I Just finished reading Pat Conroy’s latest book South of Broad on my iPad’s Kindle app and as ever since I read my first one in 1983 (The Lords of Discipline), am enthralled at the magic of his words and of his story-telling abilities.

I loaded the Netflix app yesterday and ended up watching a couple of movies on my iPad (Zombieland anyone?). Even as big of a geek as I am, I was still amazed that something just seems to work—with no fiddling, no settings and no grief.

I also watched one on my big screen using PS3 as the streamer. Blockbuster—you are toast.

ABC News published this story today. I can’t imagine that Amazon did this deliberately and seems less than-than-forthcoming because of the possibility that someone may have relatively easily hacked into their system.

That’s not a good message from a security/trust/confidence standpoint.

‘Glitch’ or Hacker?: Gay Titles Deep-Sixed at Amazon
Authors Cry Foul Over Removal of Gay Book Rankings from Amazon.com Site

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
April 14, 2009—

Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, blamed a computer “glitch” for stripping scores of gay-themed books of their sales ranking, preventing them from appearing on the site’s best seller lists. But a notorious Internet hacker is also claiming to be behind the mysterious happenings at the Web site, which is the top online book seller.

Amazon would not elaborate on the cause of the glitch or why it seemed to mainly target books about gay and lesbians — from academic treatises to romance novels. Some authors of the targeted books believe the company actively engaged in a discriminatory policy that hurt their sales.
(more…)

Read what you want into this article in today’s Houston Chronicle, but it still falls into the “separate but equal” category in my book.

eHarmony has been one of the most anti-gay businesses launched on the Internet and only did this separate “gay” site to settle a discrimination lawsuit. I’m sure they’ll put all of the same efforts into it as the “straight” version (lol).

Until they recognize that other relationships can and do exist and are potentially just as committed as a woman and a man’s, I would not support them (and believe me, they do charge for this service).

eHarmony launches gay coupling site
Move comes in settlement of New Jersey court case
By David Colker | Los Angeles Times-Washington Post

As of Tuesday, eHarmony comes out of the closet.

The adamantly heterosexual dating site, which has accepted only male-female couples since its inception in 2000, is launching a gay matchmaking service called Compatible Partners.

But eHarmony’s new relationship with the gay community is like a shotgun wedding: The company agreed in November to start the dating service as part of a settlement with the New Jersey Attorney General in the wake of a discrimination lawsuit.
(more…)

Freedom Action Inclusion Rights (F.A.I.R.), a Southern California-based grassroots organization fighting for marriage equality and the repeal of California’s Prop 8, has partnered with artist Shepard Fairey to open a ‘Love Unites’ store.

100 percent of the proceeds go toward efforts to repeal Proposition 8 and secure equality in California.

Got 7 minutes? Watch this video. A quick introduction and overview of how we got where we are and why it’s not going to end overnight.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Part 1

We e-filed our taxes last Thursday evening and were anticipating a refund sometime in early February. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the separate direct deposits in our joint checking account already yesterday.

Rather than stimulate the economy single-handedly, I decided to move the cash into savings for now. No plans for it except as a buffer/cushion.

Finding lots of strange activity on my cell phone lately:

And yesterday, a call from someone asking for “Nancy”. When I googled the phone number, it appears that a lot of people get calls from this same guy; most of them automated.

Something has changed recently in the cell phone world…I signed the “do not call registry‘”, but apparently it’s not working too well.

Before the game began one commentator said, “Outside of Utah, everyone thinks Alabama will win.”

We’re barely into the 2nd quarter and Utah leads 21 to 3.

Why is General Motors spending so much of our taxpayer-funded bailout money on ads proclaiming that shadowed images of cars, trucks and SUVs are better than the competition — and then ending each commercial with, “…from GM. Surprised?”