Now THAT'S a cupcake

The boys are suspicious of me because I am not much of a dessert person. But as you can see from Chas' creation, they set the bar high.

The "Hip" Faces of Intolerance

I don't have the heart to watch the anti-gay marriage videos created to rock the vote in California. But I did enjoy Radar Online's descriptions:

"Adam" who is a law student at UCLA, allegedly: "The change of the legal
definition of marriage could narrow personal liberties—and some of them are even
lost!" Somehow he thinks photographers will be forced to photograph gay weddings
and that doctors will be forced to do artificial insemination of lesbians.
That's weird, because in America private business owners have the right to turn
down any work they want, Adam, which probably they taught you in your first year
at law school?
"Alissa": "It's really about gaining control, forcing all of
us to give up the very foundation of speech and religious freedoms on which this
country was founded." This is so fundamentally retarded that it's unclear what
she's saying. Gay marriage impedes freedom of speech? Neither does it impinge on
religious freedom. Your church is completely free not to marry gay people—just
as it's completely free to not ordain women priests!

I used to think it was OK to give on gay marriage, that it wasn't worth making people uncomfortable. I'm over that. My family has just as much right to exist as any other, with the same benefits -- and responsibilities. The funny/sad thing is that many people I know and love don't even realize how precarious our existence is -- that just a handful of states even allow people like me to adopt kids, and that a number of states still deny people like me the right to be with our family in hospitals, etc. We know people who

Come on Californians -- do the right thing!

My wife rocks the children's sermon

Yes, that's my Cheryl keeping the kids and our pastor rapt this morning with her wise words about paper, money, and what is truly priceless. You know, people. It was a Reid-Simons dominated service, with the boys serving as acolytes and me as lay leader, complete with musings on faces vs. Facebook and a prayer style best characterized as conversational. Hey, I'm how God made me.

Help! We're lost in a corn maze!

First, it was fun. Now our feet hurt.

Star Wars: My Resolve to Wait Is Weakening

OK, just to be clear, I'm not talking about myself here. I've resolved that my boys should wait until they are 7 to see "Star Wars." That's the plan. Then they'll see "Empire," "Jedi" and the crappy ones in order, once a year, after that. And though I sounded real certain when I talked it out with Ron Moore (yeah, namedropping, don't hate), I just don't think I can hold out that long.

Tonight, Eddie showed me a poster from their Lego magazine that they've hung on their door. It's of a scene from "The Clone Wars," the cartoon movie that came out over the summer. "It looks like a good movie," Eddie says with certainty. He went on to describe the battle scene, and asked why the Jedis were fighting a guy with two light sabers. They already know who Obi-wan Kenobi is, and they know he was a mighty fighter. What will they think when Luke Skywalker goes looking for "Old Ben?" Oh, God -- what will they think when they realize that Luke has the last name as the big hero du jour, that Anakin guy???? They already worry that Anakin isn't a good guy. I have dodged answering that.

As Cheryl says, "We cannot put them in a time machine and take them back to 1977." And we cannot keep them free of the pervasive Star Wars culture. If the knock on Clone Wars is that its a kiddie thing, maybe we should just watch it this fall.

Thanks, Wanda: That's So Gay Has Gotta Go!

I wince a little every time I hear someone say "that's so gay." And I've gently tried to educate people I know about how it makes me feel when they use a word that describes me to describe something they find distasteful. It seems like it works, at least when they're around me.

Anyway, I was heartened to hear that I'm not the only one on the case. Wanda Sykes and Hilary Duff are on the case with a new round of PSAs. Sykes' character recently married -- OK, fake-married -- a woman on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and it's not easy to pull off the fake gay marriage thing without seeming like a jerk. But she did it. Anyway, here's the preview. And if you say "that's so gay," listen to Wanda. Knock it off.

A new use for the 'burbs

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/04/vehicle-to-grid-will-turn-suburbs-into-power-plants-wont-help/

OK, so as some one who worries about the future of the world as well as my world in a petroleum-starved future, stories like this, about the energy-charging potential of the non-urban world. I agree about the hinky neighbors concern, thought most of mine are great, which gives me hope.

A small wind problem at the Fife Harvest Fest

So to call it a blustery day might be an understatement. But it was still a fun day. We played games, saw the Reptile Man and his scaly friends and got free crap.

Are You Kidding Me, Sound Transit?

Web-connected buses are great. They are a big part of why I ride Sound Transit instead of Metro. But today, as I stand with 40 other people on a bus packed to the gills (75-plus in a single-length conveyance, I think I may re-embrace Metro, web or no. There is still plenty of work I can do off-line.