Steven Harper's Blog, page 32
November 6, 2021
The Eternals
The big deal about THE ETERNALS is that it's the first Marvel movie with a gay super-hero in it, one who is married, with a husband and son.
I really wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I couldn't.
(Light spoilers follow.)
The Eternals are a group of immortal super-beings, each with their own power--matter transmutation, super-speed, mind control, illusion, flight and strength, and so on. They were sent to Earth by another being, a Celestial, to stop monsters called Deviants from wiping out the human race.
The movie itself is unfortunately and deeply flawed. Like I said, I really wanted to like it, and I tried, but nothing really worked. At the beginning, we're dropped into an action sequence in the stone age. A Deviant kills a man in front of his son, and the boy doesn't even react. In fact, when the Deviants wipe out a big chunk of the village, no one really seems to mind much. The boy, who should have been frightened and traumatized, expressionlessly accepts the gift of a knife from one of the Eternals instead.
This set the tone for the rest of the movie.
The Eternals are outside humanity, supposed to be apart from it. And most of them are hard-bitten and even uncaring. Ikarus, the male lead, spends most of the movie stony-faced and rigid. He's in love with Sersi, but he never seems to take joy out of that. He doesn't seem to get joy out of anything, really. Sersi seems to feel the same way--their relationship is a burden, not a support, and she puts up with it because she feels she should, rather than out of any real romantic attraction. Sprite, the mischief-maker, also rarely cracks a smile, and uses her illusions for workaday heroics. We never see her get any =fun= out of her powers. Kingo, a blaster hero, seems to be the only one who likes what he's doing, but even he turns overly serious halfway through the show. The actors decided that immortality has hardened the characters and made them either less than or more than human. An interesting choice, but it means the characters feel remote, and I couldn't connect with them.
There was an attempt to humanize Sersi by giving her a human boyfriend, but it actually makes the problem worse. The boyfriend--whose name I'm forgetting--takes the news of Sersi's true identity with sarcastic resignation, the world-weary sigh of someone who's already seen super-heroes stop world-wrecking events. His low-key acceptance is, perhaps, different, but it's ultimately off-putting. He was a chance to inject some humanity in the show, and that chance was thrown away.
Director Chloe Zhao also seems to have little idea of how to pace a story. Just when the movie gets some momentum going and the tension builds nicely, she stops the story dead for long, long minutes so the characters can emote at each other. I found myself checking my watch, never a good sign. The time-hopping structure of the story (starting in the distant past, jumping back to the present, popping into the past again) makes this worse. It's hard to keep track of what's going on, and we have to put the present storyline on hold every time we're plopped back into the past again. It's another momentum-killing device.
And then we come to Phastos, the much-heralded First Gay Movie Super-Hero. He falls flat.
This isn't the fault of Henry Tyree, the actor who plays him. Tyree does a great job. It's the script and the director who fail the character. First, make no mistake, Phastos is a minor character. He's absent from most of the movie, in fact. After the first few scenes, the Eternals basically split up and scatter around the world. Later, Ikarus and Sersi travel around the world, trying to reunite them so they can fight a new threat. This could have been done quickly, much in the way Paul Neuman picks up grifters in THE STING. Instead, Zhao slowly, frustratingly takes. Her. Time. We have a long, long, LONG scene partway through the gathering process in which the characters gathered so far share a meal.
Guess who isn't there yet?
At LONG last, the characters get off their asses and look for Phastos. They find him in a suburb with, to the surprise of his fellow Eternals, a husband named Ben and their young son. We have a set of family-oriented scenes here that, I think, are meant to normalize a same-sex relationship, but the relationship itself is dry. Everything is too matter-of-fact. Like Sersi's boyfriend, Ben doesn't seem much affected by the revelation of Phastos's true identity, and when he learns Phastos needs to leave them to go fight evil, Ben sends him off with a smile and a quick, dry kiss of the sort you give your husband when he's going away for a two-day conference. There was no attempt whatsoever to show romance or, heaven forbid, passion. (And I have to point out that Sersi and Ikarus, our straight couple, get an extensive and passionate lovemaking scene.)
Later, after the Great Big Battle, the Eternals come back together, but do we get a scene in which Phastos is reunited with his husband and son? Do we see Ben and Phastos fling themselves into an embrace with thank-god-you're-okay-I-love-you-so-much? Do we seen Phastos's son leap into his arms shrieking "Daddy!"?
No, we don't. Instead, we blip to a farmhouse. Phastos is in a living room eating pizza. Ben is nowhere to be seen, and their son is in the kitchen, talking to another Eternal. Later, Ben pops in to deliver one line, and Phastos decides to rush into the kitchen, but not to talk to his son, whom he deliberately pushes aside, but to talk to his team-mate.
It drains all emotion from the scene.
This is doubly problematic in a movie that stutters and stammers because the plot gets interrupted for emotional emoting for emo emotions. Zhao is willing to sacrifice pacing so her straight people can emote at each other, but she won't do the same for her gay folk.
A few audience members did shout and clap during the kiss. I just shrugged. It could have been--should have been--much better.
It's abundantly clear Disney/Marvel is testing the waters. They decided we could have a gay man, but he couldn't be =too= gay. We could have a same-sex marriage, but it has to be completely, blandly domestic. We could have two men who are married, but they have to keep romance and passion off-screen. It has to be bland and boring in order to exist at all.
I'm glad we have a gay super-hero in the Marvel movies. I'm hoping it leads to more of them. I suppose it's inevitable that the first one is botched. But I'm tired of feeling that way.
I wanted THE ETERNALS to be an awesome movie, with an interesting, fast-paced story with a prominent and heart-felt gay relationship. I got something entirely, and disappointingly, different.
comments
I really wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I couldn't.
(Light spoilers follow.)
The Eternals are a group of immortal super-beings, each with their own power--matter transmutation, super-speed, mind control, illusion, flight and strength, and so on. They were sent to Earth by another being, a Celestial, to stop monsters called Deviants from wiping out the human race.
The movie itself is unfortunately and deeply flawed. Like I said, I really wanted to like it, and I tried, but nothing really worked. At the beginning, we're dropped into an action sequence in the stone age. A Deviant kills a man in front of his son, and the boy doesn't even react. In fact, when the Deviants wipe out a big chunk of the village, no one really seems to mind much. The boy, who should have been frightened and traumatized, expressionlessly accepts the gift of a knife from one of the Eternals instead.
This set the tone for the rest of the movie.
The Eternals are outside humanity, supposed to be apart from it. And most of them are hard-bitten and even uncaring. Ikarus, the male lead, spends most of the movie stony-faced and rigid. He's in love with Sersi, but he never seems to take joy out of that. He doesn't seem to get joy out of anything, really. Sersi seems to feel the same way--their relationship is a burden, not a support, and she puts up with it because she feels she should, rather than out of any real romantic attraction. Sprite, the mischief-maker, also rarely cracks a smile, and uses her illusions for workaday heroics. We never see her get any =fun= out of her powers. Kingo, a blaster hero, seems to be the only one who likes what he's doing, but even he turns overly serious halfway through the show. The actors decided that immortality has hardened the characters and made them either less than or more than human. An interesting choice, but it means the characters feel remote, and I couldn't connect with them.
There was an attempt to humanize Sersi by giving her a human boyfriend, but it actually makes the problem worse. The boyfriend--whose name I'm forgetting--takes the news of Sersi's true identity with sarcastic resignation, the world-weary sigh of someone who's already seen super-heroes stop world-wrecking events. His low-key acceptance is, perhaps, different, but it's ultimately off-putting. He was a chance to inject some humanity in the show, and that chance was thrown away.
Director Chloe Zhao also seems to have little idea of how to pace a story. Just when the movie gets some momentum going and the tension builds nicely, she stops the story dead for long, long minutes so the characters can emote at each other. I found myself checking my watch, never a good sign. The time-hopping structure of the story (starting in the distant past, jumping back to the present, popping into the past again) makes this worse. It's hard to keep track of what's going on, and we have to put the present storyline on hold every time we're plopped back into the past again. It's another momentum-killing device.
And then we come to Phastos, the much-heralded First Gay Movie Super-Hero. He falls flat.
This isn't the fault of Henry Tyree, the actor who plays him. Tyree does a great job. It's the script and the director who fail the character. First, make no mistake, Phastos is a minor character. He's absent from most of the movie, in fact. After the first few scenes, the Eternals basically split up and scatter around the world. Later, Ikarus and Sersi travel around the world, trying to reunite them so they can fight a new threat. This could have been done quickly, much in the way Paul Neuman picks up grifters in THE STING. Instead, Zhao slowly, frustratingly takes. Her. Time. We have a long, long, LONG scene partway through the gathering process in which the characters gathered so far share a meal.
Guess who isn't there yet?
At LONG last, the characters get off their asses and look for Phastos. They find him in a suburb with, to the surprise of his fellow Eternals, a husband named Ben and their young son. We have a set of family-oriented scenes here that, I think, are meant to normalize a same-sex relationship, but the relationship itself is dry. Everything is too matter-of-fact. Like Sersi's boyfriend, Ben doesn't seem much affected by the revelation of Phastos's true identity, and when he learns Phastos needs to leave them to go fight evil, Ben sends him off with a smile and a quick, dry kiss of the sort you give your husband when he's going away for a two-day conference. There was no attempt whatsoever to show romance or, heaven forbid, passion. (And I have to point out that Sersi and Ikarus, our straight couple, get an extensive and passionate lovemaking scene.)
Later, after the Great Big Battle, the Eternals come back together, but do we get a scene in which Phastos is reunited with his husband and son? Do we see Ben and Phastos fling themselves into an embrace with thank-god-you're-okay-I-love-you-so-much? Do we seen Phastos's son leap into his arms shrieking "Daddy!"?
No, we don't. Instead, we blip to a farmhouse. Phastos is in a living room eating pizza. Ben is nowhere to be seen, and their son is in the kitchen, talking to another Eternal. Later, Ben pops in to deliver one line, and Phastos decides to rush into the kitchen, but not to talk to his son, whom he deliberately pushes aside, but to talk to his team-mate.
It drains all emotion from the scene.
This is doubly problematic in a movie that stutters and stammers because the plot gets interrupted for emotional emoting for emo emotions. Zhao is willing to sacrifice pacing so her straight people can emote at each other, but she won't do the same for her gay folk.
A few audience members did shout and clap during the kiss. I just shrugged. It could have been--should have been--much better.
It's abundantly clear Disney/Marvel is testing the waters. They decided we could have a gay man, but he couldn't be =too= gay. We could have a same-sex marriage, but it has to be completely, blandly domestic. We could have two men who are married, but they have to keep romance and passion off-screen. It has to be bland and boring in order to exist at all.
I'm glad we have a gay super-hero in the Marvel movies. I'm hoping it leads to more of them. I suppose it's inevitable that the first one is botched. But I'm tired of feeling that way.
I wanted THE ETERNALS to be an awesome movie, with an interesting, fast-paced story with a prominent and heart-felt gay relationship. I got something entirely, and disappointingly, different.
comments
October 18, 2021
The Department of Education and Me
Today I got a mass-mailed letter from the Michigan Department of Education. It began:
"I am sending you this letter today because, as you are likely aware, there is a teacher shortage, not just in Michigan, but across the United States."
It goes to basically beg me to apply for a teaching job. "Districts from all areas of our beautiful state...are ready to welcome you, or welcome you back, to the profession."
I'm assuming this letter went out to everyone in the MDE's mailing list, including retired teachers.
My response?
Dear Dr. Rice,
When the Michigan state government increases funding to schools, removes benefit caps, increases retirement, restores the practice of buying years of service, forgives student loans for teachers, ends required standardized testing, and requires schools to PAY TEACHERS MORE MONEY, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the number of applicants you receive all over the state.
As it is, your letter is nothing but pretty words, and I can make those myself.
Sincerely,A Teacher
comments
"I am sending you this letter today because, as you are likely aware, there is a teacher shortage, not just in Michigan, but across the United States."
It goes to basically beg me to apply for a teaching job. "Districts from all areas of our beautiful state...are ready to welcome you, or welcome you back, to the profession."
I'm assuming this letter went out to everyone in the MDE's mailing list, including retired teachers.
My response?
Dear Dr. Rice,
When the Michigan state government increases funding to schools, removes benefit caps, increases retirement, restores the practice of buying years of service, forgives student loans for teachers, ends required standardized testing, and requires schools to PAY TEACHERS MORE MONEY, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the number of applicants you receive all over the state.
As it is, your letter is nothing but pretty words, and I can make those myself.
Sincerely,A Teacher
comments
October 17, 2021
Yet Another Pride Flag Update
When last we heard about the Pride flag fight, the HOA was still telling us to take it down, to which Darwin and I replied, "The rules say we get a hearing with the board when we're accused of a rules violation. We haven't had a hearing yet."
And we didn't hear anything else. For weeks. We wondered if the HOA had decided to drop the issue.
Nope! We finally got a text from K---, a board member, who offered us a hearing on a particular Tuesday evening. R--, the president, and J--, the board member who had started the Pride flag fight, wouldn't be there, which I found very interesting. However, the other three board members would attend, and that constituted a quorum. Darwin and I agreed to the meeting.
We weren't sure where the board would land with this. Darwin and I had a number of arguments marshaled--that the board had failed to enforce the flag rule when other co-owners violated it and we were clearly being targeted due to our sexual orientation; that J-- had made a number of blatantly discriminatory and homophobic comments about us and our Pride flag while speaking as the board vice-president; that the board had only changed the flag rule to make it more restrictive when our Pride flag went up, which meant they knew our flag wasn't a violation.
Additionally, remember, we're the guys who arranged for the rescue of the feral kittens living under the shed. I was careful to post flyers, complete with adorable kitten photos, around the complex to update everyone on what had happened. So if the board ruled against us, they would be ruling against the guys who help stray kittens. Not very good for the board's image!
Finally, if the board ruled against us, we intended to take the flag down for a single day, then put it back up. When the inevitable complaint came, we planned to say, "The complaint about our flag came in under the old flag rule, and that complaint was only recently resolved. If you feel we're in violation of the NEW flag rule, you can create a complaint, of course--and start the process from the beginning. Do note that this includes sending a hard copy letter to us by registered mail, and we will demand yet another board hearing. And the rules and regulations say that the first violation of any rule results in no penalty whatsoever. Just thought we'd say."
(Side note: a second violation results in a $25 fine. Ooo! If it went this far, Darwin and I planned to continue flying the flag and requiring the HOA to go through every single step from the beginning, including holding more hearings. It would totally be worth $25 to make them jump through hoops.)
Anyway, we had all this set up and ready to go.
And then we got a text from K---. The meeting was being postponed. He didn't say why, and he didn't give a postponement date.
Darwin and I think one of two things happened. Either a board member had a conflict with that time (and without at least three board members, they can't conduct business); or at least one board member said, "Why are we doing this? No one cares about the damn Pride flag except J--. Just drop it!"
It's been a couple weeks, and we haven't gotten a notice about a new meeting time. And the Pride flag continues to fly.
comments
And we didn't hear anything else. For weeks. We wondered if the HOA had decided to drop the issue.
Nope! We finally got a text from K---, a board member, who offered us a hearing on a particular Tuesday evening. R--, the president, and J--, the board member who had started the Pride flag fight, wouldn't be there, which I found very interesting. However, the other three board members would attend, and that constituted a quorum. Darwin and I agreed to the meeting.
We weren't sure where the board would land with this. Darwin and I had a number of arguments marshaled--that the board had failed to enforce the flag rule when other co-owners violated it and we were clearly being targeted due to our sexual orientation; that J-- had made a number of blatantly discriminatory and homophobic comments about us and our Pride flag while speaking as the board vice-president; that the board had only changed the flag rule to make it more restrictive when our Pride flag went up, which meant they knew our flag wasn't a violation.
Additionally, remember, we're the guys who arranged for the rescue of the feral kittens living under the shed. I was careful to post flyers, complete with adorable kitten photos, around the complex to update everyone on what had happened. So if the board ruled against us, they would be ruling against the guys who help stray kittens. Not very good for the board's image!
Finally, if the board ruled against us, we intended to take the flag down for a single day, then put it back up. When the inevitable complaint came, we planned to say, "The complaint about our flag came in under the old flag rule, and that complaint was only recently resolved. If you feel we're in violation of the NEW flag rule, you can create a complaint, of course--and start the process from the beginning. Do note that this includes sending a hard copy letter to us by registered mail, and we will demand yet another board hearing. And the rules and regulations say that the first violation of any rule results in no penalty whatsoever. Just thought we'd say."
(Side note: a second violation results in a $25 fine. Ooo! If it went this far, Darwin and I planned to continue flying the flag and requiring the HOA to go through every single step from the beginning, including holding more hearings. It would totally be worth $25 to make them jump through hoops.)
Anyway, we had all this set up and ready to go.
And then we got a text from K---. The meeting was being postponed. He didn't say why, and he didn't give a postponement date.
Darwin and I think one of two things happened. Either a board member had a conflict with that time (and without at least three board members, they can't conduct business); or at least one board member said, "Why are we doing this? No one cares about the damn Pride flag except J--. Just drop it!"
It's been a couple weeks, and we haven't gotten a notice about a new meeting time. And the Pride flag continues to fly.
comments
October 11, 2021
Queer Superman, or Why I'm Subscribing to Comics Again
I read comics obsessively until I was in my late 20s. I subscribed to a couple dozen books. I stopped because the writing standards went down, and the prices went up. I picked up the odd issue here and there out of idle interest, but read nothing regularly, and last year I sold my collection.
Now, for the first time in 25 years, I've subscribed to a comic book again. Here's why:https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1044002955/superman-son-comes-out-queer-dc-comics
I can't tell you what this would have meant for me if this had happened when I was a kid. Seeing it on the page made it possible, made it =real=. More than that, seeing Superman with a boyfriend, made such a thing . . . not just acceptable, but DESIRABLE. Something it was okay to want. The world's greatest hero wants the same thing you do.
So I'm reading.
comments
Now, for the first time in 25 years, I've subscribed to a comic book again. Here's why:https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1044002955/superman-son-comes-out-queer-dc-comics
I can't tell you what this would have meant for me if this had happened when I was a kid. Seeing it on the page made it possible, made it =real=. More than that, seeing Superman with a boyfriend, made such a thing . . . not just acceptable, but DESIRABLE. Something it was okay to want. The world's greatest hero wants the same thing you do.
So I'm reading.
comments
September 30, 2021
Back to Physical Training
The joint specialist announced last month that I no longer needed physical therapy training for the pain in my shoulder. It seemed premature to me--I wasn't pain free--but I went along with it and canceled my upcoming appointments with the trainer.
But not long after, the pain came roaring back. If anything, it's worse. I can't even put a shirt on without pain. So I went back to the doctor. He said we could either do exploratory (laparoscopic) surgery to see in more detail what the problem might be (the MRI I had was inconclusive) or we could go back to PT and see if that improved matters. I opted for more PT. Although surgery would ultimately take less time, the PT counts as good exercise and I've become more and more averse to anesthesia.
I hopped over to the PT office, which is in the same building, and set up a schedule. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I belong to the trainer again!
comments
But not long after, the pain came roaring back. If anything, it's worse. I can't even put a shirt on without pain. So I went back to the doctor. He said we could either do exploratory (laparoscopic) surgery to see in more detail what the problem might be (the MRI I had was inconclusive) or we could go back to PT and see if that improved matters. I opted for more PT. Although surgery would ultimately take less time, the PT counts as good exercise and I've become more and more averse to anesthesia.
I hopped over to the PT office, which is in the same building, and set up a schedule. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I belong to the trainer again!
comments
September 19, 2021
Pride Flag Update
The fight over our flag has continued.
It started when we flew a Pride flag from our balcony. A couple-three weeks later, we got a notice from the management company of our condo that said our flag was a violation of the rules and regulations. I pointed out to the company that the rules and regs only regulate American flags. Other flags, including Pride flags, were not mentioned.
We knew that our neighbor J---, who is also the HOA vice-president, was unhappy that our second-story flag was flying higher than his first-story American flag. And he's generally homophobic anyway. He filed the initial complaint.
This touched off an explosive fight, mostly via email. A couple days into the whole affair, J--- was standing down on the boat dock a few yards away from the condo balconies. He was talking loudly to another neighbor, and he told her that HIS flag stood for patriotism and THAT flag stood for a sexual preference, and they were going to change the rules to forbid THAT flag. I wrote it all down.
Darwin and I got really pissed. J--- is allowed to be as homophobic as he likes in private life, but in this case, he was clearly speaking as a member of the HOA board, and he was making hate speech against a fellow co-owner.
The board met--without informing anyone else that they were doing so--and apparently they voted in a new flag rule, one that forbade all flags except the American flag. We were served notice from the HOA's lawyer that we had to take our flag down immediately.
We shot back that both the original flag rule and the new flag rule stated American flags must be flown according to the US Flag Code, which, among other things, states that flags may not be flown if they are worn or torn and that at night they must be taken down or lighted. The new rule also stated that all flags must be 4'x6'. But several residents were flying worn American flags, didn't take them down at night or light them, and flew a whole bunch of smaller flags on their boats and balconies, and no one filed complaints about that. We were being singled out over our sexual orientation.
We also pointed out that the rules and regs clearly state that anyone accused of a violation can call for a board hearing, and we were officially calling for one. In the meantime, though, we took the flag down.
After a whole bunch of angry back-and-forth via email, R--, the HOA president, and K---, a board member, asked if we could meet informally to talk about the matter. We agreed, and the four of us met near the kitten shed. It was a long, sometimes angry, talk. I told them what J-- had said, and Darwin pointed out that the board wasn't being fair and evenhanded in enforcing the rules. I also said that the board had the power to change the rule at any time. Would R-- ask the board to do so?
R-- dismissed J--'s hate speech with a, "He's old school Baptist, and it's just the way he is" and said he had no intention of asking the board to change the rule.
A few days later, I put the flag back up.
Within an hour, I got an irate text from R--. "I thought we'd resolved this," he said.
"We haven't had our hearing yet," I shot back. "In the interest of convenience, we're willing to wait until the next board meeting."
That was a week ago. We haven't heard a word since. The Pride flag continues to fly.
I'm wondering if the board is sick of dealing with the time and expense. (Every time they consult with the attorney, it costs money--and they've consulted with him a LOT.) Have they decided just to drop the matter? We'll see.
comments
It started when we flew a Pride flag from our balcony. A couple-three weeks later, we got a notice from the management company of our condo that said our flag was a violation of the rules and regulations. I pointed out to the company that the rules and regs only regulate American flags. Other flags, including Pride flags, were not mentioned.
We knew that our neighbor J---, who is also the HOA vice-president, was unhappy that our second-story flag was flying higher than his first-story American flag. And he's generally homophobic anyway. He filed the initial complaint.
This touched off an explosive fight, mostly via email. A couple days into the whole affair, J--- was standing down on the boat dock a few yards away from the condo balconies. He was talking loudly to another neighbor, and he told her that HIS flag stood for patriotism and THAT flag stood for a sexual preference, and they were going to change the rules to forbid THAT flag. I wrote it all down.
Darwin and I got really pissed. J--- is allowed to be as homophobic as he likes in private life, but in this case, he was clearly speaking as a member of the HOA board, and he was making hate speech against a fellow co-owner.
The board met--without informing anyone else that they were doing so--and apparently they voted in a new flag rule, one that forbade all flags except the American flag. We were served notice from the HOA's lawyer that we had to take our flag down immediately.
We shot back that both the original flag rule and the new flag rule stated American flags must be flown according to the US Flag Code, which, among other things, states that flags may not be flown if they are worn or torn and that at night they must be taken down or lighted. The new rule also stated that all flags must be 4'x6'. But several residents were flying worn American flags, didn't take them down at night or light them, and flew a whole bunch of smaller flags on their boats and balconies, and no one filed complaints about that. We were being singled out over our sexual orientation.
We also pointed out that the rules and regs clearly state that anyone accused of a violation can call for a board hearing, and we were officially calling for one. In the meantime, though, we took the flag down.
After a whole bunch of angry back-and-forth via email, R--, the HOA president, and K---, a board member, asked if we could meet informally to talk about the matter. We agreed, and the four of us met near the kitten shed. It was a long, sometimes angry, talk. I told them what J-- had said, and Darwin pointed out that the board wasn't being fair and evenhanded in enforcing the rules. I also said that the board had the power to change the rule at any time. Would R-- ask the board to do so?
R-- dismissed J--'s hate speech with a, "He's old school Baptist, and it's just the way he is" and said he had no intention of asking the board to change the rule.
A few days later, I put the flag back up.
Within an hour, I got an irate text from R--. "I thought we'd resolved this," he said.
"We haven't had our hearing yet," I shot back. "In the interest of convenience, we're willing to wait until the next board meeting."
That was a week ago. We haven't heard a word since. The Pride flag continues to fly.
I'm wondering if the board is sick of dealing with the time and expense. (Every time they consult with the attorney, it costs money--and they've consulted with him a LOT.) Have they decided just to drop the matter? We'll see.
comments
No Donations
Today I went through my closet. I've lost considerable weight, you see, and a bunch of my clothes no longer fit. Some clothes I just don't wear anymore. We also have sheets and blankets we don't need. I put piles and piles of clothes and linens into bags, and Darwin helped me schlep them down to the car.
We drove to a charity thrift store up the road from us. Their parking lot was blocked off with parking cones. A big sign posted in their parking lot said in stern letters NO DONATIONS!
So Darwin and I drove to another place. Another stern sign: NO DONATIONS!
In the end, we just threw everything out.
I actually have a theory about this.
When I was young, there used to be charity clothes drives, especially at the holidays. You were urged to donate used clothes. "We need them! Please go through your closets and drawers. Families are in need!" But relatively few people donated clothes. Donating clothes was something the wealthy did. If you had clothes worth re-using, you didn't donate them--you held a garage sale and sold them.
Nowadays? Donation stores are drowning in donations. Why? Look at the clothes themselves. Manufacturing methods have changed. Shirts are made of fabric so thin, you can see through it. Machines do a lot more cutting and sewing work than ever before. And, of course, the workers are paid next to nothing. This makes clothing less expensive for the consumer, but it's also shoddy, cheap-ass stuff.
I was clothing shopping yesterday, hunting for new shirts that fit the new me. I was especially hunting for warm shirts and decent fleeces because my classroom is cold in winter. But all the fleeces I found were thin, barely above t-shirt thickness. Same for gingham shirts. They were like tissue paper.
Women complain about this phenomenon, especially. Women's clothing seems designed to fall apart after it goes through the wash a couple times, and to be so thin that it won't keep you warm. The clothing companies seem to think we all live in Arizona. But of course, it's that they're trying to lower manufacturing costs.
Since clothes cost less and wear out faster, people buy more of them. This leads to overstuffed closets, which further leads to a glut of donations.
So now the dumpster in our complex is half-full of clothes.
comments
We drove to a charity thrift store up the road from us. Their parking lot was blocked off with parking cones. A big sign posted in their parking lot said in stern letters NO DONATIONS!
So Darwin and I drove to another place. Another stern sign: NO DONATIONS!
In the end, we just threw everything out.
I actually have a theory about this.
When I was young, there used to be charity clothes drives, especially at the holidays. You were urged to donate used clothes. "We need them! Please go through your closets and drawers. Families are in need!" But relatively few people donated clothes. Donating clothes was something the wealthy did. If you had clothes worth re-using, you didn't donate them--you held a garage sale and sold them.
Nowadays? Donation stores are drowning in donations. Why? Look at the clothes themselves. Manufacturing methods have changed. Shirts are made of fabric so thin, you can see through it. Machines do a lot more cutting and sewing work than ever before. And, of course, the workers are paid next to nothing. This makes clothing less expensive for the consumer, but it's also shoddy, cheap-ass stuff.
I was clothing shopping yesterday, hunting for new shirts that fit the new me. I was especially hunting for warm shirts and decent fleeces because my classroom is cold in winter. But all the fleeces I found were thin, barely above t-shirt thickness. Same for gingham shirts. They were like tissue paper.
Women complain about this phenomenon, especially. Women's clothing seems designed to fall apart after it goes through the wash a couple times, and to be so thin that it won't keep you warm. The clothing companies seem to think we all live in Arizona. But of course, it's that they're trying to lower manufacturing costs.
Since clothes cost less and wear out faster, people buy more of them. This leads to overstuffed closets, which further leads to a glut of donations.
So now the dumpster in our complex is half-full of clothes.
comments
September 6, 2021
Connectivity with Connection and Connecting
Over the last few weeks, my desktop's Internet connection got slower and slower. It took a while to notice because it was gradual. Then suddenly--BINK! We had Big Problems.
My desktop stopped connecting properly with Trollboy, our WiFi network. Sometimes Trollboy wouldn't connect at all, sometimes he would connect with a S-L-O-W connection (1 mg or less per second), and sometimes he would connect for a while and suddenly cut himself off. The only way I could get online was by using the cell modem function on my phone.
The problem puzzled me. Every other device in the house could connect with Trollboy. Only my computer was affected. This meant Trollboy himself wasn't the problem. Also, my computer could connect with the WiFi on my phone, on Darwin's phone, and a local Xfinity hotspot. This meant my computer COULD connect with the Internet; it just wouldn't do it through Trollboy. So where did the problem lie?
Darwin and I spent hours on Sunday trying to fix the problem. We did all the usual stuff (reset the modem, reboot the computer, check the physical connections). Nothing worked. So we dug into esoteric stuff, checking TCP IP setting, resetting codes in the CMD prompt, and more. The stuff we tried got more and more complicated, and I was digging into parts of my computer system I didn't even know existed. By midnight, we still had nothing, and it was time to call it quits.
This morning, I did the thing every computer user dreads: I called AT&T's tech support.
Here I discovered that if you tell the AI that answers AT&T's support line you're having an Internet connection problem, the AI runs a quick diagnostic and says, "We're finding no problems on your line. Good-bye!" Then it hangs up on you. I finally got through to a human being by just repeating, "I need help" every time the AI asked me what was wrong. The human in question, a very nice young man named Sebastian, listened to the details of my problem, clicked around on his keyboard . . . and told me there was nothing wrong with my WiFi, and have a nice day.
Okay, then.
Darwin said it was probably time to try a factory reset. There was a code or a system that needed a complete reboot, and a factory reset was the only way to find it. I was coming to the reluctant conclusion that he was right. Problem was, we didn't know for sure that a factory reset would solve the problem, but a factory reset would definitely wipe all my programs, and I would spend at least a day reloading all of them before my computer would be usable again, a process I wasn't eager to endure.
And then I remembered something. Back in the Old Days, when WiFi was a new thing, computers didn't come with an onboard WiFi receiver. You had to buy one separately and plug it into your tower. Maybe the problem was with my computer's WiFi receiver. If it were, a new one would probably solve the problem.
I drove down to Best Buy and snagged a plug-and-play adapter/receiver. Back home, I downloaded its driver with my cell phone as modem, plugged the adapter into my computer, and held my breath. The adapter instantly found Trollboy and asked if I wanted to connect to him. I said that I did, thank you very much, and here's the password. POOF! I had full-blown Internet.
And it doesn't disconnect and it's fast.
Man.
comments
My desktop stopped connecting properly with Trollboy, our WiFi network. Sometimes Trollboy wouldn't connect at all, sometimes he would connect with a S-L-O-W connection (1 mg or less per second), and sometimes he would connect for a while and suddenly cut himself off. The only way I could get online was by using the cell modem function on my phone.
The problem puzzled me. Every other device in the house could connect with Trollboy. Only my computer was affected. This meant Trollboy himself wasn't the problem. Also, my computer could connect with the WiFi on my phone, on Darwin's phone, and a local Xfinity hotspot. This meant my computer COULD connect with the Internet; it just wouldn't do it through Trollboy. So where did the problem lie?
Darwin and I spent hours on Sunday trying to fix the problem. We did all the usual stuff (reset the modem, reboot the computer, check the physical connections). Nothing worked. So we dug into esoteric stuff, checking TCP IP setting, resetting codes in the CMD prompt, and more. The stuff we tried got more and more complicated, and I was digging into parts of my computer system I didn't even know existed. By midnight, we still had nothing, and it was time to call it quits.
This morning, I did the thing every computer user dreads: I called AT&T's tech support.
Here I discovered that if you tell the AI that answers AT&T's support line you're having an Internet connection problem, the AI runs a quick diagnostic and says, "We're finding no problems on your line. Good-bye!" Then it hangs up on you. I finally got through to a human being by just repeating, "I need help" every time the AI asked me what was wrong. The human in question, a very nice young man named Sebastian, listened to the details of my problem, clicked around on his keyboard . . . and told me there was nothing wrong with my WiFi, and have a nice day.
Okay, then.
Darwin said it was probably time to try a factory reset. There was a code or a system that needed a complete reboot, and a factory reset was the only way to find it. I was coming to the reluctant conclusion that he was right. Problem was, we didn't know for sure that a factory reset would solve the problem, but a factory reset would definitely wipe all my programs, and I would spend at least a day reloading all of them before my computer would be usable again, a process I wasn't eager to endure.
And then I remembered something. Back in the Old Days, when WiFi was a new thing, computers didn't come with an onboard WiFi receiver. You had to buy one separately and plug it into your tower. Maybe the problem was with my computer's WiFi receiver. If it were, a new one would probably solve the problem.
I drove down to Best Buy and snagged a plug-and-play adapter/receiver. Back home, I downloaded its driver with my cell phone as modem, plugged the adapter into my computer, and held my breath. The adapter instantly found Trollboy and asked if I wanted to connect to him. I said that I did, thank you very much, and here's the password. POOF! I had full-blown Internet.
And it doesn't disconnect and it's fast.
Man.
comments
September 4, 2021
Philosophy and a Grocery Cart
I was at the store yesterday and arrived at the checkout area. Only one lane was open. Three people were already in line, and their carts were filled. (The lack of cashiers is a direct effect of the stores only offering $11 per hour, but that's a different entry.) I grumbled and groused and waited. Of course, one of the people ahead of me had some kind of trouble with the transaction, and that only made the wait longer. Meanwhile, two more people got in line.
Finally the line moved again. The person ahead of me loaded her stuff onto the belt, and the cashier moved it forward enough so there was space for me to start unloading my own cart. Just as I started doing so, another worker bustled into the cashier station next to us.
"I can help who's next in line," she called out.
The two people who had just now gotten in line behind me quickly shifted over to the other lane.
And I got kinda pissed off. I had waited a friggin' LONG time in line because the greedy-ass store wouldn't offer a decent wage to cashiers, and now that I had gone through this friggin' long line, the person behind me was suddenly able to jump ahead and get checked out. This was grossly unfair, I thought. That person should have to wait a while, or something. Why should they get a jump on the line when I had to wait?
And I also realized that this is the same mentality so many people have about student loan forgiveness. "I worked and slaved and starved in order to pay of MY loans, and now that guy over there, who hasn't even made a payment, might get HIS loan forgiven? That's grossly unfair!"
Except just because something awful happened to you doesn't mean something good shouldn't happen to someone else. The "it's unfair" idea is small-minded and greedy and me-me-ME. I don't agree with it.
But thanks to my experience in the grocery line, I do understand it.
comments
Finally the line moved again. The person ahead of me loaded her stuff onto the belt, and the cashier moved it forward enough so there was space for me to start unloading my own cart. Just as I started doing so, another worker bustled into the cashier station next to us.
"I can help who's next in line," she called out.
The two people who had just now gotten in line behind me quickly shifted over to the other lane.
And I got kinda pissed off. I had waited a friggin' LONG time in line because the greedy-ass store wouldn't offer a decent wage to cashiers, and now that I had gone through this friggin' long line, the person behind me was suddenly able to jump ahead and get checked out. This was grossly unfair, I thought. That person should have to wait a while, or something. Why should they get a jump on the line when I had to wait?
And I also realized that this is the same mentality so many people have about student loan forgiveness. "I worked and slaved and starved in order to pay of MY loans, and now that guy over there, who hasn't even made a payment, might get HIS loan forgiven? That's grossly unfair!"
Except just because something awful happened to you doesn't mean something good shouldn't happen to someone else. The "it's unfair" idea is small-minded and greedy and me-me-ME. I don't agree with it.
But thanks to my experience in the grocery line, I do understand it.
comments
August 30, 2021
So Many Kittens Underneath the Shed, Update 2
The last kitten was proving crafty. Every time I went down to check, the two traps were open and the gray kitten was nowhere in sight.
Finally, I went down and, from a distance, saw the gray kitten perched on top of the carrier with its mother and litter-mates. It was showing no interest in entering the trap. Could I maybe catch it?
The problem here was that we were under a time limit. Jen, the cat rescue volunteer, had a function this evening, and we had to get the cats corralled before that. Otherwise, the cats would have to stay in the trap overnight, which would cause all kinds of problems. We couldn't leave the occupied trap out at night. Other animals would certainly find the kittens interesting. We couldn't bring the carrier with assorted cats into our condo. So we had to get this sorted quickly, within the hour, in fact.
I slipped closer. The breeze was with me, blowing my scent away from the cats. The kitten hopped down from the trap and wandered back toward the shed, around the corner from me, which meant it couldn't see me. I sneaked up and peered around the corner. The kitten was sitting just in front of the gap beneath the shed where the cats had been living. No way I could move fast enough to grab it.
The mother cat caught sight of me from the trap, and she growled. The gray kitten, hearing her warning, backed up, but didn't quite go under the shed. It didn't want to be alone. It still didn't notice me. I waited, and waited, and waited some more.
Eventually, the kitten wandered back toward the traps. I held my breath. It tottered toward the middle trap, the one with its family, and I again wondered if I could move fast enough to snatch it up. Problem was, a mistake or miscalculation would let it escape and also freak it out so much, it probably wouldn't emerge from the shed for several hours. I tensed, ready to move, hoping I could pull it off.
The kitten abruptly turned and sauntered into one of the open traps. It stood halfway in, halfway out, nibbling on some of the food in the entryway. I was going to move on it, then changed my mind and waited a little more. The kitten took one step, and then another, and it was fully inside the trap, though it hadn't gotten to the trigger mechanism. I jumped out of hiding and smacked the trap's door. It fell shut with a clank.
The kitten totally freaked out. It hissed and spat and attacked the door, but the door wouldn't move. The other kittens turned into a squirming, spitting mass in sympathy.
I set the kitten's trap against the other occupied trap, lifted both doors, and managed to shoo the gay kitten in with its family. All the kittens were captured!
I called Jen, who was thrilled to get the news. She said she would come right over.
Meanwhile, one of our neighbors came down to talk to us. She was a very nice lady with a thick accent, and her name was Hoshi. She told us she'd been watching the cats and was hoping someone would help them. We were talking with her when Jen showed up.
Darwin and I helped load the traps into Jen's truck. Hoshi was concerned that the rescue group would put the cats down, and Jen assured her they didn't ever do that. Darwin and I made a sizeable donation by check to Feral Kitty Trappers, and when Hoshi saw that, she said, "Wait! I want to give money, too!" She dashed back to her unit and came back with some bills for Jen, who was happy to have both.
The kittens and the mother will spend the night at Jen's in a room in her house, and tomorrow they'll go to a foster caregiver. So we have a happy ending for all.
comments
Finally, I went down and, from a distance, saw the gray kitten perched on top of the carrier with its mother and litter-mates. It was showing no interest in entering the trap. Could I maybe catch it?
The problem here was that we were under a time limit. Jen, the cat rescue volunteer, had a function this evening, and we had to get the cats corralled before that. Otherwise, the cats would have to stay in the trap overnight, which would cause all kinds of problems. We couldn't leave the occupied trap out at night. Other animals would certainly find the kittens interesting. We couldn't bring the carrier with assorted cats into our condo. So we had to get this sorted quickly, within the hour, in fact.
I slipped closer. The breeze was with me, blowing my scent away from the cats. The kitten hopped down from the trap and wandered back toward the shed, around the corner from me, which meant it couldn't see me. I sneaked up and peered around the corner. The kitten was sitting just in front of the gap beneath the shed where the cats had been living. No way I could move fast enough to grab it.
The mother cat caught sight of me from the trap, and she growled. The gray kitten, hearing her warning, backed up, but didn't quite go under the shed. It didn't want to be alone. It still didn't notice me. I waited, and waited, and waited some more.
Eventually, the kitten wandered back toward the traps. I held my breath. It tottered toward the middle trap, the one with its family, and I again wondered if I could move fast enough to snatch it up. Problem was, a mistake or miscalculation would let it escape and also freak it out so much, it probably wouldn't emerge from the shed for several hours. I tensed, ready to move, hoping I could pull it off.
The kitten abruptly turned and sauntered into one of the open traps. It stood halfway in, halfway out, nibbling on some of the food in the entryway. I was going to move on it, then changed my mind and waited a little more. The kitten took one step, and then another, and it was fully inside the trap, though it hadn't gotten to the trigger mechanism. I jumped out of hiding and smacked the trap's door. It fell shut with a clank.
The kitten totally freaked out. It hissed and spat and attacked the door, but the door wouldn't move. The other kittens turned into a squirming, spitting mass in sympathy.
I set the kitten's trap against the other occupied trap, lifted both doors, and managed to shoo the gay kitten in with its family. All the kittens were captured!
I called Jen, who was thrilled to get the news. She said she would come right over.
Meanwhile, one of our neighbors came down to talk to us. She was a very nice lady with a thick accent, and her name was Hoshi. She told us she'd been watching the cats and was hoping someone would help them. We were talking with her when Jen showed up.
Darwin and I helped load the traps into Jen's truck. Hoshi was concerned that the rescue group would put the cats down, and Jen assured her they didn't ever do that. Darwin and I made a sizeable donation by check to Feral Kitty Trappers, and when Hoshi saw that, she said, "Wait! I want to give money, too!" She dashed back to her unit and came back with some bills for Jen, who was happy to have both.
The kittens and the mother will spend the night at Jen's in a room in her house, and tomorrow they'll go to a foster caregiver. So we have a happy ending for all.
comments
