Blog? What blog?

Oops, looks like the blog has been getting cold just sitting there like that. I better pick it up and sprinkle a little fairy dust on it, er sumpthin.

So what the heck is going on... Hmmm... let's see...

Work - pretty good. We are on the way to meeting our sales goal for the year and our new product development project is going far better than the last one. That's not to say that it is world-class, just an improvement. Lots of room for more improvement - that's my job.

Plays... Yeah - we do those. Sharon and I were asked to help crew Once Upon A Mattress which was truly a LOT OF FUN. I never thought that there would be so many kids with so many phones texting each other all through the show.

It was also fun to see Gail, a good friend of mine from high school who shares my birthday. I can't remember which of us is a few hours older than the other. Her daughter (who looks just like she did when she was in high school) played the Minstrel and was in my opinion the most talented singer of the cast. Gail was there at one of the first performances and saw my name in the program and wondered to herself "Is this the real deal?!" (this is what she said she thought). It was nice to see someone that I haven't seen in 30 years and have them remember me so fondly.

Then, there's Dickens Fair. Wow. We are lots more organized this year in both of the casts that I am in. We've held productive rehearsals (shocking, I know) and I feel very good about our theatrical readiness. Costumes are all in place and all I really need is a new hat box. For that I already have the foam core, I just need to make it.

Rehearsal last night for the NFP show went until 1:15 AM. I was kinda tired after that. I dragged into work about an hour and a half later than usual and about 3PM my brain went into power-saver mode.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be an all-relatives day with all of us going to my Uncle PJ's house for a small family gathering of about 35 people. Remember to bring camera...

And the new roof looks pretty good. It was simply amazing to see how fast ten people can remove a roof.

Too busy to sleep

So I got a call from a friend asking if I could help out on stage crew for a musical. Once Upon A Mattress. Done at my high school.

How could I say no.

So it overlaps a tiny amount with Dickens Fair workshops and stuff. But we can work around that. And besides, it's a really fun show.

I just don't have enough time for sleeping.

Shock Treatment

Obama wins. Best news I've heard in a long time. FINALLY we can begin to recover from the unspeakable damage that has been done to our country, our liberties, and our dignity as a people by the likes of George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove. Someday, now I believe we can begin to overcome the "War on Terror" that has perverted our nation, wrecked our standing as a nation of liberty and justice, and has ushered in the abrogation of our civil rights in the name of "security".

That said, I am deeply ashamed that California has apparently voted by a 3 to 4% margin to ELIMINATE the legally gained civil rights of a protected minority. The fight to eliminate these rights was fought with dastardly lies and distortions, by a majority group, to enshrine their religiously based discriminatory view on the minority in the constitution - expressly to avoid judicial and legislative control. I am disgusted by the lies, the fear mongering, and the lawbreaking that was resorted to in order to perpetrate this act of cowardice and bigotry.

And to hear "them" tell about it - they were saving the rest of us from ourselves. They opined that if gays were allowed to marry that children would be targeted by gays, that somebody would find a way to argue that animals were now suitable spouses, and that - best of all - it was a SIN against nature to call a homosexual union "marriage".

I've spent the whole last 24 hours grieving over this.

To everyone, all 5.something million or so, who voted to eliminate the right of gays to marry - You all entirely misunderstand what it means to have ACTUAL FAITH in your fellow Californians to be responsible human beings. Your behavior is an apostasy to our constitutional democracy. To the perpetrators of this grotesque obscenity of democratic gang rape, FUCK YOU, you bigoted scum. Yes, I mean you - the Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus, the Mormon Church, and all of the organizations the told the lies, broke the laws, and fanned the flames of homophobia to prevent the "Armageddon" that you described as the failure of proposition 8.

Gay people are not going away. Ever. And since they aren't, and they fall in love just like everyone else, and because they are going to want to form permanent relationships to share their lives with another, just like everyone else, we as a society owe them the same respect and stature in these relationships that everyone else enjoys. Doing so benefits us all, and makes us all stronger as a society of contented families.

I have NO fear that these relationships will harm anyone, nor do I fear that honoring these relationships will in any way diminish the relationships of anyone else.

86%

There is a terrific video about families and children that will be negatively affected by California Proposition 8 if it were to pass.

I found it here in a very well written blog post.

What message are we sending to the 52,000 children in California being raised by gay or lesbian parents? If proposition 8 passes, the message is that their parents are not as good as other parents - because of their parents' sexuality.

Only 14% of families fit the "perfect" definition. What about the rest?

If a majority vote can take away rights to dignity and respect for a class of people, no rights we have are safe. Vote NO ON Proposition 8.