There’s a new ad going around in Australia which is probably the best ad for marriage equality that I’ve seen yet. The video is embedded below, but it shows normal life and how two people want to just be together. It’s not about gay marriage, people. It’s about marriage. Such a simple video, such a powerful message.
As promised, the winner of the recent Shutterfly Contest I held is being announced via this post. As luck would have it though, I had received several codes but a family member ended up not wanting a code, so the other two entrants are both winners! Everybody wins! :-)
Congrats to Lori and Jaime and thanks to everyone for sharing your favorite holiday memory. Thanks also as this was the first “contest” I’ve ever ran and although only three people posted, it was still fun! Details and promotion codes have been sent to the winners via email.
Today marks the day the Earth’s population surpassed 7 billion. While there have been more than 7 billion people on earth, never before have so many people been alive at one point. Want to know where you fall on this chart? Visit the BBC to find out. The above info-graphic is my place in the world.
© Salbjörg Rita Jónsdóttir, Flickr
The last few nights I’ve actually remembered a few dreams that I’ve had. I used to remember some of them years ago, but haven’t remembered anything after I woke up for many years now.
While I was a bit sad about that, it did give me the ability to sleep through an entire night and wake up with a fresh mind. The past two nights though have been different. Last night I had a dream that was creepy, but Tuesday night’s dream is what stands out in my mind.
In the dream, for some reason I was in a computer store to have my netbook repaired (I work on computers all the time and would very rarely ever take it in somewhere and let anyone else work on my technology). I’m not sure why exactly, but somehow it came up that I was gay and the woman at the counter refused to give me service. It’s pretty vague since it was just a dream, but she said something to another person about how she made her views clear at their last meeting. The other person tried to comfort me since I was visibly upset and I was about to cry. I think it was about then that I woke up.
While that’s pretty disjointed and lacking lots of details, it was an interesting insight into my subconscious. At least consciously I don’t consider myself to be discriminated against at least in certain areas. I definitely am by the government, but never have been by any business or by any specific person. It showed me that although I am not being actively discriminated against personally, that it is still something very much on my mind and was eye-opening.
Dreams provide us with an opportunity to let the mind run free with ideas uninhibited by moral, ethical and social constraints. They allow us to explore anything and everything that could possibly be thought of. While sometimes these can he horrifying or amazingly magical, sometimes they are instead about ideas that hold much deeper meaning and, if you’re lucky enough to remember those dreams once you’ve woken up, can show you more about yourself than you ever realized existed.
It’s coming up on that time of the year again to start preparing for Christmas. This year will be especially busy as we will be going to China again. It has been nearly three years since we’ve gone back and seen Justin’s family. There is a lot of preparation work that goes into a trip of this scale along with time and money.
It’s good then that Shutterfly is making other parts of Christmas preparation easy for me. I will be using them again this year for our yearly Christmas cards. The first year we had used Kodak but used Shutterfly last year which I think was a better experience. Last year we went with the design on the left. While I was happy with the design, etc I was highly disappointed in how the pictures of Justin and I turned out but it’s my fault, not Shutterfly’s. We had very bad lighting conditions and I hope that this year’s card is of a higher quality. A few things helping in that area are that we know more now about how to use our Canon camera but also we now have a nice flash for it that should help.
Shutterfly has an almost overwhelming number of possible designs and layouts available, from their holiday cards to Christmas cards to standard photo Christmas cards. While there is a very large number of cards available, it is quite nice to have such a range of choices and not have to do the same thing every year.
Last year Shutterfly sponsored my cards and supplied them for free which was quite nice. This year they have taken it to the next step and supplied me with an extra promotional code for 25 free cards for my readers. Post in the comments below what your favorite holiday memory is to win. I’ll pick a winner at random on November 19 and contact you via email.
*Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by an offer from Shutterfly for 50 free holiday cards for bloggers.
*Contest Rules: Contest is open from October 25 2011 – November 18 2011 11:59PM. One winner will be picked at random and will receive a coupon code for 25 free cards from Shutterfly. Shipping/tax charges may apply.
Today the world has lost a truly visionary man with the passing of Steve Jobs. I wish his family the best during this difficult time.
More information can be found at Apple’s site
On Tuesday Justin and I went to a show in Leob Playhouse called “Amazing China.” It was sponsored by the Confucius Institute. Students from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Symphony Orchestra performed various pieces of music from traditional chines songs to the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. The slideshow below is a taste of the dance and songs from the show.
Watch the video above to see a great interview from Sirius XM radio host Michelangelo Signorile interviewing North Carolina GOP State Sen. James Forrester.
It’s a great interview where Signorile brings calm reasoning to a State Senator who can’t answer simple questions and bring horrible bias and extremely bad incorrect “facts” to introduce legislation to ban same-sex marriage.
Yesterday marked the official repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the US Millitary’s ban on gay servicemen from serving openly. Above is a video produced by one military man (Randy Phillips) coming out to his Dad yesterday.
http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/airmanfollow.html
After work today, Justin and I went to the College of Engineering 2011 Graduate Dinner. I (of course) went as Justin’s spouse and you had your choice of either Chick-Fil-A or Jimmy Johns. Why would I possibly pick Jimmy Johns when I could have me some delicious Chick-Fil-A?!
After eating we snagged ourselves a picture with the coolest cow in the land!
