Nick Johnson

San Gregorio State Beach at Sunset

2009-01-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

Have a Fit

2008-12-17T13:16:00.000-08:00

Not too bad

2008-12-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

One semi-nasty pucker in one of my heel locks that I didn't notice til I was finished, but otherwise not too bad.

Yes, chewing!

2008-12-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

Durian

2008-12-15T18:33:00.000-08:00

Hung eats durian. I love him anyway.

temporary patch

2008-12-06T17:19:00.000-08:00

OSIV-like Behaviour for Unit Tests

2008-12-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

It is fairly common when writing unit tests to use mock objects in place of DAOs, and the whole issue of lazy loading is avoided, since the mock objects will simply be created to satisfy whatever conditions are required for testing to work. In some cases, however, such as with functional or acceptance testing, it is sometimes desirable to hit an actual test database. This seems simple enough until you realize that Spring's Open Session in View (or Open Entity Manager in View) has been handling sessions for you so that traversing lazy relationships work. Without it, you get a session long enough to execute a dao.find() and then the first time you attempt to traverse a lazy relationship, you get an exception.

Fortunately, with jUnit, it is fairly easy to create a setUp and tearDown to behave similarly to the start and end of a servlet request, and Spring provides the means to associate a session with the current thread, making things work basically the same way as they do with OSIV. Just do something like this:

        @Before
        public void setUp()
        {
            Session session = SessionFactoryUtils.getSession(sessionFactory, true);
            TransactionSynchronizationManager.bindResource(sessionFactory, new SessionHolder(session)); 
        }

        @After
        public void tearDown()
        {
            SessionHolder sessionHolder = (SessionHolder) TransactionSynchronizationManager.unbindResource(sessionFactory);
            SessionFactoryUtils.releaseSession(sessionHolder.getSession(), sessionFactory); 
        }

office kitty

2008-12-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

ah, ambiguity

2008-11-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

Show Your Solidarity: Make Your Tomtom Gay

2008-11-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

Okay before anyone accuses me of being homophobic or hateful, let me point something out for anyone who doesn't already know me: I am the gayest thing since Boy meets Boy. So if anything, in creating this thing, I'm poking a little gentle fun at myself. I think it's important to be able to laugh at yourself, especially when the world is doing its best to shit on you.

So for all my beautiful gay friends out there, and for all of those wonderful heterosexuals who stand with us in opposition to discrimination, I bring you Gay Voice Number One for your Tomtom. If you don't have a Tomtom, then this is of no interest for you. But you should get one. They're great.

Gay Voice Number One is me doing my sort of "southern gay" impression. Yeah, it's a bit cheesy. It's a little bit sloppy, because I was still learning how to do a Tomtom voice while I was doing it. It still came off pretty well, considering. It's really weird hearing my own southern gay voice coming from my Tomtom, but it makes me smile and sometimes even chuckle.

So show your solidarity with your fellow gay, and make your Tomtom gay too. Installation instructions are included in the zip file linked above. Please don't ask me for technical support. I don't have sufficient time or energy for it. And if you want to link to the Tomtom gay voice, please link to this blog entry rather than directly to the file. Thanks!

angry bun

2008-11-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Goodbye and Good Riddance, Election 2008

2008-11-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

I have some mixed feelings about the results of this election, as anyone who paid attention might expect. The one thing that's common to all my impressions of it, however, is a feeling of relief that it's all over. I'm sure everyone was getting really tired of hearing about it. I know I was.

The good news is that for the first time in 8 years, the country will have a real leader, not a semi-sentient, mouth-breathing redneck who, after 8 years as president, still cannot pronounce the word "nuclear" correctly. The Democratic party has picked up a number of seats in Congress, but hopefully not enough to give them a 60-vote majority in the Senate by the time all is counted. I say that only because I don't think either party should ever have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate at the same time they control the House and the presidency. It's a good thing to have long-running debates in the Senate to keep things from moving too far in one direction or the other.

I'm disappointed in California for voting for Proposition 8, albeit by a very narrow margin- 52 to 48. This is a far cry from the margin by which Prop 22 was passed many years ago, which tells me that things are trending in the right direction overall, even though it'll take us a while to fix the damage done by Prop h8. It's a bit puzzling how things ended up deviating so far from the direction the polls were trending. The simplest explanation is that all the polling houses will tell you that initiatives are extremely difficult to predict with polls. A more complicated explanation might be some kind of Bradley Effect in Prop 8 polling.

My own county overwhelmingly rejected Prop 8, though curiously my own precinct approved it by a razor-thin margin of 276 votes to 272 votes. More people voted for the proposition by mail than did on election day, which might suggest (if it were a statewide trend) that though things had started trending in opposition to Prop 8, they started trending that way too late, after absentee ballots had already started coming in.

In any case, I think what's likely to happen now is a court challenge on the grounds that the language of Proposition 8 amounts to a constitutional revision rather than an amendment. There's a good argument to be made that this is the case. I think it's a bit ridiculous that the civil rights of a minority can be put to a simple majority vote in any state. That process is antithetical to the very foundations of our democracy, which, given the history behind the Bill of Rights and the structure of the Senate, was crafted to ensure the majority could not simply run roughshod over the rights of minorities.

There is one thing I can say about Proposition 8 that the proponents of the hate amendment cannot say: I did not have to lie. My conscience is clear. I can sleep at night knowing I deceived no one. The Prop 8 people managed to scare the pants off a lot of voters by weaving a web of lies. Sadly, many were deceived by their treachery. If any of them have consciences, they will have their wickedness weighing heavily upon them for the rest of their days.

I can also say that the liars behind Prop 8 did not win without the biggest fight the nation has ever seen. Let it be known that the gay community won't be rolling over and taking it. They may have won (and just barely), but they burned through over $30 million in the process. Welcome to your Pyrrhic victory, assholes.

And that's the real shame of this proposition too. Imagine if we had worked together instead... we could have raised in excess of $70 million for a common purpose like feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, housing the homeless, or educating the young. But instead, the Mormons decided from their bully pulpit in Utah that it was of the utmost importance to engage in political gay-bashing of the highest order, and all of this money was wasted, incinerated so they could engrave their hate into California's Constitution.

(If any church ever really deserved to lose its tax-exempt status, it's the Mormons. It's plain for all to see now that anti-gay politicking is a primary objective of their organization.)

So I am disappointed in my state for making a bad decision, but not sad. I'm not sad, because no matter what the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" does, they will never take away the love my partner and I share. No ballot proposition can ever change who I am or who I love.

And you Mormons had better be wearing running shoes if you ever come knocking on my door.

UPDATE: The ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have declared their intention to challenge Proposition 8 on the grounds that it is an invalid attempt to use the initiative process to revise rather than amend the state constitution.

Notice that my Head is Not in the Image

2008-11-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

My colon is as pristine as a spring-fed mountain lake.

More Attempted Shill Spamming

2008-10-31T18:54:00.001-07:00

This time it's from Munin Systems Inc. of 350 Holger Way, San Jose (408-750-5533), with a clearly cut & paste Prop 8 spam full of lies and deceit. Sorry, "Moses," who created a blogger profile just today to post this spam, you don't get to shit on my blog either from dhcp-45-246.redback.com. Does your boss at Redback know you're spamming for Prop 8 at work?

This dimwit spent a total of 1 minute and 17 seconds at my Think about Prop 8 page before looking for somewhere to paste his spam.

Here's the log:

155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:16:18 -0700] "GET /think-about-proposition-8/?gclid=CNSHsLDn0pYCFQ8QagodvCwu4Q HTTP/1.1" 200 2474 "http://www.43things.com/things/view/2204080/spread-the-word-to-vote-no-on-prop-8-in-california" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 43 "-" 1237
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:37 -0700] "GET /think-about-proposition-8 HTTP/1.1" 301 362 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 592
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:37 -0700] "GET /think-about-proposition-8/ HTTP/1.1" 200 2474 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 43 "-" 1151
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:44 -0700] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 302 317 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 564
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:44 -0700] "GET /blog/ HTTP/1.1" 200 10609 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 26 "-" 21875
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/images/blog728.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 47833 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 1240
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-712542-712612.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 11319 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 99 "-" 11591
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-796590-796667.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 8529 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 98 "-" 18091
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-774700-774722.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 19727 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 99 "-" 26034
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-779381-779398.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 16376 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 99 "-" 35026
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-706353-706367.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 14140 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 99 "-" 10847
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:45 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-733254-733272.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 22933 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 99 "-" 23331
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:17:46 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-729260-729292.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 21897 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 99 "-" 14543
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:18:04 -0700] "GET /blog/archive/2006_07_01_spatula_archive.html HTTP/1.1" 200 5198 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 23 "-" 24017
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:18:04 -0700] "GET /blog/images/blog728.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 47833 "http://spatula.net/blog/archive/2006_07_01_spatula_archive.html" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 959
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:19:18 -0700] "GET /atom.xml HTTP/1.1" 200 10795 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" 19 "-" 20458
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/ HTTP/1.1" 304 - "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 667
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/images/blog728.jpg HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 591
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-712542-712612.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 601
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-796590-796667.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 574
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-774700-774722.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 552
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-706353-706367.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 543
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-779381-779398.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 558
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-733254-733272.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 545
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:27 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-729260-729292.jpe HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 559
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:24:28 -0700] "GET /think-about-proposition-8/ HTTP/1.1" 304 - "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 685
155.53.45.246 - - [31/Oct/2008:18:25:38 -0700] "GET /think-about-proposition-8/?gclid=CNSHsLDn0pYCFQ8QagodvCwu4Q HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://www.43things.com/things/view/2204080/spread-the-word-to-vote-no-on-prop-8-in-california" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)" - "-" 722

"Christians" Try to Shill-Spam My Blog

2008-10-24T16:16:00.001-07:00

The proponents of Prop-8 will stoop to any low to spread their lies and hatred, up to and including attempting to post comments to my blog accusing me of lying about Prop 8.

(If you're a blogger opposed to Proposition 8, expect more of this. Clearly the anti-gay crowd intends to begin using blog comment areas as a new venue for spreading their hate.)

I won't repost the comment here, but it might as well have been lifted out of any one of the Prop 8 lying ads (you know, the ones that have been thoroughly refuted by myself, all major newspapers in California, nonpartisan fact-checking organizations, etc.). The person in question visited my "think about proposition 8" page, spent less than a minute on the page (though I suppose a fast reader could read the page that quickly) and then loaded my blog page and tried to post a comment on the first article he or she found. I'm going to guess she, because of the way the posting was worded.

This person claims that Prop 8 "takes away no rights," which is absolutely ridiculous, given the very first sentence of the description of the proposition makes it very clear: it eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry.

I decided to do some log investigation to see where this person was coming from, since the coward in question posted from a Blogger account with no profile (I do not accept anonymous comments, and I moderate comments on my personal blog).

The IP address was 208.251.116.254 (my blog gets sufficiently little traffic that it was easy to see who was viewing my blog at that point in time). This IP address belongs to Salem Communications Corp at 4880 Santa Rosa Road in Camarillo, California. Their phone number is (805) 987-0400. This is all public information. I haven't pulled it from any private source. And this is what you get for trying to shit on my blog.

Sorry, but this gay guy isn't about to roll over and take your abuse. Maybe that worked for you when you were bullying other kids in high school, but I'm well beyond that adolescent shit.

Salem Communications Corp bills themselves as "Reaching audiences interested in Christian and family content and conservative values on air, online and in print."

What a great name for a bunch of witch hunters, eh?

So I'm sorry, "ma2525," but you're not going to post lies on my blog from your office at Salem Communications Corp in Camarillo, California.

You Prop-8 people know damn well that there's no threat to education, schools, churches, anyone's tax-exempt status or any of the other bullshit you've been spewing. You are liars. You know that coming right out and saying "hate the gays with us" wouldn't get you very far, so you've had to repackage your anti-gay hate in a pseudo-legitimate-sounding facade.

You are liars. You are bearing false witness. You are going to burn in the firey pits of eternal damnation in hell.

Here's the full log for those who are interested in that kind of thing:

208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:05:01 -0700] "GET /think-about-proposition-8/?gclid=CNjM3vz8wJYCFQIfswodcku2wg HTTP/1.1" 200 2403 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 42 "-" 2179
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:05:01 -0700] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 200 142 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 38 "-" 898
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:06 -0700] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 302 317 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" - "-" 545
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/ HTTP/1.1" 200 8329 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 24 "-" 2561
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/images/blog728.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 47833 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" - "-" 893
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-712542-712612.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 11319 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 99 "-" 11931
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-796590-796667.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 8529 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 98 "-" 11740
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-779381-779398.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 16376 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 99 "-" 10406
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-706353-706367.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 14140 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 99 "-" 9508
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-774700-774722.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 19727 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 99 "-" 12333
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-733254-733272.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 22933 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 99 "-" 9910
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/bm-image-729260-729292.jpe HTTP/1.1" 200 21897 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" 99 "-" 3157
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/hung-maggie-nick-777055.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 23507 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" - "-" 1083
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/nick-maggie-738661.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 27084 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" - "-" 780
208.251.116.254 - - [24/Oct/2008:16:06:07 -0700] "GET /blog/uploaded_images/nick-maggie2-738692.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 29561 "http://www.spatula.net/blog/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3" - "-" 1036

no on prop 8

2008-10-20T14:53:00.001-07:00

vote

2008-10-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Donate a Paycheck to No on 8

2008-10-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

If you're like me, and you get paid fortnightly on Fridays, and you got paid on October 3, then this month you are getting paid three times rather than two.

I generally budget for getting paid only two times, so the two times a year that I get this "extra" paycheck, I either save it, spend it on some toy, or pay down any unexpected debt that I may have had since the last time I got an "extra" paycheck.

This time, I'm donating my "extra" paycheck to No on Prop 8, the Equality for All campaign.

I challenge you to do the same. Equality is serious, and we have got to be serious about preserving it.

Don't Dream It's Over

2008-10-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey now, hey now
Dont dream its over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they wont win

-- Crowded House

It really scares the hell out of me to talk to strangers. Even moreso to do it over the phone where I can't read their facial expressions. To do it repeatedly is even more terrifying. The times I've done that in the past, people were calling me, because they wanted to (like when I was answering phones for KTEH during pledge drives). Calling someone else who isn't expecting me... that's sheer and abject horror.

Yet I feel very strongly that getting people to vote No on Prop 8 is important enough that I can step outside my comfort zone. Imagine if, prior to the Revolutionary War, the colonists had said, "well, fighting the British sounds good, but I don't want to get mud on my shoes." So I went and did it.

Tonight I went to the No on 8 HQ in downtown San Jose, stepped WAAAAAAY outside my comfort zone and talked to strangers. You may have heard that the Pro-discrimination forces of darkness are recruiting people in Utah and Nevada to make calls on their behalf. So it's important that we match or exceed their efforts.

And yeah, I was a little freaked out at first. But honestly, it's not that bad, and you start to get used to it pretty quickly. If you have your own cell phone with a lot of minutes, you can use that, which is nice if you have a good bluetooth headset. (And if you use the bluetooth headset, and have choices of ear pieces, use the one that blocks out the most outside sound... learned that the hard way.)

You sit at a computer, which calls potentially undecided voters and connects them to you once they answer. Some of the time you get an answering machine, and then you just click "next call." Some of the time you get the wrong number, and then you click "wrong number" and "next call." And then sometimes, you get the person you're supposed to, and they're there.

Then you read from a script. In fact, they want you to stick strictly to the script. This is a very good thing, because it keeps you from getting into upsetting conversations or debates with anti-gay people, and it keeps you on-topic with pro-freedom people so you can help get their votes squared away and get on to the next call. The goal is to reach as many undecided voters as possible.

This also means you don't have to wing it, which is great for people like me who aren't particularly verbally articulate (or at least people who feel awkward when put on the spot). And if you talk to someone who is a horrible asshole, all you have to do is say "thank you for your time, goodbye" and hang up. You don't have to engage those people at all.

You can control the pace of your calls to some degree too. You can get a breather before you click "next call" if you need to. You can step way for some air if you need that. I decided to do calls for an hour, then take a 5 minute break. Then I made some more calls, then took a break and put my massage skills to use working on the shoulders of other volunteers. Then I made some more calls. The key point here is that yes, they need you to make as many calls as you can, but if you aren't accustomed to being on the phone for 2 hours at a time, you can get a breather in.

All of these things combined mean it's a far less freaky and terrifying experience than you might think.

As I left, I got messages sent to me from the universe by way of my satellite radio. First it was Pride (In the Name of Love) by U2, then Don't Dream it's Over by Crowded House, followed by two different songs called Change (Tears for Fears and Candlebox) on two different stations at the same time. Clearly, God wants Prop 8 to fail, and approves of my efforts in phone banking.

I'll be back, hopefully with a massage chair.

swedish ivy in bloom

2008-10-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

captain morgan bird 2

2008-10-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

captain morgan bird

2008-10-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

shiny new alternator

2008-10-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

alternator

2008-10-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

Sea World Dolphin Interaction Pictures

2008-09-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hung, Maggie, Nick

Nick, Maggie

Maggie shows Nick a trick