Amazing, Simply Amazing!

May 24, 2010

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Ted Freitas,  a VIP around here, owns Central Point Networks.  They’ve recently created a service for home computer users that protects computers and networks from just about anything on the internet!  It just amazes me what they can do with computers.  For instance….

I’ve been having some problems with my main computer.  Part of a home network, it’s recently been sluggish, refusing to find websites, loading only parts of pages, and taking forever to boot up.  I complained to Ted about it recently, just in passing, and he had me install his new service so he could take a look at my system.  Well, I don’t know what he and his techs over at CPN did today while I was asleep, but the difference is night and day!  Pages load in a snap, like they used to, and the computer alternates between programs without pouting about being made to work!

{Shameless plug} Surf on over to CPN (Central Point Networks, LLC) and check out the new Computer Club service.  Well worth the price, it will insure your computers run like the screaming eagles you remember when you first started using them.  Don’t let the malware, viruses,  and other computer ills drag your computer down.  Have Ted and CPN on guard 24/7!

QueerVisalia’s Pride In The Park hits the newspaper

May 24, 2010

Jim Reeves Gay, News, Personal , , , , Leave a comment

Monday’s Visalia Times Delta contains a short article about Saturday’s Pride in the Park celebration put on by QueerVisalia.  Although I thought the usage of  “alternate lifestyle” was a bit odd, overall I’m happy with the article.  I was mentioned by name in the article, so there’s that.  😉

Attendance was less than the previous two years, and we’re still trying to decide just why that might have been.  We’ll be kicking around ideas for next year’s event during the next weeks and months.  If you have any suggestions, be sure to send them along.

In the meantime, keep checking back at the online article, the comments are sure to get interesting, and probably maddening!

Busy Saturday! PITP, SFGMC, more!

May 23, 2010

Jim Reeves Gay, News, Personal, Pictures , , 2 Comments

Katie, Kristeen, Amanda help kick off Pride in the Park 3

One of the big problems with working swing shifts forever, is that your body is trained, and firm in it’s patterns, about going to bed late, and rising late.  When something requires an early start, the body (mine anyway) doesn’t really see the need to cooperate.  I’m not one who can change my pattern on short notice, so I didn’t get much sleep the day before the festivities.   We had a fun 5 hours in Plaza Park, at Queer Visalia’s third annual Pride in the Park picnic and BBQ.  The weather was wonderful (a tad chilly for skinny guys like me whenever the sun went behind one of the cottonball looking clouds blowing overhead) but sunshiny and warm.  We avoided the 95+ degree temperatures of PitP’s of the past, and enjoyed a great afternoon of burgers, hotdogs, volleyball, and socializing.  Jesse brought his new puppy, and of course was the center of attention showing him off!  I neglected to get a picture, sorry!

After Pride in the Park, I went to Fresno to see the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus at the Tower Theater.

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

They came, they sang, they wore pink cowboy hats!  (in one song)  Such a powerful and moving performance, having the audience in tears one moment, and roaring in laughter the next.  The Fresno Gay Men’s Chorus also performed, doing several songs, my favorite which was “Color in Colorado”… very good!

Dinner afterwards at Livingstone’s, then home.  A busy day celebrating Visalia Pride and Harvey Milk Day!  This is the first annual Harvey Milk Day in California, as passed by the state legislature and signed by Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Harvy would have turned 80 yesterday.

More pics of the day after the jump.

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Last Flight of the Shuttle Atlantis

May 14, 2010

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Space Shuttle Atlantis Photo Credit NASA

As of this writing, the Space Shuttle Atlantis sits on the pad at Kennedy Space Center Florida, ready for today’s liftoff on a mission to the International Space Station.  Barring any last-minute reprieves, this will be Atlantis’ last flight.  After this mission,  Orbiter OV-104,  first flown in 1985,  will be removed from service as NASA retires the Shuttle fleet.  There are only a few more flights remaining in the construction of the International Space Station, and once those flights are done, the shuttle program will be ended.  The orbiters will be safed, and shipped off to various museums and institutions for display.

Once the last Space Shuttle lands sometime in 2011, the United States will have no manned access to space.  While there is an impressive list of rockets in NASA’s fleet, once the Shuttles are retired, American astronauts will only be able to go into space on the rockets of other nations, primarily Russia.

Essentially, the only way for the United States to access it’s Space Station is to hail a cab.

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Advanced Dispatcher Training

May 12, 2010

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So for the past two days, I’ve been dragging my ass backside out of bed at 7am to attend “Advanced Dispatcher” training.  Held out at our “Training Facility” at Sequoia Field, the class starts at 8am.  As you can imagine, 8 am comes damned early to someone who is usually just entering REM sleep about that time!  15 + years of swing shift does not allow easy shifting of one’s biological rhythms!  One more day, then I’ll have a nice certificate that will tell all assorted and sundry individuals that I am a certified advanced dispatcher.  And that I really CAN get up at 7am, if I have to.  I will hate it, but I can.

Three of us from TCSO are attending, several from VPD,  Kings County, and surprisingly, Turlock and Tracy PD sent dispatchers all the way to Visalia’s boon-docks for the class.

The training is out at our offices at Sequoia Field, a WWII era pilot training facility.  Remodeled who knows how many times, several Sheriff’s Department offices are housed at the site.  It creates an interesting mix of the old and new.

One more day, and we’re done.  The two days so far have been interesting, and I feel that I’ve learned some things.  One, that all dispatchers are nuts, and two, that we all have the same problems!

The instructor is an interesting fellow, good speaker, tells some interesting stories, and is a fellow HAM radio operator!  With an repertoire like that, there’s no way the class can be boring.  The last day will be a different teacher, and rumors have been floated about her…  “different”…  methodology.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  I’ve heard things about a guitar, and candles.

Yeah, Thursday might be very interesting!

UPDATE: THURSDAY after the fold…

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Homosexual Families Don’t Count

May 10, 2010

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Merlin Bartz, Iowa State Senator

This man does not believe your family should be treated the same as other families.

Merlin Bartz, a state Senator in Iowa, is trying to block the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from changing the wording of regulations regarding camping sites at state parks.   The regulations in question refer to the ability of a family group to pitch more than one tent in a campsite.  In one part of the regulations, a reference is made to “mother, father, children”.   “They’re citing the Supreme Court case and changing, you know, ‘husband and wife’ language to ’spouse,’ ” Bartz is quoted at RadioIowa. (He’s not even getting the regulation he doesn’t want changed correct!  It’s clear it’s not well functioning state campsites he’s worried about!)

Iowa’s Supreme Court ruled in April 2009 that denying same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The court overturned the Iowa Defense of Marriage Act, in effect legalizing same sex marriage.  The ruling was unanimous. As government agencies move to make their regulations reflect the law, right wing forces have tried to prevent those changes.

Even after we’ve won, we can’t relax our vigilance.  The forces of hate will still be out there, and they’ll still think we’re evil.

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No Reason

May 9, 2010

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I just felt like it, that’s why.

Happy Mother’s Day

all you mothers!

Oh, Daffy was yelling something about not doing it, but I think he’s just jealous that he’s not in center frame.  Talk about a camera hog!

I Hate It When I Get Squashed!

May 3, 2010

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iPhone Fun

May 1, 2010

Jim Reeves Humor, Personal , , , 1 Comment

Have an iPhone? Here’s a fun way to waste a little time…

Download the Bing application from the App Store.  Open it and press the microphone icon in the upper right hand portion of the screen.  Now say any word or phrase, sit back, and wait to be amused.

I don’t think my phone speaks English!  Some of the things it came up with had me in stitches…  especially when I started saying things like “Visalia, California”.  It got California, but it had no clue and wasn’t even close to “Visalia”.

Anyway, download Bing and have at it.  Oh, and does anyone else find it odd that Bing has an app that was approved by Apple?  Isn’t that a bit going over to the Dark Side-ish?

BoobQuake Results In – Earth Shrugs At Immodest Women

April 29, 2010

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Photo by David Collins

What happens when a self-proclaimed “liberal, geeky, nerdy, scientific, perverted atheist feminist trapped in Indiana” dashes off a snarky response to Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi’s comments that immodest women corrupt men and cause earthquakes?  BOOBQUAKE!

On April 19, 2010, Jen McCreight dashed off some comments on her blog, Blag Hag, before running off to watch one of  her favorite TV shows. Little did she suspect what her little spur of the moment missive would become!

On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that’s your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I’m sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn’t rumble. And if we really get through to him, maybe it’ll be one involving plate tectonics.

Well, the internet being what it is, and the general response by straight males (and plenty of women, as well)  to anything to do with boobs, it took off.  Read the initial blog post by Jen here. The BOOBQUAKE event took place, and the results are in!

Jen has been interviewed by media around the world, including the BBC and CNN.  Quite the subject for her 15 minutes of fame, huh?  Even though I can only appreciate boobs from a purely aesthetic point of view, all I can say is,  you go girl!


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