weird mood

Warm, just in from gym and animal-sitting, and I just asked elisem for a +2 ring of looking competent.

(To be written (in addition to the stories in gestation): a gym entry, and a book review.)

weird mood

Warm, just in from gym and animal-sitting, and I just asked elisem for a +2 ring of looking competent.

(To be written (in addition to the stories in gestation): a gym entry, and a book review.)

another gym post

I added a new machine to my workout today, after seeing someone else using it. This one works the upper calves: you sit, and when you raise your calves you're lifting however much weight you've put on the machine. I got one of the trainers to show me how to use it, and will probably be doing it at least semi-regularly: it's too easy for me to assume my legs are taken care of because of the amount of walking I do, but my actual weight work is skewed toward upper-body stuff, in part because of my knee problems.

( and the usual detailed numbers )

Thence down to Chinatown, where I was less thrilled with the buns than the last time I went to that bakery. Ah, well. Time to go wandering again.

Up at Union Square, nothing caught my eye at the Greenmarket, but I wandered down a street market/fair, where I picked up an Ecuadoran cotton shirt, the light-weight long-sleeved ones that are good against sunburn, and some pillowcases. The next stop was at porcinea's, to feed and water the animals, and comb Trouble. He's a fine fellow, and happy to sit with me while I read. Anya actually let me pet her today; Heather was aggressive and knocked some of her food onto the floor while I was trying to get it into her bowl. Stupid rabbit.

another gym post

I added a new machine to my workout today, after seeing someone else using it. This one works the upper calves: you sit, and when you raise your calves you're lifting however much weight you've put on the machine. I got one of the trainers to show me how to use it, and will probably be doing it at least semi-regularly: it's too easy for me to assume my legs are taken care of because of the amount of walking I do, but my actual weight work is skewed toward upper-body stuff, in part because of my knee problems.

( and the usual detailed numbers )

Thence down to Chinatown, where I was less thrilled with the buns than the last time I went to that bakery. Ah, well. Time to go wandering again.

Up at Union Square, nothing caught my eye at the Greenmarket, but I wandered down a street market/fair, where I picked up an Ecuadoran cotton shirt, the light-weight long-sleeved ones that are good against sunburn, and some pillowcases. The next stop was at porcinea's, to feed and water the animals, and comb Trouble. He's a fine fellow, and happy to sit with me while I read. Anya actually let me pet her today; Heather was aggressive and knocked some of her food onto the floor while I was trying to get it into her bowl. Stupid rabbit.

polysemy, pride, and sore knees

Back in September 2001, pnh posted something, to either Usenet or his LiveJournal, on the many different things the American flag means to the people who were flying it.

Here's another: the American flag was raised over the Castro, in place of the rainbow flag, to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling legalizing consensual sodomy. And I was reminded of something Patrick said, around that time: "I'm a patriot. I love my decadent, cosmopolitan, self-indulgent, racially-mixed, godless, intellectually dilettante, drug-abusing, promiscuous, queer-loving country. And its flag is the Stars and Stripes."

Part of why this comes to mind is that I don't think I'm going to be marching in the NY Gay Pride parade tomorrow. The heat and my knees and all make it look like a bad idea. (More likely I'll do an early animal-sitting run, then watch a while; porcinea lives half a block from the parade route, and supportive watchers are a good thing by the time you've walked a couple of miles on pavement in the June sun .) I don't mind not marching, or not as much as I did the first year I decided I couldn't. We have things to celebrate this year--things in the US as well as in Canada--but it is a celebration, not, or not only, a protest march. We're part of the ordinary fabric of this city--bank ads on telephone kiosks with Gay Pride tie-ins; subway posters advising riders which stations to use for the march, for the related PrideFest street fair, and the dance afterwards; a hotel concierge offhandedly advising a tourist against doing the tour bus thing tomorrow because "it's Gay Pride, traffic will be a mess."

I feel like thanking all of you, especially all of you who could easily have said it was nothing to do with you, and not spoken up for your friends, and for the gay and bi people you don't even know, but who all benefit when someone says or does the right thing. Thank you.

polysemy, pride, and sore knees

Back in September 2001, pnh posted something, to either Usenet or his LiveJournal, on the many different things the American flag means to the people who were flying it.

Here's another: the American flag was raised over the Castro, in place of the rainbow flag, to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling legalizing consensual sodomy. And I was reminded of something Patrick said, around that time: "I'm a patriot. I love my decadent, cosmopolitan, self-indulgent, racially-mixed, godless, intellectually dilettante, drug-abusing, promiscuous, queer-loving country. And its flag is the Stars and Stripes."

Part of why this comes to mind is that I don't think I'm going to be marching in the NY Gay Pride parade tomorrow. The heat and my knees and all make it look like a bad idea. (More likely I'll do an early animal-sitting run, then watch a while; porcinea lives half a block from the parade route, and supportive watchers are a good thing by the time you've walked a couple of miles on pavement in the June sun .) I don't mind not marching, or not as much as I did the first year I decided I couldn't. We have things to celebrate this year--things in the US as well as in Canada--but it is a celebration, not, or not only, a protest march. We're part of the ordinary fabric of this city--bank ads on telephone kiosks with Gay Pride tie-ins; subway posters advising riders which stations to use for the march, for the related PrideFest street fair, and the dance afterwards; a hotel concierge offhandedly advising a tourist against doing the tour bus thing tomorrow because "it's Gay Pride, traffic will be a mess."

I feel like thanking all of you, especially all of you who could easily have said it was nothing to do with you, and not spoken up for your friends, and for the gay and bi people you don't even know, but who all benefit when someone says or does the right thing. Thank you.