Nowadays this kind of symbolic action has fallen into disuse. Maybe because “AIDS is bad” is squarely in a lot of people’s heads now. Maybe because weblogland grew too big and diffuse and we weren’t reaching anyone who didn’t already know. I don’t know. It could also be that everyone taking down their weblogs does nothing to help the cause, or at least it helps less than more direct action like donating money to the appropriate organizations, working in outreach programs, or just telling people who don’t read weblogs (which would be most people) that they shouldn’t go out and fuck without protection.

Still, I’m feeling awfully nostalgic lately, about a lot of different things, and I thought of all this tonight. In 2001, I wrote this short piece that makes me equally as sad now as it did then. Recently I got to explain to a younger friend of mine what a bugchaser was. The fact that there are people still living within the anger and prejudice and fear of twenty years ago makes me near speechless.

Please be careful out there. Don’t be afraid, but be safe and sane.

More: Bradlands on 12/01/2003, 2002, 2001, 2000.

I bring this up because over the last few days, I’ve started to miss Twitter. That’s weird, in the sense that when I quit it, I did so because it was exactly what I didn’t need, and I didn’t see the long-term benefits (or rather, I understood what people saw as long-term benefits, but didn’t see them as benefits). In short: it was too easily something for people to talk at me and not with me, which is not how I think we should be communicating in general.

What I miss, I think, is a place for short observations that for whatever reason I feel the need to get out of my system, despite my earlier feelings about that sort of thing. Twitter is specifically designed to accept that sort of input, which is why it feels right putting that sort of stuff there. But let’s face it, people following my twitterstream did not need to know in real time that I was once again having issues with one browser or another, or that I was telling someone that I was wearing boxers, or whatever inane/witty thing I thought was witty/inane at that moment.

The visually-excellent WordPress theme The Morning After brought the idea of asides to my attention, which I guess Matt has been doing forever but I never really researched, shame on me. That seems like the perfect thing for this here weblog, given that I’m thinking about a redesign, but putting them inline seems like asking for mediocrity, given how (un)often I update here. This place would become 90% asides or more in no time. Forget that. And a sidebar seems… I don’t know, too kitschy?… since everyone’s all widget-happy these days. I don’t know. Either a solution will present itself or I’ll get over it. Either way.

I’m starting to lose track of what states in the US allow what kind of partnerships. Obviously Wikipedia can be trusted 100% (…), so one can look there, and now’s a good time to point out all the federal rights and protections granted to married couples, in case you’re still wondering what the big deal is.

This week, the words “heat wave” have been thrown around. While that still means something in the rest of the Bay, I take this to mean that I’m still wearing pants instead of shorts, but not bringing a jacket with me when I won’t be getting home until after dark. I hate to sound provincial, but my memories of Chicago heat waves involve hesitatingly wearing my black shirts when they’re the only clean shirts left, because of the amount of sweat they’ll soak up, only to have it quickly evaporate, leaving behind white rings from the salt. Ick. But I get it, and I understand. If you live in one environment for enough time, you become use to those borders, limits and parameters, and anything exceeding them starts looking offensive or threatening [1].

Yesterday I came across Jason D-’s Metroblogging post about a weird smell that was being smelt in much of the city. And by “weird” I mean “nasty” because when I caught wind of it, I thought someone had taken a shit somewhere on the street (but I didn’t think much about it at the time, because this was in the Upper Haight, just sayin’). But no, it was more prevalent than that, and a commenter pointed out that it was due to a combination of the heat and some sewer boxes. And that makes me think: what, part of our sewage system can’t stand up to some warm weather? Reading that just reinforced my opinion that this city’s infrastructure is not set up to handle anything but the regular kiddie-ride weather we usually enjoy. A lot of the housing here is cheaply constructed, with no thought given to things like insulation (hello, thinner walls and hearing your neighbors) and weather-proofed windows (hello, sounds of public transit). Only some places come with air conditioning. A couple apartments back, getting a toilet leak fixed took longer than it should have because the builders took shortcuts in making the base fastenings. The plumber said that was actually pretty common out here, cutting costs and not building to code for quick turn-arounds. How reassuring.

Honestly, while it might be an earthquake that does this city in, it might very well be making us deal with real summers or any other climate shift that does it. No wonder Greenpeace is out in force locally; global warming could literally stink up the place, if it doesn’t submerse it underwater. Someday in the future, I’ll be able to tell my nephews, or maybe their kids, that I lived in San Francisco once. Back when it was nice.

[1] This could quickly become an analogy about social dynamics on the internet, but we don’t need to go there.

Normally this wouldn’t warrant a post, but obviously I’ve been replaced by some sort of invader, either from space or another dimension. Just trying to warn people in case I grow to be 2000 feet tall and destroy downtown in a poorly-edited video montage. Because let’s face it, that sort of thing always ends up on YouTube.

That’s perhaps why you should go see it if you’re you. If you’re me, you should go see it because holy shit sky pirates hell fucking yeah plus there’s a new fantasy boyfriend in it for you.

The Rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.
5. 8 is a magic number. Not three.

Yeah, I’m not going to follow all of those.

1. I used to consider myself to be, on average, lucky. The last few years, I’ve been wondering where the luck has gone. Still, the last two years I’ve been able to waltz into the Sisters‘ Ba-da-bingo event at the International Bear Rendezvous convention, despite not really associating myself with the local bear community, win a grab-bag of stuff, and then waltz back out afterwards.
2. Even though I consider myself a pretty skilled webdev, I don’t want to start writing about it, as might be expected. I like making websites, I like making things go with javascript, I like talking about it with people and showing them how to do things, but the thought of writing how-tos makes me want to pull my teeth out. I’d rather get to it.
3. I have never slept with a porn star. There have been a couple guys, though, who later appeared in porn. This reflects nothing on me, really, nor is it as interesting or glamorous as some people must have thought, judging by their reactions when it came up in conversation.
4. You know that part from the movie Phat Girlz where Monique doesn’t say what she’s really thinking when another woman asks if the dress she’s trying on makes her look fat? When you ask me that, I have the same type of thoughts. Only I’m meaner.
5. I have a somewhat-heart-shaped birthmark on my right knee. When I was younger, a friend once told me that meant I’d be proposed to on bended knee. I used to hold onto the idea, as it seemed romantic. These days I don’t, and it doesn’t.
6. Actually, I’ve become pretty disillusioned about a lot of things. Lately, I’ve started to think that socially, nothing’s changed since, say, the Renaissance. Advances in science and technology, sure, but there’s still the ones in power and the ones toiling away. We just sometimes think the manners in which we toil are more interesting.
7. I wish I were more of an academic, but at some point I chose (or felt I was more suited for) practice over theory. I wish I was more of an artist, but the only reason I feel that way is because of what I want to do with my life, or rather the only thing I’ve ever been able to articulate in regards to what I want to do with my life, is make beautiful things.
8. Recent events have made me bite my tongue more than ever when it comes to writing online. I still feel burned, but I’m getting over it, and I feel stupid for letting other people behaving in ways I found unagreeable stop me from doing something I enjoyed. And yet in a way I’m grateful, because I’ve been reminded of and shown, from multiple angles, the need for sympathy and behaving responsibly online.

I fear I can’t tag anyone, as I’m still in debate with rule #5. 3 is so the magic number. Yes it is. It’s a magic nu-hum-ber-er-er.

I’m connecting the dots in the most probable manner, and I’m just not lecherous enough for this gig. Forgive me if I don’t respond.

Today I shot Mom an email saying that I mentioned that phone call in the announcement I made on the JPG blog for issue 11 being out. She called shortly after, telling me “you’re so funny,” and that she thought that was cool that she was mentioned on the blog anecdotally.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized that this was the first time weblogs had come up in a conversation with my mother where I didn’t have to explain to her what they were.