Society for Aesthetic Deletions

A woman at work returned an ancient Mac Classic II today. She'd had it at home, ostensibly for "work from home," but now has a new computer, so doesn't need it.

It's really a good idea, if you have these sorts of situations, that you remove any and all documents from the computer before you return it. Otherwise, people might see that it wasn't just work you were doing.

::starts reading what appears to be 101 pages in MacWrite of someone's historical novel::

First things first: Yay Patriots!

Second: The best thing about having a ReplayTV unit:

The new "segment skip" feature.

Originally, the box had Commercial Advance (ours still does, I understand the newer ones don't), allowing you to jump through the commercial breaks. Not perfect, as it goes by signals from the networks, and they can be inaccurate.

In order to make themselves less available for lawsuits, they changed that in the newer boxes, and now have a "segment skip" feature. By hitting a different button on the remote, you can jump over parts of the program you're watching. Usually the same sort of thing as Commercial Advance, just not calling it that.

However, it can also be used to skip the actual segments of the program you're watching, and view only the commercials.

Why yes, I did tape the Superbowl on Sunday, as it was opposite our new Sunday D&D d20 game. And yes, after the game was over, I selected Play from beginning, and segment skipped all the silly football stuff, to watch the commercials.

I missed a few, perhaps they were in the pre-game show, or just got lost in the skipping somewhere. But I did get to see my Superbowl ads.

Favorite: The donkey wanting to be a Budweiser clydesdale, hands down.

Other favorites: The football players singing, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow, with the tag line of "Tomorrow, we'll all be undefeated again." I loved the sentiment, even though it took me until the guy wearing the St. Louis Rams shirt to realize they were football players. The Frito Lay commercial was funny if a bit dark, and the kids with the soap in their mouths was good for a laugh, though I thought it took a bit much to get to the punchline. Lou and I got some good laughs over the alien FedEx commercial. And though Lou had seen it before, I liked the IBM/Linux ad. And the Apple/Pepsi ad, though I'd seen it in advance.

I had also set it to recording Survivor as a part of the Superbowl recording, going 80 minutes after the Superbowl's supposed end. Obviously I did not get it all.

I was going to delete it first thing Monday morning, but Lou pleaded to keep it. As I had skipped the halftime show, I missed the whole brouhaha. I just want to delete it before we head off on our vacation.

Third thing: Yes, we're going to Las Vegas again on vacation. Leaving this Thursday, returning next Tuesday. Going to spend Saturday night with certain people and maybe even another who might show up for a visit.

I'm bringing the Palm and will likely be doing a travelogue like I did last time.

Lastly: In other news, I had dinner with my first ex-sister-in-law last evening at my mother-in-law's house. Have I mentioned in this blog that my brother-in-law (that would be Lou's brother) is back with his first wife, after his second one (the one who went on the aforementioned Las Vegas trip with us before) dumped him. I did not know that she was going to be there, and it was a pleasant dinner, though I think we are all still feeling our way around this whole messy situation.

There, Alex, is that enough blogging for you for now? My ardent readership is hopefully satisfied for a little bit.

Massachusetts high court: Same-sex couples entitled to marry

Yay for my state!

Palm's next gen OS ceases OS X support.

Well, I guess if I want a new Palm, I'll have to make sure to get it before the PalmOS 6, aka Cobalt, comes out. Since I mostly sync my Palm IIIc at work and not with my home Windows machine, and it's a work-provided Palm, this is a big issue.

Especially as I dislike iCal.

Courtesy of Macslash.

Angel is not being renewed by the WB.

Movie events? How about just another plain good season, like last, and this one is shaping up to be?

Stupid fuckers.

Valentine's Day, that great state holiday, by Bill Maher in the Op-Ed column in the Boston Globe.

And why does the Bush administration want a constitutional amendment about weddings? Hey, birthdays are important, too -- why not include them in the great document? Let's make a law that gay people can have birthdays, but straight people get more cake -- you know, to send the right message to kids.

I saw this floating around Livejournal, with no source attribution. If anyone knows, tell me and I'll add it in here. EDIT: I was contacted in IM via a very nice person with the handle of Amystyle, to tell me that this is from Gator Gay Straight Alliance. So update your links!

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.
2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can't legally get married because the world needs more children.
3. Obviously, gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if Gay marriage is allowed, since Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.
5. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are property, blacks can't marry whites, and divorce is illegal.
6. Gay marriage should be decided by people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.
7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
10. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children.
11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven't adapted to things like cars or longer life spans.
12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a "separate but equal" institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

Ideas: Gay Marriage - Pro and Con

This argument for gay marriage comes from a conservative. Originally published in the Op-Ed column of the New York Times last November.

The conservative course is not to banish gay people from making such commitments. It is to expect that they make such commitments. We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity.

I don't think I agree with everything he says (such as the line about becoming each other in the marriage - we have to retain some of our individuality!), but that only strengthens his point, for me.

40% (Yankee). A definitive Yankee.

Even though I was born in 'bama, I am a Yankee at heart.

I got my check for $13.86, did you?