Crazy cat-lady coworker is looking at pictures of puppies, or something, and constantly saying “awwwww” and “oh, what a cutie.” Then she asks me, again, “Do you have any pets? blah blah blah.” And since I’ve already told her I do, I figure I’d better stick to the story, and soon enough, she remembers. Then: “What’s your cat’s name? I have two cats. Two female cats. I call them FAPs – Feline American Princesses. [laughs] They’re definitely FAPs. One of them is so demanding. I have to brush her every morning…” and I stopped paying attention, then “Is your cat a female cat?”

OMDog. Now she’s playing farting noises on her computer… No, I am seriously not making this up. She laughs, sighs, and says, “My cousin Michael is just gross at times.”

Even if it means you’ll buy gay books.

Please. Grow up.

Apparently Norm Coleman has decided that it’s time to pull out the big guns and claim that it’s his god’s will that he serve as our Senator. Gee, if your god cares so much, and is omnipotent, as you probably claim, why didn’t he just have you win the election in the first place? Your god might want you to serve, but the majority of Minnesotans do not, and since you’re supposed to be representing their interests, it seems pointless to drag an imaginary friend into the situation.

Please, Norm. Do what a mature adult would do. Concede the race and let us all get on with our lives.

UPDATE: The thing about his god wanting him to serve – that’s a couple months old. All I have to say in my defense is that apparently I’ve done a pretty good job of ignoring the issue!

“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” – Charles de Gaulle

Several blogs have noted the sudden de-ranking of a large number of gay-themed books from Amazon.com’s system. It’s all over the intertubes. Just run a Google search of the term amazonfail.

One blogger investigated metadata to shed some light on the code behind the phenomenon.

Amazon claims it’s a “glitch.” Sure it is.

Today at work we have a “new” person. Well, new to me. She was on some kind of leave or other, or something. I don’t know what.

She’s got big hair, and (I think) big acrylic nails, and big glasses, and she asks too many questions and talks too much. She can’t think a thought without saying it, it seems. I’ll call her Gloria.

She has this shirt that looks like she dropped a box of finger paints on it before putting it on. And that voice. If I wanted her life story, I’d ask where she grew up. Instead of asking, I’m going to assume she’s from the Northeast.

First thing she asks me: “Do you have any animals?” Like an idiot, I didn’t just say “No” so that the conversation would end. Luckily, I had to go do some tapes stuff before I learned more than that she has two cats. (Only two? I picture you as more of a 20-cat lady.)

Then there’s the laughing. She laughs audibly while perusing the internet, and then has to tell everyone about what she read.

This should be fun.

Some lucky bastards got to see the new Star Trek movie a month ahead of its scheduled release date.

The article includes no spoilers, but does include some pretty intense reactions, including:

• “The new Star Trek movie is amazing — easily the best Trek movie since The Wrath of Khan, and a veritable feast of sight and sound.”
• “ZOMG!! Just saw the new Star Trek movie and it melted my pants!!!!!”

I’ve wanted to see this since I first heard about it, and now I’m even MORE IMPATIENT! At least this way I have time to order a pair of unmeltable pants.

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” – Charles Kettering

Brunswick County (N.C.) officials are pointing out that nude sunbathing is illegal in North Carolina after a local physician complained about seeing nude sunbathers at Bird Island. Bird Island has been used by nude sunbathers for years, and falls under two jurisdictions: part of the island is in South Carolina. I don’t know what the law is in South Carolina. If it’s different, it would be easy enough to walk go to the other side of the island. I wonder if they’ll need a fence to avoid offending people on the North Carolina side? It’s frustrating, but then again, Minnesota doesn’t have any legal nude beaches either.

What bugs me here is that both of the articles linked above use the term flaunting in their descriptions of nudism. This term is intended to lead readers to the conclusion that nudists are exhibitionists and/or voyeurs.

I wish people would pay attention and realize that naturism is not about being seen nude, nor about seeing others nude. It is about being nude, without pride and without shame, but with simple acceptance. Why, why WHY do people insist on not understanding this fact?!

GRR….

A couple of years back, I wrote about a new type of scanner that was being planned for use in some airports, and which would use “backscatter x-rays” to penetrate clothing and, essentially, allow security personnel to view the naked bodies of airline passengers.

Now, it turns out that those tests were so successful, that “the Transportation Security Administration plans to replace the walk-through metal detectors at airport checkpoints with whole-body imaging machines — the kind that provide an image of the naked body.”