and could still probably recover from a large medical debt. Our situation is something to think about though, because I think we're representative of a large and generally invisible demographic of people who are uninsured. We're not poor, we're not sick, and a lack of insurance is probably both temporary and benign.
What I am asking though is what our situation says about the social wisdom in the American set up? Angel and I have both faced negative pressure against improving our lot in life because we've wanted to maintain insurance coverage. If we had any chronic illness, pregnancy, or other major medical cost, either I would have continued to work in a dead-end warehouse job, she would have not gone to grad school, or we would have not purchased a home. We're both people who have been preparing for work in jobs that will benefit society, but would likely not have been able to do so had we not been willing to take (unnecessary) risks and lucky enough to be healthy. We're still presently in a situation where a nasty fall or an unexpected pregnancy could put us in a hole that we might not be able to dig our way out of. Medical bankruptcy is a real possibility until we're well insured--and society of course foots the bill on that one. Is our "freedom" to be insured or not really a positive thing for us or anyone else? Aren't health-care costs creating problems beyond just illness? Wouldn't the "American Dream" be more accessible without this so-called freedom?
Which is one more thing that leads me to say raise our taxes and put in place a social safety net that reaches across the population. Regulate the health-care industry and admit that the way we've been doing things in this area is ass-backwards. Quit with all of the ideological BS and figure out how to do it. I don't care if it's federal or state by state. Stop voting for people who support the status quo on health-care and social programming and start voting with the international evidence. The situation we've got isn't good for anyone.
(Oh, and watch The Edukators.)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Obama '08
I've lodged my complaints about Barry O. and the Democratic Party's policies here before, but went to bed last night realizing that the US is on the verge of electing an African American who seems to genuinely care about poor people to the White House. Finally something to get behind? Real change or rhetorical change? Time will tell, but I'm starting to feel some energy behind this.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Right now...
In case you're wondering (and I suspect that you are), right now I'm walking next door to our neighborhood Trader Joe's to make a snack of whatever they're giving away for free. Yesterday Angel saw the security at the store dragging a screaming woman out with an arm full of free samples. I'm next. After that we're going to a staff party at St. Margaret's (think lightly buzzed priests and retired people). Tomorrow it's a lay leader's breakfast at Church, a service at COTA, and I think dinner with my cousin and her fiance. Sunday is pretty much a free day. I just have to teach some kids a lesson, and then maybe a trip to Discovery Park. This weekend I'm also reading an academic treatise about David Sedaris. I like to think that there's nothing much more definitively me.
Important Update: Today's free sample was fish tacos, which I don't like so I didn't eat. I did get some free coffee, and therefore felt obligated to walk around pretending like I was shopping for a few minutes. Angel has no conscience when it comes to these things--just walks in for the free sample and then right back out. I wish I could do that. It would save me a few minutes a day.
Important Update: Today's free sample was fish tacos, which I don't like so I didn't eat. I did get some free coffee, and therefore felt obligated to walk around pretending like I was shopping for a few minutes. Angel has no conscience when it comes to these things--just walks in for the free sample and then right back out. I wish I could do that. It would save me a few minutes a day.
religious oppression is all relative
This morning while I was in the shower it struck me that I'm finding religion stifling again.
It also struck me that the extent to which people (I) find religion stifling corresponds with the extent to which they (I) disagree, or are dissatisfied, with their (my) particular religion and feel obligated to maintain their (my) adherence to it.
Am I just being pissy, or is this organized religion thing really not working? Or maybe my problem is that I'm not a "joiner".
It also struck me that the extent to which people (I) find religion stifling corresponds with the extent to which they (I) disagree, or are dissatisfied, with their (my) particular religion and feel obligated to maintain their (my) adherence to it.
Am I just being pissy, or is this organized religion thing really not working? Or maybe my problem is that I'm not a "joiner".
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Social Fabric Crisis
CBS recently aired an interesting 60 Minutes profile on Paul Farmer, the doctor and subject of the book Mountains Beyond Mountains. In the attempt to provide "a preferential option for the poor in healthcare", his organization, "Partners in Health, has essentially organized a highly effective, extremely low cost public health system for central Haiti and various other locations that is based on a model of community involvement, health education, primary care and disease prevention. It's extremely interesting stuff, and their website is worth a perusal for anyone interested in seeing poor people not die so much. They've had remarkable success dealing particularly with HIV/AIDS and TB.
I came across Dr. Farmer's profile today while doing some research at Multifaith Works, the AIDS organization where I work, and it was particularly interesting because we do a little bit of what he does--namely, organizing community support for sick people so they don't sink into isolation. Like at PIH, we've found that it's not unusual to see basic human support affect significant improvements in peoples' health, even where meds have not been fully successful.
That raises the question for me, how much of the healthcare crisis in the US is really a crisis of our social fabric? How much of our problem has to do with anadequate access to healthcare, and how much has to do with a breakdown in community? Is it a bigger problem for my parents' generation that medical costs are going through the roof, or that their asshole kids have all moved away and left them by themselves at home? How much of our crisis would be solved if we organized at a community level for our ill to be cared for at home, or if we just started living as families again? NZ had both better physical health and stronger community ties that I've experienced in the US. Are those things connected?
I came across Dr. Farmer's profile today while doing some research at Multifaith Works, the AIDS organization where I work, and it was particularly interesting because we do a little bit of what he does--namely, organizing community support for sick people so they don't sink into isolation. Like at PIH, we've found that it's not unusual to see basic human support affect significant improvements in peoples' health, even where meds have not been fully successful.
That raises the question for me, how much of the healthcare crisis in the US is really a crisis of our social fabric? How much of our problem has to do with anadequate access to healthcare, and how much has to do with a breakdown in community? Is it a bigger problem for my parents' generation that medical costs are going through the roof, or that their asshole kids have all moved away and left them by themselves at home? How much of our crisis would be solved if we organized at a community level for our ill to be cared for at home, or if we just started living as families again? NZ had both better physical health and stronger community ties that I've experienced in the US. Are those things connected?
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sex-Positive Christianity?
In the context of my work at Multifaith Works, sexuality is a common topic of discussion in a variety of venues, and I've recently been exposed there to the term "sex-positive". (If I had taken Theology, Sociology and Philosophy courses at a venue other than a conservative Christian college, apparently this would have been a term with which I would have been long acquainted...) Reading up on the sex-positive movement, it strikes me that what I've been trying to do on the ol' blog in hashing out an Anglican theology of sexuality is to come up with something that is of the same spirit, but from an Anglican Christian perspective.
To steal a quote from Wikipedia, in Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture, Carol Queen defines Sex-Positivity as such:
"Sex-positive, a term that's coming into cultural awareness, isn't a dippy love-child celebration of orgone – it's a simple yet radical affirmation that we each grow our own passions on a different medium, that instead of having two or three or even half a dozen sexual orientations, we should be thinking in terms of millions. "Sex-positive" respects each of our unique sexual profiles, even as we acknowledge that some of us have been damaged by a culture that tries to eradicate sexual difference and possibility." (full article)
Sex-positivity is a prototypically "tolerant" idea--embracing human sexuality in all of it's forms--so the initial concern about it, at least as defined in the Wikipedia article, would be that it points towards the apathetic and non-committal airy-fairy-ness that can be the worst quality of liberalism. Then again, that's the concern with any so called liberal or indeed, post-modern idea. It's also a concern that one usually gets over when one reads the serious proponents of these ideas (rather than just the Wikipedia versions), and when one reflects on the fact that reality is complex enough that it's probably a good thing to be non-committal from time to time. Whatever my own reservations, in spirit I think they're getting at something important, which is that in the post-birth control, post-patriarchal, diverse, post-modern world, sexuality is something that has to be rethought and redefined from a moral perspective as well as a pragmatic one. I'm with them on the idea that in recent years sexuality has generally been viewed through a narrow, rigid/scientific lens, though I'm not sure that I would define the traditional/modernist Western vision of sex as "sex-negative" in any universal sense. For me, re-imagining sexuality has to mean a widening of our vision, a reaffirmation of the conception that sexuality is a good thing, and from an Anglican perspective, a redefinition of sexuality within the context of a sacramental, panentheistic worldview. I think I'm a Christian and sex-positive. (Maybe this doesn't make sense. Christians, of course, are generally given the blame for the setting up our stuffy sexual climate in the first place. Then again, Christians are also blamed for the environmental crisis and most of history's wars.)
One of the more interesting things I've come across in my little perusal today of the Wikipedian articles is how much my recent ideas on pornography have in common with some strands of thought in the sex-positive feminist movement. (One of my last points on the second of those posts was that women don't want to talk to men about these issues. Maybe it would have been better to say that the women that I want to talk to don't want to talk to men about these issues, because apparently lots of women do. Scary women. SEXUAL women!!) It's nice to be reminded that my thought always jibes so well with cultural trends, and that I'm impeccably unoriginal--30 years behind the times even. It's also nice to know though that it's not just me and a bunch of perverted old men who affirm that porno might not be universally birthed from the Satanic Lakes of Fire.
(For a final fun fact, a term that's been birthed by the sex-positive movement is "pomosexual", a combination of "postmodern" and "sexual" which can be used by anyone who doesn't want to identify with traditional sexual definitions-Homo, Hetero, Bi, whatever. I love it, in the ironic way that I love The Creation Museum in Kentucky and my friend Blaire's self-identification as a Jewpiscopalian.)
To steal a quote from Wikipedia, in Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture, Carol Queen defines Sex-Positivity as such:
"Sex-positive, a term that's coming into cultural awareness, isn't a dippy love-child celebration of orgone – it's a simple yet radical affirmation that we each grow our own passions on a different medium, that instead of having two or three or even half a dozen sexual orientations, we should be thinking in terms of millions. "Sex-positive" respects each of our unique sexual profiles, even as we acknowledge that some of us have been damaged by a culture that tries to eradicate sexual difference and possibility." (full article)
Sex-positivity is a prototypically "tolerant" idea--embracing human sexuality in all of it's forms--so the initial concern about it, at least as defined in the Wikipedia article, would be that it points towards the apathetic and non-committal airy-fairy-ness that can be the worst quality of liberalism. Then again, that's the concern with any so called liberal or indeed, post-modern idea. It's also a concern that one usually gets over when one reads the serious proponents of these ideas (rather than just the Wikipedia versions), and when one reflects on the fact that reality is complex enough that it's probably a good thing to be non-committal from time to time. Whatever my own reservations, in spirit I think they're getting at something important, which is that in the post-birth control, post-patriarchal, diverse, post-modern world, sexuality is something that has to be rethought and redefined from a moral perspective as well as a pragmatic one. I'm with them on the idea that in recent years sexuality has generally been viewed through a narrow, rigid/scientific lens, though I'm not sure that I would define the traditional/modernist Western vision of sex as "sex-negative" in any universal sense. For me, re-imagining sexuality has to mean a widening of our vision, a reaffirmation of the conception that sexuality is a good thing, and from an Anglican perspective, a redefinition of sexuality within the context of a sacramental, panentheistic worldview. I think I'm a Christian and sex-positive. (Maybe this doesn't make sense. Christians, of course, are generally given the blame for the setting up our stuffy sexual climate in the first place. Then again, Christians are also blamed for the environmental crisis and most of history's wars.)
One of the more interesting things I've come across in my little perusal today of the Wikipedian articles is how much my recent ideas on pornography have in common with some strands of thought in the sex-positive feminist movement. (One of my last points on the second of those posts was that women don't want to talk to men about these issues. Maybe it would have been better to say that the women that I want to talk to don't want to talk to men about these issues, because apparently lots of women do. Scary women. SEXUAL women!!) It's nice to be reminded that my thought always jibes so well with cultural trends, and that I'm impeccably unoriginal--30 years behind the times even. It's also nice to know though that it's not just me and a bunch of perverted old men who affirm that porno might not be universally birthed from the Satanic Lakes of Fire.
(For a final fun fact, a term that's been birthed by the sex-positive movement is "pomosexual", a combination of "postmodern" and "sexual" which can be used by anyone who doesn't want to identify with traditional sexual definitions-Homo, Hetero, Bi, whatever. I love it, in the ironic way that I love The Creation Museum in Kentucky and my friend Blaire's self-identification as a Jewpiscopalian.)
Some pictures people sent me this morning.
This sign stands directly in front of the main village entryway to Camden, Ohio: my hometown and Shayne's. Sally Anderson-Mangai--our other regular reader--sent this one (Thanks Sally!). On Friday, Angel and I tried to enter "Stay To Hell Out" as the town motto for Camden on Wikipedia but the post was taken down within five minutes. Those people are good at what they do.
This is from the Tiki themed Kentucky Derby Party I went to over the weekend, sent by Tim Hendrix. In this picture is my friend Blaire, getting picked up at a party by a strange man as usual.
Another pic from the party. In counterclockwise order starting with me, these people are: me, Karen the neighbor, Brad (the guy who I meet about every six months but whose name I can never remember), Dent Davidson (wearing the bead necklace), Rev. JR Lander and the back of Rev. Lucas Mix's head.Sunday, May 4, 2008
It's a nice day and I'm at work, so of course I've got a lot of time to find great new blogs.
I like this one. I thought it might be by Wes--our only faithful reader--under an assumed name. Alas, it's actually another politically charged, libertarian-leaning Alabaman who spends his free time on the internet.