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Faces of Hate

Know your enemy.

40 years ago they would’ve been wearing white hoods.

Hell, if they could get away with it today they’d be wearing white hoods, because homophobia and racism are just two sides of the same coin.

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Mountain Lion Update

I’ve had Apple’s latest big cat loaded now for one week, and I have to say that I’ve yet to have any real problem with it. While I know others have had nightmares upgrading their machines and are less than impressed (my experience a year ago), mine went off without a hitch. After using it for the last seven days, I can say the word that best describes it is snappier. Everything about it is faster, and I see a level of refinement that was sadly lacking in Lion.

The one feature I like the most is the Notification Center. Granted, I don’t get a whole lot of email these days, but it’s nice to see the emails pop up when they do arrive à la the notifications in Outlook on Windows. I also think Power Nap is pretty cool, although its function was something I erroneously believed had already been a part of the OS prior to this.

Another thing I really appreciate is the Twitter integration. I tweet a lot, so it’s pretty cool that it can be done from so many places within the OS.

Wired has a good rundown on some of the lesser-known features here and I highly recommend checking it out.

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On Death and Dying


(Image stolen from Just a Jeep Guy)

One of those TMI memes going around that I actually feel like answering…

1. How would you like to die? How don’t you want to die?

Other than the “peacefully in my sleep” thing, I would have to say the next best way would be while under anesthesia.

The list of ways I don’t want to die is more extensive (and almost stolen verbatim from Erik): burning, drowning, choking, chemically dissolving, being impaled, squished, shot, or disemboweled.

2. Do you want to go before or after your spouse?

Due to our age difference, in all likelihood I will be exiting stage right many years before Ben. Ignoring the fact I’ve had health issues that my dad never had to face and I follow his lead and live a relatively healthly life well into my 80s, Ben will always be twenty five years my junior and have the age advantage. But after a little medical scare we had last week, I realize that Ben could just as easily precede me for any number of stupid reasons. I try not to think about that because I’ve already buried one partner and don’t want to ever have to do that again.

All the more reason to focus on the time we have together now and not worry about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

But in a hypothetical world where I actually have a choice, like Erik said, I’ll go with door #3: the Beetlejuice route where Ben and I both go at the same time. (Which pretty much precludes going peacefully during sleep or while under anesthesia.)

3. Have you planned your wake or funeral?

Anything in writing? No, but I have mentioned to friends and family I would like my body to be cremated and the ashes scattered in San Francisco and/or Sabino Canyon, north of Tucson.

4. How do you want your body laid to rest?

See #3 above.

5. What do you think happens to you after you die?

The atheist in my says it’s simply “lights out” (like under anesthesia), but there’s still a small, irrational part of me who wants to believe that there is something more to us than our physicality—and that somehow continues on in some form after the breathing and brain activity ends—hopefully to return again in some new intelligence. But even if the energy that powered me simply dissipates into the universe, that’s fine too.

When going through my cancer treatments (nearly) ten years ago, believe me these themes were on my mind a lot, and I came to the conclusion that since there’s no way of knowing for sure, why dwell on it? If you simply blink out when you die, you’ll have no awareness of it, and if there’s something more it will probably be so far removed from what we’ve been told to believe that it will be incredible. The only thing I can honestly reject out of hand is the bullshit that’s been foisted upon us by organized religion.

Bonus: If you died today but could be frozen and brought back in 100 years, would you?

Oh hell no. Why? Two words: Culture Shock. Can you imagine someone who died in 1900 being brought into the 21st Century?

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10 Things Most Americans Don't Know About America

From Postmasculine:

Imagine you have a brother and he’s an alcoholic. He has his moments, but you keep your distance from him. You don’t mind him for the occasional family gathering or holiday. You still love him. But you don’t want to be around him.

This is how I lovingly describe my current relationship with the United States. The United States is my alcoholic brother. And although I will always love him, I don’t want to be near him at the moment.

I know that’s harsh, but I really feel my home country is not in a good place these days. That’s not a socio-economic statement (although that’s on the decline as well), but rather a cultural one.

I realize it’s going to be impossible to write sentences like the ones above without coming across as a raging prick, so let me try to soften the blow to my American readers with an analogy:

You know when you move out of your parents’ house and live on your own, how you start hanging out with your friends’ families and you realize that actually, your family was a little screwed up? Stuff you always assumed was normal your entire childhood, it turns out was pretty weird and may have actually fucked you up a little bit. You know, dad thinking it was funny to wear a Santa Claus hat in his underwear every Christmas or the fact that you and your sister slept in the same bed until you were 22, or that your mother routinely cried over a bottle of wine while listening to Elton John.

The point is we don’t really get perspective on what’s close to us until we spend time away from it. Just like you didn’t realize the weird quirks and nuances of your family until you left and spent time with others, the same is true for country and culture. You often don’t see what’s messed up about your country and culture until you step outside of it.

(continue reading)

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Anticlimactic

I haz.

To be honest, I was a little worried about upgrading after the fiasco I went through last summer when I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion, but the word that best describes today’s experience is anticlimactic.

This morning I fired up the App Store, paid my $19.99 and the download started. It took about 30 minutes, and after making a backup copy of the installer and closing everything I had open, I started the install and left to attend to a user who had to have nearly 3 GB worth of archived mail always available on her laptop (don’t ask). By the time I got back, my Mac was waiting at the login screen.

Everything works. This was one of the most painless OS updates I’ve ever gone through.

Microsoft who?

Good job, Apple.  Bravo!

 

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