Hey All… Allow me to step up onto this soap box here for a second. Ok, there we go.

There’s an important piece of legislation that has been introduced into the House of Representatives. It’s officially called “H.R. 2981: To prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity” but most people will know it by its short title, “Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009.” It’s currently in committee, so there may or may not be much that you can do, depending on your Representative’s committee assignment. HOWEVER, please do call or write your Representative anyway and show them that you support the bill.

Now.. You’re probably wondering, what all this bill does, and asking “wait, aren’t those groups already protected under current discrimination laws?” Well to answer the second question first, it’s a simple, No, they’re not. So yes, if you do not live in one of the states that has a local ENDA, you can be fired for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. Stupid, no? Join The Impact has a good summary, too, as to what this bill does:

ENDA will add sexual orientation and gender identity to pre-existing employment non-discrimination laws. ENDA is such a common sense idea that most people believe it is already illegal to fire someone for being Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender. While there are already 12 states and 100 localities that protect 40 percent of the population, millions are still at risk.

This is an important bill that needs to pass, and is going to require pressure from constituents to make sure that Representatives (and in the future, Senators, though nothing has been introduced there yet,) to pass it. Oh, one other important point….any version that passes needs to be INCLUSIVE to all, as it stands right now. A similar bill had been introduced to the last Congress, however, it only covered sexual orientation, and not gender identity, which is something that also needs to be on the list of protections. (And no, gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation, but that is beyond the scope of this post.)

Anyway, here’s some links for you to find out more information:

Text of the bill
Act NOW to support ENDA!
UnitedENDA
President Obama’s support for the bill

*steps off soapbox*

Technorati Tags: civil rights, ENDA, gender, gender identity, politics, sexual orientation

Today is a day that has been lurking for many years. Ana has faithfully served us for nearly 70 years, but after many years of talking about it, and through last minute mind changing, she finally retires today. When you look back at her long career, you have to take a minute and think of all the things she’s seen. A few wars, good times for the country, bad times for the country, major historical events in the world. She has a wealth of history that will soon be just that. From her start when she only had two colors in her wardrobe, to the 50’s when she started to add to it, even though the outfits never quite looked the same each time she wore them, she’s been through a lot.

Now, I would like to introduce you to her successor, this scrappy young lad, Digi Tal. You might recognize her, because she’s been training for this day around here since the late 1990’s. While she might not be as reliable as Ana, she promises to do just as good of a job at serving the public as Ana has. So please, welcome Digi into her new, enhanced role.

So with that, I would like a big round of applause for Ana Log. And if she’ll step forward, I would like to present her with this gold watch for her many years of service.

Part of the problem with letting the blog sit for a month or so between posts is that I amass a bunch of bookmarks of stuff that I want to make comments about.  For example, I currently have 3 articles that have been sitting around waiting for me to comment on. 

Anyway… Let’s respond to them all in one post, shall we?

#1: “NBC’s Zucker: ‘Seinfeld’ wouldn’t make it today“

CNet’s Ina Fried wrote a blog column late last month detailing NBC CEO Jeff Zucker’s appearance at the “D: All Things D” conference. Now, this is not so much a response to her (frankly, it’s not, I’m a fan of her blog and all she did was present facts here) as it is to Jeff Zucker (who I’m not a fan of.)

I completely disagree with Jeff Zucker because he is not looking at the whole picture. He’s comparing 1990 TV with 2009 TV and stating that Seinfeld couldn’t exist. Well, maybe, but 2009 TV has something that 1990 TV didn’t have: Hulu. We’ve seen this already, that Hulu, and DVR, plus to some-extent the “back-end” sales of DVDs are being weighed now in deciding to renew shows as much as their weekly Nielsen ratings. It’s why one of my favorite shows of the last television season, Dollhouse, was able to get renewed for 13 more episodes by Fox. While they didn’t do stellar on TV (hello, why do you schedule things like this on Friday night when no-one is watching?!?!) I’ve seen that the renewal was ordered because of the DVR and Hulu performance. (I however, have since lost the link to the article in which I read that, unfortunately.)

Now, he did briefly mention Hulu, and iTunes, however, he made one of the same damn stupid arguments I keep hearing: “trading analog dollars for digital pennies.” The only reason they’re digital pennies is because you’re trying to sell to old-school advertisers who have no idea how to market online. You’re trying to take the TV method of selling, where you sell to a broad demographic who is watching the shows online, rather than selling to the hyper-targeted methods that you can get from selling online. And they’re “pennies” compared to TV because, well, you’ve been overcharging for your TV ad time for some time now. Though, what they fail to see, is that given that you can hyper-target online ads, you can better serve your advertisers!

One other Hulu note:

Asked about Hulu’s efforts to keep its service off TV sets, Zucker said: “Right now we are committed to Hulu being an online experience. That’s where our vision is today. That will continue.”

Yeah…and I’m still gonna run it on a computer hooked to my TV if I want to. Though, I’ve been lately watching Hulu in a small window in the corner of my screen as I’m doing other stuff on the iMac.

#2: “Uniting American Families Act Advances“

From what I can tell, this seems to be a fairly awesome act that is working its way through the slow processes of government. The bill is the “Uniting American Families Act, a bill that would allow lesbian and gay citizens to sponsor their partners for residency in the United States.” I have a few friends who this would apply to and fully support them being able to sponsor their partner for citizenship! Let’s hope this gets to Obama’s desk soon!

#3: “Nevada Overrides Veto of Domestic Partnership Bill“

Hey look at that, Nevada took a step in the right direction. It’s not full equality for friends of mine, but it’s a victory in the overall larger war for equal rights. Go Nevada! By the way: Quote win by the blog post’s author, Ed Brayton: “Since it’s not exactly the same as gay marriage, the sanctity of all those drunken marriages performed at 3 am in Las Vegas is still preserved.”

Ok. I think I’m not caught up on all the blog posts I needed to comment on. I’m hoping to get this thing back into regular mode at some point. I’ve just not felt like writing, though.

-Adam

Technorati Tags: civil rights, Commentary, gay marriage, Television

Well let’s see… There’s English. And I’m also fluent in HTML, CSS. I’m ok with Javascript, Java, Actionscript, php. I’ve dabbled in pearl and python. I know a smidgen of Yiddish. And I suck at Spanish, despite taking it for 3 years through high school and college.

(cross-posted from over there)

Time files when I’m ignoring my blog, eh? Sorry… Blogging has just been the last thing on my mind. Let’s see… I’ve been taking a storm-spotter class, there’s been the NWS classes I taped for Midwest, a friend came to see me, I helped a friend move, my brother graduated, and another friend got married. So yeah, it’s been a busy month.

Learning to spot swirly clouds more advancedly

It’s finally wrapping up. Let me tell ya, it’s been hell! I haven’t taken a class since spring 2004. So it’s been a challenge. Now, this is also more high-level than I expected it to be. Thankfully, there’s not been much math involved in it. And, on the plus side, I got to play with colored pencils. That part was awesome Plus I’m learning a lot. The final is in a couple of weeks, so we shall see how I ultimately do. It doesn’t hold much weight outside Wisconsin, but I think it’d be cool to be a certified advanced storm spotter! Yes. I am a nerd/geek/whatever. Shut up

Btw.. If you want to check out the people putting on the class: http://www.madscitech.org/ They’re a good bunch and no, they’re not paying me to plug them.

And taping the experts telling the public how to do the same

Oy vey! This was an all-day deal. It started with breakfast with Dave, Heidi, and Lisa. Or was it lunch by that point. I don’t remember. But the Colluseum bar has good food. That’s the part I remember. Anyway, this was a big Midwest dog-and-pony show type event held over at the Alliant Energy Center’s Expo Center. I volunteered to tape and edit the video for the classes. So yeah, outside of being in a room with no internet all day, and having oh like 10-12 hours of footage to edit, it was a good time. I’ll post snippets when I’m done.

A friend stops by

I had the pleasure of having a Pazi in town for a couple of days. Wait.. You ask, whose that?! She’s a friend of mine from up in the Twin Cities. Roommates with one of my other friends, actually. We geeked out, she got me to try Indian food, I showed her some of Madison, and well, we had a completely wonderful time. And I completely miss her. I’m guessing, though, that it’s my turn to schlep up to the cities, unless, she comes down for my birthday. That’s yet to be determined.

Schlepping across the state

This was the start of a week where I’d see a TON of the inside of my car. No, I’m sadly, not joking. See, it all began when Jessica lost her job, and decided to move out of her apartment in Milwaukee and into a house with her friend Chris. Oh, I should mention, the house…is in Chippewa Falls. I volunteered to help her move, but it had to be on a Monday. She found one that worked and I met her in Milwaukee at noon. We spent a good 5 or 6 hours loading up the trailer, her dad’s van, her car and mine. And then made the 4 hour trek up to Chippewa. Now, it wasn’t without any issue, though. Her dad nearly lost the trailer at one point. That was super scary. I was the tail car, with the van/trailer sandwiched between Jess and I. Thankfully I had brought radios with me, so I was able to radio up to Jess about the issue and we were able to slow down, and thankfully he regained control and there was no accident. But it was scary as hell. Anyway, unloading went much faster than loading. And when it was done we got pizza and beer

It was a fun time, and I got to spend time with friends, so it was all good. Oh and the house is total geek central. It’s sad, though, that I live 4 hours from there.

Watching Scott gradumatate

At the end of the week something shocking happened. My brother graduated…from college. Yeah, he was on the Tommy Boy plan, but still, he graduated. And is now looking at grad school. I know, right? My brother. Grad school. Still trying to process that.

The speaker at graduation was meh. I did get a kick out of basically twittering the thing. I did kinda annoy my dad with that, though. But still, in my defense, the girl in front of me was glued to her BlackBerry too!! After the ceremony we went and got pizza from some place that’s owned by the Malnati family. It’s not as good, though, as Lou’s pizza is. Maybe, though, it was more the fact that I wasn’t in a deep-dish mood. I was cold, and tired, and severely under-caffeinated. After that I had a nice long nap and the Scott and I headed out to the ‘burbs. We had this grand plan to play RB2, however, Scott’s XBox red-ringed. Oh well.

Saturday was his party. It was nice seeing some of the fam, friends of Dad and E, and oh yeah, Doobie! I also inadvertently ran into a current Marquette student there. That was kinda fun. Found out about all sorts of changes happening on campus. I ended up heading back to Madison Saturday night and hung out with the usual crew. I really had nothing to do in the ‘burbs, and I was bored.

Legos + R/C car + wedding = wait.. did he say R/C car?

So Vic and Matt got married last weekend. It was fun heading out to Milwaukee to see all the friends who I see like once a year, usually at the Korporate party in December. I miss those guys. No really, I do. I freaking live in Madison, they’re mostly in Milwaukee, and yet I never see them! Anyway. I knew from having conversations with Vic that there would be some non traditional elements to this wedding. First off, she was wearing really cool Converse shoes, which I neglected to get a picture of. Second, they had an R/C car for the ring-bearer. I shit you not. It was really cool to see. The ceremony itself was at the Milwaukee War Memorial, which is right next to the Art Museum. It’s pretty cool, actually. And, the weather was perfect for the outdoor ceremony.

The reception was inside the memorial. It, too, had some non-traditional elements to it as well. Throw out the old notion of chicken or fish…this dinner was totally veg….and it was good. No really. I’m not joking. Plus, you have to be at one of my friend’s weddings to have the first dance announced followed by those all so familiar first notes of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Yep, the couple Rick-Rolled us. It was great. And also leave it to one of my friend’s weddings to be able to get the DJ to play us Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy.” Overall, it was a good time.

Now.. The hotel, on the other hand, was meh. I was woken up like 5 times during the night by loud people in the hall. I missed the little card talking about the free breakfast because they put it in a stupid spot, which meant that by the time I’d showered and everything, it was well-past time. Oh and they’re totally not ready for DTV. I noticed that both 18 & 24 were missing from their cable and then realized, these were the analog signals the hotel was distributing, and they’re the only 2 stations in Milwaukee that have transitioned at this point. Boy are they going to be in for a wake-up call in a few days.

This is a link to the Facebook gallery of the pics I took of the wedding. It *should* be public, but I make no guarantees of that.

That pretty much sums up the last month. If I’ve left anything out, I’ll probably hear from someone over it. It’s been a long month, and well, yeah, it’s hard to remember what all went on.

I’m going to leave you with this totally cute picture, because well, that kitten is soooo cute!!!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Anyway, I hope to have this updated a tad more in the near future. Especially seeing as there’s a couple of blog posts out on the interwebs that I want to make a few comments about.

But for now, have a good night/day/whenever you’re reading this.

-Adam