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tap tap tap Is this thing on?

I set up this Dreamwidth account quite some time ago when I saw so many of my old Live Jornal friends migrating here, fleeing the revolting Russian take over of LJ. I had long (mostly) abandoned my LJ account in favor of the bountiful fields of Facebook, but I occasionally feel pangs of fondness for the good ole days of LJ.

I have only connected with a few of my old LJ friends here on DW. It isn't the rich network of friends and interactions that I had on LJ or Facebook.

I'm tired of the Facebook business, but I still enjoy the social interactions. I keep having to remind myself that I'm the product, not the customer.

MizzLauraJean

Happy birthday to

mizzlaurajean, she who has retired her Princes Three Sheets (to the wind) life and become a wonderful mom and passionate advocate for international adoptions. So many times I have seen you put others before yourself, so today I hope you take a little time for yourself to celebrate your continued existance.

Entry tags:

Time To Find A Better Word

(Copied over from Facebook)

People. Can we just stop using the word "bitch" to ever describe a woman?!? It's misogynistic. Period.

Women are beautiful, wonderful, and amazing people. I just don't want to be one or sleep with one. I'm more than happy to work, live, talk, drink, eat, and any other form of normal human interaction with women. (Also stop with the jokes about gay men fearing vaginas. We don't fear them, we just aren't interested.)

What I don't want to do is insult, demean, or otherwise joke about women based solely on gender. Women are as diverse and talented as men, and just as prone to failure. Most of what we think of as female characteristics are cultural and not physical.

And this isn't some P.C. bullcrap. This is basic human decency.

So next time you insist on calling Kim Davis a bitch, find a better word to describe her, like bigot.

(Note that this is my one and only Kim Davis related post. It's really not about her. She is just my example.)

I should have started packing yesterday.

This morning I had a meeting with the Ronstad recruiter, which went pretty well. It looks like I will be a good match for a Best Buy creative project manager position. Then I did a little shopping at Target. I stop home and then realized my haircut was in 15 minutes in St. Paul, so I quickly changed clothes and sped over. Greg did a good job. He told me that the short short sizes used a double-naught clippers.

During the haircut Greg told me about the Jewish Penicillin, aka chicken soup, at Cecil's Deli. So I stopped there on my way home to pick some up. It was very yummy.

After my lunch I wanted to start packing but I got interrupted by my client Lori who needed changes made to a flyer. That took an extra hour. Finally around 6 PM I started packing all my leather for IML.

My LJ just got hacked

Weird... my LJ was just hacked. 7 minutes ago I got an email from Live Journal alerting me to a loving to LiveJournal from unrecognized location.

Country: UA
Internet service provider: Centr Informacionnyh Technologii Online, Ltd.
IP address: 193.106.31.230

The email then linked to Live Journal's session log. I reviewed the log and then discontinued that session. I went to my LJ account and there was an entry in Russian:

В Лондоне откроется отель-яхта

Для туристов, желающих провести отпуск на воде, например, в плавании на яхте, но не имеющих возможности отдыхать с таким шиком, в Лондоне появилась реальная возможность исполнить это желание, причем

Which Google translates to:

In London, the hotel will open yacht

For travelers looking for a holiday on the water, such as swimming on a yacht, but have no opportunity to rest with the chic in London have a real opportunity to fulfill this desire, and

My Live Journal log in credentials are now changed.

Updating

I spent this evening at Twin Cities Leather & Latte updating the photography I have on display there.

Two of them are hanging in the bathroom, which fits the subject of these two photos. Another is by the back door, which relates well to the cowboy in the photo.

I also have some good ideas for display a few of my image series. Next time you're in Uptown Minneapolis be sure to check them out.

Entry tags:

via ljapp

Chicago bound

Joe, Ben, and I are on our way to Chicago. Ben is moving to Denver later this year so we finally decided to do that Chicago road trip together that have talked about for years.

Chicago is an interesting place over memorial weekend. The gay population is noticeably larger due to IML, Bear Pride, and the Gay Porn Awards (Grabbys). This makes the bars lively and entertaining.

I'll be spending Saturday at IML in my own. On Sunday we are going to connect with or cruise friends, Dan and Frank, to go see Buyer & Celler

Entry tags:

design

Wag Zone Shirt

I'm putting together a t-shirt design for this year's Atons Run (convention). The theme is "Tails of the City" but I decided to approach the theme from a different angle.

I'm struggling a bit with how best to represent the tail motion. A real road sign would just have arrows or something. I think I prefer what I have here, displaying three tail positions in the wag. I hope no one thinks this dog has three tails.

The last element I added was the distressed paint appearance. I wanted to imply that the sign is rougher around the wagging tail.

( Click here to see larger version of the front shirt image. )

More College Progress

Last week I completed my project to talk with MCTC, AI, and Augsburg's academic advising department. By the end of the week I mentally put together a plan to continue at Augsburg, but to take some number of classes at MCTC to save some money. I then applied to MCTC, and wrote letters to the credit transfer person at Augsburg to inquire about the transferability of photography program classes at Augsburg.

This morning I had two emails waiting for me. The first was my acceptance email from MCTC. The second was an email from Augsburg that simply stated "The program leads to an A.A.S. degree, meaning it is technical in nature. The credits will not transfer to Augsburg." I haven't given up on MCTC or Augsburg photography classes yet. I have an additional email out to Robert Tom, the Studio Arts chair at Augsburg, to ask him how I can include digital photography in my Augsburg experience.

Outside of photography, I've been looking through Augsburg's Transfer Guide for MCTC, which cover the liberal arts foundation classes. I still need six liberal arts classes, and I've put together a long list of the classes that are available this term and are offered in the evening, weekends, or online. Now I need to determine if I want to take one or two classes at a time, and if Joe and I have any travel plans to come that would interfere with school.

The classes that I think look especially interesting are Fine Arts: THTR 1104 Introduction to Acting 1 and Humanities: JOUR 1000 Introduction to Mass Communications.

Entry tags:

college

College Progress

I've been trying to map out where I'm at in my college experience, and what I still have left to complete. Even when I complete all of my generals, liberal arts, and communications classes, I will still need 32 more credits.

I think I will spend 24 of those credits and get a second degree in Studio Arts, because there is a bit of cross over between the Communications and Studio Arts electives.

That still leaves me with 8 more credits I need for graduation. I think I'm going to try and spend those on additional photography classes somehow.

Current Location: US, Minnesota, Richfield, Hennepin, Chicago Ave S, 7138

Entry tags:

via ljapp

Facebook Time Off

I just deactivated my Facebook account for the next week so I can focus on my school worked ahead of my final test next Saturday. I have a number of chapters to read, notes to write, and a 15 page paper to write in the next week.

Ugh, I'm getting the shakes now from being unable to check Facebook in any unoccupied moment.

Google+ and LJ are my methadone.

Live Journal Isn't Facebook

I'm really spoiled by Facebook sometimes. It lives in a little top menu bar drop down icon on my work computer, so any thought or link that I care to share is just a couple clicks away from my broad Facebook friends list. I wonder if I would be more apt to post to LJ if there was a menu bar icon for this service.

I also really like Facebook like buttons. Many times when I'm reading LJ I want to acknowledge that I like a friend's post, but I don't really have anything to contribute to the discussion. I don't just want to comment with "Like" so I just don't post anything.

I do like the long form nature of LJ, and I have fond memories of the community of friends I had here before Facebook created the great LJ diaspora.

I return back home here to LJ several times a week to catch up on my remaining friends and RSS feed posts. And I try to make a post here every month or two at least, though usually the post is about posting to LJ (like this post is).

Between LJ posts, you are welcome to see what else I'm up to via my Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/drewan, or via my Google+ account: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100962651932024859944/posts

Class, Teeth, and Satellites

The first draft of my cultural interviews paper is now completed for my Intercultural Communications class. I interviews my friend FJ and my second cousin's wife, Fabiana. (I'm a little amused that I somehow picked two people with practically the same name. FJ's first name is Fabian.) I'm going to set the paper aside now and head to bed soon.

Carly is sleeping on my lap while I work. Earlier she was laying across my shoulders, up against the back of my office chair. She's long enough now that she can wrap around my neck a bit. She has been loosing her puppy teeth for the last couple of weeks. Tonight all I could hear for a while was her fiddling with one tooth, right up against my ear, until I finally heard it drop to the floor.

Yesterday I worked from home during the afternoon while the CenturyLink and DirectTV installers came and set us up with their services. I'm not convinced they are better than Comcast, but they aren't worse by any means. I do like their whole-home DVR solution, which is comprised of a master DVR unit which we have setup in the theater downstairs. The other TVs in the house have client boxes which display live TV and recordings from the master DVR. Anything we record can be paused and resumed on another TV in the house. We can also control the units via the DirectTV iPhone and iPad apps. Kind of neat so far, though I have to go through all the channel guides and turn off the pay-per-view and sports channels. That's a minor pain. (Such a first world problem.)

I'm going to wake the sleeping puppy on my lap and go to bed now. Good night.

Entry tags:

birthday

Happy Birthday, Princess Three Sheets

Happy birthday to my friend,

mizzlaurajean, who has had a most amazing fortieth year of life, which I'm happy that she can now celebrate.

Dream Flood

I had a very strange dream last night.

I remember looking out our bedroom window at our deck and realizing that our back yard and deck were flooded and covered in water. A sink hole or something formed in our deck. It was small at first, then grew larger and larger, with water swirling. The water was then gone (either it receded or went down the sink hole I guess) and most of our deck was missing, with bare dirt and grass below it. No sign of a sink hole in the ground. The grass didn't look water logged, or like grass that had eked out a little life under our dark deck. The grass looked like fresh new grass.

When I woke up this morning I had a micro-panic that our basement was flooded. This is a silly fear to have in the winter. Now... if this was April I would have rushed down to check.

Entry tags:

poetry

Thoughts on Geek and Nerd

Thoughts on Geek and Nerd:
©2013 Andrew Bertk

Geek and Nerd are labels
applied by them for us
who obsess on ideas and dream
our culture calls frivolous.

We elevate the trivial
into art, culture, and science
Gravitating to fellow obsessors
seeking the comfort of alliance.

There is not one kind of geek and nerd
for they are legion, diverse, and strange.
Obsession in proportion to the fanatic
their interests evolve and change.

Veracious devotees find comfort
not alone, you will be heard.
Know that you are unique,
in being a geek and nerd.

P.S.

Many people grow into the term,
but few who self-proclaim
before being labelled are other
than mundane posers riding the new cool train.

Entry tags:

carly

Stairs

Carly has learned to climb stairs as long as she can run. If she takes it one step at a time, then she doesn't get very far.

She still appears to be afraid of going down stairs.

Current Location: US, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Hennepin, Whitewater Dr, 12347

Entry tags:

via ljapp

Cold paws

Yes, it's cold. The dogs really didn't appear to want to be outside today, so I was surprised when Carly wanted to go back outside. She hopped around the deck for half a minute then jumped down the steps, sniffed around the ground, and sat down. She then picked up one front paw, switched to the other paw, back and forth. She didn't appear to want to move from that spot. I figured she had finally realized how cold it is. I made a quick dash out to pick her up and bring her back inside. I didn't want to be outside either.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: United States, Minnesota, Minneapolis

Entry tags:

carly,
dogs

Quarterly Live Journal Update - Most of this is about the new puppy

Yeah, I haven't posted an update on LJ since late September.

Following up on my last update, the beta blocker appears to be working. I've been on it nearly three months now. On Tuesday I went in for a followup blood draw, and I will meet with the doctor on Friday to discuss the results. Hopefully my TSH, T3, and T4 levels have returned to more standard levels.

I'm still going to yoga at least once a week. When I have time I've also been working in additional yoga classes and cycle classes at LA Fitness. The weekly yoga class isn't a LA Fitness, and I could do other yoga classes and cycle other places, so I'm considering not renewing my LA Fitness membership. This puts me in a good place to negotiate a better rate when they are desperate for our business.

We have a new puppy. On Sunday we adopted Carly, a 9-week old long haired dachshund puppy. The idea of getting a second dog had been percolating in my head for a while, but Joe and I hadn't talked about it. Then mid-last week, a friend of mine posted a picture of Carly (then called Bianca) on Facebook and mentioned that she was a rescue dog that would be available in a couple days. I pretty quickly decided for myself that we could get her, and I sent a few IMs to Joe about her, but our schedules last week didn't give us much time to talk about her. I went ahead and scheduled a time on Saturday for the rescue owner to come over with Carly and check us out. Simon was VERY interested in Carly. He was gentle when he needed to be, but was also very willing to play with her. Sure... he did the typical dog dominance things of play mounting her, but the rescue owner said that was normal and a good sign.

Joe liked her of course. Who couldn't love such a sweet face. However he was reasonably concerned about adopting a puppy again. We haven't had a puppy this young since Kinney, our Rotweiler back in the lat 90's. I reasoned that the worst that would happen is that things don't work out with her and we return her to the rescue sans payment. So, we went ahead a signed the papers, paid the fee, and picked her up on Sunday night.

Now we are working out our new schedules to accomodate her needs. Joe and I have taken turns getting up for her 3am potty break, and I've been handling her thrice-daily feedings, including coming home over lunch. Joe has today and tomorrow off from work, and we will both be home after that until we go back to work on January 2. We will get a lot of puppy time in the next week, and we welcome visits and trips to help socialize her.

Current Location: United States, Minnesota, Minneapolis

Entry tags:

school

Why Obama Will Win - and other fun fact searches

Last week I started the first of two summer classes. This class is Argumentation and Critical Thinking. Our first real homework is to produce a 6-7 page written argument on an assigned topic. I was assigned the yes position on "Will Barack Obama Be Re-Elected President of the United States?"

At first I thought this would be an easy question to answer, but for the last several days I've been struggling to find quantifiable data to support this position. I think I'm being too narrow and staying unnecessarily far away from campaign topics. Instead, I've been researching past election history to compare to President Obama, to see if I can spot and trends.

Here's a bit of what I've pulled together:

Re-election Odds:

Of our 44 Presidents, 16 were Democratic, 18 were Republicans. Of the 13 Republican Presidents that sought re-election, 9 of them won (69%). Of the 8 Democratic Presidents who sought re-election, 6 of them won (75%).
Starting with WWII, there has been an even split between Democratic and Republican Presidents, 6 of each. Except for Kennedy, who was assassinated, the 11 remaining Presidents have all sought re-election. Of the 6 Republican Presidents, 4 won re-election, 2 lost (66%). Of the 5 remaining Democratic Presidents, 3 won re-election, 1 lost, and 1 is still in the process of being re-elected. (75%)
While the odds of winning re-election don't appear to strongly favor either party, the general odds do show a greater than 65% success rate for incumbents in Presidential elections.

Election Results Differences:

Obama defeated McCain by more than a 7% difference in the popular vote.
Compared to Presidents who have sought re-election in the last 150 years, Obama's first election win ranks eighth highest when compared to eleven Presidents who have gone on to win again. Obama's first win ranks third rightest again those Presidents who went on to lose their second elections.
Obama won by a greater percentage than Clinton did in his first election, which was 5.5%.
Of the eleven post-WWII elected Presidents, Obama has the 5th highest win percentage over his first election opponent. Compared to just the Presidents who went on to win re-election, Obama is 4th.
The point of comparing to previous recent Presidents is to demonstrate that Obama's first term win percentage places him comfortably within the range of previous re-elected Presidents.

Approval Polls

American media frequently reports on the President’s job approval ratings as an indictor of how the American public feels about the current President. Obama’s opponents have pointed to these ratings as evidence that Obama will lose re-election (I need to find a good citable example of this.)
According to Gallup, Obama's average approval rating is 49%
Compared to the average first term approval ratings for recent past Presidents who have won re-election, Obama is rated the lowest, but only by .6%. The next lowest was Clinton, who's first term approval rating average was 49.6%, and he went on to win re-election.
On the flip side, Ford's average approval rating was 60.9%, and he lost his election for a second term, as did Carter who had a 45.5% average approval.
The point of using Gallup's approval ratings data is to demonstrate that approval ratings may not be an accurate indicator of re-electibility, regardless of how much conservatives and mass media like to point at polls as indicators.

I've clearly spent WAY to much time trying to compare Obama to previous presidents. While previous presidents aren't enough by themselves to indicate the results of Obama's second election, I think they provide a good argument that American voters tend to favor incumbents, regardless of approval ratings.

From this point I need to research data on my next two points:

Let's turn this around: Why will Mitt Romney lose the 2012 Presidential election?
- Divided party? Can the Republican voters pull together to support Romney?
-
Why will voters in 2012 vote for Obama over Romney?
- Party affiliation? Can Obama count on the votes he received during the first election?
-

Any other suggested arguments I should pursue?