OutOutBlogSpot

Finally! Hallmark Cards for Gay & Lesbian Weddings!

2008-08-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

It's about time!

Hallmark Recognizes Gay Marriage Before Most States

Most states don't recognize gay marriage _ but now Hallmark does.

The nation's largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards _ featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. "Two hearts. One promise," one says.

Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal gay marriage. A handful of other states have recognized same-sex civil unions.

The language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political pressure.

"It's our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can," Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said.

Hallmark's largest competitor, American Greetings Corp., has no plans to enter the market, saying its current offerings are general enough to speak to a lot of different relationships.

Hallmark started offering "coming out" cards last year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next year. No sales figures were available yet.

"When I have shopped for situations like babies or weddings for gay friends I have good luck in quirky stores," said Kathryn Hamm, president of the Web site gayweddings.com.

Twitter!

2008-08-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Since I've been so awful at posting to this blog as frequently as I'd like, I finally bit the bullet and added a Twitter portion on the right side of the page.

I update my status on Twitter a lot more often than I write full-length blog posts, so hopefully this will be better for everyone who's still interested in what I'm doing. :-)

As usual, feedback/comments are welcome!

Summer Break To Do List

2008-07-29T16:34:00.001-07:00

Now that on my summer break for 4 weeks, I have a lot on my To Do list. Since I'm going to be in Indiana visiting home next week, I'm going to try to catch up on my Harry Potter reading. I'm four novels behind!

Also...
-- Spend more leisure time with family and friends
-- Catch up on summer movies
-- Buy new sunglasses
-- Buy running shoes (try running)
-- Resolve neighbor's annoying tree, which is infringing on our property
-- Catch up on doctor and dentist appointments

Imeem

2008-07-18T16:26:00.001-07:00

I've created an account on Imeem.com. It's a site that lets you create music playlists that can be embedded in other web sites, like your blogs, Facebook profile, or Evite invitation (the new version of the site which will be made public soon).

My first mix is a hip hop homage to arse. Enjoy!

Testing Imeem Playlist

2008-07-18T16:24:00.001-07:00

Not sure if this will work...

Arse Music

TotSpot.com is Awesome

2008-07-18T07:14:00.001-07:00

I've started a page for our little princess on TotSpot.com. It's a social networking site for toddlers, but really parents of toddlers. It's private, so you can only see her page if I invite you (which requires registration on the site).

They allow anyone I invite to keep up with our daughter (journal/blog, photos, videos, milestones, etc.). Awesome! I can also do the same for children of other friends of ours. It's especially useful for friends and family far away.

I think I've invited most everyone by now, so look in your in boxes for an invitation from our daughter. If you've deleted it by accident or can't find it, let me know, and I'll re-send an invitation. I'll be blogging about her exclusively on that site from now on.

True Colors

2008-07-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to the True Colors Tour at the Greek Theatre. I wasn't planning on going, but I won tickets in a Power Up raffle. I went with a friend who's been my concert buddy for several years, and we had a great time.

It was fun seeing Andy Bell dance around in his tank top and leather pants. He's a great performer. He pulled it off, even though he didn't have anyone behind him. It was just him in front of a curtain.

We also enjoyed the B-52's and Cyndi Lauper. Neither one of us had seen them perform live, and they're a lot of fun. Definitely worth checking out if you have a chance to see them!

Inevitable Comments

2008-06-22T12:19:00.001-07:00

Evite's GLBT wedding designs have been getting inevitable comments on their blog. It makes me pessimitic about November's proposition vote to overturn gay marriages (again). Bleh.

Gay Evite Invitation Designs! Yay!

2008-06-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting a long time for gay evites! Evite just launched 4 new invitation designs for gay and lesbian weddings. Actually, 3 out of 4 are for women, but I expect more for the guys at some point.

They're just in time for next Tuesday's "zero hour" when the first legal ceremonies will be conducted all over California.

Check 'em out!

Broken YouTube Links

2008-06-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Looks like YouTube took down the videos of Katy Perry. Bleh. Here's the link to her official home page instead. It has her "I Kissed A Girl" video right on it.

Katy Perry's Official Home Page

Gay Song

2008-06-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

It's gay pride month! In honor of it, I'm going to post only gay things. Hahaha.

I heard a new gay song on the radio today, and I thought it was catchy. I liked the tune, and the lyrics made me laugh. It's called "I Kissed A Girl," but it's not a remake of that Jill Sobule song from 1995. The old one was more folksy, and this song is more rock and roll.

The artist's name is Katy Perry, and she's got another funny song, although less catchy, called Ur So Gay. I highly recommend both videos.

I Kissed A Girl

Ur So Gay

Spelling Bee Time

2008-05-31T09:50:00.001-07:00

I love watching the National Spelling Bee every year. There's always a great highlight that makes me laugh. This year, the eventual champ gets mixed up momentarily by a word that sounds like "numb nut." I've watched it about 10 times already.

Numb nut? (ESPN)
Numb nut? (YouTube)

Previous year highlights include a boy who faints, then recovers to spell his word correctly, and a girl who can't contain her excitement when she realizes she knows the word and she's going to win the whole thing.

Marriage Law

2008-05-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

The recent ruling by the California Supreme Court that will allow us to get married has been the subject of much discussion at work and among our friends. At work, a number of us was confused by a story on CNN.com which had a quote by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera that said the case could not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here's the section of the story:
A constitutional amendment initiative specifying that marriage is only between a man and a woman is awaiting verification by the secretary of state's office after its sponsors said they had gathered enough signatures to place it on the statewide ballot. The parties cannot appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Herrera said, as federal courts do not have jurisdiction over the state laws. "This is the final say," he said.

That seemed wrong to me and to a few friends who thought that any case involving constitutional rights could be heard by the Supreme Court. Since Roe v. Wade dealt with state abortion laws and various civil rights cases dealt with state laws that involved racial discrimination, then it followed naturally that gay marriage fit those examples.

As luck would have it, I am taking a business law class right now as part of my MBA program at Pepperdine. Tonight we discussed the topic, and my law professor cleared things up for me. Although the case is over, gay marriage could be overturned by a constitutional amendment vote this November. That part of the case will be done, since appeals won't be heard after that.

However, since many of us will be married between now and then, the topic will not be dead. Most likely what will happen is that a gay couple will be married this summer, then travel to another state where their marriage is not recognized. The conflicting state constitutions can then be challenged in court, and that new case can be heard by the Supreme Court. Ha!

Taking this a step further, if for some bizarre reason, Congress passes a federal Constitutional Amendment against gay marriage, that still isn't the end. That could still be challenged in the Supreme Court. In fact, the Supreme Court already has conflicting parts. Amendments are not absolute handcuffs. It CAN overrule them!

For example, Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution is the Fugitive Slave Clause. It says that if a slave escapes from a slavery state to a non-slavery state, then the non-slavery state must return the slave back to the slavery state. But later in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed, which prohibited slavery on a national level.

So you see, we're not totally screwed if they pass that amendment in November. It will just take longer.

Marriage

2008-05-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

Now that the California Supreme Court has struck down the gay marriage ban, we have a lot of people asking if we're going to get married, and if so, when and are they invited? We had a big ceremony for our domestic partnership in 2001, so we don't want to blow a lot of cash during this recession on something similar.

However, we're not opposed to getting married and celebrating in a more low key way. Despite what may happen in November, if the hateful anti-gays make the state vote on overturning it or not, we'd like to keep our anniversaries consistent. So we'd prefer to get married and celebrate with our friends in October, which is the same month we met and the same month we had our ceremony 8 years later.

This October will be 15 years of togetherness, so we were planning on doing something anyway. Now we just have to decide on details.

Tired :-(

2008-05-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling very tired lately, like time is moving slower. The fact that I'm only 2 years into my 4-year MBA program isn't making things any easier. Yes, I'm half done, but 2 more years seems like an awfully long time. I'm already dragging my feet on assignments, which is uncharacteristic of me.

I need to recharge, so I'm looking forward to our Memorial Day trip to Idyllwild. We'll be staying in a house up there for a few days and I'm not bringing any homework. Vacation all I ever wanted, vacation have to get away...

Movies

2008-05-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

I did a very unusual thing for me last week. I saw two movies in the theater! It was very exciting, since it had been months the last time I was in a movie theater (to see Juno). Tuesday I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which cracked me up. I loved the comic use of frontal male nudity. What's not to love?

Friday I saw Baby Mama, which was funny in parts, but an overall disappointment given my high expectations of a Tina Fey movie. I'd still recommend it, but only to a Tina Fey fan.

Next week I plan to see Iron Man. I'm on a roll! Business school be damned, it's summer movie season!

Picnic

2008-04-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today we're recovering from the picnic we threw yesterday at Lake Balboa Park. We had 50 people show up throughout the day, which turned out to be pretty long.

Lots of our guests participated in the activities that Lake Balboa Park offered, like the paddle boats and bicycle rentals. Although, I heard the paddle boats were much more of a work out than a leisurely stroll would have been.

We also rented a bouncy house for the kids, and that got plenty of action, including a couple of kids who were walking by randomly and asked politely if they could use it. Of course we let them go right ahead. Bounce away!

The forecast said it was going to be 91 degrees yesterday, so we were worried that it would be too hot. However, we had plenty of shade in our pavilion, and there was a hell of a wind blowing off the lake, so it turned out to be just fine except for the wind being a bit too strong sometimes. We had to pick up the items that blew away during stronger gusts. I just checked the weather.com site and it says the actual high that day was 95 degrees! It didn't feel that hot at all, thank god.

5 Year Blogiversary

2008-04-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have a chance to blog about my 5 year blogiversary. I started blogging 5 years ago on 4/15/2003. Unfortunately, my d@mn archives are broken, so you can't even see what I did back then. One day I'll fix it... I think.

Anyway, I didn't know back then that I'd still be blogging 5 years later. Although my frequency leaves a lot to be desired, I still make an effort to post as much as I can.

Today I'll post about something I saw on SciFi.com's DVICE blog.

These are really cool decorations called moon orb lamps. If I had a big yard, I'd totally put them there for people to admire. Very cool!

Spring Break

2008-04-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of the spring and summer terms of my MBA program. I have two more free weeks before my next class starts, so I'm trying to enjoy it. However, I've come down with another cold, which is very annoying. I'm supposed to be at a graduation party right now for Joz, who just finished the program, but when it came time to leave, and I was curled up on the couch in the fetal position with a fever and chills, I thought it was best to stay home.

On the positive side, I did find out that I got a full A in my Econ class. I thought I was going to get an A-, but I guess my participation points were high enough to push me in full A territory. I'm very pleased with myself now, because it was a tough class. I've never needed a tutor before, but at least it paid off in a good class grade. I still have a cumulative 4.0 in the program, but I have business law coming up next. Hopefully, I can maintain it.

Exam 3 of 3, Done

2008-03-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

My econ class is finally over. I got 92% on the comprehensive final exam, which was better than I'd done on the previous two exams, but still not good enough to get me a full A in the class. Damnit. I was 4.7 points away from a full A, but I have to settle for an A-, my lowest grade so far. Crap.

Well, at least I have 4 weeks off until the next term starts. Next up: Business Law. Another difficult one, but I might as well get it over with during the summer when there's less to watch on television.

Buffy Still Rocks!

2008-03-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday, I had the good fortune to attend the Paley Center Festival Buffy Reunion, in Hollywood at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome. A co-worker spent almost 2 hours online last month trying to buy tickets, but she was finally successful after much frustration. That was no small feat, since the ticket site almost shut down due to the heavy traffic volume. Lots of people gave up, but she had the tenacity to hang in there and get the job done! Desperate people on eBay spent $400/ticket to attend (we stood next to one in line). Can you believe that? Ouch! We paid $39 each.

In case you didn't already know, I'm a huge fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a TV show that ran for 8 seasons on The WB network, although it switched to UPN for its last 2 seasons. The quality of the writing and the development of the characters are unrivaled as far as I'm concerned. I have the complete boxed set of DVDs from every season, and I've had Buffy screenings at my house since it went off the air.

I miss it, so I was anxious to attend the reunion. I'd never been to a Paley Center event before, but they have it every year in NY and LA. Being a huge TV fan, I'm actually surprised I never went, but my experience this year was so great, that I'm definitely going to try to make it to future events.

It was great to see the cast live, even though the actresses who played Willow and Faith didn't show up as scheduled. :-(

I was just excited to be in the same room with fans as loyal as I was. Hell, my coworker and I tried last year to attend two different Buffy Sing-Along screenings in LA, but they were both cancelled before we could use the tickets we bought! I got refunds for both shows, but that wasn't the point...

Anyway, the same musical episode was shown at last week's Reunion, so we were thrilled! It was difficult NOT to sing along, but we managed OK. I won't bore you with the details, but if you are interested in what happened, check out this article on FutonCritic.com.

The best part of the night was when I pushed and squeezed my way to stage after the panel discussion, and actually managed to get autographs from Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt (scan below)! YAY! No eBay listing here, I'm a true fan!

BUFFY REUNION SCHEDULED ATTENDEES:
Joss Whedon, Creator
Marti Noxon, Executive Producer
David Greenwalt, Exec. Prod.
Amber Benson, "Tara Maclay"
Nicholas Brendon, "Xander Harris"
Charisma Carpenter, "Cordelia Chase"
Emma Caulfield, "Anya"
Eliza Dushku, "Faith" (didn't show)
Sarah Michelle Gellar, "Buffy Summers"
Seth Green, "Oz"
Alyson Hannigan, "Willow Rosenberg" (didn't show)
James Marsters, "Spike"
Michelle Trachtenberg, "Dawn Summers"

My New Favorite Blog

2008-03-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

I think I ran across this a couple of weeks ago, but I can't remember how. Maybe the BuzzFeed? Anyway, this blog is called Stuff White People Like and it cracks me up. Not only because it's true, but I know so many white people who fit the profile.

A white guy named Jess writes about stuff that mainly middle-class, urban, white people like, which includes Recycling, Barack Obama, Coffee, etc.

The full list is here.

There are hundreds of comments for each post, both negative and positive. Some people are offended by it, but I see it as I believe it's intended to be. A joke. Lighten up, white people!

Exam 2 of 3, Done

2008-03-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Well, my second of three exams is done and I got the same score as last time, 90 out of 100, which is only good enough for an A-. Crap. I was hoping for something a little higher, but I had a few too many incorrect guesses.

Oh, well. I'm going to continue my strategy of seeing the same tutor with my study group before the comprehensive final at the end of the month. I'm hoping that my homework and participation scores are high enough to bump me to a full A for the class.

More Storage

2008-02-18T20:01:00.001-08:00

I'm pretty happy with my new purchase. I scoured the sales in the Sunday newspaper for the best deal on an external hard drive, and I found a great $99 price at Staples for a 500GB Western Digital My Book. This is my 3rd external hard drive, and I've great luck with the others (one was a LaCie, the other a Fantom).

I've never had an external hard drive fail on me, which is more than I can say for internal computer hard drives. Those have failed several times, so I never trust them for primary storage anymore. One virus is all it takes, and goodbye files!

With this purchase, I have a redundant backup for my other external drive, which is only 120GB. My entire music collection and all my photos will now be in two places instead of one. Nice!

Exam 1 of 3, Done

2008-02-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

I took my first exam of 3 in my econ class this past Friday. It was a lot of memorization, but our study group's meeting with a tutor last weekend helped quite a bit. I got a 90, which is good enough for an A-.

Now we have 2 more exams to go. The second one is in a couple of weeks, then our final exam is cumulative, at the end of March. Our professor keeps warning us how difficult it is, so we'll no doubt meet with our tutor again a few more times before then.

No more weekend classes after this. It's too exhausting.