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On that Prop 8 thing ... the thing is, the realistic expectation was that they'd uphold the proposition but also uphold the existing marriages. That wasn't any big surprise. What was somewhat surprising was the amount of effort their decision put into squeezing the effects of Prop 8 into as small and restricted a space as possible. Having read through the text of the decision (well, ok, I skimmed large sections of it, but I did go through the entire 136 pages), it seems to me that this is a court that would have loved to have tossed P8 out entirely but they simply couldn't make that work. Instead, they came up with the most restrictive possible interpretation to uphold and then more or less laid out the agenda for how marriage equality supporters should proceed. I.e., force the legislature to actually provide an option identical in substance to "marriage" (but called ... Fred ... or George ... or something) and litigate the heck out of any actual functional differences. Find some same-sex couples married in other states (both before and after passage of P8) who have become residents of California and demand a clear explanation of whether California is going to recognize them as married-by-that-word and whether California is going to treat two couples differently, both with identical marital status in their state of origin, based on when their marriages occurred in relation to P8.

And in the meantime, maybe Obama will grow a backbone and do something about DOMA and DADT.

I'm way behind the wave with my inauguration day blogging, but what the heck. I watched the ceremony on the tvs in the company cafeteria -- the place was packed (and a number or regular morning meetings were cancelled so people could watch). Definitely a good "community" experience and lots of cheering. Random loves: when the quartet was playing, I loved watching how much Yoyo Ma was enjoying himself. Loved Aretha's hat. Loved watching those powerful California women during the march of the politicos (even if I don't always agree with their political stands). Loved Obama's speech. Loved that we once again have a president who knows how to use language not simply as a tool in the hands of a master craftsman but as a brush in the hand of an artist. Love getting reacquainted with that thing called hope.

For those who like taking all those amusing little quiz memes, try this quiz on U.S. civics issues that I ran across via Daily Kos. I'm rather proud to have gotten 32 out of 33 questions right (and the one I missed was because I accidentally second-guessed myself ... but on the other hand, some of the ones I got right were because I'm good at analyzing multiple choice questions). You won't get clever results to post in your journal, but you can find out how you stack up against the average respondent in their original survey.

Today it's finally been cold enough that I've thought about lighting the pilot in the furnace and adjusting the thermostat. I'll probably leave it for another week or so. I think my general pattern is to turn it on during the week before Thanksgiving (so that the cat doesn't freeze if we get a real cold snap while I'm off at Darkovercon).

Yesterday was the Principality of the Mists Bardic competition, which is always a treat for the various senses. Auditors outnumbered competitors 2:1 in the competition for the next principality bard (although, as klwilliams noted, "auditor" is an inapt name for a performer, despite the clear motivation for the use of the word for "participant not for official credit"). It's nice having the option of auditing (I'm even thinking of putting together an auditor-set next year) since it fills out the amount of available performance nicely and gives people a chance to "practice" for the competition. But it is a bit odd to have 4 auditors and only 2 actual competitors.

The dinner at the event was delicious and nicely paced, although I'm still quite curious to know more details about the dishes that were served. The menu was advertised as Russian and, although it isn't an area I've done any specific research in, my impression is that our knowledge of period Russian cooking is sketchy and largely extrapolative. I've gotten spoiled by having my SCA feast menus come with footnotes and references!

My body has finally gotten used to the new morning schedule (although the end of daylight savings time helped immensely) and I'm no longer quite as groggy going out the door. Or quite as tempted to stay up evenings at my old schedule. It's a different experience at the new gym -- lots more people, of course, and while I'm on the elliptical I get a birds-eye view of folks on the climbing walls. To the extent that I can see anything with my glasses off. It drives me too crazy to have my glasses bouncing around on my nose on the machine, which is unfortunate because otherwise it would be a great time to get some reading in. Instead I keep searching for new and interesting podcasts. I could wish that there were a better business model for "renting" audio books in a portable form. As a general practice, I'm not interested in buying audio books that I'm only going to listen to once. I've done a little research on the topic, and you can find web sites that will "rent" you a listen, but only while directly streaming it from the site. So I'd have to have an audio device with a wifi connection. Maybe someone will come up with the equivalent of iTunes movie rentals, although I'm aware that there are some significant logistical issues with that model.

I'm still ruminating on political topics. I'd love to have some in-depth philosophical discussions about racial issues around Obama's presidency but I haven't yet found a "safe" forum where I, as a white person, wouldn't feel like a bull in a china shop talking about it. And I'm trying to "move on" with regard to Prop 8 but I have to say I'm getting sick and tired of hearing apologists wring their hands over how the No on 8 side wasn't sufficiently energetic in begging people to please please give us our rights. No minority ever got equal rights by waiting for the majority to hand them over. Our best bet has always been to convince the courts to rule as justice demands and let the bigots catch up in their own time. But enough.

Whatever the calendar may say, today was the first day of Fall for me. We had one of those Arctic October winds blowing through, doing its usual thing of whipping up enough dust and whatnot to give me a splitting sinus headache. And to round off my "weather and earthquakes" topic tag, we had a cute little 3.1 movement right at the end of the workday -- just barely enough to make the disco ball in the office sway a little. (Don't ask.)

It looks like I've successfully shifted my gym routine to mornings. It took me a couple of days to get completely with the program, but the issues were things like "must remember to pack comb" and "figure out misleading settings on elliptical equipment" rather than having problems dragging myself out of bed at 6am. The circadian rhythm is still working on getting caught up, but the key thing is making sure I get to bed earlier.

Got my absentee ballot in the mail yesterday. I only have a few of the local races to do some research on before filling it out. Then I can try to ignore all the politicking for a while, except as bad theater. Gah! I hate what US politics have turned into.

Well, my California Primary Election absentee ballot has arrived. ( And I'm going to put this behind a cut because it gets pretty ranty and I want readers to know what they're getting into. )

It takes a bit for a morning to recover from being woken up at 5am by explosions and flashes of light several blocks over. But you just might think that when you call 911 to report said explosions and flashes of light, the dispatcher might have the courtesy (and knowledge) to say, "Don't worry, it's police action -- we already know about it" rather than saying, "We'll send a car out to look into it." Because in the latter case, one tends to lie awake for the next hour wondering what's going on and why there aren't any sirens and so forth. And then when one finally gets back to sleep, one tends to oversleep and have strange dreams about kittens jumping out of their skins (literally). For full details, plug the phrase "Your Black Muslim Bakery" into your favorite on-line news search engine and keep in mind that they're located two blocks from my house.