I Rant; Therefore, I Am

I'll never figure people out.  It's all about sexuality--for everyone, it seems, but me and a handful of others.  I am who I am.  No more; no less.  And everyone else cares more about my sexuality and my sex life than I do.

I don't care if you're gay, straight, bi, tri, or quad.  I don't care if you're single, married, swinging, or in a group relationship. I don't care how big or small you are; how loose or tight you are, or how many lovers you've had.  And you shouldn't worry about me.

And "Damn; you're hot!" is not an appropriate conversation starter.  Neither is, "A/S/L?" or any of those other idiosyncrasies made appealing by the IM culture.

Do the words "In a relationship" in someone's profile have no meaning anymore?  Or "Married"?  Hmmm; guess not.

Sorry to hear that.  I guess now I'll go and serve myself up a cup of "Whatever happened to good old-fashioned platonic friendships?" soup. (Oh, I forgot; platonic is for those who didn't make the "I'd do THAT!" list.

Puh-leaze.

Laptop Touchpads

You would think that, as many years as computer companies have been making laptop computers, they would learn:  on-board mice--or touchpads--should NOT be located directly in front of the keyboard.  I mean, haven't they learned yet that this is the most inconvenient spot they could have possibly designed them to be?

Attention Dell, HP, Apple, Acer and other computer companies:  it would be much more convenient if on-board touchpads were located to the RIGHT of the keyboard.  Granted, there are a few left-handed people who feel they need a left-handed mouse.  However, the rest of us have adapted and learned to use the traditional right-handed mouse efficiently and would be lost with a left-handed mouse designed for us southpaws.  Thanks to many, many not-so-thought out expletive outburst and a web search, I have figured out how to disable the wretched thing--only after downloading the touchpad driver on my PC manufacturer's website--as I use a USB mouse and the touchpad only serves to annoy the absolute crap out of me when it puts my mouse where it doesn't belong, highlights and deletes whole passages without my permission, or commits any number of technical atrocities against my person.  Were the touchpad located to the right of the keyboard, as is the location of a traditional mouse, it would have been much less of a nuisance to learn the semantics and enjoy the benefits of a built-in mouse.

However (as it is), I am forced to disable it and ignore its inconvenient existence altogether.

A word of advice:  Just because you put it there doesn't mean that's the best location for it.  Listen to your customers and heed their cry.  Move the touchpad to its rightful location or dispense with it altogether. You can even give PC customers the option to have their touchpad located to the LEFT of the keyboard if they feel a left-handed mouse is an absolute necessity.

P.S.:  I never learned to use left-handed scissors, either. But ambidextrous scissors don't move my cursor or delete my ideas without my permission.

Due to inclement weather, the clearing of roadways have been cancelled....

Just because the snow keeps coming doesn't mean the economy is coming to a grinding halt.  Just because school has been called off doesn't mean work has.  Just because the roads haven't been cleared doesn't mean medical emergencies won't happen.  Utility vehicles need to respond to utility emergencies, too.

So where does the responsibility lie with hazardous roads in inclement weather?  The state DOH.  And their serious lack of response to the present road conditions has been most taxing.

In times like these, an early morning email to the Governor (5:00 a.m. is a good time to do so) can be very satisfying.  Now, all we have to do is watch and wait.  It would be nice to see some roads get cleared and some county DOH supervisors walking around with fires under their butts.

Ahh, the Irony!

Sometimes the most trivial of incidents can trigger philosophies; or theories; or debate.

I had this acquaintance in college; not someone I'd call a close friend, but we were on semi-friendly terms.  This fellow had a thing for guys--okay, a BIG thing for guys; he was man-crazy. And he lived his life in a glass closet; in other words: he was gay when he was around a gay crowd but ran straight for the closet when he had to deal with the rest of the world.  The thing is, his glass closet still let the rest of the world see what he was doing.

Not that I have a problem with closets; they're just confining and constraining.

Back to the story:  this guy had the hots for a boy who was three years his junior--and, for all intents and purposes, seemingly straight and quite homophobic. Well, in order to get close to him, my acquaintance "adopted" him as a "younger brother".

After I left college, I learned that my acquaintance not only joined the military, but married a friend from his hometown who had told him on several occasions that she wanted to have his baby.  Ironically, the girl was the older sister of his highschool/college crush.

I had forgotten the whole thing until yesterday when I was going through old pictures and found one of him hugging his now-brother-in-law.

And I thought to myself:  How interesting. I guess he figured,  "If you can't have the guy you want, marry his sister!"