The Trials and Tribulations of the not-so-New Bear Icon

For the life of me I can't seem to get overly excited about the Rick Warren thing. Sure, I think it's a lousy pick, and I think the Obama could have done way better, but in the end, they guy gets his few minutes on stage and goes back home.

Now I know, you are say, this guy's an ass, and he will use this so he can be seen as a power broker, just like James Dobson or Pat Robertson, an in that way I'll agree with you. While he doesn't have the television presence like Robertson, or the radio presence like Dobson, he has been finding a larger audience by attaching himself to political movements and politicians. It's a pretty strange place for a preacher in my book, and it is sad that Obama is giving this man more face time.

That's what's more upsetting to me than the actual invite. Heck, Billy Graham has been doing these things for years, and I don't agree with him, either. I'm sure someone like Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson would cause a lot of furor as well. Warren is getting it from both sides as Fundies seem to not like that he's fraternizing with pro-choice politicians. We all have our battles.

I guess why I'm not outraged as much as other people is I see this as political payback. Obama seems to be making an statement for inclusiveness and for differences of thought, or at least trying to spin it that way, but I see it more as payback for not trashing him at the "Forum" Warren held and for not campaigning against him. Warren could have done more to rally his flock against Obama, but likely spent more of his efforts getting Prop 8 passed. Perhaps Obama is trying to use this inaugural platform as a way to keep this guy off his back for a while. I don't know.

If you want to protest this move, fine. write your congressmen and Obama and all that. It's good to stand up. I see this more as a blip than anything else, and there are much bigger issues. If you want to use this as a starting point to announce that you will be looking to the administration to do more for GLBT issues, then that's a positive. If you fell back on the idea that there was a democrat in the White House and we would be making great strides, I'd like you to look back to the Clinton Years.

We will continue to need to make our case for rights and a seat at the table. That shouldn't change no matter who's in Congress or the White House.

Disappointed, yes, outraged, not so much. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I'm waiting on some bigger policies before I'm ready to write Obama off.


★ One bit of Rick Warren business, the Seattle Stranger's Blog (or SLOG) yesterday posted some interesting information from Rick Warren's church. Apparently he has a manual for church leaders out there. And some of the excerpts are pretty funny. Like many Non-Denominational and Baptist churches, they are against porn, against strong women, and against gays.

What I really found funny was the information on how to make church more appealing to men. Apparently churches have become to soft an feminine with quilts and banners and priests in Prada shoes and all, and church needs to get more butch in order to get the men involved. Warren suggests you take down the quilts and put up swords and animal trophies.

He also says, "years ago, I attended a church where everyone held hands across the aisles while singing a unity hymn. Men hate this — especially when they have to hold hands with other men." So apparently church has problems attracting men because it's too homoerotic!

No wonder churches want to put women in their place and "ex" the gays, they are ruining the church for manly men!


★ Speaking about making our presence known. There's a rally tomorrow. It's a candlelight vigil all across the country, and in most places it's taking place outside of shopping centers.

In Dallas it will be outside of the Galleria. Now I don't think this was the best choice as the Galleria is the place that out-of-towners shop, not people from Dallas. I think we could have done better by picking Northpark, but the choice has been made.

Is anyone here going to go to the vigil? I'm not 100% sure about this one, and I have my reservations about the format, but we'll see. Maybe I'm not excited because I don't care for the format. A candlelight vigil during the Holidays just makes you look like a group of carolers that aren't singing. We aren't supposed to bring signs, but instead have T-shirts with clever sayings. I'm not sure as people drive away from the Galeria they will get the message.

I'll consider it though, for the community and all. I'll have to find where I can get a good candle.


★ Lastly as the colder weather sets in, I can feel my joints tightening up. I always knew that I would likely start showing some signs of Arthritis as I got older, and can remember my dad having the same problems showing up as he got into his 40's.

My knees already cause some trouble, but that's from weight, not Arthritis. Luckily my ankles haven't been twisting and turning as much as they used to. Now my fingers get kind of locked up at times, and that hasn't been fun. I guess I'll have to start looking for Arthritis pain relief aspirin at the Walgreens soon.

Arthritis and some forgetfulness seem to be pointing to a bright future!

1. It’s been quite a time here lately. I’m totally stressed out about my upcoming test, the Series 7 brokerage exam, is now just about a week away. I’m really thinking I’m going to fail it, especially if I don’t get some stuff into my head about mathematical formulas. These things were the bane of my existence in school and college, and now here they are in real life – or something. Options seem to be something I can't get my head around and consist of a large portion of the test. Personally, I feel options are legalized gambling on stock and I think that it should be eliminated…if they could bann them before my test, that would be all the better.

I carry my study books all over the place. It’s incredibly dry reading, and I finally finished reading the whole thing last week. I haven’t carried a book around this much since I was pledging the frat. One of the book’s cover is starting to tear away in places.

Something tells me to just take it and fail and don’t worry about it, since it is not required for my current job, but it is required to become a manager. I’m afraid that if I do fail, and I get two chances before I have to wait a year – if the company would sponsor me again – that if I do fail, then I won’t be seriously considered for a management position. So, if failure does occur, then I’m going to really have to sit down and figure out what I want to do with my life, because maybe this isn’t the industry for me. It’s odd, I know so much about other parts of the business, like retirement accounts that are barely touched on in this test, but things like options and bonds and tax shelters, well, that, not so much.

Of course one of the bigger problems is that I’m going it alone, where others at the company, working in roles that require the license get classes and tutoring and handouts and such. I have the books and the online testing tool, and that’s it. The book is very poorly written, rambling and difficult to understand. When I took my Series 6 exam eight years ago, I had much better books. I’m really at a disadvantage, and I hope that will be seen in the future, fail or succeed.

After working 10-15 hours of overtime the last few weeks, I’m going to have to go home and study this week. I’m also thinking of holding off on the workouts just to give me more time.

2. Of course all this comes in one of the busiest times for television viewing. Last night I felt I had to get away from studying and watch The Sopranos, Entourage and The Amazing Race. Some shows I can miss and catch up with on Tivo in another week or so. Some, like Heroes and Lost I’ll want to keep up with. Others, like 24, Smallville, and America’s Next Top Model have been permanently dropped from my viewing list.

24 you may remember was a pickup this season for me, but when they totally scrapped their original storyline and have Jack move on to a totally different one for the overnight hours of the day, it was a good time to get off the boat.

Then there’s the recently cancelled show, Drive. I really should know better about getting involved with a show on FOX. Especially when it’s a show that stars the guy from Firefly and is written by the creator of Wonderfalls, two other good shows that FOX canned after only a few episodes. Let’s see, you premier a show on a Sunday, the busiest night of television, preempting Family Guy, immediately move it to Monday, and the next week cancel it. How would a show ever get an audience when you give it a start and finish like that?

The show wasn’t great, but it had a nice premise and it was fun watching the racers go up and down the same stretch of California freeway, and trying to make us believe it was rural Florida. The characters all had some reason to be in the race, but it wasn’t given to us right away. Nathan Fillion’s character’s wife was kidnapped, why we’ll never know, and he had to enter the race to try to get her back. Why the police weren’t good for finding her, I don’t know. Still, for fans of shows like The Amazing Race, and Bullrun, this was a good drama version of a reality show. Let’s face it, I like the serialized shows like Lost and Jericho. Of course Jericho has to be one of the most unrealistic stories of the apocalypse, ever. I’ll be shocked if they give Jericho a second season – it really doesn’t deserve one, but at least they are getting to ride out the whole year, probably because the show isn’t on FOX.

I’ll admit that FOX irks me. The few episodes of House I’ve seen were good, and I like the lead actor from the old BBC Blackadder shows, but it was on FOX and I thought they’d cancel it. Same thing goes for Bones. They manage to surprise you, but more often than not the shows thay choose to keep are really awful like The War At Home and Til Death.

Speaking of Bullrun, why is no one (besides jeremasur) watching this? This is a fun cross-country race with cars and some stupid, bitchy people (necessary for a reality show). One of the guys, a “flower delivery guy” from Austin is really cute, but he never drives. Looking at host Goldberg is pretty good as well. Since the show is on Spike, there’s lots of “male bonding” type talk, flag chicks and plenty of unnecessary explosions and fire during the challenges, all for the Hooters crowd. Still at the end of it, its really a good race for those who can do long distance driving, and it’s interesting to see what helps and hurts the racers.

3. Sort of on the cancellation lines, why do people just refuse to see Hot Fuzz? The movie is hysterical and really well put together, but it can’t seem to climb higher than number 6 at the box office when awful stuff like Nicolas Cage’s Next do better? Is it the British humor? Do people not know anyone in it (they’d be surprised)? Did they not see Shawn of the Dead? Come on! Well, the whole box office will be killed by Spiderman this weekend.

4. One more work thing, I’m perplexed about how many people bring a Bible to work with them here, or carry one around. I just don’t feel like the workplace is the place for Bible studies. I’m fine with people having their religion, but it’s something I think should be kept away from the office – but there’s plenty of people who talk about church and of course one who keeps saying “Lord Help Me, Jesus” at least a couple of times a day. I have yet to see a Koran, but I have seen a Book of Mormon here. Compared to my last workplace, I can definitely tell that I moved closer to the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

5. Otherwise, over the last few weeks things have been mostly well, with both of us working long hours. Joey is rambunctious as ever. We had a great visit with David (metacub) who I hope had great fun at Coachella and Palm Springs, and won’t have trouble getting home to Oakland with the big freeway collapse. friday we went and saw cristalskye kick it on the soccer field. CAPE is this weekend and I look to go see how well Richard (dedagda) and Chris (amyboy00) have done this year with their mini comic convention. I hope the cute but straight artist is there again. I think we disturbed him a little bit last year.

6. Lastly, I’m looking to go to Baltimore again the first weekend of June to visit my sister. This will likely be my last trip up there as she’s thinking of moving back to Texas – mainly because her fiancée wasn’t thrilled about leaving the state in the first place. It’s my big chance to see a Phillies game in their home stadium, and I may see if I can double up and also go to see a National’s game in DC, as they both play that weekend. The Nationals aren’t quite as important as they are still playing in old RFK stadium and I’ll want to see the new field once they move into it. Otherwise, I wonder if I can convince my sister to finally drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Something I’d really like to do. It will be my only vacation before the Alaskan Cruise in September. Chris may go back to California for a few days to see his family, but I can’t get the time off to join him. I'm lucky to get off what I can.

Here’s to test taking. If I do manage to pass, I’m going to get drunk after it.