Which Desperate Housewife Are You?

I just took a quiz to find out which Desperate Housewife I am. I figured I would probably be a Susan, and sure enough I am. If I were straight, the quiz says I should be married to Lynette… I can see that too, but if I were single I would want Carlos!! Carlos is hot!! I really enjoy this show. I loved Sex and the City and this has become my replacement since that ended.

Susan
Susan…My Alter Ego?
lynette
Lynette…my Wife?
carlos
Carlos…Hot!

Kudos: ABC

A New Year for Weight Loss

The New Year is here and I am really gonna lose weight in the next 12 months! I figure if I write it here, I might be more successful. I used my old, dusty treadmill yesterday and today. I am also writing down everything I am eating. My start weight is 265 and my goal is 180… a total of 85lbs to lose! I plan to exercise everyday and eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. I hope that this is the last time I have to do this. I have lost this weight at least 3 time now! I will create a separate catagory or those of you who would like to follow my weight loss.

Brokeback Mountain or To Thine Own Self Be True

Tonight we saw one of the most talked about films of 2005, Brokeback Mountain. It opened in a limited amount of theaters several weeks ago, but now has reached our local AMC megaplex. The film is very rich in image and story. The acting is top notch all the way. My only complaint is that Heath Ledger mumbles an awful lot of his dialogue. Ledger’s character is a man of few words, so when he speaks you assume it must be important. Unfortunately, some of it is unintelligible. I can’t wait till the DVD version so I can turn on closed captioning! brokeback

I really felt for the women in the picture. It must be a terrible feeling when you find out that your husband prefers to be with a man over you! I kept thinking about gay marriage. If society were more accepting of homosexuals, so many men would not have been forced to “live a lie”, in a loveless marriage. Society and some religious doctrine have done so much damage when they insist that homosexuality is not an intrinsic part of a person’s personality. They dismiss it as sin and thus create a terrible conflict within the child or adult who faces his/her sexuality. If it is sin, then I can choose to be straight. I really wish that heterosexuals could walk in a gay person’s shoes for a moment. What would happen if they were confronted with the idea that heterosexual love is wrong and they should choose not pursue it? What if the majority of people they meet were homosexual? How many healthy, happy, heterosexuals would there be? Not many, I’ll bet. In contradiction to the best available scientific evidence, I am gonna go way out on a limb here and say that maybe there are some people who actually sit down and make a decision to be gay or straight. I can tell you for certain that I have never met one, and I bet that most people who tell me it is a choice haven’t either. The religious right want us to change our behavior, but they can’t change who we are inside. Just as in Brokeback Mountain, we can marry, have kids and avoid having sexual relations with who we really want to, but that doesn’t change who we are… just our outward appearance. How does supressing the truth we know about ourselves glorify God or help the people we choose to lie too?

The biggest problem I have with the concept of “homosexuality as sin” is that it creates an atmosphere of hatred. If society believes that we are choosing to do things that are “wrong”, we are looked upon as immoral or “just plain bad”. We are taught from an early age that if we do bad things we will be punished. In some parts of our country, and in some parts of the world, people who do bad things are even executed! Ask yourself. Do you feel upset when a criminal goes to jail? Or a murderer is shot? If these people deserve it, then why shouldn’t a Mathew Sheppard or a Teena Brandon? Unfortunately, the concept of “homosexuality as sin” has created many people who think that their deaths were justified. I mean, after all, they were bad people anyway. If we teach that homosexuality is wrong, we are teaching that homosexuals are bad and should be punished, and that it is ok to deny them the their right to happiness. It is sad that situations depicted in Brokeback Mountain actually have happend and continue to happen. Two people should never be denied to express the love they have for one another.

Brokeback Mountain may be a fictional story, but one of its lessons is true whether you are straight or gay… to thine own self be true.

Gay Marriage Petition Fraud

I am so outraged! Recently I went to the website, knowthyneighbor.org ,to see which of my “friends” and neighbors had signed a petition to ban marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts. I was shocked to see that my best friend and staunch gay rights supporter had signed the petition! I called her immediately to get the full story. It turns out that the petition taker told her that the petition was in support of marriage for gays and lesbians and was presented alongside a petition to allow the sale of liquor in grocery stores. She is, of course, outraged, and is filling out a form to have her name removed. It has been reported that many signatures where obtained under false pretenses. I am in disbelief as to the magnitude of this situation. If people who are as well meaning as my friend have been duped, how many other people have been manipulated the same way? Why are there no checks and balances to prevent this from happening? I urge anyone reading this in Massachusetts to visit knowthyneighbor.org and find out if people they know have signed the list. Unfortunately, I am sure that many people have signed legitimately, but a phone call or letter to your neighbor might prove otherwise.

Kudos: knowthyneighbor.org

Dismay in December

Dismay in December
by
Betty Ann Fisher

All the rubble ’round me lies,
all shot to Heck before my eyes.
The trigger’s bent on that big gun;
he thinks I’ll buy another one.
The poor stuffed dog has lost his nose,
and someone stepped on the turtle’s toes.

He broke the pedal of the trike;
the one I was so sure he’d like.
The new rug’s all marked up with glue;
those Sparkle paints were something new.
The power saw and bench were nice,
but they’re all fouled up from slicing ice.

The chemistry set was just delightful,
but the smell, my dear, was simply frightful!
The test tubes are all broken now.
There’s not much left from the awful row
over who was going to eat the cake
that the small guy made with the Easy-Bake.

Santa’s gone for another year.
I’ve had my fill of joy and cheer.
In case he plans on coming back,
he can take the things in his big pack
to someone else’s sons and nieces,
or else stay around to mend the pieces.

Yes… I had an Easy-Bake oven as a child. And who says we aren’t born gay? Merry Christmas!
This poem is from my mom’s book, Please Delay Departure.

Bah! Humbug or Maybe the Dickens with It

Bah! Humbug or Maybe the Dickens with It
by
Betty Ann Fisher


Though Santa’s on the rooftop
with his reindeer hitched to sleigh,
I’m convinced his trip is non-stop
and he’ll head the other way.

The stores are filled with bustle
and shoppers in a rush,
theirs is a test of muscle
and their manners make me blush.

This year’s cards all leave me cold,
show naught of Season’s meaning.
Angels in modern dress are bold,
some at a lamp post, leaning.

I long for cherubs garbed in white,
with faces which are meek,
and Wise Men of that Holy Night,
not thugs with tongue in cheek.

Where’s the heartfelt spirit told?
The joy of love and giving?
What of the shepherd tending fold?
How come these times we’re living?

It surely will be Christmas, though,
wherever stars come out
to light the way across the snow,
of that there is no doubt.

This poem is from my mom’s book, Please Delay Departure.

King Kong or It’s Tough To Be A Blonde

kong08big.jpgWhen my partner turned to me this morning and said he wanted to go see King Kong today, I let out a whiny groan. “King Kong!”, I said, “You don’t want to see that, do you?”. Well that was a stupid queston since he just asked me if I wanted to go. l could see that my whining was not going to help and given the fact that my partner almost never asks for anything… I bit my tongue and decided to look up showtimes.

All day, I dreaded the fact that I would be attending the 3rd telling of this story. Hasn’t the story been told enough? I thought to myself. Insult to injury was added when my partner volunteered that the movie was over 3 hours long! Would I be able to sit through the thing without a pee break? Would I fall asleep? Would I have enough popcorn and Milk Duds to last throughout the picture? Not only these issues dashed through my mind , I also knew that the movie was directed by Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings. Let me clarify what that means to me in a few words, I call it Bored of the Rings.

Somehow I managed to get through the day without coming down with the bird flu… and before I knew it we were off to the theater. We sat down in our seats and I finished almost all my popcorn and Milk Duds (mixed together, of course) by the end of the previews. Then.. the movie began. There was no escape.

I won’t give you full review or plot synopsis (I am sure there are many people who have, and have done a far better job than I), but I will say that for all my complaining, it wasn’t that bad. The acting for the most part was first rate. I had read that most of the actors had to work with minimal sets and had to react to a whole lot of nothing. Naomi Watts does a fantastic job as the new Fay Wray. Her scenes with the giant ape are wonderful. You really feel that she has made a strong connection to this CGI character. Kyle Chandler is perfect as the dashing matinee idol, Bruce Baxter, and Adrien Brody is passable as the human who falls in love with the beauty. However Brody’s nose is just too much to take in at times on the big screen. Jack Black as Carl Denhem is the weakest of the bunch. He has toned down some of his wild-eyed mugging, but for the most part he is strictly first week at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. The ape was more believable!

The special effects were great, but just as in the previous movies when the ape holds the girl in his hand in a long shot, it looks fake. The gross out was an intense scene with giant bugs! It is definitely not for children under 12. It was terrifying and disgusting. My biggest complaint (other than it being too long) was the way humans get flung around, dashed against rocks, crushed by animals, fall from great heights, and yet somehow manage to survive. This has been a trend in a lot of movies over the last ten years. Apparently Hollywood has never heard of blunt force trauma. Yes I know that I am supposed to suspend disbelief, it is a movie for crying out loud, but keep the things that are real… real. If you fall down you can get hurt. You fall hard, you will get hurt. You fall down really hard, you dead!

See it… If you must!

Kudos: Mick Lasalle, San Francisco Chronicle