Continue reading »]]> I’m incredibly surprised at myself for keeping so quiet about this issue until now. What seems like a million years ago now, I participated in “Grey Day” as a sort of grassroots effort in 2000 for People of the Internet to self-regulate how they generated their web content. It was the advent of “hot-linking” and posting whole swaths of copyrighted content on your website, because who cares? The C&D you got in your inbox very quickly informed you of who cared indeed.

Basically, it was trying to send the message that if everyone steals content for their websites, no one will make anything any more and everything would just be drab and blah and boring and “grey.” So, stealing is wrong, mmkay, don’t do it. It was a cute effort, but ultimately didn’t work. People still steal content on the Internet. All the time. There’s tons of ways to do it. And lots of people don’t even think they’re doing anything wrong.

I don’t like copyright infringement. It makes me kinda grumpy. I like copyright infringement on the Internet even less. People who honestly believe “Everything on the Internet is free” need a boot to the head as far as I’m concerned. Just ask Cooks Source magazine how free the Internet is. I’m fascinated by copyright law. I have extended family members who’ve made it their specialty (I come from a very litigious family).

So, with the hub-bub of SOPA/PIPA/Censorship, etc it’s very odd that I’m not being more active or vocal on it. If there was ever a day to be so, today’s the day. I’ve already written one of my senators, Ben Cardin. He supports PIPA and I was shocked and appalled. Then I saw text from a press release that he’s a co-sponsor of the bill to have an active role in it since he is no longer on the committee that would give it the most attention and also that he wouldn’t vote for it as-is. So, if you’re in Maryland, be a dear and encourage him to stick to his guns on that one.

So, what’s finally spurred me to comment? Google and this: End Piracy, Not Liberty. The last paragraph is the crux of the whole SOPA/PIPA thing: As written, it won’t work to stop piracy.

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Once upon a time, I had quite a laugh sifting through the weirdo spam comments I was getting on the blog. They haven’t been very funny in a very long time. They still aren’t. However, I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting tons more lately. And they’re all on really old posts. Yay Google indexing?

To all my recent spam readers, I bid you welcome and good tidings… Or something.

This post brought to you by “Doing anything under the sun to make me not notice the horrible headache I have right now,” the number “3,” and the letter “M.”

Continue reading »]]> So, I’m in Dallas for work. When away from home, I avoid restaurants I can eat at when home like it was my only purpose in life. Technically, I’m in Addison. There are 3 things in Addison: a big fancy mall, hotels, and 873,000 restaurants. Finding an interesting place to eat is not even a little bit hard.

Two coworkers and I ended up at a place called Blue Mesa Grill. Wonderful place. Nice atmosphere, great food, and a ridiculously large tequila menu.

One of my companions and I ordered margaritas. I opted for a blood orange sage and he went for grapefruit tarragon. Our waitress switched them when she brought them. I knew from the first sip I had the wrong drink. My dining companion looked at the drinks and said, “Yeah, you’re right, but you’re not getting this back. Mine now.”

I had the waitress check to make sure the drinks had been swapped. She carried it off back to the bar, confirmed, and brought it back. I put in another order for the right drink and before she got too far, hollered, “Well, there’s no need to let that one go to waste…”

Hehehehe.

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I am about to share a letter from Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) but before I do so, I want to preface with a few things:

1. I don’t like telling people how their politics should lay out. Don’t tell me how mine should. If we can agree on that ground rule, we can talk.
2. I very strongly believe that even though the person in office is not the one I voted for, they still represent me and my interests. So when I write to that person, I do expect them to hear what I say and respect the gravity of their office and their civic responsibility to represent their constituents. You don’t only represent the people who voted for you.
3. I’m sharing this letter at this time in correlation to the recent “personhood” amendment that was shot down in Mississippi yesterday. Mr. Bartlett shares similar views as to what that state amendment was trying to legislate.
4. I do like Mr. Bartlett’s positive environmental work he has advocated. It would seem the environment is his strong suit and I would urge him, in the future, to focus on that instead.

In January, I wrote to Mr. Bartlett to express my disappointment in his co-sponsoring of H.R. 3. If you don’t want to click the link, it’s the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. To summarize, I don’t feel these issues really belong at the federal level and I felt it was an unwarranted attack on female reproductive health services. There are already laws prohibiting federal funds being used for abortions and the wording of the proposed legislation was clunky, at best, and dangerously vague at worst.

Unfortunately, I did not save the original text I had sent to Mr. Bartlett.  He sent me this charming response SIX MONTHS later:

Dear Mrs. Lathrop:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3).  I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

I am a proud original cosponsor of this legislation. H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, was sponsored by Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ). This bill would prohibit: (1) the expenditure of funds authorized or appropriated by federal law or funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by federal law for any abortion or for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion; (2) any tax benefits for amounts paid or incurred for an abortion or for a health benefits plan (including premium assistance) that includes coverage of abortion; and (3) the inclusion of abortion in any health care service furnished by a federal health care facility or by any physician or other individual employed by the federal government.

I earned Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Human Physiology.  It is inarguable that life begins when the woman becomes pregnant.  I believe that abortion is the unjustified taking of human life.  The Constitution protects the freedom of the people to express their moral and religious views and their right to life.  I will continue to work to uphold the Constitution and protect the right to life.  I will also continue to work to restore the value of human life and fight for the rights of unborn members of the human family.

Thank you for contacting my office.  I hope you will continue to keep me informed on federal issues that are important to you.  In the meantime, I encourage you to visit my website http://www.house.gov/bartlett where you can sign up to receive e-mail updates regarding my legislative activity.  It is a privilege to serve you in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sincerely, Roscoe Bartlett
Member of Congress

A brief summary of my opinions on his response:

1. Thanks, Mr. Bartlett, for summarizing the bill I wrote to you about. I think I knew what the text of the legislation included when I wrote you, otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered.
2. Life begins at conception? “Inarguable”? Watch me. First, there must be agreement on the definition of “life” and already I see that he and I have VASTLY different ideas of that definition. A fertilized egg cannot survive outside the womb. Therefore, it cannot live, so it is not yet alive. And really, that’s where I’m going to leave it.
3. I apologize that I don’t have a fancy degree in Human Physiology. How nice to throw your education in my face as assertion of your “rightness.” Why do I feel like I got “mansplained” at?
4. Claiming to have Science as your support but then instead backing up your opinion with rhetoric about the Constitution and Religion is an affront to Science.
5. Whether or not to bring another person into the world is a personal choice to be made by a limited circle of people and the Federal Government is not on that guest list. Listen to me very carefully when I say this: BUTT. OUT.
6. I do not argue your right to express your religious views. Go on with your bad self. I do, however, argue the right of anyone to impose their own moral or religious views on others via legislation. There’s expressing your views and opinions and then there’s writing laws saying, “My views and opinions supersede yours. My religion says I’m right and you’re wrong.”
7. Mr. Bartlett, you really, truly and honestly lost when you fully admitted to your dedication to a personal crusade while fulfilling the duties of elected office. That’s not your job. Your job is to fight for and represent your constituents. As one of those, I’d much prefer you pay more attention to the needs and requests of the existing ones rather than the hypothetical-not-yet-born ones. Thanks.

Maybe I’m just taking crazy pills. Maybe my ideas for the way our representatives are supposed to work is completely backwards. But if I’m right. And they’re doing everything all wrong. Then the loud yelling of the crazypeople has won. And we’re all doomed.

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Photo by Katherine Gray - Build Your Wings Photography

Ok, not really of DOOM. But, oh the mishaps were very Lathrop-y.

Because it is so much fun and we have such a wonderful time with it at the Mocks, I tracked down a Beatles Rock Band Limited Edition bundle. It comes with a drum set, Hoffner bass controller, microphone and microphone stand. Buying all the pieces separately can easily creep to $200+. Sears.com has the Limited Edition bundle for $99. WIN! Rock Band 3 was on sale at Amazon (sans keyboard for now) and we were in business. It just all needed to get here. I hate both paying for shipping and being patient. I had to wait! Days! for these things to make their way to me. DAYS! In the five minutes we were snuggling upstairs, UPS came to the door and knocked a knock that sounded rather a lot like a cat running up the steps to us. Boo.

Friday we were supposed to go to Southern Maryland to pick up anniversary cupcakes and go fishing. Instead, we had to wait around for UPS to deliver us unto the Rock Band. . . More waiting! I checked the status of the package and they’d gotten it into their crazy heads my little blue house was a) a business and b) not open on Fridays so they would be attempting the delivery on Monday. This would not do. A very grumpy me called UPS and arranged to pick up my Beatles Rock Band. I was DONE with this waiting horseshit.

When we got there the UPS wage slave was very near a very painful verbal lashing when he hunched over his little computer attempting to track down its current status. Luckily I saw it behind the counter he was standing at (/faceplam) waiting for us to pick it up.

Rock Band achieved! Victory was assured. Fish remained un-retrieved from a lake for one more day.

We followed up with dinner at hibachi where not so tasty (tho very flashy) kerosene vegetables were served along adequate scallops. We scurried home to rock out the night as ‘Civilian Authority’.

Saturday included a plan of the orignally scheduled cupcake retrieval, a free exercise bike from the in-laws and the much-delayed fishing. Visit with the in-laws (all of them), exercise bike, and cupcake retrieval went off without a hitch. However the weather gave Trey’s asthma a run for its money.

Trey’s Lungs: *gasping for breath*
Air: You seek to inhale me? FOOL!!!
Trey and Jess’s fishing plans: *wither and die another day*
Fish: Yay!!

Sad and dejected, we wandered home and emptied the care of the spoils we had successfully collected that day. I convinced the husband the only cure for our sadness was delicious Mexican food. Ever the loving man, he humored his wife’s crazy notions and off to Mariachi restaurant we went. OH MY GOD THE EPIC NOMS LIVE THERE! Stuffed full of some of the most amazing food ever, we rolled home. Comic books and video games capped the evening as we battled food comas. (Oh my lord am I ever behind on comics. Ugh.)

Sunday, our actual anniverary, was nasty hot. We hid in the house. There was also a terrible excursion to the new Frederick Wegman’s that I have pretty much blocked out of my memory. Seriously, I almost moved by Sunday entirely with “We stayed inside all day and played video games and did nothing.” But, oh god, no, the Wegman’s. Huge. Beautiful Market. I think. I couldn’t see much through the ridiculous mass of humanity heaving through it back and forth. We grabbed the things we knew we needed right away and then ran away screaming. Never again on a Sunday. OMG No.

The rest of the day really was full of video games and slack. Dinner was seafood at the Cracked Claw. It was decent but we couldn’t stop discussing how we’d change everything about the decor, layout, landscaping, upkeep of the building and the food. So, while it was delicious, it left a bit to be desired as a complete dining experience.

Monday was a beautiful day. Perfect fishing weather! We didn’t go fishing. We went and met the littlest McCrady! I delivered unto them Steaming Hot Meat Muffins! Meatloaf baked in a muffin tin. Hat tip to Misha for that idear. Nom nom nom nom nom BABY! She was adorable as all get out. We both got to hold her and give Meg a break by giving her a bottle. She fell asleep in our arms mid-noms and was just about the best thing ever. We shooed ourselves outta there in time to get just out of range of the bulk of rush hour and let the family embark on their walk to test drive their new stroller.

The evening unfolded as an adventure to find HDMI cables for our new TV as I altered my intended destination three times before ending up at Costco and finding what I needed in five minutes but still wandered the store for another 30. Our weekend was capped off with tuna sammiches and more comics.

Tuna sammiches were about as close as we got to fishing this weekend, but our fishing spirit is not broken! Fish! You are on notice, bitches!

All in all we spent the whole weekend telling eachother, “Remember what we were doing this time last year?” and reminiscing on the whole thing. It was phenomenal. Definitely an adventure.

[Photo by Katherine Gray - Build Your Wings Photography]

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“Kitchen cabinets falling out of ceiling. Whee!” This was my post snippet to remind me to post about this stuff later. I should delete it to start in properly with what’s going on with the house right now, but that snippet really sums it up. What I should also do is change it to past tense, but that’s getting ahead of myself slightly.

When we bought the house at the end of 2009, one of the issues the home inspector brought to our attention was the kitchen cabinets above our sink island weren’t anchored securely into the ceiling. We instructed the sellers that they needed to fix this or else we no buy their house, kthxbye. A contractor came in, put some very heavy duty looking screws into the cabinets and everything seemed hunky dory from then on. Until Mother’s Day.

I had noticed the gap for a few weeks at that point, but it wasn’t until Mother’s Day that I became increasingly concerned. There was some caulk/glue along the back edge of the cabinets and as the cabinets pulled away from the ceiling, it created holes in the glue. Holes that I could see clear through to the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen. Not good. The husband and I swapped the heavy glassware from the sinking cabinets over to a more secure location and housed all our nice, light, plastic storage containers in the fail cabinets.

For the most part, our cabinets are just fine. Except the door style. They lack personality and are just bland bland bland. Blech. So, Superhusband (because he is my hero) told me to shop for different cabinets. That’s how we would fix the problem.

And panic set in.

I was convinced I would spend too much money on cabinets that I would not, in fact, like. I have several family members and friends with kitchens I adore. They have personality, style, FUNCTION. They’re all wonderful. I had worked myself up in a tizzy convinced that mine would not.

So, that idea went out the window pretty quick.

Instead, we opted to get someone to repair the falling cabinets. Superhusband was going to call a professional to pay to do it. This is, of course, ridiculous. We have a very good friend who is a professional and calling anyone but him first, is kind of silly. If it is urgent and he is unavailable, by all means, call someone else and pay them. We really do try our best not to take advantage of his goodwill because he is our friend.

So, Jim came by and we started taking down the cabinets to find out why they’re falling out of the ceiling and what needs doing to get them back up there and staying up there. In my head, I was fairly convinced that despite the contractor coming in and “fixing” the cabinets post home inspection, there was nothing on the other side of the drywall for the screws to hang on to and that was going to be the problem. We would need some piece of wood up there to reinforce the structure.

Jim cut a hole in the ceiling so he could place the wood he brought for just such a repair. He smacked at it with his hammer. Repeatedly. It wasn’t making a hole. Drywall isn’t the strongest of stuff. When you smash it with a hammer, it makes a hole. After further investigation and successful hole-creating, we found wood up there for anchoring cabinets!

So why were my doubly anchored cabinets pulling away from the ceiling?

This is where math comes in handy. Slide rules at the ready? We have a 1.75″ stile + .5″ drywall + .5″ plywood = potato?

No, not potato; 2.75″, akshully. The contractors must have thought potato, because they used 2″ screws. That plywood in my ceiling intended to anchor the cabinets was probably pristine and unblemished apart from where it was joined to the frame for hanging aforementioned drywall.

Not only did they use 2″ screws. They used 2″ screws TWICE! Different contractors! Used the same wrong screws! GAH!!!!

After fishing around in his toolbox, Jim found as many 3″ screws as he could find, my kitchen cabinets are now happily secured and not falling out of my ceiling.

Unrelated to cabinets at all, Jim managed what a previous contractor I had paid, could not. He made water come out of a pipe and make ice in my refrigerator. Sure, the ice was brown the first dozen cycles of the ice making system, but that’s not HIS fault.

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I would be horribly remiss in not posting anything about this topic (but what else would be new, there?), so here goes. Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Comics broke the news to USA Today they are rebooting the DC Universe and relaunching some 50 titles at issue #1.

I have relatively mixed feelings on this. One is I am insanely behind (going on five and a half months worth of comics) reading my comics, so this news lights a fire under my butt to get caught up and get the existing comics collection sorted before the reboot. The other is knowing that this could either go really well and be really good or turn out completely horribly and my favorite comics publisher will suffer and I won’t get to read the stories I love so much (not that I’ve been keeping up even though the pile we have is growing) anymore.

Reboots are not uncommon in comics and least of all for DC. Recently, however, DC has been King of the Crisis. Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Countdown to the Final Crisis, Final Crisis . . . Every two years there was another freaking crisis. Seriously? Having a crisis so often really cheapens the impact of those that came before it and numbs fans to the whole idea. After every crisis is some flavor of reboot.

I’m unsure on the idea of resetting comics numbering back to #1. For some titles like Justice League of America, Green Lantern, and Birds of Prey (the first is confirmed to be in the 50, the latter two I’m sincerely hoping will be among the chosen) have been reset to #1 a couple of times now. JLA most recently in 2006. Whereas Superman, Batman, and Detective Comics all number in the 600+; having runs continuing from the 30s and 40s.

50 titles may seem like a lot, but it certainly doesn’t comprise the entirety of the current DC comics catalog. A lot of the titles in the current catalog are duplicate titles. There are mulitple comics featuring Batman and the adventures of the various Green Lanterns in the DCU. Most of Batman’s former sidekicks and associates have branched off and have their own titles (Robin, Red Robin, Batgirl, and formerly Nightwing). Are all these extra titles really necessary? Fans of them will argue that yes, indeed they are necessary. But if we include all those bonus comics which are really an excuse to have Batman cameos and Batman villain cameos, we don’t get to have the unique, different titles like Secret Six or Birds of Prey, instead. It’s probably a difficult choice figuring out who makes the cut and I’m girding myself for some disappointment on that front, already.

Mostly, I’m cautiously optimistic that DC’s bold new direction doesn’t blow up in their faces. I have a vivid memory from Comic-Con last year of J. Michael Straczynski asking DC fans to “give him one story arc” in regards last year’s Wonder Woman reboot and he left the book after 6 issues without even finishing the arc we’d promised to give him. So, you’ll excuse me if I’m a wee bit gunshy on this one, folks. That being said, I need Gail Simone’s name on my comics to be a happy comic nerd. So much

The bigger news that I have more concrete feelings about is the same day digital sales of their titles. That comment is: YAY. I admit to not yet consuming my comics in digital form, but without a doubt, this move of DC’s has much stronger staying power and a more lasting positive impact on reaching readers in a much broader way. I will continue to support local comics shops, but I can’t possibly see same-day digital sales as anything short of exemplary.

UPDATE: Also THIS. So much this. This to infinity.

Continue reading »]]> The Power Outage Effect is having the all-consuming urge to heat something in the microwave, charge my phone, or check the internet when the power is out. I’m having the same effect with the looming government shutdown and associated furlough.

I am potentially about to be without a paycheck and there are things I want to buy. BUY ALL THE THINGS!

There are purchases I wanted to make with my savings/tax refund to beautify my home and instead I will need that money for exciting things like my mortgage and other house associated bills.

But damned if I don’t want to be out buying the computer parts I need to fix my other desktop or ordering the furniture I want for the basement. I just know it would be monumentally irresponsible to do so. Ah well, this too shall pass.

Speaking of passing things, Congress (hint hint).