CANDACE!!!! She's my besty!! She's important to me because she's always there for me and I can talk to her 'bout anything!!

I miss her, though, 'cause she lives so far away :(

Originally posted here.

So... Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. You might be asking "why am I blogging about this?" Well it's simple... I'm blogging in support of friends. Friends who I worry about every day. Friends who I care for. Friends who I fear could end up being a victim of a senseless hate crime just for being themselves.

"just another dead fag
to you that's all
just another light missing
on a long taxi ride"

- Tori Amos, "Taxi Ride"

Too many trans-persons are becoming victims of senseless hate crimes. In the past year, more than 160 lives were stripped from this earth. These are women and men who have families, friends, partners. And they all died just because they were being their true selves. For that matter, there is one name on this years list, who was killed not because he was transgendered himself, but because he dared to love and accept a transgendered woman. It's sad really that this hate exists. The hate that would allow someone to take a fellow human's life just because of who they are or who they love. It's not right.

Edit @ 11am 11/20: Quick Note -- This morning I've now seen 3 different numbers on the number of trans-persons killed. There is the 160 that I saw last night on Questioning Transphobia and reported here. This morning, however, Jenn Dolari is reporting 132 on her Twitter feed, and Pink News & The Bilerico Project are reporting 117. I'm not sure what the actual number is at this point, however, any more than 0 is too many.

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

- Master Yoda

He may have been just a movie character, but his wisdom is spot on in this struggle. The fear of differences is what cost these 160+ people their lives. Because the fear, brought hate, and the hate turned to anger and rage, and that then lead to the suffering. Not of the attacker...but of the victim, their families, friends, and the world at large.

We shouldn't ever be hating or fearing the differences that people have. It's the differences that we each bring to the table which make each one of us as a whole, the whole human race, better. We should take the time to learn. To talk. To listen. For then and only the will you see that each person is not that much different than you or I.

"I am beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring me down
I am beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring me down
So don't you bring me down today"

-Christina Aguilera, "Beautiful"

These 160+ souls should never have had their lives cut short. They were people with the potential to go on and do great things. Who knows what they could have been or become. The only thing that's known is that they did not choose to be who they were, or to die at the hands of hate. I encourage everyone to please stop the hate in this world.

The names of the deceased for 2009 can be accessed here.

You can find more information on the Transgender Day of Remembrance here.

And I also encourage everyone to read this article that has a lot of sobering statistics about transgender related crimes, or at least to watch the attached video.

If you would like to know why I chose the lyrics I did, click here.

Not a commercial, but I always loved the "This is your brain on drugs PSA" from the 80's.



Not a commercial, but I always loved the "This is your brain on drugs PSA" from the 80's.



I also remember Victory Auto Wreckers:



Celozzi-Ettleson Chevy:



Eagle Man!!:



(and the follow-up commercial: Eagle Woman that featured Mancow Muller before he was on the radio.)

And who growing up in Chicago doesn't remember EMPIRE Carpet (before they became EMPIRE Today and BEFORE they had an 800#)?




-Adam

We were in the middle of taping a game show called Preguntamundo for Marquette's campus television station. All of a sudden the power goes out. We kinda all do a WTF? type moment. Well...we then realize "hey, where's Jenna?" (the producer of the show)

Well...it turns out she picked a bad moment to have decided to go upstairs to grab something from the office....as she was now stuck somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building, as the elevator's failsafe decided, to well, fail to actually kick in and drop slowly down to the basement as it should have. (Those familiar with Johnston Hall, prior to their new elevator being installed, would realize this isn't shocking.... I once showed the president of the university the proper way to get the door to close....by kicking it.)

Anyway, we called DPS who called the elevator people to come out and get her out of there. The rest of the people involved in the production grabbed a deck of cards and went and sat by one of the outside windows in the hallway so they had some light. We figured that this would be a short-duration event. I went and checked on the people who were in the basement computer labs as well as upstairs in the [windowless] Marquette Radio studio. (I was the student engineer-in-charge for that day, go figure, right?)

Well...about an hour in we get another shock....the fire alarm starts to go off. Now, I don't know if this was because it was running out of backup power or if there was truly a reason for it to go off, but we basically scrambled out of the building shutting doors and arming the security system on the 2nd floor.

Well... We ended up canceling the rest of the shoot and the elevator finally dropped down to the basement....but not before her boyfriend had panically called 911 to report the fire alarm going off and his girlfriend being trapped in the elevator. So MFD shows up....with an axe...to bust her out of there. I think DPS talked them out of it, but I'm not sure!

All-in-all, it was probably one of the most interesting MUTV tapings ever.

-Adam

Well...that depends on what they're looking for. I can recommend a ton of stuff to peoples.

Examples:

Local: Sunspot, Clear Blue Betty, Nascent (I forget the long version of their name.)

Slightly more known: Sarah Bettens, Jonathan Coulton, Jim's Big Ego.

High Profile: Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Ani DiFranco

Btw.. if you know some local band I should check out, lemme know!

Hey All... Allow me to step up onto this soap box here for a second. Ok, there we go.

There's an important piece of legislation that has been introduced into the House of Representatives. It's officially called "H.R. 2981: To prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity" but most people will know it by its short title, "Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009." It's currently in committee, so there may or may not be much that you can do, depending on your Representative's committee assignment. HOWEVER, please do call or write your Representative anyway and show them that you support the bill.

Now.. You're probably wondering, what all this bill does, and asking "wait, aren't those groups already protected under current discrimination laws?" Well to answer the second question first, it's a simple, No, they're not. So yes, if you do not live in one of the states that has a local ENDA, you can be fired for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. Stupid, no? Join The Impact has a good summary, too, as to what this bill does:

ENDA will add sexual orientation and gender identity to pre-existing employment non-discrimination laws. ENDA is such a common sense idea that most people believe it is already illegal to fire someone for being Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender. While there are already 12 states and 100 localities that protect 40 percent of the population, millions are still at risk.

This is an important bill that needs to pass, and is going to require pressure from constituents to make sure that Representatives (and in the future, Senators, though nothing has been introduced there yet,) to pass it. Oh, one other important point....any version that passes needs to be INCLUSIVE to all, as it stands right now. A similar bill had been introduced to the last Congress, however, it only covered sexual orientation, and not gender identity, which is something that also needs to be on the list of protections. (And no, gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation, but that is beyond the scope of this post.)

Anyway, here's some links for you to find out more information:

Text of the bill
Act NOW to support ENDA!
UnitedENDA
President Obama's support for the bill

*steps off soapbox*

Today is a day that has been lurking for many years. Ana has faithfully served us for nearly 70 years, but after many years of talking about it, and through last minute mind changing, she finally retires today. When you look back at her long career, you have to take a minute and think of all the things she's seen. A few wars, good times for the country, bad times for the country, major historical events in the world. She has a wealth of history that will soon be just that. From her start when she only had two colors in her wardrobe, to the 50's when she started to add to it, even though the outfits never quite looked the same each time she wore them, she's been through a lot.

Now, I would like to introduce you to her successor, this scrappy young lad, Digi Tal. You might recognize her, because she's been training for this day around here since the late 1990's. While she might not be as reliable as Ana, she promises to do just as good of a job at serving the public as Ana has. So please, welcome Digi into her new, enhanced role.

So with that, I would like a big round of applause for Ana Log. And if she'll step forward, I would like to present her with this gold watch for her many years of service.

Originally published at my blog.

Well let's see... There's English. And I'm also fluent in HTML, CSS. I'm ok with Javascript, Java, Actionscript, php. I've dabbled in pearl and python. I know a smidgen of Yiddish. And I suck at Spanish, despite taking it for 3 years through high school and college.

Do I have a ham radio? No really...that'd make the difference, 'cause I'm screwed if I can't get help.

Alderaan