Interesting time lapse "movie"

I ran across this video the other day and decided it was worth passing along. The photographer, realizing that the cities and towns they were passing made the clouds glow, aimed his camera out the window from a makeshift tripod while flying over the US on a night flight. It's interesting to see how many towns and cities pass by during the three hours from the Midwest to San Francisco. I thought it made for a very cool video. For the full effect, watch it in full-screen mode

Jaw-dropping ignorance

I ran across this post on Yahoo Answers and am amazed at the level of ignorance.


It's very sad that this far into the 21st century there are still people who believe that people make a conscious choice to be gay. And, believe that because the christian bible says that it's a sin, people will simply choose not to be gay. The post just oozes denial at an incredibly deep level. Did it ever occur to this person that her son has stopped going to church and is being secretive because he's being told that he's a sinner and evil simply because of who he is? That's just incredibly sad.

On top of that, she won't teach her son about condoms or safe sex because that is apparently what god wants. That borders on criminally negligent in my opinion. Such ignorance on the mother's part is appalling; she'd rather put her child at risk for STDs, using the word of god as justification, than to make sure her son was kept safe. Again, just incredibly sad.

Maybe this woman should tune-in to watch Prayers For Bobby, showing on the Lifetime network (Television for Victims and Gays) tonight. It's the true story of a mother with a gay son who, because of her religious beliefs, could never accept who he was. The son eventually kills himself because of it. The woman who posted this Yahoo question may end up in the same situation if she doesn't start to grow out of her ignorance and start to accept that there are things in this world that her bible is completely wrong about.

Christmas and a movie review

As usual, I'm not very timely with this, but I figured I'd put together a quick update of my christmas weekend. I was lucky enough to have Wednesday through Sunday off, so it made for a nice break from work. The holiday itself was low-key, and that was fine. Anthony, Jayson, and I opened our gifts to each other that morning, then fixed a nice dinner. We had set spending limits this year for gift buying, and it didn't seem to diminish the gifting experience (at least from my perspective). I don't need or want that much stuff so whatever I get is usually a nice thing to me, and I don't see the holiday as an excuse to get free stuff. Jayson's friend Madhu(sp), whom I call Mondo, came over for dinner and they went to the cafe that Jayson volunteers for to serve food for the evening. Like I said, a very low-key day, but nice.

Before they left for the cafe we all watched Mama Mia! on DVD. I actually enjoy a lot of ABBA's music; it's a requirement in the contract I signed when I chose the gay lifestyle after I was converted. But, I'm going to say something that will threaten my standing in the gay community: I didn't like the movie. I know, part of being gay is liking Barbra Streisand, Cher, Project Runway, and this movie. But, I thought it was just not very good. It wasn't that half the cast couldn't sing any better than I can yet were still cast in a musical. It wasn't that I have a problem with the format of a musical where the cast breaks into spontaneous song and highly choreographed dance with an unseen band/orchestra hidden somewhere on the beach (I'm used to that from the classic, good, musicals like My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music). And it's not that I can't enjoy a lighthearted movie that is merely meant to be fun for a couple of hours. Meryl Streep did her usual excellent job - I would be hard pressed to find a role I didn't like her in - and the rest of the cast was quite likable as well as long as they weren't singing. In the end, I just didn't think it was a very good movie. It was nothing more than a vehicle with which to get ABBA songs out to a new generation of listeners. When there's one hour and 40 minutes of movie, I expect more than 12 minutes of story. The songs seemed gratuitously placed into the script, chosen not because they fit well but because it was a song that was popular and it needed to be in the movie. I found myself annoyed through much of the movie because the songs just seemed to be dropped into the film. The story actually seemed to get in the way of the songs at times. As for it being a happy movie, it was almost sickeningly deliriously upbeat. I half expected Hannah Montana to make a cameo and start bouncing around the scenes. I would have been happier putting on ABBA's Greatest Hits, which I do have on CD, and looking at some still pictures I took of Greece when I was there. I guess I'll just turn in my gay card now before the gay mafia knocks on my door and demands it back.

I hope everyone had a good holiday and enjoyed whatever they did!