This is a corpse flower, a titan arum, at the Milwaukee Public Museum. It's claim to fame, aside from being probably one of the very very few in America, is that not only does it take six years from seed to bloom, but when it blooms it smells like... you guessed it, a corpse. A corpse that you can smell from miles away.
The article The webcam
Ok, so I am happy 53% of Americans felt the same way I did in the presidential race. It's nice to finally vote for a winning president. But as incredibly happy as I am with our soon-to-be President Obama, I am so incredibly disappointed with the passing of Prop. 8. It saddens me when people think it's okay to pass laws limiting the rights of others.
I think the Wiccan religion is a little silly, but I like their rede: "Do what you will, so long as it harms none." I can get behind that. It's how I feel about most things. I guess the issue lies in what "harm" means. I think some people express harm when their worldview is questioned. I look at harm in a physical/wellbeing sense.
If I wanted to outlaw what I felt was morally wrong, there would be no churches, abstinence classes, SUV's, or glittery backgrounds on MySpace. But I respect the right of people to go to church, teach their children abstience instead of safe sex, to drive their SUV (though I will still frown at them) and have nothing on their MySpace except for glittery sparkles shooting from a unicorn horn. Those things don't harm me at all. Not in a real sense. I might get irritated at the amount of gas that's being used, or saddened when a teenage girl gets pregnant because she was too afraid to ask for/use birth control. When I have kids, it might be a pain for me to explain about church and religion, but it's something they need to know about to function in the real world anyway. And I can just avoid MySpace.
But none of those things actually hurt me. How does gay marriage hurt people? By forcing them to admit that other people hold different morality structures? Well, gee. I have to admit that every day when I see a Jesusfish on a car, or a girl wearing a headscarf in class. But, here's the thing. Religion is a choice that is yours to make. BEING GAY IS NOT A CHOICE. Yet why do people have the right to practice religion but not to marry whomever they love?
One of my friends just had surgery on Tuesday. The surgery. And hearing about what she had to go through to finally get the body that she should have been born with was amazing. NO ONE would go through that if they had a choice. It's painful, and hard, and scary, and dangerous. But it was the only way she could ever feel comfortable in her own skin. My mind boggles when I think about the changes she is going through.
Sexuality is not a choice. Being gay, transgendered, straight--it's just how we are born. And Prop 8 was about taking away the right of marriage from someone because of how they were born. Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it? Remember when blacks and whites couldn't marry because of the color of the skin they were born with?
In closing, an anecdote about my personal hero, Mr. Rogers.
Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first. Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, “God loves you just the way you are.”
One of the main problems with video game marketing is the hype surrounding a product. Instead of telling us "it's an innovative game that will be enjoyable to play," companies (and media doing previews) say things like "revolutionary" and "will change the future of all video games." And what do we normally get? Something completely meh.
Spore is on Fortune magazine's list of "9 top tech flops" for this year. Why? Because it's a mediocre game that was hyped to be so incredible and revolutionary. They released part of the game (a creature creator) months in advance. So people spent this time creating and recreating a variety of creatures they to populate Spore when the game came out. Instead, gameplay was stilted and jumpy and you didn't have much control of your little dude.
Other video game pet peeves:
Breast physics. Yes, breasts bounce and move a little. They do not, however, move that much. If they did, we'd be black and blue and complaining all the time.
Non-sporty sport outfits. No, we do not play volleyball in a string bikini. We might lounge around the beach in one, but we'll put on a sports bra to play volleyball in.
Celebrity games. You are a musician. You are not supposed to be the main character of a GTA clone.
WTF!? storylines. Final Fantasy, I'm looking at you. Do you even understand your own plot?
Video game magazines and websites and their patronizing "Get your girlfriend to play video games" articles. No, I don't want to play Hello Kitty FunFun Happy Land unless it's an entertaining game. No, I don't need dress up features in every game I play. Yes, sometimes I do like a challenging game.
Boring romances. If you're spending the time to put romance in your RPG's, do two things. One, make an equal amount of romantic possibilites for both male and female characters. Two, make at least one possibility for each gender interesting.
I have more pet peeves. Which I think explains why I'm so very picky about which games I play.
that I'm kinda in love with Russ Feingold. I was reading up about who represents me in various political offices, and decided to finally read his wikipedia page. I'd heard lots of good things about him, but finally read about them myself. This dude is badass. He is totally not afraid of being the lone senator voting for or against something.
From the wiki:
I could go on and on, especially in regards to his budget. The dude is amazing.Feingold was the only Democratic senator to vote against a motion to dismiss Congress's 1998–1999 impeachment case of President Bill Clinton.[31] In a statement, Feingold said House prosecutors must have "every reasonable opportunity" to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Clinton should be removed from office on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Feingold ultimately voted against conviction on all charges.
In 2001, Feingold voted for the confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft. This decision was not popular with his party, but Feingold explained that he voted based on respect for the right for a President to choose his Cabinet, not because of his own personal opinions on Ashcroft.[32]
Feingold was the only senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act when first voted on in 2001.[43] At the time, Feingold stated that provisions in the act infringed upon citizens' civil liberties.[44]
Today I read not one, but two different news stories about how the media negatively affects children.
They said that teen girls who watch a lot of sex on TV are more likely to get pregnant and that children who play violent video games are more likely to be violent.
Umm... call me crazy, but don't the parents also have something to do with that? I grew up playing video games, both violent and not, and watching soap operas and movies with sex in them. I am neither pregnant nor violent. I mean, the type of parent who lets their 10 year old kid play Grand Theft Auto IV without talking to them about what they're doing is probably also less likely to care if their kid is violent.
But, some parents just don't want to take any blame. Blame movies, blame the media, blame music, blame video games just don't blame them? Now, I'm not saying that I don't think these things have any influence at all, but I also think that parents can diminish or even negate this influence. Seemed to work for me.
