Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Change of scenery

I got a new job. I'm at the same company I've been with for almost 10 years, but I move around every so often into different groups. I feel like it keeps my technical skills sharper and helps me build a larger network to depend on. This new job will be a good challenge for me, and I'm excited about it although it came about due to some of my extreme sadness. Things on my old team just never really recovered after layoffs and some changes to the direction of the product we were working on. Add to that some some of undermining behavior by people who I was close with the last year, and I just had to move on. It was a good time to move anyway, but that just made things more imminent. Of course, it's always hard to leave good people behind, so I'll miss seeing my co-workers every day, but at least they're not too far away and like other teams, we'll keep in touch. Here's hoping that my new gig is every bit as cool as I think it's going to be, and even more!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Alphabet game

Ever been stuck in the alphabet game while on a road trip? If so, looks like you need to take a detour to Wyoming.


I can't remember who sent me this, but I thought it was pretty great and had to share. Sorry about the lack of proper credit.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

As I was seeing and reading more about the overturn of Proposition 8 in California, I became curious about Ted Olson, the conservative who is pro gay marriage. I did some searching, and found this article (which appears to be attributed to him): http://www.newsweek.com/2010/01/08/the-conservative-case-for-gay-marriage.html.

I have to say that I've made the same arguments many times with family or friends who disagree with marriage being a right for all. In fact, a quick search through the politics tag on my blog contains a bunch of older entries on the subject. The most pointed argument I always made was that we live in a country that values (or should value, based on our past, anyway) a separation of church and state, so the very fact that a religious rite affords heterosexual couples anything under the law should be unconstitutional if it is not afforded to all equally. I find this whole prop 8 thing quite interesting, and I hope that by forcing the issue and overturning it, marriage equality will finally become a reality in our country. The following video features Ted Olson's argument with Chris Wallace on Fox News. Go Ted!



In a slightly related, but dumb side thought, I wonder if this means Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will get married. I believe they once said that they would get married when marriage was a right offered to all.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Travis Wall contemporary dance on SYTYCD

I absolutely connected with this performance from So You Think You Can Dance this week. It's Travis Wall choreography performed by contestant Kent Boyd and all-star Neil Haskell. Travis Wall always has the most touching and amazing choreography, and this particular one really got to a lot of people. I really felt everything in it, especially because I recently had a "friend" stab me in the back, and the pain is always so difficult to navigate. It just really touched me.



I am pulling for Kent to win it this season, although Lauren comes in as an incredibly close second. The only one I don't like at all is Robert. The judges fall all over themselves about how great he is, but I think he's such a dork, and boring. And whenever he has lifts in his routine, it always looks like he's going to dump his partner on the floor. He just doesn't seem strong enough or very grounded in his dancing. It bugs me. I hope that he doesn't win it.