July 2008 Archives

Yesterday was a busy day for me. Today, I'm just taking it easy, and maybe taking in a movie or something at the mall. I'm on my own for a bit. Kent left yesterday morning very early for Vancouver, B.C. and won't be home until Thursday very late. He called last night to let me know he got in ok, as we always do.

So what to do with myself on a beautiful Saturday when I'm by myself? I decided to plan a photo trip, since it was nice and sunny out, to Kent Falls State Park, in Kent, Connecticut (map). It's a fair haul from my home to Kent, CT, but I was making the whole day of it. So I loaded up the gear, and headed off.

I have no idea how to get to Kent, CT. In fact, I can't find my way out of a paper bag without directions. Luckily, my car knows everything - how to get there, plots several possible courses, and how long it will take to get to our destination. Of course, I went the more direct way, which it said was to avoid freeways. That took me up through the north-end of Hartford. And as I was driving through this neighborhood, watching the junkies shooting themselves up with their morning fix of heroin, I realized just how different life can be if you make the wrong choices. I suppose, just maybe, if I had made different choices, I could have been one of them?

But along the way, since I was kind of going by it anyway, I decided to stop by Elizabeth Park. After a short distance, I leave this area, and ascend into the north Hartford area of Prospect Avenue, filled with huge mansions where the upper crust of the "other half" live. It is here that Elizabeth Park resides. And here are are few of the photos I took from Elizabeth Park.

View the entire set here.

View the entire set here.

After spending an hour or so there, I proceeded to Kent Falls State Park, about an hour away from Elizabeth Park. It was a very scenic drive - country side with farms of various sorts along the way. Very rural Connecticut, and a part of Connecticut that I don't often get to, the north western part of the state.

I spent about three hours at Kent Falls State Park. Here are a few photos from that stay.

View entire set here.

View entire set here.

After my stay at Kent Falls State Park, I decided to go to Toshi Japanese Restaurant in Avon, Connecticut. It was on my way home, and it has quite a reputation for being a top notch sushi restaurant. I programmed my car to find it, and I left for Toshi.

I come into the restaurant, and I'm seated. They put a menu on the table, and came back no more than one minute later to ask me if I'm ready to order. I said, "Well, no. I just sat down." The waiter told me, "Well, we are closing the sushi bar in five minutes so you really do have to get your order in now." I should have walked out, but after hiking all over Kent Falls State Park all afternoon, I was really hungry. So, as he stood there watching over me, I picked out a few things that sounded good to me. He put the order in.

The food came, and the beverages came later (not good!). The sushi looked like it had been put together by an amateur. I could have done better. I didn't complain. I had lunch. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon. I thought that they were closing the sushi bar to prepare for dinner. They were after all clearing off the paper napkins that they gave to me, and placing blue cloth napkins on the tables.

I paid my bill, and wanted to go wash my hands. The restaurant was still open for business, yet, they weren't serving. On my way to the restroom to wash my hands, the entire staff were gathered around a large table playing poker. It's good to know that my lunch was hurried and that absolutely no thought was put behind my first (and only!) visit to Toshi, because they had something more important to attend too... a poker game.

Toshi, truly a second class restaurant that's honestly not worth the trouble to go to. I was very disappointed. I grade them a "D-".

Other than that, it was really a spectacular day. I got home around 4:30, and by 9:00, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I went to bed and had good dreams about the day.

And he's sounding rather "Presidential" I might add. As you listen to this, just ask yourself, is this a speech that George W. Bush or John McCain could pull off... or even think of giving?

I heard this on the radio on my way into work this morning, and Kent forwarded me a link as well. It's an article warning of the dangers of cancer from the use of cell phones. Most of us use cell phones. I can't live without mine, but I'm not using it a lot. I figure next to the other dangers in life, like simply driving to work in the morning, cell phone usage is way down on the list of dangers.

Still, I do worry about some people. I know people who seem to live their lives on cell phones. When I visit the UCONN campus, students all over the place have a cell phone up to their ear. Many others have the phone up to their ear a lot. I also know people who go around the office all day long with a blue tooth ear set hooked to their ear. All day long, even when they don't have a call, or are in their car! I stopped using a blue tooth ear set because my new car simply has it all built in (I wonder what that's doing to me on my way to work?), so when I get a call, my car rings. I pick up the call with a button on my steering wheel, and the radio stops, and it puts the call through my car speakers.

But still, for those who wear a blue tooth ear set all day long, what does that do to you? It's pulsing every few seconds to stay online waiting for a call. And every time it pulses, what does that do to their brain?

Just something to think about. Personally, I view the cell phone as a great invention, kind of like the light bulb. I never go anywhere without it, but a lot of that is knowing that if I'm in an accident, or fall while out hiking, help is only a phone call away. But I use it with moderation, like every thing in life. I love martinis, but I don't have one every night and I don't use them to deal with stress in my life. I love chocolate and deserts, but I don't gorge myself on them. Once in a great while, maybe once every 2-3 months, I'll have a dessert and a cappuccino after a nice dinner.

And sometimes when I'm making a nice dinner for guests, I will use real butter in a sauce (some sauces will not work without it). If I'm making a Hollandaise or a Bearnaise sauce, they have butter and egg yolks for the consistency. How often do I make those? Maybe twice a year. How often to I eat steak? Maybe once a month.

The message here is, everything in moderation. Know what the risk is, and act accordingly.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cellphone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cellphone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [...]

Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speaker phone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cellphones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone's electromagnetic fields. (source)

I heard about this yesterday, and could hardly believe it. Basically, as far as the U.S. Census is concerned, gay couples who are married don't exist. Read more...

The Census Bureau says the federal Defense of Marriage Act bars the agency from recognizing gay marriages in the nation's 10-year count, even though the marriages are legal in Massachusetts and California.

The agency's director, Steven Murdock, said in an interview Thursday that the 1996 federal law "has that effect, in terms of being a federal agency. We are restricted by it."

The Census Bureau does not ask people about their sexual orientation, but it does ask about their relationships to the head of the household. Many gay couples are listed in census figures as unmarried, same-sex partners, though it is an imperfect tally of all gay couples.

Murdock said the bureau will strive to count same-sex couples in the 2010 census, just as it has in the past. But those people who say they are married will be reclassified as unmarried, same-sex partners.

Same-sex couples with no children will not be classified as families, according the bureau's policy. Those with children who are related to the head of the household will be classified as families. (source)

I remember putting down that we are "married". Yes I know, no one sees us that way. We are, to the law, state and federal, "legal strangers", but I said, screw it... I KNOW WHAT WE ARE. So I put down "married", and I listed Kent as my "spouse".

Now I find out that we didn't count. Not only that, gay couples who are really married by a state don't count. NICE.

Going off to a nice room somewhere and repeating 100 times, "I love my country. I do! I do! I do!"

"Let the people decide."

The slogan has a nice, democratic ring to it. Look for it on bumper stickers in the next few months, as a coalition of special interests asks you to vote "yes" on opening the state constitution to revisions. The coalition includes a conservative cross-section of groups opposed to gay marriage, abortion rights and high taxes.

The Constitution Convention Campaign wants to amend the state constitution to permit ballot initiatives, letting citizens make laws by referendum. Supporters say "initiative referenda," as they're called, would transfer power to average citizens from the handful of politicians who control the agenda in Hartford. And supporters insist it's not about a single issue (gay marriage) but a broad set of reforms. (source)

I never thought this would really happen in Connecticut... a referendum system of passing laws. Apparently, there are some who want that to happen. If we are honest with ourselves, their main goal is to stop what will happen eventually; marriage equality for gay couples. But if they manage to make this happen (big IF I think), they won't stop there. It will be a free for all on just about any issue.

Love Makes a Family has a campaign going on to sign a petition against this action. So go over to their web site and...

The photo below is my first attempt at making a composite photo. The composite consists of eight distinct and separate photos. The photos are then merged and aligned into one complete composite. The final file size was 756 megabytes. This was reduced considerably, even on the Flickr site. Not bad for my first try. Click on the photo to view it in Flickr, to see it in larger sizes.

It seems like I've become hooked on iTunes these days. I seem to download my music from there onto my Mac, and from there, onto my iPod. This is available on iTunes and Amazon, but I ended up buying it last night while at the mall.

If you like Renée Fleming as I do, you may not like this album. It's not what you would expect. She's singing jazz and blues - a far cry from her earlier Mozart, Handel, and later Verde, Puccini, and Strauss albums. She has a breathiness in her voice that I find very seductive, and I love the way she explores the lower registers in her voice. It lends itself beautifully to this style of singing.

While we were listening to it, it reminded me of Ella Fitzgerald. And after reading what Renée wrote inside, I can see why: "One issue I faced in making this recording was in choosing a vocal style. As a college student, I sang with more jazz inflection, with scat, be-pop and melismatic treatments of words, but ultimately, I decided to emulate the atmosphere created on my favorite duo ballad recordings by Tony Bennett and Bill Evans or Ella Fitzgerald and Paul Smith; approaches so understated, I have never tired of hearing them."

I've taken some time away to reflect a bit about some things. It's all good. Some of the things I've been up to...

I'm still looking at different ways to merge large photos. My interest in photography at this point is in taking a large canvas (many photos) and merging them into one single photo. The end product will be a more encompassing photo then just broken up into different photos with different views. It's coming together pretty well, but it's making me think more about the settings I have on the camera. It's not as flexible as taking individual photos because the settings must be uniform, without different exposure settings or different focal points. It's more difficult to pull off. In the end, you want to end up with one large photo and, if you are really successful, you will never be able to tell where the photos merge together. If I get good enough with it, I'll post some of the photos on Flickr, as well as post them here.

My trip to Idaho to visit with family and friends was very nice. Generally speaking, I had a good time. It was nice to see old friends, as well as visit with family members, who would meet with me. Not all of them talk to me, but I'm not losing any sleep over that. The downside is, it left me drained both emotionally and physically.

When I was in Idaho, I was a fish out of water. I realized how surreal it was. I drove by a place just off campus from the College of Idaho on Dearborne Street. It looks just exactly like it did when we stayed there over a summer in the late 1970's. It's as if time has no effect on it. I looked at the apartment, and had images of our life then, and this very nice lady named Viola Springer bringing her two boys chocolate cake that she made for us. Such a treat! People don't do that any more. Well, I do, but in today's world, you are looked at as being a bit "off" if you do that.

I also realized by going back there just how much I've changed. I'd like to tell you that now that a lot of time has passed, my family accepts my "gayness", if you want to call it that. I took some photos of my life back with me so they could see my life the way it is now, with photos of my family. And yet, I found myself skipping over the photo of us -- Kent and myself, as a couple -- because I knew they would not like it. And I was on their turf. What to do? Some would say I wussed out. I guess I just didn't think it was worth the aggravation of having to process the looks I would get. And I was never like that when I was younger. So what they saw were photos of our home, our cats, places we like, stuff like that. But not us.

It's not all that bad. My eighty-four year old Aunt openly told me, "You have quite a man in your life." That was pretty awesome because she didn't used to feel that way. Perhaps with time, she's realized that Kent is part of my life. That kind of cancels out the other negatives with the family.

The other thing that is worth mentioning is that I've been with Kent for 33 years. They all know this. At family gatherings, not one of them asked about Kent, or my personal life. Pretty damn lame. That's all I can say.

One friend who I've known since childhood keeps saying online and in email (for the past year) that he wanted to get together with me while I was there. I called him several times. When I saw him online again after getting home, he said, "I tried to call you and it said your phone wasn't available." Strange. It's available for everyone else, but him. Oh well.

Another friend from childhood did meet with me, and we have a good visit, although it was only three hours long. We will keep in tough I believe.

Mostly, I enjoyed my Boise friends. I had a great time visiting with them. And, my cousin, Kim, who I stayed with, is one of my best friends in the world. She is the only one in my family, other than my brother, who acknowledges Kent as my spouse.

So it's been a mixed bag of stuff. I'm still here and still around. I've just been trying to get my motivation back to blog. We've been taking weekend trips here and there. I'm so happy I'm back in New England again. Next to Idaho, Connecticut is like a rain forest.

Finally, I posted some of Kent's photos from South Africa if you want to view them.

First off, Happy Fourth of July everyone! It's nice to just chill out and have very little to do. We are going to a bar-b-que tonight, and having a friend over tomorrow night for dinner. We really tried this year to do little to nothing on this long weekend. We need the rest! Sometimes, when you have a smaller work week, it's a bit more difficult to get through. You still have the same amount of work to get done.

I thought I'd share this with you. It's a bit humorous and tickled my funny bone. Hope you enjoy.

THE American Family Association has a strict policy to replace the word "gay" with "homosexual" on its news website - but it created a problem with sprinter Tyson Gay.

The association's computer's auto-corrected the US sprint star's name to Tyson Homosexual.

Here's an extract of an Associated Press story as it ran on the association's OneNewsNow Christian news website:

Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has. His time of 9.68 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials Sunday doesn't count as a world record, because it was run with the help of a too-strong tailwind.

Here's what does matter: Homosexual qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice he's certainly someone to watch in Beijing.

"It means a lot to me," the 25-year-old Homosexual said. "I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me." (source)