politics 1 Comment

Gay… Madrid?

First, Canada:

OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) — Canada’s Parliament Tuesday approved legislation to allow same sex-marriages across the country, despite fierce opposition from conservative politicians and religious groups.

Legislators voted by 158-133 to support the bill, which makes Canada only the third country in the world after Belgium and the Netherlands to permit gay marriages.

Most Canadian provinces already allow same-sex marriages, and Canada has become a popular destination for gay and lesbian couples from countries where these unions are banned.

The minority Liberal government said it had to draw up the legislation after courts in eight of the country’s 10 provinces ruled that a ban same-sex marriages was unconstitutional because it violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Next, Spain:

MADRID, Spain (AP) — Parliament legalized gay marriage Thursday, defying conservatives and clergy who opposed making traditionally Roman Catholic Spain the third country in the world to officially recognize same-sex unions. Gay rights activists cheered lawmakers and blew them kisses.

The measure passed the 350-seat Congress of Deputies by a vote of 187-147 with four abstentions. The bill, part of the ruling Socialists’ aggressive agenda for social reform, also lets gay couples adopt children and inherit each others’ property.

The bill is now law. The Senate, where conservatives hold the largest number of seats, rejected the bill last week, but the Senate is an advisory body and final say on legislation rested with the Congress of Deputies.

Gay couples will be allowed to marry as soon as the law is published in the official government registry, the Boletin Oficial del Estado. This could come as early as Friday or within two weeks at the latest, the parliament’s press office said.

The Netherlands and Belgium were already up in this whole gay marriage thing. The U.S.? Well, it’s no secret that Dubya supports an amendment to ban gay marriage.

My question is, where in this whole “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” thing does it say that… oh, forget it. I’m so annoyed with the general intolerance of the right wing that I can’t even formulate a proper argument.

I just hope that lots of gay American couples have at least one partner who meets the Employment Requirements of Canadian Immigration and Citizenship.

photography 2 Comments

Holga Film… Away!

As of tomorrow morning, the first roll of Holga film will be sent off to Dale Labs for processing. I tried not to take any OMG-I-hope-that-turns-out shots, as this is more of a “control” roll: no mummifying the Holga in gaffer’s tape to eliminate light leaks, no mods, nothing fancy. I just want to see what this bad boy will turn out with no help from me.

I’ll scan and post anything that comes out particularly interesting… but don’t expect much beyond artsy, square-shaped pictures of my cat. o.O

geekspeak 4 Comments

PHP + MySQL = r00lz my world

Oh. Mah. Gawd.

OMFG. This is so, SO cool. I feel like an uber-nerd, but I’ve totally seen the light. After years of explanation and geekitude from Dan (and, more recently, from this tutorial), some support from Sheryl, and of course, an initial introduction from Jamie and from Colvey, I finally have created a functional MySQL database.

It’s still pretty simple, and it’s definitely not secure yet. But that’s OK. I’m just testing my newfound skillz on my own stuff, then I’ll worry about security measures to implement when I work on the actual LSM page. For now, though, all my craziness is over that little module in the index sidebar (visible only on the main index page and on the full listing of all entries) labeled, “Keeping Busy.”

It’s probably one of the simplest things I could have made, but it works. It even sorts the events in date order, and only shows events that happen after today. I’m damn proud of myself.

This has virtually unlimited possibilities. OMG. I should have *made* the opportunity to learn this *years* ago.

*shakes head*

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

randomness 3 Comments

Nose to the Grindstone

Since faxing my Independent Contractor Agreement back to the company for which I will (hopefully) be doing some new media contracting, I’ve decided that I need to devote a two-hour block each evening specifically to design projects. This is because 1.) I need to get back into the swing of working on a given project without distractions, and 2.) I need to get some of my own projects done before I start accepting freelance projects.

So, my Friday evening and my Monday evening were much the same: make dinner, check e-mail while dinner is cooking, eat dinner while reading a book, finish that chapter. Then come downstairs and finish my e-mailing and blogreading and general crap. Between 7 and 8pm, start designing. Don’t stop until at least two hours have passed, or until I reach a good stopping point (usually after two and a half hours).

These past couple of days, I’ve been working on making more comps for the LSM site redesign. I finally decided that five will have to be enough for a start, and I emailed the Executive and Assistant Directors with the URL to start a discussion of the designs. I think they’ll be duly impressed. My current favorites are #3 and #5, I think.

Next step: learning MySQL and figuring out a database structure to make News and Schedule tables. I’ll do that during tomorrow’s design time. I’m done for tonight.

photos

The Lomo Is Fixed

The Lomo appears to be working at specifications once more. The post-op test roll came out A-OK, if a touch boring.

In other photo news, the Holga has arrived and is now loaded with film. I’ll burn through this first roll quickly and post the results when I get them processed.