leftovers

I went down to ye olde Senior Center on Melrose to vote today. It was a pretty significant election even though it was mid-term, because in California we were voting for a new governor, senator, and several propositions including legalization of cannabis. So I went to vote first thing. I very happily voted for Jerry Brown for Governor, Barbara Boxer for Senator, my friend John Noguez for county assessor, to create the annual vehicle fee for state parks, and to legalize cannabis. Some of the questions on the ballot I still weren’t completely sure about despite all my research so I defaulted to the Stonewall Democrat’s recommendation as I usually do. We had rehearsal for Invisible Material’s show at the Viper Room which Robin just booked last weekend as sort of a last minute thing, but I’m so excited to play there! Brandon volunteered to fill in on guitar since we don’t really have a guitar player. Robin has been playing but it would be nice to have another guitar to...

I had gone on Facebook last night and saw that Susan had posted this little American Flag on her page to honor the victims of the 9/11 attack and so I put it on my page too, with a little message. It wasn't until after I posted that I realized the flag came from some group called "Being Conservative" or something like that. I decided to leave it, because it really pisses me off how conservatives/republicans like to "claim" 9/11 like it somehow is "their" thing... I mean, it sort of is, since they are the ones who elected Bush and the attacks occurred during his watch, arguably in response to his actions in office. But, of course, that's not the way they frame it. It's like conservatives thing that liberals don't give a shit about our country or our troops. Just because we don't want to keep this country stuck in the past doesn't mean we don't love this country. Just because I may disagree on this being a "christian...

I just saw a status update on one of my Facebook friend's pages that said, "if you think the govt is your friend, ur a fool." Well, first off, obviously the government is a legislative body and therefore not something a person can really befriend. But, knowing that this person is a conservative republican, I understand the point the person was trying to make. It's a very common "straw man" fallacy which is very popular with conservatives right now: make government out to be the "bad guy" and therefore anyone who supports the government is also a bad guy. How difficult is it to get someone riled up against the government? All you really have to do is bring up taxes and you'll get a pitchfork-wielding army of vigilantes hell bent on bringing down big brother. Who likes paying taxes? Nobody, of course; but who understands why taxes are necessary? It seems less and less people, these days. Anti-government sentiment has always been a popular t...

Staples delivered my new desk today, although I still haven't gotten rid of my old desk and I'd really like to before they recarpet my office. So I'm going to wait for that to assemble the new desk. I had contacted LA Shares (www.lashares.org) about donating the old desks to them. I had to go take photos of the intersection of Willoughby and Seward, which is in very bad shape, for the meeting we were going to have with Councilmember LaBonge this afternoon. After I took the pictures, I stopped by our board president's place and he printed the photos. We made arrangement to car pool to the meeting, so around 1:30pm I went to the car wash and vacuumed my car and tidied it up. Then I picked up Ron (our president) and another board member, Mike, and we headed down to city hall. They hadn't been to the councilmember's office before but I had been several times so it was kind of fun leading the way. Getting through City Hall can be daunting if you haven't do...

I was so worn out from the weekend that even though Robin pushed boot camp back to 10am on account of it being President's Day, I still couldn't be arsed to get up in time. I slept in until sometime after 11 and then I promptly went to the kitchen to cook brunch. I made omelets with fresh chive and shredded cheddar and tomatoes, with bacon. Dylan made coffee. We watched some DVR and then I messed around on the computer, going through a lot of my music files. I went through the "unassigned" file and realized everything in there was pretty much either crap, or just empty files. I got that cleaned out, and then I listened to all the songs in the "Petunia Bonaparte 5000" file. Petunia is the drag alter-ego of my friend, Nathan, and we started working on songs together last year but life got in the way for both of us and we stalled after getting 4 songs in various states of being finished. Petunia did perform one of the songs, "All the WeHo Boys Say...

Today was kind of cool. I got up and showered and put on a suit and tie, which is not that usual for me. I usually despise having to wear a shirt, tie and jacket because normally the weather here is so hot and dreadful that I know I'm going to sweat all over it and look like a soppy dog by the end of the day. Today was nice; cool and cloudy, so I didn't mind the extra layers. I went downtown around 10:30 am and made my way to the new LAPD headquarters, a lovely new structure on the corner of 1st and Main. It is huge and brand new, which is weird when you think about how broke the state and city are now. It must have been finished right before the economy and city budget collapsed. At the meeting, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (who I met previously a few months before at a Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Business Leaders meeting) was there to introduce his new Deputy Mayor for Business Development and something else that I can't remember right now. They both spoke very e...