Christmas Luncheon

So, our Controller here in Financial Operations is buying everyone who is not off on vacation today lunch to thank us for covering the office. I thought this was particularly nice as she is Jewish. I mean this isn't even her Holiday, but she appreciates how much the Holidays mean to those of us who celebrate them, and is thanking us by personally paying for about a dozen pizzas or more.

If I don't have time later. Merry Christmas all!!!!!!

New Home

So, it looks like we are doing it. Today during lunch, I am driving over to the Arbor Woods Sales Office and dropping off a "Deposit" on a lot we are interested in building on. We are considering a Ranch Floor plan with 1,565 sq. ft. We are also adding a full walk-out basement. The deposit is contingent on them getting us into an existing version of the house to preview it. They have no model right now, so are trying to find a former purchaser to let us walk through their home. They have a lead right now. The second contingency is changing the staircase that leads downstairs. Currently, you have to go to the laundry room to get to the staircase. That doesn't work if we finish the basement. I mean who wants to walk therough the laundry room to go to finished space downstairs? So, needless to say, Patrick and I are pretty geeked right now. A little scared too. It will cost a bit more than we pay now which will have to come out of budget reductions and savings. So, especially over the next year, we will have to watch our budget very closely while we determine what we can afford to still do. So, assuming that this all works out, our house should be going up for sale in early spring! More later...

Ambercon
I haven't talked to Patrick about this yet, but I am assuming we may want to split a room with someone this year for the first time in a long time. Anyone know of anyone looking to do that?

Work
So, the building is near empty today, and the phone hasn't rung once. It is going to be a slow 2 days...

House Hunting
So, Patrick and I are still looking at houses, though lately we have been looking at New Construction Models. We stopped at some on Packard last night and liked them. No less they are 3 miles form home. So, we want to see another model of the floorplan we liked, which will eventually be located just off Golfside. We shall see. The price is slightly better than others we have seen, but it is much better located.

I am not sure I agree with this....

find your queer
as folk personality!

Which Edward Gorey Book Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

via Form Follows Function

This has matched every other Meyer-Briggs Result I have ever seen of myself.

ESTJ

You like to roll up your sleeves, dig in and go right at getting the job done. you use logic and analysis as guiding principles in your life. You're quick to decide and set out a plan of action. You make sure commitments (your own and those of others) are honored and the job gets done.

You value team sports, and other group activities. If something is the tradition of your job or school, you'll take part in it. You know that you have to "earn your keep" and take responsibility for yourself...you take your roles seriously (father, employee, student, or whatever).

You learn best in structured settings...you're a take charge kinda person.. you can deliver when there's a specific task with deadlines...you have an orderly and logical way of evaluating things..

You like a task-oriented and structured atmosphere...you get a thrill outta accomplishments and just having finished something...efficiency is important to you....with you, "what you see is what you get."

You are the prototypical leader. You give advice freely, you take charge, you wanna fix the problems...you are quick, direct, and crisp at getting to the core of the situation...others might look at you as tough, driven, or heartless, though..

You put work before pleasure, and know when to do which...fun time is often seen as a reward for accomplishing a task...you know that you should post on the Storm Palace message base before playing the games....right? :)... you don't just go for walks.. the walk hasta have a purpose...

Love means stability and steadfastedness...however, when you fall in love, this is pretty much the only time you'll be flexible and spontaneous... you expect security and loyalty in relationships...you logically expect that a relationship will have its ups and downs, so let the other person weather the tough times, when you should be helping perhaps...you don't like to let others see your hurt feelings....you're supersensitive to being rejected and may not always share that hurt...

Things to watch for: you might decide too quickly and to form opinions how things "ought to get done." But what happens when circumstances change? Also, don't walk on others feelings...it's part of working with others and you don't particularly consider this part often...when you get emotional and you've been holding stuff inside, a seemingly minor incident will set off an explosion...don't forget to consider others' values and opinions.

ESTJ: "Execution Saves The Job"

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Work
So, my boss left something on my desk yesterday, when I was out of the office. A little note attached to a presentation I spent 2 weeks setting up last December for his Internal Bank meeting. It said "Please update for Wednesday". While, I am kinda happy to know it will finally be presented to the management big-wigs.... I got one day to completely revamp a project which took me 2 weeks to create! A little warning would be nice! I got it done, but just barely.

Christmas
If none of my friends have guessed yet, I am high maintenance. It's true! Really! (I know you are all shocked.) So, I have been stressing about Christmas, buying gifts, decorating, wrapping. Last weekend, I bought and wrapped my last presents. WOO-HOO! Thank god. I was getting stressed about it not being finished. Now, do I want to get the outdoor lights on?

Interfirst Christmas Party
So, annually, Interfirst has an evening Christmas Party with open bar for their employees. Spouses and Significant Others not invited. Carla and I talked about this recently, and James doesn't go, because Carla can't. Patrick told me last night that he is not going, because I can't. Yay for them. Yay for us. Carla and James, shall we do dinner out in place of the party? Call us.

What's Your Movie Dream Car?

by Auto Glass America

So, in the last 3 days, I figure I have spent maybe an hour with my boyfriend all said and done. Thank God we live together or we wouldn't have the five minutes in the morning, and few minutes in the evening we have now. So, he is going to be home tonight...a major deadline on his project happening today. I, of course, have a volunteer commitment tonight. Something I have been working towards for almost a year is finally moving along. WRAP is sending out a mailing tonight talking about our new Endowment at the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.

Since many people don't know what an Endowment is... (I've learned this while working as the Endowment and Investment Accounting Supervisor at U of M.)... Here you go... An Endowment is a sum of money invested, and never spent. A certain fixed percentage (typically about 5%) of it's Market Value is made available each year for spending. Any additional earnings over 5% (the market historically returns about 11-12%) is added to the principal to increase future earnings to offset inflation and grow the real distributions. Basically, when you set up an Endowment, you set up a perpetual income stream. A very nice thing for a charity. I have worked with AAACF, and WRAP for almost a year to get to this point. I even had them write into the agreement that if WRAP should cease to exist in the future, the distributions will benefit other Gay/Bisexual/Lesbian/Transgender charities in the area. Thus, ensuring that the distributions help the community that is going to fund it. For now though, it will benefit WRAP. AAACF also has very lucrative bonuses provided to donors via the state government. As always, your charitable contribution is tax deductible on your federal taxes. The state has made a law which also makes them a 50% tax CREDIT on your state taxes. (ie. Over the course of the year you pay taxes to the state... Anything you give to the AAACF, up to $200 for individuals, $400 for couples and $5,000 for businesses is a state tax credit for 50% of the gift, meaning if I give $200, then I reduce my michigan tax bill by $100. So conceivably, after taxes, a gift to an AAACF Endowment of $200 could cost me as little as about $70 bucks. It is an amazing fundraising tool. I am very excited about the possibilities for the community in the future.

I know many friends are out of work right now, but if anyone would like to donate to this worthy cause, please let me know.

Ambercon

So, I early registered Patrick and I for Ambercon today. I even paypalled (is that a word now?) the money to Liz. I think there should be instructions, on the page that tells you how much you owe, which tell you what email to use. But, I think Kris reads this Blog....so maybe she will add them. This shall be my test to see if she reads it!

Patrick and I generally rent 2 connecting rooms (both King Size) with other people for Ambercon, so that gaming in the rooms is more possible. It allows for more space when the doors between rooms are opened up during the day. We need to find some people for this year. We need to do it early to ensure we can get connecting King rooms. We shall see.

Pookie
The Pookie has been sick, and stressed. I can' wait for school to be over for the semester. I hate to see him like this. *sigh*

A History Lesson

From www.enqueue.com

Pink Triangle and Related Symbols
The pink triangle is easily one of the more popular and widely-recognized symbols for the gay community. The pink triangle is rooted in World War II times, and reminds us of the tragedies of that era. Although homosexuals were only one of the many groups targeted for extermination by the Nazi regime, it is unfortunately the group that history often excludes. The pink triangle challenges that notion, and defies anyone to deny history.

The history of the pink triangle begins before WWII, during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Paragraph 175, a clause in German law prohibiting homosexual relations, was revised by Hitler in 1935 to include kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts. Convicted offenders -- an estimated 25,000 just from 1937 to 1939 -- were sent to prison and then later to concentration camps. Their sentence was to be sterilized, and this was most often accomplished by castration. In 1942 Hitler's punishment for homosexuality was extended to death.

Each prisoner in the concentration camps wore a colored inverted triangle to designate their reason for incarceration, and hence the designation also served to form a sort of social hierarchy among the prisoners. A green triangle marked its wearer as a regular criminal; a red triangle denoted a political prisoner. Two yellow triangles overlapping to form a Star of David designated a Jewish prisoner. The pink triangle was for homosexuals. A yellow Star of David under a superimposed pink triangle marked the lowest of all prisoners -- a gay Jew.

Stories of the camps depict homosexual prisoners being given the worst tasks and labors. Pink triangle prisoners were also a proportionally large focus of attacks from the guards and even other inmates. Although the total number of the homosexual prisoners is not known, official Nazi estimates were an underwhelming 10,000.

Although homosexual prisoners reportedly were not shipped en masse to the death camps at Auschwitz, a great number of gay men were among the non-Jews who were killed there. Estimates of the number of gay men killed during the Nazi regime range from 50,000 to twice that figure. When the war was finally over, countless many homosexuals remained prisoners in the camps, because Paragraph 175 remained law in West Germany until its repeal in 1969.

In the 1970s, gay liberation groups resurrected the pink triangle as a popular symbol for the gay rights movement. Not only is the symbol easily recognized, but it draws attention to oppression and persecution -- then and now. In the 1980s, ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) began using the pink triangle for their cause. They inverted the symbol, making it point up, to signify an active fight back rather than a passive resignation to fate. Today, for many the pink triangle represents pride, solidarity, and a promise to never allow another Holocaust to happen again.

Like the pink triangle, the black triangle is also rooted in Nazi Germany. Although lesbians were not included in the Paragraph 175 prohibition of homosexuality, there is evidence to indicate that the black triangle was used to designate prisoners with anti-social behavior. Considering that the Nazi idea of womanhood focused on children, kitchen, and church, black triangle prisoners may have included lesbians, prostitutes, women who refused to bear children, and women with other "anti-social" traits. As the pink triangle is historically a male symbol, the black triangle has similarly been reclaimed by lesbians and feminists as a symbol of pride and solidarity.

Reportedly, the burgundy triangle may have been used to designate transgendered prisoners. Unfortunately, I have not yet found a resource to substantiate this suggestion.

Rainbow Pride and Related Symbols
The rainbow flag has become the easily-recognized colors of pride for the gay community. The multicultural symbolism of the rainbow is nothing new -- Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition also embraces the rainbow as a symbol of that political movement. The rainbow also plays a part in many myths and stories related to gender and sexuality issues in Greek, Native American, African, and other cultures.

Use of the rainbow flag by the gay community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Borrowing symbolism from the hippie movement and black civil rights groups, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in response to a need for a symbol that could be used year after year. Baker and thirty volunteers hand-stitched and hand-dyed two huge prototype flags for the parade. The flags had eight stripes, each color representing a component of the community: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.

The next year Baker approached San Francisco Paramount Flag Company to mass-produce rainbow flags for the 1979 parade. Due to production constraints -- such as the fact that hot pink was not a commercially-available color -- pink and turquoise were removed from the design, and royal blue replaced indigo. This six-color version spread from San Francisco to other cities, and soon became the widely-known symbol of gay pride and diversity it is today. It is even officially recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers. In 1994, a huge 30-foot-wide by one-mile-long rainbow flag was carried by 10,000 people in New York's Stonewall 25 Parade.

The rainbow flag has inspired a wide variety of related symbols, such as freedom rings and other accessories. There are plenty of variations of the flag, including versions with a blue field of stars reminiscent of the American Stars and Stripes and versions with superimposed lambdas, pink triangles, or other symbols.

Sodomy is defined as abnormal sex, in some states including anal and oral sex. Nine states ban consensual sodomy for everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. In addition, Texas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma punish only homosexual sodomy.

So, the Supreme Court is to decide on Sodomy Laws, and Gay Rights. Texas has a law which allows Heterosexual couples the right to have consensual oral or anal sex, but homosexual couples are subject to a $500 fine.

Thus says CNN. I am listening to NPR right now, and some FUCKING IDIOT is blathering on about "if the Supreme Court overturns this law, it would invalidate Marriage laws in every state, and then Men could marry men...." My response...."Thank God."