Behold The Wonderment

After three years with my trusty old point & shoot, I've made the leap to a big-boy camera.

Check it:



It's pretty much the most exciting thing ever, even though I only have the lame kit lens and a single macro filter. I cannot wait to try it out more.

In other news: I am planning a vacation to the west coast the week after Memorial Day. I'd love to catch up with everyone who live between San Francisco and Seattle. Drop me a message or an email and I'll give you the details.

Scott and I pretended we were on vacation this weekend and did a bunch of touristy things. Against my better judgment we went to the top of Rockefeller Plaza (the Empire State Building was just too much money and whatever for us) as well as hit up several museums, including the beautiful Cloisters gallery.

I got a few good shots and a nice lady from Minnesota took this pretty good one of Scott and I. She was kind enough to ask if we wanted the ESB in the background.

Scott and I went to the Museum of Natural History with watermelontail  and darkpaisley  . As they did, I took some pictures. Only a couple came out as the lighting, while dramatic, was unsuitable for my wee camera.

After that we went to B & H Photo. It was pretty amazing and made me want want want a sexy SLR camera.

Work proceeds apace. For anyone who hasn't heard, it's the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. While I won't blog again on it as watermelontail did so well, I did write the article on plannedparenthood.org so that's something. I've also been working on Planned Parenthood Action Fund's new website. We're signing up 1,000,000 pro-choice voters this year. So go sign up today.

I think that most of the people on my friends list who are alumnae/i of OSU also read Luke's blog so you have probably seen his post on censorship at the Daily Barometer.

As an alumnus I was deeply offended and I wrote a letter to the Daily Barometer's editor in chief as well as university administration. I wasn't going to publish my letter here, but it occurs to me that, as alumnae/i we have somewhat louder voice with the administration. I encourage all of you to write your own letters to find out why this has happened.

Behind the cut is my letter for inspiration and the contact emails I used.

( Dear Ms. Dillard... )

Yesterday was intense.  The funny thing I noticed is that everyone is super-precise with directions here in Chicago. That's really nice, but kind of funny as the whole Chicagoland area is pretty much one huge grid and it's actually rather difficult to get lost. That having been said, the drive in from the suburbs took approximately 2 hours. Emily and I were close to freaking out with the amount of traffic.

But we made it to Planned Parenthood's office in Chicago in time for me to dash over to the courthouse with the Public Policy VP for a hearing on whether the federal court would grant an emergency injunction to allow us to open the clinic. I did a liveblog from the courthouse!! It was wild--at one point my blackberry seemed like it was going to die and a bit of panic set in. The verdict was definitely depressing, but I was also kind of surprised how civilized everyone was in the courtroom itself. The antis at least kept their "alleluias" to themselves until they made it to the hall.

Speaking of which, I road the elevator down with a bunch of them. Yes, it was super awkward. The interesting thing was that they were all from out of state--Maryland, DC, North Carolina, etc. There may be a story in there.Things back at the office were grim, but it seems like everyone is still staying upbeat. I'm still really inspired working out here. 

Today was a tiny bit more calm than the past several days.  After dropping Emily off at the airport I headed over to PP's administrative offices.  People here have gotten really excited about the blog and the traffic--we're well over 3000 hits! 

The big news today was that Ani DiFranco is going to let us table and do a shout-out from the stage at her concert here in Chicago tomorrow.  There's a great post on her myspace page and already there's people coming over from her site and saying they'll stop by at the table.  The president of Planned Parenthood in Chicago, Steve Trombley is going to shoot some video so we'll be able to have PP's announcement from the stage up on YouTube.  Next week I'll be back down in Aurora.  

Tuesday there's going to be a big rally to coincide with the city council meeting.  This weekend I'm going to try to take in at least some of the sites of Chicago!

Aurora Illinois is the promised land of big-box chains. I have seen more chain stores, restaurants, bars, coffeeshops etc etc etc in the past day than I have in the past decade previously. Literally every sort of mass-marketed, mass-produced food product on the face of the earth. Needless to say, I'm suffering from bad logo design meltdown.

That aside, the volunteer event last night at the clinic was really amazing. It was so awesome to talk to the volunteers and hear from them firsthand why they support this clinic opening. It was also really great to talk to just normal, average people, who weren't radicals that still felt strongly enough to drive past the rather tired looking picket line and celebrate.

Speaking of the picket line, it's kind of intense--they're out there first thing in the morning and were there when we left after dark last night. However, they're significantly less impressive than the media is portraying them. I think there's some videos up on Youtube now that give you an idea--it's about 15 sour, angry looking people waking in a circle and hiding behind their signs as if the very sight of Planned Parenthood will force them into sinning. I think the most disturbing thing is the amount of kids. We heard a report from some people here that they're bussing in students from the surrounding Catholic schools. So rather than learning how to read or do math they're teaching their children how to hate each other. Awesome.

More awesome though is that our videos and blog just got picked up by Firedoglake! It's one of the top five liberal blogs in the country. The blog I launched today is http://ppaurora.blogspot.com/, there's way more political stuff there.

Some of you may have heard about this.

I just found out an hour ago that I'll be flying out to Chicago tomorrow to help support Planned Parenthood's effort doing online campaigns out there. I'll be there for two weeks.

I'm really excited but totally nervous as well. Also kind of disoriented by the speed of everything. The protests are really intense--I'll try to keep updated with my experiences out there.

In the meantime, anyone know anyone fun in Chicago?

This is the bestest LOLCat I have ever seen. It totally sweeps the rest out of the water.

Scott and I are officially unpacked and moved into New York!  To date, I know where the grocery store, the cheese shop, the post office, the wine shop, the corner store, the other corner store, and the local Chinese takeout are.  That's pretty much good for me.  The neighborhood is also nice--very diverse in terms of economics, race, and ages. 

So moving into a new building has some unexpected issues associated with it.  I assumed that everything would be close to perfect when we moved in.  (ha!)  We've yet to get a bedroom door and the sink leaks.  On the plus side there's no vermin and we're literally ACROSS THE STREET from the subway station.  I'm totally spoiled.  Especially since the very line that stops there stops 1 block away from my work in Manhattan.  I fully expect to gain approximately 50 lbs from not having to walk to work.

OH, speaking of walking to work, my first day at PP was during the Great Brooklyn Hurricane of 2007.  It was far enough away that I wasn't concerned about seeing Oz or anything, but it did shut down the whole New York subway system.  I walked about a mile before finding a train that was running.  My boss walked 60 blocks to work. 

Besides the wild first day, work has been good.  It's starting to pick up now that I am getting more familiar with things--which is pretty exciting.  I'm meeting a lot of national level people, which is pretty great too.

Final thought: under no circumstances is it ever a good idea to rent a Zipcar to drive to New Jersey on Friday night during a thunderstorm. It will be a vale of tears I assure you.

I accepted a position today at the national office of Planned Parenthood.  I'll be doing web strategy and online marketing.  I'm hoping it will be totally awesome.

We move tomorrow.  My phone number and email will be the same.  Email me if you need my new address to send me love notes.

It's really great to WIN.

More pictures here.

1) The power of negative thinking. This one's for you E.

2) Scott and I recently went on vacation to Costa Rica. It was amazingly awesome and I have some (less than 100) of the best of the 700 pictures I took on my flickr photostream.

Also all of you who enjoy after-dinner liquors.

Don't walk, RUN to your nearest well-stocked liquor store and purchase Soho Lychee Liquor.

After you have acquired such beverages, mix in a shaker with a good amount of vodka and ice. Pour and serve.

Also good with canned lychees for garnish.

I just shredded about 3 months worth of credit card applications. It filled a brown paper grocery bag and jammed my shredder 4 times.

Seriously.

Also--I'm finally done with the purple on this blog. I actually was done with it about a year ago, but I finally just sucked it up and changed it to one of the default themes. At some point maybe I'll muck around with the CSS, but that feels too much like work.

Speaking of work and CSS, I launched a new website.

I was unamused by this fiasco on Tuesday.

I think there's a couple things that people are failing to realize about this incident.

1) Yeah, I immediately recognized the Mooninites for what they were. Of course. I'm also a 27 year-old geeky guy. I don't think it's right to say that it was "obviously not a bomb, how stupid is Boston, blah blah blah" though. I don't work on a bomb squad--and I'm sure that very few people that do watched the show, or indeed the cartoon network at all. What they saw was essentially a blinking electronic device illegally put on major transportation routes. I think it's a sensible reaction to expect the worse. Having been in Boston on Tuesday I can honestly say there was no hysteria. There was no screaming in the streets, no cops beating people down. Yes they closed bridges--that had the devices on them. They closed a highway--because it ran right over the subway station that one was found in. If these had actually been bombs those were all sensible and logical things to do.

2) Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky are not boys, nor are they loveable discordians, nor are they terrorists. They are advertisers. People paid by one of the biggest media giants in the world to do gorrila marketing. Minions in fact, as they didn't even come up with the idea. Sam Ewen, of Interference Inc. came up with the whole thing. Stevens and Berdovsky probably responded to a craigslist ad. I have very little sympathy for them and even less after their stupid press conference.

The President of India poses the question on how to end terrorism on Yahoo! Answers.

This is really fascinating. I won't pretend that I know that much about Dr. Kalam's politics or him as a person other than what I've skimmed on wikipedia and the official website. But reaching out to the wider international community via the internet is radical, especially for an elected official.

While the positions of President aren't the same in India and the United States, I can't help but drawing the sharp contrast between Dr. Kalam and our fearless leader.

Gentlemen,

I am a gay man; I do not hide such things. As many men who enjoy the company of other men do, I understand the fine art of cruising in public places. The lingering eye contact. The surreptitious "adjustment." Whatever else. It's part of the way men hook up with men without having to have that awkward "so are you..." moment and I'm fine with that.

( Completely non-work-safe rant is hiding )

In general I feel that New Year's resolutions are kind of silly--if I want to change some shit in my life, I'll just do it, not putz around and wait for some occasion to make it seem like a good idea.

That having been said, last week I was off of work and I took some time out for some introspection, and coincidently came up with some ideas on some stuff to work on, starting now.

1) Continue exercising, booze it up somewhat less, and move back towards eating well after my holiday-fueled binging.
2) Write more and become more politically active than the arm-chair legislature calling & emailing funk I've been in. More info on this to come.

The holidays were awesome in case you were wondering. My neice is beautiful and, well... still gurgling and pooping, but in a totally smart and advanced-for-a-one-month-old sort of way. My family is healthy and happy. My friends are caring and supportive.

OH. My presents were well-received and Scott gave me super-awesome PIRATE CUFF LINKS. Your jealousy may commence whenever.

...For those of you who were wondering.

My sister and her new daughter are doing really well. The Bambina was born last night around 5:00am and she's 7 lbs 13 oz. My sister's not sure on her name yet, but I'll keep everyone posted.

I'm going to head down to see her soon--either tomorrow evening or Thursday morning. I'm so excited!!!!