On August 24th, Massachusetts legislators convened in Constitutional Convention. They agreed to reconvene and consider proposed constitutional amendments at 1 PM on Wednesday, September 14. We expect that legislators will take the final vote on the pending anti-gay constitutional amendment at that time. The pending amendment would revoke equal marriage rights for same-sex couples and replace them instead with separate-and-unequal civil unions. If the amendment passes on September 14, as it did last year, it will go to a public vote in November 2006.
—MassEquality.org's news item, "Constitutional Convention on September 14th, 2005."
That article provides links for ways to support MassEquality's lobbying efforts.
I have some better camera gear now, but have been so busy with work I haven't yet had a chance to use it.
By the way, despite the bulkiness of the bag, Lowepro isn't kidding when they say only that their Toploader 65 AW bag accomodates the body and one attached lens. Even the little 50mm can't be squeezed in with the body and the kit zoom. I suppose, had I'd gotten a model of Toploader AW intended for an externally longer lens, I could carry the 50mm beneath the bag's velcro-mounted suspension for the zoom, with a piece of foam atop the 50mm for extra shock absorption.
Lots of comments on purchasing to be posted soon, when I get more time.
At exactly 1am on the sidewalk in front of my apartment, two groups approach. A peppy (Jamaican?) guy in one group, to two guys in dark suits, "Hey, where you guys coming from, dressed like that?" The stocky (Italian?) guy, "Funeral." Dropping ten notches, "Sorry. Who died?" Still deadpan, "Grandma." Dropping another few, "I'm sorry." They pass.
So long as we're showing off pics of our 'personal gear'...
As followup to a conversation, I am throwing the full might of my media power behind Veggie Planet.
New York Times Co., Ethical Journalism: A Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Editorial Departments, 2004-09
During my later "grad student" years, I had a hobby of building computers from parts of carcasses found set out with the Cambridge curbside trash.
The other night, I saw this brutally stripped PC case in Central Square.
Kids today— animals! No finesse.
Late Sunday night, I obtained a hurried snapshot of what a bulging drop ceiling panel saturated with approx. one gallon of waste water looks like shortly before emergency drilling and an attempt at a controlled lowering fails.
I also have snapshots of the shocking devastation wreaked on my previously sparkling white bathroom, but they are too graphic for the Web.
Lesson learned: 24-hour convenience stores know you're going to buy that undersized bottle of bleach, now matter how much they charge.
For a month or so, the apartment won't have a television for watching DVDs, so last night I put together a DVD playing setup using spare components scavenged from 8 to 10 different PCs.
This particular computer is based on a Dell Optiplex 'short' desktop with a P3-450, runs Fedora Core 4 (FC4), and has been named salma.neilvandyke.org. FC4 didn't like the onboard sound device, so I had to disable that and install a SoundBlaster Live card. Other than general sketchiness with soundcards, FC4's installation quirks include defaulting to SELinux active, which must cause no end of frustrated new users.
I set it up to auto-login to an account that has a prominent
launcher icon that invokes xine -f -g dvd://. To get Xine, I had
to add rpm.livna.org to yum.
I have a huge backlog of unreleased Scheme code, but I don't expect to be able to polish any of it up for release in the near future.
I've accepted a position, doing non-Scheme work, that will be taking most of my time. Plus there are potential copyright issues with personal coding.
Fortunately, the new work I'll be doing will leverage some of what I've learned from working with Scheme.
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