I’m officially blaming it on gas prices, which probably isn’t too far off the mark. Metro ridership in D.C. is way up, and recently hit a new record.
Metro says it counted 854,638 riders on Friday, beating the old record by 4,000 passenger trips. Officials attribute the spike to a Washington Nationals baseball game, a Women of Faith Conference at the Verizon Center and tourists visiting the city.
So far, 20 of Metrorail’s top 25 highest ridership days in its 32-year history have been recorded this year. Many of the busiest days are generated by baseball games or big events like the Cherry Blossom Festival or the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
No wonder I can’t find a seat on the Metro. I used to let packed trains go by, because I could be almost certain that I would get a seat on the next train. That means I’d be able to take out the laptop and use that little bit of quiet time between work and home to catch up on some of the stuff I’ve been wanting to read.
But the trains are all crowded now, and by the time the third packed train goes by, I have to get on or get home late. So, what’s a guy to do?
I going to try and spend some time today working on a couple of things I’ve wanted to write, but haven’t found time for lately. So, since I’m not sure how much actually blogging will be going on here today, it seems like a good time to post a round-up of some of the more interesting blog posts and news items I’ve seen in the past week or so. (And earlier, since I’m perpetually behind on my blog reading these days.)
I ‘ve often been told that being gay is all in my head. Well, it’s true. Actually, it’s in my brain. Thus, I think like a girl.
This reminds me of my days as co-director of the LGBT student group in college. Once a semester, we’d spend at least one meeting sitting in a circle, telling our coming our stories when new members showed up. We stopped after we realize we could go around the room and tell each others’ stories.
How gay am I? How gay are you? Well, it’s anybody’s guess. But there’s a questionnaire that, while it won’t provide an answer, seems like an interesting diversion on an afternoon when I’m running on about two hour of sleep. I found it at Put ‘Em All On an Island, who got it from HiStoriesOfSex, who got it from wonder boy, who got it from addaboy, and after that I lost the thread.
Still, I’m too brain dead to think of anything serious to blog about. So, I’m joining the daisy chain. Check the questions after the jump, and feel free to chime in.
Well, maybe not, but I’m betting that some of his so-called followers are hating Google Ads right about now. If they’re paying attention. My boss showed me this site. Actually, it was more like I heard him laughing and wondered over to see what was so funny.
I tried to do it last year, and just couldn’t. Now Shutdown Day is upon us again.
Shutdown Day is a Global Internet Experiment whose purpose is to get people to think about how their lives have changed with the increasing use of the home computer, and whether or not any good things are being lost because of this.
The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple - just shutdown your computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and family - whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a world outside your monitor screen.
Michael Taylor, the original partner in the idea of Shutdown Day, says
“I certainly could not and would not want to live without my computer. However, I am often drawn into spending hours chatting on MSN, simply because my friends are online instead of socialising face to face. I am often too busy to cook a proper dinner, because I want to see the latest news on digg.com or the latest YouTube video. I know parents who are so addicted to the computer that they spend little time with their children, and I also know children who do not spend time with their parents because they are always using the computer. We are not preaching to anyone to turn off their computers. We are just suggesting that people might like to take part in this experiment, and see what happens.”
It’s been a while since I asked this question, but it seems like as good a time as any, since my own answer has changed since the last time.
Are you a blogger? If so, how do you do it? What tools do you use to read and keep track of blogs? What tools do you use to create and post content to your blog?
I’m sometimes amazed at the search queries that lead people to this blog. I don’t know that this will do anything for my Google ranking, but apparently this blog is among the top results if you Google “gay vegetarian mac user.”
A new feature I’m toying with maybe adding. Just for fun.
There are so many stories I come across in my daily reading of news and blogs that inspire the question, “What the fuck is wrong with people?” that I’ve started thinking it might make a good idea for a comic strip.
OK. So, I’ll admit I’ve always wished I could draw, and I always thought it would be cool to be a cartoonist. However, my sister was blessed with the visual arts talent in our family. (She’s always been a talented artist.) I, on the other hand, never made it past drawing stick people in the margins of my notebooks in school.
I’ve been toying with various comic strip tools online, though, and I think I may have found a way around my inability to draw.
Back to blogging meta, I guess. I don’t know what’s going on up there at the pinnacle of blogging. From where I sit, it’s impossible to see beyond the clouds to the peak. But something’s going on. First there was blog related stress and heart attacks at GigaOm. Now the New York Times is again covering the travails of top tier bloggers, this time with an article suggesting that Gawker may have “jumped the shark.”
“THE ideal Gawker item,” Nick Denton, the owner of Gawker Media, wrote in an instant message last month to a prospective hire, “is something triggered by a quote at a party, or an incident, or a story somewhere else and serves to expose hypocrisy, or turn conventional wisdom on its head.
“And it’s 100 words long.
“200 max.
“Any good idea can be expressed at that length.”
A few weeks later on Gawker.com, the news-media gossip Web site that is the flagship of Mr. Denton’s online publishing empire, he spent 339 words explaining changes at the site, including his decision to take over as managing editor after three senior bloggers had quit, and the hiring of Richard Morgan to cover television.
One day later, on Jan. 3, Mr. Morgan also quit. In an interview, he said that Mr. Denton, in his fixation with attracting new readers, was letting the site degenerate.
The next day a new Gawker blogger assigned to cover pop culture posted 406 words summarizing some of the most popular scatological sex videos on the Web, with links.
Within minutes, some longtime readers were posting comments asking, in a reference to the cliché that has come to mean something or someone has lost touch with its roots and has no more cultural relevance, whether Gawker had jumped the shark.
Today is a big day for the hate crimes act, according to Congressional Quarterly.
The conference report on the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill (HR 1585) is expected to be released as early as Tuesday, and members of the Armed Services panels hope to clear the measure before heading home for the Thanksgiving Day recess.
That means the hate crimes act will be heading for the president’s desk soon. So, it seemed like a good time to post a list of all the cases I’ve researched and written up thus far for the LGBT Hate Crimes Project.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m researching and writing up cases of anti-trans or anti-trans-related hate crimes between now and the Transgender Day of Remembrance. I’ll have two new cases up in the next couple of days. But for now, here’s a full list of the cases compiled thus far, by last name of victims where known and/or appropriate.
It’s been a strange week for me and presidential campaigns. First, I get a phone call from the Hillary Clinton campaign about a volunteer meeting. Me? Volunteer for Hillary? When did I sign up for that? And why? I couldn’t have been drunk, because I haven’t had a drink in 15 years or more. And I tend to waive off those people with the clipboards.
I’m still trying to figure that one out when I get an email that Barrack Obama wants to be my friend n some social network. And I’m not talking about Facebook. That I can understand. But Barrack Obama with a profile on a gay social nework? What are his evangelist friends gonna say about this? See, a while back I registered with GLEE, a gay social network. Well, not just gay. GLEE stands for “Gay, Lesbian & Everyone Else.” And I guess that’s where Barrack comes in.
I was fortunate to be able to grow up seeing America from varied viewpoints. My childhood was spent in Hawaii and Indonesia. After college I worked as a community organizer on the South side of Chicago focusing on improving living conditions in poor neighborhoods.
I came to understand that to truly solve the problems facing our communities, it would take a change in our laws and our politics. I ran and served for seven years in the Illinois state Senate, where I fought for expanding children’s health care, providing tax cuts for the working poor and enacting welfare reform. In 2004, I was elected to the U.S. Senate, where I have worked to pass laws securing dangerous weapons and making government more accountable. I have also opposed the Iraq war from the start, and believe that we need to bring our troops home by March of 2008 so we can refocus on the wider struggle against terrorism.
So, which is more surprising? That Obama has a profile on a gay social network? Or what that profile doesn’t say?
The Electronic Village has a post listing the top 10 black bloggers, according to Technorati, and this blog is on it.
While floating through the blogosphere I came across a listing of the 50 most influential bloggers. I noted that there were no bloggers of African descent on the list. Of course, there are millions of bloggers out there so I understand why Black bloggers might be overlooked. But, the point of creating The AfroSpear was so that we can learn from one another. As such, I propose to publish a monthly list of the Top Ten Black Bloggers.
The only qualification is that the blogger needs to be of African descent. The blogger does not have to be a member of The AfroSpear or the Afrosphere Bloggers Association. Of course, we invite all Black bloggers to join either (or both) of those fledging organizations. These Top Ten Black Bloggers are influential role models for the rest of us out here in the afrosphere.
Yeah, i saw that list of the 50 most influential bloggers and, just as I suspected, I wasn’t on it. And I don’t think I made the cut for D.C.’s new young blogging elite either. I have been called many things and will be called many more, but influential and elite haven’t often been among them.
You discover all sorts of things, when you check out your incoming links. Like the fact that Matthew Yglesias is apparently all moved in to his new home at Think Progress, and has added me to his blogroll. I've returned the favor, which reminds me that it's probably time I updated the blogroll again...
I probably shouldn't say this, but I work on K Street. I've even bumped into Robert Novak once, when we were both pedestrians, crossing the street in opposite directions. Now, I'll have remember to keep an eye out, and look both ways before I cross the street, lest Robert Novak run into me.
I don't really care about the Madonna/Alex Rodriguez affair story, because I'm not married to either of them. But in this day and age why would anyone (who's not "in the business" and getting paid for it) intentionally record their sexcapades on video? Why, when there are a thousand different ways for someone to get and distribute that video? How dumb do you have to be to make a 'sex tape' nowadays?
Maybe I'm taking this the wrong way, and I know these aren't Warren Buffett’s actual words of widsom, but nothing irritates me more than hearing things like "Happiness comes from within," and "Find happiness in simple pleasures." From a billionaire? Easy for him to say...
Gimmick or no gimmick, I would sodance with Lance. Hey, I took ballroom dancing in college, and was pretty good at it. Later, I learned to two-step in a gay C&W bar, and was pretty popular because I was a good follower. Not like dragging around a sack of potatoes. So, Lance, you can lead if you want to...
I knew there was a reason I'm not buying an iPhone today. (Besides the fact that I don't "need" one, and the reality that I don't need to spend that much on a tech purchase. It looks like Apple's having a pretty bad day, along with people who did buy iPhones that currently don't work due to server problems.
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