Well, at least I know that in the event of armageddon, I should still be able to keep up on my freinds’ survival stories. Dang that internetz sure is a durable sucker. I should know, I worked with an ISP for several years that went through some pretty major (albeit self-induced) environmental crises in our time (on a much smaller scale, of course). Ah, memories…

Alas, due to all the dimwits here in Charlotte (and Atlanta, from what I hear), I moved from the city with the highest fuel prices in the country to another city with some of the highest fuel prices… They followed me, damn them. I hear there are lines of people who go to gas stations and top off their tanks with like 2 bucks of gas. Achingly, horribly dispicable dumbfucks, all of them.

David and I watched Flashdance last night… Sometimes it’s nice to watch a movie just because of its urban eye candy. It made me ponder Pittsburgh again - my paternal homeland and probably the place I’d be most likely to plant myself if money, family and occupation were not an issue…

I’ve repeated it often: the debate about whether I like cities because I want to live in them, or if I simply like them because I want to be them… In any event, after a couple solid months’ escape from The City That Ate Three Years of My Life, I’ve mellowed out a bit in the whole desire to see every destination as a potential home. That tendency will never completely go away, since that’s how I travel, and how I see cities. I look at a place from the perspective of someone wanting to live and work and play in a city, not as someone just wanting some fleeting temporary thrills from it, as the majority of tourists behave (and even many residents, in “museum” cities which often attract a “permanent touriust” population such as San Francisco).

So I’ve revised that old list of the cities where I could see myself living. It’s no longer a wish list, but rather an “alternate reality” list. I’ve arrived “someplace else” than where I was when this list started. So there’s no reason to plan a new escape plan - just an excuse to fantasize about those heady days in the far future when I have a big vacation house in each of my favorite places…

When can we start our Target Gift Registry?

Scenario 1: Schwarzenegger vetoes and Prop 22 is declared unconstitutional within the next year and queers get to marry anyway.

Scenario 2: Schwarzenegger signs and the law gets declared unconstitutional, but then Prop 22 also gets declared unconstitutional and queers get to marry anyway.

I think scenario 2 is actually somewhat likely. AS is not very popular right now, and he’s unlikely to win a real gubernatorial election when it happens, so signing this would be an easy way of getting it out of his way and culling a large bloc of hitherto vehemently unsupportive constituents.

However, make no mistake, this law is unconstitutional. The CA constitution does not allow the legislature to pass law which supercedes or nullifies a ballot initiative which is currently in force. The only way this law could be passed legally would be if the courts threw out Prop 22 first.

Which brings me to a probable Scenario 3: Schwarzenegger abstains from signing or vetoing the bill, in hopes that the courts will throw out Prop 22 before the session is out, at which time he can just let it slip through and become law without his sig. That might actually be the most astute move for him at this point.

A place to call “home” is something we all want. Most people seem to use the concept of location as an integral part of their own identity. It’s often what most of us spend our lives searching for: a place where we belong.

I grew up in Fresno, a bigger-than-it-thinks-it-is city in Central California. Most of my ideas of what is “right” or “wrong” with a city are based on my experiences growing up and finding my identity in Fresno. Despite this affinity for my hometown, however, I have grown to consider San Francisco to be the first real place I called “home”.

Fresno was an incubator for me, in many ways. It’s where I was schooled and nurtured. I was never a true adult in Fresno. I did not really establish my true sense of identity there. I used it to formulate my budding philosophical foundations and life-world views, but I never established myself there as an independent adult entity.

I missed Fresno desperately when I moved to San Francisco. It was a really “soft” move, since these days the relationship between the Bay Area and its exurbs are such that the economy and population of the two are fairly intertwined. Moving to San Francisco was moving “to the City” from the “hinterland”. I’d known San Francisco was “The City” since childhood. It was natural that I should end up in that city as an adult.

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When one is failing to communicate ones ideas, one is probably best served by ceasing to try.

Completely aside from my contemptable views on the subject…

What horrors will the coming “Aid Boom” in New Orleans do to that city? It appears that just about everything being done on Earth for the next few weeks is a Katrina benefit. I guess that means that about 10% of world GDP will go toward “rebuilding” New Orleans for the next few years.

If I lived there, I would not go back. I’d be too afraid of the Disneyland all this aid is going to turn it into over the next decade.

I’ve decided that the coming of Fall necessitates a tiny celebration. As I’ve noted before, my preferred method is a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Unfortunately, this persistent heat makes me wish they would have come out with the Frappaccino version this year…

So let’s see… The Gawd Squad these days tells us that Gawd sent Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because of all the fornicating fags who were about to celebrate Southern Decadence (unfortunately, it seems that Gawd failed to notice that all the fags lived on the high ground, and He just ended up wiping out all the poor black Christians).

Thus, I’m scouring my brain to figure out exactly which dire sins southeast Texas has committed… For all the blabbermouth I’ve heard from them over the years, I’d assumed Texas was what they were talking about when they talked about the Holy Land. Well, there are poor black people in southeast Texas, so maybe those were the real target of Gawd’s rage two weeks ago… I shudder to realize that in fact many members of the Gawd Squad may actually believe the latter already…

Obligatory Disclaimers:

The idea of the educational institutions I’ve attended having some sort of lasting social or networking impact on my life is rather laughable, but I suppose I’m an anomaly…

High school only consumed 3 years of my life, and I only maintain any sort of friendship with two people from that time (and they’re rather distant friendships at that). College consumed 7 years of my life, and, strangely, I made absolutely no close friends during that time. These days, I maintain no connections with anyone from college but a couple professors (for reference and professional purposes).

I’m often surprised at how much weight schoolmates carry in peoples’ lives - even so long after said educational experience is over. I admit I carried lots of high school baggage with me for several years afterward, but I think after high school I stopped seeing school as a social place; I just never really replaced it with anything…

“THEY/THEM”= Those that live/work or lived/worked in New Orleans or the Delta region and were thus displaced or affected by the recent hurricane(s).

“WE/US”= Those that DO NOT live/work nor lived/worked in New Orleans or the Delta region and thus probably couldn’t have cared less about what happened to those areas until a political agenda could be gleaned from the hurricane(s).

“GOOD”= THEY receive voluntary charitable donations and insurance settlements (and, under my protest, small, individualized, qualified federal grants) to slowly and thoughtfully rebuild THEIR region into something that will be honorable to the history and integrity of the region, and sustainable for THEIR continued lives and livelihoods there, as THEY see fit to use or not use such funds thus.

“BAD”= WE throw all-strings-attached tax money at pie-in-the-sky public works and pork barrel projects and turn THEIR region into a brand new Disneyland for US.

“REALITY”= Throwing tons of public money and pork at New Orleans will prevent it from being a viable community to which the urban poor (who are what this whole stink is about) can return and thrive. Lots of outside contractors and members of the “in” crowd will make tons of money, and real estate will skyrocket and drive out all the dingy and interesting things and places that may have been able to otherwise return, and which previously made the region important to anyone. “Rebuilding” will result in a large urban museum similar to New York/San Francisco/LA where WE can go to get sloshed and expose ourselves in public several times each year, and the more money WE throw at it, the more new streets WE’LL be able to do the latter on.

“FANTASY”= Throwing tons of public money and pork at New Orleans will enable the poor folk to better their lot and better contribute to the local economy. 60-100 billion tax dollars will help THEM.

“LOWEST APPROVAL RATINGS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION”= What the fuck is wrong with you people?! He’s been an absolute ineffectual, dottering moron for 5 years now and it took an unrelated natural disaster (which, despite my desire to blame it on him, he did not cause) to wake you up to what a total waste of breathable air his administration is? What news source have you been watching before Katrina? What slimy cave have you spent 5 years masturbating in?!

1. OMG! IT’S COLD AND GRAY AND BREEZY OUT (aka “good weather”)! IT’S NOT HUMID AND SUNNY AND HOT AND MISERABLE! YAY!1!!!!!1!!ONE!!1!!1
2. My first trip to Panera. Yummy spinach and artichoke souffle.
3. The promise of not having to deal with Bank of America’s rotten errors and customer service after today.
4. I got in early and made coffee. Hopefully I can drink the whole pot before anyone else gets in.