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2004 Journal [backwards chronologically!] December 31, 2004 Well, out with the old and in with the new! Coming soon, look for a new web presence for ken, at www.kenthompson.info. Nothing there yet, so don't even check. But soon. Very soon. When I find the time. Stuff under consideration:
Now Up: November PhLog (photo log) and December's as well. Got a little behind... And for the adventurous: hairy tummy webcam follies!
October 30, 2004:
And so Project 3940 ends... my year long attempt to take a photo every day between my 39th and 40th birthdays and post it to this site. I learned some things.... one, my life is much more interesting than I thought... and I do a lot more than I remember typically. There are also some times and places its hard to take a picture... at work, for example, where I spend A LOT of my time, and is actually pretty interesting, but it just wouldn't be appropriate to be snapping pics. Some concerts were also a bit tricky (no cameras!). Mostly, though, I can't believe how many people I know and how many things I do. I also think that in a strange way, needing to take at least one interesting picture every week made me go out and do things that I might not have done. What's next? I'll keep taking pictures, but I doubt I'll post as many or as frequently. Maybe a movie a week? October 23, 2004: Hello Election Junkies: if you are
looking for resources on whom to vote for, I would recommend these for
finding out which WA state candidates are queer-friendly:
Judicial Races: Darvas in King County; Sebring and Becker for State Supreme Court. Unfortunately, it's once again clear in the Gov, Lt. Gov., Atty Genl, US Senate and US House races that only the Democratic candidates support gay issues. Wish some R's did, but they don't in those races. If you happen to live in a swing state, please don't vote for Ralph (see www.electoral-vote.com for a very neutral but real look at the impact Nader will be having at tipping this election). I love Ralph, but he's not worth 4 more years of Bush. Buy hey, if your state is locked up undeniably for George or John, by all means, vote for Ralph. We need a real multi-party system... September 6, 2004: We are nearing the Wash. State primary elections. A bunch of races will probably be decided in the primary, including some judgeships. Whatever you do, don't vote for Richard Sanders for the State Supreme Court. Here are a couple of candidate ratings sites that might be useful:
August 7, 2004: It's been a prety amazing summer. The weekends are beautiful, spent playing volleyball, seeing movies, eating out, laying in the park, trying to learn to sing, and of course, typing. And more and more thinking about the coming election, and the coming year in Washington State, where we are sure to see an attempt to amend the state's constitution to forbid same-sex marriages. The first steps in the marriage case have cleared the first court - the King County Superior Court, with the judge writing a beautiful opinion in favor of the litigants (some of whom are my friends). Luckily, our state constitution can not be amended by simple vote of the citizens, unlike in Oregon, where it looks like a disaster is in the making. Here we have a chance to hold opposing forces at bay in the state legislature. It might or might not work. In other states, religious conservatives have already dumped millions into writing discrimination into constitutional law. So next year is going to be one long fight, assuming that the courts find in our favor - which actually looks likely.
July 14, 2004: Back from Hawaii. The PhLog says it all, I think. May 23, 2004:
May 16, 2004 Tomorrow is May 17. I wonder if the world will end? I wonder if thousands of people, already or soon to be married, will be unmarried by the will of their fellow citizens, at a later date. Where will you be/where were you on May 17th? [I will be in Yakima, Quincy, Brewster, and Spokane, working.] May 2, 2004 Yesterday was a pretty amazing day. Spent almost all of it at the Democratic Legislative District Caucuses, which went about 4 hours over schedule, and didn't really get to even half of the platform. At the same time, missed the counter protest agains the religious groups that held a "Mayday for Marriage" anti-marriage equality rally in Safeco Field - where somewhere near 20,000 joined together to pledge to defeat gay civil marriage rights. I keep trying to come up with reasons why the majority of heterosexuals should not feel that gay civil marriage would be a fair thing to allow. The more I think about it, the more dumbfounded I am that I even have to come up with these reasons, but here it goes: 1. All my arguments rest on the notion that there really isn't anything wrong with being gay. The Am. Psych. Assoc. determined that we aren't sick long ago. It's how I was born. Most people agree that there is nothing "wrong" with being gay. We are normal adult, non-criminal citizens, and should be afforded the rights of other Americans. 2. Gay Americans have all the other RESPONSIBILITIES that other Americans have (jury duty, pay taxes, we can be drafted to the military, etc., etc.), yet we don't seem to get all the rights that others do. Every other adult in this country can marry the one person they love, why can't I? If that's not discrimination, I'm not sure what is. 3. Me marrying the person I love harms no one. My civil marriage would have nothing to do with any of you. For those of you who might argue that marriage equality would 'harm the nation,' I must ask who put you in charge of the national morality? There is a long tradition in this country of keeping out of your neighbor's business. 4. I completely agree that no church should have to marry a couple that they wouldn't want to. No one is asking for this. In fact, what we want is for the separation between church (religious marriage) and state (civil/legal marriage) to be crystal clear. Civil marriage confers 1100 federal benefits and 380 state benefits. So this is not an unimportant issue. April 24, 2004 The PhLog is now 6 months old! Long live the PhLog! Actually, mid-week phlogging is experiencing a downturn. Please invite me out interesting places during the week so that my photos don't get as boring as this week - when I was forced to take photos of the rain. April 10, 2004 Follow up to March 1st post: the OSC has decided that gay and lesbian federal employees are actually still worthy of the protections they enjoyed for the past 30 years under federal law. Chalk one up for sanity, everyone who complained, and no doubt - election year politics. In other news: Bush has raised about $100 million more than Kerry at this point - so much so that he'll stop fundraising and start campaigning (and using his money). If there was any doubt in your mind that now isn't the time to give to the Kerry campaign, get over it. Also, liberals: please get over your/our uncomfortableness with giving to political campaigns. Republicans have no such qualms.
March 12, 2004
March
1, 2004 It's
just so...blatant! I can't believe that they think they'll get away
with this. But then again, it didn't really make the press, did it?
[Pissed off too? Write
your Senators.] February 14, 2004: The Phlog is kind of slowing down, production-wise. Interesting that carrying the camera around is getting kid of tedious and I'm finding myself stretching to come up with interesting, or even uninteresting photos. Part of this is that the interesting parts of my work don't lend themselves to being photographed and then posted in a public forum. And taking my camera to public performances, especially formal ones, is not really a place where people tend to take photos. Either I have to stop caring about that, or find new subjects for my photos....
January 19, 2004: Back from Patagonia. Check out my photos, which are of course only the tip of the photo iceberg (haha, Patagonian pun intended!). What struck me the most? How white people have managed to occupy every temperate area on the globe, north or south. And the subtle but interesting differences between 100% market-driven Chile and somewhat old-world socialist Argentina. More on that later. Don't forget to look at the panoramas... they really capture some of the feeling of the giant open spaces.
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Well.
An interesting week. We marched to the county courthouse this week
to demand the right to marry.
Most everyone I've spoken with has been surprised that this is going
to
be the issue
that
makes
America
deal
with the gay rights issue...it didn't even seem to be on the horizon
until recently. Many gays and lesbians feel pretty equivocal about
that hetero institution - but it's actually as good a place to make
our stand as any. What sort of person is going to take a stand against
love and committment? Apparently, lots of folks. It never ceases to
disappoint me how many bigots thrive in this country. And how many
decent citizens never stand up against them.