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United States, California, San Francisco, The Mission, English, Spanish, Casey, Male, 31-35.

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Friday, January 21, 2005

Putting Your Best Faces Forward.

The thing I find most interesting about The Face Transformer are my reactions to the pictures—or rather, mostly my lack thereof. While I find the "Afro-Caribean" me pretty handsome, and the "Modigliani" me a nice painting, it's only the "Older Adult" photo that really makes me stop. Maybe that's because I know that in my lifetime I'll never be able to change my race, won't shift my gender identity, can't go back to looking like a child or a baby. But I will get old. I find myself looking at that image and wondering, is this the face I'll see in the mirror years from now? Will I mind that change? Or will I even notice the change?

I pointed out that one to The Boyfriend. "This is what you'll be waking up to in a few years. Just so you know." He seemed OK with the idea. I think that's a sign that he's a keeper.

(I will also confess to my own vanity: I debated about posting these because I really needed a haircut when I took the original photo. But if I'm going to post Apeman Casey, there's really no point in pretending to be proud, is there?)

07:30 PM PST (link)

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Insane Unpopular Rulers Named George.

George III supported Lord North's policies that resulted in the American War of Independence (1776-1783). Some MPs, led by Charles Fox and William Pitt criticised the conflict as an "unjust war" and urged Lord North's government to bring it to an end. Fox and Pitt were also critical of the way that George III tried to influence and manipulate those in Parliament." (Emphasis mine.)

The more things change.

I was going to try to black out the media today, since there's only one story on: the Coronation of King George. But there are at least good links to be had from it all. First, What Bush's Inauguration Could Have Bought. (Via Chuck.)

$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.

$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945...about $20,000 in today's dollars.

King George and his court may think we're too busy fighting the Drug Wars, the Culture Wars, and that War war to notice that the Class war is still on, but I think we all still remember. At least I hope so.

There are a couple of people who can tell it like it is. Lately we've had Barbara Boxer, who sometimes pisses me off, impress me with her questioning of Condi Rice. And the best thing on Pundit TV since Jon Stewart on Crossfire: Judy Bachrach from Vanity Fair takes "more than [her] time to give us [her] point of view." (Transcript here.) (Via Klae.)

But I think I've been given more than my time to give you my point of view this morning. So thanks.

03:47 PM PST (link)

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Being A Page-Two Boyfriend.

See, it started when my computer crashed in the middle of writing my post about seeing the optometrist and I lost the whole thing. And that pissed me off, so I didn't post it. And I felt intimidated in the shadow of the Tsunami disaster (and my increasing distaste of the American News coverage of the same) to post about worrying about my Thai coworker who was visiting home over Christmas, or my former coworker who'd moved back to Indonesia (both of whom are fine, and whose families were not near the coasts.) And then I was going to write a post about the entertainer at New Year's Eve who pissed me off, but then I wasn't sure I wanted to write something so negative about someone I liked, so it never got posted. And then I spent a week at work trying to remember my name, and then we were busy for a week...and like my excuse for not sitting down to work on the books with the guys in the flat above us, they were sick, and then it was the new year, and then we were busy....

Lame excuses, the lot of them. I didn't post because I didn't feel like it. And it's pointless to notice things I'd like to write about but feel like I need to wait for my re-introduce myself before posting again.

Because maybe what I really needed for a little bit, was to be quiet in the background. To go back to reading other people's Web sites. To not write about my experiences and instead be the one in the background. Sometime it's more interesting being "The Boyfriend" in someone else's story for a change.

But I think it's time to get back to telling my own stories again.

And it might be time to buy myself a new Mac, too.

03:38 PM PST (link)