Ugh... snow.

Okay. I know that people in New England and Upstate New York have it waaaaay worse than we here in South Jersey, but I am over the snow and cold weather, and I've hated it since I was a child.
I was supposed to go hear a friend playing in the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey today. The program was to highlight with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and would have meant an hour or so of my enjoying the music and whatever childhood memories the piece would have evoked. PLUS I would have had a couple hours of time with my friend afterward at dinner. It was to be a very pleasant afternoon. But, thanks to the snow, the concerts been postponed until next Sunday, and I won't be able to attend.
Well, at least I will make up the time with my friend tomorrow.
Instead of that, I am spending the afternoon copying CDs - mostly classical at the moment - into iTunes on my laptop. Later I will spend a few hours reading while I play whatever music I settle on.
On Tuesday, I have a rehearsal in Pitman for a High School production of The Wizard of Oz. Next Saturday is the first rehearsal with the orchestra for said production. I took the week off from work and there will be rehearsals and performances that entire week.

Well, I did see some of the Lauda! crew at an art show featuring one of my friends' work, and of course at the reception after. It was a blast. I recently spent a week out west visiting my cousin, his husband, and some friends. While I was out there, I saw the Colorado Rockies losing to the San Francisco [Giants?]
After returning home, I continued with cardiac rehab. As of next week, I will be on a 3 day per week schedule, and I will be staying at my brother's house. I will also be looking into returning to work when the rehab ends.

Laze

Today, I woke up after 11 a.m.

Actually, I woke up many times throughout the night (as I do every night) with nary a 2 hour stretch of sleep. The reason for this is that  am taking lasix, and this causes me to pee almost constantly and it also makes me very thirsty. So, when I woke up at 7:30 a.m., and did not feel like getting up, I used the toilet and went back to sleep. It was practically the first 3 hour (+) sleep I'd had since Thanksgiving.

I had to make a phone call, and I went downstairs for breakfast, but I've been catching up on my facebook notifications since. Now it's 2:30, and I have to make another phone call, and I need to take a shower and get dressed. If I were in my own home, I would love this, but being in my sister's house makes it a pain in the ass - mainly because she'll get home and I'll have to hear about it from her.

6 months

Anyone who knows me probably knows that I spent more than 2 months in a Florida hospital - from mid October until two days before New Year's. Actually, the last six days were spent in a nursing home/rehab. All I can say about that is that I would rather be dead than have to spend any more time in a nursing home.

What happened is this: In October, my sister-in-law died. She had been sick with ovarian cancer. I and the rest of my siblings all flew down to Florida for the funeral - that was the 16th of October. The viewing was to be the 17th with the mass on the following morning, and they were, except not for me. I spent all of those two days asleep with some kind of fever on my brother's floor. On the 18th, my brother and sister talked me into going into the hospital. I didn't really want to, because I thought I could sweat it out and because I did not want to get stuck in Florida.

My sister, her husband  and their son drove me in to the emergency room (Physician's Regional, Naples, FL.). I remember hearing that I was definitely septic with a pneumococcal infection. I vaguely remember the intake nurse asking about my drug use. My nephew was not surprised to hear me tell the nurse that I'd done everything - except heroin. Of course, I should add that that was more than twenty years ago. I haven't engaged in recreational chemistry since 1989. In any case, that is the last thing I remember until I woke up a day or two before Thanksgiving in the ICU at Shands/U. of Florida hospital.

From what I understand, they removed my spleen at Physician's Regional, but when they found that I needed more serious surgery on my heart, they choppered me up to Shands, where they replaced my aortic valve (the one I had put in last year was damaged by the infection,) repaired the heart wall, and [scraped?] out my lungs.

I have some vague memories of various visits - Mr. O'Connor (my sister-in-law's father,) two of my brother's, and one of my sister's - but I have been told there were many more. What I do (sort of) recall are the various drug-induced dreams I had while I was under sedation. I will spend some time sorting them out and recording them in blogger.

Now I am staying at my sister's house in Pennsylvania until I regain my strength and find a place to live back in South Jersey. Let's hope for a better 2012, shall we?

This being 2010...

of course my butt is sore. I think that I've been sitting too long, and it does aggravate the old bed sore. I have been meaning to write something here all year, but circumstances made that difficult. If I feel up to it later, I will try to write everything up.
Just for the record, circumstances include emergency heart surgery due to an aortic dissection, the sale of my home and a car accident, due to which I have a broken wrist and opposite shoulder.
It has been an interesting year so far.

Religion or no?

I really want to know... what is the problem? Why is there so much animosity between those who believe this, that or the other thing, and those who do not?
Yes, I am an atheist, and yes I would very much like it if those around me stopped believing on those gods and churches they do? I say "gods" because, in the case of catholic christianity for example, I do choose to see god, Jesus and the holy spirit as three separate entities. For the record, I capitalize the name Jesus because I see that as a name. "God" and "holy spirit" are in my mind titles, and not necessarily proper nouns.
Anyway - why do I care what religious people believe? Why does it bother me that my family had to wait for me to sit down in order to carry on with their prayer at thanksgiving dinner? Yes, it bothers me a great deal when people tell me that I should say, "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." I personally find this attitude to be offensive.
While I am talking about christians here, I would like you to understand that my remarks are also about persons and groups belonging to most other faiths as well. It is merely that christians seem to be the most vocal group in the United States, and in the media. I generally hear very little of Jewish opinion and Muslim opinion on these matters. While I know that Jews and Muslims do have an opinion on these matters, I cannot really speak to persons whose attitudes I am not familiar with.
There is a great campaign in the political right that is based on the belief that there is a war on christmas. The very idea seems insane to me. I agree with every secular humanist and every atheist who wants to see religious displays removed from government sites, including state houses, courtrooms, federal office buildings and schools. I believe that there is a very bug difference between wanting the government to cease honoring any god at all, and asking individuals to cater their own expressions of faith, or their own manner of worship, praise and celebration. No one that I know of wants to stop anyone from praying, or even congregating for religious purposes. No atheist that I know of cares if you want to praise Jesus, light candles in honor of Hanukkah, or if you want to prostrate yourself while facing Mecca at a certain time of the day.
I certainly don't care about these things. I never have. Nevertheless, I do care when the government sponsors or hosts this type of activity. This seems like preferential behavior, and whether the religious recognize this or not, I think allowing these behaviors in what are not private or religious settings is a form of pressure, especially in schools. Children are impressionable, and I don't know that anyone will deny that. To allow religious activities to become routine in a classroom is a form of social pressure. I think this is true for many people when it happens in the classroom.
There is a movement in some places to have non-religious displays placed next to religious displays in government locations during religious times. I do not think this is really wise, either. I think that the religious displays should be removed, but I also think that having atheist displays placed there for the holidays next to the religious ones is a shallow compromise.
But this is just my opinion.
On the other side of the question, I can't really comment much, but I can state what it seems to me that others are thinking and feeling.
It seems to me that some christians are offended by atheist placards in the state house, and by signs and billboards saying that some people do not believe in god. They [the christians] seem to think that simply saying, "If you do not believe in god, you are not alone" is an affront to them and an attack on them. They [the christians] seem to think that implying that people can be good without believing is god is an affront and an attack. I do not understand this attitude.
It seems to me that christians want to keep a power in this country that they sort of had in the past, but didn't really. It is largely religious groups who have led the charge against stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, the Arts, women's productive rights, gay rights at every stage, climate-change related regulation, and a plethora of other issues. Of course I recognize that it is not all religious persons who do this, and indeed not even all christians. Many religious people of all stripes are on both sides of every issue, regardless of how vocal they might be.
That being said, I really just want to find out why. In several churches that I have had the pleasure and honor of being involved with, there is a clearly stated movement to encourage others to say Merry Christmas rather than, "Have a nice holiday!" I hear this from many people every year.
In my mind, this is nothing more than an attempt to force other people to support your own religious views. Atheists don't do this. They will argue with facts, and data, and experiments, and logic to support their opinions, but they do not try to stop anyone from disagreeing. We may try to get people to defend their beliefs with facts and evidence, but that is in part because people are trying to get us to belief in what seems like nonsense without any evidence.
And by evidence we do not mean revelation (people have used that with me personally, so don't pretend it doesn't happen,) nor do we mean testimony. We mean evidence - repeatable and verifiable.

Next Blog, my ass !

So, I read in the blogging mews section of the website you are now looking at that the "Next Blog" button, when licked on (if you are not signed on as a member, perhaps you don't see it) is designed to take me to other blogs that demonstrate similar interests and topics to those I write about. This seems like a fairly nice little feature. However, as in so many things, the practice is so far from the theory as to be worthless and laughable.
Think about it, blogger.com, I am a gay atheist, whose primary interests are really music, literature and atheistic writings. So, please explain to me how somebody, or some piece of computer software, thinks that I would be interested in blog after blog featuring little more than baby pictures and diaper advertisements. Id this simply some really bizarre glitch in a program, or is it a rather nasty and UN-subtle homophobic joke?
In any case, I am not amused. It isn't that I hate babies. I don't. To cite a rather droll joke commonly repeated among many of my real peers, "I love babies, usually with Hollandaise Sauce."
But seriously, don't you think this could just possibly be taken as an insult? To whom do I complain?

Traffic problems predicted...

My hometown is predicting a traffic jam, and it is therefore deemed wise to avoid a certin intersection at a certain time. The web post that warns us of this potential problem does not mention the particular reason that they are expecting this traffic problem. Our town is to be bleesed with a visit from our friends at the one and only Westboro Baptist Church.
My first reaction upon hearing of this pending visit was to check to make sure my camera batteries were all charged. My natural inclination is to go there and start some trouble. But no, it is not to be. For one thing, I do not see how any trouble I could cause would do any good for anyone. Besides that, I am sure that the asshats at the WBC would like nothing more. They are, after all, simply a collection of attention seeking wing-nuts, so any response they get will only validate their own desires for notoriety and feed into their neuroses. So upon further consideration, I have decided to sleep in that day (which I would probably be doing anyway.)
Then, of course, I saw this. While I can ill afford to give money to anyone, I will do it just the same. A dollar for every minute the WBC spends in front of Cherry Hill HS East. The actual protest is scheduled to last for 45 minutes, but I do not know how long it takes for them to set up, and remove themselves. I do know that they are expected to appear elsewhere in town very shortly after the East appearance, so if they are as prompt as they are f**ked in the head, I will probably not have to spend much more than 45 dollars. I will gladly do it, though. I think these people are well deserving.
I would like to see this sort of response continue. If the Matthew Shepard Foundation then sends a thank you note to the WBC for their efforts in fund-raising for the MSF, I'd really get a good laugh out of it.
And isn't that, after all, the point?

Please, America...

...listen to this story. THINK. Do you really want Bishops, or any other religious figure, dictating public policy?

Perhaps you simply don't care enough that churches are leading and financing the fight to keep gay marriage illegal. Perhaps you believe that abortion is immoral, and that it is therefore only right that every effort be made to make it illegal as well. Perhaps you are not in favor of stem cell research that will very likely save the lives of many of your descendants. Perhaps you do not think it is important that there are religious people who do not want your children to think critically - that it is much more important for them to blindly believe in nonsense like "Intelligent Design."

But don't you realize that this is not where the religious will stop.

How will you feel when the authorities decide that YOU are immoral. Marriage is a divine mandate, and divorce is unacceptable. Women should submit to their husbands. These are also beliefs that many religious people still hold. Do not, for a minute think that your own rights cannot be abrogated. Where, in the constitution does it say that women were created equal? It certainly does not say so in the bible. Divorce? An aberration

Birth control? You know the church does not approve of that, either. Can you seriously believe that life was simpler, or better fifty years ago?

Did you know that women had equal rights in Southern France prior to the 11th century, but that the crusades obliterated almost an entire population there, only to enforce the church's and the Northern French King's power there? Did you know that they had a thriving culture of equality and peaceful co-existence with their arab neighbors in Spain and Africa? A peaceful, thriving, enlightened society in the "dark ages." It was the church, and the government that destroyed that.

Did you know that all of the philosophical, artistic and scientific discoveries of the ancient world were almost erased, and would have been had the arabs not controlled a large part of the ancient world?

This is called history, and it is a history that our founding fathers wanted to avoid. You can pretend that the political right is just that, right, but you are treading a very dangerous path, and it can and will turn on you to bite your ass.

Don't listen to me. I am nobody. I know that I am not nearly good enough a writer to convince you.

Read... think... learn... have faith if you must, but not in the churches. Have faith in each other. Let gays marry. Let people have control of their own bodies and their own destinies. It was said somewhere that what you sow, you shall reap. Life is funny that way.

Please, America. Do something.

YouTube II

The Being Human videos that I was watching on YouTube were removed, so I am very disappointed. I was hoping to watch another episode or two tonight (or this morning) before retiring. I guess I will have to find another way of viewing the series.
I have an appointment with the optometrist tomorrow. While I am grateful to my younger sister, who has kindly offered to pay for said visit, I am really rather annoyed with my oldest sister's husband. Not only did he insist I should see his optometrist friend in Pennsylvania (meaning I have to drive an hour to get there,) he won't tell me the address. He apparently feels I must be accompanied to the place.

Well, two weeks ago my laptop was out of commission, as was of course my collection of digital images, so it was impossible for me to have posted this picture of my late lamented mother (which I would have done in honor of her birthday.) She would have turned 80 this month, and I have no personal recollection of her looking quite like this picture, but I can attest to the identity of the pictured and to the authenticity of the spirit of the lady in question.

     In a month and a week, it will have been 3 years since her passing, and yes one does still think of her from time to time.

     In other news, rehearsal for 'The Fantasticks' did not go quite as quickly as I'd hoped, but nothing went badly, so that's alright. The car is still in the shop (will be until at least monday). I had arranged for rides for the weekend (to rehearsals) and I notified the manager of Helloween to alter the schedule so that monday morning would be covered. I offered to work Saturday morning instead, which I am sure made her day.

She is so nice and thoughtful, and kind...

I'd like to drop kick her across the grid. But then, it's obvious I'm talking about family, so why not just leave it out for the day. I'm too tired for this crap.
I did, however, enjoy seeing my nieces and nephews, as usual... and B-I-L was trying to be helpful, until sis decides she needs to be involved.
~sigh~

Late reading

Still having no functional computer at home, and therefore no internet, I am not really planning to write much here for a bit. However, I don't want to forget my password, so I will log in from time to time just to write something.
Lately, I've been re-reading some Dashiell Hammett stuff - 'The Thin Man' and 'The Contintental Op' - and enjoying them as always. I still haven't finished 'Ripley Bogle', but I will before I return it to the library. I've also been thinking about sampling some H. P. Lovecraft, not having read any of his stuff before.
Not much else to say.

Little worth saying

I woke up at about 8:30 this morning with no hope of falling back to sleep. I tried to call the Source4Teachers number last night and today, but there does not seem to be anything for me there. I think I need to re-enlist with that agency. No calls from the CHNJ BOE yet, either.
So - I took a shower and came here to the library to check (fruitlessly) craig's list and one or two other sites for jobs.
I DID get a few bucks from BIL for gas, etc., and I am thinking about cancelling appointment with Xian guy.
Am reading Ripley Bogle. How appropriate that one seems.

Not much going on.

I mis-spoke, whether here or elsewhere. My laptop is, in fact, fried, despite the fact that I thought I'd gotten it working. Oh, well, back to the old library.
Having no laptop to amuse myself with, and no money to seek alternative entertainment, I spent the last two days re-arranging furniture and generally cleaning up my condo. I still need to do the bathroom and the kitchen floor, but much improvement has been achieved.
I also got through a cheesy Stephen King novel and two "Inspector McGarr" novels by one Bartholomew Gill. The most amusing thing about any of the reading was a line in "Death of an Irish Lover" referring to some condoms found at a crime scene that were manufactured in Morristown, New Jersey. One of the characters liked the brand name of the condoms, very much. The line was a comment saying that there was some genius in Morristown, New Jersey. Looking at the author bio at the back of the book, I had noted that the author lived (at least sometime) in Morristown, New Jersey.
So, anyway. I am at the library - checking email, blogs, death notices, and jonesing for cigarettes.

Oddly enough, I seem to have subjugated, if not beaten and killed, this virus.
My computer wasn't letting me open any scanning devices. More precisely, it was asking me to identify the appropriate program to open the device. So, ultimately I clicked on the 'browse' button (on the box that was asking me to identify the program) and then finding the program's location to use it. I didn't think it would work, but it seems to have done.
After scanning with one or two spyware-type programs (Spy Doctor was one of them) I copied down the names and locations of whatever problems were found - into a notebook, by hand. Then I went around simply deleting all those files, after stopping any running programs in the task manager. 
Honestly, I thought my laptop was gonna be toast. So I figured, "What the h**l have I to lose?" It seems to have worked. My hot-links are working again. I can now open any program. My AVG, Google-talk, and a variety of other icons have re-appeared and are functional. 
I am try also to delete old picture and sound files to free up space on my severely limited hard drive. Uninstalling some programs, too.

At the library...

I really do hate my life, occassionally.
Anyhow, I am at the library because my laptop still is not really working. I can use the 'Opera' browser, because it is not a Windows Application, so it has not been hi-jacked, and I can open 'My Computer' and other folders, but NONE of the programs of files. Apparently, it has something to do with my rundll32.exe file. The error message says it cannot be found, but I found it, so I am guessing that it is either corrupted or something is preventing the computer from finding it.
At any rate, my neighbors works with some guy who My Neighbor claims is a genius with computers. The guy took my laptop. He said he had been dealing with WINDOWS POLICE PRO (the virus, combination Trojan and Rootkit) for two weeks successfully. That was yesterday. He said I'd get the laptop back today, and my neighbor swears that I'll be amazed at the results.
We shall see.
In other news, I decided to apply for SSA disability benefits, among other things. We (or at least I) shall see about all that as well.

Grrrrrrrrr!

I think that I have gotten rid of the viruses, although several of my programs are still not functioning. At least I can get online to download some scanning devices to remove malware. Hopefully they will run.
More later.
BTW - I am emailing no-one, just in case. If it doesn't work, then it will be MY computer lost. There is no need to share the wealth, here.

I'd like to bore them

It was most enjoyable being online at home for a change, but alas, 'twas not to be. My laptop was invaded by a whole host of nasty viruses and so I am back at the library. Very soon I will be working again and able to cope with this situation, but until then it will fairly irregular blogging, emailing, etc.
The thing I may miss most of all if I irrevocably lose the stuff on my laptop will be, of course, my family tree. I do have a back-up copy of the tree on disk, of course, but not the most recent changes. Plus I will have lost my neighbor Lauren's tree, which I spent a day or two on last week. Then again, there are all the documents - census returns, newspaper clippings - that I downloaded in the past month or so.
Oh well.
The title refers to those zoo-sexual hackers who create all these viruses out of boredom. At least thieves I can almost respect, as they at least have a motive.