I think that I have had variations of the actor’s nightmare before. Odd, as I haven’t done theater in 5 years, and I never did that much of it. I was in some form of musical comedy that was a period piece. (The real world antecedent might have been seeing the film version of The Producers musical a few weeks ago.) I was playing a stereotypically gay guy. At first, I only realized that I didn’t know what my lines were. I think that we all had small colored books with the lines and notes in them. At one point, ...

So, does this prove that God is a Democrat, given how the election turned out? God doesn’t like Lieberman either? Or maybe God just wanted to give Tina Fey’s career a boost. Who knows? It is more than a tad arrogant to claim that God was behind your candidacy, particularly when you didn’t win. McCain strategist: Palin thought candidacy was mapped by God Yahoo! Buzz Sarah Palin believed that Sen. John McCain chose her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential race because of "God's plan," according to a top political strategist in the Arizona ...

When I came home from work today, I was sorting through the mail, and I noticed that I got a  pitch from the National Rifle Association to become a member. I guffawed out loud when I realized what it was. Bear in mind, I have never used a real firearm in my life. I don’t even recall being particularly interested in toy guns when I was a kid. Not especially opposed or repelled by it, you understand, but it is something that I have no particular interest in, sort like football. I am sure that when I get excited about ...

I am quite curious as to how elections will go this coming year. I got an email that Rep Joe Sestak will be in Erie this Thursday for a meet and greet with the Erie County Democratic Party, so I will be checking that out, hopefully. What:Joe Sestak Meet and GreetOn January 7, 2010, come and meet Congressman Joe Sestak, Democratic candidate for US Senate. Learn about him, his ideas, and his vision. Join us at the East Erie Turners, 829 Parade St. at 6:00pm to meet Joe Sestak. (you can use the door off the parking ...

One of the last major tasks I had set for myself while on vacation was to come up with an RSS feed partners page for Erie Gay News. About a year ago, I noticed that one of the local bars had pasted in the calendar from our web site onto their site. However, the calendar was out of date. I figured that it would be kind of a pain for them to have to copy and paste new entries and take off old ones every time that I made a change, so I hunted for a script ...

Around 11:20 PM last night, it occurred to me that I had pretty much spent that I had pretty much spent most of the day doing computer stuff, so I figured that it would be good to go out and actually socialize with other human beings. (Yeah, I know: “Thanks, Captain Obvious!”) So, I headed off to the Zone and had a pretty good time. I bumped into a co-worker, who was out with her parents. Just after midnight, I mentioned that when folks were talking about this being the new decade, it was not exactly accurate. (Although, obviously any ...

10 years go:: I ended up spending a quiet night at home for New Year’s Eve. It might very well be close to the same this year, although I might also go out. Actually, 10 years ago wasn’t so bad in comparison to the 2 succeeding New Years. 9 years ago, on New Year’s Eve, December 2000, my partner at the time and I went out to the old Zone. I think that we wore M&M boxer shorts. Well, our initials were both MM and it was the year 2000 or MM in Roman numerals, so why the heck not. ...

Who says that I am not an irrepressible madcap? The next big geek project that I wanted to get done over vacation was a secure contest tracking web site for Erie Gay News. We have been averaging about a contest or 2 every week, and I wanted to have a way for the contest sponsors to be able to login and see some elementary statistics for the contests that we run for them (contest article page views, total number of entrants, summary totals for state and zip code, etc.) I also wanted to be sure to preserve ...

It may be a silly tradition, but it’s mine, darn it! Every year, I tape the holiday cards that I get to the fireplace and then take a photo. I was bad this year – money was kind of tight, so I skipped sending cards out this time. Hopefully, next year things will be better. It really makes me feel warm and fuzzy to have so many good people in my life. I have a lot to be grateful for. My dog Heracles decided to pull a Crasher Squirrel and got in the photo. ...

I had resolved that I would try to get a few things done whilst I am off on vacation. Yesterday, I did a fair amount of cleaning (the refrigerator – which badly needed it), and I even vacuumed the corners of the rooms, which I couldn’t help but think of as “domestic detailing”, like auto detailing.) I wasn’t sure how much of a difference that putting the plastic film over the windows helps, but went ahead. My inner sarcastic voice said “Oh yeah. Put up something like Saran Wrap, and you’ll be toasty warm. Whatever.” Every year, work gives us ...

Although I don’t observe Christmas a a religious holiday, I very much enjoy spending it with family. I spent a fair amount of the day before heading over to Mom’s keying 2009 entries into the Erie Gay News section for local history. Yeah, I am kind of wild and crazy guy, I guess. ;) My brother’s friend Karen needed a ride, so since she was en route, I picked her up. My brother Steve had to work until 6 PM, and he had a car rented, so that was okay. Mom made Rock Cornish game hens for ...

As of Thursday afternoon, I am off through the end of the year. Folding for Erie Gay News went rather well on Wednesday, and I figured that I would drop off the Jamestown copies, since I had time and I might save a bit on postage. So, GPS in hand (or rather, on the windshield), I set out. There were 5 places to drop off at, and the first 4 were closed. Okay, not a big surprise on Christmas eve. I ended up at Club Sneakers. Not only were they open, but they were having a Christmas party. ...

Earlier this evening, I was in the chat room at gay.com after I had finished the rest of keying the 2009 GLBT history events and posting them as articles. A guy IM’ed me and asked if I was interested in getting together. I didn't feel particularly interested, and I said that I was catching up on some geek tasks. he then asked about the future, and I mentioned that I was usually pretty busy with GLBT stuff, Pagan stuff and Democratic Party stuff. (I.e. my schedule is usually fairly busy.) He said that he usually didn’t go out in Erie, ...

I usually try to be reciprocal about holiday greetings. If someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, I usually respond by wishing them either Happy Holidays or a Happy Solstice/Yule. I am certainly not offended at all when someone greets me with symbolism or names particular to their religion, as I just try to take it in the spirit that it’s intended. I ended up skipping doing holiday cards this year, as money is tight and I was rather busy. I have gotten a few cards, and one of them was from a very nice atheist/Freethinker/Bright (who is also hot to ...

We have an intern now who is working on some projects The main programmer dealing with her made some kind of reference to Y2K, and the interned looked at him blankly. When he asked what she had studied in school, she said something like “well, not history.” (Possibly, she was just trying to get his goat.) The rest of us groaned and felt really, really old. I remember doing all sort of reprogramming. How odd to think that something that was such a big concern 10 years ago is not even in the consciousness of younger folks. ...

Jim, one of the other programmers just asked me a “point of geek”: when James Kirk beat the Kobiyashi Maru test, did he beat the test or cheat? I opined that since the test was designed to measure how someone reacted to an insoluble problem and since Kirk won by changing the rules, it really counts as cheating. (Since in a real world example, there would be no simulator to reprogram.) A spirited debate followed. I later realized that the test probably would not have existed for very long before it would be too likely to be known ...

Sigh. So, I emailed the Erie GLBT News and Events list, and also the Erie Gay News group on Facebook on Monday about the possible change in date for folding, and then confirmed the date change on Tuesday. This is in addition to tweeting it and blogging it. I fretted that I was overwhelming folks with info, but I figured that I would play it safe. Except that I didn’t, apparently. I just got an email from a very nice guy who has occasionally volunteered and that he had shown up last night and saw an ...

Sigh. Well, so much for getting ahead. It looks like the shipment of Erie Gay News won’t get here until tomorrow, so I just moved folding to Wednesday. I am hoping that we don’t lose a lot of volunteers because of the change and that we can get them out quickly. On the plus side, I think I am caught up with all of the article data entry stuff. ...

Sigh. I was sort of stressing on Friday that the new printer (which is in NYC) didn’t show shipping info as of yet for the January 2010 issue of Erie Gay News. However, the check cleared Saturday morning, so I figured that everything was okay. We really worked hard to get it in early, because we wanted to fold on Tuesday, to avoid being to close to Christmas. I was not sure whether it was the case that the order tracking site hadn’t been updated, or it hadn’t shipped yet. So, I just checked, and it appears that ...

As if we needed confirmation. The coordinator for G2H2 (Gay Guy/Girl Happy Hour) just sent in the listing for the January 8, so I figured I would post it. I was doing my normal routine of line up various calendar web sites and copy and paste like mad. When I got to the community calendar page for WICU TV 12, the local NBC affiliate, I noticed that a lot of them were ones that I had sent in. I tallied it up: Out of the 15 events in the listing, 10 were ones that I am fairly sure that ...