For some reason BitTorrent is not working for me right now. Last night I downloaded the Borat movie to watch on the bus to New York (we have a headphone splitter), and then this morning I tried to download a movie that A wanted to see, but for some reason it wouldn’t download. I tried a different movie and that wouldn’t work either. I guess I will just convert the Borat movie to iPod format while we’re doing family stuff the rest of the day, but I was hoping to queue up another movie for conversion so I could do two at once. I suppose I could always rip something from a DVD we already have, not that I know how to do that…

Oh well, back to brushing my hair and admiring my new boots that I got at TJ Maxx for $30.

Today I saw alanscottevil for the first time in about a dozen years. The last time I remember seeing him was at his bar mitzvah (those are done at age 13), and we’re both 25 now, so it really has been a long time since we’ve seen each other. I convinced him to come kayaking with me, something he’d never done before but was game to try. We left out of Jack’s Boathouse - my kayak is stored there for the summer, and they have rentals. I was amused to discover another deaf kid working on the dock there - apparently there have been a few this summer, though I’ve only met one other one. Because most of my gear was in my car (which is at the mechanic) I had to borrow a PFD, and I went to ask if I could borrow one from the boathouse. The kid pointed to his ear and shook his head, so I just started signing. “Oh, okay, you’re deaf? No problem. So anyway, I wanted to borrow this because…” - it was cute because I think he’s not used to having to answer customer questions!

I wanted to take alanscottevil down the Boundary Channel, but I hadn’t checked the tides, and the Potomac was at low tide so there was no way to get through there! We made the circuit around Roosevelt Island instead, and it was really bizarre to paddle around there at low tide. Thursday evenings we always leave at high tide, and it’s a very different trip! We paddled back under the Key Bridge and out to the Three Sisters, and that was the end of our two-hour rental period so we went back to Jack’s after that. I had a really good time, it was a nice gentle paddle with lots of chat and fun…it’s funny, his voice is the same as I remembered it! We spent about half the time going “wow, look how shallow it is here!” so that was amusing.

I’ve randomly decided to sign up for digital cable. We had it before, when they gave us six months free with HBO to entice us into signing up beyond that period…but we returned the digital box and went back to regular. But the cable company has added the gay channel Logo now, and I’m hoping that BBC America will carry Soundproof, and I really liked the onscreen guide, so I’m going to try it for a while. It’s going to be $9/month for the first three months, so I’ll use that period and see how it goes.

Well damn. Metro Weekly’s pictures from Pride weekend - the dyke march, festival, and the parade (which I didn’t attend) - are all online. And in the nearly 235 photographs from events I attended, I didn’t show up once! If I hadn’t specifically had my picture taken with preppyperv and boiswillbebois I wouldn’t have expected to be there, but…I did. The photographer even handed preppyperv one of those “I’ve Been Scene” stickers they give to people they take pictures of. Fortunately I made it into a dyke march picture taken by bias_cut (and also featuring boiswillbebois), or I would think the whole weekend was just a really long dream.

My mom (sunnydale47) sent me a link to a Baltimore Sun article called Defunct park’s admirers seek a storybook ending. The article included this:

The storybook park sat decaying for years, until Martha Clark of Ellicott City resolved to change that.

Clark’s quest began in August 2004 […]

I made a post about the Enchanted Forest in 2002, and I started the Enchanted Forest Preservation Society in 2003. It was originally on Yahoo Groups, and in April 2004 it got its own website. I was even interviewed by the Baltimore Sun in November 2003. And yet they’ve forgotten all about us, and attributed everything to Martha Clark.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate everything the Clarks have done. But they were not acting alone, and I wish there could have been acknowledgment of that fact. The only comment was:

Clark was aware that interested groups had tried to reopen The Enchanted Forest and she believed a lack of parking space would prevent the storybook park from ever reopening.

This might refer to EFPS, but it more likely refers to Friends of Enchanted Forest, an earlier, ill-fated group that never really got anywhere. I posted in the EFPS forum about how we were left out - I wonder if anyone else feels the way I do, or if it’s just because this feels like “my baby” even though I’m no longer as involved as I used to be.

I received a notice in my e-mail from Netflix, informing me of a class action settlement in which they deemed me eligible to participate. Because I had a paid account prior to January 15, 2005 - this was under my “netflix” e-mail address - I am a member of the Class. If you don’t currently have a Netflix membership, the settlement gives you a free month of service. If you do currently have a membership - which I do, as “netflix2″ - then you get a month of the next service level. (For me that would mean four DVDs at a time for a month, rather than the three I pay for.) I’m pretty sure I have determined from the Long Form Notice [pdf link] that I am still a Class Member even though I’m now using a different account (the queue was gone from the original account anyway, so I took another 2-week free trial). But it gets kind of tricky in Section III.A.1 -

For all but the 8 DVDs at-a-time subscribers, the upgraded service shall renew automatically (following an email reminder) at the end of the upgraded month at Netflix’s regular subscription rate for the upgraded program, unless and until the Class Member cancels the service or modifies his or her subscription.

Wait a minute - how is this acceptable? It makes the whole thing feel like a scam to get my money. Even if it is a legitimate lawsuit and settlement, Netflix is still coming out on top because a lot of members are going to forget to cancel or even decide they like the upgraded level. So how is this supposed to be “punishment” for Netflix in any way? I am going to go with the “do nothing” option outlined in their original e-mail, because there’s no way I’m falling into this trap.

Added: I found this entry in the NetflixFan blog about this case. Everyone in the comments thinks the guy who brought the lawsuit is an idiot. What did he ever do to them? Some of them claim they’re going to get the case thrown out - I don’t think so. That kind of thing costs money.

Added: Here is the letter I sent Adam Gutride, an attorney for the plaintiff.
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I did an excellent job on some voicing assignments yesterday, including a job interview I hadn’t been warned about. I knew the client was a difficult one to voice for, and I was hoping the “work meeting” wouldn’t be too interactive. When I learned it was a job interview for an internal position, I was worried…but not for long. To my own amazement, I aced the voicing. I always worry about job interviews, because I’m afraid any mistakes I make will reflect poorly on the deaf applicant. But even though my signing was a little below par (I was struggling with whether to go for concepts or exact translations) my voicing was superb. The client is extremely intelligent, and I had to match her level of professionalism. I used all the right phrases one uses in a job interview to make one sound good - in fact I probably did better interpreting that interview than I’ve ever done on any of my own interviews!

I also stopped at the library on the way home because there was a problem with my card that was preventing me from reserving books in the online catalog. It turned out they need to update their address data every two years, but the representative on the phone hadn’t been able to do the update so I gave it to the librarian at the desk. I also checked out three books - Alaska by Cruise Ship, Cruising Alaska, and Fodor’s Alaska Ports of Call. My experience working as the book geek for Rand McNally led me to feel Fodor’s is not the best guidebook series for me - I prefer Lonely Planet, followed by Frommer’s - but that was what the library had. I also put myself on the waitlist for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince…I am #601 on the list. When I got home, my package from S. had arrived (thank you!) so I also had The Corset: A Cultural History and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Pentagon to look through. And I bought a copy of Out Traveler magazine the other day because the cover article was on gay New York City…so I have got plenty to read now!

Thanks very much to Elizabeth for calling my attention to this Daily Kos update about Johnson & Johnson. It seems the AFA noticed J&J is advertising on LOGO, the new gay cable channel from MTV. The AFA took offense to this and is encouraging members to contact Johnson & Johnson and voice their opposition. So far the J&J people have gotten many more calls against their sponsorship of LOGO than they have gotten supporting their involvement in the gay community.

To contact Johnson & Johnson and express your support for their advertising on LOGO, call 1-800-962-5357, option 5 or 1-877-895-3665.

The Reefer Madness Movie Musical is fucking awesome. Alan Cumming does a great job (despite having to affect an American accent), the music and dance is awesome, and the whole thing is just damn funny. Neve Campbell can’t sing worth a damn, but she’s only in the movie very briefly anyway. The movie is currently only available on Showtime, but it will be out on DVD in October and will include a documentary, audio commentary, and other good stuff.

Goofy quizzy stuff…don’t mind me. Stolen from preppyperv and leatherboydre.
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I was rather disappointed with the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie.
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Why does the conservative media insist on referring to her as Terri Schindler-Schiavo? Did she ever use that name herself? I’m aware that the Terri’sFight.org website was run by the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, but obviously they had a special agenda to present. The media are supposed to be independent of such an agenda, and yet the conservative outlets used Schindler-Schiavo as her last name. I already know why, though - it’s called spin. By saying Schindler, they were taking away some association with Michael Schiavo and focusing more attention on her birth family. They wanted us to feel that tie to her family, and to toss out a slur against Michael Schiavo in the process. But if Terri herself never used that name, then it’s pure bullshit for the media to use it.

Not, of course, that I expected anything different. But I do notice these things.