February 14, 2014

On the front page of the News subreddit was an article about the Kansas House passing a bill allowing people and businesses to refuse service to same-sex couples. It still needs to pass the Kansas Senate but still, how completely insane is it that a political body in the United States, in 2014, can pass a bill that legalizes discrimination? So much progress has been made in recent years in terms of legalizing gay marriage and giving equal rights to same-sex couples, and here we are in Kansas, not allowing any of that stuff, and then wanting to legalize discrimination on top of that. This is such a frustrating topic and it shouldn't even be a thing. Who someone likes has very little impact on anyone else outside of that relationship. You might have to see it and it might make you uncomfortable, but so what. Grow up and move on with your life. Using religion to justify discrimination is a tale as old as time and it is crazy to me that it is still happening. And that it is considered completely acceptable. White people were uncomfortable with the existence of Native Americans in the United States, so we killed most of them off. White people were uncomfortable with the existence of black people in the United States, so we tried out segregation and discrimination and other horrible things against them. In the present day a fair number, but not enough when you think about it, agree that the destruction of the Native American's culture and way of life, and the discrimination against black people, were wrong and can't imagine that people could treat other people in that way. But then they turn around and say same-sex couples are an abomination and want to legislate the crap out of them to protect their own way of life. And it's the same goddamn thing we were doing to the Native Americans and black people. It was us and them. And now it is still us and them. Forgetting that we are all fucking people and there is no normal. Normal is more often than not based on whatever the majority is. If there are more white people than they are obviously superior and their wants and needs and ideas about life are more important than anyone else. If there are more straight people than gay people, then straight is obviously normal, especially if a fanciful book based on accounts of tales written down hundreds of years after they occurred tells us its normal. Discriminating against gay people is obviously one of those things that future generations will look back on and wonder how it could of happened, and why it went on for so long. I don't get how people can't put it all into context and see how incredibly dumb and hurtful they are being. Over the years I think I have ranted about this several times and it frustrates the hell out of me every time. It just doesn't make any sense. There are plenty of other, legitimate things the country should be worried about. A person's sexual orientation isn't even a thing. Well, it's a big thing to them because so much of a person's life is taken up with thoughts of relationships, but that is fucking life. It is of no consequence to anyone else who is in a relationship with who as long as those who's are happy. Good grief. I just don't get all the fuss.

Today I watched movies and played a little BF4. The movie watching started with Camp Takota because it was released today and I bought it a week or so ago. It has Grace Helbig (the main reason for my purchase), Mamrie Hart (who also wrote the movie), and Hannah Hart. They are all YouTube people and I believe this was their first movie. And it was good. I was particularly surprised by that but I was a little bit. It was definitely an indie movie but the only time that was really noticeable was during the night scene when it was pretty much pitch black and you couldn't see either actor. I think a lot of times night scenes are filmed during the day or with lights on, and then a filter is used to make it look like night but not pitch black. Not the case here. My favorite part of the movie was a call back. Earlier in the movie the three girls had a drunk night in a cabin and Grace woke up and discovered she had peed her pants. Later on in the movie they again have a drunk night and in the morning Grace and Mamrie are woken up by Hannah who wants to show them something. Right before they follow her out Grace quickly looks down to make sure she hadn't peed herself again. It was such a subtle thing but I thought it was hilarious. After the movie I watched the documentary for the making of the movie. It was basically like a really long YouTube video but it was interesting.

Then I watched Megamind. I had only seen bits and pieces when we had it in the theater but always wanted to see the whole thing. I don't know that it was worth a four year wait but it was still good. I'm a fan of Will Ferrell so it is hard for him to do wrong in my eyes. In the movie he pronounces certain words wrong and he does that a lot in The LEGO Movie. Just an interesting connection there. I've been on a cartoon kick lately and there are still at least a few that I want to watch so I might continue down that road this weekend.

After lunch I went and picked up the flowers I got my mom and sister. There was a bit of confusion at first because on their tables they only had one of the arrangements I ordered but when the lady I ordered from came out from the back they ended up finding it in the display case. It had accidentally been put out for sale but luckily no one bought it before I got there.

I remembered from last year that trying to drive with two vases of flowers is kind of a bitch. I put a blanket on my passenger seat with the idea of wrapping it around one of the vases to keep it upright, but other than that I really didn't have a better plan. Really I needed some sort of box or preferably, another person. Instead, I wrapped the one in the blanket, held the other next to me in the cupholder, and drove incredibly slow, occasionally switching off which one I held and making adjustments as needed. I somehow managed to make it over to my sister's house without spilling any water. My sister ended up not being home so I left it on her counter. I texted her to see if she was home and she got back to me awhile later saying that she was back. And then awhile after that she made it into the kitchen and saw the flowers and sent a thank you. I think it was the year before last that I had to leave them in the house when she wasn't there and it took her a bit to notice them then as well.

My mom also liked her flowers. I always just ask for simple arrangements, not really Valentine's themed, just whatever is fresh. My mom also got flowers from the guy she has been dating and thankfully they were bigger and more extravagant than the ones I got. So he looks good. My mom got me fruit snacks (because I'm still not eating candy and I pretend that fruit snacks aren't really candy) and a David Sedaris book. For years now I have wanted to read one of his books because I enjoy his stories on This American Life and his interviews on The Daily Show, but for some reason I never got around to buying a book. And now I have one. My sister made me a big thing of hummus and a whole bunch of pitas. She said she couldn't find regular paprika to put on the top of the hummus and had to use smoked paprika instead. I have never really thought much of paprika outside of using it to add a little color to things. It apparently has a flavor though, at least the smoked stuff does. My first interaction with it when I had some of the hummus for dinner, brought to mind summer sausage. It was very strange. Not bad, but strange. I'll have to see tomorrow if it was just a weird fluke or if my mind wasn't playing tricks on me.

Tonight at work I continued work on my blanket, watched a bit of RoboCop, and read books. I started reading Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris and continued reading The Learners by Chip Kidd, which is the sequel to The Cheese Monkeys. One of the significant characters from that book made a brief appearance tonight and then (spoilers) was killed off. That annoyed me a great deal. I'm sick of depressing stuff and I thought I was safe in my current readings but I guess not. Why even bring the character back if they were going to be immediately killed off? I guess it is better than having them around for a greater length of time, building more of a connection, and then killing them, but it still sucks. At least in the several pages afterward it seems like the story is going to involve the loss of this character, so there is a point to the death, maybe, but I would have preferred a different angle. I'm a fan of putting people into long comas that they can wake up from at the end of the book for a happily ever after ending. Not so in this case. 

 I'm going to continue reading the book and see how things turn out. So far it's not as good as the first book. It's not bad necessarily, just not as funny yet. Definitely not with the death. I'm not quite halfway through so it still has a chance to turn it around. The book takes place in 1960 (or sometime in the 60s) and the protagonist works for an ad agency and just designed a newspaper ad for Dr. Milgram, for an experiment at Yale. I can only assume this is his famous experiment on obedience where he made participants believe they were shocking people in the next room. There was mention of the experiment coming back later in the story so I am interested to see if it becomes part of the plot or is just mentioned in passing.