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Taking a break from being MIRED IN TAXES (it's really complicated this year. Partly due to DOMA, Prop 8, RDPs, and community property laws, and partly because we were lazy brokeasses last year and didn't file 2009's) to comment on this, since I glanced it on the home page, and I do feel strongly about this (plus it's relevant to my life).
Do you think kids should learn about sex in school, and why?
Yes, because it's a public health concern (among other things, such as population growth dynamics and societal costs), and because parents cannot be trusted to provide accurate information, if they even bother in the first place. There should be a standardized, comprehensive curriculum that does not consist only of "abstinence only lolol".
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I don't even know where to find reasonably-priced rings. I guess we'll have to go shopping.
But I didn't let a minor drawback like that stop me - although we've been registered domestic partners since last October, neither of us had specifically asked the other to marry him. Tonight, I did, and he said yes. (It may seem sort of silly to ask a question like that when we are already legally connected, but the RDP was done, on one level, out of convenience, so that I could have insurance benefits through him while I was unemployed. So this was more an affirmation, I guess.)
This may solve the naming issue we have: I don't much like "partner" (too vague, also brings to mind a business), "boyfriend" is too impermanent, and I feel like I don't have a proper claim to "husband" yet. ("Lover" is too '70s, but that one I've mostly only seen in the Tales of the City series.) But then, "fiancé" sounds almost pretentious, so I don't know. I may just stick with the awkward "This is Ryan, my ... boyfriend?" for now.
Of course, I've been closely following Perry v. Schwarzenegger's progress through the judicial system, not just because of its civil rights implications but also because I really do want to be married in California. But if it's going to be too many years before everything is settled (or if there's DOMA repeal in the near future, that would also be a factor, although unlikely in the 112th Congress), I don't know, we may just end up going to the Northeast to move on with our lives. But Perry is looking to turn out in our favor with reasonable speed, so we'll have to see. Plus, we're really going to have to save up money for the wedding, so that's a reasonable time buffer anyway.
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So! If you're not familiar with the Wii, one of its channels is a straw poll function. It breaks the statistics down by gender and by geographic state (neither of which usually have much of an impact). However, on the most recent question... "You found $20 while standing in line-- do you ask if it belongs to someone?" ( big imageCollapse )"Finders, keepers." in pink, "Yes, but softly." in green. If you can't tell from the image quality (it's a photo of the TV because we do not have proper screen capture whatevers), that's Utah in green, Idaho a lighter (more neutral) pink, and New York the strongest shade of pink. Which ... has some interesting implications. In other news! Still not dead. Work keeping me busy, and a combination of video games and social life is eating the rest of my time. But, I'm still reading my friends page regularly (and being quite active on Twitter and Google Reader).
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Did not get the job I applied for. (Found out today, interview was yesterday.) They told me I wasn't experienced enough with customer service; I guess that's just how it goes. Not really an entry-level position. Ryan had thought that my support experience would make up for it, but these days employers can afford to be choosy. I'm still keeping busy, though. Tomorrow we're seeing Amélie in a North Beach park, then on Sunday the opera is doing Aida in the ballpark a collection of arias in Golden Gate Park, and I apparently can't read my calendar (didn't end up going). There's so much going on all the time that I have to pick and choose what to see. FOMO is something I definitely deal with all the time here, and while it is frustrating at times (I overbook myself occasionally) it overwhelmingly beats the alternative, sitting around doing nothing wondering when something interesting will come to town. This is why I won't let myself live outside a major city. I also called the Department of Elections and signed up to be a poll inspector (the person who runs the precinct). I was a regular pollworker in the June primary and enjoyed it, civic pride etc., so we'll see how this goes. It's only a day of work, but it's something! It will be interesting to see how the primary differs from the election - there was rather low turnout for the primary (none of the Democratic races were particularly interesting, and the City trends strongly blue), even though there were important ballot issues. So I'm curious to see how many more people will show up for the general election, even if it is a midterm. Three things make a post; let's call it at that. I Feel...:  listless
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What are five things you love about where you live and five things that you hate? How does it compare to previous places you've lived?
Love: 1. I'm living in The City. Hands-down, favorite thing. I've wanted to do this ever since I first visited California in 2004. 2. The nearest library branch, though the size of a postage stamp, is about a thousand feet away (it's about two of the short blocks). 3. The rent is way below market value. Which is probably the only reason we can afford it at all. 4. We have a pullout couch-bed! It's provided with the apartment, but it lets us offer guests reasonable accommodation. Not only do I enjoy having guests, but I feel like I'm paying forward all the times people have let me crash on theirs. It's a good cycle to have. 5. This is actually the largest place I've had to myself, ever. In all my previous residences, I've either shared a room with someone (parents' first house, apartment, dorm room) or had only a bedroom to myself (parents' second house, college house). Now between Ryan and me we have a two-bedroom apartment to ourselves. Having space is nice. Hate: 1. We don't have a dishwasher. Both my and Ryan's loathing of handwashing dishes has grown exponentially. 2. There never seem to be enough counter or cabinet space. So things get kind of haphazardly thrown in meticulously organized. 3. The neighborhood, while safe and very quiet, is pretty distant from anything I find interesting, on the whole. It means that any kind of destination is at minimum 30 minutes away and often an hour. Not bad for not having a car, but there's nothing walkable besides the library and a couple convenience stores. 4. Related to that last one, I hate not having choices for public transit - we have what is essentially a single line, so if it's running late or having issues, that's it. It would be nice to live near a denser network of lines so that we have options. 5. The hill we live on is probably about 60ish feet up, vertically, from street level. It's mostly only a pain to climb when there's groceries, and it does build muscle, but it's often tiring. Compared to other places I've lived? Well, we hardly ever get above 80°F, so this is an automatic win. Temperature is that big a deal to me. Tags: writer's block
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Yesterday
