Shopping

Wow. Lots of shopping this weekend. Picked up this couch this weekend.




Also bought a mattress, platform bedframe that I am hoping I don't kill my shin on, and a tv stand thingie that weighs a thousand pounds. All these things are getting delivered tomorrow, as well as pilots getting lit for the water heater, which I mistakenly assumed would be easy to light. A burned finger later, screw that, gas people come and do it for me.

Accomplished: cleaned house, turned on water and garbage

Still to do: assemble furniture (tomorrow evening). Find a TV that I like (and buy it). Build extra closet rod. Get rid of more stuff.

All in all, house moving is coming into place, and I should be 95% done by Friday. Yay.

Obama on DOMA

Obama filed a defense of DOMA brief today (and what a great anniversary present for Loving v. Virginia). I'm no lawyer, so I don't really know what the hell is going on, but the gist I'm getting is this:

Gay people don't have the same rights as straight people because there's no constitutional right to be gay.

What do you do in a two-party system where neither candidate is appealing to you? I suppose you vote for the least noxious of the two. I have to admit being, thus far, pretty disappointed with Obama. Actually, really disappointed. Surprisingly, I have been really stoked about our Secretary of State.

I suppose I will have to vote for Obama again next election cycle, but I won't take any of his platforms seriously - and I'll just hope that he's better than any Republican candidate going up against him. Maybe I'll have to cast my vote Libertarian.

Bad Day at Work: Installment #1

Yesterday was my first *truly* bad day at work. It started out well enough, was interrupted by an appointment at the doc, and then got *really* bad. One of the teams that I work with frequently has a tendency to ask our group for things on *really* short notice (like, can we have x right now), which disrupts a) our current work in progress and b) our release schedule. They pulled one of these yesterday, but based on feedback from myself and another one of the other teammates in my department, we asked for an executive call from our boss.

Our boss told us to hold off until he could talk to the manager of the group (left him a voicemail on his phone) and then went to a meeting. About 15 minutes later, the manager of the group came into our office and declared something along the lines of: "I don't care what said, I want this out now. I don't want to talk about it anymore with anyone. Just do it." And then he left.

1. This guy has no authority *whatsoever* to issue this type of dictate to the people in our group
2. I've had run-ins with this guy previously, but have *really* been accommodating, polite, and respectful to him
3. Who the fuck does he think he is?

As a compromise between us and the product manager for this group (who I have a good working relationship with), I put the changes up in our staging environment so their QA could start testing while we waited for the big dogs to fight it out. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed.

When my boss got back, I spoke to him (quietly), related what had happened, and told him that if that pompous motherfucker ever talked to me like that again, I would punch him in the fucking mouth. Then I packed up my stuff and went home.

I turned off my phone, killed my email, and had a blissful entire night of non-work. I realized, on the drive home, that I probably should have censored myself a bit before talking to my boss, but I'm pretty sure I hit the point home.

This morning, an apology email was in my inbox. Wonder of wonders. Don't let me wax poetic about *most* graduates of a certain university that seems to pump assholes like this every goddamn day. I swear, they have a required course study for all graduates in Asshole.

Rachel Maddow on Dr. Tiller

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel Maddow. You rule.

Uniting American Families Act

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee held their first ever hearings on the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) that will amend existing immigration laws to grant same-sex partners of US citizens the same immigration rights as heterosexual couples.

There were two dissenting opinions shared in the hearing. One was just a knee-jerk "America has too many immigrants" response that I *knew* would surface, and the other was actually thought-provoking, arguing instead that this legislation was superfluous, if DOMA is repealed (this is true). That being said, a potential repeal of DOMA must also be coupled with individual states granting same-sex marriages in order for bi-national couples to stay together. It also said that the potential for abuse of the system was much higher, because of the non-standardization of same-sex recognition across the country (also true, but no fault of same-sex couples). I was particularly disturbed that the testimony of this particular person referenced a bi-national marriage gone wrong, as a reason NOT to allow same-sex immigration benefits. I couldn't see the logic in that.

Doubtful that this will be passed this time around, but it's always good to hope.